After seeing the in-game ad for edgerunners hamfistedly shoved in I finally just decided to watch it. Overall I was really disappointed come the end. I was hoping that there would be that Trigger magic that would take the mostly emaciated punk of Cyberpunk 2077 and make something more out of it, but while the first few episodes were fine, it ended up feeling like there was nothing there. Honestly it feels like Darling in the Franxx where Trigger was just there to animate someone's story with close to no creative freedom over where the plot goes
The anti-capitalist, anti-establishment nature of the punk in Edgerunners doesn't go any deeper than as set dressing that creates the motivations for the characters but is then left behind. David is deeply wronged by the system that exists in Night City, but nothing is really done with it other than setting him further down the plot.
The story feels like it's just retreading what the game already did. It's just a retelling of V's story but without the Relic and instead an even less nuanced look at cyberpsychosis. David tries to better his lot, like V, after living in the absolutely bleak Night City and the city ruins everyone for even trying. Jackie dies in the heist, Evelyn's fate is worse than death, Dex is unceremoniously executed in a dump, V is left with a Relic that's killing her and rewriting her personality. David similarly tries and ends up watching his adoptive family shatter multiple times with sad pitiful ends.
I get that it's just basically the personal story of David and the people he meets and David is one flawed motherfucker that only wants to see other's dreams through because he's left traumatized after his mother died, but there wasn't even a sad washed up rocker even talking about how the system itself is what fucked David.
It felt no different than those anime movies made for Dead Space years ago. Just a tie-in product.
TL;DR I was hoping for a proper Trigger show and I just got more of what the game already did.
Yes, exactly! A lot of people think that complete hopelessness is an integral part of the cyberpunk genre, and I don't think that could be further from the truth. Cyberpunk is, as you say, ultimately about life under capitalism. To write a cyberpunk story in which the capitalist dystopia is nigh-omnipotent and to fight it is to commit a very roundabout suicide is to suggest that there is no point fighting capitalism at all. Which sucks. That message sucks and I reject it completely.
This is really funny to me because cyberpunk "tech" is all very unrealistic and basically scifi magic, but it has a veneer of technology so of course people think it's better than fantasy magic. ๐
And the magic is cyberpunk af! Making pacts and alliances with spirits to fight back against corporate greed! There are spirits of manifest pollution and corruption! There's sufficiently analyzed magic and magitek, it's all integrated in to the cyberpunk world. It's not what people usually think of as cyberpunk, it takes that basis and expands it in new and interesting ways that open up new avenues to explore cyberpunk questions.
God, it's so gross. Several times I forgot about the cops thing and my friends mentioned they were doing some cop related thing and i was like "Oh how hard are the cops to kill?" and they were like "I'm working for the cops" and that pretty much sums up why I'm not interested in the game.
I can appreciate a tragedy, where our hero and their company commits themselves to an ideal and gets burned for it but in the process makes a significant mark that leaves hope for the future, but no matter what anybody does in this city, Arasaka is immune to actual consequence and the only things that shake up the company are when the corpo royalty make power plays against their parents. Which in the end further solidifies that there is no hope under the current system and the only people that can do things are the wealthy.
There are a bunch of cyberpunk stories that are like "I've done bad things I regret my whole life, but here's a chance to sacrifice my life so this one person can have a chance at a better life, and I'm going to take this shot at redemption". Like that can be enough. "I can save this one", "Cast a torch in to the future", "Live to fight another day". They don't have to tear down the whole system, but I hate the bleak "Lol you thought their was hope? Fuck you" stuff.
Like I am honestly somewhat disgusted at how popular squid game was. I don't know why anyone would want to watch something that unremittingly horrible. Especially who watched it. A lot of people gushing about it have enthusiastically voted for politicians who created the dire circumstances the show is inspired by. : (
Hard agree. it's such a deliberately and relentlessly mean story. Martin claims realism and then uses it to create a thoroughly unrealistic world.
I'm still peeved that there's never been any explanation or resolution to the winter storyline. I've wanted to know what the hell is up with the cycle of winter and summer on that world for over a decade and all the official products have just shrugged and said who cares nerd? Is it some weird planetary mechanics thing? is it magic supernatural stuff? Who knows, Martin doesn't seem to give a shit about telling us.
Oh that's an interesting point on hopelessness. I've been thinking about this, and specifically in the context of the new cyberpunk expansion.
The thing i'm realizing is, cyberpunk 2077 is much more a noir story than anything else. The way they put so much narrative and emotional effort into night city itself as a living thing, the "try to do good but something always gets fucked", every powerful group is untrustworthy and working with them risks losing who you are, the consistent attempt to find glimmers of joy and genuine humanity in a fundamentally hopeless place. All of these ideas are very core elements of noir fiction and cyberpunk as a genre pulls from it quite often. Hell the most common mainstream "cyberpunk" thing, bladerunner, is a noir film and has a very nihilistic ending when it comes to fighting the capitalist structures at the core of it's world.
Basically, hopelessness isn't an integral part of cyberpunk, but noir definitely is a very common part of the genre which is why we get lots of stories where the goodest ending we can hope for is maybe protecting those you care about and getting out of the situation, not solving it.
In cyberpunk 2077 at the very least it's anti capitalist message is consistently shown. But like a lot of artistic works anti-capitalist doesn't mean shit about pro-communist and i would say it's definitely not pro-communist. Maybe pro anarchist with the nomads but even that's stretching quite a bit. I don't hate it for sure i think it does some very very interesting stuff artistically, specifically the work they put into making Night City feel like a place in it's design and writing really works, architecturally it has sprawl and density represented in such a way you feel like you're in an actual city not just a big carboard box like with most open world shit.