Ground Zeroes Rape Apologists Baffle Me

[gargantual]

God.
Fucking.
Dammit.

I took some time away from the Escapist and I come back to more of this shit.

Controversy for controversy's sake.
No good reason. Just because.
I wish so hard that this could just stop. I really do.

snip

Look. I'm coming in here way late but here's my two cents.
Rape happens.
It happens to normal people and you can sure as hell bet that it happens to prisoners.
It's ugly.
If the implied rape in Ground Zeroes made you uncomfortable, then it did its job.

Metal Gear Solid V is not going to be like previous Metal Gears. Y'know, the sort of spy-action story sprinkled with cooky characters and a dash of the supernatural. I mean, maybe that'll still be there. But at the core, it's the story of a once-great soldier falling to rock bottom, only to rise up again as a completely different man. A villain. It's not something that's going to make you feel good.
It's going to be a rough ride and this is just the first stretch.

People like you, kicking up a shitstorm over stuff like this... I don't understand. Are video games not allowed to touch rape? Is that some kind of... is there something wrong with that? Why?

And the real kicker: it was only ever alluded to. No graphic displays in a cutscene. No straight-up "they're raping me!" It's just muffled noises and suggestive language on an audio tape that you might not even pick up.

That's nothing. Nothing. Ground Zeroes barely even touches the concept of rape, and already people are up in arms over it.

People keep wanting games to move forward, to become art, to be taken seriously. Whatever the case may be. But nobody's letting it happen because of shit like this.

Yes I mad.

I love you far too much right now.

See this guy everyone? Read what he's posted, re-read it then go over it one more time. Everyone needs to fuck all this nontroversy bullshit off.

Seriously a BIG BIG Thanks Echo.

Now the rest of Ya'll keep this moral crusading "sex"troversy stuff up, this forum'll end up looking like CNN debates or grocery store gossipmags. Even Gamespot sorry to say, doesn't "OVERtrend" these discussions for too long, cuz they recognize the importance of theme too but they wanna talk about 'gameplay'.

 

[Lupine]

Snip

Ah I feel yah. Made a thread before with the title "Has Kojima Gone to Far?" with the same topic in mind. Most agreed with me while others disagreed which is fine. To me, the entire gig about the tapes and what Paz went through is just to much in my opinion. War is bad, rape is part of reality... all of that, but having it forced into a story just for shock value? Come on.

It's not even the tragic rape. Child rape is involved plus gang banging, plus Skullface himself takes her. How much do you have to try in order to show they're evil. Yes, it's clear they're bad... trying to be edgy for the sake of being edgy is just bad writing. Don't get me wrong, the game will probably sell like hotcakes and be grand overall but the audio tapes and plot around Paz in this...

It's like how Yahtzee said it best. "Metal Gearrrrr.... what is that behind your back?"
MGS: "Nothing..."
Yahtzee: "Are you doing weird things again to your female characters?"
MGS: "... Noooo ..."

From the first game to the recent one, all kinds of dumb/weird/EXTREME things happen to the female characters. Just look at what happened to those enslaved girls in MGS 4. Also look at what happened to Paz in Peace Walker, and that other time with the scientist lady. Kojima seems to have a fetish but that's just me assuming it lol.

Overall, I feel exactly as how you feel. There was no need for those audio tapes. I can swallow the fact rape happens in war but the way it was written with Paz's torture there? Even the villain is named Skullface... for the sake, of standing out to be evil.

It'd be like me making a villain who had a scar down his eyes, wearing Nazi clothing while drowning puppies. That isn't a well written villain- it's a villain that's trying to hard or at least to unreal to see as a likable or interesting villain.

I'm sorry but I had to join the forum just to reply to this sort of thing. I'm new, however I can say that while I enjoy Metal Gear I don't feel the need to apologize for it at all. Firstly I think the OP has every right to feel as he does, however that doesn't change the fact that I think he completely and utterly missed the mark here. Having played Ground Zeroes I can say that for the most part this is Paz's game. That's not to say that what happens to her isn't horrible, but rather to say that such was totally the point.

Alot of people commenting here seem to be ignoring her role in the series up until this point. Paz has sort of become the symbol of Metal Gear. When first we meet her, she is a school girl with her teacher whom both of which have been attacked by rebels. Big Boss sort of sees through part of this deception, but the problem is that he doesn't see through the most important part...Paz is a young girl to Boss and his people, they more or less adopt her. Soldiers and career murders fall for her in a completely daughter and family building sense. And so she becomes a spot of innocence and right in the world of men steeped in the blood of their enemies and their friends.

Paz (who's name couldn't have been a harder swing of the ol' symbolism bat) becomes a sort of reminder that while they did choose to be soldiers and are still choosing to be mercenaries there are other things in life. She and other characters like Chico are meant to humanize Big Boss's movement and point out that while the UN probably should be worried about a bunch of country less soldiers banding together, they shouldn't be that worried because these guys are just people like them trying to live their lives (at least the game wants this to be the player's point of view). The problem however comes when it is later revealed that Paz was a spy the whole time.

In a sense it is like Mother Teresa putting a knife in you. This person that you've come to identify with the good in the world, that you felt could do no wrong or at the least gave you pause to think that the world isn't really as bad as you thought it was...suddenly that is what you have to turn your hatred on. So a massive betrayal. That was Peace Walker, not in detail, but in quick character emotional summery.

Paz dies or so everyone thinks. Chico whom up until and in fact after her betrayal, was in love with Paz doesn't believe she's dead. So he searches for her. It actually turns out that he is right, but then he tries to save her and gets captured himself. This is the start of Ground Zeroes. At the start of the game Snake feels that he is in the right for hating Paz for having "killed" her. He is pissed and he feels that his righteous indignation is just that righteous. He's been hard used by the world over and over again and so Paz is a convenient target for his rage because she is just a spy and a traitor. Ground Zeroes isn't necessarily about revenge, it is about getting Paz back from the enemy so that she won't spill secrets, but at the same time revenge is sort of a influencing factor in how things are ordered in Snake's POV. Paz is written off. She's just another horror of war. You aren't supposed to care about her. She's your enemy or if not your enemy, she's your enemy's tool. She's a gun. You don't feel for a gun, you don't care when a gun gets melted down.

That's how you're supposed to feel about Paz as Snake, but what Snake finds is sort of what turns all of that notion on its head. Horrible things happen to Paz so that you are forced to reevaluate how you feel about her. Are you really angry at her? Are you angry at yourself for not seeing what she was doing? Are you mad at the faceless man pulling strings behind the scenes to make you dance like Screaming Mantis's puppets? This is why Ground Zeroes is Paz's game. The game is about her and about you, your sense of right and wrong, your hunger for revenge. I feel like the entire point of everything was to make sweet revenge turn to ashes in your mouth and this only in that same vein.

No one can figure Paz out, if you listen to her tapes, all of which I believe are unlocked from the beginning, you get a picture of Paz and a picture of what it was like for her to be a double agent. You understand why she has doubts, why she eventually does what she does in Peace Walker, and you also come to understand why she goes full on triple agent. Still Snake doesn't want to hope. He's been burned before. Not just once, he already was dealing with being disenfranchised after The Boss's death, and now this. He doesn't want to give her another chance because what if she hurts him again. It is human to want to avoid pain.

MILD SPOILER WARNING!!!



Her death while perhaps strange in execution...it is devastating after you understand who she is. Especially after the bomb removal scene after which you think that she's going to be okay. It is graphic and dark, but it becomes hopeful and there is this part of you in the back of your mind that is like "Well that was horrible. But we made it. All of us are alive and while things won't be the same, still we made it." And then all hell breaks loose.

I'm not saying that Metal Gear is the most consistent series or that the writing is flawless by a long shot, but what I am saying is that things make massive sense in terms of context and lore. This is a Metal Gear with all the silliness and action inspired bits that we're used to, but at the same time it is touching on much darker themes and like Metal Gear always does it is attempting to deconstruct the concepts of war and the war hero in a fashion that leaves everyone feeling dirtier for the experience. People can argue whatever they like about a work of fiction, but I feel that it was Kojima's intent to invoke emotion and thus he succeeded.

 

[Pogilrup]

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

 

[Fsyco]

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

Except this is supposed to be the catalyst for Big Boss's Start of Darkness. I get that people are offended by the 'Stuffed into the fridge' trope, but, well, it's still pretty effective, both in fiction and in real life. If you want to really hurt somebody, and can't attack directly, you hurt their loved ones. Maybe she just seems unimportant because the game ends almost immediately after she dies.
The other problem is that men are vastly more 'expendable' than women. If, say, all this happened to Chico, it would probably not be nearly as impacting as it was. Hell, in most of these threads about this topic everybody seems to be talking about Paz (including some of them assuming SHE'S the underage person involved),and yet nobody shed a tear for poor Chico, who still went through a ton of shit, and also probably died at the end of Ground Zeroes too.

Also, you say that there are better ways of handling it. If you were in Kojima's shoes or on his writing staff, how would you have handled it, incidentally?

 

[gargantual]

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Even Stephen King agrees.

From "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" ?Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler?s heart, kill your darlings.?

 

[Pogilrup]

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

Except this is supposed to be the catalyst for Big Boss's Start of Darkness. I get that people are offended by the 'Stuffed into the fridge' trope, but, well, it's still pretty effective, both in fiction and in real life. If you want to really hurt somebody, and can't attack directly, you hurt their loved ones. Maybe she just seems unimportant because the game ends almost immediately after she dies.
The other problem is that men are vastly more 'expendable' than women. If, say, all this happened to Chico, it would probably not be nearly as impacting as it was. Hell, in most of these threads about this topic everybody seems to be talking about Paz (including some of them assuming SHE'S the underage person involved),and yet nobody shed a tear for poor Chico, who still went through a ton of shit, and also probably died at the end of Ground Zeroes too.

Also, you say that there are better ways of handling it. If you were in Kojima's shoes or on his writing staff, how would you have handled it, incidentally?

No "orifice" bombs that's for sure.

Subtle hints of the torture. The tape footage is shown to the characters, but not to the audience, and cue vomiting by the characters.

EDIT:

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Even Stephen King agrees.

From "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" ?Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler?s heart, kill your darlings.?

Is making the omelet referring to the effort of finding a good way to handle the topic or the process of making this particular work?

 

[Fsyco]

EDIT:

Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Even Stephen King agrees.

From "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" ?Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler?s heart, kill your darlings.?

Is making the omelet referring to the effort of finding a good way to handle the topic or the process of making this particular work?

The omelette is probably referring to the particular work, but it could be both, really. If everybody keeps mishandling it, then the only way to figure out a better way is trial and error. It's true that you need to do some awful things to some characters to provide heroic motivation, though, or to act as a catalyst for someone becoming more evil (that isn't quite how psychology works but real life is less interesting). People don't just wake up and suddenly feel the urge to either do heroics or act like a twat.

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

Except this is supposed to be the catalyst for Big Boss's Start of Darkness. I get that people are offended by the 'Stuffed into the fridge' trope, but, well, it's still pretty effective, both in fiction and in real life. If you want to really hurt somebody, and can't attack directly, you hurt their loved ones. Maybe she just seems unimportant because the game ends almost immediately after she dies.
The other problem is that men are vastly more 'expendable' than women. If, say, all this happened to Chico, it would probably not be nearly as impacting as it was. Hell, in most of these threads about this topic everybody seems to be talking about Paz (including some of them assuming SHE'S the underage person involved),and yet nobody shed a tear for poor Chico, who still went through a ton of shit, and also probably died at the end of Ground Zeroes too.

Also, you say that there are better ways of handling it. If you were in Kojima's shoes or on his writing staff, how would you have handled it, incidentally?

No "orifice" bombs that's for sure.

Subtle hints of the torture. The tape footage is shown to the characters, but not to the audience, and cue vomiting by the characters.

I suppose I can get behind your idea for the torture, but that kind of defeats the purpose of both what Kojima wanted and video games in general. If we, the player, are controlling Big Boss, we should know and see everything he knows and sees. I guess your idea might work if you just never showed the actual torture at all and just had the victims blubbering and being all traumatized about it. That might work. Leaves more to the imagination, and there's no disconnect between player and player character.

Still not sure why everybody gets upset over the implanted bombs. Since it's both a fairly effective tactic and they never actually say where the second bomb is. I'd say Kojima handled that much better than we gave him credit for, since everybody seems to assume it's in her hidey holes. Leaving it all up to the imagination of the audience. You know, like a good writer.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

What I see the issue is that the way Kojima handled the topic made Paz seem... expendable.

Gone through horrible suffering and then died.

To those saying this is a "nontroversy", I say that this work has fallen into the trap of "Women In Refrigerators" and its variants. There are ways of touch on the topic of rape without making the victim characters seem expendable or unimportant.

Except this is supposed to be the catalyst for Big Boss's Start of Darkness. I get that people are offended by the 'Stuffed into the fridge' trope, but, well, it's still pretty effective, both in fiction and in real life. If you want to really hurt somebody, and can't attack directly, you hurt their loved ones. Maybe she just seems unimportant because the game ends almost immediately after she dies.
The other problem is that men are vastly more 'expendable' than women. If, say, all this happened to Chico, it would probably not be nearly as impacting as it was. Hell, in most of these threads about this topic everybody seems to be talking about Paz (including some of them assuming SHE'S the underage person involved),and yet nobody shed a tear for poor Chico, who still went through a ton of shit, and also probably died at the end of Ground Zeroes too.

Also, you say that there are better ways of handling it. If you were in Kojima's shoes or on his writing staff, how would you have handled it, incidentally?

She is by no means in a refrigerator in terms of the series either.

Spoiler: Peace Walker Spoilers

She damn near succeeds in blowing up the world!

No "orifice" bombs that's for sure.

People complain about the "orifice bombs" a lot. What's wrong with them? Decoy bombs are very real. MGS has always been extreme and even if it wasn't, in terms of hiding a bomb, where better?

If they had done what you had suggested, it would have felt cheap, gratuitous and lazy to me. Can't satisfy everybody.

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

I'm just going to say my peace and leave. It is easier to label people as "rape apologist" for trying to defend the shock content in this game rather than having a actual discussion on the issue. Listen I understand if something offends you or you find it distasteful on personal level. We have all been there when it comes to watching, reading or playing the media we consume. However we need to act like adults and drop the labels either it be "rape apologist" or "feminazi" etc. We also need to respect another persons opinion no matter if we agree with it or not. This is what adults actually do to win a debate, so people please start. That's it from me today, I shall resume to lurking in threads.

 

[Pogilrup]

Chairman Meow

I think you might have some misconceptions about characters "being stuffed into a fridge". The definition according TvTropes's laconic page is "A character is killed off in a gruesome manner and their body displayed to their loved one to cause emotional trauma."

There is also the Disposable Woman trope, the laconic of which is "A female character who is killed off purely to justify a male character's quest for Revenge."

It doesn't matter if Paz managed to hold the world at gunpoint. If she was such an important character, whom we are suppose to root for, then surely a better death could've been written.

 

[Fsyco]

Chairman Meow

I think you might have some misconceptions about characters "being stuffed into a fridge". The definition according TvTropes's laconic page is "A character is killed off in a gruesome manner and their body displayed to their loved one to cause emotional trauma."

There is also the Disposable Woman trope, the laconic of which is "A female character who is killed off purely to justify a male character's quest for Revenge."

It doesn't matter if Paz managed to hold the world at gunpoint. If she was such an important character, whom we are suppose to root for, then surely a better death could've been written.

And what would that better death have been, pray tell? Since you seem to have all the answers.

You should also remember that according to TvTropes, Tropes are Not Bad.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Chairman Meow

I think you might have some misconceptions about characters "being stuffed into a fridge". The definition according TvTropes's laconic page is "A character is killed off in a gruesome manner and their body displayed to their loved one to cause emotional trauma."

There is also the Disposable Woman trope, the laconic of which is "A female character who is killed off purely to justify a male character's quest for Revenge."

It doesn't matter if Paz managed to hold the world at gunpoint. If she was such an important character, whom we are suppose to root for, then surely a better death could've been written.

Apologies, I was remembering it as being women just kidnapped or whatever and then hidden away and only used as motivation for the hero. Don't really spend much time on TV tropes. What was wrong with her death?

 

[Pogilrup]

Chairman Meow

I think you might have some misconceptions about characters "being stuffed into a fridge". The definition according TvTropes's laconic page is "A character is killed off in a gruesome manner and their body displayed to their loved one to cause emotional trauma."

There is also the Disposable Woman trope, the laconic of which is "A female character who is killed off purely to justify a male character's quest for Revenge."

It doesn't matter if Paz managed to hold the world at gunpoint. If she was such an important character, whom we are suppose to root for, then surely a better death could've been written.

And what would that better death have been, pray tell? Since you seem to have all the answers.

You should also remember that according to TvTropes, Tropes are Not Bad.

Holding the line, Rasputinian death by various assailants, dying in duel, or perhaps a last laugh sabotage are possible options should a character have to die such a story.

Now that I think about it the death by implanted bomb by itself wouldn't be an issue. But the combination of that and the dying character to be a victim of rape produces some troubling implications.

 

[Fsyco]

Chairman Meow

I think you might have some misconceptions about characters "being stuffed into a fridge". The definition according TvTropes's laconic page is "A character is killed off in a gruesome manner and their body displayed to their loved one to cause emotional trauma."

There is also the Disposable Woman trope, the laconic of which is "A female character who is killed off purely to justify a male character's quest for Revenge."

It doesn't matter if Paz managed to hold the world at gunpoint. If she was such an important character, whom we are suppose to root for, then surely a better death could've been written.

And what would that better death have been, pray tell? Since you seem to have all the answers.

You should also remember that according to TvTropes, Tropes are Not Bad.

Holding the line, Rasputinian death by various assailants, dying in duel, or perhaps a last laugh sabotage are possible options should a character have to die such a story.

Now that I think about it the death by implanted bomb by itself wouldn't be an issue. But the combination of that and the dying character to be a victim of rape produces some troubling implications.

Paz isn't a fighter, she's a spy who relies on her innocent appearance to make people trust her. Giving her any kind of combat related death would not only be out of place, but would basically just be a pointless 'actionization' of the character for funsies. Having her innocence violated, and being used as a pawn in the villian's plan, seems much more fitting given the character. You might not like it and find it upsetting, but I can't think of any better way to end her character arc. Unless she does, in fact, survive and become Quiet in the Phantom Pain. That would be silly but I could sort of see it happening.

I'm not really seeing the 'troubling implications' besides 'the bad guy is evil' and 'people who do this in real life are evil'.

 

[Pogilrup]

The implication that I am seeing is the message that "rape victims are without hope for a healthy life" or "rape victims will die before they could get help".

Yes I know those are some rather extreme statements. But Paz didn't go through "suffer, get payback, and then die" or "suffer, die, and then explosive payback", it is just suffer and die.

Also I'm pretty many works in various media in the past decade exhibit the same flaws.

 

[gargantual]

The implication that I am seeing is the message that "rape victims are without hope for a healthy life" or "rape victims will die before they could get help".

Yes I know those are some rather extreme statements. But Paz didn't go through "suffer, get payback, and then die" or "suffer, die, and then explosive payback", it is just suffer and die.

Also I'm pretty many works in various media in the past decade exhibit the same flaws.

Yeah but if she goes down fighting, the viewer won't feel robbed. The viewer is supposed to feel robbed by her death.

Look at Shosanna Dreyfuss in Inglorious Basterds in contrast. She went down swinging, for vengeance. It was a vengeance story, not as a lamb, thus the viewer doesn't feel as robbed by her demise, because the intent was different. Ground Zeroes different intent. So we got what we got.

I see your intent of giving a character dignity for the sake of sensitive viewers who might feel Paz's plight will reflect negatively to their own life but that connection really shouldn't be established. It'll clash with a story that needs a sacrificial lamb for motivation.

Besides, exploitative dumb blonde and teen deaths in horror flicks are miles far cheaper than Paz's death. Paz's death was suprising to me, but no different than the guy in the Rainbow Six Patriots trailer or the citizen forcibly made into a suicide bomber in The Hurt Locker, an unfortunate casualty.

What could they both physically do to worm their way out?

Even though there's more than one way to have a lamb, and stuff like Law & Order SVU would (captain obviously) handle rape better, since its the fictionalizing of actual case files....without a lamb there's no episode.

So whether its a male or female, a character known for using their sexuality as a tool or someone who isn't, a lamb is a lamb.

 

[Lupine]

The implication that I am seeing is the message that "rape victims are without hope for a healthy life" or "rape victims will die before they could get help".

Yes I know those are some rather extreme statements. But Paz didn't go through "suffer, get payback, and then die" or "suffer, die, and then explosive payback", it is just suffer and die.

Also I'm pretty many works in various media in the past decade exhibit the same flaws.

Yeah but if she goes down fighting, the viewer won't feel robbed. The viewer is supposed to feel robbed by her death.

Look at Shosanna Dreyfuss in Inglorious Basterds in contrast. She went down swinging, for vengeance. It was a vengeance story, not as a lamb, thus the viewer doesn't feel as robbed by her demise, because the intent was different. Ground Zeroes different intent. So we got what we got.

I see your intent of giving a character dignity for the sake of sensitive viewers who might feel Paz's plight will reflect negatively to their own life but that connection really shouldn't be established. It'll clash with a story that needs a sacrificial lamb for motivation.

Besides, exploitative dumb blonde and teen deaths in horror flicks are miles far cheaper than Paz's death. Paz's death was suprising to me, but no different than the guy in the Rainbow Six Patriots trailer or the citizen forcibly made into a suicide bomber in The Hurt Locker, an unfortunate casualty.

What could they both physically do to worm their way out?

Even though there's more than one way to have a lamb, and stuff like Law & Order SVU would (captain obviously) handle rape better, since its the fictionalizing of actual case files....without a lamb there's no episode.

So whether its a male or female, a character known for using their sexuality as a tool or someone who isn't, a lamb is a lamb.

This.

The point of Paz's death wasn't that she died or even how, at least not alone. Paz's death happens right as you get back to Mother Base. It is equal to being gunned down on your doorstep. Death when you should be safe. If you follow any of the conversation going on up until this point...everything is in the past for everyone. Chico has gone through hell too, but things "were" bad. It is past tense now. And then suddenly home isn't safe, it's a war zone, and finally ashes.

That was the point of Paz's death. Big Boss loses everything. He loses the chance to really understand Paz whom he no doubt wondered if he was wrong about, he loses men that are comrades and friends, he loses a home, and he loses Zeke. The only worst loss in his life was probably The Boss and that's the place where Ground Zeroes leaves him, unable to protect any of the important things in his life and robbed of most of them.

 

[Scow2]

so a 20 year old woman could not pass as a 19 year old woman (the age where high school usually ends)?

A 20 year old? Sure, she can.
That kid from OP's post? The only thing she can pass is... a KID.

well, if you bothered to actually read other poster resposnes, you would have known that the woman in OPs post is actually 20.

What matters is how old she appears to be, not the age that is written in some codex or something.

And she appears to be a 20-something-year-old that is capable of passing as a 16-year-old for the sake of a mission. If you think a real person that is 20 years old or so 'appears' to be 16, then the problem is on your end and your perception, not with the person. She is 20, and appears to be 20. That she also has features common to some people that are only 16 is incidental... although it does make it easier for her to disguise herself as a child and infiltrate an enemy's operations and earn misplaced trust. She needed to be an adult that appeared underage (Just like many real people are) for the sake of the story, so it's not even contrived or a random decision.

No, the character in question isn't real, but she's based on people that very much are real.

As for childish behaviors in adults - I'm 24. I play with trucks and legoes, and dress up as The Green Power Ranger when I can. Acting young is fun (Especially when it's about doing stuff you wanted to do as a kid but weren't old enough) And, if your job requires you to impersonate a youth, you better damn well be able to act like one when necessary.

 

[Pogilrup]

gargantual and Lupine

That's a lot like many other stories that came before this one.

By themselves, there is no problem with tales that contain events that lead to a tragic, virtually meaningless death of a female character.

However, taken together and they form a trend where predominant number of female characters are killed off just to motivate or test the will of a male protagonist.

This game is unfortunately yet another entry in that big list of works that use the Disposable Woman trope.

 

[Scow2]

gargantual and Lupine

That's a lot like many other stories that came before this one.

By themselves, there is no problem with tales that contain events that lead to a tragic, virtually meaningless death of a female character.

However, taken together and they form a trend where predominant number of female characters are killed off just to motivate or test the will of a male protagonist.

This game is unfortunately yet another entry in that big list of works that use the Disposable Woman trope.

There are also a lot of stories where a lot of male characters are killed off just to motivate/test the will of male protagonists, but nobody cares about those guys. As far as I can tell, Metal Gear has had more sympathetic male characters get killed off to motivate/test the hero than females.