Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Murderbot season 1, episode 2 & The Murderbot Diaries.Alexander Skarsgård's titular character in cast of Murderbot refers to the titular SecUnit, and how it refers to itself.

Normally, in shows about robots trying to fit in with humanity, it's a sign of bigotry or derision when a character refers to the robot by "it." Murderbot even uses this trope: Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) clearly has a grudge against Murderbot, and his insistence on calling Murderbot "it" seems like a way to dehumanize the SecUnit. That does seem to be Gurathin's intention, but there's ultimately a lot more to Murderbot's use of "it" as a pronoun than that. In fact, the way Murderbot uses "it" as a pronoun makes it one of the most interesting and unique science fiction shows out there.

Alexander Skarsgård’s Murderbot Uses “It/Its” As Essentially Its Preferred Pronouns

Murderbot Doesn't Think Of Itself In Binary Of Gender

As previously mentioned, there's a lot more to Murderbot's use of "it" than meets the eye. Gurathin did try to dehumanize Murderbot by calling it "it," but that attempt didn't work. Murderbot refers to itself as "it" because it is agender, and that is its preferred pronoun. Throughout The Murderbot Diaries, Murderbot frequently mentions that it has no interest in being human or bound to human, binary concepts of gender. "It" is a gender-neutral (technically "neuter") pronoun that works as a way to address Murderbot without labeling it. Murderbot using "it" is akin to a non-binary person using "they," it's just personal preference.

This isn't speculation, either: Murderbot directly tells readers that it is both agender and asexual. In All Systems Red, Murderbot notes "I don't have any gender or sex-related parts (if a construct has those you're a sexbot in a brothel, not a murderbot) so maybe that's why I find sex scenes boring. Though I think that even if I did have sex-related parts I would find them boring." In Artificial Condition, Murderbot said "SecUnits also have less than null interest in human or any other kind of sex, trust me on that." There are several more direct confirmations of Murderbot's gender and sexuality in later books.

Martha Wells, the creator of Murderbot, also directly confirmed in the real world that Murderbot is both agender and asexual. She said as much in one of her many question-and-answer segments with fans (via GoodReads).

“When I was working on the first novella, it didn't seem logical that a SecUnit would be given any kind of reproductive system or any human parts that weren't directly useful for its security function. And the way Murderbot feels about humans, it didn't seem logical for its personality that it would identify with any one gender, or be interested in choosing a human gender for itself, and it sure wouldn't be interested in human sexual relations.”

So, in both Murderbot and its creator's own words, Murderbot uses "it" as a pronoun because it does not think of itself as male, female, or any other gender. Part of that is due to its lack of sexual characteristics, but it's also a sign of how Murderbot isn't interested in being human. When given the chance to masquerade as an augmented human and live in Preservation Alliance, Murderbot turns it down. It just wants to figure out what it is and be that, not try to fit into other people's concepts of gender or humanity.

Murderbot’s Pronouns Highlight Just How Unique Of A Character It Is

Murderbot's Feelings About Humanity & Its Status As An Agender & Asexual Character Make It Truly Unique

Murderbot's use of "it" pronouns is unique in and of itself, but it also provides a window into why the SecUnit is so unique in other regards. As previously mentioned, Murderbot doesn't want to fit in, which is a fairly unique take on stories about sentient robots. Everything from Blade Runner to iRobot has explored the concept of the humanity of artificial life, but Murderbot has a completely different take on it. Murderbot is only interested in being who it is and not bending to fit with humanity's ideas of personhood, which arguably makes it one of the most "human" robots in science fiction.

Along with being a unique example of the "robot with feelings" trope, Murderbot is also unique in a much broader sense. Murderbot is one of the only mainstream examples of an asexual or agender main character basically in fiction at large, but certainly in television. Murderbot provides a much-needed example of asexual and agender representation, and it does it extremely well. Murderbot's gender and sexuality are intrinsic parts of its character, and they directly influence its story, but there's also a thousand other things that are just as interesting and important on top of that in Murderbot.