The Boss's Curb-Stomp Battle of Naked Snake at the end of the Virtuous Mission perfectly highlights a contrast to earlier; when Snake was faced with Ocelot and his squad, he fires only a single non-lethal dart, and otherwise uses CQC grabs and a couple throws and smacks to precisely drop them with nary a severe injury even with guns aimed his way, showing his professional yet basic capabilities and that he was following the mission to not kill anyone there. The Boss gets her hands on Snake, and proverbially and literally disassembles him before he even has time to realize what she'd done using advanced versions of the same moves. Snake smacks and tosses Ocelot around elaborately, The Boss dislocates Snake's entire left arm in a second and then tosses him onto the bridge. It not only shows how much better she is, but the sheer difference of standards between the two — both spare their target(s) intentionally, but Snake's CQC has too many openings and was relatively soft and showy, whereas The Boss is too experienced for him to handle at that point and absolutely optimized in pragmatic use. This finally gets turned around by their final fight if you play your cards right, evolving Snake's CQC capabilities to the absolute monstrosity he'd become in melee going forwards.
At first, the revelation that Major Zero and Naked Snake's support crew were the founders of the Patriots seemed like a random retcon in an attempt to shoehorn the supporting cast of Snake Eater into the Patriots conspiracy in Sons of Liberty. But if you go back to the beginning of Operation: Snake Eater in MGS3, the password Zero tells Snake to use on ADAM was "Who are the Patriots?" and "La-li-lu-le-lo".
On the ported version, Metal Gear Solid 3D, players will notice that the 3D effect is turned off while aiming in first-person mode. At first, it seems like a lazy defect or fault in the game, but when you consider that you only aim with one eye open it starts to make sense because with one eye closed you lose your depth perception.
The way Snake's team react to Raikov's mask is a parody to how people reacted to Raiden back in Metal Gear Solid 2. Major Zero is a James Bond fan and he is used to seeing macho heroes. As a result, he detests Raikov for being too effeminate for his tastes. Paramedic appears to like Raikov's appearance while Signit just focuses on the design. Snake states he could be become popular wearing it but Zero disagrees with him. The Boss also makes a comment about the mask but Word of God made it as she was referring to herself.
Snake being Made of Iron is explained by his extensive and intense training, but how exactly could EVA survive being impaled by that splint of wood? But remember, she'd have to be pretty tough to endure Volgin's "activities".
During the Virtuous Mission, Snake's stamina gauge depletes slower than normal, especially if the player chose, "I Like MGS3!" Why only during the prologue? Because once the game begins proper, it's been essentially a week since Snake was brought back to the infirmary after his beating from the Boss, and he hasn't even had full time to heal all of his rather severe injuries before he's deployed again. Thus, his natural stamina is lower than it should be. The fact that the beatings he takes throughout the game don't leave a similar lasting effect is a miracle in and of itself.
Volgin is almost certainly the cruelest, most depraved and foul character in the series. But this isn't just so the player has a compelling villain to take down; the game's central theme is that there is no such thing as an eternal enemy, that people can only be enemies in relative terms. Even someone as despicable as Volgin. It's actually pretty fitting; the player is likely to not really care that he's a Soviet, only that he's a threat to them and personally affects the player.
The opening line of Snake Eater, "What a thrill," actually takes on a deeper meaning when you find out that The Boss' former codename was The Joy, after the thrill she only felt in battle.
In The Boss' big final speech, she tells Snake that one of the biggest epiphanies of her life came when she briefly served as an astronaut during the Cold War, and dreamed about a united world after seeing what the Earth looked like from space. The lyrics of the ending song "Way to Fall" have often been interpreted as The Boss' final lamentation before death, as she thinks about all the things that she wishes she could tell Snake. The song is performed by the band Starsailor, whose name is taken from the literal English translation of the word "astronaut". note It comes from the Greek words "astron" ("star") and "nautēs" ("sailor").
The final boss arena is a field of white flowers that magically turn red when The Boss is executed. This results in a pretty impressive amount of symbolism for a fancy backdrop: In the west, white generally symbolizes purity and red symbolizes blood or death. 1) The Boss has a silvery-white motif and dies. 2) Naked Snake begins his transition from well-meaning naif to series villain who engulfs the world in Orwellian war in attempt to force his concept of The Boss' ideals on the world. In Japan, white is a funereal color and red is historically used to identify heroic characters. 1)The Boss is revealed to be a hero upon death. 2) Naked Snake "dies" as a hero and reforges himself as a villain.
Although all comments about Raikov seem a Take That, Scrappy! to Raiden, at the same time it can be taken as an analysis. While Major Zero dislikes the character, Snake and Paramedic seem to like it.
Man, it's absolutely incredible that the Raikov mask is so accurate. Makes you wonder how on Earth they managed to get his measurements and other minor features down so perfectly. The reveal that Ocelot was an American double agent offers the perfect explanation for this: Ocelot took the necessary measurements and observations while undercover! Oh, and this is a double whammy when it comes to explaining odd things: While it's certainly a Contrived Coincidence that Sigint happened to include a plot-critical item on a whim, The Reveal shows that it didn't matter if he decided not to. The CIA already knew about Raikov, and would have ordered the inclusion of the mask anyway. Sigint's actions just meant they didn't have to invent an excuse for how they knew about Raikov to avoid compromising Ocelot.
Snake tells Ocelot that he was asking to have his Makarov jam on him when he tries out an "Israeli Draw" on Snake. He did this intentionally, as he's actually on Snake's side and not trying to kill him, but has to keep up appearances. Him looking like an idiot is better than blowing his cover.
This also explains all of Ocelot's ridiculous gun twirling theatrics which are far more prominent here than in other games. He's just stalling for time or otherwise passing up chances to kill Snake while hiding it under a veil of theatricality and arrogance. He demonstrates that he can casually aim impossible shots for fun, but he can't kill Snake if he spends half their fight twirling his guns around... but everyone including Snake assumes he's just being overly dramatic and not deliberately trying not to kill him.
Snake seems more interested in a box then he does Eva, and he spends most of the game with Eva staring at her exposed chest until the end where he finally looks at her face. When he first meets her and she asks if he trusts her. Snake outright says he does not know enough about EVA to trust her. Naked Snake is literally looking at the only fact that EVA is making known about herself.
At the end of the game, the Boss exposes her scar on her chest and abdomen, also revealing her breasts. Despite this obvious Navel-Deep Neckline, it does not come across as being fanservice. Why is that? Because Eva has been playing the role of Ms. Fanservice all along, with barely a scene going without her bosom being visible. At first it's titillating, but by the end of the game the player doesn't really care anymore. Hence, when the Boss finally shows some skin, the player just sees it for what it is: the Boss showing proof of her being a mother and the hell she's lived through. It's actually a brilliant way of maintaining The Boss' femininity without reducing her with objectification.
To elaborate on an entry in awesome page; Cowboy in the Soviet Union? Really? That's a very telltale sign that Ocelot is ADAM, an American spy planted in enemy ranks. And Snake noticed this from the beginning.
Major Zero's interest/obsession with James Bond movies and Big Boss' relative disinterest can both be viewed as ironic when you consider that both characters start acting a lot like Bond villains later in their lives. Compare the Patriots and Outer Heaven with organizations like SPECTRE, for example.
Boss telling Volgin to 'fight like a warrior' before the duel between him and Snake makes a lot of sense when you remember one thing: the Boss is never on Volgin's side, and Volgin has next to no actual SKILL in melee combat compared to Boss and Snake. She is baiting him into a one on one duel with Snake, where she knows Snake will have the upper hand because he fights like a soldier instead of a power-mad animal.
Boss tells Snake she wants the final battle to be "the greatest ten minutes of our lives!" And it was. Not in the good way, but it was the most important for Snake.
Although he still gets his ass handed to him, Snake does significantly better at fighting The Boss in the Shagohod warehouse than both fights beforehand, showing that he's improving his CQC, and foreshadowing that he can beat her later.
In military and intelligence parlance, a "big boss" is a special agent that exists outside the normal conventions of law and order in a chain of command. Often a big boss will possess a high ranking day to day job, since they need to amass and launder resources for their black budget somehow. However sometimes a big boss will be so shady that they're not accountable to the chain of command, yet also wield vast bureaucratic power over it. Think of all those CIA spooks you see in fiction, who show up with their "company clothes" and their shades, telling the military brass what courses of action is acceptable. Those are examples of a "big boss". The real appeal of a big boss however, is because they're a ghost, a shadow agent who exists outside the chain of command they're allowed to get involved in the dirtier, seedier, even outright illegal aspects of direct warfare and information warfare. The big boss therefore becomes something of a glorified mob boss, handed a blank check by his superiors and given full authority to do whatever is necessary to win, with the caveat that these dirty actions be kept secretive and deniable. General Butler popularized the term in the 1930s, claiming that his experience as a Marine was the military industry gave him orders to use military arms to strong arm and terrorize other countries in order to gain control over their markets. In this sense war becomes a racket once you have a big boss in control of your occupation. Big Boss has every reason to be ashamed of that title, because to him a "big boss" is basically a gangster compared to the more honorable warfare soldiers are supposed to be doing. Making it worse, he gets it by doing what amounts to an assassination, behavior very characteristic of a big boss.
A small one but... the Sorrow's 'boss-fight', as unusual, innovative and unique as it is, is still a boss with a specific strategy to 'defeat' them. So why does the Sorrow have no health, despite whatever you do? Simply enough, because he's already dead.
When one considers the code names the Cobras have, Snake's killing of them represents his path to becoming Big Boss. First, he kills his Pain and his Fear, setting himself on the path to becoming a great warrior. Next, he kills his End - dooming him to forever live a life of battle. Then, he kills his Fury and is killed by his Sorrow only to recover and continue his journey - as he begins to lose the emotions that would hold him back. Last of all, Naked Snake kills his Joy, becoming as empty as the Boss describes herself.
During the Sorrow's battle, The End simply floats past you peacefully unlike most of the other ghosts. At first this seems like a reference to his advanced age or heavy sleeping, but remember his last words (if you kill him in battle); he died peacefully and with no regrets. Unlike the others, his ghost bears no grudge against Snake.
At first, it might seem like a bit too convenient that EVA manages to bluff her way into being ADAM's partner, considering that in English, it's "Adam and Eve". But then you remember that everyone's supposed to be speaking Russian, where it's (more like) "Adam and Eva"!
Why did Volgin choose Sokolov's Shagohod idea over Granin's Metal Gear? Practicality. The Metal Gear at the time required technology that didn't even exist at the time such as being able to stand and walk on two legs without support, whereas the Shagohod was only a mishmash of technology that existed at the time, thus Volgin could easily have it developed and mass-produced.
Ocelot's final duel with Snake where no matter what happens he doesn't kill him, tells him his name is "Adamska" and then basically wishes him well and lets him leave is likely just his way, now that the mission is over, of trying to let Snake know that he was Adam all along if Snake hadn't already figured it out. If Snake either misses or doesn't shoot him that also counts as Snake's way of telling Ocelot that he understood.
Sigint (read, Donald Anderson)'s crass as hell nightmare about a faecal tank that walks on two legs, shoots turd missiles everywhere and turns everything into shit stops being funny when you remember that, thanks to MGS4 revealing that he had ascended to the chief of DARPA by MGS1's time, he assisted development of Metal Gear, a tank that walks on two legs, shoots missiles everywhere (including nukes) and turns everything into shit. The damn fool indirectly brought his nightmare to life. Isn't so hilarious now. Also sort of ironic in that Sigint earlier rubbishes the concept of a tank on legs, explaining how it wouldn't work in real life.
The Boss's death is an explicit tragedy and we know the fallout that occurs throughout the rest of the franchise over it, never mind the trauma that Big Boss has to go through in the aftermath. But the worst part is that The Boss died happy. She got to reunite with her husband in the afterlife, she had been knowingly cooperating with her son who seemed quite well off in his overall work, and she knew thanks to Naked Snake — Jack — that the Philosopher's Legacy would return to America, as she completed her mission thoroughly and even helped him grow to surpass her. The fact that virtually everything went wrong, from Ocelot having to play the entire world into horrific bouts of warfare, to Big Boss and Zero founding the Patriots in a complete misinterpretation of her dying will, and the next several generations being tormented by these consequences, basically means she'd never know how awfully the world would burn in her fall. She did everything almost right — except the words she left to be interpreted.
have often been interpreted as The Boss' final lamentation before death, as she thinks about all the things that she wishes she could tell Snake. The song is performed by the band Starsailor, whose name is taken from the literal English translation of the word "astronaut". note 