#metal gear solid v spoilers

[subsequentibis]

i can't stress enough how badly the man who sold the world tape in mgsv made me need to like bite my own arm off and run around in circles. i'd been told venom was a body double before i started watching my bf play so that wasn't surprising but the way it was FRAMED did things to me. he's not an imposter or a stand in or a false double he IS big boss because they are both together big boss because big boss is just the legend not the man and now he is part of the legend and his actions are in service of the grand plan and he's PART of the narrative and of equal importance and and and. and he walks through the mirror and accepts it and thrives in it and dies for it.

[spoilerbracket]

Round 3: Bracket 2

Fresh off of being DEMOCRATICALLY determined to be two spoilers in one, how will our contestant on the left fare against this next gentleman?

Usually, the only interaction between Zero Escape and Metal Gear is occasional fan confusion between posts about Snakes. Good news: the character on the right is definitely not Snake, from Zero Escape. He is someone else.

If you'd like to confirm who you're voting for, the characters' names are listed below the cut. Given that this is the quarter-finals of a spoiler tournament, expect, y'know, spoilers.

Left/first option: K from Virtue's Last Reward (both)

Right/second option: Venom Snake from Metal Gear Solid V

[majisthelle]

[trevisos]

okay see i’m glad they learned from krem and didn’t cast a cis man to play this trans woman but like. she. listen candice cayne is great but she’s Not a voice actor. i PROMISE you can find transfem voice actors bware. you don’t have to cast Either a trans person Or a career voice actor because There Are Trans Voice Actors.

[armed-saphire]

My brother's inability to recognize mgs characters if they're so much as wearing different clothes is so funny. In the beginning scene of MGSV where Quiet is trying to kill Snake my brother said "kinda looks like Quiet" and immediately moved on

[mutsukiss]

I'm gonna ramble MORE abt Kaz you can absolutely ignore this

Also I haven't finished all the story of mgsv tpp, I'm finally in the prologue but I still have a lot of lore to see from what I've gathered? So no spoilers maybe 🙏 I know this game is from 2016 but I'll bite your hands off

OK uhm. I think the main idea behind this is what the fuck. Honestly this has no structure I just wanna ramble abt this. I'm just shocked because the buildup to what I assume is Kaz's villain (?) arc keeps on prolonging and I'm surprised about it I guess?

He's been painted as an antagonistic force since minute 0. Like from the moment you first meet him it's extremely clear that Ocelot is supposed to be your shoulder angel and Kaz fills the other role whispering in your ear to shoot down everything in your path. This is not to say that Ocelot is being a good guy and Kaz is the bad one, but there's been a LOT of effort put into making Ocelot a more neutral figure and act compassionately with others specially if they're in a position of vulnerability (he adopts a puppy!! He's extremely gente and good with the kids at the base and treats your soldiers with camaraderie, when there is an issue he tries to resolve it logically and he offers the chance of doubt over and over again) (he also tortures huey in a very sadistic way but imo that's more in character for him than the peace-maker role he has in tpp).

Kaz is completely the contrary, he's battle hungry and antagonizes everything that sets a foot in front of him. I honestly feel this is not so much as his real "him" because a lot of times I have the impression that this comes as a fear reaction. He's been hurt, badly, in not only the physical way, and so his self preservation instinct is not to flee or freeze, it's to fight. And he's obviously angry and harbors a lot of hate, to the point of being unnecessarily cruel. He wastes no chance to make sure your soldiers, his soldiers, are aware they are not safe in Mother Base, they are being put under the magnifying glass at all times (this I already felt at the first part of the game but when I saw the posters hung on the walls of MB on the prologue I was mouth agape. Like that's incredibly excessive and i don't believe for a second Venom had part on the idea and production of this, though he does allow it, so that's also a thing to have in count.) If that wasn't enough, he also hits children, he is DEADSET on making Quiet an enemy when it has been proven time and time again she is not a threat, he's rude and angsty with you- which I find very funny personally because it sometimes feel like getting angry at your mom but knowing you can't win the discussion.

On this I also want to comment that it feels like a rubber band being stretched into infinity and I'm VERY afraid of when it'll snap. I know Kaz idealizes Snake like literally everyone does but I also think he's seeing Venom is not only human, but also humane. And that sucks, because he's so driven by the need to fix this situation through blind violence, and just putting down everything that could he a threat to him or his stability or his ideals; and his superior, his saint figure, his friend keeps telling him off time and time again being non sensical and potentially putting all he has suffered for in danger. He spent 9 years waiting for your comeback, he was tortured and he's now disabled and in pain and he would be perfectly OK with it, if it just made sense in the end and he achieved what he wanted (what Big Bos wanted, in reality), and. You're not playing role!! You adopt strays and save children and let this very dangerous woman in your own house, after your men could have died from her actions! She worked with the enemy, the people that hurt HIM!! And to him your compassionate actions not only make no sense, they are an insult. He has quite literally put blood sweat and tears into this and you are playing friends with everyone you find.

So I take two points from this.

One, is that Kaz's role makes absolute sense to me. You NEED a balance in war matters and being trusting of a super soldier that was initially in to assassinate you is downright stupid. It works, because people think you're Big Boss and Big Boss is God but every other person is a mere mortal and you cannot play tea party with the enemy, and children don't belong in a military base, and you. Have. To be. Cruel. People at war die, they are killed, and a good number of times YOU are the one killing them. In my opinion the concept of Mother Base and Outer Heaven and the concept of Militaires Sans Frontières makes little sense because fighting for no one, just for the sake of fighting, makes no sense. Like, they quite literally founded their own country stemming from this which I feel completely defeates the whole point of what they were trying to defend. Belonging to a group is what makes warfare exist, outing the others and rising your people because they are superior exclusively for being your people. This is something that is seen a LOT during tpp, they dont shy away from talking about how Diamond Dogs are a legit and respectable figure and how the rest are doing everything wrong. They have the truth and the right and the others don't. So when you come in, after 9 years disappeared, and start doing your stuff by breaking those black and white dynamics it completely shatters his sense and trust in Venom. At some points you are playing both ally and foe in front of him and he can't do nothing about it because the weight your figure holds not only to the rest of the world but also to him. Big Boss/Venom Snake is quite literally the sun and stars od everyone around him and this is EXTREMELY visible in Kaz. I find it very fun to see this vision fade out of reality as your interactions with him happen, I laughed out loud when, after being told off for still torturing Quiet on the prologue, he leaves the room angrily bumping into you. Like wig I get it you're super pissed 😭 But up to this point, and after all of what you've made him go through, that's the harsher thing he's done towards you and I feel that's very significant.

The second point is, while I can see the actions that motivate his fall into despair and I think I'm not far fetched when I say he will probably end up having some sort of breakdown and turn on you one way or another, it feels,, incredibly long??? Like, as I said, this has been going on from chapter 1. Kaz has been feeling like he's gonna snap for hours and hours and he never quite gets there and I'm just wondering. When?? Is it gonna happen???? In my opinion this has been dragging on for so long I'm not sure what to make of it. The ONLY time I have seen that anyone directly confronts Kaz about his antics is in the last episode I played with the shock torture to Quiet where Code Talker is also present, and Ocelot finally tells him to snap back to reality. Quiet is not an enemy, and trying to put her as an scapegoat is completely sadistic at this point, it's dumb rage blindness and Kaz cannot afford himself to act irrationally with the responsibility he has. He mentions Kaz being possibly the spy, or even Ocelot himself which,, I don't think it's true because I kinda have sorta an idea of the plot for the end? Very loosely? And I don't recall Kaz being a spy? But they absolutely have painted that image well for him. He's cruel to your soldiers, he's cruel to your friends and he's cruel to you. It just bewilders me that up to this point no one has called him out on this. I just want the balloon to pop already tbh.

Uhm ok that was super long anyway! My brain is infected with Kaz and I'm absolutely adoring him in tpp thanks for reading if you've reached this far :)

[breezybeej]

I'm sure people have already said it but the plot device in Pontypool is (SPOILERS BELOW)

lifted completely and placed into Metal Gear Solid 5.

In MGS5, there is a parasite that makes its home in your voicebox and, upon detecting the phonemes of a specific language, is enticed to reproduce. The young then eat the lungs of the host and spread to other people.

This is why Boobie Woman Quiet does not speak at all in the game. She is infected and if she speaks, she will infect the main character.

The similarities to Pontypool are quite stark when you rundown the symptoms, too:

Once the host is beyond the point of no return, they enter into a dementia-like state where their primary goal becomes exposing as many people as possible to the parasite and the language that triggers its reproductive cycle. They become one-minded 'zombies'

The way to 'defeat' the parasite is to either shut up and die without spreading it or be infected by a bacteria that turns the 'male' parasite into a 'female' so they cannot reproduce

@bogleech, I know I said this several times during the stream but it still blows my mind that the language virus in Pontypool inspired a Triple A game's plot device. Pontypool really did change everything.

A scary, sweet, witty and highly original movie that has, bar none, the most abstract movie monster ever officially confirmed to still qualify as a monster. If I were ordering these strictly by weirdness alone, this would have been entry 31, it’s just that our next two entries will have slightly more to their reasoning than that alone!

[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.

[mio-nika]

Tell us some metal gear opinions. Since summer started I've been watching let's play and I'm almost done I think with mgs3

Oh, easily.

Yellow Cake is the best fan comic I ever read and honestly should be studied as a piece of art (it's spoilerish to mgs5, tho)

I want Kaz to meet Otacon so much. It would be so funny. Like. Kaz hates his fucking father (and he's right) and Hal looks EXACTLY like him.

You need to watch "Let's destroy the Metal Gear". All three parts. You can read it, but the dub is so good. I think it quintessential to the mgs experience.

Otacon is my favourite boy and I want to use him as a floor mop every time i see him. Dave too, but he's too tough for it and I'm not a fan of permanent physical damage.

Also. Yes. I'm otasune enjoyer. I have an entire post with fic recommendations

Because I'm not normal, I actually wanted to play all the games except a couple of them (like Snake's revenge). And both mgs mobile and mgs portable are very good. Mgs portable is much more fun at camp organising than mgs5

Liquid is the worst Snake. He just. THE MOST ANNOYING . My personal rating Solid > V > Raiden > BB > Solidus > Liquid

I have a slowly cooking fanart idea with Otacon, but it gets pushed down all the time. Its related to Tsubasa wo Kudasai

All Snakes are asexuals (Otacon is aro)

Every mention of Paz makes me sick. Its a spoiler, but also. A giant trigger for me :)

One of my friends loves when I'm explaining her the lore of mgs. Its very nice of her. And it also usually takes me a couple of hours.

Yes. The mgs games are as gay as people say they are. Its honestly inspiring.

[ladymariayuri]

im way better than u in metal gear solid 5😎 i want U to post your sickest clip, or you an NERD whod doenst play the best game of all times??!?!?!? Metal gear Solid 5 Is amazing theres ocelot Big boss uuh The other guy who dates big boss uh thh big boss 2 (tecninachly 1) and theres that white girl who (Spoilers alerts!) #IsaGhost!!!!

Make america great agaian and olay Metal gear Solid Five On your Xbox 360 Xbox One Xbox series X Playstation 3? Playstwtion 4 Playstation 5 Computer And Nothing for switches!! (Kinky!!!)

Netal gear Solid V is g4eat because theres an amazing variaty of weapons, The missions are cool, Yhe history is awesome And theres WomAN!!! Quiet!!! she SNIPER!!! Tgeres DDog (Do not congund with Diamond dogs! 💎) Theres an annoying nerd whos cute but an bad person (Joke alert! BigBoss should've Give Him his "snake" If u know what i mean HahaHa!This is a joke Please dont take s3rious)

Theres also Very sad scenes! It makes me want to cry! Like When Theres (Spoiler alert!) An virus on mOther Base (Mother Base is where bigboss Does his thing) And Big Boss needs to Kill his friends! Euch qnd sad moment....

Remember it! Show your awesome clip so i can show mine and DESTROY U!

hi. Did you type this all out yourself

[zaddyazula]

sometimes the metal gear solid community gets a little bit silly and fails to recognise the whole point of metal gear solid v’s ending (major spoiler warning for metal gear solid v: the phantom pain and a little one for the ending of mgs3).

pretty long but i eventually get to the point.

i’m back on my tumblr essay bullshit because it’s lesbian visibility week and i can do what i fucking want.

so i’m specifically talking about episode 46, where the whole “oh my god i’m actually playing as a random medic not big boss” is revealed, which for me was really fucking cool (as i wasn’t around on 2015 tumblr or other places the twist was guessed at) and i didn’t see it coming at all.

i believe some time in one of the earlier missions you can briefly look into the reflection of yourself in a helicopter window and see the character you created at the start of the game instead of big boss’ face, but i personally didn’t see this. i know there was some symbolism with the usage of david bowie’s song “the man who sold the world” as well, but i wasn’t aware of that (call me a dumbass if you want).

but this isn’t really the point of this post, the actual point is how most people don’t look past the body double bullshit and don’t listen to what big boss is saying (as i’ve never seen anyone talk about it further on any platform; someone probably has though). this is a HIDEO KOJIMA game, and this man (even despite the death threats) never fails to serve us one hell of a fucking time.

one thing that’s important to note with this, is that metal gear solid loves breaking the fourth wall as much as it loves fucking over otacon (my poor guy doesn’t get a fucking rest in any of these games). from the psycho mantis boss fight in mgs1, which includes the controller port switch, ps1 card read and mono tv reference, to having the opportunity to wait 7 days to beat the end in mgs3, it just loves it. from subtle to extremely obvious. which is where my point comes in.

there is one specific section of big boss’ speech that plays during the episode 46 cutscene that most people just presume to not mean anything than talking to venom.

here’s the speech:

“Now do you remember? Who you are? What you were meant to do? I cheated death, thanks to you. And thanks to you I've left my mark. You have too - you've written your own history. You're your own man. I'm Big Boss, and you are too... No.. He's the two of us. Together. Where we are today? We built it.This story - this "legend" - it's ours. We can change the world - and with it, the future. I am you, and you are me. Carry that with you, wherever you go. Thank you... my friend. From here on out, you're Big Boss.”

but what i want you to pay attention to is this part of it:

“And thanks to you I've left my mark. You have too - you've written your own history. You're your own man. I'm Big Boss, and you are too... No.. He's the two of us. Together. Where we are today? We built it. This story - this "legend" - it's ours.We can change the world - and with it, the future. I am you, and you are me.”

i’ve highlighted the most important bits in red (so most of it.

most people believe that big boss is talking to venom, a random medic who happened to get onto a helicopter in the game before. but he’s not.

he’s talking to us. to you. to me. a player who’s sat down and got on a hundred different helicopters across the games. someone who has killed the boss; someone who has saved the world from nuclear annihilation; someone has done countless search and rescue missions. someone who sat down one day and said: i’m gonna start mgs3 today. someone who has sat down and said: i’ll play peace walker today; i’ll play ground zeroes; i’ll play the phantom pain.

these are video games. we play the characters. the things we do, are what they do. we’re the ones who decided to play metal gear solid 3 and complete it.

we are the ones who have built big boss’ legend by playing the games. “we built it. this story — this “legend” — it’s ours”: our actions in phantom pain help build his legacy. we can do it completely stealthily or just fucking rambo it and blow a whole unit up for shits and giggles. and yes, how we play in metal gear v don’t directly change big boss’ legacy from what it’s written as in the early games, because v wasn’t even a thought then, but it doesn’t matter.

“i’m big boss, and you are too… no, he’s the two of us. together.”

we are big boss. we play as him, fuck around with npc’s as him, and he’s us. he plays out whatever fuckery we’re gonna get up to in any of the games, he’s like a vessel. we’ve been able to play as this bitch for 19 years now, in idea contributing to his legacy.

we don’t think “let’s blow up a building” and go and do it in real life when we’re playing mgsv. we instead get big boss to blow up a building.

venom is a random medic who gets his whole life fucked up by his boss (i still love him though). we’re just the people who play as him. it’s like how the whole point of mgs2 was us not being able to be solid snake, the whole point of mgs5:tpp is us not being able to be big boss. i could go deeper into how that also applies to venom due the big boss’ legacy, but i won’t (i can’t be bothered). big boss is a cool, unable-to-talk-to-women type of bitch, and we love him (maybe i am big boss, god), but he’s also a war criminal (maybe not). why is he a war criminal? because of the shit we (are told by the story to) do. there is no big boss without us, the players. we are the underlying factor in metal gear. there is no story without us, because if we didn’t play it, nobody knows the story do they? we cause everything that ever happens to happen.

“i am you, and you are me.”

considering what i’ve said before this section of the quote this line is pretty simple. sums up everything i’ve said so far: we’re big boss, and he’s us. but he’s actively saying that we are joined in some way.

another section of the speech:

“And thanks to you I've left my mark. You have too - you've written your own history. You're your own man.”

this is probably the most important quote in this speech, relating to what i’m talking about.

makes sense both in the context of him talking to venom and us. blah-de-blah, he’s saying venom’s not the same person as him but the same idea, blah blah blah. but he’s also saying how we have our own lives. this part literally acknowledges how we’re actual people. talk about a fucking fourth wall break, subtle as it is.

we have written our own history in our lives. carved our names into time, even if no one will ever speak our name again after we die. somewhere, someplace, there is proof that we have existed. a pet that misses a certain face; a person who will remember the stranger who helped them all those years ago, but not their name; a death certificate buried somewhere in a pile of paperwork.

we are our own people. i am not you, and you are not me, but we are both people. we think differently, have lived differently, and now you’re reading this because we both like the same video games. we, as i mentioned earlier, are the only reason anything has happened in the metal gear universe (as far as us as individuals are concerned). thanks to us, big boss has a legacy. has a reputation.

the thing is, obviously venom isn’t actually hearing this. venom isn’t a real person. but i am. you are. we’re the ones actually hearing it; we’re the ones being spoken to. kojima wouldn’t include this in the fucking game for the sake of venom. it’s hideo fucking kojima for god’s sake, he does everything for a reason.

venom is a fucking video game character. he is pixels on a screen. he can’t hear shit if he’s not programmed to. we can hear what we want, not just what we’re meant to.

and honestly, the entire speech is really fucking sad if you think about it in the way that kojima was the one to write it, and it was his last metal gear game after nearly 30 years. thinking about it in the context of this is kojima speaking to us, makes me want to have a mgs2 otacon level breakdown.

the line towards the end of the entire speech “thank you, my friend. from here on out, you’re big boss” is also important as well. the idea that we are big boss, and then there was never another metal gear game (as in by kojima, i’m not even gonna grace the 2018 metal gear abomination by saying its name) after that. the whole series does a full circle.

we start, all the way back in 1987’s metal gear, in outer heaven, 1995, and end in 2015’s metal gear solid v: the phantom pain, in outer heaven, 1995. the cassette tape even says ‘operation intrude n313’ on it. 28 years after the very first game, we end in the very place we started. i think that’s really cool, but that’s just me. it’s been 8 years since phantom pain now, and there is still new shit being discovered in this series, still a shit ton of people who play these games everyday and shit on huey emmerich (fuck him). just for funsies.

i think that’s the end of this fucking deep dive. this has took fucking hours. i did this for fun. what a fucking weirdo. hope you enjoyed, i guess.

i haven’t seen anyone talk about this, though someone has bound to have, so i know this isn’t some new revelation to this community.

bye bitches, and don’t forget to get your daily dose of bad bitchery.

[slowmissiles]

Back in a former life, I had an addiction that I loved beyond sanity. Here’s the story of it. 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 pt1 2009 pt2 2009 Redux

This is the final spec list for my glorious, insane Brutal Truth.

Nissan Skyline BCNR33 GT-R (Type 2) manufactured in April 1996. JDM non V-Spec vehicle retailed through Osaka Nissan Prince in May/June 1996. Imported to the UK in June 1997. Remained in original JDM spec without speedometer conversion until August 2002. Only the steering wheel & white dial sets were fitted in Japan.

Nismo RB26N1 bare engine: [N1 water pump (improved flow & less cavitation)/Reinforced cylinder block head bolt boss/Increased sump capacity (6L 20w60)/1.2mm oil restrictor]

N1 head with 0.5mm overbore (2598cc)

Cryogenically hardened N1 crankshaft

Wossner forged & cryogenically hardened pistons

Abbey Motorsport reinforced & cryogenically hardened con-rods

ACL Race Series conrod & crankshaft bearings

Tomei sump baffle kit

Tomei high flow (larger drive gears) oil pump

HKS 1.2mm metal head gasket

Tomei Procam Spec 2 cam kit (270 degree inlet & outlet with 10.25mm lift)

HKS V-Cam System Step 1 Type B (variable 248-278 degree inlet; replaces Procam inlet camshaft)

HKS vernier cam pulleys

HKS kevlar reinforced timing belt

Trust metal intake & throttle gaskets

HKS front pipe & decat gaskets

GReddy Iridium 08 Racing sparkplugs

Mocal 19-row oil cooler & Abbey Motorsport remote oil filter assembly

Abbey Motorsport catch tank & washer reservoir with SFS breather hoses

Abbey Motorsport Pro Alloy large radiator

Tomei fuel pump, fuel regulator & 600cc injectors

A’PEXi Power Intake induction kit

A’PEXi GT Spec intercooler (237x610x136mm) & hard pipe kit

HKS GT-SS turbos

HKS twin AFM delete kit

Tomei turbo elbows

HKS downpipes

HKS Silent Hi-Power exhaust

Abbey Motorsport 80mm decat pipe

Mine’s VX-ROM

HKS F-Con V Pro

HKS EVC 6 boost controller (1.6 bar)

AEM wideband lambda sensor

Splitfire DI Super Direct Ignition System

HKS Circle Earth kit

HKS GD Max twin-plate clutch (with lightened flywheel)

Abbey Motorsport rebuilt transfer box

Abbey Motorsport rebuilt gearbox with cryogenically hardened gear set, modified Nissan synchromesh upgrade and OS Giken strengthening plate

Abbey Motorsport rebuilt rear diff

Nismo gearbox mounts

Nismo Solid Shift gear stick (10% short shift)

Omex Shift Light Sequential

Sunsei SE-135 solar panel trickle charger mounted on a custom aluminium riser between the rear parcel shelf speaker enclosures.

Team Dynamics Equinox alloys 19x9.5, ET+15 in silver with polished stainless steel rim.

Falken FK452 265/30/19 Y-rated tyres

Cusco brake master cylinder brace

Cusco rear steering delete kit

Cusco front & rear upper suspension links

AST Sport Line 1 full suspension kit with UK spring setup

Nismo stainless steel braided brake hoses

StopTech 355mm rotor 4 pot caliper front brake kit

StopTech 355mm rotor 2 pot caliper rear brake kit with Abbey Motorsport modified pad retainers

Ferodo DS2500 brake pads front & rear

Bomex AD-390 front splitter

Nismo R34 smoked front indicators in custom aluminium mounting plates finished in crackle black

Nissan Xenon headlamp units

Border Racing Aero Fenders (vented front wings) with silver GT emblems from a R32 Skyline

Nismo smoked side repeaters

Top Mix one-off FRP twin blade rear spoiler on custom aluminium mounting plates

Entire exterior resprayed in BMW black (code 086) base and lacquer

Nissan Motorsport International carbon fibre B-pillar plates

PIAA carbon effect silicon wipers, front pair with spoilers, rear without

Nismo white face dial sets (dashboard & centre console) in carbon fibre panels

AEM AFR gauge mount replaces the lighter socket

HKS EVC display mounted on custom carbon fibre plate replacing the ashtray

Lighter socket relocated to the fog light switch panel

Nissan Momo steering wheel (with airbag)

Dressycar Nismo harness pads

Redline Automotive leather gearstick & handbrake gaiters

Abbey Motorsport carbon fibre door sill trims

Carbon fibre boot sill trim

Inlet plenum and sundry induction pipework finished in powder grey

Trust clear cam pulley cover

HKS Kansai Service carbon fibre spark plug cover

Right hand cam cover finished in crackle black

Nismo radiator & washer reservoir caps

HKS Kansai Service front strut brace finished in high gloss black

GReddy aluminium slam panel finished in crackle black

Tein bonnet dampers with black sleeves

Custom made one-off Cobra Misano Lux front seats: [Alcantara (colour code 9189) outers/Alcantara (colour code 9182) centre panels/One-piece carbon fibre backs/Sidewinder bases on custom subframes adapted by Abbey Motorsport/Cobra logo in silver thread on the headpads/GT-R logo beneath the grommets on seat backs]

JVC KD-AVX2 multi-media DVD/CD receiver with built-in 3.5” widescreen monitor

2x JL Audio Evolution VR600-CXi 6” speakers (front)

2x JL Audio Evolution TR650-CXi 6.5” speakers (rear)

Multiple and interlaced Thatcham rated security systems.

500 bhp. 520 ft/lb.

Ludicrously, hilariously, unbelievably fast.

Hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me. Cheers! JM.

(Photo by N. Liassides.)

[spoilerbracket]

Round 1: Left Side, Bracket 2 #2

Hm, I'm not familiar with either of these characters. But you can't go wrong with mad scientists or eye patches. Oh wait, maybe I do know that guy? He's a Snake, right? One of the Snakes? He has the face for it, anyway.

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: Takumi Katsuragi from Kamen Rider Build

Right/second option: Venom Snake from Metal Gear Solid V

[themoneystore]

My Thoughts On It: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Discussion on sexual violence against women and misogyny.

Spoilers for the Metal Gear Solid games + Ground Zeroes.

Recently I've been playing through the Metal Gear Solid trilogy. The Master Collection released some months back, and so I've been plugging through each of the mainline Solid games. It's been an interesting journey. Watching the series go from a weird and clunky PlayStation game to the juggernaut of videogames that is Metal Gear Solid 2. Along the way, however, I've noticed that Kojima's writing when it comes to women has followed a certain trajectory.

The women in the games have for the most part either been enamoured supports to the protagonist. Charmed and blushing at his heroic stature. Or, they've been tragic women who've lost so much. These tragic women are also typically obsessed with the protagonist in some way. 3 is perhaps the game which breaks the most from this, but is also the most obsessed with the sex-appeal and mistreatment of women sexually.

The original trilogy's tone has typically been able to offset the abject cruelty. Not allowing you to take in the mistreatment of these women for long enough to put too bad a taste in your mouth. So what's up with Ground Zeroes?

Upon my replaying of the game. A game which I have not played since it launched on PC almost a decade ago. I was immediately met with a much more self-serious presentation. The cutscene had a bunch of shakey cam, shots of soldiers moving about soldier-y. And of course, the Guantanamo Bay type prison that the marines had set up. Dogs barking, prisoners held up at gunpoint as they sat on their knees in the rain.

Ground Zeroes wants you to know that it's a serious game. That's why they show you Chico. A small boy who has bolts in his achilles heels and a hole in his chest where he places a 3,5mm jack for some reason. The mission being to save both him and a girl named Paz. These are characters that you would meet in Peace Walker, a PSP game in which you build up Big Boss' army.

The part that stood out to me, beyond how dark and edgy the game was compared to the trilogy, was the cassette you're forced to listen to after extracting Chico. This cassette serves as an audio guide towards Paz' position within the compound. However, in it you can hear what to me sounds like her being sexually violated. Which is made explicit in the ending cutscene. A secret second bomb hidden in her womb. The stitches on her stomach only being from the first bomb.

Perhaps it's the tonal whiplash coming from not having played 4, a game which I know has some extremely misogynistic portrayals of women. But, that doesn't stop Ground Zeroes from stopping me dead in my tracks. Completely uninterested in playing The Phantom Pain now.

It's hard not to place extra malice on Kojima's portrayal of women in the trilogy in retrospect, having replayed Ground Zeroes. What were warning signs of a strange attitude towards women in previous games has become a full-blown exploitation of sexual violence towards women. Merely objects to be ogled and pitied as he makes them go through horrific violence. All for some childish belief of what makes a story more mature.

[aroacesafeplaceforall]

Re: aspec headcannons

I strongly believe that two of my favorite blorbos are aspec (specifically arospec):

The first is Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (minor spoiler warning for this paragraph). Most Zelda games' iterations of Link can easily be read as aspec-coded in some way, but Twilight Princess's emphasis on Link's relationships made his lack of romance really stand out and resonate with me as an aromantic. Over the course of the game, we see countless instances of him caring deeply about the people around him, friends and strangers alike. This is so prominent that it's honestly a defining trait of his; he even stands out from his other iterations in just how much he's a Guy Who Cares. Yet for all his personal and emotional investment in people, there is a striking lack of romance in his relationships, much to my delight. Instead, his relationships are founded on his caring nature. The best example of this is his friendship with Midna. Introduced near the beginning of the game and serving as Link's companion until the very end, Midna initially establishes a very transactional relationship with Link; a sort of "I help you, you help me" dynamic. At that point, she is closed off to Link and confides very little in him, while Link probably isn't thrilled with her demeaning treatment of him or how much she asks of him, but puts up with it anyway out of the goodness of his heart. They're reluctant allies. However, they gradually come to respect each other as Link's kindness and courage inspire Midna, and Midna's disparaging behavior slowly gives way to benign, endearing snark. Before long, when Midna is brought within an inch of her life, and Link carries her off in search of help (because of course he would), he does so with desperation, dashing frantically on foot across Hyrule's vast fields in the dead of night, worried for the acquaintance he had only just begun to appreciate, having seen her grow over the course of their adventure. That experience—Link fearing losing Midna, and Midna having her life saved by Link—brings them closer than ever. After Midna recovers, the two are best friends. She eventually opens up to Link about her identity, past, and insecurities, and Link is understanding of her plight and committed to stay by her side through everything. At the end of the game, Midna's plotline is resolved, and she prepares to return to her realm. Never to see each other again, she and Link share a heartfelt goodbye. Common tropes would have them be lovers by this point, and lament being torn away from their soulmate. Instead, Nintendo gave us something that's a precious rarity in media: a bittersweet ending for a pair of dear friends.

The other is Big Boss from the Metal Gear series. I haven't finished every game he makes an appearance in yet, but as far as I can tell, he never has any explicitly romantic relationships. However, he does have a wide range of other kinds of relationships. Plenty are sexual, plenty are platonic, and plenty are... something else. Furthermore, there are certain details throughout the series that, from my perspective, give him strong aro vibes. For example, in Metal Gear Solid 3, he is asked about the nature of his relationship with another character, in terms of an amatonormative false dichotomy. His response is "Does it have to be one or the other?" In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, there's a sexual dynamic between him and another character, which I would describe as "brothers-in-arms with benefits." In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Big Boss's relationships are pretty much all based on his desperation to hold on to the people he still hasn't lost yet. His relationships don't take on very clear forms; he's just trying to cherish the ones that are left while he still can, in whatever way he can. So yeah, I think Big Boss is aroallo, and that's pretty cool.

^^^^

[presidentstalkeyes]

In which I take Metal Gear lore and shove it into Psychonauts (Spoiler warning!):

Now, I've never played any of the Metal Gear games, but what I have been doing is reading a lot about Psycho Mantis, AKA Tretij Rebenok, and the nature of his psychic powers. As a child, his telepathy was so strong - and his own sense of self was so weak, being a child and all - that he was basically controlled against his will by others with strong emotions, particularly hatred. This came about after he discovered via his telepathy that his own father hated him and lashed out in a fit of rage, burning down his whole village, which I assume is what spurred on his 'emotional deadness' as a sort of defence mechanism. As an adult, he clawed back some independence and tried to use his powers for good by working as an investigator for the FBI, only to wind up adopting the personality of a serial killer after trying to read their mind, becoming the sadistic, kill-happy villain Solid Snake meets and ultimately kills in self-defence.

Given all the headcanons about Raz having a sense of hyper-empathy and how that contributes to the way he learns and utilizes his powers, I feel like something similar to what happened with Mantis is a very present danger in the Psychonauts-verse and why psychics like Sasha and Hollis place such high importance on self-control.

In particular, it might go a long way towards explaining how Lucrecia and Coach Oleander turned out. In Lucy's case, Ford mentions the experiments that the Psychic 7 performed 'unlocked every door in their minds', which I imagine involved heightening their connection to the Collective Unconscious and thus, their sense of empathy - and given the headcanons about Raz's hyper-empathy, it's possible Lucy's was already high to begin with. So when she went back to Grulovia and got involved with the Gzar, she found herself unwittingly getting deep into the Gzar's headspace and allowing his own personality traits to override her own - something she only snapped out of after the Valermo Dam disaster, at which point it was mixed up with the rage and despair of the thousands of Grulovians affected by the disaster. Not understanding where it came from, *that* became her new default mindset. In a twisted kind of way, she was lashing out against *herself* more than anyone else, the rest of Grulovia just got caught in the crossfire.

Then there's Oleander - I imagine one effect of the Psitanium at Whispering Rock was that it 'captured' the thoughts and emotions of everyone around it, and stronger negative feelings tended to overpower more positive ones. This effect was self-reinforcing, as people affected by it fed back into it and made it even stronger, and over time it became so strong that even non-psychics were affected, reaching its worst point when the asylum was founded. The Psychonauts managed to 'contain' it by sealing it under that glass floor, but it was still there. When Morry came along, over a hundred years' worth of anger, sadness and confusion reacted with all his pre-existing traumas and insecurities to, again, basically override his sense of self and turn him into a conduit for all those bad feelings.

Which also sorta explains why his world domination plan was so poorly thought out. How was he gonna get those brain tanks across the lake, again? :V