Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
I need scissors! 61!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, is the brainchild of Hideo Kojima, featuring a pair of the most loved and hated characters respectively, Solid Snake and Raiden. It’s an insane, postmodern game which features “the most profound moment in gaming history,” as it explains the concepts of self, convenient truths, free will, and more. This all comes about from Raiden’s mission to save the Big Shell from Solidus Snake and Dead Cell, who seek to liberate the country from the Patriots control under any necessary means. As Raiden progresses, aided by Snake and under the command of FOXHOUNDs Colonel Roy Campbell, and uncovers the secretive conspiracy of the Patriots, and their new means of social control (Arsenal Gear’s GW AI), he loses a grip on his sense of self, due to the implications that his entire adult life has been a test to see if a mindless citizen could be controlled, even his girlfriend Rose, which appears to succeed. Who is Raiden, and how does Snake help him find himself? How do the Patriots seek to control the average citizen in the digital age (infobesity), and what can we learn about ourselves from this? And, what are convenient truths? These are a few of the topics explained in Metal Gear Solid 2- quite possibly Hideo Kojima’s most divisive game, with its Tanker mission “bait and switch.”
A video essay analyzing and explaining the themes of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
0:00 Introduction
5:07 Snake vs Raiden
12:26 Explaining the Protagonist
20:40 Rose's Aspects
27:47 Meta-narrative
37:05 Post-modern breakdown
40:17 Refutation
47:00 Snake & Raiden
#metalgearsolid #mgs #kojima #videoessay #professorviral
I need scissors! 61!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, is the brainchild of Hideo Kojima, featuring a pair of the most loved and hated characters respectively, Solid Snake and Raiden. It’s an insane, postmodern game which features “the most profound moment in gaming history,” as it explains the concepts of self, convenient truths, free will, and more. This all comes about from Raiden’s mission to save the Big Shell from Solidus Snake and Dead Cell, who seek to liberate the country from the Patriots control under any necessary means. As Raiden progresses, aided by Snake and under the command of FOXHOUNDs Colonel Roy Campbell, and uncovers the secretive conspiracy of the Patriots, and their new means of social control (Arsenal Gear’s GW AI), he loses a grip on his sense of self, due to the implications that his entire adult life has been a test to see if a mindless citizen could be controlled, even his girlfriend Rose, which appears to succeed. Who is Raiden, and how does Snake help him find himself? How do the Patriots seek to control the average citizen in the digital age (infobesity), and what can we learn about ourselves from this? And, what are convenient truths? These are a few of the topics explained in Metal Gear Solid 2- quite possibly Hideo Kojima’s most divisive game, with its Tanker mission “bait and switch.”
A video essay analyzing and explaining the themes of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
0:00 Introduction
5:07 Snake vs Raiden
12:26 Explaining the Protagonist
20:40 Rose's Aspects
27:47 Meta-narrative
37:05 Post-modern breakdown
40:17 Refutation
47:00 Snake & Raiden
#metalgearsolid #mgs #kojima #videoessay #professorviral
