#why so much tension between raiden and sam

[zaddyazula]

literally 4 days late but happy 10th birthday to this masterpiece

tier ranking of the bosses as well

at least he uses renewable energy #terroristscarefortheenvironment

[hatredmadeofgold]

BBKaz for the ask meme! if its Rising only, Samsoon!

Okay so I am more into other ships than these two but sure can answer!

BBKaz:

What made you ship it? Why don’t you ship it?

Undeniably Peace Walker has a lot of potential, so I acknowledge that there’s definitely chemistry and tension going on between these two. I am more of a VKaz person myself though, but also not a big ship of mine but I acknowledge it and enjoy content of it. I don’t ship BBKaz that hard, that is all.

What are your favourite things about the ship?

Oh, the tension definitely and also their on-screen sex scene is really funny to me lol. Kazuhira really admires BB so much and I love his dedication to him.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on this ship?

Nah I don’t think I have one.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything to say positive to say about it?

Since I don’t ship them hard I can definitely say that the fanart for BBKaz is absolutely gorgeous.

SamSoon:

Why don’t you ship it?

As much as I enjoy fanart of them, I just don’t really see it. Also my headcanon is that Desperado members really don’t like Sam that much because he’s ‘a pain in the asshole’ and apparently sabotaging missions or something? So I think that Monsoon is just really careful about monitoring Sam and despises him more than liking him, so I just don’t see it tbh. Also I am not really into toxic/abusive power imbalanced dynamics like that, at least that’s how I see Sam x any Desperado member really. I do enjoy fanart but that’s about it. Also I headcanon that Sam is 30 at the time of his death and Monsoon is way into his 40s and I just really don’t like big age gaps (10+ years of age difference is too much for my liking in most cases).

What would have made you like it?

Probably if it weren’t implied by canon that Sam is kind of seen as a problem by other Desperado members and them having more screen time than that little bit in MGR main story + Sam DLC, as well as their age gap, I would probably be more intrigued. I am not saying that Samuraiden have more screen time than Monsoon and Sam have, but at least I see a lot more chemistry between Sam and Raiden than Sam and Monsoon.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

The fanart is really nice and they look sexy together.

[punklorde-hunter]

Well, since i finished the main story Penacony's first half (still need to do the Companion Mission + finding all those chests), and I took a few screenshots, and I thought I'd show them while also having commentary on the main quest's story beats.

**SPOILERS and a LOTS of words Under the Cut

While I am kinda sad Dan Heng didn't get to join us for Penacony, at least this means he gets a rest. Man was going through it on the Luofu let him have a chance to breathe and relax for once in his life.

This is more of a nitpick for me but I missed the easter egg at the beginning where you could've seen Silver Wolf & Sam chatting and I'm sad i missed it! I can go back in someone's playthrough to see it but man :(

Gotta love not at all ominous red text with Acheron. I'm sure this has nothing to do with anything in the foreseeable future.

That being said, I am kinda intrigued on what's the relationship between the Trailblazer & Acheron. I didn't get to play Honkai Impact 3rd, but I have read the comics Hoyoverse have online. And as the Star Rail's Raiden Mei of course they're going to give her an important role. It's also nice (and depressing) that she sees what I assume is the HSR Kiana of this universe, or someone else entirely. Plus she just seems like a character with a lot of regret. Hard to tell right now, but I also saw the red text does change depending on who you chose & the choices you make when talking to her so cool details!

Also Penacony is HUGE. I spent so much time getting lost in the Golden Hour area alone and i still haven't found every chest & puzzle. they really wanted this area to feel like the Roaring 20's and it shows

Aventurine is a grade-A asshat and good for him. He's very punch-able in a positivity way. Man's scheming something and i don't trust him one bit, but I am intrigued by him. Also his banter with Dr. Ratio was defiantly charged with something. Whether that was sexual tension or them wanting to kill each other, it's anyone's guess. He's also a really good contrast to Topaz as an IPC official whose not above using shady methods to win so I'm intrigued. Still wanna punch him tho.

I hope Misha & Gallagher get more time to shine in later patches, their appearances were so brief I NEED MORE! I do have a working theory on Misha but that's for a later time :)

Despite not being a character I would usually like, I kinda enjoy Sparkle in a "i would hate you irl but i find you fascinating in game' way. Masked Fools always struck me as an cool faction since their Aeon is a trickster god in a way. SO it makes sense of of their most notable Fool being a shapeshifting trickster who loves pushing people's buttons for fun. I'm pulling for her for having more DHIL ultity but man is she a piece of work.

I also really enjoyed Firefly as a character. Even tho I feel we didn't get to explore more of her character before you know what, I liked what we got. She was very cryptic about why she was a stowaway, and a lot of dialogue during her heart-to-heart definitely means something. Even what Clockie said about people being able to see him by being pure of heart probably holds more weight, but i guess will have to wait to see where that goes in future patches.

Nothing much, I just really liked this shot in the Dream's Edge area, and I think generally I enjoy Dream Edge the most out of all the Penacony 2.0 maps. The shooting stars are a nice touch too!

What a cute pic, surely this means only good things for them :)

On that matter, I can't believe Star Rail introduced a sweet cute young girl, had us bond the majority of the quest-line with, ONLY to rip her from us in the most GRAPHIC WAY POSSIBLE!? ALL WHILE PLAYING "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking" AFTERWARDS?! WHAT THE HELL

what a way to show Penacony isn't playing games, and that the writers being from Honkai Impact 3rd show they aren't afraid to show that things in Penacony are taking LIVES!!

I also like Acheron in this scene after Firefly passed on and giving some funerary rites. A nice quiet moment after we got are hearts crushed by the Something onto Death entity. I also like how Black Swan has beein a patient guide after all this, trying to get the Trailblazer to a goal but because she can foresee events through Arcana and can see memories, shes been the most helpful on Penacony as of right now despite being an enigma

I also loved Sam's first introduction as he's always been mentioned by the other Stellaron Hunters as 'not picky' with his prey, doesn't play mind games and goes straight for the kill type. And man did he make an impression in the short amount of time he got.

And the end scene with Aventurine, there's a lot going on. While i don't completely agree with him on Acheron, he does have a point on her being suspicious. Especially if she killed Duke Inferno ALONE (rip Ifrit mains) and her Emanator powers truly do come from one of the destructive Aeons. Most likely Finality since KiaMei is as consistant as with BronSeele/lh

Also on a side not I hope Sunday gets to go apeshit soon, dude deserves it since his dear sister is dead too. Otherwise yeah I'm VERY invested in what Penacony has in store later on.

And with that, I leave this post with the MOST EVIL ACHIEVEMENT PT 1 (there's more of them dw)

[sketchiedetails]

As much as Metal Gear Rising owes to the Metal Gear series, I think it’s also partly an expansion on Vanquish’s themes of heroism and war profiteering.

Vanquish has a very simple plot: Russian terrorists took over a space colony and are threatening the US with its weapons. In response, the US sends Marines to reclaim the colony and  DARPA loans out one of their employees Sam Gideon in an experimental Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS) to assist the Marines’ assault. It’s revealed later that the real reason Sam is there is to rescue the ARS’ creator who was on the colony and taken hostage by the terrorists.

Metal Gear Rising continues Raiden’s story after Metal Gear Solid 4 and explores how the war economy has shifted focus onto cyborg soldiers. A rival PMC outfit killed Raiden’s client and in response he spends the rest of the game dismantling their operations across the globe. The outfit shatters Raiden’s worldview, and he has to rebuild it from the ground up and accept a part of himself he’s been afraid of for most of his life.

At first glance these games’ stories don’t seem to have much in common besides a lone hero in his unique suit fighting terrorists, but both games ask what it means to be a hero on the battlefield. Sam is full of conviction for most of Vanquish but at the end of the game he questions himself if he’s any better than Burns for killing soldiers who got in his way. Raiden starts MGR with a strong belief in violence to ensure justice, but by the end he accepts his violent nature as a part of himself and admits that he enjoys the killing he gets to do as a PMC soldier.

Both games feature characters who serve as strong foils for the hero. Robert Burns is a colonel who views duty above all else to be the most important thing a soldier can do, even at the cost of his own men’s lives. Armstrong and the Desperado outfit are strong proponents for might makes right and want to apply this philosophy to every aspect of society. Burns and Jetstream Sam also have similar design concepts in that they are both the right hand men for the real people responsible for all the problems in their respective stories and it’s symbolized in their visual design as they both have augmented right arms. Burns’ arm can transform into a shielded Gatling gun, which represents his soldier background and fighting capability and Jetstream Sam’s arm sports the signature Desperado color scheme which clashes with the rest of his muscle suit.

In contrast, the other Desperado mercs are fully immersed in Armstrong’s philosophy and thus their entire suits sport the black and red motif. Sam was beaten by Armstrong and stays on the team, but like his design implies he hasn’t completely bought what Armstrong preached, which is why he grants Raiden access to his sword after losing to Raiden in a final duel.

Both games try to make the player feel like they have support in the battlefield. The Marines who assist Sam in Vanquish give the player the impression that they’re involved in a large scale military operation, and they’ll frequently get radio messages either from nearby troops, Burns, or Elena who provides remote support specifically for Sam (Small note: I find it funny that Kari Wahlgren voices support characters for both games). Being a Metal Gear game, MGR has a group of Codec contacts the player can call for advice or flavor text to help flesh out MGR’s setting. Later on, there’ll be an NPC in-game who accompanies Raiden in missions, but never in actual fights. They’re meant to scout ahead and provide information on the field. This may be inconsequential, but both games also have the hero losing their signature weapon at the end of the game only to use their rival’s weapon on the final boss.

Both games give you opportunities to be heroic in-game to reinforce the theme of heroism in their stories. Vanquish pairs Sam up with a seemingly inexhaustible pool of Marines to help him in every fight and they do draw attention away from Sam so he can dart across the map and turn the tide of battle.These Marines are fairly hardy, but they can go down if they take too much damage. Sam has the ability to revive downed Marines and in return they’ll give Sam a weapon drop. Some setpieces in Vanquish are escort quests where you have to make sure friendly vehicles get to their destinations without taking critical damage from enemy fire. In MGR, there are civilians detained by PMC soldiers that Raiden can rescue. They don’t reward you in any way and depending on how you look at it that can be seen as more altruistic because you’re going out of your way to helping that NPC without expecting an in-game reward.

Vanquish frequently shows Sam’s heroic tendencies by having him clash with Burns whenever there are soldiers in trouble. It’s stated in Sam’s bio that he was a football player in college and not in the military. This could imply that he’s more a team player than an obedient soldier. He’ll do whatever he can to help the people around him even if it goes against the operation.

Much like everything else in MGR compared to Vanquish, Raiden’s backstory and character arc are a little more complicated than Sam’s. Raiden has a background as a child soldier and the reason why he breaks off from Maverick to take on Desperado and World Marshall by himself is because they threaten the lives of several children and plan to turn them into VR-trained child soldiers just like Raiden. He initially justified his actions as a necessary evil to ensure peace, but Desperado tried to strip those justifications away either to dissuade Raiden or to turn him. What they didn’t expect was for Raiden to take that recently uncovered brutality he’s always had in him and use it against them. He hasn’t forgotten his original philosophy of protecting the weak, but he also won’t lie to himself anymore that he’s no worse than Desperado when it comes to being a killer.

An interesting quality both games share is that their writing are very much parodies of post-9/11 fearmongering, which isn’t something you’d usually expect in Japanese action games. In Vanquish, the Russian terrorists assert that US president Winters helped them with their coup d’etat and now the terrorists plan to attack the US first before the US targets them. Winters is apparently close to Burns and the real reason for the assault on the colony was so Burns could redirect the weapons to Russia and instigate another war, which according to Burns will be an “Economic Stimulus Package.” Armstrong has a similar goal in Metal Gear Rising where he plans to encourage tensions between the US and Pakistan so that the war economy can thrive and purge America’s weaker elements.

I’m not too strong on politics, but it feels like Burns and Armstrong are polar opposites in terms of ideology but they reached the same conclusion as a result of their extremism. Burns has a soldier’s mentality and thinks that duty exceeds any other obligation a person has. Russia destroying San Francisco was necessary in Burns’ mind to ensure the rest of America will thrive thanks to the coming war. Armstrong seems to be a strong proponent of the individual and thinks that the war economy will promote jobs and thin out the weaker parts of America so that every citizen will be strong enough to fight for their own ideals. He’s making “the mother of all omlettes,” and can’t be bothered over a few broken eggs.

What makes Armstrong such a compelling villain to me is that I can’t trust his rhetoric. Armstrong says he plans to use “war as a business to get elected...so [he] can end war as a business.” He also goes on a rant about the problems endemic in First World societies even though those are the means by which he’s able to maintain control. He comes off as someone so neckdeep in their bullshit that it’s impossible to take them seriously, and that makes it all the more enjoyable to kick his ass. Burns at best felt like a good foil to temper Sam’s naivete when it came to war, but his betrayal came way too late into the story to have any real impact. Armstrong could have run the same risk since he doesn’t show up physically in the story until the last chapter, but MGR gave him enough of a spotlight to really shine and be one of the most memetic video game characters in recent history, which is ironic considering MGR explores more of the meme theory material the Metal Gear series introduced in MGS2.

As he’s technically Vanquish’s final boss, I need to point out Victor Zaitsev and where his motivations compare to Burns and Armstrong. Zaitsev feels justified in attacking America because Winters was going to attack Russia now that the terrorists she secretly backed have taken control of the country. Fearing betrayal, the terrorists attacked America first. As Zaitsev says, “The betrayed have a right to retribution.” Just like Burns, his motivation is simple compared to Armstrong’s longwinded bullshit, but it’s too simple a motivation to carry Vanquish’s plot any further than it already is at that point.

I hope I’m not making Vanquish sound a lot more politically intriguing than it really is. It’s an action game first and the story is entirely skippable. Metal Gear Rising’s plot has more meat, and I feel like for the most part it answers the questions it wants to ask, which is something I think Binary Domain (another Japanese third-person cover shooter which I’m going to compare with Vanquish in another post) fails to do.