The Metal Gear Theme

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Metal Gear (1987)

Theme: The danger of nuclear weapons.

This is the easiest. The theme is expressed through the simple story of a secret agent infiltrating to stop a walking nuclear tank, Metal Gear. Nuclear weapons are a highly delimited theme stemming from Kojima 's cultural background and interpretation of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as his feelings of insecurity during the Cold War, of which he has spoken in interviews. This theme carries throughout the entire series, but takes on a supportive role rather than a starring one.

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Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990)

Theme: The possibility of adapting oneself when one 's work becomes destructive.

This is where the games begin to get timeless, universal themes.

An initial feeling that everything is somehow "off" bears out as the plot unravels the secret development of new Metal Gears, the control of the US by a secret society called The Patriots, and the manipulation of the events of the mission itself by that same secret society. By the end of the game, so many counteracting revelations have occurred that the player no longer knows what to believe, and Raiden doubts the very existence of his pregnant girlfriend. The Patriots reveal Raiden 's entire mission to have been an elaborate experiment designed to test the hypothesis that people 's actions can be determined by control of their access to information. The Patriots plan to use this method to speed up the evolution of the human species by censoring "junk" data, but Raiden argues that he has the right to judge for himself what 's true, and that he has already done so despite the manipulations of The

Big Boss ' dream has seemingly been achieved by default, except the wars are controlled and fueled by The Patriots. Liquid plans to destroy The Patriots and create Big Boss ' dream in full, and Snake is sent to stop him. Here is where what I said at the beginning becomes important. The keyword in this game is "legacy." It 's all about how one 's actions echo through time, and what effect one can have after one 's death. That is why Big Boss vs. Zero over The Boss ' intentions became important. It 's a way of showcasing how The Boss influenced the world beyond her own lifetime, and what the limits of that influence are. The Boss ' influence set the foundation for the entire plot. Big Boss ' influence led directly to the motivation of the main villain. Zero 's influence led directly to the rise of the current state of affairs against which the main villain is fighting. Liquid 's influence led to the creation of the main villain. Emma 's influence led to the virus that ultimately saves the day. The game illustrates in every detail that although a legacy can be powerful, it is up to the future to determine what becomes of it once its originator has died. Big Boss and Zero represent the betrayal of a legacy, while Snake represents its true heir, but the point is that The Boss had to leave it to the future, for better or worse. Liquid and Zero each represent in their own way the refusal to leave the