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This page is about the Tv icon TV character. For the books incarnation, see Praxidike Meng (Books).


Book-icon-simple Books character Tv icon TV character

Praxideke "Prax" Meng[2] is a botanist of a soy farm on Ganymede Station, the breadbasket of the outer planets.

Biography[]

Background[]

Serving as a botanist of a soy farm on Ganymede Station, the breadbasket of the outer planets, Praxideke lived there with his daughter, Mei. Because of Mei's rare disease, she is constantly in and out of the hospital for treatment.

Personality[]

Prax seems to be emotionally attached to his agricultural work and clearly values the station's inhabitants' lives.
As a botanist, Praxideke is committed to helping the people of Ganymede station and keeping its plant life in tip-top shape. More than anything, however, he cares deeply for his daughter, Mei, and is determined to find her at any cost.

Though more scientist than fighter, Praxideke received some small-arms training from Amos. He also acquired Mei's backpack during his search for her.

Throughout the series[]

Prax wakes up on a refugee ship destined for Tycho after the Ganymede incident, and is still reeling from the loss of his daughter when a group of Inners from the ship are spaced. Apparently, tensions between Belters and Inners have a reached critical point. Once on Tycho Station, Prax is confronted by Holden and Naomi who want to know what his relationship is to Dr. Strickland, a man who they think is tied to the release of the protomolecule on Ganymede. Prax is confused, because Strickland is only his daughter’s pediatrician. Armed with the knowledge that his daughter may still be alive, Prax hitches a ride with on the Rocinante enroute to Ganymede.[3]

Prax is equal parts guide and prisoner aboard the Rocinante, but at this point, his motivations aligns with Holden and his compatriots: get to Ganymede and find out what happened to his daughter. Prax and the rest of the crew take over the Weeping Somnambulist and conscript the unwilling help of he ship's crew, Santichai Suputayaporn and Melissa Suputayaporn to gain safe passage to Ganymede.[4]

Prax and the rest of the Roci crew, minus Alex, begin to canvas Ganymede for any signs of his daughter or Strickland. Their search leads them to a corrupt video technician who is exchanging his access to the video feeds for canned chicken. After some aggressive negotiations, they find the last video of Prax’s daughter alive, being lead into the bowels of Ganymede. During their search Prax notices that Ganymede is experiencing the first stages of a meltdown cascade and losing it's ability to support life.[5]

Prax, Hilden, and Amos find Strickland’s cronies and appear to be ready to negotiate, when Prax sees Mei’s backpack and loses all restraint. In the ensuing gunfight, Amos gets shot before Strickland’s crew escapes. Afterwards, they find one of Strickland’s test subjects, who had been injected with protomolecule. Outside of the lab, after Amos' quick reaction returning a grenade, they hear a massive explosion and confrontation; someone or something destroyed the transport and receiving bay along with everyone in it. Thereafter, they see a protomolecule-human hybrid in open space without a vacuum suit.[6]

Back on the Rocinante, Prax, Holden, and Alex are in pursuit of the human-protomolecule hybrid on Ganymede. The creature seems to evade their every move, and Prax suggests that he himself try to reason with it, but Holden is convinced that it needs to be destroyed. When MCRN ships surrounding Ganymede target lock the Weeping Somnambulist with Amos and Naomi aboard, Holden abandons the chase in order to save them. They are successful in this endeavor, however, unbeknownst to them, the hybrid creature seems to have latched onto the Rocinante and tears open the ship's cargo hatch.[7]

The Roci crew discover the hybrid aboard the ship and construct a plan to destroy it. In the ensuing battle, Holden gets pinned to the wall of the cargo hold by a crate that the creature hurled at him. Luckily, the creature seems more interested in finding the ship's nuclear power-source than killing the captain. Prax and Naomi exit the ship with one of the Roci’s nuclear missiles and, when Alex cuts power from the Epstein Drive, the creature is attracted to the energy of the missile warhead. Prax hurls the warhead into space, and the creature leaps after it. Then, Alex turns on the engines to incinerate the hybrid.[8]

As war breaks out between Earth and Mars, the crew of the Rocinante, with Prax aboard, must decide where to seek refuge. Tycho Station seems to be the best option, at least until Holden determines that Strickland and Mei Meng are very likely to be on Io. Despite Naomi's pleas, all others aboard decide they'll pursue the lead on Io. The crew changes the ship's transponder to keep their identity secret, and Prax chooses the name Pinus Contorta, a tree that is reborn in fire.[9]

While on board the Rocinante, Prax sets up plant gardens to help with recycling and filtering air.[10]

Upon reaching Io, Prax, Holden, and Amos enter the secret laboratory and track down Strickland and the children he had abducted for his experiments. Prax is reunited with Mei, and attempts to kill Strickland but is stopped by Amos, who reminds him that he is not a killer. After Prax leaves, Amos kills Strickland himself, and the two escape with the rescued children.[11]

Prax routes a message to Amos Burton through a number of anonymous relays in order to provide data developed by one of his research scientists on Ganymede. They were working on ways to improve crop yields for food grown in the Belt and developed a new strain of yeast with a robust proofing polymerase modified with organelles that mimic the Protomolecule's harvesting structures. The yeast produces a complete digestible protein with micronutrient uptake comparable to unmodified soy and could create massive amounts of food out of a little more than spare carbon dioxide and waste energy. Amos forwarded the data to Chrisjen Avasarala to help Earth's recovery.[12]

Appearances[]

Season Two
1 "Safe"
2 "Doors & Corners"
3 "Static"
4 "Godspeed"
5 "Home"
6 "Paradigm Shift"
7 "The Seventh Man"
8 "Pyre"Appears
9 "The Weeping Somnambulist"Appears
10 "Cascade"Appears
11 "Here There Be Dragons"Appears
12 "The Monster and the Rocket"Appears
13 "Caliban's War"Appears
Season Three
1 "Fight or Flight"Appears
2 "IFF"Appears
3 "Assured Destruction"Appears
4 "Reload"Appears
5 "Triple Point"Appears
6 "Immolation"Appears
7 "Delta-V"Mentioned
8 "It Reaches Out"
9 "Intransigence"
10 "Dandelion Sky"
11 "Fallen World"
12 "Congregation"
13 "Abaddon's Gate"
Season Six
1 "Strange Dogs"
2 "Azure Dragon"
3 "Force Projection"Appears
4 "Redoubt"
5 "Why We Fight"
6 "Babylon's Ashes"


Media[]

Trivia[]

  • The name Praxidike is derived from the Greek goddess of judicial punishment and the exactor of vengeance, which were two closely allied concepts in the classical Greek world-view. It is also the name of a moon of Jupiter.
  • In the show, Praxideke is pronounced "praks-ih-dee-kay".
  • The name is spelled "Praxideke" on the TV show whereas the books spelled the name "Praxidike".[3]
    (See Characters Renamed for TV)

See also[]

References

  1. https://twitter.com/WencheBandida/status/828667199829086208
  2. https://twitter.com/expansesyfy/status/842194768885096448
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Expanse TV Series - Season 2, Episode 8: "Pyre"
  4. The Expanse TV Series - Season 2, Episode 9: "The Weeping Somnambulist"
  5. The Expanse TV Series - Season 2, Episode 10: "Cascade"
  6. The Expanse TV Series - Season 2, Episode 11: "Here There Be Dragons"
  7. The Expanse TV Series - Season 2, Episode 12: "The Monster and the Rocket"
  8. The Expanse TV Series - Season 2, Episode 13: "Caliban's War"
  9. The Expanse TV Series - Season 3, Episode 1: "Fight or Flight"
  10. The Expanse TV Series - Season 3, Episode 1: "Fight or Flight"
  11. The Expanse TV Series - Season 3, Episode 7: "Delta-V"
  12. The Expanse TV Series - Season 6, Episode 3: "Force Projection"
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