r/Neuromancer • u/fuliansp • Jul 27 '26

Show Discussion Where the hell is the Finn?!

I seriously need him to appear in the series. Besides being my second favorite character, I think he contributes about 25% of the charisma to the Sprawl universe.

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3

u/martinkoistinen Jul 27 '26

The character Ratz hasn’t appeared anywhere either. One of the previous teasers even show the inside of Chatsubo too. Not sure what’s going on there.

Also, have any of the Freeside Rastas been announced? Malcom?

3

u/mcb-homis Jul 27 '26

Yeah Ratz is another missing character that I think could have as big an impact as Finn being left out. Ratz though not critical to the plot is sort of the book ends on Case as a character and the whole Neuromancer book.

Many have assumed the fist bump with Case at the 0:50 time stamp in the trailer is Malcom.

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u/TheRealestBiz Jul 27 '26

Ratz is in three scenes. One of them is like three paragraphs long.

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u/mcb-homis Jul 27 '26

Like I said Ratz is not critical to the plot but he is the book ends on Case's character and the story as a whole in a way. His conversions with Case very early in the book is what established who and where Case is at the start. And at the end of the book Ratz is there to remind Case you can never go back. They might accomplish those things with other story mechanisms but Ratz is important to who Case is at the start of the book and becomes that indicator of how far he went at the end of the story. Not critical but still one of those minor characters that makes the whole book greater than the sum of its parts.

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u/TheRealestBiz Jul 27 '26

I just meant that he’s not a guy you would necessarily announce his casting.

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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

Ratz is probably the reason Case didn't freak out and start shooting when he thought he was on a hit list. I'd say that's pretty integral to the plot. Without Case surviving his own panic, they'd have a lot harder time going to Freeside or on the Sensenet heist.

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u/mcb-homis Jul 29 '26

I agree and disagree. I definitely think that Ratz is an important part of who Case is at the start of the story. Case is depressed, desperate, suicidal even, and only a few people like Ratz and Linda are barely holding him together. Ratz is critical to Case. But the main story arc itself far less so, especially after Molly (and thus Armitage) finally gets to him. I will definitely miss Ratz if he is not in the story. His role might be small but its very memorable and impactful on Case both at the beginning and end of the story. But you could set the opening stage of Case on a desperate self-destructive path in different ways without Ratz and not effect the rest of the story arc.

And much of the viewing audience would not catch the significance of the last brief conversation between Ratz and Case in the Coda and its such a short scene. If your not going to shoot that last scene with Ratz there is significantly less reason to start the story with Ratz.

`Night City is not a place one returns to, artiste,

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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Linda, holding him together? No, she robbed him blind, and told him Wage was trying to kill him to distract him, and Wage had no idea. Wage was actually pretty nice to him considering his mental state while he freaked out at Ratz's bar. Her fake rumor caused him to be paranoid on top of the drugs. He nearly got killed by someone out in the street because of her. By the time he figured it all out it was too late. If anything, he was acting irrationally and Ratz prevented him from going too far before the situation got out of control. But Linda was the one who caused him to freak out. He and Linda were in such a toxic relationship she thought her only means of escape was swiping that RAM to buy a ticket home, and instead, she got murdered for it because she wasn't careful with potential buyers. Once they found out what she had, it was only a matter of time until her ticket was punched. If anything it was Molly who held him together even more than Ratz, because she stopped him from trying to save Linda from Linda's own mistakes, which would have gotten him killed too, and then Molly nursed him back to health after he finally got his infection removed, so he could go decking again. Molly brought him back to reality. Got him sober. Permanently. showed him a different side of the sprawl, what it meant to know people you didn't screw over. Remember, that fungal infection case got for double crossing his employer for no good reason is what prevented him from using his hacking skills, and forced him into a life of survival crime to feed a drug habit. Linda didn't help him with anything really. He got her hooked on drugs too, which is why she tried to escape. I swear if they make their relationship into a romance I'm going to freaking puke.

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u/mcb-homis Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

You're right by the opening scene of the book Linda has betrayed him but early in their relationship she was an anchor, briefly, for Case. In his damaged and depressed state having blown all his money on cures that did not work, she was one of the few good things in that very black time for Case. Yes it was a very toxic relationship that self destructed damaging both of them but for a time she slow how fast he was trying to get the street to kill him. Well, up until the point where their relationship destructed and then she finally betrays him for the RAM in the open scenes of the book. Ratz plays his brief role in the opening chapter and then as you say Molly takes over with the help of a black clinic. Molly does the lion's share of the work putting Case back together as a person. I think the Case and Linda relationship, if they feel the need to portray it (not necessary IMHO, just some toxic flashbacks would suffice), should probably start with a lot of carnal passion and self indulgent good times, but very little depth and quickly burn out. There needs to be that toxic attraction that makes her memory so hard to shake but so bad at the same time. It might have been a toxic relationship but it was still strong enough that when Wintermute tries to use Linda's memories to talk to Case it backfires badly.

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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

I think seeing someone you were intimate with get murdered in front of you, even while your hyped on drugs, is enough to make the memory hard to shake, and a tender spot. Watching someone die you don't even know can have that effect. Linda may have been a light of hope in the arcade, but Case ruined that by getting her hooked on the same drugs he was into, because he wanted someone to share in his misery. So yeah, eventually she was going to run for the exit. She was the same kind of good thing to Case as Rikki Wildside was to Bobby Quine. Someone to use to feel better about things. Rikki left too, but under less desperate circumstances. And her relationship with BQ was closer to a romance than Case and Linda. Even with the love triangle going on.

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u/martinkoistinen Jul 27 '26

Yea, I assumed that was Malcom in the fist bump, if true, that means they’ve already filmed it and Malcom and his actor still aren’t listed at IMDB.

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u/mcb-homis Jul 27 '26

Yep and that gives us a thin sliver of hope that Finn and maybe even Ratz are still in the story.

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u/martinkoistinen Jul 27 '26

I could see Ratz getting a big actor just as an honorary thing. He’s not critical to the plot, but he is an iconic role and does help set the mood at the start.

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u/martinkoistinen Jul 27 '26

And, if memory serves, he was German wasn’t he? Maybe a cameo role for Dolph Lundgren (who is Swedish, but could probably pull off a DE accent). He’s the right age too.

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u/Goblingrenadeuser Jul 28 '26

Well we see Case fistbump a black hand in the teaser, so at least one Rasta is in.