Nightmare Fuel / Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

"This mess my fault?"

Like the TTRPG and video game it's based on, Edgerunners has plenty of Nightmare Fuel to go around:

For moments from Cyberpunk 2077, go here.

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Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Nightmare Fuel pages. Proceed at your own risk.

Pre-Release

• Cyberpunk as a franchise is no stranger to the darker side of transhumanism, but the anime doesn't shy away from showing the process of altering your body in all its bloody, gory detail. In Cyberpunk 2077, players modified their characters solely through a menu interface (save for one comparably tame example at the very beginning of the story), but in the anime, you get to see doctors slicing into people, pulling out their body parts, and installing new metal into it, all while blood splatters the cameras and the patients below the needle are screaming in pain.
  • A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the NSFW trailer shows that while installing David's Sandvestian implant, the ripperdoc operating on him has to pull out his entire spine to do so. Yeesh.
• There are several moments in the trailers where David's pupils vanish or become unstable, which when given a shot of David curled up as well as a moment where he seems to be suffering a Psychic Nosebleed, implies he may be suffering some form of cyberpsychosis. Given the game this is based on revealed that "cyberpsychosis" is a pseudo-illness invented to cover up things like defective or poorly installed cybernetics, the effects of cybernetics on drug addicts and just plain old PTSD... David "contracting" symptoms bodes poorly to say the least.
• The Cyberpsycho attack shown in the teaser footage included in the game's 1.6 update highlights just how terrifying a chromed-up killer can be. He utterly brutalizes the NCPD around him, with them literally unable to put a scratch on him. Bonus points for the psycho's Sandevistan spine implant looking suspiciously like David's own.
  • While the edge is somewhat taken off by the fact that the cyberpsycho doesn't resemble David, the fact that said cyberpsycho even got to that point bodes poorly for David's mental health. Even moreso when you consider this line in the trailer:
  You either lose yourself forever, or die. No in-betweens.
• The scene also shows that in Night City there is Always a Bigger Fish. Norris at first seems like an unstoppable demigod, filled to the gills with cutting edge weapons and tech...and then MAX-TAC shows up, and reduce the cyberposycho to scrap in seconds. With ease his implants are hacked and deactivated, with efficiency he is surrounded and shot from all sides until he crumples to the ground. He makes one last desperate attempt at fighting back, only for his bullets bounce off harmlessly off the MAX-TEC Soldier who slowly, deliberately, puts his own gun right up to his face, and pulls the trigger.
• The ending shot of the NSFW trailer has David waking up from a presumed torture via Braindance. If he's being tortured, then it more likely than not means that it's an XBD, and if so, just what the hell did he see? We get the answer in episode 5.

Post-Release

• The sheer amount of carnage, gore, and violence throughout the show is absolutely insane. Heads are popped or cut off, limbs are hacked off, bodies are bisected or blown apart, eyes are popped out, people are squished flat, it's simply horrific. We're talking about 90's OVA levels of violence here.
  • Adding onto this, just like the game, if someone is shot in the head, they do not have a head anymore. Metal, brain matter, blood, and bones are sent flying, and we are frequently treated to full, up close images of these annihilated heads.
• As shown in the NSFW Trailer, David's first few implants are done without anesthesia. This means that he has to bite down on a metal bar, screaming in agony as he is ripped apart, torn open, and has parts of his body ripped out of him and replaced, and feels every single cut. The one saving grace is that, as evidenced by his blank expression partway through, he passes out from the shock and pain.
  • For an extra dose of Fridge Horror: his first upgrade is the Sandevistan spinal implant. Imagine having spinal surgery done without anesthesia and try not to shudder.
• The rookie that rushes foot-first into triggering a tripmine, that zaps him with an electric charge before turning him into a fine paste in the hall with only his arm sticking to the ceiling. David and Rebecca's exasperated reactions play it up for Black Comedy, but that's yet another person dead in a heartbeat with No Kill like Overkill for a basic trap.
• While it's pretty understated compared to the rest, the EMT from Episode 2 is a clear indicator of what a hellish place Night City is, where even the emergency services meant to save your life will sell you out to the Scavengers if the price is right.
• The Cyberspycho from Episode 4 who kills Pilar is a deeply disturbing figure. He's so far gone he can't even string two words together, only mumbling incoherently even when actively attacking people. His chrome is also peak Body Horror, with everything from the chest down, genitals included, being cybernetic and his remaining skin looking ragged and patchy.
• Episode 5 has David captured by Jimmy Kurosaki, a brandance editor specializing in XBD's that made the one David watched all the way back in episode 1. But this time, he hooks David up to a braindance that makes the viewer actually feel as if they're going on a cyberpsycho rampage instead of watching it. We see a terrified David desperately fighting for his life, killing people as he tries to understand what's happening. But the worst is when Maxtec shows up, and blows off David's limbs. As he lies on the ground David sees his limbs have turned into an amalgamation of guns, and all he can do is plead before he's shot. No wonder David wakes up horrified in the trailer.
• Two words—Adam Smasher—who lives up to his infamy in the final episode, as he effortlessly keeps up with David (who's experiencing an 11th-Hour Superpower with the Cyberskeleton that let him take on a vast portion of Millitech's corporate army, MaxTec, and cut through a good portion of Night City just to get to Arasaka headquarters) and No-Sell practically everything thrown at him by David and the crew. For extra measure, Smasher then lives up to his name quite well by smashing Rebecca into a fine paste during his pursuit, casually smacking Falco out of his way like he was swatting a fly and it still sent the man flying and tore off his cyber-arm from the force, and then beating David to an inch within his life before doing a Coup de Grâce by blowing his brains out. By end, Adam Smasher comes off like a horrifying mixture of the Terminator and Darth Vader as he comes down on the heroes, and if it wasn't for David's Heroic Sacrifice in hurting Smasher's ego and drawing attention back to him, it would have ended in a Total Party Kill as his sheer sadism wouldn't allow for any survivors otherwise.
  • Even his digital form is unnerving. Unlike the Netrunners she confronted in cyberspace, when Lucy attempts hacking Smasher his Icon somehow looks even more inhuman than his physical form, appearing like a clawed razor-toothed demon. This is especially noteworthy ever since the consolidation of the Net from it's more diverse options in the 2020s to current day state of it resembling a TRON-esque netscape, Icons have likewise become more homogenized to resemble their real world counterparts... and yet, Adam Smasher seemingly chooses to be a more fantastical monster as his Icon, which goes to show just how depraved and out-of-touch he really is with humanity.
  • In David's final moments, he is offered an opportunity to have the Soulkiller used on him by Smasher. As demonstrated by what happened to Johnny and (potentially) Jackie when they had it forcibly used on them, it's a Fate Worse than Death that entraps the victim as an engram construct that isn't even entirely sure if they are the original person with a soul. Johnny ignores the implications due to his sheer rage and indignation transferred over, but Jackie — if his corpse was caught by Arasaka after the heist — is definitely hollow feeling. David might have just well avoided an existential nightmare by being so Defiant to the End and blowing off Adam Smasher's offer, choosing to Go Out with a Smile than lose his very sense of self in the process.
• The absolutely horrifying implications of Lucy's Dark and Troubled Past as an Arasaka child soldier.
  • First, there's the implication that Arasaka outfitted literal children with such advanced technology in the first place. According to The World of Cyberpunk 2077 book, deep dive ports like Lucy's are insanely dangerous and typically only used by professional and corporate backed netrunners— their neural ports are installed directly into the occipital lobe to allow for high amounts of data transfer, usually at rates that would make a netrunner's blood start boiling without proper equipment and precautions. And the fact that Arasaka likely installed these implants on children who look like they haven't even reached puberty? Jesus.
  • Then there's the fact that Lucy was a child soldier to begin with. While Arasaka drafting children into their armies is an established part of the lore (Goro Takemura from Cyberpunk 2077 was one, and he and the other children actually competed to be chosen for it), Lucy was already doing highly intensive dives into the Deep Net that very few netrunners ever attempt: as a child. And not only her. Hundreds of children. Maybe even thousands.
  • And then there's the fact that Arasaka is sending them through the Blackwall (the AI border between the Old Net and the New Net). There's a reason that it's monitored heavily by NetWatch and no runners dare to traverse it— very few runners have ever made it out alive from the other side thanks to rogue AI attacks. And Lucy implied that she and her fellow child runners did this repeatedly.
• Like the opening cyberpsycho attack, Maine's rampage in Episode 6 is utterly horrifying to watch. Between his shotgun, his arm launcher, and his own chromed strength he paints the walls with the NCPD and Trauma Team unfortunate enough to get in his way. Made worse in that we see his sanity crumble in real time, turning him from the gruff but loving man he once was into an inhuman killing machine. And that's not getting into the utterly terrifying Nightmare Face he makes: a wide eyed, wide smiled manic look, which is somehow both wildly manic and completely emotionless, and alongside all the blood he's splattered with, he looks like a demon that came straight from the bowels of Hell itself. No wonder it's the page image after all!
  • His death not too long after his rampage isn't too pretty either, as he commits suicide with the explosive pyre he made for Dorio's body, which from David's (and our own) perspective is done entirely in slow-motion. The whole sequence shows him literally liquify into nothing as the explosion rips him apart in Squicky detail, just as it engulfs the entire building with MaxTac along with him.
• David's hallucinations in Episode 8. While on a mission, he encounters an Arasaka employee, who he kills. While the gory mess that results isn't exactly pleasant, an amalgam of guns suddenly burst from the bloody stump of the employee's neck. David falls to the ground, frantically shooting at the employee who's letting out a demonic, distorted laugh. Kiwi then calls David, frantically telling him that someone is approaching him. He turns around to see another Arasaka employee, pointing his gun at her. Clearly in fear of her life, she meekly asks "But why?" We cut back to David's point of view, who see's guns bursting out of the woman's face, also while letting out a creepy laugh, before David shoots her. David then comes to his senses, seeing the corpses of both Employees. When Kiwi asks him about the situation, he just says he handled it, not telling her what actually happened. By this point, David's overuse of cyberware has finally caught up with him.
  • The strange, distorted sound track that plays during this scene doesn't exactly help either.
• As David installs the cyberskeleton, he receives a taunting call from Faraday, which, combined with the installation overruding his senses, is what completely drives him over the edge, reducing him to do anything other that scream incoherent threats.
  David: I'll gut him and rip out his spine! I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM! You're dead! Dead! DEAD! DEAD!! FUCKING DEAD!! I̸̜̖͆̊'̶̦̩̯́͜L̷̯̞͇̈́͐̔L̵̡̟̉̓ ̵͕̗͍̈́̋͘F̶̢͔̾U̴͈͑̅ͅC̸͉̯͖̹͐̅͛Ḱ̵̲̮I̷̱̊͛Ņ̷̦̩͚̓̎̈́͝G̷͍̀͆ ̷̱̠̹̎͗̕͜Ķ̷͐̌͛͒İ̸̼̒L̴̻̀L̴̟͇͍̝͛̚̚͝ ̵̨̖̻̦̿̾̽̈́Y̸̭̯͉͖̐Ǫ̷̬͙̞̌̍͛U̵̢̥͉͓͊́̾!̸̨̱̍̂̿͘!̴̛̘̩̈́!̵͙͈̿̊
• While the cyberskeleton turns David into a One-Man Army, it also replaces his legs and arms, leaving his head and torso as the only parts of him that look remotely human. In addition to this, David needs to inject himself with a large amount of immunosuppressants (which make him puke blood with every shot) everytime he does anything, just to avoid going psycho.
• Faraday's personal goons. Most of them look like high-end male dolls rather than professional bodyguards, but the most nightmarish of them is the one that both looks like that AND is chromed in such a way that his upper body opens up to create a all-the-way-through tunnel for Faraday to shoot his enemies from behind him. Thinking how exactly were his internals, especially the spine, lungs and digestive tract, restructured to pull that off is a bit horrific all on its own.