#muse: raiden

But Leigh... was different. She didn't try to analyze him, didn't try to change him, and didn't seem to care about all the terrible things he'd done. She wasn't condescending or demanding, nor did she constantly remind him of all his faults and red flags. Instead, Leigh was always so positive, encouraging him and helping him through his mess of a life. And Raiden kept coming back to her, time and time again, because he very quickly realized that he was in love with her.

What is the “Student Eclipses the Master” Trope?

For the purposes of this analysis, what I mean by this trope is the establishment of a relationship, whether professional, loving, and/or even antagonistic in which one character can be seen as a master, teacher, mentor, or guide, and another can be seen as a student, mentee, or person being pushed/manipulated towards an end. For my purposes too, I’m talking about soldier/military associations and relationships specifically. The characters may be other things to each other besides that, but what is being taught and passed from one character to another is fighting skills, tactics, unlocking of personal potential, and/or psychology of battle and war. Then, given that relationship that has developed over a long period of time, for better or worse, there is a climax moment in which the “student” character either wants or is forced to eclipse the “master” character. In this case, what I mean is that the student actually has to kill the master.

What I meant earlier about this trope being turned on its head in these games was that, in each case, there is an informational and/or tactical deception involved on the part of the teacher and/or the student that changes how the player views the characters and the progression of the plot from that point onward. Also, in each case, the master character is choosing to die, even though they don’t want to, in support or defense of a higher/greater cause than themselves. In each case, there is no other way to accomplish their goal than by dying, and their deaths must be at the hands of their own student. Finally, as a result of this, the student character is left psychology changed forever by having to do this act, sometimes for the better, but more often for the worse. The consequences of each incident are staggering for the respective characters involved.

I’ll break everything down by game, since I think it’ll just be easiest to discuss one at a time. For each, I’ll explain the “reveal” aspect of information the player didn’t have until the “showdown” incident between master and teacher, or found out after the fact, or had to infer for themselves. I’ll also discuss some of the psychology involved with the relationship dynamics of each character pairing, the legacy left behind by the master, and the consequences of the student having to be the one to kill their own master.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Full disclosure, I have not seen gameplay of this game since like 2004-2005, heh. I also haven’t every played it myself, but rather I watched my boyfriend at the time play it and I just watched. But I have a lot of good memories of this game, and the ending is burned onto my brain, heh. We finished the game and then my boyfriend got a phone call, so he went off into another room with me sitting there watching the credits roll while “Way To Fall” was playing and I’m… just on his couch bawling my eyes out, haha. I do love, though, when media, be it music or games or movies or books, can elicit that kind of strong emotional response from me. After all these years, the ending of MGS3 has stayed with me, and I find that impressive. And from what I see in people’s comments online, I’m not alone in that regard.

This game is a long, complex, detailed, window into an alternate timeline for U.S. and Soviet relations during the 1960s Cold War era. The game takes actual historical figures, politics, and events and intermingles it with fictional characters, events, and technology. I am not going to go into detail on the entire plot or all the characters, or all the names of political entities and units etc., because I don’t remember it all, and even if I did, I’d be here for five years and the length of this post would break this site’s ass haha. I'll just overview the bare bones, basic plot and setup for the relationship between the characters The Boss and Naked Snake with regard to the master/student trope, and then get into the analysis.

Naked Snake is a young and at times emotional and naïve operative in a CIA unit called FOX with admittedly amazing skills for his age/experience who is charged by the U.S. government over the course of the game to do three essential things: 1) rescue an important scientist, 2) obtain important information and funds, the “Philosopher’s Legacy” and 3) eliminate The Boss. The Boss is Snake’s mentor who co-founded the FOX unit. She taught him a great deal from everything to fighting techniques and tactics to mindset and the importance of focusing on and completing one’s mission. Snake loved her immensely, regarded her with great respect, and was as emotionally invested in her as a kid of mother figure to him as he was grateful to her for all that she had taught him.

Unfortunately, Snake’s orders were to eliminate her after she defected to the USSR in support of a Russian colonel named Volgin who captures the Shagohod, a bipedial, nuclear-capable tank that was being developed and tested in their local area. While stealing the Shagohod from its research facility, he ends up detonating a nuclear shell The Boss had provided him with in order to destroy the facility and cover his tracks. This causes the Soviet Union to accuse the U.S. of the attack, which understandably served to inflame already tense relations between the two nations. Because of her actions and defection, The Boss became Naked Snake’s mission at that point, marked for assassination.

Snake took The Boss’ defection very personally. He felt hurt, betrayed, confused, and angry over it. By the time we get to the end of the game and the final showdown between the two of them, Snake wants to kill her, or at least he’s angry enough to. By that point, they had faced off a number of times, and she didn’t pull any punches. She broke his arm, didn’t stop torture that cost him one of his eyes, and basically mopped the floor with his ass on a number of occasions, during one of which she full on dumped him in a river and left him for dead. So she wasn’t holding anything back and her relationship with him did not appear to be a factor, tactically or emotionally for her. Snake, on the other hand, was often handicapped by his own emotions, whether anger, fear, hesitation, confusion, etc. Facing The Boss always knocked him off his game because he owes her so much, he respects and loves her, and he’s just so hurt by the actions she’s taken against their homeland in favor of one of its largest and most powerful enemies.

The final battle between them is a brutal one and again, The Boss doesn’t hold back. She states that that battle is to the death, that one of them is going to die and the other is going to inherit the title of “Boss” and be forever challenged and hunted because of that. Snake by that time is so angry and emotional that the battle’s a hard one for him. His emotions throughout the game had been shown to be a liability for him, not just with The Boss but with Eva and some other characters as well. He was impulsive sometimes, naïve at others, and his inexperience really showed. Despite this, Snake is ultimately able to defeat The Boss. As she lies prone and he stands over her with a gun aimed to kill, she hands him the Legacy he’s after as part of his orders, and then allows him to shoot her, pushing and urging him to do so.

All of this is heartbreaking enough for Snake (and the player) at this point, but now allow me to explain the reveal. After gaining the Legacy from his now-deceased mentor, Snake… very stupidly has it stolen by a woman he fell for, Eva, who turned out to be a Chinese spy. Great job, heh. But she explains to him that The Boss had never defected to the USSR. Not really. Turns out, she had been on an uncover mission of sorts to infiltrate Volgin’s group and secure the Legacy for the U.S. Unfortunately for her, when Volgin chose to literally nuke the Shagohod’s research facility with a nuclear missile she’d given him, he caused an international incident that could have erupted into actual war, not just the Cold War, and that could be traced back to her, a U.S. operative. With the Soviet Union accusing the U.S. of this, to deescalate the situation and essentially pass blame onto someone else, the U.S. basically threw The Boss under the proverbial bus and told her… there’s no way you’re coming home alive. She had to die and be believed as a total defector and traitor to the U.S. government so that they could pin the nuclear incident on her and clear the U.S.’s name in the eyes of the Soviet Union. Her mission at that point became... be the most convincing traitor you can be and then get yourself killed by our operative, which she knew would be Snake.

Horrible, right? It gets worse. They specifically ordered Naked Snake, her mentee and sort-of adopted son…-ish, to do the deed. I’m not clear on why, like I don’t remember the reason, whether it just had to do with them making it more convincing that she was a traitor or what? Because if he agreed that she had defected, if he believed it, as someone who knew her so well, then that could lend credibility to the U.S.’s story. But regardless, because of this and Snake’s inexperience, he was not told anything prior to his mission to kill The Boss. If he had been told, then his “performance” in killing her would not have been as convincing. He might even have refused to do it, who knows. So to ensure success and believability, The Boss had to 100% behave like a traitor and actually fight to kill, otherwise someone who knew her as well as Snake would know something was up. If she just went to him and was like… look, you need to kill me, not only do I think he would’ve refused, but he also would’ve known at that point that there was more to the story than he was being told.

So Snake learns after he’s already killed his beloved mentor and mother figure that all his hatred and anger that he directed at her was unwarranted, that she was not a traitor, and in fact that she was a hero and a true patriot to go along with a mission that involved her knowing she was never going to make it home alive, for the sake of her country and world peace. This… shatters him. He’s grieving, he’s livid with the U.S. government, and he feels used and manipulated. At that point, the naïve recruit is gone and innocence is lost forever. He becomes cold, disillusioned, and bitter. To make matters worse, when he arrives back home in the U.S., he’s being hailed as a hero for killing The Boss, he’s given the title of Boss (later, Big Boss) in her place, he’s having his picture taken and newspapers wanna talk to him, heads of state wanna shake his hand… and Snake just… wants none of this. He’s focused on the memory of who he feels was the real hero, his mentor, whose name is now being dragged through the mud in disgrace, as well as digesting and internalizing her biggest lesson to him… that the mission comes first before anything else. Before yourself, your life, your wants and needs, your emotions, your relationships with others, everything. Because they’re the kinds of soldiers handling extremely time- and politically-sensitive mission that have the potential to cost many lives if they go wrong. So they need to be selfless and focused, or the consequences could be dire. No amount of saying that to him got through, but with her death, The Boss finally did teach Snake that lesson.

The effect on the player is just one of a gut punch to the stomach, frankly, heh. The Boss was such a cool character, even as an antagonist, bitch was awesome and you just had to like her, haha. But beyond that, to be hit with the emotions of Snake having to kill her, and then boom you find out it didn’t even have to be that way if Volgin hadn’t set off that nuke, and then boom again you find out she was never a traitor at all, she was just allowing the U.S. government to use her as a scapegoat to save their own asses, and that she willingly gave her life for that, to prevent all-out war… it hits you like a speedboat to the face, honestly. And then to watch the ending sequence when he visits her grave and sheds a tear… it hits hard. Especially when you know what Naked Snake eventually became later in the franchise…

So what was the legacy of The Boss and the consequences for Naked Snake? To me her legacy is a big message about selflessness and fighting for the greater good regardless of what happens to yourself, and that’s a theme that each “master” character in this analysis leaves behind to the player, if not to their student as well. The Boss was willing not only to die, but to be labeled as a disgraceful traitor to her country forevermore, in addition to doing things militarily that she never would’ve chosen to do otherwise and attack her own student with no holds barred. That’s an incredible dedication to the ruse that takes a lot of inner strength, emotional fortitude, and focus on the task at hand. All while knowing… she’s not coming out of this alive, and she doesn’t want to. She’s by no means suicidal at all, but she takes duty to her country so seriously that she’s willing to pretend to betray it and her student and then die for it. Loyalty, sacrifice, selflessness, and strength. That’s what her legacy was to me, and it’s a powerful one to kindof take with you, at least in philosophy, long after you stop playing the game.

Unfortunately, the consequences for Naked Snake were staggering. He goes on to become Big Boss, one of the franchise’s more formidable, ambiguous, versatile, and longest-running villains. He ends up having his hands in a number of conflicts worldwide, heading organizations with morally and politically questionable methods and motives. The sad thing is, he did a lot of it to create perpetual war, a kind of worldwide state in which soldiers run everything, where no soldier would be considered useless, because his whole life had been war. He couldn’t imagine a world without it. But also, how little soldiers’ lives meant to their respective governments, agencies, and comrades had greatly disillusioned him. I think he said something once like… that even the most skilled soldiers are just dead bodies when they’re eliminated from the field, or something like that. In other words, death is the great equalizer, and no matter how good you are at fighting or what your reputation is like, when you’re dead, nobody’s going to care, you’re just… dead. That’s a heartbreakingly huge leap from how he was early on in MGS3. The change in him over time is so devastating. It’s sad to think that the U.S.’s treatment of The Boss may have been the seed in his heart that festered into some of these later feelings. Big Boss lived a long, violent, and troubled life, and I often wonder how different he would have been had The Boss not done what she did, or the U.S. not ordered it of her. And then, near the end of his life, at the end of MGS4, he visits The Boss’ grave and tells her that he finally understood the lesson she was trying to teach him. MY HEART.

But this raises an interesting point of… soldiers like The Boss being able to commit that hard, even at the cost of everything she’d built personally and her own life, to duty to one’s country, vs. soldiers like Naked Snake who understand the concept, but reject it, in a way. Not every soldier is going to have the fortitude and altruism to go through with a mission like The Boss’. Some are going to just fail at it, but others who are capable of it in practice, emotionally just reject the concept, and I think we’re seeing that difference play out between The Boss’ end and Big Boss’ survival. Final thought on this… it brings up that concept n one wants to really believe but it’s kindof true, that things like honor and integrity often don’t end well for people while selfishness and brutality often pay off for a person. That’s… so sad, but you know the phrase, “only the good die young”? What The Boss did was amazingly honorable and selfless, but it did absolutely nothing for her. What Big Boss ends up doing is just… a mess of violence and broken dreams, but he lived a long life. Which is better? I think the answer depends upon the kind of person you are at your core, what you value most in life, and how you would define your purpose/place in life/the world.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (and DLC)

So… I know this game is considered by most not to be canon, but for me it is, even though it was not made by the same people as the rest of the franchise and it was a very different kind of game than the others. As a huge Raiden fan and preferring him as a protagonist to Snake, this game was a lot of fun for me, even with all its problems and the fact that Kojima wasn't involved in the final result. It is what it is, I didn't think it was that bad of a game, personally. It leaves behind almost everything about the various Snake characters and their plots in favor of following Raiden years after MGS4. I won't go into detail on the plot of MGR:R or all the many antagonists in it, but rather I want to focus on the antagonistic relationship between the protagonist, Raiden, and the villain Jetstream Sam. I’m including in this analysis, most notably in the reveal portion, Sam’s DLC, which explains his backstory and motivates for his actions in the main game.

Raiden has gone through a lot of mental transformations throughout his life and career as a soldier. From being an automated, drugged, brainwashed, VR-altered killing machine as a child, to being a cocky, impulsive, naïve recruit in MGS2, to being a crestfallen, abandoned (or so he thought), self-sacrificial adopter of katsukinken, in MGS4. Finally, in MGR:R, he seems to be in a good place in his life, having steady work with a PMC to support Rose and Little John. But very quickly during the game, cracks begin to form in Raiden’s mental stability, and we begin to see that his emotional clinging to katsukinken as a way to justify whenever he has to kill someone is not just his philosophy on life, it’s what he absolutely needs to stay mentally stable. At this point in his life, Raiden’s kill count is starting to catch up with him, and unless he can make himself believe that he’s doing it for the right reasons now, and that doing good things now can redeem all the times in the past when he killed for horrible reasons, he really starts to spiral and his mental health takes a serious dive.

Someone who notices this and seeks to capitalize off it is Jetstream Sam, a villain in the game who also adopts a samurai-esque fighting style but who does not subscribe to the same noble and lofty ideals about killing as Raiden does. While all the other villains (all part of a group headed by Senator Armstrong of the U.S., a megalomaniacal dude hopped up on nanomachines, heh) are content to either just toy with Raiden or to try to stop him from interfering in their boss’ plans, Sam… kindof goes off on his own a bit. He taunts Raiden, for sure, but he seems to really want to have conversations with him and pick away at his psychology. He mocks him for not simply embracing his skill and ability as a killer, laughing at his attempts to justify or moralize or wax poetic about when killing is right or wrong. This pisses Raiden off and he continues to resist and affirm his beliefs in katsukinken. Then things take a dark turn.

Sam begins to pick away at Raiden by calling out his hypocrisies. He mocks him for not turning off his pain receptors, because why would anyone not do that, it’s a huge advantage to not feel any pain when fighting and being injured? It implies that Raiden is trying to be nobler than he is by allowing himself to suffer when it’s just… honestly stupid to do so. He’s a killer, he’s good at it, he should embrace it. Doing childish things like punishing himself by leaving his pain receptors on is just ridiculous to Sam. Raiden insists that he wants to stay connected to his humanity and that it keeps him an honest soldier, in a way, to feel the full extent of combat. Sam flat out tells him no, it’s dumb, and until you stop doing it, you’ll never reach your full potential as a killer. That’s not something Raiden wants, though, so he continues to resist.

The next tactic Sam employs to get Raiden to embrace himself as a killer is after Sam learns of this alter-ego or alter personality called Jack the Ripper that Raiden suppresses. The Ripper is everything violent, crazy, unhinged, and savage about Raiden, and most importantly, he enjoys killing. Whenever Raiden’s core personality, which is usually either fairly gentle and altruistic or very funny and casual, becomes too stressed out, disillusioned, guilty, or grief-stricken… the Ripper can emerge. Sam… starts doing things to push that to happen. So his next tactic is to port into Raiden’s comms the thoughts of the cyborgs he kills in real time on the battlefield. Meaning… as he’s fighting people, he can hear their thoughts through the various digital and mechanical technology handwaving the game glosses over enough for you to suspend disbelief with, haha. So Raiden this whole time has been cutting down hundreds of cyborg soldiers hired by PMCs in support of Desperado (the mercenary group of villains supporting Armstrong) or Armstrong himself. Just… slicing and dicing without a care. Now… he hears their thoughts, and it’s devastating to him. They think things like, “Oh god, I’m so scared, please don’t kill me,” and “I didn’t even want this job, but I needed the money, I had no choice, and now I’m gonna die” and “What’s going to happen to my wife and kids if I die?” And it just… destroys what’s left of Raiden’s mental stability, and Sam’s plan eventually works.

Eventually Raiden willingly gives into the Ripper personality and allows it to have full control of him. That’s easier than hurting, than feeling the guilt of killing innocent or good people, and than facing the reality of who and what he really is. So for a time in the game, Raiden just loses his shit and you play as the Ripper, violently tearing enemies apart with absolute glee. After this stage, Raiden kindof comes to a mid-point between the two personalities where he’s forced to admit he’s not this noble samurai figure, he’s just a killer, and that hurts… but… he can also use his abilities for good and the good is not diminished by the bad. Even if he’s a bad/violent person by his own standards, the good he does is still good, and still matters.

It's at this point when Sam confronts him and you fight him as a boss battle in the game. Sam is a cyborg as well but far less enhanced than Raiden. When you fight him, Raiden is under the impression that Sam is internally augmented like he is, maybe not full-body, but a lot more than just his metal arm which is the most obvious. Sam fights like a true samurai in style, but he’s ruthless and makes it clear to Raiden that the fight is to the death. He fights well, it’s a hard battle, and when Raiden does kill him, he finds out that Sam had no internal enhancements at all. The only cyborg augmentation he had was that one of his arms was replaced by mechanical parts. This astonishes Raiden, because Sam was a very worth opponent and the fight was a really hard one, despite that Raiden has all these extra cyborg enhancements. It means that Sam was just that good of a fighter. This earns him a lot of respect from Raiden, enough to give his sword back to Blade Wolf instead of using it himself. Sam had talked to Blade Wolf previously and asked the A.I. to hold onto the sword until Raiden was ready for it, but the requirements for that were unclear at the time.

So up until this point, the player basically thinks that Sam is an egocentric dick who liked to really get under Raiden’s skin, wanted to see his true potential for the hell of it, and then tried to defeat him after breaking him down enough to ensure he’d win… but failed anyway. After that, Raiden goes on to defeat Senator Armstrong, turning off his pain receptors and fully embracing the fact that he is a killer. He needs that stability of mind and that acceptance of himself to be able to let go fully and unleash hell on Armstrong. That was the only way Raiden was going to defeat him. Seeing this, Blade Wolf finally gives Sam’s sword to Raiden to use against Armstrong, who has nanomachines in his body that will almost instantly repair any injuries and provides him with almost impenetrable armor. Sam’s blade was an “HF” or high-frequency blade that resonates at a frequency that disrupts those nanomachines, rendering Armstrong unable to regenerate. With Sam’s sword, he's able to defeat the Senator.

Fine well and good, right? People really loved Sam, like the reception for him was great. He was funny, cavalier, arrogant in a strangely likeable way, just a hoot. He was also a very cool guy to watch in terms of his fighting style. And we all thought that’s where it ended for Sam… and we were so wrong, heh.

How does this even apply to the “master and student” trope, you ask? Well, when you play Sam’s DLC, you find out that, this entire time, Sam has been guiding and training Raiden to kill Armstrong, Sam’s own boss. That’s why he wanted Raiden to get over his self-righteousness and his need for justification and redemption, and it’s why he needed Raiden at his best and full potential before facing Armstrong. In the DLC, you find out that Sam is descended from actual samurai, so unlike Raiden who adopted that philosophy and culture, Sam was raised with it. His father emigrated from Japan to Brazil and was a swordmaster, making incredible samurai blades, including Sam’s own, who once belonged to his father. After his father was murdered, Sam wanted revenge, and he traced those responsible all the way up to Senator Armstrong. So Sam confronted him with the idea of killing him… and faced a huge, hulking, muscly, mess of steroidal nanomachines, heh. As excellent a fighter as Sam was, he could not defeat Armstrong. In fact, the man injures one of his arms (the one he went on to have replaced by a cyborg prosthetic) and then invites him to join his ranks.

Now, Sam had no desire to join the man who murdered his father. However, he could not avenge his father if he was dead either. So… he agreed. And from that moment on he became Jetstream Sam, Desperado member, loyal lackey of Senator Armstrong… on the surface. Behind the scenes, Sam was staying close to the Senator to learn about his enemies and scope them out, searching for someone who could defeat him. And who could defeat the Senator? Someone stronger than Sam himself. Since Sam couldn’t defeat Armstrong, he knew he had to find someone who could defeat him. Only someone who could best him would have a chance at killing Armstrong. He thought he found that person in Raiden, and could see that he had the potential to be strong enough, but as long as Raiden held back his true nature, that was never going to happen.

So the entire time in the main game when Sam is supporting Armstrong, he’s only doing it to get close enough to him to essentially train an assassin, heh. And the whole time he’s taunting Raiden, pushing him to the brink of insanity, and lecturing him on the futility of morals and restraint, he’s testing and training him to be Armstrong’s killer. The final test, is whether he can kill Sam or not. In that conversation between Sam and Blade Wolf, revealed after his death when Wolf gives Raiden Sam’s sword, Sam says that he’s been working towards this for two years and essentially is hoping Raiden won’t blow it for him, heh. He also says the lock on his blade will disable after a couple hours following his death, and leaves the choice of whether to give Raiden the blade or not up to the A.I. Blade Wolf decides Raiden is ready to defeat the Senator, and therefore worthy of Sam’s legacy and sword, when he finally lets go of all restraint and accepts himself for who he is.

This completely turns around on its head what the player knew of Sam and his motivations. He was willing to die and never see his father avenged… in order to make sure it happened. Also, he wasn’t only motivated by that. During the course of pretending to be a loyal follower of the Senator’s, Sam saw all the depraved things the man was doing and wanted to stop him for the sake of the world in addition to avenging his father. Two years of his life and a lot of immoral, violent acts later, and he finally got to the point where he knew he had to die to ensure justice would be done. And that meant, just like with The Boss in the previous game, that he couldn’t pull any punches. He didn’t throw his fight with Raiden at all. He would’ve killed Raiden if he’d been found unworthy and started all over again with a new disciple, and it was kindof implied that there had been other failed attempts in the past with others to groom an assassin for Armstrong. But this time, Sam threw everything he had at Raiden and lost his life. In his mind, the man who could do that, was strong/skilled enough to kill the Senator. He put his faith in Raiden, even though he wouldn’t live to see if all his long hard work and the loss of his life was even worth it all. That’s… mind blown, heh.

Unlike Naked Snake/Big Boss, Raiden came out of this student-kills-master trope with positive effects on his life. His acceptance of himself and his arrival at a better overall mental state was lasting, and although Raiden will always struggle with his mental health, simply given the traumatic and hellish life he’s led, he is actually so much better at the end of MGR:R, and it’s because of the tough love process Sam pushed him through. Being forced to accept himself and all the bad he’s done while still acknowledging that he has the gift of strength and skill that can and should be used for good was something Raiden needed to do years prior, but no one ever helped him through that. Granted, Sam’s methods were harsh, and if it were not for Raiden’s incredible mental fortitude, he might have emerged a traumatized vegetable. But the core process of facing his past and himself in general was something Raiden very much needed, and so Sam’s legacy was not only avenging his father and stopping a terrible tyrant, but also helping to set Raiden on a path to healing his mind in a way really no one else in his life has ever been able to do before.

Sam’s legacy was also to help Raiden put into perspective why they’re soldiers, much like The Boss did for Naked Snake. It’s not for themselves, it’s not for their own glory or emotional satisfaction, it’s for the mission, whatever it is. It’s duty. No matter what you have to do or suffer, you see the mission through. Raiden was very much inside his own head, constantly thinking about his own feelings and how badly everything made him feel instead of about stopping a terrorist cell and a political tyrant. After Sam scrambles his brain a bit, heh, Raiden emerges with his thoughts facing more outward, more looking at the world and the greater picture, than always being focused on himself and his own needs.

That showdown between Sam and Raiden in the main game and then the battle between Armstrong and Sam in the DLC… they’ve stayed with me for a long time. You just feel so bad so any times you felt that Sam was being such a jerk to Raiden, or times when you lumped him together with all the other Desperado members when he was something so much more. His sacrifice feels so painful because it’s so long before you find out what it really meant. You have to play all the way through the DLC before you understand Sam’s whole deal, and when you do, it hurts, heh. The idea that someone would live a life they don’t agree with for two whole years, just to make sure that an asshole got his comeuppance and never hurt anyone again, and not caring how anyone sees him or the dishonor he’s bringing on himself personally by doing all that… it really blew my mind.

I’ve thought so much about Sam as a character and his dynamic with Raiden since then, and as a writer, it is the best brain food possible to have the privilege of knowing characters like them, and all the characters I’m discussing in this meta, really. The only thing I really don’t like is that we’re not likely to ever get another game with Raiden in it, so we’ll never know if what Sam imparted to him will be carried with him going forward or what challenges to that mindset might arise and how Raiden would handle them. Would’ve loved to have seen a follow up in some way, but… yeah, it’s never going to happen, heh. I always got the feeling, though, that if Raiden could talk to Sam now, he’d thank him. Like, after the anger and everything else has died down, Raiden knows he’s a better person now because of Sam. I like to think he’s grateful to him for that.

Final Fantasy XII

FFXII is my favorite game. Period, the end. On anything. Any system, console, handheld, computer whatever. Favorite game. I love this game to death. I write four canon characters and six OCs from the FFXII world. Next year will be 20 years of me loving this game, heh. Oh gods, I’m so old. But anyway, this “student kills master” scenario is a bit different than the other two, because the student/mentor relationship is actually… my own headcanon, heh. The “master” character in this story is Judge Magister Drace, and the “student” is Judge Magister Gabranth. Not much is known at all about Drace, she only has like two scenes in the whole game, but one of them is the scene in which Gabranth is ordered by the self-proclaimed emperor of their empire to execute Drace. But first, let me explain a little bit about their situation, including my headcanons, so that people who aren’t familiar with this game have some idea.

The rank of Judge Magister is the highest military rank one can have in the Archadian Empire, save for the emperor and any of his children. There are only about 22 or so? I think? In the entire empire, so that gives you an idea of how elite a rank it is. Gabranth is the youngest to achieve it, and I say he did at age 20. He’s 36 at the time of the main game. Drace’s age varies depending on the source material you look at, but I have her as being four years older than Gabranth. She also made Judge Magister at age 20, but he beat her record by a few months. At the time of the game, she’s around 40. Some sources put her as being younger than Gabranth, but then they say he’s the youngest Judge Magister, so it’s… unclear. But I just get older vibes from Drace, both in how she behaves and the way she speaks, and her being older than Gabranth just seems to fit their characters better, I dunno.

Anyway, both of these people are formidable opponents by the time of the game. Each Judge Magister has their own unique armor, weapons, and fighting style. They seem to dislike each other and bicker a lot, with only a couple friendships or good working relationships existing between them in the game. One of those good relationships is between Gabranth and Drace. In canon, we get one scene of them talking aside, being very cordial and familiar with each other, and confiding in each other as to their speculations on political events in the game. That’s… That’s it. That’s all we get. The next time we see Drace is when Gabranth kills her.

My headcanons fill in their backgrounds considerably. In canon, Gabranth was forced to move to Archadia from a small republic called Landis after it was obliterated by an explosion caused by an Archadian invasion. He rose through the ranks of the empire’s military and became a Judge Magister. Canon doesn’t give us much more than that (except for everything having to do with his brother, but that’s not relevant to this meta so I’m leaving it out heh). With Drace, we know nothing about her whatsoever. With my headcanons, I have Drace being deployed after the fall of Landis to assess the damage to an essential port and to deal with the survivors. Gabranth stands out to her at that time and she sees that he and his mother get on an airship to Archadia with other survivors. She offers to help get him into the military, but he refuses, citing that he has to care for his mother. For those who know my Dark!Ivalice AU, I know I’m skipping over a lot, but I’m trying to be simplistic here, heh. Once his mother dies of complications from an illness caused by the explosion that destroyed Landis, Gabranth becomes free to join the military and takes Drace up on her offer.

Because of the elite nature and importance of the rank of Judge Magister, I imagine it’s more than just skill to get you in heh. You have to have skill, yes, and you have to be really exceptional even at that, but you also need to be intelligent, and a leader, and ambitious. They act as military generals, court judges, elite guards to the royal House, and the heads of each of the Bureaus of the Archadian government. So these are… really important jobs, heh. So I’m guessing you need more than just skill, you have to be qualified for the position, and several others before that even, by others higher than you. Like being sponsored by someone who will vouch for you that you’re capable of the work and should have the position. It also helps if you know someone with power who can speak about you to the emperor himself. Drace… did all of these things for Gabranth. She got him into the military when he was only half-Archadian by blood, she sponsored him to move up in rank, participated in his qualifying trials, and spoke to Emperor Gramis about him, in addition to helping show him the ropes as far as being a Judge Magister and training with him.

This went on for a number of years, during which Gabranth and Drace grew closer and shared many harrowing experiences that left Gabranth significantly traumatized. He had amazing fortitude, though, to push past his trauma and maintain a strong presence in public and among his other Judge Magister peers. They eventually became lovers, though they kept that largely secret, lest it be used against them. The politics of Archadia were cutthroat, with the royal House, the Senate, and the Judge Magisters all vying for power, and the Magister quarreling with themselves on top of that. Fast forward to the time of the game, and Gabranth is now the unspoken leader of the Judge Magisters, having the ear and favor of the emperor and being one of the strongest and most skilled in combat. Through everything, Drace has been a solid friend and emotional support system for Gabranth, as well as a wise and steadfast voice of reason that balanced and countered his internal emotional volatility. He relied on her from time to time to help steady him in really bad times.

Where everything fell apart was when Emperor Gramis son Vayne decided to assassinate him and pin it on the Senate. By Archadian law, an election must be held for a new emperor, even though magically every time there is one, House Solidor wins it. *eye roll* But still, there’s supposed to be one. Well, Vayne just declares himself emperor without an election, which is illegal, but the fun part is that once he does that, he’s the emperor and can say it’s not illegal, heh. So the moment he became emperor, even by illegally declaring himself such, he became untouchable. The problem with this is that Vayne wanted absolute power and to roll over smaller kingdoms of Ivalice with Archadia’s might to have it all to himself. That was something that Emperor Gramis had not wanted and was trying to prevent with Gabranth and Drace’s help. Gabranth was working to kindof either sabotage Vayne’s plans or placate him to keep him from making any big moves. And both Gabranth and Drace were charged with looking after Larsa, Gramis son (in canon, though in my own headcanon-based AU, he’s actually Gabranth’s son… long story that, heh), who was only a child at the time. Larsa wanted peace and a stable Ivalice, an end to the war. Gramis wanted Larsa to sit on the throne, not Vayne. Vayne sensed that, and did away with Gramis, immediately then making references to the fact that only himself and Larsa were left of House Solidor now.

Drace took this to mean an insinuation that Vayne had intentions to kill Larsa too, since she had already seen through Vayne’s lies and knew he’d assassinated Gramis. In front of a few other Judge Magisters, including Gabranth, she called him out, condemning his actions and wanting to arrest him. She even drew her sword against him, which is a huge no-no, heh. Now that he was emperor, any moves like that are immediately considered treasonous. Drace was counting on the support of the other magisters and on the fact that, lawfully speaking, she was right, since Vayne had taken power illegally. Unfortunately, one magister decided to not defend her, one opposed her and actually clobbered her to the ground (he was magically enhanced at the time, another long story heh), and the only other one left… was Gabranth… who was now in a terrible position. Defend his mentor, friend, and lover and declare himself against the emperor… or fall in line and betray her. This decision was made worse by what Vayne did next, which was to press Gabranth to choose sides by counting the brief opinions given in the room as a formal trial and sentencing her to death. Then he ordered Gabranth to be the executioner, right then and there.

The problem was… if he agreed with Drace or even refused to kill her, that’s as good as declaring himself opposed to Vayne, and since Gabranth was the unspoken leader of the Judge Magisters, it was kindof understood that whatever he decided… all others would follow suit. If he went against the emperor, the entire rank of Judge Magister would be in opposition to the throne of Archadia, resulting in civil war. That could be absolutely devastating for all of Ivalice, given Archadia’s nuclear-like capabilities with a crystalline substance called nethicite, and it could place Larsa, who was only twelve at the time, in serious danger. This whole time, he and Drace had been working to teach Larsa well and guide him on the path to diplomacy and peace, and Gabranth had been working behind the scenes to manage Vayne and stave off civil war within the empire. With one word said in Drace’s defense… he could screw over all of that. He knew it, and Drace knew it too. Trust me, she knew she’d fucked up badly, and absolutely recognized the position Gabranth was now placed in because of it.

Gabranth goes to where she’s lying winded on the ground after the attack from one of their colleagues... and this man, who is usually so solid, so decisive, and honestly known in the court of public opinion for being a hard and cold killer, hesitates. He’s there knelt over her, he grunts a little, looks so conflicted… and in that moment Drace knows that if he doesn’t kill her now, all is lost. Everything they’ve been working and fighting for, Larsa, the empire, even all of Ivalice, totally screwed if he doesn’t follow Vayne’s order. And she’s committed to that, to her duty to the man she respected as emperor, Gramis, and his orders to her. To the empire, even to Gabranth. She’s committed. He has to do this. Now. But she sees he’s faltering. So what does she do? She tells him, “Do it, I care not.” To take the pressure off and make it easier for him. Then she tells him to protect Larsa. He asks her forgiveness, to which she replies. “Pray, be quick.”

There’s no way she wants to die in that moment, she’s not suicidal and she still has so much left to do. She’s needed in big ways by Gabranth, by Larsa, and she heads an entire Bureau for goodness’ sake. But in that moment, she knows she has to do what’s best for the empire and the greater good and help Gabranth keep control and stability for as long as he can. It’d placate Vayne and keep things manageable until further action against him could be taken. When she sees him faltering in his decision, she pushes him, brings him back to the duty they both swore their now-dead emperor they would complete, and helps him regain that composure he usually had such a good handle on, at least outwardly. And this is because she’s done that very thing for him so many times before. Steadied his hand, calmed his emotions, comforted him… and now she’s being his voice of reason, helping him to refocus on what is most important. Gabranth kills Drace quickly with a single wound to her heart, and Vayne is satisfied that (as far as he can see) he has control over the Judge Magisters and doesn’t need to move against them, allowing Gabranth the continued freedom to move about politically, undermine Vayne’s plans, and protect Larsa.

This is a bit different than the previous two games with regard to this trope, because the moment at which the “student kills the master” isn’t exactly the moment he eclipses her. For me, it’s prior to that, when he remained silent while Vayne declared himself emperor. She should have done the same, but she let her emotions and sense of justice get the better of her and let them overcome her own prudence and wisdom. For all that Drace had taught Gabranth over the years, especially about how politics and the military work in Archadia, she really made a major misstep by calling Vayne out, and it was something Gabranth neither replicated nor jumped in on. In that moment, he was wiser and more reserved than she, and that was when her fate was sealed.

It's also a bit different for the player than in the other two games, because there’s no “debriefing,” heh. There’s no… extra information after the fact that reveals the character’s motives or thought process. It’s left up to the player to decipher, and really, one could just as easily have interpreted Gabranth’s actions as him reluctantly actually deciding to support Vayne and agree to align himself with his agenda. I’ve seen many on the internet claim that very thing. That’s not what I see, and given how I developed these characters well past what we see in the game, my headcanon-based portrayal of them (I write them both on my FFXII blog, heh) involves a lot more internal conflict and political intrigue surrounding the context of Drace’s execution and why Gabranth ultimately went through with it. But I love that in this game, it’s all left up to the interpretation of the player, whether by design, cuts made to the game during its development, or just lazy writing I’m not sure heh. Depending on how much thought you want to put into it, it hurts more or less, and has more or less of an impact on the story. For me, it hit hard, and it still does every time I see the scene.

Drace’s legacy in this is huge, though, honestly. Had she fought back against her own execution, or had she encouraged Gabranth to defy Vayne or spare her life, who the hell even knows how the rest of the game would’ve gone, heh. I mean, Vayne could’ve ordered the entire rank of Judge Magisters dismissed, imprisoned, executed, etc. A stretch, I know, but anything would’ve been possible at that point. If Vayne felt threatened by Gabranth and therefore by the rest of them, the stability of the empire would’ve been totally lost and internal war would’ve resulted. Or, if Gabranth had been killed along with Drace for going against Vayne, he wouldn’t have been alive later to defend Larsa from Vayne. Her deciding to just accept it, allow Gabranth to kill her, and help steady his emotions as he did so was a major component to the eventual end of the war and the peace across Ivalice that followed, never change my mind.

Unfortunately, things did not end well for Gabranth. Yes, he was alive later to protect Larsa from Vayne, but he suffered a fatal wound during that fight and died as a result. I have a lot more headcanons as to why and how if you’re familiar with my Dark!Ivalice AU, but I won’t bog down this already huge meta with all those details. But I do wanna mention that having to kill Drace left Gabranth negatively changed forever, much like Snake having to kill The Boss. It was an act that changed him as a person and caused him to become angrier and more cynical, for the short time he lived after that occurred. It also… just frankly broken something deep inside the man to do that someone he looked up to, respected, and loved. Not only kill her but to outright betray her in front of Vayne and their other colleagues. After that incident, his mental health suffered, his emotions ran wild, and his behavior became more erratic and unhinged, as we see at the Pharos when he confronts the main party of protagonists. He was looking for someone to punish him, hurt him, and condemn him, going after both Basch and Ashelia and trying to goad them into fighting him. I have a few theories on why this occurs.

First is that nethicite poisoning can lead to mental instability or even insanity, and although Gabranth was stable through most of the game, there is a marked change in him after Drace’s execution. Potent emotions can affect Mist in the world of FFXII, and vice versa. Whatever Mist in Gabranth’s body from the nethicite poisoning he acquired in Landis was riled up by his grief at losing Drace and the guilt of having to do it, and it started to mess with his mind.

Second, he felt incredibly guilty at what he’d done to her. He’d stooped pretty low before as a person, having to do some terrible things to follow orders and carry out his duties as a Judge Magister, but… betraying his friend, mentor, and lover? That was a serious new low for him that he I think never thought he would stoop to. Having done so, I think he became disillusioned about who he was as a person, hence the need to go out and goad others into attacking him, almost in a self-punishment kind of way. Up until then, all terrible things done could be justified in his mind, but this? This was perhaps the most justifiable of them all and yet… not to him. He blamed himself hard.

Third, Drace was his rock, his compass, his port in a storm. When he was at his worst or times were hard, he went to her. He had no one else in his life that served that sort of purpose for him, so when he lost her, he lost his ability to calm down, recenter, and be comforted. He felt alone. That caused him to fly off the handle.

And lastly, Gabranth has major issues with loved ones betraying each other. His own brother betrayed him in a very cruel way when they were boys (a whole other ball of wax I’m not getting into) and he had always thought himself better than that, above it. Killing Drace, felt like he was no better than the brother he’d hated for 20 years.

Although Gabranth ultimately did protect Larsa and have a significant hand in the peace he and Drace had been working toward, he didn’t survive the process. Unlike with Snake and Raiden, Gabranth didn’t really learn anything from Drace’s death. If anything, he lost some of the last shreds of idealism he had left and became disillusioned and angry. Drace’s legacy was similar to The Boss’ in that she gave her life for the greater good of world stability and the lives that would save, not so much in what she imparted to her student. And unlike Raiden being inspired by his mentor’s sacrifice or even Big Boss going on to take his mentor’s message and carry out his own misguided agenda, Gabranth… merely self-destructed. That’s so sad. It wasn’t a choice, though, his mental health just crumbled, and soon so did his physical health the more he was injured in various final battles.

I think it’s noble that he held on for as long as he did, and that he did see his duty through to protect Larsa. It was a good death and note to end on, but I wonder what would’ve happened had he survived. How would he have moved on from Drace’s death in the weeks and months post-game? I guess we’ll never know, but honestly, I don’t think Gabranth was a character who could’ve survived at that point. I think he was tired and done by the end of the game, and after he saved Larsa and helped defeat Vayne, he could let go of his pain and accept death. Especially since his brother agreed to take his place (they’re identical twins) to continue to hold that position of power within the rank of Judge Magister and to protect Larsa until he came of age. I think he was just… done. His soul wanted to move on. It’s there in the absolute calmness and peacefulness in his expression and voice as he spoke his last words before he died, reconciling with his estranged brother an holding his hand.

Anybody Still Awake? XD

If you’ve come this far, omg I’m so sorry this got so long, haha. I guess I had more thoughts about all of this than I realized. But honestly, hits was a rant that’s been brewing for a while. It kept coming back in my mind in the past few years but every time I went to write it I was like, nobody wants to read that. So I finally got around to it and wrote it for myself, and if any of you enjoyed reading it too, then that’s a much-loved added bonus. =) If anyone has any comments or questions about any of this, feel free to pose them. It’s just a favorite trope of mine, and one that’s hurt my soul so many times in video games honestly. Not the only trope to hurt, mind you (NieR: Gestalt, I’m looking at you, what the hell even was that that you did to me, ouch), but one of the most thought-provoking for me.

Lastly, I want to leave you with some clips of some of the scenes I've been discussing from these games. Obviously, these are major spoilers, but if you are interested, here they are:

MGS3

After she is defeated, The Boss gives Snake the Legacy and then asks him to kill her (tw: execution by gunshot)

Naked Snake, now "Boss" in her place, visits The Boss' grave, with Eva's voiceover explaining to him the truth about The Boss' mission and intentions

Big Boss, formerly Naked Snake, visits The Boss' grave with Old Snake (from the end of MGS4, tw: cemetery/graves, illness, character death)

MGR:R

Sam fights Armstrong and is defeated because of the man's nanomachine armor and regeneration; Sam agrees to join his ranks (tw: injury, loss of a limb, blood)

Sam dies from his injuries after fighting Raiden; Raiden and the Blade Wolf A.I. reflect on the outcome and Raiden respectfully and ceremoniously sheaths Sam's blade and lets Blade Wolf keep it; during Raiden's fight with Armstrong, Blade Wolf replays part of his conversation with Sam to Raiden, deciding he's worthy of Sam's blade (tw: open wounds, blood, character death, and language)

FFXII

He just didn't want the attention he knew he'd get if they saw he had a problem. Realistically, he knew he'd have to go get his body repaired, but... would they have to detach him from it to accomplish that feat? The thought of that always made him feel so terrified. Nothing triggered his PTSD worse than being detached from his body. Even though he knew it was the prudent thing to do, to go to the med bay to get himself checked out, his fear prevented him from doing so. And really, the medical staff couldn't help him. Only Stark's tech could. Though, he supposed the staff still needed to monitor him if he had to be detached from-

No, he didn't want to think about that.

Which was why he was in one of the break rooms, rummaging around in drawers for some duct tape...

When he finally located a roll, he parted his coat - he'd put it back on to hide his "blood" from everyone... it looked like so much white paint all over his torso - and slapped a big strip of tape over the stab wound in his midsection. At least that'll stop the leak, he thought cynically. But upon turning around, he saw Carter standing there, and-