The Lost Storyline of T-Bug | Fiction Forensics | Cyberpunk 2077 Explained
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- In today's video, we're taking a trip to the morgue that is Cyberpunk 2077's cut content. T-Bug is a character that's stirred up a lot of theories over the years, and I genuinely believe it's because you can still see the bumps of her prior storyline peeking through the (lack of) polish. On top of discussing a potential theory of who T-Bug was originally supposed to be, we'll be analyzing the character she became for the final game.
But, on top of it all, this essay is intended to emphasize the importance of perhaps the most boring stage of the creative process... the dreaded editing/revision stage. Ew. LOL. I love Cyberpunk 2077, but no amount of extra polish on its story would be a bad thing.
I'm overall sad that T-Bug never got be a full-fledged character of her own. She's already very interesting, so it's just a shame that she got lost so soon.
Please share your theories about T-Bug below! I would love to hear them. Also please debunk mine if you're interested, I know you guys can come up with something better than I did!
Thank you so much for watching! See you in the next one, guys. BYEEEEEEEE!
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Игры
Apologies for the saw noise in the background sometimes lmao I’m neighbours with a workshop 😂
its almost if you work in Night City
That's just somebody getting chromed up downstairs
What?! I can't hear you over the buzz saws!!
Fun fact: the first chainsaw was invented as a tool for caesarian deliveries.
I think real-life ripperdocs would definitely use chainsaws on a daily basis.
"Some brothers from Pacifica got back to me. Told me to stop looking."
Dex on the subject of looking for the voodoos. By voodoo standards thats being on speaking terms.
I believe T-Bug was killed by a Demon. According to the tabletop RPG, "Demons are a form of Black ICE with a limited Artificial Intelligence" . They can use the "zap" ability to defend itself within the architecture. I guarantee the Konpeki subnet was littered with all sorts of AI who sit waiting for netrunners. I think the devs changed her fate to show players how dangerous the net can be. As V, you don't really do real netrunning, and so if you don't play the tabletop game you might not understand how it works.
Ohhhh that makes a lot of sense!!!
Was literally about to comment this. We run Cyberpunk Red, and there are some programs that only hit other programs, while others hit the netrunner directly. T-Bug was hit by the latter. Also, we see this happen to a certain someone in Phantom Liberty too, although not via another netrunner. Their nervous system gets hit. But it's your brain that's jacked into the Net, and your nervous system via that, so "being fried" is an immediate death.
*Daemon. (Though I think demon and daemon are used interchangeable in the game) The word stems from ancient greek meaning (not an official definition) a benevolent entity or force that works in the lives of people in unseen ways. It's where we get our moden word "demon", but would've originally meant more of what our modern understanding of an angel is.
Nowadays, a "daemon" is a computer program that handles background tasks. Much like the original greek idea. These programs, invented by some of the first computer scientists, were labelled "daemon" as a reference to the greek philosophy while also communicating their function. Still today you can see these programs running on modern computers. They often end with " d. " They're easier to find on computers running a Linux os.
However, in the 80's and 90's, the time period where the cyberpunk genre was born, people's imagination of "the net" was still wild, and so in Cyberpunk 2077 we get these image's of half ghost, half a.i. malicious killing programs.
Anyway.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
Konpeki had more than just Black Ice, but yes....she most likely got got by something from the system, if not the Dweller venting his anger at her and hitting her with a Dragon or a Killer. I'd expect Konpeki to have a Balron or Efreet at a minimum, given the kind of secrets they have, and the customers they host. For example, during the heist V and Jackie can see the mayor literally getting orders from Arasaka. On the tabletop, in RED at least, netrunning is a complex and involved activity, where getting out is the least of the runner's worries (programs can throw you out, thus allowing all the ICE you bypassed to give you a warm gift on your way out). it's definitely not the work of a few seconds like the mini-game V does.
@@Quzxpon As for the word’s history, programmers from MIT’s Project MAC coined the term daemon in 1963. The inspiration came from Maxwell’s demon, a thought experiment that can hypothetically break the second law of thermodynamics.
I always got the vibe that T-Bug wasn't on the up-and-up w/ V and Jackie. She makes very clear that she isn't your friend during the Scav job. It's just a job to her, and you're the crew she was tasked with. She was looking to get ahead, but always on her terms.
Tbh I still love the idea that she cared about V and Jackie as a crew even though she didn’t really show it, and that the last thing she ever did was try to help them escape instead of cutting and running. Especially because she wasn’t just trying to get ahead, she was trying to leave night city completely.
It’s a nice contrast to Dex acting like a buddy with V and Jackie while only being out for himself from the start.
It felt like she wanted it to be that way however she grew attatched to them.
People don't have to be your friend in order to get a job doing without betraying you.
I believe that T-Bug was just professional. She cared for her crewmates like a professional would. And she helped V and Jackie to escape because she didn't see her own demise coming. Who knows how she might have reacted if she knew that her synapses were going to be fried if she stayed with them.
T-Bug is part of Cyberspace she ditched her physical form she is in vacation but within the NET. Just like Rache Bartmoss the one who gave her this fail safe using the Matrix pill reference. She can take over Cyborgs however like a doll if she needs a physical forum. Project Orion goes into depth with this about this
One detail I notice about T-Bug is that she is using a really ancient Cyberdeck, one similar we retrieve from Bartmoss, which is like seeing a hacker using a laptop PC from 1993 or something. She could be using it as a firewall addon or something, but it still adds some strange idea of her character being very fond of older technology for reliability.
That's a detail I've noticed as well. I dunno if they only had one cyberdeck prop/asset for the game, but I think it meshes well with her as a netrunner regardless. Plausible imo because IRL some businesses use very old computers (like floppy drive old lol) as a sort of airgap for their networks.
@@null_0012makes me wonder if she's just that old.
@@unturned6066 You never really know in that world, with all the tech and alterations people can and do have done.
In healthcare and in other health care roles such as psychiatry, you can still see operating systems such as windows xp, vista, or windows 7 used because the only reliable way to gain access to that kind of information is through being there in-person and grabbing the hard drive. The same is often seen for lab computers, most business models and companies, shipping and freighting companies like FedEx, militaries around the world etc. The entire U.S. Fleet for example uses a custom-made version of Red Hat Linux for the entire Navy's fleet (Thank you Linux!). This is because these kinds of operating systems often do not make use of multimedia applications on the hardware's operating system such as windows 10 or 11 that embed 'self-learning' and 'data-collecting' features today that 1) often bloats the performance of the system by adding the 'self learning' 'data-collecting' tasks, 2) often changes how compatible the devices are if you are not actively using it for the OS brand itself and if the programs you are using did not upgrade or are using bloat too with placing in ads and data mining stuff as well, 3) makes it easier to hack most of the time than their older versions 4) unless if you have the time to go through extensive software changes to make it private for your own uses it is going to take time to deactivate bloatware features.
Windows xp, vista, and 7 are ridiculously easy to hack though.. it helps a little that those systems probably aren't connected straight to the internet.. but literally anyone with a basic pentesting course could get into those systems provided they can get on the network. @loafoffloof3420
you know it's bad and she was done dirty when for my first playthrough I literally thought her main role was to be an npc for the training tutorial
It was
Well, the title card for the game doesn’t show until she’s gone so… that’s exactly her purpose. Her participation in The Heist and her ties to Dexter/V just gave her a narrative reason to exist.
@@shaquille.oatmeal2724 I don't understand your issue here though. What do you mean she was done dirty and it's bad? That was her character's role.
@@Carnefice This is just a bunch of people coping hard.
@Carnefice probably because T-Bug character seemed a bit more important to V than just "an npc character" with how she lashes out at Jackie when she dies.
If her role was just suppose to be that then maybe they shouldn't have given the three so many instances where T-Bug presents as a distant cold netrunner but was unknowingly getting attached to Jackie and V anyways.
It gives us the impression that TBug knew Jackie and V for awhile and (professionalism or not they considered her apart of thier team even if she rebuffs that).
How you can dedicate a toast to her in PL which you don't do for a character that was suppose to just be an npc and that's it. She obviously was suppose to have some sort of impact on us, the players.
I don't think it's asking for alot to give a character that's alteast semi-close to the two main ones (atleast in Act 1) a bit more so we can also care about her death?
V randomly receives a shard in his apartment in act 2 titled “Greetings from Des Moines”. It reads “Jump in the urinal and stand on your head. I'm the one that's alive. You're all dead.”
I always thought that was somewhat fitting for a T bug betrayal. Maybe she’s living her quiet life in Des Moines
Or its a leftover from her orignial story.
I guess that makes sense. I only saw that recently so I thought it might have been Songbird
Bug seemed very adamant on cutting ties. To send a message to a former colleague , however cryptic that message may be, seems out of character to me.
ive always assumed it was one of Delamain's personalities
Des Moines isnt in greece
My personal theory is that T-bug only agreed to participate in this job because she planned on betraying Dexter as payback for what probably happened 5 years ago in Pacifica, but never got the chance because she got hit with black ice. Either that or she faked her death and skipped the country leaving everyone else out to dry.
But Girl didnt have enough money to Skip to country and Dodge all
poor girl got fried
Man that's cold. I like it. Dex getting his brain fried for being a notoriously, backstabbing idiot.
That Konpeki plaza heist just went so bad. It never was going to be successful. Reminded me of Reservoir Dogs.
Yeahhh. Like, even if it had gone as planned, you can’t help but get this idea that nobody involved would be alive to celebrate it for long. 😬
@@lydiscott Honestly, a few things changing could have meant they could at least get back to the lobby without triggering any alarms. They walked in with a big suitcase, they're walking out with a big suitcase.
The big slip was in their cover being a meeting with an Arasaka arms developer (Hajime Taki, if I remember right), whom could easily break their cover if they speak to anyone about their itinerary and schedule and it DOESN'T include meeting with Militech suits about a suitcase.
Without Saburo getting killed (Such as even just Saburo saying his piece and leaving), there's a lot that could still go well enough to get them to the parking garage with minimal suspicion. The sad fact is, Saburo dying and Yorinobu putting the hotel on full lockdown got their full suite of Netrunners and ICE activated, as opposed to just the dweller, not to mention all the armed security flooding the place top to bottom.
There's also the prevailing theory that Adam Smasher's full borg kit gave him full thermal and EM vision to see V and Jackie in the middle of that central pillar and he said nothing, probably to ensure Yori's cover of Saburo's actual cause of death would be believed.
Honestly it's the worst plan ever and Dex is probably one of the worst fixers around and Evelyn choose him because this whole heist idea is so stupid that no one would accept a mission like this.
I've always had the idea that the shard was cursed from the start, think about it, anyone and everyone involved in some way with the shard ends up dead. Saburo, dex, t bug, ..even v technically dies. Plus you can catch a line from Judy telling V that she told Evelyn to not take the job in the first place, that everything about it gave her bad vibes.
No if they just went another day then it probably would have worked.
I like TBug, people can say she wanted to betray V and Jackie and she is cold but i respect her for staying with the gang to the end, opening those doors. She could just bail out instantly after hearing news about death of Saburo, but she didnt, helped our heroes and payed the price for it. I also like Bug character as a reminder that anyone who wants to leave NC on their own terms will end badly.
This was probably professionalism, too. She stayed because you are supposed to as a professional. Her death came very sudden and rather unexpected, she might have reacted differently if she forsaw her demise.
I doubt she could have bounced that fast.
There's a Gig you can do for Wakako in Westbrook where you have to rescue a netrunner named BugBear. She is jacked in and before you can bring her out, you need to lower her core temperature or she'll go into shock and die.
You also see this in the Edge Runners show with Kiwi and Lucy where they lay in an ice bath while jacked in.
So it's my theory that T-Bug couldn't just bounce out as soon as shit went sideways because she didn't have time to cool off and be safe to disconnect from the net before some angry ass Saka program found her.
@@sadturtlesoup8832 Good point, proper netrunning needs proper cooling. So she should have seen the danger way before the heist started in order to get out safely, or in other words there was no escape. The more reason for her to fight for her and her teammates lives.
I think the decision to move bugs death up to the mission rather than after is to boost Jackie. Had he been the only one to go down he looks like s goofy gonk who never stood s chance. But by killing the hyper-competent T-Bug, it raises the stakes during the mission, sells the danger of Arasaka, and makes Jackie not the only one to die from a betrayal (Dax and V) 3 betrayers rather than 2 may have also veen one too many
Very good point, this makes a lot of sense!
T-Bug isn't actually "hyper competent" she's just professional, compared to literally any other net runner we find or hear about, she's slow and running obsolete tech, sure bartmoss did the same but he was a master who created a deck from many many other decks to be perfect, T-Bugs deck is just old
@@valx7586 spose I should've said seemingly
My take is that Marcus Aurelius both never said it and is its originator. Meditations is inspired by Greek philosophy, and there’s a tendency in that literature to make up conversations to prove a moral point, such as Euyphro’s Dilemma. Just as Plato both felt obliged to his mentor Socrates and used him as a rhetorical authority, Marcus referred to his own mentors.
12:00 Now this is an interesting detail. This gives the notion of T-Bug being more prominent character initially.
Knowing how troubled development was, it feels like they had to do a rewrite and cut plenty in the last minute.
Given the explanation of t-bugs concept it sounds like her original design might've gotten spun off for maman brigitte. The animation for the promo trailer was most likely made way in advance, based on an early draft of a scene. And if they hadn't yet decided on the details, it would make sense that everyone involved with the mission would be present at the No Tell Motel unless specified otherwise.
Excellent points! Gotta wonder how the plot got from a to z. Wonder what other storylines they had going on that they axed. Hmmm.
@@lydiscott in the initial showings of the game you were able to choose a hero between Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand or Saburo Arasaka. The general consensus in the community was that you would have one of the three in your head depending on your choice. But then they cast Keanu Reeves and if you have Keanu Reeves you use Keanu Reeves. So Blackhand and Saburo stories got folded into Silverhand. Might be why we see him with the bomb in the final game when Blackhand was actually the one planting the bomb.
keeping the same plot and adjusting the discrepancies to be Johnny ego tripping over his importance would be pretty great. they keep the black hand moments with johnny forcing himself into black hands shoes.
typing this out, I realize it would have been pretty cool to have Johnny realize the truth of his death and memories.
how unimportant he really is to arasaka, smasher, and the world would have been great.
@@firstname4382 that seems to be what they did. Pondsmith, CDPR and even Alt in game all say his memories are BS. A good example is Samurai was broken up before either of the missions we see with him.
@@lydiscott they likley axed the entireity of the flash foward at the start of the game. I feel your time with jackie and crew in the early days. was the orginal act 1. the early jobs likely made up the start of the story. ending with the big job at the plaza. leading to act 2 which likely would have been what we know as act one after jackies death. T bugs fate likely would have changed depending on your actions (actually i know it would have because it was mentioned either in a gameplay trailer or an e 3 showing early on)
I feel that Arasaka wouldn't use Soul Killer. From people we know they use it on, they only use it on high value targets. During the heist, all they know about Bug is that it's some random runner, not anyone particularly important or notable.
Totally agree.
She was caught infiltrating the location where the Emperor of Arasaka was killed, thats more than enough to warrant the use of all measures Arasaka has on hand. Its not stated if they did, but theres no reason for them not to. I dont think the question is "would they have" - they would, she's a suspect in a high level murder. A more interesting question would Could they have? As far as we can see, soulkiller requires the physical body of the subject at the location where the soulkiller apparatus is, we see that with Jackie and "Johnny's Memories" but it is also possible that they had a net deployable version, since it's rumored that they have used it as a countermeasure towards hostile netrunners in dialog
The heist makes the group into high value targets though. We know already that if you make the wrong choice about where to send Jackie's body, Arasaka will intervene, capture his body, and then attempt to use Soul Killer on it, and you can meet what's survived of his consciousness in Mikoshi later. No doubt if they're willing to do that to Jackie, they'd have done it to Bug as well. Maybe you're right though, that during the heist itself (notably before Saburo is killed) they sought only to kill the invaders as quickly as possible, and it was only later and in light of the death of an emperor that they thought to use Soul Killer to extract information from them.
@@TCM_Hutchie I feel like Soulkiller needs more prep and physical access to the body to utilize. I feel like once Bug was caught by all the freshly activated ICE and Daemons in the post-Lockdown Konpeki subnet, she was roasted to death by everything at once before she could even think to unplug. Her biggest mistake was unlocking that last door for V and Jackie AFTER lockdown started. If she'd unplugged the moment she knew Arasaka was booting all their security for the lockdown (Including active deployment of netrunners, ICE, and Daemons), she might have gotten away. Heck, V and Jackie were lucky that the netrunners and ICE didn't circumvent her attempt to unlock that door.
They did use it once.
On Johnny Silverhand
Even her name is enigmatic-bug can refer to both her technical prowess and how suddenly her life is snuffed out. But T part, besides the possible connotation that it stands for “tech,” is even more open to interpretation. Not many people use aliases in Night City, somewhat surprisingly, so it raises questions on who, if anyone, is she hiding from.
According to the pnp Cyberpunk, pretty much every single merc uses an Alias, called a "Callsign"
T-Bug was one of my favorite characters and was so disappointed we didn't see them again.
I need some fanfiction of this character!
There was a FIA agent code named Ladybug, killed during the heist, revealed in notes in Phantom Liberty. This agent was directly implicated into the heist. There is four characters possible: T-Bug, Dex, his bodyguard and Jackie. The more probable character is T-Bug and it is compatible with your theory with the VDB with T-Bug as triple agent. The code name is a little too obvious but it is an internal code name so maybe FIA was a little too sure about their network security.
I have a feeling Mr. Hands would really have appreciated and valued T. Bug.
That would’ve been a cool team!
I also think that if Mr.Hands was the fixer for Konpeki Plaza Heist, it would have succeeded. He is very thorough and cautious. He would have considered all possibilities including Saburo’s involvement and made back up plans for every scenario. That said, he wouldn’t have worked with amateur mercs who are still very inexperienced for a gig of that scale.
He wouldn't have because of just the lit. Shit storm that would follow such a heist
@@ForestRaptor I feel like Mr. Hands WOULD participate in it, even fully knowing what could happen if it went south, with proper contingencies in place to pin the fiasco on a rival or even just leave the mercs out to dry as if they were just REALLY lucky solos. After all, Mr. Hands is the only fixer in NC with any amount of anonymity intact. What would the burned mercs have on him? A nickname and no face or deets to spill. Heck, I could even see Hands putting the idea into Dex's head to take charge as the "real" fixer behind the job, just for another layer of separation.
Absolutely, Dexter was an incompetent prick who got back what he gave out.
One thing she says that I notice most don't comment on is that not only does she intend to retire, but that she intends to "never set foot in cyberspace again." Cyberspace has other uses besides business, legal or otherwise, and it wouldn't be surprising if many Greek islands were effectively "off the grid" in Cyberpunk 2077 like our world. This suggests that Tbug wasn't just retiring, but becoming a little bit of a luddite, and if she did have a connection to the VDBs (knowing what they were planning to do with the relic/Silverhand) perhaps she was trying to hide away from the coming AI apocalypse?
More T-Bug makes me think of one beautiful way they could have done the lifepaths. a character from each that 'stuck around'. offered messages, comments, jobs, whatever. THAT DID NOT SHOW UP IN THE OTHER LIFEPATHS.
That would be amazing!
I think the "Nomad" Life Path should have took place mostly in the Badlands where the Jobs were mostly related to "Nomad" missions with V having to come to Night city to do jobs every once in a while. And then somehow they implement the Relic part later on toward the middle of the game. Our home should be that Tent from the Nomad Camp and our main Fixer for this life path should be the leader of the Nomad camp we saved from the main game.
The "Street Punk" Life Path should be from the prospective of a Valentino Gang member. And you have missions that pertain to Valentino Goals and Gang politics. Your main fixer should be that Valentino Gang leader, and somehow find out and get caught up in this relic business via the word on the streets level gossip or something. The apartment we live in the Mega Building should be the home we have in the "Street Punk" Life path.
For the "Corpo" path we should work at Arasaki, with our lil office and workers that work under and over us. Our main fixer should be that head guy(forget his name) in the big office. We should be doing mission like escorting high level execs, having "dialogue choice driven" board meetings, or getting intel from rival Corporations, maybe even infiltrating or negotiations with other Corpo Companies. As a Corpo agent we should live in the Corpo plaza part of Night City in a penthouse apartment with AV access on the top of our penthouse building. Their should be AV access points for Corpos all across Night City for air travel, and we should have a company car we can call on. And we get caught up in the Relic business mid game.
Each life path should have showed us a whole new prospective on the politics and seediness of Night City. I Also like the Idea you mentioned about Certain Characters from each Life path sticking with you after the life path ends.
this is exactly what it should’ve been like. meaningful differences outside of dialogue due to differences in life paths. also, like your corpo life path, i always thought that cp2077 was missing corporate espionage.
@@lilrizqFor Street Kid, not sure potential Valentino member would work if you aren't playing V as latino
The life path system, in the end, felt kinda pointless. V is still the same person and ends up in the same places in life no matter what. And IMO, Street Kid very much felt like the "canon" one, as the rest of V's story and interactions don't really gel that well with a Corpo or Nomad, or at least nowhere near as natural as with Street Kid
The part that always intrigued me is the philosophical edge. Was there going to be a questline referring to that trait? What was the thematic reason for having her be a philosophy aficionado? Quoting Marcus Aurelius and Aristotle in particular makes me wonder-a Stoic and a rationalist, those aren’t mutually exclusive but there’s clearly connective tissue missing here.
It would’ve been interesting to see a quest continuing this theme! I feel like Bug’s philosophy and Misty’s mysticism would’ve been two interesting, parallel views of Night City.
@@lydiscott
Perhaps…Stoicism and rationalism are both more grounded in tangible reality than Misty’s mysticism-wait, is that why her name is Misty? How am I just realizing this 😂
T-bug has a specific goal, to make enough to live the quiet life in Greece, while Misty has an explicitly spiritual mission. As is the game never does anything with this potential dichotomy, but now that you mention it, I wish they had
One of the things Mike Pondsmith has said is that the rogue AI have a penchant for quoting ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. It's my personal loose theory that T-Bug and Dex are being manipulated by rogue AI on this side of the Black Wall to make sure the Silverhand engram can make contact with Alt. I have no ideas as to why though.
I think she was altered for the better. The key narrative of 2077, and one Evelyn herself tells us, is falling for the lie of Night City. The bigger you aim, the higher you fall. Be it the Relic heist, or the plot of Edgerunners. It's all quite well executed as everyone but V is all in with the heist, failure doesn't even cross their minds, yet several times V can voice uncertainty, having issues with the small details, and who is the only survivor? The one person with doubt. The one person who didn't buy fully into the lie. T bug's role seems cut down and small, but it all ties into the greater narrative of Night City and shows us that no one is above Night City, no matter how important they seem or how good they think they are.
I like this interpretation. It is furthered by him clearly being in some way disillusioned with the appeal of Night City at the start of whatever route you take. V through the whole game never really fully buys into Night City, always skeptical of the major jobs (I really fucking hate that denying Kirk when he asks you to do another job doesn't end the quest, instead it leave it there for you to "change your mind," same with the Claire quest which is also one I feel like you saying no should end the quest chain. Game devs out there: give players the option to say no to quests and have said quests just be gone)
@@ShiningDarknes Agreed. Some would say it's a loss of content but to most it would be an extra choice in a genre that's supposed to be full of them. The Peralaz questline is a good example as Johnny tells us to just cut and run, how good would it have been if we could have stopped the elevator, go back down, walk out, then call them saying you don't want to touch this case with a 10ft pole? small stuff like that makes games feel more alive.
@@monkeybone1080 It is so off that it leaves these two quests available when you turn them down when there are many side quests you are, if fact, allowed to fail some of which technically have a better outcome with you not completing them.
Love that you highlighted that quote from Aristotle.
Everybody ultimately wants the quiet life,
but the quiet life is different for everybody.
“Just another tale for the next dreamer”
Thank you, as always 😁
"Frying" the nervous system is the main way in which ICE, Soulkiller, etc actually kills the person, Soulkiller just basically "scans" the brain and then obliterates it, so even if it was Soulkiller, the fried nervous system wouldnt be out of place. But Soulkiller is also seemingly saved for the people, for whomst death would be too light a sentance (at least in the Arasakas mind). T-Bug was just some netrunner to Arasaka in the end.
Except she and her crew were considered the number one suspects in the murder of their patriarch. The fact that they're willing to steal Jackie's body...speaks directly to how lightly they aren't taking this at all. Likewise, Yorinobu at the time can't at all afford to make it seem otherwise. Everyone on the crew has to be "Public Enemy #1" and they all have to be seen as dumb, but also massively capable and dangerous.
@@LupineShadowOmega I mean, Takamura is also a prime suspect to anyone not in the inner circle, that's why he is on the run, he says so himself that some members of Arisaka think he killed Soburu. They only know about V and Jackie because they were caught on camera fleeing the penthouse. (that being the ones in the ship that shoots at them, not the ones in the hotel since technically you can get out without being spotted by any camera, how clear that footage is is questionable given the weather) Also they do not try to take Jackie's body in all playthroughs, that entirely depends on where you send his body with Del. If you send it to his mom nothing happens. ONLY if you send his body to Vik does it get stolen by Arisaka. So it cannot be considered cannon.
That said, V isn't exactly keeping a low profile with how many jobs you are allowed to do, many of which are in Tiger territory and they are known to answer to Arisaka so the fact Arisaka isn't constantly after you probably means they don't actually have accurate intel on who EXACTLY it was that was in the penthouse. The most logical reason they take Jackie's body if sent to Vik is they know at least one of the suspects was shot by the gunship and that will require a ripper to get properly fixed up so they probably sent ninjas out to the nearest rippers (or at least the ones within a distance they felt a person dying of a gunship wound would be able to make it to) and Vik is one that would be in that radius so if you send his body they move in to snatch it.
@@LupineShadowOmega hmm, alright, that would make sense too, but either way, the nervous system would be "fried"
@@ShiningDarknes We are not talking literally here, we are talking about his options for spinning this. Yes they can also spin it other directions, but the point is that they need as many options as possible, because all of those give the new head of the Corpo unlimited leeway in dealing with all suspects.
It is a powerplay wet dream, that at once allows you to clean house for your ascension and get any and all attention off of yourself and you can do anything to tie those loose ends up in the name of vengeance. He could just as easily tie his sister in there too if he'd wanted, because the point is that they needed an excuse and Yorinobu was farming them for power and influence.
Thanks 4 all the hard work.
Only recently discovered your channel and absolutely love the writing, delivery, look, voice, and thoughtful insights to the characters. Top notch CP2077 analogy content. Each video is a gem and the effort put in is appreciated. You're doing a great job. All the best.
Thank you so much for your kind words! Means a lot! 😄
i was so excited for you to explore this! wish they did more with her
Ahh thank you for watching! Same here, it’s a shame.
amazing video as always! can't wait for the next one! please keep up the awesome work!
Amazing video, a pretty excellent theory, glad I found you, I've got some stuff to binge, now.
I love how there's so much to almost every character introduced in the Cyberpunk world. Great video!
I fully believe that one version of the game had T-Bug as an Arasaka spy, back when they were toying with the idea of Saburo knowing the Heist would happen, and was planning on using it for his own purposes. If I recall, that was also the build that had Johnny and Saburo as voices on the Relic. Moreover, if anyone cold protect Bug from the Voodoos, it would be Arasaka. I STILL think she faked her death, and always felt like that poem you find on your desk later is from her (the one that ends with "I'm alive, you're all dead").
Glad you were able to hit T-Bug as a topic. She was taken from us too soon!
Fantastic video! Seen plenty of videos about her, but never heard any of the stuff about the 2019 trailer or her early design, great work!
Oh I love this video so much. Your conjecture about T Bug’s role in the full story sounded really compelling. It would be something I’d add to the plot of some fanfiction or something
Aww thank you so so much for watching! 😁
Thanks for the community post, I love your videos.
I think T-Bug would've had a redemption arc. V couldn't see straight, so maybe they missed anything critical. We meet back up with T-bug and she tries to show that she is sorry. An up and down side quest kinda thing.
I really find your character deep dives useful for helping refine the stories I build out for the Cyberpunk RED game I run. It's videos like this that help me create characters that have more than a surface level of depth to them.
Also, during the time of the red (post arasaka-nuking to past 2045) the Voodoo Boys of 2020 slowly start getting overtaken by Haitian refugees who detest the ignorant use of their culture and so they basically go to war with them and become the new Voodoo Boys that we see in 2077.
The Cyberpunk RED Sourcebook has a lot of great information for the period between 2020 and 2077
Excellent insight as always, thanks for the vid
Thank you for watching and for your comment! 😄
I think that when they decided to give Johnny a bigger role in the game they cut storylines for Dex and Bug
Yes, this is a thing I keep hearing! And I think I read Keanu said he wasn’t involved with the project until around 2018? And then something about him wanting his role expanded.
Yeah. I love Keanu, but I think the story could have been better without him. They'd have had a wad of cash to spend on it if nothing else. It always felt like they changed their focus mid-game. That may have been why so much was incomplete and messed up.
Dex never had a story beyond the heist. Betraying you was his sole function to the plot, and after that his character nolonger serves any purpose. Dex's story has probably remained pretty much unchanged from the first draft to the final game.
T-Bug clearly did play a larger role, at the bare minimum we have the trailer in which she is seen hacking V's mantis blades at the No-tell motel, so in an earlier draft of the story, she did atleast survive the heist. Some also speculate that she would have ended up playing the part Mamam Brigitte plays in the final version of the game. Which is possible, but of course only fan speculation at this point,.
However, i don't belive Silverhand had anything to do with T-Bug's re-write. Rather, i belive she was a casualty of CDPR choosing to drop 3'rd person cutscenes from the game, and instead have all these story segments play out as real-time gameplay.
If you look at that cutscene they had made at the No-Tell motel, the fight between Dex, Bug and V, something like that is easilly done in a cutscene, but not as gameplay. If you actually let the player fight Dex and Bug for real, then there's a million things the player could do that would break the intended sequence. So it had to be simplified to work as a gameplay segment, and i belive this is when Bug's role in the story was reduced.
Also, they didn't give Johnny a bigger role, his role was always this big. The relic, Johnny's engram, this was always the main plot of this game, it was always ment to be a focal point of the story, long before Keanu accepted the role (some speculate that Morgan Blackhand could also have been on the chip, but i don't think Mike Pondsmith would have allowed that, as he seems to have his own plans for the Morgan Blackhand character. Apparently that's why Blackhand is not in the game at all, Pondsmith woulden't allow it).
People are conflating two things here. At some point it was reported that Keanu requested some more dialog, and that he was given more. People take this to mean his part in the main story was expanded. That's not what happened though. He was given more dialog, but this extra dialog is now featured in various gigs in the game (example: The Wakako gig to retrive the corpo lockbreaker, this is one of the gigs where Johnny was given some dialog).
So they didn't change the main story for Johnny, Johnny was always a big part of the main story. What did change is that Johnny origionally only had dialog in main-story missions, and now he also has dialog outside of the main missions. When you're playinga Gig and he suddenly shows up to deliver some sarcastic quib, well, that's the added dialog, that's "Johnny's bigger role".
@@songsayswhat My biggest gripe with the game, and I honestly _LOVE_ CP2077, is that it often feels like it's Johnny's game, not V's. It feels like Johnny is the main character and the game is his story and eventual fate one way or another rather than the story of V. I'm hoping Cyberpunk Orion (the working title of the next game) will have more of a focus on making it feel like the player character's story.
@@steinarbergstl5799 I always viewed it like I view FFX where I consider Yuna the actual protagonist and Tidus is just part of the main cast. Tidus is stil lthe main character, but Yuna is the protagonist. Same with CP77, V is the main character but Johnny is the protagonist at least until you start PL but I don't count that as part of the same plot line since it wasn't part of the game I finished multiple times before 2.0. Even then this is ony true if you take the buddy-buddy route with Johnny, if you have V always despise him the dynamic completely changes.
I guess what I'm saying is... well, it is a _roll-play game_ if you don't play the roll, if you just treat it like a game only then yeah you may feel like your character is not the focus. But if you really look at it everything is talking about V. V is the rising legend of Night City, barely anyone talks about Johnny that isn't a Johnny fanboy or part of Johnny's old crew/band when you do things that are not part of the main quest. Of course the main quest revolves around Johnny because the main quest revolves around getting him out of your head but the main quest is only like 35% of the game if that.
I have no theory of my own, but I loved this video!
Keep up the good work, if this was your 1st one of this kinda type, I think it's a great start :]
You have some of the best constructed essays on here.
The trailer was just too good. My head canon makes T-Bug a traitor. Who she betrays (everyone, V & Jackie) changes. She could have faked the scream, started a rumor she'd been fried, and skipped the country as she wanted to do. It sounds like Dex screwed her over when he left 5 years ago. Why would she work for him if she knew what a screw-up he was? She didn't know V and Jackie well enough to care, and Dex as payback. I like to think she sold them out to Arasaka and then skeedaddled. Knowing Arasaka, she got her comeuppance eventually.
If you read the Cyberpunk book "No Coincidence" you could figure sometimes people come togther and form a team through happenstance, and sometimes there's another force arranging all your chance meetups.
Got a beat, I can dig it! Thanks for the lovely character deep dives. This is why I wanted KiteTales to revive "What a character".
Aww hey thank you so much Scott! 😁 Much appreciated, glad you enjoyed the video.
Oh, dude, Fiction Forensics is a great name and given the kind of digging you did it really fits for these videos
This is an excellent video! Subbed and now I’m going back for a channel binge. Thanks!!
For last few months I've been GM'ing TTRPG Cyberpunk and all your analisis on cyberpunk characters made me rethink some aspects of NPCs I created and improve their backstories to make them deeper and more "human". Thanks a lot for inspiration!
Two things stand out to me: Firstly, it makes no sense to obscure T-Bugs fate in that cinematic trailer and have her appear as a betrayer, when three big things are spoiled in the trailer. Deshawn's betrayal, Jackie's death and Silverhand's existence. It'd be a little silly to spoil those three big plot points but hide that T-Bug dies pretty much off screen to the point some players didn't even realize she died. Considering T-Bug was closer to Jackie and Deshawn levels of importance, it's a little strange how she only gets a missable piece of dialog even confirming her death. That's closer to Deshawn's body guard who just disappears compared to Jackie and Deshawn who get some level of epilogue, Jackie with remembrance get together and Deshawn still lying at the dump with his gun as loot. Like, you'd think we'd at least be able to scrounge around Night City and find T-Bug's netrunner lair with her dead in her netrunner chair with some loot.
And second, during the Afterlife meet with Deshawn and T-Bug, T-Bug's shoes have the words "Delta V" on the buckles, which is an interesting detail. It seems a little too specific for a story important character to have a detail that essentially reads as "Hey V, get out of here" and not have it mean something. Along with the fact that Cyberpunk is, or at least was, an unfinished game, it's doubtless that aspects were altered and cut. But the one detail that really makes me think T-Bug was meant to be more important is that cosplay guide mentioned in the video, that feels like something only important characters would get, or highly marketed ones. Add in that one cinematic trailer scene implying she took out a corpo, and it definitely feels like T-Bug had more to her that never got to be shown.
Sadly, that is the nature of game development, ideas are made, trimmed, cut down or thrown out entirely all across the development process, but with Cyberpunk it's a little worse as the game came out so unfinished. Who knows how much was cut to crunch the game into existence.
T-Bug has been one of my favorite characters. It felt as she was genuinely trying to make a connection when she was encouraging Jackie to try and think on the deeper implications of the philosophy she was sharing with us. That car ride before the heist is one of my favorite moments.
I really enjoyed this story dive! New subscriber now. 😁 I'd love to see more Cyberpunk characters analyzed! I've been a "forever DM" in Dungeons & Dragons since I was ten years old, so 45 years? ...and character building is one of my great loves. Thanks for this!
You have an oddly comforting way of speaking. You would make for a stellar teacher or councillor or something like that.
I do like your theory and think at some point in production that may very well have been the case. But in the final game I do not think she is at all connected to the VDB. First and most important is she does not have a Haitian accent. All the VDB are first gen Americans. Second is her connection to the shop in Kabuki. The VDB do not work with outsiders unless they plan to burn them. So the shop owner being a friend of Bug would indicate she likely has no connection. Lastly her relationship to the rest of the crew. For V and Jackie it seems like the Dorsett job was not their first as a team. And for Dex I have always gotten the vibe that they were an item romantically. I may be misreading but Bug tries to dodge the question about how she knows Dex. If their last job was such a shitshow she likely would never work with him again, unless she had an emotional reason to do so.
Lastly Placide is a bastardman. I know it has nothing to do with Tbug but he was in the video and it has to be said.
I think you’re right, Bugs background is definitely different in the final game. All very good points! AND HMMM romantically eh? See I’ve never gotten that vibe myself HOWEVER i may very well have just missed it, lmao AND YEAHHHH Placide is… he’s somethin else. Especially with that text he sends later in the game. Like WHY DUDE 😂
@@lydiscott it took me many run throughs to get Placides text because I made sure to put him down basically every time. I think it was the callousness of him that made me think he was the biggest bastardman in the game. At least Smasher wasn’t dishonest.
Oh and my first time through I knew to side with Netwatch because of the Tarot outside the church. So when I was told he was planning to flatline me I turned heel immediately. I even suspected Netwatch did something like they did and basically just said serves em right lol.
I don’t think the accent is evidence to discount the possibility of her being connected to the vdb. There are so many variables that impact a persons accent
Genuinely so disappointed with how they handled T-Bug, but honestly if their original intent _was_ to have her betray us I’m kinda glad that got cut. Almost, if not every, black character in the game ends up being an asshole or betraying us 😑 loved the game but that’s been one of my biggest gripes. Like with the VDB’s I love their story and lore, but the way they’re portrayed in game is very unforgiving to the point where I only ever see people talking about how much they fucking hate them. Like none of the nuance of their background comes into play, it’s not made clear that there is actually a reason they’re so secretive and isolated, and why they burn every merc they work with personally. Netwatch lets other corps like Militech just do whatever they want, and they were actively trying to turn the black wall into a weapon, netwatch is also a corp. they’re objectively the worst option but everyone sides with them cause “VDB’s tried to kill me now I’m big mad and want to slaughter them all for no other reasons I want or need to reckon with”
Great video with interesting insights! Glad I discovered your channel. Subbed!
This is the first video I've seen from you and lady your the first channel of this type that doesn't literally put me to sleep. Going to troll through your videos but I wanted to say thank you for putting work into your presentation unlike a lot of your competitors in this genre of vids.
I feel the same thing about Evelyn Parker. I feel like she was a super interesting character and they could have given her a bigger role in V’s life post heist.
If you had time to develop more of a relationship with her before bad things happened it would have it much harder.
Yes, yknow what, I get the feeling she had a lot of content cut. I think I read somewhere that Judy’s quest was initially supposed to be longer, and it was meant to include the Mox a lot more. Not sure if this is true, but I wonder if this would also mean Evelyn had more screentime.
@@lydiscott agreed, it would have been interesting to see if Evelyn could have been a romance option for both V’s that ended in that tragedy.
It would have had to have come from V getting deeper involved with the Mox and Evelyn.
@@lydiscottI’ve read rumors that Evelyn was meant to fill a more central role a la Johnny Silverhand . But when Keanu Reeves went all in on the project they redid the story to make Johnny the centerpiece.
He only really got involved like 2 years before the game released. The last minute changes would also explain the state the game released in.
All rumors and conjecture ofc.
I feel the same about Jackie. He died way too soon imo. A couple missions and a montage wasn't enough for me to connect with him to the point that I'd be sad for his death. I feel more impact from V's reaction more than the actual death.
@@lokilucario yeah, that was my very first impression about cp2077! We needed more time with Jackie to make his death hit us harder.
I know that we can’t get everything we want because games have budgets and stuff and something have to be cut for the overall experience, but I feel like they could have spent less money on recording actual gun shots from 500 types of guns and car sounds from 20k cars and put that money into character development.
Another banger of a video! It's great to see your channel taking off c: It's more than earned. Preem content deserves nova rewards, choombata.
Also it's so cool you used to cosplay! It's such a cool hobby. It'd be really cool if you did like a cyberpunk cosplay as a subscriber milestone for a video or something. You'd rock an Evelyn fit
Was excited to hear
Great video! Something interesting that I wanted to touch on that you mentioned briefly: I don't think *any* of the crew was nearly as good at their role as they thought they were. They were just the best ones around at the time, or at least among the best.
We don't know what V really did prior to leaving for Atlanta, and they're not in NC long enough to become a top-of-the-line merc during play. They're only just beginning to scrape the bottom of the Afterlife.
Jackie had been at the game way longer than V, but hadn't made ANY headway until joining V. So he probably wasn't the best merc around, probably due largely to him being more hot-headed and immature. But also, just being one of so many mercs.
T-Bug, like you said, takes a LONG time to complete her netrun. Someone else touched on it, but netrunning in 2077 is nothing like what we see in the tabletop, where it's more like jacking into the Matrix and battling digital Pokemon. Even in the tabletop version, though, netrunning time is nowhere near that long. The only people who really vouch for T-Bug's abilities are those whom we know aren't the most reliable sources. V and Jackie, who don't seem to know anything other netrunners, and Dex -- who messed up his last heist so bad, he flew to space. So, maybe not the best judge of character. Even Evelyn, like you said in another video, couldn't separate the job from her humanity and ended up paying the price. Everyone bit off way more than they could chew.
Hell, even Silverhand wasn't nearly as good as what he thinks or remembers. The downfall of a lot of mercs seems to be overestimating their skill or importance.
Thank you for this video! :)
T-Bug is mentioned in Phantom Liberty if you take a specific path and make a specific dialog choice when talking to Alex
❤i’ve been waiting for this one! i’m so early too omg
I love what you have done with you recording room.
THANK YOU! 😁
This was an amazing video
Thank you so much! 😊
I somehow stumbled across this video and really enjoyed it, and was something I felt the same about her.. but never had an idea that there could have been more to her story originally!
Never seen one of your videos before but I really enjoyed this one. You speak well and put your ideas across clearly. Good job !
Maybe turn the music volume down a touch though 😅
I never put together that the net-runner in the trailer was T-bug. I feel like a dultz. I love the deep dig that you've done! These videos help the game feel so alive. I always took T-Bug as an agoraphobic type. I use edgerunner/netrunner as an analog to extroverts/introverts sometimes. It makes T-Bug's demeanor make sense. It explains a lot of the cyberpsychos you have to put down as well and it reminds me of the self-destructive behavior I've seen friends go through. Whether it was bringing in the wrong people or isolating themselves. The scary thing is that in the moment; their behavior was completely rationalized in their own head as they rushed to their own doom. Cyberpunk 2077's story goes so hard. Every character can be held in a different light.
Omg girl that dress is amazing!! Also love the cyberpunk lore!!!
34 seconds into the video. I am liked and subscribed. I now know what to do with some of my downtime this weekend
Aww thanks very much! 😄
Where did the idea that she was soul killed ever even come from? The increased level of security after the tower was put on lockdown led to more netrunners showing up to fry any unknown runners in the system like T-bug. This is a common tactic in the cyberpunk universe going back to the "Silent War" which was a corpo war that was fought almost entirely in a pre crash net that only turned hot outside of the net pretty late into the conflict. It only really kind of further proves that she in not exactly the best netrunner and may be a lot more inexperienced than she lets on. Any real netrunner worth a damn has countermeasure upon countermeasure to fight back against something like that. We even get to save a netrunner named Bugbear about to be fried or captured by the Tyger Claws in one of the gigs who does have the countermeasures but is barely hanging on. And as madelynnk said, V's netrunning in 2077 and actual netrunning you can do in the original tabletop are 2 completely different classes that honestly need a true distinction in the universe since the classic netrunners clearly still seem to exist in 2077. I'm sorry but V is NOT a netrunner, they are a quickhack/cyberdeck specialist who doesn't even seem to know how to do real netrunning, going into the net with the voodoo boys seems like its your first time. Hell even the differences between netrunning in the different tabletop games is vast. The original explanation of the netrunner back in the 2020 tabletop rulebook took up nearly half of the book for just the one class and was basically its own campaign set in the net you played along side the main campaign with the party set in NC. I haven't played R.E.D, but I've heard it was simplified and kind of sounds more like V's netrunning, which is kind of my whole point of their needing to be a distinction between a combat/stealth netrunner like V and a Technical netrunner like Nix because you are both netrunners yet have a completely different sets of skills.
Waiting for your take on phantom liberty dlc, would be fun to watch! ^^
It's an interesting video, because I've actually suspected for some time that Bug's role was supposed to be completely different from what it ended up being. Also in relation to Dex, because I've long had the feeling that the background of Dex and the Vodoos is not only directly connected to Bug, but also to the whole Relic story, but as you said so well, we'll probably never know, because we were told a different story in the end.
Anyway, thanks for the great video and best regards from Germany.
I viewed Tbugs use of philosophy as a way to draw structure and reason out of the chaos of NC. She’s trying to cognitively work her way through the trauma of surviving through some pretty heavy stuff.
Didn’t Dex try to find put more about Evelyn and the VBD told him to drop it? That should have clued him in that she was up to something. I bet that was when they were supposed to send in T-bug, who was already familiar with Dex.
AHHHHHH I forgot about that very good point!!!!
It's always fascinating to find these sorts of things in games. I wish more game developers released commentary tracks like movies do. I find the creative process really interesting.
I cant get over the fact that we literally hear Yorinobu saying he stole the chip yet no one thought that his father might want to confront him, and have a backup plan.
You know, since it is such a big and serious heist. It always bugged me. It is either a plothole, bad storywritting or deliberate plan to get rid of V and Jackie. Arasaka gets their culprits but not the chip, Dexter, T-bug and Evelyn would be rich and no longer needing to split with V and Jackie. My pesimism chooses that its bad storywritting.
ah thanks for this, always felt it was odd the way her character was set up and then abruptly cut down
Just found this Chanel nice, I rember following you because you had cool cosplays
Ooooo, love the new ‘do!
Very interesting video
Thank you!
Cyberpunk is gonna go down as on of those games that has so much cut content which adds to its mystery
The algorithm gods have BLESSED me once again 🙌🏾
Something i notice is that in phantom liberty when you hang out with alex (I think it before or after the songbird rescue mission) you can make a toast to some character that passed away and you can toast to T-Bug. A little detail I think some haven't noticed
super interesting to think about
having just completed phantom liberty recently i wonder how much of that DLC's story was retooled from Tbug's original plot just cause there are a handful of similarities there
Thank you for the video! Honestly I was super disappointed that Jackie and T-Bug get axed without getting to do more missions with them.
The way that mission ended it seemed like T-Bug would pop back up at some point.
T-Bug's death definitely fits into the theme of Cyberpunk: riding the edge until you fall off. I think there probably was more to her story in initial drafts but as is wont to happen in gaming, the story was scrapped as the game was refined. I would have liked to see some kind of closure for T-Bug.
With that being said, I think some of the ideas behind T-Bug's original story ended up getting used with Songbird in "Phantom Liberty". There are times where So Mi's story has some of the same connective tissue as T-Bug's.
Sweet I was wondering when this would drop
Good video.
For myself, I've always noted the odd vibe that T-Bug gives when Jackie and V arrive in their Konpeki hotel room. She is clearly preoccupied and (imo) holding something back from her teammates. Cut content there, unquestionably.
An aside. I'm guessing that T-Bug's apartment was especially close to the Afterlife. Maybe even somewhere INSIDE it? I dunno. Reason being that she is so quickly back online after leaving that final briefing.
she was attacking V in the first video of cyberpunk 2077, and you can also see her acting sus once V and jackie get in the room. she waiting for the arasaka family to come, something big was going on behind the hiest. i think she booked it once things went wrong. the quite life.
its like a rule, if you dont see people die, they are not dead.
You can find her body. She's most definitely dead.
@@Steriodsman1wait really? Where?
@@Steriodsman1 thats not her body, its just they like to reuse many models. many youtubers have already debunked it.
@@kingbaaka3D Just wish they had done something more with that theory.
I remember one of the devs (I belive it was Paweł Sasko, but I didn't check) said about the trailer that it was one of the decision outcomes players would encounter in the game, and I believe that this was true when Paweł said this, but due to the many problems the game had it had became the only outcome of act 1 with a slight modification- Bug is no longer our enemy. Because it's easier than developing the character further so late into production.
This is excellent
The T in T-Bug stands for Tyrannosaurus
Also, I like the theory of her working as a monitor/handler for the voodoo boys keeping an eye on Dex, as he would make for an easy independent scapegoat, and I reckon Dex would be too arrogant and narcissistic to realize. Idk it just clicks
I feel that the current version of T-bug and her death is a comparison to Jackie. Jackie was a man of passion, he loved, he hated, he fought, he dreamed and he died in a blaze of glory. T-bug seemed to be very detached, we don't even know if she even had friends or family to mourn her passing. Jackie gets a big send off by all those he impacted. From Vik, Mama Welles, Misty, V, the Valentinos, and others he grew up with. T-bug probably got zipped into a body bag and put into a freezer until Arasaka decided she wasn't anyone important.
Bug seemed like she was a more watered down version of Kiwi from Edgerunners. She didn't trust anyone, but unlike Kiwi, we don't know why. I assume it's similar to Kiwi were she was betrayed in the past, by either her Parents or a close associate.
Either way Bug is just another person squashed by Night City.
Such a great deep dive. Would love to hear any thoughts and theories you have about potential cut story content
Cool Theory. I enjoyed this.
I'm replaying Cyberpunk, so this vid is good timing. I love these videos. T-bug feels so robbed. I wish they kept in the original effort they put in, or at least that they'd tell us the truth about T-bug
During the final assault on Arisaka in the nomad ending the is a netrunner at the security access point where you add Alt to the tower security system. That netrunner looks exactly like T-bug.
I've played this game several times and something about T-Bug and Dex's relationship always made me wonder if she was part of the Voodoo Boys. It would explain why Dex owes her for his cock-up in Pacifica. Who better to help him escape than a VDB?
Also the part with Evelyn being watched by the VDBs makes a ton of sense, which is why I always get revenge on them when I play. I know it was them that remote hacked her chrome. They fried her so bad that Woodman did those horrible things to her and then pawned her off to Fingers who allegedly did the best he could with rot he sells, which ultimately led to her being given to the Scavs, her mental trauma and eventual flatlining. That Netwatch agent pretty much confirms that by telling V they consider outsiders "ranyons" and showed that they planted a virus inside of him. If Evelyn never went to Fingers she probably would have flatlined after that remote hack or virus.
Another thing, after reading the light novel Cyberpunk 2077: No_Coincidence, it does seem the writers do kind of operate with a domino effect in mind. Also the title alone tells you that everything happens for a reason in at least *that* story, but it's still connected to the story in this game as well apparently.
It is unfortunate that whatever ties T-Bug may have had to the VDBs died with her and Dexter Deshawn (thanks Goro).
I really wish T-Bug did have a bigger story. She was the character I was most looking forward to learning more about. She could have have some amazing interactions with Songbird and the VDBs in Phantom Liberty, too.
I would absolutely love to get my hands on all of the development documentation for Cyberpunk 2077 just to see what could have been. I feel like there's a bunch of interesting cut content that was removed either for time or because it was no longer part of the vision they had.
V & T-Bug might’ve linked up in person on the low. During the meet at the After Life Jackie mention they all finally met in person than T-Bug said “1st time in real space” than winked at V
Could nothing could something who knows🤷🏾♂️
I think T-Bug was intended, as you say, to stand with Dex during the betrayal. But her role was scrapped to give more room to Jackie and Dex. Jackie to make sure every player feels that friendship with jackie. And to build up that fury against dex. To have a third character detracts from the "purity" of the emotions towards them. Also, T-Bug would've made that link to voodo boys stronger and seem almost sloppy instead of the "how the shit did you discover this?" angle we get from our investigation with Judy in Evenlynns memories. V needed to seem desperate and grasping for straws to properly hone in the themes of the overarching story.
Love your videos.
Is there a possibility of analysis of Night City itself? Why people drawn towards it? Why it's so hard to run away from the city and move on? Why you can't win against it and why it's always destroy you in the end?
I just saw her as a "deus ex machina" that the heist needed - for example, magically open doors for them that otherwise wouldn't be able to
I think a lot of the supposed cut content for T-Bug was actually a template for songbird especially the "sacrifice anything and everything to escape" part and us deciding if we let her go or not.