This video was sponsored by Dislyte. Night City, City of Dreams. But under the surface, it's a nightmare. Past the Mega Corps, the
gangs, the crime there is a conspiracy built to drive you insane. One word of warning
friends, don't trust everything you see. Hello Internet! Welcome to Film Theory,
the show that really wants to stay at your house. Today we're talking about an urban
cityscape coated in neon and sprinkled with characters oozing so much swag that I
know they're too cool to hang out with me. Cyberpunk 2077. Ah, scratch that. Today we're
actually talking about two of these worlds because our sponsor for today's video is Dislyte,
the free turn based Gacha RPG for iOS and Android all about people awakening divine powers in a
super stylish sci-fi setting. Wait a minute. Dislyte is set in 2027? they're just four years
away. Society had better start installing neon lights in a hurry. And it beat cyberpunk
2077 to this aesthetic by 50 whole years. But it's not just the cool rave aesthetic that
connects these worlds. Just like Cyberpunk is all about awakening your powers using augmentation,
in Dislyte each of these characters, the Espers, have been able to awaken the dormant powers of
mythological figures hidden inside of them to help fight the monsters that are invading Earth.
We're talking Thor to Medusa, to Odin and Anubis. And you ain't never seen Odin like this, wearing
leather riding on a motorcycle. Where was this in the MCU? The latest additions to the roster
are the sisters Athena and Nyx, who are not only adding their sharp sense of fashion to the
game. Seriously, does everyone in this game have themselves a cool jacket? But are also bringing
their own story of rebellion into this world. Across the game's newest chapter, you'll
discover this pair's tragic backstory: how Athena gained Esper powers and
basically abandoned Nyx to go be a hero. That then left Nyx to be captured and forced to
become one of the world's first artificial Espers, which is kind of an issue when you consider
that artificial Espers don't have complete control of themselves, kind of like
the cyberpsychos that we're going to be meeting today in the world of Cyberpunk.
Maybe these two worlds are more connected than I thought. Connected universe theory perhaps?
Neon lights, godlike powers, pumping music, rebelling against corrupted systems and shadowy
organizations: Check, check, check and check. Episode for another day perhaps. TL;DR If you like
Cyberpunk, Dislyte is going to be your jam. And bonus, in the world to Dislyte the powers that
be aren't trying to turn you into a crazy mind controlled pawn for the government which segways
nicely into Cyberpunk and our theory for today. In case you somehow missed the
Keanu Reeves level hype around… Cyberpunk This was a video game that, unlike Dislyte,
didn't exactly have itself the smoothest launch. Yeah, despite the fantastic writing,
art and gameplay, the greedy corpos at the head of the company definitely pushed
this thing out the door a couple of years before it was ready. And though the devs
certainly kept polishing it over the years, Cyberpunk 2077 looked to go down in history as
a cautionary tale against releasing games early. Or at least that was the case until the release
of the Netflix anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners. So then, this is titled “Cyberpunk Cyberpunk”?
Weird. Edgerunners is incredible. Following the tragic love story of mercenaries David and Lucy
as they descend into the underbelly of Night City, a capitalist dystopia run by mega-corporations. It
is no exaggeration to say that this anime single handedly saved the brand with 2077 selling
millions of additional copies in its wake. Online discourse has also completely
turned around for the franchise, with people who used to clown
on the IP, instead saying You’re Breathtaking! It's also the reason why we're talking about
Cyberpunk on our film channel because wow, look at those review scores. To catch you up,
Edgerunners follows David Martinez, a teenager forced into the life of a mercenary in Night City.
David finds and installs a very dangerous mechanical body modification that speeds
up his movement. This so-called cyberware is a big deal because he definitely
shouldn't be able to use this thing. Despite this, David adapts well to the
implant with no training. Spending the rest of the series upgrading his body
with more and more cyberware. The show's central conflict then eventually
becomes David's struggle against implants and whether or not his
body is going to reject them all. Why is all of this such a big deal? Well, when someone's body can't handle their
cyberware or they just have too much of it, it literally drives them insane. With
an affliction known as cyberpsychosis. Oh, that's why it's called Edgerunners.
Except I think that there's a problem with cyberpsychosis. It isn't what it appears
to be. No. This diagnosis that is central to Edgerunners is actually a method of control,
seized by the few at the top to subjugate the many at the bottom. And the craziest part of it
all, cyberpsychosis is only a single piece in a much grander conspiracy about controlling the
bodies and minds of everyone in this world. Wake up, theorists. We've got
ourselves a theory to burn. First things first. Let's actually break down what
exactly cyberpsychosis is. Cyberpsychosis is an in-universe mental illness, which results in the
loss of empathy and identity. It supposedly stems from cybernetic implants, and the more cyberware
that someone has, the larger their risk of getting cyberpsychosis. People who suffer from it come to
view other people as weak and inferior, and they have themselves a total disregard for human life.
The further a cyberpsycho declines, the less they care about self-preservation. The more
they distance themselves from loved ones, and the worse their violent outbursts get. We
see this firsthand in Edgerunners through the character of David's mentor, Maine. He
starts off normally kind and generous. But then he starts treating
this crew as worthless. Most interestingly of all, though, Cyberpsychos
start identifying with machines more than humans, something that we actually see visually in
Edgerunners as David starts hallucinating mechanical parts growing out of the people around
him. Basically, if you have cyberpsychosis, you're a dead man walking. But here's the
thing. While cyberpsychosis is a serious problem in this world. What we actually see
from the series doesn't line up with what we're told about this diagnosis. Firstly, it
doesn't really seem to affect everyone equally. Obviously, David's unique in that he
has incredible tolerance to cyberware. But a ton of the characters and Edgerunners
have massive parts of their body replaced with no psychotic effects at all. Plus, we
have ourselves V, the playable character from Cyberpunk 2077. He can get completely
decked out in implants from head to toe, but is never once considered to be in danger
of going crazy and becoming a cyberpsycho. But okay, so what if someone does go
cyberpsycho? Well, it's not the end all be all death sentence that everyone makes it
out to be. A full third of maelstrom, a cultist gang obsessed with Cyberware implants, are
cyberpsychos. And they're not actively burning Night City down. Some cyberpsychos are
even friendly. Meanwhile, every member of MaxTac, the universe's equivalent of a SWAT team, is a
cyberpsycho, literally all of them. as the Shard puts it, quote, The same people who butchered
innocents in the streets just a month, a week, a day earlier are now knights in shining armor.
There's a ton of evidence to back all this up. The very first trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 featured
a cyberpsycho woman being attacked by MaxTac, but she later shows up in a quest from the video
game as a member of MaxTac, which references the trailer as a canonical event. They didn't
kill her. They recruited her. Furthermore, a computer terminal that you can find in a
different questline describes cyber psychosis as a fairly common problem among MaxTac.
On top of all of that Adam Smasher, one of the main antagonists of both the anime and the game
has had his body entirely replaced with implants. And yet, despite being sadistic, violent
and having a disregard for human life. He doesn't display any of the insanity
that's associated with cyberpsychosis in the series. In short, despite the
show telling us that a cyberpsychosis diagnosis is a death sentence, it just isn't.
I suspect the problem here isn't the hardware, but rather it's the software. While I think
chroming up with too much cyberware is a gateway to getting cyberpsychosis.
It's more about getting something into people's minds rather than their
bodies. What makes me say this? Well, take a look at this. Despite David's massive
amount of implants in the series, the thing that actually puts him over the edge is the software
required to run his biggest, baddest implant. Additionally, within the 2077 game, one
of the “quickhack” software abilities that you can unlock and use on enemies is
called cyberpsychosis. It does exactly what you think. Giving cyberpsychosis to anyone,
regardless of their amount of cyberware. Now, you might think that this is just a gameplay
thing, something that they dismiss as a Rule-of-Cool ability that doesn't actually
exist in canon, but that isn't the case. The official music video for the ending team of
Edgerunners features the canonical events that lead to the death of a hacker named Sasha. And in
it, Sasha uses that same cyberpsychosis ability, meaning that this is a very real piece of software
that exists in universe. If cyberpsychosis is something external trying to hack a target's
brain, that would explain why so many of the characters that I mentioned earlier with a ton
of implants don't struggle with cyberpsychosis. Lucy and Kiwi are master hackers that
have taken steps to protect themselves, while wealthy and important characters like
Tanaka, Jimmy Kurosaki and the Arasaka agents have the best protection software that money
can buy. When you look at all of the evidence, cyberpsychosis, this thing that is central to
the tragedy that is Edgerunners simply isn't what we're led to believe it is. And the craziest part?
it’s just a small piece of a much larger puzzle, one that would see everyone under the thumb
of some shadowy entity that controls Night City. Cyberpsychosis is the most obvious form
of this control, but there's far more subtle forms of manipulation that's happening under the
surface. What could lead to that sort of power? Ladies, gentlemen and punks, it's time to
rebel. Very clearly the mega-corps of Night City are the ones pulling the strings.
Literally hacking and controlling people would be the next logical step. But there's
a darker agenda here, too, and one that's far more frightening. One of the best questions in
the game involves night city mayoral candidate Jefferson Peralez and his wife Elizabeth,
bringing the player on to solve a mystery. Now, this quest chain is long, so forgive me
for summarizing a bit, but here's the gist: they hire the player character V to look into a
strange incident that happened in their penthouse, Jefferson wakes up one night to find
a stranger in their home. He shoots the stranger and then passes out. But
when Jefferson regains consciousness the next morning, the intruder is gone
and there's no evidence of a break in. As you do this quest, you discover a cover
up. It turns out that their private security company has been secretly monitoring them from a
secret room, using experimental neuroplasticity, technology and subliminal messaging to mess
with their minds, to literally rewrite the pathways that are in their brains, altering their
thoughts, their memories, and their personalities. And we're not just talking about simple
stuff like favorite movies or taste in music. At the end of the storyline, we can either tell
Jefferson the truth or lie to protect his safety. Either way, the manipulation continues.
Jefferson goes on to win the election, thereby putting a puppet in control of Night
City. Now obviously this is going way deeper than just some small time security company.
Another quest in the game involves V recovering a stolen encrypted hard drive, which contains
an internal memo from one of the Mega-corps: Night Corp detailing secret experiments that
they're running on unsuspecting subjects. They've managed to use subliminal messaging to
turn one subject described as calm and empathetic into a psychopath that, quote, strangled one of
their colleagues over a dispute over coffee. Can't really blame them. I don't like decaf either. But
think about this. Night Corp was able to remotely turn people into rage filled murderers. Sounds a
lot like what we've discussed with cyberpsychosis, doesn't it? And all while using subliminal
messaging to rewrite their brains. Night Corp is brainwashing people, turning good people
into psychopaths and politicians into puppets all as part of a grander scheme. And here's
the cherry on top. The thing that takes this from a fun little plotline hidden under the
surface to a full blown conspiracy about the people at the top of the corporate ladder.
You see loyal theorists. There aren't people at the top of the corporate ladder. It's an evil
artificial intelligence that somehow gotten out of control. Now I realize that that's a pretty
big claim even for this series. While powerful A.I. do exist in the world of Cyberpunk, and
we even meet one in 2077. What's the evidence that they're controlling everything here?
Well, first of all, we know that these sorts of the A.I. can and potentially do run
organizations. The head of Arasaka has his mind digitized during 2077 and turning himself
into an AI that can continue to run the company. Other characters like the Maelstrom and Voodoo
Boys Gang Worship Tech, and they see the takeover of the world by A.I. as an inevitability.
And that secret program described in the encrypted Night Corp memo, it was outright called
an A.I. We also know that A.I. aren't complacent to live in cages. Pretty much every A.I. we meet
throughout Cyberpunk 2077 either wants to be free or take control. It's only a matter of time before
this A.I. at Night Corp takes over the company. And wouldn't it be handy if it had itself
some mind controlling tech for that? A.I. being responsible for this whole conspiracy, both
the brainwashing and the cyberpsychosis would also explain why gangs obsessed with tech and implants
like Maelstrom are so involved in this thing, and why one of the major symptoms of cyberpsychosis is
beginning to identify with machines more than man. It's the A.I. conditioning all us fleshy meat
sacks for their inevitable takeover. On all fronts, this A.I. is controlling people,
whether it be through cyberpsychosis, brainwashing, or just good old fashioned
hacking. And I suspect we've already seen this A.I. in action. In this game there's a
mysterious character that we only see twice named Mr Blue Eyes. He's seen at the end of the
Jefferson quest line that we talked about earlier, as well as during one of the game's
endings, hiring our player character. We also hear that he and his people might
just be replacing dissidents in the city. Clearly, whoever this guy is, he's powerful,
pulling unknown strings that we only catch a glimpse of. But here's why it matters. In the
Cyberpunk universe, people's eyes start glowing blue or orange when they're transferring
information digitally or when they're being remotely puppeteers by someone, or something. So
someone who has glowing blue eyes all the time, enough so that they're aliases Mr Blue Eyes.
That means that they're constantly transferring data, constantly being puppeteered. This guy is
the literal embodiment of this massive conspiracy, a story that's touched every part of
the Cyberpunk IP from Edgerunners to 2077. And I bet that we're going to be
seeing a lot more from him in the future. But hey! Once again, I'd like to thank the
sponsor for today's episode, Dislyte. One of the things that made EdgeRunner so successful
was its incredible art direction. I mean, just look at the breathtaking animation and color
palette. Aesthetics can really take something good and turn it into something incredible.
And if you like the vibe of Edgerunners, I think we've more than proven to you
throughout the episode that the story mode of Dislyte is going to be up your alley too.
But hey, if you want to do some rebelling of your own and just want to take
your favorite Espers for a spin, you can skip the story and hop straight into
the game's brand new 3D Dungeon Explorer mode, complete with its own mysteries to unravel. Real
talk: As someone who makes and consumes a lot of entertainment. The fact that the Dislyte team is
using this game to incorporate real mythology from the very real world in a way that might get people
interested in learning more about other cultures. I think that is awesome and it actually got me
to learn a bit too. I know less about Chinese myth and literature than I would like. But
seeing characters like Luo Yan and Xiao Yin got me excited to look into them, to research
their history and learn about the real Chinese gods and dragons from mythology that inspired
them. Last time we talked about Dislyte on our sister location Game Theory, there were only 70
Espers in the game, but now there's almost 100. So there is no way that you're not going
to be able to find someone new to like and learn more about. If you want to awaken your
inner rebel. Check out Dislyte by clicking the link down the description below. Doing so
will get you a five star Nyx as a sign in reward so you can use her right away and dove
into that brand new 3D Dungeon Explorer mode. On top of that, you can also get a five star
Hati for free. Right now is probably the best entry point that Dislyte’s ever had. Plus, there's
already a ton of content for you to explore in the backlog. So once again, thank you to Dislyte
for sponsoring this video. Sponsorships like this one are the whole reason we're able
to cover awesome series like Cyberpunk. We get to talk about a series that we really
want to talk about, but the algorithm I like so much and you guys get to hear about really
cool games like this. I got to say it is a win win for everyone, so please do us all a favor
by clicking the link down in the description below. Check out the game thank Dislyte for
supporting us, which allows us to support other series that you might not have heard about.
And as always, my friends, until next time, remember, it's all just a theory.
A FILM THEORY! aaaaaaaaaand cut.
