Ha nice nugget: I just realised that one of the bands in the game is called the Cartesian Duelists, a play on Cartesian (Descartes) Dualism, the idea that consciousness and the physical body are fundamentally separate such that consciousness can exist outside the body and the body can never think.
I think it's kind of funny that the game goes out of its way to make huge numbers of Tarot allusions and the meaning of the cards but almost everyone who does read deeper themes in the game ignores those and focuses instead on their own prevailing religious or transhumanist construct.
I just find it funny.
I just find it funny.
I saw the tarot cards as one of a whole host of different spiritual strands that people look to for guidance. So you go from views where free will and the freedom to determine one's own path are the essence of humanity to concepts like tarot in which your fate is predetermined and not susceptible to influence. Different characters in the game have different takes on it. Misty looks to the cards, Takemura looks to devil cats, what the player looks to is the player's choice.
I admit, I was kind of hoping we'd find out the Tarot cards were more than flavor. Like discovering they'd been left there by Alt Cunningham or via augmented reality.
Cyberpunk is full of people using religion to analyze the Net and transhumanism. I thought the Voodoo Boys would be the same but they basically said, "Yeah, voodoo is a croc. We're just playing to racial stereotypes because Night City is full of idiots."
I actually rather liked that the tarot was left open. Like the meditation, it's a sort of "what? " moment in the game that you just grow to accept and that makes you look at things from a different angle. Same with the cats. It's the suggestion that questions of existence invite you into territory that is at one step removed from the temporal world and at one step removed from explanation.
The Voodoo Boys felt rushed to the extent it was a little odd. They ended up feeling rather insignificant in their ambitions, the build-up and its potential squandered. As you say, the more philosophical side of them doesn't really pay off beyond the unfortunate chicken.
To be fair, the Voodoo Boys are one of the better developed concepts there as they are characterized well and deeply. They really are a bunch of unrepentent assholes, though, that consider you less than dirt.
Wiping them out is something I don't regret.
I do, however, wish we'd gotten a reaction from the people of Pacifica if we had. Like the Ripper Doc won't work on you anymore and the people say nasty things at you.
I thought Mama Brigitte was one of the most terrifying characters in the game and, as is always the case, the more the villain is laid bare before you, the less interesting the villain becomes. I wish she had not been killable. I wish she had not given a "here are our goals and, sister, they are basic" speech. She could have remained an almost supernatural presence.
I dunno, I actually appreciated the look behind the curtain that the Voodoo Boys aren't mysterious or supernatural. It was a nice twist to find out they weren't religious but just a very elite group of hackers and mercs.
Played with expectations.
But it did seem a shame to wipe them out or leave them behind so early. A lot of missed opportunities in this game.
Same for me, after Alt obviously
I actually am one of the people that think Alt is not terrifying at all but is pretending to be a inhuman AI. A lot of her decisions turn out to be motivated by being pissed at her boyfriend versus the Borg Queen.
Not for me !
It's absolutely evident in the Sun ending when it's Johnny who come to meet Alt in the cyberspace. She totally don't care about Johnny (or anyone in fact).
Like : No need to speak, I read in you, johnny... it's ok for the plan, bye !
Johnny could flatline in a gutter that it wouldn't make her hot or cold... so V or whoever else...
And like She/It said, it/she's lo longer Alt... Alt is dead in the Arasaka tower...
Last edited:
Altered Carbon Season 1 is the best, the tortured inner monologue of the protagonist was done very well. I hope Crystal Palace will feel like altered carbon in the future DLC.I'm just going to watch the Altered Carbon series, it looks like the subject can be interesting
Transferring human consciousness into a new body, "alive" for eternity...
