One thing I can't seem to get over is how the game handles the character of Solidus. I think it would've been much more interesting to see him be a more sympathetic villain, because his goals to take down the Patriots aren't much more different than Snake and Raiden's goal in the end. Instead they just make him out to be too much like a replacement for Liquid, coming off as a villain you can't really side with at all based on his actions. I suppose to be ruthless enough to send children to war, he would have to be a real bastard, but I think it's regrettable that they made him a character like that to begin with. I guess I can't understand the motives of a person who would kill without purpose. It was kinda sad that he kills Olga, when she did not deserve to die.
Even though Solidus is such a bastard, I wish they at least gave him a brain. It never made much sense to me why Solidus still wanted to kill Raiden during the last boss fight. I think if Solidus had any kind of smarts, he would not have given into any sort of desire to kill Raiden just to go against the Patriot's plan. The whole fight feels like it's there just to have a final boss fight.
While I was playing it through this time, I paid close attention to the dialogue regarding the Patriots. I remember at the time, the whole game seemed completely off the rails and just a constant "what the fuck" moment, especially when they spoke about the Patriots. I followed it all pretty good, but I came to the conclusion that the final codec conversation that Raiden has with the AI Campbell was...not really necessary. At least in context with the later games it isn't. The AI was making it sound like the Patriots were some kind of weird higher being from the start, when we all know is was Major Zero and crew. I wish I knew if the whole story with the Patriots was Kojima's idea from the start, or if he just made it up as he went along.
I am still confused if the Rose talking to you during that codec conversation was the real Rose or not. It was always the things she said there that made me hate her character. It always made me frustrated with the ending, and think "I don't care if that bitch is carrying your baby, she's a fucking bitch and needs to be slapped". She was talking down to Raiden for basically being human. It sounds like it was the real Rose too, because she was bitching about the fact that "you never saw me for who I was" even tho she was deliberately pretending to be someone else. The shit she said just always pissed me off. Made me hate her character more than any of the sappy dialogue that is in earlier parts of the game.