I think the GitS material is probably best treated as individual installments. The second movie was some sort of weird art film I struggled to watch. What I got out of the first one was that Kusanagi may or may not actually be a person. There may be one (or more) instances of Kusanagi in the world and the ambiguity the movie plays with is "Is she a person in a cybernetic body or is this a convenient lie to the AI inside the body?"
If we assume she's an AI - at what point does she become individual "enough" to be a defacto "person"? There's a lot of Asimov in this question. The puppetmaster adds a level of abstraction to this by not requiring a 1:1 mapping between a ghost and a body.
If we assume she's a person - do we count her as a human because she only briefly had a body of flesh and bone? What does this "internet in her head" do to affect her psyche and personal development?
Make a fake facebook profile. Fill it out as an Austrian Painter, interests include politics, coups and you hang out at the beer hall. Weekend fun includes bonfires and rabblerousing! You enjoy writing books about your struggles.
You'll seem like a fun filled, lovable person. Who could hate you?
If we assume she's an AI - at what point does she become individual "enough" to be a defacto "person"? There's a lot of Asimov in this question. The puppetmaster adds a level of abstraction to this by not requiring a 1:1 mapping between a ghost and a body.
If we assume she's a person - do we count her as a human because she only briefly had a body of flesh and bone? What does this "internet in her head" do to affect her psyche and personal development?