Before putting a WMG here, consider putting it on one of the following pages first:
- Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
- Metal Gear Solid
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Metal Gear Survive
- Metal Gear Ac!d
- And just to top it off, maybe all the games that take place during the Cold War are Animus styled reproductions of Big Boss' memories. (of course, this would require Raiden to have some of Big Boss' genetic code, but that's another WMG)
- Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are simulations as well, but older, cruder ones which leave out some of the more classified information, such as the fact that Big Boss is Snake's father and paint them as simple Black-and-White Morality.
- Alternatively, all of the games, even the first one, are VR Simulation... video games. And none of them are canon to that reality.
- While this probably won't happen, it would, in fact, be freaking awesome. We can only hope Kojima happens to stumble along this theory and find it to his liking one day...
- Better yet, playing as the entire Cobra Unit.
- Or, even better yet, have a game that takes place between PortableOps and the original game, and the main character is Gray Fox.
- Given the Kojima teaser site and the Raiden looking cyborg with one eye bandaged I'd say it's plausible.
- Close. There's two more Metal Gear Solid games coming out, one starring Big Boss, the other starring Raiden.
- If there is a prequel featuring The Boss as the main character — and I think it's bound to happen eventually — I bet you a penny it's prior to her "The Joy" days and her codename is "Hidden Snake", or something
- To be honest, I don't think they'll ever let us play as The Boss. None of us would be Badass enough to play the game as her properly. The game would probably be too easy anyways...
- Kojima pitched the idea after MGS4, but didn't feel that the team was experienced enough to make the game without his involvement. Hopefully, we can say that we called it one day.
- A game featuring the Boss is plausible, given this.
- Jossed.
- Big Boss is sterile - I hate to think what this implies.
- It's Kojima's way of saying "And YOU people can't have it! Neener neener neener!"
- Don't forget 'Solid Snake' and how he hides in a box.
- So the box is Hideo's wife's vagina?
- It's that old dick in the box prank.
- It's Kojima's way of saying "And YOU people can't have it! Neener neener neener!"
- So I guess Raiden, the Cyborg Ninjas, and Snatchers are supposed to be indicative of the sex toy industry? Great for a cheap fix, but incomparable to the real thing (consider how Raiden's role in MGS2 was to make Snake look even bigger than life by observing him in the third person).
- To top it all off. Zone Of the Enders Jehuty has a literal cockpit.
- Warfare Background
- John Clark was a former Navy SEAL who served eighteen months in Vietnam, earning (at last tally) a Silver Star, Navy Cross, and a belated Medal of Honor for his actions. His most well-known mission was a several-day solo excursion deep into enemy territory to rescue a man captured deep behind enemy lines.
- Big Boss was a special forces agent who was active during the post-Cuban Missile Crisis era, same as the Vietnam War. His most well-known mission was a several-day solo excursion deep into enemy territory to rescue a man captured deep behind enemy lines.
- Later History
- John Clark retired briefly from the service after his time in Vietnam. He later joined the CIA as a special covert agent. During the process he faked his own death.
- After his standard military service as a member of FOX, Big Boss remained with the unit as it separated itself from the regular military hierarchy to become a special operations task force. Subsequent to the Outer Heaven incident, he faked his own death.
- Techniques
- John Clark has throughout his career been an expert in all manner of hand-to-hand and armed combat. Even into his sixties, he still has the physique of a man nearly half his age and can out shoot almost anyone.
- Big Boss was taught combat and warfare skills by The Boss herself. And likewise, into his later years he is still able to outfight almost anyone he comes across, even disarming Solid Snake at the end of MGS4.
- Names
- John Clark's first name is John. During his time in the service his nickname was "Snake".
- Big Boss identifies himself as "John". His earlier and best-known codename is Snake.
- Continuity
- Putting aside the story of Big Boss being in a coma for most of fifteen years, there is nothing in either man's history that would prevent one from being the other. They, in fact, were the same man, living two separate lives. In the early 60's, John Clark served as a Navy SEAL, during which he studied and learned much of his skill in covert warfare at the feet of The Boss. During his service in Vietnam he distinguished himself during several covert ops. During a brief separation, he returned to civilian life, during which he met a girlfriend who was soon after killed by drug lords she had escaped from. Clark then embarked on a months-long killing spree against those responsible and, with the help of the CIA, faked his own death.
Soon afterward, he entered the service of the FOX unit, which was under CIA direction, as a paramilitary operative. One of his first missions was the famed Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater, during which he killed The Boss and her breakaway special forces group, as well as a renegade Russian Colonel and a private army financed by a shadowy political faction. During the 70's, he helped to form the Patriots, but soon became disgruntled in the directions it took and broke off ties. Rejoining the CIA proper, John Clark undertook several missions against the Soviet Union, including extracting the head of the KGB and his family in "Cardinal of the Kremlin", and leading a secret military excursion against Columbian drug cartels in "Clear and Present Danger". The callous treatment he and his men received at the hands of the political leadership, up to and including being cut off and left to die for the sake of avoiding public embarrassment, further convinced him that politicians would never really respect soldiers the way he believed they should be treated.
During the late 80's, at the CIA's command, Clark established contact with a rebellious faction to attempt to establish Outer Heaven, a small African country where he felt that soldiers could gather to receive the respect and dignity he felt they deserved. In the CIA's eyes this was a harmless diversion, as it attracted rebel generals from the region to seek save haven under Outer Heaven's decree of amnesty for all military personnel, thus gathering many of world's worst dictators and rebel faction leaders together in one place. True to form, Outer Heaven soon collapsed, thanks to the efforts of a young operative, codenamed "Solid Snake" who was sent in without the knowledge of the CIA hierarchy. Despite this, the effort was deemed a success; though Big Boss never stopped thinking what might have been if Outer Heaven had been given a true chance to succeed.
Throughout most of the 90's, Clark continued his work with the CIA, mostly in the agency's field school training new agents and keeping a low profile. Eventually he was called back to active duty, culminating in several missions which lead to a terrorist attack against the American congress, the elevation of President Jack Ryan, and a biological war waged from the Middle East. After these crises were resolved, Big Boss left public service soon before President Ryan's resignation and Robert Jackson's assassination, which lead to the ascension of Solidus Snake as President of the United States. It is unknown what role, if any, Big Boss had to play in this turn of events.
Now out of the public eye, Clark became "Rainbow Six", given command of a small, but elite, group of special ops soldiers for the purpose of worldwide counter terrorism operations. For every mission Rainbow fought against standard terrorists, they fought another against agents and soldiers working for an as-yet-unknown group. This group's operatives were richly financed, and there was evidence of a massive intelligence network at work. Despite this, Clark was able to out think them at almost every turn, saving countless lives in the process. None of his subordinates ever stopped to think how one man, supposedly a mere field operative for most of the past forty years, could consistently unravel the plans of what had to be a worldwide terrorist military network. If ever a statistical study were done, the only logical conclusion would be that Big Boss had some intimate knowledge of this group's plans and methods.
- It kinda odd. But looking at all the stuff that goes on in this series, and the Gainax Ending of 2, it seems reasonable.
- One problem with this theory: According to The Other Wiki, John Clark was born in 1944, which would make him twenty years old (i.e., the same age as Ocelot) during Operation: Snake Eater. And it's been mentioned (or at least implied) that Big Boss joined the military around 1950. Unless the U.S. has a "Child Soldier" Program that we don't know about, the numbers don't match up.
- Child soldiers? AKA one of the main plot points in the series?
- I simply meant that, based on the numbers from Peace Walker, Big Boss was born in 1935, or nine years before John Clark. Big Boss joined the military around 1950 (probably lying about his age), and I don't know if he saw any six-year-olds running around like the way Abraham Simpson did in World War I.
- Of course, if the Patriots are as inhuman/immortal as they sell themselves, he may be in for a rude awakening.
- Also, there are twelve Patriots. Maybe he should start carrying around two guns.
- He owns like three. He has it covered. Ocelot always has it covered.
- Nah. He can kill them all with one bullet.
- Interestingly enough, there were six founding Patriots. And they all ended up dead.
- And Guns of the Patriots confirmed he's been against the Patriots all along, and that the Philosophers and Patriots were different organizations. He was loyal to the latter, but became disenchanted with the group alongside Big Boss and EVA.
- Jossed: The Applied Phlebotinum in this case was nanomachines that healed him really fast.
- New theory, Dark Matter is actually nanomachines powered by negative psychic energy. The Gun De Sol massively purifies this. Given the Schizo Tech setting of Boktai, it's not too far a stretch. Vamp's are hybridized with Earth tech.
- In MGS4, the Solar Gun is an unlockable weapon. That you can use against Vamp. So, he kinda did. However, the Solar Gun's slow-moving projectile makes it very, very easy for him to dodge. It does, however, cause aggravated psyche damage so that if it does hit, beats Vamp quickly.
- Bear this in mind: Due to the card-based nature of the Ac!d games, the Lunarian and Solarian genetic markers extend to Teliko, Venus, and the Model 3 Snake clone by default. Which means any of the following:
- The Guns Del Sol/Hell are replicas with no wacky genetic mysticism tied to them.
- Mani Really Gets Around.
- The following WMG-type chart:
- Boktai
- Solid Snake (and presumably the other Les Enfants Terribles children): Solid wields the Gun Del Sol in MGS4 and Ac!d 1 as stated above. EVA was the current Moon Beauty; Big Boss's fear of vampires (try calling Para-Medic in MGS3 and watch what happens when she mentions Dracula) betrays Solarian heritage.
- Teliko: Can wield either Gun Del in Ac!d 1. When she became a boss in Ac!d 2's Arena Mode, she decided to trade for a repeating insta-kill SOCOM.
- Venus and Model 3 Snake: Can wield either Gun Del in Ac!d 2. Snake at least has the excuse of being cloned from Solid. Venus might be an attempt to create a Moon Beauty among the Model 3s.
- Sunny: Has apparently been visited by Otenko at least once.
- Snatcher
- Solid Snake: May be a temporal Distaff Counterpart of Gillian Seed himself. See further below.
- Dr. Petrovich Madnar: Having apparently survived forcing Solid Snake to either stumble onto mines or shoot RC Missiles at his own back (depending on which way you knocked the sense into him in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake), spent part of the 50 years in between the Great Catastrophe and the events of Snatcher creating Random using Raiden's specs and skin tissue as a base. Elijah was fathered separately of the events of the MSX Metal Gear games.
- Why does Solid Snake say his name is David then?
- It's a surname. His full name is David Snake.
- To screw with Hal? "Hal and Dave, lawlz!"
- His full name is David Hayter.
- But... but... Metal Gear!
- But wouldn't it be cool if it ''did''?
- As it turns out, this is subjective re: Otacon himself, but in-game the Octocamo mask can be replaced with the head of Snake's younger self with or without bandanna — this actually is revealed in Act 3's opening cutscene — or the pixelated PS1-graphics head of his Metal Gear Solid self, or the different Metal Gear Solid NPCs... including Otacon. Nothing like the scientist who wet his pants now sneaking around as Snake.
- Explains why it crashed, at any rate.tropes
- A Hind D?
- Metal Gear?!
- Your Russian is superb?
- Subverted/Averted. His VA can do it, therefore, so can he.
In a twist on the above...
- David Hayter actually being the real author of the entire series, from 1987, as well as plot to rule the world from his real Outer Heaven in northern South Africa. He gave us shades of it, after all, on one of the channels in the opening scenes of MGS4.
- Snake is going to use a Kalashnikitty to destroy the Patriots' Metal Gear Crab. Despite losing an eye in the process, he will have to defeat it by attacking its weak point, for massive damage. He will then proceed to get in the Patriots' base and start killing their dudes by doing a barrel roll.
- Assuming the Patriots are Memes, then logically speaking, what is the single largest known Meme spawning point? Yes, that's right: the Patriots are 4CHAN!! Arsenal Gear was designed to control the internet to ensure 4chan's survival! The entire Metal Gear series has been a plan to get 4chan to make up memes ABOUT METAL GEAR! And the best bit? Hideo Kojima is leading the Patriots, and is behind the whole damn thing!
- Which would mean... that the real hero of MGS4 is going to be Tom Cruise!
- Let's not get crazy now.
- It doesn't matter though, because about halfway through the game, Chuck Norris would sneeze, and everyone would die instantly from the blast.
- Including the player and his family.
- They're all vampires. All twelve members of the Wisemans' Committee died about a hundred years ago.
- Turns out that Old Snake calls the hundred-years-ago thing "a load of crap," and the Wisemen's Committee's last member died after World War II. As for the Patriots, which really had nothing to do with the Wisemen's Committee, the original six founding Patriots were human but were succeeded by A.I.s after the falling-out and presumably the deaths of Dr. Clark/Para-Medic and Donald Anderson/Sigint.
- He's an imperfect clone, along with Liquid Snake, like the Star Wars clone troopers; in contrast, Solidus Snake would be the 'true' clone, like Boba Fett.
- Which means that the Emperor is either Big Boss (and isn't actually dead, this explains why they did experiments to create super soldiers from Big Boss' genes) or Hideo Kojima (which, knowing the Metal Gear series, is probably more likely...).
- Coincidentally, Big Boss' "Super Soldier" genes would eventually be used to create the first proto-Astartes. That means that all the Thunder Warriors, Primarchs and Space Marines can trace their lineage directly back to Jack.
- Furthermore, he's written half the entries in this WMG section just to screw with the fandom.
- Following this, Johnny is the fourth Son of Big Boss, either biologically or clone-ically.
- Or rather, Johnny is the only remaining and only successful Genome Soldier. He survived ten years on pure "Soldier Genes" of the highest caliber. He certainly takes bullets like a Snake.
- His codename? Bose-Einsteinium-Condensate Snake.
- I have a really bad sore throat, and this put me in a lot of pain from laughing so hard...
- Or rather, Johnny is the only remaining and only successful Genome Soldier. He survived ten years on pure "Soldier Genes" of the highest caliber. He certainly takes bullets like a Snake.
- Alternatively, Meryl will be the main character and Johnny will take the Mission Control role.
- Or both will be playable, with online co-op.
- True, at least for the Acid games. The Snake of Acid 1 is stated to have toppled Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land per the MSX games, but never bothered coming back after leaving the military and either didn't participate in the Shadow Moses incident or got the Otacon ending and never formed Philanthropy. However, the allegation of fewer biologically motivated conflicts is wrong, since both Acid games feature a wealth of genetically (or chemically) modified soldiers.
- Since we know de Killer values trust above all else, and trust isn't too far removed from loyalty, Big Boss shouldn't have too much trouble filling the role.
- Big Boss' name is just John. Calling himself "John Doe" was a joke.
- Logically, then, Solid Snake is also Captain America, which...well, yeah, actually.
- In MGS4, possibly false insofar as David Hayter actually appears as an in-universe version of himself... if somehow the pre-gameplay TV commercials have any status in continuity.
- This proves nothing. He's even wearing a Solid Eye in the commercial.
- And don't forget the talk-show host interviewing him is Eva's voice actor, too. Any who, I don't see why the TV content can't be in-canon; they're just shows that exist circa 2014 with today's propensity for bling-bling turned up to eleven as well as a highly bizarre Mood Dissonance for us, the player, because the world as it is in Guns of the Patriots is rather bleaker than it is today. Also, the commercials are all for the five largest PMCs, and the question the contestant on the talk-show host fails is trivia about them, as well.
- No, of course not. It's obvious that the entirety of Metal Gear Solid 2 is a dream. Whose nightmare is it? That one marine in the tanker chapter who came to work in his underwear. It's the standard "came to work naked" dream, which eventually gets a little out of hand.
Observe the following conversation, taken from the game script of MGS2 on GameFAQs:
- Otacon: Snake — There's something I have to tell you.Snake: What?Otacon: We didn't dig up this info — about the new Metal Gear — on our own. Not like usual...Snake: How did you find out, then?Otacon: It was a tip. An anonymous tip.Snake: Anonymous? You've never trusted those — why would you start now?
I assume this sounds perfectly innocent when it's voice-acted, but consider the actual words: Capitalize the 'a' in Otacon's last line, and consider the '—' in Snake's last line him interrupting himself (presumably to stop himself calling them "hackers on steroids") and suddenly it's NOT. SO. INNOCENT! According to The Other Wiki, 4chan was launched in October 2003, almost two years after Metal Gear Solid 2 itself was released! So you see, clearly this means that— hang on, there's someone at the door, I'll be back to finish this post shortly.
- The previous poster is clearly insane. Pay him no mind. His absence is due to ordinary liver problems and will be...resolved shortly.
- You shouldn't have done that...
- This fits in well with the polygon mask in MGS4 and the flashbacks to original graphics in MGS2 and 4.
- This is actually supported in MGS3. Check out the model of Jehuty on Granin's desk.
- See Snatcher for an explanation.
- So, what was Snake's geass before he was given Big Boss's code?
- The Solid Eye of course.
- But if he had a Code during the Virtuous Mission, then how did he age? You don't age when you have a Code.
- Nanomachines.
- This, of course, means that he faked his death again at the end of MGS4, as the All Father is fated to perish at the hands of Fenrir, and as such he couldn't die to a new FOXDIE variant.
- Really? Fenrir is often depicted as a wolf or other canine. Dogs are used to hunt foxes (much to This Troper's fury), hence making dogs "Foxdie." So FOXDIE (Fenrir) killed Big Boss (Odin).
- Which would also make Outer Heaven Valhalla, the Norse "warrior's heaven" (which Odin was in charge of).
Thus, the original Metal Gear RAY is pretty much the only loose end in MGS4. We have no idea where it is. Odds are it's going to show up in the next game, possibly absconded with by some militant group seeking to impose their will on a smaller country that lacks a sizable state army and no longer has large PMCs to hire. Though RAY isn't nuclear capable like REX, it can still attack strategic targets from the water or a decent distance inland, where local forces too weak to take on entire armored columns would be incapable of fighting it off. It could very well be an effective tool for terrorism, able to hit hard and retreat very quickly.
- Also, if it was one of the mass-produced RAY:s and not the original, it gives us a good explanation for how Snake managed to beat it while piloting REX (aside from sheer baddassness, that is), despite RAY being designed to counter REX. Since it was one of the mass-produced RAY:s, it would likely be of lesser quality and thus weaker than the original. Compare with the RAY:s Raiden was fighting in MGS2; they were mass-produced to guard Arsenal Gear, and Raiden managed to take down a number of them.
- Kojima Production's special E3 2010 shows a bunch of video screens showing different programs. Hmm, now where have we seen that before?
- Alternatively/Additionally, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is the Very Loosely Based on a True Story version of the movie. This would explain why in the original game, all the characters had celebrity portraits. Mel Gibson has really been cast as Snake.
- Possibly, instead of a dramatization of Metal Gear 2, it was made before the events of that game. The popularity of the film based on the Outer Heaven incident prompted Hollywood to quickly throw together a sequel.
- Echolalia?
- Echolalia.
- Considering he's a clone of Big Boss, and Big Boss believed in Santa well into founding MSF, among other personality quirks, this actually makes a lot of sense.
- Would explain why an elderly doctor is able to catch Snake in an inescapable chokehold, and takes a lot of explosives to defeat. And even after all that punishment, can stay alive for quite a while (If Snake has to go back to Building 1 to freeze the locket) before giving his dying words.
- Considering they share the same Japanese voice actor, this would be really fitting.
- The reference is most likely directed towards the classic war movie The Wild Geese, featuring a group of mercenaries.
1) Big Boss figured it out after finding out that he's an x-tuple agent brought up in a Philosopher-controlled facility. The time frame fits, and he even looks like his parents in MGS3, as far as me is concerned (me didn't know that they were related before the end of MGS4, mind you.) He then used this to cement his trust with Ocelot and earn him a lifelong and loyal-to-death subordinate (without realizing that he didn't have to do any of this, of course.)
2) The Boss herself told Ocelot/he figured it out himself during the events of Operation Snake Eater. Given that Ocelot was ADAM all along he must have picked up on The Boss' true mission from the start, and might have even called her out on this. The Boss must have also been aware of Ocelot's true status, both as a triple agent and her son, so she might have either outright told Ocelot or let him cautiously probe the information out of him. If her impending Heroic Sacrifice wasn't enough a reason for Ocelot to trust her and make a promise that he wouldn't intervene with Volgin's and Snake's match, this information surely was.
- As a side note, regarding Ocelot's sudden ability to counter and act against Snake's CQC in the plane sequence after defeating The Boss, The Boss might have, either by her own volition or after being asked by Ocelot, taught him some basic CQC. As she and Snake were both the very best in CQC, basics is a pretty liberal term here, so a small-scale Training from Hell might have ensued. All the more time for The Boss to tell him or for Ocelot to figure it out.
After retrieving the DSM, and being knocked silly by an artillery blast, Roach's scrambled mind rethinks the events of his original story, and...well...Metal Gear Solid 2. Finally, after being shot by Shepherd, who he finds represents the scheming politicians of the world, who could care less about soldiers, Snake (now much older, as Roach realizes the end is nigh) destroys the Patriots. He then reconciles with Big Boss (Price, whom Roach was more than a little annoyed at after he launched the nuke). And then he dies.
- The only problem with this theory is that it makes too much sense.
- Sadly jossed. Metal Gear Solid V is a new story entirely filling in the missing parts of Big Boss' backstory. But redoing Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 like Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes with better 3D graphics is an excellent idea.
Adolf is titled "The Wolf" to contrast with "Fox, not after Hitler.
- Kojima has a way of going back on his words, but from a business perspective, it seems all the more likely. For one, the series is both storied and a massive hit, but it has yet to break into mainstream success. Konami will want there to be a new jump-in point for a new market unfamiliar with the series's convoluted continuity. The easy solution is to start over from the beginning. It helps that number five is set to appear on next-gen consoles. Since it's already in a planning stage, it could debut early on the next-gen lineup, meaning more people will gravitate to it and Konami will be rolling in cash.
- Solid Snake would've obviously died of old age by MGS5. However, as Liquid Ocelot and Screaming Mantis show, it's perfectly possible to use nanomachines and hypnosis to brainwash someone into having another person's personality. Solid Snake is one of the greatest soldiers who ever lived, and the government would find it incredibly useful to get a new one. Hell, maybe they plan on using this technology on more than one person at a time, so that they can get an entire army of Solid Snakes. Over the course of the game, the conditioning slowly slips away, and the protagonist regains his former personality.
- Jossed, as MGS5 is another prequel.
- Well, you're close to being right.
- Those "soldier genes" are actually the Super-Soldier Serum inherited from his father.
Well if James Bond's birth place is called Skyfall. Then Big Boss's birthplace is actually called Snake Eater.
- Important to note is that in the Japanese dub, the younger Big Boss, Solid Snake, and Solidus are all voiced by the same Seiyuu (and even in Big Boss's appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4, he's then voiced by that same man's father). This leaves only Liquid as having a different voice, somewhat jumbling up this theory.
It could be possible that Konami could work on future Metal Gear games without Hideo Kojima, and there will be a good chances for Continuity Reboot. Plus, the Famicom Metal Gear, hated by Kojima, will provide some chances for an entire reboot. Since Castlevania had a very good reboot without Igarashi, why not Metal Gear reboot without Kojima?
Word of God says Snake was raised in Oregon. If it were that town specifically, it would explain why Snake is only ever mildly surprised by the weird shit he sees during the events of the games themselves. His habit towards Parrot Exposition and Arbitrary Skepticism could also be the result of repeated memory erasures, courtesy of the Society of the Blind Eye.
- This appears to be the core concept of Metal Gear Survive.
Which happened shortly after his visit with Snake in the Cyprus hospital in 1977, he just kept it a secret from everyone, retired, and went into hiding, living out a few more decades before eventually succumbing to dementia as a result of natural old age (that's why we still see him as a vegetable at the end of MGS 4). Because the parasites still left him permanently disabled, he is put in a nursing home, and because of memory loss, he ended up forgetting about Jack and the Patriots altogether.
Rather that was a completely different person, but because of how easily misinformation can be spread around, Para-Medic ended up being blamed for it, not helped by her involvement with the Patriots and Les Enfant Terribles project, which just like Zero, she ended up feeling remorse for. She dies of natural causes sometime before the events of Guns of Patriots, hence Big Boss mentioning her passing on.