Okay, my brain refuses to think about anything other than Murderbot, so I looked at every use of the word "friend[s]" in TMBD and... created some pie charts. Normal human activities.
Some Thoughts™ I had while putting this together (under the cut):
In All Systems Red, Murderbot notes that the PresAux crew are all close friends (twice! and goes on to explain their internal relationships which I think is very cute). This is pretty much the only use of 'friends' in ASR, except for when Murderbot says that SecUnits can't be friends with each other.
It seems that this may be one of the first times Murderbot has ever really been around a group of friends before? Murderbot notes that this is not the norm for its contracts and admits that the fact that they are all friends and the way they interact with each other make it actually enjoy that contract (before!!!! the hostile attack, so it already enjoys this contract before they start seeing it as a person etc ghghhhh). [Inference: Friendship seems enjoyable.]
The first character that calls Murderbot its friend is ART in Artificial Condition. Murderbot immediately refutes this (and then goes on to call ART its friend to its clients for the rest of the book). [Inference: Maybe ART is Murderbot's friend. And maybe that is... agreeable]
Rogue Protocol has more than twice as many instances of the word 'friend' as any of the other novellas. Why? Miki. Friendship and its implications for non-humans are a central theme because Miki is friends with everyone. Murderbot initially scoffs at the notion that Miki and Miki's humans are friends. At the end of the book, after witnessing how desperately Don Abene tried to stop Miki from trying to save them, and her grief after its death, Murderbot has to admit that she had in fact been Miki's friend. [Inference: Humans can be friends with bots and can sincerely care about them]
In Exit Strategy, Murderbot tentatively uses the word "friends" for its humans for the first time (several times actually). It questions whether it can actually call them its friends or not and later realizes that it had been afraid what admitting that the humans are its friends would do to it. At the end of the book, Mensah tells Murderbot the PresAux crew are its friends, which is the first time a human has directly said that to it (at least on-page). [Inference: Humans can and want to be Murderbot's friends]
In Network Effect, Murderbot seems to be more habituated to the word 'friend', confidently calling ART and Ratthi its friends, like it is no longer just trying the concept on unsure if it fits. There are many instances in which other characters refer to MB as ART's friend or the other way around and Murderbot's humans refer to Murderbot as their friend several times. Generally, there seems to be less hesitancy, because yes, all of them are Murderbot's friends, why wouldn't they be. [Inference: SecUnits can have friends. This SecUnit has friends. They care about it a lot.]
Conclusion: The Murderbot Diaries tell the story of a construct that does not seem to consider the possibility of friendship for itself and is fine with that - until it accidentally starts caring a little too much and suddenly more and more people annex it as a friend (ew) to the point where it can no longer deny that this is happening and has to begrudgingly admit that yes, it has friends now and maybe that is actually not a bad thing.
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i know everyone wants the legendary stalker to be cool but i'm obsessed with the fact that besides being like, badass or whatever, the only things we know about her is that she a) liked fancy wine, and b) was rude to a kid. PLEASE if we ever see her let her be the most competent stalker of all time AND a disaster as a person. just unpleasant vibes all around.
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Listen I like Tim and Steph but I don't go there, however.
Sometimes I remember that one monologue from the Diane of Bojack Horseman when her ex-husband got another girlfriend and think about Steph wondering how did she not have a mental breakdown regarding her and Tim breakup until today.
Because if Red Robin is still cannon and I was her I would have very much a mental breakdown eventually.
Monologue under the cut
"You accidentally see your soon-to-be-ex-husband kiss someone else. At first you think, oh, it's a fing. Whatever. They're drunk. It's a party. But then he puts his hand on the small of her back exactly the way he used to do to you. It means, "I got you." And when he did it to you, it made you feel safe. And you realize he will never do that to you again. And it breaks your heart again. After you thought your heart was so broken that it could never get any more broken. You thought it was safe. But it somehow finds a new way to break. Because even though you're the one who asked for this, now that you've got it you are completely adrift. With no compass, or map"
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Okay, guys, I'm almost done with my headcanons and ideas for Mario and Luigi being musicians (which I mentioned here yesterday), but I'm unsure about something... 😅
I mostly got inspired by the band I mentioned on that same post, Estopa, since they've always been my favorite band (and they're also brothers like Mario and Luigi). And I thought about adding links to some reference images of Estopa to reflect some specific moments of my Mario and Luigi HCs, but I don't know if that would be a good idea… After all, they're a Spanish band, so it's not like they're well known outside the Spanish-speaking audience 😅 Should I add the links to those images anyways?
I don't think I'd be comfortable with posting the images directly, for I don't want to fill a post about Mario and Luigi with pictures of a Spanish band, so my idea would be to leave just the links. But you know, even if they're reference images (that perfectly illustrate my ideas), I don't know if it would be a good idea to include them... After all, everyone will imagine what I describe in their own way. But given that Estopa have been my inspiration, well... yeah, I don't know what to do 😅
Any help @itsavee4117 @vulpixfairy1985 @kelbreyworshipper and anyone who would like to share their thoughts, pretty please? 🙏💖
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You know, I think what i fear most about all these soulless Disney remakes is that one day they'll take Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of the strongest and most daring Disney movies ever in its depiction of showing the dark sides of religion without demonizing faith as a whole, and that they'll take Judge Claude Frollo and either make him "sympathetic" or way less extreme than in the original, since Disney is nowhere near as ballsy to do something like directly criticize religious extremists anymore, I think, and that would just DESTROY the great impact that movie's messaging had.
That's not to say I have anything against sympathetic villains, but Frollo is one that was so strong BECAUSE of how awful he was and the position he held, and that fierce kind of villainy should NEVER be changed in his case imo. Very strong teaching moments in there for kids.
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Hey! Thanks for tagging me in the ask game yesterday. I’ve gotta get around to that haha. For yours, I’d love to hear more about the music WIPs you mentioned! Dealer’s choice, whichever one you’d rather share about haha. Love your music! You’re a fantastic violist!!
Hi, thanks so much for the ask! And you're welcome! :D
First of all, I'm so sorry that it took me pretty much a whole week to get around to this! School's been keeping me pretty busy lately, and it sometimes takes a lot of brain cells to think of words
Second, thank you so much for listening to my music! I'm so glad you love it, and your comment made my day! 💜💜💜
As far as my music WIPS go, the one I'm most excited about is the studio version of the Zelda suite! I've mentioned a little bit about it already, but I'm getting the ensemble that played with me on my recital last month to join me again this summer/fall and create a studio recording of the Zelda suite. I'm currently working on getting click tracks set up for it so that I'll be ready to record everyone when the time comes. I can't wait to share it once it's ready!
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the thing about viewing Jack as a child versus not is that if you're basing it in most ways you would view children and look at it as "infantilization" because Jack is physically developed & communicative in a way that makes you take him seriously then the issue perhaps is how you view children and how they should be treated in the first place. because the ways in which children are vulnerable Jack very much of the time ALSO IS. that is WHY what is happening to him is specifically child abuse. everything that is happening to him is a formative experience regardless of the lack of neurological development that has to happen because it is all he knows. children should be respected the same way Jack should be and children should be protected in the same ways Jack should be. the idea he can speedrun all of the things that make children vulnerable because of being able to control his physical development is kind of ridiculous. time alive allows us to have different ways of forming schemas and understanding how this world and the people in it works. Jack spends this time being abused & traumatised by war. that impact is foundational to his development of his perception even if his brain development stayed the same throughout it.
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also lemme just say that i appreciate everyone indulging me with ships and fluff and whatnot bc i've always been so nervous about asking for that stuff despite!! really loving it!! i just love all the character development that's involved, i love all the emotional connection and the significance of lil actions and words can have on someone, i love writing and thinking about all of it!! and i just!! really appreciate that lately, i feel comfortable openly offering romantic connections uvu
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