Wanted to see if other viewers were blown away by this episode like I was, and found this user review sitting at the top. Pretty interesting:


I'm very surprised to say about a series gone this long, but Guagamela is one of the best episodes so far.

The episode has taken a lot from classical literature, especially the history of Alexander the Great's Macedonian empire. The name of the episode is a reference to one of Alexander's greatest victories, the battle of Gaugamela. Marco Inaros assumes the role of Alexander. His ship is called Pella, which was also the capital city of ancient Macedon.

Marco Inaros' (Keon Alexander) speech at the end uses a lot of rhetorical techniques used by kings and generals of the past, as written down by ancient scholars. He is a bona fide space-faring warrior-king. The juxtaposition of The Belt and ancient Macedon/Greece is very clear for those who are well versed in this part of history. The Macedonians and Greeks were vassalized and later incorporated into the Persian Empire and suffered through great ordeal and atrocities. The Persians considered themselves to be at the centre of the World, or "Inners", while the Greeks for them were at the outer edge, or "the belt" with inferior peoples. Alexander, with his Macedonian beratna and "Free Greeks" seized the Persian Empire like a lightning storm, or should I say asteroid shower. Like Alexander's army of the past, Inaros' troops care little if the casualties of the enemy are soldiers or civilians, deeming it their right to exact revenge upon their oppressors.

In his speech Inaros talks about how the outer planets and the Ring Worlds now belong to the Belters. This can be seen as a reference to what Alexander The Great told his troops - that the uncharted and unknown worlds of the east (modern India) belonged to the Hellenic peoples after the crucial victory at Gaugamela which opened the Gates of Babylon for his army. When Inaros talks about a new way of life, a better way, a Belter way, this again is what Alexander The Great's objective and conduct was. As his army moved across lands they were followed by a huge amount of architects, engineers, clergymen and scholars whose task was to establish new cities and Hellenize the conquered lands.

I lift my hat to the authors of the novels. They have done their research and fictionalized it superbly, and of course the production team for putting it all on screen so well. Now I'm very curious to find out whether Inaros faces his "mutiny at Opis" later on in the story (I have not read the books).

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"So this is what everybody's always talking about! Diablo! If only I'd known. The beauty! The beauty!"