#because i like robots and i love murderbot

[khentkawes]

All I want for Christmas is...

...to utterly destroy the pornbot infestation and leave their corpses as a smoldering warning to future bots menaces!

[tciddaemina]

maybe its just because i’m in my own corner of weird hell, but when i first heard the premise of the murderbot diaries i was like fuck yeah, sick, i love android sentience things and robots having big feelings and it not just being about being made of meat that gives you a soul-

and then i read the first book and was like. oh. oh so they’re just a human meat clone that people have decided don’t have rights or feelings. oh okay. 

like man, i really sort of got cucked by the ‘bot’ of murderbot. 

[asterlark]

me and den @unloneliest were just talking about murderbot and ART's relationship and i want to discuss how they quite literally complete each other's sensory and emotional experience of the world!!

there's a few great posts on here such as this one about how murderbot uses drones to fully and properly experience the world around it (it also accesses security cameras/other systems for this same purpose). but i haven't seen anyone so far talk about how once MB stops working for the company and consequently doesn't have a hubsystem/secsystem to connect to anymore (which for its entire existence up to that point had been how it was used to interacting with its environment/doing its job), after it meets ART, ART starts to fill that gap.

ART gives MB access to more cameras, systems, and information archives than it would normally be able to connect with while MB is on its own outside of ART's... body(? lol), but also directly gives MB access to its own cameras, drones, archives, facilities, and processing space. additionally, so much of ART's function is dedicated to analysis, lateral thinking, and logical reasoning, and it not only uses those skills in service of reaching murderbot's goals, it teaches murderbot how to use those same skills. (ART might be a bit of an asshole about how it does this, but that doesn't negate just how much it does for murderbot for no reason other than it's bored/interested in MB as an individual.)

we all love goofing about how artificial condition can basically be boiled down to "two robots in a trench coat trying to get through a job interview" (which is entirely accurate tbh) but that's also such a great example of ART fulfilling the role of both murderbot's "hubsystem" and "secsystem", allowing it to fully experience its environment/ succeed in its goals. ART provides MB with crucial information, context, and constructive criticism, and uses its significant processing power to act as MB's backup and support system while they work together.

from ART's side of things, we get a very explicit explanation of how it needs the context of murderbot's emotional reactions to media in order to fully understand and experience the media as intended. it tried to watch media with its humans, and it didn't completely understand just by studying their reactions. but when it's in a feed connection with murderbot, who isn't human but has human neural tissue, ART is finally able to thoroughly process the emotional aspects of media (side note, once it actually understands the emotional stakes in a way that makes sense for it, it's so frightened by the possibility of the fictional ship/crew in worldhoppers being catastrophically injured or killed that it makes murderbot pause for a significant amount of time before it feels prepared to go on. like!! ART really fucking loves its crew, that is all).

looking at things further from ART's perspective: its relationship with murderbot is ostensibly the very first relationship it's been able to establish with not only someone outside of its crew, but also with any construct at all. while ART loves its crew very much (see previous point re: being so so scared for the fate of the fictional crew of worldhoppers), it never had a choice in forming relationships with them. it was quite literally programmed to build those relationships with its crew and students. ART loves its function, its job, and nearly all of the humans that spend time inside of it, but its relationship with murderbot is the first time it's able to choose to make a new friend. that new friend is also someone who, due to its partial machine intelligence, is able to understand and know ART on a whole other level of intimacy that humans simply aren't capable of. (that part goes for murderbot, too, obviously; ART is its first actual friend outside of the presaux team, and its first bot friend ever.)

and because murderbot is murderbot, and not a "nice/polite to ART most of the time" human, this is also one of the first times that ART gets real feedback from a friend about the ways that its actions impact others. after the whole situation in network effect, when the truth of the kidnapping comes to light and murderbot hides in the bathroom refusing to talk to ART (and admittedly ART doesn't handle this well lol) - ART is forced to confront that despite it making the only call it felt able to make in that horrifying situation, despite it thinking that that was the right call, its actions hurt murderbot, and several other humans were caught in the crossfire. what's most scary to ART in that moment is the idea that murderbot might never forgive it, might never want to talk to it again. it's already so attached to this friendship, so concerned with murderbot's wellbeing, that the thought of that friendship being over because of its own behavior is terrifying. (to me, this almost mirrors murderbot's complete emotional collapse when it thinks that ART has been killed. the other more overt mirror is ART fully intending on bombing the colony to get murderbot back.)

in den's words, they both increase the other's capacity to feel: ART by acting as a part of murderbot's sensory system, and murderbot by acting as a means by which ART can access emotion. they love one another so much they would do pretty much anything to keep each other safe/avenge each other, but what's more, they unequivocally make each other more whole.

[asmywhimseytakesme]

I love the art of Murderbot in its armor that makes it look so big and imposing, like someone wearing football gear that makes them look just MASSIVE

And I imagine people seeing it with the gear off being so weirded out because it’s basically… normal sized? How??? Like obviously strong but well within normal human proportions. And then realizing that what they thought was this huge robot thing is actually friend shaped underneath.

[unbizzarre]

One-Esk, Murderbot, and A.R.T. watch "2001 a Space Odyssey - The Musical"

Meanwhile...

Creator’s Note: I made some more incredibly niche crossover content! Three of my favorite fictional robots/AI hanging out. This scene popped into my head when I was rereading the scene in artificial condition where ART was afraid to watch certain shows with secunit because it would get too upset if the ship cremembers in the show were endangered. (Probably the cutest moment in the whole series TBH, and definitely the moment I became 1000% on board with ART as a character.) I had a lot of fun imagining the characters reactions and trying to pick out what they should watch for their pajama movie night (obviously it had to be a musical for breq, and include space ships for ART). Hope you enjoy!

Also, here's a text-free version of my drawing, which you are welcome to use/edit/draw-over however you'd like:

Post script: if you like Martha Wells Murderbot Diaries, you should definitely check out Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice trilogy, or vice versa. More angry traumatized non-binary human-ai constructs for all! Mega-latestage-capitolist dystopia, or xenophobic -imperialist-socialist empire? Sentient space ships? C’mon. Just read both series u know you’ll love it.

[nobodysdaydreams]

Explaining fandoms I’m not in, but I have seen on my dash from the mutuals (to the best of my knowledge based on their posts):

Why? Because I thought it would be fun and entertaining and I hope I’m not wrong.

The Magnus Archives (TMA)- a group of people document creepy and supernatural events while they slowly one by one discover either that they are the monsters/possessed by them, or that they are being taken in by the monsters, or that their coworkers are the monsters, or that they themselves are possibly friends with or dating the monsters, or that they have been working for the monsters (or bad guys) the entire time. Many of the villains seem to be demented or possessed life sized toys and clowns or eyeballs. This podcast has so many episodes, and I see so many posts about it, but these seem to be the common themes.

Miraculous Ladybug- actually haven’t seen this one on my dash in a long time, but when I first did, despite appearing like a straightforward kids fandom, the shipping discourse confused the heck out of me. But if I have this right, based on the posts from my younger followers, two teenagers are animal themed superheroes who are dating each other and also have crushes on each other, but they don’t know they are dating each other, because they don’t know each others secret identities, because… okay, I still honestly have no idea why. There are ~5K posts about this apparently very central and specific plot line, but not one explains why they don’t just tell each other who they are??? Anything for the plot, I guess. Apparently this has been going on for a long time to the point where even the show’s target audience of children is confused as to how these teenagers and grown adults haven’t put the pieces together as to who everyone’s secret identity is.

Keeper of the Lost Cities (KOTLC)- there’s a girl named Sophie. She is an elf in a love triangle with Keefe and some other guy (I think his name is Fritz). Keefe’s parents are terrible, especially his mom. Sophie has horse DNA (I don’t know if that post was a joke or not sorry if that’s wrong). There’s an elf with fire powers. Elves read minds. There’s a group called the black swan who are the good guys, I think. Also I think the elves and humans are at war. I know Keefe’s parents are trash, does Sophie have parents? From what I can tell, she grows up believing she’s a human but then surprise! She’s an elf and the chosen one, and elves are possibly immortal? Wait, maybe Sophie’s a half elf. Is that a thing?

Spy x Family - two people are fake dating each other for spy reasons but eventually fall in love for real. The twist is, they each think the other is a normal civilian who doesn’t know about the fake relationship (which is kinda messed up to make someone fall in love with you for a fake cover but if they’re also doing the same to you that’s karma I guess) but I think it might end up ok, because they fall in love for real (Aw) but possibly also not okay, because I also think it might be revealed that they’ve been working for enemy sides this whole time (drama). Also the adopted daughter is a mind reader who knows everything but chooses to keep what she knows secret for the plot. Respect. And I recently saw something about the family having a super powered dog? Is he real?

The Murderbot Diaries - a bunch of robots are created for one purpose: murder. But when their murder programming goes haywire, they discover that they might have more in common with the humans they’ve been assigned to kill than they originally thought. Or that they have more humanity inside themselves than they thought… or maybe that the people who created them have more evil intentions than… well in hindsight, “the people who build the murder robots are evil!” seems like an obvious plot twist, but maybe they’re more morally complex or had decent intentions and just never intended for it to go this far… or maybe the robots get hacked or decide maybe they don’t want to be murder bots anymore which brings us back to free will. Interesting philosophical questions, but I think the robots might be getting into some wacky shenanigans as well. Also they apparently have diaries. I get that a diary is just like… a log of what they’re doing, but that won’t stop me from imaging a big scary robot with a little pink glitter pen writing “Dear Diary, I killed three people today. I still see their faces when I try to power off at night. When I go into sleep mode, I dream of their faces. I begin to wonder things, like whether they had families, dreams, or ambitions. I also wonder what they felt in their final moments. I fear this means I am developing a conscience and desire to turn against my programming and the creators. But probably nothing a little update and restart can’t fix. I’ll keep you updated, dairy. XOXO, Murderbot 💕” So. How did I do? Scale of 1-10, with 10 being “you nailed it!” and 1 being “None of this is remotely close. What posts have you been looking at?”

[marithlizard]

Martha Wells gave a speech about machine intelligence and her character Murderbot, and it's fascinating even if you have never read the books. Some choice quotes:

"[Asimov's three laws of robotics] seem to be built on the assumption that the robots are going to want to hurt and kill us as soon as they roll off the assembly line. Why are we so sure of this? Maybe because a bunch of us asked for it. :cough: Tech bro oligarchs :cough: The third law also stipulates that robots are expected to die for us, despite their inherent desire to kill us." "(Maybe ChatGPT is sentient, and that's why it keeps producing books that tell humans to eat poisonous mushrooms, and cookbooks for diabetics that are full of sugar-heavy recipes.)"

"People also mistakenly think Murderbot was not a sentient being until it hacked its governor module. [...] I think that's another aspect of humans ignoring things, though this time they're ignoring things that are too horrible to think about. It's self-protection, rather than a form of self righteousness.

In that way, we're kind of like that cow in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I wonder if Douglas Adams was also thinking about that."

(I love these books so much, and learning that they came from the sense of helpless rage and stress from a lifetime of unfairness and then 2016....yeah that tracks so hard.)

[flammenkobold]

Something I enjoyed seeing in Network Effect at the start was the way Murderbot and Mensah's relationship is playing out. There are these two persons who deeply love and care about each other, who want the best for the other person, but whose relationship at that point is not very good for either of them.

Mensah herself points out how she relies emotionally too much on Murderbot and that isn't fair to it, but also it prevents her healing from the trauma she went through. Additionally, it also works as a buffer between her and her family, who doesn't understand why she can't talk to them or rely on them emotionally like she used to, which also isolates her from parts of her family.

Likewise Murderbot falls back into some mechanisms from the past that aren't very good either, like mostly acting like a robot around Mensah's family to the point where her daughter hasn't even heard it speak. And despite it being framed like this situation is one where it works as her security, this isn't the kind of security job it enjoys because there is at this point not much to do for it.

They're both stuck and unable to grow within the parameters of their relationship at the start of Network Effect.

So yeah, it is kind of a breakup, because they both need some distance from each other and do things separately so they can continue to grow and heal. It doesn't diminish the love or care they have for each other and that's crucial too. They both understand that and push the other to do the things that will be good for them.

It's just so rare to see something like this in media? And least of all it being handled so well.

I really hope we see more of them together in future books and how their relationship develops and settles the more the two of them also grow and heal.

[theygotbitchesinmedia]

Started murderbot on the plane today. Let's look back on what I screenshotted and try and remember why

Ok first screenshot. Easy mode. Wanted to pay respects to a polyamorous king and his seven children by various partners

I think here I was going to point out that the prose in this thing is just. Not particularly inspiring. Right now in my post-travel clarity the thing I've read most recently whose prose style lines up with murderbot is the animorphs books. Which is absolutely not an insult because I loved those fucking books, but I don't want books written for adult audiences to remind me of books written for elementary schoolers.

"You may have noticed that when I do manage to care, I'm a pessimist." Ugh. I'm interpreting the style in the most favorable way I can and assuming that we're more or less supposed to view murderbot as having the angsty broody personality of a sulking teen. Taking the prince of darkness out for a walk. And that were not supposed to take it too seriously

I will say I'm kind of disappointed in How human murderbot is. When I heard the premise "killer security robot who goes rogue and binge watches a bunch of tv" this isn't really what I was expecting. Obviously I am just on the first novella but rn murderbot feels indistinguishable from like a loner space merc character. Like as in the This Is A Robot stuff just isn't hitting like I wish it was.

I think it's really not helpful that we aren't introduced to any more "standard" sec units to compare murderbot too. Are they even "standard?" How much personality do secunits typically have? Are permitted to show? Not knowing that makes it impossible as the audience to actually understand what makes our main character an outlier from its peers, which is kind of a critical point of failure for characterization

But at least we know it can /j with the best of them

[chubunited]

So ive been reading this book series called the murderbot diaries about a security robot/human construct who freed itself from the lock that made it 100% obedient, but who continues to (snarkily) protect its humans because it loves them anyways and its SUCH a good series but...

Now all i can think of is it going through processes to make it more human, one to blend in and two to try and figure out what it wants in life

And of course my brain goes to ‘it decides to try out a digestive system since that seems like a popular thing that living things have’ and ends up enjoying it WAY more than expected/is willing to admit.

Now while the character in the book is rather vocally against having any interest in any kind of biological process, that certainly doesn't mean there couldn't be a different freed construct whose significantly More interested in that. Especially since it repeatedly has been shown (somewhat haphazardly/recklessly) freeing other constructs from their compulsory obedience.

Do I need more characters?? no. Am I going to make another one anyway?? :)

[halsaph]

alright whats this artdrone killbot thing

hi. You will regret asking this

The Murderbot Diaries is a series of books about a human-bot construct that was designed to essentially exist as an enslaved security guard / piece of sentient spyware. It's like if Alexa had half a human brain and a gun. We're introduced to Murderbot (the murder alexa) roughly 3 years after it's hacked the piece of hardware in it's brain that forces it to obey commands. In those 3 years it hasn't changed much about it's life except now while working as a subhuman slave it watches tv when no one is paying attention. As a series TMBD largely is about themes of personhood and discovering yourself when you have largely spent your life being denied the right to a sense of self. They also don't shy away from addressing the trauma that Murderbot has experienced from having it's autonomy stripped of it for most of it's life, with the second novella and most recent novel most heavily featuring that as an element. (Although that is a core aspect of Murderbot's character that informs its decisions throughout the entire series).

Murderbot as a character is bitingly sarcastic and witty, deeply paranoid and ultimately filled with the constant low level anxiety it doesn't know what it's doing (not necessarily moment by moment but overall, with it's freedom, with it's life). It's an excellent unreliable narrator because it only tells you exactly what it thinks is important in a scenario, relationships between other characters, physical features of itself and the people around it, it's own emotions and reactions often being completely brushed over with only occasional clues, and often outright misinterpreting people's actions, most often it's own. It has this ever present self loathing in the first several books where it constantly explains it's actions away in the least charitable interpretation possible even though we see time and time again that at it's core it deeply wants to help and protect the people around it. And we see over the course of the books as it starts learning how to make choices for itself and interacting with people who treat it with respect and develops a support system as it starts to move away from that mindset (with the exception of the most recent book but to be fair to MB System Collapse is about it being forced to confront it's PTSD and it's backsliding alot from recently being thrown back into a situation from its worst nightmares). I said before its a human-bot construct to explain that it isn't purely an inorganic being but Murderbot is a deeply inhuman character and openly has no desire to be human, and it's perspective as something that is made to be a security system and enmesh into both digital and hardwired surveillance is fascinating to read. As you know I deeply deeply love robots, they're my favorite kind of 'inhuman but still a Person' kind of character and Murderbot perfectly strikes the balance between a starkly in human way of thinking and deeply relatable emotions that draws me to robots as a whole, especially as an autistic person (and Murderbot was intentionally written with autistic traits but in a subversion of the typical ableist depiction of autistic robots so that EXTRA rings true lmao)

seeing as you mentioned it I will also explain ART as a character, ART is one of the reoccurring characters in the series (the first 3 novellas all have completely different casts outside of Murderbot itself as it hops from place to place trying to decide what it wants and who it is before in the fourth novella and beyond bringing back in previous characters and having them start to overlap throughout the rest of the series). It was introduced in the second book and is arguably the character that has the greatest impact on Murderbot as a person although I say arguably bc I would personally still say that's Mensah. Unarguably tho it is one of the most important people in Murderbot's life and has been described multiple times now by the author as the love of its life (although not necessarily in a romantic sense as Murderbot is both within text and confirmed via word of god acearo). ART (Asshole Research Transport) also known as the Perihelion (although not until the 5th book/first novel bc Murderbot doesn't bother to tell tell the readers its name until then, instead deciding its a dick so its gonna exclusively call it by an insult) is a spaceship's pilot AI, made to be sentient instead of the usual smart GPS as an experiment by the university is was made by. It was raised like a child by a pair of scientists who are now part of its crew (along with its sibling Iris) and now is a teaching vessel for students learning about deep space and also anticorporate espionage worker (don't worry about it). It's a giant pushy asshole unless you're a child (the only character we've ever seen it meet on screen it didn't in some way immediately threaten was a 16 yo). It can't watch tv without having to pause at the suspenseful bits to calm down. We're introduced to it by it threatening to melt Murderbot's mind and then pouting when it's scared shitless. It then a month later asks to do surgery on it. It fully intends to blow up a planet to get Murderbot back from a group of colonists that captured it until someone talks it out of it because that isn't effective hostage negotiation.

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

Virtual Character Tourney - Battle for 9th! (and 10th!)

Propaganda below (May contain spoilers!)

Kasane propaganda:

HER DREAM WAS TO ONE DAY BECOME A REAL VOCALOID AMD SHE FINALLY DID IT!!!!!! ITS NOT A VOCALOID VOICE BANK BUT ITS A FULL SYNTH V VOICEBANK!!!!! AND A NEW DESIGN!!!!! SHE DID IT SHE GOT HER DREAMS!!!!!! YOURE NEVER TOO OLD TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR DREAMS!!!!!!!

Kasane Teto is a vocal synth, she started out as an april fools joke to parody VOCALOID, with her voice bank in UTAU. although she did start out as just a joke a lot of vocaloid fans grew to really love her and she became rather popular. Kasane Teto is to UTAU as Hatsune Miku is to VOCALOID. But recently on Kasane Teto's 15th anniversary, April 1st 2023, she got moved from UTAU to SynthV. With her voice bank now in SynthV she also got a new character deign alone with how her voice and her singing sounds much more clear and human like than her UTAU voice bank which sounded a lot more mechanical/robotic.

ART propaganda:

ART (Asshole Research Transport, nicknamed by Murderbot), formally known as the space ship The Perihelion (in italics but this is a Google Form), also known as Peri (nicknamed by it's human family) is a super illegal highly advanced AI that was created by a university. It grew up with two human dads and a human sister. It and its crew go on research trips that are cover for allying with people and communities at the edges (and beyond) of the capitalist hellscape that is the Corporate Rim. It also goes on espionage missions by itself, without its human crew and family, posing as an automated cargo ship. It was during one of these missions that it picked up Murderbot, a super-duper illegal bot-human security unit construct that had hacked the torture device implanted in all bot-human constructs so that it could disobey orders and walk away from its "owners" without dying. Murderbot uses its illegal freedom to watch television, a habit it passes on to ART. Turns out ART doesn't like shows where human crew members get hurt.

ART is the AI that controls/is the research and teaching vessel Perihelion. (Perihelion is usually what people call it, but the protagonist of the series calls it ART so that's the name I put. ART stands for Asshole Research Transport.) It is extremely intelligent and advanced and also extremely sarcastic and condescending. 100% earned the name ART. ART will do absolutely anything for its crew!! It was developed and "raised" alongside the captain's daughter, Iris, and they're like siblings. Its crew calls it Peri. They do corporate espionage on the side to help bring down said corporations. It has a "debris deflection system" which is definitely not a weapon because ART isn't legally allowed to have a weapon. Definitely just for debris, don't worry about it. It's friends with the aforementioned protagonist, Murderbot, and ART is very good at bullying it into actually leaving its comfort zone when it needs to. They care about each other a lot, and they like to binge watch TV shows together. I don't want to write too much but I just love it a lot.

Ene propaganda:

She's blue. Headphone actor and yuukei yesterday are also bangers

Epic gamer cybergirl. Miku adjacent

She's a girl that was forced to become digital but is still a good friend. She may not have a body anymore but she's still important to the plot.

Murder-Bot 2.0 propaganda:

Sapient computer virus made from bits of two other AI characters (the original Murderbot and a spaceship AI). Unlike its not-parents, it is genuinely just code and doesn't have a physical body. Its only physical presence is through its effects on the machinery it infects, and it considers its "body" to be the code rather than any combination of physical objects. Also it was literally made to cause problems on purpose, does so enthusiastically, gives several people including its creators existential crises, and saves one of its creators (and other people from the (literal) fallout of the other creator learning the first one got killed)

Murderbot 2.0 is sentient killware created by Murderbot and ART with the purpose of being sent on a suicide mission. It has some of Murderbot's memories, but not all because it doesn't have any hardware of it's own to store that much information in. It travels by hopping in between other computer systems (mostly bots and bot-human constructs). It named itself Murderbot 2.0. It freed a security construct named Three. It's nicer and more open than both its parents.

EDI propaganda:

EDI is the AI of the Normandy starting with Mass Effect 2. Through dialogue EDI can become more human-like in her way of thinking, developing different kinds of relationships with the crew. In Mass Effect 3 she uploads herself into a body so she can freely move around and can be taken to missions, but she is still part of the ship's system.

Holly propaganda:

Due to a pay dispute with Holly's original actor, Norman Lovett, Holly was instead played by Hattie Hayridge during seasons 3-5. This was explained briefly in the show as them having gone through a "computer sex change". This makes Holly canonically trans do not @ me.

holly is the silliest most specialest ai ever. she has an iq of 6,000 but sometimes it seems like his iq is more like 6. they're possibly transgender (do computers have gender??) (i am panicking over pronouns while writing this propaganda) - holly goes from appearing like a man to appearing like a woman with no real explanation(??) and nobody questions this (the show is from the 90s btw). he's hilarious and sometimes lies to the crew for no reason other than 'its a laugh, innit'. shes everything to me <3

Holly is the computer of Red Dwarf, a Tenth Generation AI hologrammatic computer who appears as a floating head on a screen. Can be downloaded onto various other devices. also literally transgender.. meets a female appearing parallel version of itself in a parallel universe and then goes through a sex change after falling in love with her. transgender computer ftw

Tama propaganda:

Tama is the eyeball of Kuruto Ryuki and investigates dream worlds with him. She's his bi emotional support eye who regularly ties him up to help him with stress relief and loves to affectionately tease him. She laughs at bad jokes and has AE10D1F ("Ryuki" in hexadecimal) in her likes on her profile.

OKAY anyway uhm she's like aiba in that she's a little Ai eyeball that helps you investigate except sadly no animal theme. instead she has a domintrix vibe instead!!!! she is so cool… also ermm she's a lot more. Human than aiba. Not literally/physically like uhh emotionally. I haven't finished aini but like she does look out for your best interest! what a good Ai partner i don't kno

She's voiced by Anairis Quiñones and she's an absolute legend

Lyla propaganda:

she is a humanoid ai programmed to help spider-man gather info. she can simulate human emotions and has a high intellect

[forphysicsandimagination]

I keep thinking about two lines from two pieces of media I like. They’re said in different tones and in way different contexts, but they fit together for me so strongly:

“But I’m not a girl. I’m a shark!” - Nimona from the movie “Nimona”

“It would make it harder for me to pretend not to be a person.” - Murderbot from “Artificial Condition”

Nimona is a shapeshifter. She can turn into anything she wants and she does it instinctively, effortlessly. She claims over and over that she’s not a girl or a boy or anything for long. She’s Nimona. And that’s what she says when people ask what she is. I desperately want that freedom. That fluidity of my body. The ability to look however I want and change it save for one or two key features.

Murderbot is a construct comprised of robotic parts and artificially grown tissue. It’s sexless and genderless and has expressed distain at being forced into human categories regarding either of those things. It’s severely autistic coded and thinks humans are dumb and it doesn’t *want* to be a person. Not in the way humans want to. It hates being perceived more than anything. I don’t want people to look at me or notice my existence. I don’t want to be a person either. I want to be a masked construct, just out of the perception of others and not really thought of as a being.

I’m going through some sort of identity and gender crisis and I’m not sure if I’m a girl. And all I can think of are these two characters who emphatically don’t want to be what people say they are and think they are. I want to be like them. And it’s confusing because there are feminine things I love and I’ve been a girl for so long that I don’t really know anything else. And I’m a scientist; I need data to compare to and I have nothing. I just keep going back to these two characters, wishing I was either of them. Not really a girl. Not a boy either. Just me, whoever the hell that is.

[rjalker]

people really need to stop recommending books based purely on the fact that they're "Queer representation" of some kind.

Not only does it do a disservice to the story itself, because I guarentee you the author wanted their story to be remembered for more than having "x characters" and nothing more...

...but if you're going around blithely reccomending tons of random strangers read something like the Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia E. Butler based purely on the fact that some of the characters use it/its pronouns...

that's.

I'm sorry but that is just so negligent. That's the only word I can think to describe it. Xenogenesis is an adult science fiction story meant to be read by adults who are ready to have an incredibly serious conversation about slavery, eugenics, rape, genocide, and how consent literally cannot exist when you are a slave, and what that means for you and everyone around you.

It's not a fun casual adventure story anyone and everyone should be picking up without knowing what they're getting into. You have no idea how many people you're casually recommending this series to are victims of rape who are going to be triggered by scenes in this series, and you're not giving them any warning!

It's already bad enough for people to be flattening stories down into whether or not they have "X characters" but to not warn people about genuinely triggering content in the books you're flattening this way?? Why would you do that?

Please don't fucking do that. If you know a series deals with triggering topics then you need to warn people about that any time you recommend people read it. The Xenogenesis series requires trigger warnings for rape at the very least, and a whole lot more on top of that too, but that's the bare minimum.

Stop recommending people read things just because "characters use x pronouns in it" or "it has nonbinary characters" or "it has a lesbian in it" without any relevant warnings about triggering content it also contains.

At least the person who did this did specify that the it/its users in Xenogenesis are all aliens, but like, that's the least of things people need to be aware of before reading this trilogy.

Reccommend media by actually summarizing it. There's almost always an official summary you can find somewhere. Warn people about any topics that might be triggering that the content contains.

And, since I see this happen the most: for the love of fuck do not lie to people about Queer characters being in a series, or refuse to explain to people that the Queer characters that do exist are just the same old stereotypes we've all seen a million times, with nothing to balance them out and make them actually progressive.

That is going to accomplish nothing except alienating people who've been tricked into reading something that's not actually what they were told it was. You are not going to get anyone to enjoy a series by betraying them by lying about nonexistant or at best shallow, stereotypical, bioessentialist 'representation'.

The Animorphs does not have a single canon Queer character.

The Murderbot Diaries is just the exact same nonbinary robot stereotype that was old in the 90s, with no important human nonbinary characters at all despite there being seven whole books at this point. There are exactly 2 human characters who use neopronouns, but they're the epitome of "token characters". They appear for a combined total of maybe 10 pages, have no importance to the plot, and get shoved offscreen as quickly as possible, never to be seen again. All of the robots use it/its pronouns because they don't have genitals and Martha Wells is transmisic and loves biological essentliasm, and still very clearly equates sex with gender with pronouns. Despite the protagonist using it/its pronouns, no one ever asks anyone else for their pronouns, everyone just magically knows, because, again, biological essentialism. Also known as the exact opposite of representation for trans people.

The Xenogenesis trilogy does not have a single canon Queer character in it. All of the characters who use it/its pronouns are part of the third reproductive sex for the alien species.

Start recommending series based on what the plot is actually about, or what good things they have going for them, not just because they have characters who use XYZ pronouns or are the literal stereotype of a nonbinary robot.

[airplanned]

I really like the way you write romance stories and wanted to know if you had any books you would recommend. I just love the way you write character interactions and this is me checking the bookmarked tab of a favorited author.

oooooh! Okay! (I'm rubbing my hands together, because I love talking about my favorite books)

I don't read a lot of books that are specifically in the romance genre, but I read a lot where the romance is strong. There's just other stuff going on that is more crucial to the plot.

Howl's Moving Castle. My favorite book. It is not the same as the movie, so don't go in thinking it's going to be quiet, pacifist vibes, because it's not that. There's a lot of bickering and over-dramatics. It's so funny. Howl is my favorite fictional character of all time, and the way Sophie doesn't put up with his shit while knowing all the words to his rugby team's theme song is peek romance. Their banter is excellent, and their relationship is weirdly wholesome.

The Scholomache series, which starts with A Deadly Education. It's a magic school, but…more fucked up that you're expecting. Grumpy girl destined to be an evil sorceress and a himbo guy. Shit gets absolutely wild. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Love it.

Speaking of Naomi Novik, Uprooted has a similar relationship dynamic to Howl's Moving Castle. Also the Temeraire series, which starts with His Majesty's Dragon is very fun, although has next to no romance. It's the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons, and is both ridiculous and pointed.

The Scorpio Races. This is a really beautiful book about evil magic horses and loss and poverty and being stuck places. I love it.

A Far Wilder Magic. Holy shit, what did I read? Everyone else needs to read this too and confirm it exists. It's a Goddamned triumph.

Things without much romance, that I am going to recommend anyway:

Paper Menagerie (Devastating Short stories).

Orange World (Devastating short stories)

What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Devastating Short Stories)

The Murderbot Diaries, which starts with All Systems Red (Most relatable character ever)

Project Hail Mary (wild fun ride. If you like how I do Zelda talking about Sheikah tech, this is for you.)

Sourdough (cute novel about a magic sourdough starter and a robot arm)

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (I think about this an unhealthy amount)

The Girl from Everywhere (girl's sea captain dad can time travel using old maps)

Iron Widow (Pacific Rim with more revenge)

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride (rich prose. Perfect balance of fairy tale logic.)

If you go read any of these, or if you've read any of these, feel free to drop me a line shrieking about them. I would love that. I have a lot more to say about all of them.

[rosetintedkaleidoscope]

best books i read in 2023:

- comfort me with apples by catherynne valente. fantasy/horror. this is a creepy, dystopian, fairy tale kind of story. some biblical references. the creepiness builds up slowly through strange little details.

- quest for a maid by frances mary hendry. children's historical fiction / fantasy. 13th century scotland & norway. read as a child, completely forgot, then found in a used bookstore this year. it absolutely lives up to my memories: rich with details, from the foods to the clothes to the activities to all the little things you don't really notice that create a sense of another time & place. the loving attention to detail is a big part of why i like this book so much. also excellent characterization.

- nisa: the life and words of a !kung woman by marjorie shostak. nonfiction. okay, if you're following me you've probably heard of this because of @etirabys, whose posts inspired me to read it, but i had to include it anyway. based on interviews with a hunter-gatherer woman, it tells about her life and worldview. moving and immensely fascinating

- making babies: the science of pregnancy by david bainbridge. nonfiction. also immensely fascinating. my ideal kind of science book: readable yet detailed and in-depth, and full of strange facts. strong contender for the coolest nonfiction book i've ever read

- the ladies of grace adieu and other stories by susanna clarke. fantasy. wonderful eerie fairy stories

- we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson. classic, horror. sinister and evocative. one thing i really like is that the characters are likeable and often happy despite the weirdness and the horror. it's optimistic and tragic at the same time, and gives you things to think about even after you're done reading

- murderbot series by martha wells. science fiction. it has an interesting plot and setting and all that, but the main appeal is the character and charm of the protagonist, a robot who hacks itself to gain freedom. all it wants to do with that freedom is watch tv, but dangerous stuff keeps getting in the way