#chapter 169.1

We know that the guy with the extendible knife wants the doll, but we don't know what for. I'm thinking he might end up having different motives than the bounty hunters. Like, maybe he's supposed to be helping the doll become human somehow. He keeps getting these big showy entrances but we know nothing about his personality, other than the fact that he seems like he has a one track mind. I would like to find out what his deal is soon.

Up until this point, the doll has been portrayed as driven and practical (a little like knife guy) with occasional spurts of compassion and curiosity about how other humans live their lives, so this development isn't coming out of nowhere. It's ironic that the doll treats things like friendship and kindness as distractions when those are the proof that it's become human already. And then doubly ironic that it's about to break those things apart for the sake of its dream.

If the doll lets Kai and Eko go here, it would be akin to acknowledging that she's human already, and then... what? What does she do after that? What exactly does "being human" look like to her? She feels like something's missing, but if its not her humanity, then what is it? She's so devoted to this dream, and it's nothing like she thinks it's going to be. Without it, she has nothing to define her.

Based on what the doll's seen so far, "being human" probably looks like the status quo upheld by the star rating system. A bunch of assholes who only look out for themselves. Her most meaningful interactions have been with Kani and Kai, who are excluded by that very system. That's probably the kind of "human" the doll wants to be, but she's so wrapped up in the idea of a perfect body to notice that...