I will respectfully disagree with you =). it was always about Sasha being the replacement Kusari, not the original. And Sasha's betrayal made it more likely IMO.

edit: There was also this comic, which I think is when that spec really took off.

By that logic, we could still spec that Sasha will be a future Kusari.

Sasha worked for hC from the beginning, that much is clear. However, replacement or original really doesn't matter: It makes no sense that sometimes Sasha will be Sasha and sometimes she'll put on a costume and mask; that sometimes Kusari is someone else (like at the costume party - where she and Sasha were observed to be in the same place), then she's Sasha, and now she's someone else again (seeing as they were just seen "together-ish"), even though Sasha is still alive and kicking. "Replacement Kusari" was only thrown out when the original spec was shown to be incorrect, and has always felt like a desperate reach.

There is much to be revealed about the women in Sluggy... There was also a hint of Sasha having regenerative powers when she got shot and the wound healed awfully quickly. And there is Teresa's 'identifying' three dots and super ninja skills. I would not be surprised if it turned out that they're all "sisters" to a degree... As for Schlock's comment to Kusari, we all just assumed that it meant that Kusari would have to be someone we know. There are other reasons for needing a mask... The comment may just as easily have meant that she was just another young - innocent - like the others - when she was ensnared in the web. And Schlock's shot back infers that she's not so innocent.

The point of the "replacement" Kusari is to point out that the Kusari who was with Sasha at the Halloween party DIED, at which point a new one was created via some unknown process. Also, I believe Sasha disappears shortly before the new Kusari appeared.

You ask why Sasha/Kusari would need to alternate between the two identities but don't forget that is what Dr. Steve said was the ENTIRE POINT of the Oasis experiment: To make a controlled mind advanced enough to gain a human's trust. The gang was already on HC's radar that they sent Sasha to keep tabs anyway. That situation provided an excellent way to test the infiltration skills of their Oasis analogue.

Given all that I still don't think it was legless spec, until now that is. =)

Just to play devil's advocate, if the Kusari clones are "programmed" somehow, Sasha could be one with modified programming to act more natural.

Yes, and if Sasha could have become the replacement for Kusari at the Halloween party, there's no reason she couldn't become a future Kusari after this one is killed by Philinnon, for example. So how much weaker is the spec really when it's so versatile? Until Kusari is fully explained, the spec still has some legs.

You are talking about reprogramming an existing individual. That would likely be much more complicated than programming a blank slate clone upon creation.

I'm still thinking that might be what we're talking about for Oasis and Teresa. Not so much for the Sasha/Kusari link though.