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We’ve all been there before. No one forgets the first time they figured out Johnny Silverhand was not telling them the entire truth. This is of course nothing new. But in this new Cyberpunk 2077 theory, we analyse why Johnny tells us half-truths and leaves out crucial details.
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THANK YOU! This "Johnny is a liar" or "johnny's a narcissist" narrative has made me crazy – he's more of a zealot than a narcissist. Alt straight up says this – "You're not a rockerboy, Johnny. Face it. Oughta join the wired wackos on the corners, frothing at the mouth as they scream death to Arasaka!" So much more likely that the memories were false for reasons outside of Johnny's control.
I believe Arasaka messed with Silverhand's engram. That explains the weird cut of Silverhand getting blasted by Smasher inside Arasaka Tower then hes magically outside running to the helicopter. There's even a hint of Silverhand subconsciously knowing Arasaka messed with his engram when he speaks to you after the Voodoo Boys quest. He tells V that what he hates the most about the whole thing is that they can change you into whatever they want, and you wouldn't be aware of it.
Something from the lore books from the PnP TTRPG: When Smasher showed up, Johnny literally sacrificed himself to draw fire from the rest of the team so they could escape. The description of the event is essentially 'Smasher cuts Johnny in half with his auto-shotgun.' It makes sense to me that, in this light, Johnny saw himself as a hero but not THE hero of the mission.
I can easily understand the engram getting scrambled to the point that what we see is what Johhny THINKS happened. His death was traumatic. Soul Killer was brand new tech and might not have worked properly. V gets shot in the head. Then there's the fact that Johnny's engram percolated for half a century and was one of the first so even the storage medium might not have been 100% reliable. Plus, I find it hard to believe that even with 2077 tech the entirety of a person's whole psyche could fit on a single chip. We're talking about HUGE data storage requirements. So, maybe it had to be compressed somehow and even that tech was new when used on Johnny.
As you said, Johnny wasn't known for lying. He always told it straight and let the chips fall where they may. However, I don't see Arasaka fiddling with the engram because until Yoriobu stole it, nobody thought about it for half a century or thought it would ever see the light of day. I'm comfortable with tech failure as to why Johnny's memories don't jibe with the truth.
He does lie to you a few times, however a lot of what he says isn't dishonest but inaccurate. He HONESTLY remembers the tower events the way it happened in his mind, but it's just not a factual recounting of events
There’s a better explanation than chip damage and Johnny brings it up just before the third act I believe. And alt hints towards it every time she is on screen (post AI anyway). That what Johnny remembers is far from the truth of what actually happened.
Johnny mentions that the worst part of being in makoshi is that they can take and change your memories. That your personality and ideals can be changed without you ever realizing it. He basically told you straight up what happened to him.
Thirdly, from the paralazes quest to Judy reprogramming dolls to Sandra dorsets night corp hack. And probably a bunch of others I’m missing. The whole theme of this game is about subtle technological mind control. Subtle to the point that it changes you so slowly and throughly you never realized it was there. That’s why I think the far more likely suspects for why Johnny is telling you the truth as he knows it. Is because that is what arasaka made him believe, then just a battle damaged chip.
Now as to why saburo did that to him got no clue beyond a few uneducated guesses. But the game throws in your face that Johnny is both not reliable as a narrator but also passionately believes everything he is telling you. This works way better with the evidence given as an intentional personality/memory adjustment then a chip corruption
I don't think it's straight up lying but more about being an unreliable narrator for many parts of the story.
Like someone else said in the comment, Johnny was killed by Smasher because he drew his attention in order to save his friends, it was probably the most selfless action that he ever did in his life and in that exact moment it makes him a hero, in the eyes of his friends and from his own POV.
And from what we know in the source books, it was Spider Murphy that used soulkiller on him. The scene we see in the game is most likely what Johnny might think happened or even unexpected proof that Saburo and his scientists were experimenting with his engram to extract informations about the HQ bombing, but Johnny being Johnny his last heroic moment might have muddled everything and made him see himself as the real hero and main character of the operation.
I would also point at something that's picked my attention in my early playthroughs, when we play the VDBs mission to contact Alt and during the segment relieving Johnny's memeries, we can ask him about what happened to Thompson and Johnny answers something like "idk we didn't see and worked with each others again" but you can clearly him Thompson speak with Rogue during the Arasaka HQ raid while on the helicopter and when planting the bomb. This bit of interaction further cemented my thought about Johnny not being a reliable narrator when it comes to all his memories and thoughts.
TBF to Johnny, the exacts of how the Tower's destruction played out gets a bit messy since it's been written over and over again sometimes adding new players, sometimes (like in 2077) omitting others. It's honestly fascinating
I thought it has been crystal clear that Johnny is merely an unreliable narrator
Look up "confabulation"
This is a real condition in real world.
(From wiki page) Confabulation is distinguished from lying as there is no intent to deceive and the person is unaware the information is false.
I personally believe Arasaka manipulated Johnnys memories and public information to make Johnny seem more like a terrorist hell bent on destroying Arasaka. Possibly to cover up the fact that it wasnt the Militech nuke that blew up, but Arasakas own nuke buried under the tower. Plus that scene with Saburo didnt happen, Spider Murphy is the one who soulkilled Johnny. Maybe she manipulated the memories for some reason.
I didn't know Pondsmith told them not to use Blackhand in the game. Do we know why he demanded that?
Nice theory but there’s no real proof in any of it. Pretty sure Johnny is lying the majority of the game because he figured out he can live again if he convinces V he’s not a terrorist and a good guy He may have had genuine intentions at some very small points but I fully believe this was full blown self preservation he literally tells you this many times
Consciously lying? Doubtful. The master of bad takes? Definitely.
There IS another theory… That the original source material, and this game aren't the same material. Different media, with different lore, because every instance of a story is different. The traditional "movie isn't the same as the book" thing.
Pondsmith flat out told CDPR to NOT include Morgan because he has a game to sell himself. People playing that game need their content to be different enough that it's fine details, and therefore it's "who did what and why" are not identical. Every movie ever made, every tv show ever made, every book ever made, every game ever made always differs from it's source material.
Every time.
Johnny didn't lie because in this world Morgan didn't lead the mission. Didn't even go. Editing Johnny's engram would be worse than pointless; he was being used as a source of information. Editing that information could, and certainly would lead to that information source being wrong at times. They didn't edit it to protect themselves; only they had access to it.
Pondsmith got something out of allowing CDPR to use his lore as a source (free advertising to a whole new generation), but he isn't stupid enough to shoot himself in the foot. Making his games and CDPR's different enough to have similar occurrences but differing finer details makes both games viable, for a longer period of time.
The motive is out of game. It is self preservation. Self enrichment.
And a very Cyberpunk motive, in the end.