Solid Snake’s butt-hugging suit was the real star of Metal Gear

polygon.com:

In 2018, fans excited for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate discovered the game was missing an icon. The game promised the return of every character from the franchise’s earlier installments, and even Solid Snake was back, despite being owned by a company mired in controversy and sitting out the previous installment. But he wasn’t the same man he’d been in 2008.

“Snake was added to the game, but at a dire cost: his world famous buttocks,” commented an individual running a Change.org petition called “Give Solid Snake his world famous ass back in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” The new screenshots showed a deflated butt with little definition, nothing like the rounded, vacuum-sealed booty of his previous appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Social media filled up with aggrieved posts; one, hashtagged #FreeSnakesButt, came from Snake voice actor David Hayter — himself a one-time cause célèbre​​ following his shock dismissal from the Snake part in Metal Gear Solid 5. Eventually, new screenshots of the game showed a Snake with his traditionally shapely rear filling his skintight suit, and everyone laughed and moved on.

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The whole outrage had a hint of parody about it. Anyone who’s spent enough time in gaming social media communities is used to regular slapfights about the alteration of character outfits or bodies, but the characters inspiring them are typically women. Many of those campaigning for the restoration of Snake’s ass were LGBTQ+ and/or allies (the Twitter account which triumphantly announced the return of Snake’s ass was a now-suspended account called @transsnake). Getting angry about a man’s body was, in