Blindsided with disappointment.

[rogueslayer452]

For those unaware of what's been going on with The Expanse during the last few days, it has been revealed that Cas Anvar, who plays Alex Kamal, has been exposed to have multiple accounts of sexual assault and harassment of fans and being awful about women in general, all which seemed to go on long before The Expanse happened (ETA: an updated list of all the accusations so far). I'll admit that I was actually quite shocked when I first saw this. I know that I shouldn't be surprised, with how deep-seeded this is within the entertainment industry and with the second wave of the MeToo movement emerging lately so nobody is exempt from being exposed, however The Expanse was the last place where I thought this would happen. I don't know or follow the actor in question at all, but this is a series that absolutely love and am a massive fan of, including the character he played, so reading this and the accounts made by others really, truly stung. Thankfully, it seems that swift action is being taken place, there is a private investigation that is happening all which the creators and the cast support, so they are taking this very seriously, as they should. I hope that he gets fired and that these women get their justice, because that should come first and foremost before anything else.

It does leave a huge question regarding his character, however. If this was about a minor or supporting character it wouldn't be that huge of a deal, but Alex is one of the main central characters. As a disgusting creep the actor is, killing off the character would be a huge disservice and it would severely alter the way things operate with the rest of the characters and the story they're adapting from, and recasting would be quite noticeable considering he's been there for four seasons (with the upcoming fifth season which has already been shot). I like the suggestion of just putting his character on a bus and replacing his character with another known and beloved one, such as Bobbie or Drummer. That would be more preferable, imho. Plus, it would balance out the gender dynamics of the Roci crew.

Either way, all of this has been deeply disappointing and upsetting to learn. With that being said, I will not let this ruin my enjoyment of the show. It's still a fantastic and solid science fiction series that shouldn't be tainted by a disgusting rotten piece of trash.

Comments

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I mean, the show does feature advanced technology for certain things (i.e. regrowing loss limbs, regrowing a damaged spinal cord), so I wouldn't say it's necessarily implausible, but it's not like with Dark Matter where a person can literally change their entire physical appearance to look like someone else. I'm not saying impossible for The Expanse to go that route if they needed to, but it would take a very long time for that to happen in order to be believable and realistic enough.

(Although, I know in the books there are some time jumps later on, one book even time jumps 30 years. So, y'know.)

I'm sorry that you were abused. :(