People have always been angry that Vaan is shoved down the throat of players as the main character, when his ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC (which ends just as the story shifts focus to Ashe) ends with his discovery that his own self-importance is childish escapism. He then vows to follow Ashe to get an idea of the direction he should move his life. Not only does Vaan ACCEPT that he isn't the main character, he HANDS THE ROLE OVER to Ashe. The entire basis for the hatred of this character is a false assumption. For me though, that's nothing compared to my thoughts on Metal Gear.

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Metal Gear Solid 2 (and to a lesser extent, the first one) is a prime examples of Brechtian* storytelling where the meta-narrative has the game's avatar (Raiden) gain autonomy from the player. There's a recurring theme in the series where the main character follows the orders of his superiors without question (and in doing so, gives his agency up for the player to control him). Likewise, the player lives vicariously through the avatar for action and excitement (as Liquid would put it, "there's a killer inside you"). Both MGS and MGS2 end with the heroes choosing to live for themselves and MGS3 ends with Snake leaving (SPOILER)The Boss's death up to you, damning him to a lifetime of emptiness. MGS2 goes a step further than the other two games, with Raiden throwing away the player's Dog Tags, rejecting the identity imprinted upon him. The story is otherwise completely unresolved, with Snake's/Kojima's final message basically being: "yo, the events of this game have probably confused the hell out of you, but don't sweat the details. Let this story inform how you engage the real world". Rather than a narrative resolution, Raiden and the player are prompted to think about what's important in their respective lives. It's important that the avatar and the player are treated as separate people for this to make sense.

*"Brecht's Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. Brecht thought that the experience of a climacticcatharsis of emotion left an audience complacent. Instead, he wanted his audiences to adopt a critical perspective in order to recognize social injustice and exploitation and to be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change in the world outside.[68] For this purpose, Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself. By highlighting the constructed nature of the theatrical event, Brecht hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was equally constructed and, as such, was changeable" (Taken from Wikipedia).

It's arguable that all of Kojima's meta-humor is used to drive home the artifice of MGS's universe, in addition to the abundance of live footage the first two games used whenever Kojima talks about real-world ideas. It's all to drive home the idea that Kojima's world is inconsequential; leave it to his characters as you focus on your own.

A half-decade later, Kojima would haphazardly tie all of these weird loose threads together in MGS4, a blockbuster game filled with pathos, Soap Opera-level melodrama, and the final message left to Snake and the player are "don't try to accomplish anything, it's better to avoid conflict than to passionately stand for your beliefs, lest you end up like (SPOILER)Big Boss and Zero (completely counter to what Snake tells Raiden during MGS2)". Kojima's meta-humor is there, but its serves little purpose other than to continue the brand of wackiness fans know him for. All of this to say that while I enjoy Metal Gear Solid 4, I disagree with the notion that it is [was, I guess] the perfect conclusion to the series, as it was essentially Kojima rescinding everything that made me love the series in the first place. The series became less about Kojima's thoughts regarding life, the many injustices in the world and escapism and more about the myriad allegiances of Ocelot and Big Boss's crusade against the Patriots. It still has Kojima's "voice", but more as an afterthought.

This is probably a super cluttered, rushed explanation of my pretentious Fine Arts Major interpretation of a video game series about a man sneaking around in a box fighting bipedal nuclear death machines, but I'm too tired right now to proofread and edit any more than I have.