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One thing I really like about how Murderbot relates to gender is how like--no wait, two things, in order.

So first how it is emphatically devoted to eschewing human gender categories. Like, it's not a default thing; there are shown to be multiple nonbinary pronouns in routine use, and life would be simpler for picking one or even making a new one up, just as it would be for picking a name that it is willing to use in public.

But that's a human thing, those are human categories, and it has that deep determination not to naturalize into humanity just because that would be simpler, would smooth the ugly edges between the categories of person and non-person and make an easier, more convenient story for other people.

But then also there's the part where the two construct genders are, effectively, 'cop' and 'prostitute,' as distinguished at construction per Murderbot's own account by genital configuration, in this case 'having' or 'not having' 'sex parts.'

Leaving aside how easily that analogizes to human gender categories for the average reader, which I'm sure was an intentional writing move--Murderbot's assigned gender is, in a meaningful sense, 'SecUnit.'

And what's neat, and what I was going for to begin with only I had to set out my thoughts first for context, is how Murderbot actually performs its assigned gender pretty emphatically!

But in a deeply queer way, that only gains a sense of meaning as it's able to detach the performance from service to the oppressive power structures that created it, and redefine the identity on its own terms.

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I love this series.

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I probably should have just stopped talking, but I didn’t want to hurt Amena’s feelings.

Network Effect, pg. 182-183

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Murderbot Short Story links!

For those who don't know, Martha Wells has released three short stories set in the Murderbot universe, which I've linked below:

Compulsory:

This story follows Murderbot after breaking its governor module but before meeting the Preservation crew.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory:

This story is from Dr. Mensah's POV, and shows her dealing with her trauma from the events of All Systems Red and Network Effect.

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy:

This story is from Iris's POV and shows ART's crew on a mission as well as Iris finding out that ART met SecUnit.

And a special thank you to @inkedinserendipity who was the reason I learned about the short stories!

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You cannot tell me ART doesn't have a secret folder stashed somewhere filled with several detailed and increasingly violent plans to destroy Murderbot's former owner company, waiting just for the right time to casually mention it in conversation

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Doodle

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POV you’re art and your bestest most specialest SecUnit goes “hey can you make a copy of me specifically to die” and you go “that’s an awful idea” and it goes “no fuck you it’s a great idea also you asked something to send to die so you can have me” and you shout “i didn’t mean you!” and it goes “stop yelling at me” which is maybe the first time it’s verbally pushed back on mistreatment in its life so you go entirely quiet because you are so so angry with it but also you can’t yell at it because it asked you not to

and then you send out the copy of it anyway to save your crew, and it saves your crew and another SecUnit and also itself

and then it dies

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here's something that occurred to me on my last relisten to system collapse that made me laugh! so let's play a game of "corporate wants you to spot the difference" between these two exhibits.

exhibit a. system collapse.

exhibit b. rapport.

sorry corporate there's no difference. anyway here's my theory that art's favorite technique for protecting murderbot (and also dunking on tarik) is to threaten him with an argument to distract him. because in both exhibits, art knows something tarik doesn't (a. murderbot exists, and b. murderbot's having an emotional breakdown). and it does not want tarik to look any closer.

so what is an overpowered ai to do? misinterpret tarik's comments as criticisms on purpose in order to threaten an argument. overprotective ai of my heart <3

or in summary:

(shoutout @there-are-no-gods-here and @cooking-with-hailstones for providing the text/support for this post!)

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Me and my cousin have an ongoing bit where we pretend we made "slightly better" versions of things where we'll be like.

"That was a pretty good movie, but not as good as my movie, House of 1001 Corpses," or "I guess this song is okay. Kind of reminds me of a song I'm working on called 'Faster Car'."

Never once has it been funny or made anyone but us laugh.

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OK, but I love that Essek might be appearing in the Mighty Nein series before he meets the Nein! It's not just me wanting More Essek (though I do) or wanting to see more of what was going on with his dealings with the Assembly (which I also do). I think this could be super fucking interesting from a narrative construction standpoint.

Because I cannot see how you can include Essek from early in the series and not make it clear to the audience that he's the Dynasty traitor loooong before the Nein find out. Essek having stolen the beacons will not be a surprise. It looks to me like the cast are swapping out surprise for a fuckton of suspense. (Suspense vs surprise was explained to me when I was studying narrative structure as 'surprise is when a bomb goes off that the audience didn't know was there. Suspense is when they see the bomb being placed and have to sit there begging the characters to realise it's there.' In this analogy, Essek is the bomb.)

When we watched C2, the question was is Essek the traitor? In the M9 show, the question for new watchers will be when will the Nein realise that Essek is the traitor? When Essek meets the Nein, the countdown starts ticking; people will know that he is a danger. He is manipulating them. He is going to hurt them. Will the Nein realise before it's too late? But then Essek starts really befriending them, showing more of his loneliness and vulnerability, and... I think the mood will shift. Oh, shit, he really cares about them, doesn't he? What will the Nein do if they find out? Do I even want them to find out? What if they reject him and it makes him worse? He can't keep this up much longer, this is unbearable, they're going to find out - OH FUCK THEY'RE FINDING OUT -

It's such a fascinating choice and I think it goes to show that adaptation is an art form in itself! The actual events in the world will be the same, or at least very similar, but a new format means you can show those events in a totally new way and create a completely different tone! Narrative structure is the fucking coolest! I'm so excited for this show!

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ignoring my wips and sketching the girls again

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You guys loved part 1 so here's a part 2???? I guess????????

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red blood cell girl bringing you oxygen on a cute little platter and then curtseying

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This embroidery isn't very technical, but I've really enjoyed playing with yarn in my art.

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An aspect of Rapport that I really enjoyed was how well it illustrated that Murderbot, unreliable narrator that it is, has an extremely high opinion of ART.

Because there's no point in Artificial Condition, or even later in Network Effect, where SecUnit ever assumes that ART simply can't do something, aside from parsing the full emotional/visceral context of media by itself. If there is a thing SecUnit can think of doing, naturally ART could do that too, probably better.

But we see that's not the case during the mission on the corporate station. We kind of knew this already from its difficulty keeping track of Tapan and the ComfortUnit on RaviHyral, but here we see that ART just isn't the hacker SecUnit is. It's extremely powerful, but only in areas that it already controls--i.e. itself and any system that SecUnit gives it access to. The team is surprised that it even got into the security system at all. That, by itself, is a huge leap forward for them. But it can't simply reroute the security drone somewhere else, or cut the team out of the security cameras the way SecUnit can, even after SecUnit showed it how to doctor surveillance footage. It can't hack the weapon scanners so they can smuggle more equipment in. ART has immense processing power, but it doesn't have the innate ability to convince resident systems that it's just a regular component and it's supposed to be there.

ART has limitations, and it is keenly aware of them, which I think is what prompts its sarcastic suggestion to the mission team they blow up the corporate station: It's sending its crew into an active war zone, and the only thing it can really do to help is talk them through it, and it's really feeling that powerlessness, even after all the new tricks it learned from its new BFF.

This mission would be trivially easy if SecUnit were here. Without it, they're in constant danger from everyone on the station.

It calls into question a lot of the points in Network Effect and System Collapse where SecUnit blithely assumes that ART is just humoring it. Because it sees ART's abilities as greatly superior and not different. (And ART is a know-it-all and a sarcastic asshole with better processing hardware, but it's also a spaceship and not a security system specifically built to anticipate, identify, and resolve threats.)

(Which is also why ART is bad at de-escalating conflicts and leaps to threats when things go badly despite the fact that it is a huge softie who can't even cope with bad things happening to fictional people on television. It's a gunship. It doesn't have any tools for de-escalating things. It has concealed rail guns. That's what it's got. SecUnit may have energy weapons in its arms, but it was designed to keep damage minimal to humans and expensive company property.)

The disparity between the perspectives of Iris, who thinks of Peri as her precocious sibling, and Murderbot, who thinks of ART as an omniscient nigh-otherworldly being (but still an asshole), is really enlightening.

And now I want something from Seth or Martyn's point of view.