#cyberpunk analysis

[sanasanakun]

The tragedy that is Corpo!V and Jackie's relationship lies in Jackie's consistency for saving V, while V's big onscreen attempt to save Jackie falls short. Jackie rescues V on three distinct occasions: during the mysterious Mexico job, when he offers his home after V's expulsion from Arasaka, and by using his last bit of strength to slot the relic into V's head. From a purely headcanon perspective too, you could speculate that Jackie's influence prevented Arasaka from “corrupting” V, keeping them from turning into just another soulless corpo that we see populate Night City.

Jackie remains a steadfast presence in V's life, reliably coming to their aid whenever needed, even unknowingly (like by slotting in the relic). However, when Jackie desperately needs V's support, V fails. Despite V’s impressive strength and training from Arasaka, the heist claims Jackie’s life. Now burdened with an impending death sentence due to the relic in their head, V is left without that shoulder to lean on. The man who consistently "saved" them is gone, leaving V to grapple with their fate.

I even kind of view Jackie's final act of saving V with the chip as a symbol that if Jackie dies, V's own destiny is sealed. But that’s a little pessimistic for the games overall narrative (imo). I just think it's interesting how Jackie always offers an out to V, while V fails to do the same. It’s extremely bittersweet and definitely adds to the tragedy of their stories.

[scipunk]

Armitage III: Dual Matrix (2001)

[harmleikurdraws]

leopards and tigers

Ghost’s flat would probably resemble an empty dupster in Heywood, but Soap looks like a man that could appreciate retro leopards and tigers.

[icajax]

i watched Ghost in the Shell last night, and there's a lot to talk about in that film, but the thing that i've latched onto is this gif

i think this is the Style-Over-Substance that the cyberpunk genre is drenched in, executed perfectly. Obviously this dude could jack into this computer to commune with it faster. The manga this movie is based on predates USB by 7 years, but some sort of port for broadly interfacing with computers is shown to exist in universe, used a few times by the Major

(couldn't find a gif of her plugging in but trust me) so, WHY doesn't the hackerguy just jack into that computer? because that would be less visually interesting, and Ghost in the Shell is a visual story. It also wouldn't portray, as strongly, the pervasiveness and the subtlety with which the Shell surrounds the Ghost. Previously, this guy appeared to just be some guy. The film spends a lot of time talking about how the Major, Bato, and others are extremely mechanical, and how they require frequent maintenance, but unless you know, it's difficult to tell. This guy's fingers bursting apart is shocking, silly, impractical, and impactful, in a way that more ports just wouldn't be. We've seen those before, and they're an addition to the body. Those typing fingers have replaced his means of interacting with the world. Ghost in the Shell asks where the line between a Ghost and its Shell is, and this scene is another way to blur that line.

[demodraws0606]

What Cyberpunk DeadBoy Means and What it's Potentially Foreshadowing (aka very complicated analysis that makes a lot of sense and could happen depending on how colorpalet is feeling while writing the story)

Now I'm seeing so many people like running around wondering what this event could mean for the future for multiple reasons and like I've made like one post throwing my hat into the ring.

I've been frustrated with people's unwillingness to realise that this comm is prob foreshadowing because this is not the first time Colorpalet has hidden foreshadowing into comms weither subtely or not

Exemple's being :

-Akito's second comm foreshadowing his third event

-Lower's cover art literally foreshadowing what would happen to Mafuyu's phone in her event

-88 vocals being emurui and nenekasa foreshadowing the kind of dynamic the disbandement arc had with nenekasa wanting to move forward with emurui being scared of isolation

-Probably way better exemples that I forgot

I've seen people make Some assumptions which I don't agree with but there is one thing I think is true

There is 100 pourcent gonna be struggle between corporation/reality and WxS.

Purely because that's been WxS's entire theme since the beginning. They constantly bash you over the head with the theme of compromising with reality and the importance of dreams. In fact the pick of Maiki-P is not at all surprising as he basically has the same message WxS has just... well harsher.

The Big thing people have ignored however is by focusing on the lyrics, they've ignored something that's personally to me even more telling and that's the line distribution

We know for a fact colorpalet loves to mess around with line distribution, weither it's to make characters say lines that fit them or to kind of foreshadow their headspace.

Now something Big happens with the line distribution of Cyberpunk Deadboy that i've seen NO ONE notice and that's in the last chorus (that and also Tsukasa's lines which people have pointed out but it works less on it's own which is why I'm gonna analyse his lines afterwards).

This is the only time the chorus is like that, the others have a much more even distribution.

In fact the distribution choice makes it look like the rest of WxS is Talking to Rui.

It's even more evident considering the lines they chose to make WxS sing compared to only just Rui

Emu/Tsukasa/Nene saying kimi (you)

Rui saying boku (i)

Which honestly makes me think this is colorpalet foreshadowing some kind of issue reguarding specifically Rui. Remember Emu's second event ? The story of Rilley whose imagination was crippled by the industry to the point where he didn't really have any artistic vision until Emu's grandpa helped him.

In fact remember how the flashback that showcases that has Rilley working on a film

Now we get to Tsukasa's line which have been pointed out to be kind of sus but it's not just his lines.

Tsukasa refuses to sing with Rui (unless it's a line they all sing together but i consider those exceptions). In fact pretty much everyone has a duo line with each other except those two.

In fact in the section where Rui has duo lines with everybody, Tsukasa is the only one he doesnt sing with and the visuals make it clear that it's something that we're supposed to find strange

And then we of course have Tsukasa's solo lines

Tsukasa is the only one that say "fuzakeruna" outside of Rui (of course ignoring entire group WxS lines) and i've seen some people pointed out how it sounds like he's saying it in response to Rui's lines. Which I agree with.

Then we got his big boy solo lines

These lines will make more sense with my theory/analysis but right now if we go with the idea that WxS in the last chorus were speaking to Rui and Tsukasa in this comm refuses to sing with Rui then this implies those lines are Tsukasa speaking to Rui.

And this is where the insanity begins because people have pointed out a concerning trend with Ruikasa that I know some people use for shipping fuel but for me kinda feels more so like foreshadowing.

IGNORING all the ARG ass weirdness of the Fixer 2dmv, this choice to switch Ruikasa's colors have to mean something in my opinion outside of just wholesome shipping influence especially considering the two songs they do this are less than jovial.

What this kind of color switching signifies to me is that, Ruikasa somehow are/or will switch places.

And with that let me bring back Tsukasa's lines

These lines stand out because Tsukasa before remembering his dreams was extremely shallow only doing things for fame and probably the money that would come with it.

Now if you think about everything I've layed out I think you can gain a pretty clear picture.

Of Rui falling into the trap Rilley did, becoming jaded and losing the true motivation of his dream (or at least starting to have doubts). Becoming stuck with the struggle of managing dreams and reality.

Rui's costume even has a mask which can be a metaphor for his artistic voice and individuality being silenced .

Which now you get into the line distribution where WxS is implied to be talking to Rui.

And you get to Tsukasa, who is refusing to sing with Rui and in fact seems to be arguing with Rui if we really want to overthink it. In fact almost switching their roles from the main story.

Because Tsukasa has grown now and how else to show that growth than to switch Rui and Tsukasa's perspectives/roles.

Now how this would happen really depends since there are multiple ways they can go about it with the time they have.

There is obviously mystery dude dude (who i know now is sakaki) who still gives me bad vibes. However there is actually two way they can make mystery dude trigger this sort of plot :

-Mystery dude is malicious and actively manipulates/confronts Rui to make him rethink his worldview

-Mystery dude isn't malicious but instead is just jaded/has been through a lot of industry bullshit which ends up rubbing off on Rui accidentally

But you can even just not have mystery dude involved with this at all (which i doubt but still) because you know what loose plotpoint is still lingering over WxS, fucking Asahi

Rui still has not talked about Asahi to WxS, in fact Curtain Call ends on an explicit cliffhanger which is never really emotionally concluded (at least in Rui's own events, technically the arc ender did but there are still a lot of loose threads from that arc). Why would Colorpalet make Asahi come back after Rui graduates, they could've just had him disappear into the sunset but instead they hint at his potential comeback.

Unless Rui will be forced to again confront similar feelings he did during Curtain Call this time with possibly an added layer of whatever happens during WxS's freelance arc.

Anyways yeah this is overly complicated but then again colorpalet is not being easy with us so...yeah.

[kharonion]

A'right, strap in because I'm coming in here with a potentially 🔥 hot take 🔥

Kerry Eurodyne's change in design between past and present—entirely purposeful.

It's not coincidence. It's not to placate the audience. It's not to make him more attractive, more 'romanceable'.

I wanted to write this miniature analysis because frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing people harp on CDPR for this. I'm tired of seeing people write this off as something they didn't put thought into, claiming that they were being so artificial about this.

Kerry is a musician—a rockstar, to be precise. He’s in the trenches of one of the most cutthroat industries out there, has been for decades. Forced to adapt and change, most of the time against his own volition or desires—because he must make profit not just for himself, but also his label. And it’s a relative consensus that a certain L.B. Kovachek was the most notable apex of Kerry’s change.

We don't get much detail about the time between Samurai's disbandment and 2077, but I think it's reasonable to assume the bulk of this transformation came to fruition when Kerry started going solo. Change the hair, eyes, and hell, even the skin tone (changing it a bit, adding freckles).

What would be the goal of that, though? Simple. Make him a pretty boy, the sort that will get people fighting for the front row just to swoon at him, that will make his albums sell just by plastering his face on their covers.

Make Kerry marketable.

I know it's hard, but put yourself in the shoes of a slimy record label manager for a second as you look between these two images. Which one screams rockstar the most? Which one better encompasses that rough-and-tumble, 'sex, drugs, rock 'n roll' vibe that sells?

And maybe you are sat there wondering: Well, why would Kerry allow that to happen, then? Why wouldn't he fight against it?

Because he wants to change things. After the death of Johnny, especially. He wants his own identity—in so many ways. Developing himself into what would become Eurodyne is the perfect catalyst for that. So, he leaps at it, like a fish to a lure.

So comes Kerry as we know him now, complete with cyberware that monetarily benefits his career (i.e. ear and throat, most notably). Yes, he looks drastically different. And that is the point.

He isn't that same naive man back in the days of living in Johnny's shadow. No, now, Kerry is Kerry. Kerry fuckin' Eurodyne, with an axe, attitude, and audience.

And that is the point.

Does his new appearance make him more conventionally attractive? Sure. Is that entirely because of some meta bullshit so the studio can wrangle people into his romance path? Fuck no. Give CDPR the credit they more than deserve; no way this was coincidental.

[swearingcactus]

Yara social media dump.. from everyone's favorite guerilla, to a black market king, to the minister of culture herself, everyone's got to say something even through the bullshit internet connection. The last one is from el presidente's burner facebook account. (he has many.)

[thatgaiagirl]

Hello I’m back on the Cyberpunk brainrot and currently thinking too hard about Goro Takemura - specifically as I was replaying it he reminded me of a specific Yokai I remember hearing about years ago and when I did more research on it DAMN are there parallels - and I’m more inclined to write this because Takemura himself has a mystical streak in-game as shown by the Bakeneko conversation.

Specifically, I can’t help but compare him to the Inugami (basically translates to ‘spirit dog’??? Idk my Japanese is shaky at best)

First off, Takemura is DRENCHED in dog imagery. Johnny calls him a ‘Well-Trained Dog’, Takemura claims he can’t pursue his ideas of leaving Arasaka because ‘You cannot teach an old dog new tricks’, and there’s the general running theme of his character being undyingly loyal to his masters, no matter what else.

He was also ‘trained’ by Arasaka after coming from nothing - living in the worst slum of Japan, being recruited as a child and put through intense conversion to become Saburo Arasaka’s bodyguard. Even the way Takemura describes Saburo picking him from a lineup of potential candidates reminds me of someone picking up a rescue dog from a shelter - all lined up, until one catches their eye for no particular reason.

The Inugami functions as a familiar, created through extreme cruelty and undyingly loyal to its master. There are a few versions I found for its creation, but the most common one is a Dog being either tied up just out of reach of food or buried up to its neck with food in front of it, slowly starving until it’s head is cut off at the height of its desperation for food. Then the head is buried under a crossroads, the foot traffic angering the already tortured spirit, before the head is mummified and hidden somewhere on it’s masters estate, creating a ghost familiar willing to do whatever its master says. Usually in art an Inugami is depicted as a dogs head on a pile of robes.

I just… it fits Takemura so well. He was starved, literally and figuratively in Chiba-11, placed just outside of the reach of food, just outside of the Arasaka soldiers patrolling through his district. The crossroads, the foot traffic and AVs of the only people that might save him driving him into desperation, washing himself clean in toxic waters so they might take him. Hell, even his design in-game makes it look like his head is the only ‘real’ part of him left - sliced off and preserved, before placed on a new chromed out body branded neck-to-toe with the Arasaka logo. Inugami can be loyal to just one master or to a family, and Takemura will do anything for what he considers the rightful heads of the Arasaka family despite all the pain and suffering they’ve put him through.

This metaphor extends to the other Arasaka bodyguards, too - Oda obviously has similar cybernetics that emphasises his head as ‘real’ and is similarly undyingly loyal to Hanako, and ESPECIALLY Adam Smasher falls into this. The man died and was literally rebuilt by Arasaka - no matter how rabid or violent he is, he will possess, kill and torture anyone he is ordered too by his masters.

And the sad part is, in the Inugami legend, apparently it’s possible for the spirit to turn on its master if it’s mistreated enough. But Goro never does. Even in the Tower Ending, even in the worst case scenario where he’s a wanted man on the run with no ties to Arasaka, he STILL reeks of loyalty to them. The ‘bitter medicine’ of V forced him out of his old life, and you can tell he wants it back. If Takemura ever realised how fucked up Saburo and Hanako truly are and turned tail, maybe he’d get a happy ending - but his loyalty, forged with starvation and suffering, prevents him no matter what. Like a good dog.

[troythecatfish]

[whereserpentswalk]

It really sucks how a lot of media enjoyers seem to equate genre or tone with politics. Like the way some people so vehemently think certain sub genres of scifi have political messages preloaded into them when they really don't.

Star Wars is a great example of this problem. So many bad Star Wars takes are either from people who think the fact that it's a fairytale in space makes it so it can't be an anti fascist text, or from people who think that it being an anti fascist text makes it so it can't be a fairytale in space. It's even leaked into movies, 1, 7 and 9 seem to think it's an apolitical story because of it's tone, while 2, 3 and 8 all seem to think that the silly elements have to be removed to make the politics work (and end up creating new, less intentional silly elements).

It really sucks when people refuse to take a peice of media as it is when they analyze it. Literally any tone or genre can be used to tell a story with almost any political leaning, but they'll still be using the conventions of that genre to tell it. To go back to our star wars example, you have to accept it both as a fairytale and as a political text to understand the symbolism behind things like why there are no grey jedi, or why stone age dog people can defeat an army with mechs and laser guns. Not to harp on the Star Wars example for too long but you can understand the dark side better from that one cave scene than you can from a thousand pages of information on a wiki.

Like, cyberpunk has this problem a lot, where people think cyberpunk is inherently leftist because it has leftist origins. But a lot of cyberpunk works are just kind of reactionary, especially when you look at the way a lot of works in that genre deal with disability or depictions or non western cultures. Or the countless conversations about weather superheros are fascist, when it just doesn't make sense to assume something like the original Xmen has the same politics as a multimillion dollar crossover movie funded by the US marines. It also goes for themes across tones and genres, like how the Cthulhu mythos and Lotr have very diffrent vibes, but their fucked up racial politics are the same, so they kind of came together to create modern fantasy's ideas about race.

Idk if any of this makes sense. The star wars part of this essay thing ended up longer then expected. Feel free to get mad over my hot takes because of things I implied about your blorbos. I don't know how to end this. Please reblog with any opinions you have, or just if you agree.

[tarmac-rat]

Slowly quietly thinking about how water-- the classical element of change, movement, emotion, and community-- is a subtle symbol of every Cyberpunk 2077's love interest's quest once it reaches it's completion

Judy Alvarez wants to enact change. She is, at her core, an idealist, and wants to confront the injustices of the world she lives in even if she doesn't exactly know where to start. Judy sees the way the world chews up the working classes of Night City and spits them out with no remorse and is one of the only people who says "no, this shouldn't stand, we have to do something". Even though her plan to seize of Clouds is ultimately unsuccessful, she walks away having gained at least one thing: her freedom. She's tied to Night City, in many ways always will be, but she realizes her worth extends beyond the place that's done absolutely nothing for her in return, so she chooses to leave it behind. Judy's storyline ends with her sitting on the dock overlooking the reservoir of Laguna Bend.

River Ward doesn't know how to change. Blue-blooded through and through, an NCPD detective whose traumatic experiences with crime has shaped who he is. River's morality drives his work, but it also pushes those closest to him-- his sister, his niece and nephews-- away from him. As a result, we see him as the thing society shaped him to be: a no-nonsense, by-the-book cop who genuinely believes in the morality of those he works with until he's forced to look it's corruption dead in the eyes. And the second he realizes how unjust the law he fought so hard to uphold really is, he severs his ties with it and returns to the people who care for him the most. River's storyline ends with him sitting on top of a water tower.

Kerry Eurodyne is resistant to change. Why wouldn't he be? Kerry Eurodyne is the last of the old guard, a rockerboy still living 60 years in the past who's in a mansion he hates and in a corporate deal he can't break out of. So what happens when change comes along in the form of a J-Pop band that's covering his songs without his permission? He confronts them, old-school style, because that's what rockerboys like him've always done. But Kerry soon realizes that the world moving on isn't a bad thing-- what is bad is him digging in his heels and not moving along with it. The new ways can be hard to accept, but Kerry's done with spending the rest of his life grappling with a past he refuses to reconcile with, so he ushers in a new era of his life the only way he knows how to: with songs and flames. Kerry's storyline ends with him lying on the shoreline of Del Cornado Bay

Panam Palmer is desperate for her people to change. Stubborn, hardheaded Panam saw the writing on the wall and broke out for a fresh start the moment she realized Saul's 'promised land' was nothing but dust, Raffen, and dealings with Biotechnica. She struck out as a merc in Night City, running drugs and working with the local gangs. But Panam's loyality is as much a blessing as it is a curse. She comes back when her family needs her, but she is done sitting on the sidelines and watching the Aldecaldos fall further under a corporate's thumb. So she does the only thing she feels she can do: steals a panzer and shows her leaders that their clan can still be something great. She's rewarded for her actions, and the Aldecaldos retain their independence for good. Panam's storyline ends with her driving the Basilisk over a lake in the Badlands.

[toweringclam]

"Cyberpunk is fascist," they say, or "New Phyrexia is queer." They'll say, "Cthulhu is trans," and I can't even tell if they mean that as a good thing or a bad thing. Depends on who's saying it, I guess.

*takes a long drag off cigarette*

Maybe transformation lends itself equally to themes of both liberation and control. Maybe fear of the other is also lust. Maybe even us cripples can't always tell the difference between freedom for disability and freedom from disability.

*takes one last drag*

Maybe the lines ain't so clear-cut cut as we want to think. But what do I know about anything?

*licks her fingers and pinches the cherry, pocketing the butt*

Forget it Jake, it's Tumblr discourse.

[scipunk]

Armitage III: Dual Matrix (2001)

[anonymousgayrobot]

A not fact checked FIXATION RANT:: FALLOUT 4

GOD does anybody else feel like fallout 4’s self insert mc was a wasted opportunity?? LIKE WHY DO WE GET TO PLAY A LITERAL VETERAN FROM THE ANNEXATION OF CANADA, THE THING YOU ONLY GET TO HEAR ABOUT IN PAST GAMES

AND ITS NEVER BROUGHT UP AGAIN

like why give the self insert character lore if you’re never going to mention it again or feel any repercussions or sentiments from the past? the sole survivor never mourns, is never the one opening up to other characters (which makes the romances appear very one-sided)— like can’t we get any flashbacks?? anything??? in this weird mixture of having a self insert and a protagonist, you wind up with this very bland character that breaks any kind of immersion. and why make a self insert character if there’s always going to be a set background? that defeats the purpose.

really bad examples for context? comparison?? ((AND I KNOW ITS KINDA FUCKED COMPARING A 2015 GAME TO SHIT THAT CAME OUT IN THE 20’S, BUT IT SHOULD BE BASIC KNOWLEDGE KNOW-HOW ON HOW TO DEVELOP AN IMMERSIVE SELF INSERTED PROTAGONIST EVEN WITH TECHNOLOGICAL SETBACKS??))

anyways, so in Cyberpunk2077, you are given past options THAT AFFECT LATER DETAILS OF THE GAME; do they alter the PATH that the game goes? no, but it creates a sense of immersion because you are now a person with past experience and knowledge with a uniquely spoken narrative and perspective.

in BG3, particularly the Durge route I found to be the most immersive, you begin with amnesia and the nautliod with the other protagonists. right there’s a reasonable excuse for not having a concrete lore, and it haunts you throughout the game with sparse hints until the big reveal of your history— which isn’t even explicitly + visually shown, but it’s spoken through other characters and makes it feel more like a solid, 3 dimensional character outside of being a self insert mc.

And to make Nora ‘just a lawyer’ just seems so unfair lorewise because her husband IS A WARCRIMINAL. godddd, but even still bethesda could’ve compensated for that with flashbacks from her civilian perspective, perhaps with dealing with Nate while raising Shawn, that stress, discovering his crimes, whatever. Same goes for Nate. FUCK YOU BETHESDA. oh my goddhf.

‘oh yeah i served :T’

SERVED FUCKING WHAT? SERVED CUNT?SAY FUCKINN CANADA YOU SUBURBAN LOSER. BUT THATS ALL WE FUCKING GOTTT AND ALL WE’RE EVER GETTING AAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH

one detail however I really like, is one of Sole’s sarcastic comments in the Nuka World dlc. They reminisce ABOUT GOD FUCKIGN GINGER..,:; TO PUT IN TEA. but continuing this, they mention adding a lot of brandy. who the fuck does that. WHO FUCKING ENJOYS SPICED HOT TODDYS??? (name of the drink described by sole;; psa: it nasty((to me.) and the ginger tea is typically to aid in sickness, colds, ‘soothing’. Stressed out lawyer and mother, PTSD-riddled veteran and father, makes sense, adds up. but the addition of ‘a lot of brandy’ can add more personality to such an otherwise one dimensional character. but they don’t describe enjoying a spiced hot toddy in particular,, they merely describe adding brandy to their otherwise normal-recipe-d tea. That’s it. Soothing aid with the addition of ‘a lot’ of alcohol; what does that say about a character? a better and more used example, is when a character is shown pouring alcohol into their coffee, often to demonstrate how stressed they are and how they are forced to cope, using alcohol. THIS IS THE ONLYY GLIMPSE OF INSIGHT WE GET ON THE SOLE SURVIVOR. FUCK. LIKE SURE THE SURVIVOR HAS THEIR ANGRY MOMENTS WHEN THE GAME FIRST BEGINS IN THE CRYO CHAMBER,, ADDRESSING KELLOGG, SOME MOMENTS WITH THE FATHER— BUT ITS ALL ANGER. ANGER WITH NO OTHERWISE MEANS OF EXPRESSION THAT POP UP AND ARE EASILY MISSABLE. THERE’S NO IDLE COMMENTS THAT CAN RESPOND TO COMPANIONS, NO SENSE OF CHARACTER COMPLEXITY, CAMARADERIE WITH TRAVELING COMPANIONS OR INTENTIONALLY-WRITTEN INTERNAL DILEMMA.

AND THIS IS ALL WE WILL EVER FUCKIN GET. FUCK

i know this uh ‘turmoil’ is kinda my own fault for falling in love with analyzing classic literature books starting in highschool which it then set my standard for writing, and now everything is Not Fun anymore. IT FUCKING SUCKS BRO😭😭 BUT AT WHAT COSTTTTTT WHAT COSSSSTTTTTTTTTTT

[ghostoffuturespast]

What’d I miss what’s the thing with the clair de lune piano? 👀 gotta know the backstory

Hehehe I'm so glad you asked :>

I jokingly refer to the Clair de Lune piano (the piano in the Peralez's apartment for anyone reading this) as my arch nemesis, but it's actually one of my favorite pieces of foreshadowing in CP2077. Like it's just one of those things you'd never know, unless you took the time to get to know, and there's just so much of that in this game. A mind-boggling amount of it. It makes my brain very happy and it's one of the many reasons why I love this game so goddamn much. It's just layer upon layer upon layer. The cake that keeps on giving!

Now, there is a possibility that this wasn't intended as foreshadowing, but given how many music and poetry references there are in the game, I'm really hard pressed to believe that the inclusion of Clair de Lune wasn't intentional.

(Heck, look up the other classical song that is referenced in the game Nocturnes, Op. 55, Frederic Chopin, and Jane Stirling. You may see some similarities in situation between Chopin and Stirling, and V and Hanako. Two diseased dying virtuosos and their two wealthy financial sponsors crutching them along.)

We as players can encounter Clair de Lune piano twice in the game. First at the end of the quest I Fought the Law and then a second time at the beginning of Dream On. Both instances, in the Peralez's apartment on a self-playing piano. The melody drifting disembodied through the air...

At first listen, the fact that this song is playing, may not have even registered. (It certainly didn't for me the first several times I played.) Just a classical song being listened to by a couple of rich people for atmosphere. Dig a little deeper, you may have noticed the moon motif based on the title of the song. There's a lot of moon and space motifs in this game too. But the true meaning of this song requires you to know a little bit of music history.

Clair de Lune is the third movement of a piano suite called Suite bergamasque that was composed by Claude Debussy. That third movement got its inspiration and name from a poem written by Paul Verlaine.

Clair de Lune is a fucking poem.

A poem about a masquerade dance underneath the moonlight where all the dancers are living a fantasy life. Very much in the same way that we find out in the conclusion of Dream On that Jefferson and Elizabeth Peralez are living their own fantasy life...

Foreshadowing.

Clair de Lune by Paul Verlaine Your soul is like a landscape fantasy, Where masks and Bergamasks, in charming wise, Strum lutes and dance, just a bit sad to be Hidden beneath their fanciful disguise. Singing in minor mode of life’s largesse And all-victorious love, they yet seem quite Reluctant to believe their happiness, And their song mingles with the pale moonlight, The calm, pale moonlight, whose sad beauty, beaming, Sets the birds softly dreaming in the trees, And makes the marbled fountains, gushing, streaming – Slender jet-fountains – sob their ecstasies.

And remember...

Nothing comes before Night City.

[demodraws0606]

UHM GUYS...

So my friend @anakirui was reading the event and we came across those specific lines and....

DIRECTOR OOHARA WAS BASICALLY USING WXS FOR HIS OWN MEANS, EXPLOITING THEIR YOUTH

THERE IS A VERY LIKELYHOOD THAT HE WAS JUST USING RUI

WHICH MAKES THE COMM AND THIS SCENE...

MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE WITH CONTEXT

WHICH PRETTY MUCH KINDA CONFIRMS MY GUT FEELING WITH MY CYBERPUNK DEADBOY ANALYSIS

This also has a very concerning impact on Rui

Like he actively starts spending less time with WxS.

He starts taking care of himself less, focusing really hard on working for this director including not sleeping and skipping meals.

He constantly makes excuses for the director's dubious action (sakaki and oohara)

He shows a lot of unhealthy behaviors in this event and the fact that he basically now brought the attention of scummy directors like Oohara and now most likely Sakaki is very concerning

Also my friend pointed out that when Sakaki says Rui's last name, it's always misspelled. Which makes think it's to show that Sakaki doesn't really give a shit about Rui or more so doesn't respect him already to the point where his name can't even bothered to be spelled correctly (also with the fact that despite saying hi to rui he literally forgot he existed)

So yep shit's fucked everybody o7 we had a nice run