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REVIEW: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

...too many times I just felt like the characters are dying for the sake of making the ending tragic to the point where the characters were just plain stupid. David getting jacked up after seeing Maine and long-armed man die due to cyberpsychosis related deaths just makes his death feel contrived at best...

His own mother was forced into illegal business thanks to their financial difficulties...or people like him who were forced into the gang life due to a few wrong turns...

Let's not forget that David had full power to send them to the moon already. He even remarks at how cheap it is for a one-way trip. But Lucy doesn't like it because it's a one-way trip, which makes 0 sense. Bitch, you literally want to get as far away from this city as humanly possible, and now you want to come back? Too many plot points like these were just mentioned but never committed to.

I didn't have a problem with David's descent in to cyberpsychosis. There are unfortunately people who see someone else's self destructive behavior, say "but that won't happen to me" and then fall in to the same pattern. It probably would have worked better if we saw it happen more over time and not just after a time skip, so I can understand that thinking, but it's sadly believable.

I've always liked the Cyberpunk genre. I read the William Gibson stories like Neuromancer, etc played the original Cyberpunk and Shadowrun rpgs and of course my favorite anime was Ghost in the Shell. On the other hand I'm not a fanboy of Studio Trigger and Gurren Lagann type excesses. I liked Little Witch Academia a lot, but found Promare pretty meh. So I went into this show with low expectations, but got hooked really fast. Maybe it could have used one more episode to flesh out some details and strengthen some relationships a bit more like some posters have mentioned, but I wouldn't have wanted more than that. Mainly because I find some Trigger stuff to get weaker the longer it goes and its easy to get fatigued by over the top stuff.

royalnobody wrote:

...too many times I just felt like the characters are dying for the sake of making the ending tragic to the point where the characters were just plain stupid. David getting jacked up after seeing Maine and long-armed man die due to cyberpsychosis related deaths just makes his death feel contrived at best...

Why does David get jacked up after seeing what happens to other people and cyberpsychosis? You kind of answer that later in your own post:

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His own mother was forced into illegal business thanks to their financial difficulties...or people like him who were forced into the gang life due to a few wrong turns...

People get trapped in situations and some people think that stuff wont happen to them because they're different. The show points this out pretty clearly and David starts to think he's "special". There's also a certain addiction/obsession involved in chroming up like people who become obsessed with plastic surgery and one surgery isn't enough, or weightlifters who obsess with getting bigger and stronger. I mean think about all the steroid use in sports and people knew the dangers.

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Let's not forget that David had full power to send them to the moon already. He even remarks at how cheap it is for a one-way trip. But Lucy doesn't like it because it's a one-way trip, which makes 0 sense. Bitch, you literally want to get as far away from this city as humanly possible, and now you want to come back? Too many plot points like these were just mentioned but never committed to.

It makes perfect sense, because she's pointing out that the price is not round trip just one way but more importantly she doesn't want to go because she's busy protecting David and eliminating threats from the corps to him that he doesn't know about.

The Cyberpunk genre is usually dystopian with only the corporate elite living good lives and most other people having to scramble to survive. Its rare that people get out of David's business alive, so tragedy is often built in. Its a deadly often double crossing business after all.

As the saying goes "Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon."

Problem: David only has two implants. His lungs and spine. He's not that deep in the sauce. David literally saw Maine think that HE's different and die from it. How he pushed David aside and everything. This should have easily served as a wake-up call instead of digging your head further in the sand. This is like going from drinking alcohol every week, seeing a drunk driving accident, and then getting addicted to alcohol. Which further reminds me, aside from the emotional impact for the audience and David stepping up as leader, even Maine's death didn't impact anyone in particular after the time skip.

A round trip implies that you want to come back. Why do you want to come back to a town you supposedly hate. If David just goes to the moon with her, everything would be alright. But she didn't even ask whether or not David wants to join. If she could have David come with her, literally all the problems she has would be solved, they could be happy. But nonono, we must have our tragic ending that we shoved straight into David's throat.

Problem: David only has two implants. His lungs and spine. He's not that deep in the sauce. David literally saw Maine think that HE's different and die from it. How he pushed David aside and everything. This should have easily served as a wake-up call instead of digging your head further in the sand. This is like going from drinking alcohol every week, seeing a drunk driving accident, and then getting addicted to alcohol. Which further reminds me, aside from the emotional impact for the audience and David stepping up as leader, even Maine's death didn't impact anyone in particular after the time skip.

royalnobody wrote:

Problem: David only has two implants. His lungs and spine. He's not that deep in the sauce. David literally saw Maine think that HE's different and die from it. How he pushed David aside and everything. This should have easily served as a wake-up call instead of digging your head further in the sand. This is like going from drinking alcohol every week, seeing a drunk driving accident, and then getting addicted to alcohol. Which further reminds me, aside from the emotional impact for the audience and David stepping up as leader, even Maine's death didn't impact anyone in particular after the time skip.

It sometimes serves as a wake-up call for some people, not everyone. You seem to want people and characters to be perfectly logical, unfortunately that's not how people are. Plenty of people behave irrationally and make bad decisions and that's even before you throw other stuff into the mix like culture and environment. And the environment of Night City is like another character in the story. I knew kids when I was growing up that had alcoholic parents and that didn't stop them from drinking and later becoming alcoholics themselves. Some of them finally got clean and sober, but not after they seriously damaged their health and relationships. Having an example of why you shouldn't do something doesn't stop people from doing it.

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A round trip implies that you want to come back. Why do you want to come back to a town you supposedly hate. If David just goes to the moon with her, everything would be alright. But she didn't even ask whether or not David wants to join. If she could have David come with her, literally all the problems she has would be solved, they could be happy. But nonono, we must have our tragic ending that we shoved straight into David's throat.

Because maybe a vacation to the moon is not going to fix things? Like I said it wasn't going to happen because the Megacorps were looking for the data that would lead them to David and Lucy was trying to protect him by eliminating their hackers.

You seem not to want to have the tragedy that was served up, which is understandable but part of the point of the story was that Night City is a dog eat dog place. Only the rich can afford the Trauma Team to fly in and resuscitate them after an accident. David and his mom did not have the money to afford the same health coverage. David ends up in more debt due to his mom's death. As is shown some of the other citizens escape into drugs and entertainment. Gangs and crime are rampant. One of the few avenues of momentary escape is by becoming a merc in effect becoming a type of gang member yourself. Its only after he becomes one that he starts to make money and then its hard to quit that. That's the environment of Night City that David's in and his friends and crew are there. Hard to walk away. The whole thing is an indictment of capitalism and that's what Night City is capitalism at its worst. There's no happy escape in such a place at least not for long and this is why its a tragedy--to bring that point home.

royalnobody wrote:

Problem: David only has two implants. His lungs and spine. He's not that deep in the sauce. David literally saw Maine think that HE's different and die from it. How he pushed David aside and everything. This should have easily served as a wake-up call instead of digging your head further in the sand. This is like going from drinking alcohol every week, seeing a drunk driving accident, and then getting addicted to alcohol. Which further reminds me, aside from the emotional impact for the audience and David stepping up as leader, even Maine's death didn't impact anyone in particular after the time skip.

If we got another episode they probably could have shown David's descent, but instead they leave it up to the viewer to fill in the blanks. They did foreshadow David taking Maine's arm(s) when he died and we saw him carrying at least one of them back with him when he did die. So presumably he either got that installed soon after or got other upgrades first that he needed to eventually get it. And from there further upgrades until he ended up the way he was. I think he just got the legs right before the start of the time skip. Just a little bit more to get a little bit stronger, but it's ok, he can take it, he's special.

Maybe. I mean, them not explaining just makes me think David's incredibly dumb/arrogant.