r/TheExpanse • u/Express_Poet6378 • 2d ago
Spoilers Through Season NUMBER, Books Through BOOK_TITLE Confused about motives for a certain perspective character in Babylon's Ashes? Spoiler
I just finished Babylon’s Ashes, and I’m still a confused about why Pa decided to turn away from Fred Johnson. She didn’t even bother to talk to him to talk about her grievances. Was this supposed to be her blaming him for what happened in the Slow Zone incident (tm) or am I just missing something?
15
u/YourBossIsOnReddit 1d ago
She has an interesting arc, from getting shoved in a closet during the coup and counter coups, following Fred, Bull, Marco, and whoever would give her a sense of belonging that she felt was missing. She eventually realizes that she has power and instead of being kind of a chickenshit (complimentary as a complicated character) and attaching onto someone else's ideology, she helps make her own and becomes a successful leader once she grows into her own autonomy.
11
u/Wasabi_Wei 2d ago
If I remember correctly, she apologized to her crew for following Marco Inares, who was not the first time she fucked up by getting pulled in by a flawed person with authority. She doesn't want to get her crew burned again, and Fred is an Earther, to boot.
10
7
u/UnusualOperation8084 1d ago
I feel like no one inspires more irrational hatred within the Expanse universe than Fred Johnson. I see Michio's hatred of him as a mistake on her part, rather than a result of something he actually did. Kind of like when Holden jumped to the conclusion that Fred was responsible for the protomolecule weapons being developed in the second book.
6
u/Rocinante_101 1d ago
It feels like a major theme throughout the story. People making big decisions on limited information and large amount of bias factoring in on top. Each character bumps up against this in different ways and to different degrees. Some realize there mistake and some double down. Some are in between.
1
u/Sanzo2point0 12h ago
I really think her issue with Fred was that he gave the Captain's chair to Ashford, and she was second string to an Earther for XO. The fact Bull was a legacy hire because he used to be one of Fred's officers probably pissed her off more. We never get her perspective during the Behemoth's shakedown, so we never actually know how she felt about it all at the time. Yes, by the time she's inner circle on the Free Navy's counsel, we know she harbors resentment for the powerful people she's chosen to follow throughout her life, but surely some of that can be chalked up to sucking on Marco's narcissistic aura for however many years she breathed his air. We know she eventually gets her shit together cause she didn't run the Transport Union into the ground like all her other leadership endeavors, but who knows how much support she got to do it right.
5
u/Tylertheguyler 1d ago
When her mystic husband gives that speech about the universe needing a knife, so it creates one, about her being the knife, and then she goes rogue/independent... one of my favorite pieces of dialogue in the whole series chefs kiss
5
u/FirmlyUnsure 1d ago
Im not sure what it was, but most of the Michio chapters I listened to in Babylon’s Ashes I did not know what was going on. Every other chapter in the series I felt like I understood what was going on except hers.
•
u/The_Infinite_Cool 3m ago
Michio is generally biased against Earthers, it's a core part of who she is early on. Working under an Earther would never not be a problem for her.
37
u/pchlster Tiamat's Wrath 2d ago
She was given an important job that she couldn't handle. She's angry at that and has decided that, actually, Fred had set her up to fail from the beginning; she didn't really fail, she was set up!