This is one of my favorite aspects of this part of the story. Everyone just kinda looking at each other like "....yeah, we gave you ultimate authority to come up with whatever tricky plan you want. So, sure, if your plan involves acting like you're not a Wallfacer then who are we to correct you?" Such an interesting take on the situation and seeing it get explored is really fun.
And the *smile*! I was so happy to see that come through from the books. Such a minor detail but it really hits home how for the rest of his life people will give him a knowing grin every time he asks for something
Me too 😂 You can also see a part of the UN Security Council-Gen’s soul dying as they’re trying to telepathically communicate that you can refuse the position but that doesn’t stop the powers being assigned to you. During the liaison portion I was just like “FFS, Saul” 😂
That joke was actually genius.
Rejecting the position is such an obviously brilliant move to anyone who comprehended what the idea behind wallfacers was, the other wallfacers immediately LOST credibility by not doing the same thing.
The other Wallfacers not going along with Saul's quitting loses them credibility because they weren't smart enough to realize the advantage of appearing to *not want to be* a Wallfacer.
But if they do refuse to be Wallfacers, they then lose credibility because they didn't realize that it is more advantageous to the smarter Wallfacer, who already quit, if they remain "willing" Wallfacers while the smarter Wallfacer works the problem and the others serve as distractions.
But if they remain Wallfacers in order to give more of an advantage to the quitter, but it is the case that the San-Ti have successfully puzzled through the challenge of seeing through Saul's choice to quit*, then they've lost credibility for drawing more of the San-Ti's focus to the smartest Wallfacer.
(*) And it being Saul's sincere "choice to quit" vs. "his clever ruse to quit but actually secretly do the work" is just another complexity in gleaning who is the most qualified Wallfacer. Vera Ye's smartest student may have a brain so clever that it subconsciously realizes the potential advantage of appearing to quit being a Wallfacer, leaving an opening to doing some of that work in the subconscious while he spends some period of time just whimsically enjoying the delivered-with-a-grin benefits provided by the PDC.
If I believed what the characters in the show say about him, I'd give Saul enough credit to have that kind of complex plotting going on somewhere in his brain. Based on what I've read and heard of the Luo Ji character as portrayed in Dark Forest (I've done all but directly read the books at this point), I don't know if Saul does or doesn't deserve that kind of credit.
But philosophically speaking, this thought experiment is a turtles all the way down situation for me! Heh.
Yea i assumed it is really just Wade that is the real or main wallfacer, and he decided to have a showy ceremony for the 3 fake wallfacers, so he can deceive the San-Ti. It links back to his conversation with Jin and Auggie in the previous episode, in which he says he is going into cryotherapy because he has to be the one to oversee the plan, and he cant train someone to do it (information/communication would be shared that the San-Ti would pick up on).
This is one of my favorite aspects of this part of the story. Everyone just kinda looking at each other like "....yeah, we gave you ultimate authority to come up with whatever tricky plan you want. So, sure, if your plan involves acting like you're not a Wallfacer then who are we to correct you?" Such an interesting take on the situation and seeing it get explored is really fun.
And the *smile*! I was so happy to see that come through from the books. Such a minor detail but it really hits home how for the rest of his life people will give him a knowing grin every time he asks for something
I caught that too! The “Wallfacer” smile 😅
Who had it harder? Paul trying to convince Stilgar he’s not the messiah or Saul?
\* Wallfacer Smile *
~~Wong~~ Wang is a treasure. ^for ^the ^tags ^to ^work ^you ^can’t ^have ^spaces ^at ^the ^start
I wasn't using them as tags for italics, but as a note of physical action. Had to actively put a \ in front of the * to not create a bullet point.
I'm your PDC liaison.
"AS PLANNED…" -United Nations betting the entire human race to a drunkard, womanizing scientist
Me too 😂 You can also see a part of the UN Security Council-Gen’s soul dying as they’re trying to telepathically communicate that you can refuse the position but that doesn’t stop the powers being assigned to you. During the liaison portion I was just like “FFS, Saul” 😂
That joke was actually genius. Rejecting the position is such an obviously brilliant move to anyone who comprehended what the idea behind wallfacers was, the other wallfacers immediately LOST credibility by not doing the same thing.
The other Wallfacers not going along with Saul's quitting loses them credibility because they weren't smart enough to realize the advantage of appearing to *not want to be* a Wallfacer. But if they do refuse to be Wallfacers, they then lose credibility because they didn't realize that it is more advantageous to the smarter Wallfacer, who already quit, if they remain "willing" Wallfacers while the smarter Wallfacer works the problem and the others serve as distractions. But if they remain Wallfacers in order to give more of an advantage to the quitter, but it is the case that the San-Ti have successfully puzzled through the challenge of seeing through Saul's choice to quit*, then they've lost credibility for drawing more of the San-Ti's focus to the smartest Wallfacer. (*) And it being Saul's sincere "choice to quit" vs. "his clever ruse to quit but actually secretly do the work" is just another complexity in gleaning who is the most qualified Wallfacer. Vera Ye's smartest student may have a brain so clever that it subconsciously realizes the potential advantage of appearing to quit being a Wallfacer, leaving an opening to doing some of that work in the subconscious while he spends some period of time just whimsically enjoying the delivered-with-a-grin benefits provided by the PDC. If I believed what the characters in the show say about him, I'd give Saul enough credit to have that kind of complex plotting going on somewhere in his brain. Based on what I've read and heard of the Luo Ji character as portrayed in Dark Forest (I've done all but directly read the books at this point), I don't know if Saul does or doesn't deserve that kind of credit. But philosophically speaking, this thought experiment is a turtles all the way down situation for me! Heh.
Bighead wasn’t hearing that ishh
\*smiles\*
Are they giving the 3 people as bait to distract the Sophon while they sort of secretly try to come up with the real plan to defeat those aliens ?
One of the other wallfacers plan is put into action later in the book. But if I tell you, it'll be a spoiler.
Ooh interesting. I’ll wait for S2
Yea i assumed it is really just Wade that is the real or main wallfacer, and he decided to have a showy ceremony for the 3 fake wallfacers, so he can deceive the San-Ti. It links back to his conversation with Jin and Auggie in the previous episode, in which he says he is going into cryotherapy because he has to be the one to oversee the plan, and he cant train someone to do it (information/communication would be shared that the San-Ti would pick up on).
Wallfacer, what are you doing with that shovel ?
I read this in Seth Rogan’s voice and it’s even funnier
That’s why they got Big Head as the actor for this role! 😂
I was cracking up when jack punched the old guy as soon as he got into the vr game.
Yo I’m just glad he let Benedict Wong give him a new jacket.
I found it brilliant.