NOT talking about siding with Reed or doing the Devil ending, stuff from the "main quest", I'm talking about minor things.

I'm roughly at my 16th playtrough and I've never, not once, sided with Maiko. Not because I dislike her, but simply because why would I be a piece of shit to Judy? I don't care that much about her but betraying her like that is just so fucking bad for me.

Never told Saul siding with Biotechnica is a good idea in the hut in the desert where the haboob is raging on. Really, his whole plan was a joke, it's unclear to me how anyone could be on board with that. How come people didn't kick him out of his chair and got a better leader instead.

Never won the game with River's nephews because, come on, that's evil. Also never raised said "me" during the outdoor dinner with the family because the whole dialogue is so fucking uncanny and weird I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

What about you?

"Fling" isn't an insult. It's not a derogatory term. It means "You are hot, you find me hot, I don't want to marry, have kids, something serious. I want to have fun with you, you want to have fun with me, let's enjoy what we have. It won't last, but it doesn't matter"

Which perfectly fits both the Cyberpunk theme overall and the theme of V having their days counted.

But it also made these relationship feel transient and overall just entertainment.

I say this because, IMO:

They are all extremely transactional.

Person needs help -> V helps them -> Person spread their legs.

Granted, this works wonder for a videogame, as it plays perfectly in the good old "if you do a favor for someone that someone has to reciprocate your feelings" rhetoric that makes feeling a love conquest... well, clearing a stage of a videogame. You slayed the evil dragon, congratulations! The princess belongs to you now! Yet, that's not how it works in love. People don't fall in love with you because you are helpful. Unless you believe the incel rethoric, that is. The fact that you can't have a relationship with them unless you help them (not talking about the "get to know each other" initial quest, but the optional follow up questline), kinda proves how the relationship is based on transactional values, not a genuine interest.

The love interest basically know nothing about V.

Not talking about the Relic, I'm talking about V's personality. Does Panam know what is the favorite dish of V? Does River knows V's favorite music? Does Kerry knows how was V's childhood? Does Judy knows V's relationship with their parents?

All the love interest tells V plenty about their life, V tells them almost nothing. Sure, you have a "I was a nomad too" to Panam if you chose the Nomad origin. But that's basic stuff. There is only one moment where V open their heart to them, and that's when they talk about the Relic, which is a recently acquired disease, not something that would explain why they love V. Unless you want to argue they all have some weird fetish for people on the verge of death. A savior complex of some kind.

Fucking brain tumor Johnny Silverhand knows a million times more stuff about V than any of the love interests together. Not because he saw V's memory, because Tapeworm is a million times more comunicative about V's... anything. "I wanted to be a living legend, now I don't know what to do". Here's V talking about himself... to himself. To their love interest? "Don't worry, it's nothing, I'll handle it". Sure, you can want to be tough in front of the person you want to impress, but you can't seriously argue that a serious love story is based on your love interest dating the mistery man that says nothing about themselves.

But understanding why this happens is easy: V has to be compatible with all sorts of players. The one that loves jazz and the one that hates jazz. Kinda hard to make dialogues that would fit all these combinations.

They don't spend anytime together.

A handful of quests and then each on their own. Oh, right, that update that introduced them being zombies at your place with 3 lines in total, a steamy shower scene and "let's sleep together". Think about your last serious relationship: were you ok in spending days, maybe weeks without any kind of message or comunication? Did that felt natural to you?

But there is a relationship that fits these elements: flings. You don't give a shit about your fling's music taste, food taste, any taste so long you have fun together. You don't even want to spend that much time together; you enjoy do some few things together and that's as much as you need to see this person.

Again, not an insult, flings are super fun, and super cyberpunk and fits perfectly well the "I'm going to die any minute" narrative.

I'm just at a loss seeing some of you being so mad that in most endings the fling moved on and forgot about you, or being obsessed about The Star ending as it would have it been the only one where "the true love" of V's life would be with them. Choom, they are going to break up 5 minutes later The Star when they have their literal first fight ever.

IDK, maybe it's because I have a healthy number of relationships under my belt that I know what an actual serious relationship looks like and I can easily tell what isn't.

Your thoughts?