Lot of opinions on the VDBS and Brigitte, most strong and negative, so here’s why most of that hate is misplaced and why the outcome was obvious from the moment you step into the church:
(I made this a while back but figured I’d bring it to the real blog platform. Also I wanna point out before anything that I am part of the closed practice that is vodún and I speak from not only my opinion, but my knowledge of the practice.
I ask that you all be respectful when sharing opinions for the spirits only see children as innocents.)
If you understand vodou, you already know what’s going to happen when you meet Maman Brigitte. The quest doesn’t trick you or lie to you, it warns you, over and over.
To start, (Maman) Brigitte’s name tells you everything you need to know. In vodou, Maman Brigitte is a Loa of the Dead, ruling over cemeteries, balancing the afterlife and limbo. She is a guardian spirit, pragmatic and fierce. She is ruthless with those who don’t show respect and merciful to those that do. She is NOT a saint and is not here to coddle. She is a gatekeeper and when you meet the VDBs, what is Brigitte doing? She’s offering you a deal. Will you be respectful? That’s the players choice, ofc.
In Vodun, there is a limbo, the realm of the Loa, the dead and unseen forces. That place in this world, it’s the Blackwall.
(I come back to this quote a lot because it actually made me cry; but it esp gives you an entire history lesson if you know what to look for.)
Let’s take it a lil back now: you have to understand Haitian history. The Haitian Revolution was the first successful slave revolt where enslaved Africans overthrew the French and created the first free Black republic.
Vodou was a product of syncretism and how people held onto their ancestral practices while surviving under catholic rule and enslavement. The spirits are wise and will move where they need to for their spirit communicates through their people.
Keep this in mind.
Vodou isn’t just a “religion”, it’s a way that we have managed to stay connected to source while the world has made it almost impossible.
The vdbs are carrying that same spirit into the cyber age. They don’t trust outsiders because history has taught them not to. Their ancestral word has remained and evolved, this is shown throughout Pacifica, esp highlighted when you reach the slaughterhouse. Yes, Chickens are toxic but that tradition has nothing to do with the mortal consumption because it’s for spirit to consume that sacrifice.
The Blackwall is more than a security system, it’s a digital spirit realm. A boundary between the known Net and something beyond human control and because of this, most fear it (ahhhh science vs spirit, amirite???).
In Vodou, the world of spirits is always present, only priests and initiates can communicate with it. The vdbs treat rogue AIs like Loa, unpredictable, powerful forces that can be called upon, bargained with and/or feared. Where other netrunners see chaos (looking at you, netwatch), the vdbs are doing what they always have, ceremony.
This can be seen by the holographic veves on the wall, sacred symbols that act as spiritual markers, summoning tools and seals. In traditional Vodou, veves are drawn on the ground in cornmeal, flour, ash to call upon the Loa.
(Pictured are a series of veves, the one shaped like a boat symbolizes Agwe, ring a bell?)
The vdbs have taken this and adapted it for cyberspace. Instead of drawing veves with their hands, they code them into the Net. Instead of summoning spirits, they attempt to contact AIs beyond the Blackwall. This isn’t superstition, mishandling or experimentation, it’s cyber-spirituality.
The Voodoo Boys aren’t evil, they’re resistance fighters. They don’t play by NC rules because those rules were never made for them.
They are digital mystics, cyber priests, and the inheritors of a long line of revolutionaries. They aren’t clinging to the past. They are creating a new spiritual world, one where the ancestors walk in cyberspace and the Loa are made of code.
They aren’t evil, they’re what happens when people refuse to be erased. To end that quest on a bad note is because you shunned spirit.
You don’t even have to punch Placide.
Bonus thoughts for the quest: you find The Hermit card above the church.
The Hermit symbolizes a wanderer that distances themselves in order to connect with their inner, this includes temptation and outside influences.
A hermit reversed is that wanderer with good intentions but ultimately, listening to those darker more maddening thoughts, leading them to isolation, not enlightenment.
To add: I don’t believe they are responsible to what happens to Eve. I don’t they were blindly being reckless with the Blackwall, Alt wouldn’t allow that. The implications that the orishas adapted with rogue ais is masterfully done, Alt being one of them.
Blaming the vdbs for what happened to Evelyn is misguided and ignores the real forces at play.
Evelyn was discarded, just as countless people are in Night City. She made a gamble, got caught in something bigger than herself, and was ultimately failed by a system that preys on the powerless. The vdbs didn’t hurt her; they simply saw her as no longer useful and let her go. It was the fixers and pimps who exploited and brutalized her, not them.
Saying that siding with netwatch is the “best” choice is equally naive, considering the game constantly reinforces that governments and corporations are NOT the good guys. Netwatch doesn’t want to protect people from rogue AIs, they want control over them, just as Arasaka and Militech do. The idea that a government-backed organization should have authority over AI rather than an indigenous, spiritual, and technologically adept group like the vdbs is not just naive, but deeply prejudiced.
It’s rooted in the same colonial mindset that assumes corporate and state power is inherently more legitimate than native knowledge. The vdbs aren’t playing at magic, they understand the forces they’re dealing with in a way netwatch never will.
Siding with netwatch isn’t choosing order over chaos, it’s choosing corporate colonialism over self determination.
Blaming them for Evelyn is just lazy, in my opinion.
And before any think pieces come in, I do not tolerate anything that can even be seen as antiblack, colorist or racist. This essay was made with mindfulness because many vilify the vdbs without much thought as to why, the same reason many Haitians face prejudice.
