First of all, in fairness here are the things I, Drivershaft goofed up on/didn’t clarify to Asterios in the first episode:
- Venom/Punished and Naked both being Big Boss: I wanted to save that for when we talked about MGSV as that is that game’s entire story.
- Raiden being a mental copy: saying he is a stand in would be more precise, he doesn't have all of Snake’s memories or anything, he just went through all of Snake’s experiences in MGS1 in VR and is meant to be “Snake” in the patriots recreation/simulation.
- I didn’t mention Metal Gear Mk. 2 when talking about all the metal gears, but Mk. 2 is more of a Snatcher reference and is just like a tiny helper robot, not a big metal gear, he also isn’t like a true metal gear because he can’t launch a nuke.
Here is a list of everything Asterios Kokkinos got wrong on the episode:
- Asterios: That’s the first thing that tells me you might know something about metal gear, you’re a vapist.
Naked Snake (Original Big Boss) actually despises vapes:
https://i.imgur.com/bv1qY6A.png
Here is a list of everything Merlot Williams got wrong on his episode:
(Pro Tip: Don’t try to correct people on Metal Gear if you’ve only played MGS2 back when you were like 14 and never went back.)
- Merlot: There are a bunch of people who want Naked Snake dead because he’s trying to undermine the patriots
No, the only people who we see and hear about that want Naked Snake dead are XOF
who want the patriots dead because they hate Zero and know Zero doesn’t want Big
Boss killed. Paz also tries to kill Big Boss but she is a Patriots spy who is trying to get
him to join up with the patriots. We hear that people all over the world want Big Boss
dead presumably because of the events of 3 and Peace Walker fucking with communist
and capitalist countries, but we never really hear about specifics.
- Asterios: So Venom is like I wanna take out these patriots too Naked Snake, I’m super loyal so you can make me like a double.
Merlot: Yes
Wrong, Venom is unknowingly made into a mental and physical double while Big Boss and Venom/Punished are in a coma after a helicopter crash in V, Punished believes he is the only Big Boss and has all of Big Boss’ memories, he doesn’t know he’s a body double until the very end when it reveals he was used by Zero/Big Boss to protect the real Big Boss, he wants to take down the Patriots because the patriots destroyed his base and tried to murder him and all of his friends.
- Merlot: He’s given the name Snake at the beginning but decides he doesn’t like the name
Wrong, he is given a codename change because the terrorist leader is believed to be
Solid Snake and they didn’t want to confuse the two.
- Asterios: Does GW stand for “George Washington”?
Merlot: I don’t think so.
All of The Patriots AIs, apart from the core AI (JD - John Doe), are named after the Presidents on Mount Rushmore. GW is actually the most important and notable patriot AI because it’s the only one we see and talk to in the series.
- Asterios: So there were no mechs named “Metal Gear” until MG1, right?
Merlot: Correct
There were two Metal Gears before MG TX-55; Metal Gear ZEKE, and Metal Gear Sahelanthropus. Four, if you count the two from MPO (which you shouldn’t. I’ll explain later). Also you meet the guy who created Metal Gear as a concept and design in 3, Aleksandr Granin who is drinking himself to death because his bosses thought a tank with legs was stupid, and you see designs for metal gears all around his office.
- Merlot: I haven’t played MG2: Solid Snake for the Famicom.
1.) MG2 is what made the series what it is today; it’s when the plot got more serious and complex.
2.) MG2 was released for the MSX2, *not* the Famicom. The Famicom is the Japanese NES. The MSX2 is just a home computer system, Metal Gear 1 was also released for the MSX, the Famicom version is just a bad port and the same as the NES version, there was no NES/SNES port for the canon version of MG2.
- Merlot: There was a PS3 complication of all the MG games (lists off the canon entries... but ignores PW). I believe it’s called the Ultimate MG Collection.
It’s actually “Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection.” That port was also not the first time americans got the chance to play MG2, as it was included in the special edition of MGS3 called Subsistence, the legacy/HD collection is just an HD port of Subsistence. Also true fans know there was a fan translation that according to Romhacking.net was first available in 1997.
- Merlot: You fight a REX *and* a RAY.
Asterios: They team up?!
Merlot: I think you fight them at different points.
No. They fight EACH OTHER! That was one of the best scenes in the series!
- Merlot: Snake’s memory takes him back to Shadow Moses/MGS1
This never fucking happens, Snake physically goes back to Shadow Moses at one point to pick up a railgun from Rex’s body that he needs.
- Merlot: Sahelanthropus is a giant dragon looking thing
No, it’s just a Metal Gear that looks like Rex but it walks upright like a man, it just looks like a big mech. https://i.imgur.com/f8giYyL.jpg
- Merlot: Portable Ops is canon.
It’s not, Rising isn’t canon either. NPC Metal Gear fan thesnakesoup.org/myth-articles/myth-hideo-kojima-said-portable-ops-rising-canonical/
- Merlot: Geckos are mass-produced Metal Gears
There’s a codec call in MGS4 where Otacon explains that Geckos aren’t Metal Gears. They are not true metal gears because they have no nuclear launch capabilities, they look more like Metal Gear Rex than RAY..
- Merlot: Old Snake has the Burt Reynolds mustache because FOXDIE is killing him. He’s aging rapidly due to the effects of FOXDIE.
No, he’s aging because he’s a clone with an artificially short lifespan. Naomi Hunter ran tests on Old Snake and explained that FOXDIE has nothing to do with his aging.
- Merlot: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was originally going to be called Metal Gear Solid *5*: Rising.
Rising never had a “5” in the title. Peace Walker was going to be MGS5, but it was a PSP game, so the number was dropped. https://kotaku.com/5478831/metal-gear-solid-peace-walker-was-originally-mgs5
- Merlot: You fight *PRESIDENT* Armstrong.
SENATOR Armstrong: Don’t fuck with THIS Senator! https://youtu.be/4ZIR1nd60To
- Merlot: I don't believe you’re ever given The Boss’ name
Her name is almost certainly Joy, as heard in V when Strangelove is intimately talking to her artificial intelligence while dying.
- Merlot: Major Zero wants Big Boss dead for not cooperating.
Zero wanted Big Boss to return to The Patriots. He got pissed at Skull Face for trying to kill Big Boss. The whole Venom Snake thing in MGSV:TPP was orchestrated by Zero to *protect* Big Boss through pointing Big Boss’ enemies at a body double. Despite being ideological enemies, Zero still considered Big Boss a friend. There’s even a recorded conversation at the end of V where Zero last meets with Big Boss while he’s in a coma and somberly says, “If you had only just come to see me first.” implying Big Boss just left and they never actually talked about their differences. In the end it was two friends who had a big misunderstanding and didn’t talk about it like adults (how’s that for irony?)
- Asterios: So Big Boss goes to Major Zero and is like “you lied to me, Zero!” And Zero’s like, “I told you what I had to, for America to survive. I’m starting a group called The Patriots.” [...] And Naked Snake is like “no!” [...] Is that right?
Merlot: Yup.
Big Boss was actually a founding member of The Patriots, along with Zero. Big Boss didn’t become disillusioned with The Patriots until after he was already a member, but even then, he didn’t leave until he found out that Zero cloned him. It’s not Asterios’ fault for not knowing this, but Merlot shouldn’t have said “yup.”
(Side-Note: The Patriots wasn’t a reference to The Patriot Act. The game was in development well before The Patriot Act was passed, and was released less than a month after it was passed. Likewise, MGS2 featured a terror attack on New York, and large portions of that segment had to be cut because of 9/11. Its all a freak, amazing coincidence. MGS2 is the game of a generation, and everyone should play it.)
- Merlot: Kojima doesn’t understand Metal Gear
False, Hideo Kojima is a genius.
Norman Reedus on Dan Fogler’s Podcast: “Then I met Hideo, he took me to the Video Game Music Awards, right. And he comes walking down the steps, and the steps are lighting up underneath him, y'know, he's like "I'm back!", and then 10,000 grown men, with tears in their eyes, are screaming like Elvis just walked in, and I'm like "Who the fuck is this guy?" He's like a genius, and then you talk to him and you're like "Oh, you are a genius."”
