History Characters / MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty

* TheSociopath: Every ounce of their philosophy and motivations end up considering humanity so self-destructive that they should have no true, unalienable rights, and that the Patriots do entirely what they think they need to do as self-proclaimed rulers above all, no matter how many people they kill or what minds and emotions they break in the process. Everything they commit is entirely of their own interests in controlling the public's perceived minds, and their manipulations "for the good of all."

* BrokenMasquerade: Following the events of [=MGS4=], cyborg and Metal Gear manufacturing runs rampant across the globe, due to a giant backlog of Patriot-suppressed data being disseminated to the public. In the space of four years, military hardware leaps forward a century.

* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler: When the AIs were being developed by Dr. Strangelove, she initially intended them to be programmed to understand human concepts like empathy so that they could better understand why humans do things and could guide humanity along a brighter path more directly inspired by The Boss' will. However, after she was killed by a vengeful Huey due to not wanting their child to pilot Metal Gear, their development was handed over to Sigint. He instilled them with a much broader set of instructions and gave them the ability to learn for themselves, but they developed their exceedingly pessimistic view of humanity from this.]]

* GoneHorriblyWrong: The clones of Big Boss were meant to enforce their will, but it ends up being Solid Snake, one of those clones, who ultimately destroys them and frees the world from their control.
** For added irony, all three clones rebelled against the Patriots at different points in their career, much like their [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker progenitor]]

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Campbell referred to them once as the embodiment of the war economy. [[spoiler:Considering the Patriots are, as of the 1980s, [[AIIsACrapshoot artificial intelligences]] that perpetuate the war economy and created it in the first place, this isn't exactly wrong so much as inaccurate.]]

* IAmTheNoun: The Patriots don't run the United States, they ''are'' the United States. President Johnson alludes to this when he promises the country will implode overnight should the Patriots be unplugged.
** In a subsequent game, Campbell comments that "the Patriots are the embodiment of the war economy." By that time, however, the framework they put in place is so institutionalized that it can run fine without them.

* CreativeSterility: [[spoiler:Big Boss]] reveals in ''Metal Gear Solid 4 that, for all their intelligence and power, the Patriots can only repeat patterns over and over, a weakness that [[spoiler:Ocelot]] exploits to destroy them

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:See MyGreatestSecondChance and RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: See ThePawn below.

* WaveMotionGun: See {{BFG}}.

A bomb disposal expert and Fatman's mentor. Stillman helps Raiden and Plissken defuse several of his student's bombs, and then dies trying to defuse one himself.

* SamusIsAGirl: Snake couldn't help exclaiming, 'A ''woman?''[='=] after Olga removed her cap. Later, when "Plisskin" briefs Raiden on what to expect from the enemy leader, he's clearly still stung over underestimating Olga on that boat.

* KansasCityShuffle: Stillman thinks he's outmaneuvered Fatman when he sneaks down to the bottom of Shell 2's core, telling Plisskin to continue disarming the decoys as a distraction. However, Fatman had surpassed Stillman in his skills and set a trap; it turned out that [[spoiler:the decoy C4s were actually "keys" to activate the real C4s once the decoys had been disarmed]]. Stillman runs right into [[spoiler:an unscented proximity, microwave-triggered bomb]], which subsequently activates the countdown.

** It's odd that the Marines would be competing with the Navy for war assets since the Marines actually belong to the Department of the Navy. In a real life scenario, the Navy and Marines would likely share access to a Metal Gear.

[[center:[-[[Characters/MetalGear Main Character Index]] | Characters/MetalGear1 ([[Characters/MetalGearSolidSnake Solid Snake]] | [[Characters/MetalGearBigBoss Big Boss / Naked Snake]]) | [[Characters/MetalGear2SolidSnake Metal Gear 2]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear Solid]] ([[Characters/MetalGearSolidFOXHOUND FOXHOUND]]) | '''Sons of Liberty''' ([[Characters/MetalGearRaiden Raiden]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Guns of the Patriots]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]] | [[Characters/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Revengeance]] ([[Characters/MetalGearSenatorArmstrong Senator Armstrong]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidV The Phantom Pain]] | [[Characters/MetalGearAcid Acid]] | [[Characters/MetalGearAcid2 Ac!d 2]] | [[Characters/MetalGearGhostBabel Ghost Babel]] | [[Characters/SnakesRevenge Snake's Revenge]]-]]]

[[center:[-[[Characters/MetalGear Main Character Index]] | Characters/MetalGear1 ([[Characters/MetalGearSolidSnake Solid Snake]] | [[Characters/MetalGearBigBoss Big Boss / Naked Snake]]) | [[Characters/MetalGear2SolidSnake Metal Gear 2]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear Solid]] ([[Characters/MetalGearSolidFOXHOUND FOXHOUND]]) | '''Sons of Liberty''' ([[Characters/MetalGearRaiden Raiden]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Guns of the Patriots]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]] | [[Characters/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Revengeance]] ([[Characters/MetalGearSenatorArmstrong Senator Armstrong]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidV The Phantom Pain]] | [[Characters/MetalGearAcid Acid]] | [[Characters/MetalGearGhostBabel Ghost Babel]] | [[Characters/SnakesRevenge Snake's Revenge]]-]]]

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KozoShioya (JP), Barry Dennen (EN)

* PlayingWithSyringes: [[spoiler:Responsible for the [[CloningBlues Les Enfants Terribles project]], {{cyborg}}s like Gray Fox, and the FOXDIE SyntheticPlague]].

* ArchnemesisDad: Plays the role of one for Raiden, having raised Raiden and dozens of other child soldiers. His brutal methods are even remarked upon as being an inspiration for the antagonists of ''Revengeance''. Solidus also has his own father figures that he is waging war on - although rather than seeking to humiliate Big Boss's legacy, Solidus targets the Patriots, who have guided his career from birth to the Presidency he once held.

* BadBoss: Solidus would have abandoned Dead Cell and the now-useless Arsenal had their plan been carried to completion. He's also very harsh with his lieutenants; when Revolver Ocelot and Olga Gurlukovich begin bickering, he threatens to cut them loose and see how well they do finding a new job -- bad news for cold warriors without a Cold War.
-->"I took you in when no one else would. You think any government would have you as irregulars in this political climate? The ''worst'' kind of wetworks, maybe -- but even that's doubtful."

* BaritoneOfAuthority: As befitting a former world leader, and would be revolutionary, Solidus speaks with a commanding and eloquent voice, provided by John Cygan.

** TurnsRed: In Raiden's battle with him, he eventually disengages his Snake Suit's tentacles and ejects them in the air. This greatly increases his speed and dexterity.

* FateWorseThanDeath: See ThePawn.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Following the fallout of the Shadow Moses affair, Solidus's health was "scheduled to fail him" but he outmaneuvered his bosses and went underground. His only mistake was selecting Ocelot as his agent.
* MeaningfulName: In chemistry, a "solidus" is a temperature that lies somewhere between a substance's melting point and freezing point (i.e. its "liquid" form and "solid" form); above which it becomes completely solid, and below which it begins the melting process. Similarly, Solidus falls somewhere between his brothers ("Solid" Snake and "Liquid" Snake) in more than one way. Physically, he's an amalgamation of both brothers' genetic traits, being an identical clone of Big Boss with both dominant and recessive genes. Morally, he's neither an altruistic pacifist like Snake nor an unstable terrorist like Liquid, being a calculating WellIntentionedExtremist trying to bring down the greater evil of the Patriots through violence and manipulation.

* NamedWeapons: His [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana and wakizashi set]] (i.e. daishou), [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Minshuto ("Democrat") and Kyowato ("Republican")]].
** Possibly, the swords that come with the {{Powered Armor}}s in the setting are also made by Tokugawa Heavy Industries.

* ThePawn: In ''Metal Gear Solid 2'', [[spoiler: it turned out that he was actually helping the Patriots without his even realizing it until Revolver Ocelot made it clear.]]
** In [=MGS4=], [[spoiler:his corpse is used as a decoy for Big Boss's body.]]

* SophisticatedAsHell: Solidus freely makes use of phrases like "Burn, baby!" or "Go to hell!" during the first battle with him, contrasting his earlier, more professional behavior and his long, eloquent monologues later in the game. Even then, he still uses less sophisticated phrases such as "You were going to screw me over, weren't you?"

* VillainHasAPoint: Even if nobody agreed with his methods, everyone agrees that the Patriots' control should stop. [[spoiler: Going by Raiden's interactions with GW, the Patriots' AIs appear worse than he ever imagined.]]

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Despite his appearance looking like someone in his sixties or seventies, he's actually in his ''thirties''. He implies that his appearance was the result of genetic engineering done by the Patriots, likely to make him appear as a believable US Presidential candidate.
** Confirmed in VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots -- [[spoiler:it's explained that the three LET clones had artificially shortened telomeres as a protection mechanism, inducing rapid aging in the two clones that lived long enough to reach that point.]]

** For all it's toughness, the inside of it's mouth might as well be made of styrofoam. One Stinger missile fired inside the mouth will knock off a third of the Mass Produced [=RAYs=] and, with some help of CutscenePowerToTheMax, Solidus can kill them by shooting in their mouths with ''a [=P90=]''.

* InformedAbility: RAY's ability to take down REX and its clones is either an informed ability, or in-universe false advertising. It's built for the express purpose of hunting down and destroying REX units, but the only time REX and RAY square off in [=MGS4=], REX can take it down without too much difficulty. And this is a brand-new RAY[[note]]no, it's not the prototype stolen by Ocelot in [=MGS2=], since it lacks the original's long tail[[/note]] fighting a damaged REX after the latter was blown up, left in a freezing cold warehouse for almost a decade, and then had a major structural component removed without much thought for how the rest was going to balance without it, leaving it a wonder the REX in question can even ''stand upright'', magical-science software upgrades from Otacon or not. Not to mention the fact that it's piloted by a man who has never piloted a Metal Gear, versus Ocelot who has spent considerable time VR training and personally piloting REX. [[JustifiedTrope Explained]] by the fact that RAY was made to fight [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct cookie-cutter imperfect copies of REX]] built with incomplete data and lesser quality; despite being battered and outdated, REX is the ''real deal'' and outperforms anything RAY is supposed to face.
** Another possible reason is the difference in tactics and numbers. Compared one-of-a kind Metal Gears, many, many RAY’s appear. They clearly are far easier to mass produce. A single RAY might lose but [[ZergRush multiple RAYs may win]]. Presumably, the ideal strategy is for many, unmanned RAY’s to handle a single REX clone with almost SOP level A.I. guided coordination. Their superior mobility means chasing a fleeing enemy or maneuvering to a better position is more than doable. Focusing on an individual RAY would be difficult. It’s like being hunted by a pack of animals.

* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: Free will plus Information Age equals ''way'' too much "junk data" accumulating in society. Their goal is to filter and control it all because people obviously cannot be trusted to make their own decisions about what truths to cling to. They also go so far to say that people like Raiden have no rights as individuals by default.
** Indeed, all of ''Sons of Liberty'' is actually an experiment to find the proper method for controlling the Evils of Free Will -- the S3 plan stands for "Selection for Societal Sanity", which says ''volumes'' about their philosophy.

* KickTheDog: Hypocrisy aside, they condemn humans for spending money on saving endangered animals rather than use it to aid their fellow man, giving a clear indicator that they don't give a damn about rendering endangered species extinct, or about the implications of causing ecological damage.

* OddNameOut: With the other two clones of Big Boss being given the codenames of Solid and Liquid, one might expect his codename to be ''Gas'' Snake, but instead it's Solidus. This may be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] as who in their right mind would take someone named "Gas" seriously? (Although, the name ''Vapor'' Snake might have been a good compromise). Also, Solid and Liquid were both named after Biblical figureheads (Solid's real name was David and Liquid's real name was Eli). Solidus' real name (as far as we know) is George.

* HoneyTrap: Raiden first met Rose during a chance encounter in front of the Empire State Building. Rose, of course, [[spoiler:knew that Jack would be there and had been briefed on his psychological profile by the Patiots]], which enabled her to charm him.

[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Hell had no vacancies."-]'' ]]

* BadassBaritone: Solidus speaks with a commanding and eloquent voice, provided by John Cygan.

* BadassBaritone: Deep voice? Check. Fast, powerful and MadeOfIron? Check.

[[folder: Gary McGolden]]

[[center:[-[[Characters/MetalGear Main Character Index]] | Characters/MetalGear1 ([[Characters/MetalGearSolidSnake Solid Snake]] | [[Characters/MetalGearBigBoss Big Boss / Naked Snake]]) | [[Characters/MetalGear2SolidSnake Metal Gear 2]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear Solid]] | '''Sons of Liberty''' ([[Characters/MetalGearRaiden Raiden]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Guns of the Patriots]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]] | [[Characters/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Revengeance]] ([[Characters/MetalGearSenatorArmstrong Senator Armstrong]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidV The Phantom Pain]] | [[Characters/MetalGearAcid Acid]] | [[Characters/MetalGearGhostBabel Ghost Babel]] | [[Characters/SnakesRevenge Snake's Revenge]]-]]]

* SurpriseCreepy: [[spoiler:Stillman's corpse]] is later discovered by Raiden in the flooded basement of the Shell 2 Core.