This is pretty late, but if you're still haven't learned the answer to these things, I'll do my best to explain.
"What is up with their shoes?"
They have claws on the toes; there's an enemy you encounter earlier that uses them to stick to walls.
"Why does Vamp keep making those flamboyant poses?"
Vamp's movement's (and to a slight extent his appearance) was modeled after flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortés.
"Why does Raiden feel the need to twirl his katana (I'm assuming it's a katana because they're Just Better) around in the air for about 5 minutes before sheathing it after the fight is over?"
He's cleaning it by flinging the blood off of it.
"...appears to be wearing skintight latex and high heels;[...]What's up with Raiden's jaw?"
Raiden is a cyborg, whose body from the lower jaw onward was replaced with synthetic parts; it's not so much skintight latex, as it is tight latex skin. The high heels are actually opposable, allowing him to hold swords with his feet.
...we have a guy who seems to be the gender-flipped version of a Lesbian Vampire
During MGS2's production Vamp's design went from "Sexy Bisexual female vampire" to "Sexy Bisexual male crossdressing vampire" to "Sexy Bisexual male vampire"
If you haven't already played this series and still want to, I should warn you that the series is fairly lore-heavy.
Ideally, you would start with MGS1, the series that was popular enough for a sequel,
followed by MGS2, the game Director Kojima decided to experiment with postmodernism, confusing and angering many into badgering him for a "proper ending" over the next half decade,
and ending with MGS4, the hastily-written-due-to-death-threats explanation of everything that happened in MGS2.
You could admittedly start with MGS2, but then you wouldn't have your experiences in MGS1 as a context for your experience in MGS2 (a necessary component of the aforementioned postmodernism).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-07-01 06:38 pm (UTC)"What is up with their shoes?"
They have claws on the toes; there's an enemy you encounter earlier that uses them to stick to walls.
"Why does Vamp keep making those flamboyant poses?"
Vamp's movement's (and to a slight extent his appearance) was modeled after flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortés.
"Why does Raiden feel the need to twirl his katana (I'm assuming it's a katana because they're Just Better) around in the air for about 5 minutes before sheathing it after the fight is over?"
He's cleaning it by flinging the blood off of it.
"...appears to be wearing skintight latex and high heels;[...]What's up with Raiden's jaw?"
Raiden is a cyborg, whose body from the lower jaw onward was replaced with synthetic parts; it's not so much skintight latex, as it is tight latex skin.
The high heels are actually opposable, allowing him to hold swords with his feet.
...we have a guy who seems to be the gender-flipped version of a Lesbian Vampire
During MGS2's production Vamp's design went from
"Sexy Bisexual female vampire" to
"Sexy Bisexual male crossdressing vampire" to
"Sexy Bisexual male vampire"
If you haven't already played this series and still want to, I should warn you that the series is fairly lore-heavy.
Ideally, you would start with MGS1, the series that was popular enough for a sequel,
followed by MGS2, the game Director Kojima decided to experiment with postmodernism, confusing and angering many into badgering him for a "proper ending" over the next half decade,
and ending with MGS4, the hastily-written-due-to-death-threats explanation of everything that happened in MGS2.
You could admittedly start with MGS2, but then you wouldn't have your experiences in MGS1 as a context for your experience in MGS2 (a necessary component of the aforementioned postmodernism).