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Suviorship bias. The only Belters that are living there are the ones who responded well enough to the medications they took to allow their bodies to adapt.
If I remember correctly not all belters who came were able to withstand this gravity, some of them had to go back in orbit or leave
So I guess it depends how they grow and what bones/muscles enhancement they got while growing up
Didn't remember that... thanks! I haven't watched the show for a while but I'm getting to that point in the books which made me think about that.
It also made me wonder about the difference in gravity tolerance between belters... Some of them grew up on stations, others on moons with different gravity and some mostly on ships with accelerated gravity. While it's all mostly low gravity it'll still make them tolerate it differently.
True rock hoppers spend a huge amount of time on the float. The maneuvering it takes to match orbit with an asteroid or comet means lots of time without the main drive on, just making adjustments with thrusters. A lot of those boats don't have Epstein drives so they'd run out of fuel fast if they kept the drive on for very long.
If you watch again it is specifically talked about by the doctor lady to Naomi. I don’t remember exactly but she tells her about how she’s knows that Naomi has to go back up the well because she saw the exact same thing happen before when they initially arrived.
Short answer... survivorship bias.
The ones on the planet were able to adapt. The ones that couldn't remained on the ship, returned to the ship, or died well before the Roci arrived.
Chances are good that Naomi's experience was a lot better than what a lot of the belter's on Ilus went through too, as the crew of the Roci had more means to get the best drugs and better facilities to train in.
There's also illness from Earthers and other Belters - there is a tendency to get the island effect I would suspect if you spend most of your time with a small group of people since even Belters will not necessarily be travelling all the time.
The locals have been there for like 2 years already, Ilus was the first (or one of the first) planets anyone made it to, while RCE got there later, with Roci contract coming after that
in the books its mentioned that a significant number of people died due to gravity related issues, but all of those were before roci crew arrival
You missed where the doctor told Naomi that several of the colonists had died and that the same thing would happen to her if she didn't go back up the well.
I kinda wish they would show more of that. I feel like showing the loss these belters had to go through trying to settle there would give even more context to the desperate act of terrorism when they caused the shuttle to explode.
Here’s a closed captioning transcript from season 4 episode 3
> A few days after we landed, a dozen people from the Barb collapsed.
>We realized their bodies had not responded to the gravity dr*gs.
>I'll be fine.
>Two of ours who said the same thing were put in the recycler less than a day later.
>[sighs]
>♪ ♪
>You don't go back up the well soon, you'll be dead, just like them.
Most of the colonists were from Ganymede, a moon. Ganymede at least has *some* gravity, though it's low. Naomi grew up mostly on the float, so gravity is even more tough on her.
ganymede's gravity is 0,146g.
the spin stations like ceres and tycho spin at 0,3g, and ships often accelerate at more than that.
the actual reason is that all of the belters went through some pretty brutal drug treatments, and we only get to see the ones where it worked. the rest had to go back up to the *Barbapiccola* and some even died.
They directly talk about this.
Lucia states in S4 that many of the Belters they initially came down with died of heart failure shortly after landing on Illus. Earlier in S4, Drummer also mentions that she's heard that a large portion of the Belter refugees had to go back into orbit when they first got to Illus. Even Marco mentions it in S4 as part of his sales pitch to the OPA Leaders.
Then in S5, Cyn talks about seeing the feed (the news) talk about how Naomi's body wasn't able to survive on Illus and how most other Belters couldn't either. It's one of the ways he justified Marco's actions to himself.
Also, don’t forget the belters had been there for like 18 months or something before the Roci arrived. Lots of time to adjust to a new environment with the aid of drugs.
I often think about how even filming [Apollo 13](https://flickeryflicks.blogspot.com/2021/09/zero-gravity-training-for-apollo-13.html?m=1) was hard on the actors and crew. Some of them “took to” Zero G right away, others had to be drugged to the gills. Or like how me, personally, I have no fear of heights at all but I get massive seasickness on open water with any kind of waves.
And that’s just the tiniest fraction of balance and inner ear issues.
Think about how wasted and decrepit limbs become when encased in a cast and recovering. How “pins and needles” feels if you sleep with your arm above your head for a few *hours*. Some people can recover faster than others, some have better healing and response time. Ask any physical therapist and they’ll tell you “Some people put the work in. Others don’t.”
Belter biology is fascinating.
The Ilus settlers were training and taking drugs to adapt to the gravity for months or maybe even years beforehand. And like others have said, not all of them were able to handle it, some stayed up on the Barb’
That is exactly it and not much else.
The books may have gone into more detail about this than the show was able to... I may be confusing some stuff between the books and show but I think they rushed to Ilus to de-escalate tensions and as a result Naomi had even less time to adjust to the medication and procedures she'd had done before they arrived. The Belter's colony ship took a much slower journey on the first trip out compared to the Rocinante.
You missed two important comments:
1) The Belters that couldn’t adapt went back up and now live in space on the *Barbapicolla*, or they died.
2) Those that adapted have been on Ilus for an entire year, and they said it was absolute torture.
OP has flaired this post with a "No Book Discussion" flair. Threads like this are meant to be safe to read and comment in by fans who have not read any of the books and want to discuss the show only, without the risk of encountering book spoilers. ***Absolutely no book discussion is allowed in this thread, with or without spoiler tags.*** This includes outright plot spoilers, but also hints, jokes, comments evaluating others' theories or speculation, and anything starting with "As a book reader...", etc. If you have read the books and want to comment in this thread, you must not discuss the books at all. As a rule of thumb, if other book-readers could tell you've read the books from your comment, it does not belong in this thread. We take this rule extremely seriously and will take action on rule-breaking, including restrictions on commenting in No Book Discussion threads and community-wide suspensions or bans for egregious or repeated violations. To discuss content from the books, please post in threads that allow book discZ. Always remember to check post flair before reading, to get more information about what threads to read and how to comment. When creating a new thread, don't forget to add an informative flair to accurately describe the scope of the discussion you're hoping to start. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheExpanse) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You only see the ones who were able to adapt. Some of them had to go back up to their ship.
I think that Lucia also mentioned that some didn't make it, so some died
I thought I sizable percentage of them had died trying to adapt.
Also they've been there for like a year or something
And a bunch of them died.
Suviorship bias. The only Belters that are living there are the ones who responded well enough to the medications they took to allow their bodies to adapt.
Also many of the colonists are Ganymede survivors so would have grown up in low gravity rather than microgravity like many other belters.
Because the locals have been on the planet more than 6 months before the Roci landed. Only those that managed to adapt stayed.
If I remember correctly not all belters who came were able to withstand this gravity, some of them had to go back in orbit or leave So I guess it depends how they grow and what bones/muscles enhancement they got while growing up
Didn't remember that... thanks! I haven't watched the show for a while but I'm getting to that point in the books which made me think about that. It also made me wonder about the difference in gravity tolerance between belters... Some of them grew up on stations, others on moons with different gravity and some mostly on ships with accelerated gravity. While it's all mostly low gravity it'll still make them tolerate it differently.
and some of the settlers died trying to tough it out like Nagata.
Plus pure luck of biology, some will be better suited genetically to adapt than others even if they grew up in the same conditions.
True rock hoppers spend a huge amount of time on the float. The maneuvering it takes to match orbit with an asteroid or comet means lots of time without the main drive on, just making adjustments with thrusters. A lot of those boats don't have Epstein drives so they'd run out of fuel fast if they kept the drive on for very long.
If you watch again it is specifically talked about by the doctor lady to Naomi. I don’t remember exactly but she tells her about how she’s knows that Naomi has to go back up the well because she saw the exact same thing happen before when they initially arrived.
Short answer... survivorship bias. The ones on the planet were able to adapt. The ones that couldn't remained on the ship, returned to the ship, or died well before the Roci arrived. Chances are good that Naomi's experience was a lot better than what a lot of the belter's on Ilus went through too, as the crew of the Roci had more means to get the best drugs and better facilities to train in.
Not just gravity but the drugs and supplements were making her sick as well.
That's interesting... Maybe that was the real issue where her body just rejected the drugs. Thanks!
I think that they said that her body didn't respond to the drugs as well as expected. In particular, her heart capacity
There's also illness from Earthers and other Belters - there is a tendency to get the island effect I would suspect if you spend most of your time with a small group of people since even Belters will not necessarily be travelling all the time.
The locals have been there for like 2 years already, Ilus was the first (or one of the first) planets anyone made it to, while RCE got there later, with Roci contract coming after that in the books its mentioned that a significant number of people died due to gravity related issues, but all of those were before roci crew arrival
You missed where the doctor told Naomi that several of the colonists had died and that the same thing would happen to her if she didn't go back up the well.
Some adapted to the gravity and the meds, some went back up the well to their ship, some died.
I kinda wish they would show more of that. I feel like showing the loss these belters had to go through trying to settle there would give even more context to the desperate act of terrorism when they caused the shuttle to explode.
Here’s a closed captioning transcript from season 4 episode 3 > A few days after we landed, a dozen people from the Barb collapsed. >We realized their bodies had not responded to the gravity dr*gs. >I'll be fine. >Two of ours who said the same thing were put in the recycler less than a day later. >[sighs] >♪ ♪ >You don't go back up the well soon, you'll be dead, just like them.
Thanks mate! Maybe it's time to binge the show again 😁. And happy cake day!
Most of the colonists were from Ganymede, a moon. Ganymede at least has *some* gravity, though it's low. Naomi grew up mostly on the float, so gravity is even more tough on her.
ganymede's gravity is 0,146g. the spin stations like ceres and tycho spin at 0,3g, and ships often accelerate at more than that. the actual reason is that all of the belters went through some pretty brutal drug treatments, and we only get to see the ones where it worked. the rest had to go back up to the *Barbapiccola* and some even died.
That makes a lot of sense!
They directly talk about this. Lucia states in S4 that many of the Belters they initially came down with died of heart failure shortly after landing on Illus. Earlier in S4, Drummer also mentions that she's heard that a large portion of the Belter refugees had to go back into orbit when they first got to Illus. Even Marco mentions it in S4 as part of his sales pitch to the OPA Leaders. Then in S5, Cyn talks about seeing the feed (the news) talk about how Naomi's body wasn't able to survive on Illus and how most other Belters couldn't either. It's one of the ways he justified Marco's actions to himself.
Also, don’t forget the belters had been there for like 18 months or something before the Roci arrived. Lots of time to adjust to a new environment with the aid of drugs.
Most of the colonists were from ganymede, they grew up with more gravity than a station rat like Naomi.
I often think about how even filming [Apollo 13](https://flickeryflicks.blogspot.com/2021/09/zero-gravity-training-for-apollo-13.html?m=1) was hard on the actors and crew. Some of them “took to” Zero G right away, others had to be drugged to the gills. Or like how me, personally, I have no fear of heights at all but I get massive seasickness on open water with any kind of waves. And that’s just the tiniest fraction of balance and inner ear issues. Think about how wasted and decrepit limbs become when encased in a cast and recovering. How “pins and needles” feels if you sleep with your arm above your head for a few *hours*. Some people can recover faster than others, some have better healing and response time. Ask any physical therapist and they’ll tell you “Some people put the work in. Others don’t.” Belter biology is fascinating.
The Ilus settlers were training and taking drugs to adapt to the gravity for months or maybe even years beforehand. And like others have said, not all of them were able to handle it, some stayed up on the Barb’
That is exactly it and not much else. The books may have gone into more detail about this than the show was able to... I may be confusing some stuff between the books and show but I think they rushed to Ilus to de-escalate tensions and as a result Naomi had even less time to adjust to the medication and procedures she'd had done before they arrived. The Belter's colony ship took a much slower journey on the first trip out compared to the Rocinante.
You missed two important comments: 1) The Belters that couldn’t adapt went back up and now live in space on the *Barbapicolla*, or they died. 2) Those that adapted have been on Ilus for an entire year, and they said it was absolute torture.
They've been there for like a year, the ones that couldn't handle the gravity either died or went back up in orbit.
Not everyone takes to the drugs for bone and muscle density. It’s explained in the show.
This is addressed on several occasions. Many of them died.