Pls READ LOL! Hey so I don’t know what’s up with the audio cutting out at 10:30? That’s weird? I had a lot more to say right there? 😂 ughhhh. I blame my ancient Mac and premiere, it was there when I checked it before exporting. Sorry guys I was talking about how I was trying to come up with a theory for Dex’s Pacifica gig but then I realized there’s just too many blank spots to really do that, segueing to what I think is cut content. Still gets the message across as is, but… AGH 🤣 I don’t want to take the video down because the comments are great. So. I’ll keep an eye out for that in the future. Also. Note! When I say Dex made the combat zone what we know it as today, I mean he worsened the already existing combat zone. I feel like the way I said it makes it read like he’s the reason Pacifica is screw up which is… unfortunately not true 😂 that’s a whole other iceberg! Should’ve been more clear. Sorry guys! If you enjoyed this analysis, you might like my post-apocalyptic novel, Caesaria: Book I! It takes place in Canada in a flooded world with various new cultures, following a multiple POV structure. I’ll link it below. Thanks for watching, guys! Have a great day. ❤ Signed Edition: www.lydiscott.com/works Standard Edition: www.amazon.com/CAESARIA-Book-I-Lydi-Scott/dp/173904200X
Woah 🤯 that theory I believe is spot on. The voodoo boys have been said only to use people and they throw them away. Fantastic catch, something about this is true.
I didn't even know what the heist was about the first time i played the game, but after seeing his skanky ass face i said to myself 'he's gonna betray me, i just know it'
"Code Red" also gets initiated in Konpeki Plaza after saburos assassination, and the rest of the mission has red neon lights throughout the halls. I always loved that little detail.
It's also a cheeky allusion to the fact that the most recent edition of the tabletop game is called "Cyberpunk RED" As in, the entire game we're playing is RED in all caps. For Jackie, the only winning move is not to play.
Judy also told us that we were already dead, and that the only thing she sees when talking to us are walking corpses. And she was right. Everyone involved in that job died. The only difference is that V got a couple more weeks, or months, to contemplate their mistake. But the real V died in the no tell Motel after Dexter betrayed them. Also If you chose the corpo lifepath you literally went through that same thing before. Get offered a job way out of your league that you feel obligated to accept and get caught in the crossfire of corporate infighting. Really, there is no reason why anyone should have accepted that job. Everyone involved should have been able to see how bad of an idea it was from the beginning.
Dex pretends like he cares about the consquences but he doesn't. He only cares about a big amount of money. Its a big difference between him and someone like Wakako who has a level of professionalism to her. The more I play the game the more I realize Dex never had control and mercs were blinded by what he presents to be as success when in all actuality he's a joke.
On the other hand, Dex gathered all the intel and provided both the bot and the service Delamaine. But like he said, he didnt have knowing of Saburo. Dex was like V that he didn't care about Corpos. But unlike Wakako, Dex chose to live the literal blaze of glory jobs. There's a reason why older Fixers are alive in NC. They either mellow out, or they sellout like Rouge. Dex is professional as Fixers come in NC, he's just more reckless like dealing with Maelstrom. Someone's that's actually unprofessional is people like Kirk. Kirk just has bad jobs, bad intel, and bad rep.
Royce called it first by saying "Dexter deshawn. The lard ahh who punching animal f***ed half of Pacifica and he ain't dead". The maelestromers were laughing at V and Jackie like "seriously? That guy out of all fixers ?" Vik called it too. Vik told V to becareful around him and that he isn't as "cool" as he makes himself out to be
@@peacefusion There's another essayist who pointed out that it really doesn't matter if he couldn't know Saburo would've shown up. The context clues were there. Hanako's carrier was in the bay of Night City and we know Saburo is going to come to blows with Yorinobu, or is at least, _extremely_ possessive of his flagship immortality tech. Saburo is the kind of guy who'd nuke Night City to prevent the biochip for leaking. Look at T-Bug and compare her to all the overpowered Netrunners you meet and you start to realize how out of their depth the crew is. V and Jackie were always disposable stooges. Somewhat skilled, but naive and over-eager. Also Delamain is a severe failure point. He knows the identities of V, Jackie and likely of Dex as the paying client. Delamain is a rogue AI that's going to protect himself. He has no loyalty to the Afterlife or its subculture of mercs. If a corp as powerful as Arasaka puts the screws to him, there's no reason Delamain wouldn't sell them out. It would've made infinitely more sense to hire on a wheelman from the Afterlife you'd pay a huge amount not to know or ask too much. Tell that wheelman to pretend to be a limo driver. Don't ask why or who, here's 100,000 eddies. Shut up and drive.
@@peacefusion no Evelyn gathered all the intel. Dex did not figure out a goddamn thing beyond what she told him. He didn't provide the bot either, V did that. He didn't even provide the idea of the bot, that was T-Bug's idea. Dex is worse than useless. His sole contribution to the job is tipping off the Voodoo Boys that Evelyn had double crossed them.
Shot V out of hand, Takemura found him within weeks, all the same. Took Takemura to his one bargaining chip, V's corpse which also happened to be a convenient place for his own corpse after he had outlived his usefulness to Takemura. Dex was the real fool, how Rogue tolerated him operating out of Afterlife is beyond me.
I guess letting him doing that gig was a great way for her to get rid of him. And, knowing she's a sell out for Arasaka, she might be the one who tells this to Smasher (hence him knowing you're there)
We notice in Phantom Liberty - Hands remark, that the information (Saphire building plans) given to V were secure and no one would know he had them "unlike the late Mr. Deshawn" , so you gotta wonder how Takamura was so quick to track down Dex, as his face wouldn't have been on the security footage (like V's and Jackies) yet he knew who to look for and where to find him within days of Relic Heist. Maybe T-Bugs Net intrusions were too easy to uncover or Delemain gave up who paid for the Limo, or?
So, what was DeShawn supposed to do? Lay down and give up? His rep as a fixer was trashed because of a screw up that let to a war. He doesn't stand a chance of getting back to the top without doing something big. His ego of course wouldn't want him to stay of the game so he's going to take the risk to get back to being one of the greats of night city.
Rogue tolerated Dex because he was no threat to her. He's basically a cockroach. Not particularly dangerous to anything bigger than he is, but good at running away and lying low until his enemies forget about him.
Dexter is an example of how you can sell anything if you speak with the right confidence and charisma. Also, nice that CDPR gave Caseoh a small role in their game
Nah they accidentally threw him into one of those tanning machines too long and just decided to make Dex black, but he has recovered and is back to being pale.
@@lydiscottCant blame her. T-Bug is definitely one of the most "fit for the job" characters in the whole game. In fact, shes probably the most fit for the job.
@@Randomuser-nn7ls I mean moreso mindset wise. Shes job focused, and thats it. Making no loose ends, just getting a job done. Also, pretty much anybody would be underqualified for that job. Even So Mi would struggle with that. The most surprising thing is that T-Bug didnt just flat out deny the job.
@@lydiscott I really think the Konpeki gig going badly was entirely that Tbug was a crap Netrunner. The job should have been done in 15m after the Solo's entered the building, hours later they were still waiting for Tbug to break security and the second the buildings Netrunner woke up, she died. Tbug was the teams weak link. Tbug should not have allowed anyone to even take the elevator to the penthouse while V and Jackie were there, she had control over the elevators and doors in the building while the other Runner was asleep, any Netrunner worth anything would have done a much better job, even unopposed Tbug didn't do half the things she could have. A good Netrunner would have been able to disable the Arasaka Netrunner on their own instead of having to use a bot to put them to sleep. Dex is not entirely to blame as he likely knew she was not great, but V, and Jackie did agree to work with her while also knowing that. The first gig you do with Tbug shows just how totally useless she is. On you're first mission with Tbug all she did was open one window.... There is a hundred different things a Netrunner could have done and Tbug decided to open a window.
I think you may be right. It seems like she’s wanted to get outta dodge for a long time, if Rhino’s interview is anything to go off of. Makes total sense.
They were all three of them desperate. V is disaffected and struggling with staying in the league of merc they're in and desperate to have _something_ better. Jackie is desperate to become a legend. T-Bug is desperate to get the hell out. Dex is desperate to be back on top.
The cutscene where T-Bug betrays V really seems like it was supposed to be the canon plot. While video game developers have been known to model swap characters to ruin spoilers, tbe fact that V's cyberware malfunctions because of a quickhack really makes me believe T-Bug was meant to attack v, not some random assistant
That would've made more sense than what we got, considering it just felt so weird that you die so easily in that scene without really being able to put up a fight.
I don't know what you guys are talking about, the big dude straight sucker punches you the moment you leave the restroom, and Dex would just shoot you like he plans to anyway if you tried to get up or move at all - I don't remember tech being shut down but also people can print EMP grenades on them, and with how widespread tech is EMP tech being more common makes sense too, hell the big dude could have gorilla fists or other implants with shock and makes your body not respond But yeah, also considering we know when someone is hacking us, I'd say it's either the obvious freight train punch to the face or another device if you are disabled, though the excuse could be V is just preoccupied with being betrayed playing out in front of them
@@Bocchi-the-Rock_ it's more the fact that in game V can just go toe to toe with max tac, cyberpsychos, shrug off explosions and shotguns to the face point blank etc but then suddenly becomes absolutely helpless when subjected to a single punch in a cutscene, not even trying to fight back.
@@Jorvalt V doesn’t start off that skilled. Though through canon idk how long a time period he’d have to hone his skills. But V was tired and mentally exhausted, lost his best friend. So him getting caught off guard definitely isn’t impossible.
@@Jorvalt Because canonically the V that gets shot in the head isn't the same V that goes toe to toe with MaxTac. You're not super resistant to Cyberpsychosis until Johnny pops in your head, therefore you can't max up with the chrome.
My Theory? Dex never was a big shot. He got a smal scale gig and screwed it ROYALY. Nobody knows what it was about because it was insignificant. But due to him F-in up in ways unimaginable, he actualy got a rep boost, because... hey, if you fail THAT hard, it must have ben important, right? ...and thus started the legend of Dex, the Top-Fixer who could not fix water out of a boot, even if the instructions are written on the sole.
I really like him as a character. Fun to hate, but first impressions (as I desperately try to brainwash myself into forgetting the trailers that spoiled the prologue) of him being a calm but dangerous man... Speaking in the casually confident tones of a guy who believes nobody would dare cross him, but a coward who panics and acts without thinking things through when the chips are down... Such good stuff.
DeShawn wasn't a coward per se. Where are people getting that? Nor was he all that reckless. Even though the plan had holes, DeShawn and T-Bug were able to get most of the plan in order. Nothing was rushed. DeShawn made a desperate plan in the end that made sense. It was fucked up, but it made sense if he wanted a chance to survive.
Best comment here, I see a lot of Dex hate lol but lest we forget the idiot who set up the gig for stolen merch and it was just knock off anime tees? All that to say: people arent realizing that everyone in NC are cowards acting tough and buckle under the crushing weight of reality. Even for the Judy lovers she does not stick it out with you in hard times. That is the existential threat of this world. The City of Gang is like that because no one wants to be SOLO in NC, its the most dangerous and lonely road. People look up to fixers because they give a pathway to make dreams real and they bring people together to start trying for those dreams. Think about it: When you're winning, successful of course you're talking big. But in your last moments? Gun to your head? Are you talking a big game then? Really? Only Johnny Silverhand says he went out like that but that wasnt ever really true either...Dex, V. even Rache Bartmoss all dead in the same trash heap at the end of the day. The worst fixer is the one that never had the vision to start.
I think it does also racket up the stacks. Dex is shown and talked about ( by Jackie mostly) as a big deal a major player. Well after the prologue you learn that he is a small time dude now you are dealing with real players in night city, real threats .
@@dranixrush3306the plan wasn’t even bad, other than not being able to predict yorinobu would kill saburo (which how the hell is anyone predicting that?) it was basically perfect
It occurs to me that t-bug would have been a lot more interesting if she and mamam Brigitte were the same person. Imagine she suddenly goes silent during the heist because she's aware of the saburo incident, and decides to cut loose ends and fall back. When V manages to survive, have things play out as normal, but instead of Dex's hustle knocking V out, t-bug turns off optical camo in the corner and uses the active connect she has to V's system to shut down his cyberware, making him an easy target for the hustle, before telling Dex to clean up and walking out. (While behind the scenes putting takemura on Dex's tail to continue cleaning up loose ends) Things play out as normal with V having no idea what happened to her, so he chases down the lead with Evelyn to find out T-bug hired her and that she wanted to personally make sure there were no hiccups, which is why she was using one of several alieses. Since she thinks the relic is ruined (because of the damage to the case) and V is dead, she follows other leads, leading to her getting frozen by netwatch and things progress normally. Gives a lot more weight to the voodoo boys decision too
Ohhhh I love this. Whenever I look at her concept art, it just reminds me of the Voodoo boys with their casual netrunner look. Would be super interested to know if she was supposed to be involved with them. Voodoo boys always felt like there was some connections that were supposed to be there between them and the heist beyond what we got, but were ultimately cut. I’ll try and look into this with her video.
@@lydiscottyeah I far prefer her concept art, she has a very basic look in the released game and I wish they did more with her. Jackie's impact can be felt long after he dies, but the game basically forgets about t-bug
The VDB are probably the most dangerous gang in NC. Its why Netwatch wants them so bad. If the VDB get what they want it would likely unleash an AI hellscape. I do not get the vibes that Bug wanted anything to do with destroying civilization. She just wanted out.
Well, it still made sense why the Vodoo Boys wanted Johnny's engram. If they could draw out Alt Cunningham and make a deal with her, their goal would come further into fruition.
I always figured Dex was always planning to throw V and Jackie under the bus as easy scapgoats. He's picked mercs who are competent but out of their depth. I think rather than a come back he just wants to have a massive score and then leg it. I think T Bug might even be in on it. She doesn't want ties, and she says a couple of suspicious things on the lead up to the heist.
Leg it for what? There would be no point to coming to night city if that was the case. It seems Dex had enough resources to start over and build a new life. In my opinion Dex was trying to make a comeback to restore his honor to some degree.
@@dranixrush3306 We know very little about Dex's current resources, he's been out of the loop for a while. If honour was his goal he goes a funny way about it. It seems more likely to me that he wants a big score for the money and then a quiet retirement living like a king. No one stealing that chip was going to be safe in Night City.
@@Malaclypse_the_Third Several other ways he could have gone about it, if it's just for money. Nah, it's pseudo honor he was going for. Yeah, he fucked up in Pacifica but I think he was trying to get into the good grace's of the merc world. He knows how to hustle evidently, so money I doubt was his main drive.
Theres literally dialogue with Jackie where V says that Fixers are people that get the biggest and cheapest idiot for the job and then dispose of them afterwards. And considering Evelyn also tried to cut the others out of the deal I have no doubts there would have been tons of backstabbing even If the gig was succesful.
@@synphilia4776you could also tell Del to not do anything and wait for V; did that on my first play through not knowing that Dex shoots V minutes later.
its frustrating because we couldve been faster. we had lots of ways to turn things around. we couldve just said fuck it and ran up, had T bug unlock the ship Saburo was in and delta outta there, or, broke the glass walls, slid faster towards the ladder, or if all else had to be the way they were, we couldve saved Jackie with some stims. we have a lot. surely in the far off year of 2077, we dont have internal bleeding suppressants in one of those injectables?
🤔 because he's black?? Wdym by Chicago thug? And you got a like from the channel . I posted this on a comment on this video. You liked the video, are you saying all black people are thugs in Chicago? Before anyone say anything about race im white....
The fact that Rogue has the balls to go out on missions shows how legendary of a fixer she is not even Wakako is brave enough to go into battle with you
I mean, Rogue is a Solo first and foremost. Best Solo in the biz before she retired as a merc. No Fixer actually goes on gigs, it's not something one should expect.
Rogue is a legendary merc herself, but she has a family now, something to live for, so she doesn't expose herself to danger and doesnt need to when there are hundreds of leadheads lining up to work for her. She only went out to find Smasher cause Jhonny guilted her into it, like it was her fault he's stupid and got himself killed, and wants to blame her for being smarter and surviving, one reason raiding Arasaka has Jhonny is the 2nd worst vanilla ending, Rogue deserves to live out her life in peace
@@Finckelstein yes but rouge doesn't literally look like my granny behind a counter. She probably has combat chrome and age reversing shit in her. She still moves like she's 30 or something
Fucks up, ducks in Pacifica for a couple years. Comes back. Fucks up the very first job. Should have asked more questions. Would have realized Ev was in way over her head
The first time I met Dex I thought to myself: "Wow, he sounds like one of those financial coaches from the internet who wants you to invest in his snowball system" :D
I thought the same darn thing! That “die young and glorious, or old and irrelevant” pitch was a dead giveaway for him being trouble to me. But as much as I would have liked my V to have walked away, we have a story we have to play out, and Cyber Punk isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about making the ballsy decisions that either leave you a survivor, or a statistic.
I used to take it as a deliberate move that the bigger picture can be extremely difficult to piece together in a lot of the game's story. Like, this is a world that does not revolve around you and does not care about you beyond your role in it. The story of Night City is not the Story of V. He/She is not important enough to ever really have it all laid out in front of him/her. Just like in real life, you only ever get to see part of the picture and are left to draw your own conclusions. Now I'm starting to wonder how much of that is actually just a result of stuff getting cut or rewritten
I’m in the same boat. The more I read and the more I played the game, it started to be more and more of a “hmmm this feels like somethings missing”. It’s honestly really interesting to investigate! 😄
The only thing that I could find on Dex and Pacifica is that it's mentioned a couple times that before the Heist he got Ran out of Pacifica before going off grid for a while and it's implied heavily that he's kind of a joke.
The fact that V went along with this guy and then got dropped by his bodyguard after such an obvious setup really reinforces my headcanon theory that the entire Prologue and Act 1 are a flashback, just like Johnny's memories, and they're about as reliable. When he wakes up, V's scrambled, composite mind is trying to remember "Who am I? How did I get here?" and he gets two answers, both of them filtered through the subconscious mind (and therefore the acute Main Character Syndrome) of one Johnny Silverhand, where he sees himself as having been cooler, more competent, and cannier than he ever really was. Then he gets up, and with the further help of that subconscious mind, proceeds to actually become That Guy.
That's why the character starts kinda don't make sense in way. Like personally Corpo makes the most sense since that makes you a LIFETIME buddy of Jackie yet that ironically still would tie you to Streetkid like since you were that you just took a slight different path. Like all the starts happened in way. Like It started off Corpo, the Streetkid aspect was your true backstory then one of your first missions with Jackie post corpo was getting that Iguana. Yet everything was mixed up due to the trauma
My headcannon is that V just died and the Relic made a copy of him. So through out the whole game you are playing as Relic V while at the same time being merged with Johny
@@filipstudenyThat's not even headcanon. That's canon. The Relic is designed to restore a corpse to life and overwrite the old data in the brain. The problem is that it was already in your head the moment you were killed and it brought you back too soon. You died. Dexter killed you. Now you and Silverhand are occupying the same space, but he's slowly taking over more and more of the neural pathways until V doesn't exist anymore. The Relic is just repairing a corpse and the V personality is brain damage.
"Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." As for the missing data on Dex's worst day, sometimes it's better not to know. A secret drives us to speculate, search, theorize. A known fact is just filed away and considered trivia. Often what we imagine can be far better than the reality we uncover.
It is helpful to remember that chapter 1 as well as a LOT of the overall story went through some pretty major rewrites after Keanu Reeves expressed a desire for Johnny to play a bigger role in the story for 2077.
i think that the conversation with Evelyn in the hallway at Lizzie’s is further evidence of Dex’s story being cut down for the final release, since she asks you to go behind his back and do the job for Evelyn herself, but you never get the option to go through with this or follow up on the conversation later in the game
One of the biggest issues for me is how V and Jackie were able to climb up so fast in 6 months that somehow got in contact with T-Bug a known aloof Netrunner that is way above their pay grade, V is able to afford a pretty sizeable apartment, a decent ride, were able to worked for Padre and Wakoto two fixers that are known to being strict on who they hire, got the attention of Regina Jones who hires V on a very serious work involving cyber psychosis. There is no way they would accomplish all that in Night City in 6 months that Dex will be like, yep these two are key to this gig I have crafted.
They are up and comers, desperate to become legends. Perfect profile for disposable mercs for a red hot gig that is going to be incredibly radioactive afterwards. The combination of competent but also wet enough to be willing to go against arasaka.
The whole philosphy of the games story hinges on Dex asking V. Would you rather live long or Go fast and become a legend? The idea that getting what we want comes at a price.
For sure T-Bug was underdeveloped, and I feel the same about the VDBs. Placide was a great baddie, would have enjoyed that being built up. They'd have been a great fit for the Blackwall stuff in Phantom Liberty. I love Dex, I remember being awed by his presence and apparent competence in the limo briefing first time I played. Took me multiple playthroughs and lore vids like this to clock that he was a desperate chancer feeding small timers into a buzzsaw.
There's a line in the first meeting V has with Dex where he says he reached out to people in Pacifica to check out Evie and he's paid a "visit" by friends from pacifica. They don't say this is the VDbs, but the intimation is there. I think the VDBs knew all about the heist from that point and planned to take advantage of it. They lost track of everything when the shit hit the fan. If Dex did bail on T-Bug i'm surprised that she was working with him again unless she was planted by the VDBs to help them keep track of the heist and screw everyone over at the end. Finally, i think using greenhorn mercs was probably calculated to allow a betrayal at the end.
Yeah. I thought something similar. With the hints that Dex had abandoned her once already, I thought it was really strange that she would trust him again. Unless she was with the VDBs and sent in because of her history with him as an inside person for the op. With that original trailer, I think it was canon at one point, rather than just a spoiler hiding model swap. I think she would betray V and then Dex to keep the relic and take it back to VDB, only to realize it can't be extracted without damaging it.
The way I understood it is that the voodooboys wanted to make their own heist and hired evelyn to shoot a braindance in yorinovu's suite for it, but evelyn then decided to do her own heist and hired dex. Because when you extract evelyn's memories she mentions the relic and maman brigitte tells her something "it's none of your business, just record the BD"
2:02 here's an interesting tidbit. In an unreleased board game: 'Gangs of Night City' someone is described as "The go-to fixer for Pacifica". It's not Mr Hands, it's not Dex, it's Faraday
Makes sense. Up until his death, Faraday seemed like he was well connected and *quite influential* as a fixer. Then Dex comes back and dies, forgotten almost as quickly as he returned. Then we (V) helps to solidify Hands’ status in Pacifica and Dogtown.
Faraday: Showed up to meets in person. Acted arrogant. *Killed by Smasher while out on the open because he thought he had a say in the matter* DeShawn: Showed up to meets in person. Acted arrogant. *Killed by Fakemura because he thought he had a say in the matter*. Mr.Hands: Never shows up to meet you in person until you've already solidified his position. Acts professional, cordial, even fatherly (which makes sense since he clearly has a child). *Survived and probably becomes the shadow ruler of Dogtown.* Mr.Hands has achieved his Big Break by operating like a True Fixer. He never overextened, never acted arrogantly, but did act like a knowledgeable and educated person, which you would want your Fixer to be.
@@DashingSteel Exactly. Faraday overextended his reach by far. Despite being obviously way more competent and intelligent than Dex, Faraday's arrogance made him misread his position. He didn't view himself as a fixer, but as a boss, ordering pawns and climbing up a corporate ladder to a point where he was untouchable. Essentially, Faraday was never cut for the fixer life, and while he had a good run for the most part, the misreading of the true content of his job and position made his arrogance overrule any intelligence or skill he had. He was a man obviously much more cut out for the corporate world, but seemingly viewed himself as too superior for such a job, and paid the price dearly for such an incorrect mindset. Dex is a bumbling idiot who lucked his way into his rep and believed he deserved it, while Faraday is sort of an unprepared Icarus who flew too close to the sun, got burnt, and fell to his death- metaphorically and literally
I feel like Dex’s old gig is meant to be what we in the trope space call a “Noodle Incident” something that implies more in the world that people mention constantly but never explain because that’s part of the appeal and what adds to the world building as a whole. If you’re unfamiliar with this trope, I suggest watching OSP Red’s Trope Talk on it.
I think you have a good point. I’ve seen other people theorizing that the montage of you and Jackie was originally supposed to be playable content but they didn’t have time to work on it.
i swear this game was a victim of just 'We need to deliver this, no more delays anymore, cut whatever isn't fully needed" And we lost either potential content or just a bit more of that nice, moment to moment gameplay. You getting extra time with Jackie is something I always wanted in that game.
I would suspect, based on what I think his real goal for the mission was, that he probably had almost no contact left, and maybe not much money either. Like lets say he had contacts with Corps like Hands does, why would a Corp want to keep working with him after his massive fuck-up that cause a city wide war? and the knowledge that he ran when it went down. Corps tend not to like when people working for them screw up so I imagine they cut ties when he proved that he doesn't really know when a gig shouldn't be done, or at the vary least proved he didn't know what to do to make it work. I would also assume he probably had to leave behind a lot of his stuff, which in two years was probably confiscated, stolen, or repossessed, it's not like the gangs would keep away and I doubt the NCPD would care, they probably wouldn't like him much either since they probably had to get involved in the city wide gang war, if they knew he caused it. So if true this paints a scenario of a guy with almost nothing left putting on a facade so he can get this last job done and cash out.
It makes sense because what Fixer chooses a nobody like V? Yeah, you smashed up a Scav haunt but that's not really anything special. No, he needed people who were just competent enough to do it adequately but also were desperate and blind enough to see how much of a suicide mission it actually was.
@@Foogi9000 Yup he had no way of knowing how big V would be, but he could see how desperate Jackie was to make it big and that V would go along with him, would also explain the lack of precautions taken for the mission.
@@Foogi9000 V literally has dialogue with Jackie about how fixers find the biggest, cheapest, yet barely qualified idiot they can get and then dispose of them afterwards once they have outlived their usefulness. Seems that is exactly what Dex intended to do.
Johnny’s exposition dump in the first part of Tapeworm where he mentions that Arasaka can fry your brain and pack away your mind and psyche with soulkiller makes me think T-Bug had that fate as well.
If you are a netrunner you get a mission from t bug for a free quickhack at a quick hack shop. If you return there after the heist you can ask the women there If she heard from t bug and she tells you that she was found with her nervous system fried, and that it is probably the worst death imagineable. Safe to say that she is dead...
@@tobiasbayer4866 Yeah... it's safe to say that she suffered a fate worse than death which is sad. The scream she made was similar to how it sounds when someone gets soulkilled or *(Spoilers)* When they get hit by a rogue blackwall A.I, the glitched screams is especially indicative of such an entity.
@@Foogi9000 On the brightside, If you do the secret ending and decide to go beyond the blackwall with Alt and let Johnny have your body, Alt will merge itself with all the engrams in Mikoshi, which includes you and possibly T Bug If she truly was hit by Soulkiller. So a happy reunion at last... Yay?
Glad to see people making content about Cyberpunk lore. There is so much to learn about the world and its people. Also might just be me but longer videos aren’t an issue, I can happily listen to an hour long video about Dex
I'll admit, it is hard to dislike Dex. He's got charisma. The first time I played, I got played, and didn't even really realize it. I thought he was a pretty cool character. Having played through a few times, I get more of what was going on. I know Vik had some things to say about Dex, but you'd think he would've clued V in on everything he knew. Might not have swayed V because of how tight they were with Jackie, but still. It would've gone a long way toward feeling trepidation as the day of the heist came about. Maybe I'm dumb and a bit naive, but I felt a little blindsided. And maybe that's how you were supposed to feel. It isn't wrong how it came across, but I would've felt a bit more anxious knowing how many people had severe doubts about Dex, or even given V more info about why he left Night City. Maybe I just didn't pick up on it like I was supposed to. Who knows. Its still an awesome story. My only wish is that the Devs had been able to make all of CP 2077 like they did with Phantom Liberty. I absolutely loved that DLC. It had been a very long time since a game made the experience so visceral that I kept dying rather than give up Songbird to Reed (not knowing that I could put her down and stop him later.) I was absolutely livid to the point I wanted to quit the game entirely rather than let Reed have her. THAT is an amazing story.
I went into this game completely blind, never saw any trailers or demos. But I did go to school in the inner city, so I got around a bit. Dex immediately had me suspicious of him, he was captured so perfectly! He’s the type to give you a doomed drug run and turns tail the moment he hears you got pulled over haha. I really liked the small mannerisms and writing for him though, it definitely tipped me off!
@@virtualgambit577 When he asked which I wanted, to die in a blaze of glory or live a long life, I was like, "Why are you asking me this now?" :D I don't plan to die, do you? I know the game makes a theme of going out in a blaze on your own terms and becoming a legend, but I also think that you gotta plan for success, not failure. The fact that he was talking about failure made me sus of him. And then it was all bravado, and he sells us out thinking he can cut and run. Yeah, same old shit. He reminds me of Big Smoke, from GTA San Andreas. :D
Really? Charisma? I hated him the moment I met him. All self aggrandizing and speaking in smarm. His blaze of glory shtick was weak and clearly him trying to manipulate you
i know cdpr aren’t updating the game anymore, but i think they should add one more side quest that has V investigating Dex’s past. maybe it could start by us receiving a signal from TBug’s corpse and then working backward
I'm glad I found your channel. I know I'm not alone in feeling like the Konpeki heist makes no sense as a genuine effort to steal the Relic, and this led me to assume that someone involved had some hidden motive to ensure its failure. While I stopped watching at the first mention of Phantom Liberty since I wanted to avoid spoilers, your take and the sources provided on Dex help me contextualize the prologue a lot better than before. I now see the job the way it was likely intended to be viewed: a half-baked plan by a disgraced fixer with several people doing their best to take advantage of his weakened position in the criminal world.
One of the most unsatisfying things for me from the early game is probably a result of those content/story cuts after that one trailer. That's the fact that we don't get to exact revenge on Dex ourselves. I have a feeling that initially they planned to have revenge quest lines for Dex and possibly T-bug as well, but when they had to rewrite the main story they realized they couldn't put that in. So we ended up with T-but getting fried and Dex dead in the junkyard. Which is really an interesting way to wrap it up when you think about it. Because you as the player don't get that satisfaction you're left wanting, just like V is.
Honestly I kind of like it that way. Everyone involved in that job died. Even V, just later rather than sooner. It always reminds me of that scene from Intro where you ride with Jackie in your Car after saving that women from the scavs and see a group of thugs get wiped out by maxtec. A couple of idiots that a wrong move messing with the wrong people and paid the price for it. Thats us when we attempted that job. I think thats one of the main themes of Cyberpunk, the genre, the game, the edgerunners anime. Its about desperately wanting to leave a mark on the world, its about hope. But ultimately it is a false hope. In none of the endings you can actually escape your fate, all that changes If your outlook on life and what you choose to with it. I think it represents the genre beautifully, and that you arent getting closure, or that revenge is unsatisfying is part of the point.
I’m amazed at the quality of narrative they were still able to have, despite all the setbacks and treatment of the devs. Shows the passion and care of the people who put so much into it. And thank you so much for watching!
If they got alot more time and more devs for support, Cyberpunk would been more massive and better. WItcher 3 if im not mistaken got a lot of changes too especially the story.
11:55 id say chapter one feels like it was written first with all the ambition promised at the start and as ambition met reality and they scaled back to hammer down and fix story elements they left a lot in with hopes of paying off in expansions or DLC
I liked your video on Jackie Welles. You provide a different perspective from when I play the game getting sucked into his charisma. Nice seeing more videos on this great game
I don't know if it was intentional but I liked how the game set up this incredibly hacky "heist gone wrong" premise and introduced you to all the standard cliche characters you'd expect only to immediately kill all of them off(this includes Jackie).
Coast View is populated by the VDBs, Scavs and Animals. I wonder if Dex’ actions split the VDBs into the two factions. The ones in Dogtown and the other in Coast View. The VDBs in Dogtown was very aware of the Blackwall and saw it as a mistake to mess with it. Momon Brigitte on the other hand seemed to have false hopes to gain access to the other side, never realizing the danger. T-Bug never pierced the Black Wall, so her being affiliated with the VDBs in Coast View seems plausible, making her acquaintance with the gang in Dogtown very unlikely. By piecing this information together you gain a view of who’s who, and where their operations originated. I doubt T-Bug would have wasted so much time if she’d been affiliated with the Dogtown’s VDB’s. The fact it took _hours_ after she gained access after neutralizing the netrunner at Konpeki Plaza says a lot. So Dex’ modus operandi of using the cheapest and most expendable seems to be confirmed. He probably sweet-talked T-Bug, and like Jackie and V, fell for it.
One of the things I really like about this game's narrative(s) are the gaps around the edges. There are so many things that you never get complete resolution or allt he background on. It really makes the world feel alive and realistic, like sure, you are the main character in your story, but everyone else has their stories too and you at most make a cameo in them. It isnt like Skyrim where everything revolves and resolves around you. Dex's fall is old news, only reason any merc cares is to not work with him.
Dex did not create the combat zone. He screwed up a gig spectaculary and had to leave NC, but other than that we don't know much. The Combat existed at least around 2045 during the age of Cyberpunk: Red. Later Corpos tried to turn this area of NC around with massive investments. But aside from gang resistance a massive Militech/NUSA invasion foiled these plans. The half completed buildings of this failed endeavor litter Pacifica. When the war ended a ground commander of NUSA with most of his forces went rogue and instead of leaving he held on to the combat zone around 2070. Renamed his area Dogtown and established himself as an international arms dealer with a district fully independant from NC.
Dex lived like a king and thought could do others for his bidding. Then died like a fool who flew way to close to the sun. Reminds me of Icraus from Greek lore so much. I did wish i knew bit more.
Perfect timing! About to start cooking dinner and now i got something to listen too! Really excited for this one After watching this I wonder what could've have been if scenes from the trailer played out in the game like why T Bug tried to defend him. I wonder what reason she would have to work for him after his failures. Definitely feels like a missed opportunity to there
Yes please. More character analysis like this. I thought I knew a lot about the lore and the characters but I didn't know that we were given more details about Dex's failed gig in Pacifica. I've read a few of those Humans of Night City entries before but never Rhino's. I should go back and read them all.
I wonder what the deal was with him and T Bug. T Bug seemed to have a decent head on their shoulders, how did they not see Dex for who they were? Or maybe they did? If so, why did they trust Dex so much? They seemed to get along quite well, both enjoyed philosophical discussions.
Great video and an interesting theory. I feel like they wanted to make the story of V and Jackie, realised there isn't enough time, compressed the 6 months into the intro montage, cut the quests. This is how V was introduced to T-Bug initially, now she is in the tutorial and the first mission instead. This also would've meant V working with Wakako and maybe other fixers, and then Dex would've actually been a new fixer in town (instead of the fixer of your literal first mission, aside from the intro). It doesn't make much sense to get into "major leagues" after the first gig the player does. They covered this hole a little bit, but I still wish I could play a little bit as an unknown merc. In the game every fixer in town gets to know V only after you complete the first chater and visit their region. It's like V has never been anywhere besides Watson. [upd] Ev's entire story is that she knows about the chip and organises the gig, dies immediately after. It's almost like they had to stitch the story back up after they decided VB didn't hire Dex. In other words, your theory makes sense. You can't possibly save Ev (unlike other characters?), which could mean she wasn't in the game when they wrote the base story.
your channel is evolving. i notice your video essays include backgrounds and it looks like your appearance is geared toward the genre. Have you thought about techwear like Fabric of the universe and machine 51?. the growth in just a few months is fantastic in terms of editing and production value. T bug betraying v is good notice. i feel like jackie was set up in the initial trailer indicates a jackie betrayal as well. These videos are so fun to watch btw. Keep up the good work.
Awww thank you for saying that! Seriously means a lot that you’ve been watching for all this time. Ohh that would be fun! Cyberpunk fashion is also just great in general 🤣
@@lydiscott Cyberpunk is so fun. I actually want to start a dystopian cyberpunk themed ramen shop featuring my Shiba and jindos as characters. I'm looking to serve highest quality ramen that's sure to also offend Guro Takemura.
I think it actually makes sense that T-Bug was supposed to betray V and Jackie there because if you think about Kiwi in the show... She could have been a nod at T-Bug's cut story... just food for conspiracy lol
Honestly the fact you can feel like there would be an entire plot line around T Bug, Jackie and Dexter only for all of them to die hurts so much more. Like the saying goes “Night City always wins” even Dexters death was very unsatisfying because he was taken out in front of your eyes and you didn’t even get a chance
Dexter reminds me a lot of the characters of The Wire. A lot of them had the opportunity to get out of the game but always succumbed to the itch to come back
I feel like act 1 could've really used a warmup gig from Dexter, before the heist. A little more time to spend with and flesh out the introductory characters would have gone a long way and made the heist more impactful. It's a shame to see the game present such strong characters at the beginning, but there's such little time to actually learn about them and connect with them.
cheers for these videos, when i actually play games i'm always a berserkhead high functioning cyberpsycho who never reads anything, so it's nice to get some context for things i've only taken at face value
To understand Dex you have to realize that at the start of the game he's still "in exile" and is being used by the Voodoo boys for the heist. Yes, Dex wants to grow old and retire, but there is always that need for "one last score." He fled to space, but that wasn't exactly living in the lap of luxury. He was likely begging all of his former allies for help to come back into the game. Which is where the heist comes in. The Voodoo Boys were never going to give Dex his cut. He was always destined to be eliminated.
I completely agree with the comments about the opening act's pacing vs Phantom Liberty's. The dialogue throughout the game suggests Jackie's death was supposed to really affect the player, but I didn't feel like I got to spend enough time with him to be *that* invested. Songbird's betrayal landed so much better for me because her backstory and interactions with V were much more fleshed out
This analysis is great. It makes it things a bit clearer for what could've happened to T-Bug. I can't see her working with Dex willingly, after he bailed on her and Rhino in Pacifica EXCEPT if she's out to use him the same way he's using everyone else for The Heist. I'm in the camp that T-Bug bailed because she knew the mission would fail and she 'bugged out', she didn't get fried. Everyone is out to use everyone in this mission. The Voodoo Boys and NetWatch using Evelyn, Evelyn using Dex, Dex using V&J, T-Bug using Dex. So many things went wrong with The Heist, it makes me wonder if some of it was manufactured as a cover for T-Bug. Taking "hours" to work her way through Arasaka virtual space, not knowing about Saburo despite news reels talking about "The Whale" in the bay - she just gave the job a nudge so it would blow up in Dex's face as payback for what he did to her in Pacifica, ESPECIALLY if she has ties to the VB. She couldn't reach him on the moon, but once he showed his face in town? He was dead the second he came back, I'm sure he didn't count on T-Bug still being alive.
V should’ve listened to the clues Dex was using. He basically pulled a Nash (with Jackie and V being the fall guys incase it went to shit). Also V realizes far too late that Dex’s plan was half baked and how unprepared he actually was (hell, Takemura finds V like a few hours from when he shot V), he was out of the fixer scene for like 2 years then all of a sudden had a grand heist on Arasaka for a biochip only a few people knew about, Dex pre-paid for the Militech drone only for V to have to shoot his way out of Maelstrom territory, he had zero backup plans for if/when Yorinobu’s would show up (hell, T-Bug could’ve locked the elevator and possibly opened the door for V and Jackie), Dex was Evelyn’s last choice for the job and Evelyn figured how Dex was unreliable, etc. if V wasn’t so blinded by ambition, he would’ve most likely seen the signs. Hell, Dex even asks V how THEY’D rather go out.
Sorry, I don't know if you talk about it in the video, because I've just started watching it, but a thing that popped into my head recently is a small detail that shows off how Dex might not be the big-shot that he thinks (and likes to make out that he is): he's the _only_ fixer who discusses the details of the job in a soundproof booth. The fixers for each district will call you, which can be traced, and Rogue and other mercs in Afterlife (many of whom are presumably fixers) talk about their jobs out in the open. Dex's biz is discussed in a back room, out of sight and sound of the rest of the club, possibly because nobody with any kind of rep wants to be seen in the same room as Dex.
I think fixers usually don't take precautions when giving you the details of a job because the jobs are either small enough that nobody who matters will care, or they aren't screwing over anybody more powerful than the fixer themselves. Dex's whole plan was to effectively steal Saburo Arasaka's shot at immortality. If the wrong people got wind of their plan, they'd all be thoroughly disappeared before dawn. The privacy is also probably part of the mystique which is what makes him so good at manipulating new mercs. Now I DO think it's telling that Dex is the only fixer who's willing to take jobs that require such strict opsec.
When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you. Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion."
Dex being who he is for us in the game I think perfectly places us in the perfect spot to understand why V and Jackie went with him. When we step into V’s shoes, we genuinely know as much as he does. “Don’t mess with the fixer” and “Dex is gonna hook us up” kinda stories, only to find out later, that he’s either completely unknown to others or known as a failure
Agreed that T-Bug is super sus. The hours she spent melting Arasaka Ice coincides with Saburo's sudden decision to visit Konpeki. It was timed too perfectly to be a coincidence.
One interesting thing is when you're going through the plan with T-bug and Dex in the Afterlife, T-bug is wearing shoes with the branding "Delta V" like T-bug is subtly trying to tell V to leave the job
Great video and analysis! I always thought that the legend surrounding him as one of the best fixers in Night City at the beginning of the game even though his returning to the NC after spending a few years 'off the grid' was a bit shady.
The brilliance of Vanilla CP2077 is in the side content. The lore. The NCPD side hustles. Etc. If you go through the vanilla game with a fine toothed comb, which IMO is very easy to do - EVERYTHING is connected. I think Phantom Liberty is brilliant for sure, and the main story is more intense, but to act like the vanilla game wasn't great is crazy. The amount of environmental detail they put into the game is insane. You just have to be curious enough to discover it.
I am an old man (45). I have discussed the finer details of the world with Maximum Mike, Ed Bolme, and a few others. I even did some writing for the TTRPG's offshoot game. You get it. You sincerely get it. Thank you. Liked, subscribed, binging.
One thing I want to say, Sex didn’t get in contact with the VDB’s to ask about Evelyn, he put feelers out and “some boys from Pacifica got back to me, told me to stop digging”
Quality content choomba! I agree that lots was cut from the first act. I know that the Flathead was cut content. It was supposed to be customizable from the player and something that stayed with V through out the game. Have you thought about Mr. Blue eyes?
The part that I think sums up Dex perfectly is when he pretends to be wise and intelligent by dropping an Aristotle quote but is completely oblivious to the meaning of it and how he should take his own advice. He can play the character but has nothing to back it up. I think even if some plot lines had been dropped I think it would have still be better to keep Bug's betrayal in the final story. It would have made V's fall even that much harder. Not just losing Jackie but having your only remaining "friend" in the room co-sign your death warrant. As for not knowing the full story behind Dex and Bug that is not a huge deal and doesn''t necessarily feel like it is unfinished. Alot of stuff people walk into in life especially in the criminal side of things is "need to know" and we never really get all the answers wrapped up in a neat bow like in a game or novel. Sometimes things go ugly and you never get closer on the why. It also ads some realism in the sense that the world doesn't revolve around V. There is a history to the world that V is not a part of. It makes it feel like V is just the latest in a line of people who walked into the life and got spit out again instead of some game worlds that feel like the entire world is just standing around waiting for the protagonist to show up.
My favorite story ever is Dark Souls, so the missing details never bothered me. To me they felt like they were intentionally left vague, especially T-Bug, a super secretive netrunner isnt exactly gonna go around telling their life story and leaving hints about it. After hearing you talk about it though, i think youre right that a lot of it just had to be cut.
You are really right, I could see it on him without having to find the traces, so I have worked with better fixer in. He is, after all, he himself had to work for someone in the stedt for and then come back up and heal a bit from the others
Pls READ LOL! Hey so I don’t know what’s up with the audio cutting out at 10:30? That’s weird? I had a lot more to say right there? 😂 ughhhh. I blame my ancient Mac and premiere, it was there when I checked it before exporting. Sorry guys I was talking about how I was trying to come up with a theory for Dex’s Pacifica gig but then I realized there’s just too many blank spots to really do that, segueing to what I think is cut content. Still gets the message across as is, but… AGH 🤣 I don’t want to take the video down because the comments are great. So. I’ll keep an eye out for that in the future.
Also. Note! When I say Dex made the combat zone what we know it as today, I mean he worsened the already existing combat zone. I feel like the way I said it makes it read like he’s the reason Pacifica is screw up which is… unfortunately not true 😂 that’s a whole other iceberg! Should’ve been more clear. Sorry guys!
If you enjoyed this analysis, you might like my post-apocalyptic novel, Caesaria: Book I! It takes place in Canada in a flooded world with various new cultures, following a multiple POV structure. I’ll link it below.
Thanks for watching, guys! Have a great day. ❤
Signed Edition: www.lydiscott.com/works
Standard Edition: www.amazon.com/CAESARIA-Book-I-Lydi-Scott/dp/173904200X
Woah 🤯 that theory I believe is spot on. The voodoo boys have been said only to use people and they throw them away. Fantastic catch, something about this is true.
Having finished reading the book recently I would say if you are on the fence I would recommend taking the jump! It’s a fun easy read.
I left a comment something for you to ponder about...info I know since the game came out and dlc as well as ttrpg
At first I was confused but then I realized I actually kinda appreciated the small section of tranquility lol
@@midnight_yotahonestly whenever I hear bells of laguna bend I’m suddenly very chilled out lmao
Portrayed himself as a king, died like a peasant…
he wanted to be the bowery king but thought too highly of himself to play the bum
Love when Johnny was like how’s that quiet life treating ya
I didn't even know what the heist was about the first time i played the game, but after seeing his skanky ass face i said to myself 'he's gonna betray me, i just know it'
@@jamaldee2355 lol, never noticed that. Thats hilarious.
@@adrenjones9301 yeah when you go back to scrap yard and look at dex’s dead body Johnny will make a comment about him loll
Justice for Misty. She told Jackie to avoid all mean reds (dexter, arasaka), and we didn't. Had we listened to her nobody would have been in that mess
Never thought about this
"Code Red" also gets initiated in Konpeki Plaza after saburos assassination, and the rest of the mission has red neon lights throughout the halls. I always loved that little detail.
It's also a cheeky allusion to the fact that the most recent edition of the tabletop game is called "Cyberpunk RED"
As in, the entire game we're playing is RED in all caps. For Jackie, the only winning move is not to play.
Judy also told us that we were already dead, and that the only thing she sees when talking to us are walking corpses.
And she was right. Everyone involved in that job died. The only difference is that V got a couple more weeks, or months, to contemplate their mistake. But the real V died in the no tell Motel after Dexter betrayed them.
Also If you chose the corpo lifepath you literally went through that same thing before. Get offered a job way out of your league that you feel obligated to accept and get caught in the crossfire of corporate infighting.
Really, there is no reason why anyone should have accepted that job. Everyone involved should have been able to see how bad of an idea it was from the beginning.
I also felt it was directed at V as well since our hud is in red (compared to Johnny's blue), implying we would secretly drag him down as well.
Dex pretends like he cares about the consquences but he doesn't. He only cares about a big amount of money. Its a big difference between him and someone like Wakako who has a level of professionalism to her. The more I play the game the more I realize Dex never had control and mercs were blinded by what he presents to be as success when in all actuality he's a joke.
On the other hand, Dex gathered all the intel and provided both the bot and the service Delamaine. But like he said, he didnt have knowing of Saburo. Dex was like V that he didn't care about Corpos. But unlike Wakako, Dex chose to live the literal blaze of glory jobs. There's a reason why older Fixers are alive in NC. They either mellow out, or they sellout like Rouge. Dex is professional as Fixers come in NC, he's just more reckless like dealing with Maelstrom. Someone's that's actually unprofessional is people like Kirk. Kirk just has bad jobs, bad intel, and bad rep.
Royce called it first by saying "Dexter deshawn. The lard ahh who punching animal f***ed half of Pacifica and he ain't dead". The maelestromers were laughing at V and Jackie like "seriously? That guy out of all fixers ?" Vik called it too. Vik told V to becareful around him and that he isn't as "cool" as he makes himself out to be
It’s a pretty common question cp2077 asks - “what’s ‘success,’ _really,_ and is it worth it?”
@@peacefusion
There's another essayist who pointed out that it really doesn't matter if he couldn't know Saburo would've shown up. The context clues were there. Hanako's carrier was in the bay of Night City and we know Saburo is going to come to blows with Yorinobu, or is at least, _extremely_ possessive of his flagship immortality tech. Saburo is the kind of guy who'd nuke Night City to prevent the biochip for leaking. Look at T-Bug and compare her to all the overpowered Netrunners you meet and you start to realize how out of their depth the crew is. V and Jackie were always disposable stooges. Somewhat skilled, but naive and over-eager.
Also Delamain is a severe failure point. He knows the identities of V, Jackie and likely of Dex as the paying client. Delamain is a rogue AI that's going to protect himself. He has no loyalty to the Afterlife or its subculture of mercs. If a corp as powerful as Arasaka puts the screws to him, there's no reason Delamain wouldn't sell them out. It would've made infinitely more sense to hire on a wheelman from the Afterlife you'd pay a huge amount not to know or ask too much. Tell that wheelman to pretend to be a limo driver. Don't ask why or who, here's 100,000 eddies. Shut up and drive.
@@peacefusion no Evelyn gathered all the intel. Dex did not figure out a goddamn thing beyond what she told him. He didn't provide the bot either, V did that. He didn't even provide the idea of the bot, that was T-Bug's idea. Dex is worse than useless. His sole contribution to the job is tipping off the Voodoo Boys that Evelyn had double crossed them.
Shot V out of hand, Takemura found him within weeks, all the same. Took Takemura to his one bargaining chip, V's corpse which also happened to be a convenient place for his own corpse after he had outlived his usefulness to Takemura. Dex was the real fool, how Rogue tolerated him operating out of Afterlife is beyond me.
I guess letting him doing that gig was a great way for her to get rid of him.
And, knowing she's a sell out for Arasaka, she might be the one who tells this to Smasher (hence him knowing you're there)
We notice in Phantom Liberty - Hands remark, that the information (Saphire building plans) given to V were secure and no one would know he had them "unlike the late Mr. Deshawn" , so you gotta wonder how Takamura was so quick to track down Dex, as his face wouldn't have been on the security footage (like V's and Jackies) yet he knew who to look for and where to find him within days of Relic Heist. Maybe T-Bugs Net intrusions were too easy to uncover or Delemain gave up who paid for the Limo, or?
@@gamersanonymous4me131 That answer is easy, they hit T-Bug with soulkiller. That gave them everything.
So, what was DeShawn supposed to do? Lay down and give up? His rep as a fixer was trashed because of a screw up that let to a war. He doesn't stand a chance of getting back to the top without doing something big. His ego of course wouldn't want him to stay of the game so he's going to take the risk to get back to being one of the greats of night city.
Rogue tolerated Dex because he was no threat to her. He's basically a cockroach. Not particularly dangerous to anything bigger than he is, but good at running away and lying low until his enemies forget about him.
Dexter is an example of how you can sell anything if you speak with the right confidence and charisma. Also, nice that CDPR gave Caseoh a small role in their game
I don’t know, his role is pretty massive just like who he’s based off.
Did Caseoh have to do blackface? Like Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) in Tropic Thunder?
Nah they accidentally threw him into one of those tanning machines too long and just decided to make Dex black, but he has recovered and is back to being pale.
@@S.Ingram Did him well done like a steak eh?
@@GoodOldSport Not even well done it’s a whole ass ceremony and parade.
In the elevator for your first mission it seemed like T-Bug feels uncomfortable if you get to close to her by calling her pary of the team
Yes, she seems very much so a “keep it professional” sort of person… not wanting to get attached at all. Hmmmmmmm.
@@lydiscott Can be due to the fact she only want to leave NC and the edgerunner life. Without attach, no regret to leave NC.
@@lydiscottCant blame her. T-Bug is definitely one of the most "fit for the job" characters in the whole game. In fact, shes probably the most fit for the job.
@@ZeallustImmortalshe was absolutely undequalified, it was kind of her fault
@@Randomuser-nn7ls I mean moreso mindset wise. Shes job focused, and thats it. Making no loose ends, just getting a job done.
Also, pretty much anybody would be underqualified for that job. Even So Mi would struggle with that. The most surprising thing is that T-Bug didnt just flat out deny the job.
Have you noticed that Dex wears rose tinted glasses
OHHHH I LOVE THAT
@@lydiscott I really think the Konpeki gig going badly was entirely that Tbug was a crap Netrunner. The job should have been done in 15m after the Solo's entered the building, hours later they were still waiting for Tbug to break security and the second the buildings Netrunner woke up, she died. Tbug was the teams weak link. Tbug should not have allowed anyone to even take the elevator to the penthouse while V and Jackie were there, she had control over the elevators and doors in the building while the other Runner was asleep, any Netrunner worth anything would have done a much better job, even unopposed Tbug didn't do half the things she could have.
A good Netrunner would have been able to disable the Arasaka Netrunner on their own instead of having to use a bot to put them to sleep. Dex is not entirely to blame as he likely knew she was not great, but V, and Jackie did agree to work with her while also knowing that.
The first gig you do with Tbug shows just how totally useless she is. On you're first mission with Tbug all she did was open one window.... There is a hundred different things a Netrunner could have done and Tbug decided to open a window.
@@alistairbolden6340 My guess is, that other good runners knew about his reputation, and wanted to stay away from him.
@@DaniszAstronauta Yeah fair.
more like probably anyone worth their salt wanted to stay away. I also like the idea that tbug might've faked her death.
I think that reason why T-Bug worked with Dex is because she was longing for a quiet life
I think you may be right. It seems like she’s wanted to get outta dodge for a long time, if Rhino’s interview is anything to go off of. Makes total sense.
@@lydiscott As calm and collected she was, you can tell in her urgency she like Jackie wanted to make a big score and change their lives forever.
@@julioacceus253Yep, similar to how Dex wanted a better life for him and his family, T-Bug wanted that escape to Greece
They were all three of them desperate. V is disaffected and struggling with staying in the league of merc they're in and desperate to have _something_ better. Jackie is desperate to become a legend. T-Bug is desperate to get the hell out. Dex is desperate to be back on top.
Dex’s story is such a good introduction to the core ideas of cyberpunk and the vibe of night city: there’s always bigger, meaner fish than you
Very true!!!
The cutscene where T-Bug betrays V really seems like it was supposed to be the canon plot. While video game developers have been known to model swap characters to ruin spoilers, tbe fact that V's cyberware malfunctions because of a quickhack really makes me believe T-Bug was meant to attack v, not some random assistant
That would've made more sense than what we got, considering it just felt so weird that you die so easily in that scene without really being able to put up a fight.
I don't know what you guys are talking about, the big dude straight sucker punches you the moment you leave the restroom, and Dex would just shoot you like he plans to anyway if you tried to get up or move at all - I don't remember tech being shut down but also people can print EMP grenades on them, and with how widespread tech is EMP tech being more common makes sense too, hell the big dude could have gorilla fists or other implants with shock and makes your body not respond
But yeah, also considering we know when someone is hacking us, I'd say it's either the obvious freight train punch to the face or another device if you are disabled, though the excuse could be V is just preoccupied with being betrayed playing out in front of them
@@Bocchi-the-Rock_ it's more the fact that in game V can just go toe to toe with max tac, cyberpsychos, shrug off explosions and shotguns to the face point blank etc but then suddenly becomes absolutely helpless when subjected to a single punch in a cutscene, not even trying to fight back.
@@Jorvalt V doesn’t start off that skilled. Though through canon idk how long a time period he’d have to hone his skills. But V was tired and mentally exhausted, lost his best friend. So him getting caught off guard definitely isn’t impossible.
@@Jorvalt Because canonically the V that gets shot in the head isn't the same V that goes toe to toe with MaxTac.
You're not super resistant to Cyberpsychosis until Johnny pops in your head, therefore you can't max up with the chrome.
My Theory?
Dex never was a big shot. He got a smal scale gig and screwed it ROYALY. Nobody knows what it was about because it was insignificant. But due to him F-in up in ways unimaginable, he actualy got a rep boost, because... hey, if you fail THAT hard, it must have ben important, right? ...and thus started the legend of Dex, the Top-Fixer who could not fix water out of a boot, even if the instructions are written on the sole.
Stealing Experimental tech from the most powerfull megacorp in the game is hardly a small time gig.
@@machinedude9386 cause of the big rep boost
@@machinedude9386They mean the job you hear about from Jackie that Dex fucked up before disappearing for a couple years
@@machinedude9386Im refering the "Unknown thing in Pacifica".
@@psymcdad8151 ah, fair point.
I really like him as a character. Fun to hate, but first impressions (as I desperately try to brainwash myself into forgetting the trailers that spoiled the prologue) of him being a calm but dangerous man... Speaking in the casually confident tones of a guy who believes nobody would dare cross him, but a coward who panics and acts without thinking things through when the chips are down... Such good stuff.
DeShawn wasn't a coward per se. Where are people getting that? Nor was he all that reckless. Even though the plan had holes, DeShawn and T-Bug were able to get most of the plan in order. Nothing was rushed. DeShawn made a desperate plan in the end that made sense. It was fucked up, but it made sense if he wanted a chance to survive.
Best comment here, I see a lot of Dex hate lol but lest we forget the idiot who set up the gig for stolen merch and it was just knock off anime tees? All that to say: people arent realizing that everyone in NC are cowards acting tough and buckle under the crushing weight of reality. Even for the Judy lovers she does not stick it out with you in hard times. That is the existential threat of this world. The City of Gang is like that because no one wants to be SOLO in NC, its the most dangerous and lonely road. People look up to fixers because they give a pathway to make dreams real and they bring people together to start trying for those dreams. Think about it: When you're winning, successful of course you're talking big. But in your last moments? Gun to your head? Are you talking a big game then? Really? Only Johnny Silverhand says he went out like that but that wasnt ever really true either...Dex, V. even Rache Bartmoss all dead in the same trash heap at the end of the day. The worst fixer is the one that never had the vision to start.
Agreed. It's a shame he died as early as he did, I wouldn't mind him having more screen time in the game.
I think it does also racket up the stacks. Dex is shown and talked about ( by Jackie mostly) as a big deal a major player. Well after the prologue you learn that he is a small time dude now you are dealing with real players in night city, real threats .
@@dranixrush3306the plan wasn’t even bad, other than not being able to predict yorinobu would kill saburo (which how the hell is anyone predicting that?) it was basically perfect
It occurs to me that t-bug would have been a lot more interesting if she and mamam Brigitte were the same person. Imagine she suddenly goes silent during the heist because she's aware of the saburo incident, and decides to cut loose ends and fall back. When V manages to survive, have things play out as normal, but instead of Dex's hustle knocking V out, t-bug turns off optical camo in the corner and uses the active connect she has to V's system to shut down his cyberware, making him an easy target for the hustle, before telling Dex to clean up and walking out. (While behind the scenes putting takemura on Dex's tail to continue cleaning up loose ends) Things play out as normal with V having no idea what happened to her, so he chases down the lead with Evelyn to find out T-bug hired her and that she wanted to personally make sure there were no hiccups, which is why she was using one of several alieses. Since she thinks the relic is ruined (because of the damage to the case) and V is dead, she follows other leads, leading to her getting frozen by netwatch and things progress normally. Gives a lot more weight to the voodoo boys decision too
Ohhhh I love this. Whenever I look at her concept art, it just reminds me of the Voodoo boys with their casual netrunner look. Would be super interested to know if she was supposed to be involved with them. Voodoo boys always felt like there was some connections that were supposed to be there between them and the heist beyond what we got, but were ultimately cut. I’ll try and look into this with her video.
@@lydiscottyeah I far prefer her concept art, she has a very basic look in the released game and I wish they did more with her. Jackie's impact can be felt long after he dies, but the game basically forgets about t-bug
The VDB are probably the most dangerous gang in NC. Its why Netwatch wants them so bad. If the VDB get what they want it would likely unleash an AI hellscape. I do not get the vibes that Bug wanted anything to do with destroying civilization. She just wanted out.
Well, it still made sense why the Vodoo Boys wanted Johnny's engram. If they could draw out Alt Cunningham and make a deal with her, their goal would come further into fruition.
There would be several plot holes with this regarding Ev, V and Dex.
Dex sat on a throne made of shit and fooled himself into thinking it was made of gold.
Reminds me of a quote in the game,
“Word on the street’s when Wako says ‘golden’ it’s usually a turd wrapped in crepe paper.”
A polished turd is still a turd
“How’s that quiet life working for you now? Choom” 🚬💨
Oh he's living the quiet life. As a corpse at the dump with a round in his head 💀
love that line from johnny. toss some ash on him.
🗿
Johnny is a real one just for that smark remark alone.
FR
I always figured Dex was always planning to throw V and Jackie under the bus as easy scapgoats. He's picked mercs who are competent but out of their depth. I think rather than a come back he just wants to have a massive score and then leg it.
I think T Bug might even be in on it. She doesn't want ties, and she says a couple of suspicious things on the lead up to the heist.
Leg it for what? There would be no point to coming to night city if that was the case. It seems Dex had enough resources to start over and build a new life.
In my opinion Dex was trying to make a comeback to restore his honor to some degree.
Voodoo boys always exterminate outside help when done with the job. No matter what V was going to get hit.
@@dranixrush3306 We know very little about Dex's current resources, he's been out of the loop for a while. If honour was his goal he goes a funny way about it.
It seems more likely to me that he wants a big score for the money and then a quiet retirement living like a king. No one stealing that chip was going to be safe in Night City.
@@Malaclypse_the_Third Several other ways he could have gone about it, if it's just for money. Nah, it's pseudo honor he was going for. Yeah, he fucked up in Pacifica but I think he was trying to get into the good grace's of the merc world. He knows how to hustle evidently, so money I doubt was his main drive.
Theres literally dialogue with Jackie where V says that Fixers are people that get the biggest and cheapest idiot for the job and then dispose of them afterwards.
And considering Evelyn also tried to cut the others out of the deal I have no doubts there would have been tons of backstabbing even If the gig was succesful.
my only regret from the konpeki plaza gig is aside from the fact i couldn’t save Jackie is the fact i didn’t get to Zero him myself.
Yea, then we could've at least saved him from the indignity of being turned into an engram by Arasaka
@@synphilia4776 Just send him home instead of Vik's place. That way Saka won't get his body and you get an extra side quest.
@@lukaskolisek2208 forgot about that option, you're right
@@synphilia4776you could also tell Del to not do anything and wait for V; did that on my first play through not knowing that Dex shoots V minutes later.
its frustrating because we couldve been faster. we had lots of ways to turn things around. we couldve just said fuck it and ran up, had T bug unlock the ship Saburo was in and delta outta there, or, broke the glass walls, slid faster towards the ladder, or if all else had to be the way they were, we couldve saved Jackie with some stims. we have a lot. surely in the far off year of 2077, we dont have internal bleeding suppressants in one of those injectables?
Dex shows pure Chicago thug energy: thinks he is the boss while being a mere embarrassment.
🤔 because he's black?? Wdym by Chicago thug? And you got a like from the channel. 😂😂😅😮
🤔 because he's black?? Wdym by Chicago thug? And you got a like from the channel . I posted this on a comment on this video. You liked the video, are you saying all black people are thugs in Chicago? Before anyone say anything about race im white....
"...pure Chicago thug energy..."
Bruh, you could've just said the word and be done with it.
@@printezstroman”Pure average black-American energy 😊”
Is that you wanted little sister?😊😊😊
@@HabitabIe
Just "Chicago warlord Energy" that would be nice
The fact that Rogue has the balls to go out on missions shows how legendary of a fixer she is not even Wakako is brave enough to go into battle with you
I mean, Rogue is a Solo first and foremost. Best Solo in the biz before she retired as a merc. No Fixer actually goes on gigs, it's not something one should expect.
Dude wakako is literally a granny
Rogue is a legendary merc herself, but she has a family now, something to live for, so she doesn't expose herself to danger and doesnt need to when there are hundreds of leadheads lining up to work for her.
She only went out to find Smasher cause Jhonny guilted her into it, like it was her fault he's stupid and got himself killed, and wants to blame her for being smarter and surviving, one reason raiding Arasaka has Jhonny is the 2nd worst vanilla ending, Rogue deserves to live out her life in peace
@@Ordoabchao-x9k So is Rogue. Are you forgetting that she's literally in her 80's?
@@Finckelstein yes but rouge doesn't literally look like my granny behind a counter. She probably has combat chrome and age reversing shit in her. She still moves like she's 30 or something
Fucks up, ducks in Pacifica for a couple years. Comes back. Fucks up the very first job. Should have asked more questions. Would have realized Ev was in way over her head
Greed blinds
The first time I met Dex I thought to myself: "Wow, he sounds like one of those financial coaches from the internet who wants you to invest in his snowball system" :D
I thought the same darn thing! That “die young and glorious, or old and irrelevant” pitch was a dead giveaway for him being trouble to me. But as much as I would have liked my V to have walked away, we have a story we have to play out, and Cyber Punk isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about making the ballsy decisions that either leave you a survivor, or a statistic.
How Dex DeShawn Became Night City's Worst Fixer?
-Gang war in pacifica wich he got involved thats why he retire
-Betraying V
It's amazing it wasn't Voodoo who fried T-Bug and left bread crumbs for Arasaka to find Dex. Since we kinda find out they were watching that go down.
I used to take it as a deliberate move that the bigger picture can be extremely difficult to piece together in a lot of the game's story. Like, this is a world that does not revolve around you and does not care about you beyond your role in it. The story of Night City is not the Story of V. He/She is not important enough to ever really have it all laid out in front of him/her. Just like in real life, you only ever get to see part of the picture and are left to draw your own conclusions.
Now I'm starting to wonder how much of that is actually just a result of stuff getting cut or rewritten
I’m in the same boat. The more I read and the more I played the game, it started to be more and more of a “hmmm this feels like somethings missing”. It’s honestly really interesting to investigate! 😄
The only thing that I could find on Dex and Pacifica is that it's mentioned a couple times that before the Heist he got Ran out of Pacifica before going off grid for a while and it's implied heavily that he's kind of a joke.
The fact that V went along with this guy and then got dropped by his bodyguard after such an obvious setup really reinforces my headcanon theory that the entire Prologue and Act 1 are a flashback, just like Johnny's memories, and they're about as reliable. When he wakes up, V's scrambled, composite mind is trying to remember "Who am I? How did I get here?" and he gets two answers, both of them filtered through the subconscious mind (and therefore the acute Main Character Syndrome) of one Johnny Silverhand, where he sees himself as having been cooler, more competent, and cannier than he ever really was. Then he gets up, and with the further help of that subconscious mind, proceeds to actually become That Guy.
That's why the character starts kinda don't make sense in way. Like personally Corpo makes the most sense since that makes you a LIFETIME buddy of Jackie yet that ironically still would tie you to Streetkid like since you were that you just took a slight different path. Like all the starts happened in way. Like It started off Corpo, the Streetkid aspect was your true backstory then one of your first missions with Jackie post corpo was getting that Iguana. Yet everything was mixed up due to the trauma
My headcannon is that V just died and the Relic made a copy of him. So through out the whole game you are playing as Relic V while at the same time being merged with Johny
@@filipstudenyThat's not even headcanon. That's canon. The Relic is designed to restore a corpse to life and overwrite the old data in the brain. The problem is that it was already in your head the moment you were killed and it brought you back too soon. You died. Dexter killed you. Now you and Silverhand are occupying the same space, but he's slowly taking over more and more of the neural pathways until V doesn't exist anymore. The Relic is just repairing a corpse and the V personality is brain damage.
"Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
As for the missing data on Dex's worst day, sometimes it's better not to know. A secret drives us to speculate, search, theorize. A known fact is just filed away and considered trivia. Often what we imagine can be far better than the reality we uncover.
There is also an Arasaka fixer downtown but you never get to interact with her.
Ohhhhh didn’t know that! I’ll have to do some research for my video on the ripperdocs!
It is helpful to remember that chapter 1 as well as a LOT of the overall story went through some pretty major rewrites after Keanu Reeves expressed a desire for Johnny to play a bigger role in the story for 2077.
i think that the conversation with Evelyn in the hallway at Lizzie’s is further evidence of Dex’s story being cut down for the final release, since she asks you to go behind his back and do the job for Evelyn herself, but you never get the option to go through with this or follow up on the conversation later in the game
13:00 i love the deep serious talk while you plow trough pedestrians with your car
"roadblocks" *hits civilians*
haha that's what I was thinking
One of the biggest issues for me is how V and Jackie were able to climb up so fast in 6 months that somehow got in contact with T-Bug a known aloof Netrunner that is way above their pay grade, V is able to afford a pretty sizeable apartment, a decent ride, were able to worked for Padre and Wakoto two fixers that are known to being strict on who they hire, got the attention of Regina Jones who hires V on a very serious work involving cyber psychosis. There is no way they would accomplish all that in Night City in 6 months that Dex will be like, yep these two are key to this gig I have crafted.
They are up and comers, desperate to become legends. Perfect profile for disposable mercs for a red hot gig that is going to be incredibly radioactive afterwards.
The combination of competent but also wet enough to be willing to go against arasaka.
The whole philosphy of the games story hinges on Dex asking V. Would you rather live long or Go fast and become a legend? The idea that getting what we want comes at a price.
For sure T-Bug was underdeveloped, and I feel the same about the VDBs. Placide was a great baddie, would have enjoyed that being built up. They'd have been a great fit for the Blackwall stuff in Phantom Liberty.
I love Dex, I remember being awed by his presence and apparent competence in the limo briefing first time I played. Took me multiple playthroughs and lore vids like this to clock that he was a desperate chancer feeding small timers into a buzzsaw.
Glad I’m not the only one that couldn’t pick up the clues. Granted as a player I did feel the whole heist was going to go sideways.
There's a line in the first meeting V has with Dex where he says he reached out to people in Pacifica to check out Evie and he's paid a "visit" by friends from pacifica. They don't say this is the VDbs, but the intimation is there. I think the VDBs knew all about the heist from that point and planned to take advantage of it. They lost track of everything when the shit hit the fan.
If Dex did bail on T-Bug i'm surprised that she was working with him again unless she was planted by the VDBs to help them keep track of the heist and screw everyone over at the end.
Finally, i think using greenhorn mercs was probably calculated to allow a betrayal at the end.
Yeah. I thought something similar. With the hints that Dex had abandoned her once already, I thought it was really strange that she would trust him again. Unless she was with the VDBs and sent in because of her history with him as an inside person for the op. With that original trailer, I think it was canon at one point, rather than just a spoiler hiding model swap. I think she would betray V and then Dex to keep the relic and take it back to VDB, only to realize it can't be extracted without damaging it.
The way I understood it is that the voodooboys wanted to make their own heist and hired evelyn to shoot a braindance in yorinovu's suite for it, but evelyn then decided to do her own heist and hired dex. Because when you extract evelyn's memories she mentions the relic and maman brigitte tells her something "it's none of your business, just record the BD"
2:02 here's an interesting tidbit. In an unreleased board game: 'Gangs of Night City' someone is described as "The go-to fixer for Pacifica". It's not Mr Hands, it's not Dex, it's Faraday
Interesting
Makes sense. Up until his death, Faraday seemed like he was well connected and *quite influential* as a fixer.
Then Dex comes back and dies, forgotten almost as quickly as he returned.
Then we (V) helps to solidify Hands’ status in Pacifica and Dogtown.
Faraday: Showed up to meets in person. Acted arrogant. *Killed by Smasher while out on the open because he thought he had a say in the matter*
DeShawn: Showed up to meets in person. Acted arrogant. *Killed by Fakemura because he thought he had a say in the matter*.
Mr.Hands: Never shows up to meet you in person until you've already solidified his position. Acts professional, cordial, even fatherly (which makes sense since he clearly has a child). *Survived and probably becomes the shadow ruler of Dogtown.*
Mr.Hands has achieved his Big Break by operating like a True Fixer. He never overextened, never acted arrogantly, but did act like a knowledgeable and educated person, which you would want your Fixer to be.
@@DashingSteel Exactly. Faraday overextended his reach by far. Despite being obviously way more competent and intelligent than Dex, Faraday's arrogance made him misread his position. He didn't view himself as a fixer, but as a boss, ordering pawns and climbing up a corporate ladder to a point where he was untouchable. Essentially, Faraday was never cut for the fixer life, and while he had a good run for the most part, the misreading of the true content of his job and position made his arrogance overrule any intelligence or skill he had. He was a man obviously much more cut out for the corporate world, but seemingly viewed himself as too superior for such a job, and paid the price dearly for such an incorrect mindset. Dex is a bumbling idiot who lucked his way into his rep and believed he deserved it, while Faraday is sort of an unprepared Icarus who flew too close to the sun, got burnt, and fell to his death- metaphorically and literally
@@DashingSteelHands is definitely a favorite of mine. His manners are immaculate and his jobs are layered.
I feel like Dex’s old gig is meant to be what we in the trope space call a “Noodle Incident” something that implies more in the world that people mention constantly but never explain because that’s part of the appeal and what adds to the world building as a whole.
If you’re unfamiliar with this trope, I suggest watching OSP Red’s Trope Talk on it.
I think you have a good point. I’ve seen other people theorizing that the montage of you and Jackie was originally supposed to be playable content but they didn’t have time to work on it.
i swear this game was a victim of just 'We need to deliver this, no more delays anymore, cut whatever isn't fully needed" And we lost either potential content or just a bit more of that nice, moment to moment gameplay. You getting extra time with Jackie is something I always wanted in that game.
i really love that in the prologue you see how Dex's Facade crumbles even for jackie as you, jackie and t-bug do everything except booking delamain
Dex is a parody of greed...the pistol you get off him even charges you per bullet lol
I would suspect, based on what I think his real goal for the mission was, that he probably had almost no contact left, and maybe not much money either.
Like lets say he had contacts with Corps like Hands does, why would a Corp want to keep working with him after his massive fuck-up that cause a city wide war? and the knowledge that he ran when it went down.
Corps tend not to like when people working for them screw up so I imagine they cut ties when he proved that he doesn't really know when a gig shouldn't be done, or at the vary least proved he didn't know what to do to make it work.
I would also assume he probably had to leave behind a lot of his stuff, which in two years was probably confiscated, stolen, or repossessed, it's not like the gangs would keep away and I doubt the NCPD would care, they probably wouldn't like him much either since they probably had to get involved in the city wide gang war, if they knew he caused it.
So if true this paints a scenario of a guy with almost nothing left putting on a facade so he can get this last job done and cash out.
It makes sense because what Fixer chooses a nobody like V? Yeah, you smashed up a Scav haunt but that's not really anything special. No, he needed people who were just competent enough to do it adequately but also were desperate and blind enough to see how much of a suicide mission it actually was.
@@Foogi9000 Yup he had no way of knowing how big V would be, but he could see how desperate Jackie was to make it big and that V would go along with him, would also explain the lack of precautions taken for the mission.
@@Nyghtking Yeah
@@Foogi9000
V literally has dialogue with Jackie about how fixers find the biggest, cheapest, yet barely qualified idiot they can get and then dispose of them afterwards once they have outlived their usefulness. Seems that is exactly what Dex intended to do.
Yup! That about sums up my thoughts on Dex’s situation as well.
Theory: TBug didn’t die, she just made it look that way, and led Goro to where Dex was…then she made the escape proper. Long form revenge!
Sadly i don't think so, she definitely got soulkilled in that moment.
Johnny’s exposition dump in the first part of Tapeworm where he mentions that Arasaka can fry your brain and pack away your mind and psyche with soulkiller makes me think T-Bug had that fate as well.
If you are a netrunner you get a mission from t bug for a free quickhack at a quick hack shop. If you return there after the heist you can ask the women there If she heard from t bug and she tells you that she was found with her nervous system fried, and that it is probably the worst death imagineable.
Safe to say that she is dead...
@@tobiasbayer4866 Yeah... it's safe to say that she suffered a fate worse than death which is sad. The scream she made was similar to how it sounds when someone gets soulkilled or *(Spoilers)*
When they get hit by a rogue blackwall A.I, the glitched screams is especially indicative of such an entity.
@@Foogi9000
On the brightside, If you do the secret ending and decide to go beyond the blackwall with Alt and let Johnny have your body, Alt will merge itself with all the engrams in Mikoshi, which includes you and possibly T Bug If she truly was hit by Soulkiller. So a happy reunion at last... Yay?
Fixer? City? Close enough PROJECT MOON SLEEPER AGENTS SWARM HIM-
WASHED UP GRADE 9 FIXER 🗣️
"Deservedly, underwhelming demise" yes!
Glad to see people making content about Cyberpunk lore. There is so much to learn about the world and its people.
Also might just be me but longer videos aren’t an issue, I can happily listen to an hour long video about Dex
I have this feeling an hour long video is gonna be unavoidable sometime soon. Johnny needs… a lot! 😂 thank you so much for watching!
I'll admit, it is hard to dislike Dex. He's got charisma. The first time I played, I got played, and didn't even really realize it. I thought he was a pretty cool character. Having played through a few times, I get more of what was going on. I know Vik had some things to say about Dex, but you'd think he would've clued V in on everything he knew. Might not have swayed V because of how tight they were with Jackie, but still. It would've gone a long way toward feeling trepidation as the day of the heist came about.
Maybe I'm dumb and a bit naive, but I felt a little blindsided. And maybe that's how you were supposed to feel. It isn't wrong how it came across, but I would've felt a bit more anxious knowing how many people had severe doubts about Dex, or even given V more info about why he left Night City. Maybe I just didn't pick up on it like I was supposed to. Who knows. Its still an awesome story. My only wish is that the Devs had been able to make all of CP 2077 like they did with Phantom Liberty. I absolutely loved that DLC. It had been a very long time since a game made the experience so visceral that I kept dying rather than give up Songbird to Reed (not knowing that I could put her down and stop him later.) I was absolutely livid to the point I wanted to quit the game entirely rather than let Reed have her. THAT is an amazing story.
I went into this game completely blind, never saw any trailers or demos. But I did go to school in the inner city, so I got around a bit. Dex immediately had me suspicious of him, he was captured so perfectly! He’s the type to give you a doomed drug run and turns tail the moment he hears you got pulled over haha. I really liked the small mannerisms and writing for him though, it definitely tipped me off!
@@virtualgambit577 When he asked which I wanted, to die in a blaze of glory or live a long life, I was like, "Why are you asking me this now?" :D I don't plan to die, do you? I know the game makes a theme of going out in a blaze on your own terms and becoming a legend, but I also think that you gotta plan for success, not failure. The fact that he was talking about failure made me sus of him.
And then it was all bravado, and he sells us out thinking he can cut and run. Yeah, same old shit. He reminds me of Big Smoke, from GTA San Andreas. :D
Really? Charisma? I hated him the moment I met him. All self aggrandizing and speaking in smarm. His blaze of glory shtick was weak and clearly him trying to manipulate you
Dex believed he was the biggest fish in the pond, without realising he was actually in an ocean with shark
i know cdpr aren’t updating the game anymore, but i think they should add one more side quest that has V investigating Dex’s past. maybe it could start by us receiving a signal from TBug’s corpse and then working backward
I'm glad I found your channel. I know I'm not alone in feeling like the Konpeki heist makes no sense as a genuine effort to steal the Relic, and this led me to assume that someone involved had some hidden motive to ensure its failure. While I stopped watching at the first mention of Phantom Liberty since I wanted to avoid spoilers, your take and the sources provided on Dex help me contextualize the prologue a lot better than before. I now see the job the way it was likely intended to be viewed: a half-baked plan by a disgraced fixer with several people doing their best to take advantage of his weakened position in the criminal world.
One of the most unsatisfying things for me from the early game is probably a result of those content/story cuts after that one trailer. That's the fact that we don't get to exact revenge on Dex ourselves. I have a feeling that initially they planned to have revenge quest lines for Dex and possibly T-bug as well, but when they had to rewrite the main story they realized they couldn't put that in. So we ended up with T-but getting fried and Dex dead in the junkyard. Which is really an interesting way to wrap it up when you think about it. Because you as the player don't get that satisfaction you're left wanting, just like V is.
Honestly I kind of like it that way. Everyone involved in that job died. Even V, just later rather than sooner.
It always reminds me of that scene from Intro where you ride with Jackie in your Car after saving that women from the scavs and see a group of thugs get wiped out by maxtec. A couple of idiots that a wrong move messing with the wrong people and paid the price for it. Thats us when we attempted that job.
I think thats one of the main themes of Cyberpunk, the genre, the game, the edgerunners anime. Its about desperately wanting to leave a mark on the world, its about hope. But ultimately it is a false hope. In none of the endings you can actually escape your fate, all that changes If your outlook on life and what you choose to with it.
I think it represents the genre beautifully, and that you arent getting closure, or that revenge is unsatisfying is part of the point.
Yeah, the game was crunched and is kind of unfinished, but man, it still goes so God damn hard.
Anyway, nice video.
I’m amazed at the quality of narrative they were still able to have, despite all the setbacks and treatment of the devs. Shows the passion and care of the people who put so much into it. And thank you so much for watching!
If they got alot more time and more devs for support, Cyberpunk would been more massive and better. WItcher 3 if im not mistaken got a lot of changes too especially the story.
11:55 id say chapter one feels like it was written first with all the ambition promised at the start and as ambition met reality and they scaled back to hammer down and fix story elements they left a lot in with hopes of paying off in expansions or DLC
I liked your video on Jackie Welles. You provide a different perspective from when I play the game getting sucked into his charisma. Nice seeing more videos on this great game
I don't know if it was intentional but I liked how the game set up this incredibly hacky "heist gone wrong" premise and introduced you to all the standard cliche characters you'd expect only to immediately kill all of them off(this includes Jackie).
Coast View is populated by the VDBs, Scavs and Animals. I wonder if Dex’ actions split the VDBs into the two factions. The ones in Dogtown and the other in Coast View.
The VDBs in Dogtown was very aware of the Blackwall and saw it as a mistake to mess with it. Momon Brigitte on the other hand seemed to have false hopes to gain access to the other side, never realizing the danger.
T-Bug never pierced the Black Wall, so her being affiliated with the VDBs in Coast View seems plausible, making her acquaintance with the gang in Dogtown very unlikely.
By piecing this information together you gain a view of who’s who, and where their operations originated.
I doubt T-Bug would have wasted so much time if she’d been affiliated with the Dogtown’s VDB’s. The fact it took _hours_ after she gained access after neutralizing the netrunner at Konpeki Plaza says a lot. So Dex’ modus operandi of using the cheapest and most expendable seems to be confirmed. He probably sweet-talked T-Bug, and like Jackie and V, fell for it.
One of the things I really like about this game's narrative(s) are the gaps around the edges. There are so many things that you never get complete resolution or allt he background on. It really makes the world feel alive and realistic, like sure, you are the main character in your story, but everyone else has their stories too and you at most make a cameo in them. It isnt like Skyrim where everything revolves and resolves around you.
Dex's fall is old news, only reason any merc cares is to not work with him.
Dex did not create the combat zone. He screwed up a gig spectaculary and had to leave NC, but other than that we don't know much. The Combat existed at least around 2045 during the age of Cyberpunk: Red. Later Corpos tried to turn this area of NC around with massive investments. But aside from gang resistance a massive Militech/NUSA invasion foiled these plans. The half completed buildings of this failed endeavor litter Pacifica. When the war ended a ground commander of NUSA with most of his forces went rogue and instead of leaving he held on to the combat zone around 2070. Renamed his area Dogtown and established himself as an international arms dealer with a district fully independant from NC.
Dex lived like a king and thought could do others for his bidding. Then died like a fool who flew way to close to the sun. Reminds me of Icraus from Greek lore so much. I did wish i knew bit more.
Perfect timing! About to start cooking dinner and now i got something to listen too! Really excited for this one
After watching this I wonder what could've have been if scenes from the trailer played out in the game like why T Bug tried to defend him. I wonder what reason she would have to work for him after his failures. Definitely feels like a missed opportunity to there
Hell yeah! Have a nice evening, thanks so much for watching! 😄
@@lydiscott Your very welcome and enjoy your evening too! I'll update my comment on my thoughts in a few! Thanks again for another wonderful video
Cant believe i watched a 20min video about Dex DeShawn
I hope you do Songbird soon, really want to not hate her as much as I do.
Currently recording phantom liberty 😄 looking forward to taking a closer look at her story!
Yes please. More character analysis like this. I thought I knew a lot about the lore and the characters but I didn't know that we were given more details about Dex's failed gig in Pacifica. I've read a few of those Humans of Night City entries before but never Rhino's. I should go back and read them all.
I wonder what the deal was with him and T Bug. T Bug seemed to have a decent head on their shoulders, how did they not see Dex for who they were? Or maybe they did? If so, why did they trust Dex so much? They seemed to get along quite well, both enjoyed philosophical discussions.
Great video and an interesting theory.
I feel like they wanted to make the story of V and Jackie, realised there isn't enough time, compressed the 6 months into the intro montage, cut the quests. This is how V was introduced to T-Bug initially, now she is in the tutorial and the first mission instead. This also would've meant V working with Wakako and maybe other fixers, and then Dex would've actually been a new fixer in town (instead of the fixer of your literal first mission, aside from the intro). It doesn't make much sense to get into "major leagues" after the first gig the player does. They covered this hole a little bit, but I still wish I could play a little bit as an unknown merc. In the game every fixer in town gets to know V only after you complete the first chater and visit their region. It's like V has never been anywhere besides Watson.
[upd] Ev's entire story is that she knows about the chip and organises the gig, dies immediately after. It's almost like they had to stitch the story back up after they decided VB didn't hire Dex. In other words, your theory makes sense. You can't possibly save Ev (unlike other characters?), which could mean she wasn't in the game when they wrote the base story.
your channel is evolving. i notice your video essays include backgrounds and it looks like your appearance is geared toward the genre. Have you thought about techwear like Fabric of the universe and machine 51?. the growth in just a few months is fantastic in terms of editing and production value.
T bug betraying v is good notice. i feel like jackie was set up in the initial trailer indicates a jackie betrayal as well. These videos are so fun to watch btw. Keep up the good work.
Awww thank you for saying that! Seriously means a lot that you’ve been watching for all this time. Ohh that would be fun! Cyberpunk fashion is also just great in general 🤣
@@lydiscott Cyberpunk is so fun. I actually want to start a dystopian cyberpunk themed ramen shop featuring my Shiba and jindos as characters. I'm looking to serve highest quality ramen that's sure to also offend Guro Takemura.
@@lydiscott Also have you been watching Delicious in Dungeon? Studio Trigger is so awesome!
I think it actually makes sense that T-Bug was supposed to betray V and Jackie there because if you think about Kiwi in the show... She could have been a nod at T-Bug's cut story... just food for conspiracy lol
Honestly the fact you can feel like there would be an entire plot line around T Bug, Jackie and Dexter only for all of them to die hurts so much more. Like the saying goes “Night City always wins” even Dexters death was very unsatisfying because he was taken out in front of your eyes and you didn’t even get a chance
Dexter reminds me a lot of the characters of The Wire. A lot of them had the opportunity to get out of the game but always succumbed to the itch to come back
I feel like act 1 could've really used a warmup gig from Dexter, before the heist. A little more time to spend with and flesh out the introductory characters would have gone a long way and made the heist more impactful.
It's a shame to see the game present such strong characters at the beginning, but there's such little time to actually learn about them and connect with them.
Ohhh that would’ve been awesome! 😄 would’ve loved to get some more on all the Chapter 1 characters, even Jackie.
So basically if they didn’t make those 6 months after the Prologue a video montage.
cheers for these videos, when i actually play games i'm always a berserkhead high functioning cyberpsycho who never reads anything, so it's nice to get some context for things i've only taken at face value
To understand Dex you have to realize that at the start of the game he's still "in exile" and is being used by the Voodoo boys for the heist. Yes, Dex wants to grow old and retire, but there is always that need for "one last score." He fled to space, but that wasn't exactly living in the lap of luxury. He was likely begging all of his former allies for help to come back into the game. Which is where the heist comes in. The Voodoo Boys were never going to give Dex his cut. He was always destined to be eliminated.
I mean the plan was solid, nobody expected the kid would kill his dad.
Looking forward to part 2! Time to binge the rest of this channel’s lore
I completely agree with the comments about the opening act's pacing vs Phantom Liberty's. The dialogue throughout the game suggests Jackie's death was supposed to really affect the player, but I didn't feel like I got to spend enough time with him to be *that* invested. Songbird's betrayal landed so much better for me because her backstory and interactions with V were much more fleshed out
This analysis is great. It makes it things a bit clearer for what could've happened to T-Bug. I can't see her working with Dex willingly, after he bailed on her and Rhino in Pacifica EXCEPT if she's out to use him the same way he's using everyone else for The Heist. I'm in the camp that T-Bug bailed because she knew the mission would fail and she 'bugged out', she didn't get fried. Everyone is out to use everyone in this mission. The Voodoo Boys and NetWatch using Evelyn, Evelyn using Dex, Dex using V&J, T-Bug using Dex. So many things went wrong with The Heist, it makes me wonder if some of it was manufactured as a cover for T-Bug. Taking "hours" to work her way through Arasaka virtual space, not knowing about Saburo despite news reels talking about "The Whale" in the bay - she just gave the job a nudge so it would blow up in Dex's face as payback for what he did to her in Pacifica, ESPECIALLY if she has ties to the VB. She couldn't reach him on the moon, but once he showed his face in town? He was dead the second he came back, I'm sure he didn't count on T-Bug still being alive.
V should’ve listened to the clues Dex was using. He basically pulled a Nash (with Jackie and V being the fall guys incase it went to shit). Also V realizes far too late that Dex’s plan was half baked and how unprepared he actually was (hell, Takemura finds V like a few hours from when he shot V), he was out of the fixer scene for like 2 years then all of a sudden had a grand heist on Arasaka for a biochip only a few people knew about, Dex pre-paid for the Militech drone only for V to have to shoot his way out of Maelstrom territory, he had zero backup plans for if/when Yorinobu’s would show up (hell, T-Bug could’ve locked the elevator and possibly opened the door for V and Jackie), Dex was Evelyn’s last choice for the job and Evelyn figured how Dex was unreliable, etc. if V wasn’t so blinded by ambition, he would’ve most likely seen the signs. Hell, Dex even asks V how THEY’D rather go out.
I've only recently discovered your channel, but Im a HUGE Cyberpunk fan, and your analysis of these characters is truly fantastic. Great work
I have 326 hours in cyberpunk. I’ve played it over and over. I never get tired of these kinds of videos either.
I love your vocal enunciation no vocal fry. Very professional.
Sorry, I don't know if you talk about it in the video, because I've just started watching it, but a thing that popped into my head recently is a small detail that shows off how Dex might not be the big-shot that he thinks (and likes to make out that he is): he's the _only_ fixer who discusses the details of the job in a soundproof booth.
The fixers for each district will call you, which can be traced, and Rogue and other mercs in Afterlife (many of whom are presumably fixers) talk about their jobs out in the open. Dex's biz is discussed in a back room, out of sight and sound of the rest of the club, possibly because nobody with any kind of rep wants to be seen in the same room as Dex.
I think fixers usually don't take precautions when giving you the details of a job because the jobs are either small enough that nobody who matters will care, or they aren't screwing over anybody more powerful than the fixer themselves. Dex's whole plan was to effectively steal Saburo Arasaka's shot at immortality. If the wrong people got wind of their plan, they'd all be thoroughly disappeared before dawn. The privacy is also probably part of the mystique which is what makes him so good at manipulating new mercs. Now I DO think it's telling that Dex is the only fixer who's willing to take jobs that require such strict opsec.
This is a great deep dive into Dex's story that I've never heard of before, thanks for the upload!
When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you. Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion."
Your video essay presentation style is adorable and fun. Even if you say something I know, I want to hear you say it anyways! Great work!
He was a great character the intro in his limo set's the game up well
Dex being who he is for us in the game I think perfectly places us in the perfect spot to understand why V and Jackie went with him. When we step into V’s shoes, we genuinely know as much as he does. “Don’t mess with the fixer” and “Dex is gonna hook us up” kinda stories, only to find out later, that he’s either completely unknown to others or known as a failure
Agreed that T-Bug is super sus. The hours she spent melting Arasaka Ice coincides with Saburo's sudden decision to visit Konpeki. It was timed too perfectly to be a coincidence.
One interesting thing is when you're going through the plan with T-bug and Dex in the Afterlife, T-bug is wearing shoes with the branding "Delta V" like T-bug is subtly trying to tell V to leave the job
Just discovered this channel. What a treasure.
8:05 Dex said he put out word and was himself contacted by the VDBs to stop looking, thus he probably isn't on outright "talking terms" with them
This was fascinating. I've not even played this game and found this all really interesting.
Great video and analysis! I always thought that the legend surrounding him as one of the best fixers in Night City at the beginning of the game even though his returning to the NC after spending a few years 'off the grid' was a bit shady.
7:14 I don’t think tbug would deal with him again if he left her out like that
The brilliance of Vanilla CP2077 is in the side content. The lore. The NCPD side hustles. Etc.
If you go through the vanilla game with a fine toothed comb, which IMO is very easy to do - EVERYTHING is connected. I think Phantom Liberty is brilliant for sure, and the main story is more intense, but to act like the vanilla game wasn't great is crazy. The amount of environmental detail they put into the game is insane. You just have to be curious enough to discover it.
I am an old man (45). I have discussed the finer details of the world with Maximum Mike, Ed Bolme, and a few others. I even did some writing for the TTRPG's offshoot game.
You get it. You sincerely get it. Thank you. Liked, subscribed, binging.
One thing I want to say, Sex didn’t get in contact with the VDB’s to ask about Evelyn, he put feelers out and “some boys from Pacifica got back to me, told me to stop digging”
Quality content choomba! I agree that lots was cut from the first act. I know that the Flathead was cut content. It was supposed to be customizable from the player and something that stayed with V through out the game.
Have you thought about Mr. Blue eyes?
The part that I think sums up Dex perfectly is when he pretends to be wise and intelligent by dropping an Aristotle quote but is completely oblivious to the meaning of it and how he should take his own advice.
He can play the character but has nothing to back it up.
I think even if some plot lines had been dropped I think it would have still be better to keep Bug's betrayal in the final story. It would have made V's fall even that much harder. Not just losing Jackie but having your only remaining "friend" in the room co-sign your death warrant. As for not knowing the full story behind Dex and Bug that is not a huge deal and doesn''t necessarily feel like it is unfinished. Alot of stuff people walk into in life especially in the criminal side of things is "need to know" and we never really get all the answers wrapped up in a neat bow like in a game or novel.
Sometimes things go ugly and you never get closer on the why.
It also ads some realism in the sense that the world doesn't revolve around V. There is a history to the world that V is not a part of. It makes it feel like V is just the latest in a line of people who walked into the life and got spit out again instead of some game worlds that feel like the entire world is just standing around waiting for the protagonist to show up.
When the "fake it 'till you make it" guy finally gets promoted to their level of incompetence.
My favorite story ever is Dark Souls, so the missing details never bothered me. To me they felt like they were intentionally left vague, especially T-Bug, a super secretive netrunner isnt exactly gonna go around telling their life story and leaving hints about it.
After hearing you talk about it though, i think youre right that a lot of it just had to be cut.
You are really right, I could see it on him without having to find the traces, so I have worked with better fixer in. He is, after all, he himself had to work for someone in the stedt for and then come back up and heal a bit from the others