The Biggest Unsolved Mystery from Metal Gear?

This is the greatest Metal Gear Solid 2 rectal examination ever made

When I was a kid, Snake having the infinite bandana was confirmation was that Meryl didn't die and he didn't surrender during torture

On the idea of the Tanker section we play being one of Raiden's VR simulations, I believe its the other way around. The footage we see of Snake using a FAMAS and running from the sea water that we never got to play was Raiden's VR simulation, while what we the player went through was the real thing. Since if the playable Tanker section was the VR, Raiden would know things he isn't meant to in the Plant chapter: - Raiden would know that the official story of Snake sinking the tanker is a lie and that Ocelot sank it. - Raiden would know that the official story of the Big Shell cleaning up an oil spill is a lie if he saw that the sunken tanker was actually carrying Metal Gear RAY. - Raiden would already be aware of Metal Gear RAY's existence. He would not mistake it for the new Metal Gear model Ames mentioned being built in the Big Shell if he knew RAY became active two years ago.

My most intriguing doubt is how did The Patriots get to cover up the Arsenal Gear crash on Manhattan, why nobody in the streets react to it, what did Solidus say before dying and what are the consequences that the Arsenal crash had from there on that would change the world into what we see in 4.

The infinite ammo line went over my head the first time and i thought it was just snake saying his intelligence is more than enough ammunition for him

I think Arsenal Gear is big enough that any part you see in the game is believable. The Rays boss fight arena is lit up only at the floor, and the roof is so high that light does not reach it. The arena is surrounded by shallow water and houses most of the Rays.

I always assumed that Arsenal Gear went partially over the water and Raiden was actually on the outside and the rest of the Arsenal Gear had it's roof open for the Metal Gear Rays to come on top in order for the Rays boss fight to be initiated. So Raiden was basically fighting the Rays on the back end of Arsenal Gear hence why it's labelled Rectum. But that's me talking

I always imagined Arsernal was partially in submarine mode, with the area Raiden is on above water and the Rays standing on the rest of the roof, it later raises entirely which is how Ocelot and Snake dived into water

I think the arena being a copy of the photography missions could also be because Raiden has done VR training, and experienced those missions. The nanomachines are now creating an arena he's familiar with by hallucinating his past experience in that VR mission.

When I first played MGS2 and Snake said "infinate ammo", I thought he was pointing at his head (not the bandana). In other words, I thought he meant using your brain and strategize with it is also an advantage and it is infinate 😅

As a developer, there's nothing more efficient you can do than purposely leave loose ends and things unexplained in your game. This appeals to people's popular imagination and makes them even more interested in your game, creating and inventing crazy theories to explain these gaps in a way that you alone could never manage. And if they ask you something about it, just give a vague answer to stoke their imagination even more.

I've completed 300 missions in VR! I feel like some kind of legendary mercenary.

I'm surprised so many people get hung up on the infinite ammo bandana thing with either not understanding it or reading too much into it. It's just a fourth wall breaking joke. Like how they joke about swapping discs or memory cards in MGS4. People tend to read way too much into everything Kojima does. Sometimes he does have really intricate and cryptic stuff. But often, he's just making a joke. He could tweet that he likes to put a teaspoon of ginger dressing in his ramen, and people would find a way to say it entirely explains Nicolas Cage's character in Death Stranding 2.

I came to theorize myself that the cluster worm GW was affected, not only affected the AI system, but also Raiden himself. Solidus after Arsenal Gear crashes and gives his final speech before the sword duel, he tells Raiden he has traces of The Patriots inside his cerebral cortex, so if Raiden's brain is pretty much a part of The Patriot's network going haywire, it would also mean that the cerebral implants and the censorship, which are his old memories when he was a child soldier, are also affected, so much so that his reality is completely messed up. I mean, even the big shootout with Snake as your partner is simply a representation of when Raiden was back in the killing fields on the civil war.

Ok I'm going on a limb, my theory is that the VR arena was used during development to play test having that many Rays on screen simultaneously. The design was minimalist enough that developers could save resources not rendering a more complicated scene. As development continued and their deadline was getting closer they didn't get around to change it. At that point Kojima must have decided using the VR arena for such a pivotal battle fit thematically with what the game was going for, so it stayed that way.

Another big mystery of Metal Gear 2 is.... why Vamp watches Raiden hand his Dog Tags to Snake during the credits.

I remember reading somewhere that the RAY boss arena was originally going to be an endless MG RAY hanger space inside Arsenal Gear. No matter where you went, you'd discover more open hanger and no walls marking the edge of Arsenal Gear.

Other mysteries: Why is Psycho Mantis so much stronger as a child? Why is Ocelot's personality so different in MGSV?

I am still wondering about the mystery as to why President Johnson groped Raiden

I always thought MGS 2 was the most Evangelion-Like MGS-Experience. What struck me curious is, there have always been many EVA's references in MGS (like Gray Fox asa Ninja has lot's of similiarities to EVA Unit 00 also his behaviour after he kinda malfunctions and he bangs his head against the ground is a scene very similar to Evangelion) but Kojima never once personally mentioned it? Arsenal Gear at the end of MGS 2 really reminds me of what happens in the last 2 episodes of Evangelion. Everything happens in Shinji Ikaris mind while the real battle is shown in the movie End of Evangelion. The whole ending of MGS 2 is so surreal and bizarre, it would be hard to think that most of the stuff is not going on purely in Raidens mind. Lot's of people say that the story of MGS 2 is the most bonkers story of the MGS universe. This might be true, but there is way more to it. And I've learned here a lot of things I never thought about before. Making the story of MGS 2 timeless, especially with the whole AI twist. Kojima always loves to play with layers of realities. I never made a secret out of it that the story of MGS V is, in contrast to MGS 2, completely bonkers to me. But you will find fantastic stuff there to. The whole substory with Paz and the revelation of this plot was pure brillance. The same, on a smaller scae, could be said about the mission where you have to find Volgin. These are the brillant moments Kojima is playing with the person holding the controller. Nothing is as it seems.