#murderbot as a character is so freaking incapable

[inkedinserendipity]

one of the reasons i think that the murderbot diaries’ emotional moments hit so hard is because of a scarcity effect that the author has set up really, really well.

because, like—murderbot, as a character, is an answer to the question how do you “show and not tell” emotional moments from the lens of a character who point-blank will not acknowledge any affection directed their way. or, instead of overtly stating that characters are friends (“tell”), how do you demonstrate it with text (“show”)? well, most authors go ham on characters smiling at each other, laughing, joking, expressing reciprocal loyalty.

murderbot does none of those things. murderbot probably never smiled before preservation, and definitely didn’t laugh. (this is only partially an exaggeration.) telling jokes? hell yeah, MB’s funny as fuck. to other people? hell no. that would require conversations and it’d rather die, thanks.

add that to the fact that murderbot treats any expressions of affection toward it—internal and external—like being bit by a snake.

so you have this character + writing style that bars most conventional ways of establishing relationships between characters. you also have this character who is basically incapable of feeling any sort of reciprocated, positive emotion toward itself. so what do you do?

you work around your character. murderbot will never pick up on affectionate body language. it hates hugs. every sentence it hears passes through about fifteen different filters of self-loathing. so you make your relationships clear, and when you hit, you hit hard.

you summarize snapshots of characters panicking about the main character getting hurt. you drop your character’s performance reliability (and their walls) and have them banter. you have your character walk in on the tail end of conversations that expose concern for it.

and then you do things so overt that even your shit-self-esteem character can’t talk its way out of. you have its friend tell it directly that it can’t lose it too. you have its friends accommodate it and understand it without it directly expressing a single need. you have its friends stand up for it in conversation when it is too tired to do so. and then, when you really want to hit, you have your character pretend to be physically compromised rather than have to feel one (1) positive emotion toward itself.

positive emotions toward itself can’t really pass through murderbot’s walls. so you have to establish relationships by beating your main character over the head with them. and it can’t be all the time—because that’s not how relationships and emotional recovery, yknow, works—but it can be sometimes, and it can be very powerful, and that is why i think murderbot diaries in particular is very, very effective.

[legalandnotease]

You CANNOT pretend you're defending Sam Wilson while also pretending that he did anything hurtful to Bucky. He DIDN'T. Bucky's hurt has many sources, and Sam wasn't responsible for a single one of them.

So basically, Sam can do no wrong ever.

Literally, you say you want people to treat Sam was a well-rounded human but here's the thing: if you're not prepared to allow Sam any flaws then--- he's not a well rounded human.

He's a Mary Sue. He's perfect: and nobody is perfect.

You cannot have it both ways. Sam cannot be both complex, realistic, and infallible or incapable of wrongdoing at the same time.

Like I'm always saying to Tony fans: for fuck's sake, let him have flaws. Let him be wrong. Let him fuck up. Let him admit he's fucked up. Let him learn from it.

Don't act like he's your singular precious angel and cry about any criticism of Sam whilst still insisting he's a complex character.

He DIDN'T. Bucky's hurt has many sources, and Sam wasn't responsible for a single one of them.

Now. we're being and candid here. Sam is responsible for a least some Bucky's hurt. He wanted him dead in Winter Soldier and wouldn't have much cared if it happened in Civil War.

Steve bears responsibility as well, since he abandoned him: but unlike Sam Bucky (allegedly) isn't entitled to his feelings of grief and loneliness. Let alone allowed to express them. He's not allowed any feelings in fact, but I digress.

Sam spends the entirety of Falcon and the Winter Soldier being a bitch to Bucky. Taunting him, mocking him, dismissing his feelings.

Like the famous attempt to "reach out" to Bucky that Sam fans are so fond of mentioning? Anthony Mackie said those texts were asking Bucky who he'd killed today. They weren't reaching out. They were *taunting* him. They may have been Sam's idea of a joke, but he recipient didn't find them funny.

Unlike Bucky, Sam has a support network and friends. Sam is the only person Bucky knows, and he's only reaching out from a sense of obligation. Not friendship. Sam by turns gaslights and him and victim-blames Bucky. He even mocks him on the basis of the brain damage that HYDRA inflicted and calls him a "freak" on the basis of what his abusers did, which is utterly vile.

The only reason Bucky is made to apologize is because the writers, like fans, can't allow Sam to admit he's wrong. They can't have him apologizing because its seen as demeaning.

So we're expected to either ignore Sam's behavior or condone and excuse it because "he's having a hard time". The very thing which they say is no excuse for Bucky's behavior. Yet it suddenly becomes one for Sam in a ludicrous double standard.

Rather like how "brainwashing isn't an excuse" until Tony Stark does something bad, or mental health isn't an excuse until Stark builds a murderbot.

Media literacy is dead bcs people can somehow justify all the ways Bucky is hurting in that therapist scene but not Sam's

They can point out all the things Sam did that hurt Bucky but not how Bucky was to Sam.

They were both being shit to each other to a certain extent, grieving and trying to move on, but all they see is how the white attractive boy is hurting and not Samuel.

Sam also lost Steve, a partner, someone he trusted for years. His relationship with Steve runs as deep as Steve with Bucky.