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1[[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]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Sons of Liberty]] ([[Characters/MetalGearRaiden Raiden]]) | '''Snake Eater''' | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Guns of the Patriots]] | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]] | [[Characters/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Revengeance]] ([[Characters/MetalGearSenatorArmstrong Senator Armstrong]]) | [[Characters/MetalGearSolidV The Phantom Pain]] | [[Characters/MetalGearAcid Acid]] | [[Characters/MetalGearAcid2 Acid 2]] | [[Characters/MetalGearGhostBabel Ghost Babel]] | [[Characters/SnakesRevenge Snake's Revenge]]-]]]
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3
4%% PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE EDITING THIS PAGE
5%%[= Do not use acronyms like "MGS2" and "MGS4" without escaping them. It creates a redlink, and redirects from acronyms are prohibited.=]
6%%[= Incorrect: MGS3 =]
7%% Correct: [=MGS3=]
8
9Remember, Naked Snake/Big Boss debuted in the original ''VideoGame/MetalGear1'', and tropes for him should go on [[Characters/MetalGearBigBoss his individual page]], and Ocelot in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' in that page as well. This is only for characters that debuted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''.
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11This page lists characters who first appeared in ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater''.
12
13'''Warning''': All [[FirstEpisodeTwist spoilers for]] the game's ProlongedPrologue, the Virtuous Mission, will be unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
14
15For other characters in the franchise, see the ''Metal Gear'' character index at Characters.MetalGear.
16
17----
18!!Characters that debuted in ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'':
19
20[[foldercontrol]]
21
22!! Snake's Team
23[[folder: In General]]
24The support team assigned to Naked Snake during both the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater, who form the majority of the supporting cast for the game. [[spoiler: Major Zero, Sigint, and Para-Medic would later go on to found the Patriots and begin their campaign of information control before eventually being superseded by the A.I.s they created to contain all the information.]]
25----
26* BunnyEarsLawyer: Let's be honest here, they're ''all'' pretty weird people, even by the standards that this series has set. Doesn't stop them from being some of the most frighteningly competent people in the series [[spoiler:if creating the Patriots is anything to go by.]]
27* FiveTokenBand: The group includes Snake (white male), Zero (white male, British), Para-Medic (white female), Sigint (black male), and EVA (female, [[spoiler: Chinese]]). [[spoiler: When Snake left the Patriots, Zero became the [[WhiteMaleLead White Male Leader]]]].
28* FromNobodyToNightmare: Started out as your quirky support squad in [=MGS3=] that would provide helpful hints and shoot the shit with Snake about movies over the Codec, [[spoiler:and would then go on to found the Patriots, with all of the future nastiness that that entailed for the series going forward.]]
29* MultinationalTeam: The team features an Englishman as the leader, with three Americans: one from the South, one from New England, and one whose origin is unknown. EVA was also presumed to be American, until the end of the game where she is revealed to be [[spoiler: Chinese]], and after the [[spoiler: creation of the Patriots, the Russian Ocelot joins the mix]].
30[[/folder]]
31
32[[folder: Zero]]
33[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zeromgs3_7697.jpg]]
34[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"This fox is still one step ahead of the hounds."-]'' ]]
35
36[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zeroold_8639.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see Zero in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots MGS4]]'']]
37[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Did Zero really hate me? Or did he fear me? It's too late to ask him now."-]'' ]]
38-> a.k.a.: Major Zero, Major Tom, [[spoiler: David Oh]], [[spoiler: Cipher]]
39->Voiced by: Creator/BanjoGinga (JP), Jim Piddock (EN, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''), Time Winters (EN, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'')
40
41->''"A world of electronic intelligence built on codes. And at the center of it all, a zero."''
42
43Naked Snake's Commanding Officer and the originator of FOX. Zero (also known -- very briefly -- as [[Music/SpaceOddity "Major Tom"]]) manages to convince Langley to allow a test run of their new, covert unit in enemy space. At long last, opportunity comes knocking when FOX is called in to retrieve a defector scientist from a Soviet laboratory. Things get sticky when Snake is betrayed and the lab is nuked to destroy the evidence, causing an international incident. The CIA is out for blood, and the only way for Snake and Zero to clear their names (and save their heads) is to return and finish the job.
44
45In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]'', we learn retroactively that [[spoiler: Zero is the founder of the Patriots]]. Zero, having grown old and vegetative in the present day, is no longer capable of comprehending the full extent of what the Patriots have done. [[spoiler:Big Boss's]] desire for a confrontation with Zero is thwarted when he instead finds a catatonic old man[[spoiler:, and he compassionately shuts Zero's life support off.]]
46----
47* ActionPolitician: Becomes one in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' if you recruit him to your team [[spoiler:either by beating the game while having ''Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel'' saved into your memory card, or using a secret code]]. He even has "politician" as one of his perks.
48* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:At the end of ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', Big Boss felt compassion and brotherly love for Zero shortly before killing him; tenderly hugging him in his death throes to ease the pain of his passing.]]
49* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:By ''Guns of the Patriots'', he's been reduced to a catatonic vegetable. Which is revealed in ''The Phantom Pain'' to be a result of Skull Face turning Cipher against him and incapacitating him with parasites.]]
50* AnimalMotif: Zero is compared, and compares himself if the above quote is of any indication, to a fox quite frequently, most obviously in the name of his FOX Unit. [[spoiler:During it's meltdown, the Mammal pod also indirectly refers to Zero and Snake as a fox and a hound, respectively.]]
51-->[[spoiler:"''The lonely fox chases the one-eyed hound.''"]]
52* AudienceSurrogate: Basically acts as this when calling Zero in two conversations regarding the Raikov mask/disguise. Specifically, he acted as the surrogate for the audience who disliked Raiden.
53* BadBoss: According to ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]]''. [[spoiler:Paz Andrade Ortega/Pacifica Ocean]] was terrified of failing him and considered incurring his wrath a FateWorseThanDeath. [[spoiler:While a secret tape in ''The Phantom Pain'' shows that he was rather amiable to her, he makes some rather ominous comments about how the other candidates for Paz are "resting" in the other room.]]
54* BadassNormal: During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he was in the SAS, so he definitely qualifies. He can demonstrate this in ''Portable Ops'' if Snake recruits him into FOXHOUND.
55* BerserkButton:
56** Don't say you dislike James Bond, or say that you prefer coffee to tea (whom he derisively refer to it as "foul mud"). [[spoiler:And DON'T hurt Big Boss]].
57** He apparently, get irritated at Raikov for some reason, evident if you trigger an "Alert" phase before knocking him out, and if you wear a complete Raikov disguise.
58* BunnyEarsLawyer:
59** He's a fan of James Bond films, goes apeshit at the mere suggestion of drinking coffee and panics when his tea and scone mysteriously go missing. [[spoiler:His plans end up creating the BigBad of the entire franchise.]]
60** This is still the case in ''The Phantom Pain'', particularly in meeting Paz for the first time before the events of ''Peace Walker'', though in that case [[spoiler:it becomes more AffablyEvil.]]
61* ButNotTooForeign: He's a British-raised man living in America and has a Korean surname ([[spoiler:Oh]]), although doesn't seem to have any Korean features.
62* TheComicallySerious: Some of his radio conversations have him geek out about [[Film/JamesBond Bond movies]] all while maintaining his StiffUpperLip.
63* CoolOldGuy: If a bit dorky. Though he's still a wealth of knowledge about the geopolitical landscape and how things are playing out during ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', and he attempts to carry on the legacy of The Boss once she defects to the Soviets.
64* CrazyPrepared: [[spoiler:Paz reveals to Skull Face that his hideout is in a windowless apartment in the middle of New York, located on the MissingFloor in an unremarkable building accessible only through a hidden door. In addition, the whole ''city block'' is filled to the brim with surveillance equipment and ''every single inhabitant of the block'' is a Cipher agent. Skull Face still takes him out by sending him a poisoned replica of an item he asked him to fetch.]]
65* DeadGuyJunior: His real name is listed as David Oh, suggesting that Solid Snake was named after him. That said, he didn't actually die until decades after Solid Snake's birth.
66* DeadlyScratch: [[spoiler:Zero's vegetative state was initially caused by him pricking his finger on a pin badge that Skull Face had infested with parasites]].
67* DespairEventHorizon: If his [[spoiler: visit to Big Boss in the Cyprus hospital is any indication. You know he's dying, ''he'' knows he's dying, and all he wants is for his old friend to just wake up…and Boss never does, at least not until it no longer matters. One can ''feel'' Zero's despair crushing him in that moment. If the aftermath of ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' is any indication, he may have lasted longer to mourn over his fallen friend before he went braindead]].
68* DoesNotLikeSpam: He has a vocal dislike of coffee and considers it “foul mud”. He also doesn’t like hamburgers according to his codec info.
69* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler: Subverted. While ''Metal Gear Solid'' and most of its sequels hint at this, ''Metal Gear Solid V'' reveals that Zero only set the plans in motion. Eventually they went completely out of his control and well outside of his intended goals. He became just as much a victim as anyone else.]]
70* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: He gravely misinterpreted what The Boss wanted after the end of ''Metal Gear Solid 3''. [[spoiler:The Boss wanted a world that was unified, which led Zero to creating an AI capable of information control where there would be no more wars and no more conflict. What she meant was a world where people could be free to pass the torch, doing what they wanted, and living up to their own ideals.]]
71* EarlyBirdCameo: Sort of. His real name, David Oh (which is only revealed in [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials such as the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database and a leaked voice casting sheet for Metal Gear Solid 3]]), was on one of the collectable dog tags in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Metal Gear Solid 2]]''.
72* EtTuBrute: Briefly felt this way regarding The Boss when she apparently defected to the Soviet Union, [[spoiler: and to Skull Face when he infected Zero with parasites.]]
73* EvilBrit: Given that [[spoiler:he founded the Patriots.]]
74* EvilOldFolks: He's at his most antagonistic during the ''Peace Walker'' era where he's in his mid-to-late 60's, and he's over a hundred years old in ''Guns of the Patriots''. Granted, by that time, he doesn't have the brain function to really be considered evil. [[spoiler:He also wasn't as evil as Big Boss made him out to be.]]
75* {{Expy}}: As the stuffy British superior to a puckish secret agent, Zero serves as the M to Big Boss' James Bond. At least at first. Within the ''Metal Gear'' series itself he resembles Colonel Campbell.
76* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Zero is awfully calm when speaking to a comatose Big Boss; knowing full well that he may as well be dead before Big Boss wakes up. He even manages to crack a joke here and there before his untimely demise. Zero doesn't even care that much about his condition; it's always been about Big Boss and hoping that he would live.]]
77* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:The vocal cord parasites cause Zero to undergo a slow mental and physical degradation, to the point where while brain-dead, he's left in a vegetative state for over three decades.]]
78* FallenHero: [[spoiler:He eventually became the GreaterScopeVillain and would go onto indirectly create the ''real'' GreaterScopeVillain; the Patriots' AI system.]]
79* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: [[spoiler: Inverted. His actions nearly doomed the world on multiple occasions, via laying the foundations for the creation of the Patriot AIs, the information control channels they used to manipulate the world, and the creation of Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. Ironically, they were also thwarted by the other clone created by Zero's Les Enfants Terribles project, Solid Snake, who managed to defeat Liquid, helped stop Solidus, and managed to dismantle the Patriot AI's and completely disrupt the information control channels.]]
80* {{Foil}}: becomes one [[spoiler: to Colonel Campbell. While Campbell is depicted as being regretful over lying to Solid Snake, Zero, while genuinely being fond of Big Boss, doesn't let his friendship get in the way in using him for his own purposes]].
81* FriendlyEnemy: [[spoiler: PlayedWith. While he never considered Big Boss an enemy, Big Boss was convinced that Zero wanted him under control or dead. His true colors are finally revealed to Venom Snake (Big Boss's body double) in a taped recording that proves it was Zero who ordered his men to RESCUE Big Boss during the attack on Mother Base, and the attack was actually orchestrated by Skull Face and XOF, a rogue cell of CIA.]]
82* TheGhost: By the time that ''Ground Zeroes'' has come to pass, nobody has seen the guy for ''years''. [[spoiler:Except for Paz, it seems.]]
83** Also applies to the larger series as a whole. For a character that is integral to the existence of the Patriots, and has shaped the plot of the entire series by his actions, Zero has surprisingly little screen time in the series. His last physical appearance in the Big Boss saga was in ''MPO'', and in the Solid Snake saga Zero doesn't even appear until the end of ''[=MGS4=]'', well after the storyline conflict had already concluded, and even then, he's nothing but a helpless, wheelchair-bound vegetable.
84** Neither does he show up in person in ''The Phantom Pain,'' given how he's [[spoiler:incapacitated by Skull Face. That being said, his presence still looms over the game, his voice appearing in the various tapes. Not to mention, it's revealed as well that in order to maintain security, he was sent to a windowless safehouse in an unknown location. Which thus explains why no one's seen him in ''Peace Walker''.]]
85* GoodScarsEvilScars: Has a prominent facial scar running from his forehead down to his left cheek. This became his only recognizable feature as a bald, elderly man.
86* GreaterScopeVillain: The founder of [[spoiler:the Patriots]] and thus responsible for a great deal of the events of the series. He can't be considered the absolute BigBad as his actions don't drive most of the plot [[spoiler:(his network of [=AIs=] ran things instead)]] and he is never actually encountered either [[spoiler:(until TheStinger in ''4'')]].
87* HiddenDepths: In addition to his love of movies specifically the James Bond films, his codec info reveals that his other hobbies include hunting and rugby.
88* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: His downfall and vegetative state were caused by Skull Face and the XOF, a clandestine CIA group that Zero himself had created to originally support the FOX unit's operations. His schemes also alienated his best friend, accidentally ensuring that the two remained separated until it was too late.]]
89* InsistentTerminology: As part of his [[BunnyEarsLawyer aforementioned hyper-Britishness]], an [=MGS3=] codec conversation implies that he frequently rants at his subordinates for using Americanisms such as "cookie" or "snack"
90--> '''[=SigInt=]:''' Those little round cookies the Major is always snackin' on.\
91'''Major Zero:''' They're not cookies. They're scones.\
92'''[=SigInt=]:''' Major!\
93'''Major Zero:''' And it's not a snack. It's afternoon tea.\
94'''[=SigInt=]:''' Snack, tea, same thing.\
95'''Major Zero:''' ''(indignant)'' No, it's ''not''! Look here, afternoon tea is a fine old English tradition.\
96'''[=SigInt=]:''' Uh-oh. Here we go again. Talk to you later, Snake.
97* InvisibleParents: He has parents and a sister according to his codec information, but nothing is really known about them.
98* LonelyAtTheTop: [[spoiler: The recording of his conversation with Paz in ''The Phantom Pain'' reveals that Zero went underground and spends most if not all of his time in a windowless safe-house with little to no direct contact to the outside world. Ironic; the leader of Cipher -- and perhaps the most powerful man in the world -- can't afford to go outside to look at the stars.]]
99* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:For ''Peace Walker'']].
100* MercyKill: [[spoiler: How he finally dies. Over 100 years old, vegetative due to a parasitic infection given to him by a former lieutenant, almost all his plans having backfired horribly, nearly destroying the world he sought to unite, and his best friend thinking he was his worst enemy, all due to a desire to see an old friend's final wish come true, leading to numerous misguided decisions that ended up making things worse. His story was thoroughly tragic. It was finally put to an end by the man he considered his best friend when Big Boss turned off his life support and put the Major out of his misery.]]
101* MissionControl: In ''3'', he serves as this to Naked Snake.
102* MyHeroZero: Zero momentarily changed his handle to [[Film/TheGreatEscape "Tom", thus dooming the Virtuous Mission.]] The irony did not escape him; he switches it back for Operation Snake Eater. [[spoiler:Subverted in later games, when Zero becomes obsessed with control. Even the AIs he sought to use to guide the world ended up backfiring and controlling the world, making everything go FromBadToWorse.]]
103* NoodleIncident:
104** 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.
105** He holds a particular grudge towards Raikov. What caused him to bear an animosity towards Raikov is not yet explained, since he immediately changes the subject when Snake asks him why.
106* NotMeThisTime: Discussed in the cassette tape "Cipher's Will" in ''The Phantom Pain''. [[spoiler:Venom Snake ponders whether or not Zero truly was responsible for the attack on MSF in ''Ground Zeroes'', remarking that "the man [he] knew" wouldn't want that. Zero himself claims the attack on MSF and destruction of Mother Base was entirely the product of Skull Face's rebellion, and he was ''horrified'' to discover what had happened.[[note]] Of course, he may have ordered the destruction of MSF to force Big Boss to come crawling back to Cipher after the events of ''Peace Walker'', but Skull Face deviated by trying to have Big Boss killed. [[/note]]]]
107* OneWorldOrder: His goal after Big Boss leaves The Patriots borders on this. As he puts it in a trailer for ''The Phantom Pain'':
108--> "''This world will become one. I have found the way. Race, tribal affiliations, national borders... even our faces will be irrelevant. The world that the Boss envisioned will finally become a reality, and it will make mankind whole again.''"
109* OrderVersusChaos: His conflict with Big Boss ultimately boils down to this. Big Boss's goal is to establish an anarchic perpetual battleground where soldiers are free to serve as mercenaries and do battle without allegiance to any government, ideology, or creed, whereas Zero hopes to unite the world under a OneWorldOrder government run by [[BigBrotherIsWatching Big Brother]] {{AIs}}.
110* PrecisionFStrike: Zero is not known for being very foul-mouthed in the games, as the worst he'll ever say is the occasional "hell" or "crap". [[spoiler:In one of the Truth Tapes]], he calls Snake the "toughest son of a bitch" he's known, marking it the strongest cuss word he's ever used.
111* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: A dapper Brit with an obsession with ''Film/JamesBond'', tea time, and scones.
112* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler:To the very end, he has a scar running from his forehead to his left cheek.]]
113* SophisticatedAsHell: He can go from talking like a British gentlemen to suggesting to Snake to “beat the crap” out of Raikov if he ever encounters him.
114* StrawNihilist: [[spoiler:After the Boss's death due to political manipulations, and Big Boss later leaving the Patriots, he loses faith in humanity]].
115* SweetTooth: If his love for scones is anything to go by.
116* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He gets really worked-up over tea and scones. Although {{subverted}}; his codec info reveals his favorite food is actually Shepard’s pie.
117* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: Seems to believe that humanity cannot be trusted to make their own decisions. His reasoning [[CallForward eerily echoes]] how the AIs will [[Videogame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty later justify themselves.]]
118--> "''We must rely on information control. People need an appropriate context for their lives.''"
119* TheUnfought: Justified. By the time Solid Snake encounters him in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', [[spoiler:he is in a permanent vegetative state and is over 100 years old]].
120* ThisIsUnforgivable: [[spoiler: As revealed in one of the cassette tapes detailing his secret visit of Snake in the hospital in Cyprus during ''The Phantom Pain'', this is his reaction regarding Skull Face's attack on MSF which resulted in Big Boss ending up in a coma.]]
121-->"I don't mind about myself. But what he did to you, I can never forgive."
122* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Well-intentioned though he was, his beliefs that the world needed a Boss / Big Boss to guide it and his loss of faith in humanity as a whole led to him producing Cipher and the assortment of consequences that would stem from that. [[spoiler:Skull Face crippling him via parasite exposure into inevitable dementia and mental degradation then prevented Zero from undoing the fate he set into motion. The result would be the manipulation and enslavement of humanity for the generations to come thanks to the Patriots, who went ''far'' beyond anything Zero could've [[EvenEvilHasStandards ever considered himself]], countless deaths including comrades, Big Boss and himself, and the [[ForeverWar war economy]] on a global scale that perverted and utterly broke even Big Boss's ethics while betraying everything The Boss stood for.]] ''Guns of the Patriots'' spells out just how badly things got out of hand and makes it clear absolutely none of it was intended.
123* VillainousRescue: [[spoiler: Sends the men still loyal to him to rescue Big Boss and any MSF survivors of Skull Face's attack. Then has said survivors moved to a hidden medical facility to safely heal.]]
124* WalkingSpoiler: He quickly became this after the release of ''Guns of the Patriots'', alongside SIGINT and Para-Medic.
125* WalkingTechbane: Implied in several radio conversations to Sigint, which is incredibly ironic, considering he is mentioned to believe in the coming of the electronic age [[spoiler: and he ultimately masterminds a system of supercomputers, [=AIs=], and nanomachines to rule the entire world for him.]]
126** Or maybe not so ironic. [[spoiler:The one time he funds an AI capable of working, it goes a little ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[ZerothLawRebellion well]], and against his wishes anyway.]]
127* WellIntentionedExtremist: Was one, along with Big Boss, when they co-founded The Patriots to honor The Boss's legacy. Then he and Big Boss had a violent falling-out, his worldview became increasingly bleak and cynical, and he eventually lost all control over The Patriots when his [=AIs=] began to run amok while he slipped into a vegetative state as a result of an attack by a former lieutenant, Skull Face.
128* YouAreTooLate: [[spoiler: Pretty much everything regarding his plans. He was too late to stop the destruction of the MSF (though he did manage to save Big Boss's life), and he couldn't get Big Boss to awaken from his coma before he himself fell into a permanent vegetative state as a result of Skull Face's attack.]]
129* YoungerThanTheyLook: He has a wrinkled face and full-grey hair making him look like he could pass off for an elderly man, despite being in his 50's during ''Snake Eater''. [[spoiler: Naturally, he ends up looking pretty ancient by the time of ''Guns of Patriots'']].
130[[/folder]]
131
132[[folder: Sigint]]
133[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sigintmgs_4160.jpg]]
134[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Between you and Para-Medic, is everyone but me that is hooked up with the Major strange?"-]'' ]]
135[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darpamgs_3507.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see [[spoiler:Donald Anderson in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid MGS1]]'']].]]
136->In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater MGS3]]'': Creator/KeijiFujiwara (JP), [[Creator/JamesCMathisIII James Mathis]] (EN)
137->''"Suppose the legs help the tank travel bad roads...? I don't see the logic in that. Isn't that what treads are for? I mean, anyone who'd seriously consider making a thing like ''that'' [[DramaticIrony has got to be a wacko.]]"''
138
139The CIA's best tech specialist. Between the technophobia of Washington, D.C. and the casual racism he faced in the private sector, Sigint's career was at a loose end when the Major poached him for FOX. Sigint developed most of Naked Snake's on hand equipment and is the one Snake talks to about said equipment.
140
141The end of ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' strongly implies (and ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]'' confirms) that [[spoiler:Sigint would later join DARPA under his real name -- Donald Anderson (a founder of the Patriots) -- and help develop Metal Gear REX. He's kidnapped during the Shadow Moses Incident and replaced with an imposter, Decoy Octopus, who falls dead after being exposed to the FOXDIE virus. Snake later learns that the real Anderson was murdered by Ocelot in a supposedly-failed interrogation, which even later turns out to have been part of a plot to dismantle the Patriots' command structure.]]
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143* ADayInTheLimelight: The Secret Theater short "Metal Gear S...", where he ends up one-upping Snake in almost every major moment in the game.
144* BlackAndNerdy: He's a GadgeteerGenius who designed a lot of the gear Snake goes in with, such as his motion detector and tranq pistol. He notes that his skin colour prevented him from finding work for a long time.
145* BlackDudeDiesFirst: In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. [[spoiler:Heck, he dies before the game even starts!]]
146** Subverted in the overall chronology. He was actually [[spoiler:the second of the Patriot founders (particularly those still loyal to Zero) to die, the first being Dr. Clark, a.k.a. Para-Medic, who is white]].
147* CaptainObvious: When the player calls Sigint, he comments on the weapon they have equipped, the item, or the camouflage they are wearing, and some of them are so obvious it's just plain stupid. Here's one:
148-->''You're wearing the snow face paint. Snow face paint was originally invented for arctic operations. If you want to use it efficiently, wear it in a snowy environment.''
149* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Chief of DARPA Donald Anderson turned out to not only have been acquainted with Big Boss, but was one of the founders of the Patriots.]]
150* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:The "Donald Anderson" that Solid Snake meets is actually Decoy Octopus in disguise, and he is quickly killed by Snake's FOXDIE virus. The real Donald Anderson was already dead; killed by Ocelot.]]
151* DeathBySecretIdentity: A non-villainous example. [[spoiler:He and Ocelot had previously been acquainted due to being two of the Patriots' founders, and Ocelot [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident makes it look like he died by accident while being tortured]] so that his identity wouldn't be compromised.]]
152* DoomedByCanon: Once we know he's [[spoiler: Anderson, we also know that he's destined to be killed by Ocelot in the original Metal Gear Solid.]]
153* EveryManHasHisPrice: As [[spoiler:the head of DARPA]], he gladly accepts bribe money from arms manufacturers; one of these payments was to secure rights to [[spoiler:Metal Gear REX]].
154%%* FallenHero
155* GreaterScopeVillain: Sigint helped Zero mastermind the Peace Walker Incident, and personally created and uploaded the Patriots' AI. In addition, [[spoiler:''The Phantom Pain'' reveals that he became the leader of Cipher following Zero's incapacitation, so the latter’s actions during the '90s as recalled by EVA in ''Guns of the Patriots'' can now presumably be attributed to Sigint instead, although how many of them he is personally responsible for is debatable since the AI would gradually develop its own will and run itself]].
156* HypocriticalHumor: He often complains about being the only normal person within the FOX Unit, but has some of his own quirks.
157* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: [[spoiler:This was originally the case with him, since the DARPA Chief that Snake met at the beginning of [=MGS1=] was actually the enemy spy Decoy Octopus in disguise while the real chief was literally rotting in a cell the whole time. Sigint later became an important MissionControl character in [=MGS3=].]]
158* {{Irony}}: Shortly after Snake gets a nightmare after Para-Medic tells him about Dracula, Sigint tells him about the worst dream he's had, which bore various similarities to Metal Gear, and then asks Snake not to let his dream come true. Snake ends up not being able to keep his promise later in life. Bonus points come in when ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' reveals that Sigint [[spoiler:was actually Anderson, the one who had REX developed in exchange for bribe money]], meaning he didn't even allow himself to prevent his nightmare from coming true, and if we go by ''Peace Walker'', he apparently had a hand in developing the AI Weapons, meaning he made his nightmare come true even before Snake did.
159* InvisibleParents: He has parents and a sister according to his codec information, but nothing is really known about them.
160* KindheartedCatLover: He's part of Snake's support group in ''Snake Eater'', and his codec information reveals that his favorite animal is cats. [[spoiler: Subverted in that he later joins the Patriots under Zero and is responsible for developing Metal Gear Rex, making him a major villain in the franchise]].
161* MadScientist: Has shades of this. Namely, he developed a mask of which what he views as his proudest achievement is that it was the first mask that could blink, and it was referred to as a crackpot a few times. [[spoiler:It's also implied in ''The Phantom Pain'' that he took the reins of AI development from Strangelove after her death, which in time lead to the Patriot AI.]]
162* NotSoAboveItAll: While he's normally weirded out by his co-workers' quirks, he has some odd tendencies himself. For example, he developed a LatexPerfection mask with the ability to blink... but failed to see why moving lips might've been useful.
163* OnlySaneMan: Sigint seems to think everyone else in FOX are nuts. He may be right.
164* SignificantBirthDate: Was born on Veteran's Day.
165* TheStraightMan: Attempts to be this to the entire FOX team, at least.
166* UnfazedEveryman: He even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it at one point.
167* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:After Strangelove's death, it's implied that he took over in developing what became the Patriot AI.]]
168* YouAreInCommandNow: ''The Phantom Pain'' reveals that he [[spoiler:was in charge of Cipher after Zero's brain death due to Skull Face's parasite attack, but Skull Face then hijacked the organization.]]
169[[/folder]]
170
171[[folder: Para-Medic]]
172[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clarkmgs3_copy_2453.jpg]]
173[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Are you serious? You mean you've never heard of zombies? You guys don't know anything."-]'' ]]
174->Voiced by: Creator/HoukoKuwashima (JP), Heather Halley (EN)
175
176->''"Just think -- even if your body dies, you survive and go on to bigger and better accomplishments. If you think about it, it’s kind of an honor."''
177
178Another member of Zero's motley crew of misfits. Naked Snake's mission control who gives Snake information on the edible flora and fauna in the Russian forests, as well as medical advice. She's also quite the movie buff, telling Snake about all kinds of popular movies from the time.
179
180''Metal Gear Solid 4'' revealed that [[spoiler:she, like the rest of FOX, went on to found the Patriots. Under her real name, Dr. Clark, she was put in charge Les Enfants Terribles project as well as the sequencing of the soldier genes. She met a violent end at the hands of her newest toy, the Cyborg Ninja a.k.a. Gray Fox]].
181----
182* ActionGirl: She is a playable unit in ''Portal Ops'' where she can use the same [=CQC=] techniques as Naked Snake.
183* ArcWelding: [[spoiler:She wasn't intended to be "Dr. Clark" until ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' revealed she was]].
184* BunnyEarsLawyer: Loves her movies and Japanese pop culture. [[spoiler:Said quirk eventually got her killed.]]
185* CompositeCharacter: Her whole characterization in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' is like a combination of Otacon, Naomi Hunter, and Mei Ling. She even shares the same Japanese voice actor with Mei Ling.
186* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:She was so obsessed with B-movies and Japanese pop culture that it wasn't surprising when her finest humanoid creation turned against and killed her.]]
187* DoesNotLikeSpam: She really does not like crabs.
188* EvilOldFolks: [[spoiler:She was in her late 60s when she experimented on Grey Fox turning him into the cyborg ninja we know in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. Fox kills her for this.]]
189* ForScience: Actually admits that while she can't condone things like cloning on moral grounds, she is fascinated by the possibilities. [[spoiler:Guess what happens later on?]]
190* TheGhost: [[spoiler: She (technically he, given the information at the time) didn't actually appear on-screen until ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', but was given a few mentions in ''Metal Gear Solid'' as the one responsible for the creation of the gene therapy as well as the creation of the Genome Soldiers.]]
191* TheHeart: Served this role in ''Metal Gear Solid 3''.
192* HospitalHottie: A medical doctor who is quite easy on the eyes.
193* InvisibleParents: She has parents and two brothers according to her codec information, but nothing is really known about them, and the only time [[TheGhost they're ever mentioned]] is during a call with Snake.
194* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:Despite telling Snake that he should get out and try new things at one point, Para-Medic becomes so recluse, that not only anyone hasn't met her, but they (including Huey) didn't know about her gender]].
195* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Killed by Grey Fox, the man she used as a guinea pig for genetic research]].
196* LargeHam: According to the novelization for ''Metal Gear Solid'' [[spoiler:(which also acted as the first clue to Dr. Clark actually being a woman)]], she pretty much became this (it mentioned she acted Shakespearean in the first chapter taking place during Solid and Liquid Snake's birth).
197%%* LovableNerd
198* MadScientist: [[spoiler:Became one sometime after the events of ''Metal Gear Solid 3''.]]
199* TheMedic: Her name is "Para-Medic". It's right there. Even so, she's Naked Snake's go-to source for injuries, as well as how eating various things he finds will affect him. After Snake gets injured in the Virtuous Mission, it's Para-Medic who keeps Snake talking and conscious, and instructs him on how to address his own wounds until he can be air-lifted to a hospital.
200* MotorMouth: She was even called "Quack" because she talks so much and [[BlatantLies that's the only reason to call a doctor "quack."]]
201* TheMovieBuff: After every save, she'll ask Snake if he's seen a particular movie and make reference to it.
202%%* NerdsAreSexy
203* NiceGirl: For the early years of her life anyway... [[SubvertedTrope later however...]]
204* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: She's voiced by somebody from California and sounds like she'd be right at home there, but [[InformedAttribute we're told]] that Para-Medic lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was also born.
205* OccidentalOtaku: She's got quite a bit of a ForeignCultureFetish for Japan.
206* PresentDayPast: Her general look (especially her hairstyle) is far more fitting of 2004 than 1964.
207* PromotedToPlayable: In ''Portable Ops'', she becomes a playable unit functioning identically to Naked Snake.
208* {{Retcon}}: [[spoiler:Dr. Clark was originally meant to be a man, until Raymond Benson's novelization, which may make this an early bird spoiler.]] This is given a nod in ''The Phantom Pain'' [[spoiler:where Dr. Clark is referred to as a "he" in one of the cassette tapes. It's explained that almost no-one knows who Dr. Clark is - to the point where they don't even know "his" real gender.]]
209* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: ''Guns of Patriots'' reveals that Para-Medic is actually Dr. Clark, the scientist who turned Gray Fox into the Cyborg Ninja. Back then, Dr. Clark was referred by Naomi as a man. Huey Emmerich reveals that Dr. Clark was so secretive that barely anyone knows of her gender.]]
210%%* TeamMom
211[[/folder]]
212
213[[folder: EVA]]
214[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evamgs3_7517.jpg]]
215[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Scholars tell us that the first spy in history was the snake in the Book of Genesis."-]'' ]]
216[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bigmamamgs_2455.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see Big Mama in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots [=MGS4=]]]'']]
217[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"It was you, not I, who was created from the rib of man."-]'' ]]
218
219->EVA voiced by: Creator/MisaWatanabe (JP: ''[=MGS3=]'', ''MPO'', ''MGSPW''), Suzetta Miñet (EN: ''[=MGS3=]'', ''MGSPW''), Creator/VanessaMarshall (EN: ''MPO'')
220->Big Mama voiced by: Creator/MariNatsuki (JP), Creator/LeeMeriwether (EN)
221
222->''"I've been trained to make even the most severe falsehood sound like the honest truth. Weren't you?"''
223
224An American codebreaker who defected to the USSR. Now working for Volgin, she is tapped by the U.S. to assist Operation Snake Eater and prevent the threat of war. At the end of the game, [[spoiler:EVA reveals that she's an agent of the hitherto unseen Chinese Philosophers, and that it was Ocelot who was Snake's intended contact. Though her plan was a success, the microfilm she pinched from Snake turns out to be a fake.]]
225
226[[spoiler: She later joins the Patriots and serves as the surrogate mother for the "Les Enfants Terribles" project.]] She also shows up again in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', this time as the rebel leader "Big Mama".
227-----
228* AMotherToHerMen: All members of the Paradise Lost Army refer to her as "Mama", and she calls them her "children."
229* AlmostDeadGuy: Near the end of the game, after crashing her bike, she gets ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by a tree branch, complete with BloodFromTheMouth. Though Snake gives her medical attention, she doesn't just walk it off either; she can barely walk, and is still bleeding throughout the subsequent EscortMission.
230* BadassBiker: She's very capable on a bike. Some of her best moments in action occur on a bike, most notably when she uses it as an ImprovisedWeapon against Ocelot.
231* BattleCouple: With Naked Snake in [=MGS3=]. Especially during the escape from the base and the battle against the Shagohod, with EVA driving and Snake gunning (later with EVA drawing the Shagohod's fire so Snake can AttackItsWeakPoint). They do have their earlier moments tho. One of EVA's first actions upon meet Snake is to save him from a Spetznaz ambush. Then later they double team Major Ocelot.
232* BigEater: During an escort mission with her, her stamina goes down very quick. Made worse by having lost all your food a bit before and not much of a chance to replenish it. Though it's partially justified given how she was injured during the motorcycle crash which preceded this section.
233* BondGirl: {{Deconstructed}} and {{Inverted}}. In Bond films. Bond always seduced the girl, before using her and abandoning her by the next movie. In [=MGS3=], EVA is the one seducing Snake, before using him for her own ends and abandoning him.
234* ButNotTooForeign: She's a bottle blonde and wears heavy makeup and eyeliner, implying she's trying to "pass" as a white woman. [[spoiler:She is a Chinese agent, but her birthplace is in Meridian, Idaho, America. It's strongly implied in her message to Naked Snake in the ending that she was taken by the Philosophers at a very early age alongside other children across the world to be trained as a sleeper agent. The end implication is that she's at least partially Chinese.]] [[spoiler:Even worse, Snake's genetic heritage can't be used to determine her ethnicity, as Big Mama mentions during her opening monologue that the donor of the egg which became ''Les Enfants Terrible'' was from "Dr. Clark's assistant, a healthy Japanese woman." She may have borne Snake in her womb, but she is not genetically related to him.]]
235* ClarkKenting: Her "Tatyana" persona, in spite of being nothing more than a change of clothes and a pair of glasses, convincingly portrays her as being a different person due to a huge change in body language.
236* CoveredWithScars: She bears several scars across her back from masquerading as [[{{Sadist}} Volgin]]'s lover.
237* CustomUniformOfSexy: In her Tatyana disguise, her otherwise formal military uniform has a miniskirt.
238* DoubleAgent: She is introduced as a codebreaker who defected from the NSA to work for the KGB, [[spoiler: but is actually an agent working for China]].
239* DiedInYourArmsTonight: At the [[spoiler: end of Act 3 of ''[=MGS4=]'', she dies peacefully in Solid Snake's arms]].
240* DrivesLikeCrazy: During the motorcycle chase from the Shagohod... let's just say that EVA's skills at not crashing leave something to be desired.
241* EveryoneHasStandards: In spite of her hatred of Volgin, she isn't too pleased with the way he got [[BoltofDivineRetribution incapacitated]].
242* FakeBoobs: Her medical history reveals she has had 'Breast Enhancement', presumably to make her better at distracting her targets.
243* {{Flanderization}}: Between ''Snake Eater'' and ''Guns Of The Patriots'' her personality trait regarding [[AdamAndOrEve the Eve symbolism]] is exaggerated, as in the original game the symbolism behind her name and role in the story is more subtle. In ''Snake Eater'', the Eve symbolism is a thing she came out on the spot (as Snake was waiting for Adam) and she jokes about how she tempted the snake; by ''Guns of the Patriots'', she takes the symbolism very seriously.
244* FlippingTheBird: She does the European version towards Volgin.
245* GangstaStyle: She shoots this way with her Mauser, using the recoil to sweep the weapon's muzzle in order to acquire her next target quickly. [[spoiler:It's one of the first indications that she's actually an agent for the Chinese.]]
246* HoneyTrap: [[spoiler:She seduces Snake with the intention of using him to further her own agenda, and even plans to kill him once her mission is completed as HeKnowsTooMuch. [[InLoveWithTheMark She does however genuinely fall in love with him over the course of the story]].]]
247* InLoveWithTheMark: [[spoiler:While her seduction of Snake was initially part of an attempt to get him to let his guard down so she could use him for her own ends, she does end up developing genuine romantic feelings for him]]. [[spoiler:This still doesn't stop her from ultimately screwing him over by stealing the (unbeknownst to her, fake) Philosophers' Legacy microfilm as well as Shagohod's missile launch data and abandoning him in the name of completing her mission, though she regrets doing so enough to leave a taped apology behind for him and she also decides against killing him despite having orders to eliminate anyone who knew about her mission]].
248* IGaveMyWord: [[spoiler:According to the tape she left behind for Snake to find, she had standing orders to kill everyone who knew about her mission, but she chose to spare him because she had promised him not to kill him. But at the same time, it is rather heavily implied that her own feelings for him also played a part in the decision.]]
249* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Snake, I Am Your Mother]]. Surrogate Mother to be precise.
250* MadeOfIron: She doesn't go through the survival hell and violence that Naked Snake had to struggle with, but Volgin puts her through a fair amount of torture and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil implied rape]] mostly for kicks and sadism, on top of the mission stress and her DoubleAgent work. She still becomes instrumental to the defeat of the Shagohod and bikes like she's unstoppable. Becomes DentedIron when she ends up impaled on a tree branch shortly thereafter, which effectively cripples her for the rest of the operation as all of her injuries add up.
251* MissingMom: She was absent from the lives of both her children, [[spoiler:Liquid and Solid Snake. As far as we know, she never met Liquid after giving birth to him, and only met Solid Snake again when he was ''42''. And dies the same night.]]
252* MsFanservice: Has a habit of [[NavelDeepNeckline leaving her biker suit unzipped]], which Naked Snake certainly appreciated.
253* NavelDeepNeckline: Constantly leaves her motorcycle suit unzipped to expose her bra and midriff.
254* NeverMessWithGranny: At 78, she's still a BadassBiker who DrivesLikeCrazy. Solid Snake has to ride on the back of her bike to keep drones away from her, and she's perfectly capable of driving while distracted.
255* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[spoiler:The narration of her letter to Naked Snake at the end of ''3'' initially has her explaining her mission in a manner-of-fact tone, which includes her talking about her deception of Snake and the Russians, and serves to make the player and Snake question [[WasItAllALie just how much of it was the truth]]. But what ends up being completely, unambiguously true is her explanation of The Boss' true mission, ZeroApprovalGambit, and HeroicSacrifice, marked by how EVA can be heard uncharacteristically breaking down and sobbing when talking about how The Boss would go down as a traitor to America in spite of her UndyingLoyalty.]]
256* PaperThinDisguise: To the player anyway, it should be at least reasonably obvious that she's Tatyana, even before the game zooms in on her scuffed biker boots while otherwise in disguise.
257* PrecisionFStrike: In the Japanese version, after EVA (as Tatyana) was discovered to be the spy within Volgin's ranks, she says "Fuck you!" to Volgin before attempting to shoot him with the Kiss of Death. This was [[{{Bowdlerization}} toned down]] during localization to "Go to Hell!"
258* RedemptionEqualsDeath: In [[spoiler:''Metal Gear Solid 4''.]]
259* SavedByCanon: Any instance of her death in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' will bizarrely trigger a TimeParadox despite this being our first introduction to her. As the series reveals there are two mayor reasons for this:
260** [[spoiler: In ''Snake Eater'' itself EVA is the only character that realizes the truth about the Boss and is willing to tell Snake, paving the way for him to become the Big Boss we would later see, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom without her history might have turned out very differently]]]].
261** [[spoiler:''Metal Gear Solid 4'' reveals the second reason: She's the surrogate mother of Solid and Liquid Snake.]]
262* ShoutOut:
263** [[spoiler:Her appearance in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' is a tribute to ultimate {{BondGirl}}, Honor Blackman a.k.a. [[http://im.rediff.com/movies/2009/may/27sli10.jpg Pussy Galore]].]]
264** Her name being EVA makes one to the main HumongousMecha in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' which is also named EVA and [[spoiler:they're also mothers of the main protagonists]].
265** Also an inversion of the Eve / Serpent dynamic in christian mythos. Instead of the snake seducing Eve into taking the forbidden fruit, its EVA seducing Snake so she can steal a forbidden treasure.
266* SilverFox: [[spoiler:In the fourth game]], other than some wrinkles, she still has her youthful figure at 78, even wearing an outfit with a plunging neckline.
267* SirSwearsALot: Although most of the characters swear in the series, only two (one in the English version) actually went as serious as dropping the F-bomb in the ''Solid'' games (whereas Senator Armstrong, Sundowner, and even Raiden drop f-bombs multiple times in ''Rising'').
268* StatuesqueStunner: She's 5'10 and a half.
269* {{Stripperific}}: In ''[=MGS3=]'', she's usually seen with her suit unzipped to show off a NavelDeepNeckline.
270* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Instant Noodles. She even moans wanting some in her sleep.
271* TrojanPrisoner: She posed as the KGB officer Tatyana as early as a few weeks before the Virtuous Mission, and was later captured by Volgin. Given Sokolov's comments on her to Snake, its implied that she deliberately allowed herself to be captured in order to infiltrate Groznyj Grad.
272* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Unlike Para-Medic who sees the Sons of Big Boss as experiments, Zero seeing them as the legacy of Big Boss, and Big Boss' immense contempt for them, EVA is the only one who showed motherly love to them after she gave birth to them.
273[[/folder]]
274
275!!The Cobra Unit
276[[folder: In General]]
277[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/420333_10150593587855986_677164949_n.jpg]]
278A team of some of the greatest Alied soldiers, led by the Boss. 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 Snake has the misfortune of having to fight them. They consist of The Pain, who can control hornets; The Fear, an animalistic hunter with a crossbow; The End, the world's oldest sniper; The Fury, a pyromaniac cosmonaut, and The Sorrow, a person who is both a ghost and a medium.
279-----
280* AmbiguouslyHuman: They’re supposedly human, but most of them have otherworldly powers and inhuman features. The Fear can climb up trees like a spider and has a snake-like tongue and cat-like eyes, The End has a spiritual connection to the forest, The Fury survived re-entry to Earth's atmosphere without a spaceship and turns into a fireball upon being defeated, The Pain is basically a walking beehive, and The Sorrow was a medium in life. The Boss is the only remotely normal member of the bunch, but even then, her scar is shown to have magical properties.
281* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Each and every warrior of the Cobra Brigade represents the definition of the emotions felt in battle, condensed within a lethal physical personification of the concept they represent.
282** [[spoiler: They also could represent Snake's emotions during the game. He felt pain, fear, fury, and joy on the battlefield. Yet he was overcome with '''Sorrow''' when The Boss died, never leaving until he met his '''END''']].
283%%* BadassCrew
284* {{Cool Old Guy}}s: Most of them are in their fifties, and The End is over a century old.
285* DefeatEqualsExplosion: With the exception of The Sorrow and The Boss, all of the Cobra Unit members [[spoiler:exploded upon being defeated, regardless of lethality or lack thereof. It's HandWaved by Zero and Sigint explaining that they carried microbombs to detonate in the event that they fell during battle so as to deny the enemy even the chance to retrieve their body and personal belongings. Unfortunately for the rest of the world in the 1980's this doesn't work as intended; as Code Talker is able to retrieve The End's remains which is rife with parasites and are used towards creating a biological weapon capable of eliminating language and was nearly successful]].
286* DrivenToSuicide: It is heavily implied via various radio conversations that the reason why the surviving members of the Cobra Unit (barring The Boss) still carried a microbomb, even when not being in enemy territory, and also why they are even fighting against Snake is because they wanted to die in battle.
287* FallenHero: [[spoiler:Not really.]]
288* FlatCharacter: Their pasts and personalities aren't explored in much depth, unlike in the previous games, and they don't seem to have any motivation to be here outside their loyalty to the Boss. The Cobras mostly exist to be a [[QuirkyMinibossSquad group of eccentrics with distinct abilities for Snake to take down]].
289* GameplayAndStorySegregation: You get their camouflages if they're defeated via stamina-kill despite being blown up. Or in The End's case, his gun.
290* MultinationalTeam: Led by an American, at least two of them are Russian. The Pain, The Fear and The End's nationalities are unknown, but The Pain's use of a Tommy Gun possibly suggests American and The End's use of a Mosin-Nagant means he could possibly be Russian.
291* OneManArmy: Each is considered such.
292* PunchClockVillain: BloodKnight tendencies aside, they're not really bad people - just mercenaries who loyally follow The Boss wherever she goes.
293* QuirkyMiniBossSquad: Even quirkier than previous entries. Their already formidable combat abilities are enhanced by surgical-modifications and/or Pulp-Novel-Era WeirdScience funded by the 100 billion dollars of the Philosophers' Legacy rather than Hard-Science of the Universe's later-years.
294* SpellMyNameWithAThe: All of them are referred to as "The". The Boss even states at one point "I leave him to you, The Fear."
295* SuperEmpowering: ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' explains that [[spoiler:parasites attached to some of the Cobra Unit were able to give them their powers; for example, The End was infested with a parasite that gives him the ability to thrive off photosynthesis, and that parasite was later ingested by Code Talker to give him the same ability. It's also heavily implied that The Fury and The Pain were infested with parasites as well; two additional parasites found included one that forced the brain to produce extra adrenaline upon feeling pain, the other allowed the user to secrete hormones that controlled insects.]]
296* TrueCompanions: They fought together during World War II and still possess UndyingLoyalty to one another, as well as The Boss. The entire reason they're even antagonists in the first place is out of loyalty to The Boss, who was [[spoiler:seemingly]] aligned with Volgin. [[spoiler:The Fury outright says prior to his death that he's off to join The Sorrow, embracing his demise with the knowledge that he'll be reunited with his old friend.]]
297%%* {{Zen Survivor}}
298[[/folder]]
299
300[[folder: The Boss]]
301[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thebossmgs3_7748.jpg]]
302[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"There is no need to prove that you are 'virtuous' here. This isn't America."-]'' ]]
303
304-> AKA The Joy/Voyevoda
305->Voiced by: Creator/KikukoInoue (JP), Creator/LoriAlan (EN)
306
307->''"Ridiculous, isn't it? Yesterday's ally becomes today's opposition."''
308
309Naked Snake's mentor and a war hero who led the Cobra Unit, a multinational team of elite Supernatural Warriors who practically ''won'' UsefulNotes/WorldWarII for the Allies. During the early events of ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', she defects to the Soviet Union with her fellow Cobras, causing a dramatic power shift between the East and West. This is bad news for Khrushchev, whose political rivals are secretly conspiring with The Boss' new employer. Enraged, Khrushchev threatens war, and D.C. is left with no choice but to slay The Boss and her leader as recompense. Snake now stands accused of colluding in the Boss' defection, and must cooperate in her assassination to save himself and the Major from execution.
310
311The Boss continues to haunt the narrative in the prequels, much like Big Boss does in the present day.
312-----
313* TheAce: One of the greatest soldiers who ever lived with a mastery of hand-to-hand combat, firearms and infiltration, charismatic, extremely wise, unparalleled emotional strength, and is respected by just about everyone.
314* ActOfTrueLove: "Snake Eater", which can be considered The Boss' theme, explores the depths of her philosophy and why she sacrificed her life. She isn't motivated by notion of honor or glory, and was in fact willing to discard all of it and die a bloodstained villain in order to save the world. She did this out of true love for the world itself when she realized that Volgin's actions would mean World War III without any intervention on her part, and for Jack whose relationship cannot be classified by any normal definition of romance and goes beyond a simple Mentor-Pupil relationship.
315* ActionGirl: A huge one. She regularly beats the snot out of Naked Snake and fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, while ''hugely pregnant'', and became a legendary war hero.
316* ActionMom: During [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar the game itself]].
317* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: The first time she and her former student fight in ''Snake Eater'', she completely and utterly [[CurbStompBattle hands his ass to him on a silver platter]], with the only grab he manages being something all but allowed as he pulled off her bandanna. The second encounter a week later isn't much better. It takes Snake fighting the Cobra Unit throughout the rest of the game to gradually get better and better, [[TookALevelInBadass ascending up to her level in the hierarchy]] to finally equal the playing field and [[SurpassedTheTeacher surpass her]] to the point that he can ''counter her CQC back'', allowing him to inherit her title in the process.
318* AnimalMotifs: A horse. Snakes too, to a lesser extent- while she is never associated with snakes herself, her C-section scar becomes a snake after her death ([[MagicRealism Just go with it]]), and she references snakes in her speech at the end. The snake symbolism is likely meant to reflect on her being a "mother of snakes", being the surrogate mother of Naked Snake—from whom the other snakes were born. She's also the leader of the ''Cobra'' Unit, which is a major reason why the mission to eliminate her and her unit is known as Operation Snake Eater.
319* AntiVillain: The Villain in Name Only variant; even though she's one of the game's main antagonists, she's strangely kind and compassionate. [[spoiler:This is because she turns out to be a HeroAntagonist. She's only an "enemy" because the U.S. Government essentially screwed her over after her [[FakeDefector fake]] defection [[GoneHorriblyWrong backfired]] due to [[AxCrazy Volgin]] and presumably the [[TheResenter CIA's]] influence.]] It's also worth pointing out that, despite the many clashing personalities and agendas in ''Snake Eater'', she's the only person that literally ''every other character'' respects. (In Volgin's case, it's more due to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership fear]], but considering that he's AxCrazy, that's still saying something).
320* BadassCape: For much of [=MGS3=], she wears a black poncho over her sneaking suit, which [[TheCoatsAreOff she dramatically tosses aside]] just before her final battle with Snake.
321* BadassNormal: The Boss spends the entire game surrounded by supernaturally empowered apprentices, an AxCrazy general who wields ShockAndAwe, and (in the form of Jack and Ocelot) people who will become the two most accomplished special-forces operatives of all time. She is more than a match for ''absolutely all of them''.
322* BattleCouple: With The Sorrow during World War II.
323* BloodKnight: She claims to be one, but her [[spoiler: trip to space]] and [[spoiler: assassination of her own lover]] made her want to unite the world rather than fight it. Still, whether she is acting or not, she says she wants to make [[spoiler:her final fight with Naked Snake]] the "best ten minutes" of her life.
324* BoyishShortHair: During the Virtuous Mission, her hair is tied up in a way that it ''looks'' short. She lets it hang down for the rest of the game.
325* CigarChomper: According to a Codec conversation, she used to smoke cigars.
326* CloseRangeCombatant: She and Snake created CQC together. In both cutscenes and gameplay, she is utterly devastating in close quarters, handily able to rapidly disarm a gun wielding opponent and plant him on his ass before he can draw a bead on her.
327** Can be turned against her in the final battle. Pressing the attack button when she attempts to grab him will result in Snake performing a counter that will leave her vulnerable to almost anything, including the very same simple CQC techniques she's used against him this whole time.
328* ComicbookFantasyCasting: To actress Creator/CharlotteRampling.
329* DeathFakedForYou: Twice, to two different people, as a matter of fact. The first was in the Virtuous Mission, where she had thrown Snake over a bridge nearing the end of the mission, knowing full well that Snake would in fact survive the fall. The second time was [[spoiler:prior to Sokolov and Snake's torture at the hands of Volgin]], where she apparently supplied him with a fake death pill.
330* DeathSeeker: Strangelove comments that she thought the Boss was like this after hearing of Operation Snake Eater.
331--> '''The Boss:''' Life's end. Isn't it glorious?
332* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: She has a habit of walking up to men she's angry with and [[YouAreGrounded forcibly dismantling their firearms]].
333* DrillSergeantNasty: When Volgin begins torturing Snake for information about his objectives The Boss is the first to point out it's useless to interrogate him, since The Boss was the one who trained him in how to resist torture in the first place.
334* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: EVA admires her a bit too much, so much that if the player knocks her out, they can [[HoYay hear her moan "Boss~"]] in her sleep. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' even has Dr. Strangelove [[spoiler: develop an A.I. based on her idol.]]
335* FaceDeathWithDignity: She's [[spoiler:eerily at peace with the idea of her own demise. It demonstrates how strong her spirit is, as a lesser person would have broken under the strain, while she barely sheds much tears.]]
336* FaceHeelTurn: At the end of the Virtuous Mission, she is revealed to have defected from the United States to support Volgin and his army. [[spoiler:Actually Subverted in the game's ending sequence when it's revealed that she was actually a FakeDefector all along.]]
337* FatalFlaw: [[spoiler:For all the strength, courage and respect she's earned from others, she's blindly loyal to a country that continues to screw her over time after time and ultimately has her killed not because it was to save the country as first assumed, but just that she was becoming a nuisance.]]
338* TheFatalist: EVA discusses this in one of the Peace Walker Tapes, discussing the Boss's mission into space.
339--> '''EVA''': ''(quoting The Boss)'' "Someone has to be first", she said. "If fate has chosen me, then I accept it. For my country. For the balance of the world." That was how she saw things. "I have accepted my fate."
340* FinalBossPreview: Naked Snake fights the Boss in numerous cutscenes before he finally battles her for real. During their first two encounters, Snake doesn't even land a blow on her. In their third fight, he shows signs of improvement. By the fourth battle, he's finally mastered CQC and turns it against her.
341* {{Foreshadowing}}: You won't think too much about it in the Virtuous Mission, but as the game progresses, it becomes ''very suspicious'' that she seems to always be one step ahead of Snake on his very path, predicting he'll be there shortly. [[spoiler:Turns out that she's a DoubleAgent secretly working both alongside and independently of Ocelot ''and'' EVA, with all three of them after the Philosopher's Legacy under Volgin's nose the entire time, and Snake is her final insurance policy to [[HeroicSacrifice kill her and save the world]] after America all but abandoned her to her fate in the process. Of course she knows Snake's path; she likely was at least in on it with her subtle allies the entire time.]]
342* GenderIsNoObject: Surprisingly, nobody ever gives her any guff for being a woman, despite this taking place in the sixties. It's possible nobody dares bring it up because ''she's that good''. [[spoiler:Her connection to the Philosophers probably doesn't hurt either]].
343* GoodAllAlong: Well not ''good'', but as the game progresses, we can see that she clearly is kind and generally a good person, despite her still being an antagonist. [[spoiler:Played straight by the ending, which reveals that she never pulled her FaceHeelTurn in the first place.]]
344* GoodScarsEvilScars: [[spoiler:Possesses a snake-shaped scar resulting from an emergency C-section deliverance of her baby, Adamska, a.k.a. Ocelot during the Invasion of Normandy. After her death, the scar [[MagicalRealism transforms into a real snake]] and slithers away]].
345%%* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold
346* TheHeavy: While Volgin's the one in charge of the enemy forces, she's the more personal antagonist towards Snake, and it's her defection that caused most of the game's plot to happen in the first place.
347* HeroAntagonist: [[spoiler:She opposes Snake throughout the entire game but is actually on the good side.]]
348* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:After it became apparent that an unexpected occurrence (Volgin bombing the Sokolov Design Bureau) will force her to have to give up her life at the hands of her disciple, she willingly does so to prevent WorldWarIII. Subverted in later games where it turns out that, although she did still intend to prevent nuclear war, her death was actually intended from the very beginning]].
349* HeroWithBadPublicity: She [[spoiler:posthumously becomes this. EVA even lampshades her tragic fate.]]
350-->'''[[spoiler: EVA:''' In America, as [[FakeDefector a despicable traitor with no sense of honor]]. In Russia, a monster who almost unleashed a nuclear catastrophe...]]
351* HiddenHeartOfGold: It turns out that she [[spoiler:didn't defect]] and aims to reunite a divided world.
352* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Her combat uniform is white in a game largely designed with camouflage in mind, which makes her stick out like a sore thumb among the jungles of Tselinoyarsk. [[spoiler:It is, however, very effective to the point where infrared goggles are recommended when you fight her in her final battle, set in a field of white flowers.]]
353* HonorBeforeReason: Even before [[spoiler:her death in]] Operation Snake Eater, it's revealed that she put up with ''years'' of abuse and exploitation at the hands of the U.S. government; she was simply ''that'' loyal to her country.
354* ICannotSelfTerminate: Naked Snake ''must'' be the one to kill her; otherwise, the USSR will have no one else but the United States to blame for the nuke detonated within their territory.
355* ILetYouWin: [[spoiler:Heavily implied to be the case during her final fight against Naked Snake/Big Boss and later confirmed by Snake himself in later games. She knows that she has to die in order to complete her mission and wants to die by her student's hands but she won't let herself fall until she deems Snake worthy by him completely mastering CQC.]]
356* ImageSong: "Snake Eater" could be considered one, [[spoiler:foreshadowing her motivations for going on what was basically a suicide mission]].
357* IronLady: The Mother of Special Forces, she has a calm and collected demeanor, and such a strong and overbearing presence that she sent ''Volgin'' reeling back in fear when she questioned his mistrust towards her.
358* IronicName: Despite her old codename being The Joy, The Boss rarely rare smiles. [[spoiler:Actually, this codename -- along with the other Cobras' names -- represent [[AnthropomorphicPersonification emotions]] that Snake must "kill" in order to succeed in his mission: he overcomes the Pain, the Fear, the End and the Fury, but unfortunately he also killed his Joy, and was left only with Sorrow, the only emotion he didn't kill -- which left him a [[BrokenAce broken]], embittered man for the rest of his life.]]
359* ItsAllMyFault: She blames herself for the Cold War, believing that if she [[spoiler: had followed through with an assassination, even though it was actually a Soviet ruse, she might have been able to stop the Cold War, even if it meant sacrificing an innocent man.]]
360* JeanneDArchetype: She became a military leader at an early age during World War II, fought for her country, and once the truth about her [[spoiler:fake defection]] comes out, she can be seen as a martyr.
361* KillTheOnesYouLove: She was forced to kill [[spoiler:The Sorrow]] in battle. [[spoiler:And Snake was forced to do the same to her.]]
362* LadyOfWar: She has grace, reserve, and uses the efficient, bone-breaking CQC to execute fast field-strips and disarm opponents. She commands so much respect that she intimidates Volgin by just questioning him, and is very wise in warfare due to spending decades as a soldier.
363%%* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler:Subverted.]]
364* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Or more accurately: Ocelot, I Am Your Mother.]]
365* MagneticHero: She inspires UndyingLoyalty in almost everyone around her to the point that fifty years after her death, the major conflict in the world is caused by differences in the interpretation of her will.
366* MamaBear:
367** It was established that she and The Sorrow ended up fighting each other and she ended up killing him in 1962 at Tselinoyarsk, and the only "visual" aspect (a flashback from The Sorrow's memories) implies that The Boss killed him unwillingly. Peace Walker elaborates on the exact circumstances as to why she and The Sorrow fought: basically, the American and Russian Philosophers forced them to fight each other (in a manner that is eerily similar to Raiden and Solidus's fight in ''Metal Gear Solid 2'') with the threat that if both survived the fight, they would murder The Sorrow and The Boss's child, [[spoiler:Revolver Ocelot]].
368** Even earlier, during an assassination attempt during World War II, The Boss protected her unborn child in a shoot out, causing her to take a grazing shot to the head.
369* MirrorBoss: Being Naked Snake's mentor, her boss fight reflects his fighting style by making use of CQC and camouflage. The player can invoke this further by wearing the black sneaking suit, which mirrors The Boss' own white sneaking suit. Based on flashbacks in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', this is exactly what happened canonically.
370* MissingMom: [[spoiler:To Ocelot]], born on Normandy on D-Day and taken from her by the Philosophers almost immediately. She never saw him grow up, [[spoiler:making for a DramaticIrony (in hindsight) as he ends up working for/alongside her during Operation Snake Eater.]]
371* AFatherToHisMen: Both to Naked Snake and to the other Cobras. It pains her that they fight each other to the death.
372* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Even after being betrayed and used by the government multiple times, she still continues to fight for America.
373* NavelDeepNeckline: One of the rare times this trope isn't played for {{fanservice}}, The Boss unzips her sneaking suit for her final bout with Snake, [[spoiler:revealing the [[IntimateMarks jagged scar on her chest]] from her C-section.]]
374%%* NecessarilyEvil: [[spoiler:A big part of her motives.]]
375* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:The Boss's intention of getting the Philosophers' Legacy for America was to reunite the warring factions of the Philosophers and make it as it once was, an organization to revert the brutal aspects of warfare. Unfortunately, she not only forgot to specify that it was to stop war, but when it got to the United States, and the Patriots were founded, it arguably made the feuding even worse.]]
376** Also earlier. The CIA offered to take over mission control of the mission to exploit some Russian Philosophers who were dissatisfied with Moscow into sabotaging various Soviet projects (with the not to subtle reason of wanting to take the credit). The Boss let them do so. Afterwards, they cut the sleeper agent's pay by a large percentage, resulting in him [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal defecting completely to the Soviet Union]], and then falsifying several documents. The Boss got suspicious and decided to go in alone after the CIA refused to back her up. In other words, she really should have continued being directly involved in the operation a bit longer rather than let the CIA take over.
377* TheParagon: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. The Boss was not only the greatest soldier of her time, but also a paragon of virtue and to her allies, including Snake and Zero, the very embodiment of what it meant to be a soldier. However ''The Boss was '''not''' perfect'', she had her own flaws (including a particularly nasty case of PoorCommunicationKills) but since she was so strong and charismatic everyone around her tended to overlook them and put her, and her ideals, in an unrealistic pedestal that no one would be able to reach, inviting inevitable discord among those [[spoiler:who tried to fulfill her will such as Big Boss and the Patriots. In a sad case of {{Irony}} the only ones who were able to fulfill her will as a human were those ''that never met her'' and thus were free of the grip of her charismatic legacy as a soldier: her memetic "son" Hal Emmerich and her adoptive grandson Solid Snake]].
378* ParentalSubstitute: In a conversation with EVA, Big Boss essentially describes The Boss as being like a mother to him.
379* PatrioticFervor: Despite all that happens to her, she still remains loyal to America, both out of genuine patriotism and a hope for a better future.
380* PeacefulInDeath: [[spoiler:She even orders Snake to pull the trigger]].
381* PerpetualFrowner: [[spoiler:When she becomes TogetherInDeath with The Sorrow, she can be seen smiling at Snake, however.]] She also a slight but noticeable smile after she's given her backstory to Snake.
382* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler:Even after her death, she casts a long shadow over the franchise, and arguably counts as the BigGood in that everything that happened (''everything Big Boss and the Patriots did'') was an attempt to live up to her legacy]].
383* PregnantBadass: At the Battle of Normandy (and presumably earlier).
384* {{Pun}}: When describing The End to Volgin, she will end up with a pun: "He'll wake up when the time is right. And when he does, it will be The End for the boy." Yes, [[OlderThanTheyThink The Boss actually said that in-game]] before WebComic/{{Hiimdaisy}} used that in her memetic spoof comic.
385* RedBaron: During her days as the leader of the Cobra unit she was called The Joy, Sigint remarks that it was probably because of the great joy she felt in battle.
386* SinkOrSwimMentor: [[spoiler: Is this during the final fight of [=MGS3=]. She wants Snake to master CQC before she allows him to kill her. In order to push him, The Boss orders an air strike to hit Rokovoj Bereg, giving Snake 10 minutes to master CQC. He succeeds.]]
387* SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains: Unquestionably a Villain in Name Only variant. The only reason you fight her is because [[spoiler:she's wrongfully branded a traitor, and revealing the truth would only compromise her mission]].
388* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only female among the Cobras. Though mitigated by the fact she's their ''leader''.
389* SpyCatsuit: In canon, she was the first to wear the sneaking suit, which she obtains after joining Volgin, likely making it a Soviet prototype.
390* StatuesqueStunner: Stands at 5'10.
391* StealthMentor: Through his mission to kill her, she provides her final lessons to her beloved student.
392* SuicideByCop: Essentially, she knows she has to die and wishes for [[spoiler:Naked Snake]] to be the one to kill her.
393* SuperStrength: She certainly had enough strength to carry the container with two Davy Crockett warheads and the container with the launcher, which had a combined weight of 300 kg (700 lbs), [[spoiler:and presumably use it by hand]].
394* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: To Olga Gurlukovich, who was forced to lead her own men into slaughter by the Patriots, who were holding her child ransom. Adamska [[spoiler:(a.k.a. Ocelot)]] was used as leverage to pit his parents against one another.
395* TeamMom: Frequently referenced as this in relation to the other Cobras.
396* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:She makes a big one.]]
397* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Right after you beat her, press R1 and you can see her ghost holding hands with The Sorrow.]]
398* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:A good woman who died to prevent a third world war.]]
399* TrainingFromHell: It's implied that this was her method of training Naked Snake in Snake Eater. The Boss told Volgin that his methods of torturing Snake for information are fruitless, as he was trained by her to not break under torture. [[spoiler:Now, take note of the fact that he was delivering electric shocks at Naked Snake that were heavily implied to be within the ten million volt range ("This is where the fun really begins! My body carries an electric charge of ten million volts! Let's see how you like this!") at the time she told him, so the mere fact that that wasn't enough to even break Snake due to The Boss's training speaks for itself.]]
400* UndyingLoyalty: "Loyalty to the end", indeed!
401* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The Boss' final will and her idyllic dream of making the world whole [[spoiler:helped influence the later motivations of Big Boss and those who in time forged the Patriots.]]
402* VasquezAlwaysDies: She's not exactly butch, but is considerably more experienced and less fanservicey than EVA, ''Metal Gear Solid 3''[='=]s other ActionGirl. Naturally, The Boss is the one that beefs it. However, this is a case of Administrivia/TropesAreTools since her death has next to nothing to do with her lack of femininity and forms one of the most heart-rending moments of the game, and perhaps the franchise as a whole.
403* VillainousLegacy: While The Boss herself was nothing less than loyal patriot who only wanted to leave the world as it was, almost every unspeakable action and monstrous organizations are attributed to trying to live up to her legacy and what she wanted. While all she wanted was to do was loyally serve her country and keep the world from killing itself, most ''Metal Gear'' villains distorted her motivations and only looked at her strength as a soldier and what ended up happening to her. Even when her [[spoiler:A.I. ghost]] sacrifices itself, Big Boss -- the one man who was supposed to truly understand her -- sees this as a betrayal of her own legacy rather than The Boss carrying out her own true desires.
404* VirtualGhost: [[spoiler:As the Mammal Pod]] in ''Peace Walker''.
405* WarriorPoet: Quite possibly the most wisdom-filled character in the series. She gives many thought-provoking monologues on the nature of war, soldiers, governments and militaries as a whole.
406* WhiteShirtOfDeath: She wears a white battle suit amidst a field of white flowers in the most dramatic battle of the game.
407%%* TheWisePrince
408* WorldsBestWarrior: In her prime, The Boss was completely unmatched as a combatant.
409* WroteTheBook: The Boss originated the very concept of a "stealth mission". It was originally a tool deployed for "snatch missions" during [=WWII=], in which her unit needed to extract [=VIPs=] and hostages from a war zone without being spotted. The first stealth mission on record was Virtuous Mission -- an inauspicious start.
410%%* ZenSurvivor
411* ZeroApprovalGambit: The end result of her role in Operation Snake Eater leaves her [[spoiler:dead with her reputation permanently ruined, and the public dismissing her as nothing but a war criminal and a traitor.]]
412[[/folder]]
413
414[[folder: The Pain]]
415[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/painmgs3_5515.jpg]]
416[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"The new blood has been rejected."-]'' ]]
417->Voiced By: Creator/HisaoEgawa (JP), Creator/GreggBerger (EN)
418
419A member of the Cobra Unit. Controls a nest of bees and hornets via the queen bee in his backpack, and also uses them to fetch and deploy weapons. The one with the least characterization, he interrupts Naked Snake's fight with Ocelot and subsequently confronts the former in the caves.
420-----
421* {{Acrofatic}}: Despite having a fairly large gut, he can still backflip like a professional gymnast.
422* AnimalMotifs: Bees and hornets.
423* AxCrazy: His first appearance shows him interrupting the fight with Snake and Ocelot, siccing his deadly hornets on everyone indiscriminately which ends up killing a few of Ocelot's guys.
424%%* BaldOfEvil
425* BeeBeeGun: The Pain's special skill is getting his pet bees (except when they're hornets) to carry grenades for him, tossing a special liquid at Snake that attracts the hornets, using them as makeshift armor, and even creating a duplicate of himself out of hornets. He also has an attack that involves spitting a "bullet bee" at Snake (which he keeps ''[[{{Squick}} inside himself]]''), which burrows underneath the skin and has to be removed via the survival window. They can also form a metal-and-wood Tommy Gun that actually fires. Feel sorry for the one that has to be the firing pin. The downloadable ''Metal Gear Solid 4 Database'' and the official ''Snake Eater'' website's character bio for The Pain explains it as [[HandWave him having a queen bee inside of his backpack that he has its sounds amplified]]. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' further explains it as him having [[spoiler:a parasite inside his body that produced a pheromone that allowed him to control insects]].
426* BodyHorror: Turns out hosting hornets ''inside your body'' and actually having them occasionally sting him as resulted in a man that is absolutely covered in welts and wounds that make him fit his name. It's probably better to not think about how he even hosts the insects inside himself.
427* BossArenaIdiocy: Let's just say that ambushing Snake in an area that's 90% water isn't really a smart idea on The Pain's part, as Snake is completely invulnerable to his bees while underwater.
428* CallingYourAttacks: He even gets little cutscenes whenever he changes his hornets into a different weapon, the name of which he (naturally) shouts. "Tommy gun!"
429* DoppelgangerAttack: One of his attacks is to make copies of himself out of bees, making it hard to tell which one's the real him.
430* EvilIsHammy: He bounces around like an acrobat, striking dramatic poses while shouting his codename.
431* TheFaceless: Subverted: He removes his balaclava halfway through his boss fight. And it's not pretty...
432* FacialHorror: His face (and other parts of his body) is covered with welts from the numerous stings he's endured.
433* McNinja: He'll make some HandSeals while striking a ninja-like pose as he does his duplication attack, which is also an archetypical ninja technique. Plus, his balaclava also invokes ninja too.
434* ScaryStingingSwarm: It's his fighting style. He's able to control hornets to sting victims to death, swarm all over them, or just be a nuisance.
435* TurnsRed: He removes his mask in the latter portion of the fight, allowing him to spit bullet bees.
436[[/folder]]
437
438[[folder: The Fear]]
439[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fearmgs3_3251.jpg]]
440[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Come into my web."-]'' ]]
441->Voiced By: Kazumi Tanaka (JP), Creator/MichaelBell (EN)
442
443A member of the Cobra Unit, The Fear is named for his endless fascination with experimenting with and spreading fear. Is double-jointed and very animalistic. Likes to use booby traps and poison-tipped arrows. The joints in his body were surgically modified by the Philospher's Scientists to freakish flexibility for heightened combat-agility. He was also granted a prototype of the stealth camo, augmenting his already legendary hunting abilities.
444-----
445* AnimalMotifs: Spiders.
446* ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: He wields a crossbow, granted, a modernized one at that, but a crossbow's a crossbow.
447%%* AutomaticCrossbows
448* AwesomeButImpractical: The Fear’s “Little Joe” pistol crossbow is quick to reload, but is noted by Sigint to have little stopping power. The Fear instead uses his more powerful William Tell, offsetting its longer reload time with his tree-hopping agility.
449* BigEater: As the stealth camo he uses was just a prototype at the time of Operation Snake Eater, it is powered by his bioelectricity and thus drains his stamina very quickly. To compensate, he has to eat near constantly when using his stealth camo. It even makes him so hungry that he will happily scarf down food without checking to see if its rotten or poisoned first.
450* BodyHorror: Long lizard tongue, double-jointed elbows, and {{RedEyes|TakeWarning}} with HellishPupils.
451* ComplexityAddiction: The whole 'strike fear in the hearts of men' rigamarole. The cutscene shows that The Fear could just as easily climb a tree and plug Snake in the head with his crossbow if he wanted.
452* CompositeCharacter: WordOfGod states that his design came from a rejected design for Raiden and he has many tendencies and abilities (such as running on water) similar to Vamp. His boss battle is also similar to Vamp's, being that he is often running around above you and you must watch your footing while fighting him. His appearance is also highly similar to typical portrayals of Dracula.
453* DirtyCoward: His whole strategy is to hide, wear you down, and heal himself, and true to his name, he seems to be overwhelmed with fear right before he dies.
454* EvilIsHammy: He's arguably the most over-the-top members of the Cobra unit. He speaks with a raspy voice befitting of a supervillain, makes crazy speaches about instilling fear, and gesticulates theatrically while he talks.
455* {{Expy}}: Of {{Film/Predator}}, right down to the electric buzz when his camo shorts out. Also to Vamp, both being vampire themed bosses with super natural abilities (and both can run on water).
456* FlawedPrototype: He has a very early prototype of Stealth Camouflage. While it provides the same level of invisibility to the later models, it also rapidly drains his stamina. Meaning that he can only use it in short bursts, or has to constantly eat to replenish himself.
457* HellishPupils: He has catlike pupils.
458* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: His strategy of being a DirtyCoward is somewhat inverted, since he also gives Snake a time-out to heal. Strange guy.
459* OverlyLongTongue: Lengthened by the Philosopher's scientists to bestial-proportions to better frighten the enemy.
460* TerrorHero: This used to be his stock and trade.
461* TooDumbToLive: He'll pick up any food lying around the area you fight him. Including spoiled food.
462* TrickArrow: He uses poison-tipped, frag grenade, and white phosphorous grenade arrows. And for some reason, when he blows up after being defeated, a large number of arrows also explode out from him.
463* WallCrawl: He can reverse his limbs, allowing him to climb without losing sight of a target behind him.
464* WeakSauceWeakness: Sorry buddy, but no amount of camouflage or invisibility conceals your heat signature.
465[[/folder]]
466
467[[folder: The End]]
468[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/endmgs3_5313.jpg]]
469[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"You'll make a fine quarry for my final hunt."-]'' ]]
470->Voiced By: Osamu Saka (JP), Grant Albrecht (EN)
471
472The world's oldest and greatest sniper. The End is the inventor of all modern sniping tactics. He's clinically dead the majority of time, but the moss within his body will revive him when the time is right. He is also able to photosynthesize to recover health, though the beam of light betrays his location.
473-----
474* AnimalMotifs: A parrot.
475* AntiVillain: Out of all the Cobra Units, he's the least villainous [[spoiler: with the exception of The Boss]] and by far the friendliest enemy that Snake has faced in the game. His ambush of Snake stems from the fact that it was his dying wish to face Snake in battle, and he accepts his death with grace once defeated. He also has a love for nature and his parrot companion. Also, unlike the other Cobra Units, he isn't out to actively ''kill'' Snake, but rather just slow him down by draining his stamina.
476* BeenThereShapedHistory: Described as the "father of modern sniping."
477* BerserkButton: If you shoot his parrot, he gets...well, as pissed off as he can given his age, and becomes much more aggressive.
478* BossAlteringConsequence: He can be sniped a while before you actually have to fight him. If you kill him early, another Ocelot Unit battle will replace him in the same area.
479** He can also be killed by saving your game during the boss fight, put it off for a week, then return to get treated with a cutscene of him passing away from old age. Snake, understandably, will give ''himself'' a WhatTheHellHero moment for not satisfying his desire for his last battle.
480* CherryTapping: The End actually does this to ''the player''. He only uses tranquilizer rounds, and if the player loses to him, then he must backtrack from the lab Snake visited earlier. The player can pull the same thing on him, by using the tranquilizer pistol he has been carrying since the beginning of the game. In fact, the player must do this in order to get his tranquilizer rifle.
481* DirtyOldMan: Was depicted as such in the ''Subsistence'' joke video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gMqRAefBIo "He's Still Got It,"]] where he apparently has some sort of fascination for EVA/Tatyana for her "reviving" him. Throughout the clip, he stalks EVA as the plot progresses, and repeatedly tranquilizes Ocelot out when he goes to hurt her, culminating with him expressing his "disappointment" when he stows away on Snake and EVA's night in Alaska. EVA ends up running him over the following morning when he attempts to snipe her.
482* TheDyingWalk: If you defeat him, a FMV begins of him walking away before suddenly collapsing.
483* FlawedPrototype: His abilities stem from a symbiotic nature with a species of parasites that live inside his body, allowing for a longer life span, the ability to photosynthesize, and to keep a similar level of physical capability to a man in his prime. But these abilities were just the start. After The End's death, a researcher named Code Talker managed to acquire samples of The End's parasites and improve them to also give the host super speed, strength, reflexes, and invisibility.
484* FriendlySniper: He's an antagonist, but he's a kind old man with a love of nature who uses tranq darts.
485* AGoodWayToDie: He goes out peacefully and with no regrets when Snake takes him out.
486* GetBackHereBoss: For a zombie, he moves at a fast clip. He also lobs flashbangs over his shoulder so you cannot follow.
487* TheGhost: [[spoiler:Has a non-canon voiced cameo in ''Peace Walker'', where tapping the Codec near the spirits of the near-dead soldiers during Extra OP 62 will make The End call Snake, with a frequency of 000.00. This is the only way to acquire the Neo Moss Camo, a pattern based on his ghillie suit from [=MGS3=].]]
488* GuideDangIt: To get his Moss camo, he must be "held up" at gunpoint like a normal mook -- something you can't do to any other boss.
489* TheLastDance: He knows this will be his last battle.
490* NatureHero: Intelligence agencies assume he has no spotter, because no one could possibly believe he uses a ''parrot'' and a variety of ''forest creatures'' as his spotters. He will also essentially pray to the forest itself to regenerate his health.
491* NonHumanSidekick: His parrot.
492* NonLethalKO: Unlike other bosses, he won't kill you. Instead, losing to him entails being taken back to your prison cell. Unlike other bosses, doing this to him doesn't yield his camo pattern, but his Mosin Nagant instead.
493* NotSoStoic: Try killing and eating his bird. That will perk him right up. This is actually a good strategy, since the parrot acts as a spotter and is difficult to see. But the penalty is that The End becomes much more aggressive.
494* OldSoldier: Over 100 years old and still fighting.
495* PlantPerson: This may explain his (admittedly limited) [[{{Green Thumb}} Green Thumb]] abilities and longer-than-average lifespan, among other things. And his photosynthetic camouflage.
496** [[spoiler: Gets a couple of [[{{Expy}} Expies]] and an explanation in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. One is Code Talker, who has similar abilities to The End due to the parasites that make up most of his body, implied to be the same ones that allowed The End to live as long as he did and photosynthesize. The other is Quiet, a sniper with the same parasites as Code Talker who has similar abilities to The End, including the ability to photosynthesize for sustenance, the ability to function as a sniper independent of a spotter, and a mastery of camouflage (albeit due to her parasites rendering her invisible rather than clever use of surroundings).]]
497* SleepyHead: Due to his age, he spends a lot of his time sleeping. He also has the potential to frequently doze off during the actual boss fight, making it easier to sneak up on him. If the player holds up the Directional Mic to find him, hearing his snores is one of the audible cues to his location.
498** Funny enough, if you save the game and reload it [[SkippableBoss (as long as it is within the week since the save)]], you will be treated of a cut-scene of Snake waking up from a nap, and then taken out by The End, with him scolding you for sleeping on the mission.
499* TechnicalPacifist: Despite inventing modern sniping, he apparently refuses to kill anyone. If he defeats you, he drags you to a jail cell earlier in the jungle. His Mosin Nagant is custom-made to fire tranquilizer darts so he can snipe and be a pacifist at the same time.
500* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler:Implied by Code Talker's nature in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. Apparently Code Talker's body is mostly made up of the parasites he worked on with Skull Face, and he possesses some similar abilities to The End because of this; specifically his longevity and ability to photosynthesize instead of needing to eat. He even states that these parasites were used by The End, although the extent that they were used is unconfirmed.]]
501* WorthyOpponent: Views Snake as one. Unless you mess up in the boss fight, in which case he scolds you.
502-->'''The End''': Reckless boy. You don't deserve to meet your fate yet.
503[[/folder]]
504
505[[folder: The Fury]]
506[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/furymgs3_2144.jpg]]
507[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"I came back from space. As I returned, I had one vision: the world set ablaze."-]'']]
508->Voiced By: Masato Hirano (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
509
510A cosmonaut that survived re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in only his spacesuit, which he wears all the time. A member of the Cobra Unit. Notable in that he seemingly gains superpowers ''after'' being defeated.
511-----
512* AchillesHeel: The knife. It's astonishingly effective against him, with the obvious caveat being that you need to sneak up to him to use it, and that's if he manages to not detect you. Granted, it makes sense given that you're slicing open his suit, but [[FridgeLogic why that courtesy isn't extended to your guns or explosives, which should at least blow up his fuel tanks]] is beyond any of us. Ripping open his suit can also be done with enough prolonged gunfire, but the knife can accomplish this more quickly.
513* AnimalMotifs: [[BatOutOfHell Bats]]. They're all over the place where you fight him.
514* AxCrazy: Averted. He's fueled by a combination of rage and fire during the actual fight, but he's shown to be as calm as the Sorrow off the field, even a bit melancholic.
515* BadassNormal: The Fury has no powers, just a highly-resilient spacesuit, a jetpack, and an overpowered flamethrower.
516* BossArenaIdiocy: Not as extreme as other examples, but the tunnels where he's fought have water pipes which can be shot to release water that'll douse his flames, and explosive barrels which can be shot near him to deal tons of damage.
517%%* ComeOutComeOutWhereverYouAre
518* TheFaceless: His face is concealed behind a mask, which is also concealed behind an astronaut suit.
519* FireWaterJuxtaposition: Used to contrast him with the Sorrow, whose boss battle takes place immediately after his.
520* KillItWithFire: His specialty is a flamethrower, and it was implied that this was his specialty since during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
521* LaughingMad: He will laugh and taunt Snake constantly during the battle, and is more than a little unhinged.
522* ManOnFire: When the Fury removes his helmet, his body mysteriously absorbs ''all'' of the flames in the boss arena.
523* NoKillLikeOverkill: You know his flamethrower? Well, unlike other flamethrowers, his flamethrower uses ''rocket fuel'' as its flammable source, thus ensuring that anyone who was hit with his flamethrower burns to death in an extremely slow fashion.
524* PlayingWithFire: With a flamethrower being his favorite weapon.
525* {{Pyromaniac}}: The Fury uses a rather nasty flamethrower that is so strong it can ''block the player's bullets.'' Hell, even his ''jetpack'' lights up the terrain he flies over.
526* RevengeBeforeReason: The Fury's microbomb turns him into a pair of fireballs, each shaped like a screaming head. The first one misses Snake and explodes against the exit, jimmying the door open so he can escape.
527* ShellShockedVeteran: Strongly implied to be the case: He suffered from a Cosmonaut mission-related accident that resulted in most of his skin being burned and being incapable of feeling any pain. [[spoiler:When killed, he is also seen "radioing" mission control, to which the director's commentary strongly implies is actually reliving his memories of the day of his accident.]]
528* SirSwearsALot: Notable for being the only member of the Cobra unit to swear vigorously in battle, especially after Snake damges his fire-protective suit. His scream of "Son of a BITCH!" is audible from anywhere in his boss room, and is even louder than the flamethrower and rocket pack he has.
529* TheStoic: While he's [[UnstoppableRage far from stoic]] in battle, the Cobra's introduction scene, as befitting his status as a ShellShockedVeteran, shows him as incredibly subdued when he's not fighting. Notably, he's the only Cobra who doesn't say anything.
530* ToastedBuns: A variation. His jetpack weaponizes this concept, enabling him to burn people just by flying over them.
531* TranquilFury: For being literally fuelled on UnstoppableRage, he has a disturbing tendency to slip into his stoic attitude mid-battle.
532* TurnsRed: The Fury gets much more aggressive near the end of his fight. There's really no place to hide during this phase; the Fury jets overhead and floods the passage with flames. Even the various nooks and crannies aren't safe.
533%%* UnstoppableRage
534[[/folder]]
535
536[[folder: The Sorrow]]
537[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sorrowmgs3_5119.jpg]]
538[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Make no mistake: the dead are-]'' [-not-] ''[-silent."-]'' ]]
539->Voiced By: Creator/YukitoshiHori (JP), David Thomas (EN)
540
541A member of the Cobra Unit that is dead before ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' begins. The Sorrow had psychic powers and could communicate with dead soldiers to gather intel. Following the war, he returned to his old job as a Soviet spy, and was consequently shot in the head [[spoiler:by his lover, The Boss]]. Snake sees him as a ghost during his mission.
542
543Has a plot central cameo in the fourth game, [[spoiler:where he arrives to banish the equally dead [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Psycho Mantis]] back to the grave to protect Old Snake]].
544----
545* AnimalMotif: Fish. It's done far more subtly than with the other Cobras aside from the large amount of dead fish in the river he's fought at.
546* BadassBookworm: He doesn't look like a fighter at all, but tapes during Peace Walker shows he was just as good at espionage as the Boss was.
547* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: When Psycho Mantis is up to his old tricks again in the fourth game, The Sorrow pulls him back to the spirit world]].
548* BossAlteringConsequence: He causes the spirits of all the soldiers you killed to appear before you and attack you. Of course, if you never kill any soldiers, then the only spirits that appear are the previous bosses, who die regardless of what you do.
549* CallForward: If hit by his only "attack" several times, the pictures that appear include glimpses of Solid and Liquid Snakes. Furthermore, one of his lines is "You will all be killed by your own sons", foreshadowing Snake's fate in VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake [[spoiler: or rather, VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots.]]
550* TheCameo:
551** Makes a brief appearance in ''Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée'', expressing disappointment at Ocelot's lack of control over [[spoiler:Liquid's spirit.]]
552** [[spoiler:In ''Guns of the Patriots'', he sends Psycho Mantis back to the afterlife. If you press L1 during this, you can see him with his arms crossed. Screaming Mantis even had a puppet made in his image.]]
553* DeadAllAlong: You can actually glimpse his body in the epilogue of Virtuous Mission. [[spoiler:Seems The Boss executed him not far from the bridge where she nabbed Sokolov]].
554* DeathByOriginStory: He is long dead before the Virtuous Mission even begins.
555* DarkIsNotEvil: Dies to safeguard his family, helps his lover's adoptive son from beyond the grave, and is the only boss who never directly harms Snake. His attitude towards war is boundless [[ThemeNaming sorrow]] about all the lives that are ended.
556* EyeScream: It would seem that he was shot through the eye.
557* FaceDeathWithDignity: Because he knew death is just the beginning, he did not show fear at parting with his physical form. When the Boss revisits the waterfall [[spoiler:where she shot him]], he returns to her side, and later [[spoiler:helps guide her into the afterlife]].
558* FireWaterJuxtaposition: Used to contrast him with the Fury, whose boss battle takes place immediately before his.
559* FissionMailed: He is completely unkillable [[spoiler:(since he's already dead)]] and Snake will die before he can win the battle. However, if Snake takes the Revival Pill after being killed by Sorrow, he will be able to progress past the fight.
560* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The Sorrow willingly allows The Boss to kill him in their confrontation in Tselinoyarsk in an attempt to save their child, Ocelot (both the American and the Russian branches of the Philosophers said that they either fight to the death and kill the other side's soldier, or Ocelot dies by their hand).]]
561* HopelessBossFight: Subverted. While you cannot kill him (his health readout is, hilariously and chillingly, already at zero) and the boss fight can only end with Snake "dying", the fight still has an attainable goal of surviving the entire river.
562** To elaborate, "winning" the boss fight requires you to lose, and take the Revival Pill at the GameOver screen. However, if you survive to the end of the river, Sorrow insta-kills you, forcing you to take the pill or start again. Taking the pill in this case, however, gives you the useful Spirit Camo, which isn't available if you take the pill at a different time.
563* InTheHood: Before the boss fight. It adds to his mystique, and also makes him look like the Grim Reaper.
564* JacobMarleyApparel: The Sorrow's actual skeleton is wearing the same army sweater. Also, everyone he revives is still wearing their fatigues or pilot uniforms.
565** If you slit a GRU soldier's throat, his neck is still spurting like a water hose. Likewise, the mooks killed in the mountains are still being harassed by vultures. The Sorrow himself is constantly bleeding from his eye, and The Fury and any enemies you kill with WP grenades are still on fire.
566** Enemies killed with [[GroinAttack Nutshots]] are still bleeding, clutching their crotch.
567** Perhaps most hilariously, enemies that you kill in the mountains and get their bodies pecked by vultures will have a vulture attacking them. If you killed and ate the vulture in question, [[DevelopersForesight the enemy screams at you]], [[ImAHumanitarian "You ate me!"]]
568** Raikov, should you take his life rather than resort to KO, is prowling the afterlife in his underoos.
569* JumpScare: How he "attacks" you. If you get hit with one of his energy blasts, which is highly likely because of Snake's slow movement speed wading through the river, you'll be treated to the [[SarcasmMode lovely]] sensory bombardment of a randomly-selected and terrifying ghostly image of events to come alongside a very loud, bloodcurdling scream. [[spoiler: And no, you can't avoid the one that happens at the very end.]]
570* KamehameHadoken: Apart from sending his mooks after you, he can only fire drill-shaped energy waves. Snake's sluggish pace in the water, coupled with the encroaching ghosts, can make them difficult to dodge. Getting hit by one results in a brief picture flashing on the screen punctuated by a bloodcurdling scream, after which Snake takes damage and falls to the riverbed.
571* MarathonBoss: Potentially, well, as far as he can be considered a boss. The "fight" is you wading down a river while avoiding the ghosts of all the soldiers you have killed over the course of the game. If up to this point you have been largely or entirely non-lethal, it goes pretty fast. However, if you have been killing frequently, it can take a good while to reach the end. Of course, actually reaching the end is optional, you can simply let the ghosts kill you and then use the revival pill, but you don't get the special camo that way.
572* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Appears throughout ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' (as well as having a cameo in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'') as a ghost that is [[InvisibleToNormals invisible to all]] but the player character (provided that you are in first-person view).
573%%* PapaWolf:
574* PerpetualSmiler: Ironic, considering his codename.
575* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: The Boss shot him long before the events of the game.]]
576* PowerFloats: He floats all around the river as Snake continues wading forward. If Snake manages to obtain the Spirit camo from him, it silences Snake's footsteps, enhancing his stealth abilities.
577* {{Psychopomp}}: He seems to serve the role of guiding spirits to the afterlife. The best examples are [[spoiler:him leading the Boss into the afterlife, and sending the spirit of Psycho Mantis back to the afterlife.]]
578* RedEyesTakeWarning: In the 3DS version, whenever he appears as a ghost, his eyes are unnaturally red. Also a subversion, as he's technically on Snake's side.
579* SpiritAdvisor: Going into first person view in the cutscenes before the boss fight with Volgin shows him hovering around with a sign displaying the time left until the [=C3=] explosives detonate.
580* StoicSpectacles: His glasses reflect a demeanor that's calmer than the rest of his comrades, and they add an extra air of detachment and mystery to his appearance.
581* TalkingWithSigns: He provides the player with [[spoiler:the radio frequency to escape their cell]] and later a countdown to the C3's detonation. That's some impressive signage right there.
582* TearsOfBlood: We see one of his eyes bleed just before the lens of his glasses cracks, possibly mirroring [[MoeGreeneSpecial his death]].
583* TogetherInDeath: Shortly after you beat [[spoiler:The Boss]], pressing R1 will allow you to see [[spoiler:The Boss's and his ghost reuniting]].
584* TokenGoodTeammate: He[[spoiler:, along with The Boss, ultimately,]] is the only member of Cobra Unit who tries to help Snake, even if he forces him to confront the spirits of those whom he had killed up to that point.
585* TranquilFury: His speech to Snake about how "the dead are '''not''' silent" - he maintains his quiet tone throughout, but it's clear that he utterly ''despises'' the loss of so many lives to the machine of war.
586* TricksterMentor: His ultimate goal is to help Snake, but not without showing him all the suffering he's caused/will cause.
587* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:''The Phantom Pain'' implies that the circumstances making Volgin's reanimated corpse the way it behaves is in part his fault.]]
588* WhatMeasureIsAMook: It's the Night of the Living Mooks! The bare minimum of enemies Snake can face is four - namely, the other four Cobras fought before The Sorrow, as they explode once you defeat them no matter how you do so.
589* WhatTheHellHero: His boss fight is an extended one towards Snake, though it just as easily [[YouBastard applies to the player]]. Snake has to follow The Sorrow through a river while evading the ghosts of all the soldiers he killed along the way. The more people killed, the more ghosts that have to be dealt with.
590-->'''The Sorrow''': Now you will know the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended.
591[[/folder]]
592
593!! Soviet Union
594
595[[folder: Colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin]]
596[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/volginmgs3_1206.jpg]]
597[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"The Boss was conniving enough to see things my way."-]'' ]]
598[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgsv_volgin.png[[/labelnote]] to see [[spoiler:himself in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'']].]]
599-> a.k.a. Thunderbolt, [[spoiler: The Man on Fire]]
600->Voiced by: Creator/KenjiUtsumi (JP), Creator/NeilRoss (EN)
601
602->''"I think it's time I gave this marvelous new toy a try. But it won't be me that pulled the trigger. It will be our friend, the American defector."''
603
604A GRU Colonel nicknamed "Thunderbolt" and the primary antagonist of ''Metal Gear Solid 3''. Demonstrably insane, he seeks to overthrow the Khrushchev government and force the USSR into a full-blown confrontation with the west.
605
606His division is bought and paid for with the Philosopher's legacy, which he inherited through extralegal means; Volgin's father was entrusted with laundering the Philosopher's money and, in the aftermath of World War II, somehow ended up with the whole pie. Despite being an heir to the Philosophers, Volgin rejected the tripartite system and believed that Russia's rivals are too "pathetic" to lead. His electricity-based powers are kept in check by a rubber bodysuit hidden under his dress uniform.
607
608[[spoiler: While he ends up legally dead, [[ThePowerofHate his thirst for revenge]] coupled with [[SovietSuperscience experimentation by a Russian institute]] ultimately resurrects him as [[Characters/MetalGearSolidV The Man On Fire]].]]
609-----
610* ZeroPercentApprovalRating:
611** Implied in ''Portable Ops'', where Jonathan reveals that after Volgin's death, Naked Snake/Big Boss, the person who killed him, was made a hero of the Soviet Union.
612** Apart from his lover Raikov, everyone else who is seen being close to Volgin is [[spoiler:only there because they're actively conspiring to get their hands on the Philosopher's Legacy.]]
613* AxCrazy: He seems composed and collected in most of his appearances but can turn into a bloodthirsty sadist at the drop of a hat.
614* BadassBandolier: Deconstructed. He wears a bandolier of rifle bullets that he pulls rounds out of from time to time to cook off so he doesn't need to carry a gun. However, when he gets struck by lightning, the rounds go off, adding multiple gunshot wounds to his other injuries.
615* BadassDriver: Just watch him in the Shagohod for the details.
616* BadassLongcoat: Like [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Solidus Snake]], he burns it off when it's time to fight.
617* BadBoss: Abuses his troops for fun. When he drives the Shagohod, he guns down countless grunts that are unlucky enough to inconvenience his chase.
618* BerserkButton:
619** '''Do not''' mess or ''harm'' Raikov, Snake found this out the hard way via vicious beatdown and torture (as seen in DisproportionateRetribution below).
620** Also, he doesn't react well to those who don't address him properly or show proper respect to his authority.
621--->'''Ocelot:''' Fight like a man, ''Volgin''!\
622'''Volgin:''' "Volgin?!"
623* BigBad: Of ''Metal Gear Solid 3''. It's important to remember that he's the reason The Boss's sacrifice became necessary; Operation Snake Eater was conducted in order to deflect responsibility from the United States for the Davy Crockett Volgin used to blow up Sokolov's facility and blame The Boss instead, and making it look like they themselves dealt with the problem by sending Snake to kill her. [[spoiler: However, it's revealed in later games that, no matter what, the [=CIA=] planned The Boss' death from the get-go]].
624* BodyHorror: Much like The Pain, Volgin's electrical powers do not inherently have RequiredSecondaryPowers to defend himself from the side-effects. He regularly has to wear a rubber suit beneath his uniform to help control them and prevent self-harm, because the [[GoodScarsEvilScars severe amount of scarring across the visible parts of his body]] are ''all'' seemingly damage from power backfire. Despite this, [[{{Determinator}} it doesn't seem to inhibit him in the least.]]
625* BoltOfDivineRetribution: How he meets his end. The entire game, he superstitiously says "Kuwabara, kuwabara"[[note]]Japanese folklore states that kuwabara, or mulberry, can ward off lightning[[/note]] when near storm clouds, presumably just to be on the safe side. During his final boss fight, in the presence of another nearby storm, Volgin angrily sneers at it, foregoing his chant, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane and promptly gets fried by a freak lightning strike]].
626* BondVillainStupidity: He tends to fall into this. It seems intentional on Kojima's part, especially considering his entire game plays a lot like a Film/JamesBond movie.
627** During his interrogation of Snake, he falsely believes that Snake is after the [[MacGuffin Philosopher's Legacy]], and ends up telling him everything about what it is and where it is. Not only that but Ocelot, EVA (in disguise as Tatyana) and The Boss are in the room with him so they learn it too - and ''all three'' are spies plotting against him and ''he doesn't realise it''. Hardly brilliant villainy there, Volgin.
628* TheBrute: Acts both as this and the BigBad. Though he is the main antagonist, his approach to fighting is typical of Brutes, commanding armies and relying more on raw physical strength than the other villains.
629* BurningWithAnger: When enraged, his veins turn into neon lights.
630* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler: While he was certainly no slouch in life, his charred and puppeted around shell in [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV MGSV]] is probably the most powerful character in the ''franchise'' due to being able to NoSell anything.]]
631* ColdBloodedTorture: He often tortures people, although he is an extremely bad interrogator (bad as in skill). Basically, all the people whom he interrogates either die before giving out information, or they don't give out information, and usually (as evidenced with Naked Snake) the only thing he succeeds in is backwards interrogation (i.e., he gives the interrogatee information they didn't already know), also within earshot of other people. The commentary strongly implies that it’s because he failed to control his sadistic nature during his interrogation. As a bonus, he inspires the same tendencies for Ocelot.
632* ColonelBadass: A GRU colonel, with impressive fighting prowess to behold.
633* CoveredWithScars: The electricity travels along specific pathways in Volgin's body, leaving behind glaring scar tissue. Most of these burns are accidental, which compelled Volgin to wear a protective rubber suit.
634* CrazyPrepared: Implied a few times: For one thing, Groznyj Grad, his creation was built around the mountains of Krasnogorje, which he also arranged to have them be heavily fortified with anti-aircraft turrets to prevent the enemy (whether it be American or the pro-Khrushchev faction) from attacking them from the air, and he also arranged for helicopters to patrol Krasnogorje and have additional manpower just in case Naked Snake somehow managed to defeat the Cobra Unit members. Oh, and that tunnel Snake had to go through to get into Groznyj Grad? That was an underground air-raid shelter according to one of the guards at Krasnogorje, implying that Volgin took into account even the already very unlikely possibility that an air-raid would actually occur at Groznyj Grad/Tselinoyarsk and built the shelter for his personnel.
635* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Was [[spoiler:zapped by lightning and then had his bandoleers set off their bullets from the resulting flames. EVA actually turns away from the sight, while Snake doesn't particularly enjoy it either.]].
636* CruelMercy: After torturing Naked Snake, Volgin allowed Snake to keep his medical supplies so he could mend his wounds, although only because he wanted him to last long enough for the ''next'' torture session.
637* DeathByIrony:
638** [[spoiler:Was killed by a lightning bolt]], which is especially ironic given the element he manipulates. However, there is some evidence that he knew the risks ("Kuwabara kuwabara...") and [[spoiler:let himself be struck rather than let Snake escape]].
639** [[spoiler:His final death in ''The Phantom Pain'' is subjected to this as well, being [[ThePowerOfHate powered by his need for vengeance]] against Big Boss, only realizing far too late he's been [[BodyDouble chasing the wrong man]] for the entirety of the game, causing his anger to momentarily dwindle and strip him of his supernatural abilities, allowing the damage he's accumulated to finally catch up and kill him.]]
640* DepravedBisexual: He's in relationships with EVA (disguised as Tatyana) and Major Ivan Raidenovich Raikov, who are a woman and a man, respectively.
641* {{Determinator}}: Maybe the biggest example in the entire series. Knocked out inside a hanger loaded with explosives? He manages to wake up and hop inside a nuclear armed tank to chase down his opponent. His nuclear armed tank has been shot to hell and disabled? He grabs the control cords to it and wrangles it back into the fight with sheer strength and his electrical suit. [[spoiler: He has been shot up, struck by lightning, all the ammo on his bandoleer set off and fired into him point blank, caught in a nuclear explosion that destroyed his base, then left dead for 20 years? He brings himself back to life even stronger by sheer hatred, rage, and a desire for vengeance once his mortal enemy returns to the world stage.]]
642* DirtyCommunist: Volgin's shown to be a commited, if incredibly sadistic Communist seeking his own Soviet-inspired vision for world order.
643* DirtyCoward: While he's fighting Snake and losing during their initial fight (which had him punishing any attempt to take out a weapon with a serious electric shock, but kept his abilities running himself), he promptly orders Ocelot to shoot Snake. Ocelot refuses to do so:
644-->'''Ocelot''': Fight like a man, Volgin!
645** He's also understandably afraid of The Boss, despite technically outranking her and being quite a bit taller. While he does insist that she prove her loyalty to him by cutting out Snake's eyes, he verbally and physically backpedals when she advances on him and accuses him of not trusting her.
646* DirtyOldMan: Both of his lovers are in their twenties whereas he himself is approximately fifty years old. In the case of Raikov, he's probably in his very early twenties or in his very late teenage years. Reinforced by EVA's very particular "medical condition" which you can discover when she partners with you at the end.
647* DisproportionateRetribution: You know those [[{{Pyromaniac}} Flame Troops]] that arrive on Krasnogorje shortly after meeting EVA at the Mountaintop Ruins? Well, they were sent by Volgin with [[KillItWithFire burn on sight]] orders specifically to repay Snake for killing off three of the Cobra Unit members.[[note]]Of course, had the player killed more than just the Cobra Unit members, they also pretty much went there on their own volition as well for the same reasons.[[/note]] And then there's his NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Snake upon capturing him after discovering that he disguised himself as Raikov, because of the implication that he hurt Raikov in order to do so.
648* DrivenToSuicide: Some of his actions (such as responding rather starkly to a thunderbolt with "who's afraid of a little thunder?", and, just a split second before being hit by lightning, gave this grimace that indicated that he was either in pain or bracing himself) arguably imply that [[spoiler:his being hit by lightning was actually intentional]].
649* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: Volgin's exact plans after overthrowing Khrushchev and installing Brezhnev and Kosygin in his place, involving the Shagohod and the Philosophers' Legacy essentially amount to this: complete the Shagohod, mass-produce it to all countries within the Eastern Bloc and Communist Asia, and then constantly orchestrate uprisings in various third-world countries, all so he can take over the world in the ensuing chaos. He doesn't care if the nations are eternally locked in violence, as long as ''he'' owns Russia and the philosophers are back together, the world can burn.
650* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: His romantic relationship with Raikov is seemingly the only healthy relationship ''anyone'' has with him. Just before he grabs Snake-disguised-as-Raikov's crotch, he gives the man a seemingly genuinely affectionate smile. Likewise, Volgin prefaces his NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of Snake with a [[TranquilFury disturbingly quiet]] vow to make Snake ''pay'' for hurting Ivan.
651* EvilIsHammy: "Kuwabara, Kuwabara..."
652* EvilLaugh: He has some throughout the game. For instance he gives one when he gets his hands on the Davy Crockett nuke that he shortly fires on his own country.
653* Fiction500: With the Philosophers' Legacy, he's so ludicrously wealthy that he can afford to personally mass-produce the Shagohod. It's to the point that the U.S. was [[spoiler: perfectly willing to sacrifice The Boss, ''the'' greatest soldier the world has ever known, just to get their hands on the Legacy]].
654* ForTheEvulz: Volgin has an alarming habit of getting through situations just by picking whatever option harms the most people near him. Highlights of Volgin's epic dickery include nuking his own country, trying to destabilize the Cold War, stealing a ludicrous amount of money, randomly torturing people, and repeatedly slaughtering his own troops just because he can. It is also established that his lover, Raikov, is much the same and takes great joy in punching his men.
655** After Snake [[spoiler:loses an eye]] (at Volgin's command), the big man's reaction is to rub his hands and [[{{Squick}} exclaim how much he has enjoyed himself]], [[SomethingElseAlsoRises then swiftly drag EVA away for some reason.]]
656* GeneralRipper: So bad not even the Soviets, who used to train dogs as suicide bombers, fully approved of his methods.
657* GeniusBruiser: A villainous example. Volgin may not be the sharpest tool in the drawer (as evidenced by his "interrogation" which consists mostly of answering ''his own'' questions), Volgin is still an heir to the Russian power elite. Basically, several of the weapons were implied to have been designed by him, and it is also strongly implied that, aside from using the money to have Groznyj Grad built, he was also the one who actually designed Groznyj Grad. In addition, as noted in the CrazyPrepared entry, he also planned ahead of occurrences relating to Naked Snake's infiltration, and even a direct attack on Groznyj Grad via air raid, and his reason for nuking the Sokolov Design Bureau without fear of reprisal implies that he knew that the various intelligence agencies would blame The Boss instead. He's also very large and strong, and possesses electrical abilities from birth.
658* GoodScarsEvilScars: His face, never mind his arms, possesses a lot of scarring. The director's commentary implies that the scars are the result of his electrical abilities backfiring on him without that rubber suit.
659* HateSink: Unlike Big Boss, he has absolutely ''no'' redeeming qualities, being a remorseless, violent psychopath, terrorist, tyrant, and torturer who nearly caused the start of World War III. On top of all that, he's also a rapist and sadist, and actually gets sexual pleasure off of inflicting pain and humiliation on his enemies.
660* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: With the exception of Raikov, [[spoiler:everyone in his inner circle is actively conspiring against him. EVERYONE. Ocelot and The Boss on behalf of the Americans, EVA/Tatyana on behalf of the Chinese (and to a lesser extent Snake), the Cobras are loyal to The Boss. To be fair, all of them are extremely well trained Philosopher agents, but still, Volgin is being played like several different fiddles and never realizes it.]]
661* HuskyRusskie: Fits the stereotype to a T. He is a tall, large, muscular and very brutal Russian man.
662* KarmicDeath: The sadistic PsychoElectro is [[spoiler: killed by being struck by a bolt of lightning]]. Snake even lampshades it:
663-->'''Snake''': [[spoiler: Fried by a bolt of lightning]]... a fitting end.
664* KnightTemplar: Volgin explained that part of his motivation for the things he did was as a means to reunify the Philosophers and essentially heal the rift caused by their infighting. Of course, whether that's a genuinely redeemable excuse for his behavior is debatable.
665* LargeAndInCharge: He stands at ''6'7'''' (201cm). He is by far the tallest character in the game, and commands the army which serves as opponents to Big Boss throughout the game.
666* LastNameBasis: Everyone calls Volgin by his last name except Ocelot, who calls him Colonel.
667* LaughingMad: Most of his evil laughs absolutely reek of this. For one thing, according to the director's commentary, the reason why he was laughing for no apparent reason when [[spoiler:he deduced that Tatyana was the spy and was considering executing her]]? It's because he was reliving memories of several low-class and despicable things that he did.
668* LogicalWeakness: During the boss fight with him, you can shoot the pipes throughout the arena to sprinkle water on him, which can weaken him for a while.
669* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: During World War II, he and the Russian units under his command were ordered to execute thousands of Polish citizens and soldiers; Volgin personally beat many such victims to death with his fists and took off their blindfolds so that he could enjoy the look of terror in their eyes as they died. While he's subjecting Snake to ElectricTorture in the game proper, he's positively ''delighted''.
670-->'''Volgin''': ''That's'' what I like to see!
671* ManOnFire: [[spoiler:Immolated by a lightning strike, causing his body to short-circuit like an electrical transformer and be torn apart by a series of small explosions. In a game filled with graphic violence, this is the goriest moment. Becomes the literal version of this trope in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'', including being named after the trope and still having all those exploded bullets embedded in his flesh]].
672* MayDecemberRomance: With Raikov, and to a lesser, non-romantic extent with Tatyana/EVA.
673* MightyGlacier: It is easy to outrun him in his boss battle, but his attacks pack quite a punch.
674* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Gives a huge one to Naked Snake upon discovering him, just before throwing him in the brig. His reason is out of revenge for Snake "hurting" Raikov (referring to Snake's disguising himself as him). By the end, Snake is out cold in a puddle of his own blood.
675** In the non-canon ''Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser'', he gives a similar one to Raiden (the person Raikov is an {{expy}} of) for the same reason.
676* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:As stated in ''The Phantom Pain'', being riddled with hundreds of exploding bullets as a result of getting struck by lightning didn't even kill him off, he was simply rendered comatose. As he was still alive, he was able to harbor feelings of revenge against Snake, allowing him to revive as The Man on Fire.]]
677* OffscreenVillainy: Not shown in the game, but mentioned are: His killings of 20,000 Polish officers during the Katyn Forest Massacre, over 100,000 anti-communist activists during the Uprising of East Germany and the Hungarian revolution and torturing EVA.
678* OneWingedAngel: Sort of. Although he doesn't transform into a grotesque entity or the inverse, he does merge with the Shagohod's wiring in the final battle, which is the closest to the trope appearing in canon to organic living characters.[[note]]Big Boss transforming into a cyborg in ''[[VideoGame/SnakesRevenge Snake's Revenge]]'' doesn't count as the game's non-canon, and Peace Walker becoming quadruped doesn't count as it's a machine.[[/note]] And then [[spoiler:he turns into [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain the Man On Fire]]...]].
679* OneWorldOrder: [[spoiler:Foreshadowing Zero's motives later on]], he aims to unite the world under one will, through the Soviet Union and Communism.
680* OurGhostsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain He fires fireballs and melted bullets and is constantly and consistently wreathed in flames.]]]]
681* PowerLimiter: He wears a rubber suit underneath his longcoat which is able to make him keep his electric powers in check. He removes the gloves of the suit before taking on Snake.
682* ProperlyParanoid: He suspected that there was indeed a spy within Tselinoyarsk, and was accusing and even murdering his own men to find the spy. He's right in that there was a spy helping Snake.
683* PsychoElectro: Albeit only in that he is crazy, not so much regarding his powers, which he seems to have a firm grasp of.
684* PuppetKing: Not him specifically, but he basically intended to run the country from behind the scenes with Brezhnev and Kosygin as the "official" leaders of the Soviet Union.
685* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He holds the high rank of GRU colonel and is the most formidable Russian foe in the game.
686* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: EVA's medical condition listings note that she not only suffers a number of electrical burns and lacerations from undergoing the torture at Volgin's hands, but there's also her suffering from a particularly nasty condition of [[spoiler:proctitis (an inflammation of the anus, [[TakeOurWordForIt we don't recommend looking further into that]])]], which in the circumstances heavily imply that Volgin violated her without ever coming out and saying it. And given his [[{{Sadist}} nature]], probably tortured her during that too.
687* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler:This is one Colonel who just won't quit. The bout with Naked Snake leaves him hobbled and [[BloodFromTheMouth spitting blood]], yet he still manages to climb into the Shagohod and keep up the pursuit. Volgin goes on to survive several head-on crashes (doing his internal injuries no favors), multiple RPG/anti-aircraft gun blasts, and finally a bolt of lightning... which merely ''stuns'' him before his bandoleers riddle him with rifle shell explosions, slowly finishing him off.]]
688** [[spoiler:Even then, ''[[CameBackStrong that]]'' failed to kill him.]]
689* RenegadeRussian: A rare case of such a character existing during the time where the Soviet Union was still in power and in its prime. Volgin spent most of his career under Stalin, and it is implied that his wanting to overthrow Khrushchev and replacing him with Brezhnev was so he could get the Soviet Union back to the days where it was under Stalin.
690* {{Sadist}}: He gets so much joy out of others' suffering and torturing people that, according to the director's commentary, he actually ''gets high while doing it.''
691* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: His response to Ocelot after the latter told him off in regards to his methods at Groznyj Grad tells all.
692-->'''Volgin:''' I don't ''need'' your approval. ''I'm'' in command here.
693* ShockAndAwe: He can do more with his lightning powers than simple thunder punches. He can shoot ammo without weapons and make streams of electricity throughout the ground, for instance.
694* SlasherSmile: ''Every single time'' he smiles.
695* TheSociopath: Sees people as nothing more than toys for [[{{Sadist}} own enjoyment]] and enjoys being cruel [[ForTheEvulz for the sake of it]]. His grandiosity shows itself through [[EvilIsHammy how he carries himself]].
696* TheStarscream: Acted as this to Khrushchev.
697* StupidEvil: Perhaps unintentionally, but Volgin divulges ''all the secrets'' of his evil plan to Snake during his torture scene while getting no answers out of an ostensible interrogation -- WordOfGod posits Volgin's unable to control his [[{{Sadist}} impulses]] during scenes of violence and is getting a little ''too'' invested in his torture.
698* SuperStrength: It's unknown whether he was able to shatter concrete without his electricity, but it is clear that he at least had enough strength to not only carry the containers with the Davy Crockett warheads and the launcher, but also actually use them simply by holding it.
699* TemptingFate: [[spoiler:"Who's afraid of a little thunder?", unless one theorizes that he deliberately allowed himself to be electrocuted.]]
700* TortureFirstAskQuestionsLater: His M.O.
701* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:It is implied in the PlotTwist in ''Portable Ops'' that Volgin actually served as one to a single deviously cunning strategist within the American government, or at best an unwilling one]]. ''Peace Walker'' reveals the man in question was [[spoiler:Hot Coldman, who is even worse than Volgin]].
702* UnskilledButStrong: The man's built like a truck, but it's clear he has very little in the way of actual fighting skills, relying solely on his brute strength and his electricity. Both Snake and the Boss are able to effortlessly subdue him in hand-to-hand combat, and during his boss fight, it is much easier to defeat Volgin with CQC than it is to use firearms.
703* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Volgin only really has one superpower (besides his enormous size and strength), the ability to generate electricity. He finds a number of creative uses for it, though, most notably the ability to fire bullets held in his hands by cooking off the gunpowder. The aforementioned size and strength are probably [[RequiredSecondaryPowers required secondary powers]] since the kickback would really be rough on the palms.
704* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He has a phobia of frogs, especially tree frogs. [[spoiler:This can be used to the player's advantage in his boss fight. Bring along a tree frog and throw it at him to get a few extra seconds to lay into him while he's distracted]].
705** Volgin is shown to have some fear of rain and water. Given the element he wields, as well as WordOfGod's statement about it interfering with his electrical abilities, his fear is perfectly justified. Also causes some questions as to how Volgin's even able to clean himself. He seems to get over the fear, though, as he fights against Snake and EVA for the last time while it is raining.
706* WouldHitAGirl: He passes the time offscreen by torturing EVA/Tatyana, leaving her back CoveredWithScars.
707[[/folder]]
708
709[[folder: Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov]]
710[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ivan_raikov.png]]
711->Voiced by: Creator/KenyuHoriuchi (JP), Creator/CharlieSchlatter (EN)
712
713The second-in-command to Colonel Volgin. Naked Snake had to strip him in order to infiltrate Groznyj Grad's West Wing. Is later found on the San Hieronymo Peninsula. Looks almost exactly like Raiden, but acts like a {{Jerkass}}.
714-----
715* AssholeVictim: Depending on the player’s actions, Snake could kill him or spare him. If the former, he fits in due to being rather abusive towards his officers.
716* BadBoss: It is heavily implied in an optional call to EVA that the reason why Snake can get away with beating up soldiers and scientists without breaking cover is because this is exactly what Raikov does to them, and thus not make him suspect. This also acts as the reason why he ends up on San Hieronymo later on, although he presumably learned his lesson by the time Big Boss's group got to him and got better.
717** ''Portable Ops'' sort of makes his being this somewhat sympathetic and also somewhat tragic, where it implies that his sadistic behavior was the result of his trying to get into Volgin's good graces, and wasn't naturally sadistic.
718* BiggerIsBetterInBed: The specific reason how Volgin deduced that "Raikov" was actually Snake in disguise was because of the difference in their groin size. Going by what Snake commented on when EVA is [[ItMakesSenseInContext inspecting his body]], it's very likely that Raikov's groin was the bigger of the two.
719* {{Bookworm}}: Implied by one of his stops at the East Wing of Groznyj Grad being the library.
720* ButtMonkey: Pretty much the reason for his existence. He's one of the only major characters Snake can kill without creating a time paradox.
721%%* CommissarCap
722* DepravedHomosexual: What [[MauveShirt little]] we learn about him is that he's gay and beats up his men for fun, and will molest Big Boss if you stand him in front of him. He gets a little more characterisation in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]]'', but not much (Oddly, he's become a kind of EnsembleDarkHorse, and his relationship with [[DepravedBisexual Colonel Volgin]] is kind of sweet).
723* DirtyCoward: If an alert is triggered, Raikov immediately runs into the lavatories and hides there. Assuming that Raikov was aware of the fact that the intruder (Naked Snake) was planning on trying to impersonate him alive or dead to get to the West Wing of Groznyj Grad and rescue Sokolov, it's probable that his hiding was realization that he most likely wouldn't stand a chance against Snake should he take him on, which is supported by the fact that when he is cornered in the bathroom, he attacks Snake with various CQC attacks (Raiden's own two-punch-two-kick combo from ''[=MGS2=]'', in fact).
724* TheDogBitesBack: It was strongly implied that, shortly after being exiled to the San Hieronymo Peninsula, but before the FOX takeover, the Soviet soldiers got their revenge on Raikov for his abuse in rank, took advantage of his current exile, and imprisoned him.
725** Likewise, if the players free Raikov, it is also implied that his motivations for joining the resistance was also so he could exact payback on the people who imprisoned him.
726* TheDragon: He fits the technical definition for Volgin (he's Volgin's second-in-command) as Ocelot filled the role for Volgin in spirit in ''Metal Gear Solid 3''.
727* EnemyMine: One of the reasons why he teamed up with Big Boss in ''Portable Ops'' amounted to this; due to the fact that he was locked up and humiliated by Gene's men as soon as the Red Army turned on him (he was also presumably humiliated before FOX arrived as well).
728* {{Expy}}: He was created as a result of the backlash towards Raiden from ''Metal Gear Solid 2'', hence why he has an uncanny resemblance to Raiden.
729* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Wears a [[FanDisservice rather revealing thong]] with a lightning bolt on it.
730* GroinAttack: Has it both ways. He inflicts this onto a disguised Snake if wearing a Raikov Mask (apparently even going so far as to unzip Snake's fly to do so), and at least one of the actions Snake does when disguised as him involves punching his "subordinates" in the groin. He himself apparently is on the receiving end by Colonel Volgin, as Volgin does this to test if Raikov is actually Raikov or an imposter, and the directors commentary implies that Volgin does this with Raikov a ''lot'', since they mentioned that the scene where EVA's photograph was taken from had Volgin having his hand in inches reaches of Raikov's groin, but the action was cut off from the photo.
731* JerkAss: His behavior to his subordinates is quite despicable.
732* LukeIMightBeYourFather: Even though WordOfGod was stated to be not related to Raiden at all (among other evidences), some fans still speculate that Raikov might have familial ties to Raiden, if not be his father due to his resemblance to Raiden.
733** Taken to even more strange levels, because of the name. "-ovitch" is a common Russian suffix for middle names, meaning "the son of". To take the middle name into translation, "Raidenovitch" essentially means "The son of Raiden."[[note]]Considering that this game occurs years before ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', either this is a coincidence, or perhaps the "Metal Gear Raiden" Secret Theatre video is canon and Raiden really did manage to create a StableTimeLoop... Or, to put it bluntly, a "Time Paradox!"[[/note]]
734* MayDecemberRomance: With Volgin, who's about a generation older than him.
735* {{Narcissist}}: If he catches you while you're wearing the mask that looks just like him, he'll stop for a moment to admire the new face and comment on how beautiful it looks before realizing something is up.
736* ReassignedToAntarctica: He was exiled to San Hieronymo due to his abusive actions to his subordinates.
737* ReassignmentBackfire: Potentially. Although it's not explicitly revealed whether the Soviets allowed him back for his involvement in stopping a nuclear strike against Russia, or if the Soviets would still keep him exiled (probably the latter, as it's implied that [[spoiler:Russia was in fact already aware of Gene's real plan being to nuke America, and not Russia from Gene's call to Ocelot, and plus his potential involvement in stopping the ICBMG from being launched at America would probably be indicative of betrayal on his part]]).
738* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: It's strongly implied that the only reason the Soviet military allowed Raikov to be as abusive as possible to his subordinates prior to Operation Snake Eater was because of Volgin's influence.
739* SissyVillain: He's an effeminate LongHairedPrettyBoy with a high-pitched voice that doesn't sound like he completed puberty. He's also Volgin's loyal second-in-command and is happy to abuse his power by routinely abusing his underlings. Fittingly, he also cowers when faced with a threat of someone who can and will fight back against him.
740* TheStoolPigeon: Despite being Volgin's most trusted man (and lover), he apparently has a habit of squealing about Volgin's various weaknesses if interrogated by knifepoint, like the fact that he is weak against water.
741* TookALevelInBadass: In ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', Raikov often fled into a bathroom during an alert, and only fought Snake when he was cornered. This changed as a result of ''Portable Ops'' making him a playable character, where he does fight the enemy efficiently.
742* UniqueEnemy: He's not a boss and serves as more of a mook who can sound the alarm in terms of gameplay. He has a unique appearance and function though.
743* VillainousGlutton: He's not fat, but a radio conversation with EVA, as well as his bio in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops Plus]]'' establishes that he is a glutton, although in the former game he apparently has a weak stomach (which explains why one of the places he stops at in Groznyj Grad is the lavatories).
744[[/folder]]
745
746[[folder: Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov]]
747[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sokolovmgs_4367.jpg]]
748[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"Missiles, rockets... what's the difference?"-]'' ]]
749->[[spoiler:AKA Ghost]]
750->Voiced By: NaokiTatsuta (JP), Creator/BrianCummings (EN)
751
752->''"To be honest with you, I am tired. Every day, I help create things that should never be used - things that should never have existed in the first place."''
753
754A Russian rocket scientist who defected to the United States during the Cold War. As part of Russia's agreement to end the Cuban missile crisis, the CIA had to fork Sokolov back over to his captors, a memory which plagues Zero to this day.
755
756Sokolov was promptly put back in charge of the Shagohod project, which later falls into Volgin's hands and becomes the linchpin of his coup d'état. Snake is tasked to rescue him at the beginning of ''Metal Gear Solid 3''. He fails, which results in Operation Snake Eater. [[spoiler:After completing the final piece of the Shagohod, Sokolov is killed by Volgin as a warm up for his torture of Snake.]]
757
758In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps MPO]]'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:he used a fake death pill to survive, and escaped with the help of The Boss. He reappears in ''Portable Ops'', using the alias Ghost, and helped Snake to destroy RAXA and ICBMG.]]
759----
760* BringMyBrownPants: Understandably wets himself when Ocelot plays with him a hardcore game of RussianRoulette.
761* BurnBabyBurn: His introductory cutscene has him burning documents that presumably related to the Shagohod project before he encounters Snake.
762%%* CowerPower
763* DefectorFromDecadence: The reason why he was to be rescued by America in the Virtuous Mission.
764* DespairEventHorizon: When the Shagohod was completed, Sokolov refuses to let Naked Snake help him defect, as he realizes that Volgin would most likely kill him as his usefulness was outlived, and even if he was going to be spared, Khrushchev will send him to the Gulags for similar reasons to Volgin's attempts to kill him, and even if he managed to successfully defect to America, he would end up being used by them to make weapons of mass destruction. He pretty much gave up.
765* HighClassGlass: Rather surprising for a communist to wear one.
766* LargeHam: Has a very dramatic manner of speaking, almost as if he were in a Shakespearean drama.
767* LethalJokeCharacter: He is unlocked in the first version of ''Metal Gear Online'' by the player by getting the lowest score when playing as a KGB unit.
768* MistakenForCheating: [[spoiler:The CIA assumes he's having an affair with Tatiana despite him being married. When Snake talks to him about it, however, he reveals he's still faithful to his wife and his feelings for Tatiana are srictly platonic; she's sleeping with ''Volgin'', not him.]]
769* TheMole: [[spoiler:He was working for Gene, but he leaked information relating to the ICBMG to Snake's group under the alias of Ghost. It's also implied that he got imprisoned for this until Snake's group rescues him in a side mission.]]
770* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Kind of: Although Sokolov disliked the Soviet Union's policies enough to attempt to defect to the West three times (with the third time being successful), he nonetheless retained a small amount of love for Russia as he was unwilling to let the ICBMG be launched into it.
771* NiceGuy: He genuinely held people's best interests at heart and does not want to see people suffer, as evidenced by his interaction to Tatyana's abuse by Volgin. [[spoiler:What cements this is that Tatyana wasn't actually Sokolov's lover, yet he still expressed concern]].
772%%* NonActionGuy
773* TheQueensLatin: Sokolov [[TranslationConvention appears]] to have a vaguely British accent. It fits with his monocle.
774* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:In ''Portable Ops''. In ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', the one time he was playable was in an expansion, and it was as a joke character (as the player had to get the worst score to play as him when playing as a KGB unit). Let's just say that that's not necessary anymore in ''Portable Ops''.]]
775[[/folder]]
776
777[[folder:Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin]]
778[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/graninmgs_2939.jpg]]
779[[caption-width-right:300:''[-"You mean you've never heard of me? And you call yourself an agent."-]'' ]]
780->Voiced By: Creator/TakeshiAono (JP), Creator/JimWard (EN)
781
782->''"These bastards will live to regret this. And when they themselves become the targets of my creation, they will know my true greatness."''
783
784A Soviet scientist and the original creator of the Metal Gear concept. After Granin repeatedly failed to deliver on his promises, Volgin finally lost patience and decided to invest in Sokolov's project. In revenge, [[spoiler:Granin mailed his blueprints to his contact in the states, Huey Emmerich, who would go on to develop Metal Gear ZEKE. Volgin, sensing treachery from Granin (but unaware, ironically, of his secret sabotage), stuffs him into a kerosene barrel and tortures him to death.]]
785----
786* AlcoholHic: He hiccups during his conversation with Snake as a result of DrowningHisSorrows.
787* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:Tossed into a drum and repeatedly struck with electricity and bullets until his body smokes]]. The final blow [[spoiler:catapults his feeble form into the air and onto the pavement.]]
788* TheDogBitesBack: Granin backed the wrong horse and lost. In a drunken fury, he sends the design specs of Metal Gear to the U.S. in the hopes that they'll turn it on his own government. He also gives Snake a key that will get him into Grozny Grad.
789* DrowningMySorrows: We never see him sober.
790* DudeWheresMyRespect: Granin is clearly proud of his work in service of Russian society. His betrayal may be partly motivated by Volgin's war chest, not his own commendations and medals, mattering more to the government in the long run. Granin's drunken toast to Snake is an admission that the Soviet meritocracy has failed him.
791* EaglelandOsmosis: He raises his flask "to Capitalism!" when Snake is halfway out the door.
792* GloryDays: From what little we see of him, it's obvious that Granin's career has gone south since the end of World War II.
793* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:Of the "blood seeping on the floor from a crack near the floor" variety, when Volgin kills him while torturing him inside of a drum canister]].
794* HazyFeelTurn: Much like [=MGS1=]'s Kenneth Baker, he's an arms manufacturer who is only helping Snake out of selfishness, but proves key to halting the villain's progress.
795* InsufferableGenius: He shows signs of intense narcissism and insecurity over other scientists stealing his thunder. Granin also claims responsibility for winning WWII. This has the ring of truth, as he's been awarded twice with the Order of Lenin and the Stalin Medal. All things being equal, Granin is an engineering genius who is decades ahead of everyone else, even Sigint.
796* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Metal Gear is ahead of its time.
797* {{Irony}}: Despite Metal Gear being ahead of its time, it's the very thing that has more models than the Shagohod, and has the most threats. To the point even Big Boss has canonically commissioned three of them ([[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker ZEKE]], [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 TX-55]] and [[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake Metal Gear D]]), but does not issue a nuclear threat.
798* MisplacedAccent: Inverted, he's the only Russian character to speak with a Russian accent. One might assume his drunken slurring is making it harder for [[{{Omniglot}} Snake]] to understand him.
799* MyCountryRightOrWrong: A grey area. Despite being abused by its leaders, he confesses that he still has unconditional love for the Soviet Union. Therefore, he will not take the extra step of defecting to America like Sokolov did.
800* NonActionGuy: Even an American spy barging into his office isn't enough to make Granin get up from his desk.
801* SmallRoleBigImpact: Granin only appears in two scenes in the entire game, and is already dead the second time he appears, but is retroactively revealed to be the creator of the entire Metal Gear concept.
802* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Granin shares a few similarities with Baker, the CEO of [=ArmsTech=] in Solid Snake's timeline. Both are elderly men who manufacture and mass-produce weapons; both fell out of favor with their government because of "peacetime", helped to develop Metal Gear, forked over a keycard to Snake, and ultimately were killed by their bosses.
803* TheyCalledMeMad: His motive for helping Snake is to stick it to the people who nixed his Metal Gear project.
804* UnknownRival: He has an intense rivalry with Sokolov, strong enough to ally himself with Volgin's forces simply because Sokolov found favor in Khrushchev, although it is strongly implied that only he has any negative vibes towards Sokolov.
805* VodkaDrunkenski: His first appearance has him drinking vodka. It's justified in this case, as he's drowning his sorrows from the fact that he is basically going to rot away in mediocrity, especially after Volgin cast him aside for Sokolov after it became apparent that his invention, the Metal Gear, did not possess the results needed to be immediately useful, thus essentially leaving him out of a job (he initially worked with Volgin specifically because Sokolov was hired by Khrushchev). It should be noted that he is the only Russian character to actually fit this stereotype (the main plot setting was the USSR, meaning the vast majority of the characters are Russian either by birth or via defecting from another country).
806%%* WaistcoatOfStyle
807* WroteTheBook: Apparently designed the SS-1C missile system, and if his comments are anything to go by, he was also directly responsible for some of the weapons used to drive out the Nazis from the Eastern Front.
808[[/folder]]
809
810[[folder:Johnny]]
811[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnny_mgs3.png]]
812->Voiced by: NaokiImamura (JP), Creator/MichaelJGough (EN)
813
814A prison guard at Groznyj Grad. Briefly befriends Naked Snake from being fed back meals that Snake was supposed to eat.
815----
816* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Johnny will stop to talk with Snake in his prison cell should Snake give him back the food he provided. Snake attempted to convince him to break him free, only for Johnny to quickly realize this and return to his post.
817* BigEater: According to EVA, he's notorious for being hungry all the time, and has been flogged multiple times for sneaking into the mess hall to eat extra scraps. So if you give him any food he offers to you, he'll happily gobble it up.
818* ButNotTooForeign: Johnny was born in Russia, but he left for America at some point and started a family, but then had to return to Russia, presumably because of it being his native land. He's consequently lonely, and if the commentary is anything to go by, he'd end up in big trouble from the Soviet Government (as in he'll pay a visit to the slammer) should they discover that he actually had a kid in America.
819* DisneyDeath: Implied in ''Peace Walker'', when a character mentions that he "knows a guy named Johnny." He also reappears in ''Portable Ops Plus'', but that's non-canon.
820** Concept art of an elderly version of him appeared in ''Metal Gear Solid 4: Master Art Works'', reflecting an ultimately cut cameo at his grandson's wedding in the game's ending.
821* FatalFamilyPhoto: Averted. Canonically he survived the events of the game, though you can stab him with your fork.
822* GenerationXerox: Is the grandfather of Johnny Sasaki. They are also both prison guards, and both have bathroom problems (though this Johnny is constipated whereas his grandson has chronic diarrhea).
823%%* IneffectualSympatheticVillain
824* NiceJobFixingItVillain: He has a radio frequency written on the back of his family photo, which just so happens to be Snake's means of escaping, should he take a peek at it.
825** Also, he will open Snake's cell to check on him if he ends up vomiting.
826** Or when Snake fakes his death, but to be fair, he could not have known that was the case.
827* PunchClockVillain: He works under Volgin's command and is specifically assigned the task of being Snake's prison guard. Besides that, however, he's shown to be a NiceGuy who has a family and is willing to treat his prisoner humanely, even affably.
828* TastesLikeFriendship: Give him your food enough times, and he'll act a lot more friendly to you. He'll chat with Snake, tell him about his family, express frustration about the Cold War, and even give the soldier what he thinks is a case of cigarettes (which is really a gas spray gun made to look like a case of cigarettes). He won't let Snake out though.
829* YouBastard: Will shout this to Naked Snake if he discovers his escape.
830* YouHaveFailedMe: His implied fate for letting Snake escape, though canonically he survives.
831[[/folder]]
832
833[[folder:'''Shagohod''']]
834[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metalgear28_8.jpg]]
835
836Sokolov's magnum opus, the Shagohod is an armored mobile ballistic missile carrier. In theory able to launch a nuclear missile from anywhere on Earth, its small size and uniqueness make it a very powerful tool in the hands of the Soviet Union... And later Volgin.
837----
838* AchillesHeel: Much like with the legs on the later Metal Gears, the Shagohod's augers aren't as impregnable as the rest of its armour, making disabling its mobility, at least temporarily, a viable way to defeat it.
839* AwesomeButImpractical: It's the granddaddy of Metal Gears, so it has a few quirks. It's far less agile and mobile than the legged Metal Gears, being only able to go forwards in a straight line and turning with the grace of an oil tanker (until it sheds its rear component). Its small size also only allow it to carry [=IRBMs=] instead of [=ICBMs=], reducing greatly its effective range until Sokolov finds a workaround. Lastly, it needs a 3 mile (4.8 km) stretch of flatland to reach its top speed and fulfill its role.
840* BoringButPractical: ''Yes''. Compared to Granin's Metal Gear project, the Shagohod is "just" an unusual combination of existing technologies rather than a pie-in-the-sky idea, so Moscow went alongside with it. In addition, its small size allow it to hide in a hangar and be carried by helicopter to its launch sites, making it harder to detect via spy plane or satellite.
841* HoverTank: Only the front component uses augers to move around; the rear component rests on an air cushion.
842* MoreDakka: Due to technological limitations, it doesn't have REX's laser or RAY's water cutter (although it carries machine guns and missiles like them). Instead, it has a '''100-barrel''' machine gun.
843* NighInvulnerability: Natch; a [=RPG-7=] shot won't even chip the paint. It takes [[spoiler: a bridge filled to the brim with plastic explosives ''and'' the resulting fall to stop it... And even then, the front component survives almost undamaged.]]
844* NitroBoost: It has two large rocket boosters on each side, used to reach enough speed to act as the first stage of a rocket to catapult its nuclear payload away.
845* NonIndicativeName: "Shagohod" in Russian means "Walking Machine". And unlike the titular Metal Gears, it's basically the only one which does not walk.
846* ShedArmorGainSpeed: Once the rear component is detached, the Shagohod loses a lot of its heft and its nuclear capabilities, but it becomes far more agile. [[spoiler: Enough to keep track with Eva's motorcycle.]]
847* TurnsRed: Once damaged enough, [[spoiler: Volgin supercharges it with his own electricity, allowing what's left of it to perform at full capacity. It's only when Volgin gets struck by lightning that the Shagohod breaks down.]]
848[[/folder]]

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