#genuinely curious cause. i legitimately don't see it
Made with speech to text and also my phone battery is dying so I cannot fix the typos lol so I apologize and advance. If it if I'm using a random seeming word, sound it out and I probably meant something that sounds similar but speech to text got messed.
Well the first problem is that The majority of the non-white characters have literally zero description at all. Of the eight members of the Preservation aux team, none of them except for Mensah have any description whatsoever. We only know their last names, and that's it, we don't even know their first names, we don't even know what most of their jobs are.
Ayda Mensah, The only one who's first name we know, and we still don't know what her job was on the team besides team leader, which is not an actual job position, and President of the entire planet. What was her role on the team for this survey? What was anybody's job for this survey?
We know Pin-Lee is a lawyer, but that's all we know about her. Why did she come along? Surely there are lawyers on preservation that also know about stuff that's relevant to doing surveys on unexplored alien planets? It's a absolute waste of resources you would think to simply bring somebody along just because she's a lawyer, what other roles did she serve that she was deemed important enough to bring alllllllllllllllll that way to an unexplored alien planet?
As for where the slavery apologism is... Well the simplest answer is:
The fact that we are supposed to like the preservation aux team at all, despite these being the people that went solar systems out of their way to enslave someone.
And Martha Wells has the characters Tell us in book 1 that they quote unquote simply didn't know that Murderbot was a person, They thought it was " " just a robot. but we know from the rest of the series that that is simply not true. (Because remember, on preservation we are supposed to think that they treat robots as equals and that they view them as equals. So even if they thought murder bought was simply a robot... Why would that mean they suddenly don't treat it like a person? I thought they treat robots like they're equals? So... Which is it? Do they treat their slaves nicely on preservation, or do they literally just treat them like slaves without even pretending to be different about it? Because if they actually see robots as people than A they wouldn't be enslaving them, and B why would they be treating murderbot any differently than any other robot that they supposedly treat like people?
from the moment all systems read opens, we are already supposed to care about these people and want them to be safe, even though they are literally slave owners, they are people that went solar systems out of their way to become slave owners when they didn't even have to do that, because they are literally from a so-called Utopia planet where they could have brought as many highly trained security people as they wanted to, it's literally a survey team with the president of their entire planet going along. The only reason that they did not bring you know security what's her face Indah? I can't remember what her title is.
There's no reason that they should not and could not have brought her along, except there are two reasons at play here:
The let's look at this from an out of universe meta perspective and the answer is that Martha Wells didn't have them bring along highly trained personnel in who's literally entire job is security because she very clearly hadn't decided at the start of the story that Mensa was the president of an entire planet, and then she didn't go back and edit it so that any of this would make sense on a second read or the second you start thinking about it once we actually know what preservation is like.
Which leaves us with the in-universe explanation for what these characters motivations can be based upon what they actually do.
And what they do, despite having dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of highly trained security personnel at home that would probably have jumping like literally getting in line and pushing each other out of line to get to go on this thing to protect the president of their entire damn planet but did they bring any of these people? Nope. What they did instead is went out of their way to get a single slave explicitly to use this slave as a human shield and that's it.
And the back of the book even tells us more, as do completely random sentences within the book: They went with the option that cost the lowest amount of money possible, which is why they went with a security company that literally just uses slaves as human shields.
This is what happens in universe, with everything we know retroactively about preservation. That means that the president of their entire planet, which likes to present themselves as a Utopia where slaves are treated with respect but they're literally just slaves, and they literally don't even see them as people, because we know they don't see them as people, because they told mother about well we didn't even know you had a face. I didn't even know it had a face they say, and it's like okay but... I thought you're from a planet where robots have equal rights? Last time I checked robots in this series tend not to have faces? So..
So, literally, the only in universe explanation is that they are lying through their teeth to murderbot and they knew it was a person the entire time they just didn't care, and we can see that from their actions, because everybody likes to say that oh they didn't realize murderbot was a person until that scene with the crater, but do me a favor and just reread the like to chapter 3 of book 1, look what actually happens after the scene with the crater, when they have supposedly realized that murderbot was a person.
Look at what these characters are actually physically doing within the story look what they are actually saying to murderbot. Look very specifically at what they are not doing.
Okay actually my phone battery is too low to continue and I don't trust Tumblr saving it to draft so I'm just going to have to post this now and I will add more when I get home and or can plug my phone in
okay, it's the next day, and the chronic pain is chronicing.
So, again, the simple answer is, that Martha Wells, a white woman from Texas, whose been romantixizing and defending slavery for over a decade now, tells us, from the very first scene in All Systems Red, that we should like and care about these slave owners that went solar sytems out of their way to enslave Murderbot to use it not only as a regular slave doing all the manual labor and cleanin gfor them, but to literally just it as a human shield. Which is what happens in the opening scenne, before page 2 has ended.
And this — Murderbot, a slave — being used as a human shield for the people enslaving it, is presented, not as horrifying, not as traumatizing, not as anything bad at all.
Martha Wells tells us to view it as heroic, and just a cool action sequence that shows how heroic Murderbot is, because Murderbot is a Good Slave, One OF The Good Ones, in fact, and that means it's happy to throw itself in the mouths of alien monsters to sacrifice itself to protect its slave owners.
And Martha Wells tells us to view this as heroic, rather than the premise of a horror story.
We're supposed to cheer on a slave throwing itse life away to protect its slave owners, which we're told to worship because they're so nice and adorable. Even though they're disgustingly rich politicians including the President of an Entire. Planet.
Do you know how much power the president of a single country has?
Now multiply that times a billion. Mensah is the president of an entire PLANET. Combine every single country on Earth, and she has all of that power.
And she still chose to enslave someone to use as a human shield, and Martha Wells, the author, wants us to think this is totally fine, and nothing to be upset about at all.
All Systems Red opens asking us, automatically, without thogught, to want to see the people enslaving Murderbot protected, even when — especially when— their protection comes at the cost of Murderbot's own safety.
And then All Systems Red ends asking us, automatically, to cheer on the fact that all of the people enslaving Murderbot are safe, becxause Murderbot kept throwing itself away to save them, which we're told to see as heartwarming and adorable.
And then book 2 comes out, and we're still being told to worship those slavers, automatically. ART tells Murderbot, and the audience behind it, that Murderbot's life will have no meaning until it returns to "its crew", which is Martha Wells' Stargate-eseuq way of once again romanticizing slave owners. They're not Murderbot's slave owners, they're Murderbot's crew, and isn't that a dorable? Thtey're Murderbot's found family!!!!
And Martha Wells makes sure to reassure us, in case we thought that book 1's ending meant Murderbot didn;'t want to e a salve, that no, actually, Murderbot didn't run away becuase it didn't want to be their slave, it ran away because it wanted to make sure it wouldn't hurt them by accident.
And then book 3 comes out. And still. We are worshiping them from afar, and Murderbot is not doing anything for itself, still, just like it wasn't investigating its past because it wanted to know, it only did so to make sure it wouldn't be a danger to its beloved slave owners. And now again Murderbot is putting itself in danger and going out of it way to do so, for the financial benefit of its slave owners, and we are, again, told to see this as selfless and heroic and awesome, and hsoiwng how good of a person Murderbot is….
Because it's a slave that's putting itself in danger for no other purpose than to help its slave owners. And Martha Wells tells us to think this is good, instea=d of showing anything negative about Murderbot's mental state, which she only wants us to think is negative when she's turnng it itno a joke.
And then book 4 comes out. And once again, Murderbot is throwing its life and safety away to rescue the slave owners it worships, that Martha Wells also wants us to worshgip, There has been no character growth at all. Murderbot started out 3 books ago throwing itself into the belly of the beast to protect its slave owners, and book 4 has it doing the exact same thing on a larger scale. Not only is it putting itself in life threatening danger for its slave owners in the 4th book in a row, it is going back to the territory of the company that enslaved it in the first place. And no thought is give nto Murderbot's own safety, because were' not supposed tocare about Murderbot's own safety, we're supposed to want to see it protect its slave owners by throwing itself in the lifne of fire, forever.
And that's eactly what keeps happening.
Book "5"? Murderbot is still being used as a human shield by all of these people, adn we're still supposed toj ust accep that as totally fine and normal and nothing to be upset by, we shouldn't even wuqestion it at all1
Book "6"? Wow. Look at that. Still using it as a human shield! Still beiing enslaved!
Book "7"? Still worshipping slave owners, still expecting Murderbot to throw itse life away to protect them.
Book "8"? Do I even have to say anything more?
Maryha Wells has been writing this series, which has 13 published stories so far, for eight years now, and yet, we started the series in 2017 being asked to wroship slave owners at the expensive of their slaves, and… in 2026…we're still being asked to wroships slave owners at the expense of their slaves.
And this is only getting into how Murderbot is treated, this isn't even getting into all the other slaves in the series, almost all of whom are demonized and murdered if not outright tortred to death by te protagonst, and Martha Wells wants us to be tfine with this, because as she keeps telling us, other slaves are "fucking dangerous" and can't be trusted not to turn into evil cringey robot revolutionaries who wants to kill slave owners, which we're told is the worst thing that could ever possibly happen.
Martha Wells is writing this entire series to get you to worship slave owners, and the fact that you think the majority of slave owners in this setting being Black and brown people is somehow respectful, proves it's working.
This series doesn't want to you be aware of the massive power imbalance between slaves and their owners, it just tells you to see slave owners as pure cinnamon rolls, and rather than be horrified that they're not even waiting untl Murderbot, their slave, to recover from its brain damage, we're told to see it as "cute" that they're so eager to have their human slave back they're "asking" Murderbot to be their human shield again, while it literally has brain damage.
And Martha Wells doesn't want you to understand that a slave owner "asking" their slave to do anything is not asking. There is no consent between a slave and their master. You cannot "ask" your personal porety to do something. They are your peorety, they cannot say no, especially when you "ask" them while they lierally have brain damage.
But MArtha Wells tells us to see this as adorable, look how much tehy respect Murderbot!!! Isn't it cute how they are so eager to use it as a human shield they won't even wait until it doesn't have brain damage to "ask" it to do this again? The thing they enslaved it to do in the first place?
The slavery apologism is nonstop in this series. And it starts with the fact that you're supposed to think save owners are good people who are so nice and they wouldn't hurt a fly…and then not only did they go out of their way to enslave someone, somethin that already inerently makes them horrible people, then they dehumanized that slave, lied to its face, tortured it through withholding medical assistance when it was dying, forced it to clean up its own blood after it woke up from almost dying, forced it to immediately go back to work as soon as it was awake without thanking it in any way, or giving it any kind of break, and so much more. And that's jsut book 1 alone.
And you're supposed to htink these are good people who "treat murderbot like an equal".
The slavery apologism is the fact that you think the preservation aux team, rich people who went out of their way to enslave someone, are good people. Even after everything they do to Murderbot in book 1, even after 8 years of them continuing to explout Murderbot as their slave.
Re-read book 1, and instead of going along with the cutsey vibes MArtha Wells tells you to take away, look at what these characters are actually doing, with the rectoactive context of what we know P{reservation is actually like, and look at what they're doing to Murderbot. Look how they're actually treating it, not how Martha Wells tells you to see how they're treating it.
