Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Murderbot season 1, episode 2 & The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition.Apple TV+'s adaptation of ending of Murderbot episode 2, several big plot points had gotten out of order.

The biggest change in the show, however, pertains to Murderbot's name. Though Murderbot is a SecUnit with an official numerical designation, it got to choose its own name after hacking its governor module and gaining free will. It ended up choosing the very appropriate "Murderbot," but the origin of the SecUnit's name in the books was significantly different. In fact, Murderbot's namesake in the books was much deeper, darker, and more emotionally charged, and the Murderbot show will have to do a lot of work to to bring it all back.

Murderbot Deciding Its New Name Had A Much Darker & More Meaningful Origin In The Books

Murderbot Partially Chose Its Name Out Of Guilt For The Ganaka Pit Massacre In Martha Wells' Books

In the Murderbot Diaries books, Murderbot's chosen name had a complicated origin. A large part of it was due to the fact that Murderbot did, in fact, want to murder humans indiscriminately, but it chose to postpone that goal while it watched feed shows instead. However, one of the more important parts of Murderbot's decision to name itself was its role in the massacre at Ganaka Pit. Murderbot didn't completely Ganaka Pit until Artificial Condition, but it was aware that it was involved in the deaths of 57 people on a mining outpost, and the name "Murderbot" partially served as a sign of its guilt.

Murderbot also refers to other SecUnits as "murderbots" in Martha Wells' books, which could indicate that it was a general term, akin to using "sex bots" to describe ComfortUnits. There's also evidence to suggest that only Murderbot and the readers refer to it as Murderbot, as Mensah has made efforts to call it SecUnit in the past. In short, the origins of Murderbot's name are quite complicated in the books.

In the Murderbot show, however, Murderbot's name doesn't carry nearly as much emotional baggage. Shortly after hacking its governor module, Murderbot simply chose its name after deciding that its numerical designation, "FreedomUnit," and "RogueBot" weren't good enough. Murderbot didn't even the Ganaka Pit massacre at that moment. It noted that it had only recently started experiencing memories of the slaughter just before the PreservationAux contract, which took place roughly a year after it hacked the governor module, based on the 7,000 hours of content it watched. Because of that, Murderbot's name carries none of the guilt or emotional weight it did in the books.

Murderbot Living With The Guilt Of The Massacre Was A Core Part Of Its Emotional Book Journey

Murderbot's Name Showed How It Struggled With Viewing Itself As A Killing Machine

As minor as it seems, Apple TV+'s change to the origins of Murderbot's name actually has some far-reaching effects. Murderbot experienced a lot of guilt and self-image issues because of the massacre at Ganaka Pit. As previously mentioned, that guilt was one of the reasons it named itself Murderbot, but it also infected how it viewed all SecUnits and itself. Because of Ganaka Pit, Murderbot thought of itself as a machine designed only for killing, and most of its character arc in the books was centered around getting over that trauma and negative self-image.

For much of its life as a free SecUnit, Murderbot thought that the massacre at Ganaka Pit defined it. Even when it didn't have all the details, it clearly regretted taking part in the massacre, and even the knowledge that a malware attack was responsible didn't help Murderbot's conscience. One of the reasons Murderbot is so focused on protecting and saving humans - even though it dislikes them - throughout the books was that it didn't want to be a killing machine. The Ganaka Pit massacre and the trauma from it were huge parts of Murderbot's emotional journey in the book, and the Apple TV+ show weakened it.

That being said, there's still a lot of evidence to suggest that Murderbot is going to treat Ganaka Pit with the emotional weight it deserves, even if it won't be the source of Murderbot's name. Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) has already confronted Murderbot about the fractured memory of the massacre, and he'll likely find a more detailed report about it to his suspicions of the SecUnit. It might not be its namesake, but the massacre at Ganaka Pit should still be an important and emotional part of Apple TV+'s Murderbot adaptation.