#and you can't continue a war without soldiers and patriots | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

specialagentartemis · 2 years

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*running into heavy traffic again* hey if we're doing nonromantic relationships... bingo meme for snavid and naomi 8)

OPENING THE FLOODGATES

The thing is, "double murder sibling-in-law reacharound" doesn't really have its own square. Neither does "I fucked your husband as revenge for you fucking my brother" or "you are kind of the only person left alive who actually understands me" or "we're both terminally ill and I'm spending my last remaining weeks making that your problem while also saving the world behind your back".

I think in another universe where it WAS Philanthropy who broke Naomi out of prison she could have been a strong ally and she and Snake could have eventually had many deeply uncomfortable emotional conversations where they came to understand and respect each other. They didn't, though. It was Ocelot, and Naomi and Ocelot were playing double-cross-chicken with each other because they both had the same ultimate goal but didn't trust each other to actually carry it out. It was actually the same goal Snake had and I'm screaming tearing my hair out at Naomi making Snake's last days alive a collection of spiteful jabs while also solving the Big Problem He Dedicated His Life To Solving for him. She blames Snake for her brother's death, but her brother died saving Snake, so she can't kill Snake without denying her brother's memory. Snake meanwhile is an incredibly compassionate person and pities her, and I think she resents that, but also he DOES understand her and lied to her about Fox's last message to her to make her feel better.

However I am 100000% convinced she was planning to kill Otacon out of spite, but then she saw Sunny, and Sunny is just like her at that age (a war orphan, parents killed in conflict with the people who then adopted her, raised by lifelong soldiers apart from Normal Socialization) and I think Naomi saw that what she was doing was just continuing the cycle she had fed into and was now trying to break. She was trying to destroy the Patriots and their war economy, but was double-orphaning another little war orphan girl the way to do it? Was it really? Otacon only survived MGS4 because Naomi didn't want to make his daughter sad, and her revenge on Snake by not-killing-him-but-making-him-miserable was ultimately less important to her than the goals of burning down the world order that made her and letting something new grow in its place. Because at the end of the day she agrees with him professionally even if she doesn't want to forgive him personally. And he's dying and she's dying and god what is any of this for if we're just gonna keep killing out of spite.

Fox forgave Snake. Snake forgave Fox. Snake forgives Naomi. Naomi cannot understand any of this and can't forgive--can't forgive Snake and can't forgive herself--and I think that's part of why she marked herself as part of the Old Order that needs to be wiped out for the world to grow back healthy.

(*the reference to plastic dinosaurs is that when I was a kid I would have epic multigenerational battles between dinosaur factions and every time a dinosaur died the toy would be repurposed as a child born into the new generation who would continue the blood feud war. This is how I feel about these two)

As you can see the 'highly specific situations' is this extremely specific construction of her actions and motives that bears only a dubious resemblance to what was actually portrayed in the game. It's truer, though.

#deathofthetext #Metal Gear Solid #'I could write a three page essay' and then I had to hold myself back from doing exactly that #Naomi Hunter was the real hero and also everything else of MGS4

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faroresson · 1 year

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Thinkin about how a big thing in Metal Gear is that even though it always seems like there was one moment, one decision, one person who started the domino effect that left a huge mess across the series, it just.... Isn't true. And like, thats the point!!

You can't blame the Boss for her ambiguous wording in her last request for ruining everything because, while it certainly didn't help per se, it was John and Zero who took it in two wholly seperate wildly incorrect ways.

You can't blame John for the entirety of the conflict in the series because a lot of it came from outside, that drunk guy whose name I forget who designed the first metal gear in Snake Eater, his capture and Gene's plan from Portable Ops introducing the nation of soldiers idea... Hell even with MSF, it never would have gotten very far without Kaz being at the helm organizing a base of operations and international deployment and imports!

There's of course the jokey joke that Ocelot causes all the problems but he was a much a pawn of the Patriots as anyone else for a lot of it, did he cause a lot of very specific personal issues? Yes, but like he didnt cause the US/RUS tension or the fall of the USSR or anything

Even Huey! If he had never built ZEKE or the... Dinosaur named one, maybe metal gears would never have hit public eye! Also, his murder of Strangelove and horrible parenting skills led to Otacon having a horrible civillian life

which brings me to my next point, because of how intertwined all the events, good and bad, across the series are in such a way... theres a lot of decisions that seemed bad or at least unideal that actually were beneficial in the long run narratively speaking. Like for example, with Huey:

Him killing Strangelove, and generally being an awful whiney bitch got him kicked off of Mother Base in 1984. V deciding to not kill him to both satisfy Diamond Dog's need for some form of punishment without fully being Judge Jury and Executioner, while frustrating in hindsight but great for characterizing big boss' strategic mindset, actually allowed Otacon to have a reason to both go into mechanics (use his skills hoping to make his dad proud) but also a reason to help make the world a better place (work to remove the influence of Emmerichs and their war machines by forming Philanthropy)

Ocelot himself, tennis balling between pawn of the patriots and the spanner in the works, him choosing John and by extension Eli in the OcelHira Divorce Tapes etc etc, sure it led to Kaz dying in retirement the entirety of mgs 1, 2 and 4 because he was at the head of all that, but it all became the method and reason for David to continue the good fight and dismantle the Patriots permanently to slow the war industrial complex machine.

And this is of course not even getting into how much of the metal gear series happens even In Universe just as a result of US imperialism sentiment but i don't feel particularly qualified to speak on that

#faron speaks #guess who was talking to himself while doing chores again <3 #mgs #long post #does this actually make sense i dont want to be corrected or anything rn but like i want to be understood yknow

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kevinychen · 3 years

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New Haven (Friday, 7/30)

This morning's park/green space is East Rock Park. It's a park on the northeast side of New Haven, and has a nice trail up to a monument commemorating soldiers, next to a great overlook of downtown.

The road forks early into a slightly narrower road and a small trail. Becky takes the trail to see more birds and I continue on the road. At the top, I see the monument:

The blue female statues at the corners near the base represent history, patriotism, prosperity, and victory. The one at the top represents peace. It was erected in the ~1880s and honors the soldiers in various wars.

From the top of the rock, you can see downtown New Haven, including Natalle's hospital which is near the center of this photo I took:

We drove back at 1pm to pick up Natalle, and then headed over to a French Crepe place called Choupette for brunch. I ordered a crepe with lavender honey, and the others all ordered the classic one with figs. I think the others enjoyed it, but I can't recommend this place because even the savory crepes were too sweet for a meal.

Since dessert is a great option after meals in vacations, we went to The Whale Tea afterwards, named after the size of their customers after constantly drinking their boba tea. This was a bit north of Choupette on Whitney Ave, one of Natalle's favorite streets in New Haven.

We went further north to Katahdin Furniture, which also sells toys (it seems like furniture stores in New Haven often have other fun things for kids...), because we were looking for a tambourine to use for karaoke this afternoon. But all we found were some maracas, which weren't that great, so we left.

Then

SNAKY!

BEARIE!

KARAOKE!

on Natalle's personal karaoke machine :)

It even supported arbitrary Youtube videos, so we sang with masterpieces such as Bad Project and The PCR Song.

For dinner we went to a nearby place, Mecha Noodle Bar. They had ramen (which Becky and Tommy got) and pho (which Natalle and I got).

But their biggest asset was the setting sun, which beamed through the west-facing window and completely blinded Becky and Natalle. With the reduced sense of vision came a heightened sense of taste, resulting in more happy customers.

After dinner, we played Pictionary. Although for some reason the game came with a whiteboard without an eraser (so we ended up with very black hands), we still had a ton of fun.

Tommy and I won best out of 3.

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