To: Sean Gandert
From: Blake Foley
Subject: RE: I’m Pretty Sure the Surgeon General Wouldn’t Approve

The characters are no doubt at the center of what makes the Metal Gear franchise so memorable. They’d have to be. The story itself is often bonkers, but the characters ground it and make me care about what’s happening. Kojima’s characters are rarely two dimensional, and you’ll likely find yourself going through many different emotions about the major players as you traverse through the later games.

You asked about Solid Snake—if he feels like the same snake from the MSX games. I think so, but that is also largely due to the fact that Solid Snake probably has the least depth of the bunch. Solid Snake’s character will get further explored in later games, but never to the extent that someone like Ocelot’s is. Excluding Metal Gear Solid 4, he even takes a significant back seat for the rest of the series.

I’ve mentioned to you elsewhere that I’ve been having trouble writing about Metal Gear Solid, and it took me a while to start pinpointing why. I’ve been trying to view Metal Gear Solid as a stand alone game and a sequel to Metal Gear and  Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, but that is denying my own perspective—a perspective of Metal Gear Solid through the lens of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots etc. I’ll of course do my very best to not outright spoil future games, but I can no longer pretend that they don’t exist and I don’t think you’d want me to…

So, back to Solid Snake. This might come as a surprise to you (or it might not), but the Metal Gear series is not about Solid Snake. It is about Big Boss. Solid Snake spends a lot of his life, and a lot of Metal Gear Solid, coming to grips with his genetics and fate. The ending goes to great lengths to talk about how people can pave their own paths regardless of their heritage, but even then, I can’t help but feel like Kojima isn’t quite being true to that sentiment, as we later see how Snake essentially becomes a tool for advancing Big Boss’s story. Maybe I’m wrong about that. It has been a while since I’ve played 4. But here and now, I can’t help but feel like Snake is a victim to his heritage. It will be something to talk about later, for sure.

I think I’ve said all I can really say about Metal Gear Solid and I think it is definitely time to move on to Metal Gear Solid 2. These characters and themes aren’t going anywhere and we’ll have plenty of chances to revisit the events of MGS1 if necessary. Lets go!