I was going to start reviewing this story earlier, but illness, work and studies got in the way. Well, no more excuses. Let's get to it.
Science is what truly changes the world. People like Senji are revolutionary figures. And unlike people who claim to be tech pioneers but in fact are just mostly grifters who massively overblow the value of their products, Senji is the real deal. His guns work.
I'm going to take a guess and say that Senji doesn't like China very much, and not just because he's Japanese.
You don't go to a school - any school - to learn anything. You do it to acquire a piece of paper that will hopefully increase your chances of building a career. If you want to actually learn something, you'll have to do it yourself. Senji seems to have caught on to this quick. Good for him.
I'm currently in university (part-time). I'm not impressed by it. But again; actual learning isn't the point. I'm just after that piece of paper.
Hm. And yet Senji does enjoy some literature, and he has to be skilled in mathematics to some degree.
To be fair, he IS a genius after all. He must be so bored in school.
"If you want something done right, do it yourself."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"You go into the restaurant business because people are always going to have to eat. That was the day I learned that my destiny lay in fulfilling another basic human need."
- Lord of War (2005)
Anyone who says that engineers are "losers" should be forced to live in the wilderness with no technology whatsoever.
"I can do more damage on my laptop sitting in my pajamas before my first cup of Earl Grey than you can a year in the field."
"Any idiot can make a sword."
Mega City One.
Senji is now moving from firearms to armor.
He may be approached - or may decide of his own volition - to start working on vehicles.
There is so much more than just a skilled combatant. How many personnel are required to support and supply just one clandestine field operative?
I love the idea that being too successful (getting nat 20) can have consequences.
If Senji were just a genius mechanic and smith, that would be one thing. But he has more than that. He has charisma. A force of personality. He draws people to himself and puts them under his spell, often without fully realizing it.
Never let go of your dream, Senji. Never lose hope, and never stop fighting.
So these are the three possible origins/backgrounds for our current protagonist, and in the end the Lonely Rich Kid was selected.
I'm curious if there is a Street-Smart Scavenger and Crusading Homemaker somewhere in this story.
Do they even know what it is that they want? What were their own childhoods like?
A major theme of the Yakuza game series, across all of the games, is parenthood.
Senji's background may ensure that there will be people who will not trust him no matter what he says or does.
I'm going to say that there are far too many cases in real life in which it would be better for the child if their particular parent (or even both parents) were mostly absent from their lives.
And this is supposed to be a luxury apartment. Imagine what the other residential areas are like.
Authoritarian parents should be very careful of what they allow their children to read. My own parents should have never allowed me to actually read the Bible page-by-page when I was little. That book is one hell of a trip. So much murder in it.
Anyone who's actually read the Bible won't be able to attend an evangelical church and keep a straight face throughout the songs and sermons.
So he is self-taught. No one trained him to do this. Senji was born to be a techie.
Had he not turned out to be a techie himself, Senji could have made a living by being an illegal supplier.
Malcolm would undoubtedly have disassembled and examined the new weapons that Senji provided to him.
I would be more afraid for Senji if it is just one person who is attempting to murder him as opposed to a whole team.
He's got Stella and Malcolm now, as well as Kenji. But in my opinion Senji needs to build his network. At the same time, the more people he gathers to him, the greater the risk of exposure and/or betrayal. Choose your partners and allies carefully.
Who are the faculty going to find to replace you as the person who is keeping the school from falling apart? By the way, I find it hilarious that practically every day, something needs to be done just to keep the school running.
It's not just Senji's parents. Others are now taking note of him, concerned of his having met the person only known as Ghost.
Everything in the Family. Nothing outside the Family. Nothing Against the Family.
Russian drone design and production is highly centralized, while Ukrainian drone design and production is the opposite.
In a way this works in Senji's favor. People aren't going to suspect that this silly little corpo kid swaggering around with a revolver could possibly be the now-legendary Ghost.
Honestly, this may be Senji's greatest hurdle in this story. I don't think he could ever fully escape his background as one of the 'corpo elites.'
The people of the streets despise them, not knowing that for many of these elite-class youths, they too are suffering in their own way.
Magoose, for my own personal headcanon, I like to imagine that somewhere in Night City, there is a young Polish woman named Miroslawa living a very difficult and unforgiving life on the streets, struggling just to survive day-by-day as a techie. Polish History Be Like.
Growing up on the streets of this place...you'd have to be hard as nails.
Nice, so in this background, the Street-Smart Scavenger already is well-known to the gangs and mercenaries, which is both good and bad.
Makes me think of the plot of Iron Man 3, where Tony Stark had for some time no access to his lab and needed to make do with what he could find.
How to make a knife.
I'm now imagining Senji coming into contact with the Street-Smart Scavenger; someone who is very similar to him and yet also very different.
Senji has done surprisingly well in the concert, but that is clearly not his area of expertise. He is a craftsman, not a fighter. Had he been forced to claw and struggle in the streets of Night City from a very young age, he would be a very different person.
"Is that a Z-140?"
Unfortunately yes. As a street scavenger, you make do with what you can get.
Your name is all you have. I think honesty and frankness is important in that line of work. Make it clear to your customers and clients that your products are short-term effective and that they should not expect them to last very long.
Can't blame them.
Darn it, I just love the idea of Senji meeting the Scavenger and the two of them never liking or trusting each other.
Again; hard as goddamn nails. Someone who lives a life like this? You gotta respect them just for surviving this far.
But survival may not be the only thing that they want.
This city is a terrible place. People die all the time. Or worse.
I suspect the Scavenger may be someone who lives by a code; trust no one. Absolutely no one. There are no friends, no allies. Only interests. The Scavenger may have charisma of their own...but they may also be a despicable person who won't hesitate to shoot or stab an erstwhile ally in the back. This isn't someone living in a luxury apartment. Out on the street, it's kill or be killed, and you cannot hesitate, not for even a second.
Senji can find the time to go to class, attend a party, enjoy a concert. I'm guessing the Scavenger doesn't have time for that stuff. Every day is a struggle to survive.
In my opinion this is the most optimistic of the three backgrounds, but it also has the most glaring weaknesses/cons.
I see the name given to the person of this background is James Hamilton. That's it, my headcanon is that it's not his real name.
Having very close personal bonds is both very good and very bad. It's not just your own life that you are responsible for.
Interesting. So the Homemaker may not be as passionate about being a techie as someone like Senji who takes so much pride and joy in his work. Heh, that may tick off Senji; that the Homemaker is just as talented and skilled and brilliant as him in the same field of work, without being anywhere near as passionate about it.
Love is one hell of a motivator...it can make people do wonderful things, as well as terrible. There may be no low that the Homemaker will not sink to, in order to protect the people he loves.
"No one f-ks with my family."
Interesting. So the Homemaker mostly sells security measures? And they seem to sell to people who are more defense than offense-minded.
That is an admirable motivation.
Now I'm imagining Senji being about to enter a borough in Night City, and is told that there is this person who watches over the entire area. Raise a hand against anyone in there, and he will ensure that you pay dearly. Terrible examples are made of anyone who threatens the inhabitants, and even the roughest and meanest gangs now steer clear of the place after he stated - in no uncertain terms - to a group of gangsters that this borough is under his protection.
Now I am terrified.
Hm. But what happens if the Homemaker or anyone else has to leave the borough?
Some may say that they are holding the Homemaker back.
So not many connections beyond the borough, be it on the streets or among the elites. Seems like this borough is rather closed off, almost isolationist. They are very close-knit and tribalist and mostly look out for their own. Can't say I blame them. Senji may have great difficulty in just trying to approach them, never mind win their trust.
It seems that the Homemaker has a limited client/customer base, and will not sell to people they do not trust. Meanwhile, I doubt the Street-Smart Scavenger has as much choice in choosing and picking their customers.
This made me smile. I'm so glad this story exists.
