#i wanted to look through mgs3 first because it’s my favourite

[mirrorhouse]

i bought the jp mgs1-3 scenario books a while ago and i’ve been skimming through a little and jumping around and translating very slowly, so here are some (maybe not that interesting to anyone else) notes from the torture segment of mgs3

when volgin grabs disguised snake’s crotch, he realises the “size” is wrong compared to raikov

volgin is apparently obsessed with japan

standing outside the room where snake is being attacked, the look on ocelot’s face is “resentful”

when the boss leaves, in the original script she and ocelot make eye contact and he looks away. in the game, she can’t look him in the eye and walks off to avoid him

in the script, the bag is not taken off snake’s head, and the boss only tears a section to expose the eye she’s meant to cut out

the boss slapping ocelot wasn’t in the script at all

instead of shooting snake in the leg with the fake death pill, she was originally going to shoot him in the side

i never realised this (maybe i’m just not observant enough and this is obvious): when the boss gets close to snake and her mouth is moving, she’s mouthing the cell door frequency number to snake so he can escape

[heskynn]

Skullface and Volgin rant no one asked for, least of all me, but it was in my head when I woke up this morning so fuck it.

Content warning: torture and rape mention

Like I don’t think saying SKullface was a bit of a wet blanket of a MGS villain is an #unpopular opinion or anything right? And it’s sad to me cos... He could have been good but it’s like someone was reading the script backwards?

Compare to Volgin who is a++ one of my favourite antagonists. His motivation isn’t even that strong, tbh other than ‘be in control’ I can’t even really remember his motivation and I’ve played that game so many fucking times. Like whatever it is, it doesn’t MATTER he’s just a nasty bastard with Goals that involve money and a tank with a rocket engine, you don’t need more.

And like

Volgin scared me. He still does tbh I’m just more used to him. But he scared me enough that The Man on Fire still freaks me out and makes me want to run and hide. He’s an effective antagonist, sure he’s not gonna work for everyone but a good antagonist is one of the reasons MGS3 works so well.

He’s ramped up steadily and slowly throughout the game and he’s human.

You KNOW he’s a total arsehole, basically irredeemable, he’s been behind massacres and you know he thinks about it while he brushes his teeth so he grins nice and big and can get to the back. He’s a confirmed repeat rapist and sadist, he tortures people to death cos he just... forgets what he was supposed to be doing. He’s angry and temperamental and self indulgent and all around an awful human being. BUT he also seems to legitimately care about Raikov and gets upset when Raikov is hurt and tbh I’d put money on Raikov not even giving a shit about Volgin, it’s just a way to be safe and get what he wants, and even while looking forward to Volgin’s death in game, I’m STILL capable of sympathising with that fact. Because awful or not he still reads as human, with human flaws and needs and drives.

And he’s scary because of the way he’s built up.

When you first meet him he’s just a big strong guy, who’s just been given a nuke, can apparently generate electricity from his hands and will kill you just for seeing his face. He’s obvious enough as a threat to make you wary, but weird enough to be a mystery, the whole killing you there and then thing Makes Sense but its also callous since he obvs doesn’t give a shit about you and doesn’t hesitate about writing someone off. Oh and you have the whole Kuwabara thing, which even if you don’t understand it is obviously a superstitious behaviour. So there you have the knowledge that he’s also inclined to reading into things that may or may not be there, you don’t KNOW if he’s got a good reason for being superstitious, if it applies to anything else, you just know it’s weird and unknown and WTF is this guy?

And it sloooowly builds up.

You see him as an angry potential threat to others. Then you see he’s willing to kill people in violent nasty ways instead of interrogating them like he was supposed to be. And since it’s a bit of a toss of the coin first time through as to if you’re gonna be more or less inclined towards Ocelot or EVA you’re made to be concerned about Both of them in that scene. Then you see that even unbound Snake can’t do shit and Volgin beats him to a pulp, cos you knocked out/killed Ivan, and you’ve JUST seen what he did to Granin, you find yourself in Granin’s place! And Sokolov was just “killed” out of sight. Only then it gets defused, kinda, and all the violence that was aimed at Grainin and that you were expecting to be aimed at you is now being taken off screen and is some disturbing Unknown. It feels like you just missed a bullet... No pun intended.

Then you have to face him again, you’re still injured and now you KNOW what he can do to you, and you’re stuck in this small claustrophobic place with this giant of a man who wants nothing more than to smash your face in because you hurt his boyfriend LET ALONE EVERYTHING ELSE

You get the catharsis of defeating him after all the shit he’s done, and it’s not a particularly easy fight first time through or non-lethal. You get a breather with EVA and then THE FUCKER COMES BACK, even more pissed off and with a TANK and it’s just

fuck

me

and there’s NOTHING you can do against this thing, like it’s really driven home that you can’t do shit but run, and that chase through the base is really well done imo, the Shagohod is pretty freaky, I love Sahelanthropus’ animations and movement but it’s no where near as flat out intimidating as a giant angry crab with rocket engines.

You think you blew it up, but ffffucking likely, but it’s not all bad, it’s an Oh Shit moment but it’s got hope, you’VE DAMAGED IT, he’s a Real Threat, you know by this point what he’s capable of, he’s also in a rage and has a (smaller) tank, he’s after your blood but okay. There’s a chance. Only like... He’s not scary as a threat to Snake anymore, but by this point you’re supposed to have bonded with EVA so SHE’S in the firing line instead and Snake’s got to defend this stand-in for The Boss only a short while before he then has to go KILL THE BOSS! It’s a really good line up, it keeps you on your toes, it keeps Volgin scary and feeling like a threat!

But then like

fucking Skullface

okay so I like his death scene I’ll give them that right off the bat, it doesn’t feel Right because he just... dies... it’s so unceremonious, no lead up, no big fight, just dies, but then you’re supposed to feel like Kaz, like this isn’t over, you’re still looking for someone to fight because your brain just goes “wut? that’s it?” and so you keep fighting even though there’s no Point to fighting any more. So yeah. I like that. It’s unsatisfying but I feel like it was done very intentionally and it worked. Unlike the unsatisfying non-ending to the game as a whole.

But other than that... what am I supposed to get from this guy?

Like I don’t remember much of Volgin’s motivation cos it didn’t really matter, you still felt like HE knew what his motivations were. Skullface is... idk it’s too obvious you’re Supposed to feel sympathy but you just don’t? So you didn’t have much of a sense of your origin? Your country and people and language were taken away from you? Congratu-fucking-lations, you and most of the rest of the cast in this series? What makes me want to care about YOUR problems more than say... Anyone else’s?

So like he’s supposed to be a future-image of Big Boss? This’ll be what’ll happen to you if you don’t change your path? Like okay first of all, it’s REALLY on the nose. I don’t usually mind the obvious, and I’d be okay with “look at my burnt face this will LITERALLY be you” but there’s nothing subtle to back it up, this might be because he’s dealing more with Venom and there... Doesn’t seem to be much reason for it? In the hospital he seems so INTO killing Big Boss/Ahab, but then he gets Snake in Sahelanthropus’ grasp and just... doesn’t do fuck all with him? Like why? Why does he go from “KILL DEATH KILL” to “eh fuck it”, is he aware that Venom isn’t Big Boss Mk1? (tbh I’m still suspicious that Ocelot was in communication with him sooooo maybe he knows more than he lets on) but then he sends Quiet out with instructions to kill Venom? MAKE UP YOUR MIND!? And then he does it again and seems more interested in talking than anything else? No only are Skully’s motivations weak when he’s basically sharing them with half the cast, but he doesn’t even seem to consider his own motivations all that motivating cos he sure can’t figure out what he wants to do with Venom.

And WHY does he want anything to do with Venom? Does he? Going after BB to stir things up between him and Zero and grab power for himself made sense, but then he could have just left BB/Ahab alone. BIG BOSS DOES NOT GO AFTER SKULLFACE. Even if Ocelot makes him aware of all the shit that went down, he obviously has other interests, like sure he’s probably content to leave it to the other three, but Skullface shouldn’t know about that. Skullface should be concerned that Big Boss is out there “somewhere” and might very well want revenge AS WELL AS Venom Snake. Like okay he doesn’t know there’s two... so...??? Why doesn’t he seem to care about Venom 50% of the time? Why does he act sometimes like “I need to kill Snake, or he’ll come after me and stop me.” and sometimes acts like “I want Snake alive to see all this because Reasons.” Since he and Snake don’t have any kind of deep bond going back in time? Liquid Ocelot did the same thing with Solid Snake, but that made SENSE: The Liquid part wanted Snake dead, the Ocelot part needed him alive, they had history.

Skullface is like a weird stalker who’s under the impression that just watching Snake from a distance means they did shit together and have history.

It’s so hard to get a grasp on what he wants from you, or anyone else, that it’s impossible to be intimidated. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be intimidated BY.

And couple that with his pacing...

He’s so BACKWARDS

So the last “bad things” he does involves making a vague allusion that SOMEONE has the 3rd vial of English triggered Parasite, which would be threatening if it came to anything. If you have Quiet with you it’s... kind of believable that she took it, that Skully was still under the impression she was his spy, but then she leaves with it. Since you know she can’t (easily/normally) be infectious to other people even if she does start talking. But as has been kindly pointed out to me, Skullface claims that it’s ‘close to Snake’ even if you kill Quiet. And Mantis steals the second of the three so it’s not that one. Again: Ocelot???? He’s the only person with a history of taking these WMD and keeping quiet about it anyway. So like... okay yeah that ramps you up to be afraid of Something but then nothing comes of it anyway. For all we know he just sticks the 3rd vial in Snake’s pocket for the lawls.

Other than that he... what? Threatens Huey, who’s (physically) just fine, and once pushes him down the stairs which leaves him bruised but okay.

He’s just not threatening? And he should be! We’re INTRODUCED TO HIM as a guy who implements gang rape as part of his torture, he jammed a bomb into someone’s birth canal ffs. He’s introduced in a REALLY disturbing way (depending on you as a person I guess what happened to Paz -v- The Devils House is more or less disturbing than the other, I found the Devil’s House really creepy but what happened to Paz far more disturbing), but then it’s just continuously toned down.

That would be like introducing MGS3 with the battle against the Shagohod and Volgin, and ending with him wandering off screen muttering about mulberry bushes. Mulberry bushes aren’t scary when they follow the Shagohod. Pushing Huey down a flight of stairs and talking a lot about... something... isn’t scary when it follows Paz’s torture.

And didn’t you learn from MGS2? Making your player sit through Long Exposition isn’t a good way to get the antagonist’s idea across to people.

Skullface could have been great. He SHOULD have been.

First of all, they shouldn’t have introduced him/leaked him ahead of time. The first time you hear ANYTHING about him should be those two guys discussing if he was dressed as a Republican or a cowboy. Firstly it’s as weird and amusing as “Kuwabura Kuwabura”, secondly it immediately set you up to think “There’s a cowboy torturer around here, oh god this is going to get weird isn’t it?” Because it would have been hella cool to have you/Big Boss immediately expect Ocelot, to think THIS is where the old friends meet up again. And will they still be friends? HELL even make SNAKE mention it. Have him call Kaz like: I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Fuck the silent-protag shit, it doesn’t work in this setting. I want to know if Snake is freaked out that he’s just potentially encountered his old friend doing some Really Fucked Up Shit. Then give you a moment of relief when Oh okay it’s not Ocelot but IT’S SOMEONE WORSE. Like we all know already that Ocelot is capable of being a horrible human being when he wants to be, he’s a perfectly good antagonist on his own, let him build up the hype then reveal that it’s someone else. 

Honestly, even seeing Skullface around, I was still able to pull myself up short and question if I was actually dealing with Ocelot in camp Omega, if it had been played up more and the Big Bad not revealed straight away then it could have been way more eerie. And the thing is, you’ve got this silent protag idea going on, but Skullface is revealed only to the audience, not to Snake, you don’t get introduced to him at the same time in a photo etc... in a briefing. So you never feel like you’re on the same page as Snake just because he’s not talking about things.

Following up on that... If you really MUST do that shit to Paz, then hold back on revealing what he did. Like I get with making GZ a stand alone component to the series that would be a bit awkward, but you can say she was tortured without explicitly saying how. You can hide the cause of the explosion better etc... Reveal all of that LATE in TPP. All we needed to know early on was that Skullface did SOMETHING bad, that would have been enough, leave the really grotesque details for when we’re getting used to him and need to spice things back up again.

Having Skullface as a glimpse into Snake’s future is also pretty cool, but man... You really need to sympathise more with his story for that to work. Like... I don’t get Skullface’s motivation. He lost his mother tongue so he’s going to... stop people speaking... English? Plus giant robot for reasons. Not even the most commonly spoken language? It’s so... weak... Like I just don’t buy it, and I can buy into a old man turning himself into his douche nephew for the sake of a half naked battle on top of a submarine. Snake has similar motivations, a sense that he has no home but his resultant ideas make sense. “I don’t have a home, I feel used and abused as a soldier, I’m going to set up a home for soldiers who feel like me.” Coupled with his trauma and paranoia etc... leading to him becoming increasingly aggressive and glorifying war itself until it became a giant shit fest, but you can UNDERSTAND IT. Skullface??? I just... Don’t get it. Snake repeats the trauma done to him because he doesn’t understand the cycle and he legitimately thinks he’s introducing people to something good, right up until he can’t believe that anymore because everyone keeps fucking dying, and if his ‘good’ ideas are killing all the people they were supposed to be helping, they can’t be very good. Skullface is just a dick being a dick cos he was dicked over. He’s AWARE what happened to him was terrible, so he’s deliberately trying to do it again to other people, but worse. At least that’s how I understand it, I still struggle to remember what he was doing.

While “a bad character being bad because they’re bad” isn’t BAD per se, it does kind of suck if they’re supposed to be a reflection of a character who’s bad because they’ve been messed up beyond all reason, not because they’re an inherently nasty person. I don’t see Skullface as Big Boss’ future, I see I’m SUPPOSED to feel that way, but I just don’t. Even if Skullface HAS gone through the same development as Big Boss, we’ve had 20 years worth of his life displayed to us, for us to see what he’s gone through, how it’s effected him and why it caused his decent into being the Big Boss of Outer Heaven that you set on fire in MG2. With Skully you’re just told “that’s how it is” and expected to feel something about it. I feel the same away about Raiden a lot of the time tbh, we’re shown in MG, MG2 and MGS how Snake’s been effected, Raiden just acts like a stroppy kid, screams about gunpowder and we’re TOLD he’s suffered, but we don’t even really see it. And he still reacts 100x worse than Snake did, which would be understandable if it didn’t come across as douchey. Though it’s not done anywhere nearly as badly with Raiden, so he does actually have plenty of fans, I’m just not one of them.

I just???

Ugh

he could have been such a good villain, he could have been a really despicable scary hateful character, he could have been a really good warning for Snake. I could have come away thinking “man, it’s a shame John wasn’t the one there, because he could have really done with a fucking wake up call”.

But I was just left wonder why I was supposed to care about this guy.

And just

ugh.

UGH.