I think this is a fact many people glaze over, but Johnny’s Flashbacks of how events played out are *Not* how they played out in Canon.
Cyberpunk Red (The Tabletop Game released shortly before 2077) details how the Bombing went, and how different Johnny “remembers” then going down vs how they did in reality
This can be seen in Gameplay too, with the best example being the performance of Johnny’s Gun in the Flashback vs in V’s Hands.
I think this an interesting and seen a few people not realize this is the case
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Just the initial memory sequence demonstrates how unreliable he is, since the tower didn’t occur the way the memories show. Yeah, he died in the Garden, he did get SK’d in the Garden but by Murphy as he was dying. And it was Blackhand who was on the roof fighting Smasher. Lots of memory issues since it’s a fragmented engram done while he was dying.
Some folks treat the story in the RPG books as an unreliable Narrative.
He’s an unreliable narrator a fragmented and damaged engram but his advices are usually sound.
Media literacy and capital G Gamers go together like oil and water.
“But the Malorian is supposed to one shot everything CD Projekt Red ruined it!”
>This can be seen in Gameplay too, with the best example being the performance of Johnny’s Gun in the Flashback vs in V’s Hands.
So long as you don’t speedrun the main questline (or alternatively, keep it fully upgraded), Johnny’s gun is just as powerful as his flashbacks say it is.
People have been talking about this since the game released. Secondly, CDProjekt had to make the scene different than the TTRPG, because Pondsmith didn’t want Morgan Blackhand in 2077.
I have two points I like to bring up in these conversations.
1) What if Arasaka edited Johnnys memories? It seems to me this happened and it could be used as a test for the one >!Saburo!< planned to use in a certain situation, as this is the “prototype”? It does seem to hint that this happened, and it seems like something they’d do. Johnny says lines along the lines of “changing a person” or “altering their identity”. Sure, he is an unreliable narrator, but who’s to say it’s all 100% his fault and not Arasaka editing him, fragmentation due to his injuries, partially his ego, or a combination thereof?
2) About the gun. The flashbacks are in 2013 and 2023. People had far less advanced cybernetics back then, and were less likely to have subdermal armor. Johnny wanted what would pierce the armor of the day in a hand cannon form if memory serves. Now, your average gonk has vastly superior chrome and is likely walking around with various multiple forms of armor. This probably wasn’t the case 50-60+ years back, and maybe the gun worked in its time better than it would today. I see no reason that this couldn’t apply as well.
About the fragmentation point, we also see this with >!Jackie if he goes to Mikoshi!<. His memories are messed up too, and he wasn’t known to be a liar.
I still really enjoy Johnny as a character and imagine if we thought things were bad ass or whatever but were brought forward 54 years into the future. Likely there would be huge changes. Johnny+V is who V becomes and Johnny improved V in some ways while benefiting from V in many more.
You know I find it funny how this line is always glossed over, I’m glad you pulled receipts 😂
Pay attention in the cutscene after bombing the tower. Johnnys arm is blasted off by smasher in his memory.
When being interrogated by Arasaka in the literal next scene, his arm is reattached and perfectly fine. Not sure if that was a game design oversight, or them trying to show his engram was modified or his memory not complete.
I feel like these debates ignore a pretty obvious possibility:
2077 may just straight up have a different version of the events than the TTRPG.
Like, yes, this line exists, and no doubt Johnny’s memories are probably not 100% how it went down, but changes in media adaptation happen all the time. It’s entirely possible that the events we see in-game are pretty close to what actually happened, including Blackhand’s absence, IN THE CANON OF THE VIDEO GAME, with the sourcebook’s version of events being canon to the TTRPG.
V: Silverhand sends his regards
Smasher:
Yeah I am not too deep in Morgan Blackhand lore but at the end of it all, Johnny did become a “night city legend”. A drink named after him, and people put responsibility on him for the bombing.
So what exactly was altered by Johnny is my question? Is it just minor details?
Lore newbie here: I read that Spider Murphy liked to cite philosophers (like TBug), but in Silverhand memories she just tell weird rhymes, almost childlike. Is that a clue about Johnnys memories being unreliable?