I havent watched Rings of Power. Maybe I should, based on what you're saying.

I said it was meh but I guess it's one of the most positive things you can read about it on the internet :D It's okay, baffling at times but has some unexpectedly interesting stuff like early hobbits that make it worth a shot.

I didn't understand what you meant by drawing on GoT for consolidating characters. Apologies.

Game of Thrones as a book has massive amount of characters which doesn't translate well into TV. HBO show relied on some characters taking over roles of others to reduce the overall amount by a lot. The Expanse did something similar although to a lesser extent, for example with Drummer taking on story roles of Bull and Michio Pa.

The Expance is one of the best sci-fi series made, and anyone remotely interested should see it, and also keep watching even if the first season isn't entirely convincing. OK to call it quits if S2 isn't.

I keep seeing this opinion and I must be a weirdo since I think S1 is the best and not very representative of the rest of this series. I must admit I'm a sucker for good world building and scifi detective stories. I almost felt catfished with where the story went from there, thankfully it was awesome on its own too.