History Characters / TheExpanseTVProtogenCorporation

Protogen is the secret black-ops subsidiary of Mao-Kwikowski Industries, a major mega-corporation based on Luna that has interests all over the Solar System. Its labs secretly develop cutting-edge technologies like next-generation stealth ships which are even powerful enough to be equipped with rail-guns and take on Martian flagships. Protogen is behind the proto-molecule conspiracy which drives much of the plot.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Protogen just wants to develop the protomolecule for the highest bidder and has no particular loyalty or agenda, just so long as you pay them and supply them with the necessary resources. The only reason they never offered the proto-molecule to the OPA is probably just because they couldn't afford it.

* NGOSuperpower: Just how big and powerful they are comes as a slowly dawning (and very nasty) surprise to the governments of both Earth and Mars. Not so much the Belters: they're pretty used to the idea of being crapped on by companies who think of themselves as being outside most governmental control, regardless of origin.

The CEO of Mao-Kwikowski Industries, a major Lunar powerhouse that has interests all over the Solar System. He is the father of Juliette Andromeda Mao.

* AntiVillain: He's certainly a ruthless prick with little-to-no ethics, but while it initially appears that he is simply trying his hand at war profiteering, it turns out that he is actually terrified of the Protomolecule, and all of his machinations were intended to ensure that he would have a steady supply of funding and resources to study and defend against it. He genuinely believes (not without good reason) that it poses an existential threat to the human race, and thinks that if ''that'' doesn't count as the GodzillaThreshold, nothing will. For this reason, he's willing to massacre the population of Eros, start a devastating war, and feed innocent children to the Protomolecule.
* BigBad: He's the man pulling the strings of the Protomolecule conspiracy, and is firmly in control for Seasons 1 and 2. At the end of Season 2, he finds himself outmaneuvered by Errinwright. He is now, at best, a BigBadDuumvirate with Errinwright. At worst, he's been DemotedToDragon.

* CooperationGambit: When his base on Io is raided by the crew of the ''Roci'', he understandably mistakes them for Martian marines and decides to surrender peacefully as a bid for favorable treatment. Strickland instead convinces him they have a chance to escape, and when he's caught by Holden, Holden bluntly tells him to shut up when he can't offer any information that is immediately helpful.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Along with Errinwright. He is one of the main villains for the first two and a half seasons, but is captured by Holden and then imprisoned by Earth in the middle of Season 3. He is not seen in the present again.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Granted [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes the man was Mao's cousin]], but it still doesn't change the fact that he was rather appalled that Avasarala would go so far as to arrest an innocent Buddhist monk to use as a bargaining chip. He's also not openly sadistic, and does somewhat struggle with his own actions. He sees little point in wasting lives unless there's a benefit to it.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite their strained relationship, Mao ''did'' love his daughter Julie. When he learns of her death due to exposure to the Protogen molecule, he's fairly distraught. This makes it all the more horrific when he doesn't even consider abandoning his plans, and goes on to justify her death as a sacrifice that had to be made.
-->''"This was Julie's spot. Far from the house, where no one could find her. Where she could find her adventures. She taught herself to shoot a bow and arrow at this tree. Nine years old. Just woke up one morning, and taught herself. My Julie. Even losing her was worth it. She's a sacred part of it now. So don't talk to me about sacrifice ever again."''
* FauxAffablyEvil: Mao has a very carefully-maintained public image, presenting himself as a charming captain of industry. In reality, he's a corrupt and ruthless man who's arrogant enough to have appointed himself as humanity's savior. Eventually the public image he'd cultivated is disassembled by Avasarala, although he's slippery enough to escape arrest.

* VisionaryVillain: His interest in the Protomolecule does not stem from financial gain, but rather as a method of defense from a possible looming threat. He also makes numerous references to the Protomolecule being sacred, and scoffs at the more petty motivations of those who view it solely as a weapon to fight over.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Mao's goals ''are'' noble and even somewhat altruistic: he wants to defend the system from the Protomolecule (and the possibly alien creators of such) by understanding and harnessing it. He's just willing to let thousands, even millions (even his favorite daughter), die in agony to preserve the future of the human race.

The lead scientist of Protogen's Protomolecule research, aboard Thoth Station.

* TheExtremistWasRight: Nearly everything he said about the Protomolecule, he was absolutely ''right'' about it. It's precisely ''why'' [[spoiler:Miller shot him, because he didn't want the Belt jostling over his knowledge]].
* ForScience: Protogen as a whole might want the proto-molecule in order to sell technology based on it for untold fortunes, but Dresden is very much doing it just to unlock the potentially vast scientific breakthroughs it can provide. He doesn't care who he works for or what that person intends to do with the Protomolecule -- as long as he can continue his research and receive proper funding, he'll do whatever he's asked -- whether it's for Protogen, the OPA, or the Devil himself.
* HannibalLecture: Gives one urging the OPA strike team that have captured him why the proto-molecule must be researched: allowing humans to live in hard vacuum, cold sleep allowing easy travel to distant stars, the list goes on. Specifically asked why they unleashed it on Eros and 100,000 innocent people there instead of just bacteria in a petri dish first if they wanted to see what it does, he incredulously insists that it was because they wanted to usher in the next stage in ''human'' evolution, not bacteria.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He'd argue that what he is doing (i.e. killing a lot of people) is vital for the survival of humanity. He may or may not have a point; after all, if he's wrong about what the molecule is, he borked his whole research from the start with a flawed premis (that it's an extra-system weapon sent to "terraform" the Sol system) and triggered everything to snowball without cause. If he's right... all he's basically doing is... forcefully hacking and adapting that terraforming on the rest of the universe in mankind's image, thereby making Mengele look like an amateur. Most other people just question the state of his human empathy and emotional reasoning; it's nil-nada-zilch, by-the-by.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Jules-Pierre Mao comments that it's good that the children who will be turned into hybrids have a chance to play, to which Strickland cheerfully agrees, saying that play helps to stimulate the Protomolecule.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He appears to be a very amiable and charming man, but it's only surface-level. In reality he's a merciless monster who views others as tools. [[spoiler:At one point he cheerfully reassures Mei, and then the moment she's gone, his smiling expression hardens into something cold and empty.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: Strickland is downright ''proud'' of himself for discovering a genetic anomaly in certain children, whom he tears away from their families and turns into test subjects. [[spoiler:He dispassionately has children tortured and turned into monsters, and was willing to feed Mei (a child he'd known since she was a baby) to the Protomolecule. Later, he plans to use them as a shield to save his own wretched life.]]

The only Protogen scientist who survived Thoth Station, and the only means for the OPA to understand the Protomolecule.

* AxCrazy: He's extremely volatile. When another prisoner takes a bench he was using, he promptly beats him half to death and takes it back. All the while barely changing his expression. Hell, his first on-screen appearance had him ''losing his shit'' at Miller's squad after they disconnected the VR lab.
* TheBusCameBack: After a three season absence, he finally re-emerges in "Nemesis Games" as the head scientist for the Martian splinter faction on Laconia.

* UnwittingPawn: While he wasn't unwitting in getting his brain altered, following Thoth station he's found himself in the un-envious position of being the OPA's only source of information on the Protomolecule. He even gets caught in a pissing match between Fred Johnson and Anderson Dawes and is eventually kidnapped by the latter. In Season 5, he's kidnapped ''once again'' by Duarte's Martian splinter faction to conduct research on Laconia. He realizes this, but doesn't mind or even care. He just wants to keep studying the Protomolecule, and it doesn't matter to him who benefits from his work. One of the ''Expanse'' short stories covers Cortázar's brain alteration in detail, drawing a grim line under it. Dresden had him altered ''temporarily'', and then let him "freely" choose whether or not to make it permanent -- '''while still experiencing the LackOfEmpathy it induced'''.

* UnwittingPawn: While he wasn't unwitting in getting his brain altered, following Thoth station he's found himself in the un-envious position of being the OPA's only source of information on the Protomolecule. He even gets caught in a pissing match between Fred Johnson and Anderson Dawes and is eventually kidnapped by the latter. In Season 5, he's kidnapped ''once again'' by Duarte's Martian splinter faction to conduct research on Laconia. He realizes this, but doesn't mind or even care. He just wants to keep studying the Protomolecule, and it doesn't matter to him who benefits from his work.
** One of the ''Expanse'' short stories covers Cortázar's brain alteration in detail, drawing a grim line under it. Dresden had him altered ''temporarily'', and then let him "freely" choose whether or not to make it permanent -- '''while still experiencing the LackOfEmpathy it induced'''.
[[/folder]]

* RenegadeSplinterFaction: Of a sort - they have co-conspirators in both the Earth and Mars governments, but it's an alliance of convenience, as Protogen is really playing both sides off against each other to get one side to pay them more for proto-molecule research than the other.

* ForScience: Protogen as a whole might want the proto-molecule in order to sell technology based on it for untold fortunes, but Dresden is very much doing it just to unlock the potentially vast scientific breakthroughs it can provide. He doesn't care who he works for or what that person intends to do with the Protomolecule - as long as he can continue his research and receive proper funding, he'll do whatever he's asked - whether it's for Protogen, the OPA, or the Devil himself.

* IgnoredEpiphany: One of his biggest flaws: Time and time again Mao is confronted by the consequences of the Protogen project, and they clearly weigh heavily on his conscience. This ultimately never sticks however, as he'll bury these feelings under the belief that its worth the cost. Even his demand to shut down the project upon being directly shown [[spoiler: the experiments they are doing on children]] is quickly undone once he's shown its potential for success.

* NightmareFetishist: His utter absence of empathy turns him into someone who sees genuine beauty in the protomolecule, with zero fear of what it could do to humanity if allowed to grow beyond control. Amos is the one who recognizes Cortázar's fetish; until his captors engage with him along this line, he's utterly uncommunicative.

* ForScience: Protogen as a whole might want the proto-molecule in order to sell technology based on it for untold fortunes, but Dresden is very much doing it just to unlock the potentially vast scientific breakthroughs it can provide. He doesn't care who he works for or what that person intends to do with the Protomolecule - as long as he can continue his research and receive proper funding, he'll do whatever he's asked - whether it's for Protogen or the OPA.

* LackOfEmpathy: He doesn't seem to even understand ''why'' experimenting on children is wrong. It becomes clearer and clearer that his brain was not altered like Cortázar's was (he shows emotion and fear for his own life) which makes his behavior all the more disturbing.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Mao's goals ''are'' noble and even somewhat altruistic: he wants to defend the system from the Protomolecule (and the possibly alien creators of such) by understanding and harnessing it. He's just willing to let thousands, even millions, die in agony to preserve the future of the human race.

-->''"This was Julie's spot. Far from the house, where no one could find her. Where she could find her adventures. She taught herself to shoot a bow and arrow at this tree. Nine years old. Just woke up one morning, and taught herself. My Julie. Even losing her was worth it."''

-> '''Clarissa''': "I wish you loved me. I wish I didn't love you."

[[Characters/TheExpanseTV MAIN]] | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVTheRocinante The Rocinante]] | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVTheBelt The Belt]] | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVTheOPA The OPA]] | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVEarth Earth]] | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVMars Mars]] | Protogen | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVIlus Ilus/New Terra]] | [[Characters/TheExpanseTVExtrasolar Extrasolar]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Every time it seems like he might have a conscience, he chooses the more self-serving path. He wants to end the experiments due to a crisis of conscience, but after it seems to bear fruit, he agrees to continue. Later on, he wants everyone in the facility to stand down so as not to risk any more lives, but quickly changes his mind when convinced there's a possibility of escape.]]

* UnwittingPawn: While he wasn't unwitting in getting his brain altered, following Thoth station he's found himself in the un-envious position of being the OPA's only source of information on the Protomolecule. He even gets caught in a pissing match between Fred Johnson and Anderson Dawes and is eventually kidnapped by the latter. He realizes this, but doesn't mind or even care. He just wants to keep studying the Protomolecule, and it doesn't matter to him who benefits from his work.