Why Cyberpunk Edgerunners Stuck With Me

hello thank you for clicking on this video I just wanted to quickly say before we begin if you want to watch videos on my channel early and see them in the original way that I intended them without getting copyright potted on YouTube then you can check them out over on the patreon link will be up here and down there I wanted to make a video on Edgewater sooner but I was moving and my brain is still scattered from moving but I really enjoyed the show I wanted to talk about it and I hope you guys enjoy listening to me talk about it so as always enjoy the video [Music] wow [Music] uh cyberpunk Edge Runners huh I came into this with just about zero expectations not quite zero because the community was constantly telling me over and over and over again to watch this show so I relented and finally watched it I'm thinking that it would be an alright anime that I would get some enjoyment out of and that would be that and that's exactly what happened I binged the entire show in one sitting and after was done I just kind of sat there and thought yeah that was good and then 24 hours later I was hit with all of the emotional damage the show inflicted on me like a ton of bricks giving me an empty hollowness that I couldn't shake I wanted to make a video sooner about the show but I was in the midst of moving over 3000 Miles and my brain was a mess while I was moving anyway many people have already sung the prices of this show telling you to go and watch it so instead of me just reiterating that go watch it let's do the thing that I love doing dissecting the show and talking about the writing and why it left me with that empty bottomless Chasm where I swear my heart should have been because there's a lot to learn from here oh and obviously spoilers ahead Edge Runners is a show that lives and dies by its characters and by how well those characters live and die and it's a fact that even the show itself knows while the run time of the show is only about four-ish hours long I grew so attached to each member of the cast that by the time it was all over I missed each of them desperately while it would be nice to go on a four-ish hour rant of my own diving into every character in the show from Maine to Faraday let's scale it back a little bit and look at the two that are the main focus of the show David and Lucy as in my opinion the main concepts of what the show is trying to say to its audience is conveyed through them those main Concepts being dreams how they are made changed and ultimately let go David is your standard orphan anime character mom works super hard to put him through a prestigious school where he just doesn't fit in Mom dies a tragic death leaving David to drop out and fend for himself pretty typical trophy anime stuff so far but it has two simple twists on it cyberware and dreams Gloria wants to see David well off in life and in the world of night City that means a Corporal exec on the top floor of arasaka Tower but this isn't David's dream he's still trying to find himself in his own path in life and when he tries to talk to her about it he gets shut down we see that he wants to help her to help everyone around him and for him a suit just isn't going to cut it these thoughts are cut short by the accident and when his mom passes the only thing that he has left to cling to is her dream for him to go all the way to the top yeah it is until he then goes and gets chromed the up and punches his bully into the next Multiverse and kind of kills that dream so now he really doesn't have anything and is completely lost in life lost until he meets Lucy Lucy is pretty much everything that David wants to be Street Smart tough fence for herself and navigates night City with ease they end up teaming up after Lucy tries to pick socket him and while they're teaming up we get our first example of David pushing things too far as he blacks out after firing the Sandy too many times Lucy takes him back to her place and after what starts as playful banter the two start talking about their dreams and sharing what their dreams are and we Circle back to the main point of the show as David is confronted by Lucy kind of her dream all that Sucka stuff our dream I guess or whatever it's not your dream though is it my dream oh yeah you your mom your different people David realizes that he doesn't have a dream of his own he only has the one given to him by his mom and he deflects Lucy's questioning by asking her if she was joking about her dream going to the Moon instead of continuing to joke around she grows serious you called it a prison camp this City's a whole lot worse this place I want to go away far as possible very cryptic and specific wording keep that in mind she wants to escape and the Moon is the furthest thing away so it makes sense for her dream to escape to the Moon and this is further reinforced by their conversation on the moon in their BD things finally start to look up for David as he finds his place among the crew and the two of them begin to work more closely with each other and we see that yes they do in fact make a good team and we see David content with where he is and where he's found himself but night City isn't one for the complacent on the roof we see Lucy's dream change a moment followed by David making a promise to her old dream of going to the Moon not fully understanding what's happening and highlighted by the moment of them being backlighted by the moon as the rocket takes off in the background this is the kind of scene that I love so much [Music] there are so many different ways to look at it and interpret it and it's just wonderful writing moving forward David instead of following his own dream follows Lucy's dream of getting her to the Moon and again everything seems to be on track until just keep running I haven't touched on yet but Maine plays a very interesting role in the story acting as a surrogate father figure for David because he never had one a man that has bold aspirations of becoming a night City Legend leading his crew that acts more like a family than a crew he wants to lead all of them to a better life Maine ignores his own body's limits and finally breaks after the cyberware takes its toll leaving you guessed it David to carry on his dream for him a Time skip later and David is still carrying everybody else's dreams for him and his body is starting to take the toll of cyber psychosis we see David struggle to have an identity Beyond I'm special burned out gifted kid he can't move on in his own life because he doesn't know how he doesn't know how to find his own goals or aspirations for himself because everything has always come so easily to him now he has nothing left but to cling to the fact that he's special it's such a wonderfully Melancholy allegory he can use more cyberware than most because he's special but the thing that leads to his downfall in the thing that's killing him is that same fact David can't see that Lucy is doing everything for him protecting him from arasaka partly because Lucy is keeping a secret and I think partly because David doesn't want to see it he still holds on to the promise of fulfilling Lucy's dream of going to the Moon and I love how we get this scene of David being there for everybody else and not himself and Lucy recognizing this and immediately taking him outside of the city and notice this line sure wish the moon was out you can see the stars better brighter when it stays away Lucy then goes on to tell him of her horrific past and it makes sense why Lucy's dream is to escape but her Escape is no longer the Moon not anymore look maybe I'm reading into it too much but I feel like this was Lucy's attempt to get through to David to tell him that he is her dream now he has become her escape from the prison but she can't fully articulate that to him and that circles us back to the main point of the show laid out in tragic detail dreams watching them be created seeing them warped seeing dreams placed on other people watching how they can be made out of desperation or how one can still be lost searching for their own dream everyone in the show has an aspiration that is driving them forward the tragedy of the story comes from not realizing that dreams change or rather that they change too late David continues to push himself to make everyone else's dreams a reality because well no you would have you're the guy who jumps into the fire to rescue someone anyone even when you know you're gonna get burned just that type because of David's lack of identity in himself he pushes forward with Maine's dream becoming a legend accepting Faraday's job we see him accept the fact that he will lose himself to cyber psychosis chasing mainstream but he's willing to make that sacrifice to further the lives of the people around him the problem is no one cares about the money the fame or becoming a legend or even going to the Moon anymore everyone around David just wants to see him happy it's hard to watch and one of those people being Rebecca Rebecca is introduced early on as sort of a third wheel who has some of the funniest moments in the show oh David my man what's going on everything good I am yeah what's up Jim and she falls hard for David we see that even she has a dream to see David happy no matter the cost and even Rebecca's dream changes from being with David to helping him accomplish his mission no matter the cost one of the most heart-rending moments comes from Rebecca as she watches David go over the edge and realize that she can't save him anymore I know I cannot do my best all right David let's go to the top then when David does break and go over the edge for the last time Lucy is actually able to bring him back and she apologizes to him please with him and tries to turn back the clock but it's too late David has already taken on the Cyber skeleton and for him this can only end one way and even until the end he jumps into the fire and holds out for the dream of another sorry wish we could go to the Moon together but did you catch that the wording is drastically different David found his dream being by Lucy's side the problem is he found it too late to realize it so he does the next best thing by giving his life for her so she can escape to the Moon and when we do see Lucy on the moon we see her fulfilling her once dream but something is off she's not smiling she's not happy in the slightest and the moment when she breaks away from the group and goes to where her and David went on their first day all of those years ago and she sees his memory of being on the moon with him I just uh ending the show with her just closing her eyes taking in the Sun and remembering her dream her Escape and what he sacrificed for her cyberpunk Edge Runners leaves you with a hollow feeling that you cannot shake much like another one of my favorite shows Cowboy Bebop and I think the reason is the characters stick with you long after the show ends these are pretty realistic characters in terms of how they act react respond and overall they're pretty relatable I can say without a doubt I relate to David being that gifted Kid that never had a dream of his own and only lived through the dreams of everybody else around him putting dreams on him leading to a moment of being lost when other people's dreams for him ran out and having that moment where you need to find your own path I can relate to Lucy's desire of Escape to run mainstream of being remembered long after you're gone Rebecca's dream of a love that will never be returned and the list just goes on and for that I am indebted to Studio trigger for making a wonderful show that has a lot of wonderful spectacle and visual Flair and visual things and awesomeness going on but it focuses on the characters there is a lot that I took away from this show and from the writing of the characters It's a Wonderful examination of Dreams being gifted the idea that in night City no one escapes which I can draw parallels to reality as the world is literally burning down but that's a rant for another time most of all the thing I personally took away is that some people come into our lives to change us they won't always be here forever but they shape who we become and we cherish our time with them they make us laugh cry join us in celebration and when they're gone we grieve their loss but Above All Else they sometimes even give us an Ultimate gift a dream [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Flying Walrus

Views: 13,634

Keywords: the message behind cyberpunk edgerunners, cyberpunk edgerunners, cyberpunk, edgerunners, cyberpunk 2077, the point of cyberpunk edgerunners, cyberpunk edgerunners is amazing, edgerunners ending, cyberpunk edgerunner, cyberpunk edgerunner ending, cyberpunk edgerunners is amazing reddit

Id: UATyxefy2yo

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 06 2022