MGSV: Ground Zeroes - Spoilers Thread - #TeamBowie

The weirdest retcon that Peace Walker had was changing Big Boss' age again, even after MGS3 already did that.

The wonky issue is that it made him younger, so if the back story of him fighting in WWII is still true, he would have been 9 years old. I know that the series has a long fascination with child soldiers, but there's no way a draft officer is going to mistake someone that young as combat capable.

B-but... el Che.

The parallels, the metaphors, THE SYMBOLISMS!!!
 
B-but... el Che.

The parallels, the metaphors, THE SYMBOLISMS!!!

lol I think that's precisely why. Kojima just wanted to force the Che parallel, canon be damned.
 
Was he said to have fought in WWII, in Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater? Wasn't it the Korean War?

I could be mixing wars up here, but I want to say that him serving in WWII was something that was officially sanctioned at one point, but then again, so was Les enfants terribles occurring when BB was in his 50s.
 
So, i remember somebody saying that there was a free mode where you could explore the base, fight against soldiers, etc. etc. Is there one? If there is how do you unlock it? Also how do you unlock PS versions exc. mission?

You have to collect the 5(?) XOF badges scattered around the base, I believe.

I will say, I think MPO's cast is more interesting than PW, but not by much. At least it feels like they were trying. Peace Walker is just a tedious, uninspired retread.

It's mostly MPO's twists and retcons that rubbed me the wrong way...
"Army's" Heaven, the funds handed by Gene on a silver platter, Null = Gray Fox (was that really necessary?), fuckin' Sokolov outta nowhere?? and more I'm forgetting. A true low point in the series for me
. But like I said, at least they tried.

In terms of the story, Portable Ops wasn't fantastic. It never felt fully-fledged. But, at the very least, it was coherent.

Peace Walker adds nothing but confusion and Master Miller to the canon. That's my major problem with it. Kojima doesn't really care how things tie in, and you can see that was a priority in Portable Ops. But Peace Walker has flying mechs that are technologically superior to anything that is built in the 50 years after Peace Walker, in the canon. Characters like Amanda, and Strangelove, because ... because ... . Then, because he gives no fucks, Kojima has (seemingly) cut 9 years out of Big Boss' canon, which doesn't leave room for any other writers to handle a segment of Big Boss' story. Which gives me the impression he's trying to close the loop., and I hope he does so well.

Peace Walker is truly terrible, in terms of the plot. I'm just hoping it was the Batman & Robin before the Batman Begins of MGSV.
 
Yeah, I can't believe how much of a chore that game was. Both portable games have mostly forgettable characters and storylines. It's unfortunate MGSV has all this lame baggage from PW.

The fates of Chico and Paz are probably the least interesting parts about the story for me right now. Never cared for them anyway.

Chore is a nice way to put it.

I find Portable Ops, for all the shit that it gets, a much better game than PW. Especially when it comes to story. Game's enjoyment was severely hampered by the PSP's control limitations.
 
then again, so was Les enfants terribles occurring when BB was in his 50s.
Oh, that reminds me: according to the end credits of Ground Zeroes, that project was abandoned in 1976. Just what the hell were they doing for four years after the birth of the Snake kids?
 
Oh, that reminds me: according to the end credits of Ground Zeroes, that project was abandoned in 1976. Just what the hell were they doing for four years after the birth of the Snake kids?

I imagine that will figure into TPP pretty heavily, especially since they're not hiding who Eli is very well.
 
Oh, that reminds me: according to the end credits of Ground Zeroes, that project was abandoned in 1976. Just what the hell were they doing for four years after the birth of the Snake kids?
Doing the research required to create a perfect clone (Solidus) or the Genome Army maybe? I'd say this definitely implies Big Boss's coma moved something to do with LET along. It could also explain Eli, like I think Liquid kept complaining about how he was thrown away like garbage and had a hard life because of it. I also remember some guy in MGS1, Jim Houseman I think his name was? He said "you two are an embarassment from the 1970s, our countries dirty little secret."
 
Oh, that reminds me: according to the end credits of Ground Zeroes, that project was abandoned in 1976. Just what the hell were they doing for four years after the birth of the Snake kids?

Perhaps to emphasize 1972 being the start of the Les Enfants Terrible project? As in, it starts then with the research, and (inexplicably) Big Boss falls into a coma 2 years later, allowing for the cloning, and the project is completed and shelved by 1976?
 
Doing the research required to create a perfect clone (Solidus) or the Genome Army maybe?
Solidus can't be that young though, can he?

I'd say this definitely implies Big Boss's coma moved something to do with LET along.
Man, I hope not. The plot is messy enough already, no need to twist it further just to try and justify an old mistranslation.


Perhaps to emphasize 1972 being the start of the Les Enfants Terrible project? As in, it starts then with the research, and (inexplicably) Big Boss falls into a coma 2 years later, allowing for the cloning, and the project is completed and shelved by 1976?
According to the Kaz/Zero conversation in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, the kids were already born. Seems a bit too recent to retcon already, but then again, maybe I'm "underestimating" Kojima.
 
Portable Ops ends with Big Boss getting tons of money and resources from Gene with the implication being that it'll build Outer Heaven in the future.
Peace Walker starts with Kaz and Boss almost totally broke with MSF and needing Cipher and Zadornov's resources to get started.

Metal Gear RAXA and the ICBMG are the first Metal Gears according to PoOPs, built by a surviving Sokolov working off of Granin's plans.
In Peace Walker, Peace Walker and ZEKE are treated as the first realization of Granin's Metal Gear idea, with RAXA and the ICBMG never mentioned, Sokolov is only mentioned as the Shagohod's creator.

In Portable Ops they reveal that The Boss's death was planned from the very start by the CIA and that Volgin firing the Davy Crockett was all part of the plan. Big Boss demands to know who planned it.
In Peace Walker The Boss's death is treated the same way as in MGS3; an expendable loss by desperate bureaucrats, with parallels drawn to the space flight mission she went on. Big Boss meets the guy who planned Operation Snake Eater for the CIA and... just sort of thinks he's a jerk, without any of the fury you'd expect if he'd ever been told that the CIA deliberately set The Boss up.


It's been a while, but I also sort of recall that the conclusion about The Boss's death that Big Boss comes to at the end of PoOps is totally the opposite as the "laying down her gun" at the end of Peace Walker, and Big Boss starts Peace Walker still confused and unsure about The Boss's motives.




You know the worst part ? I think that Portable Ops had a far better story than Peace Walker, which was just terrible. As far as I'm concerned, Portable Ops makes far more sense, and is far more canon than Peace Walker. Mainly because of the cast.
 
When specifically asked about it, I guess (and I don't quite imagine him going "nah, but thanks for buying it based on my saying it was back when it was released!"). Konami no longer acknowledges the game otherwise.


I guess there would be Snake's attitude regarding the Boss, how he seemingly was over the whole thing in one game, and then not at all after all four years later... But yeah, it's not like there's been an actual retcon festival or anything. Not yet, anyway.


Why, thank you too. Must be my birthday or something.

Kojima aknowledges the game as canon. So it's canon.
 
Solidus can't be that young though, can he?
Dunno. But in one of the tapes, Skull Face mentioned that he suspects Cipher will become very upset when he kills Big Boss. Maybe he shelved the project because of the coma or something. I suspect it effected it in some way, either completing the project (Solidus) or making Zero cancel it out of respect to his memory.
 
Solid and Liquid were born in 1972 before Ground Zeroes, I think there's little doubt about that one and I don't think it is getting retconned. The 1976 date is just when the project was abandoned for some reason, which we can only speculate. The coma is 1975. We don't know when Solidus was born, or if there were any other clones (hopefully not).
 
Dunno. But in one of the tapes, Skull Face mentioned that he suspects Cipher will become very upset when he kills Big Boss. Maybe he shelved the project because of the coma or something. I suspect it effected it in some way, either completing the project (Solidus) or making Zero cancel it out of respect to his memory.

I have to assume Big Boss was presumed dead. Maybe it was shelved because of that, out of respect? Or it could've just been finished. But why mention when it stopped? Perhaps someone stopped it, by force?

The mystery of why he remained in a hospital for 9 years is something else that's interesting.

He "acts"? I don't understand. Word of God says the game is canon, that's pretty much it.

The other games don't support its position in the canon. Games like Peace Walker contradict its existence in many places. It's 'canon', in that it hasn't been directly challenged yet. But all it will take is doing something like putting Frank Jaegar in The Phantom Pain, without acknowledging Portable Ops, to kick that game out of canon entirely.
 
He "acts"? I don't understand. Word of God says the game is canon, that's pretty much it.

As EmCee pointed out above, he doesn't give PO much regard in as early as Peace Walker. It's canon, but it has no serious bearing on the overall storyline, which makes its a far malleable property in the long run. It's not an issue of whether or not its canon: the issue is what kind of relevance it has at this point.
 
Portable Ops ends with Big Boss getting tons of money and resources from Gene with the implication being that it'll build Outer Heaven in the future.
Peace Walker starts with Kaz and Boss almost totally broke with MSF and needing Cipher and Zadornov's resources to get started.

Metal Gear RAXA and the ICBMG are the first Metal Gears according to PoOPs, built by a surviving Sokolov working off of Granin's plans.
In Peace Walker, Peace Walker and ZEKE are treated as the first realization of Granin's Metal Gear idea, with RAXA and the ICBMG never mentioned, Sokolov is only mentioned as the Shagohod's creator.

In Portable Ops they reveal that The Boss's death was planned from the very start by the CIA and that Volgin firing the Davy Crockett was all part of the plan. Big Boss demands to know who planned it.
In Peace Walker The Boss's death is treated the same way as in MGS3; an expendable loss by desperate bureaucrats, with parallels drawn to the space flight mission she went on. Big Boss meets the guy who planned Operation Snake Eater for the CIA and... just sort of thinks he's a jerk, without any of the fury you'd expect if he'd ever been told that the CIA deliberately set The Boss up.


It's been a while, but I also sort of recall that the conclusion about The Boss's death that Big Boss comes to at the end of PoOps is totally the opposite as the "laying down her gun" at the end of Peace Walker, and Big Boss starts Peace Walker still confused and unsure about The Boss's motives.

1) We don't know how much resources Gene actually acquired, and it's possible that Big Boss had simply burned through most of it.

2) You answered your own question. RAXA and ICBMG are unimportant.

3) I don't see a problem here.

There's some iffiness between them but that's because they're not written by the same people, and Kojima isn't exactly consistent on his own, let alone when he has to dance around someone else's work. It's extremely common in Japanese media. Look at Resident Evil, for example. Those Gun Survivor games? Mentioned directly only once (exactly like PO), yet all canon. Outbreak? Same deal.
 
This, basically.
And now, there would also be that.

Oh, you mean Konami? The same company who keeps fucking up and retconning it's Castlevania timeline?

Hideo Kojima himself said: Portable Ops is canon. It's not a very important part, but it's canon. It's events do happen in the main timeline.

So if Kojima says it's canon, then it's canon.

Honestly, it doesn't matter if people believe it's relevant or not, but putting it's canon status in question is the equivalent of covering your ears and going "BLA BLA BLA I CAN'T HEAR YOU BLA BLA".

I don't like what Portable Ops did to Gray Fox, for example. I hated the whole "NULL" thing, but I suck it up and accept it's canon. I may not like it, but it is what it is.
 
You answered your own question. RAXA and ICBMG are unimportant.
Still, if I remember well, Huey gets the idea of calling Zeke a "Metal Gear" from Snake telling him Granin talked about a "metal gear" when he was drunk. What about those two Metal Gears you encountered just four years ago, Snake? Slipped your mind?
 
On paper, the tape stuff sounds completely fucked. I must say however, the actors and audio designers pulled that one off pretty damn well. The tone is just right without going into OTT edgy. Here's hoping Kojima has the chops to do a revenge story right.
 
1) We don't know how much resources Gene actually acquired, and it's possible that Big Boss had simply burned through most of it.

2) You answered your own question. RAXA and ICBMG are unimportant.

3) I don't see a problem here.

There's some iffiness between them but that's because they're not written by the same people, and Kojima isn't exactly consistent on his own, let alone when he has to dance around someone else's work. It's extremely common in Japanese media. Look at Resident Evil, for example. Those Gun Survivor games? Mentioned directly only once (exactly like PO), yet all canon. Outbreak? Same deal.

Kojima chooses not to reference the events of Portable Ops, except for vaguely on one occasion to flip it a middle finger as the game carries forward.

It'd be as simple as " ... Gene ...". " ... RAXA ... ". But nope. If it aint written by Kojima, it aint no good. It's place in the canon is sketchy. And it's a shame, because Portable Ops does what Peace Walker was trying to achieve, in terms of character development for Big Boss, better.

I think what we'll end up seeing is Frank Jaegar making an appearance in The Phantom Pain (it's been hinted at, if I recall) and not a single mention of Portable Ops, solidifying its place in the non-canon.
 
Still, if I remember well, Huey gets the idea of calling Zeke a "Metal Gear" from Snake telling him Granin talked about a "metal gear" when he was drunk. What about those two Metal Gears you encountered just four years ago, Snake? Slipped your mind?

So? Madnar conveniently slips Solid's mind. Kojima ignores and inserts things as he sees fit. He's not a very consistent storyteller.

Kojima chooses not to reference the events of Portable Ops, except for vaguely on one occasion to flip it a middle finger as the game carries forward.

It'd be as simple as " ... Gene ...". " ... RAXA ... ". But nope. If it aint written by Kojima, it aint no good. It's place in the canon is sketchy. And it's a shame, because Portable Ops does what Peace Walker was trying to achieve, in terms of character development for Big Boss, better.

I think what we'll end up seeing is Frank Jaegar making an appearance in The Phantom Pain (it's been hinted at, if I recall) and not a single mention of Portable Ops, solidifying its place in the non-canon.

Refer to the example I gave.

Gun Survivor 1 is referenced only in a single line in the opening of Resident Evil Zero. By the location it's set, too. It is the exact same treatment of Portable Ops. A lot of Japanese authors I know do that in order to avoid treading on the toes of another writer, but wanting to incorporate their work nonetheless.

Hilarious at the suggestion that Kojima's "Word of God" is infallible.
 
Oh, you mean Konami? The same company who keeps fucking up and retconning it's Castlevania timeline?
More reason not to be surprised if Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops slips off canon, which it seems to be doing.

Honestly, it doesn't matter if people believe it's relevant or not, but putting it's canon status in question is the equivalent of covering your ears and going "BLA BLA BLA I CAN'T HEAR YOU BLA BLA".
Please.
When I talk about whether or not the game is canonical, I'm talking about its actual relevance (see Ridley327's post above). Kojima may well be saying it's still canonical when asked about it (again, not that I'd expect him to go "nah, but thanks for buying it based on my saying it was at the time!" anyway), but if it's "canonical in name only" and in fact consistently forgotten, that doesn't mean much of anything, does it?
 
Pray tell, where'd you hear about vagina bombs and prisoners being forced to rape each other at Guantanamo Bay?

I can't imagine any reason why they would want to put a bomb in someone to begin with, but I can't exactly imagine them going "ew gross I can't put something in there", and it's not like sexual harassment is something unheard of in prisons or containment camps.

He wanted them both conscious and alive, and he wanted to break him mentally. That's a pretty terrible fucking thing to do, and it serves its purpose. That's all there is to it.
 
More reason not to be surprised if Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops slips off canon, which it seems to be doing.


Please.
When I talk about whether or not the game is canonical, I'm talking about its actual relevance (see Ridley327's post above). Kojima may well be saying it's still canonical when asked about it (again, not that I'd expect him to go "nah, but thanks for buying it based on my saying it was at the time!" anyway), but if it's "canonical in name only" and consistently forgotten in the facts, it doesn't mean much of anything, does it?

Why not? It means that the events of Portable Ops indeed happened, that Big Boss met Campbell in the 60's, that he fought against Python, that Ocelot was the one to steal the reminder of the Legacy from the CIA...

It means that those events are real within the Metal Gear timeline.
 
Refer to the example I gave.

Gun Survivor 1 is referenced only in a single line in the opening of Resident Evil Zero. By the location it's set, too. It is the exact same treatment of Portable Ops. A lot of Japanese authors I know do that in order to avoid treading on the toes of another writer, but wanting to incorporate their work nonetheless.

Hilarious at the suggestion that Kojima's "Word of God" is infallible.

I can't think of a single event that Portable Ops introduced to the canon that has been respected in the following games. Not. A. One.

Sure, it's 'canon'. But it's largely ignored and trodden over. The events of that game play no part in the greater narrative.
 
I can't think of a single event that Portable Ops introduced to the canon that has been respected in the following games. Not. A. One.

Sure, it's 'canon'. But it's largely ignored and trodden over. The events of that game play no part in the greater narrative.

But they still happened, that's the point.
 
There's inconsistent storytelling, and then there's having incredibly detailed conversations about the history of Metal Gears and The Boss's death where nobody mentions anything of major note between 1964 and 1974.
 
I can't think of a single event that Portable Ops introduced to the canon that has been respected in the following games. Not. A. One.

Sure, it's 'canon'. But it's largely ignored and trodden over. The events of that game play no part in the greater narrative.

...again, refer to the example I gave. It's the exact same situation. It's largely ignored because it's unimportant, written by a separate writer and ultimately Kojima doesn't really care much for it, but still actively includes it within his canon. There is no debate here. It might very well be "un-canon" later just like how the MSX2 games are pretty much pointless considering their important events either go unmentioned or they have completely new ones conjured.

There's inconsistent storytelling, and then there's having incredibly detailed conversations about the history of Metal Gears and The Boss's death where nobody mentions anything of major note between 1964 and 1974.

Try playing Resident Evil. There are several non-main games that are still part of the canon even when they're not directly (or barely) referenced by main games.
 
I'm not sure it's canon or not, that was obviously Konami's "official" stance last we heard, but I definitely think Kojima shying away from Portable Ops is a thing. I don't think he cares for it or it would be acknowledged more and appear in the Metal Gear timeline on the MGSV website and at least be a little relevant to the story by now. If it comes to the point that Kojima needs to use Gray Fox or Campbell again, then all I can say is I hope Kojima doesn't back away from it just because he's uncomfortable touching the Null thing. Retcon it if you have to, or start acknowledging it, but I just want it to leave this annoying gray area of canon where the characters involved in that game and whatever happened between Snake Eater and Big Boss creating MSF isn't just a haze.
 
There's inconsistent storytelling, and then there's having incredibly detailed conversations about the history of Metal Gears and The Boss's death where nobody mentions anything of major note between 1964 and 1974.

Doesn't mean those events never happened.
 
The funny thing about the MGS canon is the one game that was almost immediately discarded from the canon actually needs no extra rewrites in order for it to fit in there.

Konami, why have you made it so hard to get Ghost Babel by legal means?
 
If nobody acts like an event happened and it has no lasting effects, is there any difference from it never happening at all?

I mean, nobody goes to bat for Metal Gear Solid Mobile like this.
 
If nobody acts like an event happened and it has no lasting effects, is there any difference from it never happening at all?

I mean, nobody goes to bat for Metal Gear Solid Mobile like this.

Kojima never said Ghost Babel or Mobile were canon. If he did there'd be little problem in including them (they are VR), but he hasn't said... so they're not.
 
If nobody acts like an event happened and it has no lasting effects, is there any difference from it never happening at all?

I mean, nobody goes to bat for Metal Gear Solid Mobile like this.

At least that was memory wipe virtual reality. It's lack of greater relevance makes sense.

But, yeah, Portable Ops doesn't effectively lead into Peace Walker in any way.
 
But, yeah, Portable Ops doesn't effectively lead into Peace Walker in any way.

This doesn't translate to "not canon", though. Just because Kojima doesn't choose to do anything with its events, whatever the reason, is irrelevant when he outright says it's canon. It's just not important, so you can ignore it if you want. The only reason he mentions PO's location in PW is to show that it's still part of the canon regardless of how insignificant it is, but you personally don't have to care.

Again that could all change just like Big Boss's age.
 
Well PO technically happened but the events are unimportant to Kojima so he just ignores it.

If Kojima does something like having Gray Fox show up in PP and BB acts like it's the first time he's seen him then that would knock PO out of canon.
 
i know it's not how it works. i'm just being considerate for the meanwhile.

back on the subject of those tapes though, if the games media gets up in arms about them, do you think they'll mention at all that rape is used as a very real weapon in war? not to mention most likely used in 'black sites' like the one ground zeroes depicts until this very day?

that's the unfortunate logical fallacy of the games media getting annoyed at things like this. they're oblivious to the fact that this is actually happening and will focus on the game rather than the very real issue. even as a depiction of rape it's very restrained and unglamorous. not that rape itself is glamorous, just that a lot of media depictions show the very gruesome details and get very obsessed with showing the physical actions of rape, whereas ground zeroes rightly keeps itself in audio,and really leaves the worst and most disturbing parts vague and up to the horrors of the imagination.

That's a great point. The tapes could sound "way too much" for a videogame but the truth is that this sort of awful stuff has been known to happen in 'black sites', in fact these Chico tapes seem fairly fucking tame compared to some of the stuff I've read about. Why shouldn't we have games about this? Why do torture scenes have to be 'safe' to the point where they don't even represent modern torture anymore? Especially in a medium where so many products, as a poster has said, DO sugar coat war so fucking much?

The game does not seem revel in it either. I mean, the TAPES do, but I feel it's being taken out of context. The very fact you have to access this stuff through an obscure tape unlocking thing even journalists missed shows Kojima has thought carefully how to go about this. It's completely optional, but the urgency it Kojima wants in the game is still there.

Can I just say that the tapes felt empathic towards the victims? This isn't Trevor GTAV torture, it actually had some heart to it. The script could've been cut down a little without losing anything, but overall the tapes have stuck with me and not just because they were "extreme." Kojima is, and always has been, an emotional softy. This came through for me.

And on another note to the people saying "MGS has too many goofy elements for this stuff", MGS has always had morbid elements too. This just feels like Volgin uncut to me.
 
After seeing GZ I must say I agree with Kojima's decision to get rid of Hayter, with the serious human tone of the game Hayter's uh "comic book delivery/voice"(I'm not sure how to say what I mean) would feel out of place.

It's weird to me that people can listen to those optional audio tapes and think it was some try-hard 2edgyforme nonsense. It was a very mature insight, shit like that does happen and the tapes had the right mix of subtle suggestion and inference to let your mind fill in the blanks and realize the horror of it all, it isn't some torture porn crap and it's sad to me that some people can only see it that way.

And hey Kojima even got rid of the cardboard boxes and also wanted to get rid of the exclamation points over the guards heads. Ground Zeroes has shown Kojima really is taking this seriously, I wouldn't worry about some MGS4 trolling/sabotage taking place again.
 
But, yeah, Portable Ops doesn't effectively lead into Peace Walker in any way.

For the story, I agree but the ending of PO and the intro of PW may be considered connected. The ending of PO shows soldiers saluting to him meaning there is some loyalty gained and at the start of PW, there are soldiers training having high regard to Big Boss.
 
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