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'Foundation' Is Fixing The Trickiest Thing About the Asimov Books
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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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There's also the bit where we have at least two "universe's most special boy/girl" characters upon whom everything hinges repeatedly when the entire point kf the psycho-history concept is that major events like that happen one way or another regardless of the specific details.
But Hari Seldon is being very clear that those characters are wrecking his psychohistorical predictions by being like that. It's perfectly fine, IMO, for psychohistory to have not been as complete and omnipotent as Seldon initially thought it was. It'd be kind of annoying if it was, frankly. I prefer stories where the characters have agency and have to make efforts for things to turn out well.
That flaw turned out to be present in the books too, BTW. The Mule was the universe's most special boy in there, the show's just added two extra ones to the mix on the protagonist side.
Exactly. Anybody like the Mule absolutely wreaks havoc.
And he even account for situations like that with a backup plan.
The entire point is that he can predict the overall movement of mankind and with it be specific to some events and some times.
So any one person who everything hinges on just undoes the entire psychohistory.
On the flip side… in the end the books show that even if you’re as good as Hari Sheldon that the universe has a way to randomly throwing wrenches in the works.
Having a category of entity that wasn't considered in the base assumptions show up and throw a spanner in the works is consistentnwith the theme.
Having a singularity or error which needs correcting works.
Having the same people be the crux of every crisis is incredibly grating.
They also done my boy Daneel real dirty.
I haven’t seen it yet. Please tell me they didn’t do something stupid as if he doesn’t play a part in this and many other stories in the universe?
The character adapted from daneel plays a major role, but the characterisation is really bad.
I hated the Mule in the books. Wrecked the books from that point on in my opinion. But, loved everything in foundation before that.
Also, "the entirety of psychohistory and the Foundation hinges on us storming X place with guns and explosives in the next fifteen minutes!"
Ugh. Yuck. Hard pass. Go home, Goyer, you're drunk (on the aroma of your own emissions).
That is in the books too. It's called a "Seldon crisis", where the Foundation has only one possible way forward as means of keeping it close to the original plan.
But the Seldon Crises don't depend on the coin toss of whether or not they manage to infiltrate a stronghold and deactivate the thingamajig kajigger in the next fifteen minutes.
It's been a while since I've read them, but as I remember, the entire definition of a crisis is some moment that depends on a coin toss or some individual acting correctly. The books narrate exactly the moments where there can exist some heroes.
They are just calmer than the series.
Which would be fine if the magic pixie dream girl wasn't insufferable as hell and had a terrible actress.
The needed the mystery to follow Gaal without her being in the story, just a legend they searched the galaxy for.
You say that yet in reality, psychohistory dictates that they WILL be the universes most special people. They aren't mutually exclusive, they're patiently entwined. Not even getting into the latter books and how that shows the truth of it.
And yet, the Mule exists.