random thoughts and funny gaming humor

[luciazephyr]

So I was on SA in the MGS3 LP thread and was thinking about Teh Gay and why it's so prevalent in MGSverse. I have a theory.

I always thought [Ocelot's homosexuality and the gayness in the series in general] was a covert way for Kojima to make male gamers feel uncomfortable. I mean, MGS1 was a fairly straight-forward gamer, albeit a Deconstruction of American action movies. In MGS2, Kojima deliberately tried to fuck with gamers, so we meet Vamp and watch Snake and Otacon be completely married. There was huge backlash, which made Kojima >8( at gamers, so MGS3 was created, giving us gay subtext for Ocelot, EVA, Volgin, and the Raiden-expy, Raikov. MPO did the same for Big Boss, as I heard (I lack a PSP). Then came MGS4, which repeatedly kicked gamers in the balls in different sexual ways (lol, huge male rape subtext, aging fears, overt gamer-slamming, etc), so... I think it's all a ~*~conspiracy~*~ to make gamers uncomfortable while playing. Because Kojima loves his metagame.

Agree/Disagree/General thoughts?


Also, for my own reference because I may icon later:

Favorite Quotes from Freeman's Mind

1. "Now someone's stolen my helmet... Oh well. Probably won't need it."



2. "OH NO NO NO! THIS IS NOT GOOD! LET ME OUT OF HERE! OPEN THE DOOR! I HATE YOU! THIS IS A BAD EXPERIMENT! WE ARE BAD PEOPLE! WHY DID WE USHER FORTH THE GREEN APOCALYPSE?!"



3. "A failure of this magnitude is extremely improbable."
   "Well, that's why we have insurance."



4. "Is there any end to the numbers of problems I can solve by hitting things? I don't think there is! That's how I say Open Sesame. A crowbar to the face."



5. "Hey gunshots! Where there's a gun, there's fun!"



6. "Haha! Your death was not in vain. I'll shoot everyone in this building if I have to. Whelp, time to play God! Let's see people disrespect me now. They'll find out what happens when you mess with the Freeman."



7. Beating up headcrabs. "NO! No one cares about your opinions! You have no rights! You're illegal aliens!"



8. "Dammit, how come that catwalk doesn't have any supports? The other one did. I could use them to swing across like Tarzan. That'd be dope."



9. "Bugs can crawl on walls. I should've been a bug... Go Team Kafka."



10. "What's that say.... 'Work harder, not smarter'... Yeah, that's us all right. We stay the course with the stupid."



11. "Scheduled Chaos Theory? That makes about as much sense as Grounded Aviation. Or Deep-Sea Astronomy."



12. Screaming as he goes postal on some headcrabs. "Oh what the- OKAY CHILDREN, CLASS IS IN SESSION. EVERYBODY TAKE YOUR SEATS! I SAID EVERYONE TAKE YOUR SEATS! DEAN AND BILLY, THAT MEANS YOU TOO. TAKE YOUR SEATS!"



13. "I'm getting sick of these facehuggers trying to french me. It's not like I'm that hard up."



14. "How many of you fuckers are there? Do you want me to individually engrave your name on each of my bullets? Is my gun not personal enough for you? I'll kill every last one of you. All I need are bullets. WE HAVE A LOT OF BULLETS HERE! EARTH IS A MINERAL-RICH PLANET! I BET YOURS SUCKS!"



15. "Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Not as strong as methamphetamines, but you can keep your teeth."



16. "You have a ladder in elevator shaft. Why? To fix to fix the elevator. How do you get to ladder? You use the elevator. WHO THOUGHT THIS UP? JESUS CHRIST."



17. "Is that an MP5? Oh ho ho YES! Now I can solve 600 problems a minute!"



18. "Everything's on sale when you have a gun."

-Lucy

Comments

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

"Is there any end to the numbers of problems I can solve by hitting things? I don't think there is! That's how I say Open Sesame. A crowbar to the face."

sDFKSJDFLKSdfj HAHAHAHAHA YES

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I so love Freeman's Mind. The guy's inflection and RANDOM FREAKING OUT are hilarious.

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

I've watched some of them, and I'd watch MORE right now if my internet wasn't such a pile of shit lately. I CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT YOUTUBE, yet it takes a glacial age to load a single video.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

It may help to disable the HQ option, since FM runs with it activated by default?

[crowbared.livejournal.com]

YOU WATCH FREEMAN'S MIND TOO? YOU ARE MY NEW HERO.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I like funny things and machinima. :loves her some Freeman's Mind and Red vs Blue:

[crowbared.livejournal.com]

High five, bb.

Also, mind if I prod you on AIM occasionally? ...Well, I don't know if it's okay to bug you since you're usually away on AIM. <3

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I MEANT TO SAY SORRY ABOUT THAT ONE TIME YOU PINGED ME AND I DIDN'T SEE IT UNTIL HOURS LATER.

But the last few days have been crazy, but tomorrow, I should be done with the running around and jobhunting. Just tonight, I'm not really up for it. I'm just logged on in case someone has urgent business or sommat.

tl;dr- tomorrow and after, sure.

[crowbared.livejournal.com]

Naw, it's okay. I just didn't know if you had Away always up but you let some people IM you or you really were busy. TOTALLY FINE MAN

[thene]

If you're right then that makes the series even more homophobic than I thought. (Which is still less so than virtually all other videogames).

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. I never assumed Kojima included all the gay to be progressive, since it really kicked in with MGS2, the Dawn Of the Mindscrew.

[thene]

Yeaaah, Depraved Bisexuals as Mindscrew =/= a stunningly original move. (Though as someone - I think it was krackenbwool - once pointed out to me, in virtually every case their affection for their male love interests is their sole redeeming quality).

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

That's pointed out of TVT too, yeah... That's a good point, actually. I mean, we have Volgin who is the biggest Complete Monster of the series (unless I'm forgetting someone) and his relationship with Raikov is pretty much the singular good trait for the entire character.

[thene]

What really bugs me is that so few other games have anything like as much diversity of characters as MGS, but so much of that diversity is couched in brainbleedingly offensive stereotypes. (see also the catalogue of racism in MGS which I keep not writing because it's so. fucking. stupid.) But I'm less ticked off by it than I might be because however aggravatingly done it all is, they're still people with souls who I can go away and play with in my head and who fandom has played with magnificently. It's heartfuel.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

This is why I find that I Don't Like Kojima. Sure, he makes amazing games, but he's also kind of an asshole in my eyes. And yet I still love his work besides MGS4. IT'S COMPLICATED.

I will very sadly admit to being blind to race issues 90% of the time. I was raised in a house where homophobia, sexism, and racism didn't really exist, so the only reason I'm sensitive to the first two is because I'm not straight and a girl. I fail at race issues so hard. 8(

sorry, fail!html ><

[thene]

Racially stereotyped PoCs in MGS:
-Vulcan Raven (Magical Native American, helps out white protagonist for no reason?)
-Drebin (all about guns and jewellery?)
-Dolph (deadbrowalking). Stillman, too.
-Mei Ling in MGS1, though in MGS4 I think she's fantastic.
-Fortune's outfit was sexualised far beyond the level of most female MGS characters until we got the B&Bs. She's kinda a combo deal of all three of the obnoxious stereotypes that get pinned to black female characters.
-Possibly Naomi, as she's carrying three of the common stereotypes of Indian women; a) medical profession, b) family-oriented, c) ritual suicide. But it's not laid on nearly as thick as most of the others because there's a lot else going on with her too, plus those stereotype markers are on the obscure side. Her Indian-ness is only mentioned once and never dealt with anyway.

Then there's the unbearable whiteness - blondness - of Wolf, Raiden and Frank, all of whom have stories that begin in places where white people tend not to be. And Naomi, who in MGS1 makes a plot point of the dark skin that in MGS4 she distinctly does not have. Screaming Mantis has to be one of the palest South Americans ever, especially given that her story seems to indicate that she's not of the continent's pale colonial overclass.

Then...there's the whole sense that non-white people and the places where they live are being used as scenery - and to add a certain omg srs bsns! tone - for a story about white people. Eg. BB originally meeting Frank during the Portuguese Colonial War. Kojima doesn't give a rats ass about colonialism, he just wanted a a place for two white-looking guys to meet that would convey how Srs Bsns and Gritty they are. Ditto for three of the B&Bs - the reason they're from the places they are is to say how horrible those places are. (I tend to assume LB is a Finn, because of their troubled recent history with Russia, and Kojima is all about the evil Russians). See also Mei Ling's backstory (or is that only comic canon?) eta: you could add Frank's original backstory (the HE'S REALLY AZN one) to that.

tl;dr Sigint is the only time he got anywhere near to Doin It Rite and even then he began in MGS1 as a deadbrowalking. And I really should turn this comment into a blog entry; it wouldn't be THAT hard, it would just make my brain bleed.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

All totally true. Though does that mean I should like Drebin or Fortune? :sadface: I love Drebin's fancy suit and style, though I guess that's racist? God, I'm not good at this... :white girl fail, fukken:

If you wrote up an entry on this, I'd definitely read/comment/debate. If the urge strikes you, do eet. Maybe we can get a list going of all the prejudice in the series. Though, considering how much better MGS is than the rest of the gaming industry, it may just be depressing as fuck.

[thene]

I'm feeling the white girl fail *needs to stop even trying to write/RP Raven, ffs* I really have no idea but I guess it's the same as with the Depraved Queers; loving them and developing them is the best we can do, because most games are just EVERYONE IS WHITE AND STRAIGHT AND USUALLY MALE, THE END. :[

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I should tell Mum next time she notices I'm very focused on homosexuality in media. White and straight is so prevalent, it's both boring and not something I relate to. So I'll take subtext, turn it into fic, and take what I can get, thanks.

Your Raven is awesome, STFU.

[firefly99.livejournal.com]

I agree with your theory about the gay in MGS, although I don't think it's as squicky as all that. Like athenemiranda mentioned, all of the gay relationships are the positive traits of the Depraved Bisexuals who have them. And from the subtext angle (see - Snake and Otacon), the relationships are usually positive and get happy endings (I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THAT SNAKE/OTACON IS UNINTENTIONAL, especially since he married off Weeaboo Hacker/Kickass Soldier, Quirky Mission Support Who Goes Off To Study Psychology/The Product Of A Plan To Make Him Exactly Like Snake, and based the two characters off a Weeaboo/Soldier pairing in Policenauts).

So I think while although it may initially be for squick, there's a definite positive emotional core. (Basically the same way Kojima also touched on subjects like male infertility and male sexual victimisation. There's a squick factor in including them at all which he exploits, but once you're over that you realise he means it quite genuinely.)

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

You both have good points. My theory is evolving a little. I mean, having male gamers uncomfortable by having gay relationships certainly doesn't preclude said relationships being portrayed well. Gamer homophobia knows no bounds.

I don't think Snake/Otacon was unintentional at all. I just don't think it's possible. They don't even mention Meryl in MGS2, and I still think that was to make gamers think the Otacon Ending was canon. And that ending was heavy on the subtext. THEY RODE OFF INTO THE SUNSETRISE. IT'S LIKE DUE SOUTH WITH FEWER MOUNTIES.

[gundamtsubasa.livejournal.com]

ZOMG Why have I never heard of Freeman's Mind before now? I just stayed up late so I could watch them all back to back. Freaking brilliant, I tells you.

Thank you for showing it to me.