One of the unavoidable topics when discussing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has become the controversial character Quiet. I held off making judgement calls until I saw the final credits roll. Perhaps Kojima was simply biding his time for a full revelation of her character? Having completed the game, I can now state for certain that Quiet's design never adequately pays off. I thought there would be some last minute shenanigans that might justify the skimpy character design, but she seems to exist to contort herself for the benefit of players who want to stare at her lady bits. That is a terrible shame because Quiet is an interesting side character with depth, but she gets boiled down to her body as her most important attribute - both explicitly in the story and implicitly by the way she is framed.

We need to talk about the concept of male gaze because that idea can be seen in full effect in almost every scene involving Quiet. In the most basic terms, male gaze is the structuring of a visual medium around the assumption that it is for men. In cutscenes involving Quiet or even her idle animations that are sometimes placed in front of the player, the camera is always strategically placed to ogle her. Sometimes it focuses on her butt, other times her breasts, but she seems to be constantly framed by the game in weirdly sexual ways for no reason beyond pure titillation. If you want some clear examples of what I mean by this, I suggest checking out Tactical Modding’s brilliant character model swap of Quiet and Revolver Ocelot. The videos demonstrate the importance of framing; could we really take Revolver Ocelot as seriously if the camera was constantly zooming in on his buttocks or chest?

Now, I’m not going to say that video games as a medium are free from that kind of framing. With the success of games like Honeypop, there is clearly a demand for games that aim directly for players who want to ogle and that’s fine. But when we hold up a game/series as one of the best the medium has to offer, we really need to give that attitude serious consideration. What this sort of framing does is send a very clear message to people that says, “This is a guy game. For guys. About guy things. Like war and violence and sometimes crying (but only when people die).”

That’s a really alienating message and a really disappointing one when Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 had some of the best female characters the medium can offer in the form of The Boss and Meryl Silverburgh. There is nothing wrong with making a game about issues that deal specifically with the male experience, but you can do that without demeaning and overly sexualizing female characters. Heck, you can even make such a game that also invites women into the experience! Now, maybe there are some people who have no issue with how Quiet was designed. That’s cool. However, I’ve had several people (both men and women) approach me while I was reviewing Metal Gear Solid V who were thoroughly put off by her design alone and had no desire to engage with it. That’s a problem that could have been solved by showing a little more respect to the character.

On top of that, representation seems to be a bit lacking. For a game that largely takes place in Afghanistan and South Africa, there is a surprising absence of notable Middle Eastern or South African characters. This could have been a really interesting plot point as The Phantom Pain takes place during a period when Apartheid was still in full effect, so it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Beyond that, Quiet represents as the only female character in the game aside from two others, one of whom is a literal woman in a refrigerator trope and the other who doesn’t really count because spoilers.