Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-17468962-20130906041556/@comment-1672596-20130912103205

DementedP wrote: Weedle McHairybug wrote: 82.123.126.207 wrote: Yeah but the whole "Revenge" theme would be ruined if we keep a heroic Big Boss like Peace Walker.

This MGS will be probably the darkest of the saga and it would be a bit strange to have a hero who isn't dark and gloomy. I undertstand, we can have other character flling up the "sinister" part (Skull Face, Kaz or Quiet) but Big Boss still lost his arm, his dream, his men, his base and his "legend" because of XOF.

I don't want him to turn into a Kratos rip off who'll eventually mow down several XOF soldiers while screaming in all his shirtless rage. No. But I want him to be focused on his revenge. If Kojima want a good Big Boss (and god know it wouldn't fit with the game's theme). He'll make him realize his errors near the end of the game.

To be honest, I doubt it would matter much if the theme is ruined or if Big Boss's character is ruined. Kojima basically ruined Solid Snake's characterization in MGS1 by inserting implications from both enemies and even allies that Snake was a psychopathic killer, despite MG2 stating that he loved life. That as well as his still acting like someone who was mentally damaged from war in MG2 as if he didn't develop at all, even when MG2 implied that he had been cured of that problem ("My nightmares are gone, Colonel. I'm a free man now."), so might as well watch things get ruined anyways.

Besides, technically the main theme of the game is race, not revenge, since that's what Kojima is focusing on most. I suspect, though its not confirmed, that Kojima might be distancing the revenge theme from the race theme because revenge was already used by Metal Gear Rising. I'll be honest and say that while that was getting hammered on our heads in MGS1, I think it's a little too quick to say that Kojima "ruined" Solid Snake's characterization due to all the psychopathic implications. MGS is pretty anti-conflict despite what the games are about and that seemed more like a continuous jab at the player and an attempt at some meta-writing on Kojima's part. By MGS4 we already see the reason for it, Snake has become so unfazed by it all. He's seen so much, and he just does what he does with no hesitation as time kept going. Despite all of that, we know that Snake desired to just live a happy life by the end of MGS4, and as many times as enemies and allies questioned him as a "killer" in MGS1 and arguably even MGS2 (Raiden's question on Snake's views about killing), Snake has always been one to act on the contrary. The only notable aspect regarding his views on it is that as time moved on, he just got so densitized by it all (hence his initial pessimism/nihilism in MGS4 beyond the aging process, and we all know how that turned out after he couldn't kill himself and actually happily lived the rest of his days).

While the Metal Gear series does indeed go all meta in the story at times, I doubt the frequent references to Solid Snake being a psychopathic killer in MGS by allies and enemies, even by himself at one point was intended to be such. Heck, Liquid Snake's "You [Solid Snake] enjoy all the killing" speech to Solid Snake aboard REX even had a flashback scene showing Snake killing some Genome soldiers in The Twin Snakes. Not to mention unlike other instances of meta-stuff, when characters such as Naomi and the others are talking Snake actually acts as though they were talking to him, and there's not a single hint at a fourth wall in those instances, either (Otherwise, both Psycho Mantis and Liquid Snake would directly acknowledge the player's role similar to how Pyro Bison did in Ghost Babel [ie, either give a specific number of any enemies they had killed by that point or simply saying a different word that would imply a greater or smaller amount].).