David Martinez: The Hero Who Was Never Meant to Be (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

I've watched countless protagonists meet their ends on screen, but few deaths have lingered in my mind quite like David Martinez's. There's something particularly haunting about Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' tragic hero – not because of how he fell, but because of what pushed him to his doom.

From the towering megabuildings to the garbage-choked streets below, Night City's architecture mirrors its social hierarchy – and David Martinez was born in its shadows.

The series makes this clear from its opening scenes. We meet David as a scholarship student at an elite academy, where his mother's hard work barely keeps him afloat in a place he was never meant to inhabit. The pristine halls and state-of-the-art technology of Arasaka Academy aren't a pathway to ascending the social ladder; they're a cruel reminder of the barriers between social classes. His classmates' casual insults and bullying and the principal's condescending attitude are but reflections of a system designed to keep "bottom dwellers" in their place. This, coupled with David’s intrinsic “hero” qualities, has already sealed his fate right from the start.

You see, David isn't your typical tragic hero. There's no fatal flaw to point at, no hubris to blame, no moment of moral failure that seals his fate. Instead, what kills David Martinez are the very qualities we'd normally celebrate in a hero: his unwavering loyalty, his boundless determination, and his selfless devotion to others.

Watching his story unfold, I couldn't help but think of a quote from Nietzsche: "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." Except in David's case, it's not the fighting that transforms him – it's his desperate attempt to be good in a world that punishes goodness.

One aspect the series does well is its subversion of the conventional approach to depicting a hero's journey. Usually, a protagonist's positive traits are what help them overcome adversity. But Night City isn't your typical setting. In this neon-soaked dystopian hellscape where the law of the jungle permeates through every nick and cranny of society, David's loyalty, zeal, and extreme altruistic nature drive him to push his body to its absolute limits with cybernetic implants. His determination blinds him to the warnings of cyberpsychosis – an irreversible mania from installing excessive cybernetic implants in one’s body. His selflessness is but self-destruction dressed in noble intentions.

The genius of David's character arc lies in its cruel irony. Every time he succeeds in protecting someone, it reaffirms his blind faith in his own abilities and pushes him to take on even more dangerous body modifications. At the same time, he becomes ever more oblivious to the cruel bigger picture that is the relentless world he lives in. Each triumph is a step closer to his eventual downfall. His exceptional ability to handle cybernetics isn't the natural gift it appears to be – it's a curse that pushed him to a state far beyond what any human should endure.The love story between David and Lucy adds another layer to this tragedy. His promise to take her to the moon becomes yet another noble intention that paves his road to destruction. It's painfully beautiful how his final sacrifice comes from the same place as all his other choices: that deep-seated need to protect, to give, to be the hero others need him to be.

Night City isn't just a backdrop; it's an insidious villain in itself, one that takes everything pure and twists it into something destructive. David's tale captures the cruel consequences of heroism in a world that's fundamentally broken; a prime example of a bottom dweller trying to maintain his humanity while struggling to climb up the social hierarchy that systematically inhibits such attempts by design.

Even his final confrontation with “Adam Smasher” serves as a stark reminder of this “class fatalism”. Adam Smasher, as Arasaka's ultimate enforcer and guard dog, represents the corporatized violence that keeps Night City's hierarchy in place. With modifications so advanced and powerful owing to the unlimited resources from the corporation, he outclassed David’s entire team and single-handedly obliterated them. David’s death has never been just a personal failure – it's the system working as designed, crushing another "bottom dweller" who dared to cross the line.

In the end, David Martinez was never truly fighting against cyberpsychosis or an individual corporate power – he was fighting against the gravity of social class itself. His exceptional abilities, unwavering determination, and even his most noble sacrifices ultimately served only to make him burn brighter before the inevitable fall - a fleeting spark in a prevailing, impartial abyss of darkness.