Board Thread:Metal Gear Solid V/@comment-146.90.86.5-20150917130942/@comment-78.250.236.247-20150921021541

To answer the initial question: yes and yes.

Quiet is a badass, I think any battle scene she is in will show it, no need to discuss that.

The true problem is all about her sexualisation, and how - if? - it can be justified. I think it simply can't. All this "I breathe with my skin like a plant so everything is okay" stuff is an insult to the player's brain, no matter you are a man, a woman or any living thing on Earth. As it has been said earlier, Kojima just couldn't live with his own perversity and hid it behind this masquerade. There is no way I could think otherwise.

But the fact is I love Quiet. She is not a top-tier female character in term of personal background or charisma, but I have much more sympathy for her than for Naomi or Olga or even the Boss. Why? Because most of MGS characters - may they be female or not - have no existence outside of cutscenes and codec, they are part of Big Boss's/Snake's story, not mine.

I love "narration through gameplay", I think a game is better when you can develop your own relationship with a character just by being at his/her side. Quiet is the single human friend you have at your side when PLAYING, she is more of a partner than Revolver "let's torture everybody" Ocelot or Kaz "always angry" Miller. She being silent is something I like as it reflects Snake's mutism during operations, it creates a connection. Both are white sheets of paper for the player even if they have their own established personality and traits.

As it has been said before, Quiet often appears as a victim. She is a victim of violence from other male protagonists just as she is a victim of Kojima's awful fetishisms. So when playing a mission, you are Quiet's only friend, and in return you trust her while everybody say she will shoot you for sure. "For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother". In the end, the only things I feel for Quiet are pity and sympathy, because everything in the game is a pretext to belittle her as a woman while she is the only character actually participating in the way you live the story as an actor.

So yes, in a "normal" MGS Quiet would just be the stupidly oversexualised girl stereotypicaly falling in love with his former enemy, but The Phantom Pain is not a "normal MGS" isn't it? Let's be clear, this is no excuse and I'll never forgive Kojima for what he did with Quiet, but since I found this divine XOF suit, my main concern about her was gone. She is a spoiled, badly designed and badly used character, but I don't think she deserves so much contempt.

Blame Kojima, feel sorry for Quiet.