Metal Gearl Solid I Act III: Shadow Moses

Backup Crew
The other characters of Metal Gear Solid round out the cast, provide additional context and content, and reside on a continuum of pertinence to the gamer, though their relevance to the narrative remain untouched by the gamer's machinations.^¤ In a sense, Master Miller, Mei Ling, and Nastasha are vestiges of the game's narrative in a formal, primal way--the game operates independently of their participation, though the attempt by MGS to incorporate them is noticeable. 

This isn't to disparage these tertiary characters. The gamer can succeed without interaction with Nastasha and Master Miller--success can also be accomplished without listening to Mei Ling's sagacious dispensations of aphorism, though each is thoughtfully added to the game to help enhance the gamer's perceptions of just what Snake is having to accomplish. Still, their importance is always narratological; Mei Ling proves her value in how effortlessly she is replaced by Otacon in MGS2. The similar role, played by Para-Medic in MGS3, does little to redeem Mei Ling's essentially empty presence in the original game. Despite these characters existing only for the narrative, they are there to heighten the attachment of Snake to his mission, to provide the occasional ludo- or schedieological purpose, and overall enhance the accomplishments of Snake.

Secondary Characters and Secondary Stories

Hal Emmerich (Otacon), Meryl Silverburgh, Colonel Roy Campbell, Naomi Hunter, and Revolver Ocelot are characters whose stories move beyond the tragedy at Shadow Moses. The remainder (Vulcan Raven, Decoy Octopus, Sniper Wolf, Psycho Mantis, Genome Soldiers, et al.) are mostly corpses, left to frozen tombs or savagery by the indigenous wildlife. Even Ocelot's arm is left behind. This is the life of Snake--the death of others. But each secondary character has a purpose that is beyond just the narrative's need for supporting cast.

Otacon

Narrative: Otacon provides the necessary lightning rod of the MGS's science fiction, grounding it with a tenuously-plausible genius who created the doomsday machine. He is the gentleman in distress, the intellectual foil to Snake's rugged machismo and masculinity. As a counterbalance to the incredibly violent Snake, Otacon is a pacifist by default--not having the skills to be a fighter--and, at the end chooses to become more of a generator of his own actions, rather than merely a reactionary.

His tropes are familiar--genius scientist whose well-meaning inventions threaten humanity--yet as his character is explored throughout additional games, he becomes more and more rounded. His back story is pure narrative--one never plays as Otacon (which many would consider a boon)--yet his foibles become recognizable. His foray into the world of creating Metal Gear is not his first mistake. MGS2 gives additional detail about Otacon's pre-Shadow Moses life, and it is quickly understood that the man easily falls into temptations. His perpetual resolve to never mess up again provides a sidelined tragedy that is played out in every game. His statement on the snowmobile is enlightening and tragic: "I'm just tired of always being a spectator in life. I'm ready to live. I'm gonna stand on my own two feet. I'm not gonna hide anymore." Despite such brave words, by the time he is seen again in MGS2, he is once again hiding in the digital world (a digital character in a digital world--a simulacrum of the simulacrum). His mistakes with his stepmother are perverse and strangely humanizing from a narrative point of view. His seduction by Naomi in MGS4 is, by now, expected. His constant heartache and heartbreak (he cries in every game) comes from wanting to be so much more than he is. The tears are not just of sadness but frustration at his perpetual humanity: He wishes he could be the ideal that Snake embodies, but he is--unlike Snake--all too human.

Meryl

Like Otacon, Meryl's back story is provided elliptically, and the gamer never has the chance of controlling her directly.^¤¤ Her desires are forged out of a childhood that she doesn't appreciate, and while the truth about her parentage isn't given until MGS4, her vulnerabilities because of her sex come through powerfully. Snake stands as an ideal man in that he doesn't judge Meryl based upon her gender (though he does think her butt is cute), but rather her abilities on the battlefield. Meryl, at first, stands as an ideal woman in that she is capable of overcoming the stereotype of a woman whose capacities are diminished because of her sex. This is not a permanent standing, as Meryl often has to be saved by Snake. However, each act of salvation feels less of a trope and more of a natural motive between two characters whose identities mingle, goals overlap, and mutual appreciation is apparent. 
 
The expected sexual tension between Snake and Meryl is subtle, and most likely reflects the gamer's desire for some sort of romantic consummation to exist in the lives of the characters on the screen. This tension is explicitly exploited by Psycho Mantis when he takes over Meryl's mind. After demanding of Snake to know if he likes her, she moans, "Hurry...hurry! Make love to me!! Snake, I want you!" The declaration may or may not be what Meryl felt for Snake at the time (though, by the end of the game, one gets the feeling that she has fallen for the rugged hero of Shadow Moses), but it taps into the necessary emotional responses that helps the illusion of control within the game. Once an overt overture of attraction is given, the desire to save Meryl when she's trapped by sniper fire later stems not from the schedieological, but from the emotional.

Because of the emotional connection that the two characters should have, the schism of the two separate endings of the game becomes more pointed. To save Otacon, the gamer must succumb to Ocelot's torture techniques, a move that is irrevocable within the game--short of reloading a prior save, Snake must live with the choice of having abandoned Meryl to rape and death while saving his new-found friend. This betrayal of Meryl is rarely something that the gamer has to reconcile with the rest of the narrative--according to the canon of the series, surviving the torture and getting the 'Meryl ending' indicates that Otacon survives the ordeal as well--as she is never heard from again. Even Campbell, her 'uncle', takes the news with little time devoted to grieving.

And yet, here the narrative breaks down because of the ludology: The gamer can choose Otacon because a second play-through will be 1) easier (on account of the stealth camo item that Otacon will give to Snake); and 2) one ending of two possible solutions. Unlike a novel, play, film, or any other narrative, the game--and the game alone--can allow such a multiplicity of potential endings. The illusion of control here is emancipating, but the damage done to the narrative is profound. No longer can authorial intention and expected emotional connections be sufficient to give the story its due. Instead, the story is manipulated because of ulterior motives--the gamer always picks up the controller with an ulterior motive to that of the characters.

Colonel Campbell

Campbell is also featured in prior games, not the least of which is MGS: Portable Ops, when he first meets Naked Snake--Solid Snake's father--in South America. Aside from his obvious role as a commander, Campbell moves beyond the avuncular to a demigod status. His orders are absolute, even if his original ideas require fine tuning by additional recommendations of his staff. His powers are limited--even his body is invisible. (He gains something resembling corporeality in MGS2, but that isn't even the real Campbell; it isn't until MGS:PO and MGS4 that Campbell is shown to be a real person.) It is perfectly fitting that Campbell become the voice of the Patriots in MGS2, as he is the one responsible for the generation of Snake's motives. As a fairly empty character, Snake needs the direction for his motivations (namely, to kill). Snake's rapid acceptance of Campbell's orders indicates a type of reliance on a greater authority, a type of validation for why he does what he is doing. Hence the import of Snake operating solo at the beginning of MGS2, and the significant change in Snake's character as he listens to the lengthy mission briefings of MGS4.

While Campbell may be the god of Snake's world, dictating where he should go and whom he should kill, he is a flawed god--one whose personal foibles makes for a more natural and realistic character. After all, his motivations for sending Snake in aren't originally expressed in the mission briefing before Snake is launched into Shadow Moses. His care for his daughter (though, in MGS, Meryl is called his niece) impels him to lie, deceive, and make unreasonable demands on his field agent. Not very professional, but definitely natural.^¤¤¤

Shadow Moses

The location of the game is its own character, too. Much like the Mississippi River is another crucial character to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Shadow Moses becomes not just a backdrop to the espionage, but a pertinent and powerful part of the overall narrative. The snow encrusted buildings, the endless flurries, the darkness of the rarely-glimpsed sky--it all adds the necessary presence. While the Big Shell in MGS2 is also its own character, it is the inverse of this in every conceivable way (bird-poop encrusted boxes, endless visibility, almost to the distant shoreline, the brightness of the blue sky), and as a character it fails to be as ominous or as memorable. The severity of the circumstances within Shadow Moses adds a dimension of isolation and desperation. Like Snake, it is utterly remote--socially for the former, geographically for the latter--and that sense of the alone compounds not only the exceptional prowess of Snake, but the scope of the potential success when Liquid is finally defeated.

Additionally, Shadow Moses' name itself conjures a dual significance: The Fox Archipelago (located on the spur of islands off of Alaska's southwestern tip) is itself frequently in shadow due to heavy fogs that plague the islands; religiously, Moses of the Old Testament and Torah, was similarly tasked with a massive undertaking of salvation of a people (Israelites in place of America, though both are sometimes viewed as beneficiaries of a Promised Land--a heaven outside of the world and her problems). He, too, operated essentially alone, only having his brother, Aaron, as an assistant. While Snake is not a religious figure, he operates on the same tropes as Moses, including through the reception of commandments through voices that he alone can hear.

Windswept, hostile, and inhospitable, Shadow Moses acts as the tough-love character, the one that is unforgiving in its punishment of Snake for his audacity to try to conquer it. Of all the enemies Snake must face, Shadow Moses is the most omnipresent. Of all the allies that Snake must leave behind, Shadow Moses is the most haunting. While Gray Fox is later remembered in MGS4, it is Shadow Moses where the most of the Flashback Events take place, where Snake must reconcile what he was and what he has become. Otacon even says, upon opening the door into the access chamber to where REX's bones rest, "Welcome home." Shadow Moses has defined Snake in the minds of gamers and in his own mind in such a way that it is only while in Shadow Moses can Snake ever have identity. 

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¤Like any traditional narrative, games contain the typical character hierarchies (primary, secondary, tertiary, etc.), thus giving a formal acceptance to pure narratological expressions. In MGS, however, many of the tertiary and lower characters are the endless reams of victims for the violence. The spear-carriers are often literally that in video games, and MGS is no different, save that the gamer--the audience--is directly responsible for the principle actor's response to all of the characters.

¤¤There is a notable exception to this: When Snake squares off against Psycho Mantis, the gamer has to 'control' her--a vicious, vicarious type of control that is one step away from domestic abuse. She appreciates what Snake has to do (it saves her life, after all), but there is a residue of guilt over this type of control. Instead of being cathartic and exploratory, as much of the digital violence ends up being, it is twisted and Machiavellian--a perfect type of Psycho Mantis.

¤¤¤Naomi and Ocelot will get character analyses in the essays on Metal Gear Solid 4.