Because I'm just coming from the gaming subreddit and there is a huge portion of people complaining and upvoting complaints, saying they couldn't stand the game because of Johnny. And digging further it's because they think he was written to be this cool rocker sidekick, when he was written to be the opposite. We countless main and side missions that show Johnny is a petty hypocrite that rarely abides by the gospel he preaches. He's a bad person who grows and is still an asshole by the end of the game, but maybe not a total asshole. Personally, he's one of my favorite media characters because he's written as insufferable.
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I feel like the only people who don’t understand that are the ones who didn’t pay attention and/or skipped all of the dialogue.
Yeah I think that’s coming a lot more from Keanu fans than from Cyberpunk aficionados.
Here Lies Johnny Silverhand: Terrorist and Raging Asshole
Sorry for venting here but I can’t believe media literacy is so dead with a portion of gamers. They use him as a negative just because they misunderstood the intent of the character.
Like, yes. Congratulations on understanding the character. Was his first flashback not enough to convince you he is a borderline irredeemable piece of shit?
Ugh. That said, I’m so glad that piece of shit popped back in during liberty DLC. I thought we were going to have him vanished for the duration because it wasn’t in the budget.
Johnny’s personality grows on V
V’s (player’s) personality grows on Johnny
Actual cyberpunk fans know he’s a narcissistic asshole with borderline cyberpsychosis. Mike literally invented the character that way. But half of the story of 2077 is his character development as much as V’s character development as they become each other.
Johnny is the best guy around
He’s not really a bad person, more of just a deluded one who acted on some grandiose idea that in reality failed and made things worse, but in his mind was heroic and badass
Him coming face to face with that reality during the game is what makes him interesting, while also growing with V
I think Johnny saw himself like a Che Guevara type. Of course you can’t actually *be* Che if you’re out partying and fucking and rocking every night. And so that dissonance there results in Johnny’s hypocrisy and arrogance.
Johnny’s the type of guy you want leading an army, but he’s not the type of guy you want to have a beer with. But he does change after he gets to know V
Johnny was written to be an asshole. Arrogant, rude, a bully. It’s the point. He’s a literal terrorist, though I suppose a terrorist for the right reasons(?). He still wiped out innocent people just trying to earn a paycheck.
That said, I didn’t like him at first but he grew on me. Started listening to his advice more and more because I found i agreed with its core sentiments, if not the delivery.
Oh I know it and I love it. He really grew on me for better or worse.
Yeah he was definitely a garbage human before.
I gotta say, surprisingly, he did eventually grow on me.
The fact that the actor made me see through the rose colored glasses I had for him as a person to hate his character and then grew to feel attached to the character… is a testament to his acting ability and the writing of the story.
Such an awesome experience of a game.
No fr, Johnny is actually supposed to be used as a sign of what NOT to do usually. There’s only a few times I find myself of one kind with him in how to handle a situation.
https://preview.redd.it/ddwq416np60f1.jpeg?width=421&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33868586b388a4d884e80835512ec6e0980b95ac
I always saw it more as this
Yeah I love Johnny.. people calling him Insufferable in anyway is funny.. I love his character development
https://preview.redd.it/giovt0m2q60f1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef00b0527692da23781e1910c658a3e5c49d3947
Johnny clearly regrets a lot of his action…he said so himself
My only grievance was how rough the narrative transition from definite threat to unlikely ally was at the very beginning. One moment we’re in a nail biting cutscene of him banging V’s head on the apartment window, V screaming on the floor scrambling for pills, what looks like the start of a typical *“heated-battle-of-two-minds-that-will-gradually-cool-off-as-the-story-goes-on-thanks-to-their-shared-experiences”* odyssey.
But instead in the immediate next story quest he’s already using a composed “I’ve changed my mind. Let’s talk strategy” tone with V in the diner after takemura leaves. Like dayum, that went from 100 to 0 real quick.
You were supposed to warm up to him gradually, which at least I fucking did. They wrote him well.
The reason he’s less of an asshole by the end of the game is that his personality has partially merged with V. He’s not pure Johnny any more (and he’s much better for it)
Asshole? Yes. I don’t think hypocrite is the right word. That implies he says one thing and does the opposite. Thing is, he’s not doing shit, just talking shit. At any rate, he does make me LOL regularly.
https://preview.redd.it/aluy0gsxq60f1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e715c505e0829f674157c73c881f541b5df69f3d
What late late capitalism will do to the a mothef*cker.
Hell yeah brother I love him he’s a douche canoe
You’re right. Jonny is an insufferable raging narcissistic asshole, but it made it more obvious that while V was slowly getting rewritten by his construct, he got influenced by V in return.
He was like a broken slowly shattering mirror for every decision V made and every situation V was in. The game has so many possibilities and the fact I was going through it with this asshole made it so much more fun.
I liked Johnny, he is a piece of shit but he grew on me ngl.
Well, the side effect of drawing in an amateur audience who came just for Keanu Reeves is that…you get an emotional crowd that might not appreciate nuance.
Even in the playerbase proper, there’s a sizable number of people whose end-all is emotional satisfaction. They want npcs that cater to them, a V that wields exactly the kind of authority they want, and endings that appeal to their emotions. That the game’s nuance is in morally grey characters and choices means pretty much nothing to them.
From my experience, a lot actually like him. But yeah, I understand and agree. A character doesn’t have to be likeable to be a good character.
But he nuked a megacorp so hes cool in my book