1. Netwatch wasn't behind the heist. Evelyn was. She was just going to sell it to them after she got it.
2. Well she's not perfect.
2. Well she's not perfect.
Lots of interesting theories in here. I guess in my first playthrough I sent Jackie to Vik, Silverhand being an engram followed the same logic - if you're a powerful company that was just dealt a devastating blow to it's power, wouldn't you want to pick the brain of any captured enemies to see how they managed to breach your defenses?
Didn't NetWatch fund the heist, since Evelyn didn't have the money, I thought someone mentioned that in this forum? The Voodoo boys just wanted her to get information about the chip, but she took it way further than what they wanted to use her for. Still doesn't explain why Johnny's engram is on the chip. Hellman doesn't seemed shocked that Silverhand is on the chip either. He is only shocked that the chip is working and V is alive with Silverhand sharing a body. So it is hard to say. Why they don't give V the option to ask why the hell Silverhand is on the chip to begin with drives me crazy. It is a question everyone would ask and they just ignore it.
Post automatically merged:
By why put his engram on a super experimental Biochip to make the rich and powerful immortal? Especially if he is an enemy of Arasaka? Why not just keep him locked up in Mikoshi? Makes no sense and they offer zero explanation as to why or even allow the player to ask why or guess. No character in the story even questions why Johnny is on the chip and it just baffles me.
If you're going to do horrifying human experimentation that's presumably painful and horrible then why not use an enemy?
Because an enemy can potentially strike back at you. An enemy that already nuked your company's central tower. Again, the fact that V cannot ask this question is bad story telling in my opinion. It seems to me they really wanted Johnny Silverhand to guide new players into the world of Cyberpunk and then forgot a reason as to why he would be on the chip.
I also don't like the fact that they don't say what was done to Johnny's engram over the 50 years at Mikoshi. Was he tortured, interrogated, or even altered? There is a scene where Johnny is talking about how the corpos want control and to change people and an engram allows them that power like never before. But we as V never get to ask "How do we know they haven't altered who you are Johnny?"
If he somehow escapes then Arasaka has bigger problems. Like, I dunno, somehow the 2nd in command of the company turning against it.
Saburo wanted to torture Johnny for decades and he did.
They digitized Johnny's mind to interrogate him, as for why he's on the Chip and not a different engram... Yorinobu stole the chip, he probably decided what engram to store on it when he did and we know he saw Silverhand as something of a kindred spirit, maybe even admired him a little.
We also know he was negotiating with Netwatch, and Netwatch definitely wants Johnny's engram because it could potentially be the exactly the bait they need to draw out and entrap ALT, who they've been after for years.
We also know he was negotiating with Netwatch, and Netwatch definitely wants Johnny's engram because it could potentially be the exactly the bait they need to draw out and entrap ALT, who they've been after for years.
Fair point, do we know if he was always on the chip or if Yorinobu pulled him from Mikoshi and carried him out on the relic?
In mail conversation of Yorinobu with NetWatch agent, during Heist mission there was mentioned that it has to be Johnny Silverhand and it is part of the deal. There is small bug in translation somewhere but in eng. version it is Yorinobu that insist on who is on the chip. (in my language ver. (PL) it was requirement from NetWatch). Anyway in both cases that implies that Relic was "empty"
If you got the body of the man who nuked your building. Wouldn't you want to torture him? Make him suffer. Different people stole things from him. That guy took his car and gun. Johnny's body was burried in an abandoned oil field. Naked on top of that. Since we find his clothes. Than they used his mind as the guinea pig to test the system. For all as we know. Johnny has multiple copies in Mikoshi. We know it has the ability to copy or full dump your mind. He was probably physically mutilated. Than engram mutilated. It fits Arasaka's MO.
If his engram is in Mikoshi, then he can be interrogated at tortured forever without fear of reprisal. If your sole goal is to put his engram in another human body to torture, then that is just idiotic. Why give your enemy the opportunity? Other people seem to refer to V's suffering because of the relic as something that Saburo wanted to happen to Johnny. I see two flaws in this. First, the bodies used would have been brain dead(mentioned by Hellman) and not feel pain from being overwritten while still conscious. Second, the whole time throughout V's suffering, Johnny never suffered any ill effects.
It makes the most sense that Yorinobu stole the relic and purposely placed Johnny's engram on it. The game just never explains this well, and never lets players or other characters elaborate on it. And it is a very big question to elaborate on in my opinion.
>Why exactly did Arasaka create an engram with Silverhand's character in it?
They used Soulkiller on Johnny in 2023. Keeping him on their servers locked up was the fate worse than death I guess.
The Relic was created to allow for a copy of a person to be created to be interacted with. An improved prototype was then created that not merely had a copy that could be interacted with but could upload a persons conscious onto and then download them into a new body. Granting a defacto immortality.
The question then becomes:
1) Why was Johnny Silverhand put on it? It was a prototype and maybe wanting to test it with an engram they already had on hand floating around in the archives they used him, kinda thin explanation. However in the conversation in the Sunset Motel its creator Helman didn't seem to know that Silverhand was on it.
2) Why did Yorinobu Arasaka steal it? Evelyn claimed he wanted to sell it to NetWatch and organized the theft to do it herself but who knows. NetWatch didn't seem to know about V having the chip and his condition when he met the agent. As Helman didn't seem to know that Silverhand was on it did Yorinobu put him on it and if so why?
3) How did the Voodoo Boys find out about it?
They used Soulkiller on Johnny in 2023. Keeping him on their servers locked up was the fate worse than death I guess.
The Relic was created to allow for a copy of a person to be created to be interacted with. An improved prototype was then created that not merely had a copy that could be interacted with but could upload a persons conscious onto and then download them into a new body. Granting a defacto immortality.
The question then becomes:
1) Why was Johnny Silverhand put on it? It was a prototype and maybe wanting to test it with an engram they already had on hand floating around in the archives they used him, kinda thin explanation. However in the conversation in the Sunset Motel its creator Helman didn't seem to know that Silverhand was on it.
2) Why did Yorinobu Arasaka steal it? Evelyn claimed he wanted to sell it to NetWatch and organized the theft to do it herself but who knows. NetWatch didn't seem to know about V having the chip and his condition when he met the agent. As Helman didn't seem to know that Silverhand was on it did Yorinobu put him on it and if so why?
3) How did the Voodoo Boys find out about it?
All questions that could have been answered in the game. If the relic was a prototype, I don't see Arasaka putting someone as dangerous as Johnny Silverhand on it just to test it. That would seem like a poor decision.
Maybe I'll see this addressed as I read deeper into the thread, but this point here, someone had to.
Johnny was zapped with the Soulkiller by Saburo 50+ years before the time the game starts. I'm assuming Hellman's age here from how he looks in game, but he wasn't even born then. Hellman's creation, the biochip, is new experimental tech. Which means Johnny's engram was stored elsewhere and someone had to intentionally download him onto the chip.
Johnny was placed on the chip by one of two people. Hellman or Yorinobu. So there are two questions. Who had Johnny placed on the chip and why Johnny.
For Hellman the best evidence is when he didn't act surprised that Johnny was the engram. Maybe he didn't care or he know. If he knew the the best explanation was twofold. The first is if the chip failed to work no real loss. So why not use enemies for experimentation. Those that claim Johnny could escape is silly at best. The second is if the chip did work they can continue the torture by using soul killer on him again. Remember soul killer is extremely painful. A sort of win-win or no loss scenario.
For Yorinobu the best evidence is his deal with Netwatch and the Voodoo Boys. Remember the Voodoo Boys knew who was on the chip. They hack Netwatch so they would have gotten that information from there. And Netwatch could have easily asked that Johnnie's engram be placed on the chip. They would want to get to Alt just like the Voodoo Boys and Johnny is the same bait.
While it isn't explained who or why there is strong circumstantial evidence that Johnny wasn't a random selection and there was a logical reason for selecting Johnny.
Personally, I think the Yorinobu plot is strong with Netwatch specifically requesting Johnny's engram.
For Hellman the best evidence is when he didn't act surprised that Johnny was the engram. Maybe he didn't care or he know. If he knew the the best explanation was twofold. The first is if the chip failed to work no real loss. So why not use enemies for experimentation. Those that claim Johnny could escape is silly at best. The second is if the chip did work they can continue the torture by using soul killer on him again. Remember soul killer is extremely painful. A sort of win-win or no loss scenario.
For Yorinobu the best evidence is his deal with Netwatch and the Voodoo Boys. Remember the Voodoo Boys knew who was on the chip. They hack Netwatch so they would have gotten that information from there. And Netwatch could have easily asked that Johnnie's engram be placed on the chip. They would want to get to Alt just like the Voodoo Boys and Johnny is the same bait.
While it isn't explained who or why there is strong circumstantial evidence that Johnny wasn't a random selection and there was a logical reason for selecting Johnny.
Personally, I think the Yorinobu plot is strong with Netwatch specifically requesting Johnny's engram.
I thought it was established that the chip itself was being made for Saburo who was attempting to become immortal. Which is also why the chip has regenerative properties and V survives multiple shocks to the brain (the Voodoo Boy virus for example).
Yorinobu then had Johnny put on the chip behind Saburo's back. It is established that Yorinobu intends to destroy Saburo's empire.
It's also established that Arasaka uses Soulkiller to extract information, which they do to Jackie if you try to send his body to Vic. Arasaka also still has a lot of interest in Alt, and so still has motivation to retain Johnny's engram in Mikoshi.
It's been a while since I've read the mail messages between Yorinobu and NetWatch though.
Yorinobu then had Johnny put on the chip behind Saburo's back. It is established that Yorinobu intends to destroy Saburo's empire.
It's also established that Arasaka uses Soulkiller to extract information, which they do to Jackie if you try to send his body to Vic. Arasaka also still has a lot of interest in Alt, and so still has motivation to retain Johnny's engram in Mikoshi.
It's been a while since I've read the mail messages between Yorinobu and NetWatch though.
