History YMMV / DetroitBecomeHuman

** Connor, for LetsPlay/{{Critikal}} fans, as [=Cr1tikal=] would deliberately let him die in prompts, ''before he even knew that Connor [[spoiler:doesn't have permadeath]]''. Eventually, [=Cr1tikal=] had no other choice than to turn him into a MemeticBadass by the point of "Last Chance, Connor", since [[spoiler:permadeath for Connor was put in place by that point of the story]].

** By the time the game was released, the Hostage scene, Connor's first scene where he has to investigate a kidnapping and rescue a child from a rogue android.
** The carousel scene, where an android that enjoys making children happy runs a carousel for Alice when she and Kara take refuge in an otherwise abandoned amusement park.
** The android junkyard scene, where Markus has to find replacement parts to repair himself, and then crawl out of the junkyard, where many discarded androids are still conscious.
** The android protest march.
** The rooftop chase scene, where Connor pursues a deviant across several buildings.
** All four of the endings to Markus' Demonstration.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: North is supposed to be seen as wrong for telling Marcus that humans are nothing but bastards that only understand one language; [[HumansKillWantonly violence]]. The problem... She is not exactly wrong when she told him that, because throughout most of the scenario whenever authorities deal with deviant Androids their first (and only) course of action is to immediately open fire on them without even bothering to listen to their side, even on a peaceful route [[spoiler:(and the times they do decide to apprehend them, it's much worse)]]. Worst of all [[spoiler: if you made a deal with Perkins during a peaceful protest, he'll go back on his word and have the Androids be disposed of, including Markus and North]]. This makes the violent route a more viable option given on how most of humanity respond to a deviant Androids.

** Carl Manfred is a BourgeoisBohemian who is very wealthy because his skills as a painter cannot be replaced by a JobStealingRobot. A few years after the game was made, UsefulNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork has created backlash from artists who fear that the technology is going to put them out of work. Even in the game itself, Markus creates some very inspired artwork just based on a few prompts from Carl.

** Bryan Dechart would eventually [[RomanceOnTheSet get married to Amelia Rose Blaire]] (who plays the [[SexBot Tracis]]). Boy, it must have been awkward filming the scene where Connor [[KickTheDog coldly manipulate]] the blue-haired Traci [[spoiler: with her lesbian clone/lover's severed head]]!

** Some critics have opined that, in addition to using androids as a metaphor for racism and bigotry, the game could have also used the setting to explore the class divide between the rich and poor. Something brought up by the game from time to time is how androids being used for unskilled labor positions have caused widespread unemployment among the lower socio-economic classes. However, the game never really addresses this.

** Racism is bad. The game makes numerous parallels between androids and oppressed minorities, including: androids having to ride at the back of the bus like blacks during American segregation, people complaining about them "taking their jobs" as in the common complaint about immigrants, having to identify themselves via badges on their uniforms like Jews in the run-up to the Holocaust, [[spoiler:being sent to what are essentially concentration camps later in the game,]] and many more parallels. Androids like Markus consider themselves an oppressed race and some deviants can give Connor flak for hunting down his "kind", despite that being what he was programmed to do. Humans abusing androids (either for their own amusement or otherwise) is treated as the result of bigotry analogous to racism.

--->'''Connor:''' My name is Connor. I’m the android sent by Cyberlife.

** Unique to the game's [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff impressive Russian fandom]], the "28 stab wounds" scene became one of the biggest fandom in-jokes and popular snowclone material. [[https://youtu.be/sieBxxwiQWU For reference, this is what the scene is like with Russian dub.]]

** Carl Manfred is a BourgeoisBohemian who is very wealthy because his skills as a painter cannot be replaced by a JobStealingRobot. A few years after the game was made, UsefulNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork has created backlash from artists who fear that the technology is going to put them out of work. Even in the game itself, Markus creates some very inspired artwork just based on a few prompts from Carl. If anything, art is a field that is far more easily replaceable than a job like plumbing or welding, since the former can be done by computers that already exist but complex blue-collar work would require advanced androids.

** Carl Manfred is a BourgeoisBohemian who is very wealthy because his skills as a painter cannot be replaced by a JobStealingRobot. A few years after the game was made, UsefulNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork has created backlash from artists who fear that the technology is going to put them out of work. Even in the game itself, Markus creates some very inspired artwork just based on a few prompts from Carl.

* AcceptableTargets: In Creator/QuanticDream tradition, overweight people and drug addicts are not portrayed in a flattering light, with Todd who is an example of both being characterized as a particularly unsavory abuser. The exception is Rose, who is overweight and one of the most moral characters in the game.

** Making {{Snowclones}} or StupidStatementDanceMix videos out of Connor's introduction (which he repeats every time you let him get destroyed). The line got so popular [[AscendedMeme Quantic Dream included it]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkmVsCj1xEQ the trailer for the PC edition]].

* FanworkOnlyFans: Due to the vast majority of the fanbase being centered around only one of the three protagonists Connor, and the rest of the game being considered a technical marvel, but not having a whole lot else going for it due to the questionable writing quality. In the case of 900Gavin {{Shipping}} fandom, this is by necessity, as Gavin's canonical appearances amount to a few minutes of screentime with minimal characterization, most of which is [[HateSink highly unflattering]], and RK900 only exists for a couple of seconds with zero lines to boot.

* HilariousInHindsight: Bryan Dechart would eventually [[RomanceOnTheSet get married to Amelia Rose Blaire]] (who plays the [[SexBot Tracis]]). Boy, it must have been awkward filming the scene where Connor [[KickTheDog coldly manipulate]] the blue-haired Traci [[spoiler: with her lesbian clone/lover's severed head]]!

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** It's pretty clear the makers of this game are not Americans and have little actual knowledge about either American culture or law. While generally minor if you're not paying close attention to it, if you are knowledgeable about it, it's impossible to ignore. Examples include characters relaying distances in metric, Markus using the term "car park" while attempting to distract a person (when the correct term would be "parking lot") and finally, President Warren simply suspends the right to free assembly (which is explicitly protected by the Constitution and would likely result in both a political uproar as well as lawsuits against the government).
** Assuming the timeline of the game aligns with the real-life history, occupying Detroit is not the first time US government let a city fall into enemy's hand, as the British occupied Washington DC during the War of 1812 and burned down the White House. It is not even the first time Detroit fell into an enemy's hand either, as the British took over the city during the same year.

** When Connor gave Hank a comedic ArmorPiercingSlap when the latter was drunk in his house, some fans expect Connor to say, "[[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Are you feeling it now]], Lt. Anderson?"

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** You're given a flowchart for story choices in each chapter, allowing you to know what caused an event and how you could've changed it, which will help out a lot if you're a completionist. Additionally, choices have more impact on how the story changes than in previous David Cage games.
** Players of previous David Cage games felt that the {{fanservice}} (such as the {{Shower Scene}}s) or sexual abuse were a disservice to the character in question (usually a female character). There's almost no {{fanservice}}/sexual abuse in the story other than the Eden club level (which actually makes sense with the story this time) and maybe North's backstory as a SexBot there. Parodied when Connor sticks a hungover Hank in the shower and runs him under cold water to sober him up.
** There's no shoehorned supernatural element to the story this time.

* UnfortunateImplications: The game has been criticized for nakedly taking real-life instances of racism, bigotry, and discrimination when crafting the struggles that androids face in the game without considering the context behind them. Some critics, such as at [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-casual-inhumanity-of-how-detroit-become-human-uses-1826776147 io9]] and [[https://www.headstuff.org/entertainment/gaming/how-detroit-become-human-misunderstands-race-relations/ Headstuff]], took particular offense to the parallels with the civil rights movement, stating that, among other things, it was insulting to compare oppressed blacks with machines which, in addition to being created specifically to serve humans and not having inherent self-awareness, actually ''do'' pose a threat to humanity and have incredible durability besides.

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: While the game primarily deals with issues of civil rights and racism, much of the conflict in the game is driven by the desire for cheap disposable labor (specifically slavery under a different name). The conflict would be significantly less intense if not for the fact humans blame androids for the loss of jobs and economic security versus either Cyberlife or the government. It may be viewed, instead, as a critique of capitalism as well as income insecurity.

** There's no shoehorned supernatural element to the story this time. That isn't to say that there aren't any poor storytelling choices or that David Cage didn't put any supernatural elements into it (in one of the real world commercials, Chloe says that unlike humans, she doesn't have a soul because she's an android), but it's definitely not a major point in the game.

* EstrogenBrigade: Connor has a prominent female fanbase, apparently.
** Same goes for his actor, Bryan Dechart, who has seen his own fanbase explode (they've even named themselves the "#[=ConnorArmy=]"), with one of his Twitch streams of the game hitting ''10,000'' viewers.

* GeniusBonus: Detroit is known as Motor City for being the center of the automobile industry. Metro Detroit is also one of the most racially segregated areas in the country, and Detroit's economy also has suffered badly in the past few years. It is why it was used for the setting of ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution.''

** In one ending to ''The Interrogation'', Gavin pronounces "fuck" in a bizarre way; it comes out sounding more like "fhk" than a real word. He says it multiple times during the game (during that ''chapter,'' even) correctly. What, has he got a cold?

* StrawmanHasAPoint: North is supposed to be seen as wrong for telling Marcus that humans are nothing but bastards that only understand one language; [[HumansKillWantonly Violence]]. The problem... She is not exactly wrong when she told him that, because, throughout most of the scenario, whenever authorities deal with deviant Androids their first (and only) course of action is to immediately open fire on them without even bothering to listen to their side, even on a peaceful route [[spoiler:(and let us not get started on what they do to the Androids if they DO decide to apprehend them)]]. Worst of all [[spoiler: if you made a deal with Perkins during a peaceful protest, he'll go back on his word and have the Androids be disposed of, including Markus and North]]. This makes the violent route a more viable option given on how most of humanity respond to a deviant Androids.

* IdiotPlot:
** The "Broken" scenario path where you don't fight back against Leo hinges on almost every human involved acting stupidly. From Leo thinking that he can get away with stealing artwork from his famous artist father, to Carl ordering Markus to not defend himself when Leo attacks him, or even asking for help during his subsequent heart attack, to the police shooting the personal care android who made the 911 call about a burglar on the assumption that it, and not the (to them) complete stranger standing right next to them throwing around accusations was the one who caused Carl's collapse. Hell, in the ending where it's ''Leo'' who collapses, the police end up arresting Markus and [[ButThouMust leaving him for dead in a junkyard anyways]], even though Carl can explain the situation. Of course, one can argue that [[{{Anvilicious}} it's akin to how black people back in the day end up getting accused for murder regardless of context]].
** A lot of Kara's plot lines fall apart for a myriad of reasons. The most egregious would likely be Zlatko's mansion; Zlatko tells Kara that the police can use her tracker to find her and that he can remove it. If that were true, Kara (along with every deviant) could be easily found. Trackers just conveniently stop working in deviants to keep the story moving forward. Kara also misses the blue blood on Zlatko's hands, the cages full of android experiments, and that Luther is clearly still subservient.
** That androids can easily remove their LED-device falls into this. When you've successfully made robots that can look and act practically fully human, you'd think the one thing that would undoubtedly distinguish them from us would not be something you could pop off with the ease of a bottlecap. Worse, their android skin patches over the hole instantly. Thus, the majority of androids going deviant (including Kara and Markus) remove their LED-device to blend perfectly in with humans, which the plot hinges on for them to get around in many situations.

** If Connor's relationship with Hank is low enough that he quits the police force at the beginning of "Last Chance, Connor", Connor will later visit him at his house. [[spoiler:[[DespairEventHorizon Hank is sitting at the kitchen table with a revolver and a picture of Cole]] while [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Sumo can be heard whimpering]]. After Hank gives Connor a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, he tells him to GetOut. As Connor leaves for his taxi, [[SoundOnlyDeath a gunshot can be heard from the house]] and Sumo lets out a HowlOfSorrow, while [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Connor stops]] [[IveComeTooFar in his tracks.]]]]

** Disturbingly, Gavin Reed also tends to get this treatment in conjunction with a massive dose of DracoInLeatherPants. The game itself does nothing to indicate he's anything other than an utterly irredeemable JerkAss who abuses Connor and mistreats all of his coworkers due to petty arrogance, nor does it ever suggest he has any reason for it outside of pure JerkWithAHeartOfJerk, despite providing a FreudianExcuse to other similarly repugnant characters. Fans tend to portray him as a tragic TroubledButCute {{Woobie}} with a tortured past to excuse his behavior, incapable of seriously hurting anyone (even though he can hurt and outright kill Connor in some playthroughs). The ukefication goes double if he's being paired with [=RK900=], who also often receives the abusive boyfriend treatment and subjects Gavin to bucketloads of RomanticizedAbuse in such works.

* AcceptableTargets: In Creator/QuanticDream tradition, overweight people and drug addicts are not portrayed in a flattering light, with Todd who is an example of both being characterized as a particularly unsavory abuser.

** Disturbingly, Gavin Reed also tends to get this treatment in conjunction with a massive dose of DracoInLeatherPants. The game itself does nothing to indicate he's anything other than an utterly irredeemable JerkAss who abuses Connor and mistreats all of his coworkers due to petty arrogance, nor does it ever suggest he has any reason for it outside of pure JerkWithAHeartOfJerk, despite providing a FreudianExcuse to other similarly repugnant characters. Fans tend to portray him as a tragic TroubledButCute {{Woobie}} with a tortured past to excuse his behavior, incapable of seriously hurting anyone (even though he can hurt and outright kill Connor in some playthroughs). The ukefication goes double if he's being paired with [=RK900=], who also often receives the BastardBoyfriend treatment and subjects Gavin to bucketloads of RomanticizedAbuse in such works.

* OneTruePairing: At any rate, Connor and Hank is the most popular pairing in the fandom overall, due to their BuddyCopShow dynamic and the emotional core of Connor's storyline .

* RelationshipWritingFumble:
** Quite a number of fans think that Markus and Carl behave more like [[MayflyDecemberRomance lovers]] rather than the [[LikeASonToMe surrogate son/father]] that the game tried to establish.
** Markus and Simon have a few scenes that come off as very romantic despite them only being friends and fellow revolutionaries. Even people who don't ship them have noticed how intimately they act in these few scenes, and it's caused many players to theorize that Simon was a possible love interest alongside North in some earlier draft of the game.

* UncannyValley:
** Invoked - androids aren't ''quite'' as detailed compared to humans, having smoother skin than humans and having slightly stunted emotional displays, especially when they aren't talking.
** Also discussed InUniverse -- one of the earliest magazine articles that players can pick up attempts to squash obvious question about the biology (or mechanics?) of androids, noting that redundant or superficial functions ("bleeding" blue blood, having vital organs/parts, blinking at a regular rate, and talking to other androids instead of simply communicating purely wirelessly) are by design, attempting to avert this trope for humans.

* FanworkOnlyFans: Due to the vast majority of the fanbase being centered around only one of the three protagonists Connor, and the rest of the game being considered a technical marvel, but not having a whole lot else going for it due to the questionable writing quality. In the case of 900Gavin {{Shipping}} fandom, this is by necessity, as Gavin's canonical appearances amount to a few minutes of screentime with minimal characterization and RK900 only exists for a couple of seconds with zero lines to boot.