Pros and cons of starting your own business

By: Yumna Abajebel

Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

Starting your own company could benefit you in many different ways. You could control your own lifestyle and work at your own pace.

You’ll still have to do work, but it’s on your own time and terms. Mainly you don’t have to answer to anyone or be stressed over deadlines.

Starting up at first may seem a little difficult but it’s worth it after the company is up and running.

Business owners have the option of selecting whichever passion and dream they wish to pursue. Before they might have not been able to do that due to having to support family or it wasn’t financially stable.

People like being their own boss; for some they might have been working in corporations for 10-20 years. Business owners have the luxury of being independent and having flexibility with their schedule.

If you decide that you want to work with other people, it could be people you’re comfortable with, which is beneficial for you and your company in the long run.

Running your own business isn’t easy financially or mentally. If you work alone that means you would have to be the salesperson, accountant, customer service representative, and marketer all as one person, which can be very difficult at times.

Starting your business has its pros and cons which you should think about. But should consider the benefits.

History of Minnesota sports misery since our last major championship win (Twins, 1991 World Series)

By: Toby Martin-Kohls

Photo by Tom Asito on Pexels.com

There has been a long history of disappointment in Minnesota sports since our last win in a major sports championship. From terrible decisions to highly improbable events, this article will (painfully) give you a refresher on Minnesota sports history. This article will go in chronological order, so younger readers might only be familiar with events further down the list. If you manage to make it to the end, kudos to you! Buckle up.

1996: Wolves draft Ray Allen, and immediately trade him for Stephon Marbury

In a move that still haunts Minnesota fans, the Timberwolves drafted future Hall of Famer Ray Allen in 1996 but immediately traded him for Stephon Marbury. Marbury’s tenure with the team was brief and fraught with controversy; a disappointment compared to Allen’s outstanding career.

1998: 15-1 Vikings lose NFC Championship Game on Gary Anderson’s first missed FG

Despite an impressive 15-1 regular season record, the 1998 Vikings lost the NFC Championship Game when reliable kicker Gary Anderson missed his first field goal of the year, in true disappointing fashion.

2000: Vikings lose 41-0 to Giants in the NFC Championship game

Two years later, the New York Giants humiliated the Vikings 41-0 in the NFC Championship game, destroying them once more. The defeat adds yet another episode of postseason heartbreak for the Vikings.

2002: Twins win division, losing to Los Angeles in ALCS

Despite winning the division, the 2002 Twins lost to the Angels in the American League Championship Series. The loss put the Twins’ hopes of winning the World Series on hold once more.

2002: Wild swept by Anaheim in Western Conference Finals

The Anaheim Ducks defeated the Minnesota Wild in four games on their first-ever trip to the Western Conference Finals. This marked the sudden end to what had been a thrilling playoff journey, after coming back from two 3-1 series deficits.

1997-2003: Wolves lose in the first round of playoffs for seven consecutive seasons

Between 1997 and 2003, the Timberwolves had seven consecutive first-round playoff exits, which highlighted the team’s lack of postseason success throughout that time span.

2003: David Ortiz leaves Twins for Red Sox

Losing David Ortiz to the Red Sox in 2003 was a painful blow to the Twins. Ortiz continued to rise to fame in Boston and serves as a daily reminder of what might have been. One of the most beloved players to play the game.

2003: Twins win division, lose to Yankees in ALDS

The Twins lost in the postseason following yet another division victory, this time to the Yankees in the American League Division Series. The Twins’ reputation as a team that struggled to make the playoffs was further solidified with this defeat.

2004: Sam Cassell hurts his hip doing big-balls dance, Wolves lose to Lakers in WCF

Sam Cassell hurt his hip in the 2004 Western Conference Finals during a celebratory dance, which was a particularly upsetting event for Wolves fans. The Wolves hopes were hampered by the injury, and they fell to the Lakers.

2005: Vikings lose NFC Divisional playoff game to Eagles

The Vikings continued their trend of postseason disappointment in 2005, losing the NFC Divisional playoff game to the Eagles.

2005: Randy Moss traded to Oakland, Vikings get No. 7 overall pick, which they use to take Troy Williamson

The Vikings dealt superstar Randy Moss to Oakland in 2005 in exchange for the top pick, which they then used to choose Troy Williamson. Williamson fell short of supporters’ expectations, further disappointing them.

2006: Twins win the division with AL Cy Young, MVP, and batting champ; swept by A’s in the first round

Despite winning the division and receiving individual recognition, the 2006 Twins’ playoff struggles continued when they were swept by the Athletics in the first round.

2007: KG forces trade to Celtics

The Timberwolves suffered a great deal as a result of Kevin Garnett’s demand for a trade in 2007, losing their franchise player and finding it difficult to fill the void.

2008: Wild win a first division title, lose to Avs in the first round

After securing their first division title, the Wild lost to the Avalanche in the first round of playoffs, once again failing to capitalize on regular-season success.

2009: Vikings lose NFC Wild Card game to the Eagles

The Vikings’ loss to the Eagles in the 2009 NFC Wild Card game added to the ongoing narrative of postseason underachievement.

2009: Wolves draft Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn over Steph Curry and DeMar DeRozan

Fans have often pondered what might have been when the Timberwolves selected Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn over Steph Curry and DeMar DeRozan in the 2009 NBA Draft.

2009: Twins win the division in game 163, swept by Yankees in ALDS (Ump Phil Cuzzi blows easy foul ball call in Game 2)

The Twins were defeated by the Yankees in the 2009 ALDS despite winning the division in an exciting Game 163 of the series. During Game 2 of the series, umpire Phil Cuzzi made a terrible foul ball call.

2010: Vikings choke against Bountygate Saints in NFC Championship game

The infamous “Bountygate” controversy tainted the Vikings’ loss to the Saints in the 2010 NFC Championship game. They were doomed by notable errors like Adrian Peterson’s fumble, the 12-men-on-field penalty, and Brett Favre’s late-game interception.

2010: Wolves draft Wesley Johnson with 4th overall pick over Cousins, Hayward, and George

The Timberwolves chose Wesley Johnson with the fourth overall pick in the draft, passing over future All-Stars DeMarcus Cousins, Gordon Hayward, and Paul George in another dismal decision.

2010: Twins win division, swept by Yankees in ALDS

Despite having won their division, the Twins’ postseason troubles continued in 2010 when they were swept by the Yankees in the ALDS.

2011: Wolves, (worst team in the NBA ) lose lottery (and Kyrie), pick Derrick Williams at No. 2

By losing the NBA draft lottery in 2011 and missing out on Kyrie Irving, the Timberwolves lost a significant opportunity. Derrick Williams, who was chosen with the second selection, performed poorly.

2013: AP misses single-season rushing record by 9 yards; Vikings lose to Packers in the first round

Adrian Peterson came just 9 yards short of breaking the single-season rushing record in 2013, which was a disappointing moment in a campaign that ended with a first-round playoff loss to the Packers.

2015: Wild lose to Blackhawks in the second round

The Wild were defeated by the Blackhawks in the second round of the 2015 postseason, adding to Minnesota’s ongoing playoff woes. This was the last time the Wild have progressed past the first round.

2016: Blair Walsh shanks 27-yard FG and Vikings lose to Seahawks in the first round

Blair Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal against the Seahawks in the first round of the 2016 playoffs, creating a scary déjà vu similar to Gary Anderson’s miss.

2017: Wild set a franchise record in points, lose to Blues in the first round

The Wild lost to the Blues in the opening round of the playoffs despite setting a team record for points during the regular season, failing to translate their regular-season success into postseason advancement.

2017: Twins blow 3-0 lead to Yankees in AL Wild Card game

In the 2017 AL Wild Card game against the Yankees, the Twins blew a 3-0 lead, leading to yet another sad postseason defeat.

2018: Vikings blown out in NFC Championship game one week after Minneapolis Miracle

After the legendary “Minneapolis Miracle” a week prior, the Vikings’ hopes of hosting a Super Bowl were dashed as they were routed in the NFC Championship game.

2019: MN United gives up two goals in the closing minutes and loses 3-2 in the semifinals to the Seattle Sounders

MN United fell to the Seattle Sounders 3-2 in a heartbreaking 2019 playoff after allowing two goals in the closing minutes.

2020: Vikings lose in NFC Divisional playoff game to the 49ers

Despite beating the Saints in the Wild Card round, the Vikings’ playoff problems continued as they were defeated by the 49ers in the 2020 NFC Divisional playoff game.

2021: All five men’s hockey teams in the state make the NCAA tournament, three reach the Frozen Four, and UMass wins it all

All five of Minnesota’s men’s hockey teams qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2021, with three of them making it to the Frozen Four. However, UMass went on to win the title.

2021: Wild lose in 7 games to Golden Knights in the first round

The Wild’s postseason ended in disappointment once again in 2021, losing in seven games to the Golden Knights in the first round of playoffs.

2022: Wild lose in 6 games to Blues in the first round, blowing 2-1 series lead

The Wild continued the trend of losing in the first round for the 6th straight time, despite setting another franchise record for points with 113.

2022: Timberwolves lose in the first round to the Grizzlies in 6 games, with only their second playoff appearance in the previous 18 years

At least they made the playoffs and even won the play-in games! Alas, it was not enough to advance in the first round over the Ja Morant-led Grizzlies.

2023: Minnesota Golden Gophers Men’s hockey suffers late collapse vs Quinnipiac in NCAA Championship game

Minnesota blew a 2-0 lead starting with 13 min to play in the second period. Collin Graf managed the game-tying goal with an extra attacker 17:13 into the 3rd period to force OT. Jacob Quillan scored the game-winner just 10 seconds in the OT period, gave Quinnipiac their first title, and left Minnesota searching for another since their last win in 2003.

2023: Wild lose to Stars in 6 games

In a revenge series against the team that was originally the North Stars and relocated to Dallas (screw you Norm Green), the Wild again blow a 2-1 series lead. This marks the 7th consecutive first-round exit.

Congratulations if you made it this far! I’m sure this list will only grow in future years. Perhaps the Twins will finally win a playoff game for the first time since 2003. Of course, cautiously optimistic, you can’t expect much.

Frankie Macdonald

By: Mae Skold and Audrey Smith

Photo by Dylan Spangler on Pexels.com

Frankie Macdonald is a Canadian weatherman born on April 24, 1984. He is from Whitney Pier, an area in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He is also known for his humorous videos as a comedian. He makes online weather forecasts and meteorologist reports. He often posts them on YouTube, but he is also known for TikTok and Instagram. His YouTube channel handle is: dogsandwolves.

He is pretty popular and has received more than 32 million views on YouTube. He has been a popular creator since 2007 on YouTube. His father, Finneas Macdonald was also a weather reporter in Canada in his time, reporting on well known Canadian weather events such as Winnipeg’s “Snowstorm of the Century”, “Greatest Rainfall in One Day”, and “Hurricane Beth terrorizing Nova Scotia”. Hurricane Beth was widely reported by Finneas MacDonald at the start of his career, due to the fact that he inhabited Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Frankie has said in his videos that his father was the one who got him involved in weather reporting and content creation. Ever since Frankie was younger, he said, he has wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps of weather reporting. Along with this career as a weather reporter, Frankie Macdonald owns a bakery in his hometown of Sydney, Nova Scotia called “McKayla Smiths.” This bakery was run by a friend of his in Sydney, but has been turned over to him. He has decided to keep the name of the bakery the same in order to keep the original charm of the bakery.

In one of Frankie’s videos, he goes through his favorite activities to do in Sydney, Nova Scotia, including taking a visit to “Mckayla Smiths.” He also discusses his other favorite things to do in the area of Sydney. He mentions that you can visit the “Largest Ceilidh Fiddle in the World” at the Sydney waterfront. There are many boardwalks and waterfront stores along the cape.

The “Celtic Colors Festival” according to Frankie MacDonald, takes place every October at the cape, with some concerts performing in Sydney.

Though Frankie is living his best life now he comes with a troubling past. Before fame he was heavy into drugs and the world of prostitution which he is very open about on his platforms. He shares his story to empower others to pursue recovery and that a future is possible after the streets. His podcast “Meth to Mr. Mac D” offers a lot of self help advice to those struggling, and he features guests frequently to get other stories shared.

Frankie is a very versatile influencer sharing everything from books to video content to owning a bakery. How does he manage all of this you may ask? The answer is his family and friends. You can see them frequently featured on the YouTube channel as they vlog their lives managing all of Frankie’s successful businesses. His cousin Bobby plays a big role in the YouTube side of things and even collaborates with him and Frankie’s channel together to put out gaming content along with the vlogs. This just further diversifies the Macdonald family industry.

Frankie has a line of merchandise available for his fans for any of his many businesses. Anything from bobble heads to Nike tracksuits; he has it all. He recently has worked on a collaboration with famous influencer Irissa Darizz. Their merch line sold out instantly but is getting restocked Summer 2023. Fans will be waiting patiently to get their hands on one of their limited edition Nike techs.

Frankie Macdonald is certainly an entrepreneurial prodigy and his success is nothing to be looked over. We hope you will check his content out and enjoy it with the world. As Frankie would say from his signature YouTube videos, see you later Senkies!

How to make a tres leche cake part 2

By: Jessica Garcia-Saligan

Photo by Lara Farber on Pexels.com

This is part 2 on how to make a tres leche cake. In part 1 we covered how to properly make the cake part. In this article I will go over how to make the sweet milk mixture and finish up the cake.

For the Milk Mixture

  • 7 ozs. sweetened condensed milk
  • 7 ozs. light cream or table cream
  • 2 ½ cups evaporated milk

*optional*

  • Strawberries
  • Berrys

For the Whipped Cream

  • 1 ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
  • ½ oz. vanilla pudding mix

Or you could make your own icing!

Starting from where we ended off, we put the cake in the oven on 356 degrees for 40-60 minutes until the toothpick came out nice and clean.

Once the cake is ready, remove the cake from the oven, carefully removing the cake from the pan and letting it cool for 5 minutes.

You’re going to line the cool pan up with some plastic wrap (make sure there is enough to have flaps that can cover the cake) then place your cake back inside the cake pan but the bottom of the cake should be facing up.

You’re going to set the cake aside and now we are going to work on the sweet milk mixture.

In separate bowls, put your 7 ozs sweetened condensed milk, 7 ozs light cream or table cream and 2 ½ cups of evaporated milk (this will help keep them organized).

You will also need another large bowl, measuring cup and a whisk.

In the measuring cup pour in the cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk.

Pour it in a large bowl and give it a really good mix.

Get your cake and fork and with the fork you’re going to start poking holes all over the top part of the cake.

Once you’re done poking the holes you’re going to get your mixture and pour it all over the cake getting the edges as well.

You’re going to lift the cake a little to get the flaps of plastic wrap and fold it to cover the top part of the cake and to keep the milk mixture in.

Once your cake is all soaked and covered you’re going to place your cake in the refrigerator first for at least  8hrs or overnight (overnight is recommended).

Now that you cake has set overnight, it’s time to make the whip cream (you can use any type of icing)

  • 1 ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
  • ½ oz. vanilla pudding mix

In a large mixing bowl you’re going to pour in your heavy whipping cream, sugar and clear vanilla extract (has to be clear to prevent from changing colors).

Add in your vanilla pudding, the vanilla pudding prevents your whip cream from melting on your cake while being in the refrigerator.

Start mixing it until your mixture turns into soft peaks, don’t over mix it too much, you will know if you did once your mixture starts separating.

Your whip cream should be nice and fluffy.

Grab your cake and carefully take it out the pan.

Slowly start unwrapping the cake and taking the plastic wrap off completely.

Start frosting the cake and for an authentic Mexican tres leche we always decorate the cake with berries all over the top of the cake.

That is how you make  tres leche cake, Enjoy!

Best ‘Wii Sports Resort’ game

By: Caden Kipfmueller

The Nintendo Wii is widely regarded as one of the best video game consoles of all time. Released in November of 2006, the console has been home to a number of iconic games, notably ‘Wii Sports Resort’. ‘Wii Sports Resort’ is known for its family friendly games, stunning graphics for the time, and its fun, chipper music. Additionally, ‘Wii Sports Resort’ is known for having an expansive repertoire of games. The best of these games is surprisingly Island Flyover, the lone game on ‘Wii Sports Resort’ that cannot be played by more than one person at a time.

The premise of Island Flyover is simple. The player controls a small biplane and flies around the island that ‘Wii Sports Resort’ takes place on, maneuvering around the island’s many obstacles and attempting to locate the 80 key points of interest, marked by green and white “i points”.

While the main objective is straightforward, the game itself manages to remain challenging. Many of the i points are located in difficult to reach areas, and some are hidden as well. Additionally, each game has a time limit of 5 minutes, which makes the last few seconds of each flying session a stressful occasion.

Island Flyover thrives in its customizability and the way that it empowers its players to explore. As the game progresses and more i points are collected, the player unlocks more and more features. In time, they are allowed to control the time of day, pop balloons that are littered around the resort, and more.

Additionally, the island is a blast to explore, and since there is no map each new thing that the player discovers feels truly special and secret. As the player grows more comfortable flying the plane, intense aerial maneuvers, in order to get to the hidden parts of the island, become a possibility. The game encourages players to try these maneuvers, as the penalty for crashing is very minimal.

‘Wii Sports Resort’ has a variety of exciting and engaging games, but Island Flyover is undoubtedly the best. It provides the player with a unique experience, blending challenge, exploration, and customizability in order to create engaging gameplay and turn the game into a timeless classic that still holds up today.

Most entertaining games of the 23-24 NFL season

By: Nagad Omar

Photo by Terrance Barksdale on Pexels.com

In this article I will be predicting the top 3 most entertaining games of the 23-24 NFL season. Honorable mention goes to all of the oversea games.

#1: Super Bowl rematch- 11/20/23

The highly anticipated Super Bowl rematch will kickoff at 8:15PM for Monday Night Football. The Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City Chiefs will host the Philadelphia Eagles. I think this game will be full of scoring on both sides and will make up for a great game. It will be a revenge game for the Eagles and will also be a big game depending on the course of the Chiefs season to see if they can pull off the win again. I predict Philadelphia will pull off the win.

#2: AFC Championship rematch- 12/31/23

The final game of the year 2023 will be a good one. The Super Bowl champs will face off against the Cincinnati Bengals on a New Year’s Eve game. These two teams have had a lot of history in the last 2 years. The Bengals punched their ticket to the Super Bowl in the 2022 NFL season when kicker Evan McPherson kicked a last second field goal to send them to the Super Bowl and stun the Chiefs. But the following year, the Chiefs came right back to knock the Bengals out and punch their ticket to the Super Bowl, and actually win. I think we’re in for an exciting match up with 2 great teams facing off, but I predict the Chiefs will take it home in a close game one more time.

#3: NFC North matchup- 12/10/23

Such an underrated matchup that wasn’t given prime time. I predict that the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears will be one of the greatest games we will see this upcoming season. With both teams having done so much work this off season, and bettering their teams, I think this game will be close. With the NFC North title up for grabs I think both teams will play the best football they can. But with all the changes and improvements with the Chicago Bears I think they will take this one home.

Overall, I think we’re in for a great NFL season with lots of close, exciting and entertaining games.

Was there a winner in the Luis Arraez-Pablo López trade?

By: Abby Altman

Photo by Tom Asito on Pexels.com

On January 20th, the Minnesota Twins traded Luis Arraez to the Miami Marlins in exchange for RHP Pablo Lopez and 2 prospects.

In 2022, Luis Arraez earned the title of AL Batting Champion, finishing the season with a .316 batting average, .375 OBP, and a .795 OPS.

The reigning batting champion has only been traded 3 times ever in the divisional era, last marked 44 years ago when, believe it or not, the Minnesota Twins traded Rod Carew to the Angels just after he won the AL batting title.

Arraez had become a staple in the Twins both on the field and in the dugout, but he had increased his trade value so much over the 2022 season that Minnesota felt it was necessary to get as high of a payout as possible.

In exchange for the major loss on their lineup, Minnesota received RHP Pablo López. In 2022, López had a 3.75 ERA and a 10-10 record. In April of 2022, López was selected as NL Pitcher of the Month, however his accolades appear to end there. He has never been selected to the All-Star Game in his 6 year MLB career.

Before 2023, López had spent his entire career in Miami, and Arraez had spent his entire career with Minnesota.

Since the trade, both players seem to fit in very nicely with their new teams, however it seems one team may have come out on top.

In the first 50 games of the 2023 season, Arraez is leading the MLB with a .387 batting average, and a .437 OBP. Of his 60 hits, just 12 have been for extra bases, but Arraez’s consistency at the plate has put him high on the NL MVP watch.

Defensively, Arraez has spent the majority of his time at 2nd base, where he is fielding 1.000% through 38 games started.

On the other end of the trade, Pablo López has joined the very strong 5-man rotation that Minnesota has been cooking.

Minnesota’s starting 5 is 2nd in the MLB in ERA, with a combined average of 3.21. The Twins starters lead the league in strikeouts with 314, propelled by 75 strikeouts from Pablo López, which is 5th in the MLB.

López has a 3.90 ERA through 10 starts and 60 IP.

While both teams are strongly benefiting from the trade, Minnesota is currently seeing the effects of a lineup without Arraez.

The Twins currently have the 7th lowest batting average in the MLB, and lead the league in strikeouts, with 485.

The Minnesota Twins star players Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton each have their fair share of strikeouts, with Buxton striking out 52 times and Correa striking out 45 times, both in 44 games played. Arraez, on the other hand, has just 9 strikeouts through 45 games.

The 2 prospects Minnesota received in the trade have yet to make an impact on the Twins roster, and will likely remain in the minor leagues for several years.

The “winner” of this trade between the Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins will likely not be known for several years, but both teams appear to be heavily benefiting from their new acquisitions.

The evolution of social media

By: Calla Fragassi and Mackenzie Malek

Social media has become a huge part of everyone’s current life since the beginning of the 2000s. It is a way to connect and contact people all over the world through the power of the internet. The effects of social media is a debatable topic, but today we will talk about how it has evolved over the past 20+ years.

1997- Six Degrees

One of the very first social media platforms was released in the late 90s. Six Degrees was made to allow people to connect with friends and family by creating accounts attached to their personal emails. The name Six Degrees comes from the “six degrees of separation” theory that says that everybody is somehow connected by no more than six degrees. The number of users on this platform reached around 3.5 million people over its 4-year running period. The company was eventually bought for $125 million by YouthStream Media Networks, and was shut down in 2001.

2002- Friendster

After Six Degrees was no longer operating, a new site called Friendster rose to take its spot. Similar to Six Degrees, this site also had its users make accounts through their emails, allowing them to make friends and add them to a personal network. One of the main differences between Six Degrees and Friendster is that on Friendster you were able to share messages, photos and videos with others if you were on each other’s networks. This site grew by a lot very rapidly with 3 million users after a couple of months, and eventually reached more than one hundred million users. Friendster remained very popular for many years, but was eventually shut down in 2019.

2002- LinkedIn

LinkedIn was also one of the very first social media networks, but it had a different purpose than some of the others. LinkedIn was created to allow people to connect with business contacts, along with finding job opportunities. It is different today because unlike Facebook and Instagram, users on LinkedIn usually only connect with other people they already know. People still use it today, and it is the most used professional network available today.

2004- Facebook

In 2004 the world’s most used social site was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. These were students who were attending Harvard University at the time. Just like the other sites, Facebook was made for another way to connect with friends. Facebook was just about the social side, by letting users find friends, users could connect with old friends all thanks to the mutual friend feature. Facebook has become so large in the almost 20 years it has been around that it has bought other social media platforms like Instagram. However, there has been some controversy over this because now many sites lack originality and promote the same toxicity which completely defeats the whole purpose of social media, now mainly focusing on the money aspect rather than the actual connection.

2005- Youtube

In 2005 Youtube was created as a video- sharing platform. Most of the early videos posted were tutorials on a variety of things and subjects, or funny random videos simply posted for entertainment and to make people laugh. Youtube was actually founded as a dating service, but quickly grew and changed as a place for people to share videos with their friends. This platform helped people reach out to others and become friends.

Fast forward a few years and five more very popular social media apps were created. Between the years of 2006 and 2016 Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok were made. They all started with the same mission as the other platforms, which was to connect people to others through whatever the app was specialized to do. At first, they were all unique in their own way, for example on Snapchat people would connect by sending photos or videos to each other, while Instagram was about posting photos of yourself or things you are doing so your followers could keep up and in touch with you.

Although social media has changed a lot throughout the years, and sometimes for the worst, we can appreciate how it has brought us to connect with others around the country and world, and sometimes meeting new people or reconnecting with old friends. Social media will continue to evolve with time to keep up with trends and what is most popular, and we are interested to see what social media will bring in the future.

The entire story of ‘Metal Gear’

By: Hoaseng Thao

*Warning: This article has spoilers for the Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid games developed by Hideo Kojima. There are depictions of war and violence in this article*

In 1987, a video game called ‘Metal Gear’ was released on the MSX home computer and was created by a relatively unknown Japanese game developer, Hideo Kojima, who was working for the video game company, Konami. ‘Metal Gear’ was unlike any other 2D shooter game at the time, because instead of being a Rambo killing super soldier, you play as a special forces soldier named Solid Snake, whose mission is to infiltrate a base to destroy a super weapon known as Metal Gear. The game would become an instant hit across the globe and would start a complex series of stories that many have trouble trying to explain, and so I’m writing this article to help explain the story of Metal Gear and its sequel games.

THE BEGINNING

At the end of the First World War, the most powerful and wealthiest people from three nations across the globe, The United States, The Soviet Union, and The Republic of China, united together under one goal: to steer the very way of life from the needless brutal wars that could destroy society as we know it, and they called themselves, the Philosophers. Although the Philosophers united under one goal, to protect and steer humanity from new wars, there were already multiple factions of the Philosophers who were driven by their own political beliefs on behalf of their respective nations. The two most prominent factions were the Soviet Philosophers and the American Philosophers.

Tensions between Philosophers worsened when the last founding member of the Philosophers passed away in the 1930’s, leading to widespread corruption and distrust between the many Philosophers whose political leaning went against their own members.

Despite the growing tensions in between the Philosophers, the start of the Second World War began to somewhat unite the already feeble organization into pouring all their efforts into fighting the Axis Powers, and in their attempt to defeat them, they decide to create a secret special forces unit comprised of multiple nations within the Philosophers known as the Cobra Unit, with their leader being known as The Joy, but she would later adopt a more recognizable name; her name would be known as The Boss.

THE JOY

Born as the daughter of an American Philosopher, The Joy would become one of the Philosopher’s strongest assets as she led the Philosopher’s Cobra Unit in 1942 to fight the Axis powers. In her unit, there was The Sorrow who was a man whose unique abilities allowed him to talk to spirits, The End who was a sniper born in the 1860’s who was infected with an unknown parasite that allowed him to have a long lifespan, The Pain who had the abilities to control insects, The Fear whose freakish appearance and movements made him feared by his enemies, and finally The Fury whose rage and anger against the world made him brutal in battle.

One of Cobra unit’s members, The Sorrow, would gain the interest of The Boss and the two would later become lovers which would lead to her becoming pregnant with his child. Despite being pregnant, The Boss continued to fight in the Second World War and on the day of the D-Day landings, she was shot in the gut and was forced to give birth on the battlefield via Caesarean section. A baby boy named Adam, was born on that day but he would soon be taken from his mother by Philosophers.

Two years after the end of the Second World War, the Boss disbanded the Cobra Unit as the world would soon enter the Cold War. The Philosophers would become a shell of its former self, as the friendship between the East and West began to deteriorate the Philosophers from the inside, as their funding asset known as the Philosopher’s Legacy, which held around 100 billion dollars, was illegally inherited and stolen by a Soviet Red Army officer known as Boris Volgin.

Due to the rising tensions between the Americans and Soviets, The Boss was forced to choose which side she should pick as her lover, The Sorrow, was a Soviet Russian while she was an American. In the end, The Boss chose her country over her lover and she began to operate under the Central Intelligence Agency, but her actions within the Central Intelligence Agency made her a scapegoat to whatever mess the CIA had in any secret mission.

In June of 1950, The Boss met a young 15-year-old boy who went under the name John, and the two would bond together due to the both of them having similar experiences. Over the course of a decade, the Boss would train John in the creation of Close Quarters Combat but they would be forced to separate as The Boss was needed by the US government.

The US government, in an attempt to beat the Soviets in the space race, chose The Boss to become the first American in space as a part of the Mercury Project. During The Boss’s training to go to space, she met a woman named Strangelove who had fallen in love with her charm but as The Boss left Earth for space, her spacecraft would malfunction and crash land in the ocean, nearly killing her in the process and putting her in a coma only for her actions of being the first American in space to be wiped from the public.

After the crash of her spacecraft, The Boss was sent into the Soviet Union to eliminate her former lover, The Sorrow, as their son Adam would be killed by the Philosophers if none of them killed each other. Knowing that one of them had to die, The Sorrow sacrificed himself so that their child would survive. Distraught with the death of The Sorrow, a former friend of The Boss known as Major Zero, reached out his hand to her to form a new Unit under the CIA. The Unit’s name was FOX.

On August 24th, 1964, The FOX unit undergoes a secret mission in the Soviet Union with two operatives to take part on the ground, The Boss whose mission was recover the Philosopher’s Legacy from GRU colonel Volgin, and John, whose code name was Naked Snake, or Snake, was to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist named Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov.

During the mission, Snake was able to infiltrate into the Soviet Union via a HALO jump and was able to get a scared Sokolov into safety before having a small fight with a man named Ocelot in which Snake tells him that he should use a revolver before knocking him out. As Snake prepares to lead Sokolov out of the Soviet Union, he learns about a new type of weapon, known as the Shagohod, in which Sokolov begs him to destroy it.

Despite leading Sokolov to safety, the sudden arrival of The Boss sets Snake off before she announces her defection to the Soviet Union. The two would fight and in the end, The Boss defeats her former apprentice and pushes him off a rope bridge. After “killing” Snake, The Boss takes Sokolov with her alongside a stolen American Davy Crockett Weapon System to a reunited Cobra unit and Volgin. As they leave the area, Volgin takes the Davy Crockett and fires its nuclear payload at a test facility which leads the Soviet Union to believe that the US had just bombed them.

After the failure of the mission, The US government panicked and after recovering a now alive and radioactive Snake, they began to prepare Snake to go back into the Soviet Union to eliminate Volgin and The Boss, to prove that the US did not bomb the Soviet Union. This mission would be codenamed, Operation Snake Eater.

THE SNAKE EATER

Snake, under the command of Major Zero alongside his companions, Para-Medic, and Donald Anderson whose code name was Sigint, undertook the mission and his first task was to meet with a Mole in the KGB named ADAM.

In the meantime another unit known as XOF, sends in their commander named Skull Face to clean up any mess Snake leaves behind. When Snake tries to meet up with Adam, he is met with a woman named EVA who tells him that ADAM couldn’t make it and she is to help him, she then tells him the location of Sokolov before they rest at an abandoned building.

As they wake up, they are confronted by Ocelot who now carries a revolver and meows (Yes he meows) for reinforcements before they are defeated and he flees in a humorous manner. EVA, trying to take the advantage to kill him, aims at him but is stopped by Snake who takes a liking to his weird nature.

Getting to the location of Sokolov, Snake meets a drunk Soviet scientist named Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, who is the rival of Sokolov. He tells Snake the actual location of Sokolov before telling him that he is giving his friend in America a new type of weapon named Metal Gear. Before Snake leaves, Granin tells him about the Philosophers’ Legacy and its importance.

On Snake’s journey to rescue Sokolov, he faces up against the Cobra Unit members: The Pain, The Fear, The End, and The Fury, all of whom Snake had to learn from his mistakes in order to defeat them. After fighting through the Cobra Unit, Snake sneaks into the Groznyj Grad fortress which Sokolov is believed to be in, and in order to rescue Sokolov, Snake has to knock out a GRU officer named Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, to steal his identity.

As he meets up with Sokolov, Volgin enters the room they are in and as Snake, who is disguised as Raikov, is discovered to be a spy after Volgin uses a “unique” tactic to see whether or Snake is his secret lover Raikov.

After the discovery, Snake is taken to an interrogation room where Volgin, The Boss, a disguised EVA, and Ocelot interrogate him which ends with Volgin telling Snake where the Philosophers’ Legacy was before Ocelot accidentally shoots Snake in his right eye.

Snake, now in a cell at Groznyj Grad, makes an escape after knocking out the prison guard named Johnny. During his escape Snake has to jump out of a sewer waterfall where he suffered a near death experience in which he meets the Spirit of The Sorrow. After waking up from his near death experience, Snake meets up with EVA, who gives him his captured equipment and an eyepatch to cover up his destroyed right eye. The two infiltrate into Groznyj Grad and end up destroying the Shagohod and heavily injuring Volgin in the process.

In their attempt to escape from Groznyj Grad and into safety, EVA tells Snake that The Boss wants to meet him in a field of white flowers near their escape aircraft. Snake meets with The Boss who then challenges him to a final and emotional duel, and as Snake points his rifle at his former mentor, The Boss gives him the Philosopher’s Legacy and one last message.

“There is nothing more for me to give you. All that’s left is for you to take my life by your own hand. One must die and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny. The one who survives will inherit the title of Boss, and the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle.” — The Boss

A bang rang out as Snake leaves his former mentor before escaping with EVA on an aircraft but as they try to escape, Ocelot appears again and boards their plane before challenging Snake to a revolver duel with one revolver armed with one bullet. With a shot of revolver fired, it is revealed that the revolver armed with the bullet actually had a blank. Ocelot congratulates Snake on his mission before telling him his name, Adamska, before leaping out of the plane as both EVA and Snake escape into Alaska.

Both EVA and Snake take shelter in an abandoned cabin but as Snake sleeps, EVA leaves Snake with the Philosopher’s Legacy in her pocket before leaving a message for Snake, which revealed to him that she was actually a triple agent working under the orders of Beijing to retrieve the Philosopher’s Legacy.

After being rescued, Snake’s journey is celebrated by the members of FOX before being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The President would give Snake the title of “Big Boss”, for his efforts of killing The Boss and eliminating the Shagohod.

Dissatisfied with the death of his mentor and the lack of care by the US government, Big Boss leaves the celebration and makes his way to Arlington National Cemetery, where he meets with the grave of his former mentor before giving her one last salute and one tear.

When EVA returns back to Beijing, it is revealed that the Philosopher’s Legacy she had was actually a fake and with Beijing angry at her mistake, she was sent into exile. The real Philosopher’s Legacy was actually in the hands of Ocelot who is revealed to be a triple agent for the CIA and is actually the son of The Boss.

In 1970, Major Zero recruited Big Boss, Ocelot, Para-Medic, Sigint, and EVA to create a new organization based on The Boss’s goal of reuniting the world . The name of the organization would be known as Cipher. Ocelot uses the Philosopher’s Legacy he had to fund the organization while Major Zero turned Big Boss into a legendary figure for people around the world to follow.

This organization would soon falter as Big Boss and Zero clashed over what The Boss fought for, and because of this clash, Zero believed that he couldn’t push on the message of The Boss without Big Boss and by 1972, he began a project to clone Big Boss without him knowing. This cloning project was called “Les Enfants Terribles” or The Terrible Children.

Three clones of Big Boss were created with EVA serving as the surrogate mother for the cloning process. From oldest to youngest there were Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake. When Big Boss found out about his clones, he left the Patriots as he lost trust with his former friend and began to fight for soldiers around the world.

After Big Boss left, EVA took off as well while Ocelot remained as an ear for Big Boss, however, Zero decided to go into hiding while the rest of the original members became hungry for power.

THE BIG BOSS

In 1974, Big Boss alongside his friend Kazuhira Miller or Kaz and his Private Military Company (PMC), Militaires Sans Frontieres (MSF), is begged by a man named Ramón Gálvez Mena and a girl named Paz Ortega Andrade, to save their country of Costa Rica and their missing friend from a foreign PMC.

Big Boss refused to help them until they gave him an audio message that had what seemed to be The Boss’s voice in the background. Hearing The Boss’s voice, Big Boss readied his men to find The Boss and in the meantime, Big Boss takes control of an off-shore base as the headquarters of MSF.

In Big Boss’s journey, he encounters and helps a resistance group led by Amanda Valenciano Libre, and fights the foreign PMC group while finding leads about Paz’s friend and The Boss. While fighting the PMC group, he has to save the younger brother of Amanda, named Chico. As Big Boss rescues Chico, he learns about the locations of Nukes supplied by the CIA and decides to go there.

As Big Boss gets to the location, he fights a giant robot tank known as a Pupa and while fighting it, he is guided and aided by the Pupa’s creator, Huey Emmerich, on how to destroy it. After fighting the Pupa, Big Boss recruits Huey after learning about a project called the Peace Walker project, a walking nuclear armed AI weapon, alongside an AI facility in a Mayan temple.

After some time, Big Boss is able to rescue the missing friend of Paz before hearing The Boss’s voice again, but to his shock, he realizes the voice was not the Boss’s but rather an AI programmed to be like her. This is when Big Boss meets Strangelove, who hates him for killing the woman she loved, but then it is revealed that the weapon Peace Walker is about to launch its nuclear munitions to start a nuclear war. In the meantime, it is revealed that Ramón Gálvez Mena is actually a Soviet agent named Vladimir Zadornov, whose mission was to take control of Central America with the help of Big Boss.

Big Boss is then forced to stop Peace Walker from launching its nukes and is successful.

After everything is done, Big Boss allows Huey to create a new weapon called Metal Gear ZEKE, which is based on the data from Huey’s soviet friend, Granin. As Metal Gear ZEKE was nearing completion, it was hijacked by Paz Ortega who was actually a Cipher agent named Pacifica Ocean. Paz’s mission was to get Big Boss to rejoin Cipher and in order to do so, she threatened to launch nuclear warheads at the east coast of the US and blame it on MSF.

Big Boss and his MSF soldiers are forced to destroy Metal Gear ZEKE before it launches its nuclear munitions, and in the end, Metal Gear ZEKE sinks into the ocean as Paz is presumed dead.

In 1975, Huey Emmerich allows the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to conduct a search on Mother Base which annoys Big Boss and Kaz, but in the meantime, MSF learns about the survival of Paz who is currently being held and tortured in a US black site in Cuba named Camp Omega, a plan to eliminate her was in the process until Chico was captured while trying to save Paz.

Big Boss was forced to do a solo mission while the IAEA conducts their “search” on Mother Base. Big Boss infiltrates into Camp Omega with a skeleton crew of a helicopter pilot and a MSF medic, and they successfully rescue the two from captivity, but as they return back to Mother Base, they find it burned and destroyed as it is attacked by XOF.

Mother Base was destroyed, almost all remaining MSF soldiers are killed, as Kaz is rescued by Big Boss and his skeleton crew.  As Big Boss’s helicopter flies away, it is revealed that Paz has a bomb in her body and she jumps out in the. hope to rescue them, but the explosion causes the helicopter to go out of control and crash.

After the helicopter crash, Big Boss, Kaz, and the Medic are rescued and put into a hospital where both Big Boss and the Medic are put into a long coma. Unbeknownst to Big Boss, Zero and EVA move both Big Boss and the Medic to a hospital in Cyprus to hide them from XOF.

THE PUNISHED SNAKE

After nine years of being in a coma, Big Boss wakes up and meets Ocelot, who tells him the news about his coma before saying that XOF is hunting him down and the two plan on making The Medic, who is still in a coma, into believing that he is Big Boss to protect the real Big Boss from both Cipher and XOF.

In the meantime, Kaz creates a new PMC named Diamond Dogs, as a way to reclaim the former glory that he and Big Boss made. As The Medic wakes up, he undergoes plastic surgery to change his face into that of Big Boss, but after the surgery, the hospital they are in is under attack by XOF and The Medic, now referred to as Punished “Venom” Snake or Venom Snake, has to be escorted outside the hospital by Big Boss. The two encounter Volgin who is now referred to as the Burning man due to his burning body alongside a young Psycho Mantis during their escape via ambulance van to which they crash into a ditch.

After the crash, Ocelot is able to rescue Big Boss and gives him the ID card of The Medic for him to act as before rescuing Venom Snake from the ambulance. After being rescued, Venom Snake is tasked with eliminating XOF commander Skull Face and his army before they encounter many unique people such as a young Liquid Snake named Eli, Quiet who’s a female assassin who can go invisible and can breathe through her skin, and Code Talker who helped Skull Face into weaponizing a parasite that can target certain languages. Venom Snake also rescues Huey Emmerich who currently is making a new Metal Gear called Sahelanthropus.

Venom Snake, Kaz, and his Diamond Dogs are able to track down Skull Face and kill him before taking Metal Gear Sahelanthropus for themselves. But the parasite that Code Talker helped create for Skull Face is released into the new Mother Base, causing Venom Snake to kill his infected men to save the world. It is soon discovered that Huey was actually the cause of the released parasites, who are then exiled from Diamond Dogs.

Venom Snake then realizes that he isn’t Big Boss and was actually being forced into being like him, but he decides to remain as Big Boss due to his devout loyalty to him.

Eli and his gang of child soldiers soon capture Metal Gear Sahelanthropus and the last sample of the parasite before hiding on an island. Venom Snake is then tasked to destroy Sahelanthropus and rescue Eli and the child Soldiers but they are ambushed by XOF. After being ambushed, Eli appears to be have symptoms of the parasite and Venom Snake leaves him to choose his own fate, but then the Psycho Mantis appears and removes the parasite from Eli’s body and they escape as the island is napalmed.

After everything calms down, Kaz leaves Diamond Dogs after realizing that Venom Snake is not Big Boss, and due to this Kaz begins to train Big Boss’s clone son Solid Snake into becoming a better soldier that Big Boss could ever be. Big Boss and Venom Snake form a military nation named Outer Heaven deep within South Africa.

THE SOLID SNAKE

1995, Solid Snake begins his first mission for the FOXHOUND unit and is tasked with rescuing another member named Gray Fox from Outer Heaven. It is believed that Outer Heaven has a Metal Gear in their arsenal and it must be stopped. Solid Snake is able to infiltrate into Outer Heaven where he meets with “Big Boss”, who is actually Venom Snake, and kills him before fleeing as Outer Heaven self-destructs.

In 1999, Solid Snake was brought back to FOXHOUND by their new commander, Roy Campbell, to help destroy another Metal Gear in a Military Nation named Zanzibar Land. Solid Snake infiltrates Zanzibar Land and he meets/is attacked by, his former friend, Gray Fox, who he defeats. Solid Snake destroys the Metal Gear before encountering the real Big Boss who he then defeats via makeshift flamethrower. Big Boss is left scarred and burned as Solid Snake alongside another FOXHOUND agent named Holly escapes Zanzibar Land.

After Zanzibar, Solid Snake retires from the military and goes into hiding in the Alaskan wilderness before being brought back into the US military in 2005, when Campbell tells him that FOXHOUND members started a rebellion on a military base on the island of Shadow Moses. The rebellion is led by Liquid Snake who is trying to take control of a new Metal Gear named REX.

Solid Snake infiltrates the Shadow Moses where he is aided by Mei Ling, Naomi Hunter the sister of Gray Fox, Hal Emmerich or Otacon the developer of Metal Gear REX, FOXHOUND recruit Meryl Silverburgh who is actually the niece of Campbell, and his old friend Gray Fox who now dons a cyborg ninja suit. In Solid Snake’s mission, he encounters a Genome soldier named Johnny Sasaki, Ocelot, and Psycho Mantis who are aiding Liquid Snake in his mission on launching a nuke from the railgun on Metal Gear REX.

Solid Snake then learns about an artificial virus named FOXDIE that was implanted in him that will kill anyone that has a specific DNA. Solid Snake alongside Gray Fox destroys Metal Gear REX but the latter dies in the process, Solid Snake then fights Liquid Snake whom is killed by FOXDIE. Solid Snake escapes Shadow Moses with Meryl and with the help of Campbell, Solid Snake fakes his death.

After Shadow Moses, Ocelot tells the news about Liquid Snake’s failure to US President, George Sears, who is actually Solidus Snake, before he sells the plans of REX onto the black market. With the leak of REX’s plans, Otacon and Solid Snake form an Anti-Metal Gear organization named Philanthropy, to destroy all Metal Gears in the world.

In 2007, Solid Snake infiltrates onto a USMC vessel disguised as an oil tanker where he discovers a new Metal Gear named RAY, but in the process the vessel is boarded by Russian mercenaries and Ocelot. After getting data about RAY, Solid Snake fakes his death by using the corpse of Liquid Snake as his own.

THE LIGHTNING

In 2009, a FOXHOUND agent named Raiden is tasked to rescue President James Johnson who was taken to an oil decontamination facility named Big Shell from a rebelling military unit named Dead Cell, Russian mercenaries, and Solidus Snake who is disguised as Solid Snake. In Raiden’s mission he is aided by his fiancée Rosemary or Rose and “Campbell”.

After infiltrating the facility, Raiden fights Dead Cell including Dead Cell members Vamp who has nanomachines that prevent him from dying and Fortune who is a psychic. During Raiden’s mission he meets with the real Solid Snake alongside Otacon, and Otacon’s sister, Emma Emmerich, who all tell him about The Patriots, a shadowy organization that was born out of Cipher that now controls every aspect of American life.

It is revealed that Big Shell is actually a disguise for the construction of an enormous warship named Arsenal Gear which houses an AI system named GW. Emma Emmerich had created a virus that would essentially kill GW. In their attempt to destroy Arsenal Gear, Emma Emmerich is killed by Vamp which emboldens Otacon to continue fighting. Raiden is then taken hostage by Olga Gurlukovich, a member of the Russian Mercenaries, and is moved inside Arsenal Gear, but it is soon revealed that she is a part of Solid Snake’s team and needed him and Solid Snake to get into Arsenal Gear.

Raiden also learns that the Campbell he knows is actually an AI made by the Patriots to make him do his bidding.H e also learns that his fiancée, Rose, is not only a spy for the Patriots but is also pregnant with his child. Raiden, Olga, and Snake fight their way through Arsenal Gear to not only destroy Arsenal Gear but also save Olga’s child who is being held hostage by the Patriots.

Raiden fights his way through Arsenal Gear and reaches the top where he faces off and defeats multiple Metal Gear RAY units, but he then collapses from exhaustion. Solidus Snake appears and attempts to kill Raiden before being stopped by Olga who is then killed by him. Solidus Snake tries to kill Raiden by using the remaining RAYs but they are disabled due to Emma’s virus.

Ocelot then appears and tells Raiden, Solid Snake, and Solidus that he was actually an agent for The Patriots and everything they just did was all planned by the Patriots and before he could kill them with his piloted Metal Gear RAY, his right hand which was cut off by Gray Fox during Shadow Moses, twitches and Ocelot then switches personalities to that of Liquid Snake before leaping off with his Metal Gear with Solid Snake following after him.

Arsenal Gear then crashes into Manhattan, to which Solidus Snake tells Raiden that he killed his parents before saving him when Raiden was just a child in Liberia. He then trained him into becoming a child soldier named Jack the Ripper before separating. Solidus Snake tries to kill Raiden in order to get the location of the Patriots but is then heavily injured when Raiden sliced his back, causing him to go into a brain dead state. Raiden is able to reunite with Rose and chooses to live out his own life.

THE OLD SNAKE

After the Big Shell incident, Solid Snake saw his body age faster than expected, this is because of the FOXDIE in his body, and by 2011 his body was too weak to rescue Olga’s daughter so he had Raiden retrieve her and bring her to both him and Otacon.

By 2014, Solid Snake’s body is growing older and it is revealed that Solid Snake didn’t have a lot of time left, and the fact that Liquid Ocelot was still alive did not help with Solid Snake’s already worsening body. In the past few years, Liquid Ocelot had been starting up a company known as Outer Haven, which is a mother company of multiple PMCs.

Solid Snake, with the help of Otacon, and Olga’s daughter Sunny, fight their way across the world in order to stop Liquid Ocelot, and while fighting they meet some old friends such as Meryl, Johnny Sasaki, and Campbell. During Solid Snake’s journey, he meets an arms dealer named Drebin 893 and his pet monkey who both help him use guns that are usually ID locked. In order to do this he is forced to have nanomachines injected in his body, but the nanomachines were actually a new type of FOXDIE.

After some time, Solid Snake meets up with Naomi Hunter who tells him that the old FOXDIE he has in his body will eventually mutate and kill everyone on the planet, essentially making him a walking biological weapon. Solid Snake then escorts her to safety when they find a heavily modified Raiden who had been experimented on by The Patriots. Their encounter would be short lived as Raiden would be heavily injured by Vamp but he is able to survive and escape with Solid Snake, and Naomi.

Raiden would tell Solid Snake about a woman named Big Mama who helped him and she is currently a leader for a small resistance group in Eastern Europe.

Solid Snake, with the help of Meryl and Johnny, meet up with Big Mama who is then revealed to be EVA. EVA tells Solid Snake the tale of Big Boss and that she is his mother as well as telling him the story of the origins of the Patriots, she then tells him that she actually has the vegetative body of Big Boss in her possession, however they are soon attacked by Haven Troopers, specialized female soldiers who are under the command of Liquid Ocelot.

During their escape, EVA is killed in the process as Liquid Ocelot destroys the remains of Big Boss in a big fire as he makes his escape alongside with Naomi. But Otacon was able to get information about Liquid Ocelot’s true goal which was to use the Railgun of Metal Gear REX and use it to destroy JD, a Patriot AI, and use GW to take over the Patriots’s AI system.

Solid Snake, Raiden, and Otacon return back to Shadow Moses in which they are able to kill Vamp and take over Metal Gear REX, but it turns out the Railgun is already gone while Naomi dies after telling Otacon that Sunny has a virus named FOXALIVE that could dismantle JD. Solid Snake, Raiden, and Otacon make it out of Shadow Moses before using REX to fight Liquid Ocelot who is in a Metal Gear RAY unit, but in the end, both metal gears are out of commission and Liquid Ocelot is able to escape by going on another Arsenal Gear dubbed as Outer Haven.

Liquid Ocelot’s escape would be caught off guard when Mei Ling arrives with the battleship USS Missouri but they escape successfully.

Solid Snake and his friends make one final attempt to stop Liquid Ocelot, and they would then locate and board Outer Haven in which Johnny Sasaki and Meryl confirm their love for each other, and Raiden defends Solid Snake as he uploads FOXALIVE into JD. After successfully uploading FOXALIVE, Solid Snake falls unconscious and is dragged onto the top of Outer Haven by Liquid Ocelot, who tells him that everything that just happened was a part of his plan. They then get into one final fist fight with Solid Snake literally beating the Liquid out of Ocelot, before Ocelot succumbs and dies to Solid Snake’s FOXDIE.

After the death of Ocelot, everybody celebrates Johnny and Meryl’s wedding while Solid Snake visits Big Boss’s grave before planting a gun in his mouth so he can stop the FOXDIE in his body from turning into a biological weapon, but he is unable to do this, and then a familiar voice talks to Solid Snake, one that was as if it was Big Boss.

THE FATHER, THE SON, THE SNAKES

Big Boss appears and both he and Solid Snake point their guns at each other before Big Boss drops his gun and hugs him while telling him to “Let it go”, Solid Snake drops his gun as Big Boss explains everything about the Patriots and everything that led up to it.

Big Boss explains to Solid Snake that EVA died due to Solid Snake’s FOXDIE and that the body EVA had of “Big Boss” was actually Solidus Snake, who was an identical clone of Big Boss. He then explains that Ocelot, EVA, and Naomi were working together to help Big Boss and kill Zero.

Big Boss then introduces a vegetative Zero to Solid Snake and then explains that Zero had no real control over the Patriots before questioning if Zero was scared of him. Big Boss then peacefully kills Zero before telling Solid Snake that he would soon die because of Solid Snake’s FOXDIE.

Before FOXDIE could kill Big Boss, he would go to The Boss’s grave before saluting and telling Solid Snake to live out his remaining days “Not as a snake, but as a man” before peacefully dying next to his mentor’s grave.

Solid Snake then takes his father’s advice before leaving to live out his remaining days with Ocelot and Sunny.

Ending Notes

That is the end of the Metal Gear story from Hideo Kojima’s writing. I hope you at least understand some parts of the story as Hideo Kojima’s writing can be a bit confusing at some points. I love the Metal Gear games and their stories, so I hope this article can get people into playing some of the Metal Gear games because the stories are by far one of the best video game stories we’ve ever had in the video game industry.

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Conference meet

By: Ellie Moore

Photo taken by: Jen Rusch

Prelims for the St .Paul City Conference Meet took place on Tuesday, May 23, and finals were held on Thursday, May 25.

In order to make it to finals and score points for your team you need to place in the top 8 at prelims. There are 3 heats of 6-8 people in prelims and the top 2 from every heat, and the next 2 times, will make it to the finals.

Tuesday also had a few finals. With these events, the girl’s Highland team was in the lead with 59 points, Central close behind with 50 points. For the boys, Central was winning with 38 points and Highland was in second place with 32.

The events that scored on Tuesday were boys and girls 3200 meter, boys shot put, boys long jump, girls discus, and girls triple jump.

Highland Park had 2 conference champs on May 23: Benjamin Ward in the shot put and Nuria Rodriguez-Foster in triple jump. Grace Lewis-Mosher, Chloe Koch, and Ziva Westreich scored points for the team getting second, third, and fifth. Ben Martin, Max Reemtsma, and Gavin Roberts scored for the boys getting fourth, fifth, and sixth.

In the 100 Highland Park will have 3 boys and 2 girls in the final, with Brouke Brookins and Ellie Moore with first seed going into it. Demarcus Simmons and Tenzing Walker got seventh and eighth seed and Austin Bailey-Zimmerman got eighth seed.

In the 200 Highland Park will have 2 boys, Brouke Brookins and Terez McDaniel-Vaughn, and 3 girls, Ellie Moore, Ellery Merrimack, and Alexa Ramirez, in the final.

The 400 will have 2 boys and 2 girls. Ellie Moore and Delia Johnson having first and second seed. Brouke Brookins having third seed and Tobias Hennum with sixth seed.

The boys ran a prelim 800 on Tuesday, but the girls did not due to a low number of girls. Davis Isom and Charlie Service made it to finals, and Delia Johnson, Maddie Klevay, and Grace Lewis-Mosher will run their finals on Thursday.

The 1600 doesn’t have a prelim either so Sam Palm, Ingrid Haaland, and Alice Rapacz will run it for the first time on Thursday for the girls, and Mason Deegan, Gavin Roberts, and Ben Martin will run it for the boys.

Yao Buchl, Austin Bailey-Zimmerman, and Nuria Rodriguez-Foster made it to finals in the 100 hurdles for the girls and Wesley Norquist, Emmett Riemenschneider, and Johnny Xiong made it to finals for the boys 110 hurdles.

Emmett Riemenschneider, Wesley Norquist, Austin Bailey-Zimmerman, Yao Buchl, and Hazel Thrasher also made it to finals in the 300 hurdles.

Finals will take place Thursday, May 25 at Harding High School.