I am certain that almost every tragedy in Edgerunners could have been avoided if people actually talked honestly with each other.

Lydi this is a great character synopsis of Edge Runners. David hiding behind a paper thin veil of false strength. Striving to become the very thing that he knew would ultimately kill him. This is the curse of Night City, a constant power struggle of one's character to be something more to only realize that just by being true to youself, is enough.

When thinking of David there is a quote from the revenge of the sith novelization that always pops in my head, "finally, when you could have saved her, when you could have gone away with her, when you could have been thinking about her, you were only thinking about yourself..."

Beautifully put together and well said, it's a shame that edgerunners ended like that but you know what they say. "a happy ending? for folks like us? wrong city, wrong people."

David Martinez's story is how another soul has been lost to the curse of Night City. David's end is quite similar to the hollowness of the Sun ending. Both David and V had made it to near the top in terms of fame and wealth. They even stayed at the same penthouse. But still, both wanted more, and that would end up pushing away their significant others in chase of that dream.

The problem is we never know what David's dreams are. Mom wanted him to be a student/corpo and then he just went along with being an edgerunner. Never knew what he actually wanted

"Happy Endings? Wrong city, wrong people."

I knew Martinez would die later, but i never saw Maine's death coming he was literally a father figure for David This is the end of the line for me kid Reapers callin my name 😢 it kept me traumatized for 2 days with that soundtrack

“But David blinded by the need of fulfilling the dreams of those he cares about, cannot see what’s right there in front of him” his mom didn’t know how to do the exact same thing, that’s why he ended this way

Happy ending? Wrong city, wrong people. David got the best ending anyone could have - With a smile, and zero regrets.

I remember watching the 7th episode and bursting deeply into tears, right at the middle, because it’s obvious they won’t realize how beautiful these moments are, every again, and how welcoming and great it was that a show understands such a simple, yet deeply profound and moving thing.

One Edgerunners fanfiction I really like is a Spider-Man cross-over. Not even because of the Superhero stuff, but because David finds what he really needed in Edgerunners, purpose. His own purpose to get him out of bed in the morning. He was always aimless in Edgerunners, only wanting to do good for the people he cared about. With the legacy and powers of Spider-Man, perhaps he now has the words to express what he wants in life. Responsibility; for the people he loves, for the city he lives in and the legacy he upholds. With Spider-Man, David now always has a North Star to guide him forward, and by protecting others, shielding them from the loss of their loved ones, he also saves his own soul. The complete difference between the core themes of Spider-Man and Cyberpunk is fascinating parallel consider. Apologies for rambling, this video just reminded me of why I love that fic so much

I really want to stay at your house took over my playlist after this anime easy 10/10

In the world of cyberpunk, it’s yeet or be yeeted. Yeet others by chroming up, or be yeeted by a chromed up psycho

Love the video, and your takeaway of David is fantastic for it's uniqueness. Personally, I never saw him as anything other than a doomed hero from the start. Not by his own choices, but because Night City itself never allows anyone those kinds of choices. A cyberpunk kind of predestination where his choices were laid out for him before he was even born- because the city never allows anyone to make a choice. Corpos will eat each other alive, and Runners will follow the example of Corpos or be eaten by them as light snacks. In 2077, there is no escape and that's the horror of it.

how david martinez lost his happy ending? the moment david was born in nightcity already make a fact he will have misarble live if hes not one of Corpo kid

I don’t know how to describe this feeling but discovering your channel on a topic I have been yearning to find, it feels like I’m enticed to a podcast I cannot shake my attention off to. Thank you for making this video, I truly enjoyed seeing this spectacular synopsis on the characters and seeing their own views placed here ^^

I feel like we all knew this deep down that all the tragedy was avoidable that simply breaking up the gang and leaving Night City was always the best choice just like the Street Kid beginning for V had that version of V just stayed in Atlanta they could've scraped by and lived a long life but the allure of grandeur and becoming a legend was too enticing Johnny said it best "Wrong city, wrong people" and a quote from a complete different game really encapsulates life in Night City "Half as long, twice as bright" Zeke/Cole McGrath InFamous 2

Rule number one: no happy endings in Night City - Mike Pondsmith.

I love this analysis and how you’ve broken it down here!!

This show hits so hard, just finished watching it…

And my favourite was Rebecca, David and Julio infiltrating the base David new perspective was pretty jacked up with the new chromes and leg implants but as u said no-one is special

Perfect analysis I’ve seen on David. My boy was special 💙

Aww man, it brings tears to my eyes thinking about how David was so focused on getting what he wanted, that he lost what he needed. One of the oldest tropes in the book. A character pours all of their energy into what they want, and ends up sacrificing everything they have to get it.

0:51 frustratingly avoidable tragedy. I hate it but it's what makes it so good

This was excellently done. I love Edgerunners content and you have one of the best character analyses I've seen. Always a pleasure to see such great work.

''you didnt take me to the moon but you where there with me'' hits different lmao

Just found your channel and am so stoked to see the continued content. More cyberpunk!

that was increadible.... i absolutly hate this serie for how crazy realistically sad in a way that could have been avoided. but the way you explained and showed ? i just felt it again, you got talent

Thanks for breaking my heart all over again 10/10 video

I feel like you have a better understanding of these characters and their themes than most. This was an excellent analysis. Do you possibly have any plans to do videos for the 2077 characters as well?

"A happy ending? For folks like us? Wrong city, wrong people."

I think this is a great analysis of David and why he meets a tragic end, and articulates the themes of miscommunication, as well as humanity versus dreams, quite well. I do also think that this gets conflated with an entirely different topic in the intro and outro though, first given as, "But Edgerunners makes one thing very clear to us in its first three minutes: no matter how strong you think you are, there is ALWAYS someone stronger." This is... not exactly true, precisely as embodied in Adam Smasher (at least initially). While Smasher is the immovable object that David smashes into, and was in the tabletop settings of Cyberpunk 2013 and 2020 a "rocks fall you die" lose condition that players couldn't beat and simply had to run from, he's at once the strongest and not the strongest. He's beaten by V in Cyberpunk 2077, most obviously, but even in his prime, even with much better gear (a DaiOni powered armor) he was only equal to Morgan Blackhand. The most interesting thing about Smasher and Blackhand is that they were nobodies before being picked up by Arasaka and Militech. Smasher was a bad soldier turned gang member, and Blackhand was an average soldier. Smasher and Blackhand both eventually became the strongest, they weren't just The Man from the outset of their careers. Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2077 is essentially the story of V coming to eclipse them. Yet while V has Johnny's engram on the Relic possibly helping hold off cyberpsychosis, and Smasher was just always psychotic, Blackhand was mostly just a guy with some comparatively modest cybernetics-he was just "a solo's solo", a consummate professional. What seems to have united all three (generally, as V is up to the player) is they did what they all did for themselves first. Given these examples both before and after David, David's belief that he could become the strongest was not wrong. It absolutely is possible to become the strongest, or at least as strong as anyone else. (Can you truly do it alone? Probably not. You'll probably have a backer, like Smasher and Blackhand did, but that's just life.) Where he went wrong was how he went about it and why he tried to do it in the first place, as you excellently identified. He didn't really want it for himself, and so he never had the mastery of himself to withstand the corrosion of self that cyberpsychosis represents (in so far as one can anyway, since there is a red line). I think this is also reflected more broadly in seminal works of the genre of cyberpunk as well. Case and Molly survive in Neuromancer, as does Hiro Protagonist in Snow Crash (and in an interesting parallel, he names Raven the world's greatest badass only for Raven to tie in a fight with Uncle Enzo). (They're sort of preludes to cyberpunk, strictly speaking, but Rick Deckard in Blade Runner and Snake Plissken in Escape From New York also get away in the end.) What's notable is they just do what they set out to do in terms of concrete goals; they don't change the world. David seems to have not only had unreachable goals, that weren't even correctly understood, that weren't even his, but he also seems to have wanted to fundamentally change the world-and that is what cyberpunk, and Cyberpunk, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners truly cannot abide.

Man the analysis is crazy. Great work

Tbh this anime had a Akame G Kill ending i just can’t get it out my head. Where in the end on the last episode the hero or Mc just dies from a brutual battle

when the song started at the end I was about to curse you out cause a flood of emotions started pouring in from when I saw that ending. I was about to freaking cry. 😭

The algorithm let me discover your channel at the ground floor. Cheers to reaching 10K subs and beyond. Great video!

I can relate to Lucy and somehow with David in so many ways....

Thanks for making this video ❤

I loved this series, I'm new to Cyberpunk 2077 the game but I was an avid Shadowrun player back in my youth. I sincerely hope we get another series of Edge Runners, I'd love a collection of one off shorts of random NC residents.

Loved this video

Awesome videos thank you. I watched all of your Cyberpunk videos as I grew up playing the RPG back when I was in my early teens and this series truly captured it very well overall. Now from one novelist to another, I will make sure to pick up your book and review it. I hope it is selling well and while this path can be difficult, in the end I am told by many of my mentors it is worth it. Keep at the hard work. Plus it is a nice bonus that we are both into post apocalyptic works. Take care and have a great day. (I would also put in a universal link so you get more sales, your current link only goes to Canada and you are missing out on world wide sales.)

perfect story when broken down. Die the hero or live long enough to become the villain. David and Adam smasher even Main represent that well

Great video! I hope your channel continues to grow

I interpretted David's death scene somewhat differently. It wasn't Adam Smasher who made him understand. It was Lucy. Smasher helped rub it in, but Lucy truly made him understand. When David makes her promise to go to the moon, i think he knows his days are numbered (likely in the single-digits if not for Adam Smasher). He knows he can't achieve Lucy's current dream to live a life with him, so he does the only thing he can for her, allow her to at least have one of her dreams fulfilled. And I feel like her dreams have become David's dreams, exemplified through David's final words to Lucy/Falco: "Wish we could go to the moon together." Emphasis on "wish" and "together". That moment with Lucy is when David reaches the acceptance stage of his "five stages of grief" arc as you mentioned it, as for the rest of the show, David is mostly happy (something we wouldn't have seen if Smasher was the one who made him understand). BEAUTIFUL SHOW.

I love the time and thought you put into your videos. Super high quality! Keep it up! P.S. It would be really cool to hear your thoughts on Adam Smasher as a character in both Cyberpunk Edge Runners and 2077 if you have any. Either way, can't wait for your next video!

This story is too heartbreaking, only watching this video just made me cry like a baby

A good ending, for folks like us? Wrong city, wrong people.

As a child from an asian household where its "either engineer or doctor" because my parents the way david only lives to serve others and never himself really hit me hard

You know, I have to wonder if David would have gone cyberpsycho if he hadn't been so severely tortured

A happy ending? Wrong city, wrong people.

If you think David ever had a chance at a happy life you weren't paying very close attention

David is such a great character. I feel like the beginning to middle of his story is like a hero’s journey, making the viewer feel optimistic about what’s to come and think, “look at this cool gang of awesome characters! I bet the rest of the show will be them doing fun and badass jobs!” And then Pilar dies, breaking that illusion; now we aren’t sure where the gang will go. And then Maine dies, completely changing the direction of David’s story towards a tragedy. And yet, his death could be considered just as good as it was sad. David died while still possessing something that too many in Night City lose- his humanity. Plus, the fact that his main flaw as a person is an understandable thing as giving too much for the people he cares about is such a good way to write a realistic character that is so likable.

Getting to understand David was not on my bingo card but here I am

Great video, made me understand david a bit more.

In the show. That thunk of her earn hitting the bottom of that earn vending machine was wild.

Its a beautiful story through and through despite the end. There is so much to learn from edgerunners and from the actual 2077 game. Theres lessons every way you turn.

you forgot about that part where David Killed an innocent kids mother , which pushed him over the edge to cyberpsychosis

Nice video ❤️🌱

I like that your thumbnail says "an avoidable tragedy". To me, a fundamental aspect of a tragedy is that it's avoidable. A true tragic character is presented with many opportunities to change their trajectory, and they choose not to. You understood the character of David perfectly. He's not enviable. He's a wasted life clinging to the fringes of society, and without any real internal motivation, he's susceptible to any form of external motivation that happens to come along. He could have changed his ways at any point, but he consistently chose not to until it was too late. Great topic, great video. Surprised you don't have more subs.

It really is a Shakespearean Tragedy, if it were some other time, someone else, some other city, things might have turned out better. But it was just a series of catastrophes that were made possible and exacerbated by the people caught up in them.

And now I'm tearing up again

so as a tabletop mechanic is going cyberpsycho is more of losing your humanity over the course of the game. every character starts off with a base humanity level and over the course of the game it is lost if the character experiences traumatic events, so in the case of david he has a high humanity stat (presumably) and throughout the season he has his mother, all but 2 of his crew die infront of him, gets betrayed by one of his crew and then has a new guy explode infront of him. all of these events take away from his humanity overall, now he can gain some of it back by being around the people he cares about (lucy). you can see this after he puts on the suit and rescues lucy and he gains some humanity back and that brings him back from the psychosis. the sandevistan and the suit didn't push him over the edge it was being put into unwinnable situations and experiencing traumatic events.

No vere el video porque no hablo ingles. Pero la tragedia de David era inevitable. Por vivir en night city, por como era David y por haber nacido en esa familia en ese tiempo y lugar. No hubo oportunidad para David desde el principio, que bueno que es solo ficción y no refleja para nada a la realidad ¿verdad?

That first minute waaassss crraaazzyyy

im not over it

i feel like this whole story would have been avoided if Victor was Davids ripper as he truly cares for his patients and would have given him a reality check just like he did with V

What I love about Cyberpunk is that it in many its a power fantasy, but also subverts the power fantasy story type. The main characters go on to achieve great fetes and make themselves in to legends, and make lots of money, but in the end they don't often live haply ever after and their legendary status is often obtained by dying or at the least suffering a great deal and losing everything. The stories aren't about become legends, its about going out on your own terms and leaving a legacy behind and becoming legends as a result of that. The ambition to become great often leads to peoples downfall in this universe, V and David are very similar in this regard, David even more so is that he could have left the edgerunner life behind and lived happily ever after with Lucy and wealth they built and be comfortable(their pent house shows how much they were worth), but he chose not too. A lot of people were upset with the ending, but it was consistent with the mythos of the franchise and the cyberpunk genre in general. Cyberpunk fiction is just noir fiction with a sci-fi veneer.

David's mother was *not* selfless. HER dream was to see her son rise to the top of Arasaka tower. She worked tirelessly to fulfill HER dream. This was never David's dream; he had no say in the matter. David was a tool in fulfilling her dreams because she felt it was too late for her to fulfill it herself. This is a common tactic that parents use in real life; it's a selfish act disguised behind an illusion of selflessness.

the brightest stars burn the fastest, and holy shit did david burn bright

couple a things here david is exactly like his mom they both ignore obvious problems to give people dreams they don't fully understand the main difference is david justifies his actions with an I don't matter mindset meanwhile gloria complains and acted as though david owed her to get to the top of sociopath corporate death ladder in a frankly idiotic naivety about how this city works and ignored that he never cared

What I find most interesting here, from a tabletop rpg mechanic standpoint, is just how much of a big deal having a Sandevistan implant impacts your psyche. In the Cyberpunk 2020 book the Humanity impact that particular implant has is on average on par with the gun smartlink that V got at the begining of Cyberpunk 2077. Even in Cyberpunk Red, the impact it has is on par with the datachip sockets. I wonder what makes this version different as I've not had the opportunity to see the series. Is it supposed to be a super-boosted version?

They should make a season 2 where adam smasher actually doesnt kill david but does make him a construct and lucy uses her netrunner skills to get him out. (Somehow) i know. Slim chance maybe we get lucky with cyberpunk orion for a new show. 10 episodes of emotions flying around. Very good show.

Poor Rebecca. She deserved better 😢

So if you play the game, David's story is a cautionary tale. It comes down to choosing what kind of life you want, as a fat man in a red suit once said "Quite life, or Blaze of glory" David chose the Blaze of Glory

Discussing how a tragedy wouldn't be a tragedy if the main character wasnt flawed is vapid. The tragedy is the point.

Bro he got his happy ending he sent his soul mate to the moon. I'm sure he'd rather of been there but in the situation one of them was gonna die an if Lucy died he would of just went psycho an no one goes to the moon. It's sad ending but it's still happy

Happy ending? In Nightcity? You’re barking up the wrong tree because if you know the lore of Cyberpunk 2077: there’s no happy endings in Nightcity, FOR ANYONE

In the end, is it such a bad thing to have a dream of helping others to achieve their dreams?

Gloria reminds me of jackie in a way I have a hard time explaining

ALL tragedies are avoidable. If they were not avoidable, they would be horrors.

David Martinez and Night City stage for Tekken 8

Not even gon lie this show had me sad asf for a few days didn’t play the game or watch tv😂 I real deal had to snap out that shii because I was mad asf he died

Why we just assume that if David ran away he is going to live happily ever aftet? People in Night City don't live long and life overall is pretty shitty and is spent in scrapping by from paycheck to paychek unless you're a corpo. What's beaty in long life of fighting for surival?

Some parallels to Toguro and Genkai

It's not even for a lack of rolemodels, after all there's Falco: Barely chromed up, "old" in a profession where people die young, successful and professional solo and a ride or die nontheless.

Very well edited vid, but it felt like u havent seen any Lucy’s mistake.. u re making her look better then she did imo

Tbf i think that even if david whodnt have died by adam he still whoud have loose his mind and have cyberpshychosis david is like the shounen mc in a wrold that is simular to the real wrold his habit of carring evryones dream in a anime like one piece whoud have been rewarded unfortnetly david s main caracter caracteristics (arrogance ,acting tough even if hes weak inside,his stuburnes) causes nothing but midtakes that choud have been avoided if he did not think that he was special

Lucy should have just come out and said it. She was a huge part of the problem

Should've saved the money he spent on all that chrome and took Lucy to the moon.

david just can't be selfish until the end

You sure David lost his happy ending (If there is something like that in cyberpunk)? Sure he is gone? :)

So number 1 i want to counter the point of his classmates not accepting him because he is poor. During his beat down or before, his classmates were talking about, how they didnt like him not because he is poor, but he doesn't try to fit in, he is a troublemaker and from the whole series, from even before he became an edgerunner he has been self destructive. Also his mom, the kids at school were right to be suspicious she was doing highly illegal stuff to pay for his school, which her direct actions probably lead to the deaths of many people with the cyberware she gave criminals and even the cyberware she left her son, lead to his early demise. She is not a good person, I would say even evil and greedy, to hurt so many people to force her dream onto her son.Another thing why is she having a kid with no dad in this world, like she should take some responsibility. Last point David's behavior of living through other people/ their dreams is a learned behavior, that was instilled in him by his mother. When she died, he just lived through mace and then Lucy. Both people who were hiding something Mace's psyber psychosis, Lucy's Deep Netrunner past and just like his mom, he never looked deeper into what they were hiding. In the end he died saving Lucy, almost like saving his mom, which he couldn't do before, he got a second chance to repeat that trauma and save his mom/lucy by dying instead. Also if you notice, just like the thugs on the highway adam smasher comes out of nowhere, and is an unstoppable force, just like they were to him before.

Damn.. i feel like David, turns out i also misunderstood the true dreams of my ex partner.

The world right now is Night City

There’s always a bigger fish

The thing about cyberpunk is the capitalistic society is scary and possible irl.

The beginning was stupid, how the hell do you keep driving when you're in a middle of a shoot out? 😐

shame that v was not around could change the movie within the game

david’s cyber psychosis started when he lost his mother. 😔