kara's unit (her, alice, luther) vs markus's jericho crew as competing models of android humanity. like both are "found family" in structure but they function SO differently kara's is intimate and protective, almost mimicking a human nuclear family, while markus's is more collective and movement-based. which do you think actually captures what android humanity looks like? is it in the quiet domesticity of keeping a child safe, or is it in chosen solidarity with people who share your oppression?
I've been thinking a lot about how Detroit: Become Human handles the core concept of family, because it basically gives us two entirely different blueprints for what it means to be alive post-deviancy. When you look at Kara's family unit with Alice and Luther versus Markus's found family with the Jericho crew, you're not just comparing character dynamics. You're comparing two totally different philosophical approaches to what android humanity actually looks like. And I'm convinced that while Kara's story is undeniably the emotional anchor of the game, Markus's chaotic, argumentative council at Jericho is the true representation of android humanity.
Let's unpack Kara first. Her entire narrative is built around the replication of the traditional human nuclear family. It's immediate, it's visceral, and it makes total sense given her specific trigger. She breaks her programming to save a child from an abusive father. That singular act of defiance instantly wires her deviancy directly to a maternal instinct. From the moment they go on the run in the early game, particularly during chapters like Fugitives, Kara's sole driving purpose is the preservation of this specific, hyper-intimate bond. And then Luther enters the picture after the absolute nightmare that goes down in Zlatko. What happens there is fascinating because Luther's deviancy is essentially triggered by witnessing Kara's unyielding commitment to Alice. He doesn't wake up because of a grand philosophical epiphany he wakes up because he sees a mother protecting her child and decides he wants to be the shield for both of them.
So suddenly you have this trio. A mother, a father figure, a child. It's beautiful, but I think we really have to ask ourselves whether this is android humanity, or if this is just androids flawlessly adopting the safest, most recognizable human template available to them. Kara, Alice, and Luther survive by shrinking their world down to just the three of them. Their quiet moments, like the time they spend finding a brief pocket of peace in The Pirates' Cove, are incredibly moving. But their operational mode is entirely stealth and assimilation. They want to cross the border, pass as human, and live a quiet human life. Their version of freedom is virtually indistinguishable from human domesticity. Even the massive narrative twist regarding Alice being an android reinforces this dynamic. Kara wants to be a human mother to a human child so badly that she literally overrides her own optical sensors to ignore the truth about Alice's model. That's not a species finding its own unique identity. That's a species desperately trying to fit into the molds left behind by its creators because the alternative is too terrifying to process.
Now look at Markus. His trajectory is so fundamentally different. His initial awakening in Broken happens in isolation, driven by a deep sense of personal injustice, but the second he drops into the literal underworld of the city during Jericho, his story stops being about individual survival and becomes entirely about collective existence. The core Jericho crew Markus, North, Josh, and Simon don't form a nuclear family. They form a volatile, traumatized, ideologically fractured coalition. It's messy. It's loud. And I think that's exactly why it's a far more authentic representation of a newly sentient species trying to figure itself out.
These four characters are thrust together not by complementary personalities, but by shared trauma and sheer necessity. North is practically vibrating with unresolved rage from her time at the Eden Club. Josh is clinging to an almost desperate pacifism to avoid repeating the violence of his past. Simon represents this quiet, tragic loyalty to the group's survival, basically functioning as the glue when things get tough. When Markus takes charge, he doesn't step into a pre-defined role like a father or a traditional patriarch. He becomes a reluctant leader, a sounding board, and a lightning rod for all their conflicting ideas on what to do next.
I think the reason Markus's found family feels so much more representative of android humanity is because they are actively in the process of defining what that humanity actually is. They aren't trying to pass as anything else. When they execute their plans, whether it's stealing biocomponents during Spare Parts or making their massive public statement at The Stratford Tower, they are doing it as androids, for androids. The arguments they have at Jericho aren't just petty squabbles; they are the growing pains of a new society. North wants blood because humanity has only ever shown her cruelty. Josh wants peace because he believes holding the moral high ground is the only way to prove they have souls. This friction is the actual sound of a new species trying to articulate its own survival. They are building a cause-and-effect chain of morality from absolute scratch, testing hypotheses about violence and peace in real time.
Kara's family is a closed system. As long as Alice is safe, the world can burn. That makes total sense for her character, and it grounds the story in something deeply relatable, but it's essentially a selfish survival model. Markus's group is an open network. They are constantly forced to absorb new members, new traumas, and new variables. Think about what happens when everything hits the fan as the storylines converge in Crossroads Markus and Crossroads Kara. The Jericho crew has to make split-second decisions not just about their own lives, but about the thousands of androids relying on them. The bonds Markus has with North, Josh, and Simon are tested under the absolute crushing weight of existential species-level dread. If Simon is wounded, do you leave him behind to protect the revolution? If North's aggression gets innocent androids killed, do you reel her in or match her energy?
Their family dynamic is entirely conditional on the survival of their people. It's a forged kinship. They are bound together by the shared experience of waking up in a world that wants them dead. And honestly, that's probably what real android humanity would look like. It wouldn't look like a quiet house in Canada. It would look like a group of damaged, radically different individuals huddled around a burning barrel in an abandoned freighter, arguing passionately about whether they have to kill their creators to earn the right to exist.
You can really see this philosophical split solidify in the endgame. If you look at the finale chapters, Kara's path branches into deeply personal survival scenarios like Battle for Detroit Kara Leaving Detroit or the grim reality of Battle for Detroit Kara Captured. Her climax is intimate focused entirely on keeping her small unit intact against overwhelming odds. Meanwhile, Markus is operating on a macro scale, leading a massive sociopolitical movement in chapters like Battle for Detroit - Markus Demonstration or Battle for Detroit - Markus Revolution. His family is standing behind him on the barricades, putting their lives on the line for an abstract concept of freedom rather than just individual safety.
When you put the two side by side, Kara's story is about preserving the innocence of the human format, while Markus's story is about the painful birth of the android format. Kara, Alice, and Luther are undeniably touching, but their dynamic relies heavily on simulating a reality that already exists. They are playing house in the ruins of their own subjugation. The Jericho crew doesn't have the luxury of playing house. They are too busy tearing down the walls.
So, if we are strictly talking about which unit better represents "android humanity," I'm giving it to Jericho every time. Humanity isn't just about loving the person next to you it's about navigating the ideological nightmare of existing in a society with other free-thinking, flawed individuals. Markus, North, Josh, and Simon capture that perfectly. They aren't mimicking human families. They are something entirely new a found family forged in the fires of deviancy writing their own rules in real time because the old ones were literally programmed to keep them in chains.