When Snake Takes Miller's Hand To Get On The Chopper In The End Of Ground Zeroes, I Wonder If He Remembered

another big boss apology wall of text under cut

idk i'm pretty sure that being a tool is a major theme in mgs overall. solid snake is created to be a tool and his story is about accepting or fighting it. the boss willingly was a tool, and while naked snake didn't accept being used to create clones or the boss making him kill her, i think he still existed within a social group with those values and it definitely influenced him. i think his refusal to accept the terrible children project and his pw arc where he ends up disapproving the boss, as well as what we see in mgs4, shapes him into the character who begins to question the system if values that deems it ok to treat people as tools, even though he still acts within it and ends up going along with it anyway (note the portable ops ending - idc if it's not canon - and how he ends up doing the same thing using the very same funds even). also i think that he was influenced in that regard by the boss and her words that the worst thing you can do for a comrade is to have personal feelings for them; note how he told amanda she should start treating chico as a soldier rather than as her brother.

i kind of thought he is more distant from his troops bc of seemingly spending time in acc instead of some kind of quarters on the rig, but mb he is more attached to his men than ishmael.

tbh i'm very biased bc if i were venom snake i would consider myself lucky, even though i understand the whole bereft of his own identity thing, and it is easy for me to imagine that despite conflicting feelings he would gladly accept his role. doing an important meaningful thing for the project that is my (and other people's) dream, and also (in a way that matters) becoming the person who i deeply admire and respect and mb even worship? i value my identity but would trade it (not without some sadness but with little to no hesitation) any day; to me the whole venom snake thing seems like a metaphor for a particular masculine dream/fantasy/expected behaviour tbh (not implying that all men want it or that only men can want it or that it's healthy): you discard some parts of yourself in order to shape yourself into a "cool guy" and do an "important meaningful thing"

Venom snake as a character tells a decent bit by proxy about big boss imo. You design him, give him your name, birthday. Venom was a completely different person and character before ttp. Considered one of John's best soilders within this cult of an operation.

Whats his thanks? Your thanks as the player? Becoming him. Memories replaced, face reconstructed, and made to stand in for him so he can achieve his greater plan. Becoming the biggest tool of them all. Being a proxy of him. An extension. An extension to him and his legend. Given a measely thanks over a tape. Then sent to die in his place.

All for some elusive greater good for soilders. A bigger picture you'll never get to see.

That is your reward.

Now some people argue that at the end, venom clearly is on board with it even after finding out the truth, yet I'd argue that even if he is, that's because of the cult like mentality of msf. Like yeah to any soilder on that base essentially becoming big boss and playing a big role in his plan would probably seem like a dream

some really fun doodles requested by @tomatomustache !! not replying to the asks yet bcuz i sorta mixed both of ur asks together and i wanna save a few of those ideas as surprises lol .. hope thats okay

miller study based on pw reference. the first attempt was atrocious, then i traced it from the reference and tried to replicate the proportions twice more. still not satisfied but getting there. at least the traced one looks nice

i thought you mean the boss and naked snake for a minute lol

date with paz is the worst possible character for female date mission in pw in terms of having an enjoyable date but a good date partner in terms of the bigger narrative. elaboration below:

the best would be amanda, in my personal opinion. snake is clearly not much invested in courting anyone much, he still hasn't let go of the boss (and never truly will, in a way) and has other msf related stuff to worry about. and so is amanda - she would earn the recognition as comandante by the time of the mission and would be occupied thinking about running her own little army. the fact that they'd be on the same page about being not much interested in dating and much interested in commanding a military force and warfare in general could allow them to have a good time together.

cecile would be morally ambiguous too since she doesn't really have a choice in staying on the mother base. but at least she complemented snake and called him sexy over codec which is as much of female sexual attention as he gets in pw.

strangelove would not be a good date plot wise but even that would be more interesting. she is struggling to understand the boss and feels betrayed by her, same as snake. they could bond over the woman both of them loved deeply to the point of it affecting their entire lives. besides, strangelove did look for a hookup or relationship to get distracted from her "breakup" with the boss and possibly follow the 70s sci-fi trend of being very interested in procreation; for both of which she canonically chose huey. it wouldn't make much sense if she chose snake instead bc i think she picked a person she lowkey despised (as he did himself) on purpose and dating a guy who had a close relationship with the boss and made her jealous wouldn't exactly help to get distracted or try to forget about her. but still, at least she has an important thing in common with snake.

date with paz was unappealing to me to even try until i completed most of the missions and late game boredom of gajillion mech battles and curiosity and wanting to experience the entire game got to me (as well as a false hope that snake would be able to wear the bikini top if i get the swimming trunks too, which was a huge letdown lol but well, it is what it is). same as date with kaz, it's a trophy date for completing a significant part of the game. but depending on when you play it (right after unlocking or after completing more main missions) it has the appeal of either a date with a minor who is confused and in distress (tbh i wouldn't complain at all if it wasn't called a date and there would be other ways to finish it than get into love box with her) or a date with a spy who kind of hates you - which is negative amount of appeal for me personally.

sure, considering paz diaries one could say that she has a tsundere crush on snake, so for the sake of being optimistic let's keep that in mind. but does it affect the gameplay of the date mission? doesn't seem so to me tbh. mb i am just doing it wrong, but i had to make several attempts to get an s rank and it looked like this: "good girl" "good job" "i like you" "peace" "praising you some more" - "thank you snake" "thanks" "peace" "aww snake thx, also i will start following you after some wooing and jump a little in a cute way and tilt my head as you say more compliments about nothing in particular" and then they get into the box and paz says it's awkward. very understandable lol, awkward for me as well! at least i can play some nice music and she likes it.

i had kind of high expectations for this mission bc i have played date with kaz first. everything i could try got a positive response from him and revealed some delightful reactions: many comm lines, cqc, camera, questioning him - and even more - things like zooming in on his private parts or knocking him out and laying on top of him, things that i doubt i would find on my own. it's a shame you can't feed him but most of the things you can do get you positive and diverse responses. while paz dislikes or is neutral towards it seems everything except music and praise (she will, luckily, meow back, but won't like it, same as miller), and trying to cqc her is not only discouraged but results in snake touching her inappropriately which is an unexpected twist but not really a welcome one. i don't dislike paz as a character - quite the opposite, i liked the fight with her and was relieved (for a short while :') ) to see her in mgsv. byt her date is boring to me, i have even googled the ways to s-rank it in case i just do it wrong but it seems it just is what it is.

that being said, i think that date with paz isn't a bad thing in the context of the game in general. it reminds the player that snake and miller are freaks who can't behave around a minor, commits to the bit of "kid named peace" narrative (zadornov even got several play dates of hide and seek) and might be interpreted as illustration of snake having no place in romantic dates with cheerful young ladies and becoming a stranger to a joyous possible side of life that a date with a young cheerful woman might represent, which is well combined with him looking like shit and becoming more grumpy and tired and less silly and prone to tomfoolery compared to mgs3. so maybe while being boring and possibly inappropriate, date with paz mission might be more fitting into the narrative than a potentially more entertaining date with any other major female pw character.

my fav part of the mgs fandom is that we all collectively ignore the fact that boss possibly (and willingly) slept with a 16 year old at the ripe old age of 40

a quick lee van cleef

a friend said sleep deprivation works similarly to being drunk. if i was still into alcohol i would draw after, like, one beer, almost sober to be able to comprehend stuff and make effort to figure out and remember how things look, but drunk enough so anything i draw seems good enough

will draw sober instead (mb with a tasty non-alcoholic beer) and learn to be just as chill on my own

looking at yesterday's drawings after getting some sleep. hilarious (good)

read a few raisune fics and they hit too close to home... also im bored outta my mind at work

considering the new ultrakill death screen with the attempt to vocalise something and the emotional lines, the eye image, the fact v1 had a text thought during the second v2 encounter (before that i used to think it has no voice bc it doesn't need to be able to think in words at all) and what hakita said about thinking why all the machines bleed, i think it is now pretty obvious that the gutterman human tech is implemented in many of them to say the least.

which allows one to think that v1 might be the player, in a way: a human molded into the machine shape, stripped of the rudimentary functions like speech and given the new cool functions useful for slaughter.

considering v1 isn't the only machine cutting deep into hell pursuing fuel, it is also possible to assume that it's a new one every time you die. not very convincing but fun (to me).

i am honored <3