BD.09: Faraday - A Fixer Consumed by Ambition

1. The Spokesperson for the Massive Consumption System of Night City

In Night City, painted in blood and neon, human life is nothing more than a disposable bullet. The entity that most embodies this ruthless truth—and is ultimately swallowed by it—is the Fixer, Faraday. In the original anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, he stands as an extremely cold-blooded “adult” and a “part of the system” that blocks the path, positioned at the exact opposite pole of the frantic and destructive youth woven by the protagonist David Martinez, Lucy, and their crew.

At the core of this work flows the philosophy unique to Cyberpunk: “High tech, low life,” where an overwhelmingly stratified society exhausts human bodies and minds as mere resources. Faraday is the intermediary who manipulates street Mercs (Edgerunners) as expendable pawns in the proxy wars of Megacorporations like Militech and Arasaka. His existence dictates that this work is not merely a tale of young tragic love or a rise to power, but a tragedy that highlights the cruelty of a massive social structure that cannot be overcome, no matter how hard one struggles.

In this report, based on multifaceted deep research, we will unravel the entirety of Faraday’s behavioral principles, the metaphors indicated by his unique character design and TRIGGER’s distinctive visual direction, and the “sense of loss” and “irony” he brought to the narrative.

2. The Fiction of “Privilege” Indicated by Visual Direction and Character Design

2.1 Neokitsch Style and the Asymmetrical Four Eyes

Faraday’s visual design speaks volumes about his inner self and social standing. Draping his slender, white-haired frame is a “Neokitsch” style suit in burgundy, featuring black trimming and yellow accents. Neokitsch is a sophisticated style favored by the upper class and celebrities of Night City, an attire that flaunts being entirely disconnected from the muddy waters and blood splatters of the streets. The fact that he always wears black gloves and perfectly sports a white button-down shirt is also a manifestation of his absolute “sense of privilege” and “superiority” over Edgerunners, signifying that he never dirties his own hands with blood directly.

And what characterizes Faraday the most, leaving a striking impression on the viewers, is his peculiar Cyberoptics featuring a total of “four eyes”—three on the right and one on the left. The asymmetrical and bizarre design, with three blue Cyberoptics aligned vertically on the right eye contrasting the single yellow one on the left, exudes an eeriness that transcends mere functional beauty.

Regarding the meaning behind this unique visual design, the following elements can be extracted from the lore of Cyberpunk and the context of animation direction.

2.2 Homage in the Visual Context and the “Unseen” Reality

Regarding Faraday’s four eyes, visual similarities to the emblem of the secret society “SEELE” from Neon Genesis Evangelion have been widely pointed out in the community as a directorial choice inheriting the lineage of the production studio TRIGGER (and its origin, GAINAX). SEELE’s logo features a design with multiple eyes, containing the metaphors of “the one who sees all” and “the one who manipulates the world from the shadows.” Faraday’s four eyes similarly symbolize his desire for self-display as the mastermind pulling the strings of the underworld.

However, the true literary meaning of these four eyes lies in the intense irony that “while he appeared to see everything, he actually failed to see what was most important.” Despite the overwhelming information-gathering capability symbolized by the three eyes on the right and the fact that he “had eyes in many places,” he thoroughly disregarded the incalculable element of human emotion. With those four eyes, he could not perceive the “truth”: David’s extraordinary love for Lucy and his spirit of self-sacrifice, the depth of the trauma Maine’s death inflicted on the team, and above all, how insignificant his own existence was to the massive Megacorporations.

3. Auditory Metaphors: The Footsteps of Ruin Played by Silence and Industrial Noise

3.1 The Dominance of a Voice Devoid of Emotion

Faraday’s cold-bloodedness is masterfully emphasized not only through visuals but also through the direction of “sound.” In the English version, Faraday is voiced by the renowned actor Giancarlo Esposito, globally known for his role as Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad. Esposito is a genius at playing the “ruthless ruler who perfectly calculates and corners his opponents without showing emotion,” and his casting defined the nature of the character Faraday. In the Japanese version as well, Kazuhiko Inoue brilliantly performs the cold-blooded Fixer who never reveals any emotion, using a quiet and intimidating tone.

Faraday’s lines in the anime are never spoken in a rage; they are always woven in a constant, low tone. His abnormal perfectionism, expressed as “When I make a plan, I must know exactly who stands where and what Chrome they are using,” instills unfathomable fear and stress in the listener through the resonance of a voice devoid of emotional fluctuation. In contrast to the “sounds of chaos”—the hustle and bustle of Night City, and the angry shouts and gunshots of David and the Edgerunners—only Faraday’s surroundings are constantly dominated by an eerie “silence” and “controlled sound.” This acoustic contrast highlights his lack of Humanity.

3.2 The “Deprivation of Humanity” Indicated by the Soundtrack

Furthermore, the soundtrack in Episodes 9 and 10, where Faraday’s conspiracy reaches its peak and the story spirals into ruin, accentuates the tragic nature brought about by his actions. In TRIGGER’s works, music is not merely BGM; it is a crucial text that explains the psychological state of the characters. Faraday’s actions are entirely unaccompanied by the emotional and human melodies that flow between David, Lucy, and the others.

Faraday’s existence is colored only by ruthless beats and dissonance. This indicates on a meta-level that he possesses absolutely no human emotions such as the dreams or love of others, and is an “empty man” composed solely of pure ambition and formulas. What he sought to obtain at the cost of the blood shed by David and the others was an excessively inorganic and cold vanity.

4. The Duality of the Illusion of Being “Special”: A Structural Contrast with the Boy Who Wears the Dreams of Others

At the center of the philosophical themes flowing at the base of this work lies “the youth’s illusion of being special (omnipotence and setback).” David Martinez believed himself to be special, based on his “unique constitution” wherein his body possessed an abnormally high tolerance for military-grade Chrome (such as the Sandevistan). On the other hand, Faraday was also deeply trapped in the illusion that “I am special,” albeit in a completely different vector. He and David share a mirror-like contrasting structure in that both aimed for the top within the system of Night City.

David’s behavioral principle was always “to carry the dreams of others.” His mother Gloria’s dream for him to climb to the top of Arasaka Tower, Maine’s dream as an Edgerunner living life in the fast lane, and Lucy’s dream to go to the moon. To fill his own emptiness, he successively wore the “curses” of others’ dreams, and under that heavy pressure (including the physical weight of his Chrome), he hurtled toward Cyberpsychosis. He trusted his crew absolutely and did not shy away from self-sacrifice.

In contrast, the source of Faraday’s motivation is pure “personal ambition.” Unsatisfied with his status as a street Fixer, he craved to rise into the official ranks of a Megacorporation (Arasaka). The basis of his “specialness” was an overconfidence in his own intellectual superiority, such as his information network, negotiation skills, and planning abilities. While David chipped away at his life to protect his crew, Faraday viewed his associates (Edgerunners) merely as disposable pawns for his own advancement.

He maneuvered between the two giants, Militech and Arasaka, attempting to secure his passport to the privileged class by offering Arasaka the ultimate test subject, David, and the exceptional Netrunner (Lucy) who had continuously erased Tanaka’s data. Faraday believed that “I alone am different from the other Fixers and street scum,” intoxicated by the sense of omnipotence that he could outsmart the Corpo system.

“Ambition” was another form of Cyberpsychosis, where illegal street dwellers swarmed toward the phantom light of the Corpos. Just as David wore himself down through the dreams of others, Faraday too was swallowed by the bottomless desire of his own ambition, completely losing his Humanity.

5. The Boundary Between Fact and Speculation: The Dynamics of Betrayal and the True Intentions of the Corpos

Towards the end of the story, Faraday succeeds in turning Kiwi, the team’s veteran Netrunner, to collapse David’s team from the inside. By logically separating and unraveling the facts explicitly stated in the anime from the speculations discussed in the community regarding Kiwi’s betrayal, Faraday’s negotiation tactics, and Arasaka’s true motives, the contours of Faraday’s fate become clearer.

As a fact explicitly stated in the anime, Faraday fails to achieve results in recovering data regarding Arasaka’s Cyberskeleton project, losing his protection from Militech. For his own self-preservation and advancement, he makes the grave decision to defect to Arasaka, his former target. As a parting gift, he plotted the capture of the Netrunner (Lucy) who had killed Arasaka agents and concealed information, and the securing of a test subject (David) for the field test of the Cyberskeleton. Faraday approached Kiwi, urging her to abandon David’s team and participate in his plan; as a result, Kiwi traps Lucy and hands her over to Faraday. Ultimately, however, once the bargaining chips for Arasaka were assembled, Faraday ruthlessly shoots Kiwi to “silence” her, inflicting a fatal wound (subsequently, Kiwi loses her life due to the pursuit of Faraday’s subordinates).

On the other hand, as a speculation deeply debated in the community, there is an analysis of the internal motives as to why Kiwi, who had shared joys and sorrows since Maine’s era, succumbed so easily to Faraday’s temptation. Many theorists point out that this was not merely for financial reward or self-preservation, but because “Maine’s rampage due to Cyberpsychosis and his tragic death” had implanted an unhealing trauma in Kiwi’s psyche. When Maine developed Cyberpsychosis, Kiwi was mercilessly beaten by him, suffering deep physical and mental wounds. From this gruesome experience, a fear took root in her heart that David, the new leader rapidly increasing his Chrome, would inevitably go on a rampage just like Maine, dragging the entire team into ruin. Faraday, with the sharp observation skills of his four eyes, accurately saw through Kiwi’s “fear” and “distrust of the team,” masterfully stimulating her defensive instinct to “trust no one” to make her betray them.

Furthermore, regarding how the Arasaka side (executives like counterintelligence agents Douglas and Kate) evaluated Faraday, there is an important speculation that deepens the tragedy of the story. Even while David, equipped with the Cyberskeleton, was displaying a terrifying rampage toward Arasaka Tower, Douglas and the others maintained an extremely cold and high-handed attitude toward the frantic Faraday. According to meticulous analysis by the community, it is highly likely that Arasaka never had the slightest intention of welcoming Faraday, who was nothing more than a street Fixer, as an “official Corpo employee” with favorable treatment from the very beginning. Arasaka’s objective was strictly the collection of combat data for the Cyberskeleton and the securing of the key person of interest, Lucy. Faraday firmly believed without a doubt that he was an “excellent player” of the game and was dealing with the Corpos on equal footing, but from the Corpos’ perspective, he too was nothing more than a disposable “dirty worker (rat)” on the board.

Just as Faraday, whom Kiwi trusted, betrayed her, Arasaka, whom Faraday trusted, did not save him either. Faraday’s negotiation tactics and dynamics of betrayal were extremely top-tier in terms of exploiting human weakness and fear, but all they brought about was endless paranoia and cold nothingness.

6. Human Consumption in a Stratified Society: The Limits and Downfall of a Fixer

Night City is a massive meat grinder that consumes humans themselves as resources. In the world of “High tech, low life,” human bodies and lives are nothing more than inorganic cogs for Megacorporations to generate enormous profits and control society.

Ordinary Fixers secure their own safety and status by positioning themselves on the “management side” of this gruesome consumption structure. Their basic philosophy is to pass clients’ requests from right to left, looking down from safe offices in high-rise buildings as street Mercs shed blood and die. Faraday himself once boasted to Maine, “I am in a position to see the big picture, and you are in a position to just listen and obey. That is what business is,” flaunting his own inviolable safe zone.

However, driven by the disproportionate ambition to “become an Arasaka executive,” he makes a fatal mistake. He stepped down from the safe spectator seats and set foot onto the bloodstained game board himself. The moment he restrained Lucy with his own hands and went to the direct transaction site (the docking bay) with Arasaka’s Douglas and others, he fell from a “manager (Fixer)” to a “player (target).”

The “Cyberskeleton (an anti-gravity prototype weapon equipped with a gravity control device),” given to David like a sneak attack, was literally a cursed piece of equipment that exhausted the body and mind of the human who equipped it to the absolute limit. Faraday plotted to consume David’s life as a test part for this weapon, but the vortex of that extreme consumption structure ended up dragging Faraday himself into it in an unpredictable manner. To the Corpos standing at the pinnacle of the stratified society, no matter how much the lower-class humans racked their brains, made meticulous plans, and piled up betrayals, it ultimately looked like nothing more than “street rats” cannibalizing each other in a dumpster. Faraday’s ambition, far from making him a special existence, ironically resulted in degrading him into the cheapest of consumables.

7. The Contrast of Demise: Gravity and the Merciless “Death by Irony”

7.1 Walking Despair: The Denial of Existence by Adam Smasher

In the story’s climax, Episode 10 “My Moon My Man,” Faraday’s perfect plan completely collapses due to the extraordinary rampage and obsession with love of David, who has crossed the boundary of Cyberpsychosis. Near the top of Arasaka Tower—the “highest point of the Corpos” that Faraday most admired and craved to reach—his ambition is shattered by ultimate violence.

Embodying that overwhelming violence is the appearance of Adam Smasher, Arasaka’s ultimate weapon and the legendary cyborg who is the very walking despair of the Corpos. Faced with this monster who descended to eliminate David, who was approaching using the anti-gravity device, Faraday, panicked by the threat to his own life, shouts, “You’re just a Merc! Do your job (kill that brat) already!”

Adam Smasher’s response to this was an extremely ruthless phrase that fundamentally denied the life and self-evaluation of the man named Faraday up to that point.

“Who the fuck are you?”

This single phrase was the final and absolute answer to Faraday’s life. No matter how meticulously he planned, how many people he betrayed to build a sea of blood, or how much he served Arasaka, to those standing at the top of Arasaka, Faraday was nothing more than “an entity equivalent to nothingness, not even worth remembering the name of.” This scene, where the cold-blooded Fixer who thought he saw through and controlled everything with his four eyes is “completely ignored” by the most powerful force of the organization he tried to join, thrusts a spine-chillingly bitter irony and the bottomless cruelty of the Night City system right before the viewers’ eyes.

7.2 “Death by Irony” Brought About by Gravity

And Faraday’s final moments are depicted literarily as the pinnacle of “Death by Irony” in visual media.

Caught in the aftermath of the supernatural and destructive battle between David and Adam Smasher, Faraday loses his footing and is thrown from the upper floors of Arasaka Tower into the darkness of the night. The sight of him falling is depicted mercilessly yet beautifully, interspersed with slow motion. In complete contrast to David, who used the power of anti-gravity to ascend into the sky and aim for the moon for his beloved Lucy, Faraday is pulled by overwhelming “gravity,” plummeting headfirst into the abyss (the streets).

He panics in mid-air, desperately requesting rescue using his Trauma Team Platinum Membership, which was the symbol of his privilege. However, immediately after crashing into the windshield of the arriving Trauma Team AV (aircraft), he is crushed along with the AV by the extraordinary massive body of Adam Smasher, who came falling at breakneck speed in pursuit of David, turning into a gruesome piece of meat on the cold asphalt of the streets.

• The man who always manipulated others from behind the scenes loses all control and falls through the void.

• The man who read ahead on the board with his four eyes overlooks the overwhelming violence (Smasher) raining down from right above his own head.

• The man who aimed to leap into the upper class (Corpo) is bound and crushed by the gravity of the lowest tier (the streets).

This fatal fall was the perfect punishment for his arrogance. The weight of the life he tried to steal from David, and the life he took by betraying Kiwi, literally became physical gravity and crushed him.

Conclusion: The Cyberpsychosis Named Ambition and the Deep Sense of Loss Left Behind

What was the “meaning” left behind by the existence of Faraday in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners? It is the presentation of an absolute sense of nihilism—that in the city of Night City, “winners” never existed from the very beginning.

David and Lucy burned their lives out for each other’s love and dreams, and that momentary brilliance radiated a heart-striking, overwhelming beauty even amidst the madness of Cyberpsychosis. On the other hand, what Faraday burned was 100% pure ambition and egoism. He loved no one and carried no one’s dreams. That is precisely why his death is accompanied by no sentimentality or beautiful tragedy. His remains scattered in the back alley are nothing more than mere raw garbage, destined to be inorganically cleared away by Night City’s automated sweeper drones the next morning.

The illusion of “I am special” causes the youth of the streets to excessively install Implants, eventually leading them to Cyberpsychosis and ruin. However, Faraday, who wore a high-end Neokitsch suit and detested the smell of blood, was also afflicted with the severe hallucination that “I alone can outsmart the system of this rotten city and climb to the top.” It can be said that he too was just one of the nameless “psychopaths” that Night City regularly produces and mercilessly consumes.

The silent, soundless moon that Lucy reached all alone. Under its cold and beautiful glow, the ambition harbored by the man named Faraday melted and vanished into the deep darkness of Night City, leaving no trace behind. The true nature of this heart-wrenching sense of loss—it is the endless starvation of this city itself, which equally and mercilessly exhausts both those who lived frantically and those who lived cold-bloodedly. Faraday’s pitiful death thrusts that desperate truth before us in the most ruthless and perfect form.