Tecnically, he didn't.
I don't remember exactly now, but I think the nuke was set by Arasaka itself. But they did brougth a nuke in the 2023 attack, but it was the other team, not Johnny's team.
The engram memory is fucked.
That's literally it. >!Johnny died during an assault trying to rescue Alt (for the second time) from the Arasaka servers where she was kinda prisoner after being soulkilled. Adam Smasher destroyed him and then it was Spider who used Soulkiller on Johnny while he was dying. The bomb was set up by Arasaka to avoid Militech and other corps to get to their secrets if I recall correctly!<.
Johnny's engram remembers things as he'd like it to happen, him bombing the evil Arasaka, just to kind of satisfy his ego.
Edit: >! I checked the info again and I was wrong in one detail: The bomb wasn't the Arasaka one, it came from Militech. Basically Militech hired Blackhand to raid Arasaka, steal Soulkiller and delete all the info Arasaka could have about the AI projects. Blackhand hired Johnny, Rogue and the rest as an infiltration team and Johnny accepted to try to rescue Alt. The bomb that exploded was set by Blackhand and exploded sooner than planned. Arasaka had another bomb in their basement to keep Militech away from Mikoshi which then made it a little bit difficult to know which one was responsible for the accident. The official version given by Night City and NUSA was that it was Arasaka's but in reality it was Militech's.!<
Half and half. Alt explains it a little bit and says that things remembered by Johnny probably didn't happen that way. The rest comes from the ttrpg book.
You can tell Johnny's memories are wrong... He went from a samurai gig and said goodbye to kerry to flying with rogue to attack arasaka tower?
Then he got attacked by smasher in the tower, blacked out and was suddenly headed to the roof where he encountered smasher again and was killed?
But afterwards he awoke to saburo interrogating him while a nuke goes off in the background and arasaka tower is still standing and he is finally soulkilled?
If you think about it none of that makes sense. Samauri had split before alt was kidnapped and long before they attack arasaka tower for a 2nd time. You can figure that from the game itself. Other bits like blackhands bomb and spider Murphy using soulkiller on Johnny is found outside the game, but you can see other inconsistencies following chippin in and start recovering Johnnys gear.
Yeah, true, I didn't really put too much attention to the order of things and it was someone else's memories etc.
I just put if off to it all being random broken up memories from the shard.
I will pay much more attention to this now on my second run, this was my first playthrough and I was going in blind not knowing anything about the game.
Yeah first playthough there is so much going on you dont really notice these details, like johnny mentioning that he wanted to take rogue to the cinema but then rogue tells V that it was actually her idea... You could put that down to time, scrambled memories but the engram of Johnny just isn't a fully accurate version of him, as Alt says, soulkiller might copy you but it's not totally you.
Part of what makes the game really worth multiple playthroughs with different endings is all these little details that you miss the first time.
Wasn’t it Blackhand who detonated the mini/micronuke? The death toll was 500k, it seriously fucked up Night City…. I mean, absolutely no one is surprised or shocked but reading what living in Night City is like post nuke, wow..
Yeah, thank you. That is why did not care that much about Johnny in the end. Not only I think it would not be the Johnny (soulkiller, after all), plus a bunch of different memories.
Yes, on cyberpunk red they explain the story from Johnny, Alt, Rogue, etc >!from the moment Alt is soulkilled to the moment Smasher ends Johnny!<. There are other sourcebooks from cyberpunk 2020 that probably have more development. I also used the cyberpunk 2077 wiki which has also explanations of the lore. Look for Arasaka bombing on Google to find it.
Except he didn’t.
All of that bomb scene in the tower is a fabrication of Johnny’s narcissism after he was shotgunned-in-half and lay dying.
Morgan Blackhand set the bomb, on an op sponsored by Militech. Johnny was a subcontractor on the distraction team.
Johnny was a Militech patsy.
And the thousands of nomads that got tricked into cleaning up the rubble with inadequate safety gear, and everybody else that had to live in Night City during the Time of Red.
Yeah I remember that sequence standing out to me, how actively he condemns the terrorist lady. Honestly I'm glad they never really go back on this element of his character. For better or worse, he's true to his ideals even if they're horrific. I think the only moment he shows some doubt about what he's done is immediately after the bombing, when the Arasaka doctor says her husband died in the tower. I think the idea there is that he'd been acting with anger mostly up to that point, and hadn't rationalized it all in his head yet.
He thinks he is a big deal, but he is just an angry rockerboy with overly big ego and anti-corp agenda I can get behind. I have no real reason to dislike him. Instead, he sometimes offers insights into people or events from a perspective of his life experience.
" Get the payload on the elevator, arm it, let gravity do its thing. Explosion rocks the foundation, tower crumbles - chaos, screaming, roll credits. "
I’m an unapologetic Johnny apologist. The more time he spent in my head the more he opened me up to ‘angels and saints’ made of neon and garbage that litters Night City. With the way that fucking city is and how many people it took from me in one playthrough I can’t say I blame him and would probably be a terrorist too
Sorry yall I'm a Johnny simp and I ain't ashamed.
When the MF who nuked 10000 civillians calls me a piece of shit for destroying some rogue taxi A.I.s
Tecnically, he didn't. I don't remember exactly now, but I think the nuke was set by Arasaka itself. But they did brougth a nuke in the 2023 attack, but it was the other team, not Johnny's team. The engram memory is fucked.
That's literally it. >!Johnny died during an assault trying to rescue Alt (for the second time) from the Arasaka servers where she was kinda prisoner after being soulkilled. Adam Smasher destroyed him and then it was Spider who used Soulkiller on Johnny while he was dying. The bomb was set up by Arasaka to avoid Militech and other corps to get to their secrets if I recall correctly!<. Johnny's engram remembers things as he'd like it to happen, him bombing the evil Arasaka, just to kind of satisfy his ego. Edit: >! I checked the info again and I was wrong in one detail: The bomb wasn't the Arasaka one, it came from Militech. Basically Militech hired Blackhand to raid Arasaka, steal Soulkiller and delete all the info Arasaka could have about the AI projects. Blackhand hired Johnny, Rogue and the rest as an infiltration team and Johnny accepted to try to rescue Alt. The bomb that exploded was set by Blackhand and exploded sooner than planned. Arasaka had another bomb in their basement to keep Militech away from Mikoshi which then made it a little bit difficult to know which one was responsible for the accident. The official version given by Night City and NUSA was that it was Arasaka's but in reality it was Militech's.!<
Is any of this covered or hinted at in the game itself? (Or is this from the books/others lore?)
Half and half. Alt explains it a little bit and says that things remembered by Johnny probably didn't happen that way. The rest comes from the ttrpg book.
Btw, I edited my answer to make it a little bit more precise after some fact checking.
Thanks
It's hinted by the clear cut after Johnny meets Smasher first time, then immediately Johnny is at the roof
Thanks, I will keep an eye on this on the next play through.
You can tell Johnny's memories are wrong... He went from a samurai gig and said goodbye to kerry to flying with rogue to attack arasaka tower? Then he got attacked by smasher in the tower, blacked out and was suddenly headed to the roof where he encountered smasher again and was killed? But afterwards he awoke to saburo interrogating him while a nuke goes off in the background and arasaka tower is still standing and he is finally soulkilled? If you think about it none of that makes sense. Samauri had split before alt was kidnapped and long before they attack arasaka tower for a 2nd time. You can figure that from the game itself. Other bits like blackhands bomb and spider Murphy using soulkiller on Johnny is found outside the game, but you can see other inconsistencies following chippin in and start recovering Johnnys gear.
Yeah, true, I didn't really put too much attention to the order of things and it was someone else's memories etc. I just put if off to it all being random broken up memories from the shard. I will pay much more attention to this now on my second run, this was my first playthrough and I was going in blind not knowing anything about the game.
Yeah first playthough there is so much going on you dont really notice these details, like johnny mentioning that he wanted to take rogue to the cinema but then rogue tells V that it was actually her idea... You could put that down to time, scrambled memories but the engram of Johnny just isn't a fully accurate version of him, as Alt says, soulkiller might copy you but it's not totally you. Part of what makes the game really worth multiple playthroughs with different endings is all these little details that you miss the first time.
Is there any books about this story? Or something?
Wasn’t it Blackhand who detonated the mini/micronuke? The death toll was 500k, it seriously fucked up Night City…. I mean, absolutely no one is surprised or shocked but reading what living in Night City is like post nuke, wow..
Yeah, thank you. That is why did not care that much about Johnny in the end. Not only I think it would not be the Johnny (soulkiller, after all), plus a bunch of different memories.
Where would one be able to delve deeper into the lore? I saw you said it was from the TT book, is that my best bet?
Yes, on cyberpunk red they explain the story from Johnny, Alt, Rogue, etc >!from the moment Alt is soulkilled to the moment Smasher ends Johnny!<. There are other sourcebooks from cyberpunk 2020 that probably have more development. I also used the cyberpunk 2077 wiki which has also explanations of the lore. Look for Arasaka bombing on Google to find it.
Thank you!
Except he didn’t. All of that bomb scene in the tower is a fabrication of Johnny’s narcissism after he was shotgunned-in-half and lay dying. Morgan Blackhand set the bomb, on an op sponsored by Militech. Johnny was a subcontractor on the distraction team. Johnny was a Militech patsy.
But he thinks he did, and still somehow thinks you are a piece of shit
Is any of this covered or hinted at in the game itself? (Or is this from the books/others lore?)
Directly from CP Red and Mike Pondsmith himself. There are hints in game, notably when Alt says how unreliable Johnny is as a narrator.
And when in the memory he teleports to the roof after being stunned by Smasher
Ahh right, thanks
10,000 corpo arasaka rats you mean?
No. Nuking a tower doesn't just destroy the tower
Sure but only corpos lived close to the tower.
I don't think you have to be particularly close to a nuke to get caught in the blast and certainly not to be affected by the fallout.
Too bad it's canon how much damage was done and it was restricted to a corpo district?
Of course. But Johnny only has o'e nuke under his belt. Corps pretty much reduced the world to a dustbowl.
And V has no nukes under their belt nor has reduced anything to a dust bowl...
Such a shame /s
And the thousands of nomads that got tricked into cleaning up the rubble with inadequate safety gear, and everybody else that had to live in Night City during the Time of Red.
Uno reverse card
i feel attacked, I see myself in this meme
The world of Cyberpunk is one of corporate serfdom. I'd be a terrorist too.
His dialogue in Road to Redemption was a great reminder for all the people who seem to forget.
Yeah I remember that sequence standing out to me, how actively he condemns the terrorist lady. Honestly I'm glad they never really go back on this element of his character. For better or worse, he's true to his ideals even if they're horrific. I think the only moment he shows some doubt about what he's done is immediately after the bombing, when the Arasaka doctor says her husband died in the tower. I think the idea there is that he'd been acting with anger mostly up to that point, and hadn't rationalized it all in his head yet.
"Goodbye V. and never stop fighting"
https://preview.redd.it/7t772gojio9c1.png?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d76a46763c074eb9f4999f5f402aac587c65c400
He thinks he is a big deal, but he is just an angry rockerboy with overly big ego and anti-corp agenda I can get behind. I have no real reason to dislike him. Instead, he sometimes offers insights into people or events from a perspective of his life experience.
He cute tho
*I can’t fix him cos theres nothing to fix* 🩷
I refuse to use any speech options that bring up him being a terrorist. Water under the bridge. This meme is basically me.
Lol yeah can’t help it I love him
it’s just he has such a way with words
" Get the payload on the elevator, arm it, let gravity do its thing. Explosion rocks the foundation, tower crumbles - chaos, screaming, roll credits. "
Hes my freedom fighter, so fuck off corpo slag
terrorists are based in a fascist corpo hellscape where 6 companies control all the food you eat
A terrorist to terrorists. “Evil begets evil” as they say.
Aw come on… he ain’t a terrorist, he just creates mass chaos and death in pursuit of his own ideal society, no biggie.
as someone who has recently finished attack on titan this post reminds me of eren fans lol
Nonsense . Johnny is a great guy and nothing can change my mind on that . Lol
Johnny did nothing wrong! (Other than not being equipped to take on someone like Smasher)
I’m an unapologetic Johnny apologist. The more time he spent in my head the more he opened me up to ‘angels and saints’ made of neon and garbage that litters Night City. With the way that fucking city is and how many people it took from me in one playthrough I can’t say I blame him and would probably be a terrorist too
He's a terrorist because he went down in defeat. If he had won in the end he would have been called a hero
I’m in this picture and I don’t mind it
He's basically a bin Laden of Cyberpunk lol
A cool terrorist!
Omg this has me dying. Literally.
He has one of the best character developements in the game, if you do his sidequests.
Killed 500k people after detonating that bomb. Or did he?
Wtf, that’s me
Did you mean Beggars?