#this is the plot of murderbot kind of

[sk-ew]

Senior Indah: Do you have any experience solving murders?

Murderbot: .......... Yes.

[ilovedthestars]

Hi Stars! I've been thinking some more about media with deep platonic relationships, and I'd like to recommend Victoria Goddard's Nine Worlds fantasy universe. She has several interconnected series set in different parts of the same world, most of which have a lot of "love as in significance" going on.

In particular, The Hands of the Emperor and its sequel, At the Feet of the Sun, focus on the deepening friendship between the Emperor and his personal secretary (later Lord Chancellor), Cliopher. The sequel makes it explicitly clear that Cliopher is ace and the relationship he dreams of having with the Emperor is a queerplatonic one. Both books are enormous doorstops, but I love their leisurely, character-focused pace and overall tone of compassion and hopefulness.

Ooh, thank you so much! I can enjoy a good doorstopper if it's well paced, and this sounds really cool. I went to go look up a summary on the author's website:

An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history. Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation. One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday. The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world.

I can already feel the platonic pining, oh my goodness. That kind of imbalance, wanting to be close to someone who's revered as a ruler and a god, being devoted to them as both but also caring about them as a person--it's so juicy. I imagine this is why some people love bodyguard romances and similar plots, but knowing that the desited end state of this pining is queerplatonic makes it so much more exciting to me.

I read the sample on the website too, which is sizable and took me all the way up to the invitation. I'm intrigued by the worldbuilding, I love that the protagonist is a bureaucrat whose life's work is trying to help people and shift political systems to be better for the citizens, I love all the complicated emotions of his trip back home and trying to reconcile his two lives. I can already feel that compassionate, hopeful, contemplative tone to the writing, and I can already tell that this is a story that treats friendship with weight.

I mean, look at this:

He thought of his lord, pacing in his study, bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. Thought of how well they worked together, the enmeshing of respect and knowledge and good humour and experience. Thought of leaving his lord to the court. Thought of leaving his friends in Solaara-Conju and Ser Rhodin and Commander Omo-how none of them had families, had lost them in the Fall. Thought of leaving his work undone. All those projects slowly, delicately, unobtrusively transforming the government according to his vision of what the world could be. Thought of his lord, never failing to do his duty. Thought of his lord, with no one to joke with him. Thought of losing that—he could not call it friendship, could he? That implied a kind of equality, and there was no equality possible between the Sun-on-Earth and anyone else. But call it a relationship, that was permissible. He suppressed the wish that he dared call his Radiancy his friend.

And this:

"You saw this beautiful place, and you thought I would like it, and that I might enjoy a—a vacation after finishing up my present project, so you rented it for a month in my name, am I correct?" Cliopher swallowed. But his Radiancy said I, not we. He held to that. "I did not presume so far, my lord. It is in my name." His Radiancy continued to frown silently for several moments longer. And then he said: "Thank you, Cliopher." When Cliopher glanced up in surprise, for his Radiancy's tone had changed utterly, he saw that his Radiancy was smiling and there was even, oh just perhaps, the suspicion of moisture in his Radiancy's eyes, and Cliopher sank back to the ground in sheer relief and wonder and also a kind of pain, for he had seen that kind of surprised pleasure before in the faces of people receiving entirely unexpected but welcome gifts. And it occurred to him, somewhat later, after they had settled into their usual work, that if he, who was the chief member of his Radiancy's household, had never before dared offer a gift to his Radiancy beyond the tithes and service expected of him, then apart from his Radiancy's sister, who barely wrote and even more rarely came to court, there was no one else to do so.

I think I am going to LOVE this book. I've requested it from my library, and I can't wait for it to get here. Thank you so much for the rec!!

[blackholeca]

So if you’ve read All Systems Red and been keeping up with the Murderbot show you’ve probably realized there’s quite a bit different about how Murderbot acts in the show compared to in the books, the best way I found I could explain this was just that it seemed much angrier in the show compared to the books where it felt more exasperated/annoyed by what the preservation crew were getting up to.

I’ve seen several people on here talk about how in the show Murderbot has been free for a lot less time than in the books (7000 hours vs 35000, so from almost four years to under a year), and how people believe that that’s one of the reasons Murderbot seems so bad at pretending not to be Rogue because it hasn’t had the same amount of time to be able to practice well… not being that, but I definitely think the same goes for its personality, ignoring the plot, show!Murderbot almost seems like the prequel to the Murderbot we all know and love, a glimpse into the kind of personality book murderbot likely had in the years leading up meeting preservation aux

When the show first came out I watched those first two episodes several times over even though I’d already spent time ranting to friends about all the changes and how it wasn’t bad but I wasn’t sure if i really liked it and how “murderbot didn’t seem like murderbot”, but looking back now I realized it’s just a side of murderbot we’ve seen only once before

Some people who are just getting into Murderbot may not be familiar with the fact that in 2018 Martha Wells released a short oneshot (1k) prequel of when Murderbot was watching episode 44 of sanctuary moon for the first time called Compulsory (it’s free to read check it out if you haven’t). I remember the first time I read it thinking that despite it being written by the author the personality it showed hadn’t really seemed like murderbot. But coming now to the show and seeing everyone’s reactions and thoughts about it made everything kind of slot together for me. Because what we’re seeing (both in Compulsory and the show) is murderbot, it’s just a much younger version of it that’s still working its way through all the media book!murderbot has long since watched and learned from and grew through, those 35000 hours of media is why we have a muderbot that has a more exasperated attitude towards humans versus the angry, freshly hacked murderbot we see in the show.

In a way all that media taught it, perhaps not empathy or pity, but the ability to understand and see humans for what they could be outside of the assholes they usually were to secunits. And we get to see the beginnings of that in Compulsory and I’m certain by the end of this season we’ll get see a similar sort of progression, though I wonder how they’ll end up showing that with all the changes not only to the plot, but also to where this story falls in terms of the timeline.

I know there are people out there hating on the changes in the show and how the murderbot they depict in the show doesn’t feel like the one in the books, but I think you can let yourself enjoy the differences while not letting it detract from book cannon. In all the experience becomes more enjoyable, maybe even a bit endearing, when you look at the show from the perspective of this being a much younger version of our favorite murderbot who is still learning to feel and understand itself and the incompetent and gross and weird humans it’s found itself entangled with

[fleetinglyshelved]

There's a part (many parts) I keep rotating in my head, and it's this one:

I was trying to isolate why I felt so uneasy. Trapped in a small enclosed space with humans, check. Missing my drones, check. My Giant Asshole Research Transport too busy to complain at, check. Needed to actually focus on what I was doing so couldn’t watch media, check. (Artificial Condition, ch. 6)

It's definitely a funny line, one of those times when ART's name is spelled out, the humor inherent in Murderbot missing its venting buddy.

But that's also the thing that adds so much to their relationship: Murderbot has never ever had this kind of relationship, never ever had someone it can just freely vent and complain at. Someone who it feels comfortable sharing these feelings with, from petty annoyances to genuine worries. And while the latter requires a whole different level of vulnerability and trust, I don't think the former should be dismissed as trivial either. It establishes a level of intimacy and comfort between them that feels deeper than if Murderbot just had a convenient receptacle for plot-relevant concerns.

Also, *MY* Giant Asshole Research Transport

[trashmancer]

Gurathin: "I-I have some, um, behavioral therapy modules if you'd like to try them?" Bharadwaj: "Oh, you mean for the... for the..." Gurathin: (cutting in) "They're non-specific."

What in the world kind of trauma is haunting Gurathin? (And when will we find out about it?)

In this episode, the story has him sneak into Mensah's room and bury his face in her pillow. Like, personally, to me this isn't as creepy as some other people are making it out, as he is clearly in a distressed state when doing this (trembling and hugging himself, breaks down crying). I see it as he's seeking comfort, it's not sinister or lecherous. Boundary-breaking? Yes, it's invasive. But I think that's mostly down to draw further parallels between Gurathin and Murderbot (as we see the crew getting upset learning Murderbot is reading their logs).

I get the impression Gurathin thought to do it after Bharadwaj said she kept smelling the creature in her flashbacks and could practically smell the creature still on her. Thinking of the emotional affect of smell, he used Mensah's pillow to summon the calming reassurance of her presence.

Which... we already know he's got some kind of PTSD from his behavior in episodes 1-2, but all of what we saw in episode 3 was just to drive that plot deeper down the road.

Plus, fun, we get a hint toward Gurathin's backstory with this little line:

Gurathin: "S-Sorry, it's an old habit. Being quiet."

Which...was he quiet because he snuck up on people? Is this a clue he was a former assassin? Or a spy? Or could it be hinting at trauma from being abused? Needing to be quiet to remain unseen from a threat?

Show, what happened to this man? How did he get so damaged?

[mswyrr]

Tons of aroace people have ships and enjoy romance in fiction. In the same way people enjoy all kinds of things in fiction they do not personally want irl. Fictional tastes don't invalidate someone's orientation.

Anyway. I think Murderbot ships it. And I kind of wish I could watch Sanctuary Moon to follow their plot lol

In terms of narrative -- what a beautiful way to express how deeply it felt for the team already (I think a lot of the thoughts about connection and meaning it attributes to them it was also starting to feel) and how devastating it found their reaction to it killing Leebeebee. that whole sequence is another example of it doing "theory of mind" and trying to suss out someone's emotions. but instead of it just being on mensah, it's the whole team now

Sanctuary Moon really is its inner life and guide to deciphering emotions.

[murderbot-moodboard]

Whew! Murderbot Episode 8. What a ride! As has become tradition, below the cut are assorted thoughts about the episode, which I typed up during my second watch. I've since consolidated them for clarity, if not brevity—fair warning that this is definitely a long post. I've divided the episode into sections and added headers to hopefully help with readability.

In/Around the Hopper:

- The Sanctuary Moon opener was interesting, because we finally see one of the infamous examples in media of a bot going rogue and killing everyone. But in this instance, it seems like NavBot 7 could be responding to some kind of betrayal, so it may not be completely unwarranted. I'm curious whether the bot will actually kill Officer Hordööp-Sklanch or not, and whether that's something we'll find out later.

- In the first scene with Murderbot, Mensah is showing outer signs that she's having another panic attack, and we get to see how she manages it when she's not in a situation where she feels she can just openly panic. Interestingly, Murderbot doesn't comment on it this time. Ratthi, sadly, has apparently learned nothing from his dismal track record with weapons. I do like that they incorporated the drone plot element from the first book by saying SecUnit was having its surveillance cameras send data to its transponder.

- GrayCris has at least three more SecUnits of "the kind that kicked SecUnit’s ass." (Wow, don't beat around the bush, Pin-Lee.) Ratthi's right, Pin-Lee is good at... whatever they did to identify the GrayCris logo. Also, it's interesting that all the stuff GrayCris is attributing to PresAux was stuff that Murderbot did independently. Murderbot and the rest of PresAux remember the fight very differently, but at least PresAux listened to Murderbot's reality checking. And I laughed out loud that Murderbot is already telling Ratthi to stay in the hopper!

In the Habitat:

- I thought it was interesting that when Murderbot checks the habitat, the shot comes to focus for a moment on LeeBeeBee's blood on the wall. Maybe as a reminder of what's at stake, and how GrayCris has tried to fuck them over so far? Or of the violence Murderbot has already committed?

- Let's do surgery! I'm not a medical expert and I'm going to ignore the question of how realistic any of this is in favor of its impact on the plot. It's cool to see all of PresAux present to support Gurathin and help Bharadwaj however they can. Bharadwaj continues to be badass throughout this whole scene. This seems to be her own time to step up and fill the role she's needed for, even when it's not something she's necessarily an expert at. (She is much better at this than at combat-style stone throwing.) Ratthi is also attempting to step up and be comforting, but although his efforts are endearing and well meant, um, that's about it, lol.

- And we get right into the angst with Gurathin refusing painkillers despite the rest of the team's protests. When Mensah won't listen he calls her Dr. Mensah, which is I think the first time he's called her that when speaking to her (iirc the rest of the time it's either "Mensah" or "Ayda"). “This is how it started.” That makes so much sense, especially considering how callous the Corporation Rim is about human safety and mental health. It's so easy to imagine Gurathin getting injured and receiving pain killers, then continuing to crave the relief/escape they bring from a completely shitty daily life and a lack of emotional support.

- Gurathin and Murderbot had the same thought at the same time! I really love how the show is playing up the parallels between them. I'm hoping we get some kind of payoff for it by the end, but we'll see. Also love that apparently Mensah has Murderbot figured out well enough to suspect it didn't “do this before” but rather got its idea from a TV show. 😂 The question is, where did Gurathin get the idea from? Or did he come up with it all on his own?

- “It wasn't so long ago you plugged into me.” “Let's hope you still remember after this is over.” Murderbot woke up and chose violence to threaten Gurathin like Gurathin threatened it when he was the one with the power. Now that the balance has shifted, Murderbot isn't being cruel to him, but it is being a petty little shit, and I love that for it tbh

- Omigosh this is amazing!!! They're mind melding through the augments!!!!! Mind-sharing is my absolute favorite scifi trope, and it's a big part of why I enjoy Murderbot Diaries fanfic that has Murderbot and other characters connecting through the feed and interacting with each other's systems. The fact that they're not only introducing it as a plot point this early in the larger TMBD storyline, but also visualizing it and having Murderbot describe it for us, makes me absolutely feral with excitement for what they might do with it in the future!

- Mensah holding Gurathin's hand. That is all. 🥹

- Murderbot seems to be pulling out its MedCenter Argala surgeon persona again. “By the way I wasn't doing this to be nice. It was just preferable to hearing Gurathin scream.” Suuuure, Murderbot, keep telling yourself that. Then it says going into Gurathin's data after Gurathin went into its data “was only fair.” Methinks it doth protest too much and might actually feel a little guilty about it.

- We're actually getting to see what it's like to interface with an augmented human mind!!!!! And apparently getting a glimpse of a visual memory and Gurathin's thoughts, it seems like. Gurathin loves the others “as one loves their own children” but he loves Mensah “as an equal; as my better.” Someone on the New Tideland server suggested that this could mean Gurathin thinks the others are all naive and Mensah is the only one who understands things the way Gurathin does. There was also discussion of whether he was even referring to the rest of PresAux or not. I don't have any answers but I'm hoping we'll find out more at some point.

- Holy shit, Murderbot, don't get lost in Gurathin's mind and start blabbing all his secrets! 😂 And then it pulls out the surgeon persona again. Also interesting that Gurathin thought he might've said something, maybe not only because these are his thoughts, but also because of how their minds are connected through the link?

- Was Gurathin working his way into Murderbot's systems the whole time? Damn. Love, love, love the handling of this scene. And Murderbot can't handle how disappointed they look, especially Mensah—it's after she turns away from it that it puts up its helmet and walks out. It's really come to care about being liked and accepted by PresAux and respected by Mensah. Feeling like it's lost that really, really hurts. (Relatable.)

After Murderbot Walks Out

- Bharadwaj seems like she may be rethinking her view of Murderbot. At least, she's admitted she would be dead without it. She seems to have reached a place where she can hold both that truth and the truth of how she felt about LeeBeeBee's death.

- Mensah's decision to change the subject seems to be partly a tactical decision, but her brief outburst at Ratthi shows that it's partly because she's having her own emotions, and she knows they don't have time for that right now. But then a few moments later, she puts her hand comfortingly on Ratthi's arm, as if in apology for her anger and acknowledging the emotions he's feeling. Also I like how all of PresAux is being insightful and figuring stuff out together in this scene. They're not supersoldiers, but they are intelligent people who work well together.

- “There was no governor module forcing me to protect them.” “I was screwed too. There was no way off this planet without my clients. It was pretty clear that I revolted them.” It's good to have these reminders of Murderbot's perspective. It still can't trust anyone except itself will look out for it or prioritize its survival. Love that we got to see it watching its favorite episodes to self soothe. "Murderbot and Its Selfish, Ungrateful Hippie Clients" sounds like a crack in the fourth wall to me, lol.

- I laughed about the throuple conversation going completely different than planned. 😂 I'll be interested to see whether Pin-Lee and Ratthi end up in a relationship separate from Arada and Pin-Lee's relationship, which would still be a legitimate poly arrangement. It's good to see that they're finally trying to be more honest about their feelings; that will make a big difference in whether they can potentially find an arrangement that works for all of them.

- Okay, re: the ending, obviously it's supposed to sound like Murderbot is thinking of betraying Preservation Aux. But I think the wording is key here—“I could write my own story: The Rogue SecUnit Who Betrayed Its Clients.” I think Murderbot's plan is going to have something to do with teaming up with PresAux to make it look to GrayCris like Murderbot turned on PresAux in some way (which could look similar to or completely different from the events that happen in the book).

- Also, the ending was quite funny to me. Murderbot, you gotta work on your entrances. And alas, Gurathin's hopes of never seeing it again are dashed, lol.

***

All right! If you made it to the end, you are an amazing person and I hope you're having a great day! You've been scrolling for a while, so you might consider drinking some water and stretching at this point. (Or don't, totally up to you.) Either way, thanks for coming with me on this exploration of Murderbot. With two episodes left, I think the best is yet to come.

[skarsjoy]

This is a cute interview I missed with Alexander Skarsgård talking to Yahoo! Entertainment about Murderbot and a fabulous lightning round Q&A at the end.

Alexander Skarsgård wants to be left alone to watch TV, just like Murderbot

We may not have killing cyborg security units (yet), but we have ChatGPT. The "Murderbot" star braved an AI-generated portion of this interview.

Taryn Ryder; Fri, May 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM EDT

excerpts:

Murderbot is a genderless cyborg in the books, with no physical human-looking attributes of note. So, how on earth did Alexander Skarsgård fit the bill to play the titular character?

The show’s creators, brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, knew it would be an impossible task to cast someone who fit “everybody’s version of what they were thinking of.” They even considered a female lead. But when Skarsgård showed interest, they say, the casting choice was a no-brainer.

“Alexander’s a deeply eccentric person. He’s somebody who has this exterior that can be intimidating. He was in the Swedish special forces. He appears from characters he’s played like he could really kill somebody,” Paul tells Yahoo.

The Weitzes know fans of the books have “headcanon,” which, in fandom terms, refers to how people envision what a character is going to look or feel like. They say fans won’t be disappointed by Skarsgård. (Early reviews agree.)

“He has a really good sense of humor and he’s an oddball. Those characteristics were characteristics which one felt would suit Murderbot,” Paul adds. “We just wanted it to be an actor who was really specific.”

Skarsgård is happy to show off his eccentric side in the series.

“It’s such a weird, unique character that I definitely hadn’t played before, and I was also excited about doing something slightly more comedic compared to The Northman or Infinity Pool, other, slightly darker projects that I’ve done recently,” he tells Yahoo. “I was beyond excited when I came across this weird sci-fi action plot, but centered around a socially awkward android who loves soap operas.”

Skarsgård says he personally relates to Murderbot’s “procrastination.”

“I thought that was quite interesting how it calls itself Murderbot and it’s going to go on these epic adventures. And that’s kind of what you expect to see when you’re watching a sci-fi show — that it’s actually heroic and confident and goes out there and kicks ass. But instead ... Murderbot procrastinates and gets stuck just watching its favorite show, Sanctuary Moon,” he laughs. “I find it quite relatable that, you know, you’ve got these grand plans, but they can wait till tomorrow. You just got to watch a few more episodes of something.”

Since sci-fi always touches on real-world themes and the closest thing we have to a SecUnit is ChatGPT, I signed up for the AI chatbot to enlist its help for a lightning round of Murderbot and Skarsgård-themed questions. The 48-year-old Swedish star was excited to see how it did.

I’m going to fire them off. Are you ready?

Yeah.

Would you rather binge-watch a show or explore a new city?

Explore a new city.

Twenty-four-hour robot bodyguard or 24-hour robot personal chef?

Personal chef.

Be a brilliant villain or forgettable hero?

Forgettable hero. Forgettable hero is really nice. I like that.

Acting in a heavy costume or acting with heavy CGI?

I’m quite lazy. I like practical stuff that’s not CGI, but I’m also lazy. The thought of doing something in pajamas in front of a green screen? I’ll go for that one.

Skarsgård family game night. Is it board games or chaos?

I would say chaotic board games.

What would be a favorite recharge, sleeping in or an outdoor activity?

Outdoor activity.

Watch a bad movie with friends or a masterpiece alone?

Bad movie with friends.

Robots taking over or aliens invading?

Aliens invading.

Be famous in a tiny galaxy or totally anonymous on Earth?

I’d like to be famous in a tiny galaxy. I like that idea.

See, these weren’t too bad. I mean, I took out the really weird and creepy ones, so my job still needs to be here, but...

Give me one creepy [question].

OK, you asked. Would you rather keep taking your shirt off or only wear clothes in films?

Keep taking my shirt off.

full interview link:

Photos 1) my screen cap of Alex in Murderbot/AppleTV episode 1.07 "Complementary Species' and 2) Victoria Ellis for Yahoo News; 3) in link: Getty Images)

[penig]

I finally got to watch the first three Murderbot episodes. We went to a friend's house and they grilled and we watched them all back to back. I was the only one who'd read the books and I behaved very well, thank you. They've kind of put the plot in a blender, but if I can enjoy Book Oz and Garland Movie Oz, or Book Pooh and Disney Pooh (and I do) I can enjoy Book Murderbot and TV Murderbot. It could still crash and burn, but what we saw we all enjoyed. Even my friend's husband, who didn't seem to be watching, but when the third episode ended was upset that they stopped where they did and wanted to go straight to Episode 4.

Weirdly, the thing I actively mind at this point is that TV Rise and FAll of Sanctuary Moon doesn't seem to center on the colony solicitor and her bodyguard, who are clearly the primary characters in Book Sanctuary Moon.

[elamarth-calmagol]

Does anyone have a good explanation for why Leebeebee was put into Murderbot? What was the point of her? Now, admittedly, she was probably designed for the audience to hate, so the fact that I loathed her with every fiber of my being isn't a problem. I don't think I've been so happy to see someone die since Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones, which was most of a decade ago. So, she's like, humor/rage bait. But what was her narrative purpose? They were all in danger anyway. The team already had two different reveals of SecUnit being dangerous (rather than one in the book, because they found out it was rogue at the same time as they found out it had maybe massacred clients before). They didn't really need a third reason to panic over its behavior. The only useful thing she did was injure Garathin, which of course wasn't necessary for the plot, but they did do a good job with Garathin's backstory, in my opinion. So the only thing I can come up with is padding out time, which is kind of concerning for future seasons. I do not like that they added a whole new character. I'm worried about what else they're going to add in the future.

[jujuberry136]

Murderbot 1x09, All Systems Red

Murderbot's quipping and conversational skills are put to the test, the GreyCris team makes a re-appearance, plans within plans are attempted, and we're in the penultimate episode that has a longer run time. I cackled, I cried, a good time was had by jujuberry. More behind the cut!

Things I loved:

Minor point, but I love the difference between PresAux and Corporation Rim in terms of outlook. Mensah asks about the probability of success and MB runs its Risk Assessment Module (aka chances of failure)

MB quoting Guarathin's line about eye contact back to him, brilliantly petty

MB casually listening in to Guarathin talking with Mensah in the ship, you can just feel it rolling its eyes (I already told you guys I can hear everything, why do you keep acting surprised?)

Everyone has a crush on Mensah, i'm glad this is canon

"As usually, humans were being hot messes" - that line delivery killed me. Anachronistic and kind of out of place? Yes. Funny? ABSOLUTELY.

Mensah's little recoil when SecUnit was telling GreyCris that its clients didn't realize it was rogue because the PresAux team was too self-absorbed was a great character beat

MB's reveal that it's plan involved killing all of GreyCris with the beacon to keep the PresAux team safe - and that was the only plan it could think of, but a "better" SecUnit might have come up with a better idea ("you get what you pay for")

MB's obsession with Sanctuary Moon yet again gets it in trouble... it really needs to realize that as "premium content" its possible that others will also recognize the names/story beats

I LOVED MB congratulating itself for its great conversational skills as we can clearly see its failing terribly

"Clasp hands?"

"There's a pebble in my boot"

"Yeah, why?" Do you think MB realized it spoke out loud?

Mensah's continued angst about MB needing to defend Sanctuary Moon

We get to see MB offering to help its fellow SecUnits hack their governor modules, hooray!

When MB shared the media with the other SecUnit as a distraction, a nice visual when the file sharing options "Accept Yes/Yes". Nice continuation of how Corproation Rim treats SecUnits (since we also got a scene in the cargo bay)

"My clients are the best clients" gross sobbing, just perfect with that musical theme and the catastrophic failure warning visual

Pacing wise, I do think this one had some issues in context of the larger show's runtime. I feel like the show wanted to have some tension about betrayal in the last episode, but just resolved everything pretty quickly in favor of getting through a LOT of plot. I really enjoyed 1x07, but part of me wonders if we might have been able to re-distribute the beacon plot a bit better across these three episodes.

One more episode to go!

[javaelemental]

Re: Murderbot

A couple of days ago I picked up the first Murderbot book (All Systems Red), largely because the TV trailer for the show had looked good and my tumblr dashboard was jam-packed full of people professing their love for the books.

Later, as the show started airing, my tumblr dashboard filled up with people loving the show.

Finally, I hit a night where watching shitty TV didn't sound like much fun, so I snagged the book and chewed through it in a few hours. (It's a short novella and I'm a fast reader.)

The book was delightful. I'm definitely going to read the rest of them so no spoilers, plz.

Today, since I had a day off, I watched the show, and it is also delightful.

They changed a lot of things from the book as far as plot goes. I mean, the basic plot seems to be the same, but there's been a lot added and a lot skipped over. I expect that's due to the extremely internal nature of the novella. A lot of what goes on in the book is basically Murderbot's internal narration, just it telling you what's going on. Not a lot of detail on, for example, action scenes. Also not a lot about what the human crew is actually up to, since Murderbot kind of ignores them as much as it can and also finds the majority of their activity boring and/or useless.

A few thoughts:

They made Murderbot's crew seem extremely hippy-ish in all the worst, most stereotypical ways. On one hand, I don't love that. They didn't seem this useless in the book. On the other hand, having lived in Oregon for fifteen years, I've met each and every one of these characters personally and in real life and they all act exactly like that. It was both annoying and hilarious.

Particularly so when Labeebee or whatever her name was showed up. Like, absolutely everyone should have seen how that was going to go, and yet not one single crew member did and for as much time as I spent muttering at the TV screen "She's a bad guy how can you not TELL that," those folks I know from Oregon would also have been this irritatingly naive and oblivious.

I like the expanded look into corporate life. You didn't see much of that in the first book. (I assume it starts getting mentioned in later books.)

They cut back more than a bit on mentioning how crappy all of the corporation's products are, which I kind of didn't like. A big reason why Murderbot manages as much as he does and why so much of the obvious fuckery gets missed until later is because the corporation's products are such hot garbage. Like, they do mention it, but it the books it's a fairly big plot device.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the books, and the rest of the show. If you've been hearing a lot about it and haven't checked it out yet, do so. It's a lot of fun.

[shadelorde]

Toph and Perihelion: similarities and the stereotypes fandom places on them

Okay, so admittedly I made the previous post that inspired this in like five minutes 😭 but I said I would write this essay if anyone was interested and y'all ARE so here it is!!

(Ellipsus Document I wrote this essay in because it's over a thousand words long and I didn't want to draft that in a tumblr post - the entire essay is below the cut!)

In this (actual) essay I will explore the similarities between Toph from Avatar: the Last Airbender and Perihelion/Asshole Research Transport from the Murderbot Diaries, both in the frame of the text and the plot purposes they serve as well as in a metatextual context, with how fandom responds to their characters.

One of the most defining things about both Toph and Perihelion is that they are outside of what society expects of them based on things they can't control. Toph was raised in a rich family, with the expectations of high-class society placed on her, as well as being disabled — she was born blind, and her parents saw her as "helpless" because of that. Perihelion is a research transport, sometimes mistaken for a regular bot pilot, but has processing capabilities far beyond what's considered typical or even possible for a transport, and although it's not the only one of its kind (see Holism) it's still considered an anomaly in society, particularly in the Corporation Rim.

They also live adjacent to fundamentally hostile societies. In Avatar, the threat of the Fire Nation's imperialism looms over everyday life, even though Toph's family's wealth initially shelters her from it somewhat, and in Murderbot, the Corporation Rim is an ever-expanding group of mega-corporations that are racing to colonize as many planets as possible, though Perihelion's university (the PSUMNT) and society is still similarly somewhat safe from it. And, even though the two have some degree of separation from their respective colonist threat, they both actively make the choice to fight back — Toph joining the Gaang to end the war with the Fire Nation and Peri helping to free people disenfranchised in various ways by the Corporation Rim.

Another factor to consider is their relationship to their families. Considering found family and close friends as a form of family, Toph's relationship to the Gaang is similar to Peri's relationship with its crew — they both love their respected groups deeply, but will sometimes become frustrated with the restrictions they place on them. Toph argued with Katara about her being 'too motherly', and Iris and the rest of Peri's crew had to talk it down from bombing a planetary colony entirely to get Murderbot back. Toph and Perihelion also tend to engage in other exciting (but dangerous) behavior behind their crew or friend's backs, like Toph scamming people and becoming known as the Runaway and Perihelion supposedly committing tax fraud (the numbers that seem to come from nowhere when it runs ledgers) and modifying its equipment into weapons.

This also brings me to the similar traumas they endure, and their responses and coping mechanisms in response to them. I've written here about Peri's quickness to violence in response to the threat of the Corporation Rim being something it handles every day given its job, and Toph behaves in similarly abrasive and sometimes destructive ways.

"Pain and pressure" is a theme in Toph's Metalbending Academy comic, and it's something that applies heavily to both characters here — Toph faces pressure to combat the Fire Nation, which is something she readily accepts and shoulders willingly, but she also faces pressure from her parents — to be the person that they expected her to be, and not the person that she is. Perihelion also readily shoulders the pressure of going into Corporation Rim territory and smuggling people out, but faces pain or death if it fails to camouflage properly. Both of these points of pressure result in a climax for their character arcs, Toph being captured and caged to be brought back home and Perihelion being deleted with its crew being taken from it. These climaxes reveal a new side and arc of each character, with Toph learning Metalbending and Perihelion returning for Murderbot (and the resulting connection and character development.)

But while this pressure on them stays steady, they both have similar ways of coping in response — with often destructive behaviors. Both of them tend to use more force than necessary to fight back, and sometimes act much more abrasively than a situation might need. Perihelion will respond to any potential threat with an escalated threat of violence, and Toph doesn't hesitate to show people the Earthbending fighting she's worked so hard to hone.

Because they are so similar in the text, they also seem to receive a similar fandom response out-of-text — one that praises them and lifts them up as "strong characters," but also flattens them to the most violent parts of themselves. They generally become known as the "chaos gremlin," a character that to fandom is defined by being mischievous, destructive, chaotic, aggressive, and abrasive, with little to no emotional intelligence. (I find that Toph is more of the 'gremlin' version of this, because she's 12, while Perihelion is seen as more dangerous, the 'chaotic' side.)

But I feel as if this tends to erase the sides of them that are emotionally intelligent and the times that they show vulnerability — the times when Toph says "Yes, sometimes you act a little motherly, but that's not always a bad thing," to Katara, and when she says "I try not to think about it, but when I left, I probably really hurt [my parents]." The epiphany that Murderbot has about Perihelion using the remaining traces of its functionality to find it, "It had tricked its captors into taking it to me not because it had some kind of grand strategy but because it needed me."

These moments are just as important to their characters as Toph yelling "I'm the greatest Earthbender of all time and don't you dunderheads forget it!" or Perihelion threatening to "Rain Destruction" on the colony that took Murderbot, because it's the vulnerability that comes beforehand, the exploration of trauma and complex emotions that gives these fantastic moments the chance to shine. And while they're not as big and flashy as the fight scenes or the threats of launching A Dozen Missiles, they make the root of why these characters behave the way they do, and they make the audience care about the stakes for them when they're high.

[fallloverfic]

Thoughts on the live-action adaptation of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, Episode 4: Escape Velocity Protocol:

Even more critical this week. The writing is just really bad. There is one good part of the episode that I actually liked, but I so strongly disliked 98% of the episode that I'm still 50/50 not going to watch the next one. Please, if you have any interest in this show, read the books, they're so much better.

If you love this show, you should probably look elsewhere, and I wish you the best, I hope you keep enjoying the show. You are not going to convince me it's good. I wish I was with you. I truly do. For the person who replied to my drone post suggesting that the show features a younger Murderbot and the show might show it falling in love with drones/drone usage, which would thus explain the absence of showing/otherwise talking about drones outside the single drone that got destroyed while Bharadwaj was using it, I'm curious: where was that in Episode 4? In All Systems Red ("ASR"), drones are mentioned and used far more in the initial DeltFall trip (Chapter 4) than prior to that (nearly 100% more). There was zero mention of drones anywhere this episode. Of course, this alleged falling in love could still happen in the remaining six episodes. Maybe Murderbot is going to wake up and think, "Dang, I wish I'd had drones." Maybe near the end of the story it'll see a drone on the station and think, "Dang, if only I'd had those..."

That also sounds like such a stupid concept. And is probably being justified by budgeting or something, which is more of a criticism of modern filming constraints and why wasn't this just made in 2D animation where this wouldn't have been as big an issue?

Also, funny story about the "younger Murderbot" concept I was introduced to, and why I'm bringing this up now (on top of I'm still frustrated there has only been one drone and it wasn't even Murderbot's). If someone can reply to me with a specific interview where it's made explicitly clear show!Murderbot is younger than ASR!Murderbot, because I didn't find anything, all I can see is that people are justifying this with the line show!Murderbot uses in Episode 1: "I could now access the combined feed of entertainment channels on the company's satellites. I had watched 7,532 hours of content since then." This would parallel its line in the opening of ASR, when it says, “I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed.” Unless there's an actual interview somewhere specifying show!Murderbot's age/that it is younger in the show than in ASR, I'm going to assume people are going off the number change. It's been at least 7,532 hours since it hacked its governor module in the show, rather than a little under 35,000 in ASR, which would be a difference of a little over 3 years, assuming it didn't just do something else in the "missing" 3ish years (and didn't, I don't know, rewatch anything/including that as part of the 7k number).

Why that matters is because while looking up a scene I imagine is going to happen in Episode 5 (Gurathin reveals Murderbot's name), based on trailers and what happens in Episode 4, there's this bit in ASR Chapter 5: “Gurathin hesitated. “It’s downloaded seven hundred hours of entertainment programming since we landed. Mostly serials. Mostly something called Sanctuary Moon.”

I don't know for certain that the people who made this show misread/didn't read the books so badly that they took a 700, added a digit, and used that in the opening rather than the more iconic line. Maybe this is even meant for some kind of plot consistency or something, to better justify Gurathin's declaration. But until I see otherwise, I am convinced something like that happened, and the idea that show!Murderbot is younger and thus needs to learn basic parts of its function it should have been using already (other SecUnits use drones!), is extremely dubious at best, and the missing drones are down to budgeting and perhaps attempted narrative time-saving rather than an actual story concern. I could always be proven wrong by the show.

Why this matters more broadly is a general worry I have that narrative decisions are being dictated by budgeting more than good writing. There's the concept of "doing with what you have", but also "the budgeting decisions are literally interfering with the narrative on top of people who are bad writers". It is, of course, pure speculation that budgeting is to blame. Maybe the folks who make the show think this is all great, especially because they cut Volescu and Overse while adding another human, which leads to more screw-ups this episode. I don't know.

On to the actual episode.

I don't really get the point of the flashback other than emphasizing yet again what seems to be a core theme of the show: humans are disgusting. Look how disgusting they are. Eww they're so gross. Masking is so gross because you sneeze and now have the sneeze on your face guard and why is this show doubling down on pushing against masking, why does sneeze person remove their faceguard when the mask is likely, at least in part, to keep them from contaminating the work?

There is at least a little more about how awful capitalism is, as we see indentured workers and people working in shitty work conditions and a general sort of nihilism among at least some workers.

What particularly bothers me is the weird implication that Murderbot is somehow unique in having anxiety and depression, rather than anxiety and depression being explicit side effects of intentional design, as explained in Artificial Condition, Chapter 2: “When constructs were first developed, they were originally supposed to have a pre-sentient level of intelligence, like the dumber variety of bot. But you can’t put something as dumb as a hauler bot in charge of security for anything without spending even more money for expensive company-employed human supervisors. So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects.” They don't overtly state that the uniqueness is show canon outside show!Murderbot's snarky line, "You wouldn't wanna fuck up and produce a chronically anxious, depressed Murderbot." But the implication is there.

I'm not fastening onto this entirely because of the meme about giving a functioning being anxiety for no reason. I think it's fun commentary about how actually knowing more about a situation can lead to depression and anxiety. And also: Murderbot emphasizes it is not unique in many ways, and that its struggles are faced by many other constructs, and this leads into the rest of the narrative. It's not exactly a shout of solidarity or something, but there's an importance in not making Murderbot Just That Speshul, which is part of the general critique of capitalism, which this show continues to have relatively little interest in.

To reiterate, I don't have an issue, hypothetically, with their focusing on the fake soap operas. I was, again, before this all aired, worried they'd treat that part badly or just remove it. As I noted last week, my issue has become that it is now overwhelming the other parts of the narrative. In ASR, Murderbot describes waking up after getting knocked unconscious in a way roughly similar to sleep paralysis, and it sounds truly terrifying (sleep paralysis is awful on its own, and what Murderbot experiences sounds worse). It proceeds to handle the situation with the first rogue pretty well, in a way that works for an action story. A second rogue pops up, Mensah takes care of it. It's all very clean and fun. Overse arrives to help, Ratthi pulls Murderbot onto the hopper, Pin-Lee is piloting (in ASR, Arada stayed behind at the hub), and then Murderbot explains about the combat-override module, and shoots itself. This is a relatively brief section, and I get why a show crew would want to expand it into a bigger action sequence. I am still annoyed they didn't do this for the map investigation section, which would have better fit their needs (I mean if you wanted an action sequence with Ratthi where he screws up, he literally falls into an acid mud pool, and Murderbot pulls him out, come on), but whatever, I get why they expanded on it.

The novella shows that PresAux is good at working in an emergency scenario: not perfect, but they are skilled, relatively good at keeping their heads and working together, and they are adaptable. It makes sense why they were allowed on this mission. And it helps explain why Murderbot likes them.

The show continues to demonstrate that everyone on this team is an incompetent child who should never have been allowed on the mission. I've met tourists who are more intelligent than this alleged group of trained scientists. That's not to say that all such expeditions have people who are trained and mentally prepared for such things. History shows that many such expeditions have people woefully unprepared for the trials they face, even when such expeditions have allegedly trained scientists. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with focusing on how characters are imperfect or just not prepared to meet a particular moment. It's the fact that this is now the fourth episode where I have to beg why? And that this is so against a massive chunk of what makes the source material good. And also that even if you insist the show is doing its own thing, it just isn't entertaining to watch. This isn't meant to be an episode of some survivor show. It's meant to be an adaptation of The Murderbot Diaries. And it's currently more like what I understand survivor shows to be than the latter.

Maybe they had to justify paying the actors for the Sanctuary Moon cameos, and that's why Murderbot keeps seeing extremely long glitchy bits for it. Again, budgeting is seemingly overtaking the story rather than good writing.

Perhaps the only part of this whole mess I liked was that it is incredibly relatable when earworm songs are stuck in your head in times of stress.

I'm going to explain a string of events that happen in the show:

We see Ratthi talking woodenly to the comm on the hopper, demanding to know from Pin-Lee, who is not in the area with him, where Mensah is, despite Arada - who should have been with Pin-Lee - being behind him. We switch to Pin-Lee, who is again, for no apparent reason, using those stupid hand comms and saying, "I don't know. She was... She was right behind us."

Presumably, in the extremely thin forest, the group of three people - Mensah, Pin-Lee, and Arada - were walking together back to the hopper. Pin-Lee and Arada were apparently deeply oblivious to whatever Mensah was doing for reasons unknown (more relationship drama I guess), and thus lost her while walking, at some point woke up to realize this, and Arada continued to the hopper while Pin-Lee stayed behind to check. Why is Ratthi not asking Arada? Why is Pin-Lee explaining this now?

Yes, we get it, Ratthi is incompetent and should not be allowed off-world because he panics near-immediately. We understand, show. We get that Mensah is still having panic attacks and, despite a history of being a good leader, which is why she's in the elected position, and why she's respected, cannot lead a team or give orders.

Also, why does Pin-Lee not know where Mensah was and then near-immediately find her? I just... the series of events is so ridiculous. Yes, I know, as stated, there wasn't much territory to look through. But that the folks who made this expect me to take Ratthi, Pin-Lee, and Arada's confusion and alarm seriously coupled with Pin-Lee near-immediately solving the issue is ridiculous. The show itself shows how incredibly stupid this whole thing is.

Pin-Lee being the one to try to convince Mensah that Murderbot is not a human, not a part of the team is just... I don't have words for this. In ASR, when Murderbot is injured after the DeltFall excursion, it assumes Mensah gets Pin-Lee to come over and look it over from a medical/software standpoint (Pin-Lee often works to make software work in ASR). In short, what should be an interesting conversation with two femme folks of color discussing mental health issues becomes a scene with two incompetent people being intentionally shown to be incompetent because this was all made up for the show and a primary theme of the show seems to be "humans are incompetent." To be clear: it's not both of them are dealing, somewhat badly, with stress, that is the issue. It's that it's generally framed in a way that shows they are not handling this well and were not trained to deal with this. In a different context, this might have been great. Sadly, we are here.

And also generally the show wants you to hate Pin-Lee because they're not that into the throuple situation, they were fine with Ratthi dying, etc. And it's just... why? Why take a competent femme character from the books and turn them into someone you're meant to so heavily dislike?

And I still don't get the use of hand-comms. Ghost in the Shell came out in 1995. Other science fiction films and shows have tackled the concept of visual feeds and talking remotely. Bluetooth exists. We see, on the show, Murderbot accessing its feeds. Why is this something the show couldn't do for anyone who wasn't Murderbot or Gurathin?

I can't with the singing. I just can't. It is so phenomenally stupid, I just can't with it. How does it sing if its voicebox is offline anyway? Does it just power that up first? And why? Not like it can fight with its voice. And the problem is this whole sequence ruins what was a not bad fighting sequence following it. I just didn't care by this point.

As someone who loves a good fight scene, it's not all that interesting a fight scene, anyway. I think the most interesting moment was when Murderbot got squished into a locker. Visually, it was neat. That's all I have to say about it because I'm still noping out so hard about the stupid singing.

I'm glad Mensah saves Murderbot like she does in ASR, and because it's just good, narratively: it shows that, despite her issues, she is still competent and a good problem solver, and willing to act in big ways when needed. However, because Murderbot doesn't deal with a first rogue unit after waking up, leaving the second unexpected one to take it by surprise and be killed by Mensah, again, this doubles down on how everyone in this show is incompetent. The fight with the first unit further demonstrates book!Murderbot's competence. Mensah steps in when it can't handle everything. They are a team. They support each other. Murderbot shows that it's good at its job. Show!Murderbot has not really done that since the worm attack in Episode 1. It couldn't even hold off one SecUnit.

Why are Arada, Pin-Lee, and Ratthi debating Mensah's status? It's just a weird thing. They respect her and her authority. This shouldn't be up for debate. But no, gotta bring back the stereotype hippie "consensus" bullshit and how Mensah's actions go against the whatever, look how terrible these useless hippies are.

I'm not saying this to downplay more equal governmental systems. But the story frames it in a way you're not meant to respect. You cannot avoid how the story is framing whatever PresAux is doing as something you are meant to mock and find annoying.

There's so much going on with Ratthi, the untrained person - though everyone is apparently untrained since the others seem to have "training" from video games - picking up the gun. Pointing it at other humans multiple times... It's meant to be an overt way to show, yet again, Ratthi is incompetent and should not be allowed on a mission or with other people and he is in fact dangerous in this role! Because we haven't seen that dozens of times by now.

For folks who have never handled firearms before, one of the first things you're told is to always point it at the ground, even when the safety is on, unless you are firing it intentionally at something that is not on the ground. If you hold a gun, your chances of hitting someone, particularly fatally, particularly by accident (even if it's just the weapon firing itself because guns can in fact fail), rise exponentially. That's why holstered weapons point the guns down. It is a safety practice to never wave it around like Ratthi does. And hypothetically, it's fine that Ratthi doesn't know what to do with it. He has no training. The issue of course is that Overse has been erased from the story, and someone has to fill Overse's shoes in backing Mensah up, and I guess either of the characters with alleged gun training - Arada and Pin-Lee - were not usable for this.

I don't understand the point of that. Is it entertaining someone?

The throuple still being supportive of each other is good in a very small way. I'm glad the show is queer and supportive of queer relationships (to a degree). I'm glad that somewhere down in the center of it is an attempt to make the characters of color not evil, especially when they pick up weapons (which is truly not a common thing in media, especially by U.S. companies). We're not meant to hate Ratthi, we're just meant to view him as an utter incompetent child. This is still buried under how truly awful everything in this scene is and his pointing the gun at his partners when even he knew that was a bad idea.

I am not averse to Mensah helping Murderbot walk. Some of it was even nice. The hallucination of Murderbot being on the soap opera set, however, was... I hope it's entertaining someone. It wasn't funny. It was uncomfortable to watch. I hope the actors had fun with the silly costumes, at least. Genuinely, I hope they had fun filming this. At least from one interview I saw, it sounds like the set was at least, in some ways, a good place to work. It is actually okay for bad art to exist and for artists to have fun making bad art. I am truly not being sarcastic when I say that. It's just that the issue here is that this is bad art.

It should be pointed out that there wasn't anything in ASR stopping Murderbot from touching its neck. It knows the thing is there. It warns PresAux. Slowly, but eventually.

So hypothetically the theory with show!Arada's plan is: Pin-Lee and Arada are panicking about SecUnit being non-responsive, Mensah being non-responsive, and now Ratthi being non-responsive, and thus Arada comes up with the idea that they fly the hopper over rather than just leaving it behind. Somehow this is all done so silently that the rogue unit doesn't hear or detect the ship approaching. Somehow, Arada and Pin-Lee are able to detect what's happening on-site in time to plan to crush the rogue unit from a distance. Sure. Fine.

I am glad they (mostly) kept the part where SecUnit shuts itself down forcibly. I think that bit of the episode is the best portion. It was handled well. This isn't just because "oh it's the one bit that's relatively book accurate"; it's also mainly because it is actually well-shot, well-acted (well, mostly, I think Skarsgard's delivery is a bit wooden at times in ways that don't feel like they work for Murderbot and are more Skarsgard's/the director trying to get Murderbot to "sound" like what people think a robot sounds like, but he's fine enough here), well-scripted, and generally visually enjoyable to watch. I like when everyone runs to its side and hovers over it. That part of the scene, from when Murderbot insists it can't join them on the hopper to the hovering is honestly the main reason I am even considering giving Episode 5 a shot at all.

So is it a good episode? No. We're going to meet the DeltFall survivor next episode somehow (based on the summary for Episode 5), and I'm really not looking forward to that, given the kiss and their apparent obsession with Murderbot's genitalia or lack thereof based on the trailers, and the apparent continued theme focus of humans being gross, incompetent, and generally rude. Maybe Episode 5 will be good. Anything is possible. I do not have hope at this point.

I feel like people are going to look at this and think, "Oh lighten up, it's meant to be funny." The books are hilarious. They make me laugh so much. I cracked a smile I think once during this episode. The books are funny, warm, heart-breaking, painful, fulfilling, excellent science fiction, and a fine critique on capitalism and the surveillance state, and generally enjoyable. That is not what this show is. If you're changing something, what you change should, bare minimum, be enjoyable. That's not happening here.

Please read the books. They're so much better. Kobo sells DRM-free copies, too.

Other thoughts:

Episodes 1-2, Episode 3, Episode 4 (You are here), Episode 5

[nikomedes]

i can't get over how bafflingly mediocre the murderbot show was. im not fundamentally opposed to adaptations--my favorite TV series ever, station eleven, is a much-changed adaptation that i think better gets at what the book wanted to be about. but this adaptation, its changes and decisions, its tone and character work, feel fundamentally unnecessary to me.

all systems red is a novella. they had a 10 episode order. granted, for 30 minute episodes that would've done better as 1hr eps, but they had the space. there really, at least from my perspective, wasn't a need to make the changes to the plot they did. i might've understood that if they were trying to go without murderbot's perspective narration and needed to exposit different ways, but they did a voiceover. so many of the divergent events on screen feel like filler in a show that is not very long! the novella is lauded, best-selling, why not just take the easy win and script it for tv with the plot intact? for the directors and producers to make the adaptation uniquely "theirs"?

more thoughts under the cut:

the casting, aside from skarsgard who i accepted as a necessary evil to make the show happen, was fantastic. there are some stand out performances, especially from mensah, bhardawaj, and gurathin (though the gurathin/mensah subplot is another baffling nothing change that annoys me, i wasnt opposed to the added addict character element except for the tonal whiplash). a lot of the set design, propwork, and visual aesthetic is phenomenal. but i can't get past how much of an own goal it was to get all that together and then make so many small, pointless changes that the series is less than the sum of its parts.

so much of the show tried to be a comedy that it didn't earn its glimpses of the cruel reality of the corporation rim it tried to toss in. the "kookiness" of presaux undermined the whole first season's plot, because it honestly makes u wonder if the corporation rim isn't the more competent body until the last few episodes-- and the last two episodes might as well be from a different show. the fixation on sanctuary moon being a text on-screen that murderbot was obsessed with to the exclusion of all other media felt like a shallow read, and every moment of "fanning out" on murderbot's part was emiserating. the kind of fan it is in the books and the fan it is in this show feel oceans apart. the murderbot books are darkly funny because murderbot is funny. the universe it inhabits is not, and that juxtaposition is part of the character's appeal. in the show it's goofy like presaux are goofy and that bathos deflates every moment of attempted action and plot.

obviously i have tons more little nitpicks that i couldve made my peace with along these lines... if the show had been different but good in its own way. instead, it was different for the sake of being different, and i feel like i need to reread the source material asap to remember why i liked it in the first place. im happy for the show fans that theyre getting a season 2, but i CANNOT see how ART is done in this show. i was so afraid they were going to tease ART and i would have to know about it i finished the show tense. i dont trust this team with it. not to mention everything in book 2 about the comfortunit; the approach to sexual content and bots in this show was so juvenile that i can't see that being done well either.

idk if its worse to have no adaptation, an outright dogshit adaptation, or this... something. its so inoffensive and seems to hit for enough people that i can see it getting 3 seasons and then fading away with no chance of a future remake. would i even want another go at this? yes, i would, and i know from silo and severance and other apple tv shows they have the budget, writing talent, and range to make a show of the books adapted fairly straight-up in a way that could feel true or at least interestingly divergent to me. but this wasn't it, and i imagine there are a lot of book fans feeling the same bland disappointment

i dont have a firm conclusion to these thoughts, but i'll share this meme i made as a way of trying to understand why my mom liked the show and i hated it, despite us both liking the books

the show just doesn't have the depth to operate at all the levels the books can. worse, it doesn't seem like anyone involved cared that it wouldn't

[maniacalshen]

Murderbot, three episodes in, from a reader's POV

Apple TV recently started airing their Murderbot adaptation, and I happen to have access, so here is some info and some takes:

First off, be aware they deleted two Preservation surveyors. While this obviously isn't kind to Volescu or Overse, I have to admit that when I was reading the first novella I had a bitch of a time keeping EIGHT humans straight, none of whom had physical descriptions except for Mensah. So cutting it down to six, even though viewers have visuals to help them, is something I can forgive.

Second, there is a lot more human stuff going on. Lots of character moments, some silliness and relationship stuff. I think a certain amount of this makes sense, as one could reasonably suppose humans were having these moments around Murderbot in the novella, while it was aggressively avoiding taking in too much personal information about its charges. The first-person narrative mostly just talks about the humans relating to Murderbot (usually against its will), not relating to each other, but new show watchers would want more. I reserve judgment about some of the choices the TV writers have made. I've cackled at times, when they nailed a character, but I think they might have overdone the hippie nature of the PresAUX folks. I do get that some of it is shorthand to help people quickly grok the difference between corporate types and independent colonies.

Third, and most controversial to me, is that Murderbot's internal commentary is a lot feistier than in the writing, where it was mostly tired/annoyed. TV Murderbot swears out its frustrations and makes an extra point to be super grossed out by human sex stuff. Writers/execs probably thought this would play better to general audiences and fit the kind of humor an irreverent, high budget sci fi is expected to have currently. I'm not about to quit the show over it, but eeeehhh

Fourth, Alexander Skarsgard is doing great. He's actually so good at looking like he's trying to maintain an impassive expression while his character is transparently suffering. And I'm fascinated by the show's choices regarding Gurathin so far, but the actor is doing a good job with them.

Fifth, plot changes! There are no drones! Some of the sequence of events prior to the Deltfall trip are quite different! But I'm not ready to riot at this time. Except maybe about the drones.