I think it’s also very worth noting that earlier in this sequence, Doctor Vue stated that Al gave visitation and decision making rights ‘some time ago’.

That is, Al effectively pre-consented for Brenden to make such choices in the event that Al was unable to do so himself (which certainly seems to be the case here). It’s harder to say whether or not he specifically thought of being copied, but given the centrality of the technology to their work he had to have been aware on /some/ level that it was on the table once they had a working model.

Whatever dysfunctions their relationship had (and there are plenty), I don’t think this is really a breach of trust, though it may have been a breach of expectation.

Neo-Al may not be perfectly happy with his own resurrection (and we must here recall that Neo-Al /appears/ to be based on a copy /neither/ of them made), but he’s inherited a lot of unresolved internal conflict and social trauma from Original Flavor Al, so that’s hard to get a real read on. Brenden and Al are both doing the best they can with what information they have, which is far from comprehensive.

Neither Al has a history of being immensely honest with himself, or with Brenden (Brenden, you will note, had no idea this was on the table…he didn’t even know or expect that Al would trust him to make choices for him in the event he could not, didn’t know Al was dying until /just now/, etc.)…they have reasons for that, to be sure, but it does make the situation difficult to paint a clear picture of or for those involved, especially Brenden, to make entirely coherent and well-informed choices when dealing with them.

Brenden’s choice here is very complex. There is certainly a selfish element: Brenden doesn’t want to lose Al, and he has a chance to save /some/ element of someone he cares about and relies on. But there’s also something inescapably self-less, which I feel must have been in play for Sula to have been able to grow out of this. A chance for /some/ kind of closure for both Brenden and the tortured and hurting memes that comprised Al Sterling. A chance not to let those hopes, dreams and drives die because they were too hurt to reach out for help. Brenden is choosing, among other things, to take care and responsibility for them on Al’s behalf…care and responsibility for what will, in effect, literally become their child. Whether or not Brenden yet wholly understands that, it is something he is choosing. Whether or not he anticipated it, it was something Original Flavor Al gave Brenden the right /to/ choose when he could not.

Consent is not a trivially reducible thing. Like most emergent functions of the human psyche, it does not work on a binary. It is almost never really as simple as saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or never commenting on a thing that you may or may not consent to or even expect. There’s simply too many moving parts in almost every aspect of human interaction. Too many things we often seem only able to guess at in our own thoughts, let alone read in the expressions of others. Too many consequences to every little choice to anticipate with perfect accuracy when you make the choice that spawns them.

Most of the time, the best one can do is to approximate and hope for the best.

Geez, umami, you made me go back and reread, like, a *jillion* pages. I’m not sure about the agreement, but you’re right: android!Al is. Surprisingly calm about being resurrected in a robot body. Whew.

But didn’t Al and Brenden agree beforehand that they’d make a copy of whoever died first? or something like that. And andriod!Al didn’t seem to outraged that he’d been “copied”, like you’d imagine he’d be if it were without his consent…
I suppose, on the other hand, you could chalk this lack of anger up to possible tinkering or the difference in nature of the “copy” and original Al. (this seems unlikely, I could see him not getting angry out of inability to change the situation though)

Man, this goes back to that page where Brenden and Al geek out over how the copies begin to diverge from their templates.
http://ohumanstar.com/comic/chapter-2-page-32/
You would hope this means Brenden would consider how different andriod!Al can be from Al, but also how nuanced android!Al’s understanding of his own personhood his.

And it’s interesting to think that maybe Brenden thought the copy would be an improved version of Al, perhaps, and this thought along with the shock is driving him to preferentially pursue the welfare of the “copy” over Al’s.

So. Squicktastic.

I’m just going to come out and say it: this is nonconsensual AF. Brendan’s making this decision for Al. There’s no directive FROM Al telling Brendan to do this. It’s–urgh.

It leaves a very dark roiling mass in my gut, seeing this. And whoever else did the same thing is using poor Al against Brendan. Whomever Al was before this, he didn’t deserve to be consigned to this.

Because let’s be clear: Al died in this room. The copies, however close to perfect that they are–are NOT Al. Brendan just admitted this himself — “Hold on for the COPY.” And maybe that’s all android Al ever will be for him.

Yes and no. Brendan is definitely angry at the world making things more difficult for him and Al, but he’s also angry at Al for letting those outside forces get to him so much.

Al didn’t want to have their relationship be visible to the outside world, and ok, that makes sense, but he was so scared or homo-hating internally, that he even went so far as to allow Brendan’s own hard work to be ignored, as if he had nothing to do with their success.

He very much so misstepped their, and earned Brendan’s anger.

We know Sulla has at least part of Al’s memories due to her dreams. What if she has all of Al’s “data” and the others got it from her, not Al?

I guess that doesn’t explain why he doesn’t remember, but hey! He doesn’t remember anyone making brain copies of him, yet it clearly happened twice!

I relate to Brendan a lot on the front that he sees a problem and immediately starts jumping towards action, to what can we DO about this. Even when that’s probably not the appropriate response.