Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Metal Gear

Characters: Metal Gear


The most popular Stealth Based Game series going, Metal Gear is known in part for extremely talky characters who have a tendency to philosophize under heavy fire. Oh, and just about all of them suffer from huge psychological issues.
     Main Series 

Solid Snake ("!")

The star of the Metal Gear series, Solid Snake is an infiltration specialist whose exploits usually revolve around destroying the titular Metal Gears, nuclear-armed Humongous Mecha whose very existence shifts the balance of power in the world dramatically. Through this, he becomes entangled in a massive web of control and deceit centered around The Patriots, a shadowy Ancient Conspiracy (at least, as ancient as they get in America) whose semi-cliched goal, to Take Over The World, is made more chilling by the fact that, given today's technology, they could probably do it. (If they haven't already.)

Big Boss/Naked Snake

... Yes, he is wearing clothes. Usually.
After saving the world from nuclear armageddon back in 1964, a man named John is christened "Big Boss" by America for slaying his teacher and adoptive mother, known as The Boss, from whom he also inherits the title of "The Greatest Warrior of The Twentieth Century."
Originally the Big Bad of the first two Metal Gear games, Big Boss undergoes a massive dose of Character Development during his stint as a Player Character, becoming more of a Tragic Hero.

Ocelot

Ocelot is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, and is known for his distinctive style of shooting a Single Action Army pistol (which he loves to reload), love of cowboy movies, love of torture, and ridiculous hand gestures. He also apparently works for the Patriots, but for all we know he actually has an entirely different agenda. He is also a major fixture of the series, being the only character to appear in five of the six Play Station games released as of yet.

Liquid Snake

The leader of FOXHOUND and Shadow Moses Island, Liquid is the second of the "Sons of the Boss" introduced. He has a major complex about Solid Snake, and was told for his entire life that he inherited Big Boss' recessive genes in order that Solid Snake could get the dominant ones, when in fact the reverse was true. Word Of God says he isn't naturally blond. Word Of God previously said Snake was, and is generally unreliable.

Raiden

Raiden came into existence out of Kojima's desire to show the main character Snake from a different perspective by making him not the player character, but no one got it. He got put through Hell and back, realized his entire life was a lie, was groped by the president, had to kill his father figure and be lied to by the man he admired, but gained no sympathy. As an apology to all the fans who were angered by having to play as a wimp Kojima created a helpless lookalike by the name of Ivan Raidenovich Raikov in Metal Gear Solid 3, who he put through all sorts of humiliation. He seriously improves in Metal Gear Solid 4..

Otacon

An anime fanboy (so much so that his codename is based off an anime convention) Otacon is the designer of Metal Gear Rex, though he had no idea it was going to be used to launch nukes. After learning the truth, he vows to help Snake stop Metal Gear at all costs, and really becomes an Ascended Fanboy.

Solidus Snake

In the first Metal Gear Solid, Solidus shows up in The Stinger at the end of the game in the role of the U.S. President, and is a major character in the second game. He's the third of Big Boss' clones, an agent of the Patriots, and Raiden's adopted father. He was once the 43rd President under the alias of George Sears, but is forced to resign from office after his involvement with Metal Gear REX and the Genome Project soldiers becomes public, as he'd before advocated against genetic engineering, and becomes a terrorist with the group The Sons of Liberty.

Gray Fox

Gray Fox is the only member of Foxhound ever to receive the Code Name of Fox, and not without good reason. Born to German/American and Vietnamese parents, Frank Jaeger had to grow up in harsh conditions. Originally a child soldier, he was one of the deadliest people on earth at just the tender age of eleven. He was then rescued by Big Boss, but then experimented on to become an even better soldier. After a series of complicated events, he ends up supporting Big Boss and Outer Heaven, and then nearly dies, and is turned into the Cyborg Ninja. As the Ninja, Fox helps his old buddy Solid Snake one last time in Shadow Moses to take down Metal Gear REX.
  • Back From The Dead - Unfortunately, thanks to Liquid, goes back on being dead - for good.
  • Badass (look, anyone who has an action scene in these games is a Badass)
  • Blood Knight - Not necessarily enjoying battle, but he does feel as though he needs war, as he isn't able to function in society if he is deprived of it.
  • Child Soldier - Most of his origin story entails this, as early as someone working at a work camp in the early stages of the Vietnam War to as late as being deployed in the Mozambician War of Independence, and later experimented upon.
  • Cyber Cyclops - His helmet does have eyeslits, but the big orange light in between draws most of the attention.
  • Hey Its That Voice - In Twin Snakes, that's Yakko Warner who's itching for a rematch with Snake.
  • I Got Better: Subverted: While he did ultimately survive Zanzibar Land, he also was recovered by a cleanup crew belonging to the Patriots and was experimented on by turning him into a cyborg ninja, and the process was heavily implied to be quite horrific and very, very painful. In fact, not only was he used as a guinea pig for the Cyborg Ninja project, but also the gene-therapy project as well, and had to be sedated with drugs for four months as they experimented on him. Also, at least two instances where Gray Fox encountered Snake before his final hurrah, he also spazzed out and seemed in pain, with the second time screaming for medicene as he was losing himself.
  • I Have Many Names - The only Metal Gear character to have more aliases than any of the Snakes or Ocelot (Frank Jaeger, Frank Hunter, Gray Fox, Deepthroat, Null, the Ninja)
  • Kaneto Shiozawa - Japanese voice
  • Katanas Are Just Better
  • Meaningful Name (his surname is German for Hunter, as in Naomi Hunter's older brother, and is in itself derived from a common tactic he employed as a child soldier by stabbing the Portugese soldiers with a single knife when they let their guard down.)
    • Also, his codename during Portable Ops was Null, which is the German word for Zero and is meant to exemplify that he was a lost number in an unethical CIA project for creating the Perfect Soldier, due to being the Sole Survivor and Sole Success of the project.
  • My Hero Zero - He is known as Null in his youth during Portable Ops (Null is German for Zero). Voiced by Jun Fukuyama.. hmm..
  • My Master Right Or Wrong: Justified due to Big Boss saving his life twice (arguably three, if one does not count Vietnam and counts the two times he saved him in Portable Ops).
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
  • Psycho Prototype - Kind of: While not quite a prototype, it is known that he was the only successful test subject in the Perfect Soldier Project, as most of the other test subjects died from the procedure.
  • Retcon - His origin story in Portable Ops practically contradicts the original origin in Metal Gear 2.
    • Not exactly, the closest to it being a retcon is Big Boss saving Gray Fox. It's still likely that he was still born in Vietnam and he was used in a work camp before being transferred to Mozambique for its war for independence. Plus, one must also take note that the Mozambician War of Independence and the Mozambician Civil War are two different wars.
  • The Other Darrin - In Metal Gear Solid, Fox was voiced by Gregg Eagles, who also did the DARPA Chief. In Twin Snakes, Fox was voiced by Rob Paulsen.
  • Too Cool To Live - Twice for the matter.
  • Tykebomb
  • The Woobie

The Patriots

A nebulous, possibly ancient conspiracy introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2. They secretly manipulate American politics and media, and use the "GW" AI to censor and control information flow. The events of the Big Shell incident are a test to extend this control to human thought with Raiden as the test subject. The Patriots themselves may or may not be: A group of 12 people who have been dead for 100 years, a sentient white house, or sentient internet memes. Metal Gear Solid 4 reveals the truth behind The Patriots. They were founded by Big Boss, Major Zero, Ocelot, Eva, Sigint, and Para-medic some time after Portable Ops, and perpetuated by 5 AIs: GW, TJ, AL, TR, and JD. (the first 4 being named after the initials of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore and the latter one meaning "John Doe")
  • AI Is A Crapshoot
  • Ancient Conspiracy - Subverted. They were actually formed in the 1970s and only used the real Ancient Conspiracy, The Philosophers, as a cover story.
  • The Chessmasters - Obviously, as they instigated the events of Metal Gear Solid 2, and were also heavily implied to have had a hand in instigating the events of Metal Gear Solid in Nastasha Romanenko's book.
  • Complete Monsters - The Patriots A Is qualify beyond a doubt. See their entry in VideoGames for more details.
  • Mission Control - Except for Ocelot, all founding members served as one. Big Boss in the original game, Zero, Para-Medic, SIGINT and EVA during MGS3, though EVA is not an official part of the FOX crew.
  • Moral Event Horizon - Each of them crossed it at one point or another, and that's just with the human founders. Going by the A Is, the A Is probably were already on the other side in a very short time, especially given the fact that not only were they the ones who masterminded the Manhattan Incident as well as the mess that was the War Economy, but the Head AI also implied to Raiden that they viewed humanity as nothing more than tools and weapons for them to discard once they no longer serve a use.
  • Omniscient Council Of Vagueness
  • Playing With Syringes - Responsible for both Les Enfants Terribles and turning Gray Fox into the Cyborg Ninja.
  • Redemption Equals Death -Well, at least for Big Boss, Ocelot and EVA...
  • The Scottish Trope: the Patriots have programmed everybody's Nanomachines with the same blindspot: whenever you try to say, "The Patriots," your vocal cords actually produce, "The La-li-lu-le-lo." If you have nanomachines in you, you Can Not Spit It Out. ("La-li-lu-le-lo" can be seen as the Japanese equivalent to "X-Y-Z".)
  • Two Guys And A Girl - When the group was torn into two factions with the six founding members being divided into two groups consisting of the trope to lead each.
    • Sensitive Guy And Manly Man - Zero and SIGINT could be the sensitive guys to Big Boss and Ocelot's manly men. The trope is also present within the pairs with SIGINT being the sensitive guy to Zero's manly man, while Ocelot is to Big Boss'.
    • Tomboy And Girly Girl - EVA and Para-Medic respectively.

Meryl Silverburgh

The niece of Roy Campbell (later revealed to be his daughter), Meryl always dreamt of being in the military and living up to her heroes in FOXHOUND. She is the former love interest of Snake, and they broke up for reasons unknown. She later made a comeback in MGS4 and became a lot more competent and tougher. She also married Johnny Sasaki.

Mei Ling

A girl on Snake's Mission Control, she is a teenage prodigy and tech wiz who developed the Soliton Radar and the Codec. She frequently quotes proverbs to lift Snake's spirits up. She later becomes a Naval officer in the fourth game.

Roy Campbell

A rather amiable man, driven by duty and Snake's commanding officer, Campbell has been around for a long time. He's an old friend of Big Boss' and helped him defeating Gene in Portable Ops before helping establish FOXHOUND. He then fought Zanzibarland againstwith Snake, and then was forced to pull Snake out of retirement for the Shadow Moses takeover.
  • Badass
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Chivalrous Pervert: In a few radio calls in Portable Ops, Campbell will often give advice to soldiers on how to land them chicks when asking him for advice, for which the subject matter, although initially similar, actually turns out to be quite different (namely it pertains to the battlefield). He also gave similar advice to Big Boss when giving advice to commanding soldiers. He also gave up an opportunity to go out with a woman he was attracted to for his brother's sake, which served as the reason why he joined the Green Berets in the first place.
  • Dirty Old Man - Subverted: While he did apparently marry Rosemary, someone young enough to be his daughter in Snake's own words, he actually faked the marriage in order to protect her as well as Little John, the son of Rosemary and Raiden, from the Patriots.
  • I Was Quite A Looker
  • Lawful Good - He's a genuinely good man who believes in the system, but isn't afraid to breach authority for the sake of innocent lives.
  • Mission Control
  • Running Joke: See Chivalrous Pervert
  • Shout Out / Expy - His design was inspired directly from Colonel Trautman from Rambo.
  • Takeshi Aono

Naomi Hunter

A geneticist with a past even she's not completely sure of, Naomi was chosen to support Snake during the Shadow Moses mission to provide feedback on the Genome Soldiers. She has her own agendas, which included injecting Snake with the biological weapon FOXDIE to kill the FoxHound members, which would then kill Snake himself later. It turns out she did it because she was Gray Fox's adopted sister and she wanted revenge (Although Liquid also mentions that the Pentagon ordering her to do so had something to do with it as well). But later, she redeemed herself in the fourth game.

Vamp

A Romanian who has a penchant for knives and a taste for blood, Vamp is a tough cookie, being apparently immortal. He was once involved with Commander Scott Dolph before later becoming close with Dolph's daughter Helena/Fortune. In the fourth game, he begins to look for a Worthy Opponent who can finally finish him - Raiden.

EVA

An American spy who defected to the USSR, sent to help Naked Snake during Operation Snake Eater. It turned out, however, that she was working with the Chinese in an attempt to obtain the Philosopher's Legacy. She later joins The Patriots and serves as the surrogate mother for the "Les Enfants Terrible" project. She also shows up again in Metal Gear Solid 4, this time with the code name "Big Mama"

Major Zero

Naked Snake's Commanding Officer in FOX. Also known (briefly) as "Major Tom" A British man obsessed with James Bond and scones. He later goes on to found The Patriots, and through a series of Retcons, is probably the closest thing to a main antagonist that the series comes to.
  • Adult Child: Not explicitly portrayed as such, but Peace Walker gives a very subtle hint that he qualifies as such. Paz explains when reciting the formation and splitting up of the Patriots (something that Big Boss, for some strange reason doesn't seem to either know or remember) that two men (Big Boss and Major Zero) viewed The Boss as being a mother figure to them. Want to know why this makes him eligable for this trope, its because Major Zero is actually 13 years older than The Boss (Zero was born in 1909, The Boss was born in 1922).
  • Badass (Can be seen in Portable Ops, even though recruiting him was non-canon)
  • Banjo Ginga
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Evil Brit
  • Fallen Hero
  • Lawful Neutral —> Lawful Evil
  • Mission Control
  • Moral Event Horizon - Although in his defence, he was a Well Intentioned Extremist who didn't know he ruined the world.
    • It arguably came earlier (well, technically later, given that the release date of Peace Walker is after MGS 4, but still...), he had Paz attempt to get Big Boss to rejoin Cipher (the original name for the Patriots). Snake refused, so what did Zero do? He also ordered Paz that, should Big Boss refuse, she frame Big Boss and the Militaires Sans Frontieres by having her launch a nuke via a hijacked ZEKE at the East Coast, and then pinning them as an extremist cult.
  • My Hero Zero - Tragically subverted
  • Nietzsche Wannabe - After Big Boss leaves the Patriots, he loses faith in humanity.
  • Noodle Incident: When calling Sigint about the Active Sonar, Sigint will remark that Zero must have lived in the stone age, and that he bought a brand new washing machine, but Zero cuts him off. It is never revealed what exactly happened.
  • Walking Techbane: Implied in several radio conversations to Sigint. When calling Sigint about the Active Sonar, he will remark that Major Zero must have come from the Stone Age, and was about to mention something about buying a brand new washing machine, but the story was cut off by Zero. It is never revealed exactly what happened, but it can be assumed that Zero ended up wrecking it somehow, perhaps even flooding his living place with it.
  • Scars Are Forever - To the very end

Rosemary

Raiden's girlfriend, who is determined to make him be a little more open with her. There may be more to her than it seems... Turns out there is - she was originally a spy for The Patriots sent to analyze Raiden, but sure enough, things got out of hand and her feelings became personal.

The Boss

Naked Snake's mentor, and a war hero who led the Cobra Unit, a multinational team of elite Supernatural Warriors who practically won World War Two for the Allies. In the events of Metal Gear Solid 3, she has apparently defected to the Soviet Union with her fellow Cobras.

The Cobra Unit

The Boss's greatest apprentices. Each legendary warriors in their own right, their supernatural powers allowed them to win the Second World War for the Allies in the Metal Gear Universe... and you have the misfortune of having to fight them...

Colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin

A GRU Colonel nicknamed "Thunderbolt" and the primary antagonist of Metal Gear Solid 3, seeking to claim the Philosopher's Legacy by merit of his father being entrusted with it during World War II.

FOXHOUND

A special forces group formed by Big Boss following the downfall of the original FOX unit. Both Solid Snake and Gray Fox were members of this unit. After Big Boss's Face Heel Turn in the first Metal Gear, the unit's co-founder and Executive Officer Roy Campbell becomes the new Commanding Officer in Metal Gear 2. The most well-known incarnation of the team is featured in Metal Gear Solid, where FOXHOUND has turned renegade after Solid Snake and Campbell left the unit. This incarnation of the team is composed of Solid Snake's Evil Twin Liquid Snake, his Dragon Revolver Ocelot, Ax Crazy Psycho Mantis, Defrosting Ice Queen Sniper Wolf, Magical Native American Vulcan Raven, andReplicant Snatcher (but not actual Snatcher) Decoy Octopus.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Raven's character is heavily expanded on in the MGS comic, him being the one who informs Liquid of the deaths of Mantis and Wolf, and giving away the secret of FOXDIE, along with some scope of Liquid's plot during his confrontation against Snake, as opposed to his simple hint in the game.
  • Alas Poor Villain - Wolf and Mantis's death speeches reveal them to be thoroughly tragic.
  • Animal Motifs
  • Asexuality - Psycho Mantis has a particular distaste for the biologically universal "need for breed."
  • Bizarre And Improbable Ballistics - Ocelot makes the bullets go where he wants.
  • BFG - Vulcan Raven's eponymous aircraft-caliber vulcan.
  • Blood Knight: Most of the FOXHOUND members, or at least Vulcan Raven and Liquid Snake, qualify as such.
  • The Blank - Decoy Octopus. Canon concept art is a whole different story, though.
  • Character Derailment: In the MGS comic, Wolf is turned from a sympathetic, shell-shocked Kurd who never kills for sport, into an outright-abusive bitch, who only spares Meryl due to her sudden infatuation of Snake.
  • Dark Action Girl - Sniper Wolf
  • Death Seeker - Sniper Wolf
  • Dysfunction Junction - Liquid's combination of Well Done Son Guyism and homicidal resentment towards his father, Wolf's tragic past and Stalker With A Crushtendencies towards people she intends to kill, Ocelot's torture fetish, Mantis' violent misanthropy... Raven comes across as the most stable of the lot (at least of the members who get in-game character development), and he's an unapologetic Blood Knight.
  • Equal Opportunity Evil - consists of an old gay or bisexual Russian gunslinger, an asexual Russian psychic, a university-educated Native Alaskan shaman/heavy weapons enthusiast, an indestructible British cloned super warrior, a female Kurdish sniper, and Decoy Octopus.
  • Evil Is Sexy - Sniper Wolf
  • Five Bad Band: See the complete Video Game Five Bad index for the full breakdown.
  • Five Token Band
  • For The Evulz - Psycho Mantis reveals that he joined Liquid's little coup just to kill as many people as possible during his death speech.
  • Laser Sight - Sniper Wolf uses one; despite y'know using a scope as well.
  • Loves The Sound Of Screaming: Sniper Wolf, kind of. She explains during her death speech that her lullabies were gunfire, sirens, and screaming; although the context it was given since she was actually born and raised during a time where her people, the Kurds, were being exterminated in Iraq, indicates that she was most likely meaning this literally.
  • Made Of Iron - Raven carries a Vulcan cannon, and ammo, shirtless. In the Alaskan permafrost.
  • No Fourth Wall - Psycho Mantis is probably the most obvious Fourth Wall Observer on the team, if not in the franchise.
  • Psychic Static - Another Mantis trope, he wears the gasmask to keep it out.
  • Virtual Ghost - Psycho Mantis is able to posses Screaming Mantis's armor after her defeat, and show off the fact that he knows jack about the PS 3's controller or save system.

The Beauty and the Beast Corps

A unit composed of four insane, power-armored young women codenamed: Laughing Octopus, Crying Wolf, Raging Raven and Screaming Mantis. Ocelot's elite forces in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Fortune


Fatman

  • Annoying Laugh
  • Ax Crazy
  • Bald Of Evil - The game's script implies that the reason for his baldness is from severe burns.
  • Chaotic Evil
  • Chaotic Neutral - He had no loyalties to anyone but himself. In fact, the only reason why The Patriots coaxed him into acting as an agent for them at the Big Shell Incident was by dragging Peter Stillman, his mentor, into the situation and then allowing him the chance to kill Stillman via C4.
  • Complete Monster - Unlike the fellow survivors of Dead Cell Fortune and Vamp, who had sympathetic reasons for doing the stuff they did (wanting revenge on the Patriots because many of their friends and allies were killed, and the fact that the Patriots allegedly framed by them for the terrorist attacks that also led to them being liquidated), Fatman not only has no sympathy for what he did, but he also sold out his comrades to the Patriots just to kill his former mentor, and then went on a mad spree of trying to detonate the plant, to which Vamp even stated to Fortune that he must be stopped. Also, when confronted by Raiden, he even admitted that he was actually quite glad that Dead Cell was liquidated and most of its members killed, as he felt it freed him to become the Emperor of Explosives. His monstrous tendencies and indifference to human lives are also implied when Pliskin mentions that he discovered a C4 explosive on one of the Gurlukovich mercenaries while hunting for C4 at Shell 2.
  • Deceptive Disciple
  • Double Agent
  • Evil Laugh
  • Evilly Affable - compared to the other characters, it's actually quite refreshing to meet someone who wouldn't feel out of place in Team Fortress 2.
  • Fat Bastard
  • Fatter Than A Speeding Bullet
  • Jerk Ass
  • Laughing Mad
  • Lightning Bruiser - For a guy who is extraordinarily overweight, and has his overall weight made even heavier with his bomb blast suit (complete with a cooling vest), a laminated ballistic protector covering most of his head, and a protective plate for his spine (which, overall, would add about 50 kilograms to his body), he is surprisingly very good at rollerblading, something that the Colonel Lamp Shaded by stating that the amount of added weight that Fatman has should render him incapable of rollerblading.
  • Kozo Shioya
  • Mad Bomber - Vamp even refers to him by that specific name.
  • Parental Neglect - While he was very young, he was pretty much neglected by both his own parents, and often hung around at his father's clock shop.
  • The Mole - Was planted by the Patriots to test Raiden's capabilities in exchange for gaining the chance of killing his mentor Peter Stillman.
  • Un Favorite - Presumably the reason why he desired fame and was not controllable: He was neglected by his parents while he was very young, and even though he built an atomic bomb at age 10 from a guidebook, and was well known in the bomb trade for this, he was hated and shunned at his own school.
  • Villainous Glutton - "Laugh and grow fat!"

Olga Gurlukovich

A Russian mercenary whom Snake first encounters aboard the Tanker, Olga is a tough cookie. She has been raised all her life to be strong, both out of necessity and because her father was a colonel for a Russian private army. She is seen again in the Plant, having inherited her father's unit after the old man died. She may or may not be having her own agenda. She is also being used by The Patriots, who are threatening to kill her child if she doesn't allow for Raiden's mission to suceed. To this end, she disguises herself as a ninja called Mr. X and randomly calls Raiden to give him advice. She dies in the end to save Raiden and her baby.

Johnny Sasaki

He first appeared in Metal Gear Solid as the guard with stomach problems whom Meryl stripped and used his clothes for her escape. His grandfather also served as a guard during the Cold War. In Guns of the Patriots, he became a member of Meryl's Rat Patrol 01. He loved Meryl ever since stripping him in Shadow Moses. He ends up marrying her.
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