Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-79.52.61.188-20130415085048/@comment-1672596-20130710130911

Bluerock wrote: C'mon now, did anyone really believe Big Boss was being serious when he spun those entomologist/ornithologist/photographer stories? Sounded like his tongue was very firmly in cheek.

I've yet to hear a good reason why Big Boss being surprised at developments with Zero is that contradictory. We have pretty much NO information on Big Boss's dealings with Zero after founding the group. He left them on principle, and there's no telling how far they had gone into their schemes at that point, as the group was barely two years old then. The complexity of the organization/Zero's plans could have changed beyond all recognition to Big Boss in the time since he left, which would explain his surprise at how warped Zero and Cipher had become. Well, yeah, but reacting with "huh?" when Paz basically TOLD Big Boss who Cipher was with that backstory recitation is not exactly grounds for having him be a former member of the group. Now, if he said something along the lines of "wait, you mean...?! No, it can't be...?!", we'd at least get confirmation that he does know who Cipher is, or rather was. At least that line instead of "huh?" does acknowledge not only that he was surprised at what the Patriots and Zero have become, but more importantly that he actually was familiar with the organization itself, but not at what it had become. Another problem was that the way the opening of the game was done made it seem as though he founded MSF immediately after he disappeared from the US shortly after the awards ceremony post-Snake Eater (since it immediately cut to Big Boss training with MSF after the opening narration mentioned that he disappeared after the awards ceremony), and other than a brief mention on FOXHOUND (which even THAT was not in-story but during a briefing file) and San Hieronymo, nothing between Snake Eater and Peace Walker was mentioned. If we go by the opening alone, one would come to the conclusion that Snake founded MSF immediately after Snake Eater. They should have at least mentioned that he eventually left the United States after some inherent disagreements with the people in charge a while after Snake Eater in the opening narrative, so its made a bit more clear to players that MSF was founded a while after Snake Eater. Though at this point, it probably doesn't matter now.

As far as the stories he told, I know Big Boss has a bit of a sense of humor, (Snake Eater showed that), but I'm not sure how being tongue-and-cheek was even remotely appropriate for the situation in those cases.