METAL GEAR SOLID 4
SENSE & SENSELESSNESS
no sooner is “was has become routine” spoken than it’s made manifold. it’s shadow moses. it’s psycho mantis. it’s the b&b unit having the names of fox hound members, the weapons of dead cell members, and the emotions of cobra members, while what remains of their personhood rots inside a memetic shell. it’s naomi, rose, campbell, and liquid’s layered duplicity, otacon losing a woman he cares about, eva getting impaled after a bike crash, raiden having to find his purpose all over again, and ocelot correctly predicting that the patriots would send snake to clean things up. there’s nothing new under the old sun
much of this wields fan service as blunt object, providing things the audience begged for regardless of whether it ever made sense to ask or to provide and stripping them of romanticism. meryl is back, and she marries a sex pest who shits himself; raiden is back, and he’s a nihilistic husk; snake is back, and he’s old as shit and dying; your goofy codec squad from MGS3 is back, and they’re responsible for the patriots; vamp is back, and, actually, it was nanomachines
what catharsis is provided is always thru deviation from the past. kojima has, perhaps more than any other single theme, hammered the importance of looking toward the future and shepherding it responsibly. whether it’s in his examination of nuclear weapons, genes, memes, or whatever else, the thrust of nearly every game from MG2 on the msx (where snake’s great and defiant rebuke to big boss is that he “loves life”(!!!)) is that of belief, hope, and the freedom to choose for yourself, be your own person, and pass on something worthwhile. sons of the patriots is yet another in a long line of attempts at control, but, as big boss points out, ai is unable to create a future, it can only recycle the past
one of the many aspects of MGS2 that gets misunderstood or overlooked, even still, is that the S3 plan doesn’t work: the patriots were unable to account for a number of variables resulting in raiden being effectively deprogrammed, GW being destroyed, and ocelot getting hold of metal gear ray. much as MGS1 rejects nature as having absolute primacy, MGS2 rejects nurture the same way. MGS4’s proposition that people are more than data, genetic or otherwise, plays a large part in the direction of its characters and broader arc, and “sense” speaks to the heightened emotionalism that’s employed as explosive counterpoint to digital control loops: a vehicle for the future that goes beyond what can be qualified, commodified, and repackaged ad infinitum. the essential, inexplicable human spirit. it’s snake in the microwave. it’s raiden and the frogs. it’s meryl and johnny recreating mr. and mrs. smith. it’s two old men beating the history out of each other and mt. snakemore and the foxdie gag. it's everything wild, indulgent, and unseemly
it would be easy to propose that this is a wholly bitter work, but the reduction of beloved characters isn’t solely designed to punish, but also to inform: to exhibit the horrors of a present that looks back and never forward. in the end even the most tortured contrivances dissolve into something earnest; not everyone gets a win, but they do get their big dumb evocative moments and the chance to be free from fate. free, even if only for a moment, to exist outside the necessity of archetype or paradigm. in its self-immolation, MGS4 is ensuring not only that these characters will never have to suffer thru these roles again, but that you no longer want them to