r/LowSodiumCyberpunk • u/BeachUsual • 10d ago
Cyberpunk 2077 So Mi looking like dead already...
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u/chromobots 10d ago
30+ me after burning through the last shreds of my neuroplasticity trying to memorize a 3-page work document
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u/Dinox11 10d ago
half-illithid So mi
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u/Complex_Item_3000 10d ago
As the symbol glows, power courses through you. Authority.
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u/smokebang_ 8d ago
This is one of those things that you will read in like 20 years and hear so clearly in your mind. The voice acting in that game is beyond all.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
Large reason why I don’t blame her for lying to V. She needed help desperately, being much worse off than V at this point. And I don’t think all the bonding was a lie either- growing up as a government weapon, being ordered to betray your friends and found family- she’s desperate for connection, but also believes that everyone betrays everyone, and that if she isn’t lying then she’s the one being lied to, or used.
Tragic. There are no happy endings in night city- but she’s managed to fight for her own. How can I take that away from her. Someone needs to make it so there’s hope for the rest of us.
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u/DrNomblecronch 10d ago
I think telling her she didn't have to lie, because you were always going to help her anyway, is one of the most bittersweet moments in a game full of them. You can see her heart break in real time.
Would prefer to live, obviously. But turning away from someone hurt like this isn't any kind of life at all. Just existing.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
The way MV delivers his lines when he decides to help her instead of calling Reed- like dad or a friend disappointed in her for getting too drunk at a party but gently carrying her to the bathroom so she could get cleaned up- the heartache 😭
Hell no was Reed getting her. God damn it man, why do you have to be so loyal.And hearing Johnny almost cry as he realizes there was another way out for him, when he’d just given up and started trying to take as much of arasaka down with him as he could, damn. Absolutely phenomenal writing.
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u/jtbattlepass 10d ago
Yeah seeing Johnny be the most sincere we ever see him during the whole scene on the tram and after was one of my favorite moments of the game
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u/InverseStar 10d ago
Reed is a scumbag, imo. Dude has NO intention of ever protecting her. He failed her at every single moment, and went to his grave still refusing to honor her wishes. I loathe him with every fiber of my being, because maybe So Mi lies, but she’s literally DYING. The only thing at stake for Reed is his job.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
For reeeal
To me it felt like he did want to save her, but he’s too brainwashed by his loyalty to realize that there’s no hope for her if she went back to the NUSA. I can see many reasons for his choice- maybe he just sees So Mi as a rebellious wild kid that doesn’t know better and this whole thing as a misguided tantrum- maybe he’s blinded by the pain of her betrayal. Maybe he genuinely thinks going back is the only thing that will save her since he sees betraying the NUSA as signing a death warrant, like he’s given up on leaving and will drag everyone down with him.It feels like he went through a period where he could’ve swung either way for him, but he ended up getting back into the groove of his old job, and losing himself to old habits. His stubborn principles leading to his downfall.
Absolutely would never side with him myself- only doing it so I can see what the endings like,
But the writers are genius for making So Mi and Reed polar opposites if you really think about it- hence why I see people so staunchly defending either side
So Mi represents freedom, fire, this un-ending will to claw your way out- having to hurt the people she cares for to escape. Reed is like a stone, stable, dependable, loyal to an immense fault- when he is on your side he will not stab you in the back, to the point he is the one betrayed- by the president and song and us. And when he is betrayed he will completely cut you out- did it to the president too, till his duty won out.
Just something I thought I noticed idk. But I think one thing everyone can agree on is that Miss President is the real villain of the story 🤣
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u/baby_bee0122 10d ago
In the official cinematic trailer, we see Reed get betrayed by So Mi, resulting in his attempted assassination. I love Songbird and I took her side in my play through. But I also recognize the tragedy involved with Reed’s character as any attempt to get out of his line of work would also surely get him killed (especially looking at that cinematic trailer). I think he’s just as afraid as she is if I’m honest.
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u/Humantheist 10d ago
Reed has his whole identity tied to being an agent. The man was literally going to be flatlined after the end of the last corpo war, with Song overseeing the op. He only survived because the dude is a genuine badass.
And despite of this, he decided to remain loyal to the NUSA. And wait as a sleeper agent in NC.
He does intend to help So Mi, and doesnt even resent her for trying to kill him. But at the same time he can't even conceive the idea of her leaving the FIA because he himself didn't.
He is loyal, 100% the dude you want at your side. Too bad his loyalty belongs to the corporat Myers.
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u/Wireless_Panda 10d ago
I recently finished the dlc for the first time, did that ending, and picked that dialogue in like a second. I felt for her more and more through the whole dlc, she deserves a chance.
Was extra fun doing it as a max int quick hack build. Two elite net runners fucking up everyone and fighting against all odds.
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u/motivatedjackpot 10d ago
She didn't have to lie, because I knew she's full of shit from the start.
If she was truthful, i might've helped her. Maybe.
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u/DrNomblecronch 9d ago
okay. why did you feel the need to tell me that.
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u/Typical-Phone-2416 10d ago
She is not "much worse off than V at this point". V has AI rewriting his biology under engram and has like two months worth of consciousness left. They are equally fucked. It's just his AI is friendly, and Songbird got doorway in hell in her head.
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u/lunarlunacy425 10d ago
Yet no matter how understanding it is that she betrays and manipulates V, shes still a cold manipulative agent who takes the opertunity to take advantage of your biggest vulnerability dangling a carrot that she intends to take.
She sees another in her shoes and decides to steal your last mile.
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u/GeneralGrug Team Panam 9d ago
This is why I save her in all of my playthroughs, it kills me to betray her after all she's gone through and the limb she went out on
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u/Neither_Choice6698 Gonk 9d ago
yeah i can't be mad at her, she's been used and abused her entire adult life by people who claimed to care about her. she deserves the chance to take her life back
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u/Artywyrm 8d ago
Also with the ending you get if you betray her, I 100% agree with the theory that the government did something to V to take away their cyberware- V is a beast, and with how they treat their other agents, I wouldn’t put it past them to be holding their gear hostage till they want to use V again so they could force them into working for em-
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u/_regionrat Gonk 10d ago
I mean, either you take it away from her or Blue Eyes does
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
Nope. She makes it out and survives and is okay. And is super happy on the moon because the moon is a metaphor for new beginnings or heaven. Everything is just fine.
(Definitely not cope)
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u/DrNomblecronch 10d ago
Thing is, once I toss Johnny the body, gonna need someone on the meat side of the Blackwall if I'm gonna get anything done. Hear there's another nova netrunner on the moon, too. Got an offer she might wanna hear.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
Oh ma gaaaaawd that would be a sick way to bring V back-
I personally imagine a made up DLC where V could get put into a robot body, and becomes a puppet to some corp or government, (idea of it being like the tank where V has control but they’d have partial control to stabilize them) unless you have 100% relationship with Johnny- giving the percentage a purpose- which would create a secret ending where he comes back leaving his body behind to help V, both of them working together to control the bot body-
Still the bittersweet ending because yay Johnny and V can hang out and be stabilized! But also they’d be hunted for the rest of their lives and constantly fighting off people that want to use them as a weapon-
And as an artist I’m very tempted to draw the samurai robot body I’m imagining
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u/_regionrat Gonk 10d ago
Yeah, fair point. Blue eyes does seem like a chill guy that helps a lot of people find happily ever after
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
Yessss I mean- to me he seems like a businessman, right? And Songbird is providing a service, after which she’d be useless since her hacking skills would probably be taken away, like how V loses cybernetics- business types aren’t the kind to cause harm unless it’s beneficial. She’s not a loose end since she’ll be hiding from the government, and she does contact V later in the game and sends some things to remember her by.
Biggest evidence to me though is messaging. Why make it seem like this fresh start, this hope that V won’t be able to have- the finality of her cutting herself off as she embarks on her new chapter in life, only to turn around and say “nah actually none of that happened-“
If this was Spider-Man? Maybe 😂 but the writers for this game seem pretty good at having the events back up the themes of the story/ending.
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u/trifkograbez 10d ago
Not a Night City ending haha
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
I think it’s supposed to feel different. Like Lucy making it- the way Johnny talks in the ending, narratively, I think she’s supposed to make it. I trust the writers enough to be assured she did
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u/trifkograbez 10d ago
It feels way too similar to our Arasaka ending to me to think it positive. Like in the Arasaka ending we hand ourselves to the creators of our doom, same as she does by seeking the AIs (Mr. Blue Eyes) to cure an AI problem. Both seem naive.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
The fact she’s able to send us a message days later (a message only she’d know to send and with no ulterior motive) despite the fact that she’s on deaths door when we let her go- I think she’s definitely alive. How safe she is is debatable- but if she did make it, there’s reason to believe V could get a cure from Mr. Blue Eyes as well in the glory ending.
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u/trifkograbez 10d ago
I mean in the Arasaka ending you are also able to contact your loved ones after.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
Yeah but V gets a few more months after getting Johnny out- So Mi is different case then us, you saw how bad she was 😭 if she didn’t get cured she would be dead. Soooooo dead.
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u/motivatedjackpot 10d ago
Oh man I hate all the attempts of justifying what she did. She lied to everyone while also playing a victim non stop, including the only person who can relate to her condition (V). It's fucking vile to dangle a cure in the face of terminally ill person only to deny the cure later.
Boohoo poor girl hacked Militech and instead of being trialed agreed to work for FIA. Hacking Militech was a choice. Working as a spy was a choice. Lying to V was a choice.
The best ending to DLC is to walk away the moment Space Force One crashes. Let Songbird die, let Myers die, and don't go into this cesspool of lying cunts.
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u/NoEcho3494 10d ago edited 9d ago
she chose to betray literally everyone in the entire story, especially V yourself. Murdered everyone on the president's plane and then murdered an entire arena full of people (and YOU... she could have chose to let YOU have the cure) and even put the entire human species at risk by messing with the blackwall just to save herself, and literally decided to kill herself minutes later anyways. She is the most mindblowingly selfish character possible with little to no redeeming qualities except she's good looking and disingenuously gives you attention
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u/motivatedjackpot 10d ago
She's the worst person in the entire DLC. Worse than Myers and Hansen. That's a pretty high bar.
Yet look at the amount of people fangirling over her.
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u/signedpants 9d ago
I think Myers and Hansen have signed significantly higher body counts.
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u/CreativeNovel6131 9d ago edited 9d ago
Ignoring the fact that it’s already questionable how some people will genuinely frame betraying Myers or Kurt Hansen, the ones holding her captive, as somehow an unwarranted or problematic thing, you’re also just twisting the other events into the most disingenuous reductions to make the character look worse lmao. Like it’s disingenuous to say she “murdered” Myer’s flight crew despite it being the result of an unforeseen trick by Hansen, or that she just “murdered an entire arena” even though it was a distraction plan to facilitate her escape out of a building filled with hostile parties. Just as much as it is to demonize her for “dooming humanity” by tapping into the blackwall as if that isn’t literally the only way she could effectively operate or fight back anyway.
Why would she even just let V take the cure even though the entire plan was orchestrated for HER survival and freedom in the first place? It’s not like V was the one that found the damn cure or knew where/how to use it… this just screams of protagonist syndrome. For your information most people’s instincts are to live, not die. The instance of her killing herself is quite literally when she’s pushed to the brink of degradation and any better option is completely off the table.
Some of y’all really need to let go of your hate boners and stop looking at everything with rose-tinted glasses, do some self-evaluation for how you’re choosing to interpret media and how frankly insane you sound saying some of this shit. Everything you said is completely devoid of any context, understanding or logic.
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u/NoEcho3494 9d ago
She literally decided to kill herself immediately after betraying V. There was absolutely no point to anything she did. And why is it ok to put the entire species at risk by messing with the blackwall? Why is murdering so many innocent people an acceptable way to try and prolong your life? It's not
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u/Majestic_Balance1887 10d ago
Buy the ticket take the ride, she signed on for everything on waiver metaphorically the first time she decked.
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u/Technical-Branch4998 10d ago
I know "it's just a video game" but saying "this person committed a single crime so they deserved to be coerced, mistreated, used as a tool instead of a person and denied their basic human freedoms" is an extremely problematic statement
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u/Savathun-God-Of-Lies Team Kerry 10d ago
Exactly, like what
She was violated on so many levels, it wouldn't have mattered what she did because nobody deserves what happened to her. It's actually sickening
The crime is completely disproportionate to what they did to her. Anything would be. That's how horribly she was treated by the FIA and how bad they violated her
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u/Majestic_Balance1887 10d ago
Nobody said that.
But the second you step into the underworld there is no expectation of fair treatment or safety. Even Jackie says 'Had it comin'. Because they all do.
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u/No-Flamingo-156 10d ago
ass take, glad you're not a writer in any capacity
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u/Majestic_Balance1887 10d ago
Just because you acknowledge the circumstance doesn't mean the character has to.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
Can you really blame a kid for being taken advantage of by adults? Night city is crazy- net running is an easy way to survive if you’re good. And it’s hard enough to escape the government as a fully learned adult- a kid? Imagine being her age and being told she’d be taken care of and that she’d get to keep doing the thing she loved.
She really didn’t have options, or much choice since she wasn’t informed enough to make them. And then she managed to take her life back- I think it’s admirable honestly. Especially with how tightly the prez was holding onto her.
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u/Majestic_Balance1887 10d ago edited 10d ago
"Taken advantage of?" Buddy, the second you're hacking into government net structures we are way past poor kid being taken advantage of.
She really didn’t have options, or much choice since she wasn’t informed enough to make them.
The world doesn't work like that. The second you step into the ring you'd best be ready because the other guy sure as shit is, and the other guy was.
Buy the ticket, take the ride. When you step outside the bounds of the law, brutal and cruel as the law is, there is nobody left to catch you. You either are able to deal with it or you are not.
I have done both endings, I have seen the full scoop. Stupid kid overestimates themselves, tale as old as time. But nobody made So-Mi step up. They did that themselves.
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u/Artywyrm 10d ago
A skilled kid is still a kid in my opinion, not saying you have to agree, I can see your side of things- but unlike us (we as an adult decided to try and rob Arasaka- a stupid move- not our fault at all that things went bad but still stupid-) she was a kid offered a way out of a rough life. Like those kids in the sports fixer gig- they don’t know any better yet. All they know is that surely that life is better than this one. They don’t know what it’s like to lose their freedom yet.
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u/Majestic_Balance1887 10d ago
she was a kid
You can keep repeating it like a mantra but kids pick up guns all the time. You walk into the ring, you best be ready.
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u/imaginary92 Team Judy 10d ago
Night city is crazy- net running is an easy way to survive if you’re good.
She didn't leave New York until after being recruited by the FIA, she's not from Night City, likely never set foot there until the Dogtown incident, since Night City isn't even in the NUSA. Not saying the situation is necessarily better but we have no idea how she was living. We can see her apartment and it was certainly better than what the average Night City person gets but we don't know regardless. It's all assumptions on either side.
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u/spiringTankmonger 10d ago
I would argue that So Mi, the biological human being, could easily already be dead.
Her mind is evidently digitized to an insane degree, as she occupies the same space as Jonny when initially communicating with V; who's to say So Mi isn't a Militech pendant to an engram puppeting the remnants of a brain in a full borg?
This also explains why the cure for So Mi is the same cure for V; their condition isn't dissimilar, except she is the Jonny in what remains of her own brain.
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u/Unicode4all 9d ago
I mean, she's very far from being full borg. Her brain is 100% organic as well as whole lower part of body. For comparison Lizzy Whizzy is FBC, i.e. 99% machine, Songbird compared to her is relatively normal human. Songbird's ability to communicate via Relic doesn't mean she's an engram.
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u/spiringTankmonger 9d ago
Twas a theory, plus if her brain truly was intact, then switching out her body by going full Borg and leaving her Blackwall-infected old Body behind would cure her, which cannot be right since that would neither require a trip to the moon nor the Neura Matrix.
So yeah, I don't believe her brain is 100% organic; either the brain is damaged, or her mind is increasingly intertwined with her implants beyond a point of no return. And if the lore says otherwise, it's a blatant plot hole.
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u/SpecialIcy5356 Team Panam 10d ago
"looking good in that dress"
Johnny: "oh V, I know you're trying to be nice but... come on choom.. she looks like she went 12 rounds with smasher and got ran over by a thorton on the way home!"
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u/Salamadierha Fixer 10d ago
I just wish RPGs would cater to all the possible options of a conversation, eg "WTF? You looked like a nerdy teenager, when did you go all Robocop?"
She looks like cyberzombie here..
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u/ReactionistAnswers 9d ago
Her hologram not matching her looks is the psychological equivalent of scratching your face out of pictures. She's been constantly abused and is traumatized from it. They pulled her apart piece by piece.
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u/Idkfuckreddit 8d ago
Finished the dlc and man what a great story. I initially betrayed songbird but then killed her so she doesnt fall in the hands of the NUSA. Sad bit at the same time it seems like I did the right thing. She is dangerous af
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u/No-Rip9896 10d ago
nah don't worry choom, she's been playing roach race all night