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> even my highly regarded Expanse, which avoids a lot of inaccuracies usually, is not innocent here. I can forgive a "hexagon everything", but The Expanse has

> even my highly regarded Expanse, which avoids a lot of inaccuracies usually, is not innocent here. I can forgive a "hexagon everything", but The Expanse has these transparent displays and low contrast holograms, which really get me upset. I mean it's just obviously idiotic and absolutely wouldn't be a thing. Then again, my iPhone looks and feels almost exactly the same front and back, save for the LED, which results in me tapping the back's decorative glass panel several times a day, before I realize it's not the display. A real-world, omnipresent design choice nearly as idiotic.

9dev 1y ago
Maybe I’m biased, but I kind of get this choice as a deliberate one to avoid having characters obstructed by screens all the time. But the blinky lights, the illuminated doors, the angled irregular shapes everywhere? Like, no!
- jijijijij 1y ago
  I mean, yeah, but you "getting it" as artistic choice is breaking the suspension of disbelief. And it's everywhere. Other hard scifi masterpieces such as Children of Men are also guilty (seemingly just for the aesthetic). I think it gets me, because it invokes privacy/confidentiality irritation in me. More so, since a police detective is an important character, who is constantly sharing investigative information with everyone this way. I simply wish they did AR instead. It's all forgotten once they do their awesome gravity stuff, or casually show New York below sea level, which gets me giggly in excitement. > But the blinky lights, the illuminated doors, the angled irregular shapes everywhere? This reminds me of another common scifi thing in The Expanse... face illuminated helmets. Realistically, with the darkness of space all around, people would only see their own face reflection :D Maybe that's not just because the audience can see who's talking, but also because external visor reflections would complicate filming and CGI. I allow it, although I would have celebrated identifying marks, such as pictograms and colors, for going the extra mile. Would have enabled one more layer of faction idiosyncrasies, too.
yencabulator 1y ago
> I can forgive a "hexagon everything", but The Expanse has these transparent displays and low contrast holograms, One could attempt to be charitable and say that in-universe, the display's output is aimed at the eyes of the user, not where the audience is. You might be seeing a privacy shield, like we've had on computer monitors!

9dev 1y ago

Maybe I’m biased, but I kind of get this choice as a deliberate one to avoid having characters obstructed by screens all the time. But the blinky lights, the illuminated doors, the angled irregular shapes everywhere? Like, no!

jijijijij 1y ago
I mean, yeah, but you "getting it" as artistic choice is breaking the suspension of disbelief. And it's everywhere. Other hard scifi masterpieces such as Children of Men are also guilty (seemingly just for the aesthetic). I think it gets me, because it invokes privacy/confidentiality irritation in me. More so, since a police detective is an important character, who is constantly sharing investigative information with everyone this way. I simply wish they did AR instead. It's all forgotten once they do their awesome gravity stuff, or casually show New York below sea level, which gets me giggly in excitement. > But the blinky lights, the illuminated doors, the angled irregular shapes everywhere? This reminds me of another common scifi thing in The Expanse... face illuminated helmets. Realistically, with the darkness of space all around, people would only see their own face reflection :D Maybe that's not just because the audience can see who's talking, but also because external visor reflections would complicate filming and CGI. I allow it, although I would have celebrated identifying marks, such as pictograms and colors, for going the extra mile. Would have enabled one more layer of faction idiosyncrasies, too.

yencabulator 1y ago

> I can forgive a "hexagon everything", but The Expanse has these transparent displays and low contrast holograms, One could attempt to be charitable and say that in-universe, the display's output is aimed at the eyes of the user, not where the audience is. You might be seeing a privacy shield, like we've had on computer monitors!