V Theory: Did Kazuhira Miller betray Venom Snake?

[Holografix]

There are some ambiguous things:

1. Miller is the only one who sends Missions to Venom's idroid claiming that "these are the jobs only you can handle."

2. The conversation between Kaz and Ocelot after the Mission 46: truth credits. Does it occur before or after the game?

3. Who gives Venom the Operation Intrude N313 mission cassette tape?

4. Why is Miller's nickname 'Benedict.'

What do you think? All opinions will be considered and appreciated.

[dprog1995]

Miller turns into a black man in Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake. Then he is going to revert back to his original look.

[abcd]

I'm not going to read my old posts, the idea frightens me.

The name Benedict is reference to Saint Benedict of Nursia, who is famous for writing Rule of Saint Benedict, a codification of rules for monks to live by.

The spirit of Saint Benedict's Rule is summed up in the motto of the Benedictine Confederation: pax ("peace") and the traditional ora et labora ("pray and work"). Compared to other precepts, the Rule provides a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutionalism; because of this middle ground it has been widely popular. Benedict's concerns were the needs of monks in a community environment: namely, to establish due order, to foster an understanding of the relational nature of human beings, and to provide a spiritual father to support and strengthen the individual's ascetic effort and the spiritual growth that is required for the fulfillment of the human vocation, theosis.

The Rule of Saint Benedict is, in turn, widely regarded as having been heavily influenced by a text named The Rule of the Master.

The Regula Magistri or Rule of the Master is an anonymous sixth-century collection of monastic precepts. The text of the Rule of the Master is found in the Concordia Regularum of Benedict of Aniane, who gave it its name.

However, Benedict did not simply copy the Regula Magistri. He deleted some sections, and adapted others based on his own experience, placing more emphasis on fraternal love. Benedict's Rule demonstrates a more positive view of human nature than the Master. There is no historical record of the Regula Magistri having ever been used by any particular monastic community.

One way to view Mother Base is as a collection of monks devoted to The Boss' Will, with all of the same sorts of complications involved with most religious orders. He gives a lot of sermons.


Miller, conversely, is a trade-name used to identify various people with the same first name whose only value was what trade they were engaged in.

K Millers were often on the outskirts of towns, near the local river. They were often isolated, but everybody in town would come to see them to have their grains milled at one point or another. This regularly put them in advantageous circumstances for criminal activity, as well as information gathering. The same is true of bards, traveling merchants and priests, ship captains, and all sorts of different jobs with wide exposure to people.

However, as espionage practices came to dominate European politics the term 'Miller' often became associated with spies, for all the same reasons that bards monks and merchants tended to do those jobs. They gathered their living expenses milling, and fulfilled their duties 'milling about,' eavesdropping, gathering and trading information.

Modern intelligence operatives are very much the same. Normal people who hang out on the periphery of a society, doing a normal job, who report back on everything they hear. This is in stark contrast to the James Bond 'action hero' image. The sorts of people Boss, Zero, and Naked Snake were. The CIA did do stuff like that during Vietnam, some of them even turned into one-man armies stalking the jungle from resupply to resupply conducting extralegal murder against non-hostiles in order to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail, but it wasn't supposed to be like that.

Over time the line has blurred anyway. Jeffrey Epstein was a miller, and he milled literal children's blood for billions of dollars. The CIA is responsible for the cocaine trade and is disastrous effect on not only Latin America, but inner-city (black) youth in their own home. Some aspects of the government even took advantage of their involvement in the drug trade to suppress political dissidents on purpose, leading to the mass proliferation of crack cocaine. Japan's Yakuza started as millers and gamblers who set up in their mills at night, and nowadays a significant portion of them are government operatives in disguise, keeping an eye on the Yakuza who keep an eye on rival gangs. The cult which assassinated a Prime Minister on live television may have been a PSIA ultranationalist-monitoring cell that went rogue.

Or they just made a fast-food empire out of hamburgers from their island convent of brainwashed international black-ops mercenaries, in the case of the Master Miller. He seemed pretty loyal to Big Boss at the end of the day, even considering that he was likely a CIA spy in the first place and actually was a Cipher spy.

There's a deep-seated metaphorical aspect to his mother, who named him Peace after marrying an enemy soldier who all but abandoned her to a life of prostitution and may very well have raped her in the first place, gradually falling into a sort of madness at the delusion of their life. It's not uncommon for many Millers and their families to suffer the same fate. Or, worse, to inflict that fate on people who aren't even tangentially involved in any of this.

Many soldier's nicknames are ironic. "Joy," who never smiles. "Sorrow," who won't stop smirking. "Revolver," who's only ever had one loyalty and never betrayed it. "Paz," who existed for the sole purpose of perpetuating war.

And that is the ironic nature of not only his nickname, but his role on Mother Base. To keep Venom operating under the intense hallucination that his actions are for the sake of peace, in a world where peace quite frankly doesn't exist and is just a pretense for another war, and in a job where he exists to keep that war going.

He cared for the flock of Mother Base as real people, people whose lives he held above just about anything and everything else, even his responsibilities as a Master Miller. So, no. I think he's pretty loyal to what Venom represents, particularly considering how Venom ultimately comes to assume the burden of that inherited identity. But Venom betrays that aspect of Kaz, his caring for the soldiers, for his mothers-by-proxy, over and over and over again. And, in turn, Kaz doesn't care about anybody but soldiers. His soldiers, specifically.

There's a lurking parallel with clergy and religion and their flock and summing their relation to messianic figures there, but I kind of just don't like bible theology so idk how to unpack that. More interesting for me, personally, to think about whether the Mammal Pod started Ground Zero, and Mother Base, as an elaborate torture-chamber for the people who it blamed for its mother's death.

[Castyles]

Kazuhira is his real name. Benedict is his "american name".

Like "Bruce" Lee, "Jackie" Chan? You get the drill. No hidden meanings there.

Kaz got that name for himself after meeting his father or something.

[Holografix]

Originally posted by Castyles:

Kazuhira is his real name. Benedict is his "american name".

Like "Bruce" Lee, "Jackie" Chan? You get the drill. No hidden meanings there.

Kaz got that name for himself after meeting his father or something.

From the metal gear wiki:
-- The given name Benedict (ベネディクト Benedikuto?) originated in the English language Metal Gear Solid: Official Mission Handbook, a strategy guide published by Millennium Books. It was later used in Miller's biography (English text only) on the official Japanese websites then his entry in the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, before finally appearing in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

When Miller's birth name was revealed as Kazuhira (カズヒラ Kazuhira?), in the prequel game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, his use of the European names "McDonell" and "Benedict" in later life was left unexplained. --

[Castyles]

It was more than likely his father's family name and he decided to hold onto it. Because ♥♥♥♥ Japan.

The only thing for him on that country was his mother and when she died he had no reason to go back. Play PW y'all.

[Holografix]

Originally posted by Castyles:

It was more than likely his father's family name and he decided to hold onto it. Because ♥♥♥♥ Japan.

The only thing for him on that country was his mother and when she died he had no reason to go back. Play PW y'all.

His father's family name is Miller. There's no mention of 'Benedict' in Peacewalker. Check post #11 where i posted this:
From the Peacewalker Cassette Tape called 'Upbringing':

"My father refused to see my mom. It was the first time I'd seen her in years, and she wouldn't even look at me. At first I thought she was mad at me. But that wasn't it. Disease had taken her mind... A disease she'd gotten when she was young and desperate. She didn't even know who I was. I said, "Mom, it's me, Kazuhira." As I spoke, the sound of my own voice rang in my ears. Kazuhira. The name my mom gave me. It means "peace" in Japanese. I was Japanese. At least, I was the son of this tiny Japanese woman. It was then, for the first time, that I understood the reason - the emotion - that inspired my mother to give me that name. She'd watched her hometown and family go up in flames. Her body and her mind were ravaged by war... And yet she chose to have a child named "peace," with a man who was once her enemy. Japan lost the war. But what good is war as a measure of a country? Since the war, and up until the oil shock last year, Japan's economy has grown every single year. It's on its way to becoming a stronger country than ever. I stayed in Japan and joined the JSDF. I was twenty-two at the time.

[Light]

Also...

"Kazuhira's eyes." - Code Talker

Yes, i believe.