#metal gear solid 2 spoilers

[bossblind]

not sure how i feel about the mgs2 screenshots i took so have a raiden selfie (?) with the coolant in the bathroom to celebrate me finishing it

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

On one hand, finally seeing MGS2 in its entirety has really solidified my opinions on Kojima's writing (he's a story maximalist holy shit) in that its very indulgent and what not, and the second to last boss fight is a really good example of that

But holy shit does that set piece not kick absolute ass. Still one of the coolest fucking set pieces in gaming history. Yes Mister Kojima I would love to fight 20 Metal Gear RAYs with a Stinger missile launcher and a katana on the back of Arsenal Gear, please and thank you

[outoftoucherlocksholmes]

haha what a good game i'm dealing with so much psychological damage now actually

[wowwforever]

if there's one relationship i wish they expanded upon in metal gear solid it'd be Raiden and Otacon

at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, your codec screen looks like this:

what this doesn't tell you is that most of the people you call on the codec screen are fucking dead, and two of them are robots that have been gaslighting you the entire time. snake is there too, but by this point in the game he just jumped into the fucking atlantic ocean chasing after a robot piloted by a russian cowboy possessed by his solid snake's dead brother because Metal Gear Solid 2 is the best game ever made.

The only one left is Otacon.

Otacon is the only guy who will give you advice in the final boss fight, and most of it is pretty damn good. He's very helpful considering he just watched his best friend probably die and his sister definitely die in the span of maybe a day.

I think Raiden and Otacon would be very good friends after this. Hell, they kind of are in Metal Gear Rising - Raiden hangs out with Sunny and says "Hey your dad is kind of hot why is he still single"

I'd play a game where there's no Snake at all and it's just Otacon and Raiden taking charge of some mission. I'd love to see these two together more often, just two nerds saving the world.

[klaxonsynth]

when the snake is solid‼️

[solidssnakeass]

Otacon: You mean I'd only get in your way... (Feeling bitter about his helplessness)

Snake: Wrong. Only you can save those hostages. Got it?

Gripping Otacon by the shoulders, Snake reassures him. Smiling, Otacon nods his head.

[cyber3000punk]

[myaoiboy]

Rating All The Metal Gears By Hotness

No, not the characters. Yes, literally the Metal Gears. If I forgot any, let me know.

Metal Gear TX-55 - 4/10

This is just a lil guy. A friend, even. Reminiscent of a gonk droid from Star Wars. Sucks that he was made to do murdering. I can see where someone would find appeal, but not really for me.

Metal Gear D - 6/10

This one I can see. He got some depth to him. Kinda shiny. More smooth, less boxy. Kind of insectoid. In most franchises this would be like an 8, but it gets knocked down because of what comes later being so much sexier.

Also can I say that MG2's spriting? Mwah. Chef's kiss. So pretty. Didn't even read the intro the first time I started it up bc I was marveling at the pretty spritework. I fucking love good spritework, just find it so much more satisfying than equivalent-quality 3D art.

Metal Gear G - 2/10

Never actually completed or seen in game. Was supposed to be a smaller, mass produced version of D. Kinda sexy, loses points for being so fictional that it's only theoretical even in the games.

Metal Gear REX - 7/10

OOOO YEAH, NOW WE'RE TALKIN'!! SHINKAWA ERA BAYBEY!!! Man's got impeccable taste. He could make a literal slab of titanium look inviting.

Rex is not the sexiest Metal Gear to me, partly bc Otacon treats it like a son or a pet dog and I find a 25-yo's son-analogue to be offputting. BUT. I must concede. REX is the blueprint for all the sexy traits to come. He's got the hips. He's got the saunter. He's just a lil too brutalist for me.

Metal Gear RAY - 11/10

I know I have psychological problems because this thing's childbearing hips and murderous mandibles distract me during the boss fight.

Why is it so sexy?? What the fuck?? It's like mecha furrybait but specifically for people who are into garrus mass effect. Please tell me I'm not the only one, I'm pretty sure my boyfriend thinks I'm insane.

Arsenal Gear - 4/10

Basically just an aircraft carrier. I would say not fuckable but it DOES, canonically, have a digestive tract and asshole so like. Technically fuckable I think. But at what cost?

Honorable mention for making me deal with Raiden's daddy issues and fight the sexy mech in this thing's enormous rectum (damn near killed 'em).

Shagohod - 4/10

Not technically a metal gear. I can see the appeal, but it doesn't *quite* nail the drider-esque niche for me. It does get a bonus point for the way it moves being kinda sensual tho. Additional bonus point for being piloted by an evil fa-

Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear - 0/10

literally could not even find an image of this that wasn't completely dwarfed by the Saturn V rocket attached to it. Not really much to look at. If you've always wanted to fuck a Saturn V, I guess this would be a good way to get introduced.

Metal Gear RAXA - 2/10

Somehow managed to capture "first day of kindergarten" energy in a death machine. I could be convinced based on its behavior tho. Damn, Portable Ops kind of an L design-wise, huh?

Gekkos - 9.5/10

WHY DOES IT HAVE SQUISHABLE THIGHS?? SIR???

And the feet. Like, we gotta talk about the feet. Why? Why the toes? Why does it stomp on me with its weirdly well-defined toes??? Did they make this mech specifically to appeal to dinosaur foot fetishists? Why does it bleed? Why does it MOO???

Extremely fuckable to the point that it loses half a point purely because it *feels* like horny bait.

Dwarf Gekkos - 7.5/10

This is an object that feels like it was designed by and for lesbians. I have no notes. Slightly offputting only due to the odd number of hands but it IS the perfect number for some activities, so honestly that may be a plus.

Metal Gear Mk II/III - 1/10

Adorable. Not fuckable. This is a gopro with a personality. Not to be confused with the vampiric gopro with a personality from Ultrakill, V1. Literally just a baby.

Outer Haven - 5.5/10

Only technically a Metal Gear by virtue of technically being a stolen Arsenal Gear which is technically a Metal Gear. Gains .25 each for being the site of the infamous russian tuant

and whatever fucked up display of devoted homosexuality this is:

also additional bonus point for being piloted by an evil fa-

Pupa - 3/10

This is just the Shagohod but with an AI pod. -1 for being touched by Huey, but balanced out by the +1 from being made by Strangelove. Even if it IS creepy that she made her dead crush/girlfriend's psyche pilot it around.

Crysalis - 6/10

Not super sexy but it does fly and has a rail gun where one could feasibly conceptualize a dick. Kinda MILF-like (has mini-drones). Has a grappling hook, so could do bondage. Probably would, ngl.

Cocoon - 1/10

Pupa, but less sexy. I barely even remember this boss fight because the game became such a rush right around here, pushing you to the postgame/first ending.

Peace Walker - 7/10

Weird dog, functioning by sheer lesbian willpower. She is beauty, she is grace, she would probably rate a lot higher if my emulator didn't suck ass and make me angry every time I see her now, fuck that bitch.

Rage aside, who doesn't love killing their momgirlfriend and then reliving that multiple times throughout the course of a single game, culminating in her just straight up pulling a Virginia Woolf.

Metal Gear Zeke - 6/10

Really just nothing that special. Okay, wait, +2 for being piloted by an evil little girl in her panties for some fucking reason.

Also +1 for the sick ass boss fight.

Walker Gear(s) - 8/10

HERE we go!!! Hell Yeah Babey!!! Basically human sized! Has lil Fuckin' Roller Skates!!! Carries My Ammo! My Best Friend! (Okay, third best friend, after Quiet and DD)

Yeah Huey developed it but it gets WAY more bonus points for letting me manhandle him.

Sahelanthropus - 7/10

I can't deny the raw sex appeal of Sahelanthropus. Also, it's literally piloted by pubescent rage which is something I deeply resonate with ngl.

HOWEVER it DOES get docked points for uhhh

-getting strangelove killed

-making baby otacon a child soldier

-huey :/

Battle Gear - 0/10

Is there even a single frame of this entire thing? Especially without Huey??

negative 1 billion points for blue balling me in the late game, i want to ride this motherfucker right into the kgb outposts and let 'em have it for what they did to babygirl

[spoilerbracket]

Round 2: Bracket 2, #1

Thanks to countless minutes of research, I've learned that the mullet and eye patch combo are the characteristic traits of a Boss (probably), a sub-type of Snake. Meanwhile, the tournament's remaining Darth has a purple lightsaber, a clear sign of being one of the OCs I made when I was nine.

If you'd like to confirm who you're voting for, the characters' names are listed below the cut. Keep in mind that given the nature of this tournament, there may be, well, spoilers.

Left/first option: Darth Revan (Knights of the Old Republic)

Right/second option: Venom Snake (Metal Gear Solid V)

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown preliminaries

Propaganda:

For Kazuma Asogi:

ok so he’s not CANONICALLY queer but it’s ace attorney. so… he does, however, canonically have a katana! a sword so integral to the plot it gives me shivers just thinking about it. the sword also has a name, it’s karuma (translates roughly to karma) and it gets passed onto the main character, ryunosuke naruhodo (who he calls partner), after kazuma (spoiler alert) dies in case 1-2. except (SUPER spoiler alert!) he isn’t dead! he comes back in case 2-3 and would you look at that he has ANOTHER SWORD, a more european sword (cause he ended up in england after his amnesia brain said he REALLY had to go to england). once he gets his memories back, ryunosuke gives karuma back to him and proceeds to use it to destroy the wax figure of his dead presumed serial killer dad (long story), and now he has, you guessed it, TWO SWORDS! for the next two cases he wears both swords at his sides, and also he broke the tip off of karuma attempting to murder someone (he didn’t actually murder anyone but still) and then turns out karuma’s hilt has the REAL serial killer’s will in it. very VERY important sword. in the end, kazuma gives karuma back to ryunosuke which is really symbolic but that’s besides the point, and they cross swords and it’s a whole big thing. 10/10 gay sword guy.

For Raiden:

Man catches knives with his heels and uses a sword to cut through robots 20 times his size

He's such a tragic character! Raised to be a super soldier from birth and is constantly being exploited by the government. As for the lgbt part him and his rival in the latest game he's in have so much tension it's unreal (gay). I headcanon him as trans too because he has a feminine figure, his voice gets more masculine as the series goes on (testosterone) and his entire body gets replaced with cybernetics (trans allegory...)

For Claudine Saijou:

Fights with a longsword! Should be number 1 for this line alone: “For heroes, there are trials. For saints, there are temptations. For me, there is you”, said to def not her girl crush but rival btw (stream Revue of Soul) Vote for my disaster theatre kid its what she deserves!

Her gay levels are off the charts. She has a homoerotic rivalry with another classmate (Maya Tendo/Tendou Maya) that is integral to her character, as she was always first until she met Maya. She’s also half-French, but that’ll be important later. When she’s looking at pictures of Maya stretching (to study her form of course) and another character asks her what she’s looking at, she panics, blushes, and says none of your business. Her and Maya have a heartfelt conversation while stretching with Claudine’s face pressed into Maya’s chest (between her stomach and breasts). Some art from a magazine has Maya pushing Claudine into a deep stretch, but it looks like something a lot different (Claudine blushing doesn’t help. Also I realized that there’s a lot of gay stuff related to stretching with these two).

During a two on two duel (I know it’s not a duel), they fight together. Not only that, but at one point they hold hands and take a pose typical of romantic partners in dancing. For no reason. They just pause and do it to show off. They aren’t even fighting. Anyways, when they lose, Claudine starts crying, not because she lost, but because Maya lost. So, of course, Maya starts speaking to her in French, with one of the things she says being “You’re cute even when you cry, my Claudine.” All of this is stuff that’s happened in the series (except the magazine thing).

Now for the gay stuff in the movie. Their duel with each other is so dense with sapphic undertones they can hardly be called undertones. For starters, the song that accompanies this revue is called “A Beautiful Person, or Perhaps it is.” While this title is incomplete, the director states that he wanted the watcher to fill it in and this removed the end of the original title. That title is “A Beautiful Person, or Perhaps it is a Love Song.” The duel is framed as a fight between a hero (Maya) and a devil (Claudine). Maya is in an outfit reminiscent of Renaissance Italy and Claudine is in a suit. Thus, Maya signs a contract giving her soul over to Claudine, as is the case with marriage. With her own blood, in the shape of Position Zero (an important symbol in the show), which happens to look like a T, for Tendou. After a few minutes of fighting, Maya disappears and monologues, appearing in a white dress. This means that Maya has signed her soul over to Claudine, and they are now both wearing a white dress and suit. Not beating the gay marriage allegations. Maya finished her monologue with “For heroes, there are trials. For saints, there are temptations. For me, there is a devil.” They continue to fight, Maya proclaiming herself emotionless and empty. Maya then cuts the medallion from Claudine’s chest (they wear medallions and you lose the duel if it gets cut off).

Claudine falls. Maya attempts to claim victory by stabbing her sword into Position Zero, which is then covered by steel doors. Claudine sits up and reveals she has another medallion in her mouth, which she does by sticking out her tongue in a uhhhh. Anyways, after a bit of back and forth, Claudine tells Maya that she’s full of arrogance and pride and envy and longing. She then says that “No matter how many times I die, I will revive! Tendou Maya! To beat you, my rival, into submission!” She then makes her stage entrance, taking Maya’s usual entrance speech and mocking it. She also says “I fill myself with exploding passion, now, and bash it into your heart!” After some talking, Maya makes her stage entrance, taking Claudine’s usual entrance speech and mocking it. Up until now, they have been playing characters, but still letting their own emotions shine through. Now, they are entirely themselves.

They begin to fight again, running downs white aisle before clashing swords, with Maya saying “Such an ugly, emotion drenched appearance-“ and is cut off by Claudine, who says “Show me more, Tendou Maya! Right now, you’re the cutest you’ve ever been!” To which Maya responds “I’m always cute!”  The song starts up again (duels are accompanied by songs), with Maya singing “With a grin of deception I’ll tear this piece of cloth.” Deception in Japanese is mayakashi, a reference to Maya’s name. Maya then sings “I want to show you my feelings becoming dyed in black.” Black is Kuro in Japanese. Claudine, in Katakana, is Kurodine, with her nickname being Kuro, so that line could also be interpreted “I want to show you my feelings becoming dyed in you.” Claudine then sings “Only me, always, forever,” before they sing in unison “You only need to look at me,” as they lock blades. Some fighting happens and they’re falling through the sky, holding onto each others clothes and Claudine says “Only I can make you lay everything bare!” To which Maya responds “I’ll expose my everything, on the stage!” Claudine shoots back with “There’s a partner you can expose everything to, on the stage!” At this point, there’s a short time with independent vocals for Maya and Claudine in addition to their talking. Maya has been singing “If I’m on the stage, if I’m in front of you,” for the last two lines of dialogue. Claudine sings “Be it ugly or beautiful,” as Maya sings “I will expose, anything and everything, all of me, all of me.” As this happens, Maya is saying “We love the stage,” which is continued by Claudine saying “And we can’t part from the stage!” Maya calls them both “Pathetic clowns!” To which Claudine corrects “No, rivals!” Maya says “If you’re there, I have to strive higher!” Claudine says “You make me even more beautiful! Maya!” Maya then yells “Claudine!” Claudine yells “For heroes, there are trials!” Maya continues “For saints, there are temptations!” Then, as one, their swords crossed, faces inches from each other, yell “For me, there is you!” Over top of this, their voices sing a line in unison: “Forever and ever, I’d like to cross swords with you.”

Claudine’s sword stabs through the contract, through the Position Zero in blood, which may be Maya’s family name, and Maya says as an aside “Saijou Claudine… You are beautiful.” Claudine cuts the medallion from Maya’s chest, finally beating her rival.

[world0fmadness]

⋆ ˚｡⋆ ୨୧ ˚ VIDEO GAMES I THINK SOME OF THE GRID WOULD LIKE ˚ ୨୧ ⋆｡˚ ⋆

i don’t know what this is to be honest! just games i think the grid would like and how they’d play them ^_^ don’t come into my comment section with “ tHeY wOuLdNt CrY aT a ViDeO gAmE ” i have seen the manliest men cry at deaths in games and so many other things, video games are so capable of making you sob your heart out because of how much time you spend with characters and how well the stories are told <3

warning: god of war ragnarök spoilers, life is strange spoilers, red dead redemption 2 spoilers, telltales the walking dead spoilers

FERNANDO ALONSO

god of war - god of war ragnarök

i think he’d be SO into the story and would absolutely shed a tear or two when kratos calls atreus “ son ” for the first time instead of “ boy ”! he’d have the biggest crush on freya ( especially in god of war ragnarök when she has her valkyrie armour on and her wings back )

thinks faye was just an absolute poet and is very tempted to get “ to grieve deeply is to have loved fully ” tattooed on himself ( literally me )

loves angrboda and atreus, he thinks they are adorable, his digital children, cries AGAIN when atreus leaves at the end of god of war ragnarök

thinks all of the valkyries’ designs are GORGEOUS ( because they are ) but please don’t go near him with that sigrun boss fight

SEBASTIAN VETTEL

stardew valley - animal crossing

get this man a nintendo switch and some cozy games as soon as possible, he’d have the cutest animal crossing village and doesn’t go a day without talking to his villagers

LEWIS HAMILTON

red dead redemption 2

his arthur would be so dripped out it’s insane, he loves arthur as character, keeps arthur well fed, fucking hates micah with a passion ( don’t we all ) cries when arthur gets diagnosed with tuberculosis and honestly hates playing the last chapters with arthur because he can’t stand how deathly arthur looks, cries again when he dies but is so glad he was able to help john get out ( don’t tell him about the first game okay? )

thinks charles is the absolute best side character, loves his character, his loyalty, his words, and his backstory! might just get a bison tattoo to honour him… has a little crush on sadie and tilly ^_^

has the same horse throughout the whole game and treats it SO good </3 gets the braided mane and tail, feeds it so good, brushes it constantly… is beyond heartbroken when it dies

listens to unshaken by d’angelo from the soundtrack on the regular

telltale’s the walking dead

played every season when they first released, this franchise has caused this man so much heartbreak… thought lee, luke and kenny were the best characters until clementine was grown up! absolutely adores AJ too <3

had to pause and take a breath when clementine got bit, cried so much, took him right back to the first season with lee and he couldn’t handle it… thinks telltale are horrible people for baiting you like that

CHARLES LECLERC

life is strange - life is strange: before the storm

i can just see him really connecting with chloe in a strange way… absolutely hates nathan but feels a little bad for him at the end, top pricefield shipper, sacrifices arcadia bay every replay ( he sacrificed chloe once just to see and cried for half an hour at the ending )

would probably be so upset at chloe not being in the life is strange: double exposure trailer, wants to know where she is IMMEDIATELY, but is so proud of how grown up max is

toem

i don’t know… i can just see him really liking toem :,3 it’s relaxing

MAX VERSTAPPEN

stray

he plays it on pc, downloads a custom cat mod and makes it a bengal! refuses to show how much he loves it… meows at least one thousand times and scratches every surface when he’s given the option

absolutely bought the b-12 cat toy that annapurna interactive sold for jimmy and sassy

metal gear solid

i just think he’d be so good at stealth… has a HUGE man crush on snake, won’t ever tell anyone ( everyone knows )

GEORGE RUSSELL

L.A. noire

again, i don’t know how to explain this one but he’d play it and suddenly start using so many vintage words and slang and tries to over examine everyone’s body language, looks like a psychopath… would be a bit mad at the ending, wants a sequel

firewatch - everybody’s gone to the rapture

i can see him LOVING walking simulators with amazing stories… he especially likes everybody’s gone to the rapture because of the british village setting ^_^ absolutely loves the soundtrack for it too

OSCAR PIASTRI

devil may cry - gungrave gore

i feel like he’d just go crazy in fast paced games like devil may cry, especially devil may cry 5… is super unimpressed with himself when he gets a low score on a stage :(

had a crush on dante when he was younger, still has a man crush on him ( silver fox dante lovers where are you guys? )

LANDO NORRIS

until dawn - the quarry

i can see him just absolutely LOVING some of the characters ( emma, jessica, sam, ashley, matt, jacob, abigail and laura ) and just absolutely hating others ( josh, mike, emily, nick ) if any of his favourites die he’d probably be incredibly inclined to restart the game! thinks sam is the best character ever

is so good at the QTEs because of his f1 reflexes, it’s unfair

horizon forbidden west

i can just kind of see him geeking the fuck out about robot dinosaurs! he’d probably be hyped for the horizon lego game, wants to play it co op with oscar <3

bought the tallneck lego and built it SO quick, he loves it ^_^ top seyloy shipper and has a huge crush on zoe

[misscammiedawn]

Derealization in Night in the Woods and Metal Gear Solid 2

This post contains discussions and descriptions of severe dissociation that may be triggering to those who experience those symptoms and details themes of abuse, war and alcoholism please be kind to yourself when reading. Full game spoilers for NitW and MGS2.

In my Media, Myself and I series of posts I've been talking about depictions of Dissociative Identity Disorder in media. Highlighting good representation because I think it's easy to tear down what doesn't work, but showing what does is a very teachable moment. Best way to increase understanding and tear down stigma is to show understandable and relatable examples. Even if they're imperfect.

To that end, I wish to take a mild distraction from talking about identity focused symptoms of dissociative disorders and do some posts on elements of dissociation which aren't highlighted as often, particularly not well.

Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder is on the dissociative spectrum and the symptoms are experienced within forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociative Identity DIsorder.

To borrow an info-graphic I utilized in my Hypnosis and Dissociative Disorders essay a while back

Source: Mayo Clinic

The brain processes the world and our association within that connects the concepts of "Me" and the concept of "Reality" and integrates them so we are able to process external reality and express our internal reality.

When we look at our hand we can look at it and understand "this is my hand", the shape of it, the sensation of proprioception, the knowledge that we are able to move it and it will move based on our innate intention. There is no process of "I want to move my hand, I am going to move my hand, my hand is moving" it all happens as part of one seamless process.

A practice within hypnosis for creating a sense of dissociation required for trance states is to have a person look at their hand and turn the phrasing from "my hand" to "that hand". Gradually having a person look at a thing until our brains stop processing it in relation to our surroundings until it "detaches" as a way of temporarily removing critical filters in an effort to lead a person to an altered and suggestible state.

A good example of this one can experience without assistance is to stare into a mirror for an elongated period of time. Our brains are always attempting to process a large amount of information and presents context to you that changes "those images on the mirror's surface" into "my reflection", it's why we are able to feel familiarity as a sense. When we perceive something that activates those associations the relevant information automatically filters in our mind and presents the concepts associated with the stimulus.

If we stare at the same reflection for too long those associations begin to disintegrate and we begin to view them divorced of the contexts we hold for them.

For those who suffer dissociative disorders, this is the root of why someone with DID will not "recognize" their reflection or why a person may not feel familiarity with something/someone they are aware of.

Dissociative amnesia is a topic I wish to cover in a future essay but it is also included in this process. Essentially when we dissociate our minds lose the ability to effectively filter what we are perceiving and relate it to our selves, our memories and our experiences.

Derealization is what happens when that critical filter between the external world and our internal perception breaks down. It's when we are not processing the world as being something we are engaging with. This may present as a disconnection between our perception and our understanding, for example "my hand feels like it's larger than it looks" or it can be a complete disconnect from what is happening in your present reality causing you to feel like you are in a dream. In extreme cases you lose your ability to relate your actions from consequences.

Let me tell you, having this happen while you're behind the wheel of a moving vehicle is terrifying and I hope no one reading this ever has to experience that.

I should also note that these symptoms tend to get dramatically worse the more you focus on them. In my own life, if I have a sensation that parts of my body feel incompatible with my inner perception of them then the vague dysphoria can blossom into full dissociation if I try to examine the feeling in any depth.

For an everyday version of it, think about the sensation of Deja Vu and how it feels like you have already experienced something which is happening in the present. During that state you are dissociated enough from processing your present reality that it "feels" like you've already experienced it, despite the knowledge that you are currently in the moment.

All of this is to give a vague view of what Derealization is and what it feels like.

Today I want to share two pieces of media that include a character overtly experiencing these symptoms and how the fiction displays the character experiencing this internal experience so that an external audience may understand.

Night in the Woods is a 2017 narrative driven adventure game by Infinite Fall. It follows two weeks in the life of Mae Borowski, a 20 year old cat suffering from severe anxiety who has dropped out of college and returned to her childhood home, an impoverished Western Pennsylvania mining town named Possum Springs.

There she moves back in with her parents and reintegrates with the rural community of Possum Springs. She spends time with her childhood friends, talks to the locals and tries to solve the mystery of a severed arm found in town. All while having vivid dreams on a nightly basis and dealing with the an ambient level of judgment from her parents, friends and community over her perceived irresponsibility.

Where Mae is trying to solve the mystery of the severed arm and the secret cult that hides within Possum Springs, the audience has some other mysteries to solve attached to the attitudes of some of the residents. Mae's parents and friends constantly pressure her to explain why she felt it necessary to drop out of college when so much was sacrificed to get her there. There is also "The Incident", a mysterious event in Mae's past, ominously hinted at when Mae's next door neighbor warns...

"No one's forgotten who you are and what you did, you know. Small town polite's all you got, kid."

The player is left in the dark as to the circumstances that paint Mae's reputation in town and throughout the course of the two weeks we begin understanding more about Mae's past, the circumstances behind her return to Possum Springs and the reasons those around her harbor a mild resentment towards her.

There are some potential supernatural elements relating to Mae's dreams and the nature of the cult but I feel it is best to stick to the grounded elements of the plot for the sake of this essay.

The Incident, it is revealed, is that 6 years before the game Mae beat another kid with a softball bat. Seemingly unprovoked. It earned her the nickname "Killer" and shaped much of the way people in the town, including Mae's own parents, view her.

"Why did you beat Andy Cullen?" and "Why did you drop out of school?" are questions people constantly demand of Mae and it forces her to become defensive and prickly to those around her. There's even a sequence involving a heated argument between Mae and her mother when the latter drops her kindness and patience over the matter and demands answers that Mae refuses to give.

To give the game away without fanfare, Mae suffers from extreme dissociation.

She's ashamed of it, afraid of it and the local town doctor, who I will discuss shortly, has no meaningful way of helping her deal with it. Mae is left to journal about her feelings with no meaningful way of understanding her symptoms or preventing them from crippling her. It is not even referred to as dissociation within the plot of the game, though those who are familiar with derealization will recognize it easily.

If you wish to see the conversation where Mae confesses her condition, it is about 4 minutes long and will provide some context, though I will brush over the description if you do not have time/ability to watch and listen.

Mae describes a time when she was playing videogames and felt an intense empathy towards the characters on screen. She felt like she knew them intimately and at a certain point something "broke", she came to understand that the characters she had been so connected with were not real. She was not actually connected with the events happening on screen, it was all a game.

And in understanding that she felt alone and abandoned on her side of the screen and the sensation spread out to the view outside of her window. The trees blowing by in the wind were as fake and distant as the characters in the video game. She had memories and attachments and associations with that tree, but looking at it from her window she could see that it was just a tree. Just an object.

"Just shapes"

This disconnect spread into every aspect of Mae's life and all of the associations she had built between herself and the world around her had vanished and she found herself in a world that she no longer felt attached to in any meaningful way.

"Just like this meaningless bulk of... stuff."

She felt alone. Abandoned. Overwhelmed by the simultaneous enormity and emptiness of everything.

The next day during the softball match she cannot even remember how it happened but she ended up ontop of the mass of shapes that was Andy Cullen and... that was The Incident.

Mae's family lost a lot of money paying off the medical debt for Cullen's family and everyone's attitudes towards her turned cold. She was sent to Dr. Hank for therapy... and this is where I take a break to discuss the causes of dissociative disorders and how badly Mae was let down.

The root causes of DPDR are the same as other dissociative disorders in that extreme abuse, neglect and continued stressful situations cause the mind to put up barriers and break associations to protect the self from harm. To boil a complex idea down to a few words consider the mind saying "This is not happening to me." as a way to prevent pain from an experience.

Where identity based dissociation focuses on the words "to me" and removes the self from the harmful events, derealization focuses on the words "this is not happening" and rejects the events outright, refusing to process the context behind what is happening.

Much of the game's story is told through implication and one must peel back layers in order to get a full story. At first glance Mae may seem like a normal young woman from a rural community in the rust-belt and question what could have been enough for her to develop a dissociative disorder.

First off, don't do that. No one owes anyone a justification for their condition and there is no such thing as "traumatic enough" to be valid for a diagnosis. What a person experiences is what they experience. But Mae is fictional and the core of her character is having an under-treated dissociative disorder. Half the reason I wanted to write this entry was because her depiction of it is deeply relatable and can be used well for teaching what goes into a person developing PTSD and dissociative disorders; most depictions seem content with sexual abuse or violent deaths.

For Mae, it's a lot more subtle and all too human. At least, for a cat in a world of anthropomorphic animals.

Mae's mother, Candy, never went to college and always regretted it. She feels like her life hit a dead end and she has remained in the mining town of Possum Springs decades after its mining industry faded out. She works as a receptionist at the local church, spends all day reading True Crime novels and had a number of miscarriages before finally giving birth to Mae, her "miracle baby".

Mae's father, Stan, was working with the mine when it closed down and has since been bouncing between job to job trying to keep his family afloat, especially after the medical expenses from The Incident, the subsequent remortgaging of the house and Candy's dreams of sending Mae to college. Stan tries to be a good father but hates his job, is always working and it is revealed he used to be an alcoholic.

Lastly you have Mae's Grandfather. He is dead before the game starts. Mae loved her granddad very much and his influence can be felt throughout the whole game. He would read to her, pay attention to her and teach her things. One of the game's DLC chapters even involves him reading Mae a bedtime story.

Also grandpa Borowski was a union man and collected the teeth of an employer who tried to abuse the workers. That doesn't really play in to my essay as Mae does not discover this fact until the events of the game but I am not going to go without hyping up a man for taking teeth.

Mae misses him so much that even 6 years after she was asked to keep a journal by Dr. Hank the first page reads "RIP Granddad" and as the game goes on the following can be found inside:

This information is drip fed to us through organic and relatable moments. For instance, Mae reveals her father's alcoholism while she is drinking too much (sidenote, she is underage for the location she lives) at a party.

The idea is to give a full and rich view of Mae's life and show that she may not even recognize the trauma for what it is and was.

For instance, we know from the start that Mae has crippling anxiety. This could easily be linked to the expectations of Candy putting her hopes and dreams of college on her "miracle baby". Before Mae was even born she had expectations placed upon her for being the long wanted child of a mother who wanted her baby to do all the things that she never could.

For neglect you have the fact that both parents are forced to work in abundance to maintain their lifestyle and pay for Mae's college in an economically depressed community. Mae spent a lot of her home life alone, feeling pressured by her mother and literally scared of her alcoholic father.

Both parents are good and loving and kind parents. But they failed in some regards. Sometimes you can want the best for someone you love and do everything you can to provide the best life and a failure to listen, adapt and accommodate can do more harm than anything.

Her grandfather eventually passed away, taking her positive links away in her home life and after The Incident she was ostracized from the community and forced into further isolation. Socially anxious, outcast and without her supportive grandfather, she eventually is given an opportunity to go to college. Something her childhood friend would have literally killed for an opportunity to do in her stead.

---and she drops out.

---and upon returning no one will get off of her case about it.

This damned statue did it.

A statue so loathesome to Mae that it appears in her nightmares and she relives the fantasy of smashing it to bits with a baseball bat.

If you watched the above video (or have played the game) you will know that the statue was made up of several shapes and was installed at Mae's college.

The sight of this statue terrified Mae to the point of which she would spend entire days holed up in her dorm room either not eating or gorging pizza and sleeping for days at a time.

Being away from the familiar sights and people of her home town made her dissociative symptoms go into overdrive. At home she knew that The Tree that had lost all meaning and association to her was still the tree that she played with when she was young. She knew that her parents are the people who raised her. Even when she saw them as "dead shapes" the memories persisted and she could endure.

At college it was nothing but strangers in a strange land and a statue comprised of shapes reminding her that everything was shapes.

But they sent her to therapy, did they not? Why wasn't she being treated?

Dr. Hank is a small-town doctor he is the physiologist, he is the dentist, he is the psychologist. He is the doctor. The only doctor and he has no idea how to treat someone with severe symptoms like Mae.

In town Mae can talk to a character named Selmers every day. Selmers is a self-styled poet with depression and also being seen by Dr. Hank. In discussing both mental healthcare treatment and depression with Selmers the player can learn that Dr. Hank treats all forms of mental illness the same. Essentially "journal until you feel better". The town lacks the structure and framework to provide help to someone like Mae.

In other words she has been untreated this entire time and removed from her support network and sent off to college, she could not handle things. Of course she was going to fail under those circumstances.

The game does a remarkably good job of displaying how DPDR can impact a person, especially as it is linked to anxiety and depression, and creates an empathetic narrative about what it must be like to live with that condition.

Sadly it offers little in the way of answers for treatment. In reality treatment involves psychotherapy and creating a structure of coping mechanisms for how to handle episodes and ground oneself. This can come in the shape of breathing exercises, kinesthetic sensation fixation, identification exercises ("name all of the blue items you can see" "name all of the items that begin in A") but above all else, getting a grip on what emotional triggers one has and learning to resolve them will help.

For Mae, being away from home is a trigger for her. Home isn't going to be the same place and people forever. She needs to be able to get on top of her symptoms in order to cope. Dr. Hank was not helping her with that.

The game ends on a bittersweet note that Mae may end up spending her whole life in Possum Springs purely from fear of leaving her zone of familiarity.

Unfortunately the narrative is about clinging to a dying town and how unsustainable it is.

We do not know what will happen next. The structure that failed Mae has only gotten worse in the 2 years since she left for college. Her parents may end up selling the house because they cannot keep up on the payments and on a long enough timeline Gregg and Angus will move away (should their relationship survive the effort to escape) leaving Bea and Mae to watch Possum Springs continue to decay.

Part of Mae's journey is accepting this inevitability and not fighting it, but choosing not to abandon the town regardless. After all, she can't stray from it without a risk to her mental health.

The game offers no answers. It simply shows a slice of hard reality for those who live caught in the trap of decaying towns, economic collapse and mental illness without support structures and treatment. but it does a very good job of providing an empathetic case that an audience can relate to and sympathize with the symptoms of.

But what about a game that tries to make the audience feel the same way that the character does...?

Metal Gear Solid 2 is a 2001 self-proclaimed tactical espionage action game developed by Konami.

It tells the story of a secret military operations agent code named Raiden who is attempting to save the US President from a terrorist group called Dead Cell. There is much more to it. But I am attempting to be brief.

Metal Gear is absolutely frustrating for me to write about in this essay series because their research tends to be fairly good but their sensitivity often comes off as actively malicious at best.

In terms of conditions, symptoms and sensitivity to emotional triggers, Raiden is on paper a fairly decent representation of dissociative disorders developing in those who grew up in war. In practice he has a murder alter named Jack The Ripper who breakdances with 3 katanas.

I promised I would stick to positive depictions only and so I will stick only to the final 2 hours of Raiden's first appearance.

At this point in the game the president is dead, we have learned that the terrorists were really after a giant battleship that houses a powerful AI which is going to be used to censor the internet to control the flow of information and control the populace. Raiden has met up with protagonist of the first Metal Gear games, Solid Snake, and has managed to install a virus into the AI system that will corrupt the data and prevent it from controlling the internet.

In order to get on the battleship, Snake betrays Raiden and hands him over to the terrorists.

Thus begins the final act of MGS2.

It is imperative to understand that these events happen in rapid succession right after the AI is infected with a virus.

Neither the audience nor Raiden are given an opportunity to truly process all of the rapid fire information that we are hit with.

MGS2 has a metatextual narrative about the nature of sequels and audience expectations. Many of the events happening within the story are intimately playing upon our familiarity with the series, recreating circumstances from both Metal Gear 2 and Metal Gear Solid. Part of the critique is that players are looking to simply recreate the experience of the first game and the narrative goes out of its way to punish Raiden (and thusly the player) for trying to "be" Solid Snake. Much of the game has been mired in failure and any wins we have received are either negated in a cutscene following our gameplay victory or are displayed as being ineffective next to Solid Snake who is forever being displayed as the better protagonist.

So when Raiden wakes up in a torture chamber directly designed to look just like the Shadow Moses Island torture chamber from Metal Gear Solid 1 (and both dialogue and graphics of that cutscene are displayed briefly) we, the player instantly assume familiarity with the concept. To drive that point home the player is forced to survive a button tapping mini-game which is sprung upon us out of nowhere (there is no tutorial. The game expects your familiarity with the concept and thusly does not need to explain it - as a side note it is impossible to die in this minigame, so a lack of familiarity does not impact gameplay, only narrative experience)

All while the only surviving villain from the first game directly says in dialogue "We're also inside the memory of Shadow Moses"

The cutscene also has Raiden face to face with the main villain who recognizes Raiden as a child soldier he helped raise to fight in an African conflict. For the first time we are able to view Raiden, view Jack as his own man outside of his similarities to Solid Snake. We find out he is a child soldier with an impressive kill record who was raised with other child soldiers, drugged and forced to kill in a conflict that he had no personal connections to. He claims "I was given a gun and told to shoot, if I refused then I was the one who would be shot."

Throughout the game, Raiden has been getting phone calls from his girlfriend, Rose, who serves as the mission analyst. When the villain, Solidus, reveals Jack's history she calls him to ask more about this and Jack at first pushes away the memories, claiming that "they" wiped his memories and that he experiences nightmares only to give a vivid and emotionally description of his experiences as young as 6 years old killing for no reason other than he was told to.

Rose attempts to comfort him, to say that she wants to share the burden of his past, Raiden refuses, blocking everything out and pushing Rose away, claiming that he cannot afford to start a family.

Children are a huge emotional trigger for Raiden. This is displayed heavily in the future games of the series.

Overall this is an extreme example of a backstory that would give an adult severe PTSD and forced to confront his past, Raiden is emotionally primed to have a complete dissociative break from reality.

But presently I am not writing about how Raiden experiences derealization. I'm writing about how the player experiences it.

We know that Raiden has been trained in virtual reality to prepare him for this mission. When we see cutscenes describing this we are shown footage of the previous Metal Gear games, particularly the virtual reality training missions from the PS1 game.

The implication is very much that Raiden has played the same games that we ourselves have. The Metal Gear Franchise has an interesting meta-narrative going on that displays games are released in order of declassification with an early conversation in MGS4 mentioning that the events of MGS3 (which takes place in 1964) were declassified recently in the game's present of 2014.

Raiden has played the Metal Gear games. We have played the Metal Gear games.

And the game itself is overtly recycling moments from earlier entries of the series and trying to highlight this fact.

Right after we put a virus into the AI.

Things got really weird from the moment we insert the disc to infect the system.

Escaping from the torture chamber our character is completely naked and runs to the next area. We are given a loading screen.

Ominous music plays and we receive a phone call from Campbell, the mission control from both this game and the previous Metal Gear games. He speaks with a distorted voice. He stutters, telling you that you must proceed with your m-mission. He notes that in your current condition you will not be able to attack or "enter the hanging mode"

He continuously spouts the mission objective and says your role is to take out the terrorists. Raiden demands to know why he keeps saying "role" and Campbell replies

Raiden then notes that he has never met Campbell in person. He has only spoken to him over long distance communication.

Should you return to the torture room the title card will be switched with the name of Japanese rail stations. If you pause the game you are treated to a "map" of Arsenal Gear:

The image is from Glauben, Wissen und Kunst der alten Hindus

All while Campbell calls you every few steps to order you to turn the game console off, recycle further lines from previous Metal Gear games (as well as show footage from them) and your radar is replaced with voyeuristic footage of a young woman sunbathing.

The enemies are now wearing thick armor with no humanizing characteristics and they fly about with inhuman power while wielding katana that can block machine-gun fire.

The floor has scrolling text floating across the surfaces something that the series uses for the VR stages to signify you are in a training stage.

The game is pulling out all of the stops to make sure you are confronted with the reality that you are playing a video game while the character within the video game is experiencing the same information.

He meets up with Snake who reveals he has the unlimited ammo bandana from completing MGS1, all but confirming this is a video game. Much of the information in this segment can be justified in-game. I literally cannot sidestep the fact that a flesh and blood man pointed at a piece of headgear and said "Unlimited ammo". I almost wanted to skip over it as it's devastating to my point about how the game tries to pull you and Raiden out of reality.

See to Raiden, he can no longer be certain if any of this is happening or not because of his experiences with VR. With everything collapsing around him, it feels reasonable to assume that the AI Virus is breaking down the universe around him. With full knowledge of the plot, we the audience can know that everything is happening and the virus has infected his augmented reality elements that make up the in-game HUD. But Raiden doesn't know that and the player on first playthrough cannot fully know it either.

It's almost reasonable to assume that the entire game is taking place within a VR Simulation.

Virtual Reality has long been studied as having links to DPDR with a number of scientific studies examining the link.

The connection is very much there though typically VR only influences a mild sensation of derealization when playing, though to those prone to dissociation they may experience more rapid and powerful effects with prolonged exposure.

Raiden tells Snake what is happening and how his grip on reality is falling apart, going as far to doubt whether his girlfriend, Rose, was ever real either. Snake has no idea how to verify for Raiden that the things that are happening are real and tells him to just keep moving forward and figure it out. He also provides Raiden with a sword.

In the metatext, this is a symbol for Raiden gaining his own unique playstyle. As long as he is emulating Solid Snake he cannot succeed but when he accepts himself as his own person and embraces his unique gameplay mechanic he is able to break free from the narrative and actualize as his own person.

In the sense of the derealization episode, it gives Raiden an opportunity to mow down the wave after wave of "Tengu Soldiers" who come after him and Snake.

Metal Gear is a franchise that doesn't like it when you kill people. Here it has handed you a sword and told you to go to town with an unlimited supply of anime ninjas. The game lightly insisting "it's a video game, it makes no difference how many people you kill" and to flaw the game's philosophy for a moment, the only penalty is a ranking when you beat the game. MGS3 is the one that actually hits you with consequences for in-game murder.

As Raiden stands on a platform with Snake the game continues to devolve and a custom Mission Failed screen appears, mimicking the standard game over.

Gameplay continues inside the small box that typically displays where you died, you can die on this screen.

You then fight 25 copies of the giant mech in a recreation of the photo area from the Metal Gear VR Missions and the world's most convoluted plot reaches its crescendo point with every character betraying everyone else before Raiden has to kill a cybernetic US politician with a sword for the first but not last time.

The sequence takes about forty-five minutes to an hour thirty depending on your play style. The plot is too much and has a layer of metatext on top of it regarding the nature of audience expectations and sequels along with a haunting premonition of what the internet would become.

There are a lot of reasons to praise and a lot of reasons to hate the ending of MGS2. Personally I adore it. But one thing that truly cannot be stated enough, especially back in 2001, is how the game intended to make the player feel during that final section.

It's not enough that Raiden was having a complete dissociative episode, losing grip on his reality, it's that the game was designed to make the player go through those emotions at the same time as the character.

I was going through a really rough patch at the time. It was a few months before I was kicked out, my ties with my mother had been cut off, my dad was in a ward and suffice to say where my head was at the time? The immersive dissociative experience this game offered worked like a charm. Though external factors had a lot of influence.

DPDR is weird in the sense that everyone dissociates. It's a natural and normal thing, but disorders that are born from an excessive amount of disconnect between the self and reality tend not to be relatable experiences. Displaying a character losing their grip on reality is not an easy thing to do.

When we see someone say "I don't know what's real any more" in a piece of media we have empathy for their situation but it's not easy to have the audience in the same mindset as them.

Another hauntingly good example is Perfect Blue which I will likely not discuss in detail in this essay series because the content is a little too dark and the depiction of Dissociative Identity Disorder is not flattering in the slightest.

But the movie does depict an actress whose reality is blurring in with fiction by having a series of interactions happen one after another and revealing that the entire scene was part of a television shoot, with every subsequent scene piling on the confusion between what is happening on camera and off camera.

I can think of other examples of characters experiencing derealization episodes. Some even have fairly good depictions of how someone can be driven to that point, such as the slowburn of Bojack Horseman Season 5 where a number of circumstances pile on until the title character has an episode. The problem is... every single depiction that is coming to mind right now ends in either stigmatizing depictions or violent outcomes.

Heck, even Mae and Raiden up there had violence attached to their dissociation.

If there's one thing I want to make clear as I go through these essays, it's that those who have mental illnesses featuring dissociation are usually trauma survivors and are far more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrators of it.

I'm happy with the two examples of derealization I've written about today, NitW for the realistic depiction of the origins and impact and MGS2 for taking the player along for the ride; but I'd still love to see an example where a break from reality did not end with blood.

Please send me an Ask if you can recommend any.

-

So... that about brings it to a close for my little ramble on DPDR. I've a few other entries in the essay series on the back-burner. Next will likely be a breakdown on how Umineko handles recontextualizing memories. I've gotten a few paragraphs of that drafted out already.

These essays are really a bit of self-indulgence for me, though so they happen when they happen.

Thank you for reading.

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 2

Who Am I Really? from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

vs.

Transformation from Slay the Princess

Propaganda under the cut. If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

Who Am I Really?:

it's so beautiful and sad and perfectly fitting for the scene

Transformation:

Okay this is EXTREMELY difficult to talk about without spoilers, but this is essentially the final boss theme. You’ve learned the truth about the Princess, the mysterious deity, and yourself, and now you have a choice to make. As this is a visual novel, there is no actual combat. Instead, the final boss is actually presenting you with reasons as to why you shout join them, reminding you of your history together. The voice acting that goes along on top of this track in game is also incredible, as well as the angelic vocals representing the deity who is always beside you.

Brandon Boone did a fantastic job with the entire soundtrack but this one is really something special. I don't want to spoil when it plays because I think everyone should give this game a shot it's so good but it just perfectly suits that moment. It's so powerful.

[danthepest]

So with the Metal Gear Collection out now (of debatable quality), I figured I'd make a short, handy list of the chronological order of these games, and a short summary of what they're about. I'll try to be as vague and spoiler free as possible.

1 - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Takes place in 1964 during the Cold War. CIA operative and FOX unit member Naked Snake is sent to Russia and has to survive the jungle (don't ask, just roll with it) to stop the development and deployment of a new kind of ultimate weapon, the Shagohod. Things are not what they seem and the political machinations of both the United States of America and Russia will have severe repercussions for the rest of the series. Most of all, it will affect Naked Snake and his legacy.

2 - Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - Takes place in 1970. FOX has seemingly gone rogue and started a revolt in San Hieronymo. Naked Snake begins to build his own resistance with the help of Roy Campbell. (The game is only available for PSP and while it was touted as a "missing link" between Snake Eater and Metal Gear 1, it hasn't been mentioned or referenced since. Easily skippable.)

3 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Takes place in 1974 in Costa Rica. Naked Snake and Kazuhira Miller begin building their private military company Militaires Sans Frontières. As they uncover the truth behind the strife in Costa Rica, Snake's past during the Snake Eater incident comes back to haunt him. (Originally a PSP game, it was included in the PS3 HD collection. This was also billed as a "missing link". Up to you if agree. Definitely need to play this to understand the next game.)

4 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Takes place in 1975. After the Peace Walker Incident, one of MSF's own people goes to Cuba on a failed rescue mission and Naked Snake goes in alone to retrieve his man and the person he came to rescue. Serves as an epilogue to Peace Walker and a prologue to the next game.

5 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Takes place in 1984, primarily in Afghanistan. Ten years after what happens in Ground Zeroes, Naked Snake is rechristened Venom Snake and is rebuilding his forces with Miller, naming themselves Diamond Dogs. They prepare to strike back at the organization that has been targeting them for the last 10 years. A startling truth is revealed and strong alliances shatter.

6 - Metal Gear - Takes place in 1995. FOXHOUND unit rookie, Solid Snake is sent into the fortified state, Outer Heaven, to rescue FOXHOUND veteran Gray Fox and discover the secret behind Outer Heaven's nuclear weapon, the Metal Gear, and the identity of its leader.

7 - Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - Takes place in 1999. Dr. Kio Marv has bio-engineered a new fuel and energy source that would reduce the consumption of oil. Military forces belonging to Zanzibar Land kidnap the doctor, intending to control the world's oil supply and hold the world hostage as well as stockpiling nuclear weapons. New FOXHOUND commander Roy Campbell forces Solid Snake out of retirement to infiltrate Zanzibar Land and rescue Dr. Kio Marv. Solid Snake is forced to face those he once considered friends and mentors.

8 - Metal Gear Solid - Takes place in 2005. FOXHOUND rebels against the US government and takes over the Alaskan island Shadow Moses, which contains a nuclear weapons disposal facility. Among their demands is the body of Big Boss who is considered the greatest soldier that ever lived. They wish to use his genes to create an army of super soldiers. At the behest of the Secretary of Defense, Roy Campbell once again has to ask Solid Snake out of retirement for one last solo mission. Solid Snake is forced to confront who he is, where he came from and what it is he's fighting for.

9 - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Takes place in 2007 and 2009. In 2007, the anti-terrorist organization Philanthropy learns that a new Metal Gear is being transported through the Hudson river and attempt to stop it. They are thwarted by Russian mercenaries and the tanker is blown up as they get away with said Metal Gear.

In 2009, FOXHOUND operative Raiden is sent to infiltrate the Big Shell, a large decontamination facility that has been taken over by a terrorist faction calling themselves the Sons of Liberty. Raiden must neutralize the threat and save the hostages. However, Raiden will soon learn of a conspiracy that dates back to even before the Cold War and begin to question his own existence.

10 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Takes place in 2014. War has changed. War has become a commodity and has created what is known as the War Economy. Old Snake is tasked with putting a stop to the madness as well as put an end to a personal war that started as far back as 1964. (So far, this is exclusively a PS3 title, but there is hope that it will be released for PC in a further Metal Gear Collection)

11 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Takes place in 2018. Raiden has made peace with his lot in life and is trying to support his family by working as a military trainer and VIP bodyguard among other things. While protecting a VIP, Raiden is ambushed and utterly defeated by a cyborg that is part of a larger organization. Raiden begins his quest of vengeance and will finally see if he can put his past behind him.

And there you have it! Dunno really what prompted me to do this, but hey, maybe someone out there will find this helpful or interesting or intriguing or whatever.

[darwbycrew]

How dare you P.3:

RWBY V9E6 SPOILERS

Old Man Jaune:...

Weiss:.....you grew a beard....Jaune...are you trying to $%&@?

OMJaune and RBY: !

Weiss: first you had the nerve, the audacity to get thicker than a Ursa Major, with Dat chest and Dat Ass?and don't think for a second that all that armor and clothes is actually hiding them at all , I know what'chu packing and now this, what are trying to do me Jaune?!

OM Jaune: (-_-)... Weiss...look, nows not the time...

Weiss: and DAT Voice! I mean Gawd Damn it, Jaune! you voice sound like the secret love child Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid) and Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption 2)! What da hell is wrong with you?! Sounding sexier than a Mother!@#$%**, which you about be after tonight!

Ruby: kinda surprised you know who those two are, but Weiss look nows not the time, we have to..

Weiss: NO! No, what we NOT gonna do, is have my daddy issues all out in the open in the best and worst possible way and not having YOU, Mister Arc, not throw some ass my way!

Yang: As much as I enjoy watching this Thirsty version of you Weiss, Jaune looks a bit too depressed for that right now...

Weiss: Thirsty? Depressed? B!#$@, I am DEHYDRATED and DEPRESSED! and the only way to solve both problems is for this MAN (Points at Jaune) to be D- Pressed into these GUTS. (pats and rubs aggressively around her stomach)

Old Man Jaune: yeah, I'v most definitely have gone Mad down here.

Note: you have no idea How much I've waited to post a part 3, I had a gut instinct to wait to put this out and now thanks to that one word of dialogue, My work can continue.

By the way, here is the link for Part 1 and Part 2, I'm going to edit/recon the setting of the first 2 parts to vol 7.

And like before the inspiration of this dialogue is from AceVane, please check out his vids they are hilarious...and teeming with the N word, but very funny.

[dandelionsprout42]

Captain Laserhawk episodes 4 through 6 review (Mid-major spoilers)

I am so damn confused after finishing those episodes. There's at least 30 unanswered questions.

References I spotted (I likely missed several): • Crazy Taxi (More on that further below). • Sega-CD FMV games. • Metal Gear Solid 2. • Arachnid from Transformers Prime (Easily the best Transformers media). • Rayman Origins. • Any horror movies where girls chant menacingly. • Earthbound?

Why didn't we get to know who the imposter talkshow host is? E06 made it clear that it's likely not an intangible hologram. There also really only was one Rayman in the dimension they came from (Shadow Rayman doesn't count).

I don't know a whole lot about Splinter Cell lore, so I'm not sure why Sam Fisher had both legs amputated from the knee down.

The Crazy Taxi system feels like something People's Republic of China and Saudi Arabia would literally copy 1:1. Including the electroshocks and apparent sleep deprivation.

How many VR worlds (Dimensions?) are there in this lore by now?

What kind of beach bar only serves 1 drink type?

Why could the Warden turn into a mecha-spider? Surely cybernetic upgrade programmes alone can't explain that.

The map showed 5 or 6 megacities and 1 desert. I'm pretty sure one city can't cover the equivalent of a third of the Midwest each.

There's no info about other countries' diplomatic relations to Eden. Surely Canada would have some diplomats and crises with Eden or something.

With various characters dead at this point, who's going to fill out the hero team if a S2 does get made? Ly the Fairy? Betilla? Globox? Ajay Ghale? TrackMania Car? There's very few options left.