(no subject)
The mad scientist, let me show her to you.
See, I've read people's reactions to MGS4, and as far as what it reveals about the Patriots and Para-medic, there's a general consensus of "when did Para-medic turn into such an evil bitch."
But morality in MGS is deceptively tricky. It's easy to point at all the game's bosses and say "this person is enjoying trying to kill my character, therefore, he/she is evil." In some cases, it works, but only in a surprisingly small number of cases. After all, this is a game where your enemies try to kill you and your friends try to kill you too.
Sure, we've got characters who get their kicks out of hunting you down (hey there, Sniper Wolf), and characters who get off on torturing people (god there's someone in every game), but generally if you take a moment to get to know them there's more to them to that. Sniper Wolf may be crazy and dangerous but if you're nice to her dogs she's okay. Ocelot may be preparing a nuclear launch, but it's just to free the world and save Big Boss.
In other words, we need to measure MGS character's morality by something else--freedom versus control. The constant theme throughout Metal Gear Solid is that the freedom to choose is pretty much the best thing ever. From Naomi telling Snake that even though he's been injected with nanomachines programmed to kill him at any moment he just has to CHOOSE TO LIVE...to Big Boss stopping Gene's metal gear not out of loyalty to his country or any other reason but simply because it's what HE CHOOSES (If I remember correctly he says it's "out of loyalty to himself"). And then there's the entire script of MSG4.
So my interpretation on the issue of Para-medic turning evil is that...she didn't change at all. All the bad things that happen are a result of bad decisions by the Patriots in an attempt to create their ideal society. They didn't get out of bed in the morning and go "Imma gonna do something evil today," like say VOLGIN and other, lesser evil characters would (remembering that in MGS terms, being prone to random acts of violence is bad but not as evil as trying to control humanity).
In other words, they were well-intentioned. Para-medic doesn't know that bringing Grey Fox back as a cyborg ninja is bad; she just sees that by attaching this dead guy's head to a robot body, she can keep him alive--why, she just saved one of Naked Snake's closest friends, and made him better at his profession, to boot! She doesn't see keeping the body of Big Boss alive and braindead in a bodybag as evil, she sees it as KEEP THE MAN SHE LOVES ALIVE (she's fallen for him just as badly as the rest of the cast, after all).
The Patriots were trying to create a world where people wouldn't get used and then simply tossed aside the moment said person was no longer useful. They screwed up epically and instead created a world where everyone is used for their entire lives, but it was a mistake, partly born from the fact that they ended up in-fighting and sabotaging each other.
So yeah, Para-medic will chop off your head and put it on a robot body, and that's undeniably the act of an evil mad scientist, but at least she's acting out of a desire to do good.
See, I've read people's reactions to MGS4, and as far as what it reveals about the Patriots and Para-medic, there's a general consensus of "when did Para-medic turn into such an evil bitch."
But morality in MGS is deceptively tricky. It's easy to point at all the game's bosses and say "this person is enjoying trying to kill my character, therefore, he/she is evil." In some cases, it works, but only in a surprisingly small number of cases. After all, this is a game where your enemies try to kill you and your friends try to kill you too.
Sure, we've got characters who get their kicks out of hunting you down (hey there, Sniper Wolf), and characters who get off on torturing people (god there's someone in every game), but generally if you take a moment to get to know them there's more to them to that. Sniper Wolf may be crazy and dangerous but if you're nice to her dogs she's okay. Ocelot may be preparing a nuclear launch, but it's just to free the world and save Big Boss.
In other words, we need to measure MGS character's morality by something else--freedom versus control. The constant theme throughout Metal Gear Solid is that the freedom to choose is pretty much the best thing ever. From Naomi telling Snake that even though he's been injected with nanomachines programmed to kill him at any moment he just has to CHOOSE TO LIVE...to Big Boss stopping Gene's metal gear not out of loyalty to his country or any other reason but simply because it's what HE CHOOSES (If I remember correctly he says it's "out of loyalty to himself"). And then there's the entire script of MSG4.
So my interpretation on the issue of Para-medic turning evil is that...she didn't change at all. All the bad things that happen are a result of bad decisions by the Patriots in an attempt to create their ideal society. They didn't get out of bed in the morning and go "Imma gonna do something evil today," like say VOLGIN and other, lesser evil characters would (remembering that in MGS terms, being prone to random acts of violence is bad but not as evil as trying to control humanity).
In other words, they were well-intentioned. Para-medic doesn't know that bringing Grey Fox back as a cyborg ninja is bad; she just sees that by attaching this dead guy's head to a robot body, she can keep him alive--why, she just saved one of Naked Snake's closest friends, and made him better at his profession, to boot! She doesn't see keeping the body of Big Boss alive and braindead in a bodybag as evil, she sees it as KEEP THE MAN SHE LOVES ALIVE (she's fallen for him just as badly as the rest of the cast, after all).
The Patriots were trying to create a world where people wouldn't get used and then simply tossed aside the moment said person was no longer useful. They screwed up epically and instead created a world where everyone is used for their entire lives, but it was a mistake, partly born from the fact that they ended up in-fighting and sabotaging each other.
So yeah, Para-medic will chop off your head and put it on a robot body, and that's undeniably the act of an evil mad scientist, but at least she's acting out of a desire to do good.