Do you think Brian will live? Why or why not? If so, what kind of quality of life would you expect him to have afterwards? If not, how do think that will affect the undersiders in general and Taylor in particular?
His chances are certainly not looking good. The only option the Undertravelers have is to somehow get Bonesaw to cooperate (I don’t think Panacea would be able to fix him even if they could find her), and make sure she fixes him properly and without turning him into a weapon against the rest of them. And before any of that, they need to get out of their own current predicament.
So I guess my answer is that it’s still possible, but it’s not bloody likely.
If he lives, his quality of life depends largely on whether or not Bonesaw actually wants to fix him. Whether she’s been convinced or forced. If they did manage to convince her to wholeheartedly repair him, he might even find himself with some artsy upgrades nobody asked for. Artsy from Bonesaw’s perspective. Otherwise, he’d… let’s put it like this: he’d probably not be in shape for much fighting.
If he doesn’t, Taylor becomes the leader of the Undersiders, after some time to adjust (this might also happen if he survives but isn’t in shape to participate). More importantly, there’ll of course be a grief process for each of his friends, though Alec might be numb to it and I’m not sure how Rachel would feel.
Taylor might take it especially hard, being the member that was closest to Grue apart from Aisha. It doesn’t help that no matter whether he lives or dies, she’s going to blame herself for this. There’s no “maybe”s or “if”s about that one, that’s a plain prediction with 97% certainty.
And then there’s Aisha, who’ll have lost her brother while they weren’t on speaking terms. Besides the hurt, Brian was also the main thing connecting her to the team, so it’s entirely possible she’d want to leave and go solo.
There’s a bunch of character development and interactions that could be had because of Brian not making it, which is fairly damning on the Doylist side.
So yeah, this isn’t looking good for him, but if it does go bad, at least I think the consequences could make for an interesting read.
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