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It perplexes me that all the other Winds have their motivations and reasoning aknowledged and analyzed, meanwhile Sundowner's gets habitually reduced to just "when you kill civilians lmao". I mean, it IS funny, the man is the embodiment of the incoming ham trope, after all.

Mistral and Monsoon have incredibly tragic backstories and Sundowner technically doesn't. It's not tragic on account of him being... well, no explanation needed, but it is still quite fucked nonetheless.

He had a basic bitch childhood compared to his squadmates. Poverty sucks no matter where you are, but it's nothing compared to the absolute horrorshow the other two went through. Instead, I think the formative experience that really created the monster that is Sundowner came way later in his life.

Lemme quote Kevin here: "Anyway, an IED put him out of action for a few years, but then cyborg tech brought him outta retirement." Nice and casual, easy to pass over, Sundowner himself doesn't even talk of it at all, as compared to Mistral and Monsoon who explain their past with appropriate gravitas.

But I'll give it a bit (a lot) more attention because I think it's the definitive thing that made Sundowner who he is by the time we see him. So what did exactly happen to force him out of the battlefield? If you're not squeamish, proceed to put in "dismounted complex blast injury" in your search bar and navigate to the image tab. If you don't feel like ruining your evening, which I wouldn't blame you for, I'll describe somewhat briefly. It's highly likely he lost both legs, and nearly as likely sustained massive injuries to the pelvis as it's the typical scenario. Not a small chance that he had either one or both arms ruined as well.

That covers "put him out of action" part of the quote, now I must highlight another important bit - "for a few years". You don't normally say "a few years" unless it's at the very least three. So by the end of it what we have is Sundowner, hopelessly disfigured and helpless, left to stew in his misery for years.

For a man who lives and breathes battle like him, it must have been a living nightmare, the absolute worst possible scenario in which his career could have ended in his eyes - left to slowly rot away while being pitied. And it is stated in one of the optional CODECs that disability pay outs are a joke, so it's a pitiful existence even on the financial front. I bet he wished that explosion actually just killed him right then and there.

Is it any wonder then that Sundowner glorifies war as much as he does? He's spent his entire life in it, it has given him the feeling of control he lacked initially, money, plenty of opportunities for power trips, and a home away from home. The two periods of life he was a civilian are marked by a feeling of powerlessness, and his time fighting - a feeling of power.

And it's just war itself he glorifies, too, not any pretty reasoning for it like "freedom" or justice, which I think is important. May be an odd opinion, but I think the guy is the opposite of a patriot of his county, which is pretty amusing considering the extremely stereotypical southern accent. It's even in several aspects of his design, as well. He's a full blooded American, but his body is designed to resemble a Japanese shogun, he fights in a Chinese sword fighting style, his song title is "Red Sun". Just one of these would be a fun detail, two - a curious coincidence, and three is just piling it on in my opinion. Compare and contrast with the other two 'murrican characters - Armstrong and Khamsin which have nothing mixed in that would contradict their national identity.

And aside from these "hints", he straight up celebrates the worst terrorist attack in American history. And a curious detail. His quote: "Demand for PMC's is about to skyrocket. Like the good ol' days after 9/11!". Assuming in mgs universe it happened in 2001, Sundowner wasn't in a PMC to really feel these "good ol' days" himself, as he only became a merc in 2008.

He may have been a lot like Khamsin prior to the injury actually, dressing up his sadism and bloodlust under the guise of some higher purpose. But after getting chewed up and spat out by the machine he'd have a lot of time to ruminate on why exactly he did what he did and wanted what he wanted. At least three years to have an epiphany on inherent human cruelty. An accurate observation in my opinion, but he chose the absolute worst route by believing that it should be embraced rather than fought.

Why better yourself when you can justify your shortcomings as just following an instinct? It's pretty pathetic when you think of it.

But yeah, I think there is an interesting character hiding under all the ham. He's just not very talkative about it unlike his colleagues. Interesting and utterly monstrous. He does have some positive traits though, two in fact - it's them juicy thighs.

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Found what she was looking for

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Accurate.

Just because the material is metal doesn't mean those aren't adorable over knee socks

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Assorted stuffs

So you know how both Mistral and Sundowner are shown to be gleefully sadistic? Yeah.

I like the idea of them being atrocious together

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I play this game for the plot.

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Oh how I wish we got to see the Winds interact with each other more

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I'm very respectful again

Lmao

But yes, if tripods can crawl on walls and ceilings, then Mistral should be able to as well. Like some sort of horrific house centipede creature

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Just so you know exactly what to expect from me on this blog.

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Can I just point it out that he technically has thigh highs on?

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I'm incredibly respectful, you see

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