Klaes Ashford (TV)

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• This page is entirely speculation and anticipation based on the book series. The events that take place in Abaddon's Gate will not appear in the TV incarnation for about a year yet from the date of this page creation. The characters and events are likely to deviate radically from the original source material.

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This page is about the  TV character. For the books incarnation, see Ashford (Books).

Books character	TV character

Klaes Ashford
Biographical Information
Status	Alive💓
Age	60's
Gender	♂Male
Affiliations
Home	Ceres
Occupation	First Officer, OPAS Behemoth Pirate (formerly)
Appearances
Portrayed by	David Strathairn
Seasons	Three

Commander Klaes Ashford is a Belter who serves as First Officer aboard the OPAS Behemoth. He was appointed by Anderson Dawes, and serves as second-in-command to Captain Camina Drummer.

Biography

Background

Ashford knows and has history with Drummer, with both of them having worked on the docks at Ceres in the past. It is suggested multiple times by Drummer that Ashford spend a large majority of his life as a pirate.

Closely aligned with Anderson Dawes faction of the OPA, he is given the rank of Commander in an attempt to formalise the OPA Navy to appear legitimate, and is also said to be responsible for designing the "work in progress" navy uniforms. In his new position as a commander, he is shown to have become acquainted with Diogo Harari.

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Throughout the series

• Season Three

In "Delta-V", Ashford boards the newly christened OPAS Behemoth, alongside several other Belters (including Diogo Harari) sent by Anderson Dawes. Meeting with Captain Drummer, he announces that he has been sent to act as her First Officer and second in command, with intent that his allegiance to Dawes faction of the OPA will help balance out Drummer and the majority of the Behemoth crews allegiance to Fred Johnson's faction.

At the command deck, he briefly clashes with a member of Drummers crew, based on old grievances. He admits to Drummer he believes he should be the one in command, but concedes that it is now a matter of "politics and perception", and is happy to serve under her. When Drummer decides to discourage the crew of the Behemoth from taking narcotics (after one skif pilot dies) by spacing a main supplier of Pixie dust, Ashford discourages her. He tells her that if they and the newly established "Belter state" want to be treated as equals by the United Nations and Martian Congressional Republic they must treat people with and abide by the rule of law. Drummer reluctantly relents, and instead forces the workers to place any narcotic material they have in the airlock, for it to be spaced at a later time.

After Clarissa Mao frames James Holden as a terrorist acting in the name of the OPA, Ashford fires the Behemoth's torpedo at the Rocinante, leading to the retreat of the Roci into the Ring. After a mutiny, Ashford loses his command to Michio Pa, the XO, and Carlos "Bull" C. de Baca, the security chief, but after a counter-mutiny, Ashford was put back in power by his supporters.

Ashford believes the best action during the slow zone incident is to destroy the Ring from within, which would strand anyone else on that side of the ring, and unbeknownst to him also trigger a supernova of Sol. In turn, this action would end up killing all humans within the solar system, the very thing his plan is meant to prevent. The Rocinante's crew, Bull, Anna, Martian marines, and Clarissa Mao eventually retake the ship before Ashford can fire the light cannon AKA modified tight beam communications array. More and more unstable, Captain Ashford cold-bloodedly murders Naomi's best friend Sam for delaying the communications array weapon.^{[citation needed]}

Personality

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Notes

• This page came into being as a compromise of plural existing pages with overlapping scope which didn't follow naming conventions. This page is entirely speculation and anticipation based on the book series. The events that take place in Abaddon's Gate will not appear in the TV incarnation for about a year yet from the date of this page creation. The characters and events are likely to vary radically.
• Some things that may be different:
  • Sam seems to have been replaced by Drummer in the TV series, so maybe Drummer will get killed. Alternatively, with Sam being more dispensible, she may be expanded significantly within a scope to dramatize Michio Pa's internal conflicts without subsequent lingering plot complications.
  • It's possible parts of the the Slow Zone Incident with Ashford will be de-emphasized and many of the events in the book will be condensed.
  • It may be intriguing to discover whether the actor portraying Sam will be recast or whether Alli Chung will remain in the role. Fans may anxiously await the possibilities yet have hopes for the original performer.

• As of the time immediately following the release of the season 3 "First Look Featurette", it appears "Bull" and "Cortez" roles have been subsumed into other characters. Superficially, Cortez's background appears to have merged into that of Anna Volovodov who is now an "old friend" of Secretary-General Esteban Sorrento-Gillis.

Media

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