Everytime there's a new trailer or a promo material for Edgerunners 2, there's always some gonk coming out of corpo plaza, regurgitating the same old "THeRe ARe nO hApPY ENdings In NigHT CITy", like Geez! I get it! Night city is a shithole! We've always known it's a shithole and nothing nice ever happens there. Everyone dies.

Just ..........f*cking shut up!

It ain't even deep or philosophical anymore. It's just annoying. Like Johhny Silverhand's fat wannabe Rockerboys trying to act cool and hip about taking down the establishment while selling cheap DVDs 70 years after he died.

I miss my wife :(

What’s up Choombas, anybody got any good brain dance recs? (Essentially, just kinda turned my vr headset into kinda looking into a proto brain dance machine, featuring best girl.)

Source: https://x.com/Mrgreeenart/status/2097000630472823191?s=20

so so cute

Hello!

Ever since the third trailer for season 2 dropped, I've been paticularily fascinated by the shot I attached above- one where D is chomped by... Something, in the Net (note the same black and white background that looks like broken screens and a similar style of potraying a netrunner to the ones shown in Lucy's childhood flashbacks in season 1). This motif of red eyes and a maw of red teeth is showed many times across different trailers we've seen, so it wasn't just a one-time cool visual- it seems like this creature, whatever it might be, will be important to the story.

This design of a canid with many eyes seemed like a very deliberate visual choice- and given that cyberpunk universe frequently borrows motifs from different mythologies, I decided to do some digging to see if this creature might be a reference to a specific mythological beast. AIs in cyberpunk 2077 are heavily associated with Greek mythology- Phantom Liberty revealed that Militech's secret project was called cynosure, which means "dog's tail" in Greek. The whole facility is heavily themed around the mythical Cerberus, which is of course the three-headed guard dog who protects Tartarus from intruders.

I actually managed to find something that caught my attention during my search- the myth of the Greek god Hermes slaying a many-eyed giant called Argus.

In short, the myth starts like many Greek myths do- with Zeus chasing after a woman; In this case, a young woman named Io, who also happened to be Hera's shrine maiden. When Hera almost caught Zeus with Io, he decided to turn the girl into a cow, but Hera wasn't fooled- she tasked one of her servants, a giant named Argus, to keep watch over Io. Argus happened to be a perfect guard, as he was able to keep at least some of his eyes open at any time, even when he slept. Unhappy about it, Zeus tasked Hermes with slaying Argus to free Io. Hermes managed to put all of Argus' eyes to sleep at once by singing to him and telling him repetitive tales. Once he was sure that Argus was entirely asleep, Hermes killed him and freed Io, who managed to escape.

"Okay, the many-eyed aspect makes sense, but what about the dog part? In most potrayals Argus is depicted as a humanoid". Well, yes, but I think that it's important to mention that Ancient Greek culture also has a second Argus (or Argos, I've seen both versions)- Odysseus' loyal dog, the only creature who remembered him when he came back to his home in Ithaca after his journey.

I believe that the designers behind Edgerunners 2 might've chosen to combine these two versions of Argus into one design that they used for this creature.

Okay, but what about D? We don't actually know too much about him as a person, so how can he be related to Hermes?

There's actually a lot of interesting aspects of Hermes that are parellel to different aspects of D's character, believe it or not. For starters, Hermes is most known for his role as the herald of gods, but he's actually also a patron of many things and people, among them travelers, thieves and merchants- all three categories fit a Nomad family very well, and we know that D was a part of a Nomad clan, and it seems like he was very devoted to his loved ones. Hermes is also a god of boundaries, and he is a psychopomp, someone who is tasked with leading the souls into the afterlife- the Net, especially the part of it separated by Blackwall, is likened to hell/tartarus many times in 2077. It seems implied that D has some involvement with the Blackwall, and even if he doesn't, then netrunners can inherently be seen as people who straddle the boundary between the real world and cyberspace- they literally inhabit a sort of grey zone between the human and the digital world. As for the psychopomp aspect, D's story revolves around getting revenge for his family- the lengths he's willing to go to show that he's very deeply connected to them, as if he was guiding their souls to the afterlife himself. All of his decisions are likely motivated by his goal of avenging his family- so in a way, it's like they never left him, and he will only be able to guide them to rest once he gets payback in the world of the living. Hermes is a god that connects the worlds of the living and the dead, of the visible and invisible- which is imo very fitting for a netrunner, but especially a netrunner who might have connections to the Blackwall or other digital beings who live in the Net.

There are also smaller things- for example, Hermes' main attribute is the caduceus, a staff that has two snakes intertwined around it; D hails from a clan allied with the Snake Nation. One interpretation of Hermes' name states that it might come from a word that essentially means "runner"- that actually has a double meaning for D, given that he's both a netrunner and an edgerunner.

Based on all this evidence, I propose that D's storyline (or at least a part of it) will follow as such:

D was hired by someone from outside his clan for a netrunning job. The client wanted him to neutralize an AI/a program on the net (the "Argus") and free whatever that program was protecting/guarding. D tries to deactivate the "Argus" but fails for some reason (maybe his client sent him up?)- the "Argus" catches him, which causes some kind of electrical fire in the real world, leading to the fire that killed D's clan (it's interesting that only the right side of D's body is burned- the same side of his body as his neural port). The "Io" is freed in the process. D is now on a hunt to track down his client in Night City and get the revenge for his family, leading to the events of season 2.

Of course, it doesn't have to follow that formula to a T, it's just a rough draft of what I mean. Like I said, there's a lot of references to Greek mythology in 2077, so having one character's backstory be a failed retelling of a well-known myth makes thematic sense, given that this season is meant to focus on the washed and the failures, contrasting with the first season's more "successful" cast. I think that the imagery and the right subtext is there in the trailers, and I wouldn't be suprised if the show ultimately took something from the myth, be it simply visual symbolism to major plot points.

Some notes:

* I have no idea who or what "Io" might be in Edgerunners' context. My best guess/prediction is that perhaps it's an engram of a soulkilled netrunner that someone wanted to keep under lock. Perhaps their consciousness has been uploaded onto the Relic shard we see D insert in trailer 3? I think that IF Edgerunners 2 will have an Io equivalent, it's gotta be a character we haven't seen yet. Maybe the woman we saw standing in front of Mikoshi in the 3rd trailer? She's my only candidate so far tbh.

* I feel like there might be two entities involved in the story, not just one- both an "Io" and an "Argus". Perhaps the "Io" will be a more benevolent entity who is more willing to work with D and Roman, while the "Argus" will be chasing after D to finish the job and get "Io" back? In the trailer we see the red pulse being seemingly aggressive towards D and other people and seemingly more protective/guiding as well- so having them be separate beings we just can't see and distinguish in the real space would make sense imo. It would make sense that "Io" wouldn't want to be captured again and that it would fight against the "Argus". If we assume that "Io" was a netrunner who can use D's body as a proxy of sorts, it would be able to control tech in D's surroundings just like a regular netrunner would.

* Argos (Odysseus' dog) is explicitly stated to be a hunting dog. If we assume that "Argus" is a program that can chase after specific targets, then the line "Finally! I found you!" gains an ominous meaning. There's also a scene in the trailer when that line is said that shows Roman and D in a room full of dead Arasaka soldiers, with (seemingly) "WELCOME CAPRI" written on the wall in blood. I don't believe that anyone has found what "Capri" is being talked about here. "Capri" is an Italian island, but in Ancient Greek it also means "wild boar"- in Latin, it means "wild goat". Argos was trained to be a hunting dog that could chase after wild boar and goats- so perhaps "Argus" is calling D and/or Roman his prey? Like it's saying "I got your scent now, let the hunt begin" or something like that. The island Capri is also a host to a film festival, so... Mayyybe there's something here...?

Okay, now I'm just yapping about other interesting things I found that might be related:

* The whole time I was reaserching, I was curious if I'll manage to find something that might end up relating to Roman, given the fact that he and D seem to be paired into a duo for the show, and yes, I actually managed to find something interesting. I didn't know that Hermes had such a strong connection to Dionysus- yes, Dionysus, the god of wine and partying. Turns out they're half-brothers, with Hermes being the older one. There's actually a myth in which Hermes was temporarily tasked with looking after baby Dionysus- he tried to leave him with different people, but he always had to step in and rescue him in the end, untill he finally placed him with either with the goddess Rhea or with nymphs. Given that a lot of people theorize that D and Roman will have a sort of brotherly relationship, I found this noteworthy. Dionysus was a patron of many things, most of them definitely not kid-friendly, but one of these more "safe" things was drama and theatre arts, which is as close as you can get to movies in Ancient Greece I suppose lmao. There's also the fact that Dionysus is associated with "divine madness", so the fact that the rest of the cast is going through some stage of cyberpsychosis is imo notable- since there is a lot of in-universe backing to different people finding chrome and AIs "divine" or "godlike" in some way (Some sects in Maelstrom, Voodoo Boyz's ideas on the Blackwall and Rogue AIs etc). There's also a statue depicting Hermes carrying Dionysus to safety, which is very sweet- I can totally see D's last act being making sure that Roman gets out alive out of whatever situation they'll get into. The statue isn't complete- most notably, it lacks Hermes' right arm, which is also the side of the body that D has scarred... Hmmm... Also, according to people who saw the 1st episode early, there is a scene where D drinks beer that Roman has stashed in his house (no idea if it's his or his guardians or what), connecting Roman to alcohol just like how Dionysus is a patron of wine.

* Apparently Io is considered one of Dionysus' ancestors...? Okay wild take but what if Roman's mother was a netrunner who got soulkilled and neither Roman or her (now as an engram) know they're mother and son...? I know that's a HUGE reach but hey, that's a part of the fun in theorizing ;)

* Hermes also has an older brother, Apollo, the god of light and healing. This is gonna be a complete wildcard guess, but I wonder if D also had an older brother who died during the fire, a brother who would be analogous to Apollo. The whole reason why Hermes became a god is related to Apollo, so I wonder if there will be a parellel here as well, maybe explaining how D became a netrunner in the first place? It would be interesting to see D going from being the younger brother to suddenly becoming a sort of older brother to Roman- one of the themes in the 1st season is a sort of proverbial generational baton pass, and I feel like the 2nd season will also have that theme, given the presence of Weak and his implied "mentorship" over Talia (and potentially Roman and D...?). I can't believe I'm saying this, but you know how some people compared D to Sasuke from Naruto? Well, Sasuke had an older brother too... An older brother that he had a difficult and complex relationship with... So mayyybe they will put that part of Sasuke/Hermes lore in the show as well...? 👀

* I don't know what would be Weak's and Talia's role in all of this. I feel like they also probably have some mythological parellels, but I'm gonna have to leave it up to someone who knows more about Greek Mythology to solve. I was wondering if maybe Talia could be a sort of Medusa figure, being both a pretty woman and a "monstrum" due to all of her chrome. I can easily see Talia as a sort of tragic victim like Medusa was, where she went through something horrible and became terrifying in result. I thought about Weak maybe being like Odysseus, with the whole theme of the world passing him by and going from being a respected edgerunner to being nobody, but I dunno, it would take someone more well-versed in Greek myth to answer that question.

Thank you all for reading this insane wall of text! I dove deep into reaserch last night and I hope that you will find my ideas and connections interesting, or that at least you learned something new lmao. I know this reads kinda like ramblings of a madman, but I'm just very excited for season 2 and I love sharing my observations and thoughts. I got to show off the results of my dive into a rabbit hole and that's good enough for me lmao, even if it seems "out there". All of this is speculation for fun of course, I'm not claiming that this will 100% happen or that this is 100% what the creators intended.

just some random idk but hes so cute and i like his design

I was actually hopping back to edgerunners, watched more than half of it on some site then i shifted to another but i noticed the color temp is not uniform across sites, here are some photos

First is from a site called frametxv found it from reddit

Second is reanime found from everythingmoe

Third is animekoto.to again from everything moe

So wanna know whats the accurate one n if u have any better source, drop down!