#I love Murderbot!!!

[hazeleks]

I didn’t even knew it had a face.

[grand-line-shenanigans]

For those of us who cannot comprehend big numbers (me) I have done the math. FOUR FUCKING YEARS. SECUNIT WHAT THE FUCK.

[crispinkiss]

did you know i have to draw the characters or ill die

[keydekyie]

Go you funky little SecUnit! Go!

(One of my favorite scenes from the newest Murderbot novel: System Collapse)

[homosekularnost]

god a kingdom for thiagos pov of network effect honestly

>pov your SIL went through a traumatic experience and is now icing you out and giving up on her career and you think this all might be due to her new friend

>this friend btw seems to Hate Your Ass. just fully is not talking to you or around you its just grimacing its way around your house

>you still have to take it on a mission with you even though it keeps calling people tArGeTs and just bringing an overall weird vibe to your normal safe research mission

>ok so it turns out it wasnt that safe of a mission AND it takes a bullet for you bc you werent listening. if you ever get out of this hostage situation ayda will have your head

>brb it had to save everyones lives AGAIN

>also oh god it was trying to get mensah to talk to a therapist this whole time. youre such an idiot

>at least it likes your translation app idk

[tenowls]

SYSTEM COLLAPSE!!!!!!!

[karalynlovescake]

it protecc

it attac

it rewatch entire seasons of Sanctuary Moon bacc to bacc

[broken-risk-assessment-module]

murderbot referring to its different modules as "mods". thats the post. y'all can blame @blessphemy for this tomfoolery.

[as21-7]

[pseudomonaslisa]

hell hath no fury like a teen girl trying to get some goddamn privacy around here

[karmicgooner]

I love the idea that murderbot looks like just some random inconspicuous dude. Cus like it just looks like any other dude walking down the road without the sec unit armor yet has the brute strength to rip limbs off. You hired this guy to be your IT Consultant only to watch it beat the shit out of everything in the room.

[hazeleks]

The other day I posted my first ao3 fic, it's an ART centric character study / angst, check it out if you're so inclined!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46541197

[arsonwizard]

Book one of The Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, is a survival mystery as a small team of scientists are faced with an unknown threat while trapped on an isolated, hostile planet, with no hope but to trust their second hand, possibly murderous, robot security.

Artificial Condition, book two of The Murderbot Diaries, is about two robots in a trench coat pretending to be human for a job interview.

[untitledgoosegay]

re last reblog I do see fanfic culture pushing/replicating a certain model of "what trauma looks like," "how trauma works"

this is a problem across all areas of society obviously, but transformative works are, well, transformative. they're about crafting and modifying narratives where the fan-creator sees a flaw or a lack -- often for the better! don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of "I take a hammer and I fix the canon," it's the main thing that gets my creative gears spinning -- but what happens when that "flaw" is simply a narrative not conforming to popular expectations?

some people just don't get PTSD from events that sound obviously traumatic. they're not masking, and they're not coping; they just straight-up didn't get the permanently-locked stress-response that defines PTSD. they walk away from a horrible experience going "well, that sucked, but it's over now." some people do get PTSD from events most people wouldn't find traumatic. we don't really know why some people get PTSD and others don't. but fandom has an idea of events that must be traumatizing, of a "correct" way to portray trauma. you see the problems with this lack of understanding in e.g. fans pressuring the devs of Baldur's Gate 3 to add dialogue where the player character badgers Halsin about his own feelings on his abuse -- because he must be traumatized, and his trauma must fit a certain mold and presentation of sexual trauma, under the mistaken impression that anything outside that narrow window is somehow "wrong" and disrespectful or even harmful to survivors.

take, for another example, the very common trope of a traumatized character who hates touch or sex "learning" to like touch or sex as a part of their healing process. certainly that can be healing for some people; other people will never like, or want, touch or sex, because of trauma or because they just don't. the assumption that someone who doesn't want sex or doesn't like to be touched must be traumatized, must be suffering from this perceived lack, is seriously harmful -- to asexual people, to people with sensory issues around touch, and to people for whom healing from trauma means freedom to refuse sex or touch.

and there's a secondary trope, one that's slightly more thoughtful but ultimately repeats the problem -- that once someone has learned that their boundaries will be respected, they'll feel it's safe to soften those boundaries. once they feel safe refusing touch or sex, they'll feel comfortable allowing it on their own terms. but many people don't, and many people won't! many people will simply never want to be touched, and never want sex, and they are not suffering or broken or lacking because of it. the idea that proving you'll respect someone's boundaries entitles you to test those boundaries -- the paradox is obvious, and yet this is something i've seen hurt (re-traumatize) people i care for.

people are imperfect victims. people don't heal in the ways you expect. many people have positive memories of their abuse, of their abusers. many people hurt others in the course of their trauma, in ways that can't easily be unpacked in a 5k oneshot. very few narratives of trauma and recovery actually fit the ones put forward by popular children's media and romance novels -- which are the ones I most see replicated in fandom spaces, because they provide the clearest narrative and easiest catharsis, and so they're easy and soothing to reach for.

that's not necessarily a bad thing! i am not immune to goopy romance tropes. i am not immune to teary catharsis. not every fic has to grapple with ugly realities. but there's a problem when these narratives become predominant, when people think they're accurate and realistic depictions of trauma, when the truth of trauma is unpleasant and uncomfortable, and doesn't fit any single narrative, let alone one of comforting catharsis

[sameboot]

Murderbot + fashion

[tenowls]

So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.

one last fancomic to finish off the year, from asr this time!!