Why Murder Drones isnβt badly written - Uzi, Khan & N Partial Deep Dive
Edit: No one is forced to read through everything. But even if you arenβt 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. Iβm 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 isnβt 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) Nβs character development arcs
How Nuzi (platonic or romantic) plays into their development / arcs
Uzi & Khan, & their ties to representation of abuse victims
Uziβs development / arcs, the solver, & how it ties into mental illness (partial analysis)
Why Nuzi boosting eachother isnβt objectively bad writing.
In order to prove that Murder Drones isnβt comparable to say, the game of thronesβs finale (in the sense that βnone of the characters have any development / growth / arcsβ).
N helped her to know that itβs 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 Rebeccaβs statement before sheβs βsuper unpopularβ) because sheβs been outcasted due to being βweird,β her father neglected her and with emotional abuse, ranging from her mothers βdeath,β and experiencing so much trauma. Even from the pilot, she says sheβs 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 Uziβs 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 sheβs 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 βangsty teenβ & thus scared of being vulnerable. Since she doesnβt want anyone to take advantage of her weaknesses through being vulnerable, she brushes her feelings off thinking itβll go away when she ignores it.
That is, until N showed up which Iβll explain in part 2. Iβve seen people state that Uzi & Nβs development / characters arcs gets completely diminished & is therefore βobjectivelyβ bad writing since Uzi still had Thad as a support system due to them being βbest friendsβ, but this is completely fanon. When they talk, Uzi (even if she has a small crush on him) didnβt even expect Thad to know about her name or bother talking to her, & Thad only knew about Uzi due to her being Kahnβs daughter. Speaking of which, in this exact scene, Uzi makes a whole plan to kill a disassembly drones just to earn her fatherβs 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 βother things it can do: not judge me & I can say I killed a murder drone with sci fi nonsenseβ.
Now, letβs 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 Noriβs βdeathβ and is terrified to take action to save his own daughter, but it still doesnβt 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 couldβve 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 Uziβs teacher conference & actually began to realize how βweirdβ Uzi acts while in class & her isolation. The teacher points out that Uzi might be βdamagedβ & Khan steps up for her. Uzi of course never saw this happen, so when Khan takes Noriβs kooky notes from her room in the start of episode 3 & finally starts acting like a real parent (βpersonal space under a very alarming coping mechanism isnβt covered under aβ¦ non-optimal family support structureβ), 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 Uziβs friends.
Even when Uziβs missing, he looks around concerned that sheβs late & worried due to the recent disappearances. Khan also doesnβt 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 didnβt see Khan try in this moment) when Doll was about to stab her.
Due to Uzi also not seeing Khanβs recent (major) attempt at caring for her, she clearly doesnβt 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 didnβt notice her collarβ¦ she was always all- βBUILD DOORS AGAINST THE COMING SKY DEMONS! THE SINGULARITY AWAKENSββ¦ Turns out, Iβm not who either of you needed. Just, be safe, okay?β) do cause a shift in her views.
I think Khanβs arc truly gets shown in-your-face when he recreates Uziβs 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 isnβt completed since him dying to Cyn in order to save Uzi from a tendril stab wouldβve been the βobjectively better written choice to make death treated more seriouslyβ, but this wouldβve 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 sheβs playing cards with Khan & the WDF so we know their realtionship is stronger now, but thereβs still more that Khan needs to do.
I also think that Khan dying to Cyn specifically to save Uzi from a tendril stab wouldnβt 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 wouldnβt make much sense.
Now letβs talk about N, & Uziβs attachment issues:
I feel like not enough people give Uzi credit. If it wasnβt for uzi, N wouldβve 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 didnβt treat her like a freak, who didnβt insulted her or threatened her. Due to Uziβs 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 βpick meβ claims arise. She doesnβt want to lose her only friend & support system.
This manifests in jealousy when V confronts her (βIβm just SO glad you guys fit right in. Suuuupee cool.β). Then, all her feelings sheβs 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 isnβt okay (episode 2). nervously admitting to N that she wants him to go to prom (episode 3), & asking V for Nβs help (episode 4), when sheβs finally fully back to normal, the episode 4 falling scene fully displays Uziβs 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- heβs been abused by J, isolated by J & V, & doesnβt remember most of his life. Just like Uzi, survival & trying to appease others is all heβs 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 donβt 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 sheβs done to him until he finally snaps due to V going way too far.Β
Another example is in episodes 6 & 7 (β¦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 βobjectivelyβ poorly written because of the lack of βN crashout scenesβ, or his personality not changing (you can have a complex character without making their main personality change), or Nuzi being reduce to βfanserviceβ (when Envy was the most popular ship for half of the series which disproves this claim anyways), or because he βdoesnβt show any emotions besides being happy because he was nerfed for fanserviceβ (he snaps at V, heβs shocked & terrified when Cyn traps him, he kills βTessaβ out of pure instinct before nearly collapsing after realizing what he did, heβs 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.Β Now, is N & Uzi boosting eachother as characters βobjectively bad writingβ simply because they boost eachother?Β 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 tormentorβs 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 thereβs so much more I could talk about- more on Khanβs arc in regards to Nori or how he parallells N, Uziβs arc in regards to the solver throughout episodes 5 - 8 which I didnβt even cover, disproving Uziβs βplot armorβ, Uziβs implied BPD, Uzi N & Vβs sacrifice tendencies, the anti-self-harm messages within the series, how PTSD is portrayed, Nβs impulsiveness, potentially way more about Nβs arc in regards to Vβs or Jβs, disproving the claims that murder drones has 0 worldbuilding, etc. I just didnβt want this to be so long & way too cluttered as it is now.
And the more I think about it, the more disappointed & scared I become of even posting this knowing I will continue to receive hate over βoverthinking an indie showβ or βglazingβ or βitβs not that deepβ (the same people who claim they are literate genuinely believe this btw) or βtrying to make βrealβ fans who know the writingβs objectively bad seem stupidβ But regardless, I hope atleast one person enjoyed this other than myself lol.
So I did read through the entire thing and definitely agree with like all of it! I can't think of much to say, you were very thourough :3
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 literallyΒ 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
Anyways I'd be interested in hearing about Uzi and BPD, I don't really know much about it and I find mental disorders interesting and misunderstood

















