Psychasec maintains the cloned sleeve market through corrupt means.
3D bioprinting should make sleeves cheaper than paperback books, and the Array should be populated by those who can't afford replacement sleeves. Neither has happened because Psychasec ensures a market for their genetically engineered sleeves by lobbying for harsh "identity theft" laws and filling the Array with malware so people are reluctant to use online VR.- I thought it was more of a case of protecting the market. Exclusivity equals profit. If all can afford the luxury and can benefit from it then the Meth loses a large portion of their power. If they lose power the Protectorate loses power. Its about both control and money.
Quellcrist Falconer
In the books she was vaporized by a Martian Kill Sat, while in this version she seems to have been killed by UN satellites. And the whole point of the third book was her seemingly returning despite her stack being destroyed, as it turned out the Orbitals were really a destructive uploading and virtual reality network. If there is a third season Kovacs will be chasing a rumor about the backup Reileen claimed to make of her. Altered Carbon is the future of the Hardcore Henry films.
In Hardcore Henry, we already have remote controlled bodies, with Jimmy being able to control other bodies outside of his own. Sleeve technology based on the elder civilization simply allowed the transfer of conscience, as opposed to just the remote control that Jimmy had. Quellist Falconer simply used elder technology to allow them to truly transfer conscience, while the technology for the actual sleeves was invented by Jimmy all the way back in 2012 Ryker and Ortega's relationship is doomed.
Despite that Ortega had been paying for Ryker's sleeve and Ryker was cleared of his charges, their relationship is doomed. Even though his conspiracy theory was slightly right, the fact remains that Ortega didn't believe him when he was telling the truth about not killing someone. Even though cleared, the possibility exists that Ryker wouldn't have forgotten that the woman he loved didn't believe him, and in turn leading to him not to ever trust her again.- More likely their relationship will break down because Ortega will have trouble separating Kovacs and Ryker in her mind, given that they look the same but act differently.
The killsats above Harlan's World were set by a third alien race to control the Elders.
The scene with the fireworks rockets hints at the killsat network being placed to control the Elder population on the surface. Why would such a defensive system fire inward? Most defensive systems have safeguards in place to prevent such an issue, such as mounts for heavy machine guns containing stops so that the gun cannot shoot at the driver (for example). This "defensive" network shot down rockets from the surface going up into space. How does this help anyone on the surface? It is more likely some yet as unknown third species placed the satellites to keep the Elders on the surface, perhaps the "trees" are actually virulent and contagious lifeforms kept in check until the humans came and found a hole in the net...