#I spent more time yesterday reading and enjoying winter's orbit which is better in every way

[fallloverfic]

Thoughts on the live-action adaptation of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, Episode 5: Rogue War Tracker Infinite:

This adaptation/show is just so bad and I doubt I'm watching the rest of it at this point. If you like any part of the show, please read the books. They're actually very good. The show is not at all a reflection of almost any part of the books, and looks to be decreasingly like anything that remains.

I think people think I'm just butthurt because I'm a book purist or something, but that's truly not the sole reason I'm frustrated. Two things are important to consider with an adaptation:

If you change something, the result should be good

If you hate the source material, why are you adapting it?

A good example of an adaptation that heavily changed things is the 2004 Studio Ghibli adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' 1986 novel, Howl's Moving Castle, both of which I love (and I watched the movie first). Studio Ghibli massively rewrote a good chunk of the story, moving the focus from on being Welsh, obsession, some more light-hearted humor, family and romantic drama, and magic dueling (the Witch of the Waste was just a villain in the book) to one more focused on being anti-war and pro-environmentalism. It's a different story, but it's not a bad one, and obviously the visuals, the characters, the setting, the acting, the music, all come together to create something that is clearly heavily inspired by and based on the wonderful novel, but is also very much its own thing. The movie is massively beloved by many book fans and demonstrates that you can change things, create something good, and not massively piss off the audience for the source material. I imagine there are criticisms, too (certainly one of my favorite lines isn't in the movie), but generally, the movie is beloved.

Contrast this with their messy adaptation of Tales From Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, the result of which Le Guin herself said, "Yes. It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie." Speaking as someone who has a fondness for Gedo Senki, it is trash. Beloved trash (anyone who knows me knows I am in fact a trash connoisseur), but trash all the same. And it is basically nothing of Le Guin's wonderful books. I think its failings speak more to inexperience and production issues than hatred of the source material, though, at least from what's evident in the movie itself and what I know of the production.

The live-action adaptation of The Murderbot Diaries ("MBTV") fails the first point I wrote, regardless of whether or not you've read the books, and the people who made the show seem to hate the source material. I know Wells was somewhat involved in the show, particularly as a producer. I don't know how much was done at her suggestion or with her blessing or what she was powerless to change but would have if she could. I'm not going to speculate absent her saying something, and so far as I'm aware, she hasn't said anything. She just shares positive interviews about the show.

It's for similar reasons that I'm wary of calling Skarsgard a surprising highlight, given he was, outside being the lead, an executive producer. Despite weirdly not being one of the worst elements in the show (it helps a lot of what he does is standing still), he also has a relatively central role in making the show and this even brings into question how much of an issue he was in the production. Maybe most/none of the truly bad stuff is his fault. He's an executive producer, not one of the directors, after all, his reach is relatively limited (often executive producers just help bankroll projects). Who knows? I just struggle to look at him as a relatively bright point in the show, despite everything, knowing just how heavily involved he likely was outside just acting.

As someone who loves media about cyborgs (especially cyborgs built to be weapons; I mean come on, Cyborg 009 has been doing this since 1964), at this point I truly don't understand why they didn't just make an original cyborg series of some kind. I probably wouldn't have liked it, but at least it wouldn't have been trying to use the books for attention.

People are also arguing it's just expensive fanfiction, just like all big budget adaptations. Perhaps in a world where we could all dump millions on fanfiction, this would be less irritating. The "this is all we get probably" aspect definitely does heighten anger/the potential for anger. If I knew we were getting ten or even just two Murderbot show adaptations by two different studios/sets of studios, I'd be less annoyed one sucks.

The show still sucks. And the way the show increasingly seems to show vitriol for the core concepts in the story, the cast, the queerness, and even writing/creating a good show in general... It just fucking sucks.

Also a core difference between regular fanfiction someone wrote on their break, for no money, and MBTV, is that MBTV is made by massive corporations that generally suck (like what, you want me to feel bad for mocking Apple and Paramount? One of whom owns the rights to Star Trek? The other one of which is a main reason queer media is being removed from the Internet en masse because of Steve Jobs' anti-porn stance? Both of which are likely why the books' anti-capitalist themes have likely been largely shaved out? Fuck off) and my fucks to give about being mean to them as a result are low.

But for more direct criticisms of specific parts of the episode:

Ah yes, Arada, member of PresAux, who focuses on peaceful resolutions and is largely against violence last I recall, shooting first and asking questions later. Yes. That makes perfect sense. I'm aware Overse provides cover for Mensah and Murderbot in All Systems Red ("ASR"). Overse has also been deleted from MBTV and has been replaced by Ratthi, who has no weapons training, and Arada, who hasn't had good weapons training.

Part of my hatred for everything with LeeBeeBee (outside how incredibly badly written her intro was) and what seems to be the story's direction is the very obvious fact that LeeBeeBee, a character who was added for the show (while two characters were erased for the show, which created a slew of problems) is part of the villain group, which makes literally everything she does 10x dumber. I could be entirely wrong, even ignoring the line, "LeeBeeBee changes her tune" in the summary for Episode 6, but it was pretty obvious from her introduction, and was only even more obvious throughout the episode. She's a femme fatale, likely working for whatever they end up calling EvilSurvey. I imagine she'll attempt to murder the PresAux crew or have another rogue SecUnit pop up somewhere to do it for her.

There's a line Murderbot has shortly after it wakes up in ASR:

“My clients are the best clients.” (Chapter 5).

That's gone. It's a "relatively" minor thing but just part of a general, central theme of the books - Murderbot's attachment to the people it cares for - that is just gone entirely in the show. For the record, book!Murderbot does think it'd be stupid if its client revived it. But it takes in the situation. And thinks better of its clients. Book!Murderbot's compassion is part of why the audience cares about Murderbot. It's part of how Murderbot demonstrates its humanity. That the show is excising it out because, I don't know, they think it's funny to focus on the gross factor of humans almost entirely, is depressing, and tells me the people making this show have no comprehension of the material they are adapting. That the show is increasingly focusing on the human characters rather than the title character is also really frustrating, and makes me depressed about if they ever get to Artificial Condition, which spends most of the story with a cyborg and an AI.

The "LeeBeeBee talking about Murderbot's genitalia" thing is 20x worse than it is in the trailer. It's just an overly long, incredibly stupid and moronic scene. The actress is fine, for all I have to wonder if this is a self-insert character of the directors, considering what I've heard about them, and all the writing for her parts suck. And listen, I write porn. I like a good sex joke (or even a bad one, depending). I like stories that deal with trauma and shock. This was stupid, and maybe in isolation it wouldn't be as terrible as it is, but it's part of a whole series that is focusing in very weird ways on naked Murderbot and sex and how gross humans are especially in re: sex.

The word "gross" does not appear in ASR or Artificial Condition. The word disgust does not appear, either, and "disgusting" appears only once (in ASR), and it's Ratthi who says it, in re: how SecUnits are enslaved. "Repulse", "repulsive", and "revulsion" do not appear in ASR or Artificial Condition. I just wanted to make that clear for folks who think I'm just too icked out by things in the show rather than being annoyed at how this is a theme created for the show. Yes, book!Murderbot is clearly deeply uninterested in having sex or being in a physical relationship, and it dislikes physical intimacy. It often comments sharply and judgmentally on human and particularly allosexual actions. When it thinks about sex in ASR, it notes it finds sex boring (Chapter Two). Primarily it doesn't want to be personally involved in these things. It still does not so deeply emphasize the "humans are disgusting" vibe as the show does.

Ignoring that it's a change, what is supposed to be interesting about "humans gross" as a theme? I've seen Young Frankenstein (1974), which does a lot of the gross but funny humor used in MBTV but like... good?

Homages and rehashes are fine, I guess, but MBTV does nothing it attempts to do well.

Ratthi talking about having children with partners he's been involved with for... a day or so? Is bizarre. It's especially frustrating because again, in the books, Ratthi is actually a useful member of the team. He's not annoying, tactless (most of the time), and incompetent.

It is so visually weird how PresAux is hovering around Murderbot constantly as it's getting repaired. It's just... why? Do they have nothing else to do? I get there are two fewer members of their team, but seriously?

So in ASR, Pin-Lee, Overse, Volescu, and Gurathin all have some part in checking out Murderbot and fixing it. Bharadwaj does not. When Murderbot is brought onto the hopper at DeltFall after the rogues are dealt with, Mensah gets Pin-Lee's help to try to fix it. Why, exactly, does the show want Pin-Lee to be portrayed as useless and irritating? Why couldn't Pin-Lee help Bharadwaj rather than just standing around?

Thus far in the episode we've covered the show's central themes:

Humans are gross

These characters are incompetent

Ratthi is a child

Pin-Lee is annoying and useless

Look at the weird hippies

Again, the whole hippie angle was made up for the show, makes absolutely no sense in context, and is generally stupid. And further pushes away from the idea of Murderbot's compassion. The folks who made this show hate the books, that's the only conclusion I can come to.

"This SecUnit is our friend. . . . Yeah, that's right. I'm friends with a SecUnit."

This^ entire sequence was stupid, unnecessary, and uncomfortable to watch. The show is so obsessed with making Ratthi a dumbass child obsessed with showing off. Ratthi was never exactly a favorite of mine (though I didn't hate him), but considering the only two fics I ever wanted to write for this fandom involve him, this is so annoying, on top of how frustrating it is to watch. I love ridiculous characters who do kind of dumb things. I embody that line in Porco Rosso: "You're stupid, I like that in a man." (So many characters I love are like that) But every scene with Ratthi at this point is so deeply uncomfortable to watch, and knowing that it is clearly done intentionally is exasperating.

So show!Bharadwaj alerts everyone that Murderbot has woken up. They are all aware it can't move, but it is very clear its eyes are open and it can see them. LeeBeeBee, after a while, panics and says, "It's probably observing us right now and plotting its next move." Like yes, it is observing you. IT CAN SEE YOU. You know that! This is just "I don't know where Mensah is!" -five seconds later- "Oh look I found Mensah!" all over again.

Bharadwaj is now taking the place of Overse and Volescu and Pin-Lee for some reason, with a little add-in from Arada taking one of Overse's lines. I have no idea why. Pin-Lee exists. Why couldn't they have their book lines?

The "did you see that part of the episode" thing is just... it feels so empty. It's faster in the novel and just funnier. There's just something off about the acting in the acting in the seen. ALSO I SAID WHAT I SAID LAST EPISODE! THEY MISREAD/REDID THE LINE WITH GURATHIN SAYING HOW MANY HOURS OF MEDIA MURDERBOT DOWNLOADED! THAT'S WHY THE NUMBER IN THE OPENING IS WEIRD! People who are defending this show, please go off and be happy you like it and leave the rest of us alone when we point out this bullshit! It has seemingly absolutely nothing to do with 4D chess intentionality on the part of the people who made it. Show!Murderbot is not younger than book!Murderbot, it doesn't have a meaningful change on its personality, it's just the showrunners being fucking stupid with "minor details".

For a refresher of what I talked about last time in re: show!Murderbot's alleged "younger" age/mindset:

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).

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.”

Show!Gurathin in Episode 5 says:

"It's downloaded thousands of hours of entertainment programming."

Literally all the show did was make the numbers match better. That's it. That's all. So far as I can tell, it's a "plot hole" that didn't exist that they modified for plot consistency that doesn't matter. I do not trust the people making this to be doing something deeper like "making show!Murderbot younger" or some bullshit. Stop pretending that's what's happening absent actual statements from the crew that's what's happening, or something more specific in-universe indicating Murderbot's age more than "I downloaded y amount of media".

The kiss is 40x worse than the trailer made it out to be. I agree with what a friend suggested: I think Murderbot's asexuality angered the folks who made the show, and they're punishing it for that. It's just a thing that acephobes do. Even ignoring that aspect of its personality, the scene would be deeply gross for anyone. Yes, it's framed as being uncomfortable, but I think you're meant to laugh at how silly it is (e.g., "Look at how uncomfortable Murderbot is, isn't that funny") and how weird and hypersexual LeeBeeBee is. An ace person wouldn't be grossed out purely because they're ace: they'd be disgusted a stranger kissed them without consent. This framing is like every dude mad he "now" "can't" hug or touch women because of MeToo or some bullshit rather than you know people always have agency and a lot of cis men in particular have been taught by society that women in particular are not people and thus do not have boundaries to be respected. I've met guys like this. I am truly not impressed with what was likely going through the showrunners' heads when making this shit up.

I was trying to understand what LeeBeeBee could be hoping to accomplish, narratively, with this, from the angle that she's meant to be a villain. And I think it's very generic hypersexualization of femme villains. That's all. It's not imaginative. Even Astro Bot has the giant female snake boss, Lady Venomara - the only markedly gendered boss - moan lewdly, Oh yesss!! when she gets knocked unconscious.

And to be clear, it's not bad that villains are evil. Obviously. Oh no, an evil person did an evil thing, -le gasp-!!!! /end sarcasm. I'm just looking at this from the angles of:

Is it entertaining?

Is it creative?

And the answer is no. It is neither of those things. Adding this character to the story adds nothing of value, on top of the fact that this whole scenario is showing how incompetent Murderbot is in the show, because they're again so heavily foreshadowing LeeBeeBee is a femme fatale/spy, and Murderbot explains how the villains likely got into DeltFall, explicitly, clearly setting up what LeeBeeBee is doing, and how Murderbot, at no point, questions that she is doing that.

Gurathin should be keeping LeeBeeBee out of PresAux's stuff purely on privacy concerns. She's allegedly a member of a different organization and has no right to PresAux's proprietary data. Gurathin being butthurt he can't make the moves on Mensah should not be interfering with this, and Gurathin is not meant to be this incompetent. But the show wants him to be an incompetent led by his dick for whatever reason.

I could go on about queerness in this show and how badly it's handled, but a friend did a far better job than I ever could.

Sure, why not have the hopper blow up/crash? Who gives a fuck at this point? I didn't mention another adaptation of Tales From Earthsea: the notoriously shit live-action 2004 SciFi miniseries we as a fandom pretend doesn't exist because it sucks so much. And yeah, it's fantasy, not science fiction, and it was made by SciFi (Syfy), who have a far less than grand history of making things. But we are basically there at this point. That is my feeling watching this: this might as well happen, cause who fucking cares?

Fuck this show.

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

Other thoughts:

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