Why is Johnny in the chip??

[psionyx]

Ok so, I don't really understand WHY he's in that thing. From what we are told in the story, from sources like Hellman, who worked on the chip, this is a new biochip, with a slick, top of the line, prototype, unique design. Soooo....when Yorinobu steals it from his dad's company and brings it to Night City....before doing that he sticks the engram of a wannabe rockerboy that (apparently) didn't actually do anything of significance, and was nothing more than a joke? Why?! I know that the VDB's want Johnny because they think he will lead them to Alt, but Yorinobu never seems to express any interest in this at all. It never comes up from the Arasaka side of any conversations (though I haven't done the Devil ending, so maybe it's explained more there.) It's just.....a random dude, that they stuck on the chip for some reason. Did the VDB's have someone on the inside that implanted Johnny on the chip, BEFORE Evelyn was hired to then steal the chip? Implying that Yorinobu didn't know Johnny was on it? That seems far fetched. So if that's not the case, then that would mean that Yorinobu INTENTIONALLY put Johnny on that chip. But....why?

Apparently they've got a huge databank of people they copy for study purposes, as evidenced by what they do with Jackie if you leave his body with Vik. But they never really refer to any of them as being important. Certainly nobody at Arasaka gives a crap about the Johnny engram, they just want the chip. A chip that was apparently meant for a very specific purpose....a purpose that does NOT require a failed rockerboy ghost on it. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

So why is he on that thing?

[Graf Erik]

I don't think Evelyn is lying about previous meetings. There probably were some. I think Evelyn is right here, Netwatch is stalling her, shes just wrong about the reason. Its so that they can finish their deal with Yorinobu before she messes things up.

I also don't think she is lying about Netwatch wanting Silverhand. She is just guessing. How would a random doll know about Netwatches plans regarding the Blackwall? She just overheard something from the VDBs (thats the basis of here entire plan after all), and assumed that Netwatch has the same plan as them.

Obviously we wont agree on the timeline here.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Zebedee]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Graf Erik:

I don't think Evelyn is lying about previous meetings. There probably were some. I think Evelyn is right here, Netwatch is stalling her, shes just wrong about the reason. Its so that they can finish their deal with Yorinobu before she messes things up.

I also don't think she is lying about Netwatch wanting Silverhand. She is just guessing. How would a random doll know about Netwatches plans regarding the Blackwall? She just overheard something from the VDBs (thats the basis of here entire plan after all), and assumed that Netwatch has the same plan as them.

Obviously we wont agree on the timeline here.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's obviously gaps in the timeline, as indicated by only having that solitary indication that she had met Netwatch. Yorinobu was certainly willing to talk about things in front of her on top of that. And for sure, we won't agree on the timeline here because it's not something with any wriggle room in the text we're discussing. Will be interesting to see whether any more gets filled out with so much taking place in Pacifica for the expansion. There's definitely gaps in the game's story which smell of places for them to hook in future content if they wanted too.

[psionyx]

Just ran into an interesting bit of confusing and contradictory dialogue about this. Doing the Scorpion burial mission, and in the drive over to the spot where V and Mitch give him his send off, Silverhand says "Didn't ask Soburo to stick me on that damn chip, or you to put me in your damn head" So Johnny seems to think this was Soburo's plan. Yet another example of just how damn messy this particular plot point ended up in the final product.

[r.linder]

Diposting pertama kali oleh psionyx:

Just ran into an interesting bit of confusing and contradictory dialogue about this. Doing the Scorpion burial mission, and in the drive over to the spot where V and Mitch give him his send off, Silverhand says "Didn't ask Soburo to stick me on that damn chip, or you to put me in your damn head" So Johnny seems to think this was Soburo's plan. Yet another example of just how damn messy this particular plot point ended up in the final product.

Johnny doesn't know who did it, but he knows that Arasaka is Saburo's company and the Relic was his project so he blames him.

[spasti696969]

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Diposting pertama kali oleh psionyx:

Just ran into an interesting bit of confusing and contradictory dialogue about this. Doing the Scorpion burial mission, and in the drive over to the spot where V and Mitch give him his send off, Silverhand says "Didn't ask Soburo to stick me on that damn chip, or you to put me in your damn head" So Johnny seems to think this was Soburo's plan. Yet another example of just how damn messy this particular plot point ended up in the final product.

Johnny doesn't know who did it, but he knows that Arasaka is Saburo's company and the Relic was his project so he blames him.

Maybe I'm missing something because I'm only halfway through the game, but I remember Johnny being conscious while Saburo and some random tech worker put him on the Soul Killer in 2020 or whatever while the tower was still a mushroom cloud in the background.

[r.linder]

Diposting pertama kali oleh spasti696969:

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Johnny doesn't know who did it, but he knows that Arasaka is Saburo's company and the Relic was his project so he blames him.

Maybe I'm missing something because I'm only halfway through the game, but I remember Johnny being conscious while Saburo and some random tech worker put him on the Soul Killer in 2020 or whatever while the tower was still a mushroom cloud in the background.

That never happened in the actual canon.

Johnny was completely blown in half by Smasher and didn't even make it back to the roof, he was unable to escape because Smasher smashed him like he was nothing, because Johnny was no rival to him, his real rival was Blackhand.

Johnny never met Saburo and may not even have been awake when they ripped his psyche. That's just how events played out in his mind but they are far from reality.

He wasn't put on a Relic either until 2077 when Yorinobu did it to peddle the chip off to NetWatch.

[Zebedee]

Cyberpunk Red has Spider Murphy putting a datachip into Johnny's head as he's dying. From Spider downloading things onto datachips from the Arasaka mainframe before launching a virus to remove all references to Soulkiller from it, there's a temptation there to wonder whether Spider's "aces in the hole", to be used somehow to avenge Arasaka killing Rache Bartmoss, were copies of Soulkiller.

[r.linder]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Zebedee:

Cyberpunk Red has Spider Murphy putting a datachip into Johnny's head as he's dying. From Spider downloading things onto datachips from the Arasaka mainframe before launching a virus to remove all references to Soulkiller from it, there's a temptation there to wonder whether Spider's "aces in the hole", to be used somehow to avenge Arasaka killing Rache, were copies of Soulkiller.

Even though she would've had the netrunning skill to produce her own version of Soulkiller (since she was higher rep than Alt, probably better at it), I doubt it. It took Arasaka a really long time to produce just two experimental Relics.

[Zebedee]

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Even though she would've had the netrunning skill to produce her own version of Soulkiller (since she was higher rep than Alt, probably better at it), I doubt it. It took Arasaka a really long time to produce just two experimental Relics.

Only it was Alt who invented it, wasn't it? It became an Arasaka signature for how they dealt with netrunners so it didn't become widespread. It's just a weird thing there to that story of what she could have downloaded from the Arasaka mainframe which was worth lying to the others about retrieving when she was meant to be destroying Soulkiller. And of course, what she then put into dying Johnny's head.

[r.linder]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Zebedee:

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Even though she would've had the netrunning skill to produce her own version of Soulkiller (since she was higher rep than Alt, probably better at it), I doubt it. It took Arasaka a really long time to produce just two experimental Relics.

Only it was Alt who invented it, wasn't it? It became an Arasaka signature for how they dealt with netrunners so it didn't become widespread. It's just a weird thing there to that story of what she could have downloaded from the Arasaka mainframe which was worth lying to the others about retrieving when she was meant to be destroying Soulkiller.

Being that she was sidelined in the game outside of memories, unlikely she has any bearing on the story anymore.

[Zebedee]

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Being that she was sidelined in the game outside of memories, unlikely she has any bearing on the story anymore.

Do you mean Spider? Possibly, although I wonder about just who is the other engram (?) in the trailer, but it doesn't change that Cyberpunk Red sets it out as what happened on the tower.

[r.linder]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Zebedee:

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Being that she was sidelined in the game outside of memories, unlikely she has any bearing on the story anymore.

Do you mean Spider? Possibly, although I wonder about just who is the other engram (?) in the trailer, but it doesn't change that Cyberpunk Red sets it out as what happened on the tower.

Who knows, could've been a chip to protect Johnny from Arasaka's ability to mess with his engram. That's up to Pondsmith.

I don't think Spider would be a surprise supervillain, she was a friend

[Zebedee]

Diposting pertama kali oleh 尺．し工几句ヨ尺:

Who knows, could've been a chip to protect Johnny from Arasaka's ability to mess with his engram. That's up to Pondsmith.

I don't think Spider would be a surprise supervillain, she was a friend

I don't think anything I've written suggests Spider as a supervillain? Not sure anything Pondsmith wrote in Cyberpunk Red does either. Spider putting a chip into Johnny's head after playing with Soulkiller is something which is left for you to draw an inference between in the story told primarily from her viewpoint. Whatever was on the chips she took away she wasn't owning up to.

[Vela Darney]

I saw a Youtube video that actually checked what's in the original language (read: Polish) e-mails Yorinobu and Netwatch exchanged. Looks like they were badly translated from Polish because, going by what was said in that video about what the POLISH (original language) text says, it was NETWATCH who specifically REQUESTED Johnny Silverhand be put on the chip. In one of the mails, Yorinobu's wondering about it and is told he'll see why . Which makes a lot more sense than the English version because Netwatch probably wanted Johnny for the same reason Brigitte did: to get Alt's attention. Only unlike the Voodoo Boys, Netwatch probably wanted to use Johnny to lure her into a trap instead of negotiating some kind of deal with her.

[psionyx]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Vela Darney:

I saw a Youtube video that actually checked what's in the original language (read: Polish) e-mails Yorinobu and Netwatch exchanged. Looks like they were badly translated from Polish because, going by what was said in that video about what the POLISH (original language) text says, it was NETWATCH who specifically REQUESTED Johnny Silverhand be put on the chip. In one of the mails, Yorinobu's wondering about it and is told he'll see why . Which makes a lot more sense than the English version because Netwatch probably wanted Johnny for the same reason Brigitte did: to get Alt's attention. Only unlike the Voodoo Boys, Netwatch probably wanted to use Johnny to lure her into a trap instead of negotiating some kind of deal with her.

Yeah if that is true, it is a complete opposite read from what is in the game currently. That seems like a REALLY huge mistranslation though? To actually end up translating the exact opposite of what you were given. I guess since it was only one a single email that only people who stopped to read Yorinobu's terminal would see, in a mission where they are being yelled at to hurry up. Still, that's like being given a text that says "I am your father" and translating it to "I'm totally NOT your father" You'd think SOMEONE would be like "hol up a minute! wtf?!" xD

Regarding the bit about Netwatch wanting his engram because they want to talk to Alt, maybe I'm misunderstanding something, because the data I've gleaned is from a lot of sources. But, isn't the Blackwall actually Alt? I seem to recall seeing someone say that, but I haven't confirmed it. And isn't Netwatch in control of the Blackwall? If yes, then why would they need Johnny's engram to talk to her? The AI they are actually controlling? If she's not the Blackwall AI, then yes that would make sense, as to why they would want it, just like the VDBs. But I'm not sure what situation is correct.