#i also love monologuing and you've given me such a wonderful opportunity to ramble at length about murderbot and these good songs

[grammarpedant]

Hello!! Feel absolutely free to ignore/delete if this isn't your thing but: I'm working on a Murderbot playlist, one of my silly arbitrary rules is only one song per artist, and as a person with great Analysis and Opinions I am humbly asking you to break a tie. The songs in question are "Ghosts in the Code" and "Disconnected" by Aviators.

Ghosts in the Code is for the general growth and character development with bonus cool computery lyrics while Disconnected is all about Exit Strategy and MENSAH. I picture one of the verses as coming from her (but won't say which one, that's up to you ;))

Hi anon! Apologies for taking so long to get back to your lovely ask <3 Music is not really my strong point, but I'm flattered that you thought my opinion worth soliciting. Unsure if you haven't already made your decision by now, but I've already listened to your picks and it's lowkey been on my mind this past month and a half, so I wanted to give your question a whirl! XD

First off, I've gotta congratulate you on having great taste. Aviators is a fave- atmospheric acoustic vibe, nice vocals, their songs are often rich with story and especially sf/f themes which makes them great picks for character playlists, and honestly I have just never met an Aviators song I didn't like. And among their many excellent songs you've picked a couple that fit great for Murderbot and its Diaries.

Let's dive right in!

Ghosts in the Code has a very driven action-adventure vibe to it- strong underlying beat, a synth-y sound to the guitars (bear with me, I told you I'm not a music guy), I could almost imagine it as the ending theme to an 80's cyberpunk anime, with shots of cool fight scenes intercut with the protag walking pensively through an empty neon city at night as the credits scroll by.

Am I a man or an automaton? Am I so wrong To think that There's something beneath my exterior? Superior thoughts that rule me I'm not a fool, am I? Can someone tell me why I feel like I'm never in control? I'm gonna find the source Locate a deeper force Under my very soul

The entire first stanza is classically Cyborg Angst, asking questions about humanity, self-determination, and what it means to be a machine, but in a way that feels specifically Murderbot. Maybe I'm alive in a whole new way, the following lyrics suggest- there's something quietly, moodily defiant about the way the questions are framed and answers suggested that feels reminiscent of Murderbot's narrative voice and the themes of its character arc alike; it's a song about just trying to survive and find yourself in a hostile world.

The fuel and the fire In a newfound desire They're moving me higher And the wires are changing their road The gears are turning on and on The fears I held within are gone The song that plays in metal parts Beats now to a different heart Yeah, the wires are changing their road Still haunted by ghosts in the code Maybe I'm alive In a whole new way I won't carry the burdens of yesterday There's something new inside Like I'm a different man Ghosts in the code of who I am

The song remains melancholy about the struggle of self-hood; it never settles on what exactly it is, yet it's ultimately triumphant about declaring its intention to self-determine. It's a great song for Murderbot and its own journey across the series! With bonus points for a connection between the phrase "Ghosts in the Code" and Murderbot 2.0's little moment of claiming self-identity:

TargetContact said, A software ghost. I liked that. I had watched media with ghosts, though I didn’t have access to the files or titles anymore. I said, A ghost that kills you.

Meanwhile, Disconnected is a much more melancholy, pensive song, a duet that feels like it would be perfect for an angsty AMV if the live action adaptation ever came out, lots of shots taken from the emotional Murderbot and Mensah scenes superimposed against each other, maybe with a rain filter. But as much as the song is about a fraught relationship, the themes of the lyrics are almost as much about how the people in the song stand against the challenges of an unkind world as it is about how they relate to each other.

I feel like this world should break me But nothing changes after all I'll never be perfect But neither will you

I've been listening to this song on repeat all while writing this (I did that for each song as I analyzed them) and I'm fascinated by how the singers' voices intertwine; they're both singing for the duration of the song (i think) and for the chorus their voices are balanced, but for some verses one voice comes forward clearly, and makes that line "theirs." So if we choose to interpret the lead singer's voice as Murderbot's and the featured artist's as Mensah, that would theoretically complicate the fit of the song- and yet somehow, anon, you've picked a song that still captures the vibes of everything difficult in their relationship: the parts of the bond forged by trauma, the codependency, Murderbot walking away from the whole "owner" thing, the paternalism that Mensah needed to unlearn, Murderbot genuinely benefiting from her having encouraged it to reach out from its depressed shell, the ways they've been there for each other. "I know how to be afraid"- the chorus is sung with both voices equally strong, and god if this line from it doesn't speak to the way they understand each others' fear and trauma post Exit Strategy. Meanwhile, the first and last non-chorus verses resonate with Murderbot's depressed beginning in ASR and its decision to walk away at the end, respectively; meanwhile, this part is indisputably Mensah's:

Just for example Say you forget me To start over apart And rebuild something new It sounds familiar Endings begin again Each mistake I'm learning A lesson from you

Quality Mensah angst right there. It's the kind of thing that I've written thousands of words of fic for. "I know I fucked up," Mensah thinks to herself in the lonely nights after MB pisses off. "I could have done better," she thinks while fending off reporters looking to turn tragedy into a scoop. And, worrying with her friends and coworkers, "I hope you're okay, wherever you are."

I like, too, that this section is then followed by a back-and-forth with the main singer. In the context of selecting it for a character playlist, it really helps to drive home the idea that this is still about Murderbot, and its relationship to Mensah. (And I'm deeply curious to know if this is also the verse that you were thinking of as coming from her!)

Also, I just think it's great that the title of this song works as an homage to @indigo's Mensah POV longfic, Extended Disconnection, an absolute titan of talent and wordcount that comes highly recommended if you haven't read it already.

So which song should you pick? They both have a lot to recommend them. I think personally, if we take the songs in isolation, I like Ghosts in the Code as a Murderbot song better- it encompasses so much of its character arc and themes, with only the minor downside of using gendered terms for the song's pov a couple times. On the other hand, Mensah's impact on Murderbot is an important part of Murderbot's story, and deserves its own shoutout. My one big reservation with that song, then, is that I don't particularly like the guest artist's voice as a cast for Mensah- it's too young and girlish, and in combination with the lead singer's comparatively more masc voice gives me the persistent mental image of Brown-Haired White Male Everyman And Petite Blonde Love Interest, which is the absolute wrong vibe for Murderbot and Mensah, the agender cyborg and older brown woman whose platonic relationship defies easy categorization. I would thus personally lean toward Ghosts in the Code, but hey! I don't know what's on the rest of your Murderbot playlist. Maybe there's a lack of Mensah feels, and plenty of other songs that encompass MB's "general growth and character feels," or maybe Disconnected flows better with the other songs on the playlist.

Ultimately, both of these are great additions to a Murderbot themed playlist, and I think you couldn't go wrong with either. If you see this and ever want to drop a follow-up ask, I'd be fascinated to hear which one you went with, or if you ended up doing something else!

#verso answers #murderbot diaries #murderbot #music #ayda mensah #meta #honestly I would've been happy to keep your nice ask in my dungeon of unanswered asks indefinitely anon. #it's such a nice missive and i'm an evil wizard! so obviously I have to hang onto it for eternity. HOWEVER #i also love monologuing and you've given me such a wonderful opportunity to ramble at length about murderbot and these good songs #and so for that i thank you and release your ask unto the world <3 #hope you enjoyed just how many words I ended up writing about this wonderful music!