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rockalillygirl · 5 months

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Mamma mia here we go again…

So I have more thoughts because apparently there’s no bottom to the murderbot mindhole I’ve fallen down.

(Spoiler warning- minor stuff from several of the books, pls check tags etc.)

I’ve been reading a lot of things recently exploring Murderbot as an unreliable narrator, which I think is a cool result of System Collapse (because we all know our beloved MB is going through it in this one). There’s also been some interesting related discussion of MB’s distrust of and sometimes biased assessment/treatment of other constructs and bots.

And I’ve been reading a lot about CombatUnits! And I want to talk about them!!

Main thoughts can be summarized as follows:

We don’t see a lot about CombatUnits in the books, and I think what we do see from MB’s pov encourages the reader to view them as less sympathetic than other constructs.

I’m very skeptical of this portrayal for reasons.

The existence of CombatUnits makes me fucking sad and I have a lot of feelings about them!

I got introduced to the idea of MB as an unreliable narrator in a post by onironic It analyzes how in SC, MB seems to distrust Three to a somewhat unreasonable degree, and how it sometimes infantilizes Three or treats it the way human clients have treated it in the past. The post is Amazing and goes into way more detail, so pls go read it (link below):

https://www.tumblr.com/onironic/736245031246135296?source=share

So these ideas were floating around in my brain when I read an article Martha Wells recently published in f(r)iction magazine titled “Bodily Autonomy in the Murderbot Diaries”. I’ll link the article here:

(Rn the only way to access the article is to subscribe to the magazine or buy an e-copy of the specific issue which is $12)

In the article, Wells states that MB displaced its fear of being forced to have sex with humans onto the ComfortUnit in Artificial Condition. I think it’s reasonable to assume that MB also does this with other constructs. With Three, I think it’s more that MB is afraid if what it knows Three is capable of, or (as onironic suggests in their post and I agree with) some jealousy that Three seems more like what humans want/expect a rogue SecUnit to be.

But I want to explore how this can be applied to CombatUnits, specifically.

We don’t learn a lot about them in the books. One appears for a single scene in Exit Strategy, and that’s it. What little else we know comes from MB’s thoughts on them sprinkled throughout the series. To my knowledge, no other character even mentions them (which raises interesting questions about how widely-known their existence is outside of high-level corporate military circles).

When MB does talk about CombatUnits in the early books, it’s as a kind of boogeyman figure (the real “murderbots” that even Murderbot is afraid of). And then when one does show up in ES, it’s fucking terrifying! There’s a collective “oh shit” moment as both MB and the reader realize what it’s up against. Very quickly what we expect to be a normal battle turns into MB running for its life, desperately throwing up hacks as the CombatUnit slices through them just as fast. We and MB know that it wouldn’t have survived the encounter if its humans hadn’t helped it escape. So the CombatUnit really feels like a cut above the other enemies in the series.

And what struck me reading that scene was how the CombatUnit acts like the caricature of an “evil robot” that MB has taught us to question. It seems single-mindedly focused on violence and achieving its objective, and it speaks in what I’d call a “Terminator-esque” manner: telling MB to “Surrender” (like that’s ever worked) and responds to MB’s offer to hack its governor module with “I want to kill you” (ES, pp 99-100).

(Big tangent: Am I the only one who sees parallels between this and how Tlacey forces the ComfortUnit to speak to MB in AC? She makes it suggest they “kill all the humans” because that’s how she thinks constructs talk to each other (AC, pp 132-4). And MB picks up on it immediately. So why is that kind of talk inherently less suspicious coming from a CombatUnit than a ComfortUnit? My headcanon is that I’m not convinced the CombatUnit was speaking for itself. What if a human controller was making it say things they thought would be intimidating? Idk maybe I’ve been reading too many fics where CombatUnits are usually deployed with a human handler. There could be plenty of reasons why the CombatUnit would’ve talked like that. I’m just suspicious.)

(Also, disclaimer: I want to clarify before I go on that I firmly believe that even though MB seems to be afraid of CombatUnits and thinks they’re assholes, it would still advocate for them to have autonomy. I’m not trying to say that either MB or Wells sees CombatUnits as less worthy of personhood or freedom- because I feel the concept that “everything deserves autonomy” is very much at the heart of the series.)

So it’s clear from all of this that MB is scared of CombatUnits and distrusts them for a lot of reasons. I read another breathtaking post by @grammarpedant that gives a ton of examples of this throughout the books and has some great theories on why MB might feel this way. I’ll summarize the ones here that inspired me the most, but pls go read the original post for the full context:

https://www.tumblr.com/grammarpedant/703920247856562177?source=share

OP explains that SecUnits and CombatUnits are pretty much diametrically opposed because of their conflicting functions: Security safeguards humans, while Combat kills them. Of course these functions aren’t rigid- MB has implied that it’s been forced to be violent towards humans before, and I’m sure that extracting/guarding important assets could be a part of a CombatUnit's function. But it makes sense that MB would try to distance itself from being considered a CombatUnit, using its ideas about them to validate the parts of its own function that it likes (protecting people). OP gives what I think is the clearest example of this, which is the moment in Fugitive Telemetry when MB contrasts its plan to sneak aboard a hostile ship and rescue some refugees with what it calls a “CombatUnit” plan, which would presumably involve a lot more murder (FT, p 92).

This reminds me again of what Wells said in the f(r)iction article, that on some level MB is frightened by the idea that it could have been made a ComfortUnit (friction, p 44). I think the idea that it could’ve been a CombatUnit scares it too, and that’s why it keeps distinguishing itself and its function from them. But I think it’s important to point out, that in the above example from FT, even MB admits that the murder-y plan it contrasts with its own would be one made by humans for CombatUnits. So again we see that we just can’t know much about the authentic nature of CombatUnits, or any constructs with intact governor modules, because they don’t have freedom of expression. MB does suggest that CombatUnits may have some more autonomy when it comes to things like hacking and combat which are a part of their normal function. But how free can those choices be when the threat of the governor module still hangs over them?

I think it could be easy to fall into the trap of seeing CombatUnits as somehow more complicit in the systems of violence in the mbd universe. But I think that’s because we often make a false association between violence and empowerment, when even in our world that’s not always the case. But, critically, this can’t be the case for CombatUnits because they’re enslaved in the same way SecUnits and ComfortUnits are (though the intricacies are different).

There was another moment in the f(r)iction article that I found really chilling. Wells states that there’s a correlation between SecUnits that are forced to kill humans and ones that go rogue (friction, p 45). It’s a disturbing thought on its own, but I couldn’t help wondering then how many CombatUnits try to hack their governor modules? And what horrible lengths would humans go to to stop them? I refuse to believe that a CombatUnit’s core programming would make it less effected by the harm its forced to perpetrate. That might be because I’m very anti-deterministic on all fronts, but I just don’t buy it.

I’m not entirely sure why I feel so strongly about this. Of course, I find the situation of all constructs in mbd deeply upsetting. But the more I think about CombatUnits, the more heartbreaking their existence seems to me. There’s a very poignant moment in AC when MB compares ART’s function to its own to explain why there are things it doesn’t like about being a SecUnit (AC, p 33). In that scene, MB is able to identify some parts of its function that it does like, but I have a hard time believing a CombatUnit would be able to do the same. I’m not trying to say that SecUnits have it better (they don’t) (the situation of each type of construct is horrible in it’s own unique way). It’s just that I find the idea of construct made only for violence and killing really fucking depressing. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror of their day-to-day existence.

@grammarpedant made another point in their post that I think raises a TON of important questions not only about CombatUnits, but about how to approach the idea of “function” when it comes to machine intelligence in general. They explain that, in a perfect version of the mbd universe, there wouldn’t be an obvious place for CombatUnits the way there could be for SecUnits and ComfortUnits who wanted to retain their original functions. A better world would inherently be a less violent one, so where does that leave CombatUnits? Would they abandon their function entirely, or would they find a way to change it into something new?

I’ve been having a lot of fun imagining what a free CombatUnit would be like. But in some ways it’s been more difficult than I expected. I’ve heard Wells say in multiple interviews that one of her goals in writing Murderbot was to challenge people to empathize with someone they normally wouldn’t, and I find CombatUnits challenging in exactly that way. Sometimes I wonder if I would’ve felt differently about these books if MB had been a CombatUnit instead of a SecUnit. Would I have felt such an immediate connection to MB if its primary function before hacking its governor module had been killing humans, or if it didn’t have relatable hobbies like watching media? Or if it didn’t have a human face for the explicit purpose of making people like me more comfortable? I’m not sure that I would have.

Reading SC has got me interested in exploring the types of people that humans (or even MB itself) would struggle to accept. So CombatUnits are one of these and possible alien-intelligences are another. All this is merely a small sampling of the thoughts that have been swirling around in my brain-soup! So if anyone is interested in watching me fumble my way through these concepts in more detail, I may be posting “something” in the very near future!

Would really appreciate anyone else’s thoughts about all of THIS^^^^ It’s been my obsession over the holidays and helping me cope with family stress and flying anxiety.

#murderbot diaries #murderbot meta #artificial condition #exit strategy #fugitive telemetry #system collapse #murderbot spoilers #combat unit #FEELINGS #i blink and then it's 2000 words later #jesus christ

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myulmang · 2 months

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𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒚𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 gif pack !

COMMISSIONED PACK. in the source link you will be redirected to #195 268px gifs of AMANDA SEYFRIED (1985) in the film mamma mia! here we go again. these gifs were all cropped, colored and created from scratch by me for commission. do not edit, repost, redistribute, or claim as your own. by request of the lovely commissioner, this pack has been made PUBLIC. spread the love by liking or reblogging this post.

interested in commissioning me? click here for more info.

#amanda seyfried gif pack #rph #amanda seyfried gif hunt #rpt #rpc #gifsociety #supportcontentcreators #fcxdirectory #m: gifpack #m: commission #m: 268px

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ballisterboldheart · 2 years

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🔊 megatron

angel eyes from the mamma mia: here we go again soundtrack

Look into his angel eyes

One look and you're hypnotised

He'll take your heart and you must pay the price

Look into his angel eyes

You'll think you're in paradise

And one day you'll find out he wears a disguise

Don't look too deep into those angel eyes

Oh, no, no, no, no

send me a 🔊 and a character and ill say a song from outside their source media that reminds me of them somehow

#s.ask #bluefishtea #this one is self explanatory methinks

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pikslasrce · 6 months

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I also heard from my source MCR were announcing a tour next month so maybe anon is right

mamma mia here we go again!

#sources? i dont need sources that tour will be announced soon bc it has to <3 #mcr #ask

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wawerrell · 6 months

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Vaughan Mazursky, the Czarina

Those souls brave enough to phone the lady who ruled over middle schoolers with an iron fist probably found it disconcerting to hear that Vaughan Mazursky’s voicemail greeting was a low-quality recording of ABBA she had made by holding the receiver up to the stereo: "Mamma mia, here I go again!" In that musical limbo before the beep, former students might be forgiven for pondering the absurdity of having to reconcile the piped-in Swedish ballad with scenes of remembered terror from GAWA: the Czarina charging, at almost a 45-degree angle, toward the disobedient student’s desk, gaining momentum and fury as she closed the distance. Personally, my thoughts waiting for the beep hovered not over her classroom by the Ashley but over the land of ABBA — Stockholm in particular: I had come to deeply love my captor.

Outré incongruities were the A’s and T’s, C’s and G’s of Ms. Mazursky, who was nothing if not surprising, contradictory, weird, and beautiful. After all, one does not become the Czarina by having even a single fleeting worry about what others might think.

Ms. Mazursky died this morning, threading a cosmic needle: she held on just long enough to see her Democrats succeed in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia — and left just early enough to avoid the Republican debate.

No teacher ever challenged me in the precise way the Czarina did. So unabashedly herself — it was the Czarina who, just a few years ago, broke the indecisive lull on the dancefloor at my sister’s wedding, rushing out after just a few chords of Marvin Gaye — Ms. Mazursky had no patience for artificiality, conformity, or normality. Her mere existence gave weird kids the permission to be themselves. Indeed, so far removed from the normal and typical was she that she frequently ignored normal, typical things like bells and closed doors. Sharon Tate had fewer unwelcome guests than Dr. Slayton, whose classes the Czarina — more often than not halfway through a sentence before the door had fully opened — routinely annexed with talk of NCAA shakeups or political shakedowns.

Thinking of her as I look out at my own students writing essays, I am grateful that among the most critical skills she taught generations of eighth graders was how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources, invaluable for navigating messy global affairs. Such a practice feels extra handy today, though, because it can be hard to distinguish between fact and legend upon hearing any Mazoo story: Did she once extol the value of Hammurabi’s Code as a classroom management device? (Yes.) Did she swear us to silence while she went to the copy room only to hear us talking upon her return and proceed to ask each student, one by one, to swear, on their mother’s life, that they had not violated the silent sanctum of the Czarina? (Also yes.) Had she indeed pioneered the medically inadvisable no-water-only-TAB diet? (Probably yes.) Did she antagonize a Soviet tank to spark a revolution? (Absolutely yes.)

A rule of thumb I’ve found helpful over the years is a simple substitution: if the story still sounds feasible after having swapped out “the Czarina” for “the Trunchbull,” then, with few exceptions, the story is probably true.

Teaching us the poetry of the Enlightenment, Wesley Moore began with a stunning visual: Alexander Pope clocked in at four-and-a-half feet of bone-crunching fury. In short, as it were, we sophomore English students should imagine Alexander Pope as an Augustan Vaughan Mazursky. But, while Pope was many things, to my knowledge he never insisted that flocks of middle schoolers swear an oath of undying fealty to serve him as his boyars, never arranged his social and academic schedule around the ‘Hoos, and — despite his fair share of quirks and eccentricities — did not grow up in the splash radius of a nuclear power plant.

Vaughan Mazursky, the Czarina of Porter-Gaud, did.

More than anyone else, Ms. Mazursky taught me that the political is personal. Uninformed or unexamined political belief was not ideology, she taught us, but instinct. (She did go on to explain that, because many of us were genetically undifferentiated from the apes of Borneo, instinct was, in fairness, the closest we could get to an actual ideology.) When I thought that I could skate by on cruise control as a fellow liberal, the Czarina put an end to any such illusion. For Latin, I had made a poster of politicians I admire — in a reactionary, teenaged kind of way, I decided to paint with too broad a brush — the Czarina ripped it from my hands, took a sip of Diet Coke, pointed out Ted Kennedy, pointed at me, pointed back at Ted Kennedy, and, squinting up at my face, said: “Werrell, you dingbat. He killed a woman. Read a newspaper or open a book before you decide to admire someone.”

Politics was the backbone of her life and of her classes. George McGovern, sun-faded and looking down from the bulletin board, was the perpetual teacher’s aide in the classroom, part of each conversation: “Well, George, how about that?” A few years later, she emerged from Senator Obama’s speech cistern yard at College of Charleston and landed on national newspapers, arms triumphantly up and looking like she was in a montage from “Rocky.”

Despite the urban legends generations of eighth graders shared with younger students, I feel like I can confidently say that Ms. Mazursky never killed any student — though even that would not curtail my admiration for her.

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handwriting-headcanons · 1 year

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My dumbass deleted my request thing so mamma mia, here we go again

DNI

Transphobes

Homophobes

Ablests

Racists

Toxic shippers

Those who support things like pedophilia or incest (if it's fictional I'm not going to attack you, it just makes me uncomfy so you may be blocked)

Pro e/d / s/h

blank blogs! I will assume you're a bot and report you!

As a general rule, you'll probably be fine as long as you're respectful and a decent human being

Request Info!

I will write a handwritten note from a character either to the reader or to another character. I will try my best to come up with a unique handwriting style for them, but I'm a beginner at changing my handwriting so be patient, please!

Requests are currently open!! (more info below cut because it's long af lol)

I will try my best to write for any character, but I can't promise it'll be super in character for anyone from the media not listed below:

Genshin Impact

The band Ghost

BNHA/MHA

HxH (I'm not finished, so also may not be totally accurate)

Demon Slayer (same as listed above, not finished lol)

Nijisanji EN (not writing about the people behind the characters, writing about the characters themselves! also may be a bit inaccurate if it's someone I don't watch a ton!)

I will try my best to write for most other fandoms/media, but again, I can't promise accuracy if I don't know the source well!!

Things I will NOT write

The Harry Potter books/world. There's a shit ton of discriminatory ideas in those books, if you want something about that ask someone else to write it.

NSFW (I am a minor and would be very uncomfortable with that. Slightly suggestive content is fine though, but I have the right to refuse your request if it's too suggestive.)

Certain character x character ships at my discretion.

If the source material is problematic, there's a good chance I won't write about it. Feel free to dm me or send me an ask regarding this though!

Super long letters. Try to keep it like 200-ish words MAX. Writing in a different handwriting is stressful on my joints and I can't do it for long!

Super dark content. While I read some dark content sometimes, I feel that writing it would impact my mental health too much. Some slight dark content is fine, just don't go overboard

Pedophilia or incest

Abusive relationships

Things I WILL write

Some ships. See above. I am fine with poly ships! (romantic or platonic)

Character x reader notes (romantic or platonic)

The fandoms in that list above

romantic or platonic notes (nothing too suggestive though, as stated above. If you're unsure if it's too suggestive feel free to send an ask or dm me so I can evaluate it.)

Fluff

Hurt/comfort (to the best of my ability with a single letter/note lol)

Letters and notes about 200-ish words or less. Preferably less, as writing puts a lot of stress on my joints

Scripted notes (you tell me exactly what you want it to say)

"Freestyle" notes (you just give me some details and I go crazy lol)

Things to note!

Requests can take anywhere from a few days to like 2-ish weeks to complete! Please be patient, I'm both neurodivergent and physically disabled, so it can be hard for me to complete things quickly. It also takes a while for me to formulate a handwriting style for a character if I haven't written for them before."Freestyle" notes will generally take longer than scripted notes, as I have to actually do a bit of research on the characters if I don't know them well, and I also have to come up with the actual letter content!

If you're not sure if I'll take a request, just ask! Always feel free to send an ask or dm me! If you take the time to ask if you're unsure, I'm more likely to accept the request because it shows you respect me and my boundaries :)

If you want a request longer than 200 words, please dm me before sending the request! Please confirm that you understand it will likely take much longer than a regular request since there's so much writing to do!

I use a mixture of graphology and just ~vibes~ to come up with the handwriting. If you want it to look a certain way, please include that in your ask!

How to request (format basically)

Please provide me with the character's name(s), the relationship to the reader/other character(s), and what they would call the reader/other character(s) (pet names, nicknames, etc). It would be great to provide me with a small description of the character, even if they're from the media listed above! I want to know how you view the character and how they act, think, etc! This is not necessary, however. I also would appreciate it if you told me any headcanons or details you want me to include (like if you want an AU or something). If there's anything else you want me to know or include, also put that in the ask!

#handwriting headcanons

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incorrectringsofpower · 10 months

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Watchwarden Revion, to Arondir: It's terribly important to remember just what terrible people all Men are.

#trop #trop crack #the rings of power #watchwarden revion #arondir #incorrect quotes #incorrectringsofpower #source: mamma mia here we go again

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poisonjeans6 · 2 years

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The Ultimate Guide To Mamma Mia! - BrightSide Theatre

The 4-Minute Rule for Mamma Mia! (film) - Wikipedia

Consisted of on the soundtrack album as a concealed track. Production [modify] The Agios Ioannis chapel throughout filming of the wedding event scene for Mamma Mia!. Many of the outdoor scenes were filmed on place at the small Greek island of Skopelos, in Thessaly (throughout August 29-September 2007), and the seaside hamlet of Damouchari in the Pelion location of Greece.

A Reliable Source =1200&height=1200&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&s=dee753521d8c4585f5e9d2caa170505f" alt="Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again - Rotten Tomatoes"/>Mamma Mia's Amanda Seyfried says "no one's talking" about sequel

The manufacturers developed a beach bar and jetty along the beach, but removed both set pieces after production wrapped. A total set for Donna's Greek villa was developed at the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios and many of the movie was shot there. Real trees were used for the set, watered daily through an automated watering system, and admitted to daytime in order to keep them growing.

The Buzz on Authentic Italian Cuisine - Mama Mia 44sw - United States

He dashes down the escalators and through the porte-cochere, where yellow cabs and actors representing New york city mounted police were used for verisimilitude. The Fernando, Expense Anderson's yacht (really a ketch) in the movie was the Tai-Mo-Shan, built in 1934 by H. S. Rouse at the Hong Kong and Whampoa dockyards.

Specials – Mama Mia Pizzeria - Myrtle Beach, SC

She was a fan of the phase program Mamma Mia! after seeing it on Broadway in September 2001, saying that she found the program to be an affirmation of life in the midst of the destruction of 9/11. Release [modify] Though the world best of the film occurred in other places, the majority of the media attention was concentrated on the Swedish best, where Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fltskog joined Bjrn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson with the cast at the Competing Theatre in Mariatorget, Stockholm, owned by Andersson, on July 4, 2008.

How Where was Mamma Mia! filmed in Greece? - Condé Nast can Save You Time, Stress, and Money.

Home media [modify] In November 2008, Mamma Mia! became the fastest-selling DVD of perpetuity in the UK, according to Authorities UK Charts Business figures. It offered 1,669,084 copies on its first day of release, breaking the previous record (held by Titanic) by 560,000 copies. By the end of 2008, the Authorities UK Charts Company declared that it had actually become the most significant selling DVD ever in the UK, with one in every 4 families owning a copy (over 5 million copies sold).

#Italian pizza Hutthurm #Mama Mia Pizzeria Hutthurm #Mama Mia Hutthurm

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