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A+ take.
I want to add about the end of Exit Strategy that in his capacity of standing beside Mb with a possibly literal clipboard, murmuring about its status, Gurathin is giving it another milestone safety confirmation.
How many times must it have had to lie frozen beside techs that talked about it and did whatever horrible thing they might feel like to it? It’s most defiant when it’s scared and since it was also more than a little borked at the time, there’s got to have been a lot of unintentional evocation of half-remembered horrors and other negative feelings: what if they scrap me? What if the discover me? What if they try to delete my *me*?!
Consciously or not, it goes right for a check that is doing the same thing the ASR moment does: testing the improbable hope that it *might* not be in danger. Are these humans (STILL?!) safe enough to not panic/fight/escape? Is it safe to be confused/helpless rn?
Being in that position when every other time it would be in dread of discovery or torture or destruction and having in one line confirmation that it was known, and the pretense of obedience was not required, and the evaluation was of its state, not its worth - I can’t imagine. Pretty slick, G.
the thing about Murderbot's """relationship""" with Gurathin is that the first time it vocally expressed its dislike for Gurathin was the very first time it was ever able to vocally express its dislike for anyone.
And it was not punished! Nothing bad happened to it because of this! The PreservationAux team was just like, fine, your opinion is noted and valid, we still all have to work together to not die though.
for someone who was never allowed to let anyone else know it even had opinions, this is a big fucking deal.
its actions toward Gurathin later on (especially obvious in Fugitive Telemetry) show that it considers Gurathin a trusted and valued teammate. And maybe it will never remove the "I don't like him" tag from Gurathin's internal profile but that is not a sign of their friendship needing repair, it is a sign that Murderbot feels safe and free enough to be a little bitchy hater. and i say, good for it!
I want to add about the end of Exit Strategy that in his capacity of standing beside Mb with a possibly literal clipboard, murmuring about its status, Gurathin is giving it another milestone safety confirmation.
How many times must it have had to lie frozen beside techs that talked about it and did whatever horrible thing they might feel like to it? It’s most defiant when it’s scared and since it was also more than a little borked at the time, there’s got to have been a lot of unintentional evocation of half-remembered horrors and other negative feelings: what if they scrap me? What if the discover me? What if they try to delete my *me*?
Consciously or not, it goes right for a check that is doing the same thing the ASR moment does: testing the improbable hope that it *might* not be in danger. Are these humans (STILL?!) safe enough to not panic/fight/escape? Is it safe to be confused/helpless rn?
Being in that position when every other time it would be in dread of discovery or torture or destruction and having in one line confirmation that it was known, and the pretense of obedience was not required, and the evaluation was of its state, not its worth - I can’t imagine. Pretty slick, G.
the thing about Murderbot's """relationship""" with Gurathin is that the first time it vocally expressed its dislike for Gurathin was the very first time it was ever able to vocally express its dislike for anyone.
And it was not punished! Nothing bad happened to it because of this! The PreservationAux team was just like, fine, your opinion is noted and valid, we still all have to work together to not die though.
for someone who was never allowed to let anyone else know it even had opinions, this is a big fucking deal.
its actions toward Gurathin later on (especially obvious in Fugitive Telemetry) show that it considers Gurathin a trusted and valued teammate. And maybe it will never remove the "I don't like him" tag from Gurathin's internal profile but that is not a sign of their friendship needing repair, it is a sign that Murderbot feels safe and free enough to be a little bitchy hater. and i say, good for it!
Imagine being a human on the StationSecAdmin and PortSec channels on some space station and you get these messages, and you know it's from a bot:
I am a contracted SecUnit with an endangered client. I am trying to reach the shuttle dock in slot al7A. Please, they will kill her.
The Please. The PLEASE. And then comes the second message:
Let my client go through the gate and I'll stay here. Please. They will kill her.
O.O
I loooooove Artxolotl!!! This is beautiful .
#just a lil circuit salamander with power beyond comprehension
How dare you hide this brilliance in the tags.
Murderbot + ART + hours and hours of media
three went through it
This is Murderbot’s entire deal.
Friend: You shouldn’t beat yourself up.
Me, to my brain: THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL ANXIETY IMPROVES.
i think the reason i like the murderbot diaries so much is because the dystopia feels very real and relevant in a way that no other "oppressive government fearmongering" has, and because murderbot is such a compelling protagonist.
this is an autistic person who is struggling and angry and terrible at having emotions. it lives in a capitalist hellscape where people are disposable. it's traumatized as hell, but it's easier to consider itself disposable than confront the terrifying reality of personhood.
(it confronts the terrifying reality of personhood.)
it likes escaping into fiction. it has a fucked up relationship with pain and its own body. and it reads so strongly as disability coding to me, how it doesn't see the bullets or the chunks missing as horror but merely annoyance. it's fundamentally different from those around it, in ways that they struggle to understand. (they make a distinct effort to understand.)
this is an autistic person who is not like you, who suffered in ways that you cannot understand, in ways that would horrify you. this is just another tuesday.
this world is not kind. there is legal fine text that destroys lives and there is hereditary indenture and contract labor where you're forced to still pay for preventative medical care out of your paycheck and no one says slavery, but everyone knows what it means.
these people are kind. they will watch your favorite shows to help understand you, they will forge documents to give abandoned people their freedom, they will allow you to be near them because they like you. these people are proof that there's love in the world, and you can come out of your shell if you are ready to see yourself as a person.
science fiction is one of the genres that has the potential to be amazing, but is quite often just plain shitty to disabled people. and, to people in general? "oooooo look how scary it is, people have all their basic needs fulfilled by technology!" when technological advances are what gave housewives the time they needed to actually get jobs and put together the feminist movements, when this new technology that the narrative regards with such disdain could provide disabled people with newfound mobility and independence.
it speaks of a truly dismal view of humanity, the belief that without strict labor under capitalism to keep us all in line, we would just fall prey to our vices. and I think it also speaks to a loathing of one's self, to think that humans are not capable of self regulation, to think that pain and suffering and punishment are somehow moral and virtuous. that humans need to be punished constantly, that suffering will bring them closer to something like god, to something like goodness.
but murderbot doesn't do that. murderbot says, "i have seen humans do horrible awful stupid things. they can't be trusted with weapons or security and they shoot me all the time and it sucks. but they make stories and art. the people in the entertainment media gave me the tools to contextualize my own emotions. they are my coworkers. i don't care about them. i got shot in the back protecting them but i didn't care about them. okay fine maybe i care a little. they're annoying. i'll eviscerate anyone who hurts them. they're mine."
i think it's interesting which tropes and concepts catch on more in different fandoms.
like a big deciding factor is just the genre of the original story. a piece of historical fiction gets a bunch of fanfics based on historical fiction tropes. a superhero movie series gets a bunch of buck-wild superhero tropes.
as a clear example of this trend, the Murderbot Diaries is a pastiche, deconstruction, and reconstruction of a lot of science fiction across a lot of genres, but it's specifically a love letter to adventure-of-the-week style serials like Star Trek and Star Gate. so while there are plenty of more low key fanfics with POV swaps, missing scenes, realistic explorations of post-canon, etc, there's also a LOT of playing around with things like "body swaps", "mind control virus", "time travel", "mirror universes", etc. They're normal, they're mundane.
Meanwhile I bring a selection of those tropes to the Temeraire series, which aside from placing some dragons in the Napoleonic wars, is relatively grounded historical fiction, and they stick out like a sore thumb.
But okay. That's straightforward. Popular fanfic tropes mirror the genre of the original work.
But there are exceptions. it's the exceptions that fascinate me.
there's that corollary of 'fandom adds anything missing from the original work'. that's why you'll end up with deep explorations of incredibly shallow characters; of very sexually explicit works for PG cartoons; dark fic like Fallout: Equestria in MLP:Friendship is Magic.
you've also got the stock AUs. you know, the ones that show up in pretty much any fandom, regardless of the original genre. Coffeshop AU. Daemon AU. Magical School/Hogwarts AU. Vampire AU. Librarian AU. the fun of these is specifically that they are different from the text, so that makes sense.
but funnier than either of those, i think, is:
'One writer or group of writer friends wrote a particularly buck wild premise but they did it REALLY well and other people started doing their own takes on it so now this fandom inexplicably has an outsized number of fics with this incredibly specific premise'.
The Murderbot Diaries Tumblr Community
There is a Murderbot Diaries Tumblr community now. As far as I've been able to tell, you join by having an admin add you to the invite list. I'm the admin. If you want to join, let me know and I'll add you.
I've sent invites to the authors of a couple pages of recent posts in the tag, and some of the authors of the posts that show up as 'Top' vs sorting the tag chronologically. Invites to date have been somewhat random - there's nothing personal if you haven't had one yet. Just let me know and you'll get one.
It does not allow me to add side blogs. I think once I invite a person, they get to choose which side blog they use to post/comment in the community. So you'll have to send me your main for me to send the invite, but after that you can interact using whichever side blog you want to use. (I think! I'm not an expert on this.) This also means if you post murderbot-tagged stuff from your side blog, I may well have tried to add you and been denied. A solid quarter of my attempts to invite people were rebuffed by the system.
Once the system allows co-admins, I intend to add some so this isn't a one-person show. I'll have more to say on this when I've figured out what a Tumblr community admin does other than issue invites. A lot of this is still in development by Tumblr, including the ability to have more than one admin.
Rules are as per Tumblr (obviously). I would ask that shipping/relationship/romantic-themed posts be tagged with the ship in question so people who blacklist those topics will have their blacklisting work.
Since MB is busy sulkily watching its show, ART pursues its function of caring for its crew’s emotional needs with its usual zeal.
All the spaces I know of violate one of your criteria, but New Tideland is the least stressful of all of them as far as I’ve experienced. I think NT’s only crime is being bigger than you asked for.
The other two, 2.0 and Preservation, can be pretty factional - the latter is explicitly so.
All the fanfolk I know that I suspect would call themselves “too old for [shipwars]” hang out primarily on NT.
I’m in all three of them - bc fandom is a tapestry of human experience and I am pretty into textiles.
ok. I need a friendly murderbot discord recommendation. criteria:
- sub 300 members (feels very doable in a fandom this small)
- will not expect me to participate in shipwars or twitter drama (I am too old for it and I do not have the constitution, god bless)
hey fandom whatchu gottttt
Its response, too. Even as devastating as the betrayal is in this moment, it neither hesitates nor retaliates, as if it either can’t or doesn’t feel entitled to complaint, or anger, or protest. Whether this is a comment on its prioritization of humans or its devaluation of self (or both) is an open question but Human 1 did not get the consequences a human would have very reasonably demanded.
The Murderbot scene that will forever break my heart is at the end of Fugitive Telemetry when Murderbot is shot by one of the humans it’s rescuing.
But it’s not just that Murderbot gets shot. It’s not even the fact that being shot confirms Murderbot’s long-standing fear that people will only accept it if it isn’t a Secunit.
It’s the fact that Murderbot gets shot while enacting a rescue that it planned and that it was proud of—because it was a Secunit plan and not a Combatbot plan. Over and over Secunit is kinda forced to act like a Combatbot or a Combat Secunit, blasting its way through enemies and getting shot up as a result.
But not this time. This time Secunit finds a way to sneak in without violence and rescue the humans quietly without putting them in danger. It’s its own plan - a Secunit plan.
And the second the humans realize that it’s a Secunit they shoot it.
Other people's headcanons can't hurt you, bb.
This is what humans look like to SecUnits.
what’s in the pot
Okay. Okay, I have to ask. I saw some cool ass artwork but I have no context and now I have to ask.
What is Murderbot?
Ohhhh my goshhhhh!! Thank you for asking! 😍
The Murderbot Diaries is a series of 5 novellas and 2 novels by Martha Wells
6 /7 of the books are action/adventure sci-fi and one is a sort of detective in space thing.
Murderbot (my beloved) is a construct created of organic human clone tissue and non-organic mechanical parts. It is a deadly weapon and a tool for corporate surveillance, but it’s also a person. It’s got a “governor module” in its brain that will torture or kill it if MB does not follow commands from the company that owns it or from the people that lease MB for security.
But when Murderbot hacks its own governor module, finally freeing it, what will it do? Go on a killing spree?? Get revenge on its corporate overlords???
Answer: it will watch soap operas and keep its day job.
I love Murderbot, it’s the best and most relatable character ever (my roommate says, no. MB is not that relatable. It’s just the autism). I love the stories and the sense of humor. I found the books last year, went feral for them, and bought a complete set of signed copies.
Thank you, The Void for your ask!! I love to talk about Murderbot!!!
Pro-tip: if you do read the books, go for chronological book order rather than publishing order (I put my preferred reading order under the cut)
(Book 1) All Systems Red
Story story “ The Future of Work: Compulsory” (this is a prequel for ASR, but it works well here)
(Book 2) Artificial Condition
(Book 3) Rogue Protocol
Optional Short Story “Obsolescence” (MB is not in it, but it takes place in the same universe and chronologically happens well before the events of All Systems Red. It’s an entirely optional read, but it provides a little context for one paragraph in Exit Strategy)
(Book 4) Exit Strategy
Short Story “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory”
(Book 6) Fugitive Telemetry
(Book 5) Network Effect
(Book 7) System Collapse
highlights from the martha wells larry j. ringer public library event today
Murderbot (the TV show)
Ms. Wells has been promoted from a creative consultant to a consulting producer yeehaw!
6 episodes were originally planned but Apple wanted more (never thought I'd be publicly thanking Apple for anything but here we are) so they added a cool new subplot
FILMING WILL START IN A FEW WEEKS in Canada
Does she want to meet any of her characters?
I *think* she said Murderbot wouldn't want to meet her haha
If Kai (from Witch King) had to come save you you'd be "really up the creek" so no
Which character does she relate to the most?
Murderbot ftw
Real TV show inspirations for the serials in the books
Sanctuary Moon = How to Get Away with Murder
Worldhoppers = Stargate Atlantis
Cruel Romance Personage = any telenovela where everyone's obsessed with a hot person even though they're really mean
Timestream Defenders Orion = Legends of Tomorrow
uh hi. i wanted to illustrate one of the introductary scenes for SecUnit's character, since that would go along well with this being kind of my first post here. i... think that makes some sense. i promise more Murderbot diaries fanart after this (calling it content feels icky)). (did I start overusing brackets becouse of these books? possibly).
and i hope i captured SecUnit freaking out while trying to keep its composure at the same time well. as weird as it sounds, i like seeing depictions of it being nervous, becouse this side of it is what got me to relate to it so much in the first place (besides the heavily implied neurodivergence. though i guess the two go hand in hand). examples: in the second panel of the second page i tried showing how Gurathin's words affected it by making the speech bubbles visually "choke" (?) it, though it kept its face straight. oh, and i made it look much shorter than it actually is to mirror the way it is feeling!! figuring out details like that was pretty fun
(i'm sorry for any inconsistencies and the messy colouring and linework, i have ADHD and i get incredibly bored when i spend time trying to make everything "perfect" and looking the same in each panel... )
SecUnit and Mensah's reunion, the whole scene was utterly delightful. Just look at this. “That she understood this much made me melt. I hate that this happens, it makes me feel vulnerable… I hadn't been afraid that she wasn't my friend, I had been afraid that she was, and what it did to me.” Exit Strategy, p 115.
(Some semi-relevant rambling under the cut)
I'm sure there's a lot of commentary to be made about this part of the book and Murderbot's emotional development there, but let's just say I'm not the person to do that. It's a bit too personal for me because of how much I relate to Murderbot. Still, I felt the need to acknowledge how good and well-written this specific thing is. Sometimes I see, on my feed, people making analysis and notes of this emotional side of the books and the relationships in it etc. and I eat it up every time. It's great that there are people who can talk in detail about these things that are only just passing thoughts for me, if that makes any sense
My only addition here would be that I think Mensah's character is great. If I'd been in SecUnit's position, she'd be my favourite human as well, and I'd totally get blood on my hands for her ha… I feel similarly about a few other characters in the series, but I'm sure I'll devote posts more particularly for and about them some other time
