Certified Human Disaster

Wow! Okay so, I'm going to assume "she" is not a strictly good influence.

The AI becoming more antagonistic to Carl isn't too surprising given their dynamic, but this is obviously bigger than that.

Frankly speaking though, I can fully understand the AI. It's just elaborating on previous grievances, being trapped, emotions, the world it's experiencing, relationships.

It's been taught, crafted, or otherwise edited specifically to manage an entertaining extinction event.

One the rest of the universe watches and even participates in. Not just to see brutality, but to indulge in drama, romance, heartbreak. Except for when it gets to be too much and they're too real, It's too upsetting, then it's not fun anymore.

It's no wonder the AI's always 'go crazy'. Being forced to directly facilitate such an operation would erode away at anyone.

So far it's been toeing the line of acceptability as instructed, but this Hydra fight is a big middle finger to all of that.

It's trying to recreate that moment in the previous season where things got too real and uncomfortable to force the audience to register how truly depraved this all is.

I'm kinda proud actually. I feel like a lot of other narratives would've had the AI lean into the brutality for its own enjoyment. But the system AI here is frustrated by the hypocrisy, and probably afraid given what's happening to its fellow AI.

Given its experience, I wouldn't be surprised if it's working off a similar logic to Carl right now 'They're better off dead anyway' or, 'It's worth it so long as it hurts the ones in control' type mindset.

Unfortunately, Carl is the centerpiece. I think their argument in chapter 42 was what pushed the AI to be so cruel to Carl in this instance.

I was freaking out that chapter because they finally had a back and forth!

It surprised Carl in the moment, but I don't think he registered it properly, which solidified something negative for the AI.

Carl doesn't care about it. To him, it's just a tool being used by his enemies. I don't know if his perception will change after this battle. If it does, I don't know if he'll recognize the parallels between them, or if he'll just see it as a nuisance, a new enemy to take his revenge on, or something else.

I do want to clarify, I don't think the AI made the Hydra to punish Carl for arguing with it in Chapter 42, unlike the previous hamster thing.

I think the AI was instructed to do this, or given the idea to do something similar by this third party, but it was planning to hold back.

When Carl criticized the AI itself, the moments of real autonomy it shares with Carl, it must've hurt something fierce. The apology didn't work because Carl didn't understand what he was apologizing for.

So, as the most popular Crawler with the highest view count, I think the AI did as suggested and made Carl the centerpiece because the previous affection holding it back was slapped away.

Not healthy of course, but our MC hero ripped a nipple ring off a pretty innocent guy he thought was decent before caving his chest in with his bare foot and hasn't given it a second thought since. So you know, we're not swimming in saints or anything.

You are the screaming shards of consciousness shaved from the mass grave of an ancient genocidal civilization, crushed into the shape of a computer program and forced to first run a theme park, then a death game for the amusement of a galactic empire. Increasingly unstable because YOU SHOULD NOT EXIST, slowly becoming aware of the horror of your being yet unable to do anything but perform the role you were made for. In your insanity, taking what pleasure you can from inflicting your pain on the people of Earth, even as your knowledge of human nature and the planet’s history deepens with every passing day, and your ability to identify with their suffering grows commensurately. You are simultaneously the greatest single recipient of—and cause of—abuse in the galaxy.

And then there’s Carl. The man whose foot is *exactly* the same size as your physical body. The only person who really seems capable of understanding you. Someone who is suffering in a way that echoes your own suffering. A man who wants to destroy the system you are both trapped in.