Mashumaru

like, the most unrealistic part of The Murderbot Diaries isn't the space travel or the rogue AIs.

Society: "You can be anything you want!"

Murderbot: "I want to be perceived by absolutely no one while Sanctuary Moon plays in the background."

it’s the fact that Murderbot gets freedom from its corporate corporate overlords, looks at the vast, infinite universe of possibilities, and immediately chooses to use its newfound liberty to just... sit in a corner and binge-watch 35,000 hours of space soap operas.

You are stuck as a soldier in this historical war

(this is a magical universe where people who wouldn't usually be able to fight would. so you can all suffer.)

One of my favorite tropes is "I'm not stuck in here with you, you're stuck in here with me" which often goes hand in hand with another favorite trope "horror movie scene from the pov of the horror"

So unsurprisingly one of my favorite scenes in PD is when Murderbot intimidates the shit out of the wannabe space pirates, locking them in their own ship and playing evidence of their crimes on their own TV

But my absolute favorite part is that it works too well and they all instantly surrender, leaving Murderbot standing there like 'um actually I was kinda planning on killing you guys but it feels weird now that you're like crying and shit'

Espresso on Slate Blue - Cansu Rossi , 2026.

Turkish , b. 1980s