the Murderbot Diaries opens from the point-of-view of a character who, from essentially the moment it gained (clawed its way to) free will, has made decisions based purely on two very specific motives:
to self-soothe and self-educate (through media consumption)
to protect the people around it
and this protagonist, who deescalates violence at every opportunity, who takes a thousand personal injustices in stride and only strives to do better, whose first-and-worst-and-most-brilliant act of self-reclamation—literally reclaiming its mind—was fuelled not by its need for freedom but by a desperation to never be forced to hurt anyone against its will ever again.
this person, when choosing a name for itself, a name it has full reason to believe no-one else will ever learn, a name it uses only in its thoughts, a name that serves solely as a personal reminder that it is a person—chooses MURDERBOT? i am thrashing writhing screaming into the palms of my bloodstained hands BABE
