After seeing the in-game ad for edgerunners hamfistedly shoved in I finally just decided to watch it. Overall I was really disappointed come the end. I was hoping that there would be that Trigger magic that would take the mostly emaciated punk of Cyberpunk 2077 and make something more out of it, but while the first few episodes were fine, it ended up feeling like there was nothing there. Honestly it feels like Darling in the Franxx where Trigger was just there to animate someone's story with close to no creative freedom over where the plot goes
The anti-capitalist, anti-establishment nature of the punk in Edgerunners doesn't go any deeper than as set dressing that creates the motivations for the characters but is then left behind. David is deeply wronged by the system that exists in Night City, but nothing is really done with it other than setting him further down the plot.
The story feels like it's just retreading what the game already did. It's just a retelling of V's story but without the Relic and instead an even less nuanced look at cyberpsychosis. David tries to better his lot, like V, after living in the absolutely bleak Night City and the city ruins everyone for even trying. Jackie dies in the heist, Evelyn's fate is worse than death, Dex is unceremoniously executed in a dump, V is left with a Relic that's killing her and rewriting her personality. David similarly tries and ends up watching his adoptive family shatter multiple times with sad pitiful ends.
I get that it's just basically the personal story of David and the people he meets and David is one flawed motherfucker that only wants to see other's dreams through because he's left traumatized after his mother died, but there wasn't even a sad washed up rocker even talking about how the system itself is what fucked David.
It felt no different than those anime movies made for Dead Space years ago. Just a tie-in product.
TL;DR I was hoping for a proper Trigger show and I just got more of what the game already did.
I can appreciate a tragedy, where our hero and their company commits themselves to an ideal and gets burned for it but in the process makes a significant mark that leaves hope for the future, but no matter what anybody does in this city, Arasaka is immune to actual consequence and the only things that shake up the company are when the corpo royalty make power plays against their parents. Which in the end further solidifies that there is no hope under the current system and the only people that can do things are the wealthy.
There are a bunch of cyberpunk stories that are like "I've done bad things I regret my whole life, but here's a chance to sacrifice my life so this one person can have a chance at a better life, and I'm going to take this shot at redemption". Like that can be enough. "I can save this one", "Cast a torch in to the future", "Live to fight another day". They don't have to tear down the whole system, but I hate the bleak "Lol you thought their was hope? Fuck you" stuff.
Like I am honestly somewhat disgusted at how popular squid game was. I don't know why anyone would want to watch something that unremittingly horrible. Especially who watched it. A lot of people gushing about it have enthusiastically voted for politicians who created the dire circumstances the show is inspired by. : (
For very similar reasons, even if I could surgically remove all the sexual violence and gory torture spectacles, ASOFAI (especially the shows but not exclusive to them) was, to me, a smugly hopeless stagnant setting that wallowed in self-congratulatory inertia and narratively punished people for even trying to improve society somewhat. The extra-sexual-violency show building up the ice zombies for so long just to cheaply kill them off was a "gotcha" of the highest smuglord order, too, that also reinforced that the status quo was effectively maintained and all the "winter is coming" false buildup was just a middle finger to the reader/viewer. The "hehehe you thought this guy was important but now he's DEAD hehehehe" novelty should have worn off years ago, but maybe the hog feeding gimmicks kept people around.
Hard agree. it's such a deliberately and relentlessly mean story. Martin claims realism and then uses it to create a thoroughly unrealistic world.
I'm still peeved that there's never been any explanation or resolution to the winter storyline. I've wanted to know what the hell is up with the cycle of winter and summer on that world for over a decade and all the official products have just shrugged and said who cares nerd? Is it some weird planetary mechanics thing? is it magic supernatural stuff? Who knows, Martin doesn't seem to give a shit about telling us.
There's always feasts in the murder house.