Flux Buddies' ending is still so crazy to think about, to me. The story about a foolish, impulsive, immoral scientist who acts before he thinks about the consequences of implications ends with him once more flinging himself headfirst into a moral conundrum, on emotional impulse? I love it. I love it I love it I love it.
Lalna knows better than ANYONE how fucked up cloning is, and he knows that clones are their own, distinct people, and far more than just 'copies' of their original. But he'll clone Nano anyway, he'll continue to perpetuate the very dilemma that has plagued him for so long, because he just cannot live without her.
It's unbelievably selfish and entitled and presumptuous of him to create a perfect copy of Nano to be with him. Does Lalna expect this clone to just go along with it all? Does he expect her to just accept being brought into existence for the sole purpose of being a replacement? For the sole purpose of fulfilling his wishes?
Or does Lalna just want the opportunity to be there? The opportunity for this new Nano to meet him, to choose to befriend him and go through it all again? An opportunity for her to pursue herself, that Lalna would accept her turning down?
What about Echo? Her existence destroys all logic that could ever hold up Lalna's decision to clone Nano. Echo is right there. She's a clone, too, and she's clearly not Nano, because if she was, then why would Lalna need to make another one?
And that's where it all falls apart, the wishful thinking that Flux Buddies' ending is bittersweet, or anything but tragic and bleak. The revelation that Nano is being cloned isn't any consolation at all, rather a clear sign of just how dependent Lalna was on her, and how lost he is in her absence. I don't think Lalna is so terrible that he'd go through with it, fully aware of the moral pitfalls of cloning her, knowingly creating another Nano solely for his own sake, with no thought for her own agency or individuality. Lalnable would do that, but not Lalna. Because clones are individuals.
No, Lalna is just blindly marching forward, fuelled only by grief and regret, and the results of Nano's cloning will lead to either her or him horribly damaged.
I don't really have a conclusion to this big ramble, but god, I think about them so much.
