My Problems With Quiet's Endgame !SPOILERS!

[Kenny LeeT]

Do not read if you don't want to see any spoilers for the game.

There are several things that have got me thinking about the unfortunate departure of our buddy Quiet late into the game.

For those of you who don't know, Quiet who is infected with a version of the vocal cord parasite similar to the one that caused an epidemic at mother base. This strain lies in wait within the vocal cords and activates on and affects people who speak a specific language in particular.

In Quiet's case, it was English. So if she speaks English, she begins the spread of a terrible disease. A safety measure put into place by Skull Face to allow her to finish her mission by killing Venon Snake by speaking to him if she had failed. (At the cost of her own life as well.)

Later in the game, she leaves after speaking English to Peqod, leading them to your snake-bitten body in the middle of the sand storm. Afterwards she leaves to presumably exile herself in the desert to die alone, to ensure the virus doesn't spread when it is activated after leaving you a touching cassette tape.

I have several problems with this scenario:

1. In one of the scenes, Quiet talked to the Code Talker in a foreign language. (Help me if you know what this is.) Now, what would stop the Code Talker from communicating for Quiet for the entirety of the game? What was stopping her from speaking in a language besides English which wouldn't trigger the parasite? What would stop her from learning Russian? Afrikaans? What would stop V. Snake from learning her language? What would stop MB from picking up a translator just for Quiet's language?

But no. She has to be quiet. So let's not have her try to communicate at all.

2. Why weren't we able to help her at all? There's a decent 12 missions between her departure and when we meet Code Talker. We can develop a device that teleports people and objects through space and time, but we can't find a way to save her from her situation? Find a way to reverse or alter the parasite? Or once again, teach her another language that wouldn't trigger the parasite?!

But no. Apparently we don't have the skills.

3. Less about game theory, but more on the mechanics. Its a huge ♥♥♥♥ move to have a player learn a game for how many hours, only to have a chunk of the game's mechanics be altered or flat our removed just for the sake of the story. In the Rockstar game Red Dead Redemption, the hero does indeed meet his doomed fate in the end which ends his story. But the game can still be played in the exact same way from the eyes of his child. Nothing changes but your character model. Why couldn't they come up with an alternative? It's stupid to have such amazing game that can be replayed mission by mission over and over again, but only under the condition that you lose a part of the core mechanics.

I can't speak for the people that executed her, but I know I speak for the majority of the players that are upset. She was killed off in such a terrible fashion all in the name of trying to make you feel sad.
Her departure will only trigger when she is at 100% affection. Her departure is so open ended with such little closure that they barely have her six lines to say and left her status on motherbase as "MIA." Everything that happened was just to make you feel some sort of "phantom pain" just so they can drive home the theme of the game.

Kojimanami made us a wonderful cake in every way, and stepped all over it in less than 30 minutes.
And I hate them for it.

Sorry for the long post.
Let me know if anything is theoretically incorrect.

[Revy]

For number 1. If people at MB knew about the parasite in Quiet, she would be killed.

I can only answer to this...

[Bordo]

Meh... she just overreacted for the sake of being dramatic.
If she really wanted to "tell you how she feels" she could have done it. Through Code Talker. Or a Valentine's Letter, a message to the Idroid, or something.

Code Talker speaks Navajo I believe.
And it's the ONLY language the parasites don't react to.

And if she didn't want to be cured because of revenge, but then she sacrificed and stuff, she would agree on being cured.

[Gritsunorak]

1 - she stayed because part of her still wanted to carry out the mission. This, coupled with the fact that she does carry a dangerous parasite, makes her not wanting to disclose any information AT ALL. No matter what language
2 - she refused treatment, thanks to the reason in 1
3 - I personally think that making us attached to her to through gameplay was clever. I guarantee you if she was a ♥♥♥♥ buddy (or just a character), and we got a couple of "touching" scenes with her and Snake holding hands, people wound be so upset. But at the same time, replaying missions with her makes sense as it is replaying the past (kinda like if you replay missions 1 you can select only d-horse)

But in my experience, it did make me go back to full stealthiness, without thinking "meh, i get spotted, quiet will help"

Bottom line it does seem like she has extreme mood swings and can't decide whats what

[Archammer555]

1. The fact that she knows Navajo in the first place is pretty dumb, its one of the most uncommon languages on Earth so unless she searched 'Can the parasites understand Navajo?' on google then she would be pretty in the dark. I can allow it though as it seemed to be the only way we would ever get any knowlage as to what she was thinking becasue.. shes quiet.
2. Yes this is where the fact she refused treatment shows that this was a pretty rushed script. Code Talker says part of her wanted to complete her mission but this is crushed the second she says that she loved Big Boss, also the fact that she will only leave if u max out your bond is silly..... so if you dont max out your bond she will speak and kill the boss? Nope she stays with you. LOGIC PEOPLE.
3. Removing a character from the game can be done but it has to be done right, for instance why cant we use her in missions 2-44 when plot wise she was still involved in the story? People trot out the Kojima BS 'make the player feel Phantom BS Metanarative ♥♥♥♥♥' but the simple fact is its just lazy and cheap. Its like Ken Lavigne saying you can never replay Bioshock Infinate after seeing the conclusion because now there is no reason becasue u know the twist.
Even if we give the narative excuse leeway then she should not be MIA but KIA; Phantom Pain is the definate loss of a limb not a maybe its gone situation. In the end it was just lazy and forced, like both the budget and time was pretty much gone so you have to contrive and rush the end...... not what you expect form an MGS game at all.

[FayeeRee22]

why he refused to get cured?
for revenge? But why sacrifice herself?
why why why she act like unlogical like that?

she is a woman. nuff said.

even in real world woman have weird mood swing and hard to understand. =/

[Rykimaruh]

there's already a huge discussion going on this thread http://steamcommunity.com/app/287700/discussions/0/527274088385672531/?tscn=1442333173#p1 just in case :)

your input on the matter does resonate with a lot of players about this.

[Arashenstein]

queit's ending was the best ending i had ever seen it made me cry and then the game real ending which happened 2 hours after i passed quiet's final misison made me to vomit up that i was feeling for a DECOY losing his love lol

[Visuwyg]

I agree with your criticism, though while Quiets plot may have holes (like all the myriad plotlines of this game), it resonated the most with me. For one, it was the only one with an actual arc and a satisfying (if incredibly sad) resolution.

I grew very attached to her character, and I have to respect the gutsy move to really take her away from you in the end. I didn't expect that. It makes the time spent with her all the more special. I can't remember another game that explored this mechanic.

[hellscream]

Originally posted by voyager289:

why he refused to get cured?
for revenge? But why sacrifice herself?
why why why she act like unlogical like that?

she is a woman. nuff said.

even in real world woman have weird mood swing and hard to understand. =/

erm the cure to the parasites seems to be a bullet to the head... i dont think she would want that just a thought.

code talker himself is infected but on a higher level like hes the master of his parasites as they spy for him. as seen later in game and warns BB about someone.

[jjjjound]

another quiet thread sweet

[^6_Yani_]

I believe the main reason for her not to speak is not to infect Boss and MB staff (actually she doesn't speak English to not to awake the parasites she's infected with). From that point of view we do not have an open ending -- she's dead. Period. Prior to the mission 45 a Quiet Exit she leaves MB and gets captured by the Soviets. It seems to me she tried to have them kill her.
By the end of the day such a beautiful story and basically the one and only 100% finished character arc in the whole game (but a little bit hideous at the end -- she's in love with a legend that is not who he actually is).
I just wonder how they managed to create such a touching story with only a few cut scenes, one cassette tape and a character that doesn't speak till the very end.

[Seamus]

♥♥♥♥♥ sake. Check dates before you post.

[Sagara Sousuke]

LOL, people complaining about Lore instead of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boring gameplay.
I'll tell you my only problem with Quiet. You need to repeat the same mission 7 times to get her back.

[Deathraven13]

If she wanted to communicate she could have written in english, zam.

[Uryon]

Originally posted by Kane:

By the end of the day such a beautiful story and basically the one and only 100% finished character arc in the whole game (but a little bit hideous at the end -- she's in love with a legend that is not who he actually is).

She wasn't in love with Big Boss's legend, but with Venom's. At the begining of the game when she tries to kill BB she probably knew about his legend. But then she worked with Venom and saw Venom's legend, with her own eyes. Venom was much more badass in everything he did in TPP then Big Boss to be honest.

And since someone mentioned it, I'de like to remind you that the " phantom pain " isn't just the part with Quiet leaving. The phantom pain is also the pain you feel when you kill Skull Face and it changes nothing. The game is about vengeance, yet at the end the characters have their vengeance and are still hurt and it's pretty important yet everytime someone mention the " phantom pain " the only thing they have to say is " omg Quiet left me I'm so sad this phantom pain thing was so well done I'm heart-broken ". Yes she was a phantom pain too but let's not forget the amazing story about vengeance... It's kind of the theme of the game...
[Yes I took part in the necroing. I needed to kill 10 minutes.]