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Its Day Three of Robot Week and today, we’ve tapped in Tor’s resident robot expert, L.M. Sagas to talk about the messiest robots. Curious to see who made the list? Read on and don’t forget to dive into her series, opens in a new windowAmbit’s Run, today!

By L.M. Sagas

Androids. AI. Terminators. Replicators. There are more flavors of robots in scifi than ice cream in a freezer section, and I could gladly sit here and nerd out about pretty much every one of them. But if I had to pick (and for the sake of time, word counts, and the good of the Internet, I probably should), I’d say there’s one flavor of robot that gets me every time: The messy ones. The disaster droids. The aggro automatons. The Bad News Bots. There’s just something about machines misbehaving in new and interesting ways that never fails to entertain. And to celebrate Robot Week, I’ve jotted down a few of my favorites and why I love (or love to hate) them. If you’ve got others, drop a comment and share!

opens in a new window opens in a new windowMurderbot (The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells)

You would think, with a title like Murderbot, that we’d be talking about a series where a robot went full Skynet and kicked off a little robo-kill spree. The truth is (mostly) the opposite, and way more interesting for it. You’ve got a robot that’s factory designed for killing, that instead decides to spend its time binge-watching soap operas like a true Millennial folk hero. Across the different novellas, it gets into all sorts of trouble, usually despite its very best efforts, and somehow stumbles into its own brand of humanity along the way. Also, it’s funny as hell.

IG-11 (The Mandalorian)

In the vein of robots bucking convention and climbing backwards up the man’s-best-friend-to-murderous-machine pipeline, another contender for messiest bot is IG-11 from The Mandalorian. Yes, O.G. IG was awesome in its own right—a bounty-hunting bot that could give old Mando a run for his credits in the gunslinger department. But after some rough-and-ready reprogramming, IG-11 became the best babysitter in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, and I think we can all agree that was a pretty spectacular career move.

Marvin the Paranoid Android (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)

He’s voiced by Alan Rickman in the movie. Need I say more?

… I feel like I should probably say more. Written off as a failed prototype of the so-called “Genuine People Personalities” program, Marvin the Paranoid Android (I feel like you
have to say the whole name every time; I don’t make the rules) is one of my all-time favorite examples of Robots Who Feel Things™. Unfortunately for Marvin the Paranoid Android, most of the things he feels are depression, anxiety, and ennui. He’s sad, and dour, and yes, definitely more than a little bit messy, but I think it’s a kind of messy we can all relate to sometimes, and that makes this big-brained little bot a big-time favorite in my book.

Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Okay, now we have the Skynet robot. Ultron, who was the brainchild of Tony Stark (with the help of your run-of-the-mill remains of a spacetime singularity—Marvel fans, don’t quote me on that one), basically took one look at the news cycle and said, “Sorry, nope, humanity’s got to go.” While I do think he could’ve benefited from some well-curated cat videos and a frank conversation about his Daddy Issues, you can’t help but enjoy a robo-villain who sings Pinocchio songs like it’s slam poetry and adopts a pair of magical orphans like he’s trying to start a franchise. It doesn’t get much messier than that.

opens in a new window opens in a new windowBasically the Entire Cast of In the Lives of Puppets (In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune)

In a book with an anxious Roomba, a deadpan medical droid, and a Hysterically Angry
“Puppet” on a quest to save their Dad!Droid, it’s tough to pick just one robot for the Messiest In
Show superlative. So, I didn’t. This ragtag robo fam is a delight and a disaster, all rolled into
one, often at the same time, and they’re just the right bots to round out this round up of my
favorite messy robots in scifi.

That’s all for now, but I know there’s plenty more out there who are just as loveably chaotic. If you’ve got some in mind, please drop a comment and share. And if Messy Robots With Feelings are your jam, don’t forget to check out my AI captain, Eoan, and their merry crew of misfits in my scifi series, opens in a new windowAmbit’s Run!

Dive into Cascade Failure today:

Already read it? Dive into Gravity Lost next: