#cyberpunk rant

[thequeenofuselessinformation]

Listen one thing that irks me about an alarming amount of cyberpunk fans is the dismissal of Jackie and V's friendship?? We didn't have a chance/reason to get attached, who cares about his death DO Y'ALL LACK TIME/CONTEXT AWARENESS?

I can't speak for the other paths yet, but Corpo!V is so close with Jackie. He picks V up when they have nothing left to give. They live, hang and work together after V getting terminated by Arasaka, but even without that, you can contextually tell they are close even before that.

I often see comments about how his death doesn't affect V in real time. Sure, the game doesn't give us a damn grieving period, but in reality neither Night City, nor a death sentence in the form of the relic would. Still, there's so many chances in the game to speak about Jackie, to commemorate him and his achievements, to connect with others over his devastating to V loss. You can always drink in his honor in several missions/quests. You can talk about him every time someone brings up loss. You can mention him to your love interests and other characters throughout your journey. And the warmth and somberness of V's voice every time they do never fails to make me tear up.

If you chose to play your V as a lonewolf edgelord that's fine, but the canon narrative certainly suggests otherwise. V often has the opportunity to choose good, and friendship and love, and to live by their own code that may not fit lawful parameters but it's from the heart.

Jackie being important to V is a choice. Talking about him, checking in on his mother (the fact the devs give us the option to call her?? Chef's kiss) after his passing, including him in all your big celebrations and pity parties is a choice. As is friendship, and chosen family, big components of this game.

Not to get sentimental but What is grief if not love persevering?

[rustycabinet]

Kerry's Bisexuality and the reaction to characters cannon sexuality/preferences

One thing I've noticed since getting into Cyberpunk is the insistence that you should be able to romance Kerry when you play as female V and I understand where these people are coming from but some of their reasonings are lowkey biphobic. I've seen people say that because Kerry is canonically bisexual that means he HAS to be into fem V even when its clear he's not interested in women during the game. I've seen people say that him being bisexual should not have been cannon because of it and I want to explain why that's biphobic. I am a gay man so if you're bisexual feel free to correct me if I am wrong. The only thing someone has to have to be bisexual is attraction to more than one gender, they do not have to want to actively pursue every gender to be bisexual. If a bisexual person has to pursue both men and women (because people who think like this usually don't even acknowledge the existence of non-binary people) to be "actually bisexual" then wouldn't a bi man who is in a relationship with another man just be gay? would a bi man who is in a relationship with a women be straight? Would a bisexual person even be able to be monogamous? Would they HAVE to be poly to be a "real" bisexual? . Bisexual people are allowed to have preferences and that doesn't make them any less bisexual. On another note, I've noticed this pattern emerging over the past few years when It comes to characters cannon sexualities/preferences. I first noticed this with Dylan from The Quarry. Dylan is canonically gay and does not show any romantic or sexual interest in women throughout the entire game. I was there when The Quarry fandom was tiny and barely had any posts on Tumblr but as the game grew in popularity I started seeing a lot of posts from women who where very upset at the fact that Dylan was gay and where insisting that he had to like women. Their posts where them being angry that people would call Dylan gay and insisting that he also liked women. The people that think Kerry has to like fem V for him to actually be bisexual and the women who would get angry when people would state that Dylan is in fact gay, give me the same vibe. I've just been seeing an uptick in people getting angry when characters have confirmed sexualities/preferences. This isn't just towards male characters this goes for female characters to. If you want to romance Kerry as fem V then get a mod that allows you to. It's not hard. You're allowed to like a character and even ship yourself with them even when in real life they would not like you back due to their sexuality/preferences. I think this "every character has to be exactly how I want them to be so I don't feel bad shipping myself with them" mindset is harmful to both you and the people who create these games. I just think it's very entitled to want an entire characters cannon to change just so you don't feel bad shipping yourself with them.

[thequeenofuselessinformation]

I think the biggest irony is that no matter what life path, backstory, or affiliation my OC/V comes from, they are ultimately always more 'ganic than chrome. Yes, even my Maelstrom-affiliated OC.

In a world that is already extremely reliant on technology and cyberware, I refuse to let my characters lose their humanity, and the autonomy that grants. It's stupid, and highly projecting, but I cannot bring myself to borg them out any more than absolutely necessary.

Hell, the hand cyberware Viktor gives V in canon before the heist bothered me so much for a very stupid reason: the sense of touch is a very odd and personal thing to me. Choosing to put cyberware in their hands (though I'm pretty sure there is feeling in there according to cyberpunk 2077 logic), the same hands we see hold other characters throughout the story so gently, vexes me. I can never bring myself to give them extremely inhuman eyes, either (although I know V wears Kiroshis, so big whoop anyway). I've never been a The end justifies the means kinda person. And if I lost the chance of feeling texture with my own fingertips I'd be devastated. The element of body horror in the procedures these cyberware installations require is also a personal ick of mine.

There's something so stupidly, stubbornly human in me that refuses these body modifications, even though the whole concept of the game revolves around this normalized change in (technological) evolution. The only OC I have that replaces their limbs with chrome does it out of necessity, and by force.

I understand that I'm probably the exception of the rule, cause, obviously, "it's a damn game, roll with it". But there's something so somber about the excessiveness of cyberpunks, perhaps a mirror into a future I'm so terrified of becoming reality - a world where humanity is reduced into something you can profit off of, and the endless pursuit of the unattainable.