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Folken is the goat... lol i finally got my partner to watch Dragonheart (an essential baby joe origin point) and naturally where dragons, self-sacrifice, and stars are concerned, i'm thinking about him... every new thing i learn about, for example, The Feathered Man in chinese mythology, or the dragon as ally and source of wisdom to the Celts, or the role of the dragon as abject and its abjection, i'm just like... yes. yes. hit after hit. bam. there he is. he is the dragon in both archetype and reality and the coolest cunt in the world serving it 24/7

it's also nuts how similar he is to The Boss, and even to Kaz Miller (although Kaz is pure unadulterated shit, the darksided version of this figure)... the figure who does the "wrong" thing for reasons not necessarily justified but heavily explained through context clues, actions, arcs, whose misteps you're forced to understand, even if you rightly revile them (kaz) and in the case of The Boss and Folken, misteps they must atone for out of an unshakable sense of deep and powerful moral responsibility.................... a duty born of universal love.

universal love being unattainable by most, a thing which requires a broad view of the world from above. weirdly* true for both The Boss and Folken (it's why he rides around in a floating fortress. and also is psychic.) The Boss in MGS3 immediately predicted the series of events to follow, but you know what? The Boss couldn't predict Volgin firing the nuke. just as Folken couldn't predict Dilandau razing Fanelia. maybe they should have, but they didn't, and it set everything on a new course for which they could only hastily prepare. HELLO...?

*and when i say "weirdly," i don't mean it. clearly the martyr is an archetype throughout all cultures. here we have a certain kind of martyr, someone who must atone for their own crimes particularly in relation to war, and although misguided, are intended as sympathetic— perhaps not likeable, but intended to evoke a kind of pathos in their desperation. there is a rich historical precedent for this. The Boss and Folken both die untimely deaths for the greater good, to spare further annihilation. i mean, both Metal Gear Solid and Escaflowne entertain the folly of fighting for peace. both come to the same conclusion: the only way to "fight" for peace is by laying down the gun/sword.

you do remember the nuclear bomb in Escaflowne, right? i do!!! episode 2...4? 25? you know what i'm talking about. oh and the bomb is made of energists? fascinating...

which of course is not true, and disarmament is somehow always the order of the oppressor, issued to and expected of the oppressed. but in a story where violence and war is the only framework, the only structure, the act of giving up the fight to die instead is radical within those limits.

contrasted by America, which has little interest in confronting its own warmongering— 9/11 or Pearl Harbour had the exact opposite effect, doubling down on the rancid racist nationalism it was founded upon, and America has bombed its own citizens— including involuntary citizens, notably black and indigenous— making it a pronounced outlier.

to offset what might seem fantastical— universal love— their methods are extremely human. the figure who talks directly to you, the player/viewer, and tells/shows you exactly what's going on............. i love a soothsayer and a martyr even though it always comes with pain. i've spent my whole life accidentally or on purpose cultivating a strange, crossed-wires need for depictions of hopeless, gutting sadness (within a safe container) to make sense of, or at least externalise, that which otherwise has little outlet. as much as it breaks me it's also the fixation of a morbid curiosity i guess, both hurting and needing to hold the hurt and turn it over, make sense of what doesn't make sense.

it's not fair that the dragon dies in Dragonheart, and it's not fair that Folken dies, and it's not fair that the Boss dies— and by fair i don't even really mean my own feelings, i mean the narrative sets up a final desperate situation where they cannot be saved, but also supplies enough contingencies to suggest it didn't have to be this way if xyz had been different. it's an injustice. and that lack of fairness makes the character both fascinating and too painful to hold all at once. you want to change it but you just. can't. much like real life. and instead, you're watching the person who can change the course of history/the future sacrifice themself for it.

i have nothing more to say about that so moving on, i'm endlessly delighted by the fact that in spite of his best efforts (lol) there'd be no love story without Folken... sure yeah if we want to call this a story about a love triangle i'll play along, the most solid triangle— not solely of romantic love, but love in general, and of action/reaction, influence, care, fixation, mystery— is Hitomi, Van and Folken. so thank you for your service, commander 🫡

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mgsv sits at 72% complete... i did all 157/157 side ops even. what's left over is only the absolute most annoying bullshit of all time but guess what, i have major clinical chronic (terminal?) treatment resistant depression

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i do appreciate the way that we tumblr users have evolved our language to discuss our feelings related to The Character/The Guy. you used to have to just say he was hot or he was making your ovaries explode or he was a precious cinnamon roll even if he looked bad or was just kind of standing there or whatever. now you can say things like “the creature” or “he looks so sopping wet here” or “i want to chain him to my radiator” like it’s just more inclusive and adaptable to the situation

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Folken: “I see… this is the heart of the fate alteration, where action and reaction are at their most powerful. But… the war will end now. May Gaea find… true peace…”

[Episode 25: Zone of Absolute Fortune]

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disco elysium is one of the best examples imo of how massive a gap can exist between a piece of media and the conversations around it. if you’ve never played it i think you’d be forgiven for thinking its some sort of fun gay buddy cop romp from how ppl present the story online

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this anti-criticism/critical analysis wave some of y'all like to be on is making some of you bitches soft. 'don't like, don't watch, don't like, don't read, if you didn't like the game then why did you play it?'

maybe some of us come into a piece of art hopeful and excited for the possibilities, and are disappointed when it falls short. maybe some of us want to critique parts of the art that could have been stronger. is that going to kill you. will you die due to not seeing a constant stream of smoke blown up the creator's ass.

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ok when i wrote this it was before i heard the peacewalker tapes where they literally talk about mishima and they're both like "gotta hand it to him" LOOOOOL... CALLED IT

since i was really looking forward to playing mgs4 and am now done with it, i dejectedly restarted mgs2... so i can play it and mgs3 at the same time I Guess... things just have to be like this. when i play a metal gear i may think i'm playing one, but it will be all of them... tonight i was just too daunted by the prospect though so we watched someone else's PW "movie" since it's the one i'm least amped to actually replay, hence these thoughts: when you think about how kaz is like, 12yrs younger than big boss, it's like oh. Yup. you are Real. the kind of younger man whose deadly serious no joking around homerotic "subtext" shows up out of nowhere to steal the show from the sidelines in like, idk, dramatic and ostensibly heterosexual novellas written between 1920-1960. the sort of thing you analyse in school and it alters you for life. you know how it is.

PW has a lot of critical gut punches for the MGS narrative, yes, and big boss being so viciously unwell sick in the head Fucked 2 Hell about The Boss still, and being retraumatised by taking her apart repeatedly and watching "her" choose to die again (FOR PEACE, AS IN TO NOT KILL, NUMBNUTS!) and him and Strangelove traumabonding (lol)— all horrific, beautiful, some of my favourite shit of all time.

and then there's kaz. what he is, and what he becomes. it is so human, so natural, so mournful, his actions and reactions make sense in a way that makes my body sort of implode on itself. because... it is all of those things... he goes through all of these things... just to be a fucking anarcho-capitalist???!!!!!??? BLEAK. and big boss is like "(depressed) huhuhu... wow thads cool... yore just like mishima" dude you're starting to piss me off. i DO tread on your stupid ass. WAKE UP

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I rly hate the Satanic Panic & the moral panic surrounding violence in video games in the 90s, coz it's now impossible to talk about the social implications of violent video games in a realistic sense.

No, violence in video games does not create serial killers in the way most people imagine it would.

However, it's very important to notice how after 9/11, a lot of violent video games pivoted their content from silly gratuitous cartoon gore to more realistic military shooters set in the Levant from a US American lens. It's also important to notice the connection of these games & their toxic online multi-player voice chats to Gamer Gate in 2014.

It's obviously not as black & white as it was presented in the 80s & 90s, I dont think everyone who played early Call of Duty games is a white supremacist who wants to join the military to kill people in the middle east, but I think it's dangerous to pretend like video games or any media can't have an impact on the way people think about violence.

I think what makes all the difference here is how that violence is portrayed, what the message behind it is, what the motives are behind the people who crafted that message, who the victims of that violence are, how they are portrayed & the greater cultural context that surrounds it.

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oh no yeah it definitely is supposed to feel that way. because anyone who'd keep going back after the last Paz tape would have to be a total sicko. like i think that's actually what's going on here, and it's really funny how fucking redditors are like "this RUINED the game for me, it SUCKED to play after this, 0/10, what the fuck is going on" because

yeah it does suck to know you yourself the player have been truman show'd, and

it completely makes the game! if that weren't the "twist," nothing else in the game would be significant or even relevant. the game is about identity, and within/even more than that it's about mythmaking. every single character is deluding themself, inventing fantasies and truths to cope, to persist, inventing the reality they need to live in. and if that weren't the twist, then this would be a completely different game about some other shit.

and it's masterful As. A. Game. metal gear's always had a self-aware, interwoven meta approach to what it means to be a video game, and this thought becomes part of the plot too. if that's true, and it is, then this one has to have considered it also. it is aware and engaging with Being a Video Game, particularly being a video game in the era of Trophies/Achievements, something most mgs games predate. for the story that metal gear is, and how cerebral and literary and sincerely emotional it has told this story... and with PW + MGSV being, crucially, about acquisition— you are building your anarchocapitalist hell hole and go on building that empire after the story is over (something that wasn't possible until after jack becomes Big Boss)— persisting after natural death to collect trinkets and expand your empire could only feel empty, and if not bitter, then cynical. maybe i'm being too generous... but, if it were true i think it'd be pretty smart!

alright. for all my bitching and moaning i'm 🔙🔛🔝 just when i thought i was out, they pull me back in

beat da game. don't much care about repeating missions or beefing up randos or whatever, it feels pretty bizarre to keep playing it after the ending(s) and truth tapes, paz, etc., like how do you come back from that lol... why would you want to... oh jk everything normal now? and if it's supposed to feel desolate and cold To return to it, well, upon coming back to get all the Paz stuff taken care of, it feels extremely desolate and cold, and i think that rules. i oscillate back and forth each time something happens but i gotta hand it to em, it's very impressive to have created a game that is equal parts

turd from an ass

the most spellbinding story ever told, and told with such bitter cruelty and captivating gravitas that i never want to look away from the grandness of the whole art piece for even a second

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beat da game. don't much care about repeating missions or beefing up randos or whatever, it feels pretty bizarre to keep playing it after the ending(s) and truth tapes, paz, etc., like how do you come back from that lol... why would you want to... oh jk everything normal now? and if it's supposed to feel desolate and cold To return to it, well, upon coming back to get all the Paz stuff taken care of, it feels extremely desolate and cold, and i think that rules. i oscillate back and forth each time something happens but i gotta hand it to em, it's very impressive to have created a game that is equal parts

turd from an ass

the most spellbinding story ever told, and told with such bitter cruelty and captivating gravitas that i never want to look away from the grandness of the whole art piece for even a second

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however... oh my god. the most viciously fascist part of the game IMO is when the soviet soldier uh, drowns Quiet so he can assault her seemingly-dead body? for... revenge... due to her having assisted in our killing and kidnapping of so many of their comrades... also, she's an immortal, invisible sniper... when has she ever come close enough to the enemy to be identified by them on sight?

this assless white woman, this complete vacuum of a "character" with no depth, cannot portray a single emotion, with a lust for revenge that evaporates instantaneously with zero compelling information... why not when talking to Code Talker?? why not in the tape she left behind? yeah she is absent of words, even compared to Venom, and if anything they should be equal on that front— and they're not, at least in terms of the emotions that orbit them, the situations they're in, how people react to them, and so on. you cannot have pure drama on one hand and wrinkle-free vacancy in the other and expect me to value them the same way! if it's about communication, why didn't she and Venom have a meaningful, significant ability to do so that separates them from everyone else? if she is supposed to challenge the player in some way (like every other character,) what was it? she more seems like she's there to smooth your brain. oh but right, since Venom isn't a character, there is no way to form a (story-telling) bond with her.

i can't believe that, after riotous outcry, they did a patch update to bring her back after her ending....... oh wait, yes i can: she is strictly here for gameplay. she is strictly here to make it easier to play the game. she is a tool. she is a technique. but she is not here for story.

and that would be interesting to examine further, since venom technically is that same thing for the characters (not for the player) except... it's not, because it wasn't!

plus the real kick in the ass, how you get Crying Wolf's emblems afterward... DON'T REMIND ME OF A BITCH WHO RULES RIGHT AFTER EXPOSING ME TO A GIRL WHO GIVES US NOTHING!!! oh my god. crying wolf is there for 4 seconds with an absolutely stunning fight that you can accomplish in one hundred different ways, and she looks good as hell, too. the B&B corps kind of suck and are also just there to be "hot" for no reason, and i would take them over Quiet any day.

tbh the fact that Quiet has no belly even though she slouches, no belly even when she sits, and isn't sweaty and matted and fucked up showing the whites of her eyes and drooling during the interrogation scene... this tells me that she was built for a truly sinister type of pervert. and if she wasn't built for perverts then why all the [everything]? in order to have her be Projection Goddess they toed a super abysmal, super cringe line, no commitment in either direction. it sucks. to be here at all, and to be the only relevant (on-screen) woman, she should be as interesting as everyone else, but the pussyfooting reduces her to nothing. omg she could've been like, some twist on the concept of Army Pinup Girl

somehow it makes so much sense that this is contemporaneous to Rey Starwar. and i don't even give one shit about star war. fear of making a Weird Feral Girl! fear of making an interesting freak daughter among men. whereas if you do go whole hog making a weird feral girl to be the base's disgusting amoeba daughter, you will inevitably invite perverts. her tits don't even have veins! it's some weird Paz shit all over again. she's a mousey dork. she's meant to be a horse girl among horse girls (v/bb, ocelot.) Foo Fighters from JJBA somehow accomplished this exact thing a million years earlier with flying colours. good grief!

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beyond a kneejerk mouth pinch as if biting into a lemon, i didn't notice until i was much further into the game— the vague descriptions of the "dispatch missions" (the ones marked yellow at least) seem to line up with/follow the descriptions of real-world events, such as the iran-iraq war, and (i'm assuming) the buffer zone in cyprus or destabilising east germany (RIP) and suharto's dictatorship in indonesia (again, i'm assuming purely based on the vague descriptions. and vague statements like "rebels" and "guerrillas"... WHO? TELL ME!) really curious to know if these are also events that appear in the credits; if the idea is that since you've been committing war crimes for the west, are they in part documented by the timeline that appears at the end of the game?

apparently no one else online has suggested this because i can't find anything... yet? i should've paid more attention but i've got a list of the dispatch missions to cross reference at least.

the craven evil of taking a "western-backed assignment in the middle east" is breathtaking lol. you'd have to be a bitch idiot not to notice.

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struggle for autonomy

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this thought has matured as the games themselves have— not (only) in terms of the canonical text, but using the text and subtext to speak to you and ask you these questions. between war and civilian life, where do games about war live? confronting the reality of endless war, and confronting what it means to make a series of games for people who want the fantasy/escape to go on forever, a deathless existence surrounded by death, by showing you how hollow and horrifying and crushing it is to reanimate that which has passed: the boss and her AI, volgin and the man on fire. doesn't it feel good? to watch those who were your enemies persist past their time to be killed again and again? does it heal you? does it make it all better? if you always need an enemy to prove your own life through opposition, what does that say about the worth, the breadth of your life? what are you when that opposition no longer exists?

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between kaz's psycho and mostly baseless obsession with cipher, blaming quiet, blaming huey, "our enemy is right here in our midst" or whatever he said, turning inward in that way, needing MORE war MORE soldiers, seems like it's basically— oh wait i just saw the "big boss is watching you" signs lol. so ok yeah this is a metaphor for the red scare

ok well it's like teenagerbrained 1984 anticommunism too but i know the truth. the communism is hidden in the anticommunism

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lol. the parasites... the parasites shape the host into their ideal environment, and the host changes in reaction to the parasite. much like diamond dogs leeching off of the earth, throwing off the natural order and natural tendency toward community/sharing in common and instead shaping it as they see fit, a destructive process, forcing the earth to change and thereby accommodating the parasites they are. whoaaaa at long last, it turns out big boss inc. was: shitty. genius...

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godddd i have to fight sahelanthropus now and it sucks my fucking dick off. i'm giving up for the night. but now i am thoroughly haunted... haunted... by the way miller speaks over the radio during the fight. so softly. so gently. truly being so kind like i'm on my fucking death bed and they're about to pull the plug. and i AM and they ARE