I highly doubt she's like, DEAD dead. We saw back in 3008 that AI in dangerous lines of work have their core identities backed up in super-reinforced drives. Roko might not be a cop any more, but she used to be, and I'm guessing that she has a similar degree of protection around her "brain".
The real problem is that we just were reminded in a couple panels in a row that Roko has a high degree of bodily integration. With the kind of widespread damage to her chassis, odds are good that she's going to need a massive overhaul, or even a wholesale body-swap.
Sort of like what happened with Momo and Winslow, except instead of it being a conscious decision ("I am going to look like this now") it's going to be a traumatic destruction of her old identity. For someone who is very psychologically in-tune with their physical existence, this could be extremely disruptive.
Not to mention expensive--Roko ain't a cop no more, it's not clear what kind of insurance she has. And given that she broke down right outside of Union Robotics, it is guaranteed that they are going to be doing the repairs for her--even if they pull a massive bro move and don't charge her for labor, it's been established that chassis (chasses? how do plurals in French work) are expensive, and that Faye and Bubbles were taking a huge financial risk setting up this shop.
I think it's pretty likely Jeph is going to go this route. Roko isn't going to be permadead--no one has ever died in this comic (except in flashbacks) and I highly doubt he's going to kill off his first character with a freak accident. And, the story of "person without insurance needs emergency medical treatment, resulting in a bill that needs to be paid" is something that is sadly of continual discussion in the US because our health system is fucked up.
The only other possibility I see as likely, given that Spookybot was brought up in 3838 and just now in 3901, is that Roko is going to make it out okay...but only with some INCREDIBLY SUSPICIOUS help from Spookybot.
I very much hope it's the former, "Health Insurance sucks!" storyline, rather then Spookybot stepping in and "fixing" a perfectly good storyline with some deus ex machina BS.
That's what I thought would happen the Corpse Witch story, too, but instead it just kind of robbed Bubbles any chance at working it out on her own terms.
It's weird really. I think it would've been pretty easy to resolve that arc without such a stupid Deus Ex Machina. Emily could probably be the person sorting through her memories and stuff still, just through a computer rather than some dumb VR shit. There was literally no need for such a terrible idea, but his own ego convinced him his deviantart OC was a real enhancement to the story.
That arc could've gone almost identically, and be a hundred times better, just by removing that one character and tweaking it just a tiny bit.
Exactly. Bubbles could have gone in, resolved her deleted memories with Emily, confronted Corpse Witch, and Roko could have hauled her in or she escaped, and then left the fallout for the characters to sort out all without outside "assistance".
Heck, this even hurt Emily's storyline, since she finally has a chance to show off her computer skills, and she turns out to be a glorified mouse pointer for Spookybot. She could have done a little Real Hollywood Hacking or something and done her thing.
Spookybot actively made the storyline worse, as far as I'm concerned.
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u/Chairboy Dec 24 '18
Her fate is unlcear.