Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-166.137.88.23-20130610185107/@comment-1971498-20130623011232

80.75.99.120 wrote: I don't ignore Ocelot's importance as the character. I just think Liquid more fit to be Snake's personal nemesis. They're previous connection has made Liquid and Snake sort of natural enimies, which also mirrors the relationship Zero and Big Boss have, where as Ocelot and Snake don't really have much of a reason to think each other as enemies. Only reason Ocelot ever really seems to fight against Snake is that he's working on side of someone who sees Snake as an enemy. In MGS4 as far as Liquid Ocelot's goal goes, he and Snake could be on same side. The only reason for their final fight is Liquid and Snake's personal quarrel, but on Ocelot's part that fight really had not much of a reason.

Also Ocelot's role as a "wildcard" is exactly the reason why I said him being more of Boba Fett than Darth Vader. IMO he's better as guy who plays from sidelines with who he feels like and when it suits his personal intresses. Becoming a main villain would reguire him to step on the frontline and in my oppinion that doesn't really suit Ocelot. He has undeniably important influense on the events in the series, but never really as a main player but more as a guy whose always alongside them. But that's what makes it far more interesting and doubly sad in the end. Ocelot, who had been manipulating the events in the background and barely built any longstanding connections with the cast of protagonists in the new era, finally settles the score he never finished with Snake since MGS1, who he was essentially testing back then based on his knowledge of him being a clone of Big Boss. The fact that it took a fake Liquid to bridge these two just shows how much they barely understood each other despite essentially being at each other's necks, and settling it through a fistfight (that mirrored BOTH Liquid vs Solid, and Big Boss vs Ocelot) was the best way, heck the ONLY way they could even recognize and acknowledge each other.

And as for being a wild card? Really? Bob Fett was more like a glorified dark-horse henchmen that got offed in the sidelines (by a blind guy at that). Ocelot is one of the biggest manipulators in the MGS universe, far from being the guy "whose always alongside" the main players of the series. MGS3 proved that he could still manipulate in the shadows while actually being in the forefront. He IS a main player and it makes the revelation that he wasn't actually Liquid that much sweeter, showing how even till the end, he played everyone like a violin making people think he was just Liquid Snake back from the dead. The guy had every incentive to want to helm himself as a "Snake", enjoying himself while he was at it too, and yet barely anyone ever knew aside from Snake, Naomi and Big Boss. I was surprised at the retcon myself, but after a while, I could never ever picture Liquid Ocelot being truly Liquid, especially in retrospect and in light of how he acts in comparison to the old Liquid. Liquid was calm, calculating, arrogant yes, but not ridiculously over-the-top and borderline child-like like Ocelot ever was (re-watch and compare MGS1 and MGS4, there's huge difference in the way they both talk, yet his childlike behaviour was closer to Ocelot's antics in MGS3). In the end, beyond his use of expressions such as "brother" or "father", Liquid Ocelot practically acted more like Ocelot than Liquid Snake. Liquid hated Big Boss, Ocelot idolized the guy to the point of trying to match and even copy almost everything that he did...

"Cigars, father's favorite..."

"You think you're Big Boss now?"

"Guilty as charged!"

So yeah, "cats do love to play as snakes", and that about sums it up.