#Margot robbie's barbie

[phantomstatistician]

Fandom: Barbie

Sample Size: 632 stories

Source: AO3

[lesbiwlw]

okay but the way Margot Robbie had me on a chokehold with this outfit is INSANE

[yesmaddyposts]

Prototypes and Platinum Blondes

Fandom: The Barbie Movie (2023) Word Count: 1.4k Relationships: Pre-relationship, Margot Robbie's Barbie X Ryan Gosling's Ken Tags: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android ! Ken, Engineer ! Barbie, Unresolved Romantic Tension AO3 Link

Description: Mattel is the nation's top robotics company, and their newest line of romantic companion androids (The Ken Line) is officially underway. It's up to Barbie to get the prototype up and running.

Of all the projects Barbie has worked on in her career at Mattel, this one has got to be the most…ambitious. She can do it, of course. One doesn’t just graduate from MIT, land a job at the nation’s most prestigious robotics company, and build their way up to lead hardware engineer without knowing their stuff. But being tasked to help design a prototype for a line of romantic companion androids was definitely not on her bingo card.

She’s engineered plenty of androids that serve different functions in the past decade. Androids that are designed to take on high-risk, hard labor jobs like oil rig operators and nuclear waste managers. This project is a very different direction for the company. Barbie has to admit, it’s been a daunting task. She’s used to coding and programming androids for physical tasks. Designing an android with an identity, complete with flaws and skills and hobbies, is an entirely different ballpark.

The android’s factory name is K-0080. It’s printed on the bottom of his left foot and a manual on/off which is disguised as a birthmark on the base of his neck. He is the first of his kind, a prototype for what Mattel hopes to be their most commercially successful android line yet. The Ken Line. Ken because, apparently, Kenneth means “good-looking.” Not Barbie’s first choice. He’s been officially powered on for just shy of forty-eight hours now. Enough time to test out his primary functions, sensory motors, and reflexes. That’s the most fun part for Barbie when it comes to engineering. She likes to pretend she’s in a game show called “Can the robot do the thing?” Can he button up his own shirt? Can he do ten jumping jacks in a row? Can he walk in a straight line all while touching his nose with his pointer finger? 

In K-0080’s case, the answer is a resounding yes.

Right now he sits behind her on an examination table in the testing lab. He looks around curiously while swinging one of his legs like a little kid. That is kind of what he is right now. He has been programmed with the basics: speaking and understanding English fluently, reading and writing, mathematics. But that’s about it. Barbie glances over her shoulder to look at him. His face is cycling through a series of expressions like he is trying them on his face for the first time. Finally he settles on one that mimics confusion. 

Barbie has to admit, Gloria didn’t cut any corners with designing the android’s physical features. There’s a reason she is the head of the visual design department. The androids Barbie has made in the past have been humanoid, but their primary function was labor, not aesthetics. Most of the time they were missing key human attributes like hair and skin. But not K-0080. He looks more human than some actual people Barbie has met in real life. 

It is obvious that Gloria put an immense amount of attention to detail into this prototype. There is thought and care with every eyelash and freckle on the android’s face. A conscious decision was made on the exact shade of platinum blonde for his hair. He has a lean muscular build which suggests athleticism, but the lack of calluses on his hands indicate that he doesn’t get his physique from weight lifting. For god’s sake, K-0080 has pores.  

K-0080 catches her looking at him. He hasn’t been programmed with his full personality yet, so he doesn’t startle or get shy. He just maintains unabashed eye contact and asks, “What are you doing now?��

“I’m finishing up the transfer for your identity software so you aren’t just a one-dimensional love-bot,” Barbie tells him as if he will understand a single thing about what she is talking about.

“So cool,” K-0080 responds. She does a double take at the hint of Californian accent in there. 

It’s a very personal response for an android that is still only half-done. Did Kate put some of his traits in the original data upload without telling anyone? Barbie wouldn't put it past her to sneak something like that in there, after all everyone in the office calls her Weird Barbie because of their similar faces and her eccentric behavior. The two of them just pretend they don't know it.

When the android doesn’t react further, she returns to her computer, skimming for any errors that cropped up in the download for Kate’s code. And the code is extensive. Mattel spared no expense in polling target audiences for the type of “romantic companion” they wanted. They conducted numerous surveys on personality traits, hobbies, and qualities that people found most attractive. Even K-0080’s voice was hand picked. Barbie does not envy the poor intern who had to marathon hundreds of romantic comedies to create the perfect vocal blend of male Hollywood heartthrobs. What the company has settled on is this: K-0080 is to be a beach-loving, optimistic, charmingly awkward boyfriend-type with a soft spot. People want a companion they can fall in love with, but not one that is so perfectly superior that it ruins the illusion.

With Gloria's expert eye and Kate's creative genius, all Barbie has to do is put the puzzle pieces together. She isn’t the romantic type, honestly, but it’s a simple task with all the heavy lifting already done.

She sets the data files to transfer. With a sigh she stands up out of her desk chair and stretches. Her joints all pop in succession, an embarrassing reminder that this last month and a half she has been spending more time sitting at her computer designing a robot with a fake social life than she has being, you know, actually social. K-0080 tracks her movements with his eyes. They’re a shade of blue that is entrancing without tipping into uncanny valley territory.

If the trial period goes well, orders for more Ken Line androids will go into effect. That means different skins, personality traits, heights, weights, every customizable quality will be on the table. More variation means more opportunity to widen the customer demographic. She approaches the android and considers this potential future. Will K-0080 be the only one of his line to look like this? Or will people love him so much they’ll want an exact replica, leading to advertisements and billboards showcasing identical androids? She walks in a slow circle around him. What will become of this model specifically in the grand scheme of things? 

When she stops in front of him again, K-0080 smiles up at her with a dreamy sort of affectionate expression. Barbie can’t help the heat that rushes to her face. How has he mastered that already?

The moment breaks with the chiming of her computer. Data Transfer Complete the screen reads. Below that, a horizontal bar is filled in with a hot pink color, and to the right end of the bar is a 100% symbol. Barbie removes the microchip from her computer and brings it over to K-0080. She carefully folds back the cartilage of his right ear to expose the port in his skull. It’s a lot like an SD card for a camera, or a hard drive for a computer. The android is a vessel that stores information, and that information is transferred from the microchip. K-0080 has the capacity to learn dozens of languages, skills, and even fabricated memories and storylines. Kate calls it a “roleplay treasure trove.”

She steps back after inserting the microchip, then walks around so that she faces the android once more. K-0080’s face shifts to a neutral expression as he absorbs the influx of new information. A silver loading symbol replaces the irises around his pupils, gradually filling up with the same pink color as on the computer. When it is full, his irises fade back to their regular ocean-blue. 

This project has been years in the making. Years of blueprinting, engineering, researching, and it all comes down to this. The gravity of the situation is enough to make Barbie’s heart race. 

“Alright, let’s test you out. What’s your name?” Barbie asks. 

K-0080 seems to ponder the question, as if he is searching through his internal database for the correct response. His reaction time will get quicker with time, Barbie knows. He’ll need to go on trial runs. Mattel will be bringing in real people to go on “dates” with the first ever romantic companion so he can get real world experience. K-0080's code grants him the ability not only to gain knowledge from a single data transfer, but to pick up knowledge firsthand. The possibilities are literally endless. As if he is fully aware of this unprecedented accomplishment, K-0080’s lips stretch into a confident grin.

“My name is Ken.”    

[ggungabyfish]

(giggles) He's already got the Stallone smirk.

BARBIE (2023) dir. Greta Gerwig

[throwbackblr]

[jemmalynette]

Maybe all the things you thought made you you aren’t really…you. Barbie (2023) / Fight Club (1999)

[animentality]

[obiwan]

[landrylovesmatcha]

what was i made for?

“ophelia” by john everett millais but it’s barbie and for the sake of this concept let’s pretend that there is in fact water in barbieland

[filiseverus]

The Barbie movie reminded me about how when I was little my parents were upset that I kept making my Barbie dolls kiss, so they bought me a Ken doll. The next day they found me having a funeral for poor Ken in the garden, he had died of tuberculosis. All the Barbies were in attendance and I buried him under our rose bush. The Barbies were too poor to afford a headstone (it was 1875) so I didn’t mark where the grave was and I never could find him again. He’s probably still there.

[rapidashrider]

“I’m like, ‘Okay, she’s a doll. She’s a plastic doll. She doesn’t have organs. If she doesn’t have organs, she doesn’t have reproductive organs. If she doesn’t have reproductive organs, would she even feel sexual desire?’ No, I don’t think she could,” Robbie said. “She is sexualized. But she should never be sexy. People can project sex onto her. Yes, she can wear a short skirt, but because it’s fun and pink. Not because she wanted you to see her butt.”

Margot Robbie said Ace Barbie Rights with her whole chest.

[yesmaddyposts]

I've been writing angst for several days and needed to break up the fog with something happy and silly, so here is a rough draft snippet of part 2 to my Barbie & Her Android Boyfriend Ken AU:

~~

“This is a bad idea,” Barbie says. “This is a bad, horrible idea.”

On the screen of her phone, Kate shakes her head. “What are you talking about? This is a great idea! It’s the perfect opportunity to see what he can do!”

Barbie paces the length of the hallway with her phone in hand. She takes a peek through the cracked open door to her home office. Ken is still in there, spinning slowly in her desk chair and staring up at the ceiling. He’s been at it for ten straight minutes, and she wonders if dizziness was left out of his programming.

She returns to pacing outside the room. “I can’t bring the world’s most expensive android prototype to Gloria’s vow renewal ceremony!”

“Well you should’ve thought that through before you brought the world’s most expensive android prototype home with you,” Kate reminds her. 

She’s right. Barbie knows she’s right. But she’d let her curiosity get the best of her. Ken had been online for three full weeks now, and so far Mattel had only let him stretch his legs to go between the showroom—a large windowless space designed to look like a standard apartment’s living room, complete with a double sided mirror so executives and engineers could look in without being noticed—and the engineering lab. Ken wasn’t being used to his fullest potential, and none of the executives would listen to Barbie whenever she brought up bringing in real subjects for Ken to interact with. 

They were wasting him. They were impeding his progress, and she had no idea why. She’d tried keeping him distracted for a while, going so far as working overtime just to sit with Ken in the showroom watching television with him. Gloria had even been kind enough to bring some board games from home to test out Ken’s reaction speed. They all learned the hard way through several games of Uno and Candyland just how much of a competitive streak the android really had.

But as the third week of movie marathons and board game nights came to a close, Ken suddenly expressed something to her that just about broke her heart. 

“Barbie, I’m bored.” 

So that’s how she ended up here, at home with a platinum blonde android sitting at her desk. It had been embarrassingly easy to get him into her car. He could walk by himself, and didn’t hesitate to follow her to the parking garage. All he needed was a hoodie and some sunglasses to conceal his face from the security cameras, and then they were free. She had every intention of bringing him back, of course. Just after he got a little outdoor time. It was for research! 

“It’s for research!” She says aloud. 

“Exactly! What better way to research his capabilities than by putting him in a social gathering setting?” Kate’s phone shakes as she props it up against something and leans back on her couch. She whistles sharply and Tanner, her golden retriever, jumps up on the couch for a snuggle. 

“Listen,” Kate starts. “Allow me to impose upon you some Weird Barbie Wisdom.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call yourself that,” Barbie laments. Kate waves her comment away with a dismissive hand. 

“You know just as much as I do that Ken needs practice. The investors are going to want to see him in action sooner rather than later, and with the way things are going he won’t be ready. All of our hard work is going to go down the drain if we do things by Mattel’s book.”

Kate pauses to fend off Tanner when he stands on his hind legs to lick her face.

“The executives are a bunch of nepo-babies who don’t know their head from their ass when it comes to robotics. You gotta start taking risks.”

“But what if something goes wrong? What if Ken isn’t ready to be around all those people so soon?” Barbie bites her thumbnail subconsciously. 

A bitter tang hits her tongue and she purses her lips in disgust. She drops her hand back down to her side. Of all the times she’d tried to stop biting her nails, it had been Ken who really got it to stick. Last week while they’d been watching Bring It On, one of her favorite so-bad-it’s-good comfort films, he noticed her nibbling at her thumb. She did it when she was stressed, bored, or deep in thought. At that point her poor thumb was almost completely bitten down to the skin, leaving it red and raw looking. 

Ken had gently grasped her wrist and brought her hand down, interlacing their fingers. She’d turned to him, caught off guard by how careful his touch was. 

“You shouldn’t do that. It looks like it hurts.” He’d told her. 

Two days later when she came into work, he’d been so excited to tell her that he and Gloria had spent all weekend looking up ways to quit the habit of nail biting. He recommended she get bitter tasting nail polish so that she would no longer get satisfaction from biting, even going as far as to spend ten minutes breaking down all the best brands by price, brand, and product reviews. 

“If the whole thing goes tits up, you’ll have me and Gloria there as backup. We’ll get him out of there with some excuse about food poisoning or being late to a self tanning appointment, whatever.”

Kate scratches the underside of Tanner’s chin, and the dog starts kicking his back leg so hard against the couch cushion Barbie can hear the dull thumpthumpthump of his paw through the speakers of her phone.

“But I’m not worried. We did a great job with Ken’s programming. He’ll be a natural.” 

Kate’s general “it’ll all work out” attitude always had a way of convincing Barbie into things she didn’t want to do. She has a feeling this was going to be no different. She sighs, but before she can respond with another excuse not to go through with this, Ken speaks from inside the office.

“Barbie? Who are you talking to?” 

Barbie pushes open the door and enters the office. She turns her phone around to show Ken her screen. “I’m on a call with Kate from work.”

Ken gets up to see her phone better. When he’s closer, his face lights up in recognition and he grabs the phone from Barbie’s hand.

“Hi, Kate from work!” He exclaims excitedly, his wave at the camera a blur of motion. “Love the new mohawk.” 

“Thanks, Ken!” Kate responds just as excitedly. “I was thinking about dying it a crazy color. Maybe half purple and pink, or ombre.”

As Ken and Kate become invested in the topic of hair color options, Barbie shakes her head and takes a seat at her computer desk. Looks like she’s going to have to go shopping for men’s formal wear. 

[magnetostits]

the barbenheimer experience i had was so funny i saw oppenheimer first and in a quiet scene we could literally hear ken singing in the theater next to us and then during barbie it when was quiet we could hear a fucking explosion coming from the oppenheimer screening

[kidovna]

obsessed with Her.

[completely-static]

go watch Barbie

[margoterobbies]

BARBIE (2023) via @wbpictures_br