History Series / ThreeBodyProblem

!!Tropes:

* DownerBeginning: The very first scene depicts Ye Wenjie's father being beaten to death by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution while she can only watch helplessly.

* HumansAreBastards: Ye Wenjie's experience during the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath convince her that humanity is too callous and violent to survive. [[spoiler:So she invites an alien civilization to conquer Earth and rule over us instead]].

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: The Red Guard fanatics viciously pummeled Professor Ye Zhetai until he is dead during the Cultural Revolution.

** In the books, Mike Evans was a MisanthropeSupreme who hated the human race and openly ''wanted'' the aliens to wipe us all out as penance for what we've done to the planet. Here, he's an AffablyEvil CoolOldGuy who, like Ye Wenjie, wants the San-Ti to fix human civilization and is horrified when [[spoiler:they decide to KillAllHumans instead. His death is also portrayed sympathetically in the show, while in the book he is KilledOffscreen and never expresses remorse for his actions]].

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The San-Ti take the form of HumanAliens when interacting with humans through the sophons or the VR game; when Wade asks one what they actually look like, their response is "You wouldn't like it."

* OrionDrive: The Staircase Project uses a variant of this. Rather than being a large ship dropping and detonating nuclear bombs to propel itself, the nukes are carefully positioned in low-Earth orbit and detonated in sequence as a small craft using a SolarSail flies past.

* RefusalOfTheCall: Attempted by Saul Durand when "volunteered" against his will as a Wallfacer. Believing that the San-Ti were too powerful and humanity too far gone. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for him the San-Ti believing him a threat attempt to have him killed multiple times, leading him to reluctantly to join in Earth's defense.]]

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Jack is killed by Titania to establish the ruthlessness of the ETO.]]

** [[spoiler: Jack is so suspicious and bewildered by the claims of alien civilization that he abandons Jin Cheng and leaves her alone with Titania.]]

* SuddenlyVoiced: In the books, Sophon was not capable of speech [[spoiler: until given a gynoid body in the Deterrence Era]] and communicated with Mike Evans by making text appear in his eyes through the same means as the countdown. Here, she speaks as an NPC in the 3-body game and uses radio to talk with Mike Evans.

NoPlanNoPrototypeNoBackup: Evidently, while Auggie's board of directors have the authority to fire her, there is no documentation or technical understanding among any of her workers that would allow the company to continue the research without her personally.

** The sophons didn't have a human-looking body in Sophon until ''Death's End'', when [[spoiler:: ostensibly allied Deterrence Era humanity developed her a gynoid body with the help of San-Ti scientists]]. Here, she appears as a virtual avatar in the 3-body game.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Contrary to what Thomas Wade claims, stirrups were invented and popularized over a thousand years before Genghis Khan's rise to power, and they are not the reason the Mongol Empire was so successful.

* DecompositeCharacter: The protagonist of the first book's modern storyline, Wang Miao, has been split between two characters; the Mexican woman Augusta "Auggie" Salazar, who explores the headset game, and Chinese-British Jin Cheng, who's deep in the turmoil affecting the scientific community.

* DecompositeCharacter: The protagonist of the first book, Wang Miao, has been split between the Mexican woman Augusta "Auggie" Salazar and Chinese-British Jin Cheng in the modern storyline here.

* DecompositeCharacter: The main character and arguable protagonist of the first book, Wang Miao, has been split between the Mexican woman Augusta "Auggie" Salazar and Chinese-British Jin Cheng in the modern storyline here.

* DeathWorld: The San-Ti homeworld is temperate during a Stable Era, when it orbits a single sun, but turns unpredictably hostile upon entering a Chaotic Era and drifting between all three semi-randomly. The transitions often destroy any nascent civilizations developing on its surface. The San-Ti predict that it will eventually be destroyed completely, hence their intention to conquer Earth.

* InVinoVeritas: It's only while high from anesthetic that Will is able to voice his feeling that Jin knows he's dying but doesn't care, and his distrust and dislike of her boyfriend.

* ModernStasis: Enforced by the sophons, which are disrupting Earth's particle accelerators so that humanity won't be able to out-tech the San-Ti before their fleet arrives.

* OhCrap: Mike Evans reacts with visible horror when he realizes that by explaining the concept of lying to the San-Ti, who are incapable of it, he's convinced them decide to eradicate the human race as an intolerable threat. Ye Wenjie has the same reaction when listening to the audio recording.

* ScienceIsWrong: Three months ago, all of the world's particle accelerators started inexplicably producing garbage results, throwing decades of research into doubt and effectively halting mankind's progress in the field of physics.

* WhamLine: After Mike Evans explains what lying is to the San-Ti, they take a moment to consider the implications before announcing a change of plans:
-->"[[spoiler:[[FinalSolution We cannot coexist with liars]].]]"

** In the books, Mike Evans was a MisanthropeSupreme who hated the human race and openly ''wanted'' the aliens to wipe us all out. Here, he's an AffablyEvil CoolOldGuy who, like Ye Wenjie, wants the San-Ti to fix human civilization and is horrified when [[spoiler:they reveal their intention to KillAllHumans. His death is also portrayed sympathetically in the show, while in the book he is KilledOffscreen and never expresses remorse for his actions]].

* IgnoredEpiphany: Ye Wenjie clearly has a re-invigoration of her idealism and sense of good in the world and belief in Humanity when meeting and speaking with Mike Evans. She even attempts to help him in his quest to save a rare species of bird by standing up to her CO. Unfortunately, immediately after this and immediately prior to [[spoiler: The broadcast from the San-Ti, she meets with the girl who helped murder her father earlier, now destitute, imprisoned, maimed and embittered, and hears the girl refuse repentance and the chance for absolution by instead declaring she'd murder the man again. This unfortunately ends up leading to her major series (and world) impacting decision soon after and inviting the San-Ti to come invade Earth]].

* OhCrap: Ye Wenjie displays a silent one when she listens to the audio recording of Mike Evans explaining the concept of deception to the San-Ti who are incapable of it, causing them to decide to eradicate the human race as an intolerable threat.

* HotterAndSexier: The novels were fairly chaste, with lofty on-page romantic yearning and only making reference to the sexual occasionally. The show's opening credits give a sophon's-eye view of a couple having sex, makes Ye Wenjie's two close relationships with men other than her husband sexual, and lingers on the naked "women" rehydrating in the 3-body game.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotentional: Upon logging in to the 3-body game, Jack immediately assaults the first NPC he sees as vengeance for Sophon violently kicking him out if Jin Cheng's game. And then a couple more times, seemingly because he realizes the NPC will just get back on-script afterwards.

* DecompositeCharacter: The main character and arguable protagonist of the first book, Wang Miao, has been split between the Mexican woman Augusta "Auggie" Salazar and Chinese-British Jin Cheng in the modern storyline here. Jin's character then takes over Cheng Xin's storyline from the book after this while Saul Durand is rocketed into the forefront of the action by the end taking over Luo Ji from the book and [[spoiler: taking over his role as Wallfacer against the San-Ti by the end]].

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:Disgusted with the usage of her nano fibers to slaughter the people aboard the ''Judgment Day'', and especially Wade's [[UnscrupulousHero lack of scruples]] in fighting the San-Ti, including preparing to use Will's brain to send to the San-Ti on the basis he's already dying, Auggie chooses to leave Project Staircase and lets herself get fired from the Nanotechnology Research Center, departing to Mexico to see to it her work is used for benign purposes like she intended.]]