#it being murderbot

[inkedinserendipity]

Heya! Saw you've been working your way through the Murderbot Diaries and since you just finished Network Effect I thought you might like to see a fun little animatic to celebrate! Happy reading! youtube.com / watch?v=yDMSHgQY5rM

OUGH!!!

this freaking animatic! it was so good!! i actually went through and took screencaps of my favorite frames because oh my god were there some banging moments. "art sent me" with three as the hero!! everything with dr mensah and murderbot, from the soft pov switch in a conversation to dr mensah grabbing its collar and shaking it around! (go off mensah i absolutely loved that scene, btw). and of course the whole squad with art ;-; this was an absolutely stunning animatic and now i've got the song stuck in my head so cheers for that!!

[xcziel]

link: https://bsky.app/profile/brainvsbook.bsky.social/post/3llc72lyhu22j

google translate defaulting to chinese at first

okay but for those of us with interests in both the murderbot and the daomu biji fandoms this is kinda hilarious

(english-side-only really, i get that the kanji and hanzi are completely different)

our good (air)ship murderbot! thanks google

[ellorgast]

The thing that I think really sets Murderbot apart from a lot of other robot media (particularly mainstream entries like the I, Robot movie) is that bots and constructs aren't a uniquely oppressed class, and humans aren't a uniquely privileged one. A lot of robot media rings a bit hollow because it portrays humans as all living a lavish, comfortable lifestyle, free from the burden of physical labor or control by their corporate overlords, and it's like. I think if the rise of generative AI has proven anything, it's that corporations and billionaires have absolutely no interest in making life easier for anybody, but will gleefully use new technology to make life infinitely worse if it means an extra buck in their pocket.

We are shown over and over again throughout the Murderbot Diaries that humans are mistreated just as badly as (or sometimes, in MB's own opinion, even worse than) bots and constructs. We see humans stripped of their rights, reduced to corporate assets to be bought and sold, sent into suicidal situations, abandoned and discarded as things. We see humans trapped in multigenerational labor contracts -- people born into an indentured servitude that requires them to pay back their food and lodging to the same company that will not let them leave.

None of these are hypothetical scenarios. These are all things that happen to real people in our world today.

And that is a huge part of why it resonates so much. The overarching theme of "capitalism is hell" actually means something because it isn't only applied to the fictional dynamic of bots vs humans. The theme is constantly reiterated through the humans themselves.

And that's also why it's so important that MB demonstrates empathy for and solidarity with humans who are themselves victims of the system. Because ultimately, that's one of the main things the series is about. It's about what it's like to be simultaneously a product, and victim, of a corporate hellscape.

That theme simply can't work if the humans aren't also forced to navigate that issue. If the story can't acknowledge that right now, in our own world, there are humans facing these same problems, and that these human rights matter quite a bit.

[neptunym]

these two make me ill

[teaboot]

Sorry if I'm mixing you up with someone else, but you've worked security before, right?

If you're willing, I'd be really interested on your thoughts on the murderbot diaries or murderbot as a character with that in mind?

Like did you recognise aspects of your job in murderbots descriptions of security work? Or did they like throw you out of immersion in the story?

Anyway thanks and hope you're having a good day/evening wherever you are!

As a security guard who has read the first two Murderbot books, Murderbot has been the number one most realistic security specialist character I have ever seen in media so far 😭

The third most annoying thing in security in my experience is handling threats. The second most annoying thing is having no threats to handle and being bored. The number one most annoying thing is the client being an idiot

Ihave social anxiety which I am medicated for. When I am in uniform with clear instructions, that anxiety is zero. I have a script and a set of rules and that makes life easy. I’m super good at performing tasks with clear expectations and that’s kinda how I keep getting good offers, it’s super straightforward

Bad clients are clients who give stupid, inefficient, counterproductive, cruel, or flat-out illegal orders. There are ways of shutting that shit down without them losing heir shit, but it’s still a pain in the ass every time

I’m a security specialist. I specialize in security. This is what I am trained for- handling crisis situations and minimizing harm. If you, an off-shift cashier at pet smart, see me deescalating a situation and decide you’re gonna drop your untrained uninformed ass in there with zero context or skills and “help” because I look small and helpless, then all you’re doing is increasing my likelihood of getting hurt while increasing my paperwork load by like two hours, and I’m gonna hate you the entire time. What you have essentially done is promoted me to meat shield while giving the aggressor I’m calming down an obnoxious and aggravating hostage. Good god please do not

Yes, I am sometimes asked to stand perfectly still in a corner for several hours like a mannequin. What do I do to avoid going insane? Think about Star Trek and the very good fanfiction I’ll be reading on my break, mostly

Yes I can assist in evacuating tw location in the event of an environmental disaster. No I cannot tell my waiter that they put cilantro on the wrong order. Yes this makes perfect sense

I love Murderbot. I love how realistic it is. Like obviously I can’t speak for everyone in the industry but yeah I’ve worked for absolute dogshit security companies in the past and yeah a lot of the books so far are super accurate to that experience so A+ so far, honestly

[wigglybunfish]

Welcome to Preservation! we have nice people and even nicer murderbots.

[keydekyie]

I actually love the change the show made to when SecUnit shows up in the hub and Ratthi says, "Who is this?" Turns out Ratthi was being cute and SecUnit just took it literally. Brilliant. The galaxy's least reliable narrator strikes again.

[scp-69]

murderbot is so real. it loves stories and books and shows and narratives. it doesnt know what a literary device is. it made a documentary so good it convinced a whole colony to save themselves from the grip of the corporation rim. it could not tell you what an anagram was on pain of death

[sandals-art]

that one fma panel but make it murderbot

bonus:

[splankie]

happy ace week to my asexual aromantic agender aggressive icon <3

[inkedinserendipity]

here’s something that surprised me on my all systems red reread: secunit sits down like halfway through the book! page 104, murderbot sits on one of the hopper’s benches.

and the first time i read this book i paid that line no mind! it’s just sitting down. i didn’t have the context to be like :O secunits don’t do that. secunits aren’t supposed to sit while on duty!

and now i’m thinking about the crew, who also have no idea what this means. and about mensah, who just minutes ago told it that she sees it as a person who’s trying to help (this is the first time its insides “go melty!”) and i simply do not think it is a coincidence that murderbot sits down next to its humans for the first time probably ever right after being told by a human for the first time probably ever that they see it as a person.

and it’s so satisfying on a narrative and rereading level, right, because the first time you read the book you’re with the crew—you have no idea what this means. but then you read it again, knowing more about secunits, and then the full emotional weight of that one line hits. because now you have context!

anyway this line was such a lovely example of why the murderbot diaries in particular is such a good reread. the context makes everything hit afresh the second time around, just as hard if not harder than the first!

[hellenhighwater]

Have you seen the pics they released from the Murderbot show coming out?

I did, yeah! I do like the helmet design, it's interesting. Like most fans, I'm a little disappointed by their casting--Alexander Skarsgård is definitely a talented actor but it's hard to swallow that there wasn't a better choice who was nonbinary, or more visually androgynous, or at least not white or male, which are sort of movie-industry defaults for action-hero types in a way that feels like it cuts against Murderbot being...not that, I guess. I don't know how they're planning to handle the very internal narration of the Murderbot series, but casting a person that visually makes you question what pronouns you should be using would go a long way towards laying the foundation for the walking challenge to traditional identity that is Murderbot. Choosing a white cis male actor somehow seems like an attempt to make Murderbot more palatable, and I don't...love that. Mostly I hope that they make like the Mandalorian and just keep the helmet on for most of the show.

On the upside, I do hope that Skarsgård is able to nail some kind of uncanny valley, inhuman behavioral stuff. Maybe he can carry this off! It's hard to say from stills, but I'm excited to watch it regardless.

[anonforlackofabettername]

I wasn’t expecting to have to fight for my life in the “MB looks like a person trenches” but its entire arc(s) is on both dehumanization and rejecting humanization. MB’s story is about defining what it is between the two extremes — nonhuman/bot and human. To do that it’s essential to the story that it looks like a person, like Data, Janet, or the synths from Alien.

It’s in the text that it has a human face to reassure clients. Clients look at it and see a faceless robot with no more intelligence than a roomba or they see a person and it hates both reactions. Roomba is easier to deal with and ignore, which is why it keeps the helmet on. It’s in the text that it can pass at a glance as a heavily augmented human so long as no one looks too closes at the ports for guns built into its arms or its metal skeleton.

Secunit doesn’t want to be a person but its flesh parts means it can’t help but look like one and it gets freaked out by people treating it like one. It’s threading very fine needle on its journey of self discovery to figure out what the secret third thing is between person and bot, that’s literally the point of the last two novellas.

[marvelousmawn]

getting my ass absolutely handed to me by network effect, a compilation (so far):

[rocksaltpaperscissors]

one scene i cannot get over in System Collapse is murderbot and ART, both barely functional, staggering their way onto the shuttle to leave the 2nd colony. MB getting ART-drone strapped into a seat, worried about how damaged it is. doesn't even notice Iris getting it strapped into its own seat (as she worries about how damaged it is). MB and ART-drone, their humans' first and last lines of defense, destroyers of hostile secunits, sniping back and forth as they try to keep each other from shutting down. their humans, once again just barely Not Dead, looking after their extremely badass and very nerfed defenders. at least 15% of my brain capacity is dedicated to this scene at all times

[thewanderingace]

"Murderbot just wants to be left alone and not deal with humans and their messy emotions. This group wholeheartedly embraces Murderbot and brings it into the family. It is reluctantly becoming a part of the team. And it's starting to build relationships that it's never really had before. As Murderbot goes on these epic adventures across the galaxy, it becomes more and more invested in these humans." - Alexander Skarsgård in Murderbot - An Inside Look | Apple TV+