#module ep

[mitjalovse]

Several modern electronic musicians appear to be something of an enigma about their own machinations and that can be unnerving for us to listen. Traumer is another one that does his own things and that's about that yet again. However, I would ask myself about the listeners of this music – what are they looking for in here? I agree, this is not a question to answer within the confines of this platform, but I believe a certain structure is present in here despite the formless behaviour he has in his compositions as one can assume from his pieces. I think these musicians reward the deep listening principle, they are to electronic music what slow food is to cuisine, if that makes a certain amount of sense. No? Oh, well …

[saltwaterbitch]

OUGHH MURDERBOT EP9

[lazzarella]

Earth as the devil!Heng on Kongdech's shoulder bed, though 👀

[kaiowut99]

lol poor Kite gets overshadowed more than you'd think for having a Light-Attribute ace

[phantom-of-the-501st]

The Clone Wars zillobeast episodes are just How Not to Do Conservation 101

10/10 do NOT recommend keeping something in a tiny cage and experimenting on it. That's (unsurprisingly) very bad

Also, Mace, mate. I get you want to protect the thing but "we'll move it to another planet" is not the best option. YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE IT AND PUT IT ON A DIFFERENT PLANET WITHOUT EXTENSIVE RESEARCH INTO IT'S SURVIVAL REQUIREMENTS

If you want to protect an endangered species, don't take a single animal, put it where there are definitely 100% no other ones and just leave it there. Like congratulations, you've just totally prevented the chance of there ever being any more offspring from that individual (assuming it doesn't reproduce asexually) and are now driving it further to extinction 👏

[rollaroundincompliments]

Not that we've been particularly on the rails of the book to begin with but this finale episode is just going completely off the map from the jump

[diploglottis]

Still having thoughts™ about that scene in season 4 ep 3 What was Lost where D'Argo tells Crichton he has to go back to Grayza, specifically the bit where he is making sure John can act like he is injured and then tongues him anyway and John's 'You bastard' as he passes out. It feels like he is trying to make a joke of it but it feels so much more hurt and personal then the couple eps before with the 'Rygel you Bastard!' as he is plummeting through Elak after his line broke and Rygel 'failed' to catch him. And I am just alkslaskg;lasf;klajsdl;jasklfj about it.

[stardust-bridges]

Club Furies Premiere: YAZMIN - Modulator [T&NE RECORDS]

T&NE RECORDS was created in February 2019 by Matthieu Rose aka MTRZ. The name is short for “techno and nothing else”. MTRZ then opened the doors of his label to other artists in 2022, such as AKZ and Tony Miler, transforming the label into a non-profit association. They each take on different things, in different areas to keep the label alive. For their next release, they introduce Yasmine…

[u-obd]

https://www.u-obd.com/product/audi-steering-test-harness/ Audi B8 Typ 8K, 8R, C7 Typ 4G. AUDI A4 A6 A7 A8 Q5 Servolenkung J500 EPS-Modul Prüfstandplattform.

audieps #audipowersteering #audij500 #8k0909144 #8r0909144 #4g0909144 #4g0907468 #4g0907637 #Kombisensor #Drehmomentsensor #b200049 #internerFehler #audia6c7 #audia4b8

[pesura]

ep stream: Peverelist - Pulse Modulation EP (Livity Sound, 2023)

[lonelylonelyghost]

MURDERBOOOOT ep.4

Honestly, this whole episode was AMAAAAAZING

sure

Love that they gave us this bit of worldbuilding

near death spiritual experience

THIS WAS SO FUNNY

Terrifying RogueUnit, dragging its easily defeated opponent onto an operation table, and then this rusty model having the audacity to just slide off and ruin the cool moment

A bit of genuine horror right here.

Imagine not being in control of your own body and actions and being helpless to do anything, and then, worst of all, your brain is rewired to think that it's alright

MENSAH TO THE RESCUE!

I love you soooo much

akdhdhfkddk

The hair, the self-insert, the everything

I also love that Murderbot's acting becomes as exaggerated and theatrical as the rest of the Sanctuary Moon's crew. Just complete shit show and I'm so here for it

Pin Li is like - not to wish death upon my friend, buuuuut

Oh Ratthi 🥰

you're so dumb 🥰

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Ratthi!"

the Threat Assessment Module joke

AKSHDHDJDJSJGSG

HE'S TRYING SO HARD TO BE HELPFUL

a bit of honesty in the midst of your mind being broken into

THEY'RE THE BEST

also, please, talk about this damn contract, I'm begging you

forcing me to kill MY stupid humans?!

NOT ON MY WATCH, EVIL CORPORATION!!!!

👌

****

This was the best episode so far! Every moment was worth a screenshot, but if I put everything I wanted, I'd have to make like 50 posts and I'm lazy

WATCH THIS SHOW!!!!

[amiya-shirou]

Read a post about how FGO was able to capitalize on its nature as a gacha back in the days by making a dead character impossible to summon in a way that, by ensuring the player knows he's never getting into the gacha (idea the game didn't betray even as of now 9 years later), adds to the sense of loss for that character in a way unique to this medium, and I was thinking about this in the context of how Arknights goes about it.

Obviously its equivalent dead character everyone has been crying about for years is Frostnova, the story went all in on the tragedy that while she joined Rhodes Island on her last moments we're never actually going to get her as an Operator and she's never going to walk in the landship with everyone else (see also the ep 14 dream scene), but going a bit deeper, I believe Theresa is an even more interesting case. As a character, she's defined by her fate: even when we do meet her in the present story she's already been dead for years, she's a reanimated corpse, and while we do see her move, breath, talk, interact with the world, she carries with her this aura of death that made it very hard to imagine she could be saved and join us at the end of it all - she was doomed to the point it made the players almost expect her to just crumble and vanish like dust once everything is over, and in fact when CE was first leaked and people thought it was Theresa getting into the gacha some opposed it because it could very possibly break the story. Her becoming playable felt so much like an impossibility it added to that feeling of her as a distant, ethereal figure, especially because the finale of part 2 happened right after we got the story about how she died in the first place and everyone was still crying over that tragedy.

But it didn't stop there - after the game unveiled everything about her, completely closed her story, and let her die in a way it's going to be impossible to get back from again (similarly to that case from FGO), it went one step further and added Civilight Eterna, someone that's obviously an excuse to give us a playable Theresa without clashing with the narrative but also further reinforces that sense of loss because she's not Theresa, no matter how much she looks and sounds like Theresa, she's a ghost masquerading as her, a program left behind by her lingering desire of somehow escaping that unavoidable doom, and every time you as the player go to her profile or put her in your home screen to listen to her lines or read her module and everything you're not getting more of your beloved character but just someone who keeps reinforcing again and again that she's not her, she can never be her, and by using the characteristics of being a gacha game this way Arknights manages to make you feel the same way as the other characters who were close to Theresa in the story: just like Kal'tsit can't even bear to look Civilight Eterna in the eyes because while resembling her loved one she's living proof the real Theresa is gone forever, as a player it's now impossible to wish for her return despite everything unlike what many people still do for that character from FGO, because CE's very existence, already having a playable "Theresa" in the game ensures the real one can't ever be added no matter what. With FGO, the player can at least hope, and has kept hoping for almost a decade. With Theresa, Arknights made it so that you can't even hope.

[davetheshady]

Murderbot TV and the Idiot Ball Problem

For the record, I quite liked the show! But this is about an adaptational choice that bothered me more as the season went on and I think undercut the emotional impact of the finale. 

(Spoilers for all ten eps)

Ok, so in the novella, PresAux is naive and ignorant about the Corporation Rim and is WAY out of their element as people keep trying to murder them, but from the beginning one of the things Murderbot appreciates about them is that they don’t act like idiots. Not only do they have common sense (which they actually use) but because they all get along, in times of crisis they support each other (even Murderbot), and this allows them to make better decisions instead of panicking and doing something stupid.

In the show though, this is, uh… less evident. 

An early example of this is Mensah not keeping her hands at 10 and 2 while flying. In the novella, doing so is a practical safety measure that has already endeared her to Murderbot, and then it prevents one of many murder attempts. Engaging autopilot and wandering away from the controls in the show doesn’t have any plot consequences; they largely avoid the sabotage storyline. This isn’t that big a deal, really, except that it highlights that show!PresAux doesn’t really pay attention to basic safety measures in mundane situations as well as extraordinary ones. 

And then there’s Mensah’s assertion that parts of Preservation are scared and want to join the CR. I mean, do people make bad decisions during hard times where they sacrifice liberty for security? Yes. Yes they do. ::thousand yard stare in American:: But Preservation in the books is pretty self-sufficient and does not seem to have any problems worse than selling yourself into indentured servitude, so, like, why is this being brought up? Maybe this will be a thing in the future, and it does heighten the tension, but since things are already tense and it doesn't play a further plot role now, it just feels like a whole planetary system was handed an idiot ball.

This started to bother me even more in episode 7, where MB getting them to leave the habitat is basically like pulling teeth despite the now multiple attempts to kill them and the fact that there is no good reason to shelter there. It's literally the exact opposite of their reaction in the novella. And then, at the end of the episode, they just turn around and go back! Even though as far as we know nothing about their situation has changed and become less murdery! The point is supposed to be that they put others before themselves, but you cannot in fact get Gurathin to the medbay if everyone else dies! This may have become an outsized annoyance with me since it actually gets resolved fairly quickly in the next episode, but I had gone camping and couldn’t catch up for a few weeks as I defended my campsite against elk (successful) and bison (less successful), so the annoyance lingered, not unlike the bison outside my tent. 

But episode 10 bothered me even more, because we start with Murderbot helpless because it’s alone. Then it gets its memory wiped. And then it gets a brand new governor module installed, the worst possible outcome! And finally we cut to the scientists, who have all showered and changed and are only now starting to wonder what’s going to happen to MB after they handed it back to the very shady company who has a vested interest in not having any evidence about how much they fucked up, doesn’t care who lives and dies as long as it’s cheap, and also, enslaved Murderbot in the first place. Like. COME ON. Not only does it mean they’ve gained no wariness of corporates after ten episodes of mayhem, but it also means they didn’t pay ANY attention to Murderbot and its worst fears. 

This is a pretty big idiot ball to carry just in terms of what has gone on in the show, but in comparison to the novella? SO MUCH WORSE. In the novella, when MB wakes up, Ratthi is already there to supervise as it’s being repaired in the cubicle. Pin-Lee has already gotten an injunction to keep its memory intact. Mensah has already bought its contract! It’s obvious PresAux recognized Murderbot was still in danger even if they weren’t and made a plan to keep it safe and get it out of there. It shows that not only are they smart, but they care! They’re trying to protect Murderbot the way it protected them! 

And like, I understand why “oh no! The worst is happening!” is more interesting to watch than “ok, we talked about it offscreen and we have prevented the worst from happening”. But the problem is not that bad things happen to Murderbot, it’s that you can have the exact same plotline without the idiot ball. There actually is a good reason to hand Murderbot over to the company: it was catastrophically injured and needs to be repaired. If you simply had the first scene be of PresAux worrying about what happens to it, and trying to make plans and get information from the unhelpful corporates, only to find out they’re too late? Heartbreaking, not idiotic. Then the rest of the episode is about their persistence to save their friend, NOT about trying to undo their fuckup because they weren’t paying attention and didn’t take its safety seriously. 

Honestly, I think – well, I hope – that a lot this is just due to sheer convenience of storytelling, and the adaptation is prioritizing the ease of plot mechanics (go here, do this, experience the exciting thing) over constructing dynamic character arcs where they actually learn from their mistakes. There's also probably a side of the false dichotomy of logic vs emotion that sci-fi loves so much.

But the reason it stands out so much is because the books specifically AVOID doing that, and I hope future seasons start adapting that as well. One of the great joys of The Murderbot Diaries is the competence porn, and you can’t have that when 99% of the cast is incompetent. 

Gurathin puking because of all the Murderbot in his head was pretty funny though, ngl.

[thirstkanaphan]

Seonghwa and Mingi's relationship is the most fascinating to me, because they are SO different.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I always feel a bit of friction between them: Seonghwa is so polished and crafted and Mingi has a hard time modulating himself when being filmed. I suspect Mingi freaks Seongwha out a bit: he is ungovernable and cannot be nudged along with subtle cues like Seonghwa does with most of the members. Seonghwa is very socially intelligent and understands when the viewer/audience needs him to be cute, sexy, silly, or team mom. Mingi doesn’t have that quick ability to pivot and cannot mask in the same way. I will also note that Mingi understands this about himself and uses it to his advantage to make himself the center of a bit (any attention is good attention). Seonghwa has joked before about Mingi's mental age ("not yet") and I remember during the last Wanteez ep, Hongjoong and Seonghwa joke about always having to worry about Mingi.

I think Seonghwa is distressed by Mingi's ability to move through the world without much social tact but also impressed by the outpouring of charm he has on stage - he mentioned after the last tour how much he admires Mingi's charismatic performance and I can't help but wonder if that has inspired Seonghwa's own transformative performance during this tour: bolder, sexier, more provocative.

I know very little about the MBTI test that the members use as one facet of their idol identity, but Mingi being the only one in the group to be a "T" and him explaining that as him being very literal makes me understand him better. He cites that as a reason why writing lyrics for the Treasure-era albums were so challenging ("what do you mean, we're pirates?") and in one of his interviews with Seonghwa, who is an "F" they show how different they are by responding to social prompts.

I also think of the recent MMA awards where Seonghwa gives a beautiful acceptance speech about dreams and how "just being able to stand on stage tomorrow felt like a truly big dream come true, but after meeting our ATINYs, it feels like our dreams keep growing bigger." Then Yunho prompts Mingi to say a few words and Mingi completely steals the spotlight with a sweet but VERY cringeworthy bit of aegyo.

I always wonder if this was a pre-arranged bit or did Mingi lose a bet?

I feel like they've both worked really hard to understand each other, even though they both acknowledge that they remain incompatible. The fortune teller confirmed this, but I like this quick exchange.

Going back to the conversation from the video above, I do think Mingi's own journey towards letting go of his rigidly-held beliefs of how things should be has allowed him to mature into less of a perfectionist and someone who can inhabit a more comfortable season of his adulthood; in contrast, Seonghwa mentions that his own "lukewarm" persona is something he now seeks to discard to show the "hotter" parts of himself. They seem to have met briefly in the middle of their respective journeys and are once more heading in opposite directions. I wonder if they'll ever meet in that place again.

[ao3cassandraic]

Some things we learn, or have confirmed, in Murderbot ep 3 (SPOILERS, NATCH):

Murderbot can placidly ignore indirect orders, no matter how politely expressed. It can, however, choose to obey them... it does lower its helmet after Mensah leaves. (Petty little unit, isn't it? "I'll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to!") It's even learned to ignore "direct orders" from Ratthi, where they touch on human interactions. ("Get in here!" "Not a chance.")

Mensah knows this, but is bullheaded enough to keep trying. Go Mensah go! Treat that SecUnit like the person it is! Open up the team to include it!

Confirmed: Preservation Alliance isn't wealthy and needs resources. We kinda got hammered over the head with that in this ep.

Confirmed: BHARADWAJ IS NOT OKAY. Oh, honey. Somebody give you all the hugs please! (Mensah -- I assume it was Mensah -- leaving her behind, and not alone, was a good move.)

Gurathin continues with the full-on awkward. Bharadwaj doesn't want a therapy module; she wants a listening ear, Gura!

Mensah wants one too, but... Murderbot cannot be a dumping ground for her anxieties. It is right to walk away from her, though the nonverbal abruptness isn't exactly the best way to set a boundary (it's okay, Murderbot, we know you're trying, and Mensah dumping on you really was both unfair and othering -- she won't do this to any other team member, so why you?).

Pin-Lee is a pattern-seeker. It was smart of them to try to figure out whether there's a pattern in the comms satellite outages. We'll see this come back around, I'm betting.

Ratthi may be dealing with a substance-use disorder? Ouch. He's hard on himself about it, too. He has had a bit of a class-clown vibe so far, alongside a need to Fix Relationships...

... which, given the friction between Arada and Pin-Lee, is becoming difficult. I confidently forecast the said difficulty increasing.

Confirmed: tv!Murderbot has zero interest in being human. "Oh, hold on, I definitely am [more of a machine than Gurathin]." Origins ain't everything, MB, but you do you.

Gurathin's backstory is not looking like sunshine and roses. As someone who tiptoed around and hid a lot as a kid to escape my parents' or classmates' notice, I'm smelling "history of abuse and/or bullying" coming off him. Third possibility: child soldier of some kind -- that sure would explain the therapy modules. Whatever it is, though, I think Bharadwaj knows about it.

Gurathin does want to be human(e). From how he was looking at the pic of Mensah's kids, Mensah's heart is a lot of what draws him to her.

I'm enjoying the leakage between in-show shows and, um, actual show. The ending here? Classic soap-style cliffhanger (just like the first chapter of book!ASR, actually). Hell yeah let's cross narrative structures!

And we all know I have a thing about surveillance, so... we learn something about PresAlliance norms in this ep. Nobody caviled at Gurathin looking at Arada's feed after the millipede munch... but the PresAuxers and especially lawyer Pin-Lee think that SecUnit monitoring their logs (especially without notice) is Super Not Okay.

(PIN-LEE, WHY DID YOU NOT READ THE CONTRACT AND NOTICE THIS IN IT. I'M SURE IT WAS THERE. Yeah, yeah, fine, it's a hit at shitty privacy policies and ToSes, I get that, but sheesh, YOU ARE THEIR LAWYER. THIS IS ON YOU.)

Can I just say I'm in love with Noma Dumezweni's voice? The warmth, the resonance, the depth. Gorgeous.

[jujuberry136]

murderbot tv ep 5

Sadly, no new Sanctuary Moon clips this episode - but we did still get plenty of references! And a terrible cliffhanger (...I am loving this full embrace of the serial drama with a weekly release schedule to leave us all hanging until next Friday).

Spoilers below (including discussion of future Murderbot Diaries novellas)!

So Leebeebee is definitely a GreyCris plant - yes? I loved how they set up her:

Was Arada mirroring Murderbot's shock questions when faced with Leebeebee?

Leebeebee throwing out a NEW terrible sci-fi show (one with murderous SecUnits that, of course, SecUnit doesn't like and even Rathi appears to be giving the reference a WTF)

The PresAux team not knowing WTF to do with Leebeebee casually implying their SecUnit is also a Comfort Unit?

The show ALSO was able to introduce the indentured contract concept to the audience, setting up more of this shitty corporate hellhole

With the change-up of the beacon exploding what can be considered 'mid' story, it seems like they might be setting more time devoted to the PresAux / Company/GreyCris conflict that might help set-up a season 2 based more on Exit Strategy? I mean, I am keeping my fingers crossed we get ART

Things I loved:

Rathi's conversation about naming a child after SecUnit as a tribute

"Yeah, I'm friends with a SecUnit, that's right" ...Rathi...

Rathi baiting Murderbot with a deepcut of Sanctuary Moon lore to test if it was watching (and Pin-Lee pointing approvingly at the bait and Arada backing her up)

"Looking at their hopeful faces, I was glad I didn't murder them. Mostly."

The big reveal that Murderbot has hacked its governor module AND HubSystem!

The "I don't like you" from Murderbot to Gurathin, setting up very nicely that Gurathin has maybe a bit of a point here to be concerned BUT also illustrating very nicely that Murderbot is not an emotionless drone

Murderbot very cattily interrupted Gurathin's emotional conversation with Mensah, I loved it

Murderbot marveling at being able to have a free conversation with Mensah like in its shows

They kept the Mensah and Murderbot conversation about the PresAux team letting in the third party - Mensah acknowledging that their team is naive, but they would help.

If Leebeebee IS GreyCris, then she was there during the big conversation about Murderbot hacking its governor module, which would mean that even the hacking of Hub System's feed and replacing that recording with banal stuff isn't going to help too much (unless Leebeebee kicks it before getting back to GreyCris)...