#cawpost

This... I did not expect this to be very nearly stated out loud??? Damn. Alright then. To be fair, ART is probably a lot less emotionally stunted and more self-aware than Murderbot, it could admit it to itself.

No wonder Iris was so positively shocked to see "Peri's SecUnit" in person. Peri really talked it up, huh.

Also, Iris and Perihelion being siblings is so... Nice. Them growing up together... Her saying "our dads"...

Before reading "Rapport", I was like "okay, I don't want to assume this isn't just humans projecting or something. I'm glad Murderbot has a non-human friend, even if it's having trouble saying the word". But NO! Friendship is one part of it, but they're intense about each other in a different way as well, whatever you call it, I don't know, doesn't matter, I have trouble distinguishing that myself. Whatever the specifics in-story, to the reader they are implied to be amenable to being in some kind of permanent important relationship.

Miki died saving its friends. 2.0 died saving 1.0, the colonists, and the day. Even though Three's friends are dead, it chose to help out, and saved the humans, and later Murderbot. None of Murderbot's humans died, it wouldn't let them, everyone who helped wouldn't let them. Murderbot hacked itself to not have to be a murderbot, and from then on, unless it's under extreme duress, it's as merciful as possible, incapacitating instead of killing, erasing memories instead of the person. And when it does kill, it's always understandable, and frankly, rather satisfying.

There are people who are prejudiced, and greedy, and cruel, and terrible things that happened, are happening, and will continue to happen. But Murderbot and everyone who allies with it try to chip away at the terribleness of the world. And it's working, even if, for now, at a small scale. It helps me feel like it's worth it to try.

Which is... Ridiculous, when I think about it a little longer. The governor module killing SecUnits seems to be a failsafe for them running away or murdering their clients, but combat override modules make it easy to create a SecUnit that looks and acts like a rogue killing machine, at possibly any range.