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exeggcute · 1 year

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Metal Gear Solid - Story Recap & Timeline

since I couldn't find this anywhere accessible online, here's a transcription of the "Story Recap" and "Timeline: Major Events" sections of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: The Complete Official Guide (Collector’s Edition). these are just bonus sections accompanying the official MGSV game guide, but, like the game guide itself, I thought these recaps were pretty well-written and just generally illuminating. even as a longtime fan, this is the first time that's metal gear's infamously byzantine plot has almost made sense to me lol.

being part of an officially sanctioned game guide, I'd imagine this is more or less accurate across the board, but with metal gear being metal gear I'm sure there's a handful of points in here that are either misconstrued or otherwise up for debate.

long post incoming below the readmore... and when I say "long" I mean LONG. (although if mile-long tumblr posts aren't your thing, here's a google doc instead.)

A FEW NOTES FROM THE TRANSCRIBER:

The following content was sourced from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: The Complete Official Guide (Collector’s Edition) and has been reproduced here for non-commercial educational purposes only.

I’ve attempted to preserve the original formatting from The Complete Official Guide as much as possible. That said, there may be some errors throughout, particularly in the form of omitted or garbled words; my apologies for any confusion this entails.

The Complete Official Guide has a policy (allegedly at the request of Konami itself, lol) of not revealing Ishmael’s true identity—I’d assume this is because the game guide was released in sync with MGSV and they wanted to keep some of the surprise intact. As such, there’s a lot of wink-wink-nudge-nudge language around the whole Big Boss/Venom Snake thing (and not much explicit acknowledgement of how this impacts the story), but it’s not too hard to read between the lines here.

Metal Gear Solid – Story Recap

The story of the Metal Gear series spans over one hundred years, from the origins of The Philosophers in the early 1900s to the conclusion of Metal Gear Solid 4 in 2014. Each game is broadly a self-contained episode, yet they are all intricately interwoven; to have missed an installment can rob certain encounters or revelations of their full impact. In this extensive story recap, we explore the key moments and developments in the Metal Gear canon to enable readers, die-hards and newcomers alike, to better enjoy this absorbing tale. The density and complexity of the plot is such that we have deliberately, albeit with great regret, omitted a number of characters and events in an effort to make the overall picture more accessible.

Early 1900s

The starting point of the Metal Gear saga, the creation of The Philosophers, occurred during the early 1900s. This unique and deeply secretive organization was established by a select group of eminent figures from the three countries that were to dominate the century that lay ahead: the United States, Russia and China. Together, these individuals amassed a functionally boundless supply of funds, known as The Philosophers’ Legacy, that they believed would be sufficient to win any present or future world conflict. Those who wield the resources to wage war also possess the means to prevent it, and the Philosophers sought to achieve this noble goal by using their incredible resources and powerful influence to steer world history away from brutal, needless warfare. However, with time and the death of its founding members, the raison d’étre of this clandestine committee was gradually corrupted; the Philosophers’ philosophy was not passed on to posterity. In the confusion and chaos that ensued after the Second World War, the U.S.S.R.—or, more precisely, an individual named Volgin—gained sole possession of the Philosophers’ Legacy. This development is the catalyst for the events of Metal Gear Solid 3.

1964 - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

During the Cold War, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were obliged to respect the doctrine of “mutual assured destruction”: the fact that a nuclear strike by one nation would inevitably lead the other to retaliate with equal or greater force. With outright conflict impractical and unconscionable due to the inconceivable horrors that it would inevitably unleash, the nations instead rattled their figurative sabers in proxy wars on both actual and ideological battlefields.

The events of Metal Gear Solid 3 take place in 1964 in the context of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a breakdown in diplomacy that brought both superpowers closer to Armageddon than ever before or since. This is but a backdrop, however: the true story of Metal Gear Solid 3 concerns the fight between the three countries that created the Philosophers’ Legacy to retrieve it from the clutches of Colonel Volgin.

An American agent (Naked Snake), part of a CIA special services division called FOX, and supported by a remote team that includes his commander (Major Zero), is sent into Soviet territory by the U.S. secret services. The objectives of his mission are to:

Destroy the Shagohod, a weapon so powerful that it could disrupt the delicate balance that prevents nuclear warfare between the two superpowers;

Assassinate Colonel Volgin, the man in sole possession of The Philosophers’ Legacy, who plans to overthrow Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s government and use the Shagohod weapon to enable the U.S.S.R. to win the Cold War;

Execute “The Boss”, the most renowned U.S. secret agent of all time, and Naked Snake's mentor, who chose against all odds to betray her country and join forces with Colonel Volgin, providing him with two U.S.-made portable nuclear warheads as a token of her sincerity.

A master in the arts of infiltration and survival techniques, Naked Snake succeeds, after a torturously demanding mission, in destroying the Shagohod and eliminating Volgin and The Boss. It becomes clear, in the end, that the defection of The Boss was an uncompromising deception designed to enable her to approach Volgin and play an integral, irreplaceable role in the retrieval of the Philosophers’ Legacy and the prevention of nuclear war. Her final duty was to accept her role as a traitor to the last, and die at the hands of her apprentice in order to conceal the facts of her mission. It is also revealed that Ocelot, a young prodigy of the Russian military who was seemingly loyal to Volgin, was actually a double agent working for the United States government.

The biological son of The Boss, he in fact helped recover the microfilm containing the access codes to The Philosophers’ Legacy (or, as we later learn, half of it), and was working to further the interests of the CIA the whole time.

The Boss is certainly the one who knew best what the whole incident had in store for her. A patriot to the very last, she accepted the sacrifice of dying for her country by assuming the tawdry mantle of a turncoat. Naked Snake finally comprehends the gravity of her gesture at the conclusion of the adventure. His grief and disenchantment are heightened by the sheer perversity of his subsequent elevation to the rank of “Big Boss” by the superiors that so casually discarded his predecessor, the woman he worshipped above all others.

This was the price of The Boss's ideal, the cost of her commitment. She was ready to die for the way of life she freely chose, the expression of liberty that she lived for. The death of The Boss is a shockwave that reverberates throughout the entire Metal Gear Solid series. Though the light of every individual is inevitably extinguished on one fateful day or another, some continue to illuminate the world they left behind for many years to come. Others, by the same token, cast long shadows...

Early 1970s - Creation of Cipher

In the aftermath of The Boss’s death, Major Zero and Big Boss (Naked Snake, having accepted his new title) choose to embrace the ideals that they believe The Boss held dear. Her willingness to surrender all for the protection of her country leaves an indelible impression, and leads to the creation of Cipher in 1970.

Led by Major Zero in person, and co-founded by Big Boss and Ocelot (among other select associates), Cipher is envisaged by its creators as both a powerful intelligence agency serving broad North American interests, but also a benevolent steering committee seeking to benefit the global community as a whole—a reimagined version of the original Philosophers, bankrolled by a huge portion of their precursors’ funds retrieved, in secret, after Operation Snake Eater. Under the specific auspices of Major Zero, however, Cipher soon begins to adopt a radical solution to ensure peace and unify nations under a single command via a process of gradually imposing the political, economic and social model of the United States on the rest of the world.

By standardizing other nations through subtle manipulation, nurturing facsimiles of their own cultural and political landscape, Zero believes that he might prevent future opposition or outside threats: homogenized states should have less cause to quarrel. In doing so, he misinterprets the true passion behind the principles of the woman that inspired him: that a belief in individual liberty underpinned her desire to defend her nation at all costs, even at the expense of the ultimate act of sacrifice.

Where The Boss sought to create a world without borders, seeing herself as a tool or a weapon to achieve that end, Cipher—for which, read: Zero—increasingly seeks to unite the world by means of total control and domination of the entire globe. His mistake is that he interprets The Boss's will too literally—to him, a “world without borders” is one where everyone on the planet is unified under a single system. The world, in Zero’s eyes, is just a Collection of tools that he might use to achieve his goals—and, unfettered by sentimentality, he believes that the end justifies the means, no matter the cost.

It is worth noting that Big Boss also misinterprets The Boss's ideal and legacy. He takes the opposite extreme interpretation and strives to create a military nation “without borders”—free of all political influence and serving as a haven for those willing to fight for themselves. He recognizes himself as a weapon, perhaps the most powerful of all, and believes that he must keep fighting. From that perspective, he has difficulty in truly appreciating why The Boss chose to sacrifice herself. In his mind, she should have fought on, to have found another way, whereas for her, giving her life for her homeland was just a means to an end. She simply chose the course of action she felt was right at the time and believed that all humanity should have the right to do the same.

This subtle schism is crucial, in that it will drive the nascent conflict between Zero and Big Boss for years to come, and ultimately be the origin of all key events in all future episodes in the story.

With the practically inexhaustible resources that The Philosophers’ Legacy puts at Zero’s disposal, the influence of Cipher grows as banks, foundations, corporations and even governments come to rely on his investments. With the legendary Big Boss promoted as an icon, helping to guide the opinions of the masses and rich and powerful alike, Cipher begins to shape the development of the world’s political and social landscape. As the organization's power grows, so too does the disenchantment felt by Big Boss, who feels manipulated and exploited by Zero, not to mention at odds with his ideology.

Aware of the growing distance between the friends, Zero secretly launches the “Les Enfants Terribles” project in 1971-1972. Concerned by their philosophical differences, Zero realizes that Big Boss is on the brink of leaving the organization and plots to ensure that the group can somehow retain this critical ally... not to mention secure the genetic legacy of a man perceived as the greatest soldier in history. As a result, three clones of Big Boss are created in utmost secrecy: Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and, later, Solidus Snake. When Big Boss learns of this profound betrayal, he comes to realize that his friend attaches little, if any, significance to the founding principles of their organization, and that his thirst for power would eventually suffocate all freedom in the world.

At this stage, the estrangement of the two Is complete. Major Zero dreams solely of control over minds and information, for a greater good of his personal design. In sharp contrast, Big Boss now aspires to achieve the antithetical extreme—freedom from any form of governmental control. Big Boss resigns from Cipher and disappears to found his own group of independent mercenaries, while Zero further consolidates his power and influence.

1974 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Having broken away from the United States in general, and Major Zero in particular, Big Boss stands ready with freshly recruited troops to offer his military services to any potential client. This is how the Peace Walker Incident begins.

Big Boss's second in command, Kazuhira Miller, finds their first customers: a professor from Costa Rica’s University for Peace and one of his students, Paz Ortega. Both claim they wish to repel a mysterious armed group that has invaded their country. This force, called the Peace Sentinels, is actually a de facto creation of the CIA. Intuiting that the professor himself belongs to the KGB, and reluctant to dive back into the old, seemingly interminable struggle between the superpowers, Big Boss only accepts the mission after hearing a recording in which the voice of his former mentor, The Boss, is clearly heard. Puzzled, as she cannot possibly have survived their duel in 1964, he secretly hopes that his involvement will enable him to learn more.

Garrisoning his troops in an offshore facility off the coast of Central America that they christen Mother Base, Big Boss completes a complex mission involving a walking nuclear tank known as Peace Walker, developed by a wheelchair-bound scientist named Huey Emmerich—a researcher who will play an important part in future events. A defining idiosyncrasy of this weapon is that it is equipped with an advanced artificial intelligence that can decide, with complete autonomy, whether to retaliate in the event of an enemy attack.

The artificial intelligence is the work of Dr. Strangelove—a former associate of The Boss. Strangelove created the A.|. based on a sophisticated statistical model of The Boss, taking into account everything from her history to her records, physiological data, correspondence, and emotional profile. Driven by an obsessive love, Strangelove’s ambition is to resurrect The Boss in a virtual form. This revelation, of course, explains the origin of the voice that caused Big Boss to accept the mission.

Despite a fierce battle against Peace Walker, Big Boss fails to stop an imminent nuclear launch, and it is only the robot's A.I. itself, perhaps authentically replicating the incorruptible ideals of The Boss, that saves the day by sinking Peace Walker at the bottom of Lake Nicaragua.

These events only serve to reinforce Big Boss's belief that governments and their associated agencies cannot be trusted, and that he is himself a weapon whose purpose is to grow ever stronger and to never, ever give up the fight. He decides to expand his own organization both by recruiting troops and by hiring Emmerich and Strangelove to design their own advanced nuclear deterrent on Mother Base—a bipedal tank that they decide to name Metal Gear ZEKE.

Once this Metal Gear is functional, it is stolen by Paz, who reveals that her allegiance lay with Cipher all along. Paz attempts to convince Big Boss to join Zero and to have Mother Base become the military arm of Cipher. With little possibility of agreement or compromise, Big Boss has no choice but to fight Metal Gear ZEKE, the climactic explosion of the tank leading Paz to seemingly sink without trace in the Caribbean.

Though a trial for Big Boss, the damage to ZEKE is only a setback: with careful salvage and the expertise of Strangelove and Emmerich, the Metal Gear can be restored. With a well-trained army, a Mother Base, and a Metal Gear possessing nuclear capabilities, Big Boss is well on his way to fulfilling his dream of building a nation for himself and his men. In the post-credits sequence that concludes the Peace Walker story, he makes a speech that clarifies his motivations, and the purpose of Mother Base:

“We will forsake our countries, we will leave our motherlands behind us and become one with this Earth. We have no nation, no philosophy, no ideology, we go where we're needed, fighting not for country, not for government, but for ourselves. We need no reason to fight, we fight because we are needed. We will be the deterrent for those with no other recourse. We are soldiers without borders, our purpose defined by the era we live in; we will sometimes have to sell ourselves and services. If the times demand it, we'll be revolutionaries, criminals, terrorists. And yes, we may all be headed straight to Hell, but what better place for us than this?”

Naturally, this is not something that Major Zero is prepared to permit—both in principle, and because of the precedent it sets for others who might recognize and struggle against the gossamer yoke of Cipher’s ever-growing web.

1975 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Now a true legend among soldiers worldwide, from decorated commanders to the lowliest mercenaries, Big Boss is at the head of a formidable military unit who aspire to call themselves a nation—even if this makes them enemies of Cipher and established sovereign states, particularly the major powers.

Paz, who survived the explosion of Metal Gear ZEKE and was rescued by a fisherman, is intercepted by Cipher agents, who interrogate her in a U.S. military base on the southern tip of Cuba known as Camp Omega. Soon afterwards, Mother Base is contacted by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who demand access to Mother Base for an immediate nuclear inspection in light of damning rumors sweeping through the international community.

It is Huey Emmerich who convinces the reluctant Big Boss and Miller to comply, arguing persuasively (among other stratagems) that a pass from the IAEA would be far preferable to their intended plan of merely attempting to stonewall the agency with legal technicalities. Emmerich informs the IAEA that Mother Base will comply, and a date is set for the inspection. Preparations are made to hide ZEKE and conceal all evidence of their nuclear capabilities on Mother Base.

Meanwhile, Chico, a boy rescued by Big Boss and a long-term resident of Mother Base, learns of Paz’s predicament, and, his mind clouded by his love for the young woman, slips away to rescue her himself. He only comprehends the depth of his naivety at the last moment, when he is captured with great ease by the Camp Omega troops. Both he and Paz are subjected to protracted, abhorrent tortures to force them to reveal critical information about Mother Base.

Big Boss learns of their internment on the eve of the IAEA inspection and, aware of the sensitivity of extracting them from Camp Omega, resolves to undertake the urgent mission personally. He arrives at the outskirts of the facility just as the inspection force departs for Mother Base.

Big Boss successfully locates and rescues Chico, then Paz. During the chopper ride back home, Big Boss discovers that the incoherent Paz has been surgically implanted with an explosive device. After the on-board medic removes it in a traumatic procedure, Big Boss arrives back at Mother Base to witness the final stages of his facility being razed by the so-called inspection team—who are actually soldiers belonging to an elite, enormously secret Special Forces unit known by the designation “XOF".

The IAEA inspection, and a precision-targeted leak of information that compelled Big Boss to launch a simultaneous rescue mission at Camp Omega, were the setup for a plan initiated by Skull Face to utterly destroy Mother Base. Big Boss manages to rescue Miller from XOF forces before bullets, bombs or waves can claim him, but a second explosive device planted in Paz’s body takes them by surprise and causes their chopper to crash. Despite the sacrifice of the on-board medic, who uses his body to shield Big Boss from the explosion, the grievously wounded Big Boss is left comatose by the event.

Though the truth of the matter would not emerge until a decade later, Huey Emmerich’s betrayal of Big Boss and his comrades on Mother Base was profound: he actually made direct contact with XOF during the IAEA “negotiations” to ensure his own survival, and facilitated the circumstances that led the facility to be overrun with such merciless efficiency.

In a twist that sets up the events of The Phantom Pain, Major Zero must also contend with betrayals by a trusted underling in his shadowy organization. Unbeknownst to Big Boss, Zero long ago established another clandestine special unit, XOF, that was originally tasked to provide imperceptible yet essential support to FOX operatives during their missions—including Operation Snake Eater in 1964. From advance groundwork and hidden logistical support to clean-up operations, XOF was FOX's midday shadow.

In later years, following Big Boss's estrangement from Zero, XOF became Cipher’s elite covert ops group. However, its long-serving Executive Officer, Skull Face, had by then developed a pathological hatred of Big Boss and Zero. So many years spent facilitating, in part, the legend of the former, while complying with the bidding of the latter, leaves Skull Face consumed by a desire to strike out at them.

Skull Face’s hidden agenda first becomes apparent during the attack on Mother Base, which he orchestrated entirely on his own, culminating in the explosion of the devices surgically planted in Paz Despite the animosity between them, Zero had no desire to kill Big Boss and condemned the attack irrevocably.

The most pertinent events of the nine years that follow gradually become apparent during the course of the Phantom Pain episode, but some warrant an introduction here. After the helicopter crash, Zero arranges for the comatose Big Boss to be transferred to a military hospital in Cyprus, where he receives treatment in utmost secrecy. For his part in the events that led to Big Boss's injuries, not yet known to be a deliberate assassination attempt, Skull Face is stripped of his privileged command and exiled to a lesser role in Cipher’s African operations. Here, he develops a significant interest in biological weapons and their pioneering applications.

A year later, Skull Face makes his move against Major Zero. His principal interest in Paz, we learn, had been that she had once met with Zero in person at one of his safe houses. Armed with knowledge of this building obtained during her torture, and a package delivery to its address containing an item of extraordinary sentimental value to the Cipher mastermind, Skull Face succeeds in infecting Zero with a parasite that causes irreversible degeneration of the host’s cognitive functions. Such were the depths of Skull Face’s hatred, a clean death would simply not suffice.

Despite the best efforts of leading specialists to at least slow the effects of the parasite, Zero is resigned to his fate. Before he loses his autonomy and mental acuity—to become as we witness him at the conclusion of Metal Gear Solid 4, locked in a persistent vegetative state for almost three decades—he sets certain events in motion.

Of greatest import is the commission of Dr. Strangelove (working for DARPA, an agency which, unbeknownst to her, is serving Cipher) to contribute to the development of an extremely advanced A.I. system designed to control the flow of information in the nascent digital world. This A.I. system will only be revealed in the series at a later stage, when it will be referred to as The Patriots. In essence, Zero knows he is doomed as an individual, but refuses to entrust the world’s reins to a new generation. He instead ensures that an autonomous artificial intelligence will secretly pull the world’s strings in his place: an implacable digital enforcer of his ideology.

The last documented accounts of Zero directly interacting with known individuals all apparently pertain to Big Boss. He contacts Ocelot to task him to protect their mutual friend while he is in a coma, and also speaks with Miller to prepare his former second-in-command for the legendary soldier's eventual return. Zero even visits Big Boss himself in 1977 to say farewell—an event connected with one of the greatest mysteries in The Phantom Pain, and the identity of one enigmatic man in particular.

Meanwhile, due to the unconventional structure of the Cipher organization, and knowledge gleaned through his many years of XOF service, Skull Face is able to gradually subvert its resources to cement a growing power base: a parasite, in a sense, gorging on a robust and oblivious host. The stage is set for...

1984 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

When Big Boss, or rather Ahab, awakes from his nine-year coma as The Phantom Pain begins, he is immediately embroiled in a dramatic (and, at times, terrifyingly surreal) fight for his life.

Despite safeguards put in place by Zero, not to mention Ocelot’s expert oversight, Skull Face somehow learns of Big Boss's location. He sends an overwhelming force to the Cypriot hospital to finish the job that he began with Paz’s explosive payloads. At the vanguard of this assault is Quiet, an expert assassin ordered to personally identify and execute Big Boss. Only the last-second intervention of Ahab's roommate, the heavily bandaged Ishmael, prevents his hapless demise.

Ishmael barely defeats Quiet in an unconventional duel that leaves her in flames and defenestrated. This provides a moment of brief respite where Ishmael reveals that he has been watching over Ahab for the full nine years of his coma, before XOF forces begin an all-out onslaught on the hospital, executing patients and staff alike without pity or remorse.

Bizarrely, it is a second antagonist, apparently unaffiliated with the XOF forces, who indirectly enables the enfeebled Ahab and Ishmael to escape the building. The terrifying Man on Fire, his body awash with seemingly supernatural flames and apparently impervious to bullets or explosives, appears hell-bent upon killing Big Boss himself. The slender opportunities provided by the resultant conflict between XOF forces and this creature, who can apparently effortlessly ingest projectiles and propel them back with deadly force at his assailants, provides sufficient confusion for Ishmael to steal an ambulance.

Ahab is clearly in a desperate state throughout this ordeal, and witnesses sights that must surely be hallucinations. These include the apparition of a gigantic whale appearing in the sky, twisting to snatch an attack helicopter from the air in its enormous maw.

When Ishmael loses consciousness during their high-speed escape, Ahab is forced to grab the wheel. In the aftermath of a consequent crash, he awakes to find Ishmael has disappeared. Only the timely arrival of Ocelot, and a sudden rainstorm that quells the flames of the Man on Fire, saves his life.

With physical rehabilitation and Ocelot’s expert assistance in getting up to speed in contemporary world affairs, Ahab quickly relearns what it takes to be the living legend known as Big Boss. Repatriated to a new (yet fledgling) Mother Base, established off the coast of the Seychelles by Kazuhira Miller in his absence, Big Boss's first debut post-coma engagement is to rescue his second-in-command from captivity after a recent disastrous operation.

Once Miller is back at Mother Base and restored to active duty, the command structure of Big Boss and Miller, supported by the ever-resourceful Ocelot, begin to expand the new mercenary organization—dubbed Diamond Dogs—by completing contracts for a wide variety of clients. Naturally, they derive a certain satisfaction from accepting commissions that lead them into direct conflict with known Cipher interests. One assignment ends with Big Boss capturing his would-be assassin back at Cyprus, Quiet, after a sniping duel. Curious about this unusual and gifted adversary, he takes her to Mother Base and eventually integrates her into the fold of his burgeoning army.

Big Boss eventually obtains a solid lead on Skull Face’s whereabouts. Though this does not lead to a decisive confrontation, the mission brings him into direct contact with Huey Emmerich, who he then takes back to Mother Base for interrogation. The scientist had been forced (or so Emmerich insists) to work for Skull Face on a new Metal Gear with nuclear capabilities dubbed “Sahelanthropus”. Though Big Boss, Miller and (especially) Ocelot believe Emmerich to be a compulsive liar, and still harbor grave suspicions over his involvement in the destruction of the original Mother Base, the decision is made to allow him to stay on board to contribute his considerable expertise to the organization's R&D projects.

We also learn the identity of the Man on Fire, and the strange, gas-mask-wearing “floating boy” who accompanies him. The Man on Fire is none other than the twisted human wreckage of the former Colonel Volgin, presumed dead after the events of Operation Snake Eater. Catatonic but still clinically alive, Volgin's body was retrieved by Soviet military scientists, who maintained his vital functions in a stage of hibernation while they studied his apparently paranormal capacity for manipulating electricity.

The floating child, meanwhile, is known only by. the designation given to him by Soviet military researchers: Tretij Rebenok or “The Third Child”. Traumatized by the effects of his arcane psychokinetic abilities from an early age, he became a shell broadly devoid of emotion and ego. His advanced powers when we first meet him as an adolescent, it transpires, are fueled exclusively by his proximity to extremes of hatred or anger felt by others.

After a plane crash, in which The Third Child was the sole survivor, a chain of events led the boy's mind into sufficient proximity to sense Volgin’s boundless enmity for Big Boss. With this, their association was forged: Volgin, a scorched carcass imbued with an overpowering obsession to kill the man who destroyed his dreams; and The Third Child, who could facilitate his desire for vengeance. This conjunction gave birth to the creature known as the Man on Fire.

(This was also, it transpires, the means by which Skull Face learned of Big Boss’s location after a nine-year search. Having received word of their curious relationship through Cipher channels under his control, Skull Face took an interest in the case of the strange child and the former Soviet colonel. This led to a momentous development: the animosity felt by Skull Face became the primary inspirational force behind The Third Child's powers in close proximity, effectively putting both the child and Volgin at his disposal. When Skull Face investigated the particulars of the plane crash, he discovered that the events that led to its destruction began over Cyprus: caused, Ocelot later posits, by The Third Child sensing the latent anger of Big Boss far below as his flight passed overhead. Skull Face thought this anomaly worthy of further scrutiny—which led to his discovery of Big Boss.)

On the trail of Skull Face in both Afghanistan and Africa, Big Boss gradually learns about his development of peerlessly advanced biotechnological processes that enable the specialists in his employ (and, by extension, him) to repurpose rare parasites for their precision-engineered military applications. Some are applied to a host to gain the benefit of a highly profitable symbiotic relationship—such as those carried by the fearsome Skulls, his crack soldiers, that imbue them with such astounding physical capabilities. These augmentations are also a part of Quiet’s body, which explains her extraordinary gifts (and, of course, the mechanism for her recovery from the injuries sustained on Cyprus).

Not all of the parasites under development have a beneficial relationship with their host, though. Big Boss learns that Skull Face has been working on the development of a parasite specific to human vocal cords: a variety that lives within the throats of carriers and is activated, weaponized, when it detects the distinctive strains of a specific language.

One of his more fateful missions has Big Boss extract a child soldier from Africa: the “White Mamba”, a charismatic and remarkably tough 12-year-old boy who we will come to know as Eli for the rest of the story.

1984 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Continued)

Focusing on the parasite lead, Big Boss draws ever closer to Skull Face. Their climactic encounter, however, is defined by its absence of a traditional showdown between the mortal enemies. With Big Boss placed in a broadly helpless situation, Skull Face opts to relate the dimensions of his ingenuity to the man who eclipsed him for so many frustrated years.

Perfectly aware that Zero, now in persistent vegetative state, has already set in motion his plan to control world affairs via an advanced A.I. system that would later be known as The Patriots, Skull Face explains his elaborate two-step plan.

The first stage is to release a contagious vocal cord parasite strain that targets a specific language: English. Any person infected who subsequently speaks the language will both trigger the proliferation of the parasite within their body, leading to certain death, but also cause the infection of all other people within transmission range. This explains why Quiet does not speak until, much later in the story, she feels that she must: as a host, the parasite would kill her and potentially lead to an epidemic.

The propagation of the infection could, ultimately, lead to the effective destruction of the English language on a global scale, which would in turn prevent the Patriots system from ever becoming operative to within a fraction of its envisioned design parameters. Not even the artful Major Zero could have anticipated such an event while developing the blueprints for his A.I. successor.

The second step of Skull Face’s plans to mass-produce nuclear-equipped Walker Gear technology designed by Emmerich, and then supply this weapon to all suitable interested parties: governments, Private Military Companies (PMCs), even terrorist cells. His scheme relies on the use and manufacture of mysterious microorganisms known as Metallic Archaea—two varieties in particular: one that corrodes metals, and another that has a profitably distinctive relationship with uranium. With the latter, Skull Face found a way to create nuclear warheads without the expense and complications of conventional processing and enrichment technologies. In other words, he can easily mount nuclear missiles on the mass-produced Walker Gears, making weapons of mass destruction available to virtually anyone—a development that would completely rewrite the balance of international relationships.

Using Sahelanthropus as a propaganda tool to instill fear and paranoia in the population, Skull Face hopes to rekindle the Cold War and foster a worldwide nuclear arms race. Thanks to a failsafe device installed in each Walker Gear, Skull Face could monitor and control all of the warheads at his whim, putting him in the position where he would effectively control the entire world’s nuclear arsenal.

Helpless and clearly incapable of defeating the varied forces confronting him, Big Boss is saved against all odds by the presence of Eli, who had stowed away on the Diamond Dogs support chopper hovering above prior to take-off. When The Third Child senses Eli, he exults in the boy's deep-rooted and colossal capacity for animosity—a strain of hatred that surpasses even that of Volgin and Skull Face, whom he promptly abandons. Overwhelmed by the sensations that the child soldier's mind evokes, The Third Child sends the Metal Gear on a rampage, trampling Volgin, devastating the XOF troops and mortally wounding Skull Face. By employing his incomparable expertise, however, Big Boss stops the Metal Gear in a spectacular showdown.

When Big Boss and Miller approach Skull Face in the wake of the fight and ascertain the extent of his injuries, both resolve to leave their nemesis to either take his own life, or die in protracted agony. It is Huey Emmerich, to the surprise of those present, who unexpectedly steps forward to deliver the coup de grace. Eli returns to Mother Base with Big Boss, but has clearly formed a dangerous bond with The Third Child. For those who have followed the series since Metal Gear Solid, this event should cement any suspicions about the future identities of these two.

Though the stories that follow the conclusion of the main Skull Face arc (and that oh-so-deceptive credits sequence) may be briefly misconstrued as postscripts, these subsequent tales turn out to be of great import. Each tale is a vicious gut-punch to the protagonist that, if we accept that violence and discord serve to sow their own kin, perhaps shapes the man that Big Boss becomes at the nexus of the Metal Gear canon: the point at which we arrive at Mr. Kojima’s first two installments in the series. At this stage, the hero of the pre-1990s stories must necessarily become the series antagonist for a time, no matter how nuanced he or his actions appear in light of past and future episodes.

It cannot be denied that, even for a man as outwardly implacable as Big Boss, the closing tales of The Phantom Pain represent anything but a succession of profound sorrows for the legendary soldier. As witnessed in the (entirely illusory) cinematic sequences ‘where he imagines himself interacting with a still-living Paz, he is by no means devoid of emotion or sentiment in the margins of a mind that, he later claims to Solid Snake, died with The Boss. His relationship with Quiet, founded on a mutual respect that grows throughout their association on Mother Base, almost certainly lacks a traditional romantic dimension for either party. This fact doesn't diminish the significance of the connection between two very distinct soldiers—or Quiet’s sacrifice of her own life to preserve that of Big Boss.

Despite Ocelot’s assurance that Big Boss is not his father, Eli's belief that he is a product of the “Les Enfants Terribles” project is unshakable. Even if what he believes is true, Big Boss is no more his father than he is his brother; in clinical terms, based on what the overarching story tells us, the Diamond Dogs leader cannot be described as anything more than an unwitting template. And yet, the hatred that this man inspires in Eli is inexhaustible: it comes to define him. His arcane relationship with The Third Child almost assuredly exacerbates the situation.

Based on available evidence, particularly Big Boss’s encounters with Volgin, it might be construed that the modus operandi of The Third Child at this point in his life might be to bring his subjects into proximity and direct conflict with the subjects of their rancor, without ever permitting a decisive blow or any slender degree of reconciliation or acceptance. Eli’s uprisings and escape attempts on Mother Base culminate in his theft of Sahelanthropus, thereby permanently dividing him from the few individuals in the world who might have rehabilitated the single-minded child soldier. But if The Third Child simply reflects what truly lies at the heart of an individual, perhaps Eli really is truly naught but a terrible little bastard—and whatever his future fate may be, it’s assured by the depth of his unwavering and unwholesome obsession.

In the thematic coda to The Phantom Pain, the outbreak of a mutated English strain of the vocal cord parasite on Mother Base forces Big Boss to slaughter his troops to contain a global catastrophe. Though he grimly assumes this grave responsibility without complaint or apparent compunction, the visual cues suggesting that this act further loosens the shackles on his “inner demon” are inescapable.

Maybe the cumulative events of The Phantom Pain truly do set Big Boss on the path to become the “oni” he resembles in this episode—and Solid Snake's later defeat of him is virtuous and necessary, Patriot paymasters and all. But even if this is the case, his is not a classic “heel turn”, a villainous conversion with a flourish and an impish wink to the crowd. It is, instead, the product of a gradual erosion of a man to the point where only his obsessions remain.

In the short term, Big Boss is more determined than ever to strengthen his troops to the point where he can found his own nation free from traditional governance—a dream that he will later come close to fulfilling in the 1990s.

1995 & 1999 - Metal Gear & Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

(Note: Naturally, for the two games developed at the very beginning of this intensely story-rich series, the events that occur during their specific time period only swim into recognizable focus for most players when viewed through the lens of prior or subsequent episodes. They remain canon, of course, but large portions of their dialogue and developments are now taken with a generous pinch of salt. Our brief focus here rests upon revelations and developments that actually appear in other episodes.)

The games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake tell the story of how Big Boss, now at the head of a very large army of mercenaries, establishes two (fictional) military nations, Outer Heaven, and, later, Zanzibar Land, in an attempt to stand on an equal footing with governments worldwide. On both occasions, the aspirant tyrant (and, of course, the titular weapons technology at his disposal) is foiled by a rookie agent, Solid Snake, his son—or, as we all came to understand later in the real-life Metal Gear chronology, one of the three clones from the “Les Enfants Terribles” project.

Despite being unaware of their existence, Solid Snake unwittingly acts as a tool for Zero’s Patriots, who have been seeking to neutralize Big Boss for years. Once Snake completes his missions in Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land, The Patriots secretly retrieve the body of Big Boss and pacify him by inducing a state of perpetual coma.

Though Zero has been in a persistent vegetative state for over a decade, The Patriots, now a fully computerized A.|. system designed to manage world affairs and control the flow of information, still act in accordance with his beliefs: in particular, that society can only function through a necessary measure of uniformity with restricted individual will. The Boss's deeply human ideal of freedom and personal commitment is therefore profaned by Major Zero’s A.I. to become a perverted and pathological obsession with control and order, a distrust of unanticipated innovation or initiative, and a belief in the power of enforced conformity to engender perpetual, manageable repetition.

For Ocelot, one of the founding members of Cipher who still understands and appreciates the true nature of the sacrifice made by The Boss (his mother), a growing unease with the methods and corrupted ideology of The Patriots eventually becomes a sense of outrage. But how might he strike out at an omnipresent enemy, an organization with agents embedded within political, military and economic hierarchies throughout the world? To conceal any evidence of his involvement, he devises a sophisticated conspiracy of bewildering complexity.

2005 - Metal Gear Solid

The first major play in Ocelot’s grand plan to destroy The Patriots takes place in 2005. A group of terrorists seize control of an Alaskan nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, Alaska, which secretly houses a radical new weapon: Metal Gear REX. In response to the crisis, special agent Solid Snake is sent to neutralize terrorist leader Liquid Snake (Solid Snake’s twin brother from the “Les Enfants Terribles” project) and his men—with Ocelot counted among their numbers.

The Shadow Moses Incident, as it would subsequently be known, was actually initiated by United States President George Sears (Solidus Snake, the third and final Big Boss clone from the “Les Enfants Terribles” initiative), who sought to obtain test data from the Metal Gear REX project as part of a plan to escape the control of The Patriots. He commissioned Ocelot to retrieve the required disc from the Shadow Moses facility, perhaps unaware that Ocelot himself was a founder member of the Cipher/Patriots organization. Ocelot, in turn, is of course working to achieve his own ends, and does so by manipulating Liquid—whom we can speculate he first met as Eli during his time on the Mother Base in the 1980s, subsequently cultivating their relationship over the intervening years.

To gain control of Metal Gear REX, Liquid artfully misdirects Solid Snake, who unwittingly activates the war machine for him. During the process, Snake makes the acquaintance of Ocelot (even severing his arm during their fight) and Hal “Otacon” Emmerich (the son of Huey Emmerich and Dr. Strangelove). Once the war machine Is operational, Liquid assumes direct control of it, but Snake triumphs against REX and ultimately kills his brother.

Select but damning details of the Shadow Moses Incident are leaked to the press, and the existence of Metal Gear REX is revealed on the eve of a planned nuclear disarmament agreement. President George Sears (AKA Solidus Snake) is now in possession of the Metal Gear REX test data secured by Ocelot. Solidus abandons his presidency and disappears from public life.

2007–2009 - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

In the two years between the Shadow Moses Incident and the continuation of the story in Metal Gear Solid 2, Solidus hides from The Patriots and prepares to strike against them. Meanwhile, Snake and Otacon join forces to found an independent non-governmental organization (Philanthropy) dedicated to preventing the proliferation of Metal Gear technology.

In 2007, Snake and Otacon learn that a disguised oil tanker transporting a new, inordinately powerful amphibious model of Metal Gear (Metal Gear RAY) is due to pass close to New York City. Snake infiltrates the vessel and obtains footage of the machine, but matters take a turn for the worst when Ocelot activates a series of explosions to scuttle the tanker and then suddenly, inexplicably, undergoes a series of convulsions that seem somehow connected to his replacement right arm—the original having been severed during the Shadow Moses Incident. It becomes apparent that he is seemingly possessed by the spirit of the deceased Liquid Snake, the original owner of Ocelot’s new limb. Seemingly under the control of Snake’s brother, he escapes aboard Metal Gear RAY before regaining his full faculties.

The story resumes two years later at a water purification complex (the “Big Shell”) built on the site where the tanker had sunk. As before, the events that occur are the product of the meticulous and multifaceted designs of The Patriots, with Ocelot again serving his own separate and artfully concealed interests.

In fact, while central character Raiden initially appears to have been deployed to combat a terrorist threat, the entire setup is a bewilderingly elaborate real-life simulation, modeled on the Shadow Moses Incident and devised to push its principle protagonist (Raiden) to the very limits of his mental and physical endurance. This experiment is a part of the “Solid Snake Simulation” plan (abbreviated as “S3"), contrived to enable The Patriots to explore the complexities of the human psyche so they might better control it. By studying Raiden’s responses (and, indeed, those of other players in the charade) to the evolving challenges and conditions, The Patriots ultimately hope to refine their software routines.

The Big Shell purification facility was built on the pretext that the sunken tanker had leaked oil, but is actually a mobile fortress and home to Arsenal Gear, the latest development in Metal Gear technology. The Big Shell is controlled by a Patriots A.I. system engineered by Emma Emmerich (Otacon’s step-sister) to manipulate the flow of digital information throughout the world. When Solidus and his followers attack the facility to take control of Arsenal Gear to aid their fight against The Patriots, the shadowy organization has—naturally—anticipated and effectively encouraged this attack.

Indeed, almost every party involved in the Big Shell experiment has been unknowingly manipulated by The Patriots to act out principal events of the Shadow Moses Incident. Solidus and his cohorts play the role of Liquid and the “terrorists”; Raiden, ostensibly deployed to thwart Solidus, is their primary test subject, and is therefore given the role of Snake. Even the deception of Raiden in Codec conversations with his superiors and support team broadly replicates the misinformation that Snake faced in his fight to stop Liquid and Metal Gear REX.

Only Ocelot and Solid Snake appear to lie outside the operational parameters of this most sophisticated simulation—Ocelot still seeking the downfall of the organization he helped to create, Snake searching for a meaning to his life beyond the narrow boundaries once dictated by his former paymasters. As rogue variables in an intricate program, it is they who cause the simulation to “crash”—their actions and involvement lead to a situation where a computer worm created by Emma Emmerich attacks the A.l. system. Though it does not fully destroy the A.l. as planned, Emma's program seriously impairs its functionality.

By the end of the drama aboard Big Shell, virtually all of its actors are dead barring Raiden, Ocelot, Snake and Otacon. In the final battle of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden complies with the wishes of The Patriots and eliminates Solidus, despite learning the real purpose of his “mission”. Devastated by the sheer spirit-crushing import of their revelations, and his submission to their lies, he is nonetheless inspired by a speech made by Snake. Raiden, the veteran warrior explains, is free to commit to (or, indeed, fight for) any way of ife or action he has faith in, and his humanity stems from the sincerity of his faith. Interestingly, this is strongly reminiscent of the beliefs held so dear by The Boss; the very principle of individual liberty which has inspired the ongoing attempts of Ocelot to destroy The Patriots from within. Perhaps this is why Ocelot does not attack Snake during the story of Metal Gear Solid 2: as, despite their different roles and methods, both believe in the same cause.

In the aftermath, we can reflect that Ocelot has gained the most from the Shadow Moses and Big Shell incidents. Of Solidus, only a body remains, but like that of Big Boss, it still has an important role to play. The Patriots fear the bizarre eruptions of spiritual possession that cause Ocelot to act under the control of Liquid Snake, but do not understand that they are merely an elaborate subterfuge used to conceal Ocelot’s true objectives. He has taken another step towards defeating the man who steered Cipher so far from its founding purpose, and gave life to The Patriots: Major Zero.

2014 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Almost every protagonist in the Metal Gear saga bears a burden and seeks atonement for past sins. From Ocelot, who strives to bring an end to The Patriots (the organization he helped to create), to Raiden, who is haunted by memories of his life as a child soldier, to Snake, who is but a clone of Big Boss and has been manipulated by The Patriots for an entire lifetime, it is a desire for redemption that drives the events of Metal Gear Solid 4 and brings about a conclusion to the overarching narrative.

After Arsenal Gear runs aground on Manhattan Island in 2009, the international community unites in its condemnation of the United States government. To address the growing fear of powerful state-run armies being used to satisfy questionable political agendas, it is deemed safer to entrust Private Military Companies (PMCs) with a greater degree of control in future conflicts. Technically bereft of ideology or motive beyond a drive to increase profitability, and held to account by both shareholders and public opinion, the meteoric growth of these corporations leads to an unforeseen development: the “war economy”, where the commercial potential of armed conflict (from weapons R&D and manufacture, to the salaries paid to individual mercenaries) becomes a dynamo that drives global financial markets. War, in short, becomes the key to growth and prosperity.

The Patriots-controlled mechanism that facilitates the growth of the war economy is called Sons of the Patriots (SOP): a secured system of real-time battlefield control. All soldiers and PMC mercenaries under its watchful eye are injected with nanomachines that identify each individual, monitoring and essentially controlling their behavior, interacting with a host’s metabolism and manipulating body chemistry to vastly improve combat ability. Controlled by a central A.I., these nanomachines are used to engender a “combat high” to suppress natural human instincts, negating potential anxiety, apprehension or remorse as soldiers engage their opponents. Other benefits included heightened awareness and improved teamwork; on a strategic level, SOP is the culmination of every military tactician’s most feverish dreams.

An additional application of the System is to restrict the use of military hardware, from small arms to vehicles, to approved subjects only. Combatants can only use a weapon if their ID authorizes them to do so; the central A.I. ensures that a soldier’s rifle is deactivated in the hands of any other individual, even his colleagues. Throughout the world, virtually all weapons—both existing and newly manufactured—are modified or designed for exclusive use with the SOP System.

On a micro level, SOP breeds a new generation of more compliant, peerlessly efficient soldiers; on a macro level, military officials can monitor and instantly react to developments on the battlefield. This is the realization of the “clean” conflict ideal, a perceived end to human rights violation, whereby weapons can be deactivated (or soldiers restrained on a biological level) to prevent acts of barbarity. Another attraction for governments is that conflicts fought by PMC contractors are cheaper, and remove the need for states to maintain large standing armies.

A side-effect of the “war economy”, however, is that armed conflict becomes a business like any other. The PMC corporations, inferred by nationalist sentiment or political dogma, begin to offer their services to the highest bidder: be that nation state, guerilla movement or even terrorist faction. By 2014, PMCs control more than half of the world’s combined military forces.

As the story of Metal Gear Solid 4 begins, five PMC corporations, each one a multinational with a distinct influence in world affairs, dominate their shared marketplace. However, all five of these are controlled by a single parent company, Outer Heaven (named as homage to Big Boss's 1995 uprising), whose principal director is none other than Liquid Ocelot: Ocelot (ostensibly) possessed by Liquid.

A prematurely ageing Snake is requested to undertake a new mission. Unusually, this is not to be under the mandate of a specific organization or government, but merely for the greater good. It appears that Liquid Ocelot is planning to use the five PMCs under his control to launch an insurrection; Snake's mission is to eliminate him before this can happen. The manhunt begins in the Middle East, Liquid Ocelot’s last known location.

When Snake locates Liquid Ocelot, he attempts to line up a clear shot, but is interrupted as the surrounding soldiers are suddenly subjected to enormous pain and confusion. Struggling through this sobbing, convulsing, agonized crowd, Snake also falls afoul of the unknown effect, missing his opportunity to assassinate Liquid Ocelot.

Snake then travels to South America, where he learns the true nature of the inexplicable conclusion of events in the Middle East. Rather than manipulating the nanomachines within each soldier's body (as initially assumed), Liquid Ocelot had simply deactivated them. Freed from the influence of these microscopic yet powerful devices, the soldiers were instantly subjected to the full force of the psychological and physiological effects that the SOP System had previously repressed. It might take a war veteran a lifetime to barely come to terms with their role in a conflict. Stress, pain, remorse, fear, revulsion, anger, and more: all these extremes of feeling were unleashed within a second at Liquid’s command, suffocating the soldiers’ minds and causing them to cease to function beyond a basic animal level. The SOP System, in essence, operates as a prophylactic. Beyond this barrier, the blood, brain and flesh of each subject remember and store every detail. Outwardly the very epitome of calm, capable professionalism, the biological reality for each soldier was anything but sanguine—the utilitarian SOP System being designed to repress effects, not address causes.

Snake realizes that Liquid Ocelot’s aim isn’t to destroy the “Sons of the Patriots” system, as doing so would cause the collapse of his own army. Instead, his objective—dubbed “Guns of the Patriots”—is to gain sole control of the system, leaving him with the only valid army in the world. Once again, Liquid Ocelot performs a second SOP “experiment”, causing the same effects witnessed in the Middle East.

Liquid Ocelot’s plans now become clear. To take control of Sons of the Patriots, he needs to obtain Big Boss's genetic code and biometric data: the keys to the virtual castle built by The Patriots. The two disruptions of SOP in the Middle East and South America had been Liquid Ocelot’s attempts to use code and data derived from Liquid (through his replacement arm), and then Solid Snake (from samples). The unsatisfactory results were the consequence of Liquid and Solid Snake's status as incomplete clones—the modifications (infertility, short life span) common to the brothers actually caused both attempts to fail, as only Solidus had been an authentic clone of his “father”.

To realize his goal, Liquid Ocelot therefore needs to locate the body of Big Boss, apparently maintained in an artificial coma, as a “biomort”, at a secret location. Traveling to Eastern Europe, Snake learns that Liquid Ocelot is waging a war to eliminate Major Zero, and that The Patriots are attempting to exert total control via a system of A.l. programs: GW (believed defunct from Arsenal Gear), TJ, AL and TR (the initials of the four American presidents represented on Mount Rushmore), all controlled by a master A.I., JD (‘John Doe”). Following the neutralization of GW on the Big Shell in 2009, these A.I. programs continued to monitor and filter the flow of information through world networks. From politics to finance, law to social values, and, latterly, the war economy, nothing escapes the attention of these indefatigable sentinels. However, GW was merely “fragmented” by Emma Emmerich’s digital attack, and is now held by Liquid Ocelot. By using GW in conjunction with the data derived from the body of Big Boss, Liquid Ocelot will have everything he needs to cross otherwise impenetrable security barriers and take control of The Patriots’ system.

Despite Snake's best efforts, Liquid Ocelot succeeds in obtaining the body of Big Boss, which is subsequently consumed by fire. Taking control of SOP, Liquid Ocelot locks the weapons of his would-be captors at the very moment when his cause seems hopeless (and, for that matter, of all troops other than his own, worldwide). Few survive the resultant carnage as even vehicles fail to respond to the frantic interactions of their operators, and Liquid Ocelot calmly departs the scene of a grizzly, one-sided melee.

Liquid Ocelot’s control of the system is still limited, though: to fulfill his objectives, he must destroy JD with a sufficiently powerful weapon. With weapons of mass destruction still locked away by the master A.I., he travels to Shadow Moses to retrieve the rail gun from the remains of Metal Gear REX: the one weapon anterior to (and therefore outside of) the System and within his grasp capable of destroying his intended target. With JD destroyed, control of The Patriot's system would revert to GW—and, therefore, Liquid Ocelot.

2014 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Continued)

In hot pursuit, Snake infiltrates Shadow Moses as he did nine years before, but on finding REX—still lying as Snake had left it so many years previously—he discovers that its rail gun has already been removed. Snake and his companions therefore have no choice but to infiltrate Outer Haven, an Arsenal-Gear-style vessel that Liquid Ocelot had previously seized from The Patriots. Only by destroying Outer Haven’s central server, home to GW, can Snake prevent his adversary from achieving his goal.

After a withering series of ordeals on his way to Outer Haven’s server room, an exhausted Snake enables Otacon to upload a virus. Surprisingly, though, the virus does not focus exclusively on GW and spreads to the rest of the system, even affecting the central A.I., JD. As Snake lies gravely wounded, fatigued beyond rational measure, alive through sheer brute force of will, he witnesses a recording hidden in the virus code. It transpires that the virus was designed to destroy all of the A.I. programs, as The Patriots were planning to extend their control network to govern not just soldiers, but all mankind.

In his final confrontation with Liquid Ocelot (who finally dies in the duel’s aftermath), and the later meeting with Big Boss, Snake learns that it was this outcome that Ocelot had sought from the very beginning: to release mankind from the twisted auspices of The Patriots, and the prison of their rational, micro-managed world. With the death of Major Zero, and the A.I. programs that were to succeed him, The Patriots—and their ideals of standardization and social control—are no more.

Ultimately, the story of Metal Gear Solid 4 is the conclusion of a vast, series-long conspiracy—at the end of which, Ocelot destroys the legacy of Major Zero’s ideology. We should be under no illusions as to the true role of Ocelot from the very start. As Big Boss reveals during the finale, “In order to fool the system, Ocelot used nanomachines and psychotherapy to transplant Liquid’s personality into his own mind. He used hypnotic suggestion to turn himself into a mental doppelganger of Liquid.” Foreseeing every step Snake would make, every likely outcome, Ocelot allows his apparent adversary to complete the most integral parts of his plot because he understands, fundamentally, that Snake is the tool of The Patriots, and therefore above suspicion in their eyes—whether he knows It or not.

Ocelot, faking the presence of Liquid Snake within his consciousness, has no intention of using the rail gun retrieved from Metal Gear REX. Neither does he truly plan to become leader of The Patriots himself, despite his assertions to the contrary. Ocelot simply wishes for an end to The Patriots’ control system, and leads Snake, their trusted yet unknowing tool, to become the agent of their ruin. For greater verisimilitude, at no point does Snake enjoy an easy ride: the sheer ferocity of the forces ranged against him underlines the apparent sincerity of Liquid Ocelot’s desire to slay the legendary soldier. And yet, Ocelot, significantly, fails to dispatch Snake when given several opportunities to do so, in a manner that clearly surpasses the traditional cliché of villainous arrogance.

Ocelot, then, is not a nefarious figure in his later life, a tyrant seeking endless power, but the mastermind behind a plan to break the authoritarian web that The Patriots were weaving over the world. From this perspective, Ocelot (even in his guise as the pitiless Liquid Ocelot) is as much a hero as Snake. Despite the mutual antagonism from their first encounter, Snake and Ocelot actually worked together to stop The Patriots’ rule. In that sense, both lived up to the example of The Boss's legendary commitment: the resolute will not to try to forcefully change the world, but to preserve it no matter the cost, even if this leads to self-sacrifice. This is echoed in Big Boss's words once he finally understands what The Boss wanted: “It’s not about changing the world. It's about doing our best to leave the world the way it is.”

Big Boss and Major Zero, the two souls who contribute so much momentum to the stories of the Metal Gear Solid series, are polar opposites, extremes of the same scale. While the former thirsts for a form of absolute liberty in the sense of government-free individuals (as demonstrated by his actions in both incarnations of Mother Base, then Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land), the latter desires total control. Both misinterpret and corrupt the teachings of The Boss, losing sight of the reason behind her final sacrifice. Big Boss believes in an ideology that promotes individual liberty and endless fighting for disparate causes at the expense of stability, security and structure, thus restricting true freedom of citizens to speak, to grow, and even to exist. Conversely, Zero's obsession with order, and the perceived need to preserve society by means of standardization and intrusive governance, leads society to the brink of disaster. His A.I. creation begins to shape a future where individuals would unknowingly suffer not only restrictions in their freedom to act or express themselves, but also to feel beyond the confines of managed boundaries. A perverted liberty of a kind might still exist in such a civilization, but in the narrowest, least genuine sense of the word.

For Zero, freedom would be preserved by imposing a set of constraints and offering individuals liberty within this context; for Big Boss, it could be assured through the absence of constraints and never-ending conflict. Both could only define freedom in relation to boundaries, to limitations, and this was the core of their betrayal of The Boss’s legacy. She saw liberty in a far more positive light, as the result of personal and collective commitment.

From the day they founded Cipher in 1970, the way of Zero and Big Boss was that of oblivion—by forgetting the sense The Boss had shown them, they forgot who they were and what they were truly fighting for. This led both to instigate a chain of events in which the same tragedy is repeated over and over, a series of questions that always seem to elicit the same replies. This explains why the Metal Gear Solid games follow a palpable blueprint: the same themes (death, vengeance, deception), the same actors (a hero, a designated enemy, an elite unit), the same goals (freedom, redemption). Though each episode's narrative offers a similar scenario, they are all different from one another via distinct variations—deviations in the series’ DNA that make each installment unique. This, it could be said, is a reflection of life itself, and mankind in particular: reproducing fundamentally the same things, and yet never reliving exactly the same thing.

After Big Boss's failure to create his warrior’s utopia in Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land, Zero’s dream of an ultimate form of control over humanity could finally prosper. Having lost both his dearest friend and the force that kept his principles and beliefs in check, the advanced autonomous A.I. program that operated in his stead attempted to apply order to mankind by seeking the continual reproduction of the same, an administrable repetition without end. Its behavior can be likened to a dog chasing its own tail, or, more pertinently, a computer program stuck in an infinite loop. This explains why the Patriots (or, rather, the A.I. that succeeded Zero) use Solid Snake as the primary agent of the system, and the same stratagems with each iteration.

On every occasion barring the last, the circle is refreshed, the hegemony of The Patriots challenged (though not broken) when the A.I. fails to take an unseen variable into account. Of greatest import is the reality that, in each episode where he appears, Ocelot’s true role, his betrayal to Cipher/The Patriots, is never anticipated or understood. However, every time the story is told, certain distinctions and innovations abide; the protagonists grow, and certain things survive, if only via the influence that Snake has on those he meets.

Solid Snake, it transpires, is the true heir of The Boss’s legacy. Just like The Boss, he is ready to sacrifice himself to save the world, without ever caring about his personal fate or reputation. All that matters to him is that his ideas and actions be passed on, despite his imminent death and his infertility. As he puts it himself:

“Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we've seen, heard, felt... anger, joy and sorrow... these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light. We have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.”

Timeline: Major Events

1935 - Birth of Big Boss (real name: John; nickname: Jack).

1944 - Birth of Ocelot.

1945 - Boris Volgin secures the Philosophers’ Legacy in the aftermath of World War II. The Legacy falls in the hands of his son, Colonel Volgin, a few years later.

1950 - John (later known as Big Boss) begins training with The Boss.

1962 - Major Zero forms the FOX unit, along with a classified XOF unit (led by Skull Face) designed to back up FOX in utmost secrecy.

1964 - Operation Snake Eater: The Shagohod is destroyed, and both Colonel Volgin and The Boss are killed by Big Boss. Ocelot retrieves half of the Philosophers’ Legacy for America and brings it back to Zero.

1970 - Ocelot retrieves the second half of the Philosophers’ Legacy. Creation of Cipher by Zero, along with Big Boss, Ocelot and three others, an organization that plans to use the appropriated funds to spread the ideals that they believe The Boss held dear.

1971 - Zero initiates the “Les Enfants Terribles” project.

1972 - Solid Snake and Liquid Snake are born as part of the “Les Enfants Terribles” project, followed by Solidus Snake. Big Boss permanently leaves Cipher and goes off on his own to build his army of mercenaries, recruiting Kazuhira Miller in the process.

1974 - Peace Walker Incident: Big Boss becomes entangled in a crisis that involves the CIA and the KGB, with Cipher manipulating all parties in the background. It is but a ploy designed by Major Zero to force Big Boss back to the Cipher fold. At the conclusion of the incident, Big Boss commands a large force stationed at Mother Base, and a Metal Gear with nuclear capabilities called ZEKE.

1975 - Ground Zeroes Incident: Falling afoul of a trap set by XOF commander Skull Face, Big Boss mounts a critical rescue attempt that clears the way for a sneak attack that destroys Mother Base. Skull Face makes an unsanctioned assassination attempt on Big Boss, leaving him gravely wounded and comatose.

1976 - While Big Boss is in a coma, Skull Face, exploiting the expertise of biotech specialist Code Talker, infects Zero with harmful parasites. Zero knows he will not survive, but buys himself a few years thanks to his connections and resources. Zero decides to create an A.I. system that will survive him and carry on his will—a system that would later evolve into The Patriots. The groundwork for the advanced A.I. is designed by Dr. Strangelove.

1977 - A diminished Zero visits Big Boss during his coma. He will soon lose all cognitive functions and says goodbye to the man he still considers as his dearest friend.

1980 - Dr. Strangelove, who joined and married Huey Emmerich while he was working on the design of Sahelanthropus for Skull Face, gives birth to Hal “Otacon” Emmerich.

1984 - The Phantom Pain episode: Big Boss wakes up from his coma and leads a new army, the Diamond Dogs, to eliminate Skull Face in his attempt to wipe the English language from the face of the Earth using vocal cord parasites. Huey Emmerich, after multiple betrayals that lead to the death of many Diamond Dogs soldiers, is banished from Mother Base. Eli, a child soldier extracted by Big Boss from Africa, escapes Mother Base thanks to his special bond with The Third Child—and presumably reappears in his more familiar guise as Liquid Snake years later, in the Shadow Moses Incident. Ocelot is already preparing his grand stratagem to take down Cipher/The Patriots.

1995 - Outer Heaven Uprising: Big Boss attempts to fulfill his dream of establishing a nation of mercenaries free from all government controls. He is stopped by the intervention of Solid Snake.

1997 - Huey Emmerich commits suicide after discovering that his son Hal and his second wife are conducting an affair.

1999 - Zanzibar Land Disturbance: Big Boss makes a second attempt to establish his free nation of mercenaries, but is stopped again by Solid Snake. Big Boss's body is retrieved by The Patriots and maintained in a state of perpetual coma for fifteen years.

2005 - Shadow Moses Incident: Solid Snake stops a terrorist unit led by Liquid Snake from launching a nuclear missile with Metal Gear REX. Ocelot has an arm severed during a duel against Snake. Kaz Miller is found dead in his house a few days prior to the incident, presumably killed on Liquid’s command—and possibly by Ocelot himself.

2006 - Ocelot has Liquid Snake's arm transplanted in place of the one he lost during the Shadow Moses Incident, which he will use as a prop while faking his Liquid Ocelot persona. Solid Snake and Otacon found Philanthropy, an NGO fighting to restrict the proliferation of Metal Gear technology.

2007 - Tanker Incident: Solid Snake takes photos from the newly developed Metal Gear RAY. Emma Emmerich is recruited by The Patriots to begin work on the GW artificial intelligence system.

2009 - Big Shell Incident: Raiden and Solid Snake eliminate Solidus Snake, who was attempting to free himself and the world from the influence of The Patriots. The whole incident was orchestrated by The Patriots in an attempt to better understand (and therefore, control) the human psyche.

2014 - Guns of the Patriots episode: Solid Snake and Ocelot (in his Liquid Ocelot persona) put an end to The Patriots by destroying their A.I. systems. Ocelot, Zero, and a briefly resurrected Big Boss all die at the conclusion of this episode.

#metal gear solid #mgs

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