Edit: No one is forced to read through everything. But even if you aren’t a murder drones fan at all, please just read the first 3 paragraphs at random. Even if you never comment, I will still greatly appreciated anyone willing to read the tiniest snippet of this. I’m sorry if this is all massively unorganized. I just started had too many thoughts all at once.

I really dislike how the entire fandom calls Uzi as badly written in the sense that she has 0 development, growth or arc. This just simply isn’t true, nor do any of the other main characters lack it. In this essay, I will be discussing:

Why Murder Drones is well written

(Mainly) Uzi, Khan, & (some of) N’s character development arcs

How Nuzi (platonic or romantic) plays into their development / arcs

Uzi & Khan, & their ties to representation of abuse victims

Uzi’s development / arcs, the solver, & how it ties into mental illness (partial analysis)

Why Nuzi boosting eachother isn’t objectively bad writing.

In order to prove that Murder Drones isn’t comparable to say, the game of thrones’s finale (in the sense that “none of the characters have any development / growth / arcs”).

N helped her to know that it’s okay to be vulnerable, in which uzi opens up to him and let her emotions out. Uzi has been extreme isolated by her peers (an example of this being Rebecca’s statement before she’s “super unpopular”) because she’s been outcasted due to being “weird,” her father neglected her and with emotional abuse, ranging from her mothers “death,” and experiencing so much trauma. Even from the pilot, she says she’s doing Khan a favor by outcasting herself with the assumption that Khan was going to do it to her. Uzi had no one but herself & she has been taking care of her own self while growing up with no support system.

(In episode 3, Lizzy believes that no one would notice Uzi’s missing if something happens to her, which really highlights how Uzi had no one to rely on)

Due to this, she have huge self-esteem issues due to how she’s not taken seriously by anyone, in which this affects the way she treats & view herself. She dismisses her own feelings as her just being an “angsty teen” & thus scared of being vulnerable. Since she doesn’t want anyone to take advantage of her weaknesses through being vulnerable, she brushes her feelings off thinking it’ll go away when she ignores it.

That is, until N showed up which I’ll explain in part 2. I’ve seen people state that Uzi & N’s development / characters arcs gets completely diminished & is therefore “objectively” bad writing since Uzi still had Thad as a support system due to them being “best friends”, but this is completely fanon. When they talk, Uzi (even if she has a small crush on him) didn’t even expect Thad to know about her name or bother talking to her, & Thad only knew about Uzi due to her being Kahn’s daughter. Speaking of which, in this exact scene, Uzi makes a whole plan to kill a disassembly drones just to earn her father’s respect, which clearly shows how bad her self-esteem issues are to the point of not even caring about her own life as much as she should. Even in her blueprints for the railgun, she writes notes like “other things it can do: not judge me & I can say I killed a murder drone with sci fi nonsense”.

Now, let’s briefly talk about Khan:

Khan prioritized his precious doors over his own daughter. One part where Uzi gives up is when Khan left her to die. As we know, Khan has trauma from Nori’s “death” and is terrified to take action to save his own daughter, but it still doesn’t justify him leaving her for dead, which Uzi even points out multiple times across several episodes later on. But at the ending of episode 2, Khan came to figure out what was going on & saw Uzi, but the first thing she did was hug him after being traumatized of what eldritch-solver J did (make a hologram of Khan & eating it in front of her to make it look like her father actually died). This shows how Uzi still cares about Khan, & I think this is very realistic to how victims of abuse tend to feel about their parents. Despite all the pain your parents have brought to you (despite being the ones responsible of protecting & loving you), you still deep down love them & it takes a lot to cut context. Even then, it causes you to at-least wonder how things could’ve been.

However, we see that Khan starts to slowly change & repair their relationship. In episode 2 while Uzi was stopping eldritch-solver J, Khan went to Uzi’s teacher conference & actually began to realize how “weird” Uzi acts while in class & her isolation. The teacher points out that Uzi might be “damaged” & Khan steps up for her. Uzi of course never saw this happen, so when Khan takes Nori’s kooky notes from her room in the start of episode 3 & finally starts acting like a real parent (“personal space under a very alarming coping mechanism isn’t covered under a… non-optimal family support structure”), she lashes out (if you want to help now, stay distant). Yet, Khan keeps trying as he tries to read family support books & gets classmates for prom to potentially be Uzi’s friends.

Even when Uzi’s missing, he looks around concerned that she’s late & worried due to the recent disappearances. Khan also doesn’t leave once the doors open during Uzi & Doll confrontation scene despite Doll throwing knives through telekinesis & overall being a very dangerous threat, & even tries to save her (again, Uzi didn’t see Khan try in this moment) when Doll was about to stab her.

Due to Uzi also not seeing Khan’s recent (major) attempt at caring for her, she clearly doesn’t want much to do with him & only reaches out again to find more information about her mother, which we see in episode 4. But his words to Uzi (After the core collapse, I didn’t notice her collar… she was always all- ‘BUILD DOORS AGAINST THE COMING SKY DEMONS! THE SINGULARITY AWAKENS’… Turns out, I’m not who either of you needed. Just, be safe, okay?”) do cause a shift in her views.

I think Khan’s arc truly gets shown in-your-face when he recreates Uzi’s railgun to save her & the planet on his own (with Lizzy & Thad only going along with him because they were also outside). People still think his arc isn’t completed since him dying to Cyn in order to save Uzi from a tendril stab would’ve been the “objectively better written choice to make death treated more seriously”, but this would’ve erased his entire arc since Uzi has only seen half of his attempts at improving their relationship. In the end of episode 8, she slams the door with her solver when Khan cheers into the classroom, but moreso of a half- annoyed half-jokey way, & in the end credits she’s playing cards with Khan & the WDF so we know their realtionship is stronger now, but there’s still more that Khan needs to do.

I also think that Khan dying to Cyn specifically to save Uzi from a tendril stab wouldn’t exactly work. Cyn can move at speeds fast enough to where time appears heavily slowed down, while Khan is just a normal worker drone so him somehow moving faster than Cyn in order to shield Uzi wouldn’t make much sense.

Now let’s talk about N, & Uzi’s attachment issues:

I feel like not enough people give Uzi credit. If it wasn’t for uzi, N would’ve still be murdering while being treated as a doormat as she was the only one who respected him. Throughout the series, N has been the only one who Uzi had for a looooong time that didn’t treat her like a freak, who didn’t insulted her or threatened her. Due to Uzi’s bad life (as we established prior) she has self-esteem issues, issues being vulnerable & of course would have a fear of being abandoned after her classmates (who isolated & bullied her) start to get along with N (despite him being a disassembly drone) which is where most of the “pick me” claims arise. She doesn’t want to lose her only friend & support system.

This manifests in jealousy when V confronts her (“I’m just SO glad you guys fit right in. Suuuupee cool.”). Then, all her feelings she’s been repressing over EVERYTHING combined with her panicking from overheating builds up to her losing control.

Although there are other, smaller moments like Uzi telling N that she isn’t okay (episode 2). nervously admitting to N that she wants him to go to prom (episode 3), & asking V for N’s help (episode 4), when she’s finally fully back to normal, the episode 4 falling scene fully displays Uzi’s insecurities & her truly starting to open up to N. She immediately disregards herself as gross & expresses her fear of being abandoned. But at the same time, Uzi tries to push N away to be locked inside her own shell (literally, as she covers her whole body using her wings). In response, N reassures Uzi that they will stick together because he can relate- he’s been abused by J, isolated by J & V, & doesn’t remember most of his life. Just like Uzi, survival & trying to appease others is all he’s known. Him showing this patience & understanding made Uzi open up her shell (as in, he literally causes her to willingly open her wings out).

Going a little off topic & shifting solely to talk about N here- the fandom tends to regard N as a uwu soft golden retriever kind boi stereotype that makes him have 0 complexity. While I think he is less in depth than V or Uzi for example, his character absolutely still has complexity. We see N has a very understanding side to him, & also a side where he starts to learn when to put his foot down. An example of this being when N makes it clear to V that they don’t need to kill everyone at prom for no reason, & expresses his frustration at her multiple times for not telling him anything about his past. Yet, he tries to get V to open up to him despite everything she’s done to him until he finally snaps due to V going way too far. 

Another example is in episodes 6 & 7 (…HAHA 67!!!! SIX-SEVEN!) where despite Tessa acting suspicious & manipulative, he glosses over it twice in less dangerous situations before giving her a single chance to explain, & slashes out out of instinct when she tries to manipulate him again.

I also really view it as disappointing to see so many people in the fandom people chalk him up as “objectively” poorly written because of the lack of “N crashout scenes”, or his personality not changing (you can have a complex character without making their main personality change), or Nuzi being reduce to “fanservice” (when Envy was the most popular ship for half of the series which disproves this claim anyways), or because he “doesn’t show any emotions besides being happy because he was nerfed for fanservice” (he snaps at V, he’s shocked & terrified when Cyn traps him, he kills “Tessa” out of pure instinct before nearly collapsing after realizing what he did, he’s determined to stop Cyn, etc).

The truth is that Uzi, Khan & N all have development / growth / arcs, Nuzi is a key factor in this because they boost each other. N is like a healing pill to Uzi, to the point Uzi thanks N for everything he did for her, before sacrificing herself. Now, is N & Uzi boosting eachother as characters “objectively bad writing” simply because they boost eachother? No! We have scenes of N growing overtime naturally, & Uzi never orders him to change his mentality (besides convincing him to switch sides). He learns to stand up for himself, his loves ones & his new life against his tormentor’s manipulation all on his own. In media two characters talking, both coming to a realization, & growing as a result is also extremely common within media like anime, ATLA (avatar the last airbender), Gravity Falls, etc. Why should we label it bad writing in this case?

I feel like there’s so much more I could talk about- more on Khan’s arc in regards to Nori or how he parallells N, Uzi’s arc in regards to the solver throughout episodes 5 - 8 which I didn’t even cover, disproving Uzi’s “plot armor”, Uzi’s implied BPD, Uzi N & V’s sacrifice tendencies, the anti-self-harm messages within the series, how PTSD is portrayed, N’s impulsiveness, potentially way more about N’s arc in regards to V’s or J’s, disproving the claims that murder drones has 0 worldbuilding, etc. I just didn’t want this to be so long & way too cluttered as it is now.

I think what we needed from Khan was a scene at the end where he and Uzi talked. I do believe he was redeemed but having somethin like that would have solidified that relationship a little more and made it more obvious that he WAS redeemed. I see no reason for him to die. Like he could have but it didn't NEED to happen

I don't see the problem with the attachment between N and Uzi. They both have literally  hated by everyone else around them (Thad was decently nice but not quite cut for the fighting that came in the adventures, I think). They have no one else to be attached to. They themselves have no reason to change because who are they chamging for? (Ok so as for V, I will say that her present day self only started openly caring about N and Uzi in ep 6. She wasn't even in ep 7 but ep 8 yes we saw that Uzi had branched out to forgive V but that is literally the last episode.)

Also for the record I love reading people overthinking the show that are accurate and can point to canon as evidence. Just because the show is a bit too fast paced doesn't mean there aren't things to look into.

If this is just me repeating what you've already said I'm sorry I'm tired right now

I think it was great! They have a nice romance that happens gradually throughout the show while being subtle enough for it not to take attention away from the main storyline and lore. If the show were given more time (like maybe 2 or 3 seasons) I could definitely see it being a slow burn. They just compliment each other so perfectly, and both their separate characters help each other develop into better people. Uzi being a closed off angry girl who teaches N to stand up for himself and have some self worth. N being a people pleasing nice boy who teaches Uzi to let her walls down and embrace what its like to feel loved.

I do wish we got to see more of N's attraction since it was only up until episode 6 did we see him actually show any explicit romantic interest in Uzi. you could argue that it was shown much earlier, like in episode 3 or 4, but I personally see those moments as Uzi's crush on him developing because N is being a good friend to her. It could also just be because N only realized his feelings for Uzi much later, especially when he was still getting over V, but I would've liked some more subtle hints of his growing feelings for Uzi, ones that not even he was aware of until later. Something like showing his subconscious switch from romantically liking V to liking Uzi. You could interpret some of this actions in the show as just that, but I feel like they could've been more obvious like Uzi was. Just something that really presents how he thinks of her and why exactly he's so drawn to her.

From what I see (or maybe it's a headcanon) I think N def liked her in ep 6, and Uzi's liked him since ep 3. It is probably good that he didn't like her immidetly since the whole fiasco with V (Envy was so bittersweet I DO LIK ENVY but with the way she was treating him and not telling him the full story... it was kinda disasterous) and it kinda seemed like his heart was blindly chasing that goal.

ANYWAYS BEFORE I GET FURTHER SIDETRACKED I think in ep 3 he realized Uzi kinda liked him and because she was willing to make up with him that kind of got him a little interested. He wasn't set on anything but he was curious. Ep 4 it was the same, he could see that she really needed help and was willing to be that person and she was being more decent to him than anyone else had.

It's plausible that in Ep 5 he took the whole "her hacking him" as Uzi changing as a person and not being as self centered. He was able to be the person that gave Uzi a reason to change. Maybe he still was uncertain at the beginning of Ep 6 when it came to what he wanted but Tessa telling him "you have to kill Uzi" made him realize that she kinda was who he wanted because the thought of her dying was hard.

I'm sure there are other ways to inturprete them that's just one I was thinkin up :)

Overall:

LIZZY'S ROOM???

Ahhh yes Uzi's room, it's a mix of cool, weird, and WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS GIRL-

Plus some of Doll's house and in the space pod??? I don't remember what we got good shots of in the show...

So the images are also from here

Ep 4

Ohh that's a good one...

I hate it but I love it

I can't with dumb misunderstandings that can be fixed with talking. They just frustrate me so much

But at the same time... the angst, man...THE ANGST!!!! I love that

That part of the episode is great; Uzi thought she had finally found somebody she trusted, but in the end, everyone betrays her (though this was more "keeping secrets"). One of the main reasons she'd gotten close to N was because he very honest.

This scene, again, broke her trust. N was having a hard time thinking rationally since he'd assumed he'd never get to see Tessa ever again, and yet here she is. We never really saw Tessa do anything mean to N; she adored him!

Anyways, this is something that is ridiculously hard to talk through. Tessa didn't tell N about the patch; he sees for himself proof that Cyn was starting to influence Uzi and it's not hard to come to the conclusion that she was going to use her to destroy Copper-9. N doesn't keep secrets/lie, but not even he knows how to hanfle this situation because in reality there is no good way to do so. He's a people pleaser, but in this case, he can't satisfy both Uzi and Tessa (that is a way watered down reason though)

Ok, ok, that's kinda some notes on the context, so now to answer the question:

Things would have been different if N had straight up told Uzi that Tessa had to kill her. Uzi would definitely panic a lot more! N would first up, right aqay, plead with his reasoning. Inside, he's conflicted. It feels like he's making the hard but correct choice despite his conscience saying no. It might not be saying no just because Uzi is his "friend", but possibly because this doesn't feel like the radical thing Tessa would do. Wouldn't Tessa care about him enough to try and find another way to save Uzi, his first friend in a long time?

Uzi running away in the show is perfectly radical because she actually finally trusted someone. Trust is a huge thing for her; the average person doesn't distrust so many people. If N had directly said Tessa had to kill Uzi, it would have made the whole situation worse. Of course, N doesn't want Uzi to die, so saying that is just a way of convincing himself that Tessa is doing the right thing. I believe it would have taken longer to repair their relationship but would have caused more damage that they could heal from. Unfortunately, Murder Drones didn't really have that time, so it's probably best to leave it how it is.

Buuuuut if we're getting into tweaking the episode a little bit...

Alright if this is confusing than I'm sorry.

N clearly felt terrible about what he had done. In the scene where he's helping Uzi up, I feel like he would have been more talking a little despretely because he did some SERIOUS wrong! He would say that he was wrong, and it was his fault this had happened.

Another thing that was brought up in the question was should N have apologized? I think his little speech right before they fought was a little bit of an apology. Adding a scene like that right after the fight would have felt a little repetitive, perhaps, but not impossible. Or he could have included a direct apology for making her panic during the scene when he gives her the patch.