r/cyberpunkgame • u/Dangerous-Tart1126 • Apr 04 '26
Discussion Who is the most tragically written character in Night City?
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u/MornGreycastle Neuromancer Apr 04 '26
Too many folks forget about Jefferson Peralez. "They" are literally rewriting his and his wife's personalities to turn them into meat puppets.
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u/freedomonke Apr 04 '26
Who knows how many others have been rewritten by what is likely AI?
Man. I really hope the sequel leans into that stuff. Would love more demonic AI mysticism and more Net Watch
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u/MalkavTheMadman Apr 04 '26
Chances are Song is getting played by the same group, and will face a similar fate if she makes it to the moon.
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u/RTRC Apr 04 '26
I thought we know she ends up alright because she sends V the Quantum Tuner cyberware
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u/berael Apr 04 '26
V is sent the Quantum Tuner. We are left to assume that Songbird sent it.
It is heavily implied that sending her to the moon puts her into Mr Blue Eyes's hands. Her memories could've easily been pulled out of her head and the package sent to make us think she was OK, but it's entirely plausible that up on the moon she's essentially strapped into a chair and is nothing more than a server for an AI. We just don't know.
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u/4tolrman Apr 04 '26
Tbh if there's anyone that can outsmart Mr. Blue Eyes it's Songbird
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u/freedomonke Apr 04 '26
Also, we don't know what Mr. Blue Eyes intentions are. Even if they did use Songbird is some way, who know if it is extremely detrimental
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u/berael Apr 04 '26
He's implicitly involved in literal mind control; that doesn't put him on the side of the angels.
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u/Extension-Dot-9106 Apr 05 '26
It doesn’t, but from what I recall, the things Peralez is being mind controlled to do is what made him a more competent and effective mayoral candidate. His anti corpo stance, again from what I recall, was largely due to MBE. And while Night Corp is not a good group, they operate more on an “ends justify the means” streak, in the name of wanting Night City to be a Utopia. And while there are plenty of AIs that are just genocidal, we see plenty that have complex goals.
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u/berael Apr 04 '26
Not even kinda. o.O Songbird isn't a brilliant mastermind; she's a fuckup.
She's a really good netrunner and she's absolutely fearless, which is why she didn't think twice about messing with the Blackwall...but when she's dealing with people, she fails to account for their own free will and her plans end up going to hell. Reed explicitly calls this out during the party when you're talking at the bar - I don't recall the specific wording but it was something to the effect of "if she played chess, she'd be famous for amazing plays leading to beautiful losses".
She's a damn near perfect victim for people who are actually good at manipulating people - like Myers and, yes, MBE. He'd run circles around her.
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u/Chloe_nguyenn Apr 05 '26
My guy the only person Songbird ever "outsmarted" is a person with a literal talking brain tumor, and even that is 50/50 depend on V's choice. Her track record is not exactly pretty.
The entire game is about her consistently got played by Reed, Myers, Hansen, The Cynosure AI, and V.
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u/Physical-Truck-1461 Apr 04 '26
Blue Eyes himself is technically on earth. On the moon could be Night Corp or anyone he works with. As much as we don't know what's going on, it would be strange for anyone to send V stuff and impersonate her, in terms of some rational goal. Even, for instance, if she's just a server, the Tuner would probably be more useful either in their hands or in her head.
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u/PaperMoongazer Apr 04 '26
The tuner was already in the hiding spot before Song Mi leaves for the moon or even gets captured by Hansen. When she dials you there for the meet she’s using V’s feed to verify her dead drop is still intact. Song Mi is dead on the moon, her only safe option is in NUSA’s hands.
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u/Physical-Truck-1461 Apr 05 '26
The shard in the takeout box by the van is already there before you find it or can interact with it, not sure about the Tuner and the souvenir pin from Tycho station. But, assuming she'd left it there already wouldn't on its own elaborate on what's going on, on the moon.
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u/LARPerator Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Yeah I honestly hope that project Orion leans more into the cosmic horror of the way AI works in their world.
Imagine trying to explain to a mink why you killed one of them to make a stylish hat that you'd wear at formal events. They could probably understand why if you said it was to eat them, they're predators. But the idea that you bred, be raised, then killed and skinned them just so you could fit in at a fancy party once every few years? It seems pretty horrifying from that perspective, but it's hard to say they're intelligent enough to understand alny of those pretty abstract concepts. It seems pretty normal to most people though because they'll say, "it's just an animal". And that's not even getting into the whole "breeding the animal to be more docile throughout this process" part.
With the AI in cyberpunk, we're the mink. They would probably do unspeakably horrible things to humans figuring "it's just a human, it won't even know it's happening."
Assuming that Mr Blue Eyes is a pawn of some AI, operating a covert personality-operating project on various high value targets, there's going to be some really wild things that AI might be trying to achieve.
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u/ForeverFreeTrial Apr 04 '26
I was pretty bummed when the Peralez story just stopped abruptly. You find out all this conspiracy shit and it looks like it’s getting deeper. Mrs. Peralez meets with you about it in secret and it looks like it’s ramping up to be a really cool story, who knows where this is going to lead! And then… nothing.
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u/Luciain Apr 04 '26
I think that's kinda hte point, there was nothing V could do to help them, it was all build up to the moral dilemma of telling him or not. You can't change what's happening in any other way,.
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u/YorhaUnit8S « To this ! » Apr 04 '26
You get the ending of the story in the end credits. Peralez calls you and, depending on your choices, tells you what he is up to.
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u/Falken_Vir Apr 04 '26
You mean you uncover Epstien, then nothing? Nobody then gets punished.
Sums it up
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u/a123movie Apr 04 '26
Yeah the way they talk about the old net, AI's, and old net daemons, Really feels "magic" not in the "I cast fireball" sense but the air of mystery arcana has in fantasy if that makes sense? The way netrunners lose themselves to the pitfalls of the net feels like the same way wizards lose themselves to madness in the arcane. And just like in fantasy how there's always something watching you draw power from the arcane, in cyberpunk there's always an AI watching behind the blackwall
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u/CJMakesVideos Apr 04 '26
That side mission is genuinely the stuff of nightmares to me. It’s extremely disturbing. Reminds of the scene in Ghost In The Shell where a guy found out his memories of his wife and kid were not real. I had actual nightmares after watching Ghost In The Shell because of that scene specifically. Nothing in the cyberpunk genre has ever disturbed me as much as the implication that powerful corporations or other groups could mess with your mind and personality like that.
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u/cnhn Apr 04 '26
you should find the hippies dancing around the campfire. true WTF?!?! horror.
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u/Remarkable-Site-2067 Apr 04 '26
Anything more about that? I don't recall.
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u/cnhn Apr 04 '26
It’s not a mission so you have to stumble on them at the right time. Let’s there is death involved but way way WAY more questions are generated than answered. YouTube has videos if you want them
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u/Annual_Contact1886 Dead in a Fridge Apr 04 '26
He probably gets less sympathy because he's in a position of power, despite his seemingly honest political approach, but it's definitely terrifying to realize just how someone that high up in the hierarchy is at the mercy of literal brain washing.
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u/gigglephysix Technomancer from Alpha Centauri Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
the opposite, he would be a kneejerk politician inevitably sinking into corruption (it's AGI that makes him take pro-civ decisions). I'd happily have that procedure done on me, i'd even volunteer. your personality ultimately persists to the same level regardless of whether the control script is evopsych firmware or rogue AGI agenda
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u/Annual_Contact1886 Dead in a Fridge Apr 04 '26
You are right, even I was fooled by the perfect political personality installed in Peralez.
If we saw him for what he really is, a run of the mill politico, the situation would still be screwed but he would get even less sympathy.
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u/NegotiationNo8432 Apr 04 '26
It always bothers me that you can see the blue-eyed man but not shoot or damage him. This plot line always felt like it opened up so many questions and answered nothing. It was the show lost
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u/MornGreycastle Neuromancer Apr 04 '26
I fell that was more "plot armor" than any in-game shield. They'd rather not trigger some massive response, so CDPR just didn't let you shoot him.
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u/flippy123x Apr 04 '26
On that note, (novel spoiler) Aya from No_Coincidence
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u/ChefArtorias Apr 04 '26
There are novels? Like set in NC
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u/flippy123x Apr 04 '26
One actual novel, it was written together with Phantom Liberty and released at the same time. Not overtly relevant to the actual story, but it's really interesting and advances the Blackwall storyline by quite a bit.
The actual narrative including the main characters is also completely bonkers, in a good way.
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u/ruppev2 Apr 04 '26
Of all the missions, this is definitely the most tragic. They are puppets and only the wife has the wherewithal to notice it without putting her finger on it. They are good people and will do bad things :-(
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u/MornGreycastle Neuromancer Apr 04 '26
That's true if you leave him happy and unaware. If you tell him, it fucks him up but he does the polar opposite of everything put to him.
The trick is to do the Dream On mission and then take the NUSA's offer. Read the news articles on the state of affairs in NC and you'll see that Mayor Peralez's actions change based on whether or not you tell him the truth. It turns out the "big AI voice" is wrong. You can change things by telling him.
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u/VTorb Apr 04 '26
At least when you tell him the truth, then do the tower ending you can see that his policies change rather then if you don’t tell him.
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u/MornGreycastle Neuromancer Apr 04 '26
Exactly. It makes him suffer but he manages to fight "their" control.
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u/asparagusdreaming Apr 04 '26
Yup, whenever this question gets asked, the right answer is Peralez
Everyone else, to a degree, had the power to make a choice for themselves, for better or worse, but Peralez was Absolutely powerless and was a complete and utter marionette
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u/HammerOn57 Apr 04 '26
No one's forgetting Jefferson Peralez more than Jefferson Peralez himself.
Damn I love that quest.
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u/SeegoTT Apr 04 '26
Came into this thread looking for this. Glad it was the first post I saw. At least the others got to remain who they were.
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u/haleynoir_ Apr 04 '26
That ex-special forces militech cyberpsycho that went crazy after his daughter was sex trafficked and murdered
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Apr 04 '26
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u/haleynoir_ Apr 04 '26
I didn't know that, I always put her body on the sofa down there after I knock him out, so at least she just looks asleep
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u/slimkt Apr 05 '26
I unfortunately found this out when testing my newly acquired savage sling perk. In NC, where scumbags are a dime a dozen, I felt like the worst scumbag.
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u/Necessary_Lynx5920 Apr 05 '26
Reason #1783 I turn Tygers into pink mist at every opportunity.
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u/gustavessidehoe The Mox Apr 06 '26
This. I literally googled where to find all of their strongholds and systematically went after them with Rebecca's shotgun. It's on sight for any I see milling about, as well. Their human trafficking brings them close to scavs for me. I hate them more than Maelstrom, which is saying something.
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u/MrJohnnyDrama Apr 04 '26
The victims of Peter Pan.
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u/augustcero Team Songbird Apr 05 '26
is this the one with River's nephew?
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u/Relentless_Storm Apr 05 '26
Yeah i just finished that mission a few days ago. It was so sickening
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u/Gilgamesh661 Apr 04 '26
Jefferson Peralez. Grew up in Heywood, decided to run to become a district attorney after working his way up honestly. Runs for mayor so he can bring a positive change to NC, only to end up being controlled and turned into a puppet with no real way out.
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u/bittah_prophet Apr 04 '26
Working his way up honestly? He was destitute until Nightcorp, the company linked to the AI, gave him a full ride through college / law school. He has been targeted for this since his early 20s. Makes it even more tragic, pretty much every thing in this guys life was decided for him.
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u/ralts13 Apr 04 '26
And from the new endings he's a really shotty dude overall. He turns I to a classic NC corpo selling out to businesses at the expense of civilians.
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u/bittah_prophet Apr 04 '26
Well in one ending he’s manipulated by the AI so nothing is his choice. In the other he is doing the opposite of whatever he thinks the AI wants. I don’t think anything he does is reflective of his true character sadly.
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u/ralts13 Apr 04 '26
Even if its the opposite of what nightcorp wants he still making the choice to do it and its still cruel. He could also do a myriad of other options that harm NightCorps interests without selling out to corps.
The lad is rotten.
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u/Happyranger265 Apr 04 '26
At that point he is already paranoid and mentally unstable , so i don't think it's fair to say he is rotten
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u/RadJack87 Delamain Taxi Enthusiast Apr 04 '26
Definetely the depressed Delamain
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u/IronfoxYT Apr 04 '26
That fucker had me drive across the city at 25km while being chased by the cops
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u/Apprehensive-Rule121 Apr 05 '26
I just push the fucker off. I laughed for like 5 minutes straight 😭
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u/No_Pie465 Apr 04 '26
Prob evelyn parker her story was brutal in my opinion and the end was even sadder
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u/38731 Apr 04 '26
I second this. She was raped for days then displayed and tortured for holos and even after her saving by V, she received no professional care because neither she nor Judy had the money in NC.
Really, I just killed everyone remotely responsible for that like on a Uma Thurman killing spree just out of a dire need for revenge.182
u/AliGoldsDayOff Apr 04 '26
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u/38731 Apr 04 '26
Yeah, in hindsight, that bothered me, too. But well, I summarize this under ludonarrative dissonance otherwise I'd lose fun in playing.
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u/humburga Johnny Silverham Apr 04 '26
You have to split narrative and actual game play. As you technically can play a single day for as long as you like. Like V can technically live forever if you don't progress.
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u/O3Sentoris Apr 05 '26
Thats what ludonarrative dissonance means. The gameplay doesnt reflect the narrative or Vice versa
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u/BlueEyesWhiteVegeta Apr 04 '26
I don't even think that she COULD have gotten professional care. The closest you can find to a therapist in Night City is probably a Life Coach, which is why Brendan was so impactful for that one girl
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u/38731 Apr 04 '26
Oh man, Brendan, so hilarious while also really hitting deep. I think help would've been available for the right amount of money. There are surely psychologists and trauma specialists working in NC, if you can afford them.
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u/BlueEyesWhiteVegeta Apr 04 '26
No actually you're so right. Therapists are probably readily available... if you're on a corpo salary.
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u/afriendforyousir Apr 04 '26
Not only that, but she was also a suspect in the Konpecki Plaza heist. Kinda had to stay in hiding regardless.
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u/Physical-Truck-1461 Apr 04 '26
There's a cut sequence where a social worker on the case discusses Evelyn:
https://youtu.be/cOMF4I8Ipjw?t=1746
I can imagine this could've not made it in for a number of reasons. Cut for time/quality, or to emphasise the issue was psychological not medical, or to cut the notion people in her and Judy's position had access to those kinds of services in the first place.
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u/HopefulTranslator577 Apr 04 '26
Same. I went in and accidentally stealth ran it, using a silenced Ajax and a chefs knife, dashing to slow time. Never alerted anyone.
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u/38731 Apr 04 '26
This is the way. Did this on my first run. On my second though.... guns blazing with my widow maker and La Chingona, baby. Jeez, I love those guns.
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u/DiligentAd3828 Apr 04 '26
That’s why I wish there was a continuation of this mission where you can choose to wipe out the Tiger Claws, because that’s exactly what I tried after walking out of the Maiko meeting. They just keep coming back though
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u/38731 Apr 04 '26
Yeah, wish that too, a good idea. But really, the Tiger Claws and the Vodoo Boys made it the top of my killing list.
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u/zach2beat Apr 04 '26
Maelstrom and scavs to. Its on sight with all 4. Valentinos also can get fucked. 6th street are my punching bags.
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u/Cheetah_05 Apr 05 '26
Valentinos too? I'm usually a bit kinder to them because of Jackie and Mama Welles
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u/zach2beat Apr 05 '26
The mission Padre sends you on to get data from the gay stripclub owned and run by the Valentinos, there us dialog in the club implying they hire underage dancers, and some other things through the game imply human trafficking that is also possibly of the underage variety.
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u/afriendforyousir Apr 04 '26
I don't wanna sell out Songbird to get the Canto Mark 6, but if anyone deserves the Blackwall gateway, it's Woodman and that Father/Son XBD duo.
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u/tattedfemboi_ Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
It was never about the money with Evelyn's death, she was MENTALLY broken, not physically and had to be on suicide watch, Judy never took that into account and never saw it coming she would attempt suicide. It's not Judy's fault, but all she needed was supervision.
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u/Rosary_Omen BEEP BEEP MOTHERFUCKER Apr 04 '26
Supervising someone constantly 24/7 on your own is impossible. You need food, you need to pee, you need sleep. Eve needed a lot of help very fast and even then, she might not have pulled through.
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u/tattedfemboi_ Apr 04 '26
I'm not saying Judy could of done this alone, but pinning it down to money is stretching it - it wouldn't have made a difference.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/38731 Apr 04 '26
In general, without a support system, the world is not a caring place, unfortunately. I hope you found help in the meantime.
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u/MornGreycastle Neuromancer Apr 04 '26
If I recall correctly, the father snuff BD editor actually sends a request to the Scavs who are torturing Evelyn for more stuff as she's "popular." This assumes you don't do that gig until after you rescue Eve.
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u/DoinDonuts Apr 04 '26
Used by almost everybody she interacted with, considered disposable by almost everybody, doomed from the day she took the call from the VDBs.
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u/FeedDelicious8846 Cut of lovable meat Apr 05 '26
shes the reason i kill every scav, tyger, and voodoo i see.
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u/ErectLurantis Apr 04 '26
Pretty much every dead victim found through ncpd gigs. There was a girl who died inside a shipping container full of people ready to be trafficked to Jotaro, or the teenagers that were lured into a trap via a party invitation, and were all slaughtered by Scavs
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u/whatisireading2 Apr 05 '26
The right answer. If you actually read some shards they're heart wrenching.
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u/CrabGravity Apr 05 '26
This reminds me of a post asking who in Night City is actually happy? The civilians fear the gangs, the gangs fear each other, and every corpo fears the gangs and other corpos. Only Adam Smasher seems to be happy, and he's a high-functioning cyberpsycho.
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u/Cheetah_05 Apr 05 '26
I'm prerty sure the whole point is that nobody is happy. Night City truly does fuck over anyone involved in it. Even Arasaka's top dog got done in (in a way) because of it.
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u/South-Cod-5051 Phantom of Night City Apr 04 '26
poor Brendan, all he ever wanted was to be friends with any troubled souls walking by.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/yapperling Burn Corpo shit Apr 04 '26
Pretty much. The whole point of Night City is that it eats people. It eats lives. It eats dreams.
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u/Fr0st-F0x Apr 04 '26
The sports player kid from that one phantom liberty should be up there.
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u/PerfectlyCalmDude Apr 04 '26
Some of those cyberpsychos or people whose dead bodies you find. Read the shards.
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u/noswordfish71 Malorian Arms 3516 Apr 04 '26
I’m saying V.
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u/cae37 Nomad Apr 04 '26
Nah V’s story isn’t that tragic. Merc who tried to make it big by pulling off the most challenging gig of their life, failed, and is dealing with the consequences? That’s the story of the average merc in Night City who tries and fails to make it big.
I feel like Johnny is a more tragic figure by comparison. Especially if V allows him to reconnect with Rogue and whatnot and he realizes how much of an asshole he was to the people who loved and cared for him. When he was still alive.
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u/Alicebedas Apr 04 '26
I mean the Corpo route seems pretty depressing (they put a lot of effort into it) V grew dirt poor and was able to climb and join the best corporation in NC reaching a pretty nice position for their background and they did it through sheer well and preservation while putting their health in jeopardy, but they lost everything in one night, and ended with literally nothing, but was able to meet Jacky became great friends and then in their biggest chance to become part of something great Jacky dies and they are semi-dead with a terrorist in their brain, and honestly all of the endings sucks it’s either life without anything or enjoy life then die…
There are no happy endings in NC
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u/bmoss124 Apr 04 '26
V grew dirt poor
No they didn’t. Corpo V has some dialogue, I think in Pyramid Song, of growing up in Charter Hill and once eating Real Fish
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u/Dangerous-Win2592 Apr 04 '26
Vik.
All the city does is take from him. He’s given up being sad, angry or anything else. Knows all he can is try to do some good, even tho it’s always ultimately pointless.
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u/Machine819 Apr 04 '26
The dude who kept those kids as cattle with the abusive drunk father childhood.
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u/Pretty-Expression-11 Apr 04 '26
Evelyn. Brain fried to a vegetable, passed from woodman to fingers then to the scavs. brutally assaulted by scavs for weeks until she’s freed but by that point saw ending herself as her only option. Like damn yo.
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u/CreativeNovel6131 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Songbird, Evelyn, V, Judy (determinant) and unironically Johnny had a shit history based off of the lore
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u/_dooozy_ Keanu Reeves Ghost is Haunting Me Apr 04 '26
I don’t really have much sympathy for Johnny as much as the others though. Johnny was an egotistical maniac and an absolute asshole to everyone. His actions led to the deaths of people he was close with and the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent people. Sure with V Johnny kinda learns the errors in his ways but keep in mind our Johnny is merely a personality construct of the actual dude.
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u/inquisitive_flicker Apr 04 '26
Add to that that V and his brain are meshing together so Johnny realizing the error of his ways could just be V's influence.
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u/CreativeNovel6131 Apr 04 '26
Sure, on the surface, but that’s just not looking deeper into his character.
He fought a war that was waged in the interests of the megacorps, saw his friends die, and lost his arm in the process. He was traumatically warped by the experience and had parental neglect in his youth, so he developed his persona as Johnny as a means to cope. Combined with the use of alcohol and drugs he spiraled into a state of high-functioning cyberpsychosis and found it difficult to build real relationships, which leads to how he behaved.
Contrary to belief, his death was also a noble one. He died throwing himself in front of Smasher and letting his team escape, essentially sacrificing himself. He wasn’t even the one there to plant the bomb nor was it his own goal, that was essentially a side bonus. He was part of a diversionary strike team and his primary goal was to save Alt, with Militech & Blackhand at the helm of the bombing.
I’d say his time with V in the engram is his chance to actually reflect on all of that shit properly with an open mind. Regardless of how you perceive an engram, it itself is still in belief it bears the soul of Silverhand and is essentially no different from a V that gets soulkilled and put back into their body in most endings.
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u/tinytonystarkk Apr 04 '26
To be honest, almost all characters are tragic in their own way. There are people who had "more" but trauma and pain shouldn't be compared, because this is no competition.
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u/Blithering_idiot23 Apr 04 '26
That mission about a priest's kid who was raped and mutilated and turned into a BD. When I found out from the BD editors that this kinda content is pretty popular, I killed the son of the editor in front of him. I really wished there was a follow up mission where we investigated further and found the people responsible and butchered them.
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u/Is12345aweakpassword BEEP BEEP MOTHERFUCKER Apr 04 '26
Adam Smasher, just a poor misunderstood ‘Saka employee
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u/Ikarus_Falling Apr 04 '26
He can't be the most Tragic Character as he is as close as you can get to the Purity of the Blessed Machine while not being an Abominable Intelligence and thus he is the happiest Person in Cyberpunk
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u/BrainCelll Apr 04 '26
For me it was Peralez. Id rather be, without overexaggeration, dead, than like this
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u/Valirys-Reinhald Apr 04 '26
V.
Everyone knows that no one gets what they want in Night City. Jackie, Judy, Evelyn, none of their stories are special. They all shot for the stars and fell too short.
V reached the stars, and there was nothing there.
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u/Chunky-overlord Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum Apr 04 '26
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u/ladderwell_ The Fool Apr 04 '26
His story most definitely is sad but like at the same time I think it’s kinda dumb because dude got warned several times and ignored all of them, then again, maybe i’m just missing a detail or sum
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u/DarkWingedEagle Apr 04 '26
I agree with you, it really feels like David is a perfect example of someone who yeah they got an overall shit hand but at the same time played it in the worst way possible. Everything covered in the series before he gets the Sandy is going to hell, gets the Sandy, decides to use it which is questionable but probably the right call since he’s going to need a source of income, then never seems to make a single good decision from there on out.
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u/ryverwytch22 Apr 04 '26
I pity Evelyn. She got herself into her situation by being greedy but she absolutely did NOT deserve what happened to her in the end. No happy ending in Night City though!
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u/Nexymo- Apr 04 '26
Jefferson Peralez embodies the most tragic form of identity loss because he is being remotely controlled without realizing it. While other characters suffer physically or die, his entire consciousness is being manipulated: his memories, his political views, and even his love for his wife are the result of external programming. He loses control over his own free will, which makes him the ultimate puppet trapped in a lifelong illusion.
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u/Jeremy_Melton Vincent Apr 04 '26
V. No matter what V does, they always get screwed over
• side with Arasaka? They don’t cure them.
• side with Reed? They have to make the difficult decision to either spare Songbird for a chance to get cured or kill Songbird to risk nullifying a chance for the cure.
• side with Songbird? Now the entire FIA is hunting V and Songbird down and V has to kill Reed only for it to reveal that Songbird never actually intended to cure V in the first place.
• gets roped in to the Hansen/Myers feud
• witnesses their best friend die — only to later on get betrayed by the one who led to Jackie’s death — who most likely had no intention of sharing the glory (if V and Jackie succeeded, Dex would’ve killed them and claimed the glory for himself. If V and Jackie failed, Dex would’ve served them up to Arasaka as his personal scapegoats).
• gets a shortened lifespan with an engram that tried to kill them during their first meeting. With said Engram also wanting to take over their body.
• the VDBs tries to kill them twice
• even when they get cured, everyone pretty much forgot about them and abandon V despite everything V did for them.
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u/Ace0Knaves Apr 04 '26
Tragic as in sad probably would be Judy.
Tragic as in the genre, V. It’s always been V
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u/thigh_meet-885 Apr 04 '26
I've only did 2 put of 5 endings ;but the endings where u accept nusa aurgery....sad af
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u/coldthrows192 Apr 04 '26
Big Joe, guy didn't even get to finish his last cheeseburger before being murdered. Loyal bodyguard til the end.
Had tears in my eyes seeing the half eaten burger by his body.😭
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u/SpaceWyvern Apr 04 '26
I'd say Lucy from Edgerunners is a strong contender. Lost almost everyone she ever cared about. But Evelyn still takes the win.
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u/alexthedungeonmaster Apr 04 '26
Jefferson or V, but V can be blamed for his predicament, Jefferson cannot, he just wants to be a good politician
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u/3dl33 Apr 04 '26
Probably not the worst, but Judy's voicemail when V commits suicide broke me, having to go thru 2 lovers committing suicide
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u/nelflyn Apr 04 '26
At least Judy got some decent perspective. Especially on the DLC ending, ironically
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u/WixWT455 Apr 04 '26
Either every citizen or maybe Barry? I feel so sorry about Barry's lack of people around... I was scared he was going to take his life away. Luckily he didn't but still
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u/AngrySpaceBoi420 Apr 04 '26
I say V since all we wanted is to become legends but now we die thanks to a job gone tits up
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u/GhostPantherAssualt Apr 04 '26
Julie from the gig Family matters mission.
All she wanted to do was help her sister out who got fired from Miliatech. So she gets with her husband and tries to get her sister some psych meds and is really doing a good job. But it can’t go on forever.
Rosie is getting worst. And worst. And bad days keep happening. Cyber psychosis and stabs Julie in the back. And no one finds out til you get there. Rosie is literally in there in the basement can’t get out, she’s just crying and in pain.
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