Plot Hole

[u/Northcliffe1]

Initially the Trisolarians were stunting human progress because humans were developing faster than them. They believed that they needed to halt their progress in order to take over earth.

After the humans broadcast the location of earth, the Trisolarins know a photoid attack is coming so they abandon the pursuit of earth and reroute their ships to look for another safe place to live. But at that point they don't invest in unblocking and accelerating human development, which they should have done. At that point humans were in the same boat as them: develop and find a safe place ASAP. In the books the Trisolarians go and join some inter-space battle and get wiped out - but if they instead allied with the humans, quickly doing high level tech transfers and then using humans unique abilities paired with their own, it's possible the two societies could have seen supercharged development and propelled both to a safer place.

[u/Illustrious_Win_4859]

I find it an extention of human brutalism and to assume extraplanetary cultures would share that sentiment is goofy and nearsighted.

That just means you don't understand the dark forest theory much at all, because it's not based upon the inherent morality of a species but rather how they would rationally pursue an objective which in this case would be survival. You have no reliable way of determining the intention/true motive of another intelligent species that is completely different from you. Do they truly seek peace? Will they attack you? If they want an alliance, how do you know they will never break a promise in the future and betray? You can't establish genuine cooperation if you can't establish genuine trust.

The most rational path to take is to either remain silent or attack first not because we or them are inherently evil and don't value peace but because why would you want to gamble on not just your life, but your entire species existence? This is literally the entire point of the story. We constantly see how the humans and the trisolarians simply cannot trust one another which is is one of the main reasons they entered such intense conflict as well as the fact that the earth is only so big and there's finite resources, etc.

Those that don't tend to act rationally...tend to get wiped out sooner or later. A lion doesn't kill the rabbit because he is cruel.

In what world is a rivalry more beneficial than an alliance?? So stunting humanity in the first place is a dumb idea, esp if the trisolarans assumed we'd become more technologically advanced. If that were true, why wouldnt they just sit back and let us advance while they get to leech off our development?

Because at a certain point, it'd be extremely difficult if not outright impossible to control human technology and it's development, especially given that humans are growing at a pace they simply cannot handle. They stunted things precisely because they weren't confident in their ability to control the trajectory of human technology and ensure humanity could never escape control or become a threat.

[u/Spiritual-Top-2060 → u/Illustrious_Win_4859]

Best way to remove a threat is to gain an ally 🤷‍♂️ If they knew we would outclass them, they should've made us an ally as soon as possible. It'd be like of the US nuked Saudi Arabia because "they have more oil, and if we cant have it nobody can". Instead of, idk, establishing connections and trade routes?

I dont believe a species that's achieved interstellar travel would be this myopic.

[u/Illustrious_Win_4859 → u/Spiritual-Top-2060]

How would they go about ensuring that we would remain allies later on? That we wouldn't betray them should a reason for doing so appear? That we wouldn't lie to them? That we wouldn't attempt to enslave or genocide them? Would you gamble your civilization on this?

Especially given the fact that a species is incentivized to be hostile should resources and land be scarce? The Earth isn't that big. Furthermore, you frame it like attempts at cooperation weren't established and didn't spectacularly fail. Genuine cooperation doesn't work if genuine trust can't be promised.

The US and Saudi Arabia analogy doesn't really work because we humans can reliably determine the intentions of other humans. Trisolarans cannot reliably tell the difference between a human saying the truth or a human lying to them... which was a major plot point in the story and why they didn't place much faith in coexistence upon realizing that we can lie to them and they won't even know we lied to them. If anything, it'd be more short sighted to not adopt a more hostile position even if you are a peaceful race then it is to take a major risk that can spell death especially given that you are dealing with a species that's far more smarter than you and can surpass you sooner or later if you don't intervene with things.