Saw a post a while ago wondering about how the show would look without Murderbot's internal narration and decided to try my hand.
Mostly I just seperated the vocals and background track and cut out the vocals whenever MB was narrating. Then I did a little bit of trimming and rearrainging to cover up some of the longer close ups that stood out with the removed VO.
Anyway, here's Murderbot minus Murderbot: Rogue Revealed (or POV: You are PresAux and you just found out your SecUnit loves trashy tv shows)
Wowwwwwww... WITHOUT the narration but WITH the musical score still in there, this looks and feels SO much like a horror film. Murderbot IS the antagonist/monster in this video. Everything —framing, acting, expressions, body language, timing of events, score, tension, silences — is working in concert to frame it as such.
There's a brief break where you FEEL that it's meant to be comedic when they find out about Sanctuary Moon, the timing changes, the body language and dialogue shifts, the troubling music fades out for the exchange, but it's very difficult to be amused because the buildup had been towards horror, not comedy. And then it slips right back into the horror genre after the break.
FASCINATING. Mostly because as a creative exercise, sure, I could see that this is all a horror situation to the humans, that POV has been discussed many times by fans, but I wouldn't have thought it was actually filmed and framed as such because so long as Murderbot is narrating, any tension in the musical score is experienced by the viewer as its tension and its fear about the danger that humans knowing its secret poses to it.
Oh hey! That's so neat. I actually don't think this is thee post since the one that inspired this specifically mentioned the Apple TV show and this was posted before the show came out, but I love that this is a thing people have been noodeling on for ages.
my favorite genre of fictional character is like "i am terrifying to almost everyone, i'm very good at killing, i can endure anything, i've become exceptionally good at playing into my reputation, and if you try to give me positive social interaction i will react with confusion and cower in a corner like an abused animal. and i may try to shoot you. but there is also a chance i may imprint on you like a feral dog receiving its first loving touch! good luck."
Very funny to me that ART spends all of AC playing it cool and then just kind of gives up in NE. Like Rapport suggests this might be because it has been Processing its feelings since then but it's hilarious from MB's perspective. End of AC ART is like hm well if i ever see you again that might be cool otherwise goodbye forever and then in NE its like UnBlock Me I Am In Love With You???
it's a good thing mensah is already married with kids by the start of all systems red because can you imagine trying to make a new longterm relationship work when you have to explain to potential partners that murderbot will be there. no not romantically or sexually. but it is there.
Rereading all systems red and the first 2 chapters are strong contenders for funniest intro to a book series. Jumping straight to action, and mb is giving us absolutely no info about anything. Who are those people? Some weird hippies it's not important. Why are they here? Mb does not give a shit. What is this planet? Fuck if it knows. Here is a small paragraph that fucking states everyone's relationship status like a wiki article that we are never gonna get back to. Ugh there are hostiles that keep us away from our media #our media.
murderbot and arts first meeting is literally so funny. like imagine you meet a biblically accurate angel and instead of being all 'be not afraid' it says actually you SHOULD be afraid. and then when you are in fact afraid it goes oh shit oh fuck. not THAT afraid, sorry. wanna watch tv? and then you watch tv with it and it keeps telling you to pause it when its favourite characters are in danger so it can calm down. and then it asks to do surgery on your bones. Asshole Research Transport character of all time
"Grace doesnt have enough food on the jorney to Erid" yeah but Rocky does. Rocky has plenty, in fact, Rocky had enough food for 23 eridians for a bit over 30 years (because they were also expected to make the jorney back) Rocky has so much food, and he cant give any to grace because it will kill him. Every meal he makes he can hear Grace's body slowly collapsing in on itself from hunger. Rocky has to sit there, with way more than enough food for 2 and still watch his best friend starve to death.
Imagine Grace defined his name as the elegance definition of grace and Rocky spends years thinking how fucking ironic this clumsy leaky space blobs name is.
Until Grace slips out a sentence along the lines of "could you give me a little grace here" and Rocky immediately points out he used a word wrong so Grace has to explain that yeah, grace means elegance but it can also mean mercy sometimes too.
And Rocky has to suddenly reconcile that the clumsy leaky blob that saved his life twice, that almost certainly doomed himself to come back for him, name is Mercy.
happy make a terrible comic day!!! i haven't stopped thinking about this post since i saw it. in 2018 a common merganser was spotted with 76 (SEVENTY SIX!!!) chicks!! that's SOOOO many baby. so much success.