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murderbot tv

Murderbot + text posts [15/∞]

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Here's some completed fanfics I've super super enjoyed reading and re-reading:

Finding Your Way In an Unfriendly Universe by IHopedTheredBeStars

Three struggling to cope with choices :'(

Wolves and Sheep by Cacaphonia

Murderbot gets taken over by alien remnants and I am rabid about this fanfic, the unreliable narrator POV is spectacular and Murderbot is terrifying.

Midnight Eclipse by Polyhexian

This is about a fanfic in a fanfic and its heartbreaking I love it (and pretty much everything by polyhexian inspirational goals)

Approximate Identity by FigOwl

A SecUnit with Murderbots face is mistaken for Murderbot and humans try to rescue it and be all wellmeaning but good intentions and all that.

SAFEWORD.exe by CompletelyDifferent

Murderbot accidentally gambles with its own memory and the resulting situations.

Five Times ART Gives Me a Present and One Time It Gives Me a Breakdown by OccasionalStorytelling

The misunderstandings! The emotions! I adore it. Direct inspiration.

food [in]security, or, Monsters Are Always Hungry by OccasionalStorytelling, torpidgilliver

This one is about self-harm and SecUnit biology, contrasting Three and Murderbot.

Chair by Polyhexian

This is a very short one but I like that its about respecting Murderbot's preferences about "relationship" terminology and giving it agency.

STRUCTURE UNSTABLE by Killbothtwins

Unreliable narrator murderbot with memory wipe while PresAux are trying to save it and its sheer confusion.

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God the dissolving of the contract scene in Murderbot TV is so funny

Arada and Pin-Lee being so relieved they don’t have to break it off with Ratthi

Pin-Lee being immediately smug at the reveal that he’s fallen for them, even though they straight up don’t like him

Arada being surprised and offended and then immediately having to apologise when Pin-Lee gets mad in response

All of this is so believable. And all of this takes place in like. Seven seconds

Good TV!!!

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The Murderbot Diary Fic Recs

I have some Murderbot fic recs. This isn't a best-of list, rather it's meant to showcase just a tiny fraction of how wide a range of amazing fic is out there. (AARH Edit how did I misspell Murderbot in the title?)

Gen Fic: That The Light Is Everything Ratthi goes missing. Deals with themes of grief and loss. The author asks the reader to trust them, and that trust is really paid off in this rich and moving fic.

Priority Client SecUnit has to look after one of Mensah's adolescent kids during a crisis. It gets off to a hilarious start with SecUnit nervously being made to hold a baby while it downloads child-rearing mauals. The fic as a whole is fun, exciting, and sweet.

Plastic Plague People on Preservation face an extended life-changing environmental crisis. This one's thought provoking and a bit 'heavy.' Heartwarming, but not an easy feel-good fic. One of those fics where you can spend a lot of time thinking about the themes.

More Gen Fic, Emphasis on Original Characters:

Background Radiation In this Corporation Rim is Hell story, Nico flees home with his autistic brother Luca to keep Luca safe. Sadly Nico faces his own new challenges as he brings the messed up philosophy of the Rim with him to his new home.

Survivor Murderbot and Co. try to assist an OC SecUnit who has been through major trauma. But is this SecUnit a danger to others? How much will they risk for the victim versus those who were complicit in its mistreatment? This OC really made a powerful impression on me.

Life Partnership, Romance, or Ambiguous (Gen Edition) (Categorizing fic when one or more characters is asexual can get kind of confusing. Lines get fuzzy.

Parallel Signaling (ART/SecUnit) ART POV for Artificial Condition through Exit Strategy, but that really doesn't capture the originality of this story. It is very much NOT just a canon retelling. I felt I knew ART better after reading this.

It will Fail on You (ART/SecUnit) Long life sounds like a happy thing, but what if you were offered a chance to live ~200 years, and you never expected to live long enough to grieve your humans? https://archiveofourown.org/works/67137652/chapters/173365222

Made for each Other (Gurathin/Murderbot) An interesting take on Gurathin's augments and how they affect how he relates to Murderbot.

Is it Slash if there is No Sex? Kink and Desire

That Time I Got Drunk And Yeeted A Love Potion At A SecUnit (Gurathin/Murderbot, kissing, bondage) In this hilarious story, SecUnit gets accidentally drugged and feels an overwhelming impulse to tie Gurathin up and revel in the fact that he is now Safe. From what? Who knows! He's just Safe. He has been Secured.

Boots (Gurathin/Murderbot) Maintenance and Repair as kink and love. The sequel Guns is explicit. The first fic Boots is more about taking care of things and people (for AO3 it's rated "other.")

Explicit (But It Might Not Look Like What You Expect):

You (Gurathin/Murderbot, WIP) There are some cases where sex or touch-averse people feel differently about being the one doing the touching versus the one being touched. As of chapter 12, this slow burn story currently shows Murderbot working through past trauma and realizing it is capable of experiencing touch in a positive way. I want to quote Gurathin's check-in protocol because it's a delight, but this post is crazy-long already.

Shared Senses (Gurathin/Murderbot) Riding the feed allows Murderbot to experience sex. https://archiveofourown.org/series/4914649

Enemies, Closer WIP, multiple pairings involving Murderbot, Gurathin, ART, and an OC CombatUnit This story is it's so much sweeter than you might guess from the tags. Which is not to downplay the tags but like, all the people the reader cares about are trying and mostly succeeding at being good people. The dark stuff is done by the bad guys and isn't excessively drawn out or graphic.

[Redacted] I really wanted to link a fic which does something that I haven't seen before--it shows a couple go through a temporary period of sexual activity which ends after one party comes to a realization about what they want. Pretty cool to see that in a fic! But I'm told that author has been a target of harassment in the past so I felt hesitant to link it. Also my description just spoiled it. Go read enough fic and you can have the pleasure of stumbling across it blind!

Rarepairs or Rare Interpretations:

the rhythm of the rain keeps time (Gurathin & Mensah, some romantic feelings do arise) Gurathin makes a slow recovery from drug use and trauma, with Mensah's help. Note that although listed as unfinished, this fic is actually a series of time-consecutive shorts. At least of present, there's no cliffhanger.

Secrets (Murderbot & Gurathin, unrequited.) Gurathin's backstory here is fascinating, the story's take on the frenemyship is fascinating, and there is also an amazing sequel which is nearing completion. (The sequel is also unrequited--rare in fic but so common in real life! Which is one of the themes of the sequel--the gulf between stories dramatic enough to get made into fic, and thus which play a large part in SecUnit's knowledge of the world, versus ordinary life.)

Adjustment Period (Gurathin/Ratthi) The Corporation Rim is Hell, except instead of depressing, this author created a hilarious set of cultural conflicts. If you don't usually read romance, you might still like this as the focus is on the culture clash.

Humor: Human Friends Murderbot muses on its relationship with Gurathin, Three muses on its relationship with Ratthi (uhh I didn't manage to communicate the funny bits but this did make me laugh)

Maintenance Manual for SecUnits models 36b-27f Mensah POV! Everyone else too, but especially Mensah. It turns out that surrpisingly, the maintenance manual is useful not just for maintenance, but for understanding SecUnit's needs. This fic does have a serious side but it's also hilarious.

This list is a follow-up to this post, where I talked about why I support portraying asexual characters in a whole range of ways, and how Murderbot fanfic is such a trove of fiction wrestling with these themes. I could have made a whole post just examining all the different ways people approach "shippy" themes! In this case I wanted to show a variety so I listed a lot of non-shippy fic too. But there's so much thought and care in the shippy fic, I hate it when people dismiss these stories as ignoring Murderbot's identity.

This took ages and I only scratched the surface. (If I rec stuff in the future I'll probably just quote the AO3 summary.) And there's so much fic I haven't read yet, even by authors I know I like. Happy Reading!

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Okay, so this was from a comment on a post but deserves a wider audience:

“Murderathin, reinventing the slash”

Because there is a brand/flavour/type/kind of Murderbot/Gurathin fanfic which is…well, there is certainly not anything remotely sexual going on there BUT but is going on is deeply intimate and delightfully kinky and so very much my personal cup of tea

People who get upset about “shipping” Murderbot and Gurathin often then go on to describe a whole lot of things they object to which the ship as a class (there are 234 works now under the tag) don’t generally exhibit (see note below)

Perhaps check some of them out?

🖤

PS:

I mean: YES there is SMUT there, if you want it—some people see the words:

anatomically complicated

as a challenge (one to which some authors have risen magnificently)

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Fanfic and Asexuality

This is about asexuality in fanfiction and spefically in Murderbot, but it's about a bunch of personal stuff first.

I'm asexual. If anyone reads this who's interested or questioning, some resources I liked were:

The Am I Asexual? article on reddit/asexuality has some cool info, there are other sections on that subreddit's FAQ as well

"Come As You Are" by Emily Nagoski was a fantastic primer on human sexuality in general. It's written for women but included a lot of info on men too. I read this some time back. There's a new edition out now, tbh I don't even remember if the older edition which I read even discusses asexuality but I still found it incredibly informative. I think of this book as giving the info we should all get as teenagers but usually don't.

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen is full of stories about many different ways which asexual people engage with intimacy.

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown is good for broader societal issues.

There's other books that I read over the years, these are just the ones on my mind right now.

But back when I was figuring out my own stuff, I did not have any of these resources. Somehow I muddled on, as I'm sure ace people have done in many eras.

I'm not going to talk about my sex life or dating history (and let me take a moment to point out that you can't know based on what fiction I enjoy. I know a lot of people who loved the Titanic but no one who wants to be on a sinking ship.) What I will offer is a metaphor.

(cut for length)

Imagine you are told that when you hit puberty, you will develop the ability to see this magic color RazzleDazzlePop. And on the one hand it's not a big deal. The world is full of other colors. But on the other hand, there are a million songs and stories about how seeing this color is both the most fun anyone can have ever, and the deepest expression of love and union. Oh but if you do it at the wrong time you can get pregnant, and your religious upbringing says that abortion is murder. Oh, also don't forget, you can literally get murdered if you let your guard down and even think about seeing RazzleDazzlePop with the wrong person. If you get murdered it will be YOUR fault for not being more careful. Or you can catch various terrifying diseases.

So there's a lot going on. You can see how, even without any other factors like trauma or sensory issues, people might end up with very complicated feelings about RazzleDazzlePop. That's true even for allosexuals. And if you can never see this magic color, different people might have a very broad range of feelings about it all.

It took me a while to figure things out. And once I had the basics down, there were still layers that unfolded over time. And while I was still pretty deep in that confusion, I read this one story.

Before then, I'd read a bunch of stories about ace characters, actually. They typically didn't speak to me. There was often this double-whammy. First the ace person knew exactly what they were like they popped out of the womb knowing exactly which box they fit into. How??? Second, the ace person would just absolutely hate themself and feel utterly unworthy of love because of being born ace.

Not only did it not resonate, these things didn't even seem to go together. If a person hated being ace so badly, why wouldn't they poke at that a little? Why wouldn't they ask, why am I this way? Will I always be this way? If I can't help it and was born this way, then it's not something to be ashamed of, right?

But nope. And please understand I am NOT taking potshots at these stories. I actually loved a lot of them. I just didn't connect to them on a personal level. They didn't help me gain any insight into myself.

But then there was this one story. Everyone in it was messy and questioning. A full smorgasbord of dysfunction before you ever even got to sex, and everyone was dysfunctional about sex too. Also, this story was so explicit, I cannot even describe how much sex was in it. Sometimes I skip sex but if I skipped the sex in this story I think there would have been no story. And in this story, an ace person's loved ones kept telling him that he wasn't really ace. One of them (with best of intentions) found a therapist (who was otherwise helpful) to also tell this guy he wasn't ace. Meanwhile the ace guy was trying to master sex, the better to win over the person he wanted to be life partners with. There was SO much stuff in this story that could potentially trigger people.

And yet. This story spoke to me. It blew my mind apart and when I put it back together, something in me was settled. I was happier with who I was than I ever had been before. Why? Because at the end of this long and messy saga, the ace character remained himself. He was a particular way and he was not going to change.

This is why I support varied and complex interpretations of asexuality in fanfiction. I don't just see it as a live-and-let-live thing. I see stories that wrestle with ace identity in ways that are not neat and tidy as actually doing good.

Recently I started reading Murderbot fanfic. I'm not new to the series but I'm new to online fandom. At first I wasn't even sure I wanted to read "shippy" fic, not because I objected but just because I heard this fandom is awesome for appreciating gen works and I wanted to participate in that. In some fandoms, gen works can get ignored just for being gen.

But curiosity won out, and also I generally like shippy fic. What I've found as once I started reading the shippy material was a whole range of stories which engage with ace identities in such a fascinating variety of ways! In fact, I'm kind of glad I read the Angela Chen book and THEN found the fandom, because sometimes I read these stories and I'm like, "That's like in the book when--"

There's a subset of fans that don't want any romance in their fic, and triply don't want any kind of sexual content, even if it's metaphorical, like interacting in the feed. I get that, and it seems to me that this is one fandom which might benefit from more people making fic recs.

They used to be more common, but they fell out of favor at some point, maybe because they can trigger jealousy or hurt feelings. Murderbot is one fandom where honestly nobody needs recs based on story quality, because the average story is just so good. But I think there's room for recs based on content, helping fans find stories they like. Of course AO3 also has tags but sometimes a rec can communicate the "vibe" of the story in a different way.

I've also seen the occasional hostile comment, and these sting. Usually I don't care but in this case I've read really hostile things from authors I admire, who are also asexual. That just hits in a different way. Hopefully most people will want to live and let live.

Happy reading everyone!

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Murderbot + text posts [1/?]

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Murderbot + Onion Headlines [5/?]

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Murderbot + Onion Headlines [4/?]

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In the show, after Mensah tells Murderbot it's coming with them back to Presevation where it won't be security, Murderbot says "We can talk about this."

I see this as Murderbot trying to let the PresAux crew know it's unhappy with the idea that it won't be security anymore, but the team is too excited about having their bestie back to notice. Murderbot doesn't have the context of the Sweet/Bitter game that the audience saw. It's only context with the exact phrase "we can talk about this" comes from when the PresAux crew was upset with it for killing LeeBeeBee.

It's trying to communicate in a language it thinks its clients/owners will understand. They just don't notice.

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this is how artificial condition went right

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Apple TV Murderbot + Text posts

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i don't know if this was the show's express intent, but murderbot's sex repulsion in the show in tandem with how much its traits have been compared to those of a Sex/ComfortBot and how Leebeebee was constantly sexualizing it and talking about forcing it to have sexual organs for her to find attractive and then kissed it against its will — all of that feels so very reminiscent of my own experiences as an asexual person and it is making me sooooooooo

The idea that even well meaning people keep comparing you to 'more available' versions of yourself. The idea that your body is most relevant to others when pleasure can be sought from it. Not wanting to be looked at, if the only way people look at you is with lust, with misunderstanding.

Obviously murderbot isn't a show primarily about this, but I don't feel like I've ever seen sexual violence against asexuals represented in a media like this, if at all. It's a horrible fact about our demographic, but it is true that we face drastic levels of abuse, conversion therapy, corrective assault, and more. To see a window into the trauma of asexuality taken seriously and handled with even a little compassion truly means a LOT to me.

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Another thing I've been thinking about in regards to 'Murderbot' is how far Murderbot's accusations really go as confessions. I've seen people complain that PresAux are 'ungrateful', as Murderbot constantly characterizes them as such. It complains that they don't appreciate what it's done, don't recognize the efforts it's made.

But it's not taking into account what a bad communicator is constantly is. Yes, PresAux don't really understand Murderbot, but it has put very little effort into understanding them. The miscommunication goes both ways! Murderbot is a deeply self-sabotaging character, constantly walking away from moments it might have made a connection, refusing to explain itself or its actions, and then getting upset when people don't simply intuit them and thank it for what it refuses to put voice to.

It's an incredibly understandable flaw. So many people have the flaw of not explaining themselves, refusing to connect or communicate, and then getting angry when they're not understood. It's refusing to meet anyone half-way, because it's spent its existence being treated as an object. So why should it put forth any effort to explain itself now?

Except it still wants to be understood. It still wants to be appreciated. And when it does put forth that effort with Mensah, it's rewarded. She reaches back. She connects with it, but the problem is that she has other connections. She has other people she's responsible for, and so once again Murderbot feels misunderstood because it won't make the same effort with them, and they don't understand, and Mensah has to choose between chasing after it (again) and trying to keep her people cohesive and alive. She chooses the prior commitment, and she chooses to respect its autonomy.

"It's not your pet" echoes in my head, because I think there is a certain impulse in the audience to woobify Murderbot, to reduce it to a sweet baby pet thing that can't possibly help when it spies on people, or invades their privacy, or refuses to explain why it does what it does, or hurts people in unexpected ways (or very expected ways), or gets upset when people can't read its mind. But it's not a pet. It's a wholly realized, broken person. And it's fucking up every bit as much as PresAux is fucking up. Its war with Gurathin is 100% a mutual affair, where they've both been absolute shit to one another simply because they could. Its refusal to speak to the team in anything like an actual back-and-forth conversation is an understandable reaction to what it's been through, and it's still the wrong call and is actively worsening the situation everyone finds themselves in.

And that's what I like about this show. It's not taking the easy way out with any of these situations. Murderbot is an ASSHOLE, and it's wrong about half the things it says. It wants outcomes it can't or won't work for, and wants recognition for things there is no way for people to have know it did. And haven't we all done that? Haven't we all been in that mental place? Having to make connections is HARD. It's scary and puts you in a vulnerable place and may not pay off. And it's the only way to really live. Right now, Murderbot wants the rewards of connection without the risks and pains of connection.

That's a great place to start a long-term character arc! It's wrong and broken and dumb in the most honest, real ways. It makes massive mistakes, and refuses to acknowledge them, and hopes they just go away. Or it tries to tackle them, and does it in the worst possible way.

And then, occasionally, it gets it right. It opens up, and makes a real and beautiful connection. What it has with Mensah is as good as it is because Murderbot, even just a little, was willing to open up, to be vulnerable, to share pieces of itself. And that's the first thing that really matters in its life.

This show has a hopepunk heart, where genuine connection is not only rewarded, it's the only thing that really matters. It's a lesson Murderbot is going to learn, but it's going to be a slow and difficult path to understanding, just like it is for any of us.

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Painting the Habitat

When the first episode of Murderbot came out, I noticed that some viewers had objections to PresAux painting the Habitat. That was weird to me. All I could think was, has't everyone had that experience where you decorate some crappy apartment, knowing the rental company will ding you later for every nail or pushpin you stick in the wall, saying they're taking the money to repaint but then not actually repainting? It was worth it to make the space nicer, and because honestly the rental company was going to find some excuse to ding you anyway. PresAux painting the Habitat felt just like that to me. And of course in a group there will be one person who charges ahead and one person who worries about the money!

Then this interview with Noma Dumezweni (Mensah) talks about PresAux crafting:

"We're going on a research trip and we have to buy everything through the Corporation Rim." … "Even our uniforms are regulated, and we can’t get insurance without a security unit. That’s why we end up with Murderbot. But what I love about Preservation Alliance as a team is that they do craft work, they do painting on the habitation hub that they've been given. They do craft work on their clothes. They individualize them as much as they can."

The Noma Dumezweni interview is really cool for many reasons. She covers a lot of deeper topics, this was actually a minor point but one which had already been on my mind.

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Tlacey's ComfortUnit and Miki

Lately various posts got me thinking about the gulf between how SecUnit sees other constructs and the way the reader is supposed to see them. Major spoilers for Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol:

Tlacey's ComfortUnit: I've actually seen multiple posts describing it as evil. Strong disagree! This ComfortUnit was ruled by its governor module, exactly like SecUnit was for so long before it hacked its way free. Within the limits of its governor module and its ability to act without getting caught, this ComfortUnit acted against Tlacey and sought freedom.

SecUnit started Artificial Condition believing that it was personally responsible for the Ganaka Pit massacre. Moreover, the miners who got slaughtered weren't Company execs, they were fellow slaves and people it held sympathy for. Because of this, SecUnit doesn't trust itself or any other construct.

After finding out the truth, just about the next thing it does is free this ComfortUnit. Yeah, SecUnit is pissy about it, and also offers the ComfortUnit minimal aid after helping. It's great to see this ComfortUnit get liberated, while also being downright painful to see it welcomed with threats rather than assistance! Still, this is a step forward in SecUnit re-evaluating other constructs.

Miki: SecUnit meest Miki and immediately pegs Miki as a pet bot, happy in its "pet" role, unable to think or act independently and so naive that even talking to it is deeply horrifying.

But Mike exceeds SecUnit's expectations over and over. This supposedly naive bot instantly clocks when SecUnit is lying, it keeps secrets from Don Abene, and when those secrets are revealed it makes sophisticated decisions about what to say, manipulating the situation to protect SecUnit as much as possible. Miki argues with SecUnit's perception that Miki has no independence, and tries to repair their relationship after SecUnit stops talking to it in the feed. Finally, Miki acts against a direct order from Don Abene.

But what's equally important is that Don Abene ordered Miki to prioritize its own safety, not the safety of its friends. With her own life on the line, Don Abene wanted to save Miki. This IMO was instrumental in SecUnit wanting to see Mensah again. Watching Don Abene persuaded it that genuine friendship could exist between a human and construct or bot.

IMO Both Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol were necessary for SecUnit to want to return to Preservation space. The first so it knows its actually NOT some mass murderer and a constant danger to others, the second so it sees more potential in its relationship with Mensah. And in both cases, I think the reader is supposed to see the limitations of SecUnit's POV, to notice how it re-evaluates things but only to a certain point.

I kind of want to follow with thoughts about Three, but this is long enough so I'll stop here. I'll just say I hope for more Three content in the future!