History YMMV / MetalGear

** There's also a notable portion of fans who interpret Solid Snake and Big Boss as autistic. Big Boss's in-depth knowledge of firearms is seen as reminiscent of a special interest, and as Naked Snake he is depicted with NoSocialSkills. Solid Snake is similarly well-informed on various military-related subjects, and the way he spent most of his life socially isolated with few real friends is an all-too familiar struggle for many autistic people. Both also have the habit of repeating things other people say in conversation, which has been seen as akin to either asking for clarification due to auditory processing issues or displaying echolalia [[note]][[SelfDemonstratingArticle Echolalia?!]][[/note]].

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Otacon is socially awkward, rather LiteralMinded (see the Chinese Proverbs in ''Metal Gear Solid 2''), alternates between losing himself in work and retreating into fantasy, has tenuous control over his emotions, and often doesn't seem to have much understanding of other people's motivations. It's not clear how much of this might be some kind of underlying [[UsefulNotes/{{Autism}} Autism Spectrum Disorder]] and how much is stunted development from his troubled childhood.

** The franchise also seems to be very popular in Latin America to this day. Many of the most high profile Kojima-centered content creators on [=YouTube=], are from Latin America.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Filipinos really love the ''Metal Gear'' franchise. Even when Konami all but killed off ''Metal Gear'', Filipino fans were determined to keep the memory and legacy of the series alive for newer generations to discover. Even younger generations in the Philippines are familiar with ''Metal Gear'' through being passed through by past generations and watching playthroughs and cutscenes on [=YouTube=], Snake’s return in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' just gave another boost to ''Metal Gear''’s popularity in the country. This also overlaps with AmericansHateTingle, as Filipino fans have deeply hated ''VideoGame/MetalGearSurvive'', seeing it as disrespectful to the fans of ''Metal Gear'', Creator/HideoKojima’s fans, and Kojima himself.
** The franchise also seems to be very popular in Latin America to this day. Many of the most high profile Kojima-centred content creators on [=YouTube=], are from Latin America.

** To a lesser extent, fellow Depraved Bisexual Volgin and his DepravedHomosexual partner Raikov also have their own share of gay/bi fans. Not only are they one of the few explicitly canon same-gender couples in the franchise, but [[HateSink Volgin's]] love for Raikov is played as one of his very few [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes humanizing]] traits. Ironically, in Raikov's case, his existence as an {{Expy}} of Raiden meant to poke fun at his PrettyBoy appearance has endeared him to some of the LGBT fans drawn to Raiden for that exact reason.

** Some fans of the franchise like to divide it into two so-called sagas: the "Solid Snake Saga"[[note]]consisting of ''Metal Gear'', ''Metal Gear 2'', ''Solid'', ''Sons of Liberty'', and ''Guns of the Patriots''[[/note]] which centers on Snake's efforts to save the world from terrorists and political conspiracies alike, and the "Big Boss Saga" [[note]]consisting of ''Snake Eater'', ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'', ''Ground Zeroes'' and ''The Phantom Pain''[[/note]] which centers on Naked Snake/Big Boss's ProtagonistJourneyToVillain and growing desire to throw the world into chaos. A few fans additionally classify a few of the games into a "Raiden Saga"[[note]]consisting of ''Sons of Liberty'', ''Guns of the Patriots'', and ''Revengeance''[[/note]] centering on Raiden's desire to grow past both his history as a child soldier and his fantasies as a "Snake wannabe", despite it mostly overlapping with Solid Snake's own saga.

** The overwhelming majority of fans don’t count ''VideoGame/MetalGearSurvive'' as canon, [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight due to it being made]] after Creator/HideoKojima left the series, not to mention how [[InNameOnly extremely different it is]] from every other Metal Gear game.
** Despite being officially counted as canon, there are many fans who don’t count ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' as canon entries due to Creator/HideoKojima’s lack of involvement with those games as well. They aren’t included in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes''’s “Deja Vu” recap of the series because of this, which some fans take as a sign that Kojima doesn’t want the games to be canon. However, there are just as many fans who do like to keep them in the canon due to them both having clear spots in the series’ timeline (Portable Ops taking place between ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', Revengeance taking place after ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' and currently at the end of the series’ timeline), adding to the stories of characters like Raiden, Sunny, Big Boss, and Gray Fox in ways that most fans agree are in-character and done well, being considered fun games in their own right, fitting in well with the tone of the Metal Gear universe, and not causing any major conflict with the rest of the canon.
** There are also some fans who do not consider ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' canon, due to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' giving such a definitive ending to the series, leading to a feeling of FranchiseZombie with such major stories being retroactively added into the timeline. (''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' doesn’t tend to get this same feeling despite also being released afterward because it is a side story and not a full-fledged numbered title). It also doesn’t help that Creator/DavidHayter got replaced as Snake’s voice actor (which Hayter himself was quite upset about), and Creator/HideoKojima himself left the project partway through as well, leading to a game that felt like its vision was not fulfilled. Still, there are many fans who enjoyed it enough to want to keep it in the timeline despite all of the TroubledProduction elements.
** Some fans go even further back and don’t count ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' as canon due to their dissatisfaction with the way it ended Solid Snake’s story, along with all of the HandWave explanations to previous games’ plot threads being seen as unsatisfactory. Some will cite Creator/HideoKojima himself not wanting to make the game in the first place as a reason to put it in discontinuity.
** While the story is almost the exact same, fans usually consider either ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' or ''[[UpdatedRerelease Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes]]'' the definitive telling of the Shadow Moses incident and disregard the other version as non-canon, despite both versions being considered official canon. The majority prefer the original version of the game due to FirstInstallmentWins in general, not to mention the cutscenes being more grounded in reality and the voice acting having a much more enthusiastic energy to it. However, the ''Twin Snakes'' has its own fans and is the preferred version to many due to its much better graphics, more varied soundtrack (though many also prefer the original tunes), and a few cool additions such as Creator/RobPaulsen joining the cast as Gray Fox. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' gave credence to both sets of fans by using the visuals of the original version with the audio of the ''Twin Snakes'' in its flashbacks.

** The series has always had female characters that were [[TheSmurfettePrinciple vastly outnumbered by the males]], often [[MsFanservice made to tittilate the player]] and/or [[CollateralAngst die for the purposes of a male character's angst]], but it wasn't too much of a problem in the earlier games because ''some'' effort was put into giving them interesting characterization and some importance to the plot, not to mention that many of the males [[MrFanservice were given the same treatment]] as far as fanservice went. ''[=MGS4=]'' was where things suddenly and quickly shifted: although the primary boss squadron consists entirely of women, they barely act as characters, speaking very little other than [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry reminding everyone of their primary emotion]] every couple of words; the player only even gets their backstory because another character tells it after the fact. ''Peace Walker'' has a major boss battle which starts with several lingering chest and butt shots of a woman in her underwear, and the same character [[spoiler:is killed off in the most gratuitously-sexual manner possible]] in ''Ground Zeroes'' to establish the BigBad's villainy. This culminated in ''The Phantom Pain'', where the only prominent female character [[TheVoiceless says nothing]], has almost no plot importance, wears a ridiculously-skimpy outfit (unless you go out of your way to unlock something more sensible) with an even more ridiculous justification for it, and has multiple scenes that [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment come out of nowhere]] and exist solely for her to pose sensually for the player.
** The series' plot has always been [[KudzuPlot intricate and confusing]], with several [[AssPull sudden swerves]], [[{{Retcon}} inconsistencies]], and allegiances [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor never quite being set in stone]]. Much of this can be laid at the feet of series creator Hideo Kojima, who loves creating big setpieces and emulating the Hollywood movies he's such a fan of, including [[ShoutOut direct references to them]] as often as possible [[RuleOfCool regardless of if it makes sense within his story]]. This was considered part of the series' charm early on: the 2D games came out at a time where we were lucky if a game even ''had'' a plot that required more than [[ExcusePlot one half of a page in the manual to explain]], and even a decade later by the time of ''Metal Gear Solid'' it was still innovative that a game even ''could'' emulate films. The problem was that the series continued to add onto an increasingly-complex narrative while still relying on the Rule of Cool, which inevitably took its toll as players invested in the running plot became much less forgiving of the issues this caused. Act 3 of ''[=MGS4=]'' is typically agreed to be the lowest point, where it's revealed that the true identities of the Patriots are [[spoiler:Naked Snake and all his support contacts from ''[=MGS3=]'']], which brought all the series' worst excesses to light - it had become so obsessed with its own continuity that [[OneDegreeOfSeparation every single minor detail had to be connected]] so that they could CallBack to even minor background details from previous games, regardless of the damage to the characters in question.[[labelnote:e.g.]]Dr. Clark couldn't just be some unrelated scientist performing horrific experiments, it ''had'' to be [[spoiler:Para-Medic having apparently abandoned all her morality]][[/labelnote]] This continued as well by having characters throw themselves under the bus just to go through the motions of redoing previous plot elements, such as Naomi's antics involving her changing sides literally every act, revealing herself to have cancer [[PlotHole despite nanomachines clearly making this a non-issue]], and then [[spoiler:killing herself for no reason other than so that [[CartwrightCurse Otacon can cry over a dead love interest yet again]]]], then ending with [[spoiler:Big Boss coming back from the dead just to explain all the dangling plot threads before dying again]] - in addition to introducing [[VoodooShark more new questions than answers for existing ones]], it ends up making all the events over half a century revolve around [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything the perfect manipulations of a small group of people]]. Not helping as well is that it's been said that Kojima didn't want to continue the series beyond ''[=MGS2=]'', expecting every game after that to be the last and thus [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants never having a concrete idea of where to go next]].

* GoodBadTranslation: The NES ''VideoGame/MetalGear''. "The truck have started to move" and "I feel asleep", for instance.

* HilariousInHindsight: In 2020, a Q-anon conspiracy theory that claimed the notorious terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots was still alive]] and [[VideoGame/MetalGear that the one killed]] in 2011 [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain was actually just]] a BodyDouble was made infamous after it was endorsed by the then-current [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump POTUS]]. One must wonder how much of the conspiracy theory is based on this series.

* PortingDisaster: While the CompiledRerelease ''Master Collection'' has seen praise for the sheer amount of content included (such as every regional version of [=MGS=], full scripts for each game and more) and for finally bringing [=MGS3=] to PC, the games themselves have been criticized for being extremely barebones when it comes to the visuals; [=MGS1=] is running on an emulator that just upscales the image (leaving the whole thing looking blurry, in addition to other problems [=PS1=] emulation brings), while the rest have clearly been ported over from the now decade-old ''HD Collection'', to the point where 2 and 3 are still running on 720p. Even worse, while the PS5 version is at least an upgrade over earlier releases, the texturing on the Xbox Series X version of MGS2 and 3 manages to look ''worse'' than running them through background compatibility does, the Switch port has issues with frame rates, and the PC port has similar visual issues to the last two consoles but also lacks any way to change the visuals (all versions of the release lack graphics options, but PC games without visual settings is already considered a big no-no).

* HarsherInHindsight: In ''Metal Gear Solid'', Meryl manages to smuggle something past enemy guards who were searching her, because "women have more hiding spaces than men." Come ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes Ground Zeroes]]'', [[spoiler: Paz has a bomb hidden in her stomach (which is removed without anesthetic whilst she's screaming in pain), and a backup hidden in her vagina, which kills her and puts Big Boss into a coma for 9 years).]]

** The series overall has an ''intensely'' homoerotic tone, with multiple heroic male characters who are TheNotLoveInterest to each other, but also with camera angles and visuals that imply a romantic or erotic reading to these interactions anyway. While many of the villains in the series are DepravedBisexual types, the series usually makes their romantic attractions sympathetic even if the characters' other actions are less so. The games are also deeply weird and {{Camp}}, so ''Metal Gear'' has content people can enjoy, even if they usually find the tone of military games to be reminiscent of the beliefs of what the people who bullied you in school.

** The series overall has an ''intensely'' homoerotic tone, with multiple heroic male characters who are TheNotLoveInterest to each other, but also with camera angles and visuals that imply a romantic or erotic reading to these interactions anyway. While many of the villains in the series are DepravedBisexual types, the series usually makes their romantic attractions sympathetic even if the characters' other actions are less so. The games are also [[WidgetSeries deeply weird]] and {{Camp}}, so ''Metal Gear'' has content people can enjoy, even if they usually find the tone of military games to be reminiscent of the beliefs of what the people who bullied you in school.

** Nearly all female characters in the series are popular among lesbians and bi women: Strangelove, Meryl, Olga, Paz, Fortune, Cecile, Sniper Wolf, [=EVA=] and Mei Ling being the most notable. Even Quiet, despite her outfit being criticized for being too {{Stripperific}} and ridiculous, has her lesbian/bi women following, mostly due to her strange behavior and bizzare nature. Lesbians and bi women like these characters because they're varied in both looks and professions, and all of them have their own individual personalities, often with a lot of pathos, which makes them very human and interesting. They're also capable, intelligent and tough, and are either able to go toe-to-toe with Solid Snake or Big Boss, or are straight up better, smarter or more powerful than them. Some of them also look in a way that appeals to lesbians and bi women (Meryl's tomboyishness, Olga's short hair and unshaven armpits, Strangelove's ButchLesbian look and The Boss's crow's feet and musculature).

** Some fans of the franchise like to divide it into two so-called sagas: the "Solid Snake Saga" (consisting of ''Metal Gear'', ''Metal Gear 2'', ''Solid'', ''Sons of Liberty'', and ''Guns of the Patriots'') and the "Big Boss Saga" (consisting of ''Snake Eater'', ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'', ''Ground Zeroes'' and ''The Phantom Pain''). A few fans additionally classify a few of the games into a "Raiden Saga" (consisting of ''Sons of Liberty'', ''Guns of the Patriots'', and ''Revengeance''), despite it mostly overlapping with Solid Snake's own saga.