SilverV,
I think I wrote about this on my old blog but this dynamic is heavily reliant on the fact that one cannot exist without the other and both are entitled to have their own hold on life with their dreams and desires. It gets crowded when one has a biological claim to the body it's lived a life in, and that line gets crossed when another is unable to stop its claim to taking over their body. There is never no choice for V, it's an illusion Johnny makes to comfort V the very same way Robert Linder was comforted in the trenches with Johnny.
Would you die for me?
I love this scene because it's so vulnerable and romantic, it's very much giving hope to a hopeless situation. I've just always hated how easy it is to think that Johnny is saving them out of love. This question is always one way, Johnny will always choose his life over V's, no matter the context. This is his only personal flaw that's his to choose, his own agenda that isn't influenced at all by V.
Which leads me to not vibe with the SilverV dynamic sometimes because it's never a relationship based on equal footing, one person has to be something for the other the same way the other has to be him.
The way each other copes with this is by handling business, being the hero, compartmentalizing all this shit with extreme situations which put each other's life to the test.
Just would also like to note that this dynamic was shared between Rogue and Johnny before Rogue cut him off cold and smartened up. V doesn't have that luxury, and frankly, Johnny doesn't either.
Personal autonomy is important for Johnny, back when he was actually alive and its something he's programmed to feel and to know he has something that's all his? He's a greedy, selfish man with something to prove to you, to Night City. He's the raving nutjob on the side of the road yelling about Arasaka took his choom from him when he's the one who actually forced him out and give him something to live for.
There's always a revenge story, there's always a bomb to blow, there's always a redemption arc. He wants you to die for him.
The memories you're forced to re-live as Johnny as V are all constructed by Johnny. He only ever wants V to remember the good parts about him, the cool parts he's actively lived. There's something very inherently lonely about Johnny which makes him want to live life with V, a way in which he enjoys the chaos you two make in Night City because it's exactly the same shit he did when he was alive.
There's love there for sure because V is forced to stomach all of Johnny Silverhand's ugly, the way that he's actively killing him just for keeping him alive the same way he's keeping you alive by fighting with you instead of against you. He's never had that kind of active support for that long, everyone at some point or the other has left him or have actually died for him.
Which puts his feelings and emotions into perspective. Which is why he can push aside anyone who isn't V and sit at their table with a heavy heart and an even heavier hand when he finally gets that there doesn't have to be a revenge story, there doesn't have to be a bomb, there can't even be a you and him existing on the same plane because you're both cut from the same cloth trying to fucking win something, and he'd be damned if he wasn't honest with you at the end of the line.
So if you're here to tell me something, it's cause you need to hear it yourself.
Johnny can't bear to say I love you to a body gone cold of you when you give it up in don't fear the reaper, which is why he leaves Night City.
Johnny can't bear to forgive you or himself when you ask Arasaka for help, because you gave up on yourself which means you must've given up on him at some point.
Johnny understands your decision to lean into the NUSA for help with saving your life, but he needs you to let go, he needs to know that no matter how much time you've spent together as each other, you're still gonna be the better person. This ending is special, because this ending is a permanent one for Johnny instead of the others and he's at peace with it. Because no one's dying for him, he's asking you to stay alive for him.
And that's the point, no matter how high the affinity meter is, he actually does love V but it's complicated because he can never actually be there the way he would if he were alive. Which makes him wonder, would this have happened at all if they both were still alive as two different people?
I leave u with David Bowie based songs that fit bc Mike Pondsmith based Johnny Silverhand off of and i'm a nerd and need there to be a a soundtrack for every stupid ship I brainrot over
That's the thing, there's a string of hope forced upon them both, and even if there's no happy endings for people like them maybe it's enough to love and be loved in the end.
11 notes
·
View notes