#should've tagged spoilers in my prev post too

[robotdragonfanatic]

I do think they were developing a mental illness, but i think it had more to do with the fact theyre constantly exposed to some of the worst shit night city has to offer, and have to kill people in more and more gruesome ways just to survive. Anyone would lose their minds if they were pressed right against the worst of night city the way they were

That's fair. There's no way anyone in Night City or the Cyberpunk setting doesn't have a slew of underlying mental issues and trauma.

In a way, the story of Edgerunners is how no one gets out of the cycle. At least not without taking major loses, like Lucy did. And David practically mirrored Maine's descent with both his behavior and his plunge into cyberpsychosis with more and more mods that made him into a hulk of a man.

But also, those very mods weren't vital to his health. They weren't life support systems, like a pacemaker or bionic lungs. His ripper doc even told him that he just had to downgrade into a more manageable number of cyberware while his symptoms were mild. Yet David made the conscious choice of not only keeping them, but adding more mods to himself, like an athlete increasing his protein powder and steroid dosage to keep running faster. Just like Maine, who in the end couldn't reach the end of the road and asked David to "keep running".