Ratthi is one of the supporting characters on the sci-fi action comedy, Murderbot (2025-), on AppleTV+. He is played by Akshay Khanna. Murderbot is based on the series of bestselling novels The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.
Ratthi is a wormhole expert on a team of scientists from a planet called the Preservation Alliance. He is smart, funny, and is one of the first to try to make Murderbot feel like one of the team.
Ratthi is attracted to biologist Arada (Tattiawna Jones), who is in a partnership with counselor Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu; both character and actor use they/them pronouns.) At first it seems like the new, notarized triad the three people embark on is mostly for the sexual interest Ratthi and Arada have for each other, while Ratthi also enjoys and is attracted to Pin-Lee. However, as the season progresses, Ratthi becomes more in love and emotionally invested with Pin-Lee.
During the first episode or two of Murderbot, it could be easy to write off Ratthi as straight, as he only really showed interest in Arada at first. But the story evolves as Ratthi evolves.
It is important to note that Ratthi’s queerness may be the center of one of his storylines, but it is not the defining trait of his character. It is also intriguing to note that in the Preservation Alliance (the planet the team is from) as well as beyond, both queerness and polyamory are normalized and accepted. It is a nice departure from the concept of polyamory itself being a point of conflict. Though more could be explored in the throuple, Ratthi gets much more fleshing out than a bi person of a color often does in a series from a major streamer. If you want to know more about this show, check out our Unicorn Scale review, here.