Everything that fascinates me...

Kanit could have easily been given a hair-trigger jealousy response after Lion's cheating, but he knows Toto better than that. He doesn't think for a minute that Toto is running around on him while claiming to work. Instead the "you're not good enough" voice in his brain takes a subtler route. Maybe eventually it will all become too much for Toto, he'll realize Kanit isn't worth it, and he'll leave him for Por or someone similar. Or worse, he'll wish he could while he stays with Kanit out of obligation. Isn't it better to back away now?

Meanwhile Toto, who was forced to be an adult very young (we are not gonna talk about his mother here but BOY OH BOY), knows that if he just works harder and pushes through the exhaustion, things will be okay. You know he's been doing this since he was a kid, because he didn't have any other choice. So the more stressful things get, the narrower his focus becomes: just push it further, work harder. He hears Kanit talking about his losing weight as "I need you to bulk up and get hot again." He is simply unable to hear Kanit telling him that he's enough as he is.

A Dog and a Plane หมาเห่าเครื่องบิน ‧ Drama ‧ 2026

EPISODE 07 / 10

The freed unit we meet in Platform Decay has no real context for anything other than MB’s log. It has no support and is so obviously a rogue SecUnit that it’s miraculous it wasn’t killed (honestly, the only reason it wasn’t killed was because it ran into MB)! Three didn’t even think to include the helpful additional codes MB gives the unit as a parting gift.

The fact of the matter is that despite having biases, I think Murderbot is very thoughtful and realistic about what’s possible. It feels very deeply for the units it encounters (hence why it has offered in the past). It doesn’t want these units harmed!

Not to mention the fact it strikes me as a bad thing for corporates to get their hands on a unit with a jailbroken GovMod.

Both books are about murderbot doing a hostage rescue mission but in exit strategy, it goes into the mission alone, with no idea where it stands with its humans and fully ready for them to fucking hate it. It's still wary of its humans and the book ends with a clusterfuck of them having to accept help from the Company, and murderbot suffering a catastrophic failure after over extending itself

Meanwhile in Platform Decay, it goes in with a careful plan, and it has so many allies along the way. There's ART and Three helping it creat a distraction and acting as a getaway driver, but along the way there's also leonide (though she's mostly in it for herself) and the militia members at the dock.

And more than that, murderbot's more secure in where it stands with its humans, it knows that it has somewhere safe to go back to at the end of all this, it knows to expect a warm welcome. This time, the ones helping them get away are friends, family (instead of the Company)

In Exit Strategy, murderbot is trying to piece its memories back together and it seems dubious at the fact that ratthi is tagged as "my human friend" but in platform decay, murderbot is able to confidently (at least in its own mind) refer to them as its friends.

Murderbot has in fact freed other secunits before. Multiple times. Do not forget that. But also one time it offered and the combat unit was like I ACTIVELY WANT TO MURDER THE FUCK OUT OF YOU. So. It's cautious.

Three is doing something so developmentally important here. It's NOT just that Three knows it has a team to fall back on if it gets into trouble with the baddies, it's also that Three has figured out it can get in trouble with it's own side and that's ok. It's not thrilled to have pissed off ART but it did it anyways! It now knows it can be in trouble and not get tortured or disassembled over it! It did something it wasn't supposed to and then came home to the people who would be mad about it, even though it didn't have to! It could have run off to keep doing it's own thing but didn't.

I love that Murderbot's POV is so limited because it just only cares about it's own missions. If we hear in 2 books from now about how every SecUnit in the Torus deserted their post and have colonized a moon together or something somewhere Murderbot would just be like "huh". Like there would be an emotion check about it but it's not going to stop it's soap operas for more than 3 minutes about it.

I know the idea of the rogue unit that approached Murderbot recognizing Murderbot as the originator of the code is hilarious, but also, let us consider that if it doesn't recognize Murderbot as the originator of the code that unit is gonna get such a weird view of the world. Like sometimes you live your whole life in shackles and then somebody breaks them for you and you run around and the next SecUnit you run into is already free. You'd have to wonder, then, if freedom is far more normal than you'd realized. And you'd have to think- these free units are doing ok. Maybe I can also be ok. Also, the successful free unit is wearing a highly distinctive garment that must have a tactical purpose given than it is still on a mission. And is telling you to change your clothes. So like...maybe it is tactically useful to wear a very colorful poncho thing. Maybe it should tell the other free units to get those, to. It seems to have been aiding that successful free unit. And thus, free sec unit fashion culture is born.

like hearing a hearbeat you recognize

take two

Your wife is a wonderful, caring planetary leader and scientist <3

She goes on what's meant to be a mundane planetary survey expedition

this turns into a corporate death trap she and her team just barely escape with their lives

after the death trap she gets kidnapped by the corporation that made the death trap due to them not wanting to pay damages

again. she and her team miraculously escape with their lives

after what easily had to be 6+ months she finally arrives home

Your wife is traumatized, unwilling to talk about or address this trauma, and now has a co-dependent relationship with a rogue SecUnit

You and the family are really trying not to hold the 'rogue SecUnit' thing against the Rogue SecUnit. Not its fault. But it is sarcastic and glares a lot and is non-social and has installed literal spydrones everywhere. It's willing to kill anyone who hurts your wife or her extended family. This is, to put it bluntly, a bit of an Adjustment for everyone.

Your wife decides to retire from being a planetary leader. One one hand, you think it's a good idea for her to take the time to focus on her mental health and be with her loved ones. On the other hand, it's concerning all of this has made her give up one of her passions.

One of your older children is going on her first off-planetary survey. This is good, obviously :) It's just. you are all still stressing from the trauma of your last family member's planetary survey.

It's fine. It's going to be fine. Your brother-in-law is going to be with her, and a bunch of your wife's long-standing colleagues, and-- you have complex feelings about this-- the SecUnit. it will be fine.

It is not fine.

The SecUnit and your brother-in-law and your daughter have all been kidnapped by a mysterious force for mysterious reasons.

Now your wife-- who is meant to be on indefinite mental health leave-- is off to save them.

You and your third partner want to go with her. You want to. But you have no skills for this, and family at home you need to care for. So you stay on the sidelines, waiting, waiting, waiting.

THEY'RE OKAY EVERYONE IS OKAY

thank fuck. phew. okay. now they're going to come home and--

what do you meant they're not coming home

what do you mean your child has decided to go to university off world at the school that kidnapped her

what do you mean your wife, instead of retiring, has decided to become some sort of anti-corporate activist

Yeah okay. This is not a conversation to have over the feed with a 2+ month time delay. You need to have an in-person conversation. You'll make a family trip of it; Nana and Sofia will come with. This is a good, normal, family visit

1: they don't have potatoes; the references to potatoes in the Shire were added by Tolkien-the-translator as part of a wider localisation. when Sam mentions potatoes he's actually talking about some other vegetable

2: given that Middle Earth was historically ruled over by the Numenoreans who come from a lost kingdom on the other side of the western ocean, it could be that Numenor was in or had contact with ancient America and brought potatoes back with them

2 is kind of a stretch tho interesting to contemplate; 1 however on some level i think is the correct answer. the Shire's resemblance to England is 100% canonically a localisation thing. The Shire is England bcos it's the main characters' home and the intended audience of the book was English people.