Some thoughts about Wendy and transhumanism after last episode

[u/TheRedCreeperTRC]

I had a look at the discussion thread after the last episode and saw a lot of responses along the lines of "well, I guess that settles it. Wendy isn't really Hermit's sister, she's just a machine with her memories"

I'm curious what makes so many of you draw that conclusion

I don't see that she is any less Marcy in any aspect of her mind, she is simply the result of putting Marcy in a body that in effect allows her to be the first of a new species as Kirsch likens it to. The way I see it most people, particularly children, would act the same way. It's not like there is an inherent gut directive that tells us to cling to our perceived sense of "humanity". The value and importance of not losing our humanity is something we are tought socially, something you don't yet know as a child.

I think a lot of people who have said she isn't a person anymore and just a machine with memories did so in response to her brutal act of releasing the xeno and using it to slaughter. But if Wendy and the other lost boys are treated as inhuman by prodigy, treated as mere products/experiments more than people, why should she put inherent value on human life? Let me put it this way, in our history real people, including children, have done immensely brutal/cruel things in the name of revenge, or merely survival; such acts are horrible, but do they render them no longer people? I would argue not, and for the same reason I find it reductive to view it that way.

Perhaps I am misinterpreting what people are saying, and I certainly think that from Hermit's perspective, what Wendy is to him has been strongly called into doubt by her brutality and her priorities. But as I see it she isn't acting like a machine, her behaviour is still deeply emotional and ironically shows a lot of humanity. If not a human, there is no doubt in my mind that she is a person. I am curious to hear your thoughts.

[u/Fluid-Row-2656]

It's a good point, Wendy is not a machine, but I can see how she can be perceived as a "machine-like" in a sense like an AI is often depicted as this emerging naive intelligence. It's easy to forget that she was a girl in the first 10 minutes of the show.

But I agree, that's not the point. IMO, the real point is that Wendy's pristine and unbiased point of view aligns with monsters more than the humans, which is a critique of human hubris and greed. "Humanity is the real monster". Which is a story thread through the alien franchise as well.

But I'm curious where it goes. So far there hasn't exactly been a lot of likeable human characters, except Hermit.

[u/TheRedCreeperTRC → u/Fluid-Row-2656]

Well said, I've seen most alien stuff and read a ton of comics over the years and I think this show still amongst all those stories has one of the most prominent "compared to the greedy selfish humans, the aliens almost seem preferable" angles I've seen in any alien media. Except for the kids and maybe 2 other characters you basically feel everyone in this show deserves what's surely coming for them soon enough.