History Headscratchers / Cyberpunk2077

** Hellman [[spoiler:or Takemura]] says that the Relic has altered V's DNA so much it will take a long time before they'll find a suitable match. Saburo could be uploaded almost immidietly because Yorinobu was his biological son, so their DNA was considered "matching". V doesn't have any children, and their DNA is so messed up that finding someone who just won't rejet them will take a long time.

[[folder: AI Alt Cunningham, hypocritically having the same issue?]]
If you complete the mission about the [=VooDoo=] Boyz and try to stick up for Johnny to the AI Alt, telling her you saw his memories of his attempt to save her, she says his memories aren't actual fact because they're copied from him a short time after her death and that they're distorted from his point of view. If that's the case, wouldn't AI Alt not actually have the same problem when it comes to her view about Johnny? Yes, Johnny was an asshole, but clearly the real Alt must have seen something in him to want to keep coming back to him when she had every reason to not do so anymore, and her past memories before the moment we see her get kidnapped in Johnny's memory would have been distorted over time and from her point of view too. Both are technically echoes of the real Johnny and Alt, but both copies aren't flawless. So, wouldn't that mean that AI Alt is technically having the same issue as the copy of Johnny in the Relic? And wouldn't that mean she's being hypocritical towards the copy of Johnny while having the exact same issue?

[[/folder]]

If you complete the mission about the VooDoo Boyz and try to stick up for Johnny to the AI Alt, telling her you saw his memories of his attempt to save her, she says his memories aren't actual fact because they're copied from him a short time after her death and that they're distorted from his point of view. If that's the case, wouldn't AI Alt not actually have the same problem when it comes to her view about Johnny? Yes, Johnny was an asshole, but clearly the real Alt must have seen something in him to want to keep coming back to him when she had every reason to not do so anymore, and her past memories before the moment we see her get kidnapped in Johnny's memory would have been distorted over time and from her point of view too. Both are technically echoes of the real Johnny and Alt, but both copies aren't flawless. So, wouldn't that mean that AI Alt is technically having the same issue as the copy of Johnny in the Relic? And wouldn't that mean she's being hypocritical towards the copy of Johnny while having the exact same issue?

* Like, if you're enemy is a nationalistic megacorp that sees Imperial Japan as a goal to aspire to, why would you name your rock band after an iconic Japanese warrior class?

** V was never framed for Saburo's murder; ''Takemura'' was. Dialogue between Takemura and V confirms that Arasaka is hunting the former, and Hanako corroborates that Yorinobu pinned the blame on him. Conversely, the only implication made in-game that V is could be responsible for Saburo's death is an assumption made by Dex, who is one of the few people aware that V was present at the scene.

*** [spoiler: In support of the point above, the "Tower" ending confirms that V's condition can be cured given enough time and resources, albeit with some unfortunate permanent side effects.]]

** Why does anyone live in any of the numerous slums, shanty towns, or other generally awful urban spaces in the real world? Oftentimes being able to relocate is logistically challenging, if not flatly impossible; too expensive, too dangerous, no opportunities or support networks necessary to thrive in other locations are available, etc. Plus, how is someone even supposed to leave Night City, as a practical matter? Militech has a contract to patrol the surrounding wastelands and decided to flood them with automated drones that shoot on sight, the space port is unsurprisingly expensive (going off Dex's conversation at the No-Tell Motel), the one official border crossing encountered in the game is staffed by corrupt killers who murder anyone without a pass, and the Maglev public transportation system linking Night City to the rest of the US and Mexico was destroyed years ago and never rebuilt. It's effectively a prison for anyone who doesn't have corpo cover, ennies to spare, and/or has enough firepower to fight their way through a literal army.

** V was never framed for Saburo's murder; ''Takemura'' was. Dialogue between Takemura and V confirms that Arasaka is hunting the former, and Hanako corroborates that Yorinobu pinned the blame and him. Conversely, the only implication made in-game that V is could be responsible for Saburo's death is an assumption made by Dex, who is one of the few people aware that V was present at the scene.

* So, throughout the game, people treat the "Secure Your Soul" and the Engrams as if they're life after death.
Except, it's stated that the engrams are copies of your neural data, not actually you. Johnny didn't come back from the dead, a copy of his personality was uploaded into you. In the Devil ending, Saburo didn't come back from the dead. An immortal copy of him was uploaded onto Yorinobu's body. At the VDB den, Alt makes the plan to turn V into an Engram and then download that back onto her body, and my first thought was "Isn't my objective to survive? Creating a digital copy and downloading that onto my body is what I'm trying to avoid! Even if it is a copy of me!" But V seemed to think this is seriously a solution to the whole 'dying' problem. So why do people treat it as if these people have cheated death and become immortal when, from the perspective of the original person, they're dead and staying dead while a copy of them lives their life? Who would pay billions of dollars to have a digital copy of themselves take over and live their life?

! Abandoning the Relic

*** By 'ditching the Relic', this troper meant leaving the container in Yorinobu's suite. About Jackie being 'hit', he wasn't seen to be shot by the security drone, so his injury is most likely having to fall down a long way with a heavy container.
*** He dies from internal bleeding caused by a ruptured artery -- he was hit. You can actually hear the exact moment it happens.
*** Honestly without the Relic, V would be dead. They still had to get out of there, the Relic was pretty irrelevant to Yorinobu's plans at that point, and they're still easy scapegoats. The only change would be Jackie having one extra hand free for that fall, which isn't a significant factor.
! Easily Killed Billionaire

*** Trauma Team actually shows up in their vehicle and that's why Jackie as well as V get caught since they're on the ledge when it happens.
*** Additionally, in the tabletop source Trauma Team ''do'' bring people back from the dead with some regularity, but have a sliding scale of "deadness" running from dead-1 (almost still alive) to dead-10 (resuscitation impossible) and as a general rule moving up the scale by one number for every minute the corpse is unattended to. Saburo's advanced age, crushed throat, and nasty head wound combined with the difficulty of accessing Yorinobu's penthouse probably left him deader than a doornail before they could reach him.

! No Proof Of Murder Innocence

! Jackie and Corpo V

** The Corpo probably hired Jackie’s merc services on a regular basis and eventually developed a friendly rapport with him.
*** It's all but stated that Corp!V hired Jackie for multiple "contract assignments" in the past, as an optional dialogue has them discuss how Jackie helped Corp!V [[NoodleIncident cover up an "incident" on the Mexican border]].
! Why Would Anyone Live Here

*** Panam states that the difference is Night City is a violent shithole but there's a lot of technology and wealth to be had if you're clever. However, most of America is abandoned ghost towns living in poverty. This is due to the fact Arasaka took over the city.

! Why is V coughing?

** While I love the above explanation, there’s a Doylist reason too: it’s a symptom visible to the player in a way bleeding from the eyes or ears wouldn’t be without looking in a mirror or V doing something contrived like saying “Oh no, I’m bleeding from the ears!” Same reason the gun is still visible even when firing from the hip. It’s an interface thing.
*** I'm inclined to agree, but V could still wipe their nose or cheeks and look at the blood on their palm. VideoGame/BioshockInfinite had the protagonist bleeding from his nose at certain moments of the game (also entirely in first person) and that's how it was shown: the screen would blur and he would wipe his face and look at his two fingers covered in blood. I do like the "V's coughing up their brain" theory too.
*** Johnny's a smoker. Smokers cough. V at one point starts smoking. At first it's an early symptom of a portion of the personality engram taking over the new body and thus a new habitual cough develops as a result of the invading personality expecting to need to cough and having some limited control over the body AND as a result of V staring to smoke.

! Jackie's Guns

** They’re not his signature pistols. They’re a pair stolen from the Arasaka agents he and V took down just after slotting the biochip. They lack the distinctive paint job.

! Where's Morgan Blackhand?

! Why does Delamain know Jackie's real name?

** They probably just told him. Delamain is a wholly sapient and intelligent individual, so bringing him in on the plan was better than trying to fool him too, especially since they need him as a getaway driver and he’s got his own reasons not to give up client information.

! Recovering in space.

*** Blood doesn't clot properly in zero g environments so surgery in space is basically a death sentence without some form of artificial gravity (whether sci-fi or centrifugal).

! Arasaka's Plan Makes No Sense.

! Why Don’t Ya Just Re-Upload V?
* So what’s stopping Arasaka from uploading V into a chip ala Johnny Silverhand and then slotting into someone else? Is it something about the damage to V’s brain/the Relic chip that makes it impossible?

** But Johnny Silverhand isn’t related to V by blood or marriage, yet he was able to assimilate into V’s psyche just fine. Just upload V’s psyche into a different body and it’d be the same thing, right? Only this time it’s V assimilating into the body. As I understand it, the psyche is the thing that’s uploaded, not the physical DNA. That’s why [[spoiler: Johnny Silverhand can be uploaded into a female!V’s body without trouble despite them obviously being two different genders.]] If the transfer only works when the two bodies are compatible (i.e., have similar DNA), then doesn't that defeat the entire point of the plot? As far as we know, Johnny isn't related to V.
** The Relic does alter the body using nanites, though, and the uploading wasn’t “just fine” - it was slow and painful, with V fighting Johnny every step of the way, coughing blood, throwing up, blacking out and having seizures. At one point V’s heart actually stops. It’s awful to live through ''once'', so why endure it a second time when you don’t have to?

! Why does everyone seem to forget that V is dying?

** Johnny is not evil or a mindless monster. He’s a raging asshole and a violent extremist, but Arasaka ''really is that bad'' - not just controlling and exploiting and killing people but imprisoning them forever to be manipulated without their consent, on top of killing them. He also slowly realises that his attack did not have the effect he was hoping for and learns to be less of a dickhead, to the point he’ll strongly advocate giving V’s body back even though he’d live longer in it if he took it for himself, even if V says he should take it. There’s no sign Arasaka or any corporation is ''ever'' going to even slow down on the “exploit literally every part of human life and the earth to death” train. As irrational and harsh as reactions to V’s death may be, V either selling themselves to the devil or committing suicide are not rational or nice things to do! Terminally ill or not, there were other options, and if V failed to take them, well, be ready to endure anger, grief and judgement from their loved ones.
*** Again -- what other options? In certain worldstates your options are suicide, letting yourself get taken over by the guy who killed thousands of innocent people (for a guy who's not "evil", he didn't wait long after giving the evacuation order), or Arasaka. The US healthcare system kills tons of people a year due to pricing them out of healthcare, should Americans just not seek medical treatment and let themselves die? Not even euthanise themselves (because that's evil), but just die?
*** Like, don't get me wrong, I know Arasaka is as evil as it gets. But if I had a friend in V's shoes and they wanted to live -- I'd tell them to do whatever it took. I wouldn't rather them dead if the only alternative (and if you don't finish the Nomad questline, it IS the only alternative) is death or having a terrorist take over their head.
*** You know how you feel about potentially having Johnny live in V’s body? That’s how V’s friends feel about V selling themselves to Arasaka, except more so - because as terrible as his attack was, Arasaka is worse. Whatever Johnny does in V’s body, there’s nothing he can do that will even approach the harm that Arasaka has done and will do to the world. Ever. This isn’t the banal nastiness of American health care (which at least exists to help people in theory, even if it’s bad at it). This is a force of active, constant, all-encompassing malfeasance that ''incidentally'' benefits V as it goes on to consume all V knows and loves, as long as V assists it in achieving that goal.
** (Part 1, regarding V joining Arasaka) As noted above, Arasaka is ''THE BAD GUY'' in this setting. They literally treat the common folk like disposable lab rats. In Misty’s case, of course she’d be pissed. V just joined the very organization that was indirectly responsible for [[spoiler: Jackie’s]] death. V’s action here told her, “You and Jackie don’t mean shit to me, even after all we’ve been through together.”
*** The problem is Arasaka didn't kill Jackie, the Trauma Team did. And even if it was true, it is dificult to blame Arasaka for shooting the suspected killer of their boss trespassing their own hight-security area. RDIT: looks like I was wrong. Seeker drones that shoot Jackie had Arasaka logo on them.
*** If I recall, she didn't know what Jackie was planning to do. Far as she knew, he was just doing his own thing until he ran afoul of Arasaka agents and was killed. And even she knew the specifics, she has a clear bias against them so she's not about to go, 'Yeah, my lover totally deserved it.'
*** As I said to the other person -- if I had a friend in V's shoes and there was no other choice (ie you haven't finished the Panam questline), I wouldn't rather they ''died'' than went to Arasaka for help. It does nothing in the fight against Arasaka. If anything, it means they have one less person to oppose them. Better to pick your battles and live another day to stick the knife in.
** (Part 2, regarding V’s [[spoiler: suicide]]) This is treading on mighty thin ice here so I’ll just say this: We don’t really control how others react to our deaths, self-inflicted or otherwise. I shall say no more.
*** Which is fair enough, but it's still disheartening that it seems to be almost unanimous. Even Misty acts as if [[spoiler:your suicide]] was due to depression, and not a terminally ill patient choosing not to suffer and draw it out. There's a difference between [[spoiler:"It sucks that you had to choose this, but it was your choice to make and I'm glad you didn't have to suffer" and "it was your choice but you had SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR", and a difference between that and even the "screw you for not suffering" which a lot of people had. If this was a game about depression, it would be very understandable that such attitudes would be the dominant reaction]] but... nobody seems to care that V was suffering what was, essentially, a terminal illness. Grief is grief, and I would grieve, but I'd also be relieved that [[spoiler:they went out before they could suffer too much]]. But maybe that's just because I've actually had a relative who wasn't able to be euthanised and had a long, drawn-out death that they shouldn't have had to go through.
*** True. I think the writers dropped the ball on that one.

*** Which is also fair, especially if you've finished the Nomad questline. Just, the first time I checked out the endings I hadn't -- so my V's only options were [[spoiler:death, terrorist and Arasaka]], which makes the [=NPCs=]' reactions absolutely brutal and lacking empathy. The context is much different if you haven't unlocked the Star ending.
*** This is striking me as less a “headscratcher” and more an emotional reaction to the ending, to which there can really be no answer. Grief is grief. It’s also irrational, angry, anguished, judgemental, and totally unfair. If it helps, as far as V’s friends know V can’t hear or react to them, so they’re not particularly eager to avoid hurting V’s feelings.

! The engram death problem

** Because overwriting V’s brain means V dies, even if V’s body lives. What makes V uniquely themselves is gone forever and can’t be restored, which is death in all practical senses. It’s made a little difficult by there not really being terms for this that aren’t philosophically loaded.

! Kerry in "The Temperance" ending

!Parking in Night City
Why’s there so little parking in Night City? There’s only one parking garage (you can see at least) available in the entire city and very few buildings have actual parking lots. (And no handicapped spaces either, then again paraplegics can be healed by punches here) When people are not using their car, does everyone just send them to drive around aimlessly until they’re needed again? Why on earth would anyone think that was a good idea? Because that would cause a of wasted fuel, traffic congestion, and accident potential. It seems as if [[ValuesDissonance CDPR didn't realise American cities are designed with car ownership in mind]].
* Population outgrew the projected capacity. Happens all the time -- particularly since I suspect many of the people inhabiting Night City are not there officially. Also, considering it was designed to be a "paradise", perhaps the designer tried to minimise how many cars would wind up present (since cars are noisy, smelly, dangerous and clunky) by not installing the facilities to maintain them. As for the paraplegic thing, most debilitating injuries can be patched up with cyberware, probably to the point where accommodations aren't considered.

* There's more than one parking lot - most of the corporate facilities have their own parking area. What there's a scarcity of is *public* parking. This is a city where the corporations run everything - public parking doesn't benefit the corporations (there's other more valuable uses for the space), so they don't build it. The city government isn't strong enough to make sure public parking is built either.
* There's probably also a lot of underground parking beneath the various megastructures V can't access. Several of the larger buildings the player is able to access have garages attached to them and/or lots in the sublevels.
* One of the futuretech proposals for the age of auto-driving cars is that they would drop off their user and then drive off to park elsewhere (or even become autonomous taxis) until their user summoned them back. It would allow much denser parking lots to be built on cheaper land and make for a denser urban core.

!Johnny-In-V's eyesight colorations...
So it's evident that Johnny has a colorblindness (like his VA, Keanu). This makes sense during the flashbacks... but why is it present even when Johnny takes control of V's body? V's eyes do not have colorblindness (as well they shouldn't, since they're [[ElectronicEyes Kiroshis]]). It's not a mental thing, either, because there are light-filtering glasses that can solve color blindness. It's not that colorblind people's eyes can't detect the light wavelengths, it's that the color-detecting nerve cones in the eyes have bleed-over into wavelength ranges they shouldn't have, and artificially filtering them out can solve this. There are videos out there of colorblind people first wearing these glasses and being moved to tears because of it.
* Implants weren't as common in Johnny's day so he got used to seeing tech run in colorblind mode. When either he eventually got an upgrade in his original body or got moved into V's he gained the ability to see all colors but opted to keep the HUD set to what he was used to. That way he would have the muscle memory of 'blue blip/text on screen, probably important' instead of missing important details.
* The UI colours change, but the rest of the time V-as-Johnny seems to perceive colours just fine.
* Alternatively: artistic license.
* He's also seeing the ghost of his artificial hand over V's real hand, so it could easily just be in his head.

!Dex, Rogue and the Afterlife
Why is Dex allowed to run a big job out of the Afterlife? Most fixers seem to get territorial about entire city districts, making sure any decent sized scores go through them. Now the Afterlife is something of a special case; Watson is Regina's turf but the club is where the high end mercs from all over the city go so she doesn't control jobs from there nor does she try to. But why is Rogue okay with Dex setting up a heist on the level of the Konpeki job, against her old enemy Arasaka at that, in her club without her being in on it?
* Because Dex was a washed up hazbin looking for his way back in. So long as he paid for the space and did his due diligence to respect Rogue in her domain she didn't really care much what he did specifically. She didn't know he planned to take on Araska just that Dex was going go pull something big and either make a glorious return, becoming a potential asset, or get himself killed in which case they'd add a new item to the menu.
* He probably also just went to Rogue as a 'restarting' fixer, and straight out ASKED. "Wanna run a job, get back in the game. I'll give ya a fee, mind if I use Afterlife? One shot, then I'm ghosting again." Or "One shot, back in the game, I'll pay a tithe."

!How much money did Johnny have?
I feel like the game gives us a conflicting message about how profitable Samurai actually was. Both Kerry and Johnny mention multiple times that they've lived in squats and that they've barely had enough money for food and upkeep of the instruments. On the other hand, Johnny says to Rogue that he'll pay her and Santiago double if they'll help him with getting Alt out of Arasaka, he drove around in a Porshe and his Malorian is a one of a kind gun made by a legendary gunsmith, and the tabletop description mentions that Johnny "was willing to pay any price" for having it made. I've talked with a few people who know more about the tabletop lore, and they've said that Johnny apparently earned quite a lot later on, and "Never Fade Away" became a fenomenon listened to all around the world, but I don't know how canon it is in the context of the game. Not to mention that Johnny has both the malorian and the Porshe in 2013, before Alt died, so he couldn't have had written "Never Fade Away" before that, since the whole song is basically a eulogy for Alt. I know that Johnny's memories aren't a perfect recreation of the events, but even without that I still don't know if Samurai was a struggling niche band with a group of devoted fans (like the game seems to imply), or an international sensation, with the lead being able to buy an expensive classic car, a custom-made handgun from the best manufacturer on the market and can easily pay double the rate of one of the top mercs in town.
* It's worth remembering Samurai wasn't Johnny's only source of income. He was also a fairly successful edgerunner. Now his focus was political, not commercial but still. Johnny is also exactly the sort of person who would splurge on a fancy gun and a what-is-he-compensating-for car after getting some decent cash without considering where his next meal is coming from. Overall the impression I got was Johnny went through periods of being well off or dirt poor as fortune took him. As for the 2013 raid given as he was going to get Alt he was likely willing to pay whatever it took, even if it left him ennyless. Or he was bullshitting; notice even in his own memories he never actually paid Rogue and Santiago.

* Johnny downplays his wealth and fame to better represent himself as the hero of the struggling masses, rather than a rich asshole playing pretend. While he never hit it as big as Kerry due to his anti-corporate attitudes, he was still an underground phenomenon, and without a corporate middleman taking a lion's share of the profits, he unquestionably had a fortune of several million eddies by the time Alt was kidnapped. The tabletop game also tells us that for all his anti-corporate bluster, he was a shrewd businessman, and although his investments usually had an ideological bent, such as cheap housing for struggling artists, he was always expecting to make decent profit out of them, as well.

! Engrams Aren't the Actual Person
So, throughout the game, people treat the "Secure Your Soul" and the Engrams as if they're life after death.

* Most of the talk about "souls" is just Arasaka marketing. Depending on your dialogue choices, Johnny will freely admit that he's aware he's an AI and not the "real deal", and Alt will state both that she is only an AI copy of the original person, and that V will in fact "lose their soul" if converted to an engram. Everyone else is ignorant of the truth, spouting corpo propaganda, and/or indulging in wishful thinking.
* This is really a philosophical question and quite a deep one. What is the real you? The body? The brain? The personality? A soul of some sort? That's not a question we're going to answer here. In V's case however almost all are covered; the same personality is in the same brain in the same body. So that only leaves the soul and, lacking a supernatural element to the plot, that can't be measured.
* It's odd that a religious V never really considers this, especially when the game didn't shrink away from such questions in sidequests. You'd think the Street Kid V especially (even if they aren't personally religious Heywood is ''very'' Catholic culturally) would want to talk to Padre or something.
! Johnny's elbow knives
A minor one regarding the two blades on Johnny's left elbow: does anyone know what their purpose is? The only explanation I can come up with are that they are decorative or a self defence tool (if someone tried to grab him from the back), but doesn't that make his normal every day life difficult? Don't they slice through clothes with long sleeves, or make it difficult for him to lie down on his back?
! The point of the 'sacrifice' and Johnny Silverhand's reaction in 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'
* OK, so [[spoiler:Joshua converts to Christianity and decides that he'll be crucified in an attempt to redeem himself for his sins and hope to inspire other criminals to walk a different path.]] I've several questions about this.

--> How does he think this is gonna redeem him? [[spoiler:Joshua isn't innocent. He even admits that.]] Besides, the whole point of the original 'Sacrifice' that he's imitating was that [[spoiler:Jesus was the innocent lamb brought to sacrifice on behalf of humanity.]] As it's implied, [[spoiler:no one other than Joshua seems to care. They view this as either a way to get rich or just 'meh'.]] Forcing himself to [[spoiler:die in the most painful way possible seems like a StupidSacrifice to me.]] No one's gonna go, "Holy shit! So brave and powerful! Let me rethink my life and seek salvation!" He's [[spoiler: not Jesus. His death isn't saving anyone for anything.]]

--> Johnny Silverhand more or less lays it down to you when y'all talk in the bar. He doesn't buy the religious talk. He even says, paraphrased, [[spoiler: "you see a god, and you bow. I see a god, I shoot him in the face, right between the eyes."]] Yet during the actual event, he's [[spoiler: reciting passages from the Bible such as, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself as you would save us."]] and at the very end, he is very respectful and quiet. While the latter I can chalk up to him not being 100% an asshole and knowing when to behave himself, but the former? What's he going off on reciting passages when he made it clear he doesn't buy into any religious thing past or present?

Besides, it reeks of gaslighting, like he's telling the victim's family, "Hey, look how sorry I am! I'm filming myself being [[spoiler: crucified!]] Am I redeemed now?"

* Okay, piece by piece:
** "How does he think this is gonna redeem him? Joshua isn't innocent. He even admits that." Well, yeah. The innocent do not require redemption.
** "Besides, the whole point of the original 'Sacrifice' that he's imitating was that Jesus was the innocent lamb brought to sacrifice on behalf of humanity." Joshua doesn't think he is Jesus. He's doing something else. Jesus is the reference, obviously, but that doesn't mean he's comparing himself directly to the big guy. The point is for other people to feel his acceptance of his fate, his faith in those final moments, and the horrible pain he experiences in death while still keeping his faith. For Joshua it is not about adulation or glory for himself, its about trying to do something that might help others and atone for some of the wrong he brought into the world.
** "As it's implied, no one other than Joshua seems to care. They view this as either a way to get rich or just 'meh'." Some do, sure, but they wouldn't believe it would make them money if it wasn't something people wanted.
** "No one's gonna go, "Holy shit! So brave and powerful! Let me rethink my life and seek salvation!"" They might. It is doubtful anyone will see Joshua as brave because thats not the intent but feeling his final moments might well make viewers rethink things as is his intention. Remember that they're not just watching a movie, they are feeling what he's feeling, including his faith and sincerity. Since he's been sentenced to death anyway he might as well ''try.''

! The Temperance Ending

*** [[spoiler:Imagine being one of V's friends or allies - they show up after knowing of what they've been going through for the whole time they've been fighting with the Relic, and instead of V, it's Johnny. "Oh hey, I know this exact thing that happened is the exact thing you've all been working to help V avoid happening, but it was TOTALLY consensual and they're idea, trust me for realsies." Would you believe him? How do you even begin to broach that subject? No one went through all the discussions and time with Johnny that V did to learn how he changed, or saw what happened in Mikoshi. All they have is the word of a viral AI infection that was killing their best friend/ally/lover, who would have a very vested interest in seeing V fail. At this point, it's easier to just ghost and let them wonder, since there's no way you could convince them otherwise.]]
*** [[spoiler: To flesh this out a little more: at this point, V is a hardened badass with an ocean of willpower. If you've done their quests, each of V's friends would have their reasons to say "no way V would just give up on his life". Doubly so when considering that, from their perspective, V is the kind of person who will charge Arasaka tower with a small handful of backup, in what has to be one of the ballsiest missions in the Cyberpunk universe. There's not reasonable way Johnny can show up and say "hey the person you know and love, who has fought life and limb with the small bit of juice keeping their body running to preserve their life and make a name for themselves, let themselves die for me. You know, without giving any hints to anyone. Just gave up and became part of the net. Aight, peace." As mentioned by others, all the others would know is that V, all of a sudden without warning gave up the ghost. The people that know Johnny would especially say "wait Johnny is EXACTLY the kind of person who would backstab V and betray his/her trust when given the chance." Under these circumstances, it'd be more unreasonable for Panam/Judy/etc. to be understanding than otherwise.]]

*** [[spoiler: Only if they can't find a fix. The tabletop game certainly has decent enough medical tech to fix issues like this for enough ennies if you can find the right doctor and that was 50 years ago. The Star and Sun endings have hope, just not certainties. V giving up to Johnny is giving up that hope and that is certainly melancholy.]]

! Johnny's Porsche
Why did Johnny even own a car, if he never, ever drives himself? Every single time we see him in flashbacks or let him take over, he always lets others drive him around (Rogue in "Never Fade Away", Ruby in "A Cool Metal Fire", and Steve in "New Dawn Fades").
* Because those flashbacks aren't the entirety of Johnny's life.

*** People buy things for all sorts of reasons, sometimes because they simply want to own something. There are celebrities in real life who have bought luxury cars despite not even having a driver's license to begin with. Humans are not always rational creatures.
*** ...and especially not Johnny Silverhand. It makes sense for him to buy something he never actually uses just to show everyone how successful he is.

* WordOfGod says he actually stole it after a fight with an Arasaka Corpo-rat over a parking spot. He had it repainted and detailed to fit his style as a screw you to the guy he stole it from.

! Corpo V’s job
What exactly did Corpo V do in their former job? The intro mentions something about counter intelligence, but what specifically does that mean? Was V some kind of Corpo version of James Bond or something?
* Sorta. Counter-intelligence covers a whole range of activities primarily aimed at responding to when internal security suffers a blind spot. If there is an info-leak say, the job of someone like V would be to close any openings and clean up the mess that leak caused. And in this world that can be anything from recovering a misplaced prototypes to silencing a Media or politician with info on one of the corp's many buried skeletons. Meredith Stout being a good example of another corp's counter-intelligence in action (her mission being "recover stolen Militech property and close the security gaps that let them find and run off with it.")

! The Doll talk
Having played through multiple time, why does the Doll gets annoyed with V, even if you logically run through everything else, leaving you only with the safeword? I understand they probably want to get paid more, but from how they react it seems like you kind of killed their high and there's no 'easy way' to let them out of it, as even if you give it several minutes they act like you just shat on the floor. Especially since it was just such a tender scene if you do the full dialogue. it feels like the option to come to a "natural" end should be there.
* They become annoyed because you're asking questions about a coworker and their employers. Asking questions about the Tyger Claws can easily result in trouble for them, so its understandable that they would get a bit upset that you cut the session short, brought them back to the real world where the person underneath the Doll can see everything again, and then start asking questions about the very scary gang that is entirely willing to just sell them off to a shady ripper if they start to malfunction.

** "Besides, the whole point of the original 'Sacrifice' that he's imitating was that Jesus was the innocent lamb brought to sacrifice on behalf of humanity." Joshua doesn't think he is Jesus. He's doing something else. Jesus is the reference, obviously, but that doesn't mean he's comparing himself directly to the big guy. Several of the apostles were apparently crucified as well and are accorded to be martyrs but that doesn't make them the same as him.

** "No one's gonna go, "Holy shit! So brave and powerful! Let me rethink my life and seek salvation!"" They might. You don't know and neither do I. Remember that they're not just watching a movie, they are feeling what he's feeling, including his faith and sincerity. Since he's been sentenced to death anyway he might as well ''try.''

** "Besides, it reeks of gaslighting, like he's telling the victim's family, "Hey, look how sorry I am! I'm filming myself being crucified! Am I redeemed now?"" There may be an element of that but if so it's not conscious. Remember his victim's daughter reached out to him, not the other way around.
** Ultimately I can't say he's making a good choice. I'm not even Christian so I may be missing doctrinal points but I do not think the logic behind his choice is completely sound and I don't know if it'll have the effect he wants it to. It is, however, ''his choice,'' the only one he has left as a condemned criminal. If it gives him comfort to make this attempt with his final moment who are we to say he can't?