In the beginning, there was History. Then, there was Life, a Purpose of Memories.

The Good to Know Prologue Blog!

“(*A discussion quote from a Discord conversation*)

“Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation 1 is amongst the few games that I’ve played long ago, at least as early as it took the average kid to read, as questionable as the norm for a 7-year old to be playing a mature-rated game. Oh, Ma! If only you can see me now. College...I’m still in College! ”

Karim Abbadi”

Hideo Kojima's "Metal Gear Solid"(MGS) is one nostalgia storm away from a seemingly endless verbal tangent of aspiration and respect (at least for me). Today we will continue our discussion with my second in line, detailing a bit about the roots of the Metal Gear Solid series and Hideo Kojima. We will then transition to the deep-dive analysis portion of our protagonist of Solid Snake, and in one other of his iterations to cameo. From here forward, if you would like to know more about the author, their content and career history, I will link their names in bold.

Image courtesy of Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3 game.

Solid Snake feat. Old Snake (aka Naked Snake)

Konami released an initial wave of games contributed by Hideo Kojima's in 1987 & 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System called Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge, a part 2 to the prior. A brief synopsis of them being the main character, Snake, infiltrating a foreign military base posing a new classified superweapon causing a political threat and must revoke such risk for the American government.

Before Hideo joined Konami, his adolescent experiences spurred a positive affinity for movies and books by his family for their love of films, usually favouring horror-oriented genres from Western and European releases. Hideo majored in Economics at University due to personal financial pressures due to his father's unfortunate passing at 13, but held on to his creative dreams close to him. During the 1980-90s, Hideo would come around the creative medium of video games, with Super Mario Bros. being a technical inspiration source of filmmaking medium. Hideo joined Konami plainly due to their economic stockholding of being listed in Japan; Nintendo, (unfortunately) wasn't listed at the time.

Between 1998 and 2004, MGS, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 (MGS3) release, with the confusing part is that you get to play as the original Snake codenamed Naked Snake, who's legacy became legendary for his service during the game's plot set in the Cold War era. By connection, the Solid Snake's you've played through other titles revolves around the Solid Snake being a genetic clone of the legendary soldier himself taking place in our modern era. To clarify, Solid Snake and Naked Snake are virtually similar in personality, ideals and story arc in every way; the difference being timelines with different circumstances and contexts other than Solid Snake is a clone of him. On a side note, the women on the left of the image are known as "The Boss," a mother figure and mentor in Naked Snake's life after taking the title of "The Boss" bestowed by the American government after her betrayal.

Kept you Reading, huh?! (Deep-Dive Analysis time)

Image courtesy of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid

Upon initial looks, Solid Snake's character seems like your run of the mill military commando with a James Bond twist. Upon playing/viewing further titles, you'll notice "The Patriots" are a shadowy organization consistent as a formless antagonist across the games, hellbent on controlling the opinionated populace through all forms of media like elections. Metal Gear Solid takes Snake to Shadow Moses Island near Zanzibar's coast contracted by the American government.

His mission is to infiltrate an abandoned nuclear silo taken over by terrorists threatening to nuke North America if they don't submit to their terms. Snakes' eventually encounters a revealed twin brother aptly named Liquid Snake, who despises him. Liquid speeches about their experimental birth cloning Naked Snake, proclaiming a fault (the player)of his inferior genes, are the source of his shortcoming in life. We find out later that our main character, Solid Snake, had an inadequate gene pool all along due to an end credits scene, and despite that, he manages to overcome his disadvantage against Liquid.

As cheesy-ones liners and saddened action movie backstory goes without parents, Solid Snake teaches us that our genes don't define our success; our bloodline doesn't bind our accomplishments. Through all Metal Gear stories iteration, Hideo's presents a grieving yet cautionary arc about submitting ourselves to an unbalance of siding with one logical & emotional morality; based on his own experiences, advising a healthy between. Bad experiences and failures are inevitable, but either neglecting or enraged by such events isn't always a healthy/good means to end, especially when we don't want to submit to our anxiety and feelings of hopeless loneliness.

You’ve Reached the end! we’re eternally graTeful! We hope all is well to come!(Image courtesy of Universal Pictures) — You’ve Reached the end! we’re eternally greaTful! We hope all is well to come!
(Image courtesy of Universal Pictures)

We would like to thank you for time. Hope you will visit us on our next issue!(Image curtosy of Konami) — We would like to thank you for time. Hope you will visit us on our next issue!
(Image curtosy of Konami)

Continue with us next time, in another compact deep-dive.