Line #10 Fridge/MetalGearSolid


1	[[AC: FridgeBrilliance]]
2	* Decoy "Octopus"? "Wouldn't something like 'Chameleon' be a better fit?" some might ask. It's relatively common knowledge that chameleons are actually poor at camouflage; their color-changing process takes minutes on end, and they tend to change more based on mood than environment. What might be less commonly known is that [[http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=260 a particular species of cephalopod aptly named the "Mimic Octopus"]] is arguably better than any known animal on Earth at the art of disguise. Not only can it change its color in seconds, but it can change its shape, skin texture, and position of its limbs to impersonate numerous sea-dwelling creatures. It's also highly intelligent, not just mimicking the appearance of other animals, but doing so based on the situation (for example, if attacked by a damselfish, it will mimic the banded sea snake, a predator who feeds on damselfishes). Sounds a lot more like what Decoy Octopus is capable of, more so than a chameleon. And the animal was discovered in 1998... the same year that ''Metal Gear Solid'' was released.
3	** Not only that, but the Octopus is generally depicted as metaphorical 'manipulators', due to their numerous arms, the symbolism being they control multiple things from behind the scenes like a grand puppeteer. And what is Decoy Octopus' role in the team? Perhaps a better question, what is his purpose in the game? [[spoiler:Deceiving the player, or in other words, MANIPULATING the player]]
4	* Why does Snake not want to see a woman die in front of him? Answer: He saw Gustava Heffner from ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' die in front of him by Metal Gear D, the canonical fourth Metal Gear. It's why he goes out of his way to see Meryl not die.
5	* [[spoiler: Frank Jaeger, Gray Fox, being Naomi's adoptive brother may seem to come out of nowhere, but there are hints. Firstly there's her extensive knowledge of how he was cyberized, and look at her last name, "Hunter." "Jaeger" is German for "Hunter."]]
6	* Donald Anderson reacting so strongly to Snake mentioning he's encountered Metal Gears before seems strange, as someone like him should know full well about Snake's previous operations thanks to his connections to the REX project as well as his high position in the U.S. Government. Sure, there were cover-ups by NATO and all, but nothing implies they're ''that'' classified, and he clarifies that Metal Gear as a concept wasn't totally scrapped, too. [[spoiler:Then you realize he's Decoy Octopus, and is improvising on the fly to trick Snake for FOXHOUND's plans -- and clearly was missing a bigger picture of Snake's previous operations. Either he didn't know he was talking to ''Solid Snake himself'' [[OhCrap until that moment]], or Liquid and Ocelot had left him out on details like that, meaning he was effectively in the dark about past uses or Solid in general, and nearly broke character before catching himself.]]
7	* This technically only applies to ''The Twin Snakes'', although this was also mentioned in the Japanese script for ''Metal Gear Solid'', as well. Anyways, Psycho Mantis's line of "It feels so... nostalgic" in regards to performing a good deed for Solid Snake and Meryl Silverburgh before dying seemed very confusing to some fans... until you remember that Psycho Mantis's mother died while giving birth to him, which meant he was referring to what his mother did for him before dying. Stated as such by Kojima here: http://muni_shinobu.webs.com/mgs/commentary2.html
8	** I know that it isn't the real reason, but the "feels good" and the "nostalgic feeling" set off a different bell for me. See Mantis constantly breaks the fourth wall, right? Well, what's stopping him from doing that while dying? To me, Mantis felt nostalgic in ''Twin Snakes'' because he already had done a good deed before: In the Playstation version.
9	* Also, it seems odd that it required a bribe to persuade Donald Anderson to build Metal Gear REX, especially when he believed in nuclear deterrence and would have allowed for it to be built anyways even without the bribe. However, when you remember that he was Sigint, and that he had a nightmare referring to Metal Gear, it suddenly makes a whole lot more sense as to why he'd have to be bribed.
10	** It's more likely that, as [[spoiler: a core member of the Patriots, the bribe and persuasion needed were for show. Remember that while Armstech is developing REX and desperately needs the money from the government, and Solidus considered REX ''his'' tool against the Patriots, the Patriots were ''always'' aware of the project]].
11	* At one point, Revolver Ocelot mentions being impressed by Snake's skills, and says something to the effect of "Just what I'd expect from someone with the same code name as the boss." The first time you play the game, it's obvious that "the boss" refers to Liquid Snake, who Ocelot was working for at the time. Then comes ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', where we learn that Big Boss (who Solid Snake is cloned from) once went by the codename "Naked Snake"... and that Ocelot knew him during this time. Maybe it was intentional, maybe not.
12	** It probably refers to Liquid Snake. Whenever Mantis or Raven refer to Liquid, they usually call him "boss". At best it would be a double meaning, because both Liquid and Solid have the same code name as Big Boss, and both were cloned from him.
13	* This troper was like thousands of others who got really, really annoyed with the [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Recessive And Dominant]] [[MotiveRant Genes Rant]] Liquid gives in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', until a bit of a replay and then some reading of [[Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound a certain webcomic]] made this less of a wallbanger but some sheer brilliance. What's the best way to raise a {{Super Soldier}} that will do ''anything''? Fuck with his [[MindScrew mind]]. Tell him he's the child of the world's greatest soldier, but that he wasn't chosen to be a successor, because he's weaker, and that he was rejected in favor of [[CainAndAbel his brother]], do this to him all his life, while making him go through the most [[TheSpartanWay rigorous training in the world, courtesy of SAS]], and oh yea - tell him that he can't get a [[WellDoneSonGuy pat on the back by daddy]] because his brother killed him, and destroyed the WarriorHeaven that Daddy spent the latter part of his life constructing. The Dominant and Recessive Genes is just a way to drive Liquid off-rails, if he didn't [[BreakTheCutie break under the pressure]], he would be insanely devoted [[FreudianExcuse to proving everyone wrong]], he just a little nudge for how to do so. - {{Shini}}
14	** Not to mention the sheer, and utter mixture of Hilarity and Horror that the entire Shadow Moses Incident can be caused by someone having a major [[TheUnfavorite jealousy-induced]] [[MinorInjuryOverreaction temper tantrum taken up to eleven]], hilarious because the motive was because Liquid didn't like being the "inferior" brother, and horrifying because of just how easily someone that ''unstable'' can take over a nuclear disposal site and hijack a [[HumongousMecha Metal Gear]] - {{Shini}}
15	** Ocelot's hidden conversation at the end implies this was all part of the plan. {{Sprangitudinous}}
16	** This not-troper always liked the MGS games, even with the long and wordy cutscenes, but always felt that some elements were a bit... off. Then he realized that MGS is a Deconstruction, not just of movie and video game tropes, but of the ''entire medium of video games''. Everything from the fourth wall-breaking Codec calls to the perfectly straight tutorials to Psycho Mantis' mind reading and psychokinesis to GW urging Raiden to turn off the console is part of an attempt to show what games can get away with in the name of fun, without banging the players head with it or turning into a total parody. And the way the endings for each entry in the series got steadily more depressing was an incredible setup to the amazingly heroic finale of MGS 4. --Not a troper, but I use the screenname "Bad Username" frequently.
17	* In VideoGame/MetalGearSolid, Snake talked about how virtual training is no substitute for real life experiences. At first, I thought it was just him talking about how he had actual battlefield experience, making him more skilled. Then I realized: what is the definition of a Video Game? This line is basically Hideo Kojima saying that just because you can do surgery or practice law in video games doesn't mean you can do it in real life. The game is basically telling us to not play it too much.
18	* After playing MGS 1-3, and reading the comics for 1 & 2, I read this page, lo and behold the light shines brightly. What the troper above mentions about Liquid's tantrum, makes it weirdly plausible that Solidus anticipated that the two most dangerous individuals to his plans were unlikely to be easily eliminated-unless the killer was one of the brothers. Given that Liquid and Solid are on a whole new level compared to any other soldier alive at the time, it makes sense for Solidus to set them up to kill each other. The only way he could pull this was to isolate them from society, place them in a perceived high stakes situation, wait for a body, and nuke an already irradiated island, safely in the knowledge that he could blame the detonation on terrorists mishandling the warheads. It further makes more sense when we examine the presence of a Metal Gear, its the only prize big enough to get Liquid there, and scarier enough for Solid to come out of retirement. The sheer size of Rex makes covert transport from such an isolated area, quite difficult, and despite the complexity only the plans are necessary for Solidus to build a Rex in new location. Nuking the island destroys any records of Rex. Kills the CEO and DARPA representatives who knew about Rex. Removes the Next Generation Special Forces who were slowly coming apart genetically(covering up that little not so legal experiment), wipes out Fox Hound which seems to be a pointless liability given its tendency to do TheStarscream to the [[strike:US Government]] [[strike:United Nations]] unlucky bastards stuck with telling them what to do. [[VirusAndCureNames FoxDie]] is the chancy bit however, as Solidus's ace in the hole required someone he did not have complete control over to seek vengeance at a jeopardise-the-entire-mission level. Ocelot's selling of the plans is just his ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, something Solidus could not stop (and probably anticipated) as he needed Ocelot to rig this GambitRoulette, hence why Ocelot does not show signs of [=FoxDie=] (Haven't played MGS 4 but if he does turn out have [=FoxDie=] then it kind of changes Ocelot into Snake Plisskin from the second movie...). I nearly wrote off my computer with a glass of coke when this clicked ;)- Eyclonus** And the phrase "code". It refers to both codename, and ''genetic'' code. - pinkdalek
19	* The Phantom Pain [[spoiler: adds a further layer as to why Liquid would continue to trust someone seemingly as unstable as Mantis can be when Mantis proposes the idea of having Decoy Octopus pose as the DARPA chief following his (actually planned) death at Ocelot's hands. They've probably worked together for years since 1984, and Liquid actively owes Mantis his life. Mantis, meanwhile, is psychically shackled to Liquid given his bubbling hatred for Snake and Big Boss, as per the new information regarding how his abilities work]].
20	* The name of the military base by itself has very interesting narrative symbolism. Moses was known in the Bible as the man chosen by God to free the Jewish people from their bondage by the Egyptians, and led them across the Red Sea after it was split in two by one of God's miracles. He is revered as one of the greatest leaders of the Jews in their entire history, and the one that led them into the promised land that is now Jerusalem. The term Shadow Moses then becomes an allusion to a type of promised land, known as Outer Heaven, in the Metal Gear universe:
21	** For Liquid he views Big Boss as the "Moses" who "led his people to the promised land" by becoming the military messiah who brought about a golden age of militaristic thought. Shadow Moses for him is representative of being in the "Shadow of Big Boss" or following the example of Big Boss. It takes on even more fitting symbolism when you consider that Liquid has felt for his entire life that he's overshadowed by Big Boss, and his father's legacy has dominated everything that he's become and given him no other choice but to be like him. In that case Liquid is UNDER the shadow cast by Moses (Big Boss), and he's struggling to come out from under that shadow and into the light. By doing this he hopes that he can erase that shadow, and surpass Moses (Big Boss) and become an even better leader then him -- thus creating a promised land superior to the original one.
22	** Even the Patriots have a narrative symbolism under the name Shadow Moses. The Patriots want to create a "promised land" too, and at one point desired Big Boss as their "Moses" who would have brought about that world. But they were forced to use Solid Snake, who himself is a "shadow of Big Boss" in order to execute that Moses. To some degree Solid Snake and Liquid Snake were designed from the very beginning to be "Shadows" of the real Moses (Big Boss), if the real one never worked out for them. In every sense of the word, the entire story of ''Metal Gear Solid 1'' is cast under the shadow of Big Boss/Moses.
23	** This troper has another interpretation of the name 'Shadow Moses': 'Shadow', which darkens something, and can be used to hide something, like an individual hiding in the darkness, like Snake himself... and Moses, the prophet who met with God and brought the truth to Ramses. 'Shadow Moses' means, quite simply, 'hiding truth'. And what is Shadow Moses for? [[spoiler:The secret development of Metal Gear Rex, masquerading as a nuclear disposal facility.]] 'Shadow Moses' is LITERALLY 'hiding truth'
24	* When you think about it, in a strange sort of way, Liquid was right about the Recessive/Dominant Gene stuff. Not on a scientific level, of course, but consider this: if a clone had their DNA altered so that the recessive genes were more prominent than the dominant genes, then that clone would physically be rather different than the original (as seen with Solid Snake himself, as his figure is much less muscled and more lithe than Big Boss and Liquid). Now, if your measure of success as a clone is based on how similar you are to the original (as seems to be the case with Liquid), then of course you would interpret being altered like this as being made inferior to the original and the other clones.
25	* Psycho Mantis [[spoiler:is repulsed by the idea of sex because he's picked up on the thoughts of others for decades, and that's generally what people think about (as he states in the game). He's assuming Snake would want to have sex with Meryl, and as such tries to deceive him by having Meryl beg Snake for sex. But why doesn't it work? Because Meryl said, in the bathroom, not even a full 5 minutes earlier, that she's had psychotherapy to destroy her interest in men. Psycho Mantis must have, somehow, not known this. Snake is clearly attracted to Meryl, but she said herself that she has no interest in him, or any man for that matter. When she suddenly pulls a heel face turn, begging for sex, he immediately realises just how strange it is, thus making him realize it's the work of Psycho Mantis. Had Meryl not mentioned it, he may not have reacted so quickly.]]
26	* Sniper Wolf says two thirds of the best assassins are women. She's right: The End, Quiet, and Sniper Wolf.
27	* Why can Liquid do more damage than Solid Snake with his bare fists? Or alternatively, why is Liquid so much [[MadeOfIron more resilient]] compared to Snake? Well, [[spoiler: he DOES have the dominant genes of Big Boss's DNA, after all.]]
28	** Except... Liquid doesn't. The key evidence is that Liquid has blonde hair. Big Boss and Solid Snake have brown hair. Brown is dominant over blonde, which means that Big Boss had both brown and blonde alleles for hair color in his genetic structure. Normally we would point to eye color as well, but even Big Boss had blue eyes. Blue eye color is a result of a naturally recessive gene combination which would make it impossible for any clone to not have blue eyes. Liquid believed that he was inferior simply because of recessive genes to the point that he dedicated his life to proving he could surpass Big Boss. In short, Liquid wasn't as resilent as he was because of his genes, it was in spite of them.
29	* 'The Best Is Yet To Come' plays several times in the game, but two times in particular are noteworthy for actually carrying a message. The first is in the opening sequence, telling the player 'it's only just beginning, the best is yet to come, the cool things are on the way', getting the player in the right mindset to play the game. The second is at the end, over the credits, saying 'it's far from over, the best is yet to come, go and live your life', [[spoiler:bolstering the message of the game: you aren't chained to fate, you can make your own choices and live your own life...]] the best is yet to come.
30	* So we all know about Johnny Sasaki and his family's history with bowel problems, but upon replaying [=MGS1=], when Liquid Snake mentioned 'Gulf War Syndrome', I realised I had no idea what it actually consisted of, and looked it up. It turns out that the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome include cognitive problems, fatigue and diarrhea. It could be put down to Johnny's family history... or it could just be that Johnny, being in the military, served in the Gulf War and came back affected by it, hence his general lack of awareness and digestive problems.
31	* Why did [=FOXDIE=] kill Liquid instead of Snake? Because this virus is partly Naomi's own revenge for Gray Fox and Liquid is the one who killed him.
32	* In ''The Twin Snakes'', it is possible for Psycho Mantis to name ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' as a game the player enjoys if they have a save file of it. While initially a strange choice compared to the three other Nintendo games mentioned (''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee''), not only does it make sense once you consider that Creator/SiliconKnights developed both ''Eternal Darkness'' and ''The Twin Snakes'', but that ''Eternal Darkness'' was also famous for [[InterfaceScrew messing with the player]] thanks to the SanityMeter - not unlike how Psycho Mantis messes with the player in ''Metal Gear''.
33	* Naomi's flirty remark about letting Snake give her a 'strip search' after the mission seems really out of character for her, both just from what we've seen of her up until that point, but also [[spoiler:given what we later learn about her and how much she hates Snake over her brother's death... except with that in mind, it's clear she was deliberately trying to butter him up and play nice, so he wouldn't suspect anything. As her clumsy lies about her grandfather show, she's not necessarily the best at thinking on her feet]]. Her awkward, out-of-nowhere attmepts at flirting with Snake were completely bogus... and the audience was ''supposed'' to think it was kinda weird.
34	** That, and it hardly matters what she says about doing once the mission is over since [[spoiler: she didn't expect Snake to make it out alive by the end, with FOXDIE coursing through his veins the entire time.]]
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36	[[AC: FridgeHorror]]
37	* A bit of fridge creepiness. Before the Psycho Mantis fight in ''MGS'', there are a couple of unsettling details. 1. The door at the end is closed. 2. Once Meryl becomes possessed, you notice that the first person view is.. third person - through a mask of sorts. That leads me to conclude that Psycho Mantis is in that hallway, stalking you. It also points it out as when you enter the commander's room, the door waits for a second (perhaps someone's in the doorway?) until he comes inside. Creepy.
38	* If you call Master Miller on the Codec during the torture session with Ocelot, he'll say that under these circumstances, ordinary soldiers are expected to only give up their name, rank, serial number and date of birth, but since Snake is not an ordinary soldier, he doesn't want him to tell Ocelot anything. On the first play through, this sounds like TheMentor appealing to your HeroicResolve and paints Miller in a positive light, [[spoiler: but on your ''second'' play through, you know that Miller is dead and you are listening to Liquid Snake in disguise, so his advice to not tell Ocelot anything sounds a lot more sinister- he could well be manipulating you into prolonging your own torture for as long as possible because of how much he hates you, or maybe make you feel like even more of a failure if you surrender and let Meryl die since on top of that, you now feel like even ordinary soldiers are better than you.]]
39	* Rewatch the scene where Snake meets Donald Anderson. Knowing that it's Decoy Octopus impersonating the DARPA Chief to the point of taking the guy's blood into him, you have to wonder just how much he suffered from taking a ''double'' hit of [=FoxDie=]. Baker after all, despite being more out of shape, lasted longer when the virus hit him.
40	* Liquid and Mantis both proclaim that Snake "[[BloodKnight enjoys all the killing]]", something Snake tries to deny but can't really find himself capable of doing in this game. While you had to kill the bosses and guards in previous titles, to which it seems Snake gained some amount of PTSD over, he has absolutely no hesitation or compunctions about it in this game still and even outright encourages Meryl to kill as a completely green rookie for the sake of survival. This is, of the 3D games at least, the ''only game'' that actively encourages Snake to shoot his way out of danger given few little options in such an isolated and dangerous location, and given how many lethal weapons you get, it's likely most players who don't ace the PacifistRun will. The VillainHasAPoint, and it says a lot that the second game onwards introduce non-lethal options right as Snake tries to work towards his own more peaceful goals rather than as a soldier under orders, and partly why Old Snake is so absolutely ''bitter'' by the fourth game beyond his crappy life up to that point; he's priming lethal guns, hired to assassinate, and effectively right back where he was all those years ago, under orders (from Campbell, even) to kill if necessary for the sake of the world.

Context Fridge / MetalGearSolid