#PSPSPSPSPSPS

[prettyflyshyguy]

Hey hey hey it's me again I'm here to talk about my favourite fucked up guy

OK. I'm sick, maybe slightly delirious because of it, but in honor of EP7 dropping tomorrow (and hopefully his backstory with it) I need to get my theory crafting out into the wild now so we can all check in tomorrow and see what changes/what I double down on.

During my viewing of E2 I made the comment: "Was he augmented without his consent?" and I'm willing to put money down that I'm right.

Before I dive into my extensive E1-6 Gurathin thoughts, theories and observational commentary, a quick housekeeping: This is 95% based off my personal observations of the show (just the released episodes, no outside source media), with the remaining 5% me looking at a small amount of other peoples meta thoughts and commentary - I haven't read the books yet and I plan to once S1 is wrapped up!

If you have thoughts and opinions on my thoughts and opinions, please feel free to chuck a comment on this post but PLEASE do not spoil the books or reference book Gurathin on this post - I'm enjoying the show being 100% an unknown to me and how it's unfolding, so I'm trying to just experience it that way so every new piece of information is an exciting revelation for me!!! I promise I'll read the books haha. This entire post is 100% show only Gurathin content, no book allowed.

Let's dive in. This'll be a long post, so all the meat is under the cut. I fucking love this guy so, so, so much. And I have a lot I wanna say about him.

INTRODUCTION:

When we first see him he's deeply uncomfortable in the dealership room and really doesn't want the team to get a secunit. All the body language and the way he looks at mensah screams that he thinks its a bad idea. He's asked to join the group communion and doesn't at first, but the gang pull him in which immediately shows they're used to his self isolating behaviour but they accept its a quirk and will nudge him when necessary. In a number of other scenes he's with the group but maintaining a distance when they're huddled, little things imply he's involved and definitely socially a part of the group but he also is at times more separate (dancing scene E1 he's clearly involved and a part of it and enjoying himself) vs E4 when they're trying to contact deltfall (everyone is huddled and touching each other and he's distinctly pacing behind them).

E1 also has a fun moment where Ratthi is painting the base and Gura comments "does this wash off?" which knowing he never grew up on preservation alliance, I thought that was a nice touch. I'm in this picture and I don't like it sorta character. Not so much a rules stickler but maybe a worry-er, someone who's conscious or concerned about things that others aren't as fussed by.

The hopper secret meeting scene - he's clearly cared for, the team talk to him and say his feelings are valid but they're not necessarily hearing him, and he's frustrated by it. He operates slightly differently to them and this clearly isolates him from certain group discussions. From day 1 he's uncomfortable about having a secunit on board, at all, and the second something weird happens he's immediately on the full scale defensive - whereas everyone else is more immediately forgiving, less concerned. The way he references how much he cares about his friends to MB during the Eye Contact scene emphasises how important their lives and their safety are to him.

Now he's obviously got some trauma, possibly relating to the company or a mix of things.

After the initial sandworm attack someone (I think it was Mensah from memory) comment's that "(he) has good reason not to trust the company."

After Bharadwaj has physically recovered from the sandworm attack, he accidentally scares her when he approaches her and apologises, saying "it's an old habit, being quiet." It's a quick line that I think carries a lot more weight than it initially seems to have.

He mentions having joined preservation alliance 6 years ago but we don't know where he was at prior. He's clearly not all about how presaux operate but he still feels at home with them and they deeply respect and love him in their own way, despite differences in perspective. He's valued with them. Despite this I firmly believe he deeply feels a sense of disconnection - with the crew, especially in how they treat MB as more of a person at first (pre reveal) and with himself. Bear with me, I'll explain as I go.

He's insistent on the depersonalisation of their secunit - reminding the team that it's not a person, it's not a man or a human, it's an it in the sense that it's a tool, an object, and serves a function the same way any other piece of technology they use does. And it runs the risk of not working properly. Machines aren't supposed to think or feel, they're supposed to execute a task. It being controlled by the company leaves them with a lack of agency over this thing that's highly dangerous, that's supposed to protect them. He seems incredibly, personally, fearfull - directly telling Mensah at one point about how secunits "don't go through things!" and then commenting on what, in his mind, it is that they do. Kill things. Maim things. The language use here is broad - their job is to kill things. Their job is to maim things. Perhaps he's simply referring to things like aggressive fauna. Maybe he's referring to something else.

We know he doesn't know much about how secunits specifically work (he tells us this directly in E2), but we also as an audience don't know how much he knows about constructs, and AI in general (in this fictional setting). He didn't know secunit's have faces. The whole team object to the idea of a machine that seemingly could have some form of 'autonomy' being shackled by something like the governor module - they talk about this in the early eps, but it feels like they don't quite understand the entire picture at the same time - and neither does Gurathin. None of them quite realise what a construct is, how it operates, and the gravity of is existence and circumstance. When MB reveals its face, this starts to sink in with them. Gura's no exception here.

Let's move onto his RELATIONSHIPS.

MENSAH:

He obviously deeply cares about the crew (eye contact ep - I firmly believe when he threatened MB he didn't just mean Mensah when he said "I care about my friends" - he goes and holds Bharadwaj's hand when she wakes up- the one thing Medbay couldn't do was human connection)

It's strongly established that he really meant it with his whole chest when he said "I trust you" referring to the presaux team. But it's also clear in his behaviour that he cares about Mensah more.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room first - the pillow scene.

Not to defend him sneaking into her room - but I've seen a few takes on this scene that just paint him with a brush as being A Creep(tm) with no further consideration, and I don't think this is fair to his character. The act of him sneaking in, and then comforting himself with her pillow (MB is an unreliable narrator. I don't know if he was sniffing it, or just embracing it, and frankly the details don't matter - it cuts right as he starts to appear to cry) - the act of doing whatever it was, was creepy, and innapropriate boundary crossing. Absolutely. However - everyone of the humans in the presaux team have some kind of issue or problem with their behavior.

None of these people is without significant character fault.

So while his behaviour in this one scene was weird, I feel it speaks volumes about something unrequitted between him and Mensah, and his inability to express this to her. He deeply desires connection, but can't bring himself to bring it up.

He attempts to apologise to her after he insists she doesn't take the secunit with her on a trip, he feels intense guilt over that decision and his insistency impacting her safety in E2. He's conflicted about it because he genuinely is concerned it's a danger to the crew, but he deeply cares for and respects her and her almost getting seriously hurt absolutely terriffied him. Her subsequent blowing off of him - "I just need a shower.", rejecting his attempt at comfort, closeness and connection when she physically closes the door (and metaphorically closes a door) in his face - she likely has no idea how much of a mental sledgehammer it is to him.

She has every right to want and to ask for space - but it's this critical miscommunication (or lack of communication) between them that is clearly a long running and on-going thing.

In E5 it's also very clear he's cut up when Mensah tells him Pin-Lee is the 2nd in charge if anything goes wrong - he accepts it because he respects her but you can tell he's hurt by it.

They've been long time friends, I'm going to guess their friendship pre-dates him joining Pres Alliance based on how he brings it up in E2, and maybe there's an imbalance of how each other views their relationship, in their own heads. Again: emphasis on miscommunication, something unrequited because it's left unspoken, maybe there's that classic fear of "I don't wanna fuck this all up by being honest" - they have a good thing going and maybe he doesn't wanna ruin it. He briefly looks at the photo of her family with fondness (going off memory here, correct me if I'm wrong)

Just to clarify: I think at times his behavior is:

-definitively creepy in action (pillow)

-occasionally miss-read as creepy, especially when viewed through MB's unreliable narration and personal bias (he's just weird and different sometimes, much like many normal people are)

-he's not a Creep, but the pillow scene was inappropriate/a bit creepy

Ironic for MB to call him a Creep when it can access full security feeds and chose to brain blast him with his coworkers going at it - a great shift in framing because to MB it doesn't care/views the voyeurism differently because its a construct and security is its job (not to mention its personal distaste/lack of interest in copulation as it were)

but that's really the joke of it all, ain't it!

Slight tangent aside, let's move onto his other pivotal relationship in the show.

MURDERBOT (AND HOW GURATHIN'S NOT ENTIRELY HUMAN HIMSELF):

Not-fully-human Human and partially-human NonHuman. Name a more iconic duo. I'll wait.

So far, we don't know much about his augments and how he feels about them, or how anyone else feels about them. It all seems very matter of fact and straight forward. MB just describes the augments as 'fancy' in a sarcastic tone (I have more to say on MB's thoughts on augments however), so this could imply augmentation is a rarity or something reserved. He's immediately othered by MB's introductions of the crew as being the only augmented human.

It's all very pragmatic and function based. But it inevitably means he can do things no one else can, and the way he interacts with the world and tech is different to the other members of presaux. Having something robotic sticking out of your neck also immediately signposts yourself but that's an entire other can of worms (Shy what's with you and mechanical components in peoples necks huh?? HUH???)

In E1 he's abrasive towards MB after the face reveal and is frustrated, he's harsh and insistive - very rudely and firmly telling it that it can't leave the room yet for instance. However in E2 he has a different tone when he says "SecUnit can you please come and see me."

Yeah it's a real human thing to say, but it's a useless platitude to a robot that's only there to obey commands, right? This feels like the first subtle shift to me. It felt like a choice.

The Eye Contact scene - let's unpack it.

Gurathin "It's not a person its a tool" asks it politely to visit him, does a very uncomfortable (failed) dramatic chair spin, insists it sits on a chair, and then asks it a very personal question.

"I guess I don't know much about SecUnits.

What's it like, to be you?"

Rent free inside my head, chat.

Anyway - him asking for it to unmask itself - he knows what it looks like, he's got the video feed to look back at, but he wants to face it like a person would. Sitting also puts them both at eye level. It's a humanising thing. Suddenly, maybe, it's harder for Gura to separate it as a tool as much as he could before. Anthropomorphizing is something humans are already very good at. You put a real flesh and blood face on something? Oh No. Oh Boy.

The way he asks it "what's it like to be you?" felt really, really raw and genuine. It didn't feel like hate, or resentment, it felt like genuine curiosity and a desire for connection.

MB responds in kind - and it's such a beautifully short lived moment. But Gurathin is clearly conflicted in his position. He came in ready, and SWINGING, and now he has to reconcile with something he was thoroughly unprepared for.

He's testing the water when he insists on eye contact and is likely suspicious because MB doesn't seem to be acting how a secunit was likely pitched to him off-screen, and the way MB clearly is reluctant adds to this. With future episode context I think Gurathin clocked that there was something deeply wrong very early, but he was trying to genuinely suss out if it was a threat or not. He's not an idiot, he saw how it helped the crew, it's not done anything that's directly put the team in danger. But it's still wrong.

Later in the conversation he opens up about how differently Pres Alliance treat AI and constructs, compared to the corporation rim. He follows this up with "I don't know why I'm telling you this."

It's played off as a joke in relation to MB's inner monologue - but I genuinely think part of him was once again fishing for some kind of connection.

"Yeah I know. It's... weird to think about."

For Gurathin, he's not entirely human. His augments make him less human, they form a point of detachment.

Murderbot is not human, but it's behaviour seems slightly more human than what Gurathin expects of it.

Not to mention the myriad of small behavioural traits they share in common - but neither seem to have consciously recognised or clocked in each other yet.

My point being: the entire eye contact interrogation was as much Gurathin reaching for a connection as it was a warning and cautious appeal to reason and a hopeful connection point and it's all coming from a place of deep internal conflict. He's warmed up to it slightly now, part of him seeks something. If he was that concerned about it, he wouldn't have invited it into a room with him in private where he was vulnerable. He's of course unaware of how dangerous MB is, but if he really felt like he couldn't trust it to not kill him, he wouldn't have engaged with it all in that way I feel.

"If a secunit was malfunctioning in any way, it would be extremely dangerous for anyone involved--"

Gurathin looks intensely and deeply into it's face as he says "AND the secunit!"

This feels like a very direct personal appeal to a sense of self preservation. He's starting to pick up that this thing isn't just a normal robot. It doesn't just execute a task with no thought process. It does think and feel. And part of him is drawn to that fact.

All this is to say, I feel like this strongly signals to him being augmented against his will.

MB is a victim of circumstance in a lot of ways - it never asked to be created, it never asked to be sentient and it certainly never agreed to become an effective slave. I think Gurathin recognises this, initially, and is drawn to this fact because a part of him perhaps recognises it within himself (not consciouslly)

Now this all might be a huge projection - I'm writing a story and one of the characters, O'Byrne, is not-quite-human anymore after having something change her irreparably too and it's tech related.

But I really do feel like there's something to this. It'd make a lot of sense with Gurathin's deep comfortability with the company, his clear confliction around wanting to connect with MB but struggling to and being unsure of his feelings towards it.

I really loved episode 6 - so let's quickly talk about that before we wrap up.

MURDERBOT, UNMASKED:

I've avoided as many future episode clips as I can, but in one of the trailers I watched there's a line where Gurathin reveals to the crew that it calls itself Murderbot (self assigned name)

NOTABLY - he has not revealed this information to the crew in E6. Isn't that funny. Isn't that interesting.

He jacks into this thing, has a very intimate look inside it's head and memories, discloses a bunch of information to Bharadwaj but clearly doesn't disclose everything. During the E6 interrogation it's obvious Gurathin feels the most in control he's ever been - he's strutting around with full confidence, he's being purposefully antagonistic despite MB's attempts at showing it genuinely is on the teams side, and Gurathin believes its immobilised and that he has full power.

We all know that he had absolutely no power, at all, however.

MB at any point in time could have gotten out of that chair. It chose when to very carefully.

Given Gurathin believed he was in full control - why didn't he disclose more information about what he found in MB's head?

It would have certainly helped him argue his case. It certainly was a choice to not bring it up.

Again I think this comes down to his internal conflict. There are two wolves inside of you and one hates and distrusts the company and anything associated and one wants to believe the fucked up secunit might actually, genuinely, be something you can come to trust.

I think he's a deeply conflicted person seeking connection while feeling disconnected, and that he never had a choice in getting augments installed in him but he's dealing with it and has just accepted his lot in life - and being around people who love, respect and embrace him has helped with this, but he's still lacking something - and he's tip toeing around what that is in his attempts at reaching out to Mensah, and MB (and through these relationships he's perhaps seeking different things to help him feel more complete and less alone in a number of different ways.)

Anyway. I love him very dearly, Dastmalchian has done an absolutely killer performance in the role and I'm frothing at the mouth over what we're about to find out this coming ep drop.

Anyway - I hope this all makes sense. I've tried to proofread, but my brain is kind of fried from the seasonal flu right now (I'll be fine. Its just the middle of winter in australia and it's been really fucking cold where I live) - I hope I havent talked myself in circles. I'm really excited to come back to this when more information on his character has dropped in-episodes!

And if I'm wrong on my theory. Well. Guess I gotta just. Post something to Ao3 about it.

[unavidas]

I binge read The Stormlight Archive in just over a month, here’s my take on beloved Kaladin stormblessed <3

[dia-simp]

ATTENTION WHAT CYBIRD?!

[jacensolodjo]

"You only care about your bottom line? That's fine I'm a top. Let's talk." -Katy M. O'Brian

[serikatz]

decided to host something like this!! 😊 see you guys THERE 💜

[pakau]

modern au because I wanted to draw Gideon in jorts, i will not be taking questions at this time

(pose by draw_gnan)

[mcytegg]

i need sunkissed and cringe duo to crumble in ls im so serious. im tired of those fuckass "trust tests", its followed them into tr 😭

[luxstring]

CLOSED

Man i hope this reaches someone. Ok i don’t plan on starting it today but would any Twisted wonderland writer be interested in doing an art trade with me? I can’t write for shit but i can draw :] I receive a story and you receive art of your choice[simple render], whether it’s canon x canon or oc x canon or something else entirely just keep it within the twst fandom as long as it’s appropriate

LEAVE A LINK TO ONE OF YOUR WORKS PLS THANK YOU ;v;

[ooeygooeyghoul]

I need to find and follow every FFXIV WoL blog on this site immediately. I need to get deeply invested in the lore behind every lizard, elf, catboy and lala in existence.

[ariadne-mouse]

"And you are sure these are edible?" "Ja. Well, sort of." "What does 'sort of' mean, Caleb Widogast?"

Here is Shadowgast in the style of Scavengers Reign!

Yes, this is a transparent and blatant attempt to pspspsps my fellow fans of Critical Role into watching this series. The first season is airing now on Netflix as of May 31st. They picked it up after Max did not renew it for a second season, and will decide based on the reception now whether to continue - so I am hoping that lots of people discover the show and love it! The animation studio is Titmouse, who also produces The Legend of Vox Machina.

It's like a Miyazaki-esque Annihilation. Cosmic horror and cosmic wonder in equal and necessary parts. If you like the funky biology parts of Candela Obscura, give this a shot. There is horror. There is humanity. There is hope and connection. There are creatures of all shapes and sizes, including a wonderful amount of tiny idiots, which I have made many compilation posts about. It's a setting where you can envision David Attenborough peacefully narrating a nature documentary about it, but be horrified the same time. Just an absolutely incredible show.

[oh-phoenixx]

can't believe i'm being yelled at by someone who doesn't even know the circumference of a circle

[functioning-minne-holic]

Oh no, my collection of XL hoodies is growing. It sure would be a shame if some alt girl from tumblr showed up to try and steal one 👀

[theninthlaw]

I redid the portrait post because it was getting kinda long and I know that can be a bit annoying for people. So I'm throwing them all together here :3

[personwithatophat]

value of the corpse

TW: talking about death, self harm, or graphic depictions used within genloss hopefully not to bad, but enough to tag in genloss dead, undead, bodies, and so on are depicted, and in different ways. it pushes an idea in this world that death is inconsequential to being revived, or that death isnt the end of usefulness. so i want to chat about it. I personally think that its suspicious, and for TSE at the very least think most if not all deaths are faked or embellished. in TSE deaths are consistently off-screen and exaggereated or otherwise happening during a cutscene, and ill chat about that in detail if people want the in depth on that, but i think those deaths are fake. this is more speculation on TFG (the founders game) In TFG "death" and "rebirth" is more bold in its claims. TSE deaths are off screen, treated as actual, and is slightly uncertain even in character diologue. TFG deaths are direct, and much more litteral in its gameified media. ben sees his own body ben is buried in a room of his own bodies ben experiences resets and different deaths with passing details constantly but ben is also a skeleton. why? if death and rebirth are so inconsequential that the greenhouse is FULL of bens own bodies collected through resets then WHY is it that what we see in the founders mirror is a skeleton covered in hardware? the founder comments on the concept of generationloss and its affect on ben. sharing his distain for how his experiments deteriorate. but the way i interpreted this was to the fault of the technology when whoever ben was, "woke up". if all thats needed is hardware, then theres no reason to maintain the human body thats far past expired. so the body has value. if the body has value, then its not illogical to think strewn corpses are planted for narrative purpose For BEN As The First Person Character.

and im thinking about this with the context of TFG. TFG is heavy on derealization. like the detail fuzziness of a dream or prolonged AI video, things that arnt the main focus wont add up. example: The janitor is killed by the monster. his body is then present in multiple moments. well. in what condition? according to the cutscene, and the description: the janitor was lifted up and his neck was snapped, hes then dropped down to the floor. quote: 'his head tilts away from his concaved neck'. fast forward a reset or so and the body is actually decapitated. quote: 'the janitor lays in front of you in a pool of his own blood his head a few feet away slightly rocking back and forth.' further on, we see examples of gore but instead of blood being used as a descriptor is more along the lines of 'dark ooze'. genloss isnt afraid to show, tell, or use blood as a desriptor so it feels less like blood in this moment then a deliberate differentiator. perhaps oil? if manequins and simple anamatronics are used in bens hallucination of afterschool slash then there are replacements. i have more notes but this is already an essay. i may be missing some evidence pieces im not remembering at the moment, but i still think deaths in genloss are fishy. feel free to ask questions or challenge my theories, they help me build them and make my day :) -Tophat

[marmarjam]

*taps mic* hello is this thing on pspspspsps

[deadgrantaires]

[checkin my wristwatch to see how long it takes my beloved mutuals to flock to sclasses knowing han yoojin gets collared and leashed]