Loved this game so much that I decided to make an account to join in on the discussion.
After reading many opinions regarding Laurie, I'd like to share my view as well (not that it should outweigh anyone else's):
1. Laurie as a character in the "world" of superhuman:
Laurie was depicted, at first, as a "soldier" of HERO, with a helmet on (together with Del), like it was some sort of "uniform", which sort of was. And as the story went on, the mc began to interact with Laurie more, and more details of Laurie were revealed to us (we didn't even get to see her face at first).
However, through and through, Laurie remained an "average" soldier of HERO, one that is not completely garbage (excuse my language), but also is not extraordinary in any way either, even until her death at the hand of Jared (or ending up in a coma due to her injury).
Through her role as an "average" soldier of HERO, we saw a progression of mindset development. She killled monsters (because she was ordered to), and tracked down Ella (because she was ordered to), and made friends with another soldier, who died at the hands of Jake and Ella. We saw a whole saga of basically "enlisting in HERO as an average soldier". In a sense, we saw the perspective of Laurie, the average soldier, in HERO, but something did change towards the very end (just very slightly) when she confronted herself, and aided Alice to take down Deryl's chimera.
It was at that point in time that Laurie changed from a soldier "following orders", to one that actively fought for Alice, and later Del (it could be argued that she would fight for her dead ally - killed by Jake - as well). In a sense, she developed a "sense of justice", instead of running and doing everything she can to survive, like an "average" soldier.
The character of Laurie sort of represents a perspective from someone lesser, and their struggle to survive in this world, which is quite crucial for storytelling, but her role as the "average" soldier has probably ended, since it would not make sense to keep this storyline going, now that everyone's been familiarized with how HERO operates, at least on the suffice level.
If the Laurie character were to be "continued", her being an "average" soldier would be extremely stale (overused I might say), so she would have to develop some sort of "rise to power" and overcome her "average" category; otherwise, there would be no point to her character anymore (as in discontinued, Laurie will probably be sidelined).
2. Laurie's influence on the main cast:
Basically she assisted Alice in her "awakening", or evolution, and fought alongside her. Alice could bring her along for future monster hunting, but I don't see it happening, as she has only ever interacted with Michael, or MC. I mean she didn't even blink when Laurie's neck got busted by Jared.
Laurie was also Del's partner for a long time, which continues living on in Deryl, so there could be something going on there, if Deryl wishes to keep Laurie by his side, which is also unlikely, if I'm being honest.
Laurie struggled with her hatred for Jake (at least before the Rebis Incarnation battle), and probably will carry on her vengeful mindset for Jake long after. Maybe the MC could change her mind, but it wouldn't be easy. Frankly, I don't think Laurie would be able to touch Jake at all, so her unfortunate tragedy probably only serves as a struggle of the "average", more so depicting how "power" basically facilitates everything in this world, and the lack of "power" would mean everything becomes a luxury, even one's own feelings. If Bernardt, for example, was angry at someone, he could probably kill them with a snap of his finger, but Laurie? Her mortal enemy could be in front of her but she would remain powerless.
Lastly, and most importantly, imo, is Laurie's death affecting Deryl. Regardless if she dies or not, Deryl would be putting a huge emphasis on improving his "elixir" ability to "heal", rather than to "destroy" as he has always been using his power to do, to make sure none of his friends would die in front of him (or at least that's how I assumed Deryl's mindset would changed after Laurie's death).
And if you, the player, manage to save Laurie, the MC would learn the "body preservation" technique that Ella used to immune physical damage of Malik, and Deryl would learn the "elixir restoration" technique that basically "healed" Laurie's butchered neck, blood vessels, spine, brain stem, etc. This could be extremely important to the story, or maybe both MC and Deryl would learn these techniques eventually (actually, maybe "saving Laurie" was only a "side effect" of learning these techniques).
In conclusion: Laurie will probably be discontinued, or her appearance would only be few and maybe for comedic purposes only, unless she somehow unlocks some crazy potential and goes monster mode (corruption) and eats Jake, and gains Authority, and somehow eats Michael as well to gain Power, and becomes the final boss...
On a side note, Laurie was a really good character imo, as she represented a different perspective, one that was much needed, and she served that role very well. It was sort of like if you were to be trans-migrated into this "Weird" World (ha!), would you do better than Laurie, without all the information available to you at a click of a button?
