Board Thread:Metal Gear Solid V/@comment-24486170-20140929163922/@comment-153.96.144.4-20141014094533

Let's have a look at the facts first.

The Tanker incident that took place two years after the Shadow-Moses incident was a mere pretext for the construction of the Big Shell, which in turn was just a cover-up for the development of Arsenal Gear, which in turn was meant to do nothing but house the Patriot AIs. During the Big Shell incident we learned, that the AIs were not fully funcitonal yet and considering how late the development of Arsenal Gear began in that timeline, it gives us no reason to believe, that the development of the AIs had to have begun much earlier.

It leads us to think - and that's what I understood - that Zero saw no reason for the development of the AIs before the Shadow-Moses incident. By that time his plan was to use his creation George Sears (alias Solidus Snake) and other trusted people to keep the Patriots alive and functional once he was dead. We know he would have loved to see Big Boss succeed him and Solidus was the closest he could get to that goal. He could have been a vegetable by then surley, but the fact, that the betrayal of Solidus during the Shadow-Moses incident (stopping the Bombing of the facility) lead to the development of the Patriot AIs, tells us one thing:

Zero was a very old man by the time, the AIs were developed, but by no means senile. When Solidus disobeyed bombing Shadow Moses, which was intended to cover up Liquids rebellion against the Patriots, Zero realised, he couldn't trust his self-proclaimed duty to anyone human, thus he decided to start the development of the AIs to take over the Patriots, once he was too old to lead them.

Conclusion: Zero must have been mentally fine until the development of the Patriot AIs, which - as we know - took place in the early 21st century. Zero was purely out of time when he realised he couldn't trust anyone and barely managed to complete a bunch disfunctional AIs that in the end didn't even do, what he wanted them to, before he lost his ability to do pretty much anything but breathing and sh***ing.

Conclusion's Conclusion: He was a vegetable due to pure age, nothing more.