The fact that you brought up how tragic The Medic’s story is really made me appreciate the character. It’s always sad seeing someone life’s end without knowing who they really wanted to be
Yeah. Me too. I worked part time at a fast food chain and I was good friends with one of my co-workers. He was working part time as well. He told me that he was having trouble paying student loans and that the job wasn’t paying well enough. Anyways when I got home and watched my favorite anime, jojo a bizarre adventure, one of the characters in jojo “wont spoil because their name will spoil”, died and it made me really sad. So yeah I feel too.
@@Coonerbai I guess that it was supposed to be an edgy sarcastic quip about how sympathy to fictional characters is for loosers while real men are too hardcore for that. Should have picked a better example than suffering from laughable American education system, that Americans just voted to uphold once more, though.
@@PredatoryQQmber your immaturity is unnecessary. You offer no solutions to the problem you brought up. So you heckle in order to feel superior. Please stop trying to talk about things you have no solutions for. And if you do have a solution, stop wasting your time on a UA-cam comment section and actually take action to fix the issue, rather than heckle it to satiate your insecurity. I say this all out of love for you and respect for your existence and hope you change the world for the better if given the opportunity. All the best and with deep love and many blessings---- Tomas
Plague: I'm not invested in the series at large. Tsundere Plague: Let me tell you about the finer points of Peace Walker which no one played on the PSP.
That's just Plauge, his Dark Souls Let's Play is kind of infamous for his tangents. The 40 minute brick tangent is probably his most well known "incident" let's just say.
We joke, but I unironically choke up over the idea that Kaz did his entire hamburger subplot - including committing countless Diamond Dog man-hours and tons of his friends' time - just to symbolically reconnect with his dead father.
I just enjoy hearing people I think sound smart ramble in the background Y'know maybe there's a reason I like these games now that I say this out loud...
I wish you had mentioned Huey's last failure, he tried to kill his cheating second wife's daughter by trying to drown her with him and he couldn't even do that
@@kravkik7930 If you want some more, the players of PlatinumGames releases see PP as a point of pride of sorts. It stands for "Pure Platinum", both normally the highest grade given by their games as well as being tied to achievements and unlocks so it gets mentioned often enough even if people don't say it out loud like that.
You know, was Huey always as bad as he turned out to be, or did 9 years under Skull Face change him? The man we see in Peace Walker isn't nearly as self-serving as he is in V. Miller says he betrayed MSF to Cipher so he would survive and have a spot with them, but we never actually hear any confirmation of that, and Miller is just as guilty of pushing the blame for his failures onto others as Huey is. My headcanon was that Huey did it for Strangelove and it horrifically backfired.
Kazuhira"Boss I see that you have brought a lot of kikongo speakers to Mother Base. So I took the liberty to connect a cotton plantation platform to it" Miller
What's funny is that the post-credits sequence of the original Metal Gear kind of implies that Venom Snake survived the destruction of Outer Heaven. If so, I'd like to imagine that he took all of his millions of mercenary dollars and spent the rest of his life ignoring Big Boss's phone calls in the Bahamas.
@@AydarBMSTU uhmmm. You know that metal gear solid v happens in 1986 and metal gear (the first of the Franchise, not metal Gear solid, happens in 1995) you better stop being so idiotic and getting tour information right
Thank you for this. The story of Medic is my favorite part of the game, and is often lost in a lot of the absurd "main plot" around it. I often think about how soldiers, especially of those times, never really got to "come home", and felt thrown away and abandoned by their countries. Big Boss saw that and said "well, if we create endless war, soldiers will never be thrown away!" which is insane, but I guess logical to a man who knew nothing outside of being a soldier. Possibly never considering any life besides soldiering as well, which Solid Snake was at least able to achieve in short doses in his life.
44:17 "Paz, The MSF, Venom, Big Boss, Zero, Ocelot, Liquid, Jack. All of them in some way were prisoners to the idea of who they thought they should be" But not David.
"I'm not a fan of the series" Proceeds to show a deeper understanding of the series than many channels/fans of the series. Quality content and I love hearing thoughts I've had on my favorite series put into words.
It’s interesting how each one has their own interpretation: 1. The Boss is surrounded by the butterflies, as she eventually found closure and died in peace. 2. Big Boss fails to grasp one, so he creates his own copy. However, he couldn’t find true closure until the end of his life. 3. Venom manages to grasp his, but it wasn’t real. His entire life past GZ wasn’t his own. The Medic’s successes were in the guise of another, meaning he’d never find closure like the first two.
I can't describe the kind of dread I felt when listening to the final Paz tape in V. It was the closest I got to understanding time and it's inevitable passage
We are never over it, like ptsd, it just fades into the back of our minds after a time waiting to come out and suprise us at a moments notice... this Phantom Pain.
Venom's story is probably the thing in metal gear that shakes me the most. I'm the most afraid of personality death, the idea that I can be distorted into somebody else or essentially nobody, through something like Alzheimer's or brain washing gives me the kind of existential terror nothing else can. Somebody losing themselves in the fantasy of being a different person is just horrifying to me.
A human being can survive a railway spike through the brain, but a person needs to be careful about a bump on the head. And yet, in its fragility, that personhood is somehow made all the more precious for it.
Ah its ok. Let me make you feel better. You were never you to begin with. You were always someone's fantasy dream. Much like how dreams and fantasies morph and distort and do a bunch crazy thing so does the you in your meat sack do. You were never you and never will be except when you are.
@@Azraelseraphim That reminds me of a Baudrillard quote: "We are all born live into simulation". Ideologies have us from birth; other people‘s ideas, images of how things should be and look; language, etc.
Studying psychology, we learned about Clive Wearing to distinguish different types of memory. Clive Wearing is a famous, rare case of someone who suffers from anterograde AND retrograde amnesia. He cannot consciously remember his past nor ever will. "He greets h[is wife] joyously every time they meet, either believing he has not seen her in years or that they have never met before, even though she may have just left the room momentarily." They got him to keep a diary. Example: -8:31 AM: Now I am really, completely awake.- -9:06 AM: Now I am perfectly, overwhelmingly awake.- 9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake. He would cross out previous entries "since he forgets having made an entry within minutes and dismisses the writings: he does not know how the entries were made or by whom, although he does recognise his own writing." "He still wrote diary entries [...] more than two decades after he started them." In retrospect, I think it was a bad idea to encourage him to journal. I thought about what I would/should do if I became Clive Wearing. The conclusion I came to is, this is why you should make it a habit to be happy in the moment. I recommend meditation. Living without remembering is like dreaming. You experience this every night. Other things to consider are Zhuangzi's butterfly (hey, a connection to the butterflies in MGS), The Egg short story by Andy Weir, quantum immortality, and the fact that out of all the consciousnesses and times that exist, have existed, or ever will, that you are specifically you, in a human body, in this period of time. What if you are like The Medic in that you awoke today thinking you are you, but your memories and everything were implanted? See conclusion above. If you're reading this, you're in a coma. We're trying a new method to reach you. If you understand, can I have your stuff?
Always did believe MGSV was when Big Boss became a villain, when he decided to destroy the medic that was one of his closest men, turn him into a meme of himself and hopped on his motorcycle uncaringly allowing him to be eventually sent to his death exactly like how the US did to the Boss. The whole thing that made him disillusioned with the US he ended up doing to someone also, making himself a total hypocrite. At this point he no longer was the real Big Boss, he had a facade he shown others making them believe he was still him. And I'm sure this was intentional when Venom Snake took over the role of Big Boss, he actually became the real Big Boss because he was programed to act, and think like what Zero and others believed Big Boss to be, his meme. So Venom took the image of that facade and honestly lived it. Times when the original Big Boss would act selfish and uncaring to his comrades lives (like in Ground Zeros, before the coma he asked Miller if he was going there to take out Chico and Paz due to what they knew about Mother Base) the meme Venom Big Boss wouldn't act so carelessly with friends lives. Because that is what the soldiers and others believe how he would act.
When I was in Iraq we had a mission looking for this guy that led us though a lot of hoops that culminated in finding a secret room in a shit shack in the middle of some barren village, the basement had this tub in it that was full of refuse, but he figured out that it had a divot inside that led up to a final hidden room . I was the first person to duck though literal piss and shit to come up into a room that was filled with children, who, when I emerged, all pointed at me and shouted "ALIBABA!" I learned later this was a sort of local slang for "badguy" For me, the metal gear games are just variations upon that experience, crawling though a literally pool of shit and suffering just to emerge and be called (or become) the badguy. Thank you Kojima
9:24 Huey Emmerich is the character that made realize a sort of "subtype" of villain which I, and likely many others, never truly thought about: *"The Pathetic Villain"* Think about it: Beni from the Mummy; Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings; hell, even Jerry from Rick and Morty (he might be more antagonist than villain, but you get what I'm saying)
There's a certain duality to Kojima himself. There's the first half that embodies Kojima the genius, Kojima the visionary, Kojima the comedian, Kojima the prophet. The other half is constantly striving to live up to the expectations set by the first half - the half that takes too long to get to a point, gets a little too high-minded, a little too crazy. Both are part of the man's directorial appeal. You constantly alternate between laughing with him and laughing at him.
4:48 I get the point you were making, but Senator Armstrong's speech here was one of the series' rare instances of being so straightforward and (comedically) blunt about it's point.
And yet a lot of people didn't understand what his ideology was, the man went full mask off and you'll find people who totally missed that character's whole point. It is kinda of a recurring thing in MGS actually, both in universe and in the fanbase
I feel like the story of Phantom Pain, and the manufactured legend of Big Boss, makes the story of Sniper Wolf all the more tragic. Bear with me as I explain my thoughts: Sniper Wolf, the sexy sniper lady from MGS1, was a child born sometime after the Second Kurdish-Iraqi War. The Iraqi troops hunted the Kurds down, and she spent her life running. She admits she is rescued from this by the man she calls "Saladin"--Big Boss--and trained and raised by him. We know that the Second Kurdish-Iraqi War takes place between 1974-1975, and that the resulting Kurdish relocations and genocides took place 1976-1983, then again in 1987-1989. Sniper Wolf would have been 8 during the first genocides, and 12-14 in the second. We know the Diamond Dogs were active between 1984 to up to 1995, when Outer Heaven is attacked by Solid Snake and Venom Snake is killed in Big Boss' place. In order for Venom Snake to have saved Sniper Wolf, then she would have needed to be rescued sometime during the 1987-1989 Kurdish genocide. That would mean she died, believing in the legend of a man who was himself an illusion of his own hero. She died believing in a Saladin that was never truly real, a comforting ghost taken away from her by her ideological brother, Solid Snake. However, we know that the real Big Boss was active during this time. In particular he was active in the Gulf, where Sniper Wolf was rescued, and Sniper Wolf carries one key personality trait that she shouldn't have as a Iraqi-Kurd. A love for wolves. You see, Kurdistan has a well known love of dogs, mastiffs in particular, and Arabian wolves are frequently considered dangerous predators for young children. But we know Sniper Wolf rejected the extermination of the wolf-dogs on Shadow Moses Island, even going so far as caring for them herself to the point that her scent prevents them from attacking you. I choose to believe this trait is inherited not from Venom Snake, or even from Big Boss. Rather, she inherited it from John, the man behind Big Boss' legend. In Snake Eater John says he's a fan of dog-sledding, his Snake Eater concept art is with a large wolf-dog, and Diamond Dogs' logo and name is self-explanatory. Huey is right as he calls the Diamond Dogs wolves, and in MSF John gathered lots of wolves around himself to protect them from those who would exterminate them. Sniper Wolf repeats this action in small scale in Shadow Moses, and the wolf-dogs act just like the MSF soldiers in the wilds of Phantom Pain: If you carry a token of their boss, Sniper Wolf's scarf, then they won't attack you. Just like the MSF soldiers won't attack Venom if he's in a cardboard box, a token of their boss. If Sniper Wolf was rescued by Big Boss rather than Venom Snake, and raised by him as a soldier, then that means by killing her Solid Snake is killing the last true legacy of John. Not as the legendary soldier, but as the man.
@breadandcircuses8127 ngl pan I can't recall I haven't watched this in 5 months. I will say it has solid video and sound editing, good voice work, and doesn't devolve into route summation. Also it's not an overdone topic (like a new vegas essay). It's also of a good enough length for me to actually complete my commute instead of being 20 minutes
Everything you said about the medic is really great, I'd never thought about him the way you described, and looking at Paz as the last patient he never saved is really tragic. It makes me wonder if Kojima really had it in mind when he made this game.
I still don't quite get the shit flinging against MGSV. It's problems ultimately equate to Konami is a bad company that lost sight of it's art out of blind avarice. It's still a good game despite them, and arguably the most "Kojima" game ever made.
@@KiraSlith I heard Kojima had to fight tooth and nail to even get the game to the state it was. Konami has been sabotaging many of their own games before the sudoku they did to themselves.
@@azmirjohari609 It was a huge project and quite draining financially, from what we know... But at the same time it's one of the biggest franchises in gaming and given enough love and care would easily make that money back. People can blame Kojima all they like, but Konami is the root of all their own problems; look at what they've done with Contra, Castlevania, Silent Hill. Slow degradation into nothing. They're what Capcom would be if Capcom hadn't corrected their course a little in recent years.
This was an excellent video. Really impressed with the eerie atmosphere created by your style of narration at the end of the video. I hope you do more writing and analysis focused videos going forward, I have thoroughly enjoyed each one so far.
Konami giving Kojima the boot before he could implement stuff like the battle with young Liquid still stings. Like man MGSV in general is so bitter sweet as on one hand I love the gameplay, atmosphere, and world, but the fact it's not truly complete and probably never will be because of Konami heads suddenly going "fuck video games, we're all about pachinko now" while it was mid development leaves a lasting pain.
@@UMADBRO64 Kojima ultimately being a "failure" is the only disagreement I have with that statement. Everything else, yeah. I might not agree with the slot machines and how incompetently they handled Metal Gear afterwards (just look at Survive...), but if they made their money back, then they did their job as a company. Kojima can do great things, but I feel he definitely needs people to tell him "no". Death Stranding? About as much as a disaster as Metal Gear Survive, but it had a lot more hype and expectations behind it. Again, I agree with everything else in your statement. He's done some amazing things, but good lord, he can mess things up real badly as well.
@@kf8113 That's actually a great point, besides the fact that they probably had next to no chance of getting Hayter for the cameo. Never thought of it like that.
Nothing could have prepared me for how fucking amazing this video is, damn the youtube algorithm to hell for never showing it to me. I found it while digging through all of plague's videos.
@@TheAzCorner you mean "mechanics" were great, game was "aggressive waste of time", just like GTA Online, Final Fantasy 15 and other barren open-worlds.
@@Bodwaizer Mechanics are the most "game" part of a game. If a game's mechanics are great, that game is great. And if a barren open-world is capable of aggressively wasting your time, then that's a birlliantly good-ass barren open-world, instead of the mountains upon mountains of those that don't get played for more than an hour.
@@Copperhell144 did you ever play Outer Wilds? It's a puzzle/walking sim game, I usually don't play those. I don't play Blizzard games anymore, but listen to Starcraft/Warcraft/Diablo/WoW music all the time, it's that good. Game can be just a sum of it's parts - a toy (Asscreed, Overwatch) and more than a sum of it's parts - an experience (Outer Wilds, KOTOR, MGS 3) that you might remember for the rest of your life. Btw I almost platinumed MGS 5 three times, it's a terrible game.
@@Bodwaizer I don't need your sniveling back-talk as if I myself don't listen to video game music (of even games that I never played, because they're that good) or appreciate anything else about them other than their gameplay. The whole industry of video games already composes literally all of my life outside of work, I'm aware of what they can achieve. But that doesn't mean having good gameplay reduces a video game down to being a "toy". Outer Wilds can be a lifetime experience, but so can Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Counter-Strike, Overwatch, fighting games... Go ask pro Tetris players how much they forget about that game. A satisfying enough gameplay loop can stick in your mind for eternity. Stories can be done by books, by music, by pictures, by games... having such products/art stick with you because they have "a good story" is almost a cop-out to enjoyment and "lifetime experience". You can do that, sure... but you can also love a book for its prose, a song by how much it envelops a certain feeling through sheer sound, a painting by its composition etc. etc. Things that only that one medium is capable of achieving. Unique experiences, ACTUAL experiences, rather than the reduction of mediums down to being mere containers for stories. As I said in my previous comment - If you almost platinumed MGS5 three times... clearly it's not a terrible game. If it was, you wouldn't have played it so much. Tons of terrible games out there can easily prove that for you if you can spare a few dollars to try them out.
Reminds me of something I've been meaning to write for ages. Phantom Pain and Peace Walker tell the same story which is a common complaint about the writing I've seen. But Peace Walker was a hero fantasy and Phantom Pain was a documentary. Peace Walker is the glamourised self justified vision of Big Boss where he's the hero with a band of brave international adventurers saving innocent Costa Rica from the predatory nuclear powers. Phantom Pain is the reality of for hire mercenaries. In PW the story is told with comic book panels and in PP the camera is a real physical thing, it has aberrations it struggles to focus it shakes about and characters even step out of the way of it as if a cameraman is walking onto the set. In PP we see the truth behind how soldiers are brainwashed and tortured via the treatment of Quiet. In the outbreak mission we see just how damaged and hopeless the soldiers are, they don't cry for a homeland or family all they have is the Diamond Dogs and Big Boss.
Plague, thank you very much for this take on the character. The entire story flew right over my head, but now I feel like I have a newfound appreciation for it. I actually feel like I'll have even more fun on a second playthrough of it.
Thank you again Plague. I've always been more of a MGS fan from afar like yourself. V was my first hand-on experience. This was a wonderful breakdown of the story's nuance that I think a lot of people, self included, might have completely overlooked. Bravo. I've always loved your video essays.
"I've tried to paint the value of what I see in it. I hope I succeeded in that much at least." I'd like to think that you did so. You've always been the type to focus the importance on the nature and story of characters as opposed just story plotlines. There is indeed value in such analyses and observations, and at the very least It made me, this inconsequential random schmuck on the internet, feel all the more enriched be being allowed to be privy to such meanderings through the watching of this well crafted video.
I can't believe how compelling this was! Normally I can't sit and watch anything for more than 10 or 15 minutes but I stayed the course on this one and it's my first time here. Excellent job! Thank you for your efforts and that wonderful message at the end. Good luck to you.
This is probably one of my favorite looks into Metal Gear characters. Just... wow. You've always inspired, entertained and made me want to improve plague. And you've continued to do that in an otherwise shitty year. Thank you.
I come back to this video every couple months, I think it means alot to me. The idea of a man shaping himself to fit a group projection was inmediately so much more gripping than parasites or funny skull men. You present it so well, with all the scaffolding and context required. I'll keep coming back, thank you Plague ❤.
I always saw the death of Paz as the death of hope for the characters around her. The lie venom was telling himself was heartbreaking because the "medic" couldn't have survived if she didn't. That's why he saw he in the game. The last shred of his soul is trying to stay alive and the final revelation that she is dead and he can no longer lie to himself is to at least the death of the "medic". What's truly sad is that even when he realises it he still tries to hold on...by reaching out for the butterfly. However the butterfly was never there. He couldn't save Paz and in the end he couldn't save himself because of it.
In much the same way that you pointed out that the game had the Medic emulating his hero, I think those of us who have played MGS3, were emotionally invested and are familiar with Big Boss's story have always tried to play him in a way we felt a character we were so fond of would act. In MGS3, I used exclusively non-lethal weapons. In MGSV, I challenged myself to do the same. And I succeeded. From fultoning tanks rather than destroying them to sneaking through bases and holding soldiers face-down at gunpoint so they're neutralized as a threat, I continued to play a character I thought was Big Boss in the way I imagined his ideals demanded. I projected my vision of the man onto him. I went through the game always analyzing the enemy, watching them to find the exceptionally talented among them, fultoning them to bring them into the fold. I paid special attention to the aptitudes of my soldiers, in exactly the way the game wants you to, assigning them in accordance with their skills to various roles. I played as them frequently, became familiar with many of them. And then the outbreak came on the medical platform. The time came that the very first lives I was forced to take were my own men. Faces I recognized. Names I knew. I even remembered where I'd found each of them, what they were before I recruited them. After trying so hard to keep my hands as clean as possible, this was the cruelest possible way that could change. I was glad when they fought back. When it felt like I had to defend myself against them. But those men near the end who stood, trembling, saluting me as I cut them down one by one, loyal to the end? I lost my composure. It was a video game. They were fictional. But the narrative I had built in my head up to that point felt real. Every time that unsuppressed handgun fired, every time I pulled that trigger, it felt like a condemnation. After that, my previous idealism felt hollow somehow. I continued using non-lethal methods for the most part, but eventually I started bringing lethal weapons like the heavy sniper along as backup. As a last resort, I told myself. But over time its use became a matter of convenience and necessity, particularly when raiding other players' FOBs. And by the time that Quiet had been captured and I had to defend her from that battalion of tanks? I grabbed that rocket launcher and let fly without hesitation. I think a part of me loathed it. But in a way I see this was Kojima's intent, part of how he must have designed the game to be experienced. The game was heavily flawed and Kojima's writing is often ridiculous. But the emotional impact his work has always had cannot be overstated.
Love your videos, Plague. It's always good to hear one of your perspectives because it feels much more like encouragement to be better than this thing sucks.
Its nice to see a video essay that gives voice to a lot of my own observation and arguments. Like. From the moment I started MGSV I felt very weirded out how *EVERYONE* is treating Big Boss as a whole new character. Everyone seems DEAD SET on AFFIRMING you ARE Big Boss. Everyone is like "Oh hey Boss, remember THIS? You remember THIS, right? You should remember this, youre big boss!" Every time they run through things John should know. Now, this could be chalked up to "tutorial". But it PERSISTS through the game. I didnt go into MGSV expecting some bridge between Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid. I was expecting more of what I got IN peace walker, character exploration by way of pop-military sci-fi. I was under the impression we were MORPHO, from GZ, given the namesake butterfly is important, and butterflies are a symbol of rebirth, and here is Big Boss, reborn but changed - a metamorphosis. But I started making stranger connections. Like, did you know in Peace Walker, different classes of soldier have special abilities? These special abilities give characters certain effects in game. Soldiers with doctor increase their natural healing rate. I thought it was really odd that Venom has health regeneration, and a simple button prompt to cure traumatic injury, when NO metal gear prior ever really did that sort of thing. I found it odd they dont let Venom smoke real cigars, normally. Looking back, while i think the former is MOSTLY there to make Metal Gear more palletable as a game, also serves to hint at Venom's medical expertise while the latter is there to imply Venom doesnt have the same nicotine addiction Big Boss developped. I found it REALLY odd that nobody seems to recognize you... even former members of motherbase staff. Like. It was the first meeting with Huey where I realized "Im not ACTUALLY Big Boss." Huey Emmerich, the man who worked alongside Big Boss for years and would know that the mammal pod means *SO MUCH MORE* to Big Boss than "its a machine" turns to him and says "Dont be scared, it's just a machine." Huey Emerich, the huge failure turbo coward would *NEVER* in his *ENTIRE* miserable life look into John's face and say "This collusally important artefact from our shared past, that was the catalyst for us meeting and is one of the only remnants of The Boss left you might have attachment to, is *just* a machine". Never. From that moment on I was like "Ok so the real big boss was 'Ishmael', who am I?" And its really interesting that you touch on how Big Boss is an in universe projection fantasy. Because *The* Boss clearly was, for pretty much every major character. But what's great is that Big Boss *BECAME* that as well. To the point where, wether what people thought of him was true or not, it compelled them to act as what they thought of him was absolutely true. Like. Skull Face. Skull Face in MGSV is pratically omniscient with how many steps ahead of you he is and even HE thinks your Big Boss. He has his doubts, but despite it all his HATRED for Big Boss convinces him you ARE Big Boss, that youre ACTUALLY John. I did wonder why a lotbof the goofier elements found in earlier mgs entries werent as prevalent in MGSV and while I had previously chalked it up to "oh the sandbox is whats supposed to enable you to make up youre own goofy things" I later sorta came to the conclusion that John was a man with a certain sense of humor he wouldnt be entirely forthcoming about. I doubt he'd tell a subordinate about the time he tricked a guard with an adult magazine, or the time he hoped in a box shaped like a tank and assaulted an actual helicopter... Therefore, Venom's IDEA of Big Boss is as a mostly serious kind of guy. Its why Big Boss doesnt... have fun anymore. Why theres little narrative Brevity. Of course, Miller's righteous anger is a potent detterent for scrutinizing this too much but Peace Walker gave me the impression Kazuhira Miller and Big Boss were BROTHERS. That if ANYBODY could lighten Miller's mood it'd be John... Yet, the *WHOLE* game, start to finish, Miller's only moment of happiness comes from a conversation about Burgers with Code Talker. He never shares a joke with Big Boss. He never gawks over any of the soldier babes you folton. Nothing. Hell, Ocelot does a better job at being Venom's buddy than Miller. Which majes sense, considering Ocelot hyponotises himself while Miller is just pretending. Ive digressed though. My point is, I think Venom is a great character and looking at MGSV through the lense of it being about a man struggling with multiple identities and conflicting motives behind every decision he makes and whether or not the decisions he makes are the ones he makes or the ones he should make or the ones hus identity would or should make, makes it much better. Venom, is quite an appropriate name for this Snake. He is what's left after the bite. He is the burning, boiling pain in your veins left over after youve been bitten that will fester and pulse through you. Its the trauma you spend the most time recovering from, you can survive the initial bite, but the venom is the painful death that awaits you, and when it's all said and done it's all youll really remember. If John is "Naked" Snake because he goes into missions with nothing, Medic is Venom because he goes in with pain.
Are you kidding? Ocelot in MGSV was perfect. Thematically, Phantom Pain is all about parting the myths to reveal "reality"; Ocelot's flamboyant persona was, and always has been, an act. Big Boss even says so at the end of MGS4. His depiction in MGSV is a logical, and consistent, display of Ocelot's character.
I don't know about that, don't forget that the entire time he is on MB he is also under his own mind controle. It could be that he did this to be the counterpart to miller in that regard to pull him more into that direction, because miller became an angry man who only was aiming for revenge.
eh, idk about that. he is logical and stuff, but I think you are looking too deep into it. even if his flamboyancy is a mask, why would he get rid of it for the events of 5? It makes sense at the end of his life in 4, but the large majority of the events of 5 IS a big charade with the medic playing the role of BB. If anything, this would be the time when he is MOST flamboyant. Would be one think if he was like that during the ending recording, but idk about through most of the game.
Also Ocelot was never as cartoonish as fans have flandarized him to be. Go back and actually watch his interactions with Liquid and Solidus in MGS1 and 2. He was only that over the top in MGS3 when he was an immature 20 year old and in MGS4, where most Ocelot memes come from...aren't Ocelot.
Magnificent video. Thank you, Plague. Walked in expecting my worldview to be validated, and got that, but also a fresh perspective on a topic I didn't think I could be educated on. I appreciate writers who can praise Kojima without letting him off the hook. Long time fan, but you've earned yourself another patron.
This was a great video! It made me see the story in a totally different light, making me feel a lot better about Venom. Honestly the send off at the end really came to me at the right time, as I've been working on my own writing and having some doubts about ever letting anyone see it. It helped. Thank you.
That was brilliant. It made me appreciate MGSV far more then I had before. Even though it's still a huge missed opportunity, it is brilliant in some ways.
This video was absolutely excellent. I've always stood by the thought that the story of Venom, and the Medic, were some of the best in MGS, and this video really goes over what exactly makes it such an intriguing and engrossing narrative. Good shit, Plague. Good shit.
I enjoyed the game aspect a lot, and honestly I felt the ending while sad made sense. I S ranked each mission nonlethally on the ps3, and did so again on pc... every now and then I play a mission or two
A thoughtful and well discussed piece, that is more than comfortable to address the personal elements of the player (you) than outright assume or push a narrative like many would be video-essays do. Closing statement is easily one of the best I've experienced from a video and ties the production together nicely. Wish you the best going forward, if it be with art, videos, streams or whatever else you aspire towards.
Now watch as Kojima's wonderful BS gets sterilized and streamlined into the upcoming Hollywood motion picture written by the fool who wrote Rise of Skywalker.
Aw that’s who they got to be screenwriter? I think the director is at least very passionate about the series, but I don’t think that Godzilla film he did was good at all.
Thank you Eli for perfectly covering what I've been arguing with people in comment sections and message boards for half a decade at this point. It always bothered me that people got so hung up on what they didn't get that they were unable to analyze and appreciate what value the game offered. Also I cried again because the the medic listening to the Paz truth tape in the context that you outlined here always breaks my heart. It is legit one of my favorite moments in the entire series.
![Investigating the Side-Ops of METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES [*HUGE FINDS*]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YmC0-LHgjvA/mqdefault.jpg)
The fact that you brought up how tragic The Medic’s story is really made me appreciate the character. It’s always sad seeing someone life’s end without knowing who they really wanted to be
Yeah. Me too. I worked part time at a fast food chain and I was good friends with one of my co-workers. He was working part time as well. He told me that he was having trouble paying student loans and that the job wasn’t paying well enough. Anyways when I got home and watched my favorite anime, jojo a bizarre adventure, one of the characters in jojo “wont spoil because their name will spoil”, died and it made me really sad. So yeah I feel too.
@@3211-m9q what does this have to do with the original comment?
You're the Medic. Their life ends how your life ends.
@@Coonerbai I guess that it was supposed to be an edgy sarcastic quip about how sympathy to fictional characters is for loosers while real men are too hardcore for that. Should have picked a better example than suffering from laughable American education system, that Americans just voted to uphold once more, though.
@@PredatoryQQmber your immaturity is unnecessary. You offer no solutions to the problem you brought up. So you heckle in order to feel superior. Please stop trying to talk about things you have no solutions for. And if you do have a solution, stop wasting your time on a UA-cam comment section and actually take action to fix the issue, rather than heckle it to satiate your insecurity. I say this all out of love for you and respect for your existence and hope you change the world for the better if given the opportunity. All the best and with deep love and many blessings---- Tomas
Plague: I'm not invested in the series at large.
Tsundere Plague: Let me tell you about the finer points of Peace Walker which no one played on the PSP.
Yeah for a "not invested" man he really has gone far and beyond to point out finer details of MGS series.
@@Ghostel3591 Maybe the man just like the games.
That's just Plauge, his Dark Souls Let's Play is kind of infamous for his tangents. The 40 minute brick tangent is probably his most well known "incident" let's just say.
If you didn't play PW that's your loss, it rocks
You can thoroughly educate yourself on a topic without getting emotionally attached to it
Hamburgers. Yes.
Consumed by the beef
thanks zone
👁
I wanna eat a chemical burger!
We joke, but I unironically choke up over the idea that Kaz did his entire hamburger subplot - including committing countless Diamond Dog man-hours and tons of his friends' time - just to symbolically reconnect with his dead father.
The real Phantom Pain are the people commenting without actually knowing what the video is even about! I see you!
We are merely beasts of assumptions.
They are not phantoms, we can all see them...they are just pain.
My assumptions about you are usually correct, apart from when they aren't
I just enjoy hearing people I think sound smart ramble in the background
Y'know maybe there's a reason I like these games now that I say this out loud...
Caught me.
I wish you had mentioned Huey's last failure, he tried to kill his cheating second wife's daughter by trying to drown her with him and he couldn't even do that
I felt like it was distant enough from PP that I was getting a little off point. The man was a failure, beginning to end.
@@PlagueOfGripes That has to be the dumbest abbreviation for anything since south park: the stick of truth.
@@kravkik7930 If you want some more, the players of PlatinumGames releases see PP as a point of pride of sorts.
It stands for "Pure Platinum", both normally the highest grade given by their games as well as being tied to achievements and unlocks so it gets mentioned often enough even if people don't say it out loud like that.
@@thelastgogeta wait, platinum games made a metal gear spin-off... Does that mean PP is cannon in rising? RISING PP CONFIRMED!
You know, was Huey always as bad as he turned out to be, or did 9 years under Skull Face change him? The man we see in Peace Walker isn't nearly as self-serving as he is in V. Miller says he betrayed MSF to Cipher so he would survive and have a spot with them, but we never actually hear any confirmation of that, and Miller is just as guilty of pushing the blame for his failures onto others as Huey is. My headcanon was that Huey did it for Strangelove and it horrifically backfired.
Kazuhira McDonnell "Beating on the Congos like a Pair of Bongos" Benedict Miller
Kazuhira "Kikongo Killa" Miller
Kazuhira "speak ebonic and I'll go demonic" McDonnel Miller
Kazuhira"Boss I see that you have brought a lot of kikongo speakers to Mother Base. So I took the liberty to connect a cotton plantation platform to it" Miller
Master Kazuhira "Empty his nine on the welfare line" Miller
Kazuhira "A non-white race will not set foot on mother base" Miller
Neji: "Oh, so you think ANYONE can be Big Boss?"
Yeah lol.
Nice👍🏾
I snorted.Thank you for this great joke.
Damn, Neji was right about everything.
You better believe it
“Be critical, be kind” what a line to drop at the end
Agreed
Quote sounds like. A. Jojo reference
Huey's speech about dogs and wolves is tragically ironic.
when hungry, both are killers
What's funny is that the post-credits sequence of the original Metal Gear kind of implies that Venom Snake survived the destruction of Outer Heaven. If so, I'd like to imagine that he took all of his millions of mercenary dollars and spent the rest of his life ignoring Big Boss's phone calls in the Bahamas.
MG2 also had an explanation for Big Boss's survival. They said the damaged parts of his body were rebuilt with cybernetics.
Of course. Keep in mind that the whole mgs v is a giant retcon
@@AydarBMSTU MGS V happens before The first metal gear (the one of 1987)
@@monchi9000 mgsv came out years after mgs1 and adds stuff that wasn't there and wasn't planned to be there. Any other stupid remark you want to add?
@@AydarBMSTU uhmmm. You know that metal gear solid v happens in 1986 and metal gear (the first of the Franchise, not metal Gear solid, happens in 1995) you better stop being so idiotic and getting tour information right
Thank you for this. The story of Medic is my favorite part of the game, and is often lost in a lot of the absurd "main plot" around it. I often think about how soldiers, especially of those times, never really got to "come home", and felt thrown away and abandoned by their countries. Big Boss saw that and said "well, if we create endless war, soldiers will never be thrown away!" which is insane, but I guess logical to a man who knew nothing outside of being a soldier. Possibly never considering any life besides soldiering as well, which Solid Snake was at least able to achieve in short doses in his life.
Aye, although only at the very near end of his short life, solid was at least able to make his own choices on how to live.
When you're trained to become nothing more than a hammer, all you'll see is nails.
BROTHER!
IT'S BEEN TOO LONG
REJOICE! WE AREN'T COPIES OF OUR FATHER AFTER ALL!
WE'RE LINKED BY CURSED JEANS.
SNAKE!
@@LuckiSir thus isn't over Yet!!!!
44:17 "Paz, The MSF, Venom, Big Boss, Zero, Ocelot, Liquid, Jack. All of them in some way were prisoners to the idea of who they thought they should be"
But not David.
"I'm not a fan of the series"
Proceeds to show a deeper understanding of the series than many channels/fans of the series. Quality content and I love hearing thoughts I've had on my favorite series put into words.
That's probably exactly why he's able to give such a good analysis. He's not blinded by fanboyism or bias.
@@MisterZimbabwe
Thanks for replying, I completely forgot about this video and it's a great one
Note how he tries to grab the fake morpho buttlerfly with his fake hand.
A phantom pain of a phantom pain
It’s interesting how each one has their own interpretation:
1. The Boss is surrounded by the butterflies, as she eventually found closure and died in peace.
2. Big Boss fails to grasp one, so he creates his own copy. However, he couldn’t find true closure until the end of his life.
3. Venom manages to grasp his, but it wasn’t real. His entire life past GZ wasn’t his own. The Medic’s successes were in the guise of another, meaning he’d never find closure like the first two.
@@LuckiSir this is a good comment, thank you for the input
@@LuckiSir well said
@@TheAzCorner People keep repeating this when it doesn't really mean anything in most context's
Coming back to this after a few weeks, one of your best videos and it actually manages to put into words a lot of the feelings I have about this game.
Mmmm
Dude, can't wait for your review on MGS2 and MGS4
I can't describe the kind of dread I felt when listening to the final Paz tape in V. It was the closest I got to understanding time and it's inevitable passage
Look up Arhoangel Zelda, you won't regret it.
But it's been 5 years, I was over it. I WAS OVER IT!
I was over it damn it...
Why are we still here? _Just to suffer?_
@@Bluecho4 every night I feel my leg, my arm, even my fingers
We are never over it, like ptsd, it just fades into the back of our minds after a time waiting to come out and suprise us at a moments notice... this Phantom Pain.
jesus Phantom Pain came out five years ago? It feels like yesterday.
IT'S NEVER OVER!!!!
Venom's story is probably the thing in metal gear that shakes me the most. I'm the most afraid of personality death, the idea that I can be distorted into somebody else or essentially nobody, through something like Alzheimer's or brain washing gives me the kind of existential terror nothing else can. Somebody losing themselves in the fantasy of being a different person is just horrifying to me.
A human being can survive a railway spike through the brain, but a person needs to be careful about a bump on the head. And yet, in its fragility, that personhood is somehow made all the more precious for it.
Ah its ok. Let me make you feel better. You were never you to begin with. You were always someone's fantasy dream. Much like how dreams and fantasies morph and distort and do a bunch crazy thing so does the you in your meat sack do. You were never you and never will be except when you are.
@@Azraelseraphim That reminds me of a Baudrillard quote: "We are all born live into simulation". Ideologies have us from birth; other people‘s ideas, images of how things should be and look; language, etc.
the good side of that situation is that you would not have that fear anymore, just new fears and shit
Studying psychology, we learned about Clive Wearing to distinguish different types of memory. Clive Wearing is a famous, rare case of someone who suffers from anterograde AND retrograde amnesia. He cannot consciously remember his past nor ever will.
"He greets h[is wife] joyously every time they meet, either believing he has not seen her in years or that they have never met before, even though she may have just left the room momentarily."
They got him to keep a diary. Example:
-8:31 AM: Now I am really, completely awake.-
-9:06 AM: Now I am perfectly, overwhelmingly awake.-
9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake.
He would cross out previous entries "since he forgets having made an entry within minutes and dismisses the writings: he does not know how the entries were made or by whom, although he does recognise his own writing." "He still wrote diary entries [...] more than two decades after he started them." In retrospect, I think it was a bad idea to encourage him to journal.
I thought about what I would/should do if I became Clive Wearing. The conclusion I came to is, this is why you should make it a habit to be happy in the moment. I recommend meditation.
Living without remembering is like dreaming. You experience this every night. Other things to consider are Zhuangzi's butterfly (hey, a connection to the butterflies in MGS), The Egg short story by Andy Weir, quantum immortality, and the fact that out of all the consciousnesses and times that exist, have existed, or ever will, that you are specifically you, in a human body, in this period of time. What if you are like The Medic in that you awoke today thinking you are you, but your memories and everything were implanted? See conclusion above.
If you're reading this, you're in a coma. We're trying a new method to reach you. If you understand, can I have your stuff?
Always did believe MGSV was when Big Boss became a villain, when he decided to destroy the medic that was one of his closest men, turn him into a meme of himself and hopped on his motorcycle uncaringly allowing him to be eventually sent to his death exactly like how the US did to the Boss. The whole thing that made him disillusioned with the US he ended up doing to someone also, making himself a total hypocrite. At this point he no longer was the real Big Boss, he had a facade he shown others making them believe he was still him. And I'm sure this was intentional when Venom Snake took over the role of Big Boss, he actually became the real Big Boss because he was programed to act, and think like what Zero and others believed Big Boss to be, his meme. So Venom took the image of that facade and honestly lived it. Times when the original Big Boss would act selfish and uncaring to his comrades lives (like in Ground Zeros, before the coma he asked Miller if he was going there to take out Chico and Paz due to what they knew about Mother Base) the meme Venom Big Boss wouldn't act so carelessly with friends lives. Because that is what the soldiers and others believe how he would act.
"Nothing is perfect, so make something." Plague, you're the best unofficial godfather a boy can have, damnit.
Uncle Eli
Practise makes perfect. Nothing is perfect. So why practise?
But seriously, practise daily. ua-cam.com/video/CnbSM1Da4GA/v-deo.htmlautoplay=1&start=3
Take a shot every time Plague says "Merit"
You tryin' to kill us?
@@SideswipePrime606 YES
Thas waSsant evinf haard to doo
Why do you hate my liver.
Come on man... My livers only 8 years old... Me? I'm coming up on 50. First person to guess what's up gets a pizza roll.
When I was in Iraq we had a mission looking for this guy that led us though a lot of hoops that culminated in finding a secret room in a shit shack in the middle of some barren village, the basement had this tub in it that was full of refuse, but he figured out that it had a divot inside that led up to a final hidden room .
I was the first person to duck though literal piss and shit to come up into a room that was filled with children, who, when I emerged, all pointed at me and shouted
"ALIBABA!"
I learned later this was a sort of local slang for "badguy"
For me, the metal gear games are just variations upon that experience, crawling though a literally pool of shit and suffering just to emerge and be called (or become) the badguy.
Thank you Kojima
LOL ua-cam.com/video/41b-ZL5vSmc/v-deo.html
Big boss don't invade others.
Amazing story
What where the children doing there?
@@ldmt1995 our understanding is that that area was a hiding spot and the kids were hiding with the target
None of them were detained for questioning
It's pretty cool how MGSV is still being talked about very often till this day.
Also that last message hit hard, thanks.
It's not that old of a game. Relax
9:24 Huey Emmerich is the character that made realize a sort of "subtype" of villain which I, and likely many others, never truly thought about:
*"The Pathetic Villain"*
Think about it: Beni from the Mummy; Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings; hell, even Jerry from Rick and Morty (he might be more antagonist than villain, but you get what I'm saying)
There's a certain duality to Kojima himself. There's the first half that embodies Kojima the genius, Kojima the visionary, Kojima the comedian, Kojima the prophet. The other half is constantly striving to live up to the expectations set by the first half - the half that takes too long to get to a point, gets a little too high-minded, a little too crazy.
Both are part of the man's directorial appeal. You constantly alternate between laughing with him and laughing at him.
At least he can keep us laughing, that's something worth experiencing in my opinion.
4:48 I get the point you were making, but Senator Armstrong's speech here was one of the series' rare instances of being so straightforward and (comedically) blunt about it's point.
And yet a lot of people didn't understand what his ideology was, the man went full mask off and you'll find people who totally missed that character's whole point. It is kinda of a recurring thing in MGS actually, both in universe and in the fanbase
"Worst MGS movie, best MGS game."
After MGS 4 and ground zeroes I Saw 5 as a massive improvement and success.
@@raulrojas9253 You are the only one. I genuinely think the one cutscene in Ground Zeroes is better than anything in Phantom Pain.
@@SleeplessSpecter
He is not the only one.
@@raulrojas9253 it has the best gameplay out of all them. I can say that about MGS5
Best mgs game is mgs3
Get me off Kojima's wild Fiddle ride
I feel like the story of Phantom Pain, and the manufactured legend of Big Boss, makes the story of Sniper Wolf all the more tragic. Bear with me as I explain my thoughts:
Sniper Wolf, the sexy sniper lady from MGS1, was a child born sometime after the Second Kurdish-Iraqi War. The Iraqi troops hunted the Kurds down, and she spent her life running. She admits she is rescued from this by the man she calls "Saladin"--Big Boss--and trained and raised by him. We know that the Second Kurdish-Iraqi War takes place between 1974-1975, and that the resulting Kurdish relocations and genocides took place 1976-1983, then again in 1987-1989. Sniper Wolf would have been 8 during the first genocides, and 12-14 in the second.
We know the Diamond Dogs were active between 1984 to up to 1995, when Outer Heaven is attacked by Solid Snake and Venom Snake is killed in Big Boss' place. In order for Venom Snake to have saved Sniper Wolf, then she would have needed to be rescued sometime during the 1987-1989 Kurdish genocide. That would mean she died, believing in the legend of a man who was himself an illusion of his own hero. She died believing in a Saladin that was never truly real, a comforting ghost taken away from her by her ideological brother, Solid Snake.
However, we know that the real Big Boss was active during this time. In particular he was active in the Gulf, where Sniper Wolf was rescued, and Sniper Wolf carries one key personality trait that she shouldn't have as a Iraqi-Kurd. A love for wolves. You see, Kurdistan has a well known love of dogs, mastiffs in particular, and Arabian wolves are frequently considered dangerous predators for young children. But we know Sniper Wolf rejected the extermination of the wolf-dogs on Shadow Moses Island, even going so far as caring for them herself to the point that her scent prevents them from attacking you.
I choose to believe this trait is inherited not from Venom Snake, or even from Big Boss. Rather, she inherited it from John, the man behind Big Boss' legend. In Snake Eater John says he's a fan of dog-sledding, his Snake Eater concept art is with a large wolf-dog, and Diamond Dogs' logo and name is self-explanatory. Huey is right as he calls the Diamond Dogs wolves, and in MSF John gathered lots of wolves around himself to protect them from those who would exterminate them.
Sniper Wolf repeats this action in small scale in Shadow Moses, and the wolf-dogs act just like the MSF soldiers in the wilds of Phantom Pain: If you carry a token of their boss, Sniper Wolf's scarf, then they won't attack you. Just like the MSF soldiers won't attack Venom if he's in a cardboard box, a token of their boss. If Sniper Wolf was rescued by Big Boss rather than Venom Snake, and raised by him as a soldier, then that means by killing her Solid Snake is killing the last true legacy of John. Not as the legendary soldier, but as the man.
I think the 'Last day in Outer Heaven' comic serves perfectly as a closure to all of this. A masterpiece.
A completed MGS V is the real Phantom Pain. I still love this mess of a game.
Even at a third of what it should be, it still played really well and I put 90 hours in my playthrough.
Not enough fire whale though.
This pain... Is ours
It's like it's all still there. You feel it too, don't you?
Is that bald Vergil?
DMC5 was the better fifth game in the franchise. The bionic arms were a lot cooler and V was also cooler too.
Legitimately better than 90% of so called video essays on this site
@breadandcircuses8127 ngl pan I can't recall I haven't watched this in 5 months. I will say it has solid video and sound editing, good voice work, and doesn't devolve into route summation. Also it's not an overdone topic (like a new vegas essay). It's also of a good enough length for me to actually complete my commute instead of being 20 minutes
I genuinely can't get enough of Metal Gear / Kojima discourse. Everything that man does could be ripped into a thousand compelling thesis statements.
Everything you said about the medic is really great, I'd never thought about him the way you described, and looking at Paz as the last patient he never saved is really tragic. It makes me wonder if Kojima really had it in mind when he made this game.
V gets a lot of shit, funnest to play outside of Revengance though.
I still don't quite get the shit flinging against MGSV. It's problems ultimately equate to Konami is a bad company that lost sight of it's art out of blind avarice. It's still a good game despite them, and arguably the most "Kojima" game ever made.
@@KiraSlith I heard Kojima had to fight tooth and nail to even get the game to the state it was. Konami has been sabotaging many of their own games before the sudoku they did to themselves.
@@KiraSlith i still dont get the kojima hate. A lot blame kojima saying that kojima took too much time and waste too much money to develop the game
@@azmirjohari609 It was a huge project and quite draining financially, from what we know... But at the same time it's one of the biggest franchises in gaming and given enough love and care would easily make that money back.
People can blame Kojima all they like, but Konami is the root of all their own problems; look at what they've done with Contra, Castlevania, Silent Hill. Slow degradation into nothing. They're what Capcom would be if Capcom hadn't corrected their course a little in recent years.
dropping people by blowing up a wooden pole to have that pole drop on top of their head is still amazing to me
"You're nothing but a bunch of psychopaths! Look at that dog."
This was an excellent video. Really impressed with the eerie atmosphere created by your style of narration at the end of the video. I hope you do more writing and analysis focused videos going forward, I have thoroughly enjoyed each one so far.
The pain when you realize 2/3 of the games story is missing
now that is a real phantom pain
Konami giving Kojima the boot before he could implement stuff like the battle with young Liquid still stings. Like man MGSV in general is so bitter sweet as on one hand I love the gameplay, atmosphere, and world, but the fact it's not truly complete and probably never will be because of Konami heads suddenly going "fuck video games, we're all about pachinko now" while it was mid development leaves a lasting pain.
@@BloodRedFox2008 The true phantom pain was all the story we lost along the way.
You didn’t really pay attention to the missions and all the little conversations and intricacies then
@@UMADBRO64 And then the Big Sick happened and now many of those other ventures are currently viable.
@@UMADBRO64
Kojima ultimately being a "failure" is the only disagreement I have with that statement. Everything else, yeah. I might not agree with the slot machines and how incompetently they handled Metal Gear afterwards (just look at Survive...), but if they made their money back, then they did their job as a company.
Kojima can do great things, but I feel he definitely needs people to tell him "no". Death Stranding? About as much as a disaster as Metal Gear Survive, but it had a lot more hype and expectations behind it. Again, I agree with everything else in your statement. He's done some amazing things, but good lord, he can mess things up real badly as well.
For me, the whole thing would've been better if the Man who sold the world recording would've been done by Hayter.
But as we see, the medic's experiences are unreliable, and of course he would think his own voice (as Kiefer Sutherland) was Big Boss' real voice.
@@kf8113
That's actually a great point, besides the fact that they probably had next to no chance of getting Hayter for the cameo. Never thought of it like that.
I had hoped The Man Who Sold the World would've been the Bowie version during Truth.
@@kf8113 That sounds a bit like reaching. They could've used Richard Doyle as well, as BB was quite a bit older since PW.
Thing would have been better if the frigging song didnt play during the tutorial.
Way to completely spoil the plot right at the beginning Kojima.
Butterflies also represent the spirits of the dead in Japan.
I'm loving all these game analyses videos plague.
Honestly think this was one of the most engaging videos that you've put out yet plague. Damn good.
Jesus you just blew my whole perception of my favourite series..... Love these analytic videos of yours
Nothing could have prepared me for how fucking amazing this video is, damn the youtube algorithm to hell for never showing it to me. I found it while digging through all of plague's videos.
I’m only just now seeing this but god… Plague the way you dissect these things is always amazing. It’s so beautiful
Boss, you killed a child..?
AMAZING MISSION COMPLETE
...AND HOW!
That's why you are Big Boss
I always got the gist of The Medic and his plight but I never thought about it to this depth, and now I don't have to do the leg work. Thank you, Eli.
The worst 9/10 of all time.
The game was great
The story wasn't what most expected, or wanted
@@TheAzCorner you mean "mechanics" were great, game was "aggressive waste of time", just like GTA Online, Final Fantasy 15 and other barren open-worlds.
@@Bodwaizer Mechanics are the most "game" part of a game. If a game's mechanics are great, that game is great.
And if a barren open-world is capable of aggressively wasting your time, then that's a birlliantly good-ass barren open-world, instead of the mountains upon mountains of those that don't get played for more than an hour.
@@Copperhell144 did you ever play Outer Wilds? It's a puzzle/walking sim game, I usually don't play those.
I don't play Blizzard games anymore, but listen to Starcraft/Warcraft/Diablo/WoW music all the time, it's that good.
Game can be just a sum of it's parts - a toy (Asscreed, Overwatch) and more than a sum of it's parts - an experience (Outer Wilds, KOTOR, MGS 3) that you might remember for the rest of your life.
Btw I almost platinumed MGS 5 three times, it's a terrible game.
@@Bodwaizer I don't need your sniveling back-talk as if I myself don't listen to video game music (of even games that I never played, because they're that good) or appreciate anything else about them other than their gameplay. The whole industry of video games already composes literally all of my life outside of work, I'm aware of what they can achieve.
But that doesn't mean having good gameplay reduces a video game down to being a "toy". Outer Wilds can be a lifetime experience, but so can Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Counter-Strike, Overwatch, fighting games... Go ask pro Tetris players how much they forget about that game. A satisfying enough gameplay loop can stick in your mind for eternity.
Stories can be done by books, by music, by pictures, by games... having such products/art stick with you because they have "a good story" is almost a cop-out to enjoyment and "lifetime experience". You can do that, sure... but you can also love a book for its prose, a song by how much it envelops a certain feeling through sheer sound, a painting by its composition etc. etc. Things that only that one medium is capable of achieving. Unique experiences, ACTUAL experiences, rather than the reduction of mediums down to being mere containers for stories.
As I said in my previous comment - If you almost platinumed MGS5 three times... clearly it's not a terrible game. If it was, you wouldn't have played it so much. Tons of terrible games out there can easily prove that for you if you can spare a few dollars to try them out.
For an analysis of a game a didn't really enjoy in a franchise I don't really care for, this was damn entertaining to listen to
ua-cam.com/play/PLHMU--_sO7ftB6R_FUrpAKS21BPbMIscs.html
This was really well done. I hope to see more content like this in the future.
Reminds me of something I've been meaning to write for ages.
Phantom Pain and Peace Walker tell the same story which is a common complaint about the writing I've seen. But Peace Walker was a hero fantasy and Phantom Pain was a documentary. Peace Walker is the glamourised self justified vision of Big Boss where he's the hero with a band of brave international adventurers saving innocent Costa Rica from the predatory nuclear powers. Phantom Pain is the reality of for hire mercenaries. In PW the story is told with comic book panels and in PP the camera is a real physical thing, it has aberrations it struggles to focus it shakes about and characters even step out of the way of it as if a cameraman is walking onto the set. In PP we see the truth behind how soldiers are brainwashed and tortured via the treatment of Quiet. In the outbreak mission we see just how damaged and hopeless the soldiers are, they don't cry for a homeland or family all they have is the Diamond Dogs and Big Boss.
This is really good. You sure make one of a kind videos. It’s not often a video invites my curiosity and attention so strongly.
Plague, thank you very much for this take on the character. The entire story flew right over my head, but now I feel like I have a newfound appreciation for it. I actually feel like I'll have even more fun on a second playthrough of it.
Thank you again Plague. I've always been more of a MGS fan from afar like yourself. V was my first hand-on experience. This was a wonderful breakdown of the story's nuance that I think a lot of people, self included, might have completely overlooked. Bravo.
I've always loved your video essays.
That scene of meryl and johnny rolling on the ground while firing guns is triggering my MGS4 PTSD 😰😰😰
"I've tried to paint the value of what I see in it. I hope I succeeded in that much at least."
I'd like to think that you did so. You've always been the type to focus the importance on the nature and story of characters as opposed just story plotlines. There is indeed value in such analyses and observations, and at the very least It made me, this inconsequential random schmuck on the internet, feel all the more enriched be being allowed to be privy to such meanderings through the watching of this well crafted video.
I can't believe how compelling this was! Normally I can't sit and watch anything for more than 10 or 15 minutes but I stayed the course on this one and it's my first time here. Excellent job! Thank you for your efforts and that wonderful message at the end. Good luck to you.
Man these Plague videos are so so so good.
Thanks also DatGreyMind, stellar work.
I really miss these old-style videos from you. You and DJ Peach Cobbler have an awesome style that is insanely funny and entertaining
Perhaps the ultimate hamburger was really the friends we made along the way
made of*
This is probably one of my favorite looks into Metal Gear characters. Just... wow. You've always inspired, entertained and made me want to improve plague. And you've continued to do that in an otherwise shitty year. Thank you.
Can’t remember the last time I was this early for a Plague of Gripes video. Not that I’m complaining.
I come back to this video every couple months, I think it means alot to me. The idea of a man shaping himself to fit a group projection was inmediately so much more gripping than parasites or funny skull men.
You present it so well, with all the scaffolding and context required. I'll keep coming back, thank you Plague ❤.
I really appreciate this comment, well said.
damn this editing is tight! thanks Plague! weird complement I know... but yeah this is just plain lovely.
One of your best videos for sure.
I'm trying to make others feel the same way you made me feel here when communicating ideas, hope I get there.
Japanese humor is mostly pun based in my experience
Pun based and heavily focusing on cultural relevance. It's not a bad thing just hard to translate to the wider world.
japan's pun based culture goes back to like, 800 CE
Metal Gear Solid 4: *_Puns of the Patriots_*
I did enjoy yours, yes. Thank you for this video.
Well at least we have the most cannon theory of the medics background
I watched this vid because of a suggestion in a comment from another vid.
Does not disappoint. Subscribed
I always saw the death of Paz as the death of hope for the characters around her. The lie venom was telling himself was heartbreaking because the "medic" couldn't have survived if she didn't. That's why he saw he in the game. The last shred of his soul is trying to stay alive and the final revelation that she is dead and he can no longer lie to himself is to at least the death of the "medic".
What's truly sad is that even when he realises it he still tries to hold on...by reaching out for the butterfly. However the butterfly was never there. He couldn't save Paz and in the end he couldn't save himself because of it.
In much the same way that you pointed out that the game had the Medic emulating his hero, I think those of us who have played MGS3, were emotionally invested and are familiar with Big Boss's story have always tried to play him in a way we felt a character we were so fond of would act. In MGS3, I used exclusively non-lethal weapons. In MGSV, I challenged myself to do the same. And I succeeded. From fultoning tanks rather than destroying them to sneaking through bases and holding soldiers face-down at gunpoint so they're neutralized as a threat, I continued to play a character I thought was Big Boss in the way I imagined his ideals demanded. I projected my vision of the man onto him. I went through the game always analyzing the enemy, watching them to find the exceptionally talented among them, fultoning them to bring them into the fold. I paid special attention to the aptitudes of my soldiers, in exactly the way the game wants you to, assigning them in accordance with their skills to various roles. I played as them frequently, became familiar with many of them.
And then the outbreak came on the medical platform. The time came that the very first lives I was forced to take were my own men. Faces I recognized. Names I knew. I even remembered where I'd found each of them, what they were before I recruited them. After trying so hard to keep my hands as clean as possible, this was the cruelest possible way that could change. I was glad when they fought back. When it felt like I had to defend myself against them. But those men near the end who stood, trembling, saluting me as I cut them down one by one, loyal to the end? I lost my composure. It was a video game. They were fictional. But the narrative I had built in my head up to that point felt real. Every time that unsuppressed handgun fired, every time I pulled that trigger, it felt like a condemnation.
After that, my previous idealism felt hollow somehow. I continued using non-lethal methods for the most part, but eventually I started bringing lethal weapons like the heavy sniper along as backup. As a last resort, I told myself. But over time its use became a matter of convenience and necessity, particularly when raiding other players' FOBs. And by the time that Quiet had been captured and I had to defend her from that battalion of tanks? I grabbed that rocket launcher and let fly without hesitation. I think a part of me loathed it. But in a way I see this was Kojima's intent, part of how he must have designed the game to be experienced. The game was heavily flawed and Kojima's writing is often ridiculous. But the emotional impact his work has always had cannot be overstated.
There is no Chapter 1. This has merit.
Edit: Misread the Prologue. I lack merit.
This comment has it's mistakes. But it has merit.
Very much enjoyed your work here. Great perspective
When is Eli going to publish his novel? Come on dude, do it!
Love your videos, Plague. It's always good to hear one of your perspectives because it feels much more like encouragement to be better than this thing sucks.
wait a moment...THIS ISN'T DBZ
Right?? I stoped watching after 46 minutes.
Its nice to see a video essay that gives voice to a lot of my own observation and arguments.
Like. From the moment I started MGSV I felt very weirded out how *EVERYONE* is treating Big Boss as a whole new character. Everyone seems DEAD SET on AFFIRMING you ARE Big Boss. Everyone is like "Oh hey Boss, remember THIS? You remember THIS, right? You should remember this, youre big boss!"
Every time they run through things John should know. Now, this could be chalked up to "tutorial". But it PERSISTS through the game.
I didnt go into MGSV expecting some bridge between Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid. I was expecting more of what I got IN peace walker, character exploration by way of pop-military sci-fi.
I was under the impression we were MORPHO, from GZ, given the namesake butterfly is important, and butterflies are a symbol of rebirth, and here is Big Boss, reborn but changed - a metamorphosis.
But I started making stranger connections. Like, did you know in Peace Walker, different classes of soldier have special abilities? These special abilities give characters certain effects in game.
Soldiers with doctor increase their natural healing rate. I thought it was really odd that Venom has health regeneration, and a simple button prompt to cure traumatic injury, when NO metal gear prior ever really did that sort of thing. I found it odd they dont let Venom smoke real cigars, normally. Looking back, while i think the former is MOSTLY there to make Metal Gear more palletable as a game, also serves to hint at Venom's medical expertise while the latter is there to imply Venom doesnt have the same nicotine addiction Big Boss developped.
I found it REALLY odd that nobody seems to recognize you... even former members of motherbase staff.
Like. It was the first meeting with Huey where I realized "Im not ACTUALLY Big Boss." Huey Emmerich, the man who worked alongside Big Boss for years and would know that the mammal pod means *SO MUCH MORE* to Big Boss than "its a machine" turns to him and says "Dont be scared, it's just a machine."
Huey Emerich, the huge failure turbo coward would *NEVER* in his *ENTIRE* miserable life look into John's face and say "This collusally important artefact from our shared past, that was the catalyst for us meeting and is one of the only remnants of The Boss left you might have attachment to, is *just* a machine".
Never. From that moment on I was like "Ok so the real big boss was 'Ishmael', who am I?"
And its really interesting that you touch on how Big Boss is an in universe projection fantasy. Because *The* Boss clearly was, for pretty much every major character. But what's great is that Big Boss *BECAME* that as well. To the point where, wether what people thought of him was true or not, it compelled them to act as what they thought of him was absolutely true.
Like. Skull Face. Skull Face in MGSV is pratically omniscient with how many steps ahead of you he is and even HE thinks your Big Boss. He has his doubts, but despite it all his HATRED for Big Boss convinces him you ARE Big Boss, that youre ACTUALLY John.
I did wonder why a lotbof the goofier elements found in earlier mgs entries werent as prevalent in MGSV and while I had previously chalked it up to "oh the sandbox is whats supposed to enable you to make up youre own goofy things" I later sorta came to the conclusion that John was a man with a certain sense of humor he wouldnt be entirely forthcoming about. I doubt he'd tell a subordinate about the time he tricked a guard with an adult magazine, or the time he hoped in a box shaped like a tank and assaulted an actual helicopter... Therefore, Venom's IDEA of Big Boss is as a mostly serious kind of guy.
Its why Big Boss doesnt... have fun anymore. Why theres little narrative Brevity. Of course, Miller's righteous anger is a potent detterent for scrutinizing this too much but Peace Walker gave me the impression Kazuhira Miller and Big Boss were BROTHERS. That if ANYBODY could lighten Miller's mood it'd be John...
Yet, the *WHOLE* game, start to finish, Miller's only moment of happiness comes from a conversation about Burgers with Code Talker. He never shares a joke with Big Boss. He never gawks over any of the soldier babes you folton. Nothing.
Hell, Ocelot does a better job at being Venom's buddy than Miller. Which majes sense, considering Ocelot hyponotises himself while Miller is just pretending.
Ive digressed though. My point is, I think Venom is a great character and looking at MGSV through the lense of it being about a man struggling with multiple identities and conflicting motives behind every decision he makes and whether or not the decisions he makes are the ones he makes or the ones he should make or the ones hus identity would or should make, makes it much better.
Venom, is quite an appropriate name for this Snake. He is what's left after the bite. He is the burning, boiling pain in your veins left over after youve been bitten that will fester and pulse through you. Its the trauma you spend the most time recovering from, you can survive the initial bite, but the venom is the painful death that awaits you, and when it's all said and done it's all youll really remember.
If John is "Naked" Snake because he goes into missions with nothing, Medic is Venom because he goes in with pain.
Mgsv is extremely melancholic, especially when you get glimpses of the much more upbeat vibes of Peace Walker.
Sat through the whole thing and it was amazing. Good work, plague
It seems like Kojima doing "what he shouldn't have" is the source of all his greatest ideas.
knocking it out of the park again plague. this was a really cool video, and I was enthralled through the whole thing. cant wait to see you t next one.
Are you kidding? Ocelot in MGSV was perfect. Thematically, Phantom Pain is all about parting the myths to reveal "reality"; Ocelot's flamboyant persona was, and always has been, an act. Big Boss even says so at the end of MGS4. His depiction in MGSV is a logical, and consistent, display of Ocelot's character.
In terms of expectations anyway. In terms of what the story was trying to do, yeah, everyone was set apart from their cartoon marketing nature.
I don't know about that, don't forget that the entire time he is on MB he is also under his own mind controle. It could be that he did this to be the counterpart to miller in that regard to pull him more into that direction, because miller became an angry man who only was aiming for revenge.
eh, idk about that. he is logical and stuff, but I think you are looking too deep into it. even if his flamboyancy is a mask, why would he get rid of it for the events of 5? It makes sense at the end of his life in 4, but the large majority of the events of 5 IS a big charade with the medic playing the role of BB. If anything, this would be the time when he is MOST flamboyant. Would be one think if he was like that during the ending recording, but idk about through most of the game.
Also Ocelot was never as cartoonish as fans have flandarized him to be. Go back and actually watch his interactions with Liquid and Solidus in MGS1 and 2.
He was only that over the top in MGS3 when he was an immature 20 year old and in MGS4, where most Ocelot memes come from...aren't Ocelot.
Magnificent video. Thank you, Plague. Walked in expecting my worldview to be validated, and got that, but also a fresh perspective on a topic I didn't think I could be educated on. I appreciate writers who can praise Kojima without letting him off the hook. Long time fan, but you've earned yourself another patron.
The PTSD from Phantom Pain was so bad it took Eli 5 whole years to compose himself.
Your most underrated video. I still get chills when watching it.
I have never played a Metal Gear game and know almost nothing about it. Still, this was a worthwhile video to watch.
This was a great video! It made me see the story in a totally different light, making me feel a lot better about Venom. Honestly the send off at the end really came to me at the right time, as I've been working on my own writing and having some doubts about ever letting anyone see it. It helped. Thank you.
Hell yeah, new video essay to fall sleep to
Every essay video of 30+ minutes are always a treat, keep it up
Hey plague, I love you, thank you for this documentary, keep it up!
Fantastic video that shed a new light on (part of) a series that I loved growing up. Thank you!
That was brilliant. It made me appreciate MGSV far more then I had before. Even though it's still a huge missed opportunity, it is brilliant in some ways.
This video was absolutely excellent. I've always stood by the thought that the story of Venom, and the Medic, were some of the best in MGS, and this video really goes over what exactly makes it such an intriguing and engrossing narrative.
Good shit, Plague. Good shit.
I enjoyed the game aspect a lot, and honestly I felt the ending while sad made sense. I S ranked each mission nonlethally on the ps3, and did so again on pc... every now and then I play a mission or two
A thoughtful and well discussed piece, that is more than comfortable to address the personal elements of the player (you) than outright assume or push a narrative like many would be video-essays do. Closing statement is easily one of the best I've experienced from a video and ties the production together nicely. Wish you the best going forward, if it be with art, videos, streams or whatever else you aspire towards.
Now watch as Kojima's wonderful BS gets sterilized and streamlined into the upcoming Hollywood motion picture written by the fool who wrote Rise of Skywalker.
Aw that’s who they got to be screenwriter? I think the director is at least very passionate about the series, but I don’t think that Godzilla film he did was good at all.
oh no
don't worry the metal gear movie won't ever actually happen
No… please no…
I’m tired of movie studios taking video games and making their plotlines stupid(er)
@@Abdega They probably won't make it stupid enough
Thank you Eli for perfectly covering what I've been arguing with people in comment sections and message boards for half a decade at this point. It always bothered me that people got so hung up on what they didn't get that they were unable to analyze and appreciate what value the game offered.
Also I cried again because the the medic listening to the Paz truth tape in the context that you outlined here always breaks my heart. It is legit one of my favorite moments in the entire series.
F I R S T
2nd to view~!
How does your comment say 1 Day Ago!? It's been 30 seconds since this video went online!?
CHEATER! lol
1 day??
How?
I think this is basically one of the best videos I ever watched in so many ways. Please keep the good work.