Line #53 Headscratchers/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater


1	* Snake finds plenty of things to eat during the mission which is all well and good but at no point is he shown having anything to drink plus it’s never established if any of the bodies of water he passes on his travels are drinkable. Thing is, although there would be plenty liquid in the animals and noodles etc that he eats, he would surely need plenty water in order to avoid becoming dehydrated. Just how does he get enough drinkable water to survive throughout the game?
2	** If you look at Naked Snake's character model, you'll notice a canteen among his equipment so presumably he drinks from that during his mission, but the need to drink is abstracted away in a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation. He probably refills it whenever he gets a chance, e.g. the times when he rests with EVA, and presumably also when travelling through running water. There's no indication he eats his instant noodles dry either, given how delicious they're said to be and how much fuss is made over the novelty of instant noodles, so he must use water to cook them, therefore he must be carrying water at all times since you can eat the noodles whenever you like.
3	* How the hell does Snake manage to be completely unscathed after [[spoiler:the Boss]] has [[spoiler:her]] horse stomp on Snake's hand '''hard''', so much that he silently holds it in pain after it does so, and yet after the cutscene the Survival Viewer shows it to be nothing at all...? I'm well aware that the Fear's surprise attack bolt to Snake's thigh makes sense as it's more severe, but a full-grown horse stomping on someone else's hand in a not-so-delicate kind of way '''should''' have been registered in the Survival Viewer, and yet it's just cutscene-power at play.
4	** Snake is just extremely, preternaturally tough, as the embodiment of special forces grit which would lead him to become the most legendary soldier in history. Also, his enemies can rival him in combat efficiency and environmental hazards can also cause severe injury, but anything less than these types of injuries, he can shrug off. Remember, Batman slammed his fist on The Joker's hand in Film/TheDarkKnight so hard that a slight bit more force would have broken it, but it wasn't quite there. So, the horse imparted a similar level of force onto Snake's hand.
5	** It also bears mentioning that at least one of the ranking challenges requires you to take a minimum number of serious injuries. The game already has the beating by The Boss on the bridge, and the ordeal after the torture scene contribute several serious injuries to that count. So comparatively, it lets you shrug off a horse stamp to the hand, so that you have a bit of breathing room (and actually get to take/avoid some of the remaining injuries at least somewhat by choice, in gameplay, rather than have too many be imposed in cutscenes).
6	*** If the devs anticipated that being a problem, couldn't they just make the ranking challenge involve taking n+1 injuries, rather than n injuries?
7	* Okay, so apparently when members of the Cobra Unit are killed, the bomb inside them explodes to destroy all evidence that they existed. However, when you tranquilize them, they also explode. Wouldn't that mean that the Bomb in any Cobra would explode the moment they fall asleep? But this contradicts itself as well by the fact that The End was asleep the whole time until just before your sniper battle with him. So is the bomb just really touchy, or is it activated by a switch that the Cobra members carry? It's a point that I keep running through in my head but can't figure out.
8	** I'm thinking they activate it themselves, somehow, to prevent themselves from being captured. Unless they specifically said the bomb is activated automatically. I don't remember the exact words of the radio conversation.
9	** The bombs could also be set to explode at a sudden ceasing of consciousness, like what would happen if they were hit with a bullet, tranq or otherwise. Going to sleep naturally would be too gradual a slip into unconsciousness to activate the microbomb.
10	** "Their missions were so top secret that not only were they forbidden to be taken prisoner, they couldn't even leave their corpse behind. Because of this, or so the legend goes, they carried a microbomb with them on their missions in case they needed to commit suicide." Sounds like they have to activate it themselves; otherwise they wouldn't technically be committing suicide.
11	*** It's called a "deadman switch", and it works on the opposite principle from the more usual sort: instead of triggering the bomb when the switch is activated, it triggers when the switch is ''released''. Presumably, the Cobras' microbombs are triggered by some sort of vital-signs monitoring which can tell when they've been killed, or completely enough disabled to make capture a likely result. (Presumably also there's a manual override of some sort so that Cobras can disable their suicide charges when they're not in the field, if for no other reason than so it'd be possible for them to undergo surgery without inadvertently blowing up the operating suite.)
12	** While this is all well and good, it doesn't do anything to explain how The Fear's body was loaded with poison arrows or why The Fury suddenly turned into the hellfire version of [[Film/TheMummyTrilogy Imhotep]] upon his death. I'm almost positive that the whole "bomb" explanation was just Snake's team attempting to be rational about the situation, while in actuality the members of the Cobra Unit were really spontaneously combusting in some mystic fashion upon their deaths.
13	*** The Fear is pretty easy, actually; he wants to try and take his killer with him. The Fury? His equipment went out of control and went flying around the room randomly, and the flames just happened to look like a face for a few seconds.
14	*** Also, [[FridgeBrilliance if you think about it]] getting shot by 100 tranq darts is [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome more than enough to kill a man.]]
15	* I loaned the game to a friend of mine, and he had this to point out: How can Ocelot be a major at [[spoiler: the age of 20? He was born on D-Day, so he's kinda young for that ranking.]]
16	** The Philosophers know he's the [[spoiler:son of the Boss, and the Russians know he's the son of some war hero. It's special treatment.]]
17	** Also, something else I've started to wonder about Adamska: Did he know (or ever find out) [[spoiler: that he was the son of The Joy and The Sorrow?]]
18	*** Its possible Big Boss may have told him, to secure his loyalty.
19	*** [[HoYay Big Boss didn't need to secure his loyalty...]]
20	*** Big Boss never found out. I believe The Boss knew, but Ocelot didn't.
21	*** Big Boss had all the information we did, I'm sure he could have put it together.
22	*** Considering how he couldn't even put two and two together when it came to Volgin and Raikov I doubt that. Though maybe he found out later once he started using his brain.
23	*** I think Ocelot knew; the Boss treated Ocelot like a stern mother through a lot of the game, and since they were both involved with the Philosophers...
24	* The ending was all dramatic and sad, but...well, it just bugs me that they mention that the Boss' horrible fate is for her to die, remembered in history as a traitor to her country and a war criminal. Which is sad indeed, until you think...remembered as a traitor by all of a dozen people who know about her and her involvement in the incident. And come to think of it, at least three people know the whole truth.
25	** Actually, no, far more than a dozen people knew about her existence. She was considered "the mother of special forces", so you have to figure anyone involved in special forces or higher levels of any military, government or intelligence community the world over would know who she was. In-game lore also says she went to inspire the SAS motto of "Who dares, wins", so that's, what? Three regiments worth of guys knowing who she is? That's far more than three right there, not to mention Russian and American special forces, and so on and so forth. One of the conversations Snake has with Zero when he begins Operation Snake Eater is that there's concern others will follow The Boss's example and defect, and a few had been put under house arrest, showing that her defection was fairly widely known. As for those three people, aside from Big Boss none of them would care about The Boss in the first place, which is where the tragedy is; she would only be a hero in Big Boss's memory.
26	*** Strangely enough, though, Solid Snake seems to know about the Boss somehow, since he's seen saluting her grave at the beginning of [=MGS4=] (that's not a spoiler), and [[spoiler: chooses to ''kill himself'' on her grave at the end.]]
27	*** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' it's stated that most of Big Boss's career including Operation Snake Eater was declassified and was met with incredible interest in 2015 with many fictional books being written about his life, so it's possible that now an entire new generation can learn of The Boss's "betrayal"
28	*** Which is what [[spoiler: Big Boss ''wanted'' all along: for her ideals of a world unified, if not entirely peaceful, to be known to everyone, and that the ultimate sacrifice was necessary to bring it about. Big Boss ''won'' at the end, even though HE had to give his life too.]]
29	*** [[spoiler: Actually, he didn't want that "all along". He misinterpreted the will of The Boss as he himself states in that scene. His idea of a united world was an army without borders. Aka Outer Heaven. Eliminating the Patriots was also just so they would not be in the way of his vision.]]
30	*** Actually, the grave [[spoiler: where Snake attempts suicide belongs to Big Boss. Based on the fact that Snake only gives the Boss' grave a brief glance as he walks by - and only because of the white flowers recently placed there - it would imply he never knew it was hers, so that would make the grave he salutes at the beginning of the game Big Boss' as well. It's Big Boss who actually dies in front of The Boss' grave.]]
31	*** Which in itself is a ridiculous. Why the hell is Snake saluting Big Boss? As far as he knows at this point Big Boss is still the man who betrayed his unit and tried to kill him twice. It's true they declassified his file but if anything that should make him seem like even more of a terrorist - the guy threatened a nuclear strike ''twice''. In my opinion it would make more sense if he was standing to attention at the grave of Gray Fox. A man who was his best friend, made the ultimate sacrifice to save Snake's life and who was more of a father figure to him than Big Boss ever was. ''I was still green and he showed me the ropes''.
32	*** Snake is saluting Big Boss's grave because [[spoiler:that scene being shown on the main menu is actually from the game's ending and he now knows what Big Boss was trying to accomplish. If you wait long enough you see Snake put the pistol in his mouth like in the ending.]]
33	*** It's not ridiculous. Snake hated Big Boss after Metal Gear 1 and 2 because he considered him a no-good traitor. After being continuously fucked by his superiors in the government in MGS and MGS 2, however, Snake began to realize the reason for Big Boss' defection and why he was trying to create a nation of nothing but soldiers. Couple this with the above mentioned declassification of Big Boss' earlier missions and this leads to Snake fully understanding Big Boss' true goals. This is the retcon given to why Snake knows CQC in [=MGS4,=] but not in any of the previous games even though it existed since the 60's: After Metal Gear 1 and 2, he didn't respect Big Boss enough to want to use the fighting style he had created. By 4 he had learned about all the details, so he started training in it.
34	*** But that can't be right, he's surprised to learn from EVA in [=MGS4=] about Big Boss's then-codename of "Naked Snake" and the whole story behind what happened.
35	*** There's an explanation. There's a Codec call that explains it. Otacon is surprised to learn that Snake has, in fact, known CQC the entire time, but has been refusing to use it, falling back on his CQB knowledge. Snake admits it's just reflexes. With everyone knowing CQC now, he just finds himself instinctually using it.
36	*** This is the perfect reason why the original two Metal Gear games need to be remade, so as to expand why Snake, in turn, would feel that way, ''just like everyone else always eventually did'', about his father, despite the combat he engaged in against him.
37	*** To be sure Snake can sympathize with Big Boss's dream of creating a world where soldiers are respected instead of abused and thrown away by their superiors since he has had it happen to him, but the existence of the Patriots more than anything else should put things into perspective why Big Boss did what he did. Snake should know by the beginning of [=MGS4=] that Big Boss having worked with just about every facet of the US military and government had knowledge of the Patriots and their schemes and that his Outer Heaven ideal was a response against them. The majority of the Metal Gear fandom had determined this after [=MGS3=], and especially after MPO, long before [=MGS4=] ever came out given all the evidence available, Snake should be just as perceptive.
38	*** Note also that in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Psycho Mantis notes that Snake shares the same trauma as him, in that they both killed their fathers. Whatever about what Big Boss did, Snake did seem to feel some kind of remorse for the events in Zanzibar Land and is implied to have suffered PTSD as a result.
39	* And if we mention that, it's either more or less sad that it seems that the death of the Boss was actually unnecessary; maybe a couple of dozen people actually know that she exists, and it's not like her body was ever recovered (or, presumably, needed for proof), since the [=MiGs=] napalmed it into oblivion. Speaking of which, I need to go edit the Wild Mass Guessing for MGS.
40	** One wonders where the grave and headstone came from, then.
41	** It's not like they ''need'' the body for a grave. Big Boss has a grave, and the possession of his remains is a big plot point in 4.
42	* What's up with what happens when you try to just shoot the Boss? It's not just an automatic force-field, since it only activates when she's aware of it (my last blow of the battle being a sniper shot right in her heart). Is it there just for RuleOfCool, n which case it's definitely an AcceptableBreakFromReality (to make that last battle -awesome-), or was an explanation attempted (which I'm sure would almost certainly fall prey to VoodooShark, in fact, maybe I should delete this question now...nah)?
43	** She shoots down the bullets with her own weapon. Somehow. In her defense the Patriot is an awesome gun, and there are far more extreme talents in the [=MGS=] universe.
44	** Actually, the Patriot is just freaking gargantuan enough that it blocks the bullets, which Snake is firing at just the right height to hit. [[Main/BlastingItOutOfTheirHands And the Boss has no trouble hanging onto it despite this.]] If you take a Sniper Rifle, it's actually possible to hit her directly in the head if you aim carefully enough, but this is pretty difficult because she's shooting at you the whole time. And will steal your gun if she grabs hold of you. Far easier to just wait for a moment when she doesn't see you, in which case her gun isn't raised to block.
45	*** She stared down the bullets with sheer badassery, and they deflected out of fear of facing her directly.
46	*** She just did the same thing Dante does against Nero in [=DMC4=], shooting the bullet in mid-air. Making it easier is the fact that the Patriot has BottomlessMagazines, an insane rate of fire, and it's a world where the character can get matrix-level bullet dodging naturally. See Frank Jaeger, he was able to do that before the Ninja exoskelleton.
47	*** One thing that probably aids the Boss in shooting down bullets is that the Patriot seems to fire bullets side-on instead of point- on (watch when she destroys Naked Snake's disposable plane). True, in real life that would give the gun awful penetration but considering we are talking about a gun that has infinite ammo purely because because it has an ouroboros shaped magazine and realistically should have enough recoil to break your arm, we can hand wave this as just enough magical function of the Patriot.
48	*** Plus she doesn't really have to be accurate with the shots, the recoil of the Patriot is enough to where if you fire it without moving your reticle, it'll leave a large block of bullet holes in a wall, so there are literally that many bullets being fired so quickly and the recoil makes the shots erratic enough to where they can hit anything within range at least once without the need for aiming.
49	* Why is Ocelot called a major in the third game when the insignia on his shoulders indicates that he's a captain? Normally, this could be attributed to poor research, except Major Raikov has the correct insignia.
50	** It's possible that he was just recently promoted and hadn't gotten a new uniform yet.
51	** It doesn't take a new uniform, just new insignias. Maybe consider the fact he's basically part of a fringe group in the Soviet military. If they're operating secretly and Volgin promoted him, the higher up brass might not know about Ocelot's promotion and not sent the proper insignia. Plus Russians might have a different style of insignia.
52	** [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Perhaps clothing stores is taking their time getting new rank markings for him.]]
53	* Snakes are VENOMOUS. If they were poisonous, then Naked Snake wouldn't be able to eat them, would he? I am willing to forgive all the other characters for this, but YOU should know better, Para-Medic!
54	** Because the poison is kept in specific parts of the body and it's completely possible to eat a snake without eating the venomous parts.
55	*** And most of the snakes in the game were constrictors, anyway.
56	*** Strictly speaking, venom is only poisonous if it enters your bloodstream. Assuming there are no open wounds in your digestive system it's safe to drink, though still a stupid thing to do.
57	*** In short, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology you fail zoology forever.]]
58	* It bugs me when The Boss says, specifically during the Virtuous Mission IIRC, how Naked Snake is still a child. I realize that there always minor retcons in this series, but according to [=MGS2=] when Ocelot takes over REX and says how Big Boss was in his late 50s during the Les Enfants Terribles project, Naked Snake should be in his early 40s by this point in his career. Hardly a child. If anyone was a child by then it was Ocelot.
59	** Man, why do people keep taking things like this 100% literally? Is the concept of speaking figuratively and exaggeration so difficult to grasp?
60	** Not to mention she obviously meant in comparison to the Cobras. Which makes a lot more sense when you compare his age to the rest of the Cobras, he's definitely about half The End's age.
61	** [=MGS4=] retcons Big Boss's age, making him younger than before. According to [[spoiler:his grave]], he is now supposed to be born in the 1930s, so he is no older than 34 in this game.
62	** If I'm not mistaken, Galvez says he's 39 during the events of Peace Walker. That would put his age in 1964 somewhere around 29.
63	** Guys. His actual age is irrelevant to why the Boss calls him a child. She calls him a child because he's naive about political warfare, and he believes that politicians do what's best for their country. Child, in this case, is a metaphor for innocence.
64	* The Patriot. No, the gun. Snake leaves it on The Boss' grave. A loaded automatic weapon with infinite ammo. In public. Even if he removed the firing pin--which, I believe, could be replaced by anyone who knows how to machine an AR-15 pin--someone could still look at the mechanism of the drum and make their own infinite ammo weapon. Even if they don't, they've still got a [[strike:clip]]mag that doesn't exist for another 20 years or so.
65	** You're worried about a gun manufacuturer happening by the Patriot on the gravestone and reverse engineering it? I'd be more concerned about some little kid visiting their grandpa's grave at the cemetary finding it and shooting someone. One would seriously hope that Naked Snake didn't actually leave it there permanently.
66	*** He doesn't leave it there. We find this out in Metal Gear Solid 4, when [[spoiler: he pops up after Snake fails to commit suicide. Big Boss has the Patriot with him.]]
67	*** It's probably a different gun, as the MSF can build one in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker''.
68	* So, at the end we find out that [[spoiler: Ocelot's greatest loyalty is, at the time, to the CIA, who also sent Snake]]. So how do we explain his constantly trying to (and nearly succeeding in) killing Snake throughout the game? It's the only piece of the puzzle that I can't figure out. Saying he knew that his gun would jam, or that Snake would dodge, or whatever, seems even too far-fetched for MGS.
69	** Cause Ocelot is [[spoiler: a spy? Why would he blow his cover just to make things easier for Snake? Besides that the CIA is basically portrayed as bastard coated bastards(with bastard filling) so it's possible that Ocelot didn't know that Snake was on "his side" until Snake had already met up with EVA and it was too late-the need for a password seems to suggest that they didn't even know what the other looked like. ]]
70	*** [[spoiler: Actually if we assume that the bullet Ocelot is carrying around for all of Operation: Snake Eater is the one that jammed in his gun at the end of the Virtues Mission, then he was never planning on killing Snake. He probably was just trying to make it look good.]]
71	*** The password is for ''Snake's'' benefit. Presumably there aren't '''2''' people unaffiliated with the Russian troops running around messing with things.
72	*** It can't be the same bullet, as it's a different calibre (9x18mm compared to .45 Long Colt). FridgeBrilliance kicks in when Ocelot attempts an "Israeli Draw" and his Makarov jams. Snake tells him that he was asking to have his gun jam on him. Since he was [[spoiler: on Snake's side all along]], that's ''exactly'' what he meant to do.
73	*** It is most definitely the same bullet. The director commentary said as much. The size of the bullet doesn't matter because the metal ring at the base of the bullet where the chain is attached is a sabot. This makes the base of the bullet where the sabot is wide enough to be chambered and therefore shot from the SAA despite the size caliber difference.
74	*** Then that makes it a horrible choice, since a 9mm round wouldn't properly stablise with a .45 calibre barrel's rifling. [[spoiler: The again, it does turn out to be a blank, so yeah.]]
75	* Naked Snake begins the Virtuous Mission, in which he is told time and time and time again by Major Zero that he needs to avoid leaving any trace of his presence or anything that could link him to the US, by discarding a helmet that has '''US ARMY''' written on it in big bold letters. It just bugs me...
76	** Or the fact his backpack has the initials '''US''' on every single pouch attached to it - and the fact the [=MK22=] Hush Puppy is an official American sidearm. True, he is unlikely to drop his supply belt and his gun but it still destroys the whole ghostly effect Zero is going for doesn't it?
77	*** The fact that Khrushchev makes no mention of having ever found a helmet with a "US ARMY" label on it obviously means that it was never found which can be explained by a number of things: 1) Snake infiltrated Russia through a route that was not being patrolled by the KGB. 2) Snake probably hid it somewhere off screen. 3) Seeing as this was a stealth mission Snake never intended to be found by the enemy and therefore they would never even know that they had to look for evidence of the presence of an infiltrator. 4) Even if they knew about Snake's presence in the area finding evidence of his presence there was unnecessary as the Russians had Zero's gunship on their radar meaning that FOX's leader was the one who screwed up the secrecy of their mission not Snake.
78	*** Minor side note, the [=MK22=] Hush Puppy was in the process of being adopted by the US military so the US ARMY labeled helmet was the only incriminating evidence to speak of as the gun that Snake was using would have been unknown to the Russians at that time.
79	*** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV'' explains this: [[spoiler:Skull Face and XOF were following Snake the whole time, and cleaned up the evidence after the mission.]]
80	* I haven't eaten in so long... [=KOs=] guard checks body finds ration. What?
81	** With the supply house destroyed, they have to ration their supplies. He was probably saving that for dinner you heartless monster!
82	*** But if you leave it (say, you have an inventory full of non-perishable stuff already and just wanted [=MK22=] suppressors/ammo), then let them wake up, they run over to it and excitedly eat it.
83	*** They are not going to risk their food with you around!
84	*** and besides, most people tend to be pretty hungry when they wake up so its not too surprising he'd jump for the ration immediately. Or he probably thought it was a Ration that popped up outta nowhere and not the one he dropped.
85	*** Maybe the rations just taste ''so'' terrible that not even the Soviets want to eat it.
86	* Why do the guards go after you post-Shagohod? Any incentive they have to go after you is gone (Volgin can nither pay them insane money out of the legacy or lead them to take over the world).
87	** They're not Bond henchmen. They're Russian soldiers trying to kill a spy. They may be stationed under Volgin but they don't owe him any loyalty beyond him outranking them. He isn't a LoadBearingBoss, soldiers aren't going to throw down their guns and go "good game everyone!" just because their colonel is dead; they still have national security and duty to fall back on.
88	*** Then why does Jonathan (the first guy to join Snake and [[spoiler:Campbell]]), claim said spy a hero for killing Volgin 6 years later in Portable Ops?
89	*** Volgin may have been a corrupt leader, but the soldiers were still dedicated to their nation.
90	*** The idea of guards going after you even though their leader is dead isn't that new. In Metal Gear 2 on the MSX, even though Grey Fox and Big Boss are defeated, guards still chase Snake as he makes his exit.
91	*** Most of them probably didn't even know Volgin was dead at this point. Even the ones that pass the Shagohod in pursuit of Snake and Eva don't exactly take the time to check the body on fire on top of the wreckage.
92	* In 3, what did Snake do to the Boss in the Rock Paper Scissors joke video? Transport her to the astral plane?
93	** It's a joke video, don't think about it too hard... But if you must then it was most likely just a symbolic representation of The Boss's thoughts.
94	*** So Snake cheated at RPS? That ''is'' a dirty trick. No wonder she was so shook up; she expected more from him.
95	** On that note, does anyone tend to refer to Snake/Big Boss's cheating gesture there as "Gun"? It sure looks like one and I'd wager a gun could break all three options unchallanged. It's just not prepared for a recoilless nuclear warhead.
96	** He played rock, paper and scissors simultaneously. He played paper with his thumb, scissors with his forefingers, and rock with the rest.
97	* Snake saves the US from nuclear annihilation by spending days in a jungle ill-equipped and without any chance of support, fights off a team of supernatural commandos, destroys the plans and prototype for a weapon that could ''also'' destroy the US and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking shoots all the frogs]] at the cost of lasting physical injury and gets awarded with... the '''third''' highest medal the US can give? What? Is there something in the more technical descriptions for the Distinguished Service Cross or [=MoH=] that makes him ineligible?
98	** You have the ranking of U.S Military medals mixed up my friend. The Silver Star is the third highest medal behind the Distinguished Service Cross which is the second highest, and of course the highest being the Medal of Honor. Anyway Snake got the Distinguished Service Cross because the criteria requires that you perform extreme feats of gallantry and heroism '''under direct orders.''' Snake may have accomplished some incredible things but his mission still went by the parameters of what the CIA, Pentagon and White House wanted out of him. The Medal of Honor is given out to people that perform incredible feats based on their own free will, '''above and beyond the call of duty or orders from a superior military officer.''' If it is any consolation Big Boss after the events of Portable Ops is finally given a Medal of Honor for choosing to stop the FOX Unit when he had ample opportunity to leave the base but chose to stay anyway. Last time during Operation Snake Eater the Military told him in very clear terms if he didn't do what they wanted he would be placed before a firing squad for treason so he didn't have much choice but to follow their orders. The case for Big Boss's Medal of Honor is also helped by the fact that he prevented Metal Gear from wiping out the Pentagon and the CIA when it was extremely close to succeeding in its launch, there wouldn't be a U.S Military left to award him a medal if he hadn't succeeded.
99	** Presumably, they'd have to go public about the whole thing if they did give him the Medal of Honour.
100	*** Considering to be nominated for a medal of honor, the nomination has to go either through the soldier's chain of command, or through Congress, that's a given. And as with everything involved, they sure as hell were not going to let a whole chain of officers, or god forbid the rather open-mouthed politicians get involved and blow the secrets wide open.
101	** At this point, FOX is actually a CIA unit, not a military one. It's even discussed at the ceremony that the army could use a unit like FOX, which is what eventually becomes FOXHOUND. Would Snake, at this point a CIA agent or at least seconded to the CIA from the Green Berets, even be entitled to a military medal for a CIA operation?
102	* It is explicitly stated that the Cobra unit not only fought at D-Day but were actually instrumental in winning the war. Question: how? The Boss was a badass who could shoot bullets out of the air and the Sorrow could command the armies of the dead so fair enough. My problem is with the other four: the Fear most likely didn't have stealth camo at the time and I fail to see how his famous crossbows would be any use against a machine gun nest, the Fury would have incredibly limited use and once again would be unlikely to have his rocket fuel flamethrower, the Pain wouldn't have been able to transport his buttload of bees into battle so he wouldn't have been much use and finally we have the End; despite his already advanced age his sniping skills would have been useful on D-Day no doubt, but a vast amount of his abilities come from his photosynthetic powers - not much use for that on the rainy beaches of Western Europe. Remember also that even under literally ideal conditions (the Fear and the End in a forest with plenty of cover, the Pain and the Fury fully equipped) Naked Snake killed them without hassle... the Nazi's shouldn't have been defeated by these guys.
103	** The only problem I have with the Cobras in regard to World War II is the idea that they as a single unit somehow "Led us to victory during that war.", in President Johnson's own words. You mean to tell me that a single unit composed of 5 special ops guys and a woman who led them (In World War II? As if.) single-handily won D-Day and led the Allies to victory? Were all the millions of Allied soldiers who died on the Western and Eastern fronts chopped liver or something, that is absurd! Now that we have that out of the way since the Cobras were a special operations unit they more than likely would have been para-troopers, in fact Sigint mentions to Snake if you take The End's sniper rifle that it was modified with a stock that could be folded to the side which is what most para-troopers did to their rifles. Their stated mission during D-Day was to take out V-2 rocket installations which would help the troops invading the beaches, most missions that support the frontal invasion force are not done from the front but rather from the back, which on D-Day required a lot of our troops to be parachuted behind enemy lines and the Cobra Unit would have been no different. Also on an individual basis: The Pain stores his insects in his body and could have easily brought them with him on D-Day plus he would have had a gun to shoot the enemy while his insects distract them, The Fear was clearly very acrobatic and mobile and would have been using a gun when not in a forest environment, The End gets his energy from plant foliage and sunlight which he can store in his body for later use plus his sniping skills are legendary so the Nazis wouldn't have seen that coming, and The Fury would have had a regular old flamethrower which he could have used to burn out installations like machine gun nest and trenches. The Cobra Unit would have been effective on D-Day, they just wouldn't have won it by themselves.
104	*** My guess is that the "won it by themselves" bit is largely propaganda and hero-worship rather than literal truth. Having said that, it does seem odd to, by extension, downplay the sacrifice of all the regular soldiers in the war.
105	*** You guys are taking that ''way'' too literally. "They led us to victory" didn't mean they literally did all the fighting and it was them alone that won the war; you could say the same sentence about George Washington, or any other big general in history. Probably, the Cobras did ''very'' important special ops missions--taking out a key unit here or there, getting valuable intelligence so the bulk of the troops went to the right spots, that sort of thing. In the actual World War II, there really was ''one'' guy whose spying efforts pretty much ensured that the Germans were looking in the wrong place on D-Day, which was instrumental in the successful invasion. The Cobras probably did similar things, only on a more epic badass scale.
106	*** Even if they couldn't bring all their special abilities to the war, the Cobras still had superhuman levels of health and stamina to the point they could effortlessly shrug off bullets, rockets, blades, CQC and tranquilizer darts. Also the Fury probably didn't use a flamethrower yet; his backstory is that he aquired his insane lust for fire after being horribly burnt during a disaster in space - he probably used a Thompson similar to the Pain.
107	*** One last point; Snake was an already excellent soldier who had received the best of the best training and mentoring by someone who is considered to be one of the best soldiers who ever lived, and at the time was more or less at his physical prime (which the Cobras had passed a good decade before). Saying that he didn't have "much of a hassle" (which I disagree with, he did obviously have plenty of trouble fighting them) defeating them is only testament to how efficient Snake is as a soldier, less the ineptitude of The Cobras.
108	** Given the AlternateHistory nature of the series, it's entirely possible that The Boss killed Hitler and possibly made it look like a suicide.
109	* How is it that Zero is still a Major as of this game? You would think that a man who worked with the SAS in their early formation during World War II and who was appointed by the US Military to one day be the commander of FOX if Snake succeeded in his mission and proved the effectiveness of the organization would at least be a Colonel. Also it is weird that Big Boss still refers to him as a Major in MPO when you would think that the success of Operation Snake Eater would have elevated him to the rank of Colonel or maybe a General of some sort.
110	** Haven't got an answer for the first part, but maybe Big Boss refers to him as Major simply because he's more familiar with referring to him as 'Major'. Not dissimilar to how Solid Snake refers to Campbell as 'Colonel' in Metal Gear Solid 1, 2 and 4, despite the fact that Campbell retired long before that.
111	** Was it ever explicitly stated that he was a major? From what I recall, his codename was Major Tom, then Major Zero. I don't remember it ever being stated that he held the rank of major. I might be wrong, but I'm sure he wasn't just a major in 1964.
112	*** I believe that Zero had retired from active military service at the rank of major sometime prior to the game. This is backed up by the fact that FOX was not officially part of the Army until the end of the game. They are probably all CIA people during the game.
113	* In ''Snake Eater'' you are supposed to sneak into the enemy fortress in order to rescue a scientist and stop the Soviet superweapon. Throughout the game you are expected to creep through enemy lines without alerting them to your presence. So why would your support staff recommend taking control of the antiaircraft batteries to eliminate enemy aircraft in a not-at-all-stealthy manner?
114	** Note how Washington gave Snake orders not to be caught during the Virtuous Mission. Major Zero explicitly says during the beginning of Operation Snake Eater that doing so isn't as important and that some evidence of a conflict between Snake and Volgin's forces has to be left behind for the Russian government to understand that the American government is cooperating with their demands about killing Volgin and The Boss. This isn't to say that they are telling Snake to go out of his way to shoot at every enemy that comes his way but that if he needs to he can shoot his way out of the situation to ensure his survival. Besides by the time you get to the mountains overseeing Groznyj Grad you most likely have already killed or tranquilized a ton of enemy guards and have killed 3 Cobra Unit members with only The Fury and The Boss left, the enemy already knows that Snake is trailing behind their fortress and have flamethrower troops especially prepared to cook him alive as revenge for all he has done to halt their plans. Also shooting those anti-aircraft guns is entirely optional, you can sneak by entirely unnoticed and nothing really changes.
115	** And even if you don't take down any guards on your way and remained unseen in game, the fact that you're taking down the Cobras one by one and Volgin's not happy about it would be proof enough for Khrushchev that something's being done by the US.
116	* Is the threat of being put before a firing squad really that powerful a motivation? I mean is it really realistic for the American Government to send out a team of black ops to find Snake behind enemy lines (and not only is Tselinoyarsk Russian territory but it is also extremely big and would make a search difficult) and bring him back just to execute him? Isn't that a wasted allocation of resources for just one man?
117	** Snake and Zero being patriotic (no pun intended) characters who would want to "do the right thing" aside, I always just assumed the government had a way of knowing whether or not Snake had succeeded and had means of bringing him back for execution if he hadn't. Even if they didn't, the feds would probably shit themselves if someone who knew ''this'' much suddenly got off the leash and disappeared; I doubt any expenses would be spared to track Snake down. Unrealistic perhaps, but if I can believe that they had the technology to build Peace Walker in the 70s, I can believe that. Also, keep in mind that if Snake were to run off, one of the first consclusions the government would jump to was that he had defected to join his beloved mentor, the Boss, who was believed to be an ally of Volgin who had fired a nuclear warhead on Russian soil; that should be more than enough to hit their panic button. Even besides all that, Snake's life isn't the only one on the line; there's also Zero, maybe even Paramedic and Sigint if the feds decide to be real assholes. If the fear of his own death isn't enough to keep Snake in line, the deaths of his comrades certainly will be.
118	*** Snake is a highly trained soldier who thrives off war and enjoys it, he has no fear of his own death as he faces it routinely in his career as a soldier. Snake would however want to do the right thing as he was patriotic towards the United States of America, he would rather the country he was born and raised in not get involved in a full scale war with the Soviet Union. Not to mention the fate of his comrades who he cares about: Zero will be executed at worst or have his Military Career ruined at least, Para-Medic will have her Medical License revoked and her career ruined, and SIGNIT without Zero's support will almost certainly get fired from his position in the CIA. Snake has the weight of so many lives on his shoulders, and he is not the kind of guy who would take that lightly by abandoning the mission. Besides America probably had a protocol in effect similar to Apocalypse Now where an air strike would total the area he was in if the mission were to fail, Captain Willaird was supposed to call in an air strike if he failed to assassinate Colonel Kurtz in that movie.
119	*** The existence of XOF would suggest that they absolutely would send in a black ops team to capture or eliminate Snake, since XOF was FOX's cleanup crew. Cleaning up the mess would most definitely include eliminating a RogueAgent.
120	* Okay, nobody seems to bring this up, but: Volgin firing that Davey Crockett at Sokolov's research facility in the beginning of the game caused an international uproar. At the end of things, almost as an afterthought, The Boss fires the second Davey Crockett at Groznyj Grad to wipe it off the map and make damn sure no more Shagohods are built. There wasn't another, equally ugly incident because of that?
121	** With the first detonation, the Soviets didn't know what was going on, and logically assumed that the U.S. was responsible, thus the international incident and Snake and Zero being pushed into doing Operation: Snake Eater as a show of good faith. By the time the second detonation occurred, it's likely that both sides had a better idea of what Volgin was up to, and so it didn't cause any uproar on a political level. Besides, after it became clear that Volgin was intending to use the Shagohod for his own agenda and that the whole situation had basically gone to hell, the Kremlin probably wanted the whole thing to just go away.
122	*** The epilogue with Ocelot and the Director of the CIA highly implies that destroying Groznyj Grad was part of The Boss' mission, or was at least beneficial in covering up the affair, so they don't have a problem with it. The Russians don't want a war with America anymore than America wants a war with Russia, anything they could do to keep the entire affair quiet would be beneficial to both sides.
123	* Snake vs Boss' battle. It's epic and awesome and all that, yes...but it doesn't make sense when you think about the Boss' mission. She's supposed to die to prove America's innocence. What if she kills Snake?
124	** That is what the [=MiG=] fighter jets The Boss radioed in were for. Remember that The Boss told Snake that there was a 10 minute time limit to defeat her or jets were going to release bombs over their position and kill them both. If you actually let the 10 minute timer run its course then you are treated to a game over cutscene where Snake and The Boss are killed by the bombs, with The Boss closing her eyes accepting her coming death. Naturally she would prefer that Snake killed her and that her beloved pupil survived but the jets were there as a contingency plan if he failed.
125	** That still doesn't explain something: If the Boss could order planes to bomb her, then the whole story, the plan to restore America's innocence at the expense of her good name, is pointless. [[StatingTheSimpleSolution She might as well have just slit her wrists.]]
126	*** Remember what EVA pointed out in the debriefing given to Big Boss, "The Boss was not allowed to kill herself." Presumably the Philosophers were monitoring The Boss in such a way that they would have known if she killed herself. As for what was at stake for her? The Boss still needed to get the Philosopher's Legacy back to America, which required Snake to take it from her.
127	*** "The Boss was not allowed to kill herself." Ordering jets to firebomb a field she's on = killing herself.
128	*** "which required Snake to take it from her." This is assuming that Snake SURVIVES the fight. Just one bullet of her Patriot hits Snake = failure.
129	*** It's no different than Ocelot expecting Snake to survive the events of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', 2, or 4, it is called a Gambit because it is a gamble on the part of the maker of the plan. The Boss is calling on those bombs because she wants to force Snake's hand to kill her or die, she is taking the gamble that not only will Snake beat her in time but he will be able to take the Legacy from her. The Boss still needs to create the pretense that she defected, calling bombs to kill Snake, and potentially herself if she can't beat him in time, maintains the illusion in Snake's eyes that she had betrayed her country. Not only was she not allowed to commit suicide but Snake couldn't know about her mission.
130	** Going back to the original question, what happens if the Boss kills Snake? Then what? Snake's dead= nobody gets the Legacy and nobody could prove America has murdered its traitor.
131	*** In that eventuality The Boss would have to rely on Ocelot and EVA.
132	** My point is this: given the risk, fighting Snake doesn't make sense.
133	** My point was that The Boss considered that a necessary risk, telling Snake, "Hey your mission is to kill me because some shadowy organization in the U.S Government wants to cover up this whole affair and get their money back which I have right here.", compromises the mission. No evidence of why she had to die could be left behind, not even her assassin could know why. EVA telling Big Boss the truth wasn't even supposed to happen, only the people in the top seats of power like the President, Secretary of Defense, and maybe a few in-the-know Military Officers were meant to know the truth.
134	*** I understand that the Boss couldn't help Snake much while she's buddying up with Volgin, trying to get the Legacy. But after she got the Legacy, after Snake killed Volgin, there's really no need for her to have a fight-to-kill battle with the man who's supposed to be alive to transport the Legacy back to the States.
135	*** Technically speaking The Boss never had to die in the first place. The United States Government was after the Legacy the entire time, they wanted The Boss to infiltrate Volgin's command and take the Legacy from him. After Volgin nuked that Russian Facility the American Government could have stayed out of the affair and claimed that no one they knew was involved, the American President specifically goes out of his way to implicate The Boss was responsible for the nuclear explosion because she defected and gave up the bomb to him. The American Government needed to find any way they could to stay involved in the affair, even if it meant sacrificing The Boss' life, because otherwise that would mean giving up the Legacy when they were so close to stealing it back from Volgin. If The Boss is spared then the only choice the American Government will have to prevent a war with Russian is to give back the Legacy they stole, which they can't allow after all that effort. The American Government intentionally sacrificed The Boss' life just so they could get a hold of 100 Billion Dollars, they gave up the life of one of their best soldiers for '''money.''' The Boss knows that if she tells Snake that in reality there is no real justification for her death then he will hesitate to kill her, or if he still does kill her he will come to resent the American Government for forcing his hand and would want revenge on them one day. The safest possible choice for The Boss was to keep things secret from Snake as long as possible, given what happens with Outer Heaven decades later Big Boss probably never should have found out.
136	** All right, but at least...she needn't bring that Patriot into that fight!! A gun doesn't work well when your mission is to keep your opponent alive. Hand-to-hand I could understand, but a MoreDakka BFG?
137	*** If it helps any Peace Walker implies through Big Boss' flashbacks of the fight that the majority of his fight with her was a melee brawl. Simply keep in mind that a full magazine from either of their guns would end the fight instantly, .45 pistol rounds from an M1911 has great stopping power, and 5.56 rounds from an M16 (The Boss' gun is a modified M16 with a cut down barrel so that it can be held in a sub-machine gun capacity, it isn't meant to be held in one hand like a handgun) have high kinetic energy transfer when they hit their target. The fact that Snake won shows that either he won the CQC brawl or he drew his pistol fast enough to gun her down, probably both. The Boss is fully confident that Snake has what it takes to defeat her, she believes that he has surpassed her.
138	** There's confidence, and there is taking unnecessary risk.
139	** I'm guessing the [=MiG=]s were to ensure that they'd both die if needs be. The Russians would inspect their corpses, be able to confirm Snake's identity, conclude that they fought to the death when the [=MiG=]s attacked in retaliation to Snake nuking Groznyj Grad. The main loss here would be an end to The Boss' memes and the Legacy. Fortunately, or, I suppose unfortunately, given what happens later, Snake won and survived.
140	** ''Metal Gear Solid V'' deals with this. If Snake failed, then XOF takes over and cleans up the mess.
141	* So about Snake's status as a black ops agent, [=MGS4=] claims that he was so important to the Government that his files weren't declassified until decades after the events of his missions had ended. Peace Walker even has Big Boss claim that the award ceremony that got him the codename Big Boss and the Distinguished Service Cross didn't even officially happen. If that is the case why were there photographers and several dignitaries there clapping? Wouldn't it make more sense that only Snake's support team, members from Top Brass of the Military, and the Executive Office of the U.S Government (President, Secretary of Defense, etc.) be there? Also who were the photos going out to? Does the public know Big Boss exists? I thought that happened later on in the 21st century?
142	** It reminds me of a scene in Film/{{Argo}} where the main character is getting an award for his part in rescuing the hostages. Because of the nature of the mission it's a secret ceremony and he has to give the award back after he gets it, but they did take a photo of it. Basically the photo would be kept in a secret file until the mission was declassified. And the only people involved were Snake's support team, members of the Top Brass, and the President. The photographers were people who were trusted to document but not to spill the beans.
143
144	* What I really, really want to know is why you can't eat the dogs that you kill. I've heard a few explanations that really didn't hold their ground against circumstances. One explanation was that these dogs have been trained harshly to become guard dogs and therefore their meat isn't very good. Why would that stop Snake? He can still eat food that he finds disgusting after the first try and will just complain of the taste. Another was that the dogs were given drugs for some reason and that caused their meat to taste horrible and/or make anyone that eats it sick. Again, why would Snake care? You can make him eat poison frogs, rotten food, etc. and he will throw up, but that won't stop him from eating them again. Another is that Para-Medic explicitly orders him to not eat the dogs. Since when is Para-Medic in charge? Since when would Snake listen to her? He didn't listen to her about not eating the parrot and he can eat things that she tells him are bad for him, so he obviously doesn't care. A final explanation is that he tells Para-Medic (supposedly, haven't played in a while to confirm this) that he is fond of huskies, referring to a possible dogsled team he has. Sure, that means he could have a fondness for dogs, but if that were the case he would show real hesitance in killing the dogs in the first place and would have raised more of an objection when accused by Para-Medic of wanting to eat them.
145	** Just because he's willing to kill dogs in self-defence doesn't mean he's willing to eat them, just like how he wouldn't eat the guards he killed despite every justification you presented for him eating the dogs applying to humans (yes, I'm aware you can eat the guards in a round about sense by eating vultures who ate them).
146	** Keep in mind that what Snake had to eat came back to haunt him during The Sorrow battle. If he had a dislike of dog meat then, he's sure to downright refuse it after what the Sorrow did to him.
147	*** Most if not, in fact, all opportunities - or, rather, non-opportunities - for dog-eating are before the encounter with The Sorrow. & none of the animals Snake kills to eat do haunt him - dead fish float in the stream whether you've eaten any fish or not, & the vultures seem only to be there because of the human meat inside them - The Sorrow either can't, or doesn't care to, summon the spirits of animals Snake has killed.
148
149	* There is one startling contradiction to the Patriotism of The Boss. She was '''quite''' sincere when sharing with Snake her vision of a kinder and gentler world without borders, where people loved and cared for each other, understanding and embracing each other's differences.But herein lies the key word: ''without borders.'' Countries are the very ''definition'' of broders that isolate people with differing dogma, belief and social indoctrination.Being loyal unto death for a militaristic state like Cold War America, which seeks to ''crush'' all different beliefs and wipe them from the memory of history goes against ''everything'' that the World of Kindness and Mutual Understanding that The Boss believed in stood for.Not to mention being loyal to a country is to be defined and constricted ''by'' borders, the very thing she hopes to dissolve for universal understanding. Why indeed, then, is she loyal to the end?
150	** I got the impression that she wasn't seeking to ''change'' the world herself, but to pass on her ideals to Snake and others. I kind of liken it to a parent raising a small child, trying to influence, without using physical force. You can kind of compare it to Snake and Raiden; The Boss wasn't arrogant enough to think she could remake the world, but she may have been trying to wake Snake up, so to speak; question why he fought and wake up to the realization she did; war is pointless. If only the pain of her death could make Snake know that and lead towards a better future, she'd do it.
151	*** Still begs the question: If loyalty to a warmongering country like Cold-War America is ''against'' her ideals to make the world a kinder and gentler place, WHY stay loyal to it?
152	*** Because despite everything she's loyal to [[MyCountryRightOrWrong her country, right or wrong]], and you can't exactly change anything from the outside. Plus, people aren't strictly logical, we can have contradictions between beliefs (for example, current Vice President Joe Biden is ideological against Abortion, but another of his principles is only trying to legislate things he can argue with logic and facts instead of beliefs, so despite his ideals being against it his principles keep him in support of it). Likewise the Boss knows her country is against her ideals, but she's dedicated herself to it anyway.
153
154	* So, at the end is there any reason why [=SigInt=] didn't get to wear a suit? He's going to a medal awarding ceremony at the White House; you'd think he'd get slightly more dressed-up than his overalls.
155	** He probably doesn't own a suit.
156	*** Then clearly Major Zero isn't paying him enough.
157	*** Well he's [[ValuesDissonance a black man in the mid 60s after all]]…
158	*** So Zero is tolerant enough to hire a black man, but not tolerant enough to pay him a proper wage?
159	*** Zero wouldn't be the person dictating anyone's salary. Or doing the hiring.
160	*** [=SigInt=] specifically said that he was hired because Major Zero wanted him. If he's willing to use his influence to effect hiring policy, he should be able to effect accounting as well.
161	*** Not necessarily. He might well have had to concede to giving Sigint a lower salary to get him hired. Just because you can request someone specific doesn't mean you can dictate everything about their position.
162
163	* Why didn't Volgin say his chant before [[spoiler: he got killed]]?
164	** Kuwabara, Kuwabara? he got [[spoiler: killed becouse he didn't say it]]
165	*** Yes, but why DIDN'T he say it?
166	*** I always figured he was just extremely pissed off and couldn't be bothered.
167	*** There's a number of theories, but they tend to boil down to Volgin being so concerned with killing Snake that he was willing to be struck, in fact mocking the lightning and earning a KarmicDeath. Alternatively that lightning was the Sorrow's doing and Volgin realised this, and probably worked out that no Japanese chant is gonna stop a pissed off ghost-medium from killing him.
168
169	* How is Volgin, with all his wealth and turf and badassery, only a colonel?
170	** Because he's an arsehole. In all seriousness, he would probably prefer to be just a colonel so that he could focus on his own plans more. I am not well-versed in the military, however, so I might be missing something.
171	** That doesn't make sense. Volgin is a GeniusBruiser as much as he is a cunt. Generals by law and custom have more perks than colonels. Surely he knows this.
172	** Probably two reasons: one, because he is such a cunt that no one higher up really wants to give him any more authority than he already has, which is quite a decent amount, as colonels are typically the highest ranking officers to have direct interaction with those under their command, at least to some degree. And two, because being promoted to general would place him in a position that would remove him from the sort of command which he was unable to carry out his plans as he would likely have been reassigned, though to be fair, his compliance with such a reassignment is dubious at best.
173	** For that matter, why does Volgin need to develop Shagohod anyway? He has one hundred billion dollars and can shoot lightning from his hands. He should just say, "Khrushchev, resign or die."
174	** Because Volgin needs some kind of force to be able to stage a coup. Sure, Volgin alone could try to tell Khrushchev "Resign or die" and Khrushchev will reply "Good luck fighting my millions of loyal soldiers, tanks and other military vehicles, and while you can punch lightning, your ten feet of electricity and punch-bullets will be hard pressed to stop the Russian Air Force from bombing you from low orbit and levelling everything in a ten square mile radius." Having the Shagohod gives Volgin the power to nuke Khrushchev from ANY airport runway OR long highway, something that even the entire Russian Military will have trouble covering. Without the Shagohod, Volgin doesn't have much of a chance to win all by himself.
175	** He has a hundred billion dollars. That's more than enough to buy the military many times over. In fact, considering the quality of their food, housing and general lives, I'm sure that he could use that money to buy all the loyalty in the world. Plus, he has lightning powers. Does Khrushchev have lightning powers? No, no he doesn't. Who are you going to follow, the guy in a suit giving you the universe's worst food, or the guy promising you steak dinners while firing lightning from his hands?
176	** Because Volgin is a horrible person who probably wouldn't think of that- even if he did, he is probably well known for his power and cruelty, so it's unlikely he could get a following that way. Even if he could, would he make good on his promise? Likely not, would earn him his own coup down the line. Hence, he takes a more explosive route.
177
178	* Every time Big Boss shoulders a rifle post EyeScream, he seems to aim down the sights with his right eye. Y'know, the one that was ''shot out and damaged irreparably.'' Some guns are clearly not meant to be sighted down with the left eye if you're a rightie and vice versa. I get that he could be sighting pistols and the Skorpion down with his left eye, the shotgun in a lesser capacity, but he'd have to shoot southpaw in order to properly aim a full-sized rifle.
179	** Actually, in the one cutscene instance of him aiming something (the sniper rifle to take out the bridge), he does seem to be aiming with his left eye. As for the rest of it? Not having to rework every character model for half the game, probably.
180	** Well it really wouldn't make much of a difference. I'm right handed, so I shoot guns right handed. But my left eye is better, so I aim with that. So Big Boss would just have to get used to aiming with a different eye. He wouldn't have to completely switch hands.
181
182	* The story with ADAM and EVA was that they were two NSA codebreakers who defected. The EVA we see wasn't the real EVA (making it strange that she continues to use that codename 50 years later, but that's besides the point) but Ocelot says that he was ADAM. However, if I recall correctly they defected sometime in the late 50s, early 60's. Ocelot is 20 during Operation Snake Eater. Was he really working for the NSA when he was the same age as a high school student?
183	** The story was a lie, obviously.
184	*** This is Ocelot we're talking about, after all.
185	* I came into the series after number 4 was released, and was spoiled for a few things (like the existence of Raiden). So Naked Snake being Big Boss was originally supposed to be a twist, right? Who did everybody think he was for the whole game? Did they think Solid was time travelling or something?
186	** That was never much of a twist, most people figured that out after the first trailers. But they never did state it outright, so it could've passed some people by.
187	** I think [=MGS3=] was also designed to provide a potential way in to the series for newcomers, unlike [=MGS2=] where understanding the plot is heavily reliant on having played [=MGS1=]. So it's possible to start with Naked Snake as the hero and watch him become Big Boss & see the consequences of that. There's also no logical way, in-story, to indicate that this guy who is not yet called Big Boss will be in the future. It's like how in The Phantom Menace, the viewers know Anakin is going to become Darth Vader, but he doesn't look like Darth Vader or answer to that name until... well, the point where he does.
188	** Well, there ''is'' the reasonably subtle hint that he is the apprentice of the most renowned and elite soldier in the world, known only as "The Boss", and that his mission evolves into being tasked to take her down and surpass her.
189
190	* So the whole point of Operation Snake Eater is to kill The Boss and prove America's innocence, but Volgin was the one who fired the nuke, and like 6 people actually saw him do it, so couldn't America's innocence have been proved by killing Volgin?
191	** Volgin fired a nuke that an American defector gave to him; so it's sort of like we gave him the means to commit the atrocities (planned to an extent, nobody thought Volgin was nutty enough to fire it) and The Boss's death would've been enough for Khruschev to ease his men down during the time of political unrest after the nuclear bomb. Volgin was something extra Khruschev wanted dead in order to remove another threat to his power.
192	** Volgin also actually flat out suggests that he could say it was The Boss who pulled the trigger to cover his own ass, and so long as he can trust the rest of the soldiers and crew in that helicopter formation which was airlifting the Shagohod (and he can because a) they fear him and b) the pilots and certain others will be too busy focusing on flying to try to figure out which particular helicopter was actually carrying the Davy Crockett, and it would be stupidly hard to do so even if somehow they were all staring at the design bureau when it blew up) to back him up, Kruschev's anger would be in part trained on The Boss as a result.
193
194	* When Naked Snake has to escape after being captured and tortured, why can't he grab the guns themselves from the guards? All my stuff is taken, I have no camo, guards can see me easily, my only weapon is a revolver with no ammo and a fork, and yet I can't take the AK/whatever rifle the guards are using.
195	** Gameplay-wise, it's using UnusableEnemyEquipment to set up a NoGearLevel (even with a few rounds for the revolver and the fork, most players feel quite uncomfortable and challenged without their main weapons and especially CQC). Story-wise? Snake doesn't trust the reliability of field weapons which may have been poorly maintained, instead preferring fresh weapons from armories. They had to use this explanation in this game because unlike some of the others, nanomachines and DNA reading tech hasn't been developed yet.
196	** If its any consolation as well, you can get a [[MoreDakka M63]] after you break out, unless you took a detour a few hours ago to Syvatogornyj East and picked it up there. There should be one in an small armoury just north of the manhole entrance to the sewers in Groznyj Grad.
197
198	* Why does Lyndon Johnson seem to have a completely different voice actor in each of his scenes. The intro to Operation Snake Eater has him speak with a reasonable soundalike voice, complete with his Texan drawl, but when Snake meets him in the ending he...doesn't sound anything like that.
199	** The voice actor wasn't different between the scenes. He was voiced by Richard [=McGonagle=] both times. WordOfGod states that the reason for it was that Johnson wasn't supposed to be the one to give Snake the medal or the title, but instead it was to be the CIA director. Then the development team decided Johnson should do it. If you want a non-technical answer, people act differently depending on preparation. You get a phone call, you have to respond to it in time, your natural speaking voice and accent are there. But if you have a chance to write a speech beforehand, like for the award ceremony, you already have what you want to say in mind and it reduces accents quite a bit. I know this from experience due to my southern drawl disappearing when I give speeches.
200
201	* What exactly made The Fury so special as to be in the Cobra Unit? Rocket fuel flamethrower, jetpack that also runs on rocket fuel, space suit, insanity. He wouldn't have had any of these things (except for insanity, but he probably wasn't as crazy before and he is now) until AFTER he went into space, which was after [=WW2=]. And if you take away his equipment, he'd just be a regular soldier. He may be tougher than the standard soldier, and he probably specialized in regular flamethrowers back then. We could argue that maybe before the space gimmick, he was a BadassNormal like The Boss, maybe even almost as good at the whole all around thing, but then that'd play more of a role in his character. So what would have set him apart from the average flamethrower wielding soldier of [=WW2=]?
202	** Actually, there is a reason. In the Soviet Order of Battle, flame throwers were actually considered anti-tank weapons. Infact, the use of fire based weapons as anti tank weapons goes back pretty far in the Soviet Military. Molotovs were initially used as anti tank weapons by the Finns against the Soviets. The Soviets even had a direct mortar that fired napalm filled glass balls called ampulomets. The idea behind using flame weapons on tanks was that tank of the time where not that well sealed. By throwing a burning liquid on the tank, the liquid would seep into the tank, suffocating the crew, set fuel on fire, cause shells to explode, ext. Basically, the Fury was the Cobra's anti-tank specialist. Now granted, I doubt Kojima knew this when he wrote the story. But it does make sense in context.
203	** Why would you doubt that? The game had whole teams of people doing research into exactly this kind of thing.
204	** The equipment isn't what made him (or any of them) special, or else they would just give jetpacks and rocket fuel flamethrowers to everyone, like The Boss it's likely he doesn't have anything "special" beyond just being really really good, though considering the giant face shaped fireball it's possible he had some form of pyrokinesis.
205
206	* So The Fury's flamethrower runs on rocket fuel. Would that confer any advantage over burning napalm? If so, why don't regular flamethrowers burn rocket fuel? Or was The Fury's space madness such that he was willing to sacrifice efficiency for thematic appropriateness?
207	** I'd put this down to RuleOfCool. The Dev team put a lot of thought into keeping weapons etc. historically accurate. Maybe rocket fuel isn't as effective as napalm, but as well as fitting the theme it leads to a way cooler death scene from the Fury (in this case, BECAUSE of the thematic significance). Considering the other members of the COBRA Unit, as others have stated, reality may not have been at the top of the developer's lists.
208
209	* Was the surgeon that performed c-section on The Boss drunk or something? Exactly how did he start his incision at her chest then move in a winding path down to her abdomen?
210	** There was no surgeon. The Boss did it herself. During the Invasion of Normandy.
211	** Then I apply my earlier questions to The Boss.
212	** It's presumably a lot harder to do the procedure when you're doing it on yourself, without anesthetic, in the middle of a battlefield, possibly without medical training. Some errors are probably forgivable.
213
214	* Why is the Boss treated as some kind of moral paragon? For all her speechifying, her logic was rambling and contradictory, and her whole reason for being "to make the world one again" didn't make sense in the first place, as the world was NEVER one in the first place. Unless she's referring to the time when everyone banded together against Nazi Germany, which was a period that lasted barely five years. And this "unity" was a farce, as the entire time, the US, UK, and Soviet Union were growling at each other, each knowing that once the war was done, they'd be enemies. She extolls the virtues of being a mindless extension of your native land, while at the same time bemoaning that same status. Yet, she never once deviates or questions anything she's told, which ultimately leads to her death. I don't find her tragic, I find her pitiable, a brainwashed super-soldier who blindly walked to her own death. Which would have been okay, if I hadn't had to spend half the game listen to her preaching about it, and then listen to everyone in-game go on and on about how wonderful she was.
215	** Pretty sure that's the point...she was nothing but an idealist that was betrayed over and over again by her country, but she loved the ideal of her country, the ideal of a perfect world. Everyone misinterpreted her will because it wasn't some grand plan to begin with, it was just the sad speech of a soon to be dead woman. Thus, she isn't treated as a paragon but some kind of revolutionary thinker by Big Boss and others when she never really was one.
216	** Remember that the Boss was answering Snake's question of "why did you defect?" [[spoiler:As it turns out, she didn't, so how much of that speech reflected her genuine beliefs and how much was her trying to convince Snake that she believed in Volgin's ideals so that he'd go ahead and kill her is up in the air.]]
217
218	* How did the Boss do to not only be part of the army, but to lead an unit in [=WW2=], when she was a woman ? And more importantly, how did she do to participate in D-Day while pregnant ?
219	** ''Because she's that good.''
220
221	* Sokolov says that the Shagohod uses rockets based on the ones that propelled the Vostok spacecraft and Yuri Gagarin into space. However, these so-called rockets have what is clearly the compressor intake of a turbojet engine at the front. So are they rockets or turbojets?
222	** At the risk of sounding like an idiot, maybe both? Or it’s like how apparently REX’s warhead not having propellant makes it invisible to radar, somebody messed up in spite of the research, and so a stupid statement made its way into the story.
223	* What confuses me during the torture/imprisonment part is why the Russian soldiers didn’t take Snake’s radio away. Yes, the radio is important in the gameplay in helping you get out of the cell, but I’m speaking from merely a story standpoint. They stripped him of everything from his weapons to his camouflage to even his food, so surely they would’ve taken his radio away. In addition, Snake is a prisoner of war and among their top priorities was not letting him escape, so it’s pretty stupid on the Soviets’ part to not take away any method of communication between Snake and his teammates.
224	** It's possible that, much like his son in [=MGS1=], Naked Snake was trained to swallow certain essential items and regurgitate them in dire need. They would be protected from stomach enzymes by special coverings. In this case, the item was a backup radio. He (and the team) probably recognised that there was a possibility of his being captured given Groznyj Grad's expanded security relative to every other location in the enemy territory, and his special forces/CIA background would mandate having a little trump card like this in such a tight spot. A little bit like how Bryan Mills has a [[spoiler: backup micro-cellphone stored in his shoe]] in Film/Taken2. This is a good justification, considering that unlike the Codec in the modern era, the radio is macroscopic and obviously not hidden within the inner ear. Presume that this also happens whenever Naked Snake is captured in subsequent games.
225	* So, we find out that The Sorrow's corpse is right down the valley from Volgin's compound, why was it never moved? Literally the world's most powerful psychic/medium's corpse, and it's left to rot, judging by how much this series' world loves genetic engineering, surely that would be a valuable thing to get a hold of.
226	** A) Genetic engineering wasn't a big thing back when the Sorrow died. B) It's likely the only person who knew where his remains were was the Boss, and by the time genetic engineering BECAME a thing, she wasn't in a position to tell anyone due to a case of The Deads.
227	* Is it ever explained exactly how Volgin controls electricity? All the other bosses have plausible (for the MGS universe) explanations, The Pain uses pheromones and specially bred hornets, The Fear uses special optic camo and his weirdness is surgical, The End is just a reaaaally good sniper, with parasites, The Fury had an armored suit and rocket fuel flamethrower, The Sorrow was psychic powers, but Volgin, he can shoot lightning, that he isn't immune to, hence his scars.
228	** The wiki's page for him states: "Volgin's body possessed a physical anomaly that allowed him to generate and manipulate 10 million volts of electricity at will, and he specialized in electric shock attacks. To protect himself from being injured by this exceedingly high voltage, having caused the numerous scars to his face, Volgin wore a rubber suit during combat". So, you just have to accept that in this universe, he was born as a kind of mutant conduit for the electricity, said electricity maimed his face when he was younger and before he found a means to control it more effectively, and the rubber suit did that in that it helped protect him to a degree. There have been more outlandish characters besides him in the series.
229	* It just hit me, after the game being nearly 20 years old. So Sokolov was originally smuggled out over the Berlin Wall, but the West was forced to return him due to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Basically, the USSR was willing to escalate to near-nuclear war to retrieve a scientist who would create a nigh-unbeatable trump card weapon for them in the Shagohod. Now let's say if Snake had actually been successful in the Virtuous Mission and exfiltrated with Sokolov via the Fulton balloon (given that he was later forced to deploy it from the side of that river, I don't think it would have been unreasonable to try it right from the Rassvet area, as opposed to wherever they were headed as ordered by Major Zero, probably Dremuchij South). Well, what would stop the USSR from simply forcing another nuclear Mexican Standoff to demand Sokolov's return yet again? I understand, of course, that Volgin and the Brezhnev faction were the ones who pushed Kruschev to originally retrieve Sokolov for their own trump card against both Kruschev and the West. And Kruschev's political/military power was weakened so that perhaps he couldn't just send a Spetsnaz team in to assassinate Volgin and his underlings. Or worse, risk using civil war as a means to try and kill them. But weren't there other avenues to explore to take Volgin out? I know the story as it played out is the option they went with, but what if Snake had never been intercepted by The Boss on the bridge?

Context Headscratchers / MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater