What's your opinion about Johnny?

[Spada]

Is he a bad or good guy in your book?

[Amphibian Artillery]

He’s a stud muffin in my book

[★REM★]

He changed because of V, and V changed because of him.

Either way, he's a baddie with a path of redemption.
Personally i like him, wouldnt even play the game without him

[valium]

He is a malignant narcissist, but he is YOUR malignant narcissist.

[Tokenn]

Like many of the main characters in the game, he's not a very good person, but a great character, He's a complete a-hole that becomes far less of an a-hole as the story goes on, and is willing to take a bullet for V at the end of the story.

If anything, I find this evolution to be a touch too quick and complete to be convincing. When I first played the game I felt there was a strong possibility that he'd betray V at the end...but the writers of the story played it straight and I accept it.

[1singur]

He's an incomplete guy, with incomplete memories. He is an unreliable narrator.

[Lucius Confucius]

I heard the guy was a terrorist back in the day.

[EricHVela]

Neither in my book for spoiler reasons.

V is who matters for being good or bad by whatever standards for whatever reasons.

[tbloyzz]

Love the sarcasm in the dialogues with him.

[wyodinosaur]

Johnny definitely adds spice to my game. He's fun and entertaining regardless of his flaws.

[tbloyzz]

Of all the terrorists that could have popped up in my head, I am glad it was you, Johnny...

[vonMoo]

Spoilers, whole game and meta game...

Johnny's dead.

As has been pointed out, whatever's left is an unreliable witness: we don't know exactly how much of the past he shares/melds with V is real, how much he wants to be true, how much is corrupted, and how much 'saka has changed.

He may not have a living soul, for whatever that's worth. Or if we go to concepts within the physical world, at least partially, then depending on your stance on awareness and consciousness the Johnny we interact with may be a separate being to the original, or even a philosophical zombie (appearing to be conscious from outside, but without actual consciousness).

We don't even know if his construct is anything more than some LLM level fake. YMMV as to how that differs from being a philosophical zombie.

Good guy, bad guy, who knows... IMO, as we see him, he's an unpleasant gobshite, though not without his moments, who's transformed though the narrative.

[yahboi1988]

Every day that goes by makes me think that maybe he wasn't wrong about the nuke.

[psionyx]

Originally posted by Spada:

Is he a bad or good guy in your book?

He's an egomaniac, drug fueled narcissist, who is ALSO correct about the blight that is Arasaka. He's self-centered, abrasive, argumentative simply for the sake of being argumentative, constantly trying to hype his own legend even when directly confronted with facts to the contrary. He is also 100% dedicated to the destruction of the Secure Your Soul program, and the threat it poses to humanity, even to the point of trying to self-delete when he first learns he's on the chip, and in V's head. He's a liar, a manipulator (promises V he will just get the info for the Chippin' In quest, and then proceeds to go on a bender the second he gets the body), a terrible friend, and even worse lover. He's also willing to suit up at an instants notice to try and rescue someone he does care about (even when he treats them like crap), to the point of killing dozens of people in an attempt to save them. He's callous and dismissive of the plight of the common person, openly derisive to dolls and people just trying to survive in Night City. He's also willing to die to try and save all of them from the corporations consolidating their control on humanity via tech that let's them rewrite our identity, while also allowing them to become immortal, while the rest of us slave away as their eternal minions. He's happy to let a body count pile up to achieve his goal, but also is the person who proposes the possible ending route where nobody has to die, and sells it to V as the way "nobody you love has to die with you."

In short, he's complicated. I personally don't like Keanu's performance of him, and that the majority of his spoken lines are incredibly wooden, without any emotional inflection. But, that's what you get when you hire Keanu. The character though, is mostly annoying, but has admirable goals, that are proven correct in the narrative. How much of that is the influence of V fusing with them, who knows. By the end they're kind of a hybrid entity in my opinion, but I find him a character I tolerate, because his goals align with my own, despite him being a colossal prick.

[oldeschool]

personally I find his character annoying, his agnsty 'stick it to the man' is very cringy.

[psionyx]

Originally posted by oldeschool:

personally I find his character annoying, his agnsty 'stick it to the man' is very cringy.

Yeah, plus his dialogue, the lines they often gave him to say felt....really cheesy. Like when he's in that flashback with Alt, after they get freaky, one of the lines is like "so what? You came here to bust my balls......twists my gut." Like....just what the heck is that line? "twists my gut" It just feels so out of place, and forced, and also makes no sense. I've never heard anyone use that phrase in that context of a conversation.