Today the (former) voice of Solid Snake David Hayter did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit and if you are — like me — a big Metal Gear Solid fan then it’s seriously worth the trip. However, one of the questions stood out for me: “If you had to change a character’s fate in any of MGS games, who would you choose and how?” It’s interesting because, firstly, it’s a great question and, secondly, I totally agree with Hayter’s answer.
“I would have had Solid shoot himself in the cemetery,” wrote Hayter.
Back then, and now in hindsight, it was a real mistake for Solid Snake to not shoot himself. To begin with, it breaks a cardinal screen writing rule: you don’t bring out a gun unless someone ends up firing it. That’s just good drama. Secondly, it just made more sense for the character and the story and it would have saved us from the god awful second ending where Big Boss comes back and things get super weird for no reason.
So yes David Hayter, you are completely right. Kojima should have killed off Snake properly.
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23 responses to “The One Thing David Hayter Would Have Changed About Metal Gear Solid”
Can’t believe the dude got thrown over for Kiefer. Can’t believe it.
I still think something’s going on. BUT I like Kiefer as Big Boss. I feel like it kinda makes sense he has his own voice (like, I wish he had all along in all the games). Cloning ain’t that good!
I know, I was totally in your camp a few months back, and I still sometimes get vibes that something’s not quite right. But the more time that passes, the more I think that maybe Hayter has been legitimately jilted. He’s certainly playing the role well, if it is just a role.
I’m also not ok with them changing. I keep hoping it’s all a big joke on us, but I don’t think it is. The one thing I am hoping for is that the main reason they truly did this was because both actors will end up in a remake of Metal Gear, and hence would be kind of weird having Big Boss and Solid Snake voiced by the same actor. Even though they’re identical genetically…
The thing was that Solid Snake and Liquid Snake were diverse clones of Big Boss. They weren’t absolutely identical (hence a blonde Liquid with a vastly different voice).
This is why Solidus was made. Therefore the only one that should have had the same voice as Big Boss was Solidus (which he didn’t)
From the AMA:
Lebowski1891: Were you surprised when Konami decided to use another actor for the voice of Snake in the upcoming games of Metal Gear? How did it make you feel during the moment you got the news?
RealDavidHayter: Honestly? I wasn’t overly thrilled.
The only reason I can think of why is because Kojima is planning on having Snake return in a future game to be trained by Big Boss and having both characters voiced by the same person would be too wierd.
Except that theory gets thrown out the door when you realise that Naked, Solid, Liquid and Solidus are all voiced by the same actor in Japan. The only character not voiced by Akio Otsuka was old Big Boss in MGS 4, who was conveniently voiced by Outsuka’s father.
get over it, big boss should have never been voiced by hayter since snake eater
Honestly? Just cut out the whole cemetery part. An ambiguous death for Snake would’ve suited him, I’d like to think. I couldn’t possibly think of a ending that would ‘suit’ Snake considering how much.. layers there are to MGS.
If wasn’t that he aimed down the iron sight with his eye patch??
There’s a meme about it some where 😉
He can see through the eye patch.
This meme had a normal eye patch though from a ingame cut scene.
http://media.psu.com/media/metal-gear-solid:-peace-walker/mgs-peacewalker.png
i might have been wrong :/
Have to agree.
I remember a trailer getting around before the release of MGS4 which showed Solid Snake sitting in ruined buildings in Act One, pulling a gun on himself, then a cut to black and the sound of a gunshot?
I’m guessing the cemetery scene wasn’t the only allude to Snake offing himself.
It got weird?
No more than usual I thought.
I really don’t think any sort of change to anything at all in Metal Gear would have made a difference. The story is this chaotic mish-mash of both completely logical and abstract ideas and melodrama that there isn’t really any one thing that could impact the story. If Snake shot himself i really don’t think it would have mattered, thematically all the ideas they got around addressing had been addressed and Snake’s character was nicely consolidated for the audience, anything following that is almost arbitrary.
I disagree. People tend to dump on the final scene of MGS4 where Big Boss makes his reappearance in the cemetery, and that obviously wouldn’t have existed had Snake shot himself. But by the time MGS4 rolled around, the story really wasn’t about Snake anymore. It was really Naked Snake/Big Boss’ story, spawned out of his and Zero’s differing interpretations of the bosses will, and Snake was purely a unwitting pawn in their war his entire life. Hence why Big Boss turns up, expositions all over the place, and then cleans up any links to the Boss’ will and the Patriots (killing Zero, and then himself through Snake’s FOXDIE), explaining to Snake that the Boss’ will wasn’t about controlling and uniting the world as one, but leaving it along and letting everyone live in (relative) peace, allowing Snake to do just that.
The irony in this was not only that Snake had been a pawn throughout his entire life, but was also a pawn in MGS4 as Kojima’s storytelling aspect, mostly being there so they could wrap up Big Boss’ story. Some would argue that Snake gaining freedom through death and Snake gaining freedom through the Patriots’ war being ended are similar results as a simple bullet point (obviously with one being more tragic than another), but without Big Boss’ turning up for story time, very little of what Ocelot (or EVA/Big Mama, or Sigint…) would have made any sense (particularly in MGS4, and especially after MGS3’s story).
I don’t know, it doesn’t really seem like the right thing to me. Maybe more right than what we actually got but still not there.
Originally Kojima did have Snake dying but the rest of the team made him keep him alive. Which is where that second ending comes from. That’s what I’ve heard atleast.
I just wish MGS4 ended after Eastern Europe. The next two chapters were awesome, but the story just got more and more ridiculouser.
And the characters were just parodies. Sonny was unnecessary, Drebin was silly, Cyber-Raiden was a bit of a deus-ex machina, Johnny and Meryl… must have been a Kojima troll.
Every other MGS game had excellent characters, so I wonder if the story got rewritten a bit in 4, maybe.
The suicide ending would of left a very tearjerking ending for mgs4, but the interupted suicide by big boss led to a heartwarming moment for the reconciliation of both father & son, more heartwarming that it was done in front of the boss’ grave, possibly reconciliation between both bosses, as big boss must of seen the boss via the sorrow. In short, suicide: a very tragic ending, no suicide: a very heartwarming moment