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Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - What We Leave Behind

“You don't make a name as a cyberpunk by how you live. You're remembered by how you die.”

And yet after David’s death when Lucy is on the moon she remembers him for his life. She remembers who he was when she first met him and why she was drawn to him in the first place. She remembers how happy and passionate he was when she showed him her dream. It was that part of him that pushed her forward and made her fall in love.

She remembers David Martinez, not the edgerunner, but the human.

So much of Cyberpunk Edgerunners focuses on just how little we really leave behind once we’re gone. Many of the characters die suddenly without warning and there is nothing tangible to remember them by. The only characters that leave something physical behind are Maine and Gloria. Their keepsakes are carried on David and are later destroyed during David’s final mission.

Even David’s death has nothing tangible to show for it. He didn’t get the chance to leave a keepsake or a physical part of himself. Even how he died is covered up by the Arasaka corporation so it isn’t replayed on those chips we saw at the beginning.

But people aren’t just measured by what they physically leave behind but by how they impact the people around them and how their memory is carried forward. That’s what that final scene is about. 

The show ultimately places the emphasis on the connections you make when alive and the impact you had on the people around you. 

Lucy’s dream was to go to the moon but after his promise to take her there it shifted to going to the moon with David. He can’t be there in the physical sense but she carries him with her on the moon through her memories.

The final few shots even mirror episode 2 when Lucy showed David her simulation of the moon and Lucy even takes David’s place in a few of the shot recreations to emphasize the point.

This show is tragic with so many layers but this was what hit me the hardest when watching the finale.