I think that Johnny Silverhand is a very divisive character but I have an interesting take on him: the character is at his absolute best and most interesting when he is an absolute trashfire of a human being.
No, hear me out.
Johnny Silverhand is annoying as fuck and frustrating if you think the game is trying to forward him as the heroic champion of the common man, the anti-corporate rebel, and the freedom fighter that Johnny himself is often trying to portray himself as. The last musician who hasn't sold out and the guy who gave Arasaka nightmares.
The thing is, the game doesn't do that.
It's quite clear that Johnny Silverhand's enormously high opinion of himself is almost completely unjustified.
1. Johnny is a terrible boyfriend.
2. Johnny is not particularly great to women despite knowing two of the most dangerous ones on the planet.
3. Johnny's attempted rescue of Alt not only gets her killed by FIVE MINUTES later and she would have rescued herself and probably destroyed Arasaka's entire computer network.
4. Johnny's nuking Arasaka HQ kills most of the people he was trying to save in Night City (he would probably sing it to "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath)
5. Johnny was an ANNOYANCE to Arasaka before the nuking incident. After it, he was defeated and they rebuilt.
6. Even musically, there's only one person in the world who believes Johnny Silverhand was better than Kerry Eurodyne and that's Kerry Eurodyne. Everyone else on Earth thinks of the latter as a pioneer and grandfather of rock music while Johnny is a footnote in his story.
7. Johnny's common man approach is also posturing since when you actually DO try to help people like at Clouds, he whines the entire time.
8. Johnny very likely nuked Arasaka NOT to save the world but a grand romantic gesture for Alt. Which makes it so much worse.
9. Most of Johnny's advice is terrible in fact.
10. He does become a better person if you're nicer to him and more self-sacrificing but that may be because your conscience is affecting him.
11. If you DO switch bodies with him, Johnny gives up on trying to change the world completely and runs away from all your friends rather than face them.
I mean, Johnny is GODAWFUL and that's what makes him a great character.
No, hear me out.
Johnny Silverhand is annoying as fuck and frustrating if you think the game is trying to forward him as the heroic champion of the common man, the anti-corporate rebel, and the freedom fighter that Johnny himself is often trying to portray himself as. The last musician who hasn't sold out and the guy who gave Arasaka nightmares.
The thing is, the game doesn't do that.
It's quite clear that Johnny Silverhand's enormously high opinion of himself is almost completely unjustified.
1. Johnny is a terrible boyfriend.
2. Johnny is not particularly great to women despite knowing two of the most dangerous ones on the planet.
3. Johnny's attempted rescue of Alt not only gets her killed by FIVE MINUTES later and she would have rescued herself and probably destroyed Arasaka's entire computer network.
4. Johnny's nuking Arasaka HQ kills most of the people he was trying to save in Night City (he would probably sing it to "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath)
5. Johnny was an ANNOYANCE to Arasaka before the nuking incident. After it, he was defeated and they rebuilt.
6. Even musically, there's only one person in the world who believes Johnny Silverhand was better than Kerry Eurodyne and that's Kerry Eurodyne. Everyone else on Earth thinks of the latter as a pioneer and grandfather of rock music while Johnny is a footnote in his story.
7. Johnny's common man approach is also posturing since when you actually DO try to help people like at Clouds, he whines the entire time.
8. Johnny very likely nuked Arasaka NOT to save the world but a grand romantic gesture for Alt. Which makes it so much worse.
9. Most of Johnny's advice is terrible in fact.
10. He does become a better person if you're nicer to him and more self-sacrificing but that may be because your conscience is affecting him.
11. If you DO switch bodies with him, Johnny gives up on trying to change the world completely and runs away from all your friends rather than face them.
I mean, Johnny is GODAWFUL and that's what makes him a great character.
Random thought I had today.
Will we be getting more Johnny Silverhand?
One of the things I noticed when I got Johnny's Ending (which is my canon one for the time being) is that they now speak with V's voice. If they do decide to do Post-Endgame content in the Crystal Palace I'm curious if that means they did this so you could be playing Johnny Silverhand in V's body and not have to have Keanu Reeves.
It'd be interesting as it would mean you'd be playing Johnny Silverhand potentially through the ending.
Will we be getting more Johnny Silverhand?
One of the things I noticed when I got Johnny's Ending (which is my canon one for the time being) is that they now speak with V's voice. If they do decide to do Post-Endgame content in the Crystal Palace I'm curious if that means they did this so you could be playing Johnny Silverhand in V's body and not have to have Keanu Reeves.
It'd be interesting as it would mean you'd be playing Johnny Silverhand potentially through the ending.
1 - Johnny is a hero. One misunderstood and who looks at his own ass first, but a hero.
People have the misconception that heroes need to have messianic qualities or that they can't be horrible people.
One of the heroes of my country is a guy who got under a tank with a grenade in each hand. Heroes don't always succeed in life or end well. In fact, it is rather the opposite. At least he was trying to do something good with his music. Kerry is cool and all but he is basically Cyberpunk's Bon Jovi.
He risked his own life to save Alt twice. I remind you that normal people in Cyberpunk would stay at home crying or hire a merc.
2- Rogue really loves Johnny. Like madly, true love. Imagine how much as to embrace a digital construct of her dead ex-boyfriend knowingly and do everything he asks of her without asking. When you talk to her about him, she is always affected.
She knew that she was going to die in the Arasaka tower in Johnny's ending, thats why tells her son to stop the car and look at the stars in that last conversation because it was gonna be the last memory of his mother. It even makes me sad thinking about it.
We can discuss whether that love is deserved or not, but it is something between the two of them. She sees something in Johnny we dont.
3- As I said in another post, the causes of the explosion are not at all clear, Johnny was already outside the building. Suspicious.
The real target was the foundation of the building deep underground. Johnny tried to get the building evacuated.
Aside from saving Alt, a fact he doest hide, he did it because he was against Mikoshi's principles. He talks about this in the badlands.
4- As I understand it, your consciousnesses are merging but you are still two individual beings. Johnny lowers his defenses when he sees that you are a good person who can be trusted. -Would you take a bullet for me?
People have the misconception that heroes need to have messianic qualities or that they can't be horrible people.
One of the heroes of my country is a guy who got under a tank with a grenade in each hand. Heroes don't always succeed in life or end well. In fact, it is rather the opposite. At least he was trying to do something good with his music. Kerry is cool and all but he is basically Cyberpunk's Bon Jovi.
He risked his own life to save Alt twice. I remind you that normal people in Cyberpunk would stay at home crying or hire a merc.
2- Rogue really loves Johnny. Like madly, true love. Imagine how much as to embrace a digital construct of her dead ex-boyfriend knowingly and do everything he asks of her without asking. When you talk to her about him, she is always affected.
She knew that she was going to die in the Arasaka tower in Johnny's ending, thats why tells her son to stop the car and look at the stars in that last conversation because it was gonna be the last memory of his mother. It even makes me sad thinking about it.
We can discuss whether that love is deserved or not, but it is something between the two of them. She sees something in Johnny we dont.
3- As I said in another post, the causes of the explosion are not at all clear, Johnny was already outside the building. Suspicious.
The real target was the foundation of the building deep underground. Johnny tried to get the building evacuated.
Aside from saving Alt, a fact he doest hide, he did it because he was against Mikoshi's principles. He talks about this in the badlands.
4- As I understand it, your consciousnesses are merging but you are still two individual beings. Johnny lowers his defenses when he sees that you are a good person who can be trusted. -Would you take a bullet for me?
