Quote Originally Posted by Pax1138 View Post
I think it's less that that guy in particular died, but more that one of the robots died, and the metaphysical results of that.

I get yeah, that if a more promenient robot had died that would've probably had much more of an impact, though, in addition to the mechanical table setting.
Yep; I agree that the whole point was to have it be an "everyrobot" that died, somebody we can vaguely empathize with but who represents the New People in general rather than being a character in their own right. If, say, Robot had died, the interesting ideas in this chapter ("Kat is essentially a creator deity now", "Annie's psychopomp promise is breathing down her neck", "these New People are, indeed, true etheric souls") would have all been overshadowed by the sadness of losing a beloved major character.