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icarusallusion · 14 days

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One of the main reasons I've been so fond of Otasune since I first knew it was a thing was because I think they're genuinely one of the purest forms of love in Metal Gear.

Throughout the series we see horrible relationships between horrible people trying to get by and then that relationship gets dragged through the awful scenarios they live with, be it war, internal struggles, infidelity etc. Despite this common place struggle with so many other characters, we see Otacon and Snake steadfast loyal and healthy throughout every struggle they go through.

They may not be an official couple, but they will always stay the most communicative relationship even outside of shipping. I see people joke about how Otacon kind of bosses Snake around (especially in MGS4), but I always saw it as refreshing. In the series, there is so many times where x character does something horrendous and y character just sits aside and silently sulks about it.

But this doesn't happen, like at all, with Dave and Hal. There are many times where Snake doesn't think about consequences to his actions as a general rule of soldier, however Hal has never been a soldier. So when these things happen, Otacon tells him off and it's something Snake genuinely needs to hear. It's something human, away from combat. Because Otacon is one of the very few characters that talks to Snake as a person, as a human, not as a soldier or fucked up clone baby.

Snake has gone his whole life scrapping the bottom of the barrel to stop feeling so lonely, he flirts with every woman he sees, he attaches himself very easily onto superiors, etc. Snake is a man who has spent his whole life trying to appeal to people, to get the praise he was never allowed as a child. Otacon gives him the comfort he never got. While any military superior can say Dave is the best of the best. None will look him in the face and tell him he has to live to just live.

Hal also opens a lot of doors to Snake's own discovery about himself. While this next point might sound a little cringy, stick with me. People may joke about the anime interest Snake and Otacon share, but it always came across so genuinely sweet to me. Snake's only interests up until he met Otacon have been, stop feeling lonely and war. I think even part of his musher life and interests within sledding can contribute to part of this. I mean come on, not even a regular musher keeps 50 dogs in their house and dogs are a natural remedy to loneliness. But in all seriousness, David refers to the huskies as his only family and I don't see him connecting with any other mushers he works with, it reads as him wanting to not be alone while also still being so lonely. As well as how mushing is considered a more normal interest than being an otaku, especially in the early 2000s. Mushing is a sport, and being an Otaku was pretty much unheard of or hated. Watching this guy who has been stuffed full of war propaganda scream a dorky "falcon punch" and "ninjutsu" with his best friend is so heartwarming in a way.

As well as Otacon's whole meme turned question of "do you think love can bloom on the battlefield?" Is something that I think Snake needed to be asked. It's probably been something he's been thinking about. It is also one of the most human things Snake asked throughout the game. About finding love in fear. Otacon constantly prods into Snake's heart and brings out the good in him.

Not only does Hal open up a space for Snake to have genuine unashamed interests and show true pure humanity. He also shows off their childhood. Both Hal and David never got proper childhoods. They connect that with each other through cheesy animes, talking about uncertainty in love, finding out what life is all about, navigating feelings, and through that damn cheesy handshake hug. It's all genuinely pure and wholesome love that connects what they didn't get to explore in childhood with one another. When Snake opened that piss covered locker and saved Otacon, he brought his own salvation into his life without knowing it. The very presence of Otacon saved Snake. It's why MGS4 felt so depressing for me especially, the strain between Snake and Otacon left a hole in my little heart and made Snake feel even more hopeless.

I also want to talk about how Snake benefited Otacon.

Otacon begins as cowardly and timid, he's an incredibly insecure character that struggles to connect with others, probably stemming from the issues in his younger life. When he meets Snake, he's faced with someone he could relate to that has an outward appearance that makes him seem so much more confident than he is. Snake is not this, he's as insecure as Otacon. Indirectly, Snake is the whole reason Otacon gets on his feet to take action against terrorism, takes action to become a better person. Snake shows Hal that he doesn't haven't to be strong to do the right thing. Throughout time, Snake helps Otacon come to terms with his own self worth and issues.

In MGS2, it has one of my favorite examples. The infamous bro hug scene.

Before it, this is when Otacon allows himself to open up about his childhood, not even just Infront of Snake, Infront of Raiden too. This showcased such a development in his character because he's proudly talking about it, while even through tears he doesn't hide it anymore.

Did you know that during that scene if you pan the camera to Snake, you can see that he is crying too?

When Hal has a breakdown over his sister's death, Snake is there to comfort him as well as tell him how it is in bluntness with a hand on his back that he needs to save people. It isn't cold or callous, it's letting Otacon know that he has something worth fighting for after a loss like that. Then when they face one another, they embrace each other and Snake tells Hal that he believes in him. Hal spent a lot of time as a scientist, hoping for someone to believe in him, while Snake puts all of his belief into Hal.

I can never forget the iconic "You're the only god I can pray to, Otacon" line. Snake has a deep loyalty, love, and belief in Otacon that Otacon has never been truly given before.

They both, in turn love each other till the end of their lives. Their love was one of the most heart wrenching and beautiful things in Metal Gear Solid and it's no surprise it captivated so many people. Their relationship, whether you ship them or just see them as a bromance. There is no denying the love they feel for one another as friends or lovers is one of the most iconic and sweetest bromances out theres They have impacted so much pop culture and I love them forever, as I'm sure many of you do who read all the way to the bottom.

#mgs #otasune #metal gear solid #solid snake #otacon #hal emmerich #little sappy post sorry guys i love them

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icarusallusion · 2 months

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Gray Fox's last words in both games will always be so important to me in understanding him as a character in whole. Especially his relationships with war and people and how he views them

Starting with this dialogue about Big Boss.

These are Frank's dying words and he uses them to praise Big Boss. These lines and their relationship shows Frank's devotion and loyalty on it's own. Countless times he has left friends, family, and lover behind to pursue Big Boss and his goals. This, while not a very healthy attachment, does speak greatly about what kind of a man Frank is and how devoted he can be.

Because he is not just devoted to Big Boss, he is also devoted to Solid Snake, he doesn't want Snake to die, he feels bad about betraying FOXHOUND, and he feels bad about lying to him in general. He pretended to be "#1 Fan" just so he didn't have to fully betray Snake. Not to mention Metal Gear Solid, but he's practically overjoyed at the chance to die in front of Snake and for him to be his means of death, while sickening in context with the experimentations it's incredibly showing how much they mean to each other. Also his clear devotion to Gustava, He risks getting arrested or killed just to be with the woman he loved. Frank is a character that is immensely devoted to people, but it does tend to rule out to Big Boss being the most important it still says a lot. It is also something that ruins him in the process, he dies for Big Boss and he destroys the relationships he has outside of Big Boss, which is also why I think he's so attached to David as well but I'll save that for some other post.

These lines also show Frank's values towards morality and loyalty, before this he says along the line of "I am in an awkward position [unlike snake]" he is pretty much saying that he's in-between peace and Big Boss. These, combined with the dialouge after it, imply that Frank fully understands Snake's amnesty towards Big Boss. He does see that Big Boss is bad, and why people do not like him. This shows off his devotion can cloud his morality, he still fully believes in a what's right and what's wrong but that dependency on Big Boss stumps it.

Scooting away from his last words to talk about his second last moments in Metal Gear Solid.

Fox : Snake, we're not tools of the government or anyone else! Fighting was the only thing... the only thing I was good at, but... At least I always fought for what I believed in.

This is almost a clearcut show of his morale, he fought because he was desperate to cling to war but he never lost sight of his values. While his values aren't very expanded on in themselves, the fact he clings to them as much as he does, does stand out to me. A clear show of determination that's been muddied by violence. He sides with both FOXHOUND and Zanzibar in his own way, as he understands the good purpose of FOXHOUND but sees Big Boss in Zanzibar and ultimately that loyalty makes his morality hazy and destroys the relationship he had with FOXHOUND.

Frank shows a very heartbreaking attitude towards war and also furthers the last point.

that he fully knows war is bad, Big Boss is not good, etc. I am always so glad when bad guys aren't written blind to the good in the world 🙌

Frank outright says he despises war, he shows this attitude a lot throughout his life. Even as a teen, he expressed his disgust at the death caused by war. He takes in a young Naomi to prevent the war from making an influx on her. He is incredibly caring to those suffering from battle filled places, yet due to the constant conditioning he has faced he's forced to constantly bring himself back into battlefield.

To Frank, war is an addiction. As a baby, he's in wartorn Vietnam kept in a camp, as a child he's in wartorn Africa trafficked as a soldier, and as a teenager he's in wartorn San Hieronymo memory wiped. When he is saved by Big Boss all these times, he ends up scooped back up into war anyway. When he's an adult and with Big Boss, he still chooses war. It's an incredibly saddening cycle that his character goes through.

However, to Frank, conflict and battle acts as a comfort to him. It's all that he knows and all he's grown up with that he cannot bring himself to separate from it.

When he's happy with Gustava, he still finds a way to break the law and accidentally ruin Gustava, still thinking like a soldier. I think this behavior also stems to Big Boss as well, Frank is happy with Big Boss, views him as his hero, but when describing him, he's just his CO that saved him a few times when there's so much more to their relationship. It makes me think Frank, as a soldier, already regards CO as an important role because he's stuck with thinking like a soldier that he can't see Big Boss past military ranking. Same with Solid Snake, Snake regards Frank as his best friend, while Frank always sticks to calling him Snake or rookie. It's always codenames or ranks for Frank.

Comparing himself to the children of Zanzibar also stuck out to me. While, Gray Fox is certainly not childish, he does have some child wonder and impulsivity that undoubtedly stem from the fact he'd never had a chance to grow up properly. He makes several impulsive decisions where he doesn't think about the consequences of what he does, this could also come from that same exact soldier mentality.

Also on the topic of the kids in Zanzibarland, the small dialogues they have about Big Boss is something that reminds me of how Gray Fox himself speaks about Big Boss, albeit he says it in a more jaded way but I feel that's really only because we see him as a teen and the Zanzibarland kids are like five.

Into the suicidal behaviors of Frank. In his life, he's on autopilot for most of it and when he's not, he's hurting others or he's hurting himself. He shows a deeply depressive attitude in life.

Within Portable Ops, he says: "You help me fill the void inside" towards Big Boss, describing his own self as a void showed how he felt his life had no meaning, including the whole null motifs, literally calling himself nothing always stuck with me. His impulsive behavior also stands out. While his impulsivity probably comes from the instinct of a soldier, sometimes it comes across as just suicidal. Piloting and fighting with a metal gear when he's never done so in his life, trying to elope with a woman in an authoritarian Czechoslovakia, killing Gene's staff, etc etc. Some actions he takes could end up killing him, having him tortured and he doesn't care about consequences.

Scooting away again to mgs1..

Liquid says this: "Foolish man! He prayed for death and it found him." While Liquids words can't express Frank's feelings it is a generally accurate statement, throughout his life Frank finds death and destruction and it follows him everywhere. This leads him down his own path of wanting to die, not actively but a passive auto pilot thought of knowing one day he will die and hoping it's in battle. While not a typical suicidal thought, hoping for death in whatever way definitely counts.

Onto more with his relationship with David, because it's always the moments when Frank is the realist. David is highly impressionable when he first meets Frank, probably one of his first few real friends after foster care and green berets. Frank himself regards their friendship highly. The last few words exchanged between them before they talk about Gustava: "I will never be like you" it always struck me and the way Frank just accepts that, he knows he's not a good role model anymore, not to anyone by how he talks about Naomi in MGS1.

David looked up to Frank, that much is evidenced by Kasler saying how everyone loved and looked up to Frank in FOXHOUND and how every opportunity he can Snake brings up Frank's advice. Metal Gear 2 shows the final crumbling of Frank, he's tries his hardest to have that moral compass, to be a sense of good to the war orphans he comes across, to his peers, and to his subordinates in FOXHOUND, but then in 1999 it fizzles away and he's fully accepted the fate laid out for him.

It's incredibly depressing but accurate. Frank is a veteran, he's fought enough wars and solemnly accepts his death. I think killing Gustava, and fighting Snake were turning points for him. Especially realizing Big Boss was most likely going to die in Zanzibar. He forces himself away from all parts of his life that made him whole so that he can accept death.

All in and all, Frank's last words in both Metal Gear 2 and Metal Gear Solid crack open a lot of depth into his character that so many people I've found ignore. The original Metal Gears tend to get overlooked but dive so deep into the characters that it's so shocking when so many fans haven't played or watched it. MG is the baseline for understanding Gray Fox and I find so many people boiling him down to himself in Metal Gear Solid when he's so impactful in Portable Ops, in Metal Gear 2, like please show Frank love because he will always be one of the most impactful characters to me

#mgs #metal gear solid #gray fox #frank jaeger #solid snake #gustava heffner

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icarusallusion · 2 months

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On the kick of relationships I feel were a bit wasted on lack of expansion and fandom media literacy.

Volgin and Ocelot. While they definitely do not stem from the same problems as Kazuhira and Quiet like I talked about in my other post, I still feel they aren't explained enough, hours of exposition but nothing quite explains why they are the way they are. Part of that leads to their allure as characters, the years of character building we don't hear or see, but their subtle relationship really falls flat on a lot of gamers I've found.

Into them themselves before I get into all the meta stuff.

Volgin doesn't waste time torturing and shocking people who minorly inconvenience him. He kills Granin pretty much just for fun, shocks and sexually tortures EVA, tortures his own men from the simplest lack of respect, and nukes a facility which kills multiple of his countrymen. All of these disturb Ocelot, but he never says much about it until it comes at the pain of Russia itself. (i.e killing Granin who benefits them and Russia in turn, not truly caring about torture when he learns its for a spy, feeling bad ahout killing Russian men even those who go agaisnt the GRU, and the nukes destroying Russian soil and countrymen)

However any time Ocelot calls Volgin out on his sadistic and cruel behaviors, Volgin never says anything truly negative back to Ocelot. For a man who does awful things to everyone else the way he hesitates to hurt Ocelot whether through physical or verbal means was always interesting to me.

Especially this interaction after Granin is killed by Volgin.

Volgin speaks down on Ocelot, however this isn't done in an insulting way, it's simply the truth in Volgin's eyes. Volgin raised Ocelot since he was 16, Ocelot is still decades younger than him, and is still ranks below.

To Volgin, Ocelot needs to be weeded out himself, of the care he deeply holds for Russia. Volgin undermines Ocelot and how he feels towards the war and cruelty surrounding it, that his feelings have no place within the war and that they're a threat to their organization. While on the surface it refers to how Ocelot is too hot headed and jumps the gun, that he won't be able to focus if he is always judging others. On a deeper level, it read to me as Volgin cares for Ocelot. That the judgement from Ocelot doesn't just break the GRU's unity, it breaks Volgin's unity with Ocelot.

Volgin doesn't want to get rid of Ocelot, that much is evident when in the final boss battle when this is their exchange.

Ocelot shoots at Volgin, disobeys orders, disrespects his title, etc, etc. Despite this, they have the same back and forth they always do. Volgin simply keeps ordering him until Ocelot just leaves. It comes across as Volgin trusts Ocelot to find the bombs, either that or views him too inferior to do any real damage on his own devices. All and all, Volgin doesn't care about Ocelot's disrespect towards him when if it was anyone else they'd be dead.

Speaking of the boss fight, it really added more to their relationship.

THIS ESPECIALLY

Volgin comes so close to shocking Ocelot, but he can't, simply just a warning. Then in the next scene, Ocelot looks to Volgin for reassurance on his aid to Snake. This back and forth always ends each word from Ocelot with an obedience to Volgin.

The fact Volgin and Ocelot have whole conversations with each other from body language alone and the way Ocelot himself relies on body language really is such a good detail

The way they simply talk with one another also always felt like a parent to a child to me. (Maybe a very bad parent but still) In a way, they are a very fucked up found family.

Ocelot kidnapped by The Philosophers as a baby, sent to the GRU to be a spy at 16 and being guided through the rest of his years up until the end of teenage life by Volgin who he knew he'd have to betray at some point. Volgin who was raised by a member of The Philosopher.

While family has never been something they have been expanded on with, I think that speaks more. Neither Ocelot nor Volgin have any semblance with family. They are each other's only sense of that. Through the traitorous attitude of Ocelot and through the hedonist sadism fogging Volgin, they are the only people who get each other but ultimately are not fond of each other in most scenarios. They serve as a twisted parallel of The Boss and Snake to me.

Which sucks even more when The Boss is literally Ocelot's real mom, don't know how to thread that in either, but it's just ughhh literally custody battle between The Boss and Volgin every time they're on screen together with Ocelot

I could talk forever and ever about the analysis between them, but onto the meta. My issues are not within any prejudice or forced characterization like Kaz and Quiet. However, I feel they come from the writers thinking they were not interesting enough. They don't put a lot of their relationship on the surface and by the time players realize their relationship the game is over. MGS is really a game that always deserves a second playthrough to fully grasp its ideas and characters.

Volgin and Ocelot didn't grasp a lot of people because they weren't pushed and pushed like EVA and Snake. They were an afterthought in the game while I think they really could've been given more, considering how much of Volgin affects Ocelot. Ocelot liked torture because of how Volgin raised him, Ocelot has a complicated relationship with Russia partially due to Volgin, and Ocelot's relationships with people are forever shadowed by how Volgin raised him.

I think they really could've been something so interesting, but so much of it was swept under the rug by other relationships and topics within the game. I don't know, tell me what you think this is mostly spit balling about two characters I really like. 🐆

#metal gear solid #revolver ocelot #volgin mgs #looking back on this definitely couldve written this better lol

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icarusallusion · 2 months

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I think MGSV really robbed us of a Kazuhira and Quiet properly written relationship and really took away a proper characterization of the two, especially Kazuhira as he has already had a good characterization that they took away. In Quiet 's scenario they literally just need to write better female characters, it's so awful.

While friendship definitely didn't have to be how their relationship went, I think some sort of mutual bitter respect between them would have fit, but instead we get a very disturbing take on them with Kazuhira calling Quiet like awful things, talking about killing her, and blaming her for getting attacked.

Quiet is seemingly respectful of Kazuhira and doesn't seem to hold a grudge against him, and Kazuhira is shown to accept people's wrongdoings and still show a respectful professionalism around them in the past. Kaz kinda hates Ocelot and Big Boss (venom snake but kaz thinks it's big boss) in MGSV but still respects them and treats them like a proper coworker.

We can also see this with Paz a little bit, pre MGSV.

Big Boss quite literally kidnaps him and talks about doing horrific things to him if he doesn't join, months later he's in love with him as a legend and then in MGSV a character that minorly inconvenienced him is suddenly his mortal enemy, it just doesn't make sense to me.

Not to mention Ocelot and BB were both part of Zero, worked with and for him, but we never truly see Kaz get angry with them for this.

Kazuhira understands throughout the games the manipulative pull Zero has on people, but when it comes to morally wrong female characters they aren't written.. good. In turn, they write the male characters that attack them bad as well. Taking Kazuhira and making him someone who's just angry all the time and so easy to hate for newer players was awful to me. I loved him in Peace Walker, traitor and all. However, I see new players blindly playing MGSV as their first game and DESPISING Kazuhira because they haven't seen him in his proper characterization, haven't seen him outside his dehumanization of Paz and Quiet and his overall anger.

AS WELL AS HOW HE TREATED PAZ, it was so weird to me. Obviously he's angry but even before they found out Motherbase was destroyed Kazuhira rants and rages and calls her a bitch and other like shitty things and it was so weird to me. Because in Peace Walker, he literally admits he's in the wrong for even letting Paz on the base in the first place, post her betraying them horrendously, Kaz still speaks with some fallen foe respect towards her

But then when it comes to Quiet, Kaz participates in the dehumanization and ridicule of her while also ostracizing her from everyone else. Strangely enough the only characters we see really hate Quiet are background Diamond Dogs soldiers, they don't build any reason to hate her for the player which just makes Kaz look crazy. From a non meta point, to not have Kaz have at least some decency towards Quiet when nobody else really has a problem with her except the soldiers was weird.

It felt like his deep rooted hatred with Cipher was just squeezed into a character, because the lack of proper expanding on Quiet really felt even more uncomfortable when all we got was ass shots and dehumanization especially.

I think MGSV could've been a good game if it didn't try and take itself so serious. The seriousness of battle overshadows the time spent with Quiet and with Kazuhira and literally every other character that could've been properly expanded on.

I love MGSV, I love Metal Gear in general. However, it fails it's characterization so much, more especially in modern games like Revengance and Phantom Pain. They are good games, but when all the women are written as rage bait without any proper reason to hate them at all, it sucks. When characters in general regardless of gender are destroyed of their former written self, it sucks. I could go into this with so many other characters but I couldn't stop thinking of Kaz and Quiet and how they come directly from the lack of proper female writing as well as the lazy writing that really spoils MGSV for a lot of people.

#kazuhira miller #mgs #metal gear solid #quiet mgsv #hopefully this makes sense and i didnt get anything wrong lol

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