Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Murderbot season 1, episode 3 & All Systems Red.David Dastmalchian's character in Apple TV+'s The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, so it makes sense that the part would be expanded to highlight Dastmalchian more. However, in fleshing Gurathin out, Murderbot has also made a massive change to him that I'm very wary of.

Even by the The Rise & Fall of Sanctuary Moon. One change it made to Gurathin, however, is very worrying.

Murderbot Season 1, Episode 3 Makes Gurathin Creepier Than In The Books

Gurathin Was Just A Loner In All Systems Red, But In Murderbot He's A Creepy Stalker

Unfortunately, Apple TV+'s Murderbot has decided to make Gurathin a lot creepier than he was in All Systems Red. In the books, Gurathin was described as a bit of a loner but still a fairly average person who was well liked by his colleagues and friends in PreservationAux. In Murderbot, however, Gurathin is a weird stalker who sniffs Mensah's pillow while she's out of the habitat. Gurathin sniffing Mensah's pillow came out of nowhere, and it was so unsettling that it made his character instantly unlikable. Murderbot turned Gurathin from a slightly shy guy into a pervert and a weirdo.

I Understand Why Murderbot Changed Gurathin, But His Book Counterpart Is Still Much Stronger

Apple TV+ Is Making Gurathin A Stronger Parallel To Murderbot, But I Still Think His Dynamic Was Better In The Book

I understand why Chris and Paul Weitz, Murderbot's showrunners, decided to make Gurathin obsessed with Mensah. It makes sense; Mensah is a strong and magnetic leader, and Gurathin has been obviously attached to her ever since ing Preservation Alliance. I also see where it's going: Murderbot is setting Gurathin up as a parallel to Murderbot. They're both socially awkward and somewhat creepy characters who have a hard time interacting with others, and they'll likely both have to learn how to accept their own social shortcomings and accept love and affection from others.

Even though it makes sense for Gurathin to be weirder in Murderbot than he was in All Systems Red, I still don't think it's better than his characterization in the books. Gurathin still worked as a foil to Murderbot in the books simply by outing its hacked governor module. He didn't need to be a creep to illustrate how Murderbot is struggling to fit in with other humans and how it will need to grow and change to build better relationships. Plus, Gurathin's creepiness robs PreservationAux of a lot of the wholesome friendship that the group is built on.

Murderbot Is Following The Murderbot Diaries' Plot, But I'm Getting More Nervous About Its Character Changes

It Seems Like Murderbot Is Taking A Lot Of Creative Liberties With The Of PreservationAux

As previously mentioned, Murderbot has largely been faithful to the plot of All Systems Red. Everything from the animal's attack on Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) to the discovery of alien remnants has been mostly accurate to the books. This change to Gurathin and a few other changes to other characters, however, has me worried that Murderbot isn't going to be as faithful to The Murderbot Diaries' characters. Gurathin is just the most egregious example, but Murderbot has already massively changed Arada (Tattiawna Jones), Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna). Their throuple doesn't exist in All Systems Red, and it has its own problems as well.

Polyamory is a fairly big part of The Murderbot Diaries. Mensah is in a polyamorous marriage, and so are a few other PreservationAux . It's never treated as a weird thing or a source of drama, though, like how monogamous relationships are usually treated as just a normal way to express love. In the Murderbot show, however, polyamory is just a way to create tension between Arada, Pin-Lee, and Ratthi. Luckily, Murderbot did strengthen the relationship between Pin-Lee and Ratthi by showing that they play video games together, but the throuple has really weakened the polyamorous representation that The Murderbot Diaries was well-loved for.

PreservationAux was supposed to be strange because they work too well together and are very good friends.

Gurathin and the other of PreservationAux are supposed to be weird, but Murderbot is depicting them as the wrong type of weird. PreservationAux was supposed to be strange because they work too well together and are very good friends. Most of the clients Murderbot had before them were awful and mean and wanted to kill each other, but PreservationAux actually likes each other and works well as a unit. It's like how Gomez and Morticia's marriage in The Addams Family was considered weird because they actually were in love, instead of being at each other's throats.

With all the changes to Gurathin, Arada, Pin-Lee, and Ratthi, I'm not confident that Murderbot is going to give these great characters the faithful adaptation they deserve. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly a lot of good changes Murderbot has made. Cutting down the total number of of PreservationAux helps give each individual character more of a personality, and I think Mensah's panic attacks are a fitting way to illustrate her worries. I'm just worried that Murderbot will take the changes it has made to Gurathin and other characters a bit too far.