Through FoxAlive, MGS4's form changes. The specific details from MGS1, MGS2, and MGS3 that had been mangled as MGS4 untangle. Old Snake's spiritual fatigue disappears; Ocelot's confused identity becomes lucid; and the Patriots' “insurance” against the endless iteration of forms expires. 

We can illustrate this shift with a before-and-after look at how MGS4 handles one of the Saga's oldest tropes: the One-on-One Duel. 

Act IV features two monstrous iterations of this trope. Vamp and Raiden hash out their rivalry atop Metal Gear Rex with knives, combining the location of Liquid's and Snake's fight from MGS1, rival combatants from MGS2, and bladed weapons from Raiden's fight against Solidus. Shortly thereafter, Old Snake and Ocelot fight as another rival pair through Rex and Ray. Their fight combines the setting of architectural wreckage from MGS2's battle atop Federal Hall, token machines from MGS1 and MGS2, and “pit fighter” tactics from Naked Snake's fight against Volgin in MGS3. 

Step-by-step and game-by-game, these confused identities defragment during Snake's and Ocelot's brawl atop Outer Haven. In addition to the fight's dramatic use of the respective Saga games' music and health meters, previously misplaced tactical elements from the Saga return to their proper places. Ocelot uses Liquid Snake's close-quarters combo and bullrush during the MGS1 phase. During the MGS2 phase, his punches mimic Solidus's sword attacks. As Solidus had alternated between a three-hit close quarters combo and a devastating lunge, so Ocelot's attacks change to a three-hit combo and a single forward strike. Finally, during the fight's Snake Eater phase, Ocelot adopts CQC strategies reminiscent of Naked Snake's fight against The Boss. 

But, as Ocelot says, he and Snake “are not yet free.” Some have referred to Ocelot's gradual loss of Liquid's persona as “Snake beating the Liquid out of Ocelot,” but Ocelot's growing lucidity might owe more to MGS4's formal defragmentation than his fight with Snake. Ocelot's identity remains tangled with elements from previous games in the Saga until the fight's end. Only the exhaustion of all nostalgia returns him to himself and lays the past to rest, distilling all energy to the final blows exchanged between two old men. 

Ocelot, beaten, confesses MGS4's form to Snake: "I am Liquid's doppelganger, and you are his… just like your father." The ambiguity of to whom “his” refers makes this line one of the game's most enigmatic, but, if we regard it in the context of MGS4's form, the line's meaning clarifies. Liquid had resisted the Patriots, and, after his defeat, Ocelot took on Liquid's identity and role in the Saga as the leader of that resistance. Likewise, Big Boss had fought for (and had been betrayed by) Zero, a role that Snake filled in turn – a role reinforced by the first Flashback Event's association of Old Snake with Big Boss.  

The doppelgangers stop walking as doubles. They are only themselves. Ocelot no longer stands in for Liquid, and Solid Snake stands in for Big Boss to a lesser degree (though, as we shall explore, not completely). Proxies disconnect, and the referential forms of these genetic and memetic clones dissolve.

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