Epic

unrelated to drawing but i just did a really simple and easy calisthenics exercise (2 sets of 30 wall push-ups) for the first time in years and it feels so good. i am very grateful to the youtuber i follow describing ways to make any exercise harder or easier to make it accessible to more people. whoever might be reading this, i encourage you to take a short break from scrolling and exercise a bit to your ability, it is rewarding both long and short term

was searching stuff about saddam hussein on youtube and noticed that many videos are styled similar to the true crime videos my lady (and feminine presenting) friends enjoy.

f/m date idea: watching videos about war criminals together

MGS3 arguably has the most relevant symbols of what I call the MGS Cycle (MGS1, MGS2, and MGS3... and MGS5. Though MGS5 is more like a supplement and less a cyclic element. )--

--The reason MGS4 doesn't count, is because it breaks the narrative cycle, by convoluting its characters, turning the symbols meaningless, and well, ending the story without use of the cycle motifs--

MGS3 is a kind of map legend to the MGS Cycle motif. It breaks down the basic archetypes into their most obvious selves. EVA represents the Love Interest, Ocelot still dominates his archetype as the double-triple-crosser, the Sniper character in the End, the Ninja in the Fear, the in-over-his-head science-tech type found in Sokalov...

Ecctra, ecctra.

But the one prominent one that's important, that MGS3 puts in your face Look-Here Blazing-Signs because it is that important... and that's who the Boss stands for.

The Boss appears out of the fog of her first introduction, like a legend out of the fogs of myth. She is constantly praised as not just a Legend, but The Legend, the Mother of Legends even. She is the mentor, to where even Big Boss is but a student.

( Character analysis? She is also a broken women that has had literally everything robbed from her, including cognition, but still marches forward regardless. She is the embodiment of the saying that one can control nothing in life but their attitude. Quite frankly, I got real sick of hearing people praise her and questioned how come nobody is trying to actually Help her. She says things that come out of left field and don't make a whole lot of contextual sense, like she's not always present, and that's saying something given that we're in Metal Gear. The only time she ever seems to truly focus and is present is when she's on mission--Yes she was a legend, we know, but fuck, she needed Help, not Praise. What the hell is wrong with the MGS3 Cast. )

The Boss is represented by a snake, yes, given she leads the Cobra Unit and she is arguably where Naked Snake himself gets all his icons (which he will later drop as Big Boss), but she is also represented by the Horse.

And not just any Horse either... though we do see her literal horse, which is why this narrative symbolism is even being considered.

And Remember that MGS3 is when we get introduced to Chinese elements through Eva, just as Ocelot introduced / introduces Wild West elements.

One of the more important Chinese Horse symbols, is the Idea Horse or the Horse of Will. It is the embodiment of the indomitable human body and spirit, and often paired up with the Monkey of Mind, or the embodiment of the unfettered human mind.

There was a famous Chinese story that ran with these exact motifs--and that's Journey to the West.

Only instead of Sun Wukong (Who is arguably the more fitting of an setting filled with Hollywood Action Films that MGS likes to mimic), MGS embodies and centers around one of the other disciples--Bai Long Ma, the White Horse Dragon, and representative of the Horse of Will.

( And that's not getting into how horses and snakes are often combined mythologically anyway )

Through both narrative motifs, ancient literary symbols (The Horse), and of course, MGS cycle archetypes (The Snake), the Boss represents the indomitable human will.

There is, in fact, no opponent in the MGS Cycle that we face, that represents that archetype, though it is the most important archetype of all MGS.

Because we've faced them as an opponent before, but we have played them as a player character.

And that's Solid Snake.

ADDENDUM: THE REASON MGS IS (MEANT TO BE) A CYCLE

The reason I call it the MGS Cycle, is because it is a repetitious story, inspite of background elements.

The Indomitable Will (Solid Snake) is at the end of his trials of Self, and takes his last trial of self--Facing the Building Blocks of Life and History experienced (MGS1 whose key word is Gene, the literal building blocks of Life and all villians in MGS1 will claim that the steps experienced in their history has made them who they are), and facing down his worse self, his shadow, (Liquid Snake).

A new trialer begins their trials of self (Raiden), which starts facing what makes up their mind (MGS2 keyword is Meme--is your mind real, or is it merely made up of what you're informed is real), where the rookie asks himself what is real, what to believe, what led him to this point, and facing himself lest he fall into delusion.

The Indomitable Will, seeking to break the cycle to allow the world to remain as it was, mentors the new trialer (often through grueling methods) as he takes on his new trials.

Now the mentoree (Jack / Naked Snake), strong through his teacher's teachings, after succeeding his Trial of Mind, he now must face his Trial of Reality (MGS3's keyword is Scene, the World is a stage, now that you know you are real, is the world you're in real?) as the warrior he was built to be. Unfortunately, this trial involves facing off against the Indomitable Will who has already taken all her trials (The Boss).

... and the Mentoree fails, because by defeating the Indomitable Will, he breaks his own will in the process and, wins the mission but fails the trial. He becomes an aspect of the trials for the next Indomitable Will to face down.

This is how the cycle, by its motifs, works. If MGS4 had followed the set narrative cycle, it would've resulted in Raiden killing Solid Snake, just as Naked Snake killed the Boss, and setting Raiden up to become the next "Big Boss" archetype.

... And then the cycle starts over.

MGS5 is an odd supplement, because its worth more if you place its story motifs between MGS2 and MGS3, rather following after MGS4. It details how the Indomitable Will, in spite of its rebellion against the cycle, would get re-entrenched into the cycle. The Boss, for all her will power, is, for some reason, insanely shackled by loyalty to something that she knows means her harm. MGS5 shows the metaphorical shackling--how do you shackle the Indomitable Will? By forcing it into a false form.

i don't think it's false sense of accomplishment at all.

yes, history will see him as villain, but, for example, at the start of metal gear 2: solid snake (iirc) it is said that there are no more nukes left in the world other than in zanzibarland, and while not explicitly stated so, i think dd's nuclear disarmament efforts in mgsv contributed to that - at least there is a cinematic in mgsv for total nuclear disarmament, which makes it canon enough for me. that's a big accomplishment that matters, imo.

it's really futile with the water reservoir and, mb, the child soldiers, since we don't know whether they got a chance at "normal" life (and it was miller's idea anyway) and know the fate of liquid snake and kids transferred to outer heaven later.

in shining lights mission he prevented a dangerous infection outbreak. like with many other things, it can be argued that he is responsible for it happening to begin with.

for me personally it is an interesting question how much of all of that did big boss - both ishmael and ahab - really want and how much was he being guided and/or manipulated to do, or left no choice. but i think the thing with playing as venom snake is doing the right thing at every given moment, even when war has already changed and is for money and revenge instead of making world a better place like the boss or ishmael wanted. but venom snake loved the legend of big boss the hero before becoming venom snake and my guess is he continued to do so and was happy or at least accepted the chance to contribute to it and become its co-creator. he contributed to the reason to live of his staff and completed impressive missions, and while that might seem shallow and lacking a bigger purpose, to me effort and passion in itself are never meaningless.

one can say that he has no lever and everything was decided for him, and that makes sense. but also it would be easier to give up or mess everything up; he needed effort and willpower to keep the tram moving, even if there was only one path - whether willingly or not and happy or not seems to be up to the player to decide.

also lmao, there was never a "good" option and non lethal metal gear gameplay is a joke. in mgs3 bosses even explode anyway, i think the only difference is difficulty and a little trophy to let the player feel like a good boy/girl/them. it is a game about supernatural cyber war and the very essence of all of your efforts (warring) is inevitably bound to people being killed. the closest to genuine non lethal i know is total stealth in mgs1 where at least the genome soldiers you sneak past are not even bombed in the end.

Venom's arc explained in a picture from the player's perspective

Playing MGSV:TPP you have 2 choices:

You can be good or bad. You can kill, destroy, use and do everything in your power to be the worst person alive. You can be kind, you can save animals, kids, soldiers, grow a family and be a respectable man.

There's actually no choice. There's no two-tracks. The ending is the same. History will see you as a villain. You are a villain. You are, currently, the perfect depiction of the most wanted and most evil man alive, according to the world.

You have no lever. You cannot stop this from happening. Either close your eyes or watch, the ending will be the same. Your life will end in misery. The only relief? Boss will pat your shoulder and let you die with a false sense of accomplishment. Congrats. That's the panthom pain everybody talks about.

finished mgs4. naomi is straight up scariest and most "evil" mgs character to me (no hate though)

in mgs1 i kind of liked her trolling snake, injecting him with foxdie and then answering his question on how much longer he can live with some vague stuff like "doesn't matter how long, you should live good". but in mgs4 she's not only a threat (which is ok, in mgs4 many people try to kill each other) but is also trying to get close to her victims feelings-wise. and when she succeeds with otacon (which ends up not even being crucial to her mission), she keeps hurting him: first dying on live stream while even holding the mk (unnecessary) to keep otacon looking at her, and while i can understand the sentiment behind enjoying other people suffering from your death, acting on it that much is a different thing; and then in her recorded message after all the business stuff she takes time to be emotional with otacon and hurt him again. it's like she's the opposite of solid snake in the sense of expressing feelings.

i was irritated by eva's constant hitting on snake in mgs3 when he clearly couldn't trust her (and for a reason) or mb wasn't interested in general, and succeeding when he was distraught by what he later admits to be a deed after which he was dead inside for the rest of his life, and using him ofc, while continuing to force herself close to him by claiming they loved each other (funny how ground zero briefing mentions that the boss was the only woman he loved). in mgs4 her views on friendship are unconventional to say the least but she's a much more loveable character, especially since it turned out she didn't plan to force big boss to stay unconscious and alive infinitely in that form to maintain jd or out of some vile sentiment.

naomi in mgs4 though is trying to get close to other characters and each time (except vamp) it screams danger and ends up being successful and true and then she openly enjoys and prolongs the suffering she caused, which is scary and evil in my book. at least she didn't hurt sunny. at least it's rude but funny how she reminds snake to die every time they talk, even in the recorded message - i was surprised that wasn't the message she passed to him in the after credits scene, but even there big boss mentioned that it's ok that the new fox die will mutate too, as long as he dies first.

that being said, mgs is not about nice and kind people and she's not a bad character, on the opposite - quite interesting one. but i'm glad i am neither snake nor otacon when it comes to interacting with her, lol.

they are culturally exchanging harmful habits now

can u guys watch them for me rq

low effort raiden and pliskin pen doodles

i wish there was a way to put reblog under cut instead of having gajillion long ass mgs related text posts on my page

this will get to the right people

i thought you mean the boss and naked snake for a minute lol

date with paz is the worst possible character for female date mission in pw in terms of having an enjoyable date but a good date partner in terms of the bigger narrative. elaboration below:

the best would be amanda, in my personal opinion. snake is clearly not much invested in courting anyone much, he still hasn't let go of the boss (and never truly will, in a way) and has other msf related stuff to worry about. and so is amanda - she would earn the recognition as comandante by the time of the mission and would be occupied thinking about running her own little army. the fact that they'd be on the same page about being not much interested in dating and much interested in commanding a military force and warfare in general could allow them to have a good time together.

cecile would be morally ambiguous too since she doesn't really have a choice in staying on the mother base. but at least she complemented snake and called him sexy over codec which is as much of female sexual attention as he gets in pw.

strangelove would not be a good date plot wise but even that would be more interesting. she is struggling to understand the boss and feels betrayed by her, same as snake. they could bond over the woman both of them loved deeply to the point of it affecting their entire lives. besides, strangelove did look for a hookup or relationship to get distracted from her "breakup" with the boss and possibly follow the 70s sci-fi trend of being very interested in procreation; for both of which she canonically chose huey. it wouldn't make much sense if she chose snake instead bc i think she picked a person she lowkey despised (as he did himself) on purpose and dating a guy who had a close relationship with the boss and made her jealous wouldn't exactly help to get distracted or try to forget about her. but still, at least she has an important thing in common with snake.

date with paz was unappealing to me to even try until i completed most of the missions and late game boredom of gajillion mech battles and curiosity and wanting to experience the entire game got to me (as well as a false hope that snake would be able to wear the bikini top if i get the swimming trunks too, which was a huge letdown lol but well, it is what it is). same as date with kaz, it's a trophy date for completing a significant part of the game. but depending on when you play it (right after unlocking or after completing more main missions) it has the appeal of either a date with a minor who is confused and in distress (tbh i wouldn't complain at all if it wasn't called a date and there would be other ways to finish it than get into love box with her) or a date with a spy who kind of hates you - which is negative amount of appeal for me personally.

sure, considering paz diaries one could say that she has a tsundere crush on snake, so for the sake of being optimistic let's keep that in mind. but does it affect the gameplay of the date mission? doesn't seem so to me tbh. mb i am just doing it wrong, but i had to make several attempts to get an s rank and it looked like this: "good girl" "good job" "i like you" "peace" "praising you some more" - "thank you snake" "thanks" "peace" "aww snake thx, also i will start following you after some wooing and jump a little in a cute way and tilt my head as you say more compliments about nothing in particular" and then they get into the box and paz says it's awkward. very understandable lol, awkward for me as well! at least i can play some nice music and she likes it.

i had kind of high expectations for this mission bc i have played date with kaz first. everything i could try got a positive response from him and revealed some delightful reactions: many comm lines, cqc, camera, questioning him - and even more - things like zooming in on his private parts or knocking him out and laying on top of him, things that i doubt i would find on my own. it's a shame you can't feed him but most of the things you can do get you positive and diverse responses. while paz dislikes or is neutral towards it seems everything except music and praise (she will, luckily, meow back, but won't like it, same as miller), and trying to cqc her is not only discouraged but results in snake touching her inappropriately which is an unexpected twist but not really a welcome one. i don't dislike paz as a character - quite the opposite, i liked the fight with her and was relieved (for a short while :') ) to see her in mgsv. byt her date is boring to me, i have even googled the ways to s-rank it in case i just do it wrong but it seems it just is what it is.

that being said, i think that date with paz isn't a bad thing in the context of the game in general. it reminds the player that snake and miller are freaks who can't behave around a minor, commits to the bit of "kid named peace" narrative (zadornov even got several play dates of hide and seek) and might be interpreted as illustration of snake having no place in romantic dates with cheerful young ladies and becoming a stranger to a joyous possible side of life that a date with a young cheerful woman might represent, which is well combined with him looking like shit and becoming more grumpy and tired and less silly and prone to tomfoolery compared to mgs3. so maybe while being boring and possibly inappropriate, date with paz mission might be more fitting into the narrative than a potentially more entertaining date with any other major female pw character.

my fav part of the mgs fandom is that we all collectively ignore the fact that boss possibly (and willingly) slept with a 16 year old at the ripe old age of 40