Guiigemar

We are shown over and over again throughout the Murderbot Diaries that humans are mistreated just as badly as (or sometimes, in MB's own opinion, even worse than) bots and constructs. We see humans stripped of their rights, reduced to corporate assets to be bought and sold, sent into suicidal situations, abandoned and discarded as things. We see humans trapped in multigenerational labor contracts -- people born into an indentured servitude that requires them to pay back their food and lodging to the same company that will not let them leave.

None of these are hypothetical scenarios. These are all things that happen to real people in our world today.

And that is a huge part of why it resonates so much. The overarching theme of "capitalism is hell" actually means something because it isn't only applied to the fictional dynamic of bots vs humans. The theme is constantly reiterated through the humans themselves.

And that's also why it's so important that MB demonstrates empathy for and solidarity with humans who are themselves victims of the system. Because ultimately, that's one of the main things the series is about. It's about what it's like to be simultaneously a product, and victim, of a corporate hellscape.

i'm a big sucker for a diegetic piece of art/literature serving as a mirror to the story's characters, so naturally the illustration of the poem about a silverleaf tree falling in love with a star from chapter 47 of WHA *had* to be redrawn as Qifrey and Oru ✨🍃

tip jar!

aaand a rotated version under the cut for easier Oru appreciation!

Happy Pride!

... :D

✨My version of the “Abduction of Helen”, which is my contribution to @singomusezine, last volume coming out in July, as you know, full of great fellow artists drawing Greek Mythology awesomeness.

I chose this episode from The Iliad, Book III as the theme of the zine this year is about The Trojan War and all related.

🍏🦢 Paris and Helen of Sparta/Troy.