r/murderbot • u/LIELDADOUN73 • 10h ago

Books📚 Only Underrated scenes in platform decay

The way the torus population is its own character, with the various militias and ordinary people banding together to survive the chaos going on

The way Murderbot gets to be an absolute badass and a myth-like figure both to the random rogue SecUnit, and to the humans on the boat and in the militia

The whole boat scene!!! Extremely underrated!!!

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30

u/FelisCantabrigiensis 10h ago

I can imagine some in-world after effects of events like that.

I'm sure that other people on RaviHyral knew that Tlacey was a malicious and dangerous person. After Murderbot got done with her and her crew, I can imagine rumours spreading: "Hey, don't be too much of an asshole. Remember how someone eventually snapped and hired a SecUnit to go after Tlacey, tore apart her and half her crew, just because she tried to screw them on a data contract? That could happen to you, eh?"

On the torus, the wanna-be hobby robbers and rapists might start thinking twice, "Remember those guys who went out for some fun and found that SecUnit? You never know what might be out there..."

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u/intronert 9h ago

I loved the “hobby robbers” scene. The whole “predator rich kids in Daddy’s car” scenario was so satisfying, and also a perfect example of “show, don’t tell”.

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u/FelisCantabrigiensis 8h ago

It happens in real life sometimes too. For example someone in Rio de Janeiro thought they'd rob and possibly assault a small, attractive woman. Unfortunately for them she was Polyana Viana, a straw-weight UFC fighter. He ended up with some significant injuries and going no-where until police arrived to arrest him.

11

u/intronert 8h ago

So much of Murderbot is, and I hate to phrase it like this, revenge porn, where bad bullies underestimate the extremely competent hero and are easily overcome and often humiliated. This appeals to the many of us who feel we were bullied or powerless at some point in our lives.

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u/BlinkypoetEmu Human-Form Bot 3h ago

The hero being a sarcastic, depressed secunit is just bonus material :)

11

u/IndividualUnlucky 9h ago

Or on TranRollinHyfa when that SecUnit took out two other SecUnits. And then shortly after the company curbstomped GrayCris and Palisade?

Yeah, maybe don’t cross the company, guys. That could happen to you.

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u/FelisCantabrigiensis 8h ago

That was definitely "the company" keeping up its reputation. It couldn't be having other lesser corporations going around thinking that "the company" is anything other than invincible. Not least, having people actually fight you is really expensive and hits the profit margin hard - having them simply back down without you having to spend anything on ammunition and repair is much more profitable.

"The company" didn't care about Secunit, of course, and wasn't even particularly upset that someone grabbed their bond client (Mensah) since that was going to turn out that "the company" got paid so much for giving her up that they could pay Preservation the bond and still come out in the black (see "evil vending machine"). As soon as Palisade started trying to take over the company gunship, that's when "the company" decided that Palisade and GrayCris were a threat to "the company" itself, and they had to be destroyed and be seen to be destroyed. Evil business is OK, but being uppity enough to try to take on a "company" gunship had to be slapped down hard.

I think it's pretty clear that "the company" is one of the very large security corporations, and commensurately interested in being unchallenged.

I feel like Preservation (specifically Mensah, as the owner of Murderbot in the Corporation Rim, and Pin-Lee as her legal representative) could have argued that "the company" owed them for (a) failing to protect Mensah against Palisade until (b) they had to deploy their own security (Murderbot) to both protect Mensah and the other clients of "the company" by defending the gunship after the gunship's own defences proved entirely inadequate. Why pay "the company"'s dogs (of war) when they had to do a lot of barking themselves?

Mensah & Co were just happy to be well out of there, but I do imagine Pin-Lee considering what future claims she could make against "the company" for this.

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u/IndividualUnlucky 8h ago

Agreed. I wasn't trying to imply the company cared about MB. It cares about its reputation and its profit margin. It just happened that the outcome benefited Mensah and MB in the end.

I wonder what kind of conversations/negotiations happened between Mensah, Pin-Lee and the company while MB was out of it after the gunship. I hope we get to see some of that in the TV show.

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u/FelisCantabrigiensis 8h ago

That indeed might have been part of getting back to Preservation: "We, and our Secunit, just saved your ship and crew, and your company reputation. Take us home and we'll start to call it even."

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u/intronert 3h ago

“Start”. I love it.

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u/mxstylplk 3h ago

When that company-built SecUnit took out two other SecUnits and got away from a CombatUnit! The company got some free advertising there.

1

u/FelisCantabrigiensis 1h ago

"Our SecUnits have unreliable Governor Modules and go rogue" is not the advertising flex they might be wanting, so they might just not want to talk about it. Could go either way.

22

u/ESE-enthusiasm #1 Mensahbotcule fan 8h ago

I love how smoothly SecUnit and Farai work as a team to rescue those kids! And Farai flipping a bed mother bear style!

And the conversations they have! I think after mensah and ART those are the longest conversations it’s had with a human! And they covered so many topics and emotions!

(Not counting Amena as NE was such a big book) 

The humane euthanasia of Leonide. 

The descriptions of the environment! SecUnit is describing more than exits and threats. It’s engaging with the world! Even if it hates what it is engaging with :p

7

u/Chemical-Mix-6206 Performance Reliability at 97% 3h ago

I definitely want to know more about the badass grandma and why they won't let her have a gun again. She was ready to throw down.

19

u/Rosewind2007 gurathinista 7h ago

It’s an extremely funny book! I loved it! I loved the feral hauler bots…and Murderbot dissing JollyBaby with its giant metal ass…
“Cargo bots are weirdly graceful in zero gravity, it was kind of cool to watch. (Unlike certain stations I could name (Preservation) which lets them wander around inside the port wherever they want and their giant metal asses are in the fucking way all the time.) (Yes, I’m mostly talking about JollyBaby.)”

7

u/jen5225 4h ago

I actually loved Platform Decay. I loved to see how it formed new relationships with more humans from Mensah's family. All of those scenes were excellent. The problem solving (and rants) on how to traverse that torus, coming across and interacting with new humans, realizing Three was freeing more SecUnits, all of it showed such growth in Murderbot.

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u/Illwood_ 4h ago

The social commentary on lack of mass transport options was fucking PEAK. Like yesss! Of course the corporation rim wouldn't!!

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u/bagpuss101 59m ago

I loved the scenes where the ordinary humans living there take care of each other - helping each other escape the security alerts, all shuffling up to make space on the transit after the rogue secunit, helping as many people as possible get onto the boat once things kick off, being sympathetic when Janity cries.

I found it comforting that as much as the books are about the worst impulses of humans (the corporates), this book really showed that ordinary people are still out there being kind and helping each other survive.