The Mystique of Mistral 

Only her legs and arms are cybernetic. Monsoon has everything but his head, Sundowner has his forearms and lower legs, Sam has his right arm and Armstrong has his heart and nanomachines. And also Kahmsin has his "legs".

"It's the dark skin tomboy GF you always wanted." -Max0r

“Are you really gonna fight me unarmed?” “Oh no no. I’m going to fight you ALL ARMED!”

Mistrals theme always stuck with me. Remaining distant from the world and not having a purpose. All of the winds of destruction are broken people puppeteered by Armstrong. Bladewolf was able to break free. Which makes him all the more special.

Now, we only need Raiden, Moonsoon and Armstrong.

Theoretically, could she link the arms enough with each other to become a cyborg-spider?

Remember no ice jokes around Mistral. They always leave her in pieces

7:10 Dancing Adachi in the background while you talk about a nilhist with no morals is fucking hillarious. And the last lyrics being "A stranger I remain" sounds like she doesnt actually believe Armstrong, and still lacks a true purpose.

One neat thing about Mistral is that women aren't allowed to fight for the French Foreign Legion, which means she must have been an incredible fighter for them to let her in anyway

The seductive part of her character may also be inspired by Kunoichis, the female ninjas who were also masters of seduction. This can be yet another connection to the western-eastern trend that Sundowner and Sam follow.

Something I love abt her theme is that it's oddly relatable. I think everyone has had or maybe is in the processes of having a phase of their life where they feel like they have no purpose. Like they're being blown through life like a leaf in the wind. But in time, that wind will carry you somewhere, even if you came from nowhere. And you'll find what you were looking for, even if you didn't know it. For most of us this purposeless isn't only being a killer, and this purpose isn't an egotistical madman obsessed with enforcing his ideals on the world, but there still is a base level of relatability within the lyrics.

To me Mistral’s alternate song sounds like a theme she would have if she had some kind of redemption arc.

In a way, Mistral's original character from the lyrics of the original track can be viewed as the direction they went for Raiden - a part of his character before battling Monsoon is that he wants to "protect the weak" and that his sword is "a tool of justice." Before and up to the point when facing Monsoon, Raiden constantly advertises himself as a savior that's pure of heart. But for those players who do know what his backstory is, he also constantly removes his current character from his past history, hiding it away within the dark corners of his mind so that he can be the savior that he advertises himself as. It's like he thinks he's above who he used to be, an angel of sorts. He may have a good conscience, but he's also deluding himself and fairly misleading others about what their expectations of him should be by leaving his past life unaddressed. Killing is a behavior so ingrained into Raiden since he was a child, it's a little hard to believe that he's beyond that part of his life when he expresses no remorse for the people he kills, such as when he states, "I'm not complaining. These people sowed their fate when they took this job." He says this without so much as a compassionate hand to understand how and why they got here, he probably rationalized a way to put himself on a morally grander pedestal and his opponents on an evil side of the conflict, even though both sides commit so much murder, and the reasons they do so are more morally dubious than reprehensive. Now just because Raiden at his truest is a murderer at heart, that doesn't mean that Raiden completely embraces the thought of murder as an objectively good moral. Surely, Raiden really doesn't want those brains of children to become as war-torn and murderous as he has become, as even after accepting his true nature, Raiden still charges forward to save those kids. He probably recognizes that while accepting his cruel nature is what's going to help him overcome his odds and make him better as an individual, that kind of nature still has its issues on an average child who isn't Raiden and leading into an adult life, and Raiden would rather those kids not have to discover a murderous side within their character in the first place. So there's a genuine side to his character that still cares about justice and protecting others. I think what Mistral (current character) saw in Raiden when he claimed he was protecting the weak, was a murderer who was a hypocrite, not because he's deluding himself into believing he's on some right side of *preparing children for warfare,* but because he's deluding himself into believing he's on some right side of *committing murder.* Anyone can even claim that Raiden at this point is a hypocrite due to the fact that he's been murdering the weak as well. While saving the brains of children is good and all, the cyborg PMC soldiers he's faced are all weaker than he is, but no one's saving them. This is far elaborated on when Sam helps Raiden gain some insight into the frightful subconsciouses of his enemies, showing that his enemies have been in circumstances prior to becoming a PMC soldier where they were as desperate and weak as the children that Raiden is trying to save, but they don't get a helping hand from Raiden for that. Monsoon even mocks Raiden on this when they first meet, stating "Who saves the weak, from the man who saves the weak?" Thus, I think the choice to change Mistral from a deceptive "savior" who thinks their murder helps others into a person who is more honest about herself being a murderer, a living weapon, is good. Her murder isn't the crux of her character since she's accepted that part of her long ago, whereas Raiden is still struggling with that part of who he is, and tries to remove himself from his war-torn past and hide his murderous nature away within his mind by advertising himself as a savior. Given the context of what Mistral's character was originally intended to be, the dichotomy between their sincerity towards themselves feels far more richer. To discover yet more reasons to love this game puts a smile on my face.

I feel like all 4 Winds of Destruction have a polar opposite within their group. Let me give a short description of what I’m talking about. Mistral’s polar opposite is Jetstream Sam. Their opposite is finding and losing their identity. Mistral was without a purpose and identity before joining Armstrongs cause, which gave her an identity. Sam had lost those when he had joined, as he knew he was not following the values he once believed in. Sundowner and Moonson are opposites. Their opposites are Nature vs Nurture. Sundowner thinks all humans have a natural urge for war. Moonson believes your upbringing and situation you were raised in shapes your ideals, not yourself. This is a classic case of nature vs nurture.

the blood of a dying star above could mean that she could have been more related to sundowner in early versions of the game, maybe even idolizing him instead of armstrong

I always found it weird that mistral was in the bladewolf rather than Sam's dlc. Mistrals story is a perfect parallel to Sam, they both took revenge against the people who killed their family but moved onward with completely different ideals. Meanwhile Sam's dlc had monsoon who is defined by his memes and belief that "free will is a myth" which would have tied in much better than mistral being a doggy dom to bladewolf. While monsoon is there purely because he and Sam share a scene in the base game.

It's pretty cool he talks and breaks down the original song too. Though I forget which ones tell a completely different meaning like Mistral's?

So many arms, I bet she gives great hugs

Either something new was awakened in you by Mistral or something new was awakened in you by Jetstream Sam. There is no in-between. I was gonna say Senator Armstrong, but remember what he says "Don't f""" with this senator."

Most underrated character in this game. And i don't say this in order to take away from all other characters, Mistral is just often forgotten about, even with her sick-ass theme and design.

I felt that the part saying "a stranger I remain" at the end actually implies that she still feels an emptiness inside.

fun fact: According to Doktor's observation on Mistral's cyborg body in a codec call with him, there's a 90% probability that only her head and chest region are biological, with her arms and legs being the only cyborg parts

A note on L'Etrenger: Meursault didn't just kill the Arab man for no reason. Earlier that same day, the Arab and a couple of his friends had assaulted Meursault and his friends with knives, stabbing one of them before being chased off with a revolver. After said friend had his wounds seen to, Meursault took the revolver and went on a walk along the beach, came across the Arab laying among some rocks who flashed his knife at Meursault, and Meursault shot him. The emotions involved are never made clear, except for an irritation at the blistering heat of the sun, but it's definitely more complex than simply killing because he felt like it.

Well, and with this...we are missing one more wind of destruction ...and a very angry politician

Mistral's song is so good, like all the other songs in the game, it's also my favorite alongside the only thing I know for real and collective consciousness

I feel the "here I come" is more so that she finally feels emotion and purpose and thus is for the first time excited to do her job and she is "coming" at Raiden with full force. So here she comes at full force ready to fight for what she believes in and what believes in her, being the winds of destruction.

She's in the game for like, a few minutes? And yet she's so memorable and such a compelling character.. I'm so impressed by the characters in this game.

"Why Khamsin's theme is the best one. A video essay"

The unused lyrics from the early "A Stranger I Remain" demo seem like they could still apply to the canon Mistral, just not the one we meet in the game. We never see her own journey of revengeance for her parents, but it's entirely likely she thought that the cause was a noble one, worth her integrity and the lives of others. "I've come here to save you" perhaps refers to the notion that her acts will save other lives. Except, of course, it doesn't. Once it's done, what then? "My true aesthetic's unwinding, and I'm about to come undone." Unlike Miller in Phantom Pain, who admits that he wanted revenge and nothing else, naïve righteousness empowers Mistral to avenge her parents. Once that goal is fulfilled, there's nothing left. "Don't let me become the one you love." Rather than continuing to play hero, she embraced reality: she is a killer, albeit a highly skilled one a world where that's an extremely marketable skill. Put another way: all that is the first verse of a song that does not end with revenge. The second verse, and the person at the center of that story, is what Raiden encounters in Abkhazia.

Camus and the Stranger are not Nihilistic they are Absurdist. Absurdism is a different philosophy to Nihilism. Absurdism is to grossly simplify finding purpose/meaning in a world that you recognize has no meaning and being happy in spite of the meaningless of it all which echos Mistral as you mentioned. You usually surprise me by how well researched some of your videos so I'm kinda dissapointed that you got this wrong. It's an extremely prevelant theme in work such as NieR Automata, Hades, Bojack Horseman which may deepen your enjoyment on that media. I'd highly recommend reading some Sartre and Camus.

Mistral is, hands down, my favourite character from the entire game. While Sundowner is way more over the top and explicit about his beliefs, Sam is so cool and ultimately a pretty neutral character overall, and Armstrong is just so much fun to hate, Mistral is just the one with the most style. She grabs you and doesn't let you go and I've always loved that in a villain.

Knew this was going to be absolutely brilliant from the moment I clicked, but I still did not expect the little Tripod in the intro. Too cute! ;D

I loved how in the intro, you put Ulysses because he is a character who does not know what his purpose is and why he fights. I want to see a deep dive video about him

I had been wondering where remixes that contained the lines "Don't let me become the one you love" where coming from but this does explain a lot. What's interesting is you could easily write a good AU where Raiden could recruit mistal, monsoon, and sam to his cause as Even as raiden is embracing jack he doesn't lose sight of why he does it. Even at the end of Monsoons fight he immediately looks at his wound and recognizes that he wasn't lying when he said he was protecting the weak. The pain he felt, not just physical but emotional, he doesn't want others to have to deal with that. Both Mistral and Monsoon think he's completely full of it and that killing just is, But i think Sam and armstrong see that Raiden was trying to hard to escape his old self in trying to construct his new self. Sam's main first line is "you deny you're weapon it's purpose." What's notable is that raiden may be trying to protect the innocent but he's so desperate to no longer be jack the ripper that he's forgotten the point of all he's been through and why he does it. You do not own a sword to be used as a tool even a tool of justice, you use a sword to stab people. If raiden was more confident in his actions when he met Mistral and actually spoke that he was a defender of the people and those who get in his way be damned, You could honestly argue he could of turned her to his side, it was his lack of conviction that makes her not believe him.

Holy heck, I literally finished MGR for the first time resterday and watched your 3 vids on the game so far earlier today, this couldnt have been better timed

When ever I kill Mistral, I always say "now you are worthy of your name". Because she is "the cold wind of France". Raiden kills her by freezing. She becomes a cold dead corpse

Have you ever thought about the chance that in A Stranger I Remain's beta version, the lyric "I know it's tempting to jump off the edge and die" might be "jump off the edge and fly"?

If we get a G.R.A.D. Video before Monsoon I’m going to cry.

I was waiting for you to make a video in Mistral! She was always my fave even though everyone preferred the other MGR characters

Glad you pointed out how she resembles the BnB unit from MGS4. Considering how weak and flat they turned out in that game, I'm glad Mistral shows that the idea itself can still work. She's easily more of a beauty and a beast than all four of them put together.

Finally, I have wanted more MGR:R content from you since the last video. Thank you for this and I really hope that we don’t have to wait to long before the MEMES!

Me still wishing for a second game as today think of the PURE badass the quality would be

when i played mgr for the first time i used that polearm so much because 1. perfectly fit my playstyle and 2. i honestly related to her in the way of not having an identity until someone helped me gain one. then he broke up with me over text and i realized that i didn't need him and i could be my own person for once

Only female character with a side shave haircut that isn’t annoying.

I find it interesting that she never tried to convince Raiden his 'protecting the weak' thing was a lie because she knows how awful it is to live a life dedicated to violence and nothing else

Her theme song is in my top 3, i like it so much.

Looking through all the comments giving helpful insights that were missed or said wrong in the video, and here all I'm adding is that I find it funny how the pair of arms on the front seem to be there solely to be crossed at all times.

i'm sooo happy they've decided to rework her main theme. the final version is much more focused and curated, which easily raised mistral to my top favorite characters in all of MG cast. still I love the traces of her avalokiteshvara reference, as it does add an ironic twist to her. great video, I'm amazed by your attention to details! it's incredible to see this level of dedication in mgr community especially.

I wanted to make a point that she is the only member of Desparado not to make use of a mask in their fight with Raiden. With Monsoon, it was his red face covering. With Sundowner, it was a mask that had a secondary part to cover his eyes as well. With Sam, it was a bandit like mask that he wore in his final confrontation with Raiden. Mistral has none of this, which could be in reference to the fact that she has the most honesty for what she does. You could make the case for Sundowner but his love for war doesn't explain why he joins Armstrong, since Sundowner wants to keep wars going and keep senseless killing while Armstrong wants to end wars as a business and give meaning to war. Polar opposites in ideals. Meanwhile Mistral joins Armstrong because he gives her meaning and reason to fight. Hence why she doesn't wear a mask. It may also be in reference to her combat style. Sundowner, Monsoon, Sam and Raiden all use close ranged blades that would mean they need to be close to their enemies to fight effectively with them, thus meaning they may suffer damage to their face as a result. Mistral uses her Gekkos and long pole/whip to keep her opponents away. Focusing on that idea, another in narrative reason for the lack of a mask to for Mistral's beauty and sex appeal. The mask would make Mistral lose some of the eroticism that comes from her reactions and movements, in character it may be because Mistral believes the mask makes her ugly and it is very clear she prides herself on her attractiveness.

Alright let's see..... You did Sam, Sundowner, Mistral, Blade Wolf........ *wonder where the other guy is*

With MGRR on the meme train again, what a perfect time to release this!

16:52 Great analysis aside, I just want to say that backwards handstand into the block and the ending of the boss fight is so sick.

Bro thank you for making this vid, hopefully you continue on with the rest of the desperado’s and raiden.

Please do Monsoon next!! He is my favourite but nobody talks about him outside of the memes (which are pretty exquisite by the way)

Loving these metal gear videos.

16:06 I've always heard "I know it's tempting to jump off the edge and fly" which makes sense considering the dream line and other context created by the verse

I love these videos 🥰. Keep it up man

The beta Mistral song is fascinating. How would the character have been portrayed if she was never changed?

I"ve been looking forward to this.

Your Metal Gear Rising videos got me to subscribe. Can't wait for that Monsoon video. Btw, Castlevania, JoJo, Resident Evil... You sir have great taste.

My favorite character is Mistral ❤ Thank you for this video!

I was listening to the vocal only ver of A stranger I remain and boom out of nowhere your vid poped up

Love these character analysis videos and I hope you get around to the B&B unit at some point. Keep it up, good stuff.

I loved that all of bosses theme has lyrics that Describes theme

I've been missing ur post finally a video

FINALLY A MISTRAL ANALYSIS VIDEO I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR AGES

i somewhat thought mistral's weapon was similar to a sort of a Glaive or a naginata or a spear, but never realized is a kind of a whip. It is still a pretty good weapon, i wonder if it just that what they thought of her weapon like, a whip and just that, or like a combination with one of the weapons i mentioned before.

Wasn’t expecting a reference to tf2, but I’m happy seeing one from one of my favorite RU-vidrs in my favorite series of his.

Love these videos

ive been waiting for this vid forever also I FORGOT THERE WERE TWO VERSIONS OF HER THEME THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME

First MGR vid in a while, ah? Love this stuff, hope there's more to come

Bro I love all your vidios my favourite is the perfection of kira and I hope that you could make a vidio on armstrong soon keep up the good work

These are the best MGR videos I've seen, hands down

Mistral: The real spiderwoman

Damn this unused theme is banging tho

I have been waiting for this

I love people who include the demo of mistrals theme with remixes of the used one

I am so hyped if we ever get an analysis like this for Monsoon. I’ve always thought that he was my favorite (for more than just memes), but he seems like he’s the next least talked about in all seriousness to Khamsin. I’d like to know more about him.

Man i was literally thinking about when you gonna make this video just today after watching the sundowner one. Just wondering do you think you would ever make some character studies on Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight? I think it's a really interesting franchise to explore. I can totally picture the glory of Tendou Maya or the savagery of Daiba Nana. I really like your content btw.

Yay you're finally giving some love to the choco spider woman!

Midtarl must really like "Come" ;)

One of my fav fight and theme in the game

11:33 these lyrics are also a reference to Mistral's journey by boat across the Mediterranean to France (experiencing bothersome heat along the way) and how it shaped her as a person

Another banger. And I know eventually, you'll do one on Toji Fushiguro.

Gr8 video as always btw

Mark my words, when the Monsoon video comes around, it'll be called "The Memes of Monsoon"

YAYA I was wondering when you would make a video on her. Turned out great. Thank you!!

6:59 Now that was a smooth TF2 reference.

I noticed that they kept the drums at the end of her early song. They knew it slapped hard.

I loved this video.

I can imagine every mgr boss getting in a studio and singing there boss music

I'm guessing with the winds being covered next on the chopping block is either monsoon (the wind that gave up the most of his body to the point only his head remains) or Armstrong the pseudo-leader (considering he was the one behind the scenes helping run things)? Edit:I'm curious if the original patriots (zero and the others) could be covered as well sometime in the future considering the fact they go through quite the shift from 3 onward.

Apparently an early version of Mistral was actually jacks wife, rosemary.

11:17 I mean, sure, I guess...it could just be a cool bit Internet goblins: No no no she is definitely talking about zerking off

now he just needs to make one for monsoon

19:00 "god I wish that was me"

I like her song, also the lyrics is touching

11:17 I like how professionally that was phrased

Soon... SOON. !!! My HYPE for MGR is GROWING

Can't wait for the Meme master, Monsoon.