![]() “It’s only when I’m cheating death on the battlefield. But, he will never be truly part of it, for he doesn’t really belong in this era. He’s going to ‘see the world off’, observe it once more before he dies. The last chapter of the Patriots’ long and tumultuous history. He is the last thing that remains from an era that has passed. “What little time I have left will be spent living… as a beast. In this setting, where everyone has to fight for his own survival, differentiating between right and wrong and remembering your values can be a lot more difficult than it is to the outside observer. The battlefield is a place where killing is not only accepted, but necessary, and where the normal rules of society don’t apply. Here Solid Snake summarizes how it is possible that war often seems to change people into monsters, or as Drebin says in Metal Gear Solid 4: ‘War transforms us. “It’s easy to forget what a sin is in the middle of a battlefield.” It isn’t waged as a result of a difference in ideals, or over who controls what territory, or any such reasons wars used to be waged for in the past. War has become nothing but a means to keep the economy running, a repetition of patterns within a controlled system, a ‘well oiled machine’. MGS4 takes place in a world where war has become so important to the global economy that it’s indispensable, and that’s why the governments of the world are afraid to do anything about the situation. Snake isn’t talking as much about the nature of war, but the means its fought with and the reasons its fought for. One of the most well known lines from Metal Gear Solid 4. But to himself, he is simply a skilled killer. The results of this life make him a monster in the eyes of some, and a hero in the eyes of others. Snake doesn’t want his deeds to be glorified, because while he does try to fight with the best intentions, it still requires him to kill, and as he says in Metal Gear Solid 2: ‘there is no right part in murder. Solid Snake’s cynical view on his own life and his place in the world is something that returns in various games. “I’m just a man who’s good at what he does. He feels that he must walk this path alone, as to not drag anyone else with him. He feels he has one last mission to fulfill, to leave behind a world no longer affected by his mistakes. Many of Metal Gear Solid 4’s characters recognize their own sins in life and try to make up for them before they pass away. As long as you follow me, you will never see the day.” “I’m a shadow, one that no light will shine on. He doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t deny it either. “Unfortunately, killing is one of those things that gets easier the more you do it.”Įven though he doesn’t embrace this ‘destiny’ the way Liquid does, Solid Snake acknowledges that he is a weapon, someone who was made to be on the battlefield, who was created to kill. A simple quote, but it has a lot of meaning. And of course this level of control over war also means control over the fate of whole civilizations. The Patriot system is creating and fueling proxy wars as a means to generate money. ![]() ![]() In Metal Gear Solid 4, war exists within its own controlled ecosystem. “He who controls the battlefield, controls history.” Why look into the future when you can shape it yourself? MGS1 is about individuals trying to break free from their genetic fate, choosing their own life instead, and this quote illustrates Snake’s view on it. He can see into the future and is able to base his actions on what he knows will happen. Psycho Mantis spent his entire life diving into other people’s minds, trying to understand their motives, what drives them, and what’s to come for them. “A strong man doesn’t need to read the future. In other words, he doesn’t have to come back alive, let alone be celebrated by others. At the same time it reflects a certain stubbornness, believing that the mission is his duty and his alone, and this conviction is more important to him than a happy ending. Snake feels that what he does, the missions he carries out, are a necessity and even an obligation, even if he sometimes has to get his hands dirty. ‘I’m just an old killer, hired to do some wet work’. Snake doesn’t see himself as some heroic figure, even though the people around him do. These are among Snake’s most famous words from the fourth installment in the series. These qualities are displayed in the following fifteen quotes, that expose Snake’s personality or show his beliefs about the world. But at the same time, he is also a character with a surprising capacity for self-reflection, his own ideas about morality, and, from time to time, a philosopher’s attitude. ![]() When he does talk, his sentences often consists of repeating something he just heard about or saw in a questioning manner. ![]()
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