Fun fact: the first chainsaw was invented as a tool for caesarian deliveries. I think real-life ripperdocs would definitely use chainsaws on a daily basis.
"Some brothers from Pacifica got back to me. Told me to stop looking." Dex on the subject of looking for the voodoos. By voodoo standards thats being on speaking terms.
I believe T-Bug was killed by a Demon. According to the tabletop RPG, "Demons are a form of Black ICE with a limited Artificial Intelligence" . They can use the "zap" ability to defend itself within the architecture. I guarantee the Konpeki subnet was littered with all sorts of AI who sit waiting for netrunners. I think the devs changed her fate to show players how dangerous the net can be. As V, you don't really do real netrunning, and so if you don't play the tabletop game you might not understand how it works.
Was literally about to comment this. We run Cyberpunk Red, and there are some programs that only hit other programs, while others hit the netrunner directly. T-Bug was hit by the latter. Also, we see this happen to a certain someone in Phantom Liberty too, although not via another netrunner. Their nervous system gets hit. But it's your brain that's jacked into the Net, and your nervous system via that, so "being fried" is an immediate death.
*Daemon. (Though I think demon and daemon are used interchangeable in the game) The word stems from ancient greek meaning (not an official definition) a benevolent entity or force that works in the lives of people in unseen ways. It's where we get our moden word "demon", but would've originally meant more of what our modern understanding of an angel is. Nowadays, a "daemon" is a computer program that handles background tasks. Much like the original greek idea. These programs, invented by some of the first computer scientists, were labelled "daemon" as a reference to the greek philosophy while also communicating their function. Still today you can see these programs running on modern computers. They often end with " d. " They're easier to find on computers running a Linux os. However, in the 80's and 90's, the time period where the cyberpunk genre was born, people's imagination of "the net" was still wild, and so in Cyberpunk 2077 we get these image's of half ghost, half a.i. malicious killing programs. Anyway. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
Konpeki had more than just Black Ice, but yes....she most likely got got by something from the system, if not the Dweller venting his anger at her and hitting her with a Dragon or a Killer. I'd expect Konpeki to have a Balron or Efreet at a minimum, given the kind of secrets they have, and the customers they host. For example, during the heist V and Jackie can see the mayor literally getting orders from Arasaka. On the tabletop, in RED at least, netrunning is a complex and involved activity, where getting out is the least of the runner's worries (programs can throw you out, thus allowing all the ICE you bypassed to give you a warm gift on your way out). it's definitely not the work of a few seconds like the mini-game V does.
@@Quzxpon As for the word’s history, programmers from MIT’s Project MAC coined the term daemon in 1963. The inspiration came from Maxwell’s demon, a thought experiment that can hypothetically break the second law of thermodynamics.
I always got the vibe that T-Bug wasn't on the up-and-up w/ V and Jackie. She makes very clear that she isn't your friend during the Scav job. It's just a job to her, and you're the crew she was tasked with. She was looking to get ahead, but always on her terms.
Tbh I still love the idea that she cared about V and Jackie as a crew even though she didn’t really show it, and that the last thing she ever did was try to help them escape instead of cutting and running. Especially because she wasn’t just trying to get ahead, she was trying to leave night city completely. It’s a nice contrast to Dex acting like a buddy with V and Jackie while only being out for himself from the start.
I believe that T-Bug was just professional. She cared for her crewmates like a professional would. And she helped V and Jackie to escape because she didn't see her own demise coming. Who knows how she might have reacted if she knew that her synapses were going to be fried if she stayed with them.
T-Bug is part of Cyberspace she ditched her physical form she is in vacation but within the NET. Just like Rache Bartmoss the one who gave her this fail safe using the Matrix pill reference. She can take over Cyborgs however like a doll if she needs a physical forum. Project Orion goes into depth with this about this
Well, the title card for the game doesn’t show until she’s gone so… that’s exactly her purpose. Her participation in The Heist and her ties to Dexter/V just gave her a narrative reason to exist.
@Carnefice probably because T-Bug character seemed a bit more important to V than just "an npc character" with how she lashes out at Jackie when she dies. If her role was just suppose to be that then maybe they shouldn't have given the three so many instances where T-Bug presents as a distant cold netrunner but was unknowingly getting attached to Jackie and V anyways. It gives us the impression that TBug knew Jackie and V for awhile and (professionalism or not they considered her apart of thier team even if she rebuffs that). How you can dedicate a toast to her in PL which you don't do for a character that was suppose to just be an npc and that's it. She obviously was suppose to have some sort of impact on us, the players. I don't think it's asking for alot to give a character that's alteast semi-close to the two main ones (atleast in Act 1) a bit more so we can also care about her death?
One detail I notice about T-Bug is that she is using a really ancient Cyberdeck, one similar we retrieve from Bartmoss, which is like seeing a hacker using a laptop PC from 1993 or something. She could be using it as a firewall addon or something, but it still adds some strange idea of her character being very fond of older technology for reliability.
That's a detail I've noticed as well. I dunno if they only had one cyberdeck prop/asset for the game, but I think it meshes well with her as a netrunner regardless. Plausible imo because IRL some businesses use very old computers (like floppy drive old lol) as a sort of airgap for their networks.
In healthcare and in other health care roles such as psychiatry, you can still see operating systems such as windows xp, vista, or windows 7 used because the only reliable way to gain access to that kind of information is through being there in-person and grabbing the hard drive. The same is often seen for lab computers, most business models and companies, shipping and freighting companies like FedEx, militaries around the world etc. The entire U.S. Fleet for example uses a custom-made version of Red Hat Linux for the entire Navy's fleet (Thank you Linux!). This is because these kinds of operating systems often do not make use of multimedia applications on the hardware's operating system such as windows 10 or 11 that embed 'self-learning' and 'data-collecting' features today that 1) often bloats the performance of the system by adding the 'self learning' 'data-collecting' tasks, 2) often changes how compatible the devices are if you are not actively using it for the OS brand itself and if the programs you are using did not upgrade or are using bloat too with placing in ads and data mining stuff as well, 3) makes it easier to hack most of the time than their older versions 4) unless if you have the time to go through extensive software changes to make it private for your own uses it is going to take time to deactivate bloatware features.
Windows xp, vista, and 7 are ridiculously easy to hack though.. it helps a little that those systems probably aren't connected straight to the internet.. but literally anyone with a basic pentesting course could get into those systems provided they can get on the network. @loafoffloof3420
I think the decision to move bugs death up to the mission rather than after is to boost Jackie. Had he been the only one to go down he looks like s goofy gonk who never stood s chance. But by killing the hyper-competent T-Bug, it raises the stakes during the mission, sells the danger of Arasaka, and makes Jackie not the only one to die from a betrayal (Dax and V) 3 betrayers rather than 2 may have also veen one too many
T-Bug isn't actually "hyper competent" she's just professional, compared to literally any other net runner we find or hear about, she's slow and running obsolete tech, sure bartmoss did the same but he was a master who created a deck from many many other decks to be perfect, T-Bugs deck is just old
Yeah this is more or less what her role felt like to me. Her death was THE point where my brain fully registered the mission went to absolute shit. Before that I was in a "okay not what was planned but we can still make it out" headspace. After that ? Survival mode. She always felt a bit superior to V and Jackie, always felt she had more experience and skills than them. So for her to be the first to go ? How were they supposed to make it out. Also the fact that her character felt like she had a lot more going on than what we got to see also demonstrates perfectly how brutal Night City is.
My personal theory is that T-bug only agreed to participate in this job because she planned on betraying Dexter as payback for what probably happened 5 years ago in Pacifica, but never got the chance because she got hit with black ice. Either that or she faked her death and skipped the country leaving everyone else out to dry.
I completely agree, with the addition that I think she is betrayed by Dex moments before, and while she gets the drop on him, doesn't make it out of the conflict unscathed. I always found it strange that they never used her in the Voodoo boys section of the game, so I'm imagining she'd be holed up there, to be found later when the Voodoo Boys become pertinent.
@@lydiscott Honestly, a few things changing could have meant they could at least get back to the lobby without triggering any alarms. They walked in with a big suitcase, they're walking out with a big suitcase. The big slip was in their cover being a meeting with an Arasaka arms developer (Hajime Taki, if I remember right), whom could easily break their cover if they speak to anyone about their itinerary and schedule and it DOESN'T include meeting with Militech suits about a suitcase. Without Saburo getting killed (Such as even just Saburo saying his piece and leaving), there's a lot that could still go well enough to get them to the parking garage with minimal suspicion. The sad fact is, Saburo dying and Yorinobu putting the hotel on full lockdown got their full suite of Netrunners and ICE activated, as opposed to just the dweller, not to mention all the armed security flooding the place top to bottom. There's also the prevailing theory that Adam Smasher's full borg kit gave him full thermal and EM vision to see V and Jackie in the middle of that central pillar and he said nothing, probably to ensure Yori's cover of Saburo's actual cause of death would be believed.
Honestly it's the worst plan ever and Dex is probably one of the worst fixers around and Evelyn choose him because this whole heist idea is so stupid that no one would accept a mission like this.
I've always had the idea that the shard was cursed from the start, think about it, anyone and everyone involved in some way with the shard ends up dead. Saburo, dex, t bug, ..even v technically dies. Plus you can catch a line from Judy telling V that she told Evelyn to not take the job in the first place, that everything about it gave her bad vibes.
V randomly receives a shard in his apartment in act 2 titled “Greetings from Des Moines”. It reads “Jump in the urinal and stand on your head. I'm the one that's alive. You're all dead.” I always thought that was somewhat fitting for a T bug betrayal. Maybe she’s living her quiet life in Des Moines
I like TBug, people can say she wanted to betray V and Jackie and she is cold but i respect her for staying with the gang to the end, opening those doors. She could just bail out instantly after hearing news about death of Saburo, but she didnt, helped our heroes and payed the price for it. I also like Bug character as a reminder that anyone who wants to leave NC on their own terms will end badly.
This was probably professionalism, too. She stayed because you are supposed to as a professional. Her death came very sudden and rather unexpected, she might have reacted differently if she forsaw her demise.
I doubt she could have bounced that fast. There's a Gig you can do for Wakako in Westbrook where you have to rescue a netrunner named BugBear. She is jacked in and before you can bring her out, you need to lower her core temperature or she'll go into shock and die. You also see this in the Edge Runners show with Kiwi and Lucy where they lay in an ice bath while jacked in. So it's my theory that T-Bug couldn't just bounce out as soon as shit went sideways because she didn't have time to cool off and be safe to disconnect from the net before some angry ass Saka program found her.
@@sadturtlesoup8832 Good point, proper netrunning needs proper cooling. So she should have seen the danger way before the heist started in order to get out safely, or in other words there was no escape. The more reason for her to fight for her and her teammates lives.
@@antonk.653 Not sure I agree with that, because it's not until _after_ she opens the doors for you to escape that she realises she'd been traced. I imagine if she'd spotted the trace earlier that it's entirely possible she'd have left V and Jackie out to dry.
@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 It is possible, I don't blame people much for saving their own skin - it is Arasaka threat level after all. But if she was traced earlier, the whole heist would fail sooner (and she would die the same way sooner).
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There was a FIA agent code named Ladybug, killed during the heist, revealed in notes in Phantom Liberty. This agent was directly implicated into the heist. There is four characters possible: T-Bug, Dex, his bodyguard and Jackie. The more probable character is T-Bug and it is compatible with your theory with the VDB with T-Bug as triple agent. The code name is a little too obvious but it is an internal code name so maybe FIA was a little too sure about their network security.
i dont remember when this was hinted, but could it not be someone like dweller, keeping saburos murder off the record in order to destabalise arasaka to the fia's benefit, killed when the heist plan intersected with them. would it have to be a part of the heist team?
@@cephery8482 This. It could have been one of the many Arasaka guards you kill during the heist. An FIA agent wouldn’t rob Arasaka, it might make their cover get blown, even if they did have to rob the place they wouldn’t do it with a fixer like Dex.
@@abisnail4888 We've got FIA Agents playing hopscotch on the Blackwall, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that they'd have their netrunners stealing Arasaka prototypes.
I feel that Arasaka wouldn't use Soul Killer. From people we know they use it on, they only use it on high value targets. During the heist, all they know about Bug is that it's some random runner, not anyone particularly important or notable.
She was caught infiltrating the location where the Emperor of Arasaka was killed, thats more than enough to warrant the use of all measures Arasaka has on hand. Its not stated if they did, but theres no reason for them not to. I dont think the question is "would they have" - they would, she's a suspect in a high level murder. A more interesting question would Could they have? As far as we can see, soulkiller requires the physical body of the subject at the location where the soulkiller apparatus is, we see that with Jackie and "Johnny's Memories" but it is also possible that they had a net deployable version, since it's rumored that they have used it as a countermeasure towards hostile netrunners in dialog
The heist makes the group into high value targets though. We know already that if you make the wrong choice about where to send Jackie's body, Arasaka will intervene, capture his body, and then attempt to use Soul Killer on it, and you can meet what's survived of his consciousness in Mikoshi later. No doubt if they're willing to do that to Jackie, they'd have done it to Bug as well. Maybe you're right though, that during the heist itself (notably before Saburo is killed) they sought only to kill the invaders as quickly as possible, and it was only later and in light of the death of an emperor that they thought to use Soul Killer to extract information from them.
@@TCM_Hutchie I feel like Soulkiller needs more prep and physical access to the body to utilize. I feel like once Bug was caught by all the freshly activated ICE and Daemons in the post-Lockdown Konpeki subnet, she was roasted to death by everything at once before she could even think to unplug. Her biggest mistake was unlocking that last door for V and Jackie AFTER lockdown started. If she'd unplugged the moment she knew Arasaka was booting all their security for the lockdown (Including active deployment of netrunners, ICE, and Daemons), she might have gotten away. Heck, V and Jackie were lucky that the netrunners and ICE didn't circumvent her attempt to unlock that door.
T-bug was in over her head. The game doesn't outright make it obvious, but she was an amateur netrunner at best. It took her 3 and a half hours to pierce the Konpeki penthouse ICE, and at the end she couldn't even open a door. No amount of corny netrunner slang and pretentious philosophy quotes can hide the fact that she was completely underqualified.
i feel like thats the point. the mission was just inherently bad and poorly planned. nobody, with any amount of grit, was qualified to succesfully carry out the heist
@@diegonunez3492 while that is also true, i still think tbug was too amateur. she tries so hard to put up this front of someone who is a "uber hax0r" but in reality her skills are just a little bit above basic.
@diegonunez3492 remember that Murphy tore through Arasaka's defences in seconds when Silverhand and Co went to nyke the Tower, so nope. T-bug is just kinda shit at this.
@@shagman1779 spider is one of the best, only rivaled by(as far as I know) alt , and surpassed by Rache, using them as the bench mark isn't too fair imo
"Frying" the nervous system is the main way in which ICE, Soulkiller, etc actually kills the person, Soulkiller just basically "scans" the brain and then obliterates it, so even if it was Soulkiller, the fried nervous system wouldnt be out of place. But Soulkiller is also seemingly saved for the people, for whomst death would be too light a sentance (at least in the Arasakas mind). T-Bug was just some netrunner to Arasaka in the end.
Except she and her crew were considered the number one suspects in the murder of their patriarch. The fact that they're willing to steal Jackie's body...speaks directly to how lightly they aren't taking this at all. Likewise, Yorinobu at the time can't at all afford to make it seem otherwise. Everyone on the crew has to be "Public Enemy #1" and they all have to be seen as dumb, but also massively capable and dangerous.
@@LupineShadowOmega I mean, Takamura is also a prime suspect to anyone not in the inner circle, that's why he is on the run, he says so himself that some members of Arisaka think he killed Soburu. They only know about V and Jackie because they were caught on camera fleeing the penthouse. (that being the ones in the ship that shoots at them, not the ones in the hotel since technically you can get out without being spotted by any camera, how clear that footage is is questionable given the weather) Also they do not try to take Jackie's body in all playthroughs, that entirely depends on where you send his body with Del. If you send it to his mom nothing happens. ONLY if you send his body to Vik does it get stolen by Arisaka. So it cannot be considered cannon. That said, V isn't exactly keeping a low profile with how many jobs you are allowed to do, many of which are in Tiger territory and they are known to answer to Arisaka so the fact Arisaka isn't constantly after you probably means they don't actually have accurate intel on who EXACTLY it was that was in the penthouse. The most logical reason they take Jackie's body if sent to Vik is they know at least one of the suspects was shot by the gunship and that will require a ripper to get properly fixed up so they probably sent ninjas out to the nearest rippers (or at least the ones within a distance they felt a person dying of a gunship wound would be able to make it to) and Vik is one that would be in that radius so if you send his body they move in to snatch it.
@@ShiningDarknes We are not talking literally here, we are talking about his options for spinning this. Yes they can also spin it other directions, but the point is that they need as many options as possible, because all of those give the new head of the Corpo unlimited leeway in dealing with all suspects. It is a powerplay wet dream, that at once allows you to clean house for your ascension and get any and all attention off of yourself and you can do anything to tie those loose ends up in the name of vengeance. He could just as easily tie his sister in there too if he'd wanted, because the point is that they needed an excuse and Yorinobu was farming them for power and influence.
Given the explanation of t-bugs concept it sounds like her original design might've gotten spun off for maman brigitte. The animation for the promo trailer was most likely made way in advance, based on an early draft of a scene. And if they hadn't yet decided on the details, it would make sense that everyone involved with the mission would be present at the No Tell Motel unless specified otherwise.
@@lydiscott in the initial showings of the game you were able to choose a hero between Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand or Saburo Arasaka. The general consensus in the community was that you would have one of the three in your head depending on your choice. But then they cast Keanu Reeves and if you have Keanu Reeves you use Keanu Reeves. So Blackhand and Saburo stories got folded into Silverhand. Might be why we see him with the bomb in the final game when Blackhand was actually the one planting the bomb.
keeping the same plot and adjusting the discrepancies to be Johnny ego tripping over his importance would be pretty great. they keep the black hand moments with johnny forcing himself into black hands shoes. typing this out, I realize it would have been pretty cool to have Johnny realize the truth of his death and memories. how unimportant he really is to arasaka, smasher, and the world would have been great.
@@firstname4382 that seems to be what they did. Pondsmith, CDPR and even Alt in game all say his memories are BS. A good example is Samurai was broken up before either of the missions we see with him.
@@lydiscott they likley axed the entireity of the flash foward at the start of the game. I feel your time with jackie and crew in the early days. was the orginal act 1. the early jobs likely made up the start of the story. ending with the big job at the plaza. leading to act 2 which likely would have been what we know as act one after jackies death. T bugs fate likely would have changed depending on your actions (actually i know it would have because it was mentioned either in a gameplay trailer or an e 3 showing early on)
I think she was altered for the better. The key narrative of 2077, and one Evelyn herself tells us, is falling for the lie of Night City. The bigger you aim, the higher you fall. Be it the Relic heist, or the plot of Edgerunners. It's all quite well executed as everyone but V is all in with the heist, failure doesn't even cross their minds, yet several times V can voice uncertainty, having issues with the small details, and who is the only survivor? The one person with doubt. The one person who didn't buy fully into the lie. T bug's role seems cut down and small, but it all ties into the greater narrative of Night City and shows us that no one is above Night City, no matter how important they seem or how good they think they are.
I like this interpretation. It is furthered by him clearly being in some way disillusioned with the appeal of Night City at the start of whatever route you take. V through the whole game never really fully buys into Night City, always skeptical of the major jobs (I really fucking hate that denying Kirk when he asks you to do another job doesn't end the quest, instead it leave it there for you to "change your mind," same with the Claire quest which is also one I feel like you saying no should end the quest chain. Game devs out there: give players the option to say no to quests and have said quests just be gone)
@@ShiningDarknes Agreed. Some would say it's a loss of content but to most it would be an extra choice in a genre that's supposed to be full of them. The Peralaz questline is a good example as Johnny tells us to just cut and run, how good would it have been if we could have stopped the elevator, go back down, walk out, then call them saying you don't want to touch this case with a 10ft pole? small stuff like that makes games feel more alive.
@@monkeybone1080 It is so off that it leaves these two quests available when you turn them down when there are many side quests you are, if fact, allowed to fail some of which technically have a better outcome with you not completing them.
Yep, everyone but V seems to think the heist will go off smoothly. Whether it be Dex being out of touch and thinking his usual MO, intended to fleece no-name crews, is the right plan to use for a job like this, Jackie being too blinded by the prospect of finally making it to the "big leagues" to consider that this job is way out of his league, or T-Bug's arrogance and overestimation of her skills making her view the job as somewhat beneath her. None of them but V seem to be aware enough to see the issues with the plan.
@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 Don't forget Evelyn. She was relying too much on the fact that Yorinobu would never notice that she never once took into consideration the fact that so much crap could have gone wrong, and it DID go wrong. The one thing none of them ever considered from the conversation that Yorinobu had with his informant in Arasaka, is that Saburo would be coming to Konpeki himself. A son doesn't get that heated about his father unless something important was coming up. They should have accounted for that possibility, no matter how unlikely or outlandish it may have been. The bit about Yorinobu killing his father... now that was probably much less likely to happen, but again going off of his conversation over the phone and the history we already know about Yorinobu, I still would have assumed that it could have been possible. A heist this big should have ALL snares and possibilities checked, no exceptions. V may have not known themselves, but they had a hunch the heist was just too good to be true. If not for peer pressure, they could have at least saved themselves the absolute hell they go through after the Prologue.
My take is that Marcus Aurelius both never said it and is its originator. Meditations is inspired by Greek philosophy, and there’s a tendency in that literature to make up conversations to prove a moral point, such as Euyphro’s Dilemma. Just as Plato both felt obliged to his mentor Socrates and used him as a rhetorical authority, Marcus referred to his own mentors.
I also think that if Mr.Hands was the fixer for Konpeki Plaza Heist, it would have succeeded. He is very thorough and cautious. He would have considered all possibilities including Saburo’s involvement and made back up plans for every scenario. That said, he wouldn’t have worked with amateur mercs who are still very inexperienced for a gig of that scale.
@@ForestRaptor I feel like Mr. Hands WOULD participate in it, even fully knowing what could happen if it went south, with proper contingencies in place to pin the fiasco on a rival or even just leave the mercs out to dry as if they were just REALLY lucky solos. After all, Mr. Hands is the only fixer in NC with any amount of anonymity intact. What would the burned mercs have on him? A nickname and no face or deets to spill. Heck, I could even see Hands putting the idea into Dex's head to take charge as the "real" fixer behind the job, just for another layer of separation.
12:00 Now this is an interesting detail. This gives the notion of T-Bug being more prominent character initially. Knowing how troubled development was, it feels like they had to do a rewrite and cut plenty in the last minute.
One thing she says that I notice most don't comment on is that not only does she intend to retire, but that she intends to "never set foot in cyberspace again." Cyberspace has other uses besides business, legal or otherwise, and it wouldn't be surprising if many Greek islands were effectively "off the grid" in Cyberpunk 2077 like our world. This suggests that Tbug wasn't just retiring, but becoming a little bit of a luddite, and if she did have a connection to the VDBs (knowing what they were planning to do with the relic/Silverhand) perhaps she was trying to hide away from the coming AI apocalypse?
Even her name is enigmatic-bug can refer to both her technical prowess and how suddenly her life is snuffed out. But T part, besides the possible connotation that it stands for “tech,” is even more open to interpretation. Not many people use aliases in Night City, somewhat surprisingly, so it raises questions on who, if anyone, is she hiding from.
@@maurog.ocaranza4142 Yup, most Cyberpunks use an alias on the tabletop. Especially Netrunners, with them being inspired by hacker culture (people using their real names instead of invented handles on the Internet didn't really become mainstream until the 2010s).
A bug is also something used to tap into people's lines, normally by law enforcement or covert intelligence. Which could hint toward her deeper motivations.
I like to think that her name is an homage to Resident Evil's T-Virus. But instead of Virus (can also be used for computer virus), they changed it to T-Bug.
T-Bug has been one of my favorite characters. It felt as she was genuinely trying to make a connection when she was encouraging Jackie to try and think on the deeper implications of the philosophy she was sharing with us. That car ride before the heist is one of my favorite moments.
Yeah, all the dialogue surrounding T-Bug makes it seem as if she's more of an outside contractor for Jackie and V than an actual part of their crew, and her "You could try to think about it" line after the philosophy quotes feels like she's trying to make a connection with Jackie and V, to get "in" with their crew, but is unwilling to find something she shares in common with them and, instead, is trying to make _them_ have something in common with her. It's the wrong approach and subtly casts an extra highlight on her more arrogant personality.
The part that always intrigued me is the philosophical edge. Was there going to be a questline referring to that trait? What was the thematic reason for having her be a philosophy aficionado? Quoting Marcus Aurelius and Aristotle in particular makes me wonder-a Stoic and a rationalist, those aren’t mutually exclusive but there’s clearly connective tissue missing here.
It would’ve been interesting to see a quest continuing this theme! I feel like Bug’s philosophy and Misty’s mysticism would’ve been two interesting, parallel views of Night City.
@@lydiscott Perhaps…Stoicism and rationalism are both more grounded in tangible reality than Misty’s mysticism-wait, is that why her name is Misty? How am I just realizing this 😂 T-bug has a specific goal, to make enough to live the quiet life in Greece, while Misty has an explicitly spiritual mission. As is the game never does anything with this potential dichotomy, but now that you mention it, I wish they had
One of the things Mike Pondsmith has said is that the rogue AI have a penchant for quoting ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. It's my personal loose theory that T-Bug and Dex are being manipulated by rogue AI on this side of the Black Wall to make sure the Silverhand engram can make contact with Alt. I have no ideas as to why though.
The trailer was just too good. My head canon makes T-Bug a traitor. Who she betrays (everyone, V & Jackie) changes. She could have faked the scream, started a rumor she'd been fried, and skipped the country as she wanted to do. It sounds like Dex screwed her over when he left 5 years ago. Why would she work for him if she knew what a screw-up he was? She didn't know V and Jackie well enough to care, and Dex as payback. I like to think she sold them out to Arasaka and then skeedaddled. Knowing Arasaka, she got her comeuppance eventually.
If you read the Cyberpunk book "No Coincidence" you could figure sometimes people come togther and form a team through happenstance, and sometimes there's another force arranging all your chance meetups.
I do like your theory and think at some point in production that may very well have been the case. But in the final game I do not think she is at all connected to the VDB. First and most important is she does not have a Haitian accent. All the VDB are first gen Americans. Second is her connection to the shop in Kabuki. The VDB do not work with outsiders unless they plan to burn them. So the shop owner being a friend of Bug would indicate she likely has no connection. Lastly her relationship to the rest of the crew. For V and Jackie it seems like the Dorsett job was not their first as a team. And for Dex I have always gotten the vibe that they were an item romantically. I may be misreading but Bug tries to dodge the question about how she knows Dex. If their last job was such a shitshow she likely would never work with him again, unless she had an emotional reason to do so. Lastly Placide is a bastardman. I know it has nothing to do with Tbug but he was in the video and it has to be said.
I think you’re right, Bugs background is definitely different in the final game. All very good points! AND HMMM romantically eh? See I’ve never gotten that vibe myself HOWEVER i may very well have just missed it, lmao AND YEAHHHH Placide is… he’s somethin else. Especially with that text he sends later in the game. Like WHY DUDE 😂
@@lydiscott it took me many run throughs to get Placides text because I made sure to put him down basically every time. I think it was the callousness of him that made me think he was the biggest bastardman in the game. At least Smasher wasn’t dishonest.
Oh and my first time through I knew to side with Netwatch because of the Tarot outside the church. So when I was told he was planning to flatline me I turned heel immediately. I even suspected Netwatch did something like they did and basically just said serves em right lol.
I don’t think the accent is evidence to discount the possibility of her being connected to the vdb. There are so many variables that impact a persons accent
Genuinely so disappointed with how they handled T-Bug, but honestly if their original intent _was_ to have her betray us I’m kinda glad that got cut. Almost, if not every, black character in the game ends up being an asshole or betraying us 😑 loved the game but that’s been one of my biggest gripes. Like with the VDB’s I love their story and lore, but the way they’re portrayed in game is very unforgiving to the point where I only ever see people talking about how much they fucking hate them. Like none of the nuance of their background comes into play, it’s not made clear that there is actually a reason they’re so secretive and isolated, and why they burn every merc they work with personally. Netwatch lets other corps like Militech just do whatever they want, and they were actively trying to turn the black wall into a weapon, netwatch is also a corp. they’re objectively the worst option but everyone sides with them cause “VDB’s tried to kill me now I’m big mad and want to slaughter them all for no other reasons I want or need to reckon with”
As I writer, I 100% clocked that T-Bug had cut content day one. I wish I could explain it. Her involvement from the very beginning just gives her this weight that did not match her end. Honestly, your Voodoo Boys theory would be genius plot wise. Also I never felt V’s desire to be wildly famous. I think this is largely do to the voice actors cadence. It very much feels like a “this is the hand i was dealt so im gonna play it” and then you see V start building meaningful relationships in the face of this awful city where no one lives past 30. I would have liked to see more of the friends tragic ends and V going on a revenge spree trying to save what few good things they have. Could have been a legendary story of seeking connection despite tragedy. Even the endings for the unalive ending have such an incredible loss from these people they left behind.
I always felt that V's desire to be wildly famous was because that was Jackie's dream. V didn't really care but Jackie did and V wanted to achieve Jackie's dream. The game obviously doesn't state that and also by the time V begins to become "famous" you've completely forgotten about Jackie
To be fair here, you can play V as hesitant about the whole fame thing, tho you can never really just say "screw it" except in two endings (the DLC ending and in my favorite one, Star, when she goes with the 'caldos). In the DLC you can even tell Songbird that everything you did in act 1 was to support Jackie, not because of your own dreams. Which seems like an addon for those players trying to downplay V's hunger for personal glory.
Some of the games content was cut cause it was unfinished when they rushed release. She gets killed off screen, and had earlier missions with you that were also cut. First time I played I didn't even realize she was killed off. Pretty sure the "triple cross" of the Konpeki Plaza Heist was the voodoo boys working with Dexter and T-bug, knowing that they couldn't trust Evelyn. The subtle questions early on from Dexter, where he questions your interactions with Evelyn, even if you don't outright tell him she's planning on double crossing them, he seems to already know. And that was all cut content, that would have eventually led you right to the Voodoo Boys anyways. I also believe there was a full boss fight with Adam Smasher early on here, that just gets turned into him running into your car while you escape. The missions were supposed to be more open ended, with dialogue options resulting in slightly different outcomes. You don't tell Dexter you're suspicious of Evelyn, then they assume you're working with her to double cross them etc... The ending the of the game also has some cut main story content.
I feel the same thing about Evelyn Parker. I feel like she was a super interesting character and they could have given her a bigger role in V’s life post heist. If you had time to develop more of a relationship with her before bad things happened it would have it much harder.
Yes, yknow what, I get the feeling she had a lot of content cut. I think I read somewhere that Judy’s quest was initially supposed to be longer, and it was meant to include the Mox a lot more. Not sure if this is true, but I wonder if this would also mean Evelyn had more screentime.
@@lydiscott agreed, it would have been interesting to see if Evelyn could have been a romance option for both V’s that ended in that tragedy. It would have had to have come from V getting deeper involved with the Mox and Evelyn.
@@lydiscottI’ve read rumors that Evelyn was meant to fill a more central role a la Johnny Silverhand . But when Keanu Reeves went all in on the project they redid the story to make Johnny the centerpiece. He only really got involved like 2 years before the game released. The last minute changes would also explain the state the game released in. All rumors and conjecture ofc.
I feel the same about Jackie. He died way too soon imo. A couple missions and a montage wasn't enough for me to connect with him to the point that I'd be sad for his death. I feel more impact from V's reaction more than the actual death.
@@lokilucario yeah, that was my very first impression about cp2077! We needed more time with Jackie to make his death hit us harder. I know that we can’t get everything we want because games have budgets and stuff and something have to be cut for the overall experience, but I feel like they could have spent less money on recording actual gun shots from 500 types of guns and car sounds from 20k cars and put that money into character development.
More T-Bug makes me think of one beautiful way they could have done the lifepaths. a character from each that 'stuck around'. offered messages, comments, jobs, whatever. THAT DID NOT SHOW UP IN THE OTHER LIFEPATHS.
I think the "Nomad" Life Path should have took place mostly in the Badlands where the Jobs were mostly related to "Nomad" missions with V having to come to Night city to do jobs every once in a while. And then somehow they implement the Relic part later on toward the middle of the game. Our home should be that Tent from the Nomad Camp and our main Fixer for this life path should be the leader of the Nomad camp we saved from the main game. The "Street Punk" Life Path should be from the prospective of a Valentino Gang member. And you have missions that pertain to Valentino Goals and Gang politics. Your main fixer should be that Valentino Gang leader, and somehow find out and get caught up in this relic business via the word on the streets level gossip or something. The apartment we live in the Mega Building should be the home we have in the "Street Punk" Life path. For the "Corpo" path we should work at Arasaki, with our lil office and workers that work under and over us. Our main fixer should be that head guy(forget his name) in the big office. We should be doing mission like escorting high level execs, having "dialogue choice driven" board meetings, or getting intel from rival Corporations, maybe even infiltrating or negotiations with other Corpo Companies. As a Corpo agent we should live in the Corpo plaza part of Night City in a penthouse apartment with AV access on the top of our penthouse building. Their should be AV access points for Corpos all across Night City for air travel, and we should have a company car we can call on. And we get caught up in the Relic business mid game. Each life path should have showed us a whole new prospective on the politics and seediness of Night City. I Also like the Idea you mentioned about Certain Characters from each Life path sticking with you after the life path ends.
this is exactly what it should’ve been like. meaningful differences outside of dialogue due to differences in life paths. also, like your corpo life path, i always thought that cp2077 was missing corporate espionage.
The life path system, in the end, felt kinda pointless. V is still the same person and ends up in the same places in life no matter what. And IMO, Street Kid very much felt like the "canon" one, as the rest of V's story and interactions don't really gel that well with a Corpo or Nomad, or at least nowhere near as natural as with Street Kid
Two things stand out to me: Firstly, it makes no sense to obscure T-Bugs fate in that cinematic trailer and have her appear as a betrayer, when three big things are spoiled in the trailer. Deshawn's betrayal, Jackie's death and Silverhand's existence. It'd be a little silly to spoil those three big plot points but hide that T-Bug dies pretty much off screen to the point some players didn't even realize she died. Considering T-Bug was closer to Jackie and Deshawn levels of importance, it's a little strange how she only gets a missable piece of dialog even confirming her death. That's closer to Deshawn's body guard who just disappears compared to Jackie and Deshawn who get some level of epilogue, Jackie with remembrance get together and Deshawn still lying at the dump with his gun as loot. Like, you'd think we'd at least be able to scrounge around Night City and find T-Bug's netrunner lair with her dead in her netrunner chair with some loot. And second, during the Afterlife meet with Deshawn and T-Bug, T-Bug's shoes have the words "Delta V" on the buckles, which is an interesting detail. It seems a little too specific for a story important character to have a detail that essentially reads as "Hey V, get out of here" and not have it mean something. Along with the fact that Cyberpunk is, or at least was, an unfinished game, it's doubtless that aspects were altered and cut. But the one detail that really makes me think T-Bug was meant to be more important is that cosplay guide mentioned in the video, that feels like something only important characters would get, or highly marketed ones. Add in that one cinematic trailer scene implying she took out a corpo, and it definitely feels like T-Bug had more to her that never got to be shown. Sadly, that is the nature of game development, ideas are made, trimmed, cut down or thrown out entirely all across the development process, but with Cyberpunk it's a little worse as the game came out so unfinished. Who knows how much was cut to crunch the game into existence.
I always felt like T-Bug's early demise, and the holes they leave in her development, were conscious choices. With Jackie, we know what happened to him, since we were there, and we actually have closure about it (especially if you pursue the Ofrenda storyline). With T-bug, whether successfully or not, I believe they were **deliberately** leaving us without closure or even comprehension. She dies, suddenly and...we never really know how, by whom. We never get to do anything about it, even really mourn.
When T-Bug went offline, I went “huh, I wonder when she’ll resurface after the heist,” only to learn of her confirmed demise in some throwaway dialogue when picking up your ping quick hack. Seriously? This is how they inform the player character about a significant side-character’s fate? Incredibly lame. I hope they retcon her death as a deception to get corpo net runners off her scent. What a waste.
@@feliciastaldotter5168up to interpretation tho, i thought it was just because she was being kicked out of whatever system since i never really cared about the specifics of cyberpunk's technology too much and completely forgot about her after a certain point so the idea of her dying never occurred to me
@@dankerbellthis is exactly what i thought! i was confused when we didn’t hear from her after, i thought the scream was her being ripped out of the system from some cyber attack? even if she wasn’t buddy-buddy with us like jackie, i feel like our reaction to her death was pretty tame… i thought we were just worried about her getting hurt, not that she actually died. wish they gave us more with her.
Pawel Sasko was asked about this on stream and he said the marketing stuff was just them using the character models for whatever they wanted, and T-Bug's story was always set in stone from Day 1.
The heist was always bound to fail because 1. The team underestimated the complexities and dangers of the heist, particularly concerning the powerful figures involved, such as Arasaka Corporation. 2. There were trust issues among the crew, especially between V, Jackie, and their fixer, Dexter DeShawn. This lack of cohesion made the team vulnerable. 3. The sudden appearance of Yorinobu Arasaka, who unexpectedly returned to his penthouse with his father, Saburo Arasaka, introduced unforeseen complications. 4. Arasaka's advanced security systems and the presence of high-level security personnel made the heist far more challenging than anticipated. (This is what killed t bug. ) 5. Dexter Deshawn also put a bullet in V’s brain just so he could cover loose ends up Now the only person that could be possibly lying to v in any way would be Takemura and there’s many instances that show he was just using V
Yes, this is a thing I keep hearing! And I think I read Keanu said he wasn’t involved with the project until around 2018? And then something about him wanting his role expanded.
Yeah. I love Keanu, but I think the story could have been better without him. They'd have had a wad of cash to spend on it if nothing else. It always felt like they changed their focus mid-game. That may have been why so much was incomplete and messed up.
Dex never had a story beyond the heist. Betraying you was his sole function to the plot, and after that his character nolonger serves any purpose. Dex's story has probably remained pretty much unchanged from the first draft to the final game. T-Bug clearly did play a larger role, at the bare minimum we have the trailer in which she is seen hacking V's mantis blades at the No-tell motel, so in an earlier draft of the story, she did atleast survive the heist. Some also speculate that she would have ended up playing the part Mamam Brigitte plays in the final version of the game. Which is possible, but of course only fan speculation at this point,. However, i don't belive Silverhand had anything to do with T-Bug's re-write. Rather, i belive she was a casualty of CDPR choosing to drop 3'rd person cutscenes from the game, and instead have all these story segments play out as real-time gameplay. If you look at that cutscene they had made at the No-Tell motel, the fight between Dex, Bug and V, something like that is easilly done in a cutscene, but not as gameplay. If you actually let the player fight Dex and Bug for real, then there's a million things the player could do that would break the intended sequence. So it had to be simplified to work as a gameplay segment, and i belive this is when Bug's role in the story was reduced. Also, they didn't give Johnny a bigger role, his role was always this big. The relic, Johnny's engram, this was always the main plot of this game, it was always ment to be a focal point of the story, long before Keanu accepted the role (some speculate that Morgan Blackhand could also have been on the chip, but i don't think Mike Pondsmith would have allowed that, as he seems to have his own plans for the Morgan Blackhand character. Apparently that's why Blackhand is not in the game at all, Pondsmith woulden't allow it). People are conflating two things here. At some point it was reported that Keanu requested some more dialog, and that he was given more. People take this to mean his part in the main story was expanded. That's not what happened though. He was given more dialog, but this extra dialog is now featured in various gigs in the game (example: The Wakako gig to retrive the corpo lockbreaker, this is one of the gigs where Johnny was given some dialog). So they didn't change the main story for Johnny, Johnny was always a big part of the main story. What did change is that Johnny origionally only had dialog in main-story missions, and now he also has dialog outside of the main missions. When you're playinga Gig and he suddenly shows up to deliver some sarcastic quib, well, that's the added dialog, that's "Johnny's bigger role".
@@songsayswhat My biggest gripe with the game, and I honestly _LOVE_ CP2077, is that it often feels like it's Johnny's game, not V's. It feels like Johnny is the main character and the game is his story and eventual fate one way or another rather than the story of V. I'm hoping Cyberpunk Orion (the working title of the next game) will have more of a focus on making it feel like the player character's story.
@@steinarbergstl5799 I always viewed it like I view FFX where I consider Yuna the actual protagonist and Tidus is just part of the main cast. Tidus is stil lthe main character, but Yuna is the protagonist. Same with CP77, V is the main character but Johnny is the protagonist at least until you start PL but I don't count that as part of the same plot line since it wasn't part of the game I finished multiple times before 2.0. Even then this is ony true if you take the buddy-buddy route with Johnny, if you have V always despise him the dynamic completely changes. I guess what I'm saying is... well, it is a _roll-play game_ if you don't play the roll, if you just treat it like a game only then yeah you may feel like your character is not the focus. But if you really look at it everything is talking about V. V is the rising legend of Night City, barely anyone talks about Johnny that isn't a Johnny fanboy or part of Johnny's old crew/band when you do things that are not part of the main quest. Of course the main quest revolves around Johnny because the main quest revolves around getting him out of your head but the main quest is only like 35% of the game if that.
Love that you highlighted that quote from Aristotle. Everybody ultimately wants the quiet life, but the quiet life is different for everybody. “Just another tale for the next dreamer” Thank you, as always 😁
I really find your character deep dives useful for helping refine the stories I build out for the Cyberpunk RED game I run. It's videos like this that help me create characters that have more than a surface level of depth to them.
Also, during the time of the red (post arasaka-nuking to past 2045) the Voodoo Boys of 2020 slowly start getting overtaken by Haitian refugees who detest the ignorant use of their culture and so they basically go to war with them and become the new Voodoo Boys that we see in 2077. The Cyberpunk RED Sourcebook has a lot of great information for the period between 2020 and 2077
17:45 I feel like the reason they didn't suspect her is the same reason they try to take care of v, they think they're so much smarter than anyone else in nc, that nobody can compare
Oh I love this video so much. Your conjecture about T Bug’s role in the full story sounded really compelling. It would be something I’d add to the plot of some fanfiction or something
T-Bug's death definitely fits into the theme of Cyberpunk: riding the edge until you fall off. I think there probably was more to her story in initial drafts but as is wont to happen in gaming, the story was scrapped as the game was refined. I would have liked to see some kind of closure for T-Bug. With that being said, I think some of the ideas behind T-Bug's original story ended up getting used with Songbird in "Phantom Liberty". There are times where So Mi's story has some of the same connective tissue as T-Bug's.
One thing I heavily look forward to in CBP 2, is the inclusion of true netrunning. Actually wearing a runner suit, hooking your inputs and adapter cables into the twisting nest of cords that surround a station. If you lack funds, a tub and ice-bath cant get you far. But if you have resources, a premium running booth immersed with designer grade, branded cooling gel will outperform cheaper means, allowing one to go farther, for longer, into the NET. (In theory.) Those lingering ICE protocols that dot the NET everywhere don't exactly make things a walk in the park. Otherwise, runners wouldn't get fried in their chairs. God this universe is so sick. Mike Pondsmith was already envisioning this shit, in the early 1980's, before anyone even had a semblance of what the internet was or the concept of bionic connectivity to that degree.
I think T-Bug was intended, as you say, to stand with Dex during the betrayal. But her role was scrapped to give more room to Jackie and Dex. Jackie to make sure every player feels that friendship with jackie. And to build up that fury against dex. To have a third character detracts from the "purity" of the emotions towards them. Also, T-Bug would've made that link to voodo boys stronger and seem almost sloppy instead of the "how the shit did you discover this?" angle we get from our investigation with Judy in Evenlynns memories. V needed to seem desperate and grasping for straws to properly hone in the themes of the overarching story.
The whole point of the mission that got her killed is that everyone was way in over their heads. TB wasn’t some cutting edge, highly sought after net runner, or she would not have been working with low level mercs like V and Jackie. would she have betrayed them to get ahead? Absolutely she would have. But she wasn’t good enough. She just died.
I'm making my way through all of your content, really love your presentation style and work it's really good. My theory for T-Bug is one I haven't seen much but that she was the start of the job. I think she put Dexter and Evelyn in touch with each other just to set up the heist for the one thing she couldn't buy - an escape from her reputation and work in Night City by faking her death. Like you mention there was a lot of changes for the story over and over but all of her philosophy quotes take on a sinister tone if she was gloating about pulling one over on everyone. She was very aloof except for her giving you free software after the scav haunt. Which Dex drops you off right in front of that shop after your "interview". Which is also the only place we get told what happened to her. If she faked having trouble with security to delay the heist from happening until Adam Smasher was back in the building, faked her death on the call, then it could have been all a setup so no one is looking for her. Like Dexter said they were hunting for anyone with a pinky toe in that mess.
I viewed Tbugs use of philosophy as a way to draw structure and reason out of the chaos of NC. She’s trying to cognitively work her way through the trauma of surviving through some pretty heavy stuff.
It's a trope in story telling of people getting back together to do one last job. You will make enough to get out, your debt will be clear, this can salve your conciense, etc. This easily explains T-bug working with DeShwan on this last job. I feel Bug is in the Mikoshi, it is established by johnny, that happens to netrunners.
I generaly headcannon that she truely did faked her death. Partly due to her 1 knowing the risks involved with this heist along with knowing Dex and their past history. 2 she saw things going to shit and cut and ran early. But lastly because at some point she actualy started to like both Jackie and V but their relationship never had the chance to flourish. Jackie caught on to her jokes and her love of greek poets And V...is well V 2 mercs that actually tried to be her friends despite her pushing them away. I think she faked her death due to her even saying wanting to cut ties with everyone and never setting foot in cyberspace again. But also she started acting...off very early one and just so happens to "Die" when things go bad when we supposedly used counter measures for that. Plus with the store owner saying she was found dead. We NEVER find her body theres not even a hint to where it might have been. We can find Dexs body We can fuck over Merideth and find her body We can actualy find the bodies of almost all the characters but her? I know its probably not true but i hold the theory she escaped in my heart
I fully believe that one version of the game had T-Bug as an Arasaka spy, back when they were toying with the idea of Saburo knowing the Heist would happen, and was planning on using it for his own purposes. If I recall, that was also the build that had Johnny and Saburo as voices on the Relic. Moreover, if anyone cold protect Bug from the Voodoos, it would be Arasaka. I STILL think she faked her death, and always felt like that poem you find on your desk later is from her (the one that ends with "I'm alive, you're all dead").
Didn’t Dex try to find put more about Evelyn and the VBD told him to drop it? That should have clued him in that she was up to something. I bet that was when they were supposed to send in T-bug, who was already familiar with Dex.
First off, Just found your channel, love the video. I really wish they had given T-Bug and Jackie more time for their character to grow. Even if it means taking the 2 month in game (30 mins irl) cutscene into more play time. I personally loved T-bug. I saw her as being distant because of being afraid of getting betrayed, not because she was going to betray the team. Honestly, I don't think it was just T-bug and Jackie overestimating their abilities, I feel it was more Dex convincing them that they could do this because they were the cheapest crew he could find that were hungry enough to do it.
she was attacking V in the first video of cyberpunk 2077, and you can also see her acting sus once V and jackie get in the room. she waiting for the arasaka family to come, something big was going on behind the hiest. i think she booked it once things went wrong. the quite life.
Only recently discovered your channel and absolutely love the writing, delivery, look, voice, and thoughtful insights to the characters. Top notch CP2077 analogy content. Each video is a gem and the effort put in is appreciated. You're doing a great job. All the best.
How T-Bug felt like such a fleshed out character who, importantly, you never really are allowed time to get to know made the game feel more real when she suddenly dies so shockingly. Jackie’s death is also impacting, but you were able to get to know Jackie. T-Bug’s death made the world feel bigger than the player character’s ability to see and more importantly influence the world.
I feel that the current version of T-bug and her death is a comparison to Jackie. Jackie was a man of passion, he loved, he hated, he fought, he dreamed and he died in a blaze of glory. T-bug seemed to be very detached, we don't even know if she even had friends or family to mourn her passing. Jackie gets a big send off by all those he impacted. From Vik, Mama Welles, Misty, V, the Valentinos, and others he grew up with. T-bug probably got zipped into a body bag and put into a freezer until Arasaka decided she wasn't anyone important. Bug seemed like she was a more watered down version of Kiwi from Edgerunners. She didn't trust anyone, but unlike Kiwi, we don't know why. I assume it's similar to Kiwi were she was betrayed in the past, by either her Parents or a close associate. Either way Bug is just another person squashed by Night City.
The T in T-Bug stands for Tyrannosaurus Also, I like the theory of her working as a monitor/handler for the voodoo boys keeping an eye on Dex, as he would make for an easy independent scapegoat, and I reckon Dex would be too arrogant and narcissistic to realize. Idk it just clicks
It's an interesting video, because I've actually suspected for some time that Bug's role was supposed to be completely different from what it ended up being. Also in relation to Dex, because I've long had the feeling that the background of Dex and the Vodoos is not only directly connected to Bug, but also to the whole Relic story, but as you said so well, we'll probably never know, because we were told a different story in the end. Anyway, thanks for the great video and best regards from Germany.
For last few months I've been GM'ing TTRPG Cyberpunk and all your analisis on cyberpunk characters made me rethink some aspects of NPCs I created and improve their backstories to make them deeper and more "human". Thanks a lot for inspiration!
I feel like Bug is smart enough to know not to take that job expecting success, especially given that she knew dex' history of fuck-ups. I think it's very possible she faked her death and so the success of the job was not her way to achieve her dream of escaping Night City, but it's destined failure instead. It's said a lot throughout the lore of Cyberpunk that you don't just *leave* Night City, only the "dead" can truly escape.
I *liked* T-Bug, and I think the fact that her story got cut off without any sort of resolution absolutely fit the tone of the game and its storytelling. It drove home the notion that your character wasn't the MAIN character, that things would happen that were completely out of your control. Case in point: My wife is writing a sci-fi story. She has a part where someone turns up that definitely hits all the Main Character tropes -- military background, charisma, motivation to get involved. And she kills that character in the same chapter he turns up.
Anyone who thinks soulkiller was used, i don't think it would be used on her. Shes too sloppy. She needed you to hack a damn door. Either shes insanely specified (most likely in terms of anti personnel) or just dogwater. Now her being hyper specified would explain a lot, from what she DOES hack and what she has you hack. Where she seemingly shines is anti runner and anti ground personnel disruption and dissolution. So her not seeing black ICE operated on kempeki plazas security (which i believe in lore is run by possible rogue AI) would ABSOLUTELY blindsight her if she was focused on watching caneras for IRL targets or netrunners and be hit by a stealthy AI. She's also clearly not used to getting into a BUILDINGS subnet, yet once in can operate cameras, kill a netrunner and i believe warns you about incoming footassult before being fried. Not only that but she seemingly is far better on observation and target selection then dealing with things like obstacles or doors. She might not of even been aware of this type of ice, as clearly it hit her wirhout warning but she CAN detect a rival runner. I think the trailers highlighted this theory as shes shown disabling Vs implants, killing people specifically with ease at a distance and killing an entire squad on her own. Her design seems fast and light, as if she would escape on foot if overhwelmed irl by enemy combatants with minimal stuff left behind.
She bugged me so much. She was so arrogant that she thought she was the smartest one in the room. Yet so ignorant that she didn't see that she was just another person in the room, Jackie and V were just as well read as her. V was even smart enough to know this was a stupid idea.
Something i notice is that in phantom liberty when you hang out with alex (I think it before or after the songbird rescue mission) you can make a toast to some character that passed away and you can toast to T-Bug. A little detail I think some haven't noticed
Aside from the instance of you calling out Dex and the fight ensues, yeah TBug in that instance was definitely terminated. Back in Araska Tower yeah you get this idea that she just got fried after she states she got made. You're just given the impression that whatever defenses were turned on fried her and called it a day. Unforutnately I think this was due to more of CDPR having to cut out and make edits on the fly for a fast release. Honestly I think a lot of the after the fact stuff simply because it existed in some form or another but could not be added to the game story for -insert reason- . That being said, it does allow for ambiguity and for any future released content to provide maybe a little bit of insight to the actual fate of the character, really this applies to ANY of the characters who were unceremoniously knocked off and then never spoken about again 🤣 I guess we'll found out in any future DLC... maybe? 👻
Very good point, Ghost. There’s for sure a lot of room for exploration in the sequel! Oh gosh I would love to get another expansion before then too lol. I heard them say they were done with DLC but I hope they change their mind ahhh. Thank you so much for watching and for your comment!
You know, for all the "deep dive" content that is available about Cyberpunk 2077, yours is particularly compelling! That's what makes this damn universe so awesome. People that you spend just a few gigs with have entire lore implications with the universe at large, should you choose to investigate. I understand cut-content isn't considered canon by a lot of people but it does give a load of insight into, maybe, what was maybe but removed because of development timelines or continuity issues or whatever. Man, I got HOURS of content to consume! Long form content exploring side characters and the Edgerunner crew?? Excel spreadsheets at work are about to be a little more bearable. Dammit, I need to crack the RED book open and get back into the Tabletop...
we hear tbug scream in pain, before disconnecting. this doesn't mean death. we are told she was found dead in her apartment. this doesn't mean dead. arasaka scooped Jackie's body real quick, why wouldn't they scoop tbug? weird her. body would be found at all. being fried is an easy handwave cover-up. we see goro found dex with ease. only 3 other people knew his plan. his hustle, tbug, & phone contact for booking the flight. it seems weird to get some kind of closure for dex, evelyn, and Jackie, but absolutely nothing but a rumour for tbug. I wonder if we would have seen her again in the moon dlc, or at least got more info about her in a cancelled dlc patch.
It seems Soulkiller only does its best work when the victim is still alive. We can see what it creates post-mortem, the engrame is just a broken recording of memories, vs a construct able to self-motivate, lie and learn like Johnny.
There is actually a mention of T-bug later in the game. It's an optional one you can completely miss tho. If you go to a netrunner's shop, the one you met during the heist setup, you can ask what happened to T-bug and she'll say she was found dead and had her entire nervous system fried
I honestly think this was just a result of there being an intention to have more than one way for the Konpeki heist to go down depending on your actions before and during, but it was just taking too long to implement. Thus, it went to the cutting room floor and we got the fully linear mission we see in the final game.
It would have been cool for them to retcon her death and have her be a Netrunner you could team up with in Phantom Liberty, or give us a side plot of learning her history and dealing with our fallout of what happens with the VBD, learning how they figured out about the Relic and Alt. The game had so much going on and there was always room for more, hopefully we get to see a bigger story emerge as the years go on.
T-Bug does get mentioned another time briefly in an archived shard. I remember during a gig(I think) after killing a named enemy he notes down about some sort of technical issues and ends the note with “should bring up with T-Bug”
Now i want a Spiderman 2077 game... it just looks so fun to swing around night city, AND do the same things we could as V, drive and, stuff, beat people up But not kill them cuz most spider-men arent like that. Its funnyhow Spider-Man even without the ehancements is still outclassing everyone in Cyberpunk (Not in durability, but speed, agility, strenght and just how versatile those webs are.)
T-Bug was set up to be a significant if not major character, I felt - at least as much as fixers like Wakako, but her sudden death that we’re only told about after the fact felt like an early warning that anyone can die. Possibly even as a setup for Evelyn’s death under somewhat parallel circumstances.
I really wish T-Bug did have a bigger story. She was the character I was most looking forward to learning more about. She could have have some amazing interactions with Songbird and the VDBs in Phantom Liberty, too.
I think T-Bug would've had a redemption arc. V couldn't see straight, so maybe they missed anything critical. We meet back up with T-bug and she tries to show that she is sorry. An up and down side quest kinda thing.
Even though you touched on the point, I think you missed it - the genius of the tutorial/ intro. It's not just to familiarize you, the player, with the controls, but also to the Night City. Death, and abrupt endings to one's pursuit of their dreams are the soul of Night City, and it's inevitable for everyone. No matter how safe you play it, like in T-Bug's case, Night City will claim you. Night City will kill your soul.
Idk if the point abt the VDB's changing means they were more important. The Valentinos in 2077 are nothing like the ones from Cyberpunk Red but as far as I know they really aren't a really big part of the plot though. Good video though! This kind of speculation is always really fun :)
man there's so much missed potential with T-Bug's character, her and Jackie being two sides of the how people survive in Night City spectrum, her being extremely reclusive and him being integral to his community. There's something there with them both ending up with the same fate despite this and then the following Acts having V struggle with navigating that same spectrum. I feel like they could've still majorly expanded on her character in a limited way, maybe one mission in the prologue where it's just you and her over comms. I always imagined a side quest in the same vein as Jackie's where you go to her apartment after Konpeki and can find out a lot more about her and her story, where you finally find some memorabilia she had packed for Greece to remember you and Jackie with. I just think there was the potential for an extremely nuanced character there and it's one of the few gaps this game still has for me after it's comeback.
when i first played i didn't even realise she was anything more than a random npc. there was like 4 holocalls, 1 meet in person and the VR training i think. i didn't even notice or realise she died until i think in the elevator down to the car park when V brings it up to jackie, and then immediately forgot about her anyway.
This is so good. I feel like T-Bug's story didn't get fleshed out in the game and she is such an interesting character. I always assumed that she was fried in a similar fashion to that unfortunate no-name choom kidnapped by the same thugs that took evelyn, but now I'm curious about what actually happened.
I think that very early on in development, there were multiple ways the player could solve Konpeki Plaza, each having different outcomes for Jackie, Bug, and Dex. Remember, Cyberpunk was developed with the supervision of the grandaddy himself Mike Pondsmith. I think what Pondsmith wanted to happen was complete freedom of choice on the side of the player on how Konpeki goes down, but ultimately due to limitations in development, the story got shoehorned down a specific path at that point.
I like to think the reason T-Bug is so loyal to Dexter Deshawn is because the two are actually siblings. We never find out her real name so it could be something like Theresa Deshawn or something like that. The only time their connection is truly pointed out, Jackie says "You and Dex... Alwayd Philosophizing..." Could be a hint that they grew up together and got that nature from whoever raised them whether it be mother or father.
Apologies for the saw noise in the background sometimes lmao I’m neighbours with a workshop 😂
its almost if you work in Night City
That's just somebody getting chromed up downstairs
What?! I can't hear you over the buzz saws!!
Fun fact: the first chainsaw was invented as a tool for caesarian deliveries.
I think real-life ripperdocs would definitely use chainsaws on a daily basis.
"Some brothers from Pacifica got back to me. Told me to stop looking."
Dex on the subject of looking for the voodoos. By voodoo standards thats being on speaking terms.
I believe T-Bug was killed by a Demon. According to the tabletop RPG, "Demons are a form of Black ICE with a limited Artificial Intelligence" . They can use the "zap" ability to defend itself within the architecture. I guarantee the Konpeki subnet was littered with all sorts of AI who sit waiting for netrunners. I think the devs changed her fate to show players how dangerous the net can be. As V, you don't really do real netrunning, and so if you don't play the tabletop game you might not understand how it works.
Ohhhh that makes a lot of sense!!!
Was literally about to comment this. We run Cyberpunk Red, and there are some programs that only hit other programs, while others hit the netrunner directly. T-Bug was hit by the latter. Also, we see this happen to a certain someone in Phantom Liberty too, although not via another netrunner. Their nervous system gets hit. But it's your brain that's jacked into the Net, and your nervous system via that, so "being fried" is an immediate death.
*Daemon. (Though I think demon and daemon are used interchangeable in the game) The word stems from ancient greek meaning (not an official definition) a benevolent entity or force that works in the lives of people in unseen ways. It's where we get our moden word "demon", but would've originally meant more of what our modern understanding of an angel is.
Nowadays, a "daemon" is a computer program that handles background tasks. Much like the original greek idea. These programs, invented by some of the first computer scientists, were labelled "daemon" as a reference to the greek philosophy while also communicating their function. Still today you can see these programs running on modern computers. They often end with " d. " They're easier to find on computers running a Linux os.
However, in the 80's and 90's, the time period where the cyberpunk genre was born, people's imagination of "the net" was still wild, and so in Cyberpunk 2077 we get these image's of half ghost, half a.i. malicious killing programs.
Anyway.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
Konpeki had more than just Black Ice, but yes....she most likely got got by something from the system, if not the Dweller venting his anger at her and hitting her with a Dragon or a Killer. I'd expect Konpeki to have a Balron or Efreet at a minimum, given the kind of secrets they have, and the customers they host. For example, during the heist V and Jackie can see the mayor literally getting orders from Arasaka. On the tabletop, in RED at least, netrunning is a complex and involved activity, where getting out is the least of the runner's worries (programs can throw you out, thus allowing all the ICE you bypassed to give you a warm gift on your way out). it's definitely not the work of a few seconds like the mini-game V does.
@@Quzxpon As for the word’s history, programmers from MIT’s Project MAC coined the term daemon in 1963. The inspiration came from Maxwell’s demon, a thought experiment that can hypothetically break the second law of thermodynamics.
I always got the vibe that T-Bug wasn't on the up-and-up w/ V and Jackie. She makes very clear that she isn't your friend during the Scav job. It's just a job to her, and you're the crew she was tasked with. She was looking to get ahead, but always on her terms.
Tbh I still love the idea that she cared about V and Jackie as a crew even though she didn’t really show it, and that the last thing she ever did was try to help them escape instead of cutting and running. Especially because she wasn’t just trying to get ahead, she was trying to leave night city completely.
It’s a nice contrast to Dex acting like a buddy with V and Jackie while only being out for himself from the start.
It felt like she wanted it to be that way however she grew attatched to them.
People don't have to be your friend in order to get a job doing without betraying you.
I believe that T-Bug was just professional. She cared for her crewmates like a professional would. And she helped V and Jackie to escape because she didn't see her own demise coming. Who knows how she might have reacted if she knew that her synapses were going to be fried if she stayed with them.
T-Bug is part of Cyberspace she ditched her physical form she is in vacation but within the NET. Just like Rache Bartmoss the one who gave her this fail safe using the Matrix pill reference. She can take over Cyborgs however like a doll if she needs a physical forum. Project Orion goes into depth with this about this
you know it's bad and she was done dirty when for my first playthrough I literally thought her main role was to be an npc for the training tutorial
It was
Well, the title card for the game doesn’t show until she’s gone so… that’s exactly her purpose. Her participation in The Heist and her ties to Dexter/V just gave her a narrative reason to exist.
@@shaquille.oatmeal2724 I don't understand your issue here though. What do you mean she was done dirty and it's bad? That was her character's role.
@@Carnefice This is just a bunch of people coping hard.
@Carnefice probably because T-Bug character seemed a bit more important to V than just "an npc character" with how she lashes out at Jackie when she dies.
If her role was just suppose to be that then maybe they shouldn't have given the three so many instances where T-Bug presents as a distant cold netrunner but was unknowingly getting attached to Jackie and V anyways.
It gives us the impression that TBug knew Jackie and V for awhile and (professionalism or not they considered her apart of thier team even if she rebuffs that).
How you can dedicate a toast to her in PL which you don't do for a character that was suppose to just be an npc and that's it. She obviously was suppose to have some sort of impact on us, the players.
I don't think it's asking for alot to give a character that's alteast semi-close to the two main ones (atleast in Act 1) a bit more so we can also care about her death?
One detail I notice about T-Bug is that she is using a really ancient Cyberdeck, one similar we retrieve from Bartmoss, which is like seeing a hacker using a laptop PC from 1993 or something. She could be using it as a firewall addon or something, but it still adds some strange idea of her character being very fond of older technology for reliability.
That's a detail I've noticed as well. I dunno if they only had one cyberdeck prop/asset for the game, but I think it meshes well with her as a netrunner regardless. Plausible imo because IRL some businesses use very old computers (like floppy drive old lol) as a sort of airgap for their networks.
@@null_0012makes me wonder if she's just that old.
@@unturned6066 You never really know in that world, with all the tech and alterations people can and do have done.
In healthcare and in other health care roles such as psychiatry, you can still see operating systems such as windows xp, vista, or windows 7 used because the only reliable way to gain access to that kind of information is through being there in-person and grabbing the hard drive. The same is often seen for lab computers, most business models and companies, shipping and freighting companies like FedEx, militaries around the world etc. The entire U.S. Fleet for example uses a custom-made version of Red Hat Linux for the entire Navy's fleet (Thank you Linux!). This is because these kinds of operating systems often do not make use of multimedia applications on the hardware's operating system such as windows 10 or 11 that embed 'self-learning' and 'data-collecting' features today that 1) often bloats the performance of the system by adding the 'self learning' 'data-collecting' tasks, 2) often changes how compatible the devices are if you are not actively using it for the OS brand itself and if the programs you are using did not upgrade or are using bloat too with placing in ads and data mining stuff as well, 3) makes it easier to hack most of the time than their older versions 4) unless if you have the time to go through extensive software changes to make it private for your own uses it is going to take time to deactivate bloatware features.
Windows xp, vista, and 7 are ridiculously easy to hack though.. it helps a little that those systems probably aren't connected straight to the internet.. but literally anyone with a basic pentesting course could get into those systems provided they can get on the network. @loafoffloof3420
I think the decision to move bugs death up to the mission rather than after is to boost Jackie. Had he been the only one to go down he looks like s goofy gonk who never stood s chance. But by killing the hyper-competent T-Bug, it raises the stakes during the mission, sells the danger of Arasaka, and makes Jackie not the only one to die from a betrayal (Dax and V) 3 betrayers rather than 2 may have also veen one too many
Very good point, this makes a lot of sense!
T-Bug isn't actually "hyper competent" she's just professional, compared to literally any other net runner we find or hear about, she's slow and running obsolete tech, sure bartmoss did the same but he was a master who created a deck from many many other decks to be perfect, T-Bugs deck is just old
@@valx7586 spose I should've said seemingly
I like this theory.
Yeah this is more or less what her role felt like to me. Her death was THE point where my brain fully registered the mission went to absolute shit. Before that I was in a "okay not what was planned but we can still make it out" headspace. After that ? Survival mode. She always felt a bit superior to V and Jackie, always felt she had more experience and skills than them. So for her to be the first to go ? How were they supposed to make it out.
Also the fact that her character felt like she had a lot more going on than what we got to see also demonstrates perfectly how brutal Night City is.
My personal theory is that T-bug only agreed to participate in this job because she planned on betraying Dexter as payback for what probably happened 5 years ago in Pacifica, but never got the chance because she got hit with black ice. Either that or she faked her death and skipped the country leaving everyone else out to dry.
But Girl didnt have enough money to Skip to country and Dodge all
poor girl got fried
Man that's cold. I like it. Dex getting his brain fried for being a notoriously, backstabbing idiot.
I completely agree, with the addition that I think she is betrayed by Dex moments before, and while she gets the drop on him, doesn't make it out of the conflict unscathed. I always found it strange that they never used her in the Voodoo boys section of the game, so I'm imagining she'd be holed up there, to be found later when the Voodoo Boys become pertinent.
I since day one have maintained that it was Brigitte and the Voodoo Boys who smoked T-Bug like they smoked Evie, Netwatch, and V.
That Konpeki plaza heist just went so bad. It never was going to be successful. Reminded me of Reservoir Dogs.
Yeahhh. Like, even if it had gone as planned, you can’t help but get this idea that nobody involved would be alive to celebrate it for long. 😬
@@lydiscott Honestly, a few things changing could have meant they could at least get back to the lobby without triggering any alarms. They walked in with a big suitcase, they're walking out with a big suitcase.
The big slip was in their cover being a meeting with an Arasaka arms developer (Hajime Taki, if I remember right), whom could easily break their cover if they speak to anyone about their itinerary and schedule and it DOESN'T include meeting with Militech suits about a suitcase.
Without Saburo getting killed (Such as even just Saburo saying his piece and leaving), there's a lot that could still go well enough to get them to the parking garage with minimal suspicion. The sad fact is, Saburo dying and Yorinobu putting the hotel on full lockdown got their full suite of Netrunners and ICE activated, as opposed to just the dweller, not to mention all the armed security flooding the place top to bottom.
There's also the prevailing theory that Adam Smasher's full borg kit gave him full thermal and EM vision to see V and Jackie in the middle of that central pillar and he said nothing, probably to ensure Yori's cover of Saburo's actual cause of death would be believed.
Honestly it's the worst plan ever and Dex is probably one of the worst fixers around and Evelyn choose him because this whole heist idea is so stupid that no one would accept a mission like this.
I've always had the idea that the shard was cursed from the start, think about it, anyone and everyone involved in some way with the shard ends up dead. Saburo, dex, t bug, ..even v technically dies. Plus you can catch a line from Judy telling V that she told Evelyn to not take the job in the first place, that everything about it gave her bad vibes.
No if they just went another day then it probably would have worked.
V randomly receives a shard in his apartment in act 2 titled “Greetings from Des Moines”. It reads “Jump in the urinal and stand on your head. I'm the one that's alive. You're all dead.”
I always thought that was somewhat fitting for a T bug betrayal. Maybe she’s living her quiet life in Des Moines
Or its a leftover from her orignial story.
I guess that makes sense. I only saw that recently so I thought it might have been Songbird
Bug seemed very adamant on cutting ties. To send a message to a former colleague , however cryptic that message may be, seems out of character to me.
ive always assumed it was one of Delamain's personalities
Des Moines isnt in greece
I like TBug, people can say she wanted to betray V and Jackie and she is cold but i respect her for staying with the gang to the end, opening those doors. She could just bail out instantly after hearing news about death of Saburo, but she didnt, helped our heroes and payed the price for it. I also like Bug character as a reminder that anyone who wants to leave NC on their own terms will end badly.
This was probably professionalism, too. She stayed because you are supposed to as a professional. Her death came very sudden and rather unexpected, she might have reacted differently if she forsaw her demise.
I doubt she could have bounced that fast.
There's a Gig you can do for Wakako in Westbrook where you have to rescue a netrunner named BugBear. She is jacked in and before you can bring her out, you need to lower her core temperature or she'll go into shock and die.
You also see this in the Edge Runners show with Kiwi and Lucy where they lay in an ice bath while jacked in.
So it's my theory that T-Bug couldn't just bounce out as soon as shit went sideways because she didn't have time to cool off and be safe to disconnect from the net before some angry ass Saka program found her.
@@sadturtlesoup8832 Good point, proper netrunning needs proper cooling. So she should have seen the danger way before the heist started in order to get out safely, or in other words there was no escape. The more reason for her to fight for her and her teammates lives.
@@antonk.653 Not sure I agree with that, because it's not until _after_ she opens the doors for you to escape that she realises she'd been traced. I imagine if she'd spotted the trace earlier that it's entirely possible she'd have left V and Jackie out to dry.
@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 It is possible, I don't blame people much for saving their own skin - it is Arasaka threat level after all. But if she was traced earlier, the whole heist would fail sooner (and she would die the same way sooner).
There was a FIA agent code named Ladybug, killed during the heist, revealed in notes in Phantom Liberty. This agent was directly implicated into the heist. There is four characters possible: T-Bug, Dex, his bodyguard and Jackie. The more probable character is T-Bug and it is compatible with your theory with the VDB with T-Bug as triple agent. The code name is a little too obvious but it is an internal code name so maybe FIA was a little too sure about their network security.
Look, FIA also thought it's fine to give Songbird as a codename to So(o)ng.
@@teslashark That's less on the nose than T-bug and Ladybug though. At least they tried with Songbird
i dont remember when this was hinted, but could it not be someone like dweller, keeping saburos murder off the record in order to destabalise arasaka to the fia's benefit, killed when the heist plan intersected with them. would it have to be a part of the heist team?
@@cephery8482 This. It could have been one of the many Arasaka guards you kill during the heist. An FIA agent wouldn’t rob Arasaka, it might make their cover get blown, even if they did have to rob the place they wouldn’t do it with a fixer like Dex.
@@abisnail4888 We've got FIA Agents playing hopscotch on the Blackwall, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that they'd have their netrunners stealing Arasaka prototypes.
I feel that Arasaka wouldn't use Soul Killer. From people we know they use it on, they only use it on high value targets. During the heist, all they know about Bug is that it's some random runner, not anyone particularly important or notable.
Totally agree.
She was caught infiltrating the location where the Emperor of Arasaka was killed, thats more than enough to warrant the use of all measures Arasaka has on hand. Its not stated if they did, but theres no reason for them not to. I dont think the question is "would they have" - they would, she's a suspect in a high level murder. A more interesting question would Could they have? As far as we can see, soulkiller requires the physical body of the subject at the location where the soulkiller apparatus is, we see that with Jackie and "Johnny's Memories" but it is also possible that they had a net deployable version, since it's rumored that they have used it as a countermeasure towards hostile netrunners in dialog
The heist makes the group into high value targets though. We know already that if you make the wrong choice about where to send Jackie's body, Arasaka will intervene, capture his body, and then attempt to use Soul Killer on it, and you can meet what's survived of his consciousness in Mikoshi later. No doubt if they're willing to do that to Jackie, they'd have done it to Bug as well. Maybe you're right though, that during the heist itself (notably before Saburo is killed) they sought only to kill the invaders as quickly as possible, and it was only later and in light of the death of an emperor that they thought to use Soul Killer to extract information from them.
@@TCM_Hutchie I feel like Soulkiller needs more prep and physical access to the body to utilize. I feel like once Bug was caught by all the freshly activated ICE and Daemons in the post-Lockdown Konpeki subnet, she was roasted to death by everything at once before she could even think to unplug. Her biggest mistake was unlocking that last door for V and Jackie AFTER lockdown started. If she'd unplugged the moment she knew Arasaka was booting all their security for the lockdown (Including active deployment of netrunners, ICE, and Daemons), she might have gotten away. Heck, V and Jackie were lucky that the netrunners and ICE didn't circumvent her attempt to unlock that door.
They did use it once.
On Johnny Silverhand
T-bug was in over her head. The game doesn't outright make it obvious, but she was an amateur netrunner at best. It took her 3 and a half hours to pierce the Konpeki penthouse ICE, and at the end she couldn't even open a door. No amount of corny netrunner slang and pretentious philosophy quotes can hide the fact that she was completely underqualified.
i feel like thats the point. the mission was just inherently bad and poorly planned. nobody, with any amount of grit, was qualified to succesfully carry out the heist
i wouldn't say that she's an amateur but just that anyone attempting to hit arasaka without an entire corp at their back is near guaranteed to lose
@@diegonunez3492 while that is also true, i still think tbug was too amateur. she tries so hard to put up this front of someone who is a "uber hax0r" but in reality her skills are just a little bit above basic.
@diegonunez3492 remember that Murphy tore through Arasaka's defences in seconds when Silverhand and Co went to nyke the Tower, so nope. T-bug is just kinda shit at this.
@@shagman1779 spider is one of the best, only rivaled by(as far as I know) alt , and surpassed by Rache, using them as the bench mark isn't too fair imo
"Frying" the nervous system is the main way in which ICE, Soulkiller, etc actually kills the person, Soulkiller just basically "scans" the brain and then obliterates it, so even if it was Soulkiller, the fried nervous system wouldnt be out of place. But Soulkiller is also seemingly saved for the people, for whomst death would be too light a sentance (at least in the Arasakas mind). T-Bug was just some netrunner to Arasaka in the end.
Except she and her crew were considered the number one suspects in the murder of their patriarch. The fact that they're willing to steal Jackie's body...speaks directly to how lightly they aren't taking this at all. Likewise, Yorinobu at the time can't at all afford to make it seem otherwise. Everyone on the crew has to be "Public Enemy #1" and they all have to be seen as dumb, but also massively capable and dangerous.
@@LupineShadowOmega I mean, Takamura is also a prime suspect to anyone not in the inner circle, that's why he is on the run, he says so himself that some members of Arisaka think he killed Soburu. They only know about V and Jackie because they were caught on camera fleeing the penthouse. (that being the ones in the ship that shoots at them, not the ones in the hotel since technically you can get out without being spotted by any camera, how clear that footage is is questionable given the weather) Also they do not try to take Jackie's body in all playthroughs, that entirely depends on where you send his body with Del. If you send it to his mom nothing happens. ONLY if you send his body to Vik does it get stolen by Arisaka. So it cannot be considered cannon.
That said, V isn't exactly keeping a low profile with how many jobs you are allowed to do, many of which are in Tiger territory and they are known to answer to Arisaka so the fact Arisaka isn't constantly after you probably means they don't actually have accurate intel on who EXACTLY it was that was in the penthouse. The most logical reason they take Jackie's body if sent to Vik is they know at least one of the suspects was shot by the gunship and that will require a ripper to get properly fixed up so they probably sent ninjas out to the nearest rippers (or at least the ones within a distance they felt a person dying of a gunship wound would be able to make it to) and Vik is one that would be in that radius so if you send his body they move in to snatch it.
@@LupineShadowOmega hmm, alright, that would make sense too, but either way, the nervous system would be "fried"
@@ShiningDarknes We are not talking literally here, we are talking about his options for spinning this. Yes they can also spin it other directions, but the point is that they need as many options as possible, because all of those give the new head of the Corpo unlimited leeway in dealing with all suspects.
It is a powerplay wet dream, that at once allows you to clean house for your ascension and get any and all attention off of yourself and you can do anything to tie those loose ends up in the name of vengeance. He could just as easily tie his sister in there too if he'd wanted, because the point is that they needed an excuse and Yorinobu was farming them for power and influence.
Given the explanation of t-bugs concept it sounds like her original design might've gotten spun off for maman brigitte. The animation for the promo trailer was most likely made way in advance, based on an early draft of a scene. And if they hadn't yet decided on the details, it would make sense that everyone involved with the mission would be present at the No Tell Motel unless specified otherwise.
Excellent points! Gotta wonder how the plot got from a to z. Wonder what other storylines they had going on that they axed. Hmmm.
@@lydiscott in the initial showings of the game you were able to choose a hero between Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand or Saburo Arasaka. The general consensus in the community was that you would have one of the three in your head depending on your choice. But then they cast Keanu Reeves and if you have Keanu Reeves you use Keanu Reeves. So Blackhand and Saburo stories got folded into Silverhand. Might be why we see him with the bomb in the final game when Blackhand was actually the one planting the bomb.
keeping the same plot and adjusting the discrepancies to be Johnny ego tripping over his importance would be pretty great. they keep the black hand moments with johnny forcing himself into black hands shoes.
typing this out, I realize it would have been pretty cool to have Johnny realize the truth of his death and memories.
how unimportant he really is to arasaka, smasher, and the world would have been great.
@@firstname4382 that seems to be what they did. Pondsmith, CDPR and even Alt in game all say his memories are BS. A good example is Samurai was broken up before either of the missions we see with him.
@@lydiscott they likley axed the entireity of the flash foward at the start of the game. I feel your time with jackie and crew in the early days. was the orginal act 1. the early jobs likely made up the start of the story. ending with the big job at the plaza. leading to act 2 which likely would have been what we know as act one after jackies death. T bugs fate likely would have changed depending on your actions (actually i know it would have because it was mentioned either in a gameplay trailer or an e 3 showing early on)
I think she was altered for the better. The key narrative of 2077, and one Evelyn herself tells us, is falling for the lie of Night City. The bigger you aim, the higher you fall. Be it the Relic heist, or the plot of Edgerunners. It's all quite well executed as everyone but V is all in with the heist, failure doesn't even cross their minds, yet several times V can voice uncertainty, having issues with the small details, and who is the only survivor? The one person with doubt. The one person who didn't buy fully into the lie. T bug's role seems cut down and small, but it all ties into the greater narrative of Night City and shows us that no one is above Night City, no matter how important they seem or how good they think they are.
I like this interpretation. It is furthered by him clearly being in some way disillusioned with the appeal of Night City at the start of whatever route you take. V through the whole game never really fully buys into Night City, always skeptical of the major jobs (I really fucking hate that denying Kirk when he asks you to do another job doesn't end the quest, instead it leave it there for you to "change your mind," same with the Claire quest which is also one I feel like you saying no should end the quest chain. Game devs out there: give players the option to say no to quests and have said quests just be gone)
@@ShiningDarknes Agreed. Some would say it's a loss of content but to most it would be an extra choice in a genre that's supposed to be full of them. The Peralaz questline is a good example as Johnny tells us to just cut and run, how good would it have been if we could have stopped the elevator, go back down, walk out, then call them saying you don't want to touch this case with a 10ft pole? small stuff like that makes games feel more alive.
@@monkeybone1080 It is so off that it leaves these two quests available when you turn them down when there are many side quests you are, if fact, allowed to fail some of which technically have a better outcome with you not completing them.
Yep, everyone but V seems to think the heist will go off smoothly. Whether it be Dex being out of touch and thinking his usual MO, intended to fleece no-name crews, is the right plan to use for a job like this, Jackie being too blinded by the prospect of finally making it to the "big leagues" to consider that this job is way out of his league, or T-Bug's arrogance and overestimation of her skills making her view the job as somewhat beneath her. None of them but V seem to be aware enough to see the issues with the plan.
@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 Don't forget Evelyn. She was relying too much on the fact that Yorinobu would never notice that she never once took into consideration the fact that so much crap could have gone wrong, and it DID go wrong.
The one thing none of them ever considered from the conversation that Yorinobu had with his informant in Arasaka, is that Saburo would be coming to Konpeki himself. A son doesn't get that heated about his father unless something important was coming up. They should have accounted for that possibility, no matter how unlikely or outlandish it may have been. The bit about Yorinobu killing his father... now that was probably much less likely to happen, but again going off of his conversation over the phone and the history we already know about Yorinobu, I still would have assumed that it could have been possible.
A heist this big should have ALL snares and possibilities checked, no exceptions. V may have not known themselves, but they had a hunch the heist was just too good to be true. If not for peer pressure, they could have at least saved themselves the absolute hell they go through after the Prologue.
My take is that Marcus Aurelius both never said it and is its originator. Meditations is inspired by Greek philosophy, and there’s a tendency in that literature to make up conversations to prove a moral point, such as Euyphro’s Dilemma. Just as Plato both felt obliged to his mentor Socrates and used him as a rhetorical authority, Marcus referred to his own mentors.
I have a feeling Mr. Hands would really have appreciated and valued T. Bug.
That would’ve been a cool team!
I also think that if Mr.Hands was the fixer for Konpeki Plaza Heist, it would have succeeded. He is very thorough and cautious. He would have considered all possibilities including Saburo’s involvement and made back up plans for every scenario. That said, he wouldn’t have worked with amateur mercs who are still very inexperienced for a gig of that scale.
He wouldn't have because of just the lit. Shit storm that would follow such a heist
@@ForestRaptor I feel like Mr. Hands WOULD participate in it, even fully knowing what could happen if it went south, with proper contingencies in place to pin the fiasco on a rival or even just leave the mercs out to dry as if they were just REALLY lucky solos. After all, Mr. Hands is the only fixer in NC with any amount of anonymity intact. What would the burned mercs have on him? A nickname and no face or deets to spill. Heck, I could even see Hands putting the idea into Dex's head to take charge as the "real" fixer behind the job, just for another layer of separation.
Absolutely, Dexter was an incompetent prick who got back what he gave out.
12:00 Now this is an interesting detail. This gives the notion of T-Bug being more prominent character initially.
Knowing how troubled development was, it feels like they had to do a rewrite and cut plenty in the last minute.
IIRC the most, if not the entirety, of the game was rewritten after Witcher 3 was finished and CDPR moved a lot of that team over to CP2077.
One thing she says that I notice most don't comment on is that not only does she intend to retire, but that she intends to "never set foot in cyberspace again." Cyberspace has other uses besides business, legal or otherwise, and it wouldn't be surprising if many Greek islands were effectively "off the grid" in Cyberpunk 2077 like our world. This suggests that Tbug wasn't just retiring, but becoming a little bit of a luddite, and if she did have a connection to the VDBs (knowing what they were planning to do with the relic/Silverhand) perhaps she was trying to hide away from the coming AI apocalypse?
Even her name is enigmatic-bug can refer to both her technical prowess and how suddenly her life is snuffed out. But T part, besides the possible connotation that it stands for “tech,” is even more open to interpretation. Not many people use aliases in Night City, somewhat surprisingly, so it raises questions on who, if anyone, is she hiding from.
According to the pnp Cyberpunk, pretty much every single merc uses an Alias, called a "Callsign"
Considering she was trying to flee the country and cut all ties with her old life, an alias makes sense
@@maurog.ocaranza4142 Yup, most Cyberpunks use an alias on the tabletop. Especially Netrunners, with them being inspired by hacker culture (people using their real names instead of invented handles on the Internet didn't really become mainstream until the 2010s).
A bug is also something used to tap into people's lines, normally by law enforcement or covert intelligence. Which could hint toward her deeper motivations.
I like to think that her name is an homage to Resident Evil's T-Virus. But instead of Virus (can also be used for computer virus), they changed it to T-Bug.
T-Bug has been one of my favorite characters. It felt as she was genuinely trying to make a connection when she was encouraging Jackie to try and think on the deeper implications of the philosophy she was sharing with us. That car ride before the heist is one of my favorite moments.
Yeah, all the dialogue surrounding T-Bug makes it seem as if she's more of an outside contractor for Jackie and V than an actual part of their crew, and her "You could try to think about it" line after the philosophy quotes feels like she's trying to make a connection with Jackie and V, to get "in" with their crew, but is unwilling to find something she shares in common with them and, instead, is trying to make _them_ have something in common with her. It's the wrong approach and subtly casts an extra highlight on her more arrogant personality.
The part that always intrigued me is the philosophical edge. Was there going to be a questline referring to that trait? What was the thematic reason for having her be a philosophy aficionado? Quoting Marcus Aurelius and Aristotle in particular makes me wonder-a Stoic and a rationalist, those aren’t mutually exclusive but there’s clearly connective tissue missing here.
It would’ve been interesting to see a quest continuing this theme! I feel like Bug’s philosophy and Misty’s mysticism would’ve been two interesting, parallel views of Night City.
@@lydiscott
Perhaps…Stoicism and rationalism are both more grounded in tangible reality than Misty’s mysticism-wait, is that why her name is Misty? How am I just realizing this 😂
T-bug has a specific goal, to make enough to live the quiet life in Greece, while Misty has an explicitly spiritual mission. As is the game never does anything with this potential dichotomy, but now that you mention it, I wish they had
One of the things Mike Pondsmith has said is that the rogue AI have a penchant for quoting ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. It's my personal loose theory that T-Bug and Dex are being manipulated by rogue AI on this side of the Black Wall to make sure the Silverhand engram can make contact with Alt. I have no ideas as to why though.
The trailer was just too good. My head canon makes T-Bug a traitor. Who she betrays (everyone, V & Jackie) changes. She could have faked the scream, started a rumor she'd been fried, and skipped the country as she wanted to do. It sounds like Dex screwed her over when he left 5 years ago. Why would she work for him if she knew what a screw-up he was? She didn't know V and Jackie well enough to care, and Dex as payback. I like to think she sold them out to Arasaka and then skeedaddled. Knowing Arasaka, she got her comeuppance eventually.
If you read the Cyberpunk book "No Coincidence" you could figure sometimes people come togther and form a team through happenstance, and sometimes there's another force arranging all your chance meetups.
I do like your theory and think at some point in production that may very well have been the case. But in the final game I do not think she is at all connected to the VDB. First and most important is she does not have a Haitian accent. All the VDB are first gen Americans. Second is her connection to the shop in Kabuki. The VDB do not work with outsiders unless they plan to burn them. So the shop owner being a friend of Bug would indicate she likely has no connection. Lastly her relationship to the rest of the crew. For V and Jackie it seems like the Dorsett job was not their first as a team. And for Dex I have always gotten the vibe that they were an item romantically. I may be misreading but Bug tries to dodge the question about how she knows Dex. If their last job was such a shitshow she likely would never work with him again, unless she had an emotional reason to do so.
Lastly Placide is a bastardman. I know it has nothing to do with Tbug but he was in the video and it has to be said.
I think you’re right, Bugs background is definitely different in the final game. All very good points! AND HMMM romantically eh? See I’ve never gotten that vibe myself HOWEVER i may very well have just missed it, lmao AND YEAHHHH Placide is… he’s somethin else. Especially with that text he sends later in the game. Like WHY DUDE 😂
@@lydiscott it took me many run throughs to get Placides text because I made sure to put him down basically every time. I think it was the callousness of him that made me think he was the biggest bastardman in the game. At least Smasher wasn’t dishonest.
Oh and my first time through I knew to side with Netwatch because of the Tarot outside the church. So when I was told he was planning to flatline me I turned heel immediately. I even suspected Netwatch did something like they did and basically just said serves em right lol.
I don’t think the accent is evidence to discount the possibility of her being connected to the vdb. There are so many variables that impact a persons accent
Genuinely so disappointed with how they handled T-Bug, but honestly if their original intent _was_ to have her betray us I’m kinda glad that got cut. Almost, if not every, black character in the game ends up being an asshole or betraying us 😑 loved the game but that’s been one of my biggest gripes. Like with the VDB’s I love their story and lore, but the way they’re portrayed in game is very unforgiving to the point where I only ever see people talking about how much they fucking hate them. Like none of the nuance of their background comes into play, it’s not made clear that there is actually a reason they’re so secretive and isolated, and why they burn every merc they work with personally. Netwatch lets other corps like Militech just do whatever they want, and they were actively trying to turn the black wall into a weapon, netwatch is also a corp. they’re objectively the worst option but everyone sides with them cause “VDB’s tried to kill me now I’m big mad and want to slaughter them all for no other reasons I want or need to reckon with”
As I writer, I 100% clocked that T-Bug had cut content day one. I wish I could explain it. Her involvement from the very beginning just gives her this weight that did not match her end. Honestly, your Voodoo Boys theory would be genius plot wise.
Also I never felt V’s desire to be wildly famous. I think this is largely do to the voice actors cadence. It very much feels like a “this is the hand i was dealt so im gonna play it” and then you see V start building meaningful relationships in the face of this awful city where no one lives past 30.
I would have liked to see more of the friends tragic ends and V going on a revenge spree trying to save what few good things they have. Could have been a legendary story of seeking connection despite tragedy. Even the endings for the unalive ending have such an incredible loss from these people they left behind.
I always felt that V's desire to be wildly famous was because that was Jackie's dream. V didn't really care but Jackie did and V wanted to achieve Jackie's dream. The game obviously doesn't state that and also by the time V begins to become "famous" you've completely forgotten about Jackie
To be fair here, you can play V as hesitant about the whole fame thing, tho you can never really just say "screw it" except in two endings (the DLC ending and in my favorite one, Star, when she goes with the 'caldos). In the DLC you can even tell Songbird that everything you did in act 1 was to support Jackie, not because of your own dreams. Which seems like an addon for those players trying to downplay V's hunger for personal glory.
Some of the games content was cut cause it was unfinished when they rushed release. She gets killed off screen, and had earlier missions with you that were also cut. First time I played I didn't even realize she was killed off. Pretty sure the "triple cross" of the Konpeki Plaza Heist was the voodoo boys working with Dexter and T-bug, knowing that they couldn't trust Evelyn. The subtle questions early on from Dexter, where he questions your interactions with Evelyn, even if you don't outright tell him she's planning on double crossing them, he seems to already know. And that was all cut content, that would have eventually led you right to the Voodoo Boys anyways. I also believe there was a full boss fight with Adam Smasher early on here, that just gets turned into him running into your car while you escape. The missions were supposed to be more open ended, with dialogue options resulting in slightly different outcomes. You don't tell Dexter you're suspicious of Evelyn, then they assume you're working with her to double cross them etc...
The ending the of the game also has some cut main story content.
Also, the TH-cam Algorythm actually doing its job in brining me here - well done, and subbed !
I feel the same thing about Evelyn Parker. I feel like she was a super interesting character and they could have given her a bigger role in V’s life post heist.
If you had time to develop more of a relationship with her before bad things happened it would have it much harder.
Yes, yknow what, I get the feeling she had a lot of content cut. I think I read somewhere that Judy’s quest was initially supposed to be longer, and it was meant to include the Mox a lot more. Not sure if this is true, but I wonder if this would also mean Evelyn had more screentime.
@@lydiscott agreed, it would have been interesting to see if Evelyn could have been a romance option for both V’s that ended in that tragedy.
It would have had to have come from V getting deeper involved with the Mox and Evelyn.
@@lydiscottI’ve read rumors that Evelyn was meant to fill a more central role a la Johnny Silverhand . But when Keanu Reeves went all in on the project they redid the story to make Johnny the centerpiece.
He only really got involved like 2 years before the game released. The last minute changes would also explain the state the game released in.
All rumors and conjecture ofc.
I feel the same about Jackie. He died way too soon imo. A couple missions and a montage wasn't enough for me to connect with him to the point that I'd be sad for his death. I feel more impact from V's reaction more than the actual death.
@@lokilucario yeah, that was my very first impression about cp2077! We needed more time with Jackie to make his death hit us harder.
I know that we can’t get everything we want because games have budgets and stuff and something have to be cut for the overall experience, but I feel like they could have spent less money on recording actual gun shots from 500 types of guns and car sounds from 20k cars and put that money into character development.
More T-Bug makes me think of one beautiful way they could have done the lifepaths. a character from each that 'stuck around'. offered messages, comments, jobs, whatever. THAT DID NOT SHOW UP IN THE OTHER LIFEPATHS.
That would be amazing!
I think the "Nomad" Life Path should have took place mostly in the Badlands where the Jobs were mostly related to "Nomad" missions with V having to come to Night city to do jobs every once in a while. And then somehow they implement the Relic part later on toward the middle of the game. Our home should be that Tent from the Nomad Camp and our main Fixer for this life path should be the leader of the Nomad camp we saved from the main game.
The "Street Punk" Life Path should be from the prospective of a Valentino Gang member. And you have missions that pertain to Valentino Goals and Gang politics. Your main fixer should be that Valentino Gang leader, and somehow find out and get caught up in this relic business via the word on the streets level gossip or something. The apartment we live in the Mega Building should be the home we have in the "Street Punk" Life path.
For the "Corpo" path we should work at Arasaki, with our lil office and workers that work under and over us. Our main fixer should be that head guy(forget his name) in the big office. We should be doing mission like escorting high level execs, having "dialogue choice driven" board meetings, or getting intel from rival Corporations, maybe even infiltrating or negotiations with other Corpo Companies. As a Corpo agent we should live in the Corpo plaza part of Night City in a penthouse apartment with AV access on the top of our penthouse building. Their should be AV access points for Corpos all across Night City for air travel, and we should have a company car we can call on. And we get caught up in the Relic business mid game.
Each life path should have showed us a whole new prospective on the politics and seediness of Night City. I Also like the Idea you mentioned about Certain Characters from each Life path sticking with you after the life path ends.
this is exactly what it should’ve been like. meaningful differences outside of dialogue due to differences in life paths. also, like your corpo life path, i always thought that cp2077 was missing corporate espionage.
@@lilrizqFor Street Kid, not sure potential Valentino member would work if you aren't playing V as latino
The life path system, in the end, felt kinda pointless. V is still the same person and ends up in the same places in life no matter what. And IMO, Street Kid very much felt like the "canon" one, as the rest of V's story and interactions don't really gel that well with a Corpo or Nomad, or at least nowhere near as natural as with Street Kid
Two things stand out to me: Firstly, it makes no sense to obscure T-Bugs fate in that cinematic trailer and have her appear as a betrayer, when three big things are spoiled in the trailer. Deshawn's betrayal, Jackie's death and Silverhand's existence. It'd be a little silly to spoil those three big plot points but hide that T-Bug dies pretty much off screen to the point some players didn't even realize she died. Considering T-Bug was closer to Jackie and Deshawn levels of importance, it's a little strange how she only gets a missable piece of dialog even confirming her death. That's closer to Deshawn's body guard who just disappears compared to Jackie and Deshawn who get some level of epilogue, Jackie with remembrance get together and Deshawn still lying at the dump with his gun as loot. Like, you'd think we'd at least be able to scrounge around Night City and find T-Bug's netrunner lair with her dead in her netrunner chair with some loot.
And second, during the Afterlife meet with Deshawn and T-Bug, T-Bug's shoes have the words "Delta V" on the buckles, which is an interesting detail. It seems a little too specific for a story important character to have a detail that essentially reads as "Hey V, get out of here" and not have it mean something. Along with the fact that Cyberpunk is, or at least was, an unfinished game, it's doubtless that aspects were altered and cut. But the one detail that really makes me think T-Bug was meant to be more important is that cosplay guide mentioned in the video, that feels like something only important characters would get, or highly marketed ones. Add in that one cinematic trailer scene implying she took out a corpo, and it definitely feels like T-Bug had more to her that never got to be shown.
Sadly, that is the nature of game development, ideas are made, trimmed, cut down or thrown out entirely all across the development process, but with Cyberpunk it's a little worse as the game came out so unfinished. Who knows how much was cut to crunch the game into existence.
I always felt like T-Bug's early demise, and the holes they leave in her development, were conscious choices. With Jackie, we know what happened to him, since we were there, and we actually have closure about it (especially if you pursue the Ofrenda storyline). With T-bug, whether successfully or not, I believe they were **deliberately** leaving us without closure or even comprehension. She dies, suddenly and...we never really know how, by whom. We never get to do anything about it, even really mourn.
When T-Bug went offline, I went “huh, I wonder when she’ll resurface after the heist,” only to learn of her confirmed demise in some throwaway dialogue when picking up your ping quick hack. Seriously? This is how they inform the player character about a significant side-character’s fate? Incredibly lame. I hope they retcon her death as a deception to get corpo net runners off her scent. What a waste.
idk if it was different at launch but she literally screams as she is being fried to death
@@feliciastaldotter5168up to interpretation tho, i thought it was just because she was being kicked out of whatever system since i never really cared about the specifics of cyberpunk's technology too much and completely forgot about her after a certain point so the idea of her dying never occurred to me
@@dankerbellthis is exactly what i thought! i was confused when we didn’t hear from her after, i thought the scream was her being ripped out of the system from some cyber attack?
even if she wasn’t buddy-buddy with us like jackie, i feel like our reaction to her death was pretty tame… i thought we were just worried about her getting hurt, not that she actually died. wish they gave us more with her.
Pawel Sasko was asked about this on stream and he said the marketing stuff was just them using the character models for whatever they wanted, and T-Bug's story was always set in stone from Day 1.
The heist was always bound to fail because
1. The team underestimated the complexities and dangers of the heist, particularly concerning the powerful figures involved, such as Arasaka Corporation.
2. There were trust issues among the crew, especially between V, Jackie, and their fixer, Dexter DeShawn. This lack of cohesion made the team vulnerable.
3. The sudden appearance of Yorinobu Arasaka, who unexpectedly returned to his penthouse with his father, Saburo Arasaka, introduced unforeseen complications.
4. Arasaka's advanced security systems and the presence of high-level security personnel made the heist far more challenging than anticipated. (This is what killed t bug. )
5. Dexter Deshawn also put a bullet in V’s brain just so he could cover loose ends up
Now the only person that could be possibly lying to v in any way would be Takemura and there’s many instances that show he was just using V
I think that when they decided to give Johnny a bigger role in the game they cut storylines for Dex and Bug
Yes, this is a thing I keep hearing! And I think I read Keanu said he wasn’t involved with the project until around 2018? And then something about him wanting his role expanded.
Yeah. I love Keanu, but I think the story could have been better without him. They'd have had a wad of cash to spend on it if nothing else. It always felt like they changed their focus mid-game. That may have been why so much was incomplete and messed up.
Dex never had a story beyond the heist. Betraying you was his sole function to the plot, and after that his character nolonger serves any purpose. Dex's story has probably remained pretty much unchanged from the first draft to the final game.
T-Bug clearly did play a larger role, at the bare minimum we have the trailer in which she is seen hacking V's mantis blades at the No-tell motel, so in an earlier draft of the story, she did atleast survive the heist. Some also speculate that she would have ended up playing the part Mamam Brigitte plays in the final version of the game. Which is possible, but of course only fan speculation at this point,.
However, i don't belive Silverhand had anything to do with T-Bug's re-write. Rather, i belive she was a casualty of CDPR choosing to drop 3'rd person cutscenes from the game, and instead have all these story segments play out as real-time gameplay.
If you look at that cutscene they had made at the No-Tell motel, the fight between Dex, Bug and V, something like that is easilly done in a cutscene, but not as gameplay. If you actually let the player fight Dex and Bug for real, then there's a million things the player could do that would break the intended sequence. So it had to be simplified to work as a gameplay segment, and i belive this is when Bug's role in the story was reduced.
Also, they didn't give Johnny a bigger role, his role was always this big. The relic, Johnny's engram, this was always the main plot of this game, it was always ment to be a focal point of the story, long before Keanu accepted the role (some speculate that Morgan Blackhand could also have been on the chip, but i don't think Mike Pondsmith would have allowed that, as he seems to have his own plans for the Morgan Blackhand character. Apparently that's why Blackhand is not in the game at all, Pondsmith woulden't allow it).
People are conflating two things here. At some point it was reported that Keanu requested some more dialog, and that he was given more. People take this to mean his part in the main story was expanded. That's not what happened though. He was given more dialog, but this extra dialog is now featured in various gigs in the game (example: The Wakako gig to retrive the corpo lockbreaker, this is one of the gigs where Johnny was given some dialog).
So they didn't change the main story for Johnny, Johnny was always a big part of the main story. What did change is that Johnny origionally only had dialog in main-story missions, and now he also has dialog outside of the main missions. When you're playinga Gig and he suddenly shows up to deliver some sarcastic quib, well, that's the added dialog, that's "Johnny's bigger role".
@@songsayswhat My biggest gripe with the game, and I honestly _LOVE_ CP2077, is that it often feels like it's Johnny's game, not V's. It feels like Johnny is the main character and the game is his story and eventual fate one way or another rather than the story of V. I'm hoping Cyberpunk Orion (the working title of the next game) will have more of a focus on making it feel like the player character's story.
@@steinarbergstl5799 I always viewed it like I view FFX where I consider Yuna the actual protagonist and Tidus is just part of the main cast. Tidus is stil lthe main character, but Yuna is the protagonist. Same with CP77, V is the main character but Johnny is the protagonist at least until you start PL but I don't count that as part of the same plot line since it wasn't part of the game I finished multiple times before 2.0. Even then this is ony true if you take the buddy-buddy route with Johnny, if you have V always despise him the dynamic completely changes.
I guess what I'm saying is... well, it is a _roll-play game_ if you don't play the roll, if you just treat it like a game only then yeah you may feel like your character is not the focus. But if you really look at it everything is talking about V. V is the rising legend of Night City, barely anyone talks about Johnny that isn't a Johnny fanboy or part of Johnny's old crew/band when you do things that are not part of the main quest. Of course the main quest revolves around Johnny because the main quest revolves around getting him out of your head but the main quest is only like 35% of the game if that.
Love that you highlighted that quote from Aristotle.
Everybody ultimately wants the quiet life,
but the quiet life is different for everybody.
“Just another tale for the next dreamer”
Thank you, as always 😁
I really find your character deep dives useful for helping refine the stories I build out for the Cyberpunk RED game I run. It's videos like this that help me create characters that have more than a surface level of depth to them.
Also, during the time of the red (post arasaka-nuking to past 2045) the Voodoo Boys of 2020 slowly start getting overtaken by Haitian refugees who detest the ignorant use of their culture and so they basically go to war with them and become the new Voodoo Boys that we see in 2077.
The Cyberpunk RED Sourcebook has a lot of great information for the period between 2020 and 2077
i was so excited for you to explore this! wish they did more with her
Ahh thank you for watching! Same here, it’s a shame.
You have an oddly comforting way of speaking. You would make for a stellar teacher or councillor or something like that.
T-Bug was one of my favorite characters and was so disappointed we didn't see them again.
I need some fanfiction of this character!
17:45 I feel like the reason they didn't suspect her is the same reason they try to take care of v, they think they're so much smarter than anyone else in nc, that nobody can compare
Thanks 4 all the hard work.
Oh I love this video so much. Your conjecture about T Bug’s role in the full story sounded really compelling. It would be something I’d add to the plot of some fanfiction or something
Aww thank you so so much for watching! 😁
T-Bug's death definitely fits into the theme of Cyberpunk: riding the edge until you fall off. I think there probably was more to her story in initial drafts but as is wont to happen in gaming, the story was scrapped as the game was refined. I would have liked to see some kind of closure for T-Bug.
With that being said, I think some of the ideas behind T-Bug's original story ended up getting used with Songbird in "Phantom Liberty". There are times where So Mi's story has some of the same connective tissue as T-Bug's.
One thing I heavily look forward to in CBP 2, is the inclusion of true netrunning.
Actually wearing a runner suit, hooking your inputs and adapter cables into the twisting nest of cords that surround a station. If you lack funds, a tub and ice-bath cant get you far. But if you have resources, a premium running booth immersed with designer grade, branded cooling gel will outperform cheaper means, allowing one to go farther, for longer, into the NET. (In theory.) Those lingering ICE protocols that dot the NET everywhere don't exactly make things a walk in the park. Otherwise, runners wouldn't get fried in their chairs.
God this universe is so sick. Mike Pondsmith was already envisioning this shit, in the early 1980's, before anyone even had a semblance of what the internet was or the concept of bionic connectivity to that degree.
I think T-Bug was intended, as you say, to stand with Dex during the betrayal. But her role was scrapped to give more room to Jackie and Dex. Jackie to make sure every player feels that friendship with jackie. And to build up that fury against dex. To have a third character detracts from the "purity" of the emotions towards them. Also, T-Bug would've made that link to voodo boys stronger and seem almost sloppy instead of the "how the shit did you discover this?" angle we get from our investigation with Judy in Evenlynns memories. V needed to seem desperate and grasping for straws to properly hone in the themes of the overarching story.
The whole point of the mission that got her killed is that everyone was way in over their heads. TB wasn’t some cutting edge, highly sought after net runner, or she would not have been working with low level mercs like V and Jackie. would she have betrayed them to get ahead? Absolutely she would have. But she wasn’t good enough. She just died.
Glad you were able to hit T-Bug as a topic. She was taken from us too soon!
I'm making my way through all of your content, really love your presentation style and work it's really good. My theory for T-Bug is one I haven't seen much but that she was the start of the job. I think she put Dexter and Evelyn in touch with each other just to set up the heist for the one thing she couldn't buy - an escape from her reputation and work in Night City by faking her death. Like you mention there was a lot of changes for the story over and over but all of her philosophy quotes take on a sinister tone if she was gloating about pulling one over on everyone. She was very aloof except for her giving you free software after the scav haunt. Which Dex drops you off right in front of that shop after your "interview". Which is also the only place we get told what happened to her. If she faked having trouble with security to delay the heist from happening until Adam Smasher was back in the building, faked her death on the call, then it could have been all a setup so no one is looking for her. Like Dexter said they were hunting for anyone with a pinky toe in that mess.
I viewed Tbugs use of philosophy as a way to draw structure and reason out of the chaos of NC. She’s trying to cognitively work her way through the trauma of surviving through some pretty heavy stuff.
It's a trope in story telling of people getting back together to do one last job. You will make enough to get out, your debt will be clear, this can salve your conciense, etc. This easily explains T-bug working with DeShwan on this last job.
I feel Bug is in the Mikoshi, it is established by johnny, that happens to netrunners.
I generaly headcannon that she truely did faked her death.
Partly due to her
1 knowing the risks involved with this heist along with knowing Dex and their past history.
2 she saw things going to shit and cut and ran early.
But lastly because at some point she actualy started to like both Jackie and V but their relationship never had the chance to flourish.
Jackie caught on to her jokes and her love of greek poets
And V...is well V
2 mercs that actually tried to be her friends despite her pushing them away.
I think she faked her death due to her even saying wanting to cut ties with everyone and never setting foot in cyberspace again.
But also she started acting...off very early one and just so happens to "Die" when things go bad when we supposedly used counter measures for that.
Plus with the store owner saying she was found dead. We NEVER find her body theres not even a hint to where it might have been.
We can find Dexs body
We can fuck over Merideth and find her body
We can actualy find the bodies of almost all the characters but her?
I know its probably not true but i hold the theory she escaped in my heart
I hope she did. Gahhh. Too many runners in these stories get caught up in night city and never get to escape. Would be nice if Bug made it.
@@lydiscott not to meantion i think alot of content and story for alot of characters gpt cut
@@havonetae Once we got our Keannu everyone else just became a side-character. I would have loved to have the opening montagees playable!
In Phantom Liberty Alex has a "grocery list" that lists a lot of people as "MIA" but T-bug is specifically "KIA"... She's dead, sorry
@@funnyname9229 i think you missed where i said this was a personal headcannon.
I fully believe that one version of the game had T-Bug as an Arasaka spy, back when they were toying with the idea of Saburo knowing the Heist would happen, and was planning on using it for his own purposes. If I recall, that was also the build that had Johnny and Saburo as voices on the Relic. Moreover, if anyone cold protect Bug from the Voodoos, it would be Arasaka. I STILL think she faked her death, and always felt like that poem you find on your desk later is from her (the one that ends with "I'm alive, you're all dead").
Didn’t Dex try to find put more about Evelyn and the VBD told him to drop it? That should have clued him in that she was up to something. I bet that was when they were supposed to send in T-bug, who was already familiar with Dex.
AHHHHHH I forgot about that very good point!!!!
First off, Just found your channel, love the video. I really wish they had given T-Bug and Jackie more time for their character to grow. Even if it means taking the 2 month in game (30 mins irl) cutscene into more play time. I personally loved T-bug. I saw her as being distant because of being afraid of getting betrayed, not because she was going to betray the team. Honestly, I don't think it was just T-bug and Jackie overestimating their abilities, I feel it was more Dex convincing them that they could do this because they were the cheapest crew he could find that were hungry enough to do it.
she was attacking V in the first video of cyberpunk 2077, and you can also see her acting sus once V and jackie get in the room. she waiting for the arasaka family to come, something big was going on behind the hiest. i think she booked it once things went wrong. the quite life.
its like a rule, if you dont see people die, they are not dead.
You can find her body. She's most definitely dead.
@@Steriodsman1wait really? Where?
@@Steriodsman1 thats not her body, its just they like to reuse many models. many youtubers have already debunked it.
@@kingbaaka3D Just wish they had done something more with that theory.
Only recently discovered your channel and absolutely love the writing, delivery, look, voice, and thoughtful insights to the characters. Top notch CP2077 analogy content. Each video is a gem and the effort put in is appreciated. You're doing a great job. All the best.
Thank you so much for your kind words! Means a lot! 😄
Excellent insight as always, thanks for the vid
Thank you for watching and for your comment! 😄
How T-Bug felt like such a fleshed out character who, importantly, you never really are allowed time to get to know made the game feel more real when she suddenly dies so shockingly.
Jackie’s death is also impacting, but you were able to get to know Jackie. T-Bug’s death made the world feel bigger than the player character’s ability to see and more importantly influence the world.
I feel that the current version of T-bug and her death is a comparison to Jackie. Jackie was a man of passion, he loved, he hated, he fought, he dreamed and he died in a blaze of glory. T-bug seemed to be very detached, we don't even know if she even had friends or family to mourn her passing. Jackie gets a big send off by all those he impacted. From Vik, Mama Welles, Misty, V, the Valentinos, and others he grew up with. T-bug probably got zipped into a body bag and put into a freezer until Arasaka decided she wasn't anyone important.
Bug seemed like she was a more watered down version of Kiwi from Edgerunners. She didn't trust anyone, but unlike Kiwi, we don't know why. I assume it's similar to Kiwi were she was betrayed in the past, by either her Parents or a close associate.
Either way Bug is just another person squashed by Night City.
This is a really detailed and deep look at the lore. Thank you for putting this together.
The T in T-Bug stands for Tyrannosaurus
Also, I like the theory of her working as a monitor/handler for the voodoo boys keeping an eye on Dex, as he would make for an easy independent scapegoat, and I reckon Dex would be too arrogant and narcissistic to realize. Idk it just clicks
It's an interesting video, because I've actually suspected for some time that Bug's role was supposed to be completely different from what it ended up being. Also in relation to Dex, because I've long had the feeling that the background of Dex and the Vodoos is not only directly connected to Bug, but also to the whole Relic story, but as you said so well, we'll probably never know, because we were told a different story in the end.
Anyway, thanks for the great video and best regards from Germany.
For last few months I've been GM'ing TTRPG Cyberpunk and all your analisis on cyberpunk characters made me rethink some aspects of NPCs I created and improve their backstories to make them deeper and more "human". Thanks a lot for inspiration!
I feel like Bug is smart enough to know not to take that job expecting success, especially given that she knew dex' history of fuck-ups.
I think it's very possible she faked her death and so the success of the job was not her way to achieve her dream of escaping Night City, but it's destined failure instead.
It's said a lot throughout the lore of Cyberpunk that you don't just *leave* Night City, only the "dead" can truly escape.
I *liked* T-Bug, and I think the fact that her story got cut off without any sort of resolution absolutely fit the tone of the game and its storytelling. It drove home the notion that your character wasn't the MAIN character, that things would happen that were completely out of your control.
Case in point: My wife is writing a sci-fi story. She has a part where someone turns up that definitely hits all the Main Character tropes -- military background, charisma, motivation to get involved. And she kills that character in the same chapter he turns up.
Yeah, T-Bug was a wasted opportunity.
It’s so sad! 😞
The entire game is a wasted opportunity.
I have no theory of my own, but I loved this video!
Keep up the good work, if this was your 1st one of this kinda type, I think it's a great start :]
Anyone who thinks soulkiller was used, i don't think it would be used on her. Shes too sloppy. She needed you to hack a damn door. Either shes insanely specified (most likely in terms of anti personnel) or just dogwater. Now her being hyper specified would explain a lot, from what she DOES hack and what she has you hack. Where she seemingly shines is anti runner and anti ground personnel disruption and dissolution. So her not seeing black ICE operated on kempeki plazas security (which i believe in lore is run by possible rogue AI) would ABSOLUTELY blindsight her if she was focused on watching caneras for IRL targets or netrunners and be hit by a stealthy AI. She's also clearly not used to getting into a BUILDINGS subnet, yet once in can operate cameras, kill a netrunner and i believe warns you about incoming footassult before being fried. Not only that but she seemingly is far better on observation and target selection then dealing with things like obstacles or doors. She might not of even been aware of this type of ice, as clearly it hit her wirhout warning but she CAN detect a rival runner. I think the trailers highlighted this theory as shes shown disabling Vs implants, killing people specifically with ease at a distance and killing an entire squad on her own. Her design seems fast and light, as if she would escape on foot if overhwelmed irl by enemy combatants with minimal stuff left behind.
Oh, dude, Fiction Forensics is a great name and given the kind of digging you did it really fits for these videos
She bugged me so much. She was so arrogant that she thought she was the smartest one in the room. Yet so ignorant that she didn't see that she was just another person in the room, Jackie and V were just as well read as her. V was even smart enough to know this was a stupid idea.
Something i notice is that in phantom liberty when you hang out with alex (I think it before or after the songbird rescue mission) you can make a toast to some character that passed away and you can toast to T-Bug. A little detail I think some haven't noticed
Aside from the instance of you calling out Dex and the fight ensues, yeah TBug in that instance was definitely terminated. Back in Araska Tower yeah you get this idea that she just got fried after she states she got made. You're just given the impression that whatever defenses were turned on fried her and called it a day.
Unforutnately I think this was due to more of CDPR having to cut out and make edits on the fly for a fast release. Honestly I think a lot of the after the fact stuff simply because it existed in some form or another but could not be added to the game story for -insert reason- . That being said, it does allow for ambiguity and for any future released content to provide maybe a little bit of insight to the actual fate of the character, really this applies to ANY of the characters who were unceremoniously knocked off and then never spoken about again 🤣
I guess we'll found out in any future DLC... maybe?
👻
Very good point, Ghost. There’s for sure a lot of room for exploration in the sequel! Oh gosh I would love to get another expansion before then too lol. I heard them say they were done with DLC but I hope they change their mind ahhh. Thank you so much for watching and for your comment!
You know, for all the "deep dive" content that is available about Cyberpunk 2077, yours is particularly compelling! That's what makes this damn universe so awesome. People that you spend just a few gigs with have entire lore implications with the universe at large, should you choose to investigate. I understand cut-content isn't considered canon by a lot of people but it does give a load of insight into, maybe, what was maybe but removed because of development timelines or continuity issues or whatever.
Man, I got HOURS of content to consume! Long form content exploring side characters and the Edgerunner crew?? Excel spreadsheets at work are about to be a little more bearable. Dammit, I need to crack the RED book open and get back into the Tabletop...
CDPR need to hire you, a reveal of T-Bug having been a VBD plant from the beginning would've been such an amazing reveal during their questline
ah thanks for this, always felt it was odd the way her character was set up and then abruptly cut down
Very interesting video
Thank you!
I love how there's so much to almost every character introduced in the Cyberpunk world. Great video!
we hear tbug scream in pain, before disconnecting. this doesn't mean death.
we are told she was found dead in her apartment. this doesn't mean dead.
arasaka scooped Jackie's body real quick, why wouldn't they scoop tbug? weird her. body would be found at all.
being fried is an easy handwave cover-up.
we see goro found dex with ease.
only 3 other people knew his plan. his hustle, tbug, & phone contact for booking the flight.
it seems weird to get some kind of closure for dex, evelyn, and Jackie, but absolutely nothing but a rumour for tbug.
I wonder if we would have seen her again in the moon dlc, or at least got more info about her in a cancelled dlc patch.
It seems Soulkiller only does its best work when the victim is still alive. We can see what it creates post-mortem, the engrame is just a broken recording of memories, vs a construct able to self-motivate, lie and learn like Johnny.
There is actually a mention of T-bug later in the game. It's an optional one you can completely miss tho. If you go to a netrunner's shop, the one you met during the heist setup, you can ask what happened to T-bug and she'll say she was found dead and had her entire nervous system fried
I hate when CDPR does these late cuts and rewrites. they did the same thing with The Witcher 3
I honestly think this was just a result of there being an intention to have more than one way for the Konpeki heist to go down depending on your actions before and during, but it was just taking too long to implement. Thus, it went to the cutting room floor and we got the fully linear mission we see in the final game.
It would have been cool for them to retcon her death and have her be a Netrunner you could team up with in Phantom Liberty, or give us a side plot of learning her history and dealing with our fallout of what happens with the VBD, learning how they figured out about the Relic and Alt. The game had so much going on and there was always room for more, hopefully we get to see a bigger story emerge as the years go on.
T-Bug does get mentioned another time briefly in an archived shard. I remember during a gig(I think) after killing a named enemy he notes down about some sort of technical issues and ends the note with “should bring up with T-Bug”
Her being an ex voodoo boy would make sense to her trying to get out of night city keeping everyone at arms length and overestimating her own skills-
I really thought she wasn't dead or was going to come back like alt.
Now i want a Spiderman 2077 game... it just looks so fun to swing around night city, AND do the same things we could as V, drive and, stuff, beat people up But not kill them cuz most spider-men arent like that.
Its funnyhow Spider-Man even without the ehancements is still outclassing everyone in Cyberpunk (Not in durability, but speed, agility, strenght and just how versatile those webs are.)
Fantastic video! Seen plenty of videos about her, but never heard any of the stuff about the 2019 trailer or her early design, great work!
T-Bug was set up to be a significant if not major character, I felt - at least as much as fixers like Wakako, but her sudden death that we’re only told about after the fact felt like an early warning that anyone can die. Possibly even as a setup for Evelyn’s death under somewhat parallel circumstances.
I really wish T-Bug did have a bigger story. She was the character I was most looking forward to learning more about. She could have have some amazing interactions with Songbird and the VDBs in Phantom Liberty, too.
Thanks for the community post, I love your videos.
I think T-Bug would've had a redemption arc. V couldn't see straight, so maybe they missed anything critical. We meet back up with T-bug and she tries to show that she is sorry. An up and down side quest kinda thing.
This was really interesting, well made, easy to follow, and nicely presented. Perfect video, really stands out in the cyberpunk space. Nicely done
Awww thank you!
Even though you touched on the point, I think you missed it - the genius of the tutorial/ intro. It's not just to familiarize you, the player, with the controls, but also to the Night City. Death, and abrupt endings to one's pursuit of their dreams are the soul of Night City, and it's inevitable for everyone. No matter how safe you play it, like in T-Bug's case, Night City will claim you. Night City will kill your soul.
I thought the same about Ev. like how shes a knowledgable corpo and knows what its like to be overshadowed by her family like Yorinobu.
Oh she’s gotta have some cut content for sure! Her story feels like it’s missing something, hmmmm….
Idk if the point abt the VDB's changing means they were more important. The Valentinos in 2077 are nothing like the ones from Cyberpunk Red but as far as I know they really aren't a really big part of the plot though. Good video though! This kind of speculation is always really fun :)
man there's so much missed potential with T-Bug's character, her and Jackie being two sides of the how people survive in Night City spectrum, her being extremely reclusive and him being integral to his community. There's something there with them both ending up with the same fate despite this and then the following Acts having V struggle with navigating that same spectrum. I feel like they could've still majorly expanded on her character in a limited way, maybe one mission in the prologue where it's just you and her over comms. I always imagined a side quest in the same vein as Jackie's where you go to her apartment after Konpeki and can find out a lot more about her and her story, where you finally find some memorabilia she had packed for Greece to remember you and Jackie with. I just think there was the potential for an extremely nuanced character there and it's one of the few gaps this game still has for me after it's comeback.
when i first played i didn't even realise she was anything more than a random npc. there was like 4 holocalls, 1 meet in person and the VR training i think. i didn't even notice or realise she died until i think in the elevator down to the car park when V brings it up to jackie, and then immediately forgot about her anyway.
This is so good. I feel like T-Bug's story didn't get fleshed out in the game and she is such an interesting character. I always assumed that she was fried in a similar fashion to that unfortunate no-name choom kidnapped by the same thugs that took evelyn, but now I'm curious about what actually happened.
I think that very early on in development, there were multiple ways the player could solve Konpeki Plaza, each having different outcomes for Jackie, Bug, and Dex. Remember, Cyberpunk was developed with the supervision of the grandaddy himself Mike Pondsmith. I think what Pondsmith wanted to happen was complete freedom of choice on the side of the player on how Konpeki goes down, but ultimately due to limitations in development, the story got shoehorned down a specific path at that point.
I like to think the reason T-Bug is so loyal to Dexter Deshawn is because the two are actually siblings. We never find out her real name so it could be something like Theresa Deshawn or something like that. The only time their connection is truly pointed out, Jackie says "You and Dex... Alwayd Philosophizing..." Could be a hint that they grew up together and got that nature from whoever raised them whether it be mother or father.