I don't think Kusari is innocent any longer after arranging the death of Roberts on her own initiative.

...but does that count for all of her, or just one of her copies?

The bodies might be innocent, because they are being controlled by a non-organic intelligence.

From the flashback memories of her interactions with Steve, I suspect that a large element of Oasis 'awakening' involved a set of pre-conditioned triggers rather than a natural evoluion.

It's possible the same applies to Kusari. However, I do think there is also a difference between her interactions with Team Nifty and role as the wife of the Senator's aide.

She went through a lot more intense and dangerous episodes with them and that may have had an influence in generating feelings of some kind.

Her visit to Torg in the hotel room after breaking her cover still isn't explained and I strongly suspect wasn't authorised by HC or necessarily reported.

At this point I think it's pretty clear that Kusari was the 4U City A.I. Both seem to follow the same line of reasoning: "Flux everything from orbit—it's the only way to be safe."

Now I'm wondering if she's actually willing/able to threaten Schlock in order to get the flux weapon installed on her satellite.

Further musings: what if Kusari was actually the one who freed Oasis from Dr. Steve's mind control, knowing—or perhaps simply hoping—that she could dispose of Roberts and leave Schlock with no other option but to make her the Harbinger?

ATM, my guess is that Kusari doesn’t actually want to Flux everyone, and that her actual plan is to turn on Schlock once the weapon is in place. Fluxing him (and herself) would allow her to nonviolently keep him from hurting Riff and allow her to “protect” him from the world by removing him from it.



That’s unlikely to be the distinction: it would defeat the narrative purpose of Chaz’ innocence sense entirely.

Anybody remembers the old "The puppet is the puppeteer." from that Gwynn's dream sequence?

I believe that we're about to learn that Kusari has been manipulating HeretiCorp for her own purposes, first Daedalus, then Schlock. A little nudge here and there, a small, intentional "mistake" that could be attributed to her allegedly limited functions, a word or action somewhere else, etc.

She's about to take over.

Hm, that sounds familiar...

"It's going to protect the city by removing the city from its protection? That's one stupid A.I."



Though I have always wondered about the ultimate purpose of the Chekhov's gun that is Chaz's ability to detect innocence, I would tend to agree with ramoss here: I don't think that Chaz is able to figure out what is controlling an "organic" like Kusari or Oasis. Knowing that they are controlled by some external artificial intelligence is enough.



This is exactly what I'm beginning to think might be the endgame for HeretiCorp—kind of like how Aylee's clone was made into an unstoppable weapon and ended up taking over the company, resulting in its initial downfall many years ago.

Here's another quote from Rammer about the 4U City A.I. that I believe illustrates the danger Kusari may pose to both HeretiCorp specifically and the world in general:

"It looks like the A.I. has always run the city, but my father, Dr. Schlock, commanded the A.I.! So while he was alive he was able to curtail the robotics factory expansions like the REA-6.

"But as soon as the A.I. lost its 'humanity' it started down a road that would have eventually concluded that the population was the greatest threat to the city. If we hadn't acted when we did, you and I, this whole world would have been lost right under that old man's nose."

It might not be so much about knowing what's controlling them as knowing what's not controlling them. Whatever brain those bodies have, it has no role in any agency of their actions. If it's used for higher functions beyond just normal bodily functions, it's probably only to relay signals from the satellites. The organic lifeform is innocent because it's never been in control at all. Not even to the limited degree Oasis and Kusari have been. I think we can safely assume that however Chaz determines innocence is effectively magic, but it still must obey some sort of rules and those rules are unclear. Oasis and Kusari both exist as multiple distinct entities: a clone (or clones) that's effectively braindead by being overwritten by a satellite AI, and the satellite AI in charge. Just because we hear from the organic body of Oasis that she is the satellite doesn't make that untrue. It's the satellite AI talking, because the actual clone can't and is probably for all purposes, except strictly biologically persisting, dead. Whether Chaz is determining innocence of the clone or the satellite is impossible to know without further information. If the "innocence" status of one of them changes, we can probably assume it is the satellite's innocence that is judged.

It's also incredibly difficult to suss out from anything we learned so far any kind of behavior that would lead to being determined innocent or not. Most instances of Chaz being powered are from Dimension of Lame, where most people are practically supernaturally innocent. Then there's the legalistic "innocent blood" wish, which tells us nothing. Only example I can think of where "normal" people powered the sword were the ones turned into demons and we know nothing about them, so again we learn nothing about the innocence rules. Makes it harder to figure out why Kusari and Oasis are "innocent" with all the weirdness tied to them when we barely have a clue on what makes someone innocent or not to begin with.

One of the things we do know from Mokhadun is that several people who 'signed up for a world-ending cult' were not innocent, as well as one ordained who may have been put in prison for no good reason (so may have started as innocent but after years in a Tunisian prison may have lost that innocence). We also know that of the fairly random people who were turned into demon hounds at the Cloak and Dagger Inn, at least one was innocent, so it most likely isn't that unlikely that a significant fraction of the general population is innocent.

So yeah, not a lot, but there's a little to be gleaned there. And while discussing Oasis' innocence, it's probably good to keep in mind that she killed dozens of apparently rather nefarious people of her own volition as described in Phoenix Rising, as well as people like Mr. Needles, and (her body at least) was still judged innocent by Chaz afterwards.

Regarding Chaz's innocence sensing vs. innocence of Kusaris...

Can't find the exact strip, but he detected Oasis as innocent, despite all the killings including trying to kill Zoe and Torg, so the "body is controlled" argument must play a role in determining if someone is innocent or not. So there's that.

Also I think the Riff argument is real because Sasha had actual feelings for him (otherwise she wouldn't looking for a loophole to save him) because of all the fun times she had with him, whereas she didn't have any for the senator because he, like most politicians, was a bore. And Kusari/Sasha always struck me as someone who wants to have fun.

Obviously Riff's not gonna forgive her, at least not easily, but I guess Sasha still has actual feelings for him and that's why she tries to sabotage Hereticorp from the inside, by e.g. killing the only person capable of controlling Oasis after the reboot. And now since Schlock basically told her she was useless to him and easily replaceable, the sabotage will only intensify.

I'm not Pete in disguise.

I also think that Riff is one of the reasons that Sasha/Kusari is finding ways to work against Schlock. But I also agree that the rest of the gang, and especially Torg, are also a factor. She lived, worked, fought, and laughed with them. She was a part of something, and she had a purpose that was to build, not a solitary purpose that is to destroy.

Thinking about the ways she been trying to go against Schlock in little ways... There was no way to explain what she had done without revealing who she really was, which she could not do, so she showed her apology, even though she knew it was not likely to be accepted. That showed that she liked what she had with the gang, that she wished she could still have it. If it is true that the only emotion she has is envy, we can allow that envy can be very broad. Maybe she envies her past self, what she once had. Seen in that light, maybe regret can be a form of envy.

From dictionary.com:
"Envy and jealousy are very close in meaning. Envy denotes a longing to possess something awarded to or achieved by another: to feel envy when a friend inherits a fortune. Jealousy, on the other hand, denotes a feeling of resentment that another has gained something that one more rightfully deserves: to feel jealousy when a coworker receives a promotion."
Based on this, what Sasha/Kusari feels toward Oasis is jealousy. What she feels toward her memories of her time with Riff, Torg et al. is envy.

Either that.. or she wants to save him because of the effect he has on Schlock, and the probability the riff will kill Schlock

Is there anything that could have changed, do you think, between Kusari needing to thread a loophole in order to get Riff into space and the comic where she switches the wires? That action has no justifiable loophole I can think of. It seems to be blatant sabotage.

Could she have gotten a clue from Chen and started remixing Schlock's voice to give herself orders?

Thinking about Kusari's programming brings Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics to mind. As Randall Munroe has noted, the order of these laws is incredibly important:



If Kusari is governed by similar principles, it's possible that she prioritizes protecting her own existence over obeying HeretiCorp orders. Once Kusari realized that Oasis really could be controlled and would inevitably cause her to be decommissioned, her own survival may have suddenly taken precedence over obedience.

this

I think we saw her take the recorder Chen used (at Schlock's instruction) - and who knows what has happened since then.