The Peaceless Tragedy of Venom Snake 

Omg thanks for including me! I love the crocodile hat!!!!

I love how Venom has gone from being entirely rejected and mocked for the way the plot twist was executed to being one of the most beloved characters in the series, truly a sight to behold

"Don't blame yourself. Blame me." Eli really took those words to heart. Blamed BB for literally everything-and when he could no longer pin stuff on his old man, he turned it onto the next, closest thing: his brother.

The fact, that Big Boss forced V into the same situation his mother figure THE Boss lost her life, truly shows, that he become the very thing he swore to destroy

Punished Snake is my favorite snake. His inability to let go is what makes him his own big boss. He's a medic at heart. Trained to help in the battle field. Wanting to heal and bring peace makes so much sense.

It’s also clear that the some of the members of Diamond Dogs know that V isn’t big boss. Sometimes when soldiers salute you they’ll say “ I don’t care who you are boss, I’ll serve you no matter what”

V deserved so much more than to be sacrificed for an dying old legend. A willing lamb and a true Diamond Dog

Don't forget to mention that the version of "Man Who Sold the World" is the cover by Midge Ure, and not the Bowie original. Which gives hits the body double twist even more impact.

Venom died for Big Boss, just like Venom's soldiers died for him. He is the most loyal of all characters in the mgs series, even more than The Boss.

Losing Quiet was one of the most impactful moments for me in MGSV because she is so overpowered that I ended up using her 95% of the time. She saved my ass so many times I couldn't begin to count, I genuinely relied on her to watch my back. Helicopters were no big deal with Quiet and a decent supply of frag grenades. So when I lost her there was a palpable sense of loss in not having that humming over the radio or the feeling of coordinating sniper shots. MGSV is truly something special

V is one of my favorite video game main characters ever. A double who could never be his own person again, yet coming to care for quiet in a way the real big boss never could, a person in a similar hell to him. I hope his end brought him some peace… Thanks for that boss…

I love the fact that you can replay quiets boss fight to reunlock her it really ties in well with how he cant let go of things and how she's probably just another phantom/illusion and not actually real just like paz was

My first clue that something was up with “V” was the fact the even though he is blind in his right eye. He still had it. Boss’s eye was destroyed when Ocelot shot it out in Mgs3.

Big Boss's whole tape speech to V is also Kojima talking to you, the player. He's thanking you, saying metal gear could never have happened without you, and from now on big boss's story is yours.

Last day in outer heaven is cannon to me. That ending for venom was beautiful

I believe that Venom is his own interpretation of big boss which is why he acts a bit different to big boss

Finally, always love people giving love to Venom

It gets me in the feels that Venom Snake was one of your original guys from Peace Walker who was chosen and survived all the way up to Metal Gear. He served Big Boss until his end

I really wish the big reveal in this game would’ve had David Hayter voicing the real big boss.

Venom is an awesome character , despite never asking for the role that was given to him. he ultimately accepted it and played his part. Just like The boss did. He is basically The boss incarnate. And his importance to the Series should not be undermined because although he was the body double , he was most definitely a big deal. Since everything that he did during those 11 years ultimately started this series. And it's sad that he won't be remembered in the World of metal gear in a way he's just like The boss. Heroes forgotten in history

For me the reunion part with Quiet is just like one of the Hallucinations of V to satisfy and help his mind.

"I won't scatter your sorrow to the heartless sea" this scene is one of the very few in any form of media that has legitimately made me cry.

At the end of Paz's hallucination section and you get the last tape from her made me feel sad for Venom. I always assume that before Venom became who he is in MGSV, the two must have been close to one another, and being unable to save Paz was one of Venom's biggest regret to the point he started hallucinating that Paz survive. If he had saved Paz, a lot of things would have changed for him, and avoided the fate that awaits him. Another thing to note is how Venom is more compassionate. Like with Huey, if it was the real Big Boss, Huey would have been executed. Quiet would have been killed too. Venom on the other hand chooses to spare Huey (granted that it's more of a slow and painful judgment that leads to the death of his own doing) Venom trusts Quiet even going so far as to almost jump in a pool of acid to save her. These differences between Venom and the real Big Boss are what make them be their own character instead of Venom just simply being another self-insert. At the end of it all though, it didn't matter cause eventually, somewhere down the line, Venom finally succumbed to the demon.

The scene post mission 43 with soldier's ashes is one of most powerful scenes in this game and never fails to make me shiver.

I feel like there's one thing that wasn't focused on enough in this video that I saw in comments on other videos on MGSV. Venom is, first and foremost, a combat medic. His entire life, up until the helicopter explosion, was defined by the *NEED* to not let go and save everyone he could. No matter how much the entire world seemingly tries to break him down in every way, he never lets it stop him from trying to save people close to him, even at his own detriment.

Venom Snake was an absolute unit. It took Solid Snake using rocket launchers to finally take him down. Meanwhile, the real Big Boss was taken down by a makeshift flamethrower. Poor guy was there to both prove and disprove there can be only one Snake and one Big Boss...

It's great because it contextualizes the way people talk about Big Boss in later games. In Christian mythology, there's a concept called "Bilocation," which was a miracle some saints were said to be capable of, which is basically the idea that someone can appear in two different places at the same time. Well think about it. Big Boss could LITERALLY be in two different places at the same time because he was two people. When you hear people in the other games talking about the guy like he was the second coming of Christ, it suddenly all makes sense. You could hear "Oh yeah Big Boss blew up a weapons depot in Guatemala yesterday," and then five seconds later hear "Oh yeah Big Boss blew up a refinery in North Korea yesterday," and both of those things did happen. Twin Snakes, if you will.

34:00 It's also interesting to see how during the helicopter scene, Paz' arms are crossed in an effort to keep others (V) away and shield them. Whereas in the last illusion her arms open wide up, almost as if to welcome Venom to her and the truth.

I'm practically estatic that you did this video. And by that, you can tell that I'm a MGS fan.

It's always nice to see people look back at MGSV and see that it really wasn't as bad as everyone thought

I think people are really misinterpreting the ending. The medic was a devout soldier to Big Boss's army, and was clearly glad to be apart of the legend too and play that role. He was a 24/7 soldier, like all the others who fought for big boss, so he wasnt losing any kind of personal life when they brainwashed him. He just became what he always wanted, a soldier at the level of big boss. As for big boss himself, he didnt start this program. Zero started the program to protect big boss, and big boss decided to stay and protect Venom instead of just let him be killed and have xof think he was dead. After waking up to see his best soldier was now living his life, he let him take over as he himself goes off to start building what they both were pursuing this whole time ever since the events of Peacewalker. And then theres the fact that people are forgetting that the Patriots literally control the world at this point, so the supposed evil that Big Boss was doing during MG1 and MG2 were propaganda in order to set him up as a villain, leading to them sending Solid Snake to stop his uprising against the total control of the patriots. Solid Snake was essentially a puppet all the way until the Plant chapter of mgs2, where he fiinally was operating out of their control. And if you noticed, solid snake become a "terrorist" too after mgs1, when he went around destroying metal gears. Once you stopped abiding by their system, youre labeled a villain. Thats not to say Big Boss wasnt flawed, but he by no means was evil. He just wanted an independent soldier state, and had to rely on nukes to guarantee that the nations of the world would leave them be, hence why every soldier and even enemies he encountered praised him.

There’s so much to MGSV that just goes plain ignored by the wider audience. I’m so glad you’re still making vids on the series Meti. Seriously a GOATED analysis RU-vidr

3:30 fun little extra to the demon appearance, the strap that always hangs behind snake (and uses to strap himself to the chopper) acts as a tail

When I got to the vocal cord parasite mission on the base I genuinely started tearing up and crying when I saw them saluting

It’s insane how he also has the memories and experiences of big boss so he’s more than a body double he’s kind of like his other self

It's taken me a few years to come to terms with the ending of Phantom Pain. I pre-ordered the game (I'll never forget, Sept 1st, 2015), requested off of work, and smashed my way through the game in a few days. As my friend and I were watching the ending (after unlocking the "truth" mission), we just looked at each other like "uhhhhhh, what?" and I spent hours upon hours on reddit, watching YT dissections, etc just trying to make sense of it. I was a part of the r/NeverBeGameOver subreddit since the first day it was created. Why were we, the loyal followers of the story, bamboozled? That honestly was the real "phantom pain" The badass character of Big Boss turned out to be a coward, hiding behind the cover of Venom Snake. I felt betrayed, playing the entire game as some random irrelevant dude who was tricked into thinking he is someone he's not. Where was the fan service? Why was Big Boss's voice different? Where was the part where Big Boss recruits Gray Fox? What about Solidus training child soldiers in Liberia and eventually finding Raiden? Why was everyone in the game acting so weird? Where was the special final scene where you face off against Solid Snake who would be voiced by David Hayter? What part was Kojima referring to where he said he might have to "leave the games industry" because of it? It honestly really fucked me up for a while. I participated in the online nuclear disarmament in an effort to unlock chapter 3. I had to have the answers. However, I have come to realize the masterpiece that MGSV:TPP actually is. I replayed it last year and really soaked in all the details. S-ranked every mission, etc. What a phenomenal game. A lot of people think that the game was unfinished, which is why I hoped for so long that eventually we would get more. But I truly think that we played the game exactly as Kojima intended (outside of the Kingdom of the Flies mission). When I first beat the game, I remember telling people that the game sucked and that I didn't recommend playing it. The more time I had to reflect on the game, the more I appreciated it and understood its message. Awesome video, awesome game, awesome character.

I truly feel sorry for Venom. He was a medic, he saved lives, and just because he wanted to protect lives, he was ultimately sent down a path of inevitable pain and misery. I never really thought it like that, but that makes Big Boss really a villain.

The tragedy of Venom Snake is a criminally overlooked arc in the chaos that is the Metal Gear series. A combat medic gives his life over and over to save others, and rises from Hell to Outer Heaven in order to give the unwilling soldiers of the world a place to choose their own destinies, only to be misunderstood as a threat and destroyed by a deranged peacekeeping AI misleading another copy of the same man.

Venom Snake actually quickly grew to become one of my favorite video game characters of all time alongside Kazuya Mishima and Vergil, the more and more I learned about him. Dude went through the most in my opinion out of anyone in the Metal Gear Series (except maybe the Boss) and went down in history as a villain even after all he did.

Imagine being a random soldier and then go down as bad guy

Bro, you somehow managed to explain to me why i love Venom snake so much. Been a fan since MGS1. When MGS3 came out i didn't know which of the "snakes" was my favorite. When MGS V came out it slowly and gradually shifted to Venom. Now i know why. He's _me._ I'm *_him._* He has trouble letting go, he tries desperately to hold on to the past, everything he creates disappears and dissolves. It's like looking in a mirror, goddamn. Holy shit, i don't think I've ever related to a character this much. The fact Kojima wanted Venom to represent the players just makes this even better. Or worse. Damn.

we literally took 6 years to understand the vision of hideo kojima

Venom is my favourite of all the Snakes. He is a man who hasn't found any peace ever since Ground Zeroes and yet, he carries on. He perseveres and does as his duty demands.

I genuinely think this might be your best video yet, i love it. Thanks meti.

It's such a loving send-off to have the player of such a long-running series to have a direct connection to the long-term lore regarding the "legend of Big Boss." I just wish he could've finished the game, but what we got is good... after you have to forensically piece together what Kojima was going for in liue of a proper ending beyond the reveal of who Venom Snake is. I was fairly sure it was going to be Gray Fox before he had his inhumane experimentation done to him by Para-Medic, but what Kojima went for is more unique and unexpected. So you gotta wonder if he lifted the idea from Halo: Reach, that did much the same thing for the Halo universe. MGS5 did come out just few years after Reach, after all.

The story of V and MGSV as a whole is honestly my favorite one of the series. This video is definitely one of my favourite videos that you have made about Metal Gear and I can't wait for the next one.

"Due to the lack of staff, D Horse has been assigned as the new head of the medical unit"

The love of Quit and V is very well done. Their love is free. It's not romantic or sexual, it's friendship, it's trust, it's respect, it's the love that was born on the battlefield, like the Boss and Naked. MGSV is the best game of all time.

I'm still waiting for the inevitable videos on Raiden and Senator Armstrong. I'm not even memeing here. Between MGS2 and MGR, Raiden is one of my favorite protagonists in any game, and Senator Armstrong is a fantastic antagonist, and a character with a surprising amount of depth, given his limited screen time

The way V speaks at the burial at sea, always, ALWAYS, makes me shed a tear, reminds me of my own friends I've lost over the years.

MGS V brought the story full circle. Favorite game in the series

The part that makes Venom to the Demon ( killing his soldiers in the outbreak) literally punished me, i had completed every mission on S rank and did every sidemission and just out of curiosity I wnated to test something with that mission and replayed it, while i was in that mission my FOB got invaded and i responded to the call. After the FOb was over and the game tried to put me back in my mission the game got stuck on a infinite loading screen. Nothing could fix it and my save was lost, so i started over and even replicated my Symbol but changed it to be Red and added the word punished.

Your magnum opus. I love the lore of these games so much. V is a amazing character that redefines the meaning of these game.

What's interesting to note is that in the old Photograph, and in her appearences in Venom's delusional episodes, Paz keeps her more anime-esque proportions from Peace Walker, like the larger eyes, a trait that isn't shared with any of the other characters in the game, or even with Paz herself at the end of Ground Zeroes.

27:30 “Let’s let the boss Decide. We Live and die by your order Boss! Boss! Peace walker ☮️ humming 😞🫡. The words I’ll never forget

The layers of the David Bowie song about a Doppelganger for the intro are just so genius. It's not JUST that it's a song about a doppelganger, it's that the song is a cover. Not the original artist. The hospital mission has to be one of my favorite events in all of gaming.

Thank you for still making Metal Gear based videos

Chips LPs are so fucking legendary, every single Vapor Snake segment is non-stop out loud laughter and when the final final episode spirals into absolute chaos.... it's so beautiful. Long live Mission J Frog.

You hope hatred might someday replace the pain, but it never goes away. It makes a man hideous, inside and out.

Loved MGSV so much that when a guy I worked with was hearing me talk about the game and wanted to play it, but he was broke...So I bought him a copy and homie damn near lost his girlfriend cause he fell deep into the game lol

just finished watching the video and after years i finally felt like actually saying "goodbye boss"

I've always identified with Venom Snake. Having no real identity of his own is something he and I share to a degree.

I also like to think that Kiefer voicing both Big Boss and Venom is a good idea as Venom is to believe he is the real Big Boss. So everytime he hears Big Boss speak, Venom instead hears himself.

Do you think another reason vsnake is called 'punished' could be a meta hint to his punishment (and ultimate death) at the hands of naked snake, basically making him a puppet to spread the legacy of snake? Just something extra to throw out there I guess

So glad you did this video, Venom deserves a video for himself and it's amazing you managed to put so much work for it. Nice editing too as always ! Cheers from Brazil lad, take care !

Whenever i hear you talk about Metal gear I feel like I've just been effected by Jail house lock, King crimson, Paper moon king, and D4C all at the same time...and I looooo--La Li Lu Le Lo---ve it

I like to think that when venom was dying in mother base he turned on his i droid and played one last song as he saw quiet come to sit with him

as a lifetime ride or die defender of MGSV and lover of MGS, this is by far the best take on MGSV and Venom i've seen on youtube, thank you

No matter how many time pases, i will always enjoy a new video reinvindicating MGSV story. V truly was one of the many tragic characters in the saga, just another soldiers in a war without end. Also, i love that Pomu cameo ❤️

Video and thumbnail go HARD 👍

Man, people finally appreciate V, im so happy

"You're all diamonds"

I’m glad people are still making mgsv videos

Damn, this video is beautiful, Venom´s story is so gorgeous and brutal tat it brings me to tears. I too think he is one of my favorite character of the series.

This video was great: complete, emotional, perfectly edited. Waoh! Thank you Boss, it's always important to keep MGS in the minds of future generations.

Thank you for making this. Thank you for exploring how profoundly good and impactful this story was not only as a standalone narrative, but as such a wonderful device for the entire franchise.

We're getting closer and closer and closer and ever closer to The Perfection of Solid Snake

It’s hard to rewatch these scenes without crying

Okay. This is actually one of the best explanations I've seen about Venom Snake. I'm understanding this subject a bit better. Well done!!!

I almost didn't watch this video because recently I put like 200 hours into V. I wanted to listen to all the tapes, s rank everything, and really try to understand the story being told entirely on my own. I felt like I did a good job and that was my final goodbye to a game I loved. One thing I couldn't understand though is why the medic's trauma would manifest as Paz. Like I understand venom had implanted memories and how the medic probably knew paz, but trauma isn't something that can be implanted in my opinion. When you laid out how it's the medic desperately wishing for a timeline where he found the second bomb, the feels hit me like a truck. Great video, thanks for the extra depression 🫡

I’ve been thinking about MGSV and Venom a lot lately in terms of its building on the themes of MGS2 (memetic programming, player relationship with mc, etc) and this really helped me see more about both that idea as well as the other themes in MGSV. It’s really made me appreciate the game a lot more. Great video!

Wow...I think you completely changed my mind on Venom Snake and MGSV. I didn't like the game that much after I finished it for the first time, however with time and this video in particular I have gained a newfound appreciation of it. Great work, thank you for making this.

I think the best example of Huey would be Guillermo Marconi, he "invented" the radio in the 1880's stealing Tesla's works about wide variety of things from electro magnetism, induction, his wireless devices essays, even the idea behind the radio, Marconi just put together everything without mentioning Tesla, Tesla demanded him just wanting the credit for the invention, Tesla had to fight Marconi the rest of his life for the recognition, few time after Tesla died, the court gave all the credentials and patents to his rightfull owner, Tesla... What a waste of time

I've waited for this video way more than I could admit

HELL YEAH. Been waiting for this video since I learned Venom was one of your favorite metal gear characters

What a great essay! The inability of Venom to let go is something I didn't really think about before watching your vid, but it makes so much sense, and Quiet's song gained a whole new meaning for me now: "Birds in the sky Carry these words for me Life tasted sweet: It let me live; let me breathe Love, hurt so bad But still, Saved my soul Flowers of a brighter past: They bloomed so free beneath the sun Memories, I want to give them to you So you can see what we left there When all hope bleeds out What remains is doubt Should've left it all for you, For tomorrow As your time draws near Will you live in fear? Could've left it all for you But we let go" Also, I believe that the option of getting Quiet back as a buddy was added to the game sometime after its release in response to the players' dissatisfaction after completing her story mission, but just as you said in the video I think it's still a cool detail that supports the narrative of not being able to let go. It seems that the longer this game is out, the more appreciation people gain for it, truly a fine wine of gaming

A wonderful job putting it all together. one of the greatest games I have ever played. Thank you for your hard work and love.

That was amazing and by far one of the most satisfying videos of yours

Beautifully spoken and executed, Meti. And I guess I have another MGSV LP to check out now other than the one on the old SBFP channel.

amazing video 🔥🔥 not enough creators breaking down what makes mgsv so great

I've never played this game before, but watching this video along with other analysis of this game. You almost made me cry dude. Thank you for the video.

I love metal gear so much. The way you interpreted Snake and the events of the game gives me a sense of how much the game means to others as well. I appreciate the time and effort you put into this video.

John lost himself. He became the very thing he despised, betraying the ideals of The Boss and replacing them with his own. In fighting monsters, he himself had become a monster. He used Venom, the Medic, as the United States had used him. And just like his former masters and then his old friend Zero, he fell into the trap of raising his own ideology above his morality as an individual. In this way, he’d lost sight of what The Boss stood for. “Big Boss” became his personal Cipher, his own ever-growing monster, and he fed his best and most loyal soldier to it in exactly the way that the United States had fed The Boss into the jaws of “peace” and “the greater good.” Even as they respected her and lauded all her accomplishments her masters sliced her throat open with her own son, congratulating themselves on a job well done and admiring The Boss for her loyalty and sacrifice. And exactly like them Big Boss has sliced the throat of the Medic, of Venom Snake, and laid him upon the altar of his new world order for the greater good of all soldiers everywhere. All the while lauding himself as a hero and Venom as a martyr, not recognizing that it was his own abuse of Venom’s loyalty that led to this tragedy and the loss of his individuality. It was at this moment that Big Boss became a monster. He had adopted everything that he had hated and fought for so long. His dehumanizing “meme” every ounce as gruesome as Cipher and the legacy of Zero, founded on precisely the same principles with only modest and superficial differences. A world without borders; a world unified through “Big Boss”. His transformation, his fall from grace, was now complete. All that was left was a villain that was in opposition to everything that The Boss had once stood for and believed in.

great video I been looking forward to this for a long time.

I WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS THANK YOU SO MUCH METI 💕💕

Love your metal gear videos growing up with those games is pure nostalgia

Fantastic video, really glad I came across this!

The optic nerve thing comes from the way you perceive light it’s an actual condition a lot of people have and it makes lights look like sharp pillars, they turn this into a gameplay mechanic which makes his physical aliment into something that works in tandem with the phantom main element of the bionic arm.

One of the best videos of metal gear ever made. I truly appreciate the in-depth details

I love the shout out to ChipCheezums lets play, I loved all of his MGS playthroughs, but the MGSV one is just...perfect, so much work put in with the multi-playthrough thing.