Re: Robotic love.
The argument that love expressed after an extravagant gift doesn't hold, especially with humans. It may or may not be manipulative, but often such a gift is an expression of love from the gifter, and so will elucidate such a reaction from the giftee ("I don't have anything like this to give you in return to express my love, so I'll just have to tell you how I feel"). The fact is that, spoken or not, Momo's loved Mari since we first met them. She cares for and about her in the most fundamental of ways. And this extravagant gift has shown Momo that Marigold considers her as so much more than a housekeeping, advice giving robot - that Mari cares for Momo as well, something that may not have been evident in the past.
OK, all that being said - that's the human side of things. The assumption in this comic is that somehow, hman emotions are in these AI's, for better or worse. Momo "bonded" to Marigold, and now it's clear Mari has bonded back.
What happens when a lover enters the picture for Marigold? Especially a human one? Jealous Momo? We've seen some ofthat from Pintsize. Oris she one of those that cares enough about her human to let it go? This really complicates things!
We're not entering new territory, really - but I think we are seeing the beginning of a beautiful friendship.