Although Prime Video’s The Expanse concluded after six seasons, the final season skillfully connected events from the novels Babylon’s Ashes and Persepolis Rising, introducing a key villain who would have been central to future storylines. Based on the sci-fi book series by Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, The Expanse is widely considered one of the best science fiction shows created this century. While the series adapted six out of the nine books – the first three airing on Syfy and the next three on Prime Video – it wasn’t able to complete the entire story.
While understandable given the books skipped ahead almost thirty years, many fans were still upset that the story didn’t conclude with a third book. This also meant viewers never got to see the complete arc of Duarte, who was set up as the series’ most frightening villain.
Admiral Winston Duarte showed up briefly in season 6 of The Expanse, and right away, he seemed untrustworthy. It wasn’t until the very end that it became clear he was meant to be the show’s main villain, had the series continued.
The famous line, “You were a useful distraction, but I have gods to kill,” shows he has much larger goals. While we didn’t see what those plans were during the TV show, The Expanse: Dragon Tooth – a comic book series created by Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham and written by Andy Diggle – continues the story. This comic bridges the 30-year gap from the books and portrays Duarte as an even more formidable enemy.
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Does More To Set Up Duarte As The Story’s Next Major Threat
Readers of The Expanse novels are familiar with Winston Duarte as the ruthless dictator of the Laconian Empire, particularly in Persepolis Rising. However, Dragon Tooth hints at his manipulative nature much earlier in the series. The book portrays him as someone secretly working to create chaos and instability for personal benefit.
He’s built a secret network of Martian insiders who are quietly taking over key parts of the infrastructure. He’s placed people within the Transport Union to monitor ship traffic, and he secretly supplies pirates to cover his tracks. The crew of the Rocinante uncovers this scheme using stolen Martian technology and help from double agents. We also learn about Duarte’s past connection with Marco Inaros during the Free Navy conflict, leaving Avasarala concerned about what Duarte is ultimately planning.
As a fan of The Expanse, I was really impressed with how Dragon Tooth subtly builds up future conflicts. Every seemingly small choice the characters make feels like it’s laying the groundwork for the massive stakes we know are coming in the final three books. It’s cleverly done, and honestly, it makes me even more hopeful that Prime Video will continue the story. But even if they don’t, Dragon Tooth is a worthwhile addition – it deepens your understanding of both the novels and the TV series, offering a richer experience overall.
Duarte Makes Marco Inaros Look Friendly In Comparison
Watching The Expanse: Dragon Tooth really hit me with how brilliantly Duarte was strategizing – he wasn’t just reacting, he was several steps ahead of everyone else, playing chess while they were stuck on checkers. Honestly, his coldness and the way he manipulated people make Marco Inaros seem almost… tame. It’s wild to think that this story manages to make a mass murderer like Marco appear relatively sympathetic by comparison; Duarte is just on another level of villainy.
Duarte appears to lack any real flaws in his character. He’s the type of villain who deliberately creates problems, only to then ‘solve’ them and appear heroic – all as a way to increase his power. He then uses this newfound influence to dominate others, demonstrated by his manipulation of the Sol system’s economy which led to widespread famine. This allowed his growing Laconian Empire to step in as saviors, but ultimately transformed it into something truly malevolent. Duarte is far more complex than a simple attention-seeking extremist, as seen in The Expanse.
2026-07-23 03:18