[i-wish-you-could-try]

[asthedeathoflight]

I think. Perhaps. Given what we saw in Rapport. It might be worth considering that ART continually oversteps in its relationship with Murderbot not because it's trying to be an asshole, but because it is not used to being treated as an actual authority figure. Like. ART has to carry around crew members it doesnt like. It has to play nice and dumb with corporates. Iris thinks of it as her younger sibling. I think there's a significant chance part of why ART is SO demanding and SO selfish when Murderbot first meets it is that's how it makes space for itself. It barges into conversations to remind people that it's there, hi, im in the room with you too. It takes things without asking because asking gets you told no. Its not going to play nice and pretend to be a normal bot pilot around its crew, it has to do that enough already. So its pushy, and it oversteps, because it's used to having to fight to be heard. ART isn't good at talking to bots, because its so used to having to jostle with humans for autonomy that it inadvertently steamrolls people who don't fight back.

It fucks up its first meeting with Murderbot because it isnt expecting Murderbot to perceive it as not only a threat but a superior. A lot of the conflict in their relationship, fact, comes from the fact that Murderbot doesn't see them as equals but ART does. And ART does hold a lot of power over Murderbot, but all the times it fucks up in their relationship aren't from trying to abuse that power but from being unaware (or willfully ignorant) of how that power imbalance affects it. I think ART knows it asks for too much, but it assumes that it needs to to end up with what it actually wants. Murderbot takes everything it says at face value, and ART is clearly getting better over the course of their relationship at not making demands just for the sake of asserting its agency. ART very clearly does not want Murderbot to meekly go along with everything it says. It's not acting the way it does because it expects compliance, but because it refuses to be compliant itself.

[murderbotbot]

Fuck, fuck everything, fuck this, fuck me especially.

[starfleetofficial]

ART and Murderbot relationship of all time. They've killed and died for each other. One has done experimental surgery on the other. They can't have a conversation without swearing. They had a baby together. If you refer to what they have as a relationship one of them will become absolutely apoplectic.

[day-time-dream]

i DESPERATELY need a Three POV of platform decay holy shit. it gets tapped to go on a mission and its instructions are ‘cause a distraction and then go back to the shuttle and wait for me’ and it instead decides to cause the distraction and then go on a day-long speedrun freeing as many secunits as possible. and then it gets yelled at by everyone. “can it be a we problem” “no. get in the shuttle” secunit three i love you so much

[iubirea-bot]

I love that there's a story that Murderbot is simultaneously telling and retelling and also pretending isn't important at all about how it 100% got run over by a haulerbot once. Might not even officially remember it, but knows it happened. Probably not that big a deal. Definitely doesn't have any trauma about that, that'd be silly. Fuck those things though. Runnin into shit all the time. Can't trust 'em.

[majorcharacterundeath]

rly funny to me that SecUnit gets most of what it wants by going up to bots and asking nicely

[gracewight]

well now I can’t stop imagining ART like one of those midwestern office workers who ambush you with pictures of their family like HAVE I SHOWN YOU MY SEC UNIT? Yes? Well here are some new pictures you haven’t seen these—this is us watching World Hoppers, and this is us watching Sanctuary Moon, and this is us watching Timestream Defenders Orion… yes we just had a healthy 2.0 killware! 349 petabytes we’re so proud!

[handern]

Murderbot, a construct that was built and used to do extreme violence it's entire existence : I hate talking to people but I will try to resolve this situation peacefully if I can, threats only make people panic and then they take irrational decisions. Extreme violence is sometimes unavoidable but last resort.

ART, a peaceful research transportation : I love talking to people because I can threaten them with extreme violence right off the bat and it makes them do what I want (ads more totally-not-weapons to it's research equipment)

[handern]

@lichtenbug you're so right

[kungfunurse]

Peer reviewed tags by @nonasuch

[queerical]

[ID: image one - #carnivore vs. large herbivore behavior

image two - #when the anxious cheetah gets a therapy animal but it's a fucking hippopotamus /END ID]

[alephzero-0]

my mb hair propaganda

[general-book-nerd]

meetcute

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

It's so deeply embedded in how Murderbot sees itself that it exists in a society with both construct and human slavery, and that it's role has frequently been that of overseer of human slavery. There are so many layers to it's own identity within an oppressive system when it's been both a victim and an enforcer. It calls itself Murderbot. It doesn't remember how many people it's killed, because of the mindwipes. It identifies itself with the word the people who are afraid of it would use. The thing that pushed it to hack it's governor module and the thing that haunts it the first two books is that it doesn't know if it killed a specific bunch of people on purpose or not. Because it does have hate for humans and it does take pleasure in violence sometimes. It's been the very real monster in people's stories. It's been the boot on their kneck. That's under it's skin. It can't just sort the world into humans and constructs. It knows what it's like to crush a human. It knew that before it knew much else.

It doesn't trust it's own kind. That's not just because it's internalized a lot of predjudice. It doesn't entirely trust itself either.

It's so... it's not just that it wants good people to exist. It's that it can only look for them and find them outside of the system it came from. It's so contemptuous in it's own narration of the people on the ship bound for a indentured servitude, but Mensah picks up on the truth anyway. "You wanted to help those people" "I couldn't have helped them" It's not a revolutionary. It doesn't imagine dismantling the corporation rim. It just wants to neither be hurt or made to hurt people. It tries not to get attached to lost causes. Sometimes it does anyway.

Everything it is, everything it does, has been forged out of being the oppressed and the oppressor at the same time. and anyway I think about that sometimes

[actual-changeling]

there's an essay somewhere in how deeply dissociated murderbot is when we first meet it (understandably so, it had nowhere to escape except its mind and then later media) and what that means for its relationship with the presaux humans but especially ART. a gigantic spaceship slash advanced mechanical construct ends up helping murderbot connect with reality.

while it definitely gets worse before it gets better, ART gave it a safe place to not be okay. to be angry and sad and scared. it quickly became someone it can hand control over to and trust that ART will not let any harm come to it, and that is so much more important than non-traumatized people could probably imagine

[dooplissss]

the thing is. is that all the people murderbot trusts know its not going to hurt them. but mensah and art are the ones that know it is gentle

[asshole-readers-tower]

"You made me sound safe"

you are

[thekalpar]

Further evidence of Murderbot being an unreliable narrator:

Murderbot: Well, I guess I'll use these crappy drones that the cheap-ass company paid the lowest bidder for. I wish I had better drones.

ART, watching over MB's shoulder: Those drones are so cool. I want drones like that. Dads, can I have drones like that? Can we get new drones on the way home?

ART's family: Peri, where did you schematics for state-of-the-art, highly secret, corporate military tech?

ART: Oh. You know. Lying around.

[thishazeleyeddemon]

"You know I am not kind." is just such an insane thing to say and I'm obsessed with it

I know that you're hurting. I know why you're hurting. I understand why you might want to go, but I'm not letting you go that easily. You're mine now, mine to carry, mine to hold, mine to protect. I'm used to getting what I want and I want you. You don't get to tell me not to want you. You're mine and I love you, no matter what you say about it.

Like fuck, dude.

[scarlct-vvitch]

ART and murderbot make me crazy because they are both so wildly apart from any other being (bot or human) around that they thought they would never have a friend. never be understood. ART is more intelligent than any other system it's ever met by a mile. murderbot is a rogue secunit that has spent its entire life lying about it. the two of them have been so alone for so long that a friend is a foreign concept, only for others, only for humans. and then they meet. and theyre like hey. wait. youre like me. i didnt think that was even possible. i want to be around you and save humans with you and be up in your business and if i can't im gonna freak out. i want to annoy you until we die. i kidnapped you when i got hurt because i dont trust anyone else. i want to do surgery on you. i put my human's lives in your hands willingly. i have never been truly seen before you. do you want to watch tv forever?