The Last Cards I Finished Up To For The VA’s At @mgscon ! Naomi, Meryl, Otacon, And Gray Fox! Hopefully

they are culturally exchanging harmful habits now

can u guys watch them for me rq

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

Every few years remember about the Metal Gear franchise, go through the games, read the lore again. This year I found the MGS1 artbook I got when I was 11, and now not being 11 and looking back through it I’ve really gone on a journey of wonderment and confusion looking at the early versions of everything. LET ME SHOW YOU HOW:

Extreme Fishin’ Miller

Casual Snake

Rad Liquid & Sad Liquid

Good ol’ Faceless Frank

Mantis concepts feat. such strong looks as ‘lunchbreak’, ‘invisible handcuffs’, and ‘dick sounds’.

Otacon and Otacon run through a tiny face filter.

/These/

Snake-Meryl (Sneryl) and Flamethrower Mei Ling who I am ASHAMED do not exist

Utterly terrifying Veiny Raven and less terrifying Mange Raven

And of course, Punk Rock Mantis.

thank you everyone for posting your beautiful arts. tumblr has become not only the source of beautiful mgs fanart but also one of the reasons i practiced drawing more or less consistently. my skill improved (now i can draw without eraser and even can do faces sometimes, kinda) but also it unironically raised my quality of life in general. i hope you're spending holidays the way you like and hope to see more from you all in the future.

started reading To Be Well by tenuous uhm... makes me feral. HIS VOICE IS... ITS its written in such a way that i can hear it oh god its so good !!

King Lear performed in the fire-damaged ruins of Teatro Municipal de Lima (c. 1999), conceived by architect Luis de Longhi

got a buzzcut. first time in my life my hair has been this short since i was a baby. look a little like yukio mishima

very enjoyable session and i am glad with the results

(i own nothing, tsurumi is stolen from the manga and slightly altered, poppy flowers are stolen from the internet)

one of the unrealistic expectations in mgs series is that a mullet can stay combed back in a ponytail like that without hanging all over the face instead. it's either some magic or shit ton of hair product or idk a week's worth of mud and blood that's keeping it together.

literally me when my overgrown short hair is long enough to put in a ponytail:

when you can’t evEN SAY‼️mY NAme❗️