Working Theory
Warning: This Is A Living Document
Last updated: 2025-07-26
This is a working theory and should not be taken as outright fact. It is based on a collection of observations and interpretations that are subject to change. These observations can be browsed by viewing my research pages.
As a result of this being a living document, it's worth noting that findings held within the research pages may not be fully updated with the present moment's contexts. Treat them as snapshots in time that led here, and not as the final word on the matter.
Tower Raid
Johnny was cleaved in two by Smasher. Spider Murphy put the data slug/chip into Johnny's body in an attempt to extract his engram with an altered version of soulkiller. It was damaged. The engramatic transfer either could not complete as a result, or it was completed as much as it could be. Either way, the data wasn't in a usable state.
Time of the Game
We, the player, breach into the memory system. It's presented to us in game form. It isn't a game - but rather the memory store of Johnny Silverhand and the data slug/chip. His inner psyche and all of the broken memories held within. Johnny remains in a form of stasis.
We create V as a way to build up the missing memory sectors in Johnny's engram and navigate the corrupted data. We start by editing our V's own backstory to fill the gaps. The memories within the engram begin blending with our synthetic edits to the engramatic data.
From our perspective, we see through the eyes of the synthetic memory we created and experience the passing of time as if its real - but it isn't. There is no time. It's all just data. No future. No tomorrow. Only the here and now and buffers located in different places.
Further complicating this experience, the blending of Johnny's engramatic data and our synthetic V causes side effects. The memories start to blend. From V's perspective, they slotted Johnny into their head. It's quite literally the other way 'round. It's the data slug that was chipped into Johnny. As a player, it's hard to know where Johnny's memories end and V's begin - and that means its working.
A Matter of Perspective
The world we experience is an amalgamation of Johnny's psyche, previous iterations and the projection of the data chip. The time is wrong. The colors are wrong. The memories are wrong. Progressing through the game, we restore power to several areas. We connect and create neural pathways that were severed. We collect "hidden gems" - scattered bytes of memory data and trudge through corrupted data. We force Johnny to confront himself and his shadow in the process.
Scrubbing forward and backwards through them, and looping into every possible memory - every outcome - we continue to rebuild the engram. Our V goes through cycles of death and rebirth as we continue along the path. Every iteration fills more gaps in the world of Johnny's engram data. Every iteration of V recycles leftover data back into the system - facilitated and buffered through the data chip's Soulkiller guardian who wear's Alt's face.
Why Have a Player at all?
The data chip inserted into Johnny was damaged. Likely the ground pins. Between the incomplete data and the voltage overflowing into the pins, there isn't much to "soulkill" into the chip intended for Johnny's psyche.
It requires the human element to be the scalpel. To navigate the insanity of a projected dystopian city being flooded with interference and feedback loops. The software Alt recognizes the player as the necessary human element when looking at V. The element needed when automation has run out of road.
Judgement
We eventually reach a point that Johnny's engram is completely patched. No longer a patient etherized upon the table. No more half deserted streets. Through our guidance, V joins Alt in the datastream on the final merge.
V might have been the dreamer, but it was always Johnny's dream. Johnny's body. This newly refurbished engram isn't quite Johnny, and it isn't quite V. It's a third thing comprised of the sum total of the two. An engramatic canvas - this time with two faces.
Not as simple as "It was all a dream"
In terms of software, these memories really played out. They happened. When Johnny awakens, it won't just be him - it'll be him and V in a single entity. And the history they shared in that place is as real as you or I. After all, what is a soul?