This article contains spoilers For the season “of the Foundation” 3, episode 7, “Foundation’s End”.
Season 3 of “Foundation” of Apple TV + opened the story of Hari Seldon, its foundation fin and the falling galactic empire. After two seasons to prepare the field, the real throw arrived in the form of the mule (Pilou Asbæk) – and I could not be more excited. The character’s control character presented himself in the opening act of the season, where he manipulated a world leader, turned an army against herself and conquered a planet, all without lifting a finger. In episode 7, he uses his telepathic powers on the capital planet of the Terminus Foundation itself with a terrifying effect.
And yet, the most disturbing part of the last episode was not the conquest of Terminus. It was the way the episode started and ended with the background of the mule. It opens onto the distant exterior planet of Rossem. (Lateral note: this name also has an interesting link with the author Isaac Asimov.) There, a young mule is shown with his parents and his newborn brother. Local law enforcement agents arrive and discover the child, revealing to viewers that there is a strict embargo for multi-child families.
At the end of the episode, the painful story reaches a terrifying conclusion while the father of the mule tries to drown it to stay within the legal limits of the size of the family. This unlocks the mental powers of the bad guy and leads him to murder his parents in a shocking mix of self -defense and cold blood. The whole story explains why the mule came to the point where he disinstructed planets with casualness and reveling in his enemies committing horrible acts of violence and self-inflicted injuries under his control. But here is the fascinating thing: this terrifying story of the origin of the murder of backwoods is not the background of the mule of books.
The background of the mule book is less frightening – but more important
The showrunner David S. Goyer showed that he was not afraid to modify his adaptation “Foundation”, and I understand. I went to record before I agree with the common consensus that this series of books (which I have read twice in recent years) is unsuitable. Creative decisions and artistic license have been inevitable in any adaptation. Despite this, season 3 has had some of the biggest changes of all, including major changes in the mule. One of them is to separate his character from that of Magnifico Giganticus. In the books, the mule pretends to be Magnifico that he tries to discover the second foundation slyly, but in the show, they treat them as distinct characters for a cleaner scenario. Again, I understand. It is a different support, you have a limited time, Yadda Yadda. But this fundamental change in the background of the mule leaves me a little. Here is why.
In books, the mule comes from a totally unique planet called Gaia. The humans who live there were guided by robots for centuries when they have developed mental capacities, then fused them in a collective force which includes the whole planet. Gaia is an essential element in the history of the foundation later, but for our ends here, in the book “Foundation’s Edge”, he revealed that the mule came from Gaia.
The mule is a rebel of Giana
Shortly after, we discovered gay in books, a resident named Dom explains:
“”[The Mule] was an aberrant and he left us. We were naive enough to think that it was not possible, so we did not act in time to stop it. Then, when we turned our attention to the external worlds, we became aware of what you call the second foundation and we left them. “”
Here is where I am a little stuck with this change. The rosem version of the origin of the mule works for season 3, but its impact is not going beyond the mule scenario. Once this villain is overcome, its start on an agricultural planet of eddies will not have much importance. In the books, connecting the Mule to Gaia creates a greater feeling of continuity in the whole history while the mental planet with a single organism is concentrated later.
It looks like a missed opportunity, but I’m sure there were reasons for change. Maybe the showrunners do not want to present Gaia yet. Maybe they will replace Gaia with Gaal and the second foundation to simplify the story (like the mule / Magnifico split). Maybe they wanted to keep this autonomous season just in case the show was not resumed for a fourth season. Whatever the reason, if we get more “foundation” beyond season 3 (and no one wants only me), we can expect a spectacular increase in the issues that we saw in season 3 to continue to move forward. Fuck yourself, people: the second foundation and the mule go on a collision class, and if that makes the cut for this particular adaptation, Gaia will probably not be far behind.
“Foundation” is streaming on Apple TV +.
