ellis | 26 | they/them

I think choosing Alexander Skarsgård, a large blonde blue-eyed man, visibly middle age, to be the living weapon in a group of shorter people of colour, adds to the potential horror of Murderbot. you as an audience immediately understands the physical threat it can pose, not just because it has guns in its arms but because that body in a uniform reminds you, the viewer, of violent authority figures. it even has a crew cut like any soldier or police you’ve ever seen. in adapting the text of the books to the screen they’ve found this way of visually communicating what we’re otherwise told by Murderbot, that it looks like a securityunit and that just the appearance of one scares people. the show has even found a way of communicating how secunits are purposefully designed this way by showing us that all other units have a similar physique and are used for things like riot control and violent retribution against protestors — and the human police we see in charge of them are much shorter. they still look like cops but they’re older, not so physically fit, and use these manufactured mechanical bodies that all look like the cookie cutter fascist image of a perfect soldier, to beat up people so they don’t have to. it’s like they’re cowering behind the physical manifestation of propaganda. its telling, I think, that when Murderbot is freed and back with the PresAux crew, they don’t want it to have its uniform (they don’t think it needs it, as they say) and instead have it wear soft, flowing, completely nonthreatening clothing. Pyjamas, basically. It immediately looks less threatening — it looks less threatening dressed that way than it does when it’s naked so you can see how strong it is.