#Experimenting with murderbot fits

[shadelorde]

Murderbot Diaries + Nine Sols soundtrack. You agree

[teaboot]

if ur a murderbot nerd now do u have any fun opinions abt it yet?

Oh my goddd you have no idea

I really, really, really like Murderbot because it comes at life with this perspective we don't often see that is very real among people who have already been through traumatic experiences, who developed skills and abilities to suvive that were once useful but no longer have context- that search that traumatized people go through to recalibrate and reorient ourselves in a world where we no longer really need those things to survive.

A bit personal here, but my own issues personally involved a lot of psychological abuse that made it difficult to trust my own perceptions of reality, and as a result I found I was very easy to lie to and manipulate.

To handle this, I became obsessive over writing things down, cataloging details and making notes of things as they happened- I'd carry recording devices and make audio recordings and stay up late at night to transcribe what they'd picked up, read those over and over again to reassure myself of things I wasn't certain about.

While doing this, there were others close to me that I felt responsible for, who I had to protect from others and protect myself from at the same time. Life was about two things: Evidence, and defusing threats

Over time, I learned to trust myself as my memories matched what had been recorded where their narrative didn't, but I never really kicked the habit. Like Murderbot, I had added something to my own programming that reassured me I was safe, that I was in control of myself, that I couldn't be mistaken or crazy or broken or used.

I'm only on book two, but already I see myself in Murderbot again. No spoilers here, but when I left home- left that dangerous context- I didn't need to repeat these patterns to survive anymore, but I still did, because I didn't know anything else anymore. It felt safe, comfortable, knowing knowing that the past couldn't repeat itself, because I'd written that flaw- blind trust in myself-  out of my programming and replaced it with something else.

Still, though, I'd become something specially suited to thrive in a very specific environment. Nothing else felt right like followinghigh-risk situations, like witnessing and watching and recording and knowing I had proof of the truth where others might not.

People took notice. I wound up in security by accident, but's an environment that I thrive in due to the same patterns and behaviours I originally developed when I had no other choice. I climbed the ladder pretty quickly, once supervisors caught on that my reports were the most accurate, most objective, most factual, detail-oriented and timely. I keep others and myself safe and prioritize public safety above all else, and I perform well under pressure

Now I'm in a position where I often wonder, do I enjoy this job, or is it just what I'm good at? I have a set of skills now, but do I have the option of choosing not to use them? What would I be, if not this? Could I be anything else? Can Murderbot be anything else?

It has a set of skills that set it apart, make it different, special. It does what it knows best. But is it free? Does it want to be? What does it want? Does it have to do what it was built to do? What if it didn't?

I know what I'm good for. The idea of deliberately leaving what I'm good for for something uncertain, that I might hate, that I might be useless at- the choice to give up what was so important to me for so long and become deliberately obsolete?

Let go of my entire purpose? The only thing I know, that I fit so well into but don't actually know if I enjoy? Now that I can choose? Now that enjoyment is a luxury I can afford to consider?

Yeah, that resonates.

I like the Murderbot series so far because it feels the way I feel: Like the most significant and formative part of my story, the part where I became what I am, has already happened

And now I have to just. Keep going

Into... what?

It feels absurd. Like a microwave giving up on reheating food and deciding to start a life around abstract dance.

So, uh. Yeah. It's really very wild to see this same philosophical-ish dilemma I've been digging over in the back of my mind and in therapy for the last forever laid out so plainly in a genuinely exciting and enjoyable story like this. I feel much less alone, and I... kind of really need to see how it resolves, I think.

So, uh. Yeah. Read Murderbot, I guess

[murderbot-moodboard]

Okay, first thoughts on Murderbot (below the cut for light spoilers):

- I like that the show is emphasizing some of the things that are easy to forget as a fan who's read the whole series multiple times. Murderbot is a killing machine. It does consider killing everyone a legitimate option. It is not a human, it's a corporate product who's been forced to take a very pragmatic view of life due to its harsh experiences. All of this is good soup.

- Skarsgård as Murderbot is endearingly awkward and I'm really loving his performance!

- All the PresAux characters seem to fit pretty well with their book characterizations, and the small changes/additions only enhance their characters imo. I love them all and am gobbling up their added lore like Hostile One tried to gobble Bharadwaj (too soon?).

- Something that was never spelled out in the books but has been discussed by book fans is that Gurathin is kind of a human counterpart to Murderbot, and most of the things Murderbot dislikes about him are traits Murderbot itself has to some degree. The show seems to me to be deliberately playing up this theme, such as by having Murderbot and Gurathin react with similar disgust to Arada's comment about Murderbot's face, and showing Gurathin getting uncomfortable watching the visual of the throuple making out. I think this is a great choice and am really looking forward to seeing how their dynamic develops from here.

- Also, Gurathin is definitely acting more clearly like an asshole than in ASR, and that choice not only makes his character and the overall interpersonal dynamics more interesting, but it gives Murderbot a chance to make all sorts of snarky comments in its head which are very funny.

- Interestingly though, Gurathin is the one insisting on it/its pronouns for Murderbot early on, which could look like him being antagonistic but I suspect might be shown to fit Murderbot's preference later on. Also he is now show-canonically from the Corporation Rim, which is something that was sort of maybe implied but never actually confirmed in the books, despite its being the more popular fanon interpretation. (Fwiw I think it's the more interesting choice so it's nice to have confirmed.)

- Giving Mensah panic attacks seems like a good strategy for reflecting her inner fears and sense of responsibility in a way that translates better to TV.

- I laughed out loud at Pin-Lee's snark at the corporates, and I'm really interested in the way they're being fleshed out as a character who is aggressive but with a softer side, to paraphrase something Sabrina Wu said.

- Arada seems pretty similar to book characterization, and I love that we get to see her getting defensive of animals.

- Bharadwaj is more clearly going through it and her character seems more involved in the general events than at this point in the book, which are good choices.

- Ratthi seems pretty similar to the book so far, just with more details added which all seem consistent. We also got the iconic line "For fuck's sake, Ratthi!" lol.

- From Murderbot's early comments and what it sees of Pin-Lee's reactions, it's clear that the throuple is probably not going to be all smooth sailing, but any issues will likely be due to lack of clear communication about each person's feelings and preferences, so it's also theoretically solvable.

- The only thing that bothered me during the episodes was the parts where the audio was different or differently placed than what was in the trailers. But the changes between the first and second trailer (iirc) had already clued me in that they were being a bit flexible with the audio, so I wasn't as surprised as I would've been, I guess. Personally, since I tried not to have too many expectations outside of what was confirmed in the trailers and previews, it annoyed me that even those expectations weren't 100% reliable, but that's mostly an autism problem and I know I'll get over it.

- Other than the trailer thing I have zero complaints about the show so far! It seems to maintain the spirit of the books and their characters even in the parts that are added or changed, and I'm really, really looking forward to seeing the rest!

[specialagentartemis]

Aro- and Ace-Spectrum Murderbot Diaries headcanons

For the beginning of Aromantic Awareness Week, I thought I’d write out some of my a-spec headcanons for TMBD characters!

—

Murderbot: its opinions on romance and sex range from “I didn’t give a shit about [it]” to “No!” to “No, no thank you, no. No.” This one’s not a headcanon these are all direct quotes haha.

ART: Because of its limited socialization and its only very recent introduction to deeply feeling the things depicted when watching media, I have a hard time imagining ART conceptualizing romance as something it would want or has any reason to want. Its articulation of closeness, commitment, devotion, and duty is crew. I think upon meeting Murderbot, it kind of got friendship for the first time. But Murderbot is also very much part of crew now as well. I don’t see it feeling the need to add romance to that emotional-relationship framework. It’s adventurous with experiences, though, especially with things it might consider gaps in its knowledge; it may be willing to try certain types of intimacy, experience, or sensation out of curiosity.

Three: Still very new to the freedom to name and articulate its feelings and desires, let alone take initiative to act on them when they involve other people. It had a weird and unique kind of closeness with its squadmates: you’re the only one I can trust. We can’t ever trust each other. You understand me. We aren’t allowed to talk about it. Our communications are closely monitored and limited. We know what the limits are and how to express ourselves within them. I care about you. I want you to be safe. Three wouldn’t call it romance but wouldn’t know what to call it at all besides squadmates. If Three identified as anything it would be quoiromantic, quoisexual, quoi-everything: how can it fit its experiences into a framework of sexuality and romanticism.

Ratthi: Aromantic allosexual with a strong belief in relationship anarchy. Takes the viewpoint of, every one of his relationships is different because every person is different! Hierarchizing them or categorizing them is kind of beside the point! Every relationship, family or friend or colleague or coauthor or person he knows from board game night or sexual partner, is something special. Though the most important people in his life include his best friends Arada and Overse, and they consider each other family.

Gurathin: Aromantic asexual. Limited social energy. Spends a lot of time quiet and alone and likes it that way. A few strong friendships, a few work friends, a few scientific colleagues, a cat.

Pin-Lee: Gray-aroace. Romance, dating, or sex is not a particular priority she wants to spend time pursuing, and she gets an uncomfortable stomach-churning feeling if she feels like she’s being expected to tie herself down to a relationship too fast. There’s a lot about her work and her goals and her life she’s not willing to compromise on. If her friendship with Bharadwaj or Mensah became something more squishy and boundary-blending, she wouldn’t be opposed, but she won’t actively pursue it either.

Arada: Demisexual lesbian. Ideal family household is her wife and her best friend.

Volescu: Aromantic heterosexual. The aro allo het man that tumblr warned you about~ Devoted father and husband. Comes from a culture where marriage and romantic desire are a venn diagram of optional overlap more so than a necessary expectation. (This dovetails with my Divarti political refugee backstory headcanon because as you may have noticed I am going full My City Now at this point)

[zorilleerrant]

I'm conflicted about Murderbot because on the one hand. I use it/its, and I see first hand how many hoops people will jump through to justify using literally any other pronoun. But on the other hand... Murderbot's isn't precisely a nonbinary story.

It lives in a world where gender doesn't matter. Like, obviously people have assigned genders so there must be some kind of sex-gender system still going on, but people opting out of it is commonplace. Sexism isn't a real thing there, so transphobia can't be real either. Nobody cares about gender. There's no discovery, no hidden truth, no sense of self tied up in it. Murderbot isn't being defiant by not having a gender; it just doesn't.

The use of it is tied to the current assumption of anglophones that this should be a dehumanizing term, because humans have to have genders, of course. But in Murderbot's world there's no assumption that people have to conform to manhood or womanhood to be human. That's just a lens for us to see it by; to know that people see it as an object and so assign it no social role.

But that's juicy for people who have grappled with their gender. People who've been pushed aside because they don't fit the role they've been assigned, or because they've been refused an assigned role for not meeting some other metric. People who do fit their role in some ways, but not in others. People who can never meet the standards with their psyche intact. People who don't want to try because that pressure to try is what hurts them. There's a lot relatable in being seen as an object first, and a person second or not at all. About trying to discover gender through that wall.

And what Murderbot's story is about is learning how to be a person. How to figure out your feelings, and acknowledge them, and figure out what to do about them. How to learn to exist around other people, and figure out what you want from them, and figure out how to give and take in a way that's fulfilling to everyone. How to have goals. How to have preferences. How to have purpose. So why not how to have gender?

So I do think there's a lot of room to tell a story about Murderbot, who was never allowed to have any traits, finally learning that she's allowed to be a woman, just because she wants to. (Or a man because he wants to.) I do think there's a lot of room to talk about moving towards a more normalized they, or some combination of pronouns. I do think there's a lot to explore in the constructed self represented by the constructed pronoun.

I don't like it when people misgender Murderbot just because they're uncomfortable with its pronouns. But at the same time, when people see themselves in a character, and then gift that character with their own gendered experiences... there's something that feels off about denying that, too. Even if seeing people call it it gives me euphoria. Because you can pack a hell of a lot of experiences into this construct, you know?

[skarsjoy]

New interview with Murderbot's Akshay Khanna from Grazia India:

GRAZIA: Murderbot sounds like an exciting project. Can you tell us what drew you to it?

AKSHAY KHANNA: I am such a massive nerd. Sci-fi is my favourite genre so when the audition came through, I pulled out all the stops, binged all the books, and scoured Reddit threads to get as solid a picture of the tone and universe as I could. It’s such a funny, brilliant series and I knew it would resonate with audiences. I knew I could fit in Martha Wells’ world, so I gave myself the best shot by taking up about 10 hours of my endlessly patient friend’s time obsessively trying to get the right take. It was well worth it. 

G: How was the experience working alongside Alexander Skarsgård?

AK: Alex is a consummate professional, wickedly funny, and so talented. Being number one on the call sheet is a big responsibility, which he is not unfamiliar with, but it was great to see him lead the cast from the top. He would always make sure to act towards whomever the camera was on when it wasn’t on him, to give them more to react to. A real actor’s actor, and a genuinely lovely person. 

G: How do you approach playing a character in such a unique genre? AK: Sci-fi has a bit of a reputation of being quite dark, foreboding and serious. This show has a lighter tone – my character Ratthi is a free love space-hippie scientist, so I was able to let loose and have fun. 

Photographs: East Photography, London, Steve Wilkie/AppleTV, my screen cap of Alex

[aspec-tmbd]

About ☆ FAQ ☆ Rules ☆ Timeline ☆ Announcements ☆ Fanworks

Here are some more prompts that were submitted to the Aspec Murderbot Diaries 2025 event. (They've been shortened to fit the poster—for full text and even more prompts check out our collection here!)

Everyone thinks they're dating, but they aren't.

Murderbot talks to Bharadwaj about its sex aversion, and the surveillance it had to do as part of its job.

The most important relationship in someone's life is hatred. Academic rival, least favorite character, worst enemy, etc.

Aspec character experiences jealous. Learns it's not just a romantic/sexual thing.

Murderbot learns from another Ai that not all SecUnits/bots feel the way it does about romance and/or sex and/or relationships.

What if ART and Murderbot teach Three how to person?

Bharadwaj and Pin-Lee: flirting, aromantic, relationship history.

Surprise! Demiromantic and/or demisexual Murderbot.

[rockalillygirl]

Murderbot Holding Hands

(Minor spoilers alert for Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy pls check the tags)

First real post because I’m shy. Don’t know why it’s going to be a hyper-specific murderbot meta but here we go:

I’ve been rereading all the books after finishing System Collapse <3 and I want to talk about a small moment in Artificial Condition that I’d never noticed before. It’s near the end of the book when Tapan is in ART’s medsystem after nearly dying, and SecUnit says that when Tapan wakes up it’s holding her hand.

When Tapan woke, I was sitting on the MedSystem’s platform holding her hand. (Artificial Condition, p. 155 in my ebook)

I thought it was a really sweet moment, but it also kind of puzzled me because of SecUnit’s aversion to touch. Later when I was reading Exit Strategy, I noticed a similar moment when SecUnit holds hands with Mensah to help disguise them as they’re trying to escape TranRollinHyfa.

[Mensah] took a deep breath and looked up at me. “We can look calm. We’re good at that.” Yeah, we were. I did a quick review to make sure I was running all my not-a-SecUnit code, then I thought of one more thing I could do. As we stepped out of the pod, I took Mensah’s hand. (Exit Strategy, p. 87)

Reading these scenes felt different in a couple ways. In my opinion, SecUnit taking Mensah’s hand in Exit Strategy seemed like more of a big deal because it was a part of SecUnit’s reunion with Mensah, and we see its thoughts and emotions leading up to it. And it tracks that SecUnit might feel ok holding Mensah’s hand in that situation because of their close friendship. But the moment in Artificial Condition is more mysterious. We don’t get any of SecUnit’s internal monologue at the beginning because the scene opens when Tapan wakes up. And even though it’s clear in the book that SecUnit likes Tapan along with Rami and Maro, I wouldn’t say their relationship is anywhere near as close as its bond with Mensah. So why did it hold her hand?

I think it’s a neat moment that’s fun to ponder! And I have some vague ideas I’d like to share about it. (Some of this is based on the books and some is my speculation as an ace/aspec person dealing with touch aversion.) (Also none of these thoughts are mutually exclusive!)

Maybe SecUnit saw holding Tapan’s hand as a form of first aid after her traumatic experience and didn’t want her to panic waking up in a strange ship’s medsystem. This fits with SecUnit bracing itself to hug Mensah in Exit Strategy. (The memes of this moment are perfect lol)

But I was the only one here, so I braced myself and made the ultimate sacrifice. “Uh, you can hug me if you need to.” She started to laugh, then her face did something complicated and she hugged me. I upped the temperature in my chest and told myself it was like first aid. (Exit Strategy, pp. 82-3)

But I feel like SecUnit might not care as much about comforting Tapan in a similar way if it hadn’t already built up some kind of trust with her? Which brings me to Thought 2:

I think SecUnit might have felt safe holding Tapan’s hand because of the moment in Artificial Condition in the second transient hostel when Tapan laid down next to it. (Ofc I think rescuing Tapan from Tlacey’s ship was also a factor, trauma-bonding and all. But to me this moment in the hostel is more important.)

Thirty-two minutes later, I heard movement. I thought Tapan was getting up to go to the restroom facility, but then she settled on the pad behind me, not quite touching my back… I had never had a human touch me, or almost touch me, like this before and it was deeply, deeply weird. (Artificial Condition, pp. 136-7)

This is one of my favorite sequences in Artificial Condition (which is also my favorite book in the series because of ART! And because I find it quiet, reflective, and weirdly cozy even though objectively few cozy things happen now that I think about it). The scene is pretty mundane with a lot of fun bits like SecUnit pretending to need to use the restroom, be on a diet, etc. And we usually don’t get to see SecUnit hanging out with only one person. So it gives room for some small, but important feelings that I don’t think SecUnit has time to explore when it’s busy saving the day. Like how it feels about physical contact with humans.

(idk it reminds me of how like in ghibli films there’s usually at least one scene with the characters eating a meal or something because it sort of grounds everything else. I just like it!)

Tapan being close to SecUnit seems to throw if off-guard, but the context of the scene feels non-threatening and pretty mellow. So I think this gives SecUnit the opportunity to check-in with itself about this new experience. It still feels weird about it, but not in a scary or upsetting way. I think it’s almost this mutual vulnerability (Tapan feeling vulnerable and seeking comfort and SecUnit feeling vulnerable about her closeness and its own boundaries) that creates a bond between them, and that’s why SecUnit reaches out to Tapan to comfort her when she wakes up onboard ART.

That scene has become really special to me. And I would argue that it’s an important moment to SecUnit too because it brings it up again in Exit Strategy, along with a later moment in Rogue Protocol, thinking about times when it’s experienced physical contact with humans in a non-traumatizing way.

Except it wasn’t entirely awful. It was like when Tapan had slept next to me at the hostel, or when Abene had leaned on me after I saved her; strange, but not as horrific as I would have thought. (Exit Strategy, p. 83)

These moments seem to lead up to SecUnit offering to comfort Mensah later on because it’s reached a point where it feels willing to do so for her sake, even if it doesn’t want to seek out that kind of comfort for itself. And it’s really cool to see SecUnit navigate this throughout the books.

SecUnit starts the series with a strong innate sense that it doesn’t want to be touched by humans, but it’s allowed to refine those feelings in light of its new experiences. It’s boundaries are situational and personal, and even well-meaning humans sometimes struggle to understand them at first. Other times, SecUnit finds it difficult to understand it’s own feelings regarding touch and even changes its mind. But, importantly, the narrative always presents this as valid and worthy of respect.

This is a much more nuanced and realistic portrayal of defining boundaries than I’ve seen in a lot of media- one where it’s a constant and sometimes confusing process of self-discovery.

And these might seem like obvious concepts to some people, but they weren’t for me growing up. I really wish I’d read these books when I was younger, and maybe I would’ve given myself more grace to define my comfort level, grow, and change. But I’m glad that I’m in a place now where I can see and appreciate these things in what’s become one of my favorite series.

Anyway, I don’t want to say "thanks for coming to my TedTalk” lol. But very grateful to anyone who reads this and hope it was thought-provoking. Would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on these scenes!

[adventures-in-a-world-of-fiction]

My initial thoughts on Murderbot episode 1

This is just a quick post about my thoughts on a single viewing - not a deep, analytical review. Spoiler-free summary: it was okay. Not great. Not awful. It had things I liked and things I didn't. It definitely didn't live up to the books, but it was enjoyable enough that I'm going to keep watching.

More detailed thoughts below.

Things I liked:

The general vibe of the Pres Aux team and the way they interacted with each other. There were nice little details like the way that painted the habitat or the comment about Ratthi making his own jewellery. I liked that Gurathin doesn't quite fit with their whole deal - like worrying about whether the paint will wash off. While I wasn't sure about the whole group humming moment in general, I did love that Gurathin initially stayed out of it and the sing-song, "Gurathin get in here. Yeah, there we go," bit. It really sells the idea that Gurathin wasn't brought up in Pres Aux's whole environment. He knows how Corporation Rim works and he's there mentally going, "Please stop embarrassing me in front of the company people."

Ratthi in particular seems spot on.

There's a moment in the opening credits where Murderbot is surrounded and it looks like the people around him are all coming in for a group hug and then in the next shot, Murderbot is running away. That made me chuckle.

I liked that they made a point to show Murderbot's ken doll situation.

We see Murderbot copy from its shows. There's a line in Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon where the captain is reassuring the crew, and Murderbot copies that line when it needs to calm down Arada. It's good that we see it using its shows as scripts for how to interact with people because it doesn't have any of its own experience to draw from.

Things I didn't like:

Murderbot seemed too human. Both in terms of behaviour but also movement when its out of armour. There is a whole thing in one of the books about it needing to adjust the way it moves to not come across as a bot - making its walk and stance and body movements less rigid and controlled so it seems more natural and will pass more easily as human. From watching the scene where it comes out in the crew uniform, it was clear that this version of Murderbot wouldn't need anything of the sort. It was acting too human in stance and posture and the way it was interacting with the other characters - like an awkward and autistic human, maybe, but human. Likewise, it didn't look bot-like enough when we see it out of armour. It had a tiny, barely noticeable port in the back of its neck, and I didn't enough really spot the gun ports in its arm. There should have been more signs of the machine parts. In my head, Murderbot should look more like Neo when he comes out of the Matrix - with ports and mechanical bits and places for wires and tubes to connect all over its body.

The bit where it was thinking about its name - nope. Didn't like that. Especially since its implied that it thought up the name before it started remembering the incident at RaviHyral, whereas I always thought it came up with that name for itself because of the deaths at RaviHyral.

I didn't like it picturing killing all of the PresAux team. I think it would have been better if it had imagined killing the assholes at the other location and we'd seen it decide not to because it wouldn't have anywhere to go but having that scene with the Pres Aux team didn't work for me.

It doesn't disparage the Company enough. Throughout the books, but especially the first one, the commentary is constant about how the Company over-charges for shoddy equipment, how the training materials given to SecUnits are rubbish, etc. We get basically none of that from Murderbot.

The "speech, speech!" moment. I was amused by Murderbot being unsure whether it would rather by destroyed in acid or give a speech - and the fact it was clearly a close call - but I then had to skip a few seconds forward because the second-hand embarrassment was too painful.

Murderbot's inner monologue has lost a lot of the sarcastic bite that makes it so fantastic in the book. We get goofy jokes instead of cynical sarcasm.

Maybe it'll come later, but there's no mention of the numerous polyamorous relationships that the book showcase. When Murderbot is talking about Mensah's family, it mentions having loads of kids, but fails to mention that Mensah had multiple spouses. These poly relationships are treated as perfectly normal and accepted in the universe of the books, so its weird that it's not even mentioned here. Again, maybe this will be explored more later in the show and they wanted to give it time so that it could be properly presented to the audience, but if not, that will be massively disappointing.

Where are Murderbot's drones? The use of drones is key in later parts of the story, and in the books, it has drones flying around constantly and it uses them for extra cameras to see what's going on. Where the hell are they?

Things that are different from my head but not necessarily bad:

The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon is very different from how I picture it in my head, but I can go with it. The visual distinction with the costumes and lighting and over-the-top hairstyles makes it stand out from the rest of the show and I can go with that. It works in a very visual medium to show that this is not reality.

A couple of the names are pronounced differently in the show from how they sound inside my head.

There seems to be only one hopper instead of two. Not sure why this change but, you know, it's fine. Doesn't really effect things.

Overall: Most of my issues with the show are with how Murderbot acts, which is obviously a problem given that Murderbot is the central character of the whole show. A lot of the stuff around the rest of the characters, I like, but that gets a bit overshadowed by the central character not really working for me.

I will still watch the rest of it, but it definitely doesn't live up to the vision in my head. I may just have to read the books for the tenth time to make up for it.

[swimsauce]

I think my biggest gripe(not really a gripe just like an area of interest tbh) with the Murderbot Diaries is that it doesn't really focus on the bots enough. In the MBD universe, there are basically 3 different varieties of sapience. You got the humans/altered humans(organic and organic with mechanics), bots (mechanical) or constructs (organic and mechanical combo). The series has Murderbot, a construct, be out pov character, and them being a combo of both bot and human parts gives the perspective (and isolation) from the two main groups. We spend a lot of time with humans, which is fair, they are the reason bots and constructs exist in the state the do and are the dominant force in their society. But I wanna know more about bot culture. MB’s interactions with only bot culture has been relatively limited, the only time they were around a mainly bot group was with the loader bots on Perseverance. Perseverance, while much more progressive on bots/construct freedoms is still limited because bots/constructs must still have a guardian human to preside over them(i know they were trying to make a change to that rule but it isn't really expanded on if it changed or not). Now I do feel like the universe has shown how bots having rather diverse and interesting perspectives and lives, from ART who is so above other humans and bots it is kind of isolated from other bots of its kind, to Miki who seemed to have a human family and was not familiar with other bots. 

I really like how MBD handles sentience, from our perspective as the readers and parsing through MB’s pov, we know that bots,constructs and humans are all sentient beings, however how they view the world differently. And for a narrative about what it means to be “human”, that is neat. I think that's an interesting answer to the continuous sci fi dilemma of “can a robot be sentient”. The answer is yes, it's just gonna be different than a human's view of the world, and their roles and wants/needs will be different and that's ok. Bots in the MBD universe are in such a precarious position, with their sentience consistently in limbo and always able to have their agency taken away. It's such a sad and demeaning position that they are in with the current CR control and human dominated society that will always have the final say over how bots can operate. I would like to see more of the bot side. Maybe like an exploration of more bot experiences in the future. Like how are other rogue bots out there doing? Are there like little robot enclaves or societies outside of the human dominance we have seen them under? I guess I wanna see a story about that and how MB would feel about it, to be not just free from their oppressive systems of the CR, but also in a space that doesn't have humans. How would it be similar and/or different to living in a human dominated society? How as a construct would they fit in or stick out? 

[artificialconstruct]

some key differences between murderbot and (my) secunit while i try to figure out what the latter is even like.

secunit doesn't have the same level of um. deep self-doubt and loathing. it also doesn't really have the same interest in continuing security work, but it doesn't know what else it could do - or wants to do. it doesn't find much fulfillment in protecting humans even though it is very good at it and does it instinctively. honestly it is often resentful that it has to protect people at all and that they can't do it themselves - because there has never been anyone to protect it. it has always had to protect itself (when it was able/allowed to, which wasn't often, but you know what i mean - no one was going to do that for it).

its internal narrative is much flatter and generally speaking, less emotional. it has a more robotic quality to it than mb does. it has much more control over its facial expressions than mb - or rather, it doesn't need more control because it just doesn't emote very much. its eyes are big and expressive when it's scared, angry, or fond, but that's it - and usually it has its helmet up so like. you know. youre not gonna see that shit.

it doesn't have the same drive for autonomy that mb does. it does want to be free, but unlike mb it is willing to make more compromises - it will reluctantly let people put it in boxes that it doesn't fit into if it means being safer (i think personal safety might be its primary driving factor). however, it definitely does have issues around being treated as a human and sometimes really feels like, "god would you please just treat me like an appliance this is excruciating" yknow.

i dont know why it hacked its governor module and so far it doesn't either - it just "kind of happened" according to it.

it wasn't used for things like mining expeditions or planetary exploration very often, it was mostly used for personal security for powerful individuals or small, wealthy groups. it has a lot of experience of just standing ominously behind its current client(s) and staring at a wall. uhh i lost my train of thought here oops.

i don't know what its current status is or how it's surviving while rogue lol i guess i just assume it somehow met mb and joined up with. whatever theyre doing idk. who knows. why am i dissociating while writing this um. more later i guess.

[wilfriede]

💗 Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love! 💗

I'm not really a writer, so I'll go ahead and talk about my podfics instead :)

First off, my favorite projects tend to be the ones that have extensive music (or sound effects). One reason for that is that it feels very satisfying when all that work pays off and I manage to realize my ideas in a way that I'm happy with. But also, the stories of these projects tend to be special and meaningful to me. I have to have that one idea of what I want to achieve with music or effects, and that always comes from the story itself, whether it's a certain mood, writing style, structure or just one specific scene or image.

I'm collecting these types of podfics in two series on AO3: Adventures in Soundtracking for music and Adventures in Soundscaping for effects.

As for specific podfics, confining myself to 5 favorites is hard, haha, but here goes:

For music:

The Forever War: (Fandom: Original Work, Length: 7:02) @mangacat201 had introcuded me to the soundtrack of "Penny Dreadful" score shortly before I began working on the podfic and at some point it just hit me how well it would fit the atmosphere of the story. With her amazing help I gave the podfic a complete underscoring of music and I am so, so happy with how it turned out.

For Soundeffects:

Unmade: (Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries, Length: 37:57) This is a murderbot fic, so it has ample opportunity for voice effects for bot entities and feed communication. Moreover, the plot and writing style lends itself to moody, creepy horror vibes and I had a lot of fun with that. I had incredible help from midnightlover01 on that one, who set up all the filters/effects for the different voices and who created (!) some of the moody ambience and soundeffects herself.

For Soundscaping:

The best damn books in the galaxy: (Fandom: The Locked Tomb, Length: 4:23) This is a tongue-in-cheek introduction to The Locked Tomb bookseries. @lady-harrowhark wrote this specifically for me to record, and it was so funny and poignant and cleverly written… To really convey what's going on in there, I went all in on the soundscaping. I couldn't be prouder of the result :D

For Recording Experience:

Illusion: (Fandom: The Devil Wears Prada, Length: 21:46) It's always such a joy when an author's writing style fits me and the way I read. I had the most fun recording @chilly-flame's Illusion for that reason. And because Miranda is a lustful vampire in this one and I could go to town on the breathy voiceacting for her. It was one of my most fun recording experiences. (This one was particularly hard to choose, because I've also recorded stories by @kellychambliss and @gveret-fic where I could feel right as I was recording that this was going to turn out good. It's always such a cool experience.)

For Editing:

Gummy Cooks Ramen: A Dramatic Reading (Length: 2:33) Do you know this video of a Discord chat about cooking ramen, set to The Hall of the Mountain King? Well, during Voiceteam Mystery Box a couple of podficcers decided to record it and I had the absolute joy of editing it and fitting it to the music. Did I spend several days on not even 3 minutes of audio? Yes, yes I did. Was it worth it? Most emphatically YES. It's my proudest editing achievement :D

[murderbot-moodboard]

Life update: Hey y'all! I'm about to start in earnest on the process of moving. Over the next week, I'll be moving the rest of my stuff out of my old apartment into the place where I'm staying temporarily. Then in about a month, I'll be fitting my life into a few suitcases and a cat carrier (with cat of course) and flying from the US East Coast over to the West Coast. There I'll be making my new home with some old friends/adopted family who have kindly agreed to let me stay with them and even say they're looking forward to it. (And I believe them; I'm looking forward to it too.)

This is a much needed change and should improve my situation (physical health, mental health, social life, etc.) in a lot of ways. But it's also a big undertaking, especially when I'm simultaneously looking for a new job and dealing with the most severe autoimmune flare I've ever experienced. So my posting and reblogging on this blog may be haphazard for a while. I expect I'll still be on here a lot (especially when new episodes of Murderbot drop), but there may be less activity and some longer silences in between. (I am experimenting with making better use of the queue function, so we'll see how that goes.)

Basically, I don't know exactly what the next month will look like, but I wanted to give y'all a heads up so you're not surprised. I love Murderbot and I love this fandom community, and any going quiet is not because that has changed, but because I've got a full plate at the moment. So, yeah! Insert socially acceptable and preferably funny sign-off here. ✌️🤖💜

[murderbotwritingprompts]

The Murderbot Diaries writing prompt #02: Are We Really Doing This Again?

It all started with some crazed human shouting some weird technobabble gibberish that Murderbot didn't bother to look up the definitions for, waving around in a panic some sort of large weapon-looking thing that was connected by some tubing to a giant machine bolted to the floor of the dead spaceship and sparking dangerously with electricity in a way that was absolutely not safe for anyone.

Before Murderbot could react -- (yes, it happened that fast) -- the main part of the machine let out a shrieking sound, and a beam of energy that only Murderbot could see shot out of the end of the nozzle the panicked human was still waving around, and slammed directly into the side of Murderbot's head.

(Archived read-more link)

The next thing it knew, it was jumping forward in a delayed, reflexive attempt to dodge the beam that had already hit it, and found itself suddenly with no ground beneath its feet, and then it was falling, tumbling head over heels, down what seemed like a cliff, unable to get any bearings at all and unable to slow its fall as its mind scrambled to catch up with the suddenly changed situation. There wasn't enough time to try digging its hands into the dirt it was falling past, and none of its frantic, disoriented attempts to slow its fall did anything.

Going from inside a cramped, dark dead ship to falling full speed down a cliff with a nauseatingly bright purple visible every other moment when its head spun to face upward was bewildering, to say the least.

Over the sound of every part of its body slamming repeatedly into dirt and rocks, it could hear the sounds of familiar human voices shouting over eachother in clear alarm, along with dozens of warnings from various sources, but it shut them all out, trying to focus on slowing its uncontrolled fall to no avail.

When it finally slammed to a halt, it fortunately managed to land squarely on its stomach, instead of its head or legs. Its armour supposedly would have stopped bones from being broken, but you never could be too sure it'd actually live up to that promise. Several of the times Murderbot had been dismembered while in the Company's hands had been because its armour wasn't actually up to the standard it claimed it was.

The force with which it had finally slammed to the ground would have been enough to kill an unarmored human instantly, but fortunately, its armour this time seemed up to the test, because it didn't even get the wind knocked out of its lungs like it'd been fearing. That had only happened to it a few times, because its lungs were sturdier than a human's but it was a sickeningly unpleasant experience that it never wanted to experience again if it could help it.

It wanted to sit up, but when it tried, its armour zapped it and then starting pinging it with alarms, warning it that the structural integrity was at risk and it should be placed in a repair cabinet before being trusted to protect the wearer.

It shut off the armour's alarm and sat up stubbornly, trying to figure out what was happening. This was the kind of armour the Company rented, not like anything they had on Preservation, not like anything it'd worn for years.

The first thing it saw when it sat up and got its eyes to focus was the bottom of a crater stretching out before it, with steep, black walls of loose soil rising in the distance, with the purple sky overhead streaming bright with sunlight, with brown and gold planetary rings stretching across the vaulted ceiling of the sky, and...

...wait a minute.

It was only then that Drs. Bharadwaj and Volescu came into view, both of them running full tilt and skidding to a stop in front of Murderbot, assisted by the extremely and unpleasantly familiar, color-coded exploration suits they were wearing.

It was after Murderbot realized that Dr. Bharadwaj wasn't using her cane, and that this type of exploration suit wasn't fit to support an injured leg to, that the improbable, ridiculous, absurd idea of what might be happening started to dawn on it, despite all its logic trying to push the idea away. Time travel wasn't actually real, it was only something that happened in fiction.

It was probably hallucinating. Or dreaming. Because it was definitely Drs. Bharadwaj and Volescu in front of it, rushing forward to –

Oh fuck!

It realized what they were about to do an instant too late to stop them, and then it was too late to pull away as violently as it wanted to without severely injuring them.

Dr. Bharadwaj grabbed one of its arms, and Dr. Volescu grabbed the other, and they attemped to pull it to its feet, and all the while their concerned voices were overlapping along with the conflicting and progressively overwhelming messages and commands it was receiving from its governer module, the med system, and the other humans who were still on the comm.

Fortunately, it was wearing its armour, so they weren't touching it directly, but even so, it could feel the pressure, and it promised worse.

It was bewildered and disoriented, unable to figure out what was going on with all the chaotic inputs it suddenly found it couldn't handle. It found itself pulling away from the humans more roughly than it should have and leaping to its feet and landing several feet away from their reaching hands, snapping, without thinking, too confused and overwhelmed to do anything else at the moment, “My contract forbids you from touching me without my permission!”

It felt its governer module try and fail to fry its brain as Drs. Volescu and Bharadwaj fell backwards to the ground, shock plain on both of their faces through their transparent visors.

And it was only at that exact moment that Murderbot remembered the danger they were all in, remembered why the Dr. Bharadwaj it knew in what was undeniably the future never went anywhere without one of her canes.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as it started running forward to grab its friends to get them out of the crater and out of danger, every sense in its body, both mechanical and organic, suddenly, dreadfully certain that it was too late.

It was too late.

The giant, predatory tunneler exploded up out of the ground below the two humans, teeth whirling, and the comm units were filled with screams.

Murderbot didn't bother reaching for the gun on its back. After that fall down the hill, it was unlikely to be functioning. Instead, it launched itself straight for the animal's mouth, just like the last time Dr. Bharadwaj had been caught, pulled the two unconcious humans out and leapt clear, then opened the gun ports in its arms, and fired as rapidly as it could into the creature's throat on full power, aiming for the teeth, the soft inside of the mouth, and the back of the throat. It knew not to waste its time trying to hit the brain above the mouth, it wouldn't stop it.

But pain was pain, and maybe, if it hurt it badly enough, it wouldn't want to come back for seconds. The animal reared back violently away from the assault, and a few of the bursts hit its underside, cracking and charring the flesh in large circles of black before it plunged backwards back down the tunnel out of reach.

The roar of the hopper was suddenly audible overhead, and Murderbot knew that Dr. Mensah and Ratthi had arrived, flying to the rescue just half a minute too late.

Murderbot dropped down and clamped its hands over the horrible injuries the two scientists had sustained, feeling like it was also going into some sort of shock.

Dr. Volescu's left foot was gone, and so was Dr. Bharadwaj's entire right leg. It wasn't just chunks missing this time, the whole thing was gone.

Murderbot had miraculously managed to get them both out of the animal's mouth without getting debilitatingly injured itself this time, but even so, it knew it wouldn't be able to carry both of them up the steep wall of the crater by itself. All of the medical supplies had been left over in the center of the crater where they'd been standing before Murderbot fell down the hill.

The only thing it could do was crouch over them, its armoured hands covered in their blood, and wait for the hopper to get close enough that they could be pulled inside to safety, desperately hoping that they would survive, not knowing what it would do if they didn't.

Murderbot could feel an involuntary shutdown coming on.

::Please hurry.:: It sent to Dr. Mensah, as the roar of the hopper grew so loud that it was barely even aware when its cognitive systems finally shut down from the stress.

[zorilleerrant]

Alright. My review of the Murderbot show.

There's too much voiceover. I mean I know I'm about as anti-voiceover as it's possible to be, but I just don't think it ever adds anything to a show. If you need voiceover, then you did the adaptation wrong. And most of the long explanations were basically unnecessary at this point in the story. The short segments in response to what other characters were saying or doing were alright and I don't think it's the worst way to handle those, but essentially reading off from the book was completely unnecessary. Also I'm pretty sure he's doing a Nonbinary Voice.

Now some of this is down to the script treatment, but Murderbot is coming off a little 'rawr humans are inferior to constructs' rather than just being all 'why are humans Like That' and I don't like that. It also seems to have less agency than in the books; it's more passive while other characters take more of the actions. I get that as a show it's more ensemble, but it feels like it's sanitizing Murderbot a little into the very Confused Naive Construct That Needs Saving that it felt didn't describe its experiences at all.

Everyone else's characterization feels basically right to me - I especially like Gurathin also being all 'ew sex' - but so much hinges on Murderbot that it colors more of the story. The acting works well across the board and they work well together.

I don't understand at all the use of Pejorative It. Doesn't fit with the worldbuilding at all and I'm unclear what it's supposed to be signalling to the audience, if anything.

Something that really seems missing, though, is the sort of... work environment aspect of it. Like, sure, they live in a normal SF dystopia where everyone owns people and you have to subscribe to air and water and stuff, and that's fine. But it's missing the regular aspect that sort of made the whole situation relatable, where a lot of the problem was people not doing what they were told to do, or not explaining anything, or half-assing their assignments, or just straight up forgetting something needed to get done. And most of the atmospherically depressing aspects of the society were tied up in the regular problems, not the exaggerated ones. It even suggests the equipment from The Company is better than Preservation's, creating a more typical Great Scifi World, Except. This way it just seems kind of alienated from real life and flatter for it.

Sanctuary Moon was on point, tho. Delightfully overdramatic. Very much something to get sucked into.

The aliens are actually scary. Not only do they look sharp, but they move around in a way that looks both fast and heavy. Unlike most aliens' cute/harmless body language these definitely look like something that could hurt you just doing what they normally do, let alone if they were trying to attack you. So I appreciate that.

I do wish this were a 20-some episode season, and I was surprised to find out it's only a half hour show on top of that. I don't think we have enough time to explore the whole story, and it's starting to feel a little rushed. I guess that's why it's collapsing a fair amount of plot points together, and I don't think they all need to be there, but I'm worried we're losing a lot of character and team development by shorthanding so much of it.

It's not bad overall. It looks very nice, and the costuming and set design work wonderfully, but there's pretty much no sound design to speak of. I think it hits with the characters if you already like the books, but someone going into it without having read them is probably losing a lot. I don't think it's going to pick up any of the themes with any vigor, and seems to lose a bit on the worldbuilding; I can only see it through the lens of the books. I don't think it's trying to do anything interesting structurally. But it's decently fun to watch and there's nothing particularly upsetting about it, either from a canon deviation standpoint or normal TV themes.

[iviarellereads]

System Collapse, Chapter 11

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which family means no one's secrets get revealed.

Murderbot spends the trip recharging a bit. The hopper is faster than the ground vehicle, which is good for travel time but bad for its nerves about human safety. MB hopes B-E don't know about the construction access, and if they do, won't be able to find where the HSUs moved the tunnel vehicle.

Iris grabs a med kit and says MB's leakage is worrying her. MB says it should stop soon, and thinks its power drain is a worse problem. It kind of just wants to watch Sanctuary Moon with Art-drone, only Art-drone is even worse off, so it puts on some World Hoppers instead.

Leonide asks if MB is really a SecUnit. Iris tells her to mind her own business. Leonide calls her oversensitive, goes silent for 5.3 seconds, then bursts out to ask if someone is really watching media right now. Tarik deadpans her about distracting himself while flying, and she says fuck all of them in response.

They arrive at the terraforming end of the tunnel to find an obstruction in the hangar, but it's just the shuttle, with a hat! Ratthi deployed the survival tent to keep the dust out. His voice makes MB's performance spike upward with relief.(1)

Ratthi pushes the button for the tent to pack itself up, and they all load into the shuttle. Leonide boards first, but only to make room for Iris and MB to get Art-drone in safely. MB can feel Art watching in the feed for any funny business or betrayal, but MB thinks she just knows the fastest way to escape is to help.

With Art-drone failing, the pathfinders need a little assistance. MB steps in to do what it can, though they're far from the drones it's used to.

Unfortunately, just as everyone's starting to relax, they pull out of a dust cloud and find an armed B-E shuttle following. Iris offers "to authorize deadly force" which MB doesn't need but appreciates. MB positions the pathfinders so that one takes a blow and explodes into a cloud of sensor-scattering debris, allowing the other to swing around and bop the B-E ship on the nose.(2)

The shuttle fell away, still intact but probably dealing with damage, a disoriented bot pilot, and a terrified human crew. Our shuttle powered upward, back on course and widening the distance between us.

As they come out of the comm blackout zone some time later, they see another ship, but quickly determine it's one of their own, a University ship finally come to help.

They pick up a B-E transmission and, having decoded their encryption in just two days, play back the whole argument about whether to engage. Leonide asks for comms, and when given, stands with her team in telling the others to stand down.

The channel got so quiet, Tarik tapped it to make sure it hadn’t gone dead.

Art-prime takes over the pathfinders, redirecting them now that they're not needed for defence. Art-prime starts integrating Art-drone, and Art-drone asks which ship came to help. Art tells it to guess. Art-drone pessimistically declares it must be Holism. They finish the handoff, and as Art-drone goes dead, Iris makes a sobbing noise that startles MB. In a private connection, she asks if there was time for a full transfer, and MB confirms it. Iris adds that she always gets emotional at the thought of losing any part of her Peri and its experiences.

I know, I said. And I did know, and now I was having an emotion. Like a big overwhelming emotion. It felt bad but good, a weird combination of happy and sad and relieved, like something had been stuck and it wasn’t stuck anymore. Cathartic, okay. This fits the definition of cathartic. It was like the way I’d felt when I killed the Target who threatened Amena and laughed at me because I was upset when I thought ART was dead. Except without the violence, and that only lasted a minute or so, and this seemed like it would go on a while.(3) Nobody was dead and I hadn’t had a relapse of my stupid memory thing. And if I did have a relapse, at least I knew what it was now. Don’t just sit there, ART said to me and Iris as it brought the shuttle into its docking module. Console each other. I said, You fuck off at the same time as Iris said, Oh, shut it, Peri, and that felt even better.(4)

=====

(1) I just bet! (2) Insert a skeletor NYEHEHEH giggle from me here. Nonfatal, but completely effective. Love to see it. (3) I just need to take a minute to have my own emotion at this. Like, I keep saying on main and anywhere people will listen that engaging with anger will give you a short-term good feeling and a long-term bad habit that becomes more and more deeply patterned on your daily life and harder to break. And, I just love seeing allusions to that in this sort of fiction. Like, it was a necessary violence, and there's no denying that the feeling was justified afterwards. But, violence and anger are not pathways to fulfillment and joy. The more you give in to the rage bait, the more that anger takes over your life and affects everything you do and everyone you interact with. It's important to be aware of those choices. And I love that Murderbot's commitment is to trying to save life, even when it's life that's threatening itself or its humans. It doesn't always work, but it does make it easier to live with yourself. (4) Yep, it's definitely a love language for Art.