As part of a major Metal Gear 25th Anniversary celebration, 1up.com has posted an article regarding popular “fan theories”. As you would hope, they directly refer to my own VR Theory, and the Allegory Theory, which I’ve been leading the way on for so many years, both on this website and prior, on “The Unofficial Site”.
This marks the first time a major publication has acknowledged these theories in full force from what I can tell, and it’s long overdue. You can be sure their overview of the VR Theory is taken from my own analysis, especially when you read this:
He questions the reality of Rose’s involvement, the mission, and his commanding officers. He points out that his VR training was impeccably realistic. References to Big Shell, Raiden’s real name (Jack), and the PS2’s Emotion Engine were all said to be subtle clues. Proponents of the theory convinced themselves that absolutely everything was an extremely complex system of indicators, all pointing toward one unmistakable reality: Raiden was just some random guy hooked up to a training simulation. And crazy as it might sound, the case seemed fairly solid.
No other fan theory includes an interpretation of the choice of names, such as the Big Shell, Jack, and E.E. — those points are exclusively mine. Although he doesn’t give credit where credit is due (using generic “many fans believe” instead of tracing things to the actual source) I’m happy that freelance writer Steve Watts doesn’t butcher the theories while summarizing them. His description of the Allegory Theory is a little watered down for my liking, considering that Kojima has officially admitted he put his own experiences in the games (making it no longer a “theory” at all), which means that this article could afford to look a lot deeper at the personal commentary found in, say, Metal Gear Solid 4.
Big thanks to JMG9519 for pointing the 1up article out to me.
