SPOILERS AHEAD!
Hello all, I'd like to add some of my input on the Mr. Blue Eyes/Night Corp theory.
During the Dream On quest, before confronting Peralez, V gets an ominous holo-call. His vision goes black and he is warned to not step out of line. The "Unknown Caller" knows of V, Johnny, and what their goals are.
But we never find out how they know so much about V when he's kept it mostly a secret.
Enter Sandra Dorsett, the woman you save from the ice bath in the introduction mission. She works for
Night Corp. She's also a netrunner who stole
information about Nightcorp's tests with AI on the general public and possibly creating Cyberpsychosis.
During your rescue of Nightcorp's little turncoat, you jack into her neuroport and contract a virus. And it's right here, ladies and gentlemen, when "
Nightcorp" officially owns you.
(Nightcorp's in quotes for a reason. Read on.)
See, I don't think Sandra was "
snatched off the streets" as T-Bug suggests. I think she was retired by Nightcorp after stealing the data from them. She was left for dead and injected with a tracking virus in hopes that her secret allies would come to pick her up (Wakako maybe?) and expose themselves to the virus. It wasn't meant for you, but they struck gold when V was the one that got infected. Sandra also cannot confirm how she ended up this way because, according to T-Bug,
"She won't remember any of this...just a small scar on the subconscious."
Vik removed the virus later, (or did he?) but by then it was too late. Your ID was known, and after that, Nightcorp would know each and every time you jack into a terminal. All of those terminals are owned and managed by
Ziggurat which basically owes its entire business to Night Corp.
I've heard several theories about Mr. Blue Eyes being anything from Mr. Night, a rogue A.I. or even Morgan Blackhand, but I don't think that question is important.
It's clear that the man is only a proxy; completely expendable. We do not know who is connected to him and talking through him.
It wouldn't surprise me if he ends up dead in future DLC to prove it.
What I believe
is important is his affiliation: Ziggurat.
Ziggurat came into the public eye in 2030, (7 years after Morgan Blackhand vanished) when it received a grant from Night Corp. to rebuild the city's (and eventually the world's) networks. Ziggurat is important here because rebuilding the world's network allows the A.I. to influence every major corporation across the globe, acting as a real-world extension of the A.I. beyond Blackwall.
I've not completed the game yet. (260 hours in and still exploring.
) But I've had enough spoilers to know that we may end up in space. The venture is funded by Mr. Blue Eyes. Assuming I am right about Ziggurat, it's very possible that this is how they plan to infect previously inaccessible servers for the benefit of the A.I.
V, "
The Fool", is just playing his part in the hand he's dealt and unwittingly helping the A.I.
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Fun side note:
When we find Sandra Dorsett again after her recovery, she's absolutely paranoid about Nightcorp finding her. She's got turrets protecting her, and doesn't like using the front door. None of that paranoia will help her though. She's going to get flatlined. (Assuming you didn't do it already.) If the Unknown Caller was right, and they know all about V and Johnny, then they also know about Sandra. And you led them right to her.
Appealing, but improbable, imho. Here's why.
Cyberpsychosis: it's not created, in its entirety as a phenomenon, by any entity. We have over a dozen examples indicating that cyberpsychosis can (and does) occur in characters by all signs insignificant to powers that be, and as a result of circumstances which would likely trigger "just normal psychosis" - no matter how much cyberware would be involved. Means, even if no corp would ever do a thing to "create" it - it'd still be a thing. Possibly not as widespread, but it'd still exist. And the game specifically mentions how faulty and/or disabled implants drive some of cyberpsychoes mad, too. It ain't hard to agree one would be extremely stressed to say the least if some crucial parts of their being go glitchy or simply stop to function.
Next, there is one strong counter-argument against the idea that malware V is infected from 1st contact with Sandra - is any "big league" software: "whole bunch and kaboodles". V describes the effects of it in this kind of way to Viktor when he asks about it. Now, compare this to say Vodoo Boys malware which can be detected only with the advice of NetWatch agent during that mainjob in Pacifica: sympthoms? None. Same with NetWatch malware if V gets it by agreeing to the agent's deal there: sympthoms? None. And it indeed makes no sense for any efficient spyware / "tracking virus" to reveal itself by all the effects Viktor describes to V. If it's Ziggurat spyware, then why it functions like some street-written buggy bunch of backdoors and hacks? Makes no sense, to me.
Then, it makes no sense for Ziggurat to use a tracking virus but dump Sandra into hands of (clearly uninvolved, based on what we see and hear) bunch of scavs. If he goal is to figure out her peers, then can't drop her to scavs as they may simply pick the gal apart very soon, with her brain and central nervous system permanently dead, nobody would jack into her (what for?). I mean, if they cared enough to inject her with some spyware, then wouldn't they want to keep her alive sufficiently long for her peers to show up? For Ziggurat scale, they clearly could just trap her in the net while keeping her body alive - we have examples in the game of exactly this sort, both main and side jobs.
Last but not least, there is much simpler explanation how "they" learn about Johnny / V: namely, during Dream On, V jacks in into SSI van, and while V is jacked in, we know some "they" do things to the van: namely, promptly erase sensitive data from it. My theory is that it is then V / Johnny gets injected and/or scanned for what their current situation is.
Now, about "who" are "they". On one hand, they have the power to blackout V's vision and force to drop him/her on all fours remotely. This is at least crippling power, or perhaps even direct remote control, over V's cyberware (eyes) and motor functions. Much like "reboot optics" and "cripple movement" quickhacks, right? On the other hand, they don't terminate V; instead, they bother to tell V this threat / warning. What this tells us?
IMO, it tells us that "they" see V as both a threat and as an asset, just in different affairs. Threat perhaps as in "V can ruin Peralez project", and asset perhaps in "getting Alt under control project", and/or in "taking out Mikoshi".
Which entity, then, would be wishing to keep Peralezes blissfully unaware about being, let's say, "guided", - but in the same time wish to keep V going about the plan to take out Mikoshi? Ziggurat? I doubt, those folks will do fine no matter who's the mayor and no matter if Mikoshi stands or not. Ziggurat is a megacorp and their goals are simple: profit. Eddies. Their networks span continents by 2077. What do they care who's the mayor of Night City is, and how just / fair he happen to be? As if it'd any much change the advertisement markets or say amount of network infrastructure the city needs? No motive.
NightCorp? "Warmer", those fellas, i think, could have some specific ends to be achieved by "puppet Night City mayor". But Alt / Mikoshi? Can't see NightCorp willing to step on Arasaka's toes big time, nor can't see them willing to try and meddle with Alt, too - seeing Alt managed to break from Arasaka and then operate under NetWatch nose for presumably decades (building Ghost City for Kang Tao, doing things in orbit, controlling within-the-Black-Wall BBSes, etc). Too big a fish for NightCorp, i think.
An A.I. or A.I. collective? More like it. Perhaps even Alt itself? At least, she _does_ want Mikoshi gone, and we know why. So i wouldn't be surprised at all if it's Alt itself who calls V, and who "speaks" through Blue Eyed Man. Could well be Alt's proxy. And naturally, it'd also explain how "they" - Alt - know about V / Johnny situation without the need to assume V gets hacked through SSI van.
But then, there is also another suspect: Militech. We know Militech wants to hurt Arasaka, big-time. Wiping out Mikoshi would be a serious blow. Plus, per wiki, "Peralez was embraced by the city's worker unions, some of which had close associations with the
6th Street gang, and there were cases of 6th Street using bribes and intimidation tactics to force citizens to vote for him", and then "By
2077,
6th Street was supplied by
Militech and Kendachi".
Thus, to me, it's something like this, in order from most probable "they" to least probable:
- an A.I. (possibly, even Alt itself) or A.I. collective, especially seeing Johnny observes corresponding quirks in it all;
- Militech;
- NightCorp;
- Ziggurat.
If there is anything to rule out any of the above with any semblance of reasonable argument - then please explain how and why. Most curious.