Spoiler warning for the Wuthering Waves X Cyberpunk Edgerunners and the Cyberpunk Edgerunners show.
The Wuthering Waves X Cyberpunk Edgerunners collaboration is a bona fide success. With fans of both franchises lauding the emotional story beats, great writing, and spot-on voice work and music, there is clearly a ton to love about the story. However, the most critical moment in this tale of closure and acceptance for Lucy (Emi Lo, Neverness to Everness) is one that players can easily overlook.
The moment that stands out as the most significant in this story comes just minutes before the curtain falls. It’s not in the final battle with Adam Smasher. Nor is it to be found in Lucy’s tearful reunion with David (Zach Aguilar, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba), or her goodbyes to the fading dream of her friends. Rather, it plays out quietly, with only Rover (Jane Jackson, Arknights Endfield) and the Somnoir’s guardian, The Ivory Gatekeeper, to witness her most important moment: when she takes back her agency.
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Lucy has to take the wheel in Wuthering Waves X Cyberpunk Edgerunners to find closure and move on.
From the moment she was grabbed by Arasaka corpos in the closing episodes of Cyberpunk Edgerunners, the vast majority of the events that have shaped Lucy’s life have been beyond her control. Her imprisonment, her rescue, David’s sacrifice, and even her arrival in Solaris III, and many of the events thereafter, have been imposed on her rather than chosen by her. This leaves Lucy, at times, little more than an observer in her world.
Lucy’s lack of control goes a long way to explaining why her character strikes such a sympathetic chord with many fans. We’ve all felt like a passenger in our own lives at some point. Always being acted on, eternally being denied the control we want. But while this element works up to a point, for Lucy to find closure and move on, she has to take the wheel in one very important moment.
The kind of trust Lucy receives in Solaris III doesn’t come easy in Night City.
In the closing moments of the story, Lucy, Rover, and The Ivory Gatekeeper ride the now familiar train back to The Moon so Lucy can step through one final doorway and return home. As the train approaches its stop, the Ivory Gatekeeper tells Lucy that there is a way within the Somnoir for her to remain in Solaris if she wishes to.
Despite being beset by clandestine criminal organizations like the Fractsidus and world-ending monsters like the Threnodians, Solaris III is likely a far warmer and more inviting place than any Lucy has ever known. Strangers like Professor Mornye (Michelle Fox, Final Fantasy XVI), Lynae (Elsie Lovelock, Arknights Endfield), and Sigrika (Maya Lindh, Assassin’s Creed: Vallhalla) all welcomed her with open arms, never once suspecting her of anything. That kind of trust doesn’t come easy in Night City. And if you are given it, it generally turns sour really fast.
It’s when Lucy’s allowed to make a choice that she’s able to find peace and closure.
But can it be that easy? Can she live in a dream and find peace and closure? It is this moment that serves as the true crux of Lucy’s story. When she is given back the reins of her life and is allowed to make a choice. Live in the dream, or face her reality. After a brief hesitation, she gives The Ivory Gatekeeper a soft smile, thanks him for the offer, but opts instead to return home. It’s time to wake up.
While fans will rave about the way Wuthering Waves X Cyberpunk Edgerunners delivers on their favorite characters, let’s Lucy see David one last time, or give them the catharsis of crushing Adam Smasher, it is in this gentle moment that Lucy’s story comes to its fulfillment. She takes back control of her life and chooses what to do next.
