Widen With Boobs

Calling my gf “girlfriend” in the same cadence Solid Snake would say “colonel” is so fun

i don't think it's false sense of accomplishment at all.

yes, history will see him as villain, but, for example, at the start of metal gear 2: solid snake (iirc) it is said that there are no more nukes left in the world other than in zanzibarland, and while not explicitly stated so, i think dd's nuclear disarmament efforts in mgsv contributed to that - at least there is a cinematic in mgsv for total nuclear disarmament, which makes it canon enough for me. that's a big accomplishment that matters, imo.

it's really futile with the water reservoir and, mb, the child soldiers, since we don't know whether they got a chance at "normal" life (and it was miller's idea anyway) and know the fate of liquid snake and kids transferred to outer heaven later.

in shining lights mission he prevented a dangerous infection outbreak. like with many other things, it can be argued that he is responsible for it happening to begin with.

for me personally it is an interesting question how much of all of that did big boss - both ishmael and ahab - really want and how much was he being guided and/or manipulated to do, or left no choice. but i think the thing with playing as venom snake is doing the right thing at every given moment, even when war has already changed and is for money and revenge instead of making world a better place like the boss or ishmael wanted. but venom snake loved the legend of big boss the hero before becoming venom snake and my guess is he continued to do so and was happy or at least accepted the chance to contribute to it and become its co-creator. he contributed to the reason to live of his staff and completed impressive missions, and while that might seem shallow and lacking a bigger purpose, to me effort and passion in itself are never meaningless.

one can say that he has no lever and everything was decided for him, and that makes sense. but also it would be easier to give up or mess everything up; he needed effort and willpower to keep the tram moving, even if there was only one path - whether willingly or not and happy or not seems to be up to the player to decide.

also lmao, there was never a "good" option and non lethal metal gear gameplay is a joke. in mgs3 bosses even explode anyway, i think the only difference is difficulty and a little trophy to let the player feel like a good boy/girl/them. it is a game about supernatural cyber war and the very essence of all of your efforts (warring) is inevitably bound to people being killed. the closest to genuine non lethal i know is total stealth in mgs1 where at least the genome soldiers you sneak past are not even bombed in the end.

Venom's arc explained in a picture from the player's perspective

Playing MGSV:TPP you have 2 choices:

You can be good or bad. You can kill, destroy, use and do everything in your power to be the worst person alive. You can be kind, you can save animals, kids, soldiers, grow a family and be a respectable man.

There's actually no choice. There's no two-tracks. The ending is the same. History will see you as a villain. You are a villain. You are, currently, the perfect depiction of the most wanted and most evil man alive, according to the world.

You have no lever. You cannot stop this from happening. Either close your eyes or watch, the ending will be the same. Your life will end in misery. The only relief? Boss will pat your shoulder and let you die with a false sense of accomplishment. Congrats. That's the panthom pain everybody talks about.

Happy holidays everyone! Please, accept my MGS babies as a humble gift to y'all <3

a quick lee van cleef

a metal gear themed birthday card from @ultraeyepiss <3

i am not a private but i hope i still have time hehe

sketch from a pic i've been sent on tumblr, waow

ngl im unsure it looks as good as the original but i had fun drawing it, especially the hair and the tanlines

every time i log into the game to take screenshots for references or something i get jumpscared by my own design choices

a small miller study based on @/sunclown 's art and peace walker model. i intended to focus on the hairstyle but ended up paying more attention to the face. i think i finally have an understanding (or a guess, at least) of his face structure. drew the pic that i like tbh and then some rougher notes on the shapes i tried to capture, for future reference.

have read "the sun also rises"/"fiesta" by hemingway. review below

i'd say it is a slice of life about bohemian american expats in paris with lots of casual conversations and description of their leisure, with a side of nature and bullfighting. although not explicitly stated by the narrator/main character, upon closer inspection the book is focused on how the virility (no pun intended, i can't think of a better word) of young men (and possibly women) was broken by ww1 despite wars being supposed to be both outlet and forge of virtue and merit.

i haven't read a lot of hemingway and not big on reading in general, but the intentional omitting of things makes it really good as well as suits the tendency of many characters to avoid thinking about some things. there are a lot of diverse and believable characters, both recurring and mentioned only once. their friendly chat and banter reminded me of philip k dick's "a scanner darkly" in some way. besides war, it depicts issues of living in immigration, loneliness and alienation in a city, scepticism, insecurity, discrimination, feeling emasculated and toxic polycules.

it also has an interesting depiction of a female character's life values but that is up to women to comment. although she also admits to feeling miserable most of the time, it seems she is better adjusted than most of the male characters.

it is sad that 100 hundred years later it is relevant (not talking for everyone) but comforting that people in the past felt the same way. personally i am going to adopt ways of coping depicted in it, such as group trips, spending time outside the city and competitive games/sports. note that any character probably wasn't supposed to be a moral role model probably even at that time: befriend people of other genders for the sake of good friendship, don't blame your irritation with a person on their nationality etc.

cw for this book are mention of discrimination, slurs (i counted 3), animal abuse, a bit of gore, alcohol abuse, consequences of war and a weird open relationship where no one is really happy.

i would also say it might be relevant for trans guys with bottom dysphoria but (ending spoiler ahead) main character doesn't think much about it and eventually realises that it doesn't even matter bc he and his peers are messed up mentally and a healthy dick would not grant a happy relationship. which still might be relevant but i'm not sure if it's the message anyone would be looking for :)

i had a lot of fun first listening to it on youtube and then switching to a paper book, highly recommend it. reading the litcharts review was a bit irritating for me and more gendered than it could be, but provided an interesting insight on where stuff i thought to be just "default" comes from and reflect on my own (civilian) life.