History Characters / TheExpanseTVMars

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Season 4 begins exploring a bit of life on Mars. It is technologically advanced, has a top-notch education system, and the people live long and healthy lives. Many on Earth try to emigrate to Mars thinking that it'll provide them with better opportunities than their overburdened homeworld. But there is trouble bubbling just beneath the surface.
** The citizenry are bombarded by propaganda to reinforce the belief that they are superior to every other faction in the solar system. The people are required to submit quarterly reports about themselves to the authorities.
** The police have extensive powers and can barge into places on short notice and without warrants. People automatically get down on the ground when they hear the announcement for police actions, indicating that they are common occurrences.

** Even worse, the opening of the Ring Gates. Mars had been able to control its population by touting itself as the true future of humanity, the only alternative to a dying Earth. Its entire society was geared towards terraforming the planet, simply because there were no viable alternatives. With the Ring Gates and the peace with Earth, the centuries-old terraforming project comes to an end; by Season 5, we see Mars looking much emptier than in prior seasons, likely because much of its population has colonized the new worlds.

* TheGenerationGap: Older Martians -- who make up most of the high-ranking government and military officers -- frequently complain that younger Martians don't care about their central dream of terraforming Mars into another Earth-like planet. Mars declared independence from Earth about one century ago, but consider that with advanced medical technology, life-expectancy on Mars is stated to be ''over'' 120 Earth-years -- so the revolution is still within living memory for some of their grandparents. This doesn't mean that the younger generation is lazy: as the Martian ambassador laments in episode 2.12, the younger generations grew up on Mars, grew up in their cramped underground cities and tunnels, and are used to it -- the older generations who immigrated ''from'' Earth knew what they had lost, and what they wanted to rebuild on Mars. The younger generation like Bobby Draper is still very dedicated to Mars, but they're more concerned with focusing their military on a direct confrontation with Earth. The older generation was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to further the terraforming project -- such as trading Earth the new Epstein Drive technology and making armistic treaties if it buys them more decades to carry out the terraforming project in peace. On the other hand, this willingness to sacrifice for "the cause" also means that if older generation gets their hands on a trump card -- i.e. the proto-molecule -- they ''will'' use it, regardless of cost in lives even to their own soldiers much less Earth, in the name of the greater good.

** {{Downplayed}}. Mars has lighter gravity than Earth so Martians naturally have less muscle mass and bone density compared to Earthers, but not nearly to the extent that Belters have been shaped by living in much lower microgravity. Rather, the unique biological feature of the Martians is that due to living on Mars for generations, selection pressures favored those who had better tolerances for low oxygen environments. As a result, Martians on average use slightly less oxygen than Earthers. The asteroid belt was colonized much more recently, so the Belters haven't had quite as many generations for such selection pressures to take effect. "Slightly" less is of course measured in a difference of only mere minutes -- but this can be the difference between life and death in an oxygen-deprived spaceship.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Martians have the highest life expectancy in the system, around 120 years. Meaning most Martians are a good bit older than they look. This also extends to non-Martians who have spent most of their lives on Mars and had access to their medical care, like Frank DeGraff, who looked like he was in his 70's but was actually in his late 90's.
* PowerArmor: Most Martian marines wear armored combat spacesuits and carry automatic rifles into battle, but Draper's fire team, being a special operations unit, wear specialized suits of powered armor with built-in arm-mounted guns and backpack-mounted anti-tank missiles. Such suits are extremely expensive, far too much to equip the rank-and-file infantry, but are also shown to be a potential game-changer in a firefight.

** The entire reason that Earth and Mars are locked in a cold war is because neither side has a clear advantage. Both sides agree that while Martian warships are more than a match for Earth's in any one-on-one fight, Earth's more numerous armada would likely secure victory, albeit suffering disastrously high casualties in the process. When a full scale war is formally declared between Earth and Mars at the start of Season 3, this starts to play out as both sides predicted: the MCRN initially gains the upper hand due to their better technology, capturing Ceres (capital of the asteroid belt) from the UNN, as well as taking Jupiter and Saturn. However, the UNN regroups and manages to force them to retreat, as Mars simply could not keep up with that attrition rate. Attrition rates are still so high that an invasion of Mars itself seems unlikely: the rival conspirators on both sides are competing for the proto-molecule super-soldiers, which could tip the scales heavily in their own favor.
** In Season 2, Draper states that all simulations indicate Mars ships are so advanced that they're easily estimated to have a two to one kill ratio against their Earth counterparts -- to which her commander quickly points out that Earth's fleet still outnumbers them ''five'' to one. No Earth politician who wants to keep their job is stupid enough to intentionally start a war that will incur 40% casualties on their own side, however, so they've been stalemated for decades. When the war happens in Season 3, it plays out pretty much as predicted: after a few weeks Mars manages to whittle down the UNN fleet until they only outnumber them 3:1 -- but by that point Mars is running out of ships.

* RenegadeSplinterFaction: Just as Earth had a conspiracy led by UN Undersecretary Errinwright and Admiral Nguyen trying to take advantage of the proto-molecule (resulting in the Eros incident), Mars had its own conspiracy trying to harness proto-molecule technology led by MCRN Defense Minister Korshunov, Captain Mertens, and others (resulting in the Hybrid super-soldier program and the Ganymede incident). [[spoiler: By Season 4, despite Korshunov's death, these rogue elements start secretly arming the OPA's own Renegade Spinter Faction, the Free Navy, to distract everyone from their ''real'' goal, revealed at the end of Season 5: Admiral Duarte leads a large rogue fleet of the MCRN to establish their own full break-away interstellar state in the Laconia system, where they can salvage even more potent Ring-builder artifacts). According to the books, Duarte absconded with a full ''third'' of the MCRN fleet (the surviving fleet after the Earth-Mars war, which badly weakened their numbers).]]
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: With the establishment of the portal network, Martians start emigrating to the new worlds available to humanity rather than staying on Mars for the promise of a terraforming project that most likely won't be finished in their lifetimes. Eventually, the MCR becomes almost a ghost town.

* UngratefulBastard: Combined with FantasticRacism. It doesn't matter how many times James Holden and the crew of the ''Rocinante'' saved Mars - even from their own fuck-ups no less, to them they're nothing more than thieves who stole the ''Tachi'' and get nothing but contempt. Even a decorated pilot like Alex is despised by MCRN command for "siding" with Earthers and Belters. Thankfully, not ''all'' Martians are like this. Only ''most'' of them.

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: As the saying goes, when you live your whole life inside of a cramped dome city under the surface of Mars, even the idea of an ocean can be difficult to comprehend. Even the Belters get the vast "ocean" of outer space, but the Martian underground cities leave them very agoraphobic. When Draper visits Earth in Season 2 she sneaks out of the UN compound to see the ocean: despite being a tough-as-nails combat marine, she dips her feet into the water like an awe-struck child. Avasarala points out to her that it's filthy water from the bay, but she's too mesmerized to mind.

* OneManArmy: Literally. When Cotyar and Avasarala were pinned down aboard Mao's yacht, she ''instantly'' shifted the tide when she walked in with her armor. When the team infiltrates Io, she disposes every single Protogen mook on her own and in an instant (though technically Prax fired the first shot and got one of the mooks). Shortly after, she takes on a Hybrid one-on-one and ''wins'', albeit barely. Just a handful of Hybrids can lay waste to all of Mars. Even [[SourSupporter Cotyar]] cheekily admits that she's an absolute badass to Souther and Nguyen.

* SelfDeprecation: When she's [[spoiler:out on an unsanctioned town trip]] on her visit on Earth, she agrees, that perhaps there's a bit of truth to the Earth propaganda claiming Martian music is crap.
* SoleSurvivor: Only surviving member of her squad during the Ganyemede Incident -- actually the only surviving ground soldier, after the Protomolecule hybrid wiped out both the Martian and Earth troops as a weapons test.

* {{Jerkass}}: While not nearly as bad as Hillman, he's prone to slinging the usual racist shit towards Travis whenever he's in a foul mood. He's much quicker to realize when he's stepped over the line however, and is able to reign himself in.

An MMC marine stationed aboard the MCRN ''Xuesen'' and Bobbie's CO following her reinstatement. After the arrest of Jules-Pierre Mao and the Ring's activation, Mayer's team is sent in to investigate the Nucleus station, and to apprehend Holden following his... possibly SanitySlippage.

* AlasPoorVillain: For a couple of moments, Errinwright seemed genuinely remorseful after killing him, but quickly regains his compose. For the viewers however, he's much more of an AssholeVictim considering his actions resulted in ''hundreds of thousands of deaths'', with many more to come after losing Ganymede -- the belt's main source of food.
* BigBad: Of the second season. After Mao tossed aside Errinwright, he's become Protogen's newest financial benefactor, and wholly orchestrated the Ganymede incident in an effort to test the Hybrid. Likewise, he also attempts to manipulate Earth with Draper's "[[BlatantLies testimony]]."
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Even for ''The Expanse'', he dies a rather gruesome death as he's poisoned and suffers a heart attack severe enough to make him claw at his own chest.

* ArcVillain: Of Bobbi's story in the second season. He also counts as a BigBadDuumvirate with Korshunov.
* AssholeVictim: After finding out about his treachery, Bobbi beats the ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown living shit]]'' out of him before immediately defecting. Not one person felt bad about it.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: He introduces himself as a GoodShepherd but he becomes harsher towards Bobbie and keeps putting her down as Season 2 progresses. It's eventually revealed that he's privy to the Protogen conspiracy.
* TheDragon: He seems to be the only other Martian who knows extensively about the Protomolecule, and as such reports directly to Kurshunov.

* {{Jerkass}}: He comes across initially as friendly, even a sort of mentor figure to Bobbi. But it's clear that he's only out for himself and his career. When the facade is up, he's an utter unrepentant ''dick.''

* OlderThanTheyLook: Like many Martians, due to their high life expectancy. Sauveterre looks like he’s in his fifties, but Alex mentions he’s been in the navy for over 60 years, putting him in his mid 80s, at a minimum.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Once he's confronted by Bobbie, he immediately surrenders knowing full well he will get straight up murdered against a Martian Marine in a fight.

* MartialPacifist: He very strongly believes that a war between Earth and Mars is pointless but that doesn't mean he's unwilling to fight.

The captain of the MCRN Donnager. Unlike most of her crew, Yao was a combat veteran having spent three years fighting pirates in the belt.

* GoingDownWithTheShip: Orders ''Donnager'' scuttled once it's clear that the crew cannot repel boarders.

* FantasticRacism: Despises Earthers for wasting and degrading their planet. He's also not too fond of the OPA as he sees them as nothing more than simple terrorists and troublemakers.

* InspectorJavert: From start to finish, he's most suspicious of Naomi and is certain she is (or used to be) a hardcore OPA terrorist, even in the face of everyone else's defense of her. [[spoiler:Given what we learn in later seasons, he is correct about her past but not her present allegiance.]]
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Averted; his interrogation style is intense, but involves no coercion or torture.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Esai has a wife and two children whom he loves.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: He doesn't care about what his clients do with the tech he sells them. All he wants is make enough money for his family to get aboard one of the colony ships en route to one of the Ring systems.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: Surprisingly averted -- when Bobby wants out of his operation, he expresses regret but doesn't stop her and holds no grudge about her decision.

* SmugSnake: Acts hilariously condescending towards Bobbie in their first "real" encounter, gets [[CurbstompBattle utterly trashed]] as a result and... continues to act exactly the same afterwards despite having to cake on the makeup to hide her numerous bruises.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: She and Bobbie seem to positively loathe each other, which Leelee attempts to hide behind a facade of smug superiority. They're inches away from getting physical almost every time they meet or, failing that, sniping insults at each other.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Looks like he’s in his fifties, but Alex mentions he’s been in the navy for over 60 years, putting him in his mid 80s, at a minimum.

* RenegadeSplinterFaction: Just as Earth had a conspiracy led by UN Undersecretary Errinwright and Admiral Nguyen trying to take advantage of the proto-molecule (resulting in the Eros incident), Mars had its own conspiracy trying to harness proto-molecule technology led by MCRN Defense Minister Korshunov, Captain Mertens, and others (resulting in the Hybrid super-soldier program and the Ganymede incident). [[spoiler: By Season 4, despite Korshunov's death, these rogue elements start secretly arming the OPA's own Renegade Spinter Faction, the Free Navy, to distract everyone from their ''real'' goal, revealed at the end of Season 5: Admiral Duarte leads a large rogue fleet of the MCRN to establish their own full break-away interstellar state in the Laconia system, where they can salvage even more potent Ring-builder artifacts). According to the books, Duarte absconded with a full ''third'' of the MCRN fleet (the surviving fleet after the Earth-Mars war, which badly weakened their numbers).]]

At the beginning of the TV series Mars has a population of around 7 billion, compared to the 30 billion on Earth (which is officially suffering from overpopulation problems), and the 50 - 150 million Belters living in the asteroid belt and outer planets.

The Martians are driven by a unifying sense of purpose to terraform Mars into a new Earth, because the old Earth is polluted and used up, and they don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past on their new home. Some Martians see this as a noble, desperate attempt to beat a ticking clock, because they think Earth is already a lost cause. In contrast to the bloated bureaucracy and massive overpopulation problems on Earth, the Martian Congressional Republic is driven by efficiency and a united political will. Mars also spends disproportionately on military research and development - unlike the fractious Earther politicians dividing the United Nations, the MCR is driven to take united action to make up for its relative lack of infrastructure compared to Earth. The result is that Mars regularly fields stealth technology which neither the Earthers or Belters possess.

* {{Claustrophobia}}: InvertedTrope: Most Martians display some level of agoraphobia - being on Earth's surface with its wide-open spaces and open horizon is uncomfortable even to trained ones. Belters don't really have claustrophobia or agoraphobia: they work in the vastness of open space, but the interiors of their ships are very cramped, so it sort of evens out (leaning more towards claustrophobic). In contrast, Martians spend their entire lives inside domed cities and tunnels underneath the surface of Mars, not experiencing open space even the way that Belters do. When Draper visits New York in Season 2, a passerby says he can tell she's Martian due to the stereotypical way they walk when moving around under a natural sky for the first time: hunched over as if they half-expect the sky to fall on them, disoriented and not matching their eyes to the horizon line.

** For their part, the Martian slang term for Earth soldiers is "Blues" - the UN color is blue, as well as Earth's blue sky and oceans versus Mars, the Red Planet; accordingly, all of their computer monitors display Earth forces as blue icons and Mars forces as red icons, so the nickname followed naturally.
* FutureFoodIsArtificial: Like the Belters - they do have some basic staple crops that they grow in domes, but ''a lot'' of what they eat is artificial. Most of their "meat" is actually grown in vats. Alex Kamal cooks some "lasagna" for the rest of the crew which he says is an old family recipe from Mars, and which they say actually tastes pretty good, but goes on to explain that his family made it back when they didn't really have access to real cheese, real tomato sauce, real meat, or real ''grains'' - apparently the whole thing is artfully "cooked" out of preservative imitation foods in such a way that it tastes reasonably palatable (in Season 3 he mentions that most of it is actually made out of soy products). When Draper is offered a real cucumber sandwich she instantly starts wolfing it down.
* TheGenerationGap: Older Martians - who make up most of the high-ranking government and military officers - frequently complain that younger Martians don't care about their central dream of terraforming Mars into another Earth-like planet. Mars declared independence from Earth about one century ago, but consider that with advanced medical technology, life-expectancy on Mars is stated to be ''over'' 120 Earth-years - so the revolution is still within living memory for some of their grandparents. This doesn't mean that the younger generation is lazy: as the Martian ambassador laments in episode 2.12, the younger generations grew up on Mars, grew up in their cramped underground cities and tunnels, and are used to it - the older generations who immigrated ''from'' Earth knew what they had lost, and what they wanted to rebuild on Mars. The younger generation like Bobby Draper is still very dedicated to Mars, but they're more concerned with focusing their military on a direct confrontation with Earth. The older generation was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to further the terraforming project - such as trading Earth the new Epstein Drive technology and making armistic treaties if it buys them more decades to carry out the terraforming project in peace. On the other hand, this willingness to sacrifice for "the cause" also means that if older generation gets their hands on a trump card - i.e. the proto-molecule - they ''will'' use it, regardless of cost in lives even to their own soldiers much less Earth, in the name of the greater good.

** {{Downplayed}}. Mars has lighter gravity than Earth so Martians naturally have less muscle mass and bone density compared to Earthers, but not nearly to the extent that Belters have been shaped by living in much lower microgravity. Rather, the unique biological feature of the Martians is that due to living on Mars for generations, selection pressures favored those who had better tolerances for low oxygen environments. As a result, Martians on average use slightly less oxygen than Earthers. The asteroid belt was colonized much more recently, so the Belters haven't had quite as many generations for such selection pressures to take effect. "Slightly" less is of course measured in a difference of only mere minutes - but this can be the difference between life and death in an oxygen-deprived spaceship.

*** Still, consider that Martians can at least ''get by'' on Earth with the right medication - in contrast to some Belters born in space, for whom physically standing on Earth's surface is ''officially'' considered torture in the legal sense.

* MisplacedAccent: Mars has a central government and large population centers, so it didn't develop an odd pidgin variant of prior languages the way that "Belter Creole" developed as a mish-mash of various languages spoken by immigrants to the belt. They do, apparently, use English as their standardized language of military and government (though Martian warships also have signage in Russian visible in some scenes). On the more subtle level of accent, however, things can be a bit variable: Alex Kamal grew up in a region colonized by people from China, South Asia, and Texas - so all of the English teachers in the first generation of colonists had a Texan accent, which they passed on to everyone else who learned English. Thus Alex is of South Asian descent but anachronistically has a hammy Texas accent. This varies from one region to the next across all of Mars, though - most we see speak with standard American English accents.
** In Season 2, Bobbie Draper is introduced, who speaks with a New Zealand accent - apparently because the actress [[ThrowItIn actually is]] from New Zealand, while ethnically Samoan. They didn't bother to make the actress hide her natural accent.

** In Season 2, Draper states that all simulations indicate Mars ships are so advanced that they're easily estimated to have a two to one kill ratio against their Earth counterparts - to which her commander quickly points out that Earth's fleet still outnumbers them ''five'' to one. No Earth politician who wants to keep their job is stupid enough to intentionally start a war that will incur 40% casualties on their own side, however, so they've been stalemated for decades. When the war happens in Season 3, it plays out pretty much as predicted: after a few weeks Mars manages to whittle down the UNN fleet until they only outnumber them 3:1 - but by that point Mars is running out of ships.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Unlike Earth with its bickering internal factions and territories, all of Mars is united in the single-minded goal of terraforming their world into a new habitable Earth-like planet. They think [[JerkassHasAPoint Earth is already so badly polluted and its resources exhausted that it's dying]], so they need to make a new Earth to save the future of the human race. All of the Martians' actions are in pursuit of this greater good - even if it means oppressing the Belters just as much as Earth does, or even going to war with Earth. From the Martians' point of view, at least they're justified in having a goal that will protect the future survival of humanity, while in contrast, Earthers seize space resources just to feed their overpopulated planet from one day to the next with government handouts - and the Belters are only a step better than that, because they're also just worried about their day-to-day needs, but at least they work really hard to scrape by in the asteroid belt.

* HeroicSacrifice: Non-fatal variety. She takes a bullet for Alex - ''from her own team'' - and nearly bleeds out as a result. This act finally convinces her to leave the MMC and join the ''Roci'' for good.

* AlasPoorVillain: For a couple of moments, Errinwright seemed genuinely remorseful after killing him, but quickly regains his compose. For the viewers however, he's much more of an AssholeVictim considering his actions resulted in ''hundreds of thousands of deaths'', with many more to come after losing Ganymede - the belt's main source of food.

Captain of the MCRN ''Hammurabi'' and leader of the Martian Jupiter fleet. After receiving a communique from Avasarala through Ensign Sinopoli of Errinwright's treachery, she forwards the video to Souther to have him removed - all the while preparing her fleet against Earth's.

* ResignationsNotAccepted: Surprisingly averted - when Bobby wants out of his operation, he expresses regret but doesn't stop her and holds no grudge about her decision.

[[/folder]]

* FantasticRacism: She despises Earthers, [[UpToEleven to an even greater extent to most Martians.]]

!Martian Congressional Republic Marine Corps (MCRMC)

* [[spoiler: DroppedABridgeOnHim: Returns in Season 6, and is ordered to launch an assault on Medina Station. She and her six ships get taken out within seconds by Marco's railguns, which neither Mars nor Earth knew about. At least Kirino's death saved the rest of the alliance fleet from stumbling into the same trap.]]

[[spoiler:* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Returns in Season 6, and is ordered to launch an assault on Medina Station. She and her six ships get taken out within seconds by Marco's railguns, which neither Mars nor Earth knew about. At least Kirino's death saved the rest of the alliance fleet from stumbling into the same trap.]]