Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Writer’s Original Plan for David was Worse than Warren Ellis’ Treatment of Hector in Castlevania
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners certainly had its way of traumatizing its viewers by killing off fan-favorite characters without any heads up. However, nothing compared to everything that David went through in the series. This even led many to question if Bartosz Sztybor actually hated David’s character for putting him through so much to begin with.
Sztybor during an interview with Anime Corner, revealed that he actually has some other plans for the trajectory of David’s character. And it could’ve been way worse than how Warren Ellis treated Hector in Catlevania.
How Cyberpunk: Edgerunners almost had David suffer an even more devastating fate
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was probably one of, if not the best-animated series released in 2022. However, the anime also made fans sit in a quiet room and process what they watched, especially with how David was slowly but surely finding himself drowning in despair as the show kept on progressing.
During an interview with Anime Corner, Bartosz Sztybor revealed that the original plan was for David to have an even darker ending. It is surprising considering how the the final product had fans feeling uneasy after seeing how they killed David. When asked about the notable differences between the original concept and the final product, Bartosz replied;
“As I said before, there were dozens of storylines, so there were lots of cool concepts floating around, but the final story is identical to the final product.”
“As for cool concepts, I mentioned the skill-chip-stealing trio idea that I really liked, but there was also a different — much darker for David (is that even possible?!) — ending to the David-Maine arc. Maine was getting deeper and deeper into cyberpsychosis, and much more dangerous, so David had to kill him to save the team. After that David is not the same again and he gradually gets swallowed up by his inner darkness.”
We can just assume that Bartosz’s initial plan for David was worse than what Hector faced in Castlevania. But unlike Bartosz, Warren Ellis actually admitted to wanting to torture Hector in Castlevania.
Warren Ellis reveals to have a sadistic side while writing for Castlevania
Castlevania, just like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is one of the few games that had a massive hit with their anime adaptation. However, that’s not the only similarity that the two share, as both Netflix specials seem to find pleasure in the suffering of their characters. Hector in Castlevania is one of those characters who often gets the short end of the stick. During an interview with The Verge, Warren Ellis admitted to actually enjoying watching Hector suffer. He said;
“Not on my watch! Sorry, I didn’t say that. It’s terrible, because [voice actor] Theo James, he’s got that big resonant heroic voice that immediately makes me hate him. But also, he does this thing where he can let little cracks of insecurity and vulnerability into his voice, which fascinated me. The confluence of these two things meant that I had immense fun just torturing the poor guy.”
Season 3 of Castlevania certainly has quite a lot of tragic characters. However, none comes close to Hector. Hector in season 3 was treated like an animal and some scenes in the season were definitely enough to make fans uncomfortable.
You can watch Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Castlevania on Netflix.
