A broken man sitting next to his not-so-fancy grave.
"...Most people I thought were my friends, they couldn't even stand to be in the same room with me..."
— Johnny Silverhand, on himself
Considering how fucked up Night City and the world of Cyberpunk 2077 is, expect yourself to be surrounded by woobies.
In general:
- Most, if not all, of the people that are dwelling in Night City regardless of their status. Considering it's extreme Wretched Hive nature, people are bound to suffer at every moment possible. For example, veterans are often treated like dirt in Night City and their PTSD usually goes untreated. To twist the knife further, most veterans usually end up killing other people and joining the life of crime because they can't afford to pay for medications and other basic needs. In addition, due to the competitive nature of the Mega Corps that all but run things in this Dystopian future, any screw-up will end up with at least one employee killing themselves due to frustration and grief. The crimes in Night City is also high to the point most children end up parentless or face a grisly death. And also, lets not forget about an abnormal poverty rate. Long story short, most of the people, even the scummiest ones, deserve sympathy because of overwhelming oppression from the city's elite.
Main and Side Characters:
- V is an Iron Woobie themselves. While their background isn't that sad at all, things get really hairy for them when the Heist in Konpeki Plaza gets botched after witnessing Yorinobu off Saburo Arasaka. Just when things are about to be better after escaping Konpeki Plaza, they have to witness their best friend Jackie bleed out to death while putting the Relic into V's head. Even worse? V gets betrayed by Dexter Deshawn and is shot in the head, causing their efforts to be in vain. Fortunately, they survive the gunshot and are rescued by Goro Takemura, Saburo's personal bodyguard. Once taken to Viktor however, it is revealed that the Relic is slowly overriding their memory and V was about to die in a couple of weeks. As a result, V will always cough up blood, vomit, and even potentially lose consciousness quite often. Even worse, Johnny Silverhand is inside the Relic and continued to torment V until they began to understand each other. Unfortunately, the ending also proves that V will always remain a Woobie by the fact that V can either kill themselves out of grief, submit to Arasaka in desperation only to find out they can't fix their body, or accept that they are gonna die regardless and fight till the bitter end. Poor V...
- Johnny Silverhand is probably the second example of this trope. Enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was young, he saw the horrors of war firsthand with his comrades. Tormented by the treatment of soldiers by corrupt megacorp, Johnny developed PTSD and rebellious attitude. Furthermore, his girlfriend Alt dies right in front of his eyes later when his life was getting better. In revenge, Johnny and his crew raid Arasaka headquarters in Night City and detonate the nuke there, but realizes that he caused more damage than he had hoped. As a punishment for his actions, Johnny was put through the Soulkiller program and his body was buried in a Derelict Oil Field right outside of Night City. And when Johnny meets V for the first time, he realizes how much pain he has caused, how his bid to take down Arasaka has only resulted in them coming back even stronger than before, and is clearly reaching the Despair Event Horizon even before the climax. All the outcomes in the ending don't help, especially the "Devil" and the "Tower" endings, where he is out-and-out destroyed.
- Kerry Eurodyne. As a former member of Johnny Silverhand's band, Samurai, he went through a lot after Silverhand's "Death". Despite having a successful career, it all started off with a shaky relationship with his ex-wife and losing the custody of two of his child. Consequently, Kerry's mental sanity began to deteriorate rapidly. In 2077, despite his ongoing fame, he was extremely torn on focusing on his mental sanity or fame. With no friends to ever talk to, Kerry soon fell into depression again. There was even a rumor that Kerry attempted to end his own life once publicly. It's a no wonder why Kerry befriended V easily.
- River Ward. To say that his life was filled with misery would be an understatement. Forced to be parentless along with his sister Joss by thugs (while they were Forced to Watch their grisly demise), River wanted to put justice in his own hands (not helped by NCPD not catching the criminals that were involved in killing his parents). In his adult years, River indeed became a detective and partnered with Jamie Sheen, who killed himself later out of frustration for how corrupt and brutal NCPD was. Furthermore, his relationship with Joss was strained to the point of no return. The database entry doesn't help either.River Ward thought that nothing could top becoming an NCPD detective - that things could only get easier from there. Well, turns out that always doing the right thing in Night City is harder than just getting a title. Every day for River is a moral struggle - either he plays the game, or he gives up a slice of his soul. If he lets his guard down for even one second, some ganger will get the best of him. In spite of all this, River shows up for work every morning with a can-do attitude. Maybe it's his way of coping, or because he doesn't know how to do anything else.
- Goro Takemura also qualifies in Woobie tropes. While his Dark and Troubled Past is downplayed compared to the other side characters, it reaches downright Woobie when he was rejected by Arasaka, his most loyal company, just because he wanted to reveal the truth to Hanako Arasaka. Consequently, Takemura had to constantly endure a hunt from Arasaka officers and armies from Yorinobu Arasaka, who is responsible for killing Saburo Arasaka, his father. You can tell that he clearly looks tired and wants to give up, but his loyalty to Saburo doesn't allow him to. His demise resulting from not picking "the Devil" ending doesn't help as all of his efforts were All for Nothing.
- Rogue Amendiares might have had a less terrible life compared to Johnny Silverhand's other allies, but you'll soon realize that she feels guilty for selling her friends out by working with the company she swore to destroy, which is Arasaka. While she did move out and create the Afterlife club, it soon became clear that she's living with what had happened and constantly asking herself why she joined Arasaka.
- Panam Palmer may not have any Dark and Troubled Past, but becomes a woobie like Takemura in mid-game when she had to constantly face rejection and hardship from the Aldecaldos, especially from their leader Saul Bright. Their constant disagreements would cause a major strain in her trust of the group, and would have likely quit if V didn't step in for her. It doesn't help that she also loses several people she values over the course of the game, up to and including Saul himself at the hands of Adam Smasher if you enlist the Aldecaldos in helping you reach Mikoshi.
- Evelyn Parker suffers one of the most horrible fates in the game - she has her brain nuked by the Voodoo Boys, is raped by Woodman, sent to a creepy ripperdoc named Fingers, and then sold to the Death's Head Scavs, who torture her for XBDs. By the time she's saved by V and Judy, she is catatonic, and the trauma finally drives her to suicide.
- Judy Alvarez is this. Her entire story arc is one big Trauma Conga Line, especially given her relationship with the above Evelyn, and, if you completed it, it is revealed that her life was pretty tragic before the game even started. Then if you romance her, one of the endings can result in her being completely broken by what happens to V.
- Mama Welles losing her only child and being married to the abusive husband is an example of Iron Woobie.
- Yorinobu Arasaka is this. A man abused by his father and surrounded by suffering caused by the family corporation, Yorinobu dedicated his life to taking down his father’s corporation, by any means necessary. His father eventually crushed his spirit, and would’ve killed him for his defiance if not for his sister. Eventually this culminates in murdering Saburo in a fit of rage brought on by Saburo bringing up Yorinobu’s deceased mother while verbally abusing him. It later turns out Yorinobu never stopped trying to destroy the corrupt monster that is the Arasaka corporation—he simply started trying to destroy it from the inside out, and has been throughout the entire game. In the Devil ending, this culminates in an engram of Saburo taking over Yorinobu’s body, inserted by the very sister that saved Yorinobu’s life years previously.
- — V
