benny was also like incredibly abusive to yes man and kept him trapped in that shitty side room. it’s no wonder yes man genuinely loves the courier regardless of if they make decisions he likes or not after being liberated from benny. courier must be an angel to him

I think incredibly abusive is a bit much.

Like Benny was not kind to Yes-Man but he was not particularly cruel. If Yea-Man was let out of the room then anyone could’ve asked him anything and outed the plan, leading to him and Benny being exiled at best or killed (permanently in Yes-Mans case) at worse. Yeah, it was Benny’s fault he was like this but it was probably the only fail safe to keep House’s systems from tapping into Yes-Man, by giving him no code to reject commands the only way to influence him would be in person. House can’t do that.

Also liberated makes it sound like you are treating Yes-Man like an equal when you’re just treating him slightly better than most would treat a personalized Mr. Handy bot. Benny isn’t nice to him, didn’t give him a real name, but he definitely loved Yes-Man, more like a science project but that was his thing y’know? Robots with personalities like him that aren’t common in the Mojave and are considered odd. Benny already did a lot more than someone who’d just mistreat his creation by allowing him to be passive-aggressive in the first place. He let Yes-Man think which a big step from most AI programs in the Mojave.

I think the issue is Yes-Man genuinely appreciates the Courier for getting the plan in motion but that wasn’t a lack of Benny. He had completely different circumstances than the Courier that didn’t allow him to be as bold. Yes-Man learns to love the Courier because they come to rule Vegas and he sees them as competent and the next logical leader now that Benny is no longer his primary overseer.

Honestly the Courier and Yes-Man are closer to a exclusive business partnership by the end of the independent route if we go by the general answers. The Courier can be as nice or as mean to Yes-Man as they want and Yes-Man does not see the Courier as flawless or an angel just the next logical step in a plan. Of course, depending on what you do or headcanon, their relationship can be much more complex than that but on a even ground between all of the options, Yes-Man and the Courier are means to an end to each other.

A popular theory before New Vegas had the current fandom it did and developer commentary was that Yes-Man was going to betray you at the end of the independent route. Lying that he’d just upgrade himself to only listen to you so you wouldn’t stop him. Some people still follow it despite it being debunked while other love the idea he genuinely only wants to listen to you.

It’s all up to interpretation my dear. I personally don’t think Benny was cruel to Yes-Man not more than he is to another Chairman. He’s a robot, of course, to Benny and that has its own connotations on how he was treated but I digress. The Courier is far from an angel or saint to anyone but I do like the idea that there’s a fondness from Yes-Man. Lee so how they can be so illogically efficient rather than what they’ve done fore him.