Sometimes, you gotta take an L to eventually score a big win.

Spoilers: Foreshadowing

While I am fond of both sustained contemplation and virtual interloping, I tend to pick up my ball and go home far sooner than most others would who enjoy either activity with the same level of deep commitment. Dwelling, at least for sometime now, has not been my preferred modality of passive existence, and I feel as if a return to such a bizarre everyday engagement represents a matter of ill repute, so best to keep my wits about me while moving forward, all with the same strident step of enthusiasm in launching me forever onward.

Just to clarify: I speak of doing one final piece on Metal Gear Solid 3 (MGS3) before moving on, as it has commandeered the spotlight for long enough here on ATE, and the arbitrary shift over into the endgame of 2025 with December right around the corner seems a fitting enough temporal reprise to bring the year to a close. The only snafu of the matter that I may rue trying to juggle, is that I still yearn for the obtaining of the Foxhound rank, which is essentially what would be considered a near flawless run of the campaign on its hardest difficulty, and having more than one core gaming experience running at the same time while maintaining a posting schedule on this site is is rather untenable, so we shall see if I will find the energetic enthusiasm to keep my ambitions in line on the matter.

I sat down for a real deep think session earlier, in attempting to uncover some unbidden truths that still lay hidden within the metaphysical depths of MGS3’s virtual jungles, and I’m not totally convinced there isn’t anything left worth talking about, but I was grasping at straws at coming to a conclusion on anything radically defeaning in the matter. It is never enough for me to just state the obvious and “talk shop” in a more pedestrian manner about video games, and I always shake my head whenever I read the more occasionally, and ludicrously low effort write-up along these lines, as I sit in awe that the standard to “make it to print”, as it were, is quite so low. As a ratification to that statement, I do not mean to cast shade at all of my colleagues in the field of gaming media, as they just know how to play “the game” better, in navigating a professional space, but this is exactly my point; what constitutes “making it” , in terms of getting my name involved in one of the bigger names in the field, whether it be a more trafficked front then my own humble website, or in physical format, is simply not worth the level of creative lobotomizing it would take to achieve such an ends, as an embarrassing number of articles I discerningly peruse in my spare time to see what’s hot on the beat theses days, leads me to a written summation not unlike book reports I wrote in the 9th grade, a place I’d rather never return to, mentally or otherwise.

This next bit is perhaps a slightly under cooked, but all the same delicious theory of rampant implication, but I’m not in possession of a greater time frame tonight, so a conceptual matter coming in the form of raw cookie dough as opposed to freshly baked cookies will have to do. While I don’t think what I’m about to posit takes away from the emotional weight of the denouement that takes place between The Boss and Naked Snake by tales end, based on in-game precedent sets, vs the historic record referenced in the game, it’s hard not to believe that The Boss didn’t throw the match with Snake at the end of the game. This brings into the fray a lot of questions as to how this does impact the overall narrative, and may yet be a consideration worthy of a lot of further discussion in the matter, but I find these are the most interesting kinds of propositions to mull over.

This assertion most definitely falls comfortably into the camp of theory, as nowhere in the games, or even discussions involving extracurricular content related to the matter ever suggests that The Boss was straight up sandbagging against Snake, and had to in essence ensure the match ended the way it did by low-key throwing in the towel of effort in Snake’s favor, but if you consider the circumstance, I think there is plenty of evidence to suggest such a reality occurred. I won’t write some ridiculously long dissertation about the matter, but merely present a few facts and observations supporting this posit. There is one big obvious “give away” reality easy to confront here, but I will save it for after my first couple competent kick around ideas that came to mind.

Firstly, throughout the game, every time we see The Boss and Snake duke it out, she effortlessly humbles the man, time and time again, and this makes us first hand witnesses to the cold hard truth of the situation, and this is not even bringing into account her ridiculous track record of success into the mix. Secondly, and I have no doubts this will be the biggest source of contention in this theoretical model, but that’s why I’m sandwiching it inbetween two much stronger points, is that, throughout the game, Snake remains in utter disbelief that The Boss defected. He obviously takes this as an emotional devastation, as we bear witness to upon the tears he sheds at games end, and therefore, a personal existential tragedy, for the absurdly long list of reasons involving why most anyone would see this as a sickening betrayal from someone they loved so deeply, but this reality utterly unmakes him as a man. To suggest that, perhaps, while not in possession of his wits being about him in backing up what was already a lack of skills to deliver the coup de grace in the matter, Snake also, and perhaps more important, just lacked the emotional strength and personal resolve to go through in seeing the battle to its necessary end, which is further cemented by his hesitation and inability to pull the trigger by games end. If viewed through an absurdist 4th wall lens built into the story, and an approach which is absolutely Kojima’s MO for the MGS series, and one that has arguably been used in most mainline games, though MGS1 and MGS5 having pivotal, storyline contingent moments that literally hang on the breaking of the 4th wall to occur, with the player being directly involved and key in the overall canon of the MGS storyline, one could argue Snake himself hesitated to pull the trigger, and he literally needed the players presence and emotional support, in order to get the help he needed to eventually commit to the act to finish the job.

And finally, my third and most compelling point in the matter, is the dead obvious truth that stares us in the face: The Boss, being a consummate soldier, who always sees her missions to the end, and successfully carried out, no matter what it took, as evidenced by the main thrust of what she sacrificed in connection to Snake Eater concluding in the way it does, helps totally reinforce the notion that she couldn’t afford to not lose to Snake, as it would endanger the integrity of the missions eventual outcome. To indeed, sacrifice all that she had, to see Operation Snake Eater come to conclusion as it should, in combination with her standards as a soldier in complying with the orders, but full well knowing there was a chance Snake couldn’t bring himself to do it, on top of having literal evidence that The Boss still had the ability to clown on Snake anytime they met up, the sad reality of her needing to yield, so that Snake would be guaranteed to kill her, leaves little up to the imagination that she couldn’t risk the one X factor of failure outside of her control to get in the way of possible mission failure. That doesn’t mean just anyone could have done the job based on that logic, and indeed, the very same bond that connects The Boss to Naked Snake, and the form it takes as the emotional centerpiece of the title, is the reason that only Snake could have succeeded in completing this mission, but in a fun twist of irony, the plan had Snake’s failure baked into the plan itself, with a third party needing to intervene (see: the player with the 4th wall break)to see it to successful completion.

Just to emphasize my last point a little further, and honestly given my proposed evidence already presented, I don’t actually feel like I need to include this last bit, but I think it underlines an excellent point from an unlikely parallel of how the only capable hero able to “save the day”, would also ultimately “need to fail” in order to win. To that point, another individual who was always destined to fail, in one sense anyway,s of being completely consumed by their mission, is Frodo from Lord of the Rings, but was a necessary component to see the mission find it’s successful conclusion Wild reach, I know, and I can’t throw “book Frodo” into the proverbial boxing ring of consideration here (I haven’t read through all of RoTK), and am solely focusing on “movie Frodo” here to make my point, but the whole thing still works given that approach. I think Gandalf knew that Frodo was the only individual involved who could get The Ring to the end, much like Snake was the only one who would have been sturdy enough to make it through all of the mission to have a chance to take The Boss out. However, and much like Frodo, he would ultimately be consumed by his mission, and stumble right before the finish line in completing his goal…and this is where the third party comes into play.

To clarify, at least in the movie of Return of the King, Frodo essentially and finally gets corrupted by the Ring in the saving throw moment by The One Ring at Mt.Doom, refusing to drop the accursed object into the fires, but that’s when Gandalf’s wisely placed inside man in the form of Gollum comes into play, and intercedes in the way one would imagine knowing his proclivities, which basically makes the scenario possible, where The Ring would be destroyed, as none of the three hobbits present in Mt. Doom, all for totally different reasons, would be unable to toss the ring in themselves, but the combinatory efforts of multiple parties interacting could seal the deal. It is not a direct 1:1, as Snake obviously doesn’t have a third party in game directly intervene, per se…unless we do consider my suggestion earlier, and do take my posit of the 4th wall breaking angle as gospel truth, and then it really lends credence to the notion Snake could not have done it himself unless accompanied by the player, and we were used as a fail safe to see the mission to its end, much like Gollum was to Frodo, in a different configuration of course, but part and parcel to the notion that Snake could carry the mission to the finish line, like Frodo, but falter in finally crossing it, without the aid of a separate individual to see it to it’s conclusion. Of course, the whole thing could still fall apart if The Boss went “beast mode”, and totally served Snake up a slice of humble pie, so the contingency of her needing to throw the fight, sandbag on some level, and commit to predetermination of failure on her part, in falling in favor to Team Snake in the end, is basically a necessity to absolutely guarantee the missions success, and therefore, an integral part in it.

And if we learn nothing else from Snake Eater, it is that The Boss is a true, unwavering solider, no matter what, and makes sure she is always a part of achieving success in any operation she is a part of…even if that mission is the ultimate betrayal, and her eventual undoing as a soldier in the process.

…and with that, I am out of time, and must depart. I would be delightfully tickled if this perked some interest from others, in seeing if anyone hasn’t considered this idea in the past, and wins some favor with those who do take the time to accept the truth behind it, but if nothing else, it remains a strangely compelling and energizing theory to end this little walk down memory on.

What a thrill…

-Pashford