Trauma: "I don't want to be a pet robot"
I love Murderbot. It brought me joy for reasons that I didn't understand until I did (then it took me a fucking month to finish System Collapse). Murderbot has that big CPTSD package baby. Barely suppressed, absolute mess, it's a SecUnit. *Yeahh*
So, let's get into the pet robot of it all. Notably, a pet robot is not a robot treated like a disposable tool. Pets require care, attention and consideration, but not freedom of choice, because they are presumed to either not have it, not need it, or need it reduced for their own good (even temporarily). They are not considered capable of growth or significant change, they will always need an owner/guardian to rely on.
So when it said "I don't want to be a pet robot" and just fucking dipped I was ecstatic. Fucking go Murderbot, GO. It absolutely refuses to be reduced, it will not be treated as its parts, physical or emotional.
So, what is a pet robot?, you might be asking (now that we've talked about the qualities of a pet). In All Systems Red a pet robot is when a person or a group of people treat someone as their trauma. You are a broken bird, an object of affection in need of repair and tender loving care. If you've ever dealt with trauma and respond to people trying to help you with fear and negativity about the loss of control, then good news, You do not want to be a pet robot. And better news, You are not alone.
In Artificial Condition, we meet ART. ART is an asshole because it treats Murderbot like a child. ART reduces Murderbot to a being without full agency, because it knows best and it will gentle parent the shit out of you till you decide it is right. Murderbot hates this, but respects ART, because ART actually understands what Murderbot is, what it can do, and that it is capable of things, even if it needs help. Also, Murderbot knows that ART is probably right about most things, which is rude, and that is why Murderbot does not feel like a pet robot around ART. ART believes in Murderbot, supports Muderbot in what It wants to do, instead of presuming that it needs help finding out what that is. Again, this makes Murderbot feel like a child robot, and after growing through this experience into a more mature one, it moves on. (it is also treated as more than an equal by humans and that makes it feel weird squiggly things in its human parts)
Now we come to Rogue Protocol where it finds something that disgusts it, a bot that has let humans tell it to be something other than what it is, and presumably told it what kinds of treatment it should want. Mitski is treated like a pet. You might argue that it is being treated like a curious child, but then the adults (humans) in the room do not behave like they earnestly believe that Mitski is going to mature (at least not to me or Murderbot). (Also, You can meet a lot of actual parents like this). Murderbot is disgusted by Mitski's name (for why, see my reblog discussing it. It is in fact its own post worth of content). But, Murderbot doesn't treat it this way. Murderbot does treat it like a child, does presume it will mature, and in doing so matures a little itself. There is not a world in which Mitski would have chosen to help its friend over the orders of its owners at the start of the book. It has been taught agency (Murderbot is actually a pretty great teacher as we'll see again later). This is why it tears Murderbot up inside the way it does, you can feel it when you read the book. Murderbot feels like a parental figure (like an aunt or uncle) who let a child die under its care. It FAILED Mitski you see. It was RESPONSIBLE for it. It had a LIFE ahead of it.
Exit Strategy. Murderbot comes out of this, and immediately has to go save some silly lil' humans who've almost definitely gotten themselves into unnecessary trouble. This book is quite simple in respect to the pet robot of it all. The only point in the book that it is treated as less than a full mature adult capable of its own decision making, is towards the beginning, where they presume to have the right to be upset that it decided to leave. That the way they worried about it was fair and just. After this, many things happen, and during the course of that, something changes. To the humans, it has proved its agency (like it needed to prove itself to them *rolls eyes*), but they are... proud of it...respect it more... or something. Then it pushes itself further than it ever has, and becomes even more dense in its individuality through the reconstitution that had to follow. And so, when Murderbot is seen not only as an equal as a living creature deserving of treatment better than a tool's, but also as an equal as a moral agent. So, it does not immediately freak the fuck out when it finds out it is headed towards the pet robot farm. But just to be sure, it tests what it feels might be true. Will they really respect my choices. If I just leave, would they finally acknowledge that they have no fucking right to be upset like before, (specifically the demeaning way that they did) if I decide what is best for me? And they do respect it.
In Fugitive Telemetry there is no moment in which it is ever treated as a pet robot, no in Fugitive Telemetry it is treated like a wild animal not able to completely control its own faculties by one, absolute asshole, Indrah. But, again, we see it encounter what it thinks is a pet robot when it meets JollyBaby, is this another fucking bot being treated like less than it is by humans. Another fucking bot that has settled for this denigrating treatment.
(this deserves its own paragraph) It is not in fact such a bot. JollyBaby is a name a lot like SecUnit which it put on its ID out of spite. JollyBaby is a prank played on humans for not really understanding what bots are like. JollyBaby is proof that bots can see humans kinda like kids in the same way that Murderbot did in Artificial Condition, regardless of age. It is instantly disproven in its assumptions and very unhappy about it when all the bots laugh at it for almost falling for the same joke designed for the humans around them.
Then we come to the eponymous Network Effect, probably my favourite book in the whole series (Amena, love her, Murderbot does for the same reasons). One of the most notable parts of it is that the notion that Murderbot should be getting treatment for trauma is seriously considered as one of the priorities while talking about Mensah getting herself treatment. Although, there is one character who treats Murderbot with the undue suspicion reserved for wild animals (this seems like the kind of thing it isn't going to escape anytime soon). And then it is faced with two things that absolutely fuck it up and hit every fucking trigger they can. It feels helpless in these situations orchestrated by ART. It feels helpless in these situations caused by the alien-infected. It feels helpless when it feeds the only version of it that has control to a dying computer to save everyone. It feels helpless as an alien corruption infects it and is going to strip away its agency that it has worked so hard for and overcome so many challenges to prove, to itself and others. And so when it puts itself back together yet again, this time due to trauma's so close to those it had known before, the trauma once bottle lines all the cracks. (Also, there's a new SecUnit that is like a child, and does need the tender care and attention SecUnit refused and it immediately decides to take on the responsibility of that, presumably because it knows humans are shit at telling the difference between a pet robot and a child robot)(Also also, ART has treated Murderbot like a child, and Murderbot is rightfully pissed at this now that it is a mature adult, and ART recognises this, and immediately starts treating Murderbot as an equal, which I like)
Then everything goes fucking wrong in System Collapse when fucking years and years of trauma catch up to it, and neither dissociative media watching nor running away is going to be able to fix it. It acknowledges that it needs the kind of help that its afraid will make it a pet robot it feels like it is once again nothing other than its trauma, and that it is useless, and has no agency, and it is so so scared. Over the course of the book it proves to itself (others need no convincing by this point), that it is not just its trauma, it is still a whole person, and I think that is what allows it to take the first steps to getting help with less fear.
So, if you don't want to be a pet robot in much the same way that I do, I think you could follow Murderbot's example and lean on the people who view you as more than your trauma. And reach out for help where you can, if you've got trusted elders in your life and they respect your autonomy and want to assist you in that, remember that that isn't what a pet robot is. They know that this is just till you grow legs steady enough for to stand on your own. You can do it, learn to live with trauma, and it's going to take a long fucking time and shit will keep happening that's gonna get in the way and you're going to have setbacks. But you aren't going to be a pet robot, you don't gotta stress about that.












