Judy ... ugh ! [Spoilers]

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I think the one thing to consider here that hasn't been directly brought up yet:

Evelyn was determined to kill herself. She wanted to die. She never recovered after what happened. It's not like Judy can watch her like a hawk 24/7 -- and if she did, what would that accomplish? It would simply drive Evelyn away -- or to the final brink even more quickly. I think the direct implication is that Evelyn manipulated Judy into dropping her guard, then Ev took the opportunity to end her own life.

I think it's clear that Judy blames herself if a big way. Look at the call she makes to the NCPD. She basically tries to sacrifice herself by threatening the precinct in an emotionally charged attempt to get them to collect Evelyn's body with some form of dignity, rather than letting it start to rot. She even calls V for the sole purpose of moving the body to a bed and clothing it, then seeking revenge on the people that did this to the woman she loved.

That's not manipulation on Judy's part. If anything, it's plain-as-day naivete and idealism, even in the face of a world that clearly doesn't care.
 
That's not manipulation on Judy's part. If anything, it's plain-as-day naivete and idealism, even in the face of a world that clearly doesn't care.
Yep. There are lot's of things going on with her. During my first playthrough I noticed that she is really good study in IRL terms for person going through stages of grief, but there's more to her.

She is clever, and not only gifted artist but also very dedicated. It's kind of everywhere if players look around and should become obvious at least at the lake, she keeps improving her work, it's more than a job, for her it's a craft even though she may not realize that herself and thrives to do something beautiful, it's like all over her.

It's not only world that doesn't care but also tries to take advantage of everyone, dog eat dog society. I usually stay out of character topics, don't think I have written to these dedicated ones and I'm not going to bring sledge hammer here either. I hope CDPR keeps doing what they do, each character have more going on with them. Kerry isn't portraying just a rock star but something that echoes from the late '60's. They wrote a musician first, but digress.

Anyway Judy is among those things, in a video game presentation of what people pay HBO premium.
 
Of course she did, it was part of the emotional manipulation. BD's is an art for Judy true, but why give up on the project when Valerie rejects her advances? What is even worse, is when Valerie accepts Judy's advances and they become a couple, Judy sends a very disturbing text, and though Valerie is unaware, and thinks it is something great. This text is about how their emotional tracks are the same.... not good in the slightest, even if Valerie developed feeling for Judy on her own. There should be variation due to the fact the 2 women are different, as people. Plus Valerie has a 'talking brain tumor' in addition to her own thought/emotional pattern, which would cause changes. Remember, the 'talking brain tumor' at the time does not like Judy at all, and describes Judy very well I might add.
When asked, Judy does admit she kept delaying the project, for the 'right person'. Thus begs the question how long was this put off? Could be measured in years. In addition before they even jump into the water, Judy says she is 'picky about her girls'. Like what, Judy owns them?? If it was about art she would of used one of her friends anytime, before Valerie even enters the picture. So to say Judy's friends are dead at that moment, does not mean in the past they were available.
Judy has no issues trying out her ideas on others, like Tom with the behavior chip. So one has to ask why does she have wait for the right person that she is picky about.
Fun Fact: not all results from Clouds results in Toms death.

Yep, based on info I read and heard over the years.... then add Judy's emotional instability, Judy is not partner material gay or straight.
Food for thought: the complaints Judy has about others... well, Judy is the reigning queen of the same issues. For example; when she say 'everyone is in their own bubble'. Judy, is in her own bubble, double layered and her head in the sand.

The scary part about judy is also how quickly she asks V to kill people for her. Judy was not even part of the original crew, except for helping a little with the BD. Then Evelyn dies and Judy asks V to be her revenge tool.

Ofc I would have killed Woodman and the others anyway, but asking someone you barely know to go and kill people, just shows that she's not a very stable person.
Hey, anything Judy asks, I'll do. What are friends for? And V is a merc, anyway :shrug:
 
@SigilFey
We discussed that Evelyn was too far gone, and would have found a way barring physical restraint. Why some people seem to think V has some obligation to save her life is beyond me. V did what they said would be done, and got the information needed though Judy. At that point, we have no ties to the situation besides those we choose.
 
Well that's how you interpret that mission. So you play your V as a stone-cold merc who gives no f*s, that's fine.

Others might want to play their V as someone with compassion, who would have tried to help Evelyn. But the game does not even offer that option, despite the trailers and dev interviews stressing that there would be branching narratives and many choices with long lasting consequences - unfortunately none of this is in the game.

But why is it so hard for you to accept, that other players had different expectations and would have preferred the option for a different outcome in the Evelyn story arc?
 
Evelyn was determined to kill herself. She wanted to die. She never recovered after what happened. It's not like Judy can watch her like a hawk 24/7 -- and if she did, what would that accomplish? It would simply drive Evelyn away -- or to the final brink even more quickly. I think the direct implication is that Evelyn manipulated Judy into dropping her guard, then Ev took the opportunity to end her own life.
It's exactly my thought, Evy want/decide to die (I said it few times...). Whatever Judy or V could/want do, she would have found a way to do it. In short, you can't help someone who don't want to be help.
At least, the only solution in this case, it could have been to lock her up in a empty room with a straitjacket... But is it a "solution" ? It could really help her ?

In any case, like in some other cases in the game, there is nothing V can do (like for Joshua, whatever V can say, he's trully decided to die...)
 
It's exactly my thought, Evy want/decide to die (I said it few times...). Whatever Judy or V could/want do, she would have found a way to do it. In short, you can't help someone who don't want to be help.
At least, the only solution in this case, it could have been to lock her up in a empty room with a straitjacket... But is it a "solution" ? It could really help her ?

In any case, like in some other cases in the game, there is nothing V can do (like for Joshua, whatever V can say, he's trully decided to die...)
It also brings up one's true morality. Would you make someone suffer just to feel good about "saving" them? Doesn't seem all that heroic. We gave her a chance she'd never have otherwise, and she made a choice. There's really no reason to feel bad about it. We also can help Judy while she sorts out her feelings to where she feels free enough to leave night city. Even without the free shotgun, i'd call that a win.
 
Would you make someone suffer just to feel good about "saving" them?

By that logic the existence of suicide prevention wards in psychiatric hospitals would be deeply unethical (which they aren't).
 
There is a lot of deep stuff over here. I will strive to read through and indulge everyone's thoughts.

Now, I will just react to the OP. Judy is a hothead, has no tactics, is impulsive, and besides a techie niche not really skilled in dealing with things that make up life. I've seen it. She still reminded me of an ex so I went to see how it looks like.

In my subsequent playthroughs, romancing her just wasn't an interesting path to take. No one actually is in CP2077. I just wish for more joytoys.
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Evelyn was determined to kill herself. She wanted to die.
I will process it myself later. Now, I would like to use the opportunity to ask, not necessarily just you but everyone: why did Evelyn want to die?
 
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There is a lot of deep stuff over here. I will strive to read through and indulge everyone's thoughts.

Now, I will just react to the OP. Judy is a hothead, has no tactics, is impulsive, and besides a techie niche not really skilled in dealing with things that make up life. I've seen it. She still reminded me of an ex so I went to see how it looks like.

In my subsequent playthroughs, romancing her just wasn't an interesting path to take. No one actually is in CP2077. I just wish for more joytoys.
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I will process it myself later. Now, I would like to use the opportunity to ask, not necessarily just you but everyone: why did Evelyn want to die?
To put it in as forum friendly terms as possible, she endured a lot of physical and psychological trauma in a relatively short amount of time.
 
To put it in as forum friendly terms as possible, she endured a lot of physical and psychological trauma in a relatively short amount of time.
Yeah, a "very hard week" who left deep emotional/psychological scars :(
(for physique, it seem to be not as bad, like Judy say to the guy in her message)
- Hacked (half fried) by VDBs
- 3 days with Woodman half conscious (but being able to see/feel).
- 4 days with Scavs also half conscious (so, it's easy to imagine what it happened to her...)
Maybe also the culpability to have lie and endangering Judy, to see her dream to leave Night City fly away for good and the fact her entire life is in ruins...

Basically for a week, it happened to Evy the worst horrors by being aware of what was happening to her but not being able to move/react...
 
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She had a solid career in entertainment, high up the ladder.
She wanted more and she had a plan.
Judy and V were treated like mercs, not partners in it.

Her big heist plan blew up like a balloon and no doubt she watched Arasakas go nuts about whoever was involved.
Voodoo Boys crippled her.
Then Forest sexually abused her.
Then she was sold off to Scavs as an end-of-life product that can be still squeezed some fun out of.
She was saved from that fate by people who didn't owe it to her.
Likely she was thinking of what would have been and what could have been all along.
There was also the lingering threat of more harm by the Voodoo Boys gang.

The failure of the heist. The loss of the previous status and success. No other shoot at it by far.
Prolonged physical and emotional abuse.
Incapacitation. Likely feeling like dead weight.
Fear of further harm.
Guilt and regret.

At least that.

--

Now, some people will break from it. It doesn't necessarily mean suicide. It could be insanity.
Some won't break and will move on with what is left.
Some will fight the situation in which they are placed till someone kills them.
Some will seek revenge.

Evelyn clearly had at least one person caring for her deeply, and that person happened to be supported by a capable merc. There was hope. Someone in that position could have asked for help. In the era of cyber wonders, Evelyn could still have literally become Eva Smasher. Instead, she had chosen death.

The question is deep. It is about how Evelyn's psyche is constructed, and how all of the above led to wanting to end it all. That analysis should also allow speculating whether her dead self would have reversed the suicide if she could. Mayhaps I ask too much of this thread. Mayhaps I hereby gave Evelyn too much importance anyway.
 
@SigilFey
We discussed that Evelyn was too far gone, and would have found a way barring physical restraint. Why some people seem to think V has some obligation to save her life is beyond me. V did what they said would be done, and got the information needed though Judy. At that point, we have no ties to the situation besides those we choose.
It's not an obligation. It's an option. Intepretation! Freedom of choice! Role-playing!

Even for required missions, almost all of them are wildly open to the player determining what motivations are driving V.

But no one interpretation is "final". Everything that makes sense is a valid interpretation.

It's exactly my thought, Evy want/decide to die (I said it few times...). Whatever Judy or V could/want do, she would have found a way to do it. In short, you can't help someone who don't want to be help.
At least, the only solution in this case, it could have been to lock her up in a empty room with a straitjacket... But is it a "solution" ? It could really help her ?

In any case, like in some other cases in the game, there is nothing V can do (like for Joshua, whatever V can say, he's trully decided to die...)
Sorry -- I missed it! I only pop into this discussion here and there.

And exactly. I feel that Judy was trying to save "them". Love can be selfish. Actually, love, by its very nature, is inherently selfish. The tragedy is simply that there was nothing she (or anyone else) could have done. Evelyn was already destroyed. Judy could really do nothing but drive her away or simply be with her until the end.

By that logic the existence of suicide prevention wards in psychiatric hospitals would be deeply unethical (which they aren't).
And that's why suicide prevention will not "lock people up". In order to use it, the person contemplating suicide must willingly seek it out. Some good it does to shackle someone to prevent their suicide, then mentally crack them so that have to remain chained up forever or they start developing aggression toward others instead.

The only thing that can ever be done for someone in danger of suicide is give them open doors to walk through. That, sadly, while most often quite effective, is neither perfect, nor does it work even when handled as perfectly as possible. There are too many different psychologies out there for anything to ever be 100% universal.

For Ev, she was a prostitute whose singular point of dignity was that she had worked her way up in the world to achieve at least some measure of respect as a prostitute. But she still sold her body for profit. That does not come without some incredibly heavy baggage, as well as scars that don't heal. After the "kidnapping", even that shred of identity and dignity was completely destroyed. No matter what, she would have to carry that experience around with her and remain with the knowledge that she had been completely and utterly violated and debased. Used with absolutely no consideration for herself as a simple human being.

When things like that happen, people don't "get over it". Truly there are only two types of people in the world at that point:
1.) Someone willing to fight against any odds and die on their feet. To rise from the ashes seek reckoning for what they suffered, without fear. (We know from the very first BD that Evelyn is not this person.)

2.) Someone that will be crushed by losing everything that they were holding onto. All illusions and ideals forever shattered, and all worth and sense of moving forward erased by the memories of everything they lost. It affects even the things they still have. What is Judy's love worth when she will never be able to return it without a sense of revulsion? She'll never be able to feel a lover's touch again without it also recalling everything that was done to her. People like this linger for a while, maybe, but almost always destroy themselves in the end (substance abuse, mental disorders, or suicide).

It's not Judy's fault.

Why does V care? That's up to the player. Is their character someone like Judy -- a fighter? Someone like Evelyn -- there's just no point to carrying on? Or someone like the people that kidnapped Ev -- they don't care or even draw masochistic pleasure from it?

Tough choices. Really amazing vision of what the Cyberpunk universe would really mean.
 
It's not an obligation. It's an option. Intepretation! Freedom of choice! Role-playing!

Even for required missions, almost all of them are wildly open to the player determining what motivations are driving V.

But no one interpretation is "final". Everything that makes sense is a valid interpretation.


Sorry -- I missed it! I only pop into this discussion here and there.

And exactly. I feel that Judy was trying to save "them". Love can be selfish. Actually, love, by its very nature, is inherently selfish. The tragedy is simply that there was nothing she (or anyone else) could have done. Evelyn was already destroyed. Judy could really do nothing but drive her away or simply be with her until the end.


And that's why suicide prevention will not "lock people up". In order to use it, the person contemplating suicide must willingly seek it out. Some good it does to shackle someone to prevent their suicide, then mentally crack them so that have to remain chained up forever or they start developing aggression toward others instead.

The only thing that can ever be done for someone in danger of suicide is give them open doors to walk through. That, sadly, while most often quite effective, is neither perfect, nor does it work even when handled as perfectly as possible. There are too many different psychologies out there for anything to ever be 100% universal.

For Ev, she was a prostitute whose singular point of dignity was that she had worked her way up in the world to achieve at least some measure of respect as a prostitute. But she still sold her body for profit. That does not come without some incredibly heavy baggage, as well as scars that don't heal. After the "kidnapping", even that shred of identity and dignity was completely destroyed. No matter what, she would have to carry that experience around with her and remain with the knowledge that she had been completely and utterly violated and debased. Used with absolutely no consideration for herself as a simple human being.

When things like that happen, people don't "get over it". Truly there are only two types of people in the world at that point:
1.) Someone willing to fight against any odds and die on their feet. To rise from the ashes seek reckoning for what they suffered, without fear. (We know from the very first BD that Evelyn is not this person.)

2.) Someone that will be crushed by losing everything that they were holding onto. All illusions and ideals forever shattered, and all worth and sense of moving forward erased by the memories of everything they lost. It affects even the things they still have. What is Judy's love worth when she will never be able to return it without a sense of revulsion? She'll never be able to feel a lover's touch again without it also recalling everything that was done to her. People like this linger for a while, maybe, but almost always destroy themselves in the end (substance abuse, mental disorders, or suicide).

It's not Judy's fault.

Why does V care? That's up to the player. Is their character someone like Judy -- a fighter? Someone like Evelyn -- there's just no point to carrying on? Or someone like the people that kidnapped Ev -- they don't care or even draw masochistic pleasure from it?

Tough choices. Really amazing vision of what the Cyberpunk universe would really mean.
Exactly. And characters with flawless personalities are boring as hell anyway, as they are completely unrelatable and untrue to the real world
 
Sorry -- I missed it! I only pop into this discussion here and there.

And exactly. I feel that Judy was trying to save "them". Love can be selfish. Actually, love, by its very nature, is inherently selfish. The tragedy is simply that there was nothing she (or anyone else) could have done. Evelyn was already destroyed. Judy could really do nothing but drive her away or simply be with her until the end.
Don't worry, it was not a critic, just a remark ;)
In fact, in my opinion, it reinforces the dramatic side of Evelyn and Judy's story.
- For Judy, because even if she really want to help Evy, there is nothing that she can do, it must be very hard to live :(
- For Evy, after the Heist, you can speculate that she was maybe the only one who managed to avoid all the "mess". At least, she doesn't end up dead as everyone involved. But at the end, she maybe lived something even worse than a "quick" death, to the point she doesn't want live anymore. So it seem even more tragic...

And in middle of that, there is V, even if he/she die once, even with a "brain tumor" named Johnny, he/she is doing not so bad, in comparison...
 
@SigilFey

You are talking about freedom and choices, but none of that is even in the game. The whole Evelyn arc is an on-rails story experience where it does not matter at all how we want to play our V, the outcome is always the same.

Pretty much everything you wrote about Evelyn is your personal interpretation of the arc, which will differ from player to player.

And in my opinion V and Judy are awful people - a conclusion that is stressed by the game's story. Cause there's not one sentence by either character about Evelyn and how they could help her. V wants the info that that Evelyn has and Judy rips it out of her braindance memories and then leaves Evelyn alone long enough for her to commit suicide. They don't even bother to think about Evelyn's wellbeing.

V and Judy are shit and both get what they deserve in The Star ending:
V will be dead within 6 months and Judy will be heart broken, until she finds another person to latch onto.

And now for something else:
For Ev, she was a prostitute whose singular point of dignity was that she had worked her way up in the world to achieve at least some measure of respect as a prostitute.
Do you realize that "prostitute" is nowadays considered to be a derogatory term that has connotations of criminality and immorality? Still using that word in 2021 stands for a certain mindset. One that you, especially as a moderator, should avoid being associated which. The proper designation is sex worker.
 
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@SigilFey

You are talking about freedom and choices, but none of that is even in the game. The whole Evelyn arc is an on-rails story experience where it does not matter at all how we want to play our V, the outcome is always the same.

Pretty much everything you wrote about Evelyn is your personal interpretation of the arc, which will differ from player to player.

And in my opinion V and Judy are awful people - a conclusion that is stressed by the game's story. Cause there's not one sentence by either character about Evelyn and how they could help her. V wants the info that that Evelyn has and Judy rips it out of her braindance memories and then leaves Evelyn alone long enough for her to commit suicide. They don't even bother to think about Evelyn's wellbeing.

V and Judy are shit and both get what they deserve in The Star ending:
V will be dead within 6 months and Judy will be heart broken, until she finds another person to latch onto.

And now for something else:

Do you realize that "prostitute" is nowadays considered to be a derogatory term that has connotations of criminality and immorality? Still using that word in 2021 stands for a certain mindset. One that you, especially as a moderator, should avoid being associated which. The proper designation is sex worker.
In my view of the situation, Judy must have done everything she could for Eve on those last days. If she kept as unresponsive as V saw her all that time, was it such a crime to leave for some minutes on an erand not suspecting Eve would kill herself?
My personal theory is also that Judy had a long time crush on Eve, not returned. Remember at Finger's office, Judy saying something like "when you meet Evelyn, you have nothing but good feelings for her?(love) and her saying "on the one hand I wish she's here so we can get to her as soon as possible". So Eve for me is Jusy's love and role-model. No way Judy would believe she would take her own life.
About trauma team, I don't think there are available options for Judy or even V. I imagine a really dystopian reality on health insurance on this universe, like current USA×1000 standards. So even if V gets to a point in the game with a lot of money, game happens within weeks/few months span. Imagine TT demands, as is reasonable on this type of kafkian dystopian future, for assurance of credit for months before applying to TT services.
But I also agree the game is very lackluster in branching options, and this could be an oportunity for it, but I wouldn't criticize if they introduced branching options for Eve's end in the form of different ways the suicide eventually happens for example.
Edit: I say all this with a pity for Eve dying, she was one of the most interesting characters for me, brilliantly smart on a position that doesn't suit her at all, but I also believe in storyline terms, she was always meant to die to keep that briliant misterious nature of her character.
 
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