💾 Archived View for low-key.me › gemlog › cyberpunk.gmi captured on 2021-12-17 at 13:26:06. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I came across this interestingly titled post on cetacean.club a while ago but since it started off with a spoiler warning for both the games, I only got around to reading it after completing my playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077. I don't see myself playing Xenoblade anytime soon so no point in waiting until then when the title had me so curious.
Plurality as Portrayed in Cyberpunk 2077 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2
This was my introudction to the term plurality even though I'd come across depictions of it in various media before. While I can't say anything about Xenoblade, I do feel confident talking about Cyberpunk, the characters in it and their relationships.
I am going to presume that the reader too has either played the game or at the very least read the piece that I'm responding to.
V and Johny admittedly do start off their relationship from a bad place. V is at risk of losing herself as the personality chip with Johny in it threatens to overwrite her own while Johny just saw himself return from the dead but trapped in the body of a stranger who wants to destory his second chance at life because that's the only way she can continue to live her life.
From here though, the game lets you determine the kind of relationship that Johny and V have. You do this not only through dialogue choices but also by pursuing entire quest lines dedicated to determining the nature and strength of your relationship with Johny. If you choose to, you can forge a strong bond between the two and this is something that the post does acknowledge.
What I found strange though were the comments about Johny's portrayal that stigmatized plurality. I admittedly have no experience with plurality but Johny as a character is selfish and narcisstic. This comes through in the moments that Johny takes control and why would it be any other way? Johny is a true outsider to V's body, not an aspect of her and is thus free to be who he is even if that means his actions aren't in V's best interests. He drinks and indulges in debauchery but that could easily be in line with who your V is too. The only way things could have been different is if Johny was a different person altogether and that is a wholly different discussion.
The ending that's discussed too is one that doesn't really capitalise on the bond between the characters. There is an ending that plays to the strengths of how much these two have influenced one another, to the point that the choice of which one of them should retain control of the body becomes an incredibly challenging one. I would really love to know what the author thinks about this from their perspective. V and Johny cannot coexist in the long-term and this is one of the rules the game sets forward at the very beginning.
Does their situation then only bear a surface resemblance to plurality while actually being less about the physical space they both share and more about the worth of their lives given the point in time and space at which they have to make that decision? They both show what life means to them and are placed in a position where they must say who gets to live it out. The face that they both find themselves fighting for the other is one of the game's most beautiful moments. It's the most difficult yet satisfying choice I've ever made in a video game.
Cyberpunk 2077 may not be an example of how to represent plurality in media because it might not be a representation of plurality after all except in a superficial way. It is also a deeply flawed game in a multitude of ways but the one thing that it absolutely nails is the relationship between its leads.
J + V
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CC0 low-key, 2021-02-09