It becomes an interesting question, and one that starts opening up philosophical and metaphysical questions...
1) We know that Good Merges can access memories and mimic personalities... So teh first question raised is is the original personality, the soul, the essence of the person destroyed in the merge, or just subsumed? And can the essence/mind/soul/whatever be left alone, if the spirit and host are willing? So in essence, you have the original host and the bug simply sharing a body, with two distinct, sperate entities?
2) WHere do you draw the line at? If the merge has all the memories and personality of the original host... Is it still the host? Can it be the host?
It's a weird area. Bug's are, 99% of the time, simply monsters, and I'm cool with that. Same way I like my vampires to be monsters. I don't usually like them to be tragic, misunderstood, or sparkly. They're mosquitos with human bodies. Very, VERY rare exceptions are ok, and they work because they are exceptions. I accept Angel in the Buffyverse because he's semi unique. In a similar vein, Drizzt was initially kinda cool because he was unique, a good Dark Elf. Once there are dozens or hundreds or whatever of them running a round, they're no longer unique, and just boring munchkins.
So rambling, sleep deprived answer is that in my game (and the way I see bugs) is that Mantids are the sole exception to the bugs. But they also have totally different agendas than the standard bug, and they create more Mantids in a different way from the other bugs. So that's fine. They can merge with a willing host to create a split personality Bug that's the combination of both the soul of the human and the spirit of the bug. They don't always do it this way, but it's their preference. Their goal is to hunt, and tehy find it more efficient when they can draw on their host for help.
Regular bug spirits, on the other hand, just want to breed and multiply. Humanity is merely a source of physical bodies and food. When they manage a good merge, they destroy the soul of the host. They can access it's memories and attempt to mimic it, but it's a copy. It's a pod person. Sometimes tehy can "blend in", but it's rare. And usually only happens if the merger happens with someone who doesn't have every close family.
Bull
