The Expanse (book spoilers): Giant post all about Amos Burton
“You’re a good person, Amos.”
“Nah, I’m not. I just hang with good company…”
- Abaddon’s Gate, The Expanse, James S.A. Corey
I’ve been re-reading parts of all of the books. Initially, the purpose was because I wanted to write about Amos Burton and Clarissa but as the re-read progressed, I found myself re-reading just for the sake of it.
This post has ended up being mostly about Amos Burton, though. I’ll cut because there are spoilers for books 1 through to 5.
When I first started reading the books, I was influenced by the television series so my focus was on Holden as the leader and the hero, if you will.
As I read more and went past the point in the books that the series has covered, I discovered to my surprise that my favourite character (TV version pictured) was fast becoming Amos Burton.
The reason that this was a surprise to me was because:
1. In terms of physical appearance, he's not the 'type' I normally find attractive, so it wasn't that.
2. To date, the show has made Amos look like a violent sociopath, loyal to Naomi Nagata but probably dangerous to everyone else.
For instance, we've seen him as almost being like an attack dog but then in 1.04 CQB, there's this conversation initiated by Amos with Naomi:
"I want to say thank you. You know, for helping me all those times you did. You're a good person."
"I could've been better."
Based on this exchange we know that she's helped him out in the past and as a result he's grateful and loyal to her, but behaves very differently towards other people.
He's willing to kill for Naomi without a second thought - asking Naomi if he should 'smoke' Holden, almost strangling Alex until Naomi tells him to release him and then at the end of season one he kills Semitimba without hesitation simply because he's threatening Naomi.
Book Amos is more complex, much more humorous and much more layered than we've been permitted to see in the series. As he himself says in Abaddon's Gate: "I got a lot of past in my past."
Also in Cibola Burn: "Names matter, boss,” Amos said after a moment, a strange look on his big face. “Names change everything."
But his external persona is that of a thug, the crew's muscle. In Nemesis Games, there's this exchange:
Avasarala laughed at that. “True. But if he’s sending his hired killer to Earth, we -”
“Wait, what?”
“If Holden was -”
“Forget Holden. You called me his hired killer. Is that how you guys think of me? The killer on Holden’s payroll?”
Avasarala frowned. “You’re not?”
“Well, mostly I’m a mechanic. But the idea that the UN has a file on me somewhere that lists me as the Rocinante’s killer? That’s kind of awesome.”
“You say that kind of thing, it doesn’t make me think we’re wrong, you know.”
Amos also describes himself in simple terms in Caliban's War:
“I’m just a grease monkey,” he said. “I push tools. And I mostly wait for Naomi to tell me when and where to push ’em. I got no desire to run anything bigger than that machine shop. You’re the talker. I’ve seen you face down Fred Johnson, UN naval captains, OPA cowboys, and drugged-up space pirates. You talk out your ass better than most people do using their mouth and sober.”
But you can totally see why people think Amos is Holden's attack dog based on this scene in Caliban's War:
“No, I’m not going to bully you,” Holden said. “But I have had it right up to here with idiots profiting from misery, and I’m going to make myself feel better by having my big friend Amos here beat you senseless for trying to steal food and medicine from refugees.”
“Ain’t bullying so much as stress relief,” Amos said amiably.
Holden nodded at Amos.
“How angry does it make you that this guy wants to steal from refugees, Amos?”
“Pretty fucking angry, Captain.”
Holden patted his pistol against his thigh.
“The gun is just to make sure ‘port security’ there doesn’t interfere until Amos has fully worked out his anger issues.”
And also in Cibola Burn:
“I know who you are,” Amos said.
The big man had been so quiet that both Murtry and Holden started with surprise.
“Who am I?” Murtry asked, playing along.
“A killer,” Amos said. His face was expressionless, his tone light. “You’ve got a nifty excuse and the shiny badge to make you seem right, but that’s not what this is about. You got off on smoking that guy in front of everyone. You can’t wait to do it again.”
“Is that right?” Murtry asked.
“Yeah. So, one killer to another, you don’t want to try that shit with us.”
“Amos, easy,” Holden warned, but the other two men ignored him.
“That sounded like a threat,” Murtry said.
“Oh, it really was,” Amos replied with a grin.
Holden realized both men had their hands below the table. “Hey, now.”
“I think maybe one of us is going to end bloody,” Murtry said.
“How about now?” Amos replied with a shrug. “I’m free now. We can just skip all the middle part.”
But Amos is so much more than his trope. His character has unexpected layers. In the books we learn quite quickly that he’s fiercely loyal to Holden and Alex as well and he’s a very integral member of the crew of the Rocinante. He's family.
A while back, there was a thread on reddit in which someone named werewomble said:
Amos has done the same thing with Naomi, then Holden.
He’s loyal like a dog.
Especially to people who can act as an external conscience for him because he knows he hurts people without knowing it if he lacks that.
He is a very conscientious sociopath.
A good example is this conversation between Amos and Miller in Leviathan Wakes:
“Naomi’s a good person,” Amos said. “I like her, you know? Like my kid sister, only smart and I’d do her if she let me. You know?”
“Yeah,” Miller said. “I like her too.”
“She’s not like us,” Amos said, and the warmth and humor were gone.
“That’s why I like her,” Miller said. It was the right thing to say. Amos nodded.
“So here’s the thing. As far as the captain goes, you’re dipped in shit right now.”
The scrim of bubbles where his beer touched the glass glowed white in the dim light. Miller gave the glass a quarter turn, watching them closely.
“Because I killed someone who needed it?” Miller asked. The bitterness in his voice wasn’t surprising, but it was deeper than he’d intended. Amos didn’t hear it or else didn’t care.
“Because you’ve got a habit of that,” Amos said. “Cap’n’s not like that. Killing people without talking it over first makes him jumpy. You did a lot of it on Eros, but… you know.”
“Yeah,” Miller said.
“Thoth Station wasn’t Eros. Next place we go won’t be Eros either. Holden doesn’t want you around.”
“And the rest of you?” Miller asked.
“We don’t want you around either,” Amos said. His voice wasn’t hard or gentle. He was talking about the gauge of a machine part. He was talking about anything. The words hit Miller in the belly, just where he’d expected it. He couldn’t have blocked them.
“Here’s the thing,” Amos went on. “You and me, we’re a lot the same. Been around. I know what I am, and my moral compass? I’ll tell you, it’s fucked. A few things fell different when I was a kid. I could have been those ass-bandits on Thoth. I know that. Captain couldn’t have been. It’s not in him. He’s as close to righteous as anyone out here gets. And when he says you’re out, that’s just the way it is, because the way I figure it, he’s probably right. Sure as hell has a better chance than I do.”
“Okay,” Miller said.
“Yeah,” Amos said. He finished his beer. Then he finished Naomi’s. And then he walked away, leaving Miller to himself and his empty gut.
Another example is this conversation between Clarissa and Amos in Nemesis Games:
Peaches took a bite of her ration bar and sipped the water from her self-purifying canteen. “Is it bothering you?”
“What?”
“What we did.”
“Not sure what that was, Peaches.”
She looked at him, her eyes narrowed like she was trying to decide if he was joking. “We invaded a man’s home, killed him, and took his stuff. If we hadn’t come through, he might have made it. Lived until the sun came back. Survived.”
“He was gonna shoot me for no reason except that I had something he wanted.”
“He wouldn’t have done it if we hadn’t gone there. And we lied to him about wanting to trade.”
“Seems like you have a point to make, Peaches.”
“If he hadn’t been ready to pull the trigger, would you have let it go? Or would we still be here, with these guns and this food?”
“Oh, we were taking his shit. I’m just pointing out both sides of the argument had the same plan.”
“Then we’re not exactly the good guys, are we?”
Amos scowled. It wasn’t a question that had even crossed his mind until she said it. It bothered him that it didn’t bother him more. He scratched his chest and tried to imagine Holden doing what they’d done. Or Naomi. Or Lydia.
“Yeah,” he said. “I should really get back to the ship soon.”
The above passages makes it look as though Amos needs Naomi/Lydia/Holden to keep him following the correct path and is consistent with the "Amos needs an external conscience because he doesn't have his own" theory.
In contrast, rememberthecant on tumblr said:
Daniel said that Amos is not a sociopath, but “profoundly dissociative,” so my feeling on him taking action on his own as the series progresses is that he has always been capable of those caring acts, but couldn’t access that part of himself. His time on The Roci in the company of people who love him and help him feel safe may have made more able to reach out and be that protective and caring person he has been deep down all along.
While at first I agreed with werewomble, the more I think about it, the more I find myself aligned with rememberthecant's thinking on the issue. On the one hand, the writers try to make him seem detached and almost on the spectrum - as though he doesn’t know how to engage with other people or express emotion but he knows that he should and so puts himself around people who act as his moral compass.
This "no internal moral compass myth" about Amos is perpetuated even by the actor himself and also reinforced in this conversation between Naomi and Holden in Nemesis Games:
“He’s not staying on the Roci for me,” Naomi said. “He’s staying for you.”
“Me?”
“He’s using you as his external, aftermarket conscience.”
“No, he’s not.”
“It’s what he does. Finds someone who has a sense of ethics and follows their lead,” Naomi said. “It’s how he tries not to be a monster.”
“Why would he try not to be a monster?” The sleep-slurred words were like a blanket.
“Because he is one,” Naomi said, her consciousness flickering across the line. It’s why we get along.
While some passages support the theory that Amos doesn't know right from wrong and thus needs to be around people who do, we also have sweet little exchanges like this between Amos and Clarissa:
“Sorry I didn’t know to ask. What brings you down here, anyway?”
“Was in the neighborhood saying goodbye to a bunch of my past, mostly. Don’t see how I’m coming back this way, so thought I’d better say hi now if I was going to at all.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she took his hand. The contact was weird. Her fingers felt too thin, waxy. Seemed rude to push her away though, so he tried to remember what people were like when they had an intimate moment like this. He pretended he was Naomi and squeezed Clarissa’s hand.
The thing is, even with the above scene, Amos is awkward and doesn’t quite know what to do but he clearly wants to comfort Clarissa. He gives a damn and actually cares about her. That comes from inside of him not anyone else, it's just that he's drawing upon "what would Naomi do?" to help him figure out how to comfort her. It's totally different from someone who doesn't care and needs to mimic other people to do the right thing. Amos cares enough about people to want to help them and comfort them - he just needs to look to others to figure out how to do it in an acceptable manner.
There's also this scene from Nemesis Games that is similar to the earlier one with Clarissa in the sense that he knows he should do something sympathetic - but doesn't quite know how to do it.
Amos looked at his hands and tried to think what to do next. His first impulse was to laugh at Erich’s maudlin bullshit, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t going to be a good idea. He tried to think what Naomi would have said, but before he came up with anything good, Peaches stepped toward Erich, her arms out to him like she was going to give him a hug.
“I know,” she said, her voice choked with some emotion Amos didn’t place.
“You know? What the fuck do you know?”
“What it’s like to lose everything. How hard it is, because you keep thinking it can’t really be gone. That there’s a way to get it back. Or maybe if you just act like you still have it, you won’t notice it’s gone.”
Erich’s face froze. His bad hand opened and closed so fast, it looked like he was trying to snap the tiny pink fingers. “I don’t know what you’re talking -”
[Clarissa empathises with Erich]
Erich bowed his head. His sigh sounded like something bigger than him being released. Peaches took his good hand in both of hers and the two of them were silent for a long moment.
Amos cleared his throat. “So. That means you’re in, right?”
Yet again though, the fact that he knows he should say/do something shows that he is aware, he's just emotionally stunted and doesn't know how to express sympathy. This next scene could be read one of two ways:
“When we go, are we taking them with us?” Peaches asked.
“Yup,” Amos said.
She smirked. “Because they’re tribe?”
“Shit no. My tribe is the crew on the Roci, maybe you two, and a dead woman. I don’t actually give a shit if every damned one of ’em dies.”
“So why take them?”
One of Erich’s people called out. Another one laughed, and one of the servants tentatively joined in. Amos rubbed the raw spots on his knuckles and shrugged. “Seems like the sort of thing Holden’d do.”
I don't get the sense that Amos does things for approval, so he's not rescuing the people because he wants to impress Clarissa or Holden. He is rescuing them because that's what Holden would do, Holden does the right thing. Doesn't that mean that Amos wants to do the right thing as well? So if he wants to do the right thing and does the right thing (even though he himself doesn't know how to do it without reference to others) doesn't that make him a better person than not?
For me, there are numerous examples during the series where I think it's clear that Amos' 'goodness' comes from inside of him and not from the people around him, so I find myself no longer believing the popular theory that Amos derives his morality from those around him. Here's a scene from Caliban's War:
“We have to go,” Holden said to Wendell, meaning We can’t help him. If we stay, we all die. Wendell nodded but went to one knee and began taking the man’s light armor off, not understanding. Amos pulled the emergency medkit off his harness and dropped down next to Wendell to begin working on the wounded man while Paula watched, her face pale.
“Have to go,” Holden said again, wanting to grab Amos and shake him until he understood. “Amos, stop, we have to go right now. Eros-”
“Cap,” Amos interrupted, “all due respect, but this ain’t Eros.” He took a syringe from the medkit and gave the downed man an injection. “No radiation rooms, no zombies puking goo. Just that broken box, a whole lotta dead guys, and these black threads. We don’t know what the fuck it is, but it ain’t Eros. And we ain’t leaving this guy behind.”
The small rational part of Holden’s mind knew Amos was right. And more than that, the person Holden wanted to believe he still was would never consider leaving even a complete stranger behind, much less a guy who’d taken a wound for him.
We can see that Amos is the one who decides to be compassionate. He's not taking the lead from anyone else. In fact, he's made Holden ashamed that he was intending to bail on a wounded man.
Also in Caliban's War, both Naomi and Holden both incorrectly assume that Amos has 'lost control' of himself when he beats the hacker over the head with a can of chicken soup. That his actions are motivated by a sense of uncontrolled violence. We learn that while Amos' actions are extreme and probably inexcusable, he definitely has a reason for doing it he is being protective.
The voices were coming from the galley. Feeling a little like a Peeping Tom, Holden moved closer to the galley hatch until he could make out the words.
“It’s more than that,” Naomi was saying. Holden almost walked into the galley, but something in her tone stopped him. He had the terrible feeling she was talking about him. About them. About why she was leaving.
“Why does it have to be more?” the other person said. Amos.
“You almost beat a man to death with a can of chicken on Ganymede,” Naomi replied.
“Gonna hold a little girl hostage for some food? Fuck him. If he was here, I’d smash him again right now.”
“Do you trust me, Amos?” Naomi said. Her voice was sad. More than that. Frightened.
“More than anyone else,” Amos replied.
“I’m scared out of my wits. Jim is rushing off to do something really dumb on Tycho. This guy we’re taking with us seems like he’s one twitch from a nervous breakdown.”
“Well, he’s-”
“And you,” she continued. “I depend on you. I know you’ve always got my back, no matter what. Except maybe not now, because the Amos I know doesn’t beat a skinny kid half to death, no matter how much chicken he asks for. I feel like everyone’s losing themselves. I need to understand, because I’m really, really frightened.”
Holden felt the urge to go in, take her hand, hold her. The need in her voice demanded it, but he held himself back. There was a long pause. Holden heard a scraping sound, followed by the sound of metal hitting glass. Someone was stirring sugar into coffee. The sounds were so clear he could almost see it.
“So, Baltimore,” Amos said, his voice as relaxed as if he were going to talk about the weather. “Not a nice town. You ever heard of squeezing? Squeeze trade? Hooker squeeze?”
“No. Is it a drug?”
“No,” Amos said with a laugh. “No, when you squeeze a hooker, you put her on the street until she gets knocked up, then peddle her to johns who get off on pregnant girls, then send her back to the streets after she pops the kid. With procreation restrictions, banging pregnant girls is quite the kink.”
“Squeeze?”
“Yeah, you know, ‘squeezing out puppies’? You never heard it called that?”
“Okay,” Naomi said, trying to hide her disgust.
“Those kids? They’re illegal, but they don’t just vanish, not right away,” Amos continued. “They got uses too.”
Holden felt his chest tighten a little. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought about. When, a second later, Naomi spoke, her horror echoed his.
“Jesus.”
“Jesus got nothing to do with it,” Amos said. “No Jesus in the squeeze trade. But some kids wind up in the pimp gangs. Some wind up on the streets …”
“Some wind up finding a way to ship offworld, and they never go back?” Naomi asked, her voice quiet.
“Maybe,” Amos said, his voice as flat and conversational as ever. “Maybe some do. But most of them just … disappear, eventually. Used up. Most of them.”
For a time, no one spoke. Holden heard the sounds of coffee being drunk.
“Amos,” she said, her voice thick. “I never-”
“So I’d like to find this little girl before someone uses her up, and she disappears. I’d like to do that for her,” Amos said. His voice caught for a moment, and he cleared it with a loud cough. “For her dad.”
Holden thought they were done, and started to slip away when he heard Amos, his voice calm again, say, “Then I’m going to kill whoever snatched her.”
He mentioned in Leviathan Awakens that his moral compass is fucked. There's an interesting glimpse of that in Caliban's War when he has this conversation with Prax:
“All this bullshit they’re saying about you and the kid? That’s all just bullshit, right?”
“Of course,” Prax said.
“Because you know, sometimes things happen, you didn’t even mean them to. Have a hard day, lose your temper, maybe? Or shit, you get drunk. Some of the things I’ve done when I really tied one on? I don’t even know about until later.” Amos smiled. “I’m just saying if there’s a grain of truth, something that’s getting all exaggerated, it’d be better if we knew it now, right?”
“I never did anything that she said.”
“It’s okay to tell me the truth, Doc. I understand. Sometimes guys do stuff. Doesn’t make ’em bad.”
Prax pushed Amos’ hand aside and brought himself up to sitting. His knee felt much better.
“Actually,” he said, “it does. That makes them bad.”
Amos’ expression relaxed, his smile changed in a way Prax couldn’t quite understand.
“All right, Doc. Like I said, I’m sorry as hell. But I did have to ask.”
“It’s okay,” Prax said, standing up. For a moment, the knee seemed like it might give, but it didn’t. Prax took a tentative step, then another. It would work. He turned toward the galley, but the conversation wasn’t finished. “If I had. If I had done those things, that would have been okay with you?”
“Oh, fuck no. I’d have broken your neck and thrown you out the airlock,” Amos said, clapping him on the shoulder.
“Ah,” Prax said, a gentle relief loosening in his chest. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
Amos definitely has his own sense of morality - it's a very strict moral code that's probably a little too harsh for some and I think that might be why he puts himself around good people - to temper that more violent expression of his morality - but he does know right from wrong. Another extract from Abaddon's Gate:
“Amos will make sure you’re not interrupted,” [Holden] finally said.
…
“Oh. Well, when Amos is angry he’s the meanest, scariest person I’ve ever met, and he’d walk across a sea of corpses he personally created to help a friend. And one of his good friends just got murdered by the people who are going to be trying to take this office.”
“I heard about that,” Anna said. “I’m sorry.”
“Yes,” Holden said. “And the last people in the galaxy I’d want to be are the ones that are going to try and break in here to stop you. Amos doesn’t process grief well. It usually turns into anger or violence for him. I have a feeling he’s about to process the shit out of it on some Ashford loyalists.”
“Killing people won’t make him feel better,” Anna said, regretting the words the second they left her mouth. These people were going to be risking their lives to protect her. They didn’t need her moralizing at them.
“Actually,” Holden said with a half smile, “I think it might for him, but Amos is a special case. You’d be right about most anyone else.”
Anna looked across the room at Amos. He was sitting quietly by the front door to the broadcast office, some sort of very large rifle laid across his knees. He was a large man, tall and thick across the shoulders and chest. But with his round shaved head and broad face, he didn’t look like a killer to Anna. He looked like a friendly repairman. The kind who showed up to fix broken plumbing or swap out the air recycling filters. According to Holden, he would kill without remorse to protect her.
In Nemesis Games, he has this moment of introspection:
You don’t process grief well, another voice said. Holden, this time. That was the truth. That’s why Amos trusted the captain. When he said something, it was because he believed it. No need to analyze it or figure out what he really meant by it. Even when the captain fucked up, he was acting in good faith. Amos hadn’t met many people like that.
This is still in keeping with rememberthecant's assessment that Amos has always been capable of caring acts, but couldn’t access that part of himself.
In Cibola Burn, we also find out that Amos is extremely funny!
“Yes, and our job is not to escalate that. Put all this shit away. Sidearms only. Bring clothes and sundries for us, any spare medical supplies for the colony. But that’s it.”
“Later,” Amos said, “when you’re wishing we had this stuff, I am going to be merciless in my mockery. And then we’ll die.”
Holden started a snarky reply, then stopped himself. Had anything ever gone the way he planned? “Okay, one rifle each, but disassembled and in a duffel. Nothing visible. And light torso armor only. Something we can hide under our clothes.”
“Captain,” Amos said with mock surprise. “Have you actually learned from your past? Is this a new thing you do now?”
“Why do I put up with your shit?”
“Because,” Amos said, starting to strip an assault rifle down to its component parts, “I’m the only one on the ship that can keep the coffee maker running.”
I love that about him.
Amos is the person who chooses to be kind to Clarissa at the end of Abaddon’s Gate, trusting her to help him with repairs. He’s the one who goes in to bat for her to stay onboard the Roci at the end of Nemesis Games. He clearly believes in second chances and people like Holden think he's bonkers.
Similarly, in Nemesis Games, Amos is finishing attending to the business that was the reason for his return to earth. With that out of the way, he should be heading back to the Roci, but instead he decides to stop and ask Avasarala where Clarissa has been imprisoned, learning that she’s now a prisoner at “The Pit”. This is how he describes her to Avasarala:
“The Mao girl. Clarissa. She flew with us for a few months back after she stopped trying to kill the captain. And I have to admit, she grew on me a little.”
No one tells him to go and visit her. He doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. Again, this is a desire to see her and possibly comfort her that comes entirely from inside of Amos. He definitely has a soft spot for her.
“You know, Peaches, it’s nice how we got all this help and stuff, but I kind of liked it better when it was only you and me.”
“You say the sweetest things. I’m going to track down some coffee or tea. Or amphetamines. You need anything?”
“Nope. I’m solid.” He watched her walk away. She was still way too thin, but since he’d stepped into the room in the Pit at Bethlehem, she’d taken on a kind of confidence. He wondered, if she had to go back, whether she still wanted him to kill her.
It is Amos, acting alone and without reference to others who convinces Avasarala to not inspect the Zhang Guo.
“Burton? You make goddamned sure there isn’t any trouble from this, and you get her the fuck off my moon without anyone seeing her.”
“You got it, Chrissie.”
“Don’t fucking call me that. I’m the acting secretary-general of the United Nations, not your favorite stripper.”
Amos spread his hands. “Could be room for both.”
There's that humour again. He obtains a pardon for her and he sneaks her onboard the Roci. All these are things that he has done independently - in fact they are things that Holden would not do or like. Clarissa harmed Naomi - and yet here we have Amos wanting to save her, to help her.
In Nemesis Games when he travels to earth on the long-haul transport named the Lazy Songbird, he intervenes to protect some fellow passengers from long haul gangs who are shaking them down for money. It is because of his fierce desire to protect children - but again it's a goodness that comes from inside of Amos and is not triggered by anyone else.
There’s this interesting exchange between Holden and Naomi when they are debating whether to let Clarissa stay onboard the Roci.
“I mean… Clarissa Mao?” Jim said. “How does anyone think that’s a good idea?”
“Amos isn’t afraid of monsters,” she said. The words tasted bitter, but not completely so. Or no, not bitter. Complex, though.
It sounds awful on the one hand - calling people monsters (and it's the second time in the one novel that Naomi calls Amos a monster), but there’s something fascinating about the fact that Amos is not only not afraid of monsters, he is able to see the humanity inside of them.
I also love his tenderness with Clarissa - the way he calls her Peaches and Little Tomato … Looking past the horrific thing she was to the person she really is and wants to be. I know Clarissa has done terrible, terrible things - but I still find myself wanting to forgive her and to allow her to find her own form of redemption and peace and I like that Amos is able to see that possibility of salvation in her. There's this lovely moment when he comforts her - which he wouldn't do if he had no 'internal' moral compass or ability to empathise.
“I won’t go back there.”
“Peaches, there’s no there to go back to. And anyway, I’m pretty sure Chrissie knows you’re on board here. She’s not pushing the issue, so as long as we stay cool and act casual -”
Her laugh was short and bitter. “Then what? You can’t take me with you anymore, Amos. I can’t go on the Rocinante. I tried to kill Holden. I tried to kill all of you. And I did kill people. Innocent people. That’s never going away.”
“In my shop, that’s just fitting in,” Amos said. “I appreciate that seeing the crew again could leave you feeling a little antsy, but we all know what you are. What you did. Including all the shit you did to us. This isn’t new territory. We’ll talk it through. Work something out.”
It's clear that some people are able to enable Amos to display his humanity. Naomi, Holden, Alex, Prax, small children - and now Clarissa.
Some replies to this post from tumblr
From whenimaunicorn a.k.a. legitimate salvage:
Great read, great analysis. Trying to add my thoughts without referencing spoilers… I totally see what you’re saying about Amos clearly having goodness inside him; he wants to do the right thing, and he has some admirable motivations that are all his own. Rather than having no moral compass of his own, he has one that he admits is “fucked,” most obviously in the direction of finding little inherent value in human life. This leads him to often choose solutions to problems that involve killing - which often seems like the easiest solution when you don’t have the threat of guilt hanging over your head.
But I agree this doesn’t mean he has no capacity for caring. People in his “tribe” and children - he’ll do anything to alleviate their suffering. It’s the “anything” that he’s willing to do that makes him “bad.”
One day I’ll make my long meta about Amos & Relationships, but the short version is: he has to piece social connection together differently than NTs because he doesn’t consciously feel his own emotions (ask me for citations) and therefore can’t understand others through the process of empathy that NTs use (my extrapolation). He has to cognitively figure out what others are feeling and then think of actions or words to respond with that would be helpful or appropriate… that’s a lot of work so he doesn’t do it unless you’re really important to him and you really need it.
He wants to “do right” but he can’t FEEL “right,” he has to think and remember facts about “right,” so that’s why he likes to use people like Naomi and Holden as examples. So I think the external moral compass reading is still valid, with the caveats you laid out so beautifully. He has one, but it needs a little help sometimes. He is a good person at heart but he wants to be better, and uses his crew to see how to do that.
rememberthecant says:
I love all of this. It upsets me so much when people dismiss him as a psychopath or sociopath. He is not. He’s more nuanced and complex than that, look deeper, beyond the words he’s using and the violence he so readily threatens - he’s using that for a reason, so no one gets too close.
My thoughts: I think imaunicorn/legitimate salvage has hit the nail on the head when she says Amos has the capacity for good inside of him, but he doesn’t consciously feel his own emotions and thus needs to use his head to figure out how to display empathy towards others. "He wants to “do right” but he can’t FEEL “right,” he has to think and remember facts about “right,” so that’s why he likes to use people like Naomi and Holden as examples. So I think the external moral compass reading is still valid, with caveats.
I'm happy with the above explanation as it means I won't feel so irked whenever I read/hear about external moral compass. Put it a different way - Amos knows what good (North) is. He wants to get there but doesn't quite know how so he needs external compasses to point him towards North - but he's the one who wants to go there in the first place. Except he shouldn't use a Chinese compass because they point South ...
Some links to interesting discussions on reddit
Amos isn't a psychopath (first season spoilers only)
Is Amos gay?
Amos has the best facial expressions
Amos Burton - my favourite nihilist
[Abaddon's Gate/The Churn] Amos, Anna, and Lydia