In defense of Song So-Mi (Songbird) *Updated

The King of Cups route:

1. Space Force One incident.

So-Mi initial plan was "For V to rescue Myers, while she secured the cure and for V and So-Mi to run. All before Kurt caught on."

The crash landing was always meant to happen, but her's was a controlled. Basically before the crash she contacted V offering him cure in exchange that he/she will be Myers's and the crew welcoming party and as down payment So-Mi unlocked V's relic upgrades and she most likely would've put Myers and the crew which had 9 members into the saferoom. So-Mi would have blast herself off the ship and get out of Myers's leash to get the cure for herself and V, while Kurt is focused on Myers. After it crash landed Myers and the crew would have safely sat in the saferoom while V and the drones take care of Kurt's men and later So-Mi would've sent them with V to a safe house, that Myers and V were in!

She never intended to get the crew killed, nearly including Myers and she berated Kurt in the flashback for "Shooting a missile at them and killing innocent people and nearly killing Myers and that wasn't part of deal, not even close." and Kurt responding "Your plan lacked grit.". We don't know, if she had a better alternative, cause the game doesn't present us with one and she said it herself "She wouldn't have resorted to this, if there was.", mostly anyone else in her situation would have B lined towards the exit and ignored all the chaos, they'd left behind and more importantly, did she choose to be in this situation, to be abused till her mind breaks, to have her body mutilated and to be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

2. Life in the FIA and the origins of her trust issues.

Like living in a prison, surrounded by people who pretended to be her friends and later on she was forced to slowly kill herself one piece at a time for Myers's power trip, cause as So-Mi's psychiatric report said that she was approaching a critical state and that she needed rest, but Myers didn’t care and kept on going and she had no way of escaping, because her tormentor's reach extends far beyond the NUSA that no matter where she is, her loyal dogs will find her and when she does, god knows what fate awaits her and once she did get a chance to escape, it was only because, she became useful for someone else (Mr. Blue Eyes).

3. Chance to learn from their mistakes.

V got the chance to live again, thanks to Johnny though it's a short one and V could have learned from his mistakes and lived out his final days somewhere at peace, but instead he/she continued to walk the same path, repeating the same mistakes and for what, for a cure he/she would have wasted. While So-Mi on the other hand never got the chance to learn from her mistakes, due to losing her freedom permanently.

4. Colombia incident.

It was her first assignment as an intelligence analyst, and although she was a semi-successful netrunner, her mind likely wasn’t fully in it. She never wanted to join the FIA in the first place, and it’s entirely plausible that distraction, inexperience, or simple human error played a role something even seasoned operatives like Reed and Alex aren’t immune to.

5. The Stadium Incident.

After V used the icebreaker on So-Mi, she lost control and the rogue AI took over and it's like blaming someone while they are posessed and as mentioned before if anyone is to blame then it'll be Myers for infecting her with the blackwall.

6. Her humanity.

A) So-Mi as seen in the flashbacks was overall a good and full of life person, who was loving and caring, but also curious, ambitious, which distanced her from her loved ones.

She knew the risks that comes with being a Netrunner and all we know about her career and from the jobs she did the Biotechnica fermentation facility and Militech datafort is that she was a hacker, but not much is known what for, but most likely data theft and sabotage. She has avoided capture for so long, that she got overconfident and she felt invincible and when she failed, she saw that as challenge and tried again.

When Reed came knocking after So-Mi's failed job with the Militech datafort and when he said "What's ahead is important, worth so much more." and if she was drunk on greed she would have said basically "Where can i sign up." or "I am working solo.", but instead she said "Hard pass! I ain't going anywhere with you. Making me leave my home, my friends, everything that means something to me!" and that didn't work she blackmailed her with the lives of her loved ones and she said "Blackmail?! That your play, don't know me enough!" and Reed said "But i know your type." and that got through to her cause she still cared about her people and about her career.

When they left her home and she didn't look back and Reed said "She thanked me for saving her life, but he knows that she didn't believe any of it.", because she left her life behind and looking back would have hurt too much. Also when V asked "Yearning to go back to Brooklyn." And she said "Can't rewind the clock V.", because sometimes when you have lost something, only then you realize it's value.

B) The moment where So-Mi and V were at the spot, that reminded her of home. She desired to build trust between each other so that she could rely on him/her and to build connection between one another, by opening up about her past and about the plan with Hansen and when V said "You sent Myers crew and nearly Myers herself to their early graves." and she responded aggressively with quilt undertone "Ground the plane, that was the deal. Didn't expect he would blow it up. Not much of an excuse i know." and V asked "What was your plan exactly." and the rest i already talked about in section 1.

V then asked "Out of everyone, she saw Hansen as a trusted ally and that it was stupid of her.", but she most likely expected Kurt to see the leverage Myers would offer and that he wouldn't risk starting a war with the NUSA and it was stupid of Kurt to take the risk and she didn't know he had a backup plan to change the terms of their deal so that she could get the cure and as So-Mi put it, that "She would find something valuable on the Cynosure mainframe, to use as leverage against the NUSA so that he could defend himself, when has to answer for the attack on Myers."

C) Her showing remorse with her facial expression and with her body language towards Strider and Reed.

D) When V asked "How many will die?" and her saying "They will die so they may live." and you can see it in her body language, how uncomfortable she got and understanding that they are surrounded by Kurts men, Reed and Alex and her time was running short.

E) When V betrayed So-Mi and she asked "Why is he/she doing this?" her heart broke once again, because again she tried to trust someone and thought she might have found the right person and again they betrayed her, V then said "That Reed can help them!" and So-Mi knowing Reed's blind loyalty to Myers, he would send her straight back to her tormentor and that is why So-Mi said "That V understands nothing!".

F) After Kurt killed and V saying to So-Mi "You killed Alex." and her saying "No, you did." So-Mi deflecting the blame of Alex's death onto V, most likely not wanting to have her death on her conscious, cause if V hadn't betrayed her though justified, Alex would still be alive and So-Mi saying "Doing what i had to survive.", cause Alex was one of Myers people, same as Reed and thus a threat.

G) Her sparing V after his/her betrayal, cause in half corrupted state she killed the soldiers in front of V and not actually the person who betrayed her and basically ruined her second chance in life, when anyone else in this situation Myers, Reed, Alex, Kurt and maybe even V depending on the player would have killed V, but she didn't, cause when she said "V understands nothing!", she understood that V's intentions were good, but misguided and also that her trust issues made her come across as untrustworthy.

That is why she later showed glimpses into her past, so that V would understand her and those glimpses behaved like someone, who would see their life flashing before their eyes and due to the Blackwall overwriting her mind, like Johnny does to V, she remembers her memories incomplete, like an Alzheimer patient would.

H) Her fighting back control in her damaged state from the rogue AI, so that they wouldn't kill V with the Cerberus robot the same man/woman who betrayed her and as far as she knows V is here with Reed to bring her back to Myers, so that V could get cured.

Chimera and Cerberus behaved the same way, both had a glowing red eye and when So-Mi took control of the Cerberus, it started tweaking and her saying "They will kill you! Run!" and threw V aside unless the AI likes to play games then it makes no sense, that they don't kill V then and there, especially when they see humans as a threat to their existence.

Lets say if she was the one controlling the Cerberus and was pretending to be the saviour, so you would fulfill her wish, first off why does she block all the paths that lead to Cerberus and to her and secondly save V once from that robot and warn him/her, but don't keep warning him/her so that he/she would run further away from her, just let it get to V with a sneak attack and once V is captured then pretend to save him/her, cause the playing around does no good to her and also the AI said "She tried to stop you. Now it's too late." and its tone and manner of speaking is more mechanical, just like Erebus and Canto.

Plus if we take into consideration that after V's betrayal she didn't kill me, we have reached to the conclusion, that she did care about V, but with Chimera she couldn't help V and Myers and why it went berserk as said by Johnny "So-Mi basically got overloaded and crashed." and that crash unleashed a rogue AI to the Chimera.

I) When we were in her mind she asked V "That she gave herself one chance and why V took that from her and why?", cause she wanted to know was V just like everyone else, that she has met and also with that indirectly confessing to V, that the cure was for one person.

J) Her apologizing for the mistakes that she has made, some that she shouldn't be responsible for, but those who trapped her in that situation and when V was supportive and understanding towards her, by basically saying "We can't change what's done. We can only learn from them and move on." and when V hugged her and offered to help her, she took him/her up on that offer.

K) When we meet So-Mi for the last time she says "That she is glad that he/she is here.", because she didn't wanna die alone, so she is glad that he/she is physically present and when she said "She tried on her own, but she didn't have the strenght.", cause she was scared to die alone and when V finally pulled the plug and took her life on her reguest and in her last breaths she thanked V and apologized for everything she has done, but i think it was personally for V, because she felt guilty for using him/her, the only true friend she had since the days back in Brooklyn.

7. Honorable mentions.

A) When V and So-Mi began to plan on escaping the stadium she said "That the stadium is armed at Kurts forces.", but the blackwall unfortunately caught some of the civilians in the process due to her doing multiple things at once and Blackwalls chaotic properties. Every weapon has a chance to misfire and she used what she had even if unreliable.

B) When V and So-Mi finally reached the end of the stadium, there were some civilians that saw us escape and she didn't kill them even though they could easily snitch on us and at the space station she didn't kill anyone, at least not in my playthrough.

C) When she got her medal of honor, she gave it to a homeless man and also when she recited her oath to the FIA, her "ugh." showed that she was never a patriot, but a prisoner.

D) When V and So-Mi were nearly reaching the rocket and her talking about her attempted assassination on Reed at Myers orders and as seen in the Phantom Liberty prologue/trailer you can see the sadness on her face when she had to betray Reed, cause she cared about him, but couldn't trust him and her later seeing nighmares from that day and blaming herself though she was doing what she was ordered to do, if she wanted to survive and as she said "She could've warned him." , but what good would it have done, someone else would finish the job and she would've lost her life or worse and let's not forget, Reed is no saint and he brought her into this hell and he would bring her, right back in.

E) Her revealing the truth about the cure to V and risking her chance, that she has long been chasing for and when V asked "How long she has known that?" and she said "Since Cynosure.". Most likely she did it cause the quilt ate inside of her and after she talked about Reed and quilty she felt for betraying him and V has done so much for her and of course understandably not completely out of charity and that it wouldn't have been right to leave V with a false hope and to betray someone that has been the closest, she could call a friend.

F) She also has high empathy for her to able to wear this much cyberware, due to her being raised in a good environment, surrounded by loving friends and a mother and her card The King of Cups is about deep feelings, intimacy, compassion.

In summary:

She cared about her loved ones and her career. When Lucas said "Could go anywhere on all them zeros.", even though she had money, more than enough and yet chose to continued for her selfish desires and it was putting the lives of the people she cared about at risk and she paid for it by losing them, her home, her freedom.

Considering her past actions we can conclude, that she didn't want anyones death to be on her conscious, but unfortunately they still happened, so she owes partial blame. She didn't choose to be in this situation, she was forced and the harm she caused and withholding the truth about the cure from V, she paid for it with her mind, body and selfless actions.

Closing statement:

"Somewhat damaged" should have had the option to save her without killing her, because that mission had the necessary details you need to come to proper resolution.