It's like someone asked ChatGPT to turn the book into a dumb anglo sitcom.
-Every character is emotionally immature, spiteful, and sassy. None of the 'friends' act like friends. None of the characters talk like real people. They're constantly insulting or hitting each other. It's just embarrassing. The actors have nothing to work with.
-All the major twists/reveals are shown in the first two episodes. No suspense, no build-up, no pay-off. Rushed is an understatement.
-Single characters from the book have been unnecessarily split into multiple new characters adding nothing to the story.
-The story is a cosmic horror but comedy and romance have been forced in for no reason whatsoever except as filler, which is even more mind-boggling because they've essentially rushed all of the good stuff in the book to make room for unfunny jokes.
-Apparently they could barely afford any sets and extras, so scenes and locations that are supposed to be bristling with sights and people just feel oddly empty. Even the special effects feel muted. The budget is just weirdly limited, and the show looks much cheaper than the Tencent series.
-Almost all of the science (which is the interesting stuff) has been gutted from this science fiction.
I hate anglo slop. Where is the kino. Tencent pls adapt The Dark Forest.
Nah, I'm not gonna be as uncharitable as all that (beyond the snark in my original post). Online western leftists have diegetic essentialism built into them as a survival mechanism, so when chuds deliberately push their reading of dark forest theory (and to be fair, it is very easy to see how Game Theory Law of the Jungle, Kill or Be Killed can be read that way) it sets off their Hitler particle detectors. I don't blame them as it's probably the most common take they'd encounter online.
The defensive realpolitik 'Keep your Head Down' reading is only apparent if you're familiar with China's recent history and foreign policy decisions post-Deng.
Are you up to date with internal Chinese geopolitical thought? Is the US's stupid aggression on Taiwan and the self defeating trade war being viewed as a refutation of the idea that tbp is apparently putting forth that China could "keep it's head down" ?
You haven’t read the second book, which went precisely into this.
Book 2 massive spoiler
Humanity became over-confident and thought they had overtaken the Trisolarians despite the technological sanctions, and started to perceive the Trisolarians as making all kinds of stupid mistakes. Maybe now it’s a good time to negotiate peace with them. All will go well, right?
The book is a cautionary tale about misreading intentions. The US imperialism is not something to be taken lightly. They have far more powerful weapons than just military prowess. I cringe everytime I read here that people think the US is going to collapse soon. The US would rather bring the whole world down than to collapse by itself. Being prudent and careful is key to dealing with the US imperialists.
Thank you for the context.
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