#dbh riley

[konami-code-ao3]

The thing is that if we look at Riley from the perspective of her as a motivator for Markus to go pacifist by using her existence to give us a witness human public opinion in action within his POV, then we have to understand that her removal was the equivalent of removing Hank from Connor’s storyline.

Seriously, take the whole romance shit out of Riley’s character for a moment and just simply view her placement within the Markus POV through the lens of ‘Markus was going to interact with a human being during his second act.’ What would that have allowed the writers to accomplish that can’t exist now that she’s gone? At the very least, I believe that she would have been used as an opportunity to show an actual human reaction to what Markus had been doing within the Violence versus Pacifist question that dominates his story. And while we can only guess as to what that reaction would have been (humans only react one way within the Violence v. Pacifist question in the Markus POV, after all), at the very least, I think that we can assume with relative accuracy that would have seen Riley reacting to what had gone on in prior chapters.

if that’s the case, we have to understand that that’s what Hank exists to do within the Connor POV, and that his reactions are directly tied to Connor’s ‘good’ storyline. And while Amanda certainly exists to give us a similar series of reactions, she is tied to Connor ‘bad’ storyline in the same way that North— or perhaps Marla, for the sake of this discussion, is tied to Markus’s violent path. So if we look at Markus being caught between the two ideologies, and that Riley and North-now-Marla represent the motivators to pursue one side over the other (and seriously, take any and all romance out of the discussion, I don’t want it to apply here right now), then we genuinely have to make that comparison to Hank and Amanda because they serve a similar function within the Connor POV.

So if that’s the case, then removing Riley from Markus’s story was truly the equivalent to removing Hank from Connor’s, and I think that we can all agree that that would be a really bad idea. Because, yes, Connor’s Deviant Path could certainly function without the character of Hank being there, but that would also remove a lot of the context for why he comes to the understandings that he does within that side of his story since Hank allows for Connor to enter a space where he can question and react to what has happened in his story in direct relation to his Deviant Path. And I think that Riley’s role outside of the romance would have been that for Markus within the context of his Pacifist Path simply because she was a human within his POV and could show that side of the story.

And Markus’s story genuinely suffers because of the loss of her character.

[pls-explodingstars-pls]

Markus sacrificing his fellow androids just to clap some human cheeks?

That’s so messed up. No wonder Riley and her weird baby were cut 😭

I can’t imagine

[marcusrobertobaq]

I miss something that never existed...

[kayla1507]

D:BH Cut Content: The untold story of “Jericho”.

So I realized there’s a hidden meaning to the different murals scattered along Ferndale during Markus’ hunt for Jericho: they are in fact an easter egg to Markus’ original arc. A look into concept art shows these colorful graffiti didn’t initially exist: 

Instead Markus was supposed to follow a trail of symbols which are identical to the ones Rupert drew at [The Nest]. Now these Ferndale graffiti tell a story in meticulous order, let’s take a closer look:

The first mural we encounter at the left wall of Ferndale station draws us back to the start of Markus’ story: [Shades of Colors] as Markus stands surrounded by a mob of angry humans. Religious symbolism in form of a halo is prevalent in almost all of the murals referencing Markus. This correlates with various cut NPC dialogue naming Markus as the personification of their android savior rA9, an arc which was later removed from his character.

This mural proceeds onto the opposite wall, picturing the cop who protects Markus, the aggressors shoving him to the ground as well as a wounded, bleeding Markus (party hidden beyond the information sign).

At the end of the mural we see an intoxicated man and a person swinging a baseball bat. I’m not sure about this one, but it could possibly be referring to Markus’ violent encounter with Leo Manfred in [Broken].

The android fighting ring was an optional cut chapter had Markus successfully evaded the police in chapter [Broken]. The man depicted in the middle not only resembles Markus quite a lot, he’s also once more surrounded by what resembles a halo.

A hooded, homeless person next to a white car might seem random, but actually isn’t if you take a close look at concept art of [Jericho]. After the Fight Club was raided by human cops and Markus crawled out of the android graveyard, there’s nowhere left to go. Or is there? Not only can the white car be spotted in the upper artwork, but Markus is also wearing the same outfit on his search for Jericho, complete with a hood on his head.

This mural of a redhead girl idolized with a halo (again, the religious symbolism) depicts Riley, a human Markus befriends during his time at Jericho when she moves into her new Ferndale apartment. This may not have been long after Markus arrived at Jericho, you can see Markus is still wearing the exact same outfit.

“Still beating heart of Detroit”: Human hands are caressing a mechanical heart, symbolising the developing romance between Markus and Riley. Perhaps it’s their love that’s strong enough to convince Markus that humans and androids can coexist peacefully, despite the horrors he has suffered at humanity’s hands.

Markus helps Riley furnishing her new apartment and raise her small child. A short period of sunshine and rainbows, at least until Tracy shows up in Ferndale. Traumatized and hopeless like Markus used to be, Markus might have recognized himself in Tracy and takes her under his wing.

These four robots depict our Jericrew: Markus, Tracy, Josh and Simon. They stand united, although one of them looks special. The color red symbolizes Markus, matching the color scheme of his very first mural, but a part of himself is being passed over to a comrade, Tracy. The little red gear taken from Markus is once again circled by a halo, likely symbolizing Markus’ purity and wisdom in correlation to his mentor-student relationship with Tracy.

This woman had reminded me of Lucy before. Two heads are painted right next to her, one black and one white. I am now pretty certain it symbolizes Lucy telling Markus and Tracy their fortunes. Tracy in black, who represents shadow. Although she is hateful the gears turning in her head suggest you can still change her mind. And Markus in white, who represents the light. Which one will prevail?

This “Sparkle City” repair store mural symbolizes chapter “Spare Parts” in which the group raids a Cyberlife warehouse to gather replacement parts to repair fellow androids.

And last not but least: the fate of Jericho. Jericho’s symbol made whole, foreshadowing a perfect ending in which Markus succeeded to guide and help Tracy mature into a better person and leads Jericho to their righteous victory as they fight in unity.

Or his utter failure, Jericho torn apart. A failure for which Markus is exiled and Tracy takes the cepter for herself to enact her revenge by destroying Detroit.

Some thoughts on the topic of the cut Markus content:

I think the rewriting of Markus’ storyline— and I mean severing his connection to rA9 and Riley — hurt the immersion and his character development immensely. And working on this compilation reminded me once again of just how much Markus interesting content we missed out on.

First of all, Quantic Dream maintained the “Markus is our true leader!”-worship among Jericho. But it is no longer explained how Markus so easily converts androids cybernetically like a super spreader, or why all these deviants “follow him without question” (to recite his own words), because Markus is being no longer portrayed as rA9. And because he no longer represents rA9, the instant obedience of his newly acquired followers feels less like religious faith in their god and more like Markus reprogrammed them into mindless drones who just tag along with the plan. And while I can guess why Quantic Dream decided to leave rA9 as an ambiguous mystery, the arc would’ve added onto the mysterious backstory of Markus and also Elijah Kamski as Markus’ creator, giving these two characters some much appreciated depth.

The cut of the Fight Club was another missed opportunity to have Markus interact with people outside of Jericho and providing character growth unrelated to him being an idolized leader.

Most importantly, I think we missed out with Riley’s merge into North. Riley was (as far as we know) Markus’ only persistent connection to humankind during his time as Jericho’s leader. But with Riley’s character being cut, Markus feels entirely isolated from the outside world and quite naive when it comes to his peaceful approach. Because Riley and Markus’ love story should’ve been a major turning point to convince him there is still good in humanity and their species can coexist peacefully.

[kayla1507]

D:BH Deleted Content: Choose your companion at Capitol Park.

For the chapter Capitol Park, the player was initially able to choose their compainion for the raid: Simon, Josh or Marla (North). In the final game, it will be North by default.

In this first concept art, Markus is shown in his Capitol Park attire, as well as his three optional companions. Although this art is displayed in the same category as “Stratford Tower”, it was almost definitely meant to be used/reused for the raid. 

On a closer look, concept art #2 shows Josh and Marla running behind Markus in what seems to be the same attire as in concept art #1.

Furthermore, concept art #3 shows a compainion with male frame in what closely resembles the concept outfit of Josh.

I would’ve liked more variation for the raid, especially with Josh. While North heavily encourages a violent approach during the “sent your message” sequence, I imagine Josh would encourage a peaceful message instead. I can see the option with Simon being tricky since at this point he may be already dead for the player. Unless the chapter “Capitol Park” was once considered to take place before the chapter “Stratford Tower” (and I’m basing this solely on the fact that the timing between Eden Club, Stratford Tower and Capitol Park feels, idk, out of order? I feel like Stratford Tower + Public Enemy would’ve made much more sense after the events in Capitol Park. The time frame and location of Capitol Park seems closer to chapter Eden Club.)

The dialogue sequence, which takes place at Jericho before the actual raid, is also the sequence in which Markus’ scrapped love interest Riley is mentioned. 

While Josh and North (and Simon) fight in the ship, Markus enters the room and three possible dialogue options would’ve triggered: THINK (I wanted some quiet), FRESH AIR (I needed to get out) and RILEY (I met with Riley). Presumably, there was a scene before the raid at Capitol Park in which Riley and Markus would’ve interacted. This might explain why Markus arrives late into their argument, seemingly out of nowhere.

[kayla1507]

D:BH Deleted Content: Possibly Zhora.

Back when I was first getting sucked into the fandom and browsing concept art last year, I had encountered a blog mentioning a 4th playable character. Albeit not dropping a name, the artist commented she was scrapped during development and her model was reused as an NPC at Eden Club.

Concept Artist Mikael Leger commented on the Eden models: "Tracy! Her initial story arc was amazing…" As well as: “Remember Zhora?”

So I looked further into the NPC’s at Eden Club. One of the models with closest resemblance to the concept of Tracy/Zhora would be this one: 

Her facial template is fairly unique, as other models with her likeness can’t be found outside of Eden Club. Her face is noticably less textured than the other Tracis at the club, as if she was an early or last minute addition. 

Her official Eden model is a brunette with green eyes, however she has a dormant platinum blonde swatch hidden in her texture file along with a reddish and pink swatch. In the pictures above you can see how “Zhora” looks like with her dormant plantinum and reddish swatches activated. 

Unfortunately, the preset shaders coloring her hair are very oversaturated. Only the extracted facial texture itself shows the true honey blonde color originally intended for her model. On the side of her left ear you can see her hair being pulled up into a bun, just like in her concept art attached on the right.

Artwork Pack 05 in the official gallery contains this concept art of an android at Ferndale Station. She strongly resembles Zhora, same hair, same coat and black high heels.

It's also noteworthy that Zhora bears a striking similarity to Marla, who later evolved into North along with Markus’ human love interest, Riley. While Zhora and Marla sported long blonde hair, North ended up using Riley’s likeness (red hair and long braid). Since Zhora and Marla/North share their tragic backstory at Eden Club, it is possible they were intened to be the same person at some point during development.

[kayla1507]

D:BH Concept Art: Markus, Carl Manfred & Riley. 

Interesting enough, the concept art of Markus living with Carl shows Markus without his LED. Android markers are generally absent from his clothing. Here comes a crazy theory: what if the original character of Markus was already deviant from the start of his story? Aka the first android to ever awaken? Who’s whispered to be the mysterious rA9?

The outfit Markus’ wears at Carl’s home is also suspiciously similiar to the outfit he wears at Riley’s apartment. Could it be the same day? Could it be that the events of broken took place at Riley’s home, not Carl’s? Was this an event that riled Markus up against humanity and pushed him to break contact with Riley?

Hmmmm.

[kayla1507]

I modded Marla/Zhora’s facial texture onto North’s more refined bone structure, along with her blonde hair and green eyes. For science, you know.
I think both models look positively stunning.