What's interesting is that the MGS 2 story does make sense on its own, if it includes one single assumption that apparently none of the Metal Gear fanbase (commentator here excepted) liked: that there is a spiritual world beyond the simple physical one, and that human beings...all of us...are slaves to powers we cannot begin to grasp, even when we try to divert from what's scripted out for us. Absolutely a Gainax Ending, granted, but one that makes complete sense (well OK, maybe not complete sense...).
Kojima wanted the side of things that Japanese culture believes in, but a lot of American/Western culture does not: ghosts; spirits. To quote Jin-go, from Rising Sun: "In Japan, we believe/d in many ghosts..." Go look at MGS 3, and The Sorrow; he never changed that, and never apologized for it. In MGS 2, the original concept was ENTIRELY that spirit beings ran the nations, and that the heroes were fighting against opponents that weren't even physical; "principalities and powers," to quote the Biblical, not to mention other, sources. Was this jarring to Western materialistic, militaristic culture? You bet. And it was/is Kojima: he wanted some Cosmic Horror Story mixed in to tactical espionage. Oh, and he was just fine with the idea that ghosts could possess humans, i.e. Liquid Snake's spirit possessing Ocelot through the arm.
And I for one...possibly the only one on this entire site...loved it, for the same reasons I loved House Of Leaves: it presents it as believable, anomalistic reality. That so many others haven't...has usually lowered my opinion of them substantially.
Edited by Squall
Can I just say that I love the fact that not even the game, but the ENDING, has its own article. I didn't realise it wasn't a trope named after MGS 2 when I clicked it, and when I realised I lol'd.
Edited by Ewar
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Is there a point to this?
, started by nuclearneo577 on Apr 8th 2011 at 8:19:15 PM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman