Unfair to Al, probably yeah, since Brendan needs to work through stuff still – but I see this as him coming to terms with it.

There’s so much to this and so many directions it could take. Blows my mind how something that is completely SciFi has such a firm grasp on human reaction, flaws, and behavior—even through its main character who technically is not a flesh and blood human (but in all other ways is—even compared to other AIs in the story).

I think he does! By this point Brendan has been raising Sulla for over a decade — that’s plenty of time to get used to the idea that she’s a different person. A lot of that might be unconscious, but I think the discussion with Luce about Tsade probably brought it to the forefront.

It’s fascinating. When Al suddenly walks back in intact, Brendan’s had plenty of time to reflect on how different Sulla ended up (I mean ‘open and joyous’ as much as I mean the gender stuff). He’s had three years to wonder what happened to Al in childhood, and to try not to repeat the things he can’t imagine that could have led Al to be so withdrawn and mercurial and neurotic. And then Al reappears unexpectedly – and before long, with a relatively minor incitement, Brendan lets loose with a vicious internal rant he’d probably developed over time about how he’d become determined not to let Sulla turn into Al.