Characters / Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Main Character Index | Metal Gear (Solid Snake | Big Boss / Naked Snake) | Metal Gear 2 | Metal Gear Solid (FOXHOUND) | Sons of Liberty (Raiden) | Snake Eater | Guns of the Patriots | Portable Ops | Peace Walker | Revengeance (Senator Armstrong) | Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain | Acid | Acid 2 | Ghost Babel | Snake's Revenge | Survive

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This page lists characters who first appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Beware of unmarked spoilers for the game's prologue, the Tanker Chapter.

For other characters in the franchise, see the Metal Gear character index at Characters.Metal Gear.

Characters that debuted in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty:

Raiden's Team

Raiden

See Metal Gear — Raiden

Rosemary

"See me for what I am, okay?"

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (JP), Lara Cody (EN), Kari Wahlgren (EN, MGS2 Digital Graphic Novel only)

"Raiden, this is real. And that's why you won't wake up."

Raiden's girlfriend and a military data analyst who was enlisted by the Colonel as a last-minute addition. Her role is to pacify Raiden and keep him focused on coming home. Turns out she is a government plant whose real job is to 'analyze' Raiden. But sure enough, things got out of hand, and her feelings for Raiden became legit.

Reappears in Metal Gear Solid 4 as Snake's psychiatric support. She's married to Colonel Campbell, to the disgust of everybody. Turns out the marriage was a sham, as it was just a way to protect her and her son from the Patriots until Raiden finished his mission.

In Metal Gear Rising, she's living in New Zealand with her son while Raiden is working as a PMC.

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• Ambiguous Situation: It's uncertain for how much of the game "Rose" was actually GW. It could be from any point in the game, but its almost certain that towards the end of the game she is replaced with a GW copy of her. Even then, it's unclear whether or not Rose was even in the mission to begin with.
  • Was their first meeting set up or did they meet by accident? It seems too convinient to be sheer coincidence, but the way Rose describes it, she doesn't sound like the persona she displays in the game, and the meeting itself wasn't really romantic.
• Becoming the Mask: Throughout MGS2
• Bizarre Taste in Food: According to Campbell, everyone the world over agrees that America's military rations are hands down the worst. Everyone, that is, except for Rose, who admits to liking them. It may in part be why she's such a Lethal Chef.
• "Cavemen vs. Astronauts" Debate: Jack first met Rose in Manhattan. She was discussing King Kong with some tourists and was about to point them to the wrong skyscraper. Raiden took it upon himself to correct her, and the pair got into a heated debate over whether King Kong featured the Chrysler Building or the Empire State until the tourists left in disgust. This non-event later turns out to have been a trap set by the Patriots. By pretending to share his taste in pop culture, Rose insinuated herself in Raiden's life without his knowing.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She expresses a bit of jealousy when Raiden is escorting Emma.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Subverted. She only faked a miscarriage to protect her and Raiden's son from the Patriots.
• Decoy Damsel: The real Rosemary is working offsite in Manhattan and is a spy for the Patriots. She survives the Arsenal crash and rendezvous with Raiden in the epilogue, with both of them promising to drop their masks.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: In her last codec call to Raiden in MGS2 (before a clearly hostile version of her that is likely an AI resurfaces), as she is getting cut off and the picture turns to static, her voice is slowed down and gets much deeper:
  Rose: Jack! I'm… I'm carrying… I'm… Pregnant… Jack… Your… Baby.
• The Ghost: She and Little John went to live to New Zealand while Raiden works as a PMC. She is mentioned a lot in the game, but never appears.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She complains about how well Raiden seems to be getting along with Emma during the Escort Mission.
• Happily Married: To Raiden.
• The Heart: She spends much time fretting over Snake/Raiden's health like Mei Ling, and also has a propensity to tell anecdotes. A few reviewers have speculated that Rose is a deliberate subversion of the trope since, unlike Mei Ling, her Codec chatter is both intrusive and useless. Her down-to-earth personality is a smoke screen for pushing the Colonel's agenda, as he more or less admits in the Big Shell's dock. And, unlike Mei Ling, most gamers don't find Rose's diatribes to be cute or refreshing in the slightest. In MGS4, she rejoins the team and fills Para-Medic's old role of quoting from the latest medical books. Also, like Para-Medic, she will chide Snake for unnecessarily killing animals (claiming it's a slippery slope to mental illness).
• Honey Trap: Raiden first met Rose during a chance encounter in front of the Empire State Building. Rose, of course, knew that Jack would be there and had been briefed on his psychological profile by the Patriots, which enabled her to charm him.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Subverted. At the end of MSG4, after waking up in a hospital, Raiden assumes she's here to break him further. She actually shows up to reveal that Roy faked their marriage in a plan to dupe the Patriots which involved her, in turn, pretending that she had a miscarriage, hence their son Little John.
• Lethal Chef: To the point where Raiden admits to Snake that he actually prefers military rations over Rose's home cooking, and has to turn off his cybernetic taste sensors just to get through the meal. Furthermore, when Colonel Campbell finally gets a break from Rose's food, he goes nuts over the taste of army rations, proclaiming it the best food ever. Snake connects the dots and actually gives him his sympathies.
• May–December Romance: Subverted. She only married Colonel Campbell in MSG4 so the Patriots would leave her and her son alone. Once the mission is complete, she reveals that it was a sham and happily reunites with Raiden.
• Meaningful Name: Jack's nickname for her, "Rose", reflects both her personality and her story function; she's beautiful, but every time Raiden reaches out to her, she pricks him with thorns. It's also a reference to the movie Titanic, where "Jack" and "Rose" become tragic lovers at sea.
• Meet Cute: Jack and Rose's connection with the Empire State Building borrows heavily from Hollywood romances like Sleepless in Seattle. It is also a fabrication. It was no accident that Rose met Jack that day, nor was her subsequent reappearance as one of Jack's co-workers at the military base.
• The Mole: In MGS2.
• Ms. Exposition: Rose inherits Naomi's old role of providing dossiers on everyone currently inside the Big Shell. Partly a subversion, since Rose's material is full of holes and lacking crucial information, requiring Snake to fill in the gaps.
• Prophet Eyes: Once the jig is up, the computerized facsimile of Rose flits between normal irises and blank ones. The effect is subtle enough that you won't notice it right away.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In MGS4, she expresses pity for the B&B Corps upon hearing their heartbreaking backstories, claiming that Liquid is truly a heartless monster for putting them on the frontlines because of their psychological trauma, noting that they'll just keep getting worse until they're completely useless. Snake, who is not so sympathetic, agrees on all points, but he also points out that, since they're crazy and thus not fighting at their full effectiveness, he has the advantage.
• The Vamp: Rosemary's real purpose during the simulation is to entice Jack with false promises of a happy life waiting for him in the city. This incentivices him to complete it without question.
• Write Who You Know:invoked Rose is allegedly based on Kojima's wife. In interviews for the series' 25th anniversary, he remarked on the irony of Rose being the most hated woman in the series, as he's often criticized for over-sexualizing his female characters and giving them unreal personalities.

Emma Emmerich

"I can't say I like heights... though water's higher on my phobia list."

Voiced By: Maria Yamamoto (JP), Jennifer Hale (EN)

"Science doesn't exist to benefit the world. Science is for the individual. For me, it is to realize my dreams."

Hal's younger step-sister and the lead programmer for Arsenal Gear. Why she's working at the plant is anybody's guess, considering she's terrified of water. When they were young, Hal and Emma had a very close relationship, which was ruined when Hal was seduced by Emma's mother. Hal's father found out and tried to drown himself, but accidentally pulled Emma in too, and Hal couldn't hear Emma screaming because he was with Emma's mother.

As a young woman working on developing the AI for Arsenal Gear, Emma is taken hostage by The Sons of Liberty. Hal asks Raiden to rescue her.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Her brother nicknames her "E.E." thanks to her Alliterative Name.
• Agent Mulder: Emma's explanation of what the Patriots have or could have done to information ("You know how the alphabet has twenty-six letters? Well, it could have been thirty. What if the other letters were deleted by a program?") and her "justifications" ("Have you ever seen a gene? Have you counted them yourself?") make her sound like this to the point that she can come off sounding like a parody.
  • It’s worth noting that the whole censored alphabet thing makes much more sense in Japanese as they are not only missing letters, like La Li Lu Le Lo, but sounds which actually don't exist in the language (hence the absence of the corresponding characters) or, in a stunning result for the linguistic determinist camp, in the minds of the language's users. Japanese doesn't distinguish between the L-sound and the R-sound, a trait which complicates life for Japanese speakers learning Western languages; moreover, various studies have produced results suggesting that adult Japanese monoglots tend to hear the L-sound as a mispronounced R rather than as a distinct consonant of its own.
    Contrariwise, almost any sound that isn't represented by a single letter in the English alphabet can be unambiguously represented with a di- or trigraph, e.g. "th" (which in Old English orthography actually did have its own letter) or the "our" in "courier". While this produces its own problems, such as the wide ambiguity of 'ough', what counts in this context is that there are only a very few sounds, such as the click consonants used in several African languages, which are totally unrepresentable in English speech and orthography. It would therefore have been, if not impossible, then at least highly infeasible to replace the "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" censoring of the Patriots' name with some equivalent combination of syllables that can't be rendered or correctly understood by English speakers.
  • Also probably worth mentioning that she brings these up as hypothetical examples of the kinds of things Arsenal Gear could do, not necessarily as actual examples.
• Alliterative Name: Emma Emmerich. For this reason, Otacon nicknames her "E.E.".
• Better Living Through Evil: Emma might just be the only willing participant in the S3 experiment. She only got into this line of work so she could accumulate the resources needed to crush Otacon.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Emma pees herself when Raiden first finds her. Slighty averted, due to Emma already wearing black shorts.
• The Cutie: She sure is one cute girl, despite her Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade towards her brother. That and the fact that she was never able to break the facade in time makes her death all the more tragic.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Died in Otacon's arms.
• Damsel in Distress: A very classic example of this trope.
• Escort Mission: You have to take her from the Shell 2 core to the Shell 1 core. She can't walk very well due to her being injected with something to keep her from running away, so Raiden has to carry her.
• Evil Counterpart: The script plays her up as a cynical and morally-lacking version of Otacon. Calling Snake with Emma in your party leads to a meeting of the minds: grassroots anti-nuke hacktivist vs. highly-paid government spook.
• Insufferable Genius: She is not above mocking her rescuer's shortcomings and lack of computer savvy. Additionally, she never once expressed remorse for her role in the S3 project. When confronted about it, she remarks that most people are too dumb to notice a pattern when it's staring them in the face.
  • Which if you haven't been paying much attention to the Plant's events, makes this an eerie piece of foreshadowing that will come back and haunt you later on.
• Kill the Cutie: Especially jarring in that it happens almost immediately after the Escort Mission.
• Lovable Coward: OK, Emma's not really cowardly, but she has so many fears (water, bugs, heights) that she comes across as this anyway.
• Not Blood Siblings: Towards Otacon, but not reciprocated. After she's been shot, she reveals how she's always wished she could be "closer" to Hal and just wanted Hal to look at her "as a woman."
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Interestingly, her glasses are just for show; specifically, an homage to her step-brother.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In Codec conversations, Emma is scornful of Philanthropy's goals and thinks Otacon is little more than a small-time anarchist.
• The Stool Pigeon: Lacerated Larry type: It's strongly implied that she told the Sons of Liberty how to activate Arsenal Gear due to being under the influence of truth serum. This is another parallel to the Shadow Moses mission. (Dr. Hunter was imprisoned once Campbell found out she was a mole, whereupon he deliberated on giving her sodium pentothal.)
• Super Drowning Skills: Played with. She used to love water and, according to Otacon, "swam like a fish." Unfortunately, after her stepdad drowned himself and nearly took her with him, she is completely terrified of water to the point where she clings to Raiden and lets him do all the swimming.
• Tsundere: She spends much time on the low end of the thermometer. However, she lights up when discussing her childhood with Hal, and exhibits girly flirtation with Raiden.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Her step-father's drowning death left her with a crippling fear of water at an early age. Naturally, by the time you reach her, the hallways leading in and out of the area she's kept are completely flooded.
  • A more minor example: she's also terrified of bugs. So after the long underwater escort, seeing the path to the elevator filled with sea lice freaks her out until Raiden can clear them away (or knock her out and just drag her to the elevator).

Peter Stillman

"Don't let the fear get to you. When you give into the fear, the darkness comes."

Voiced By: Shōzō Iizuka (JP), Greg Eagles (EN)

"His crimes are also mine — one of omission, and arrogance. No one should teach the skills I taught him without a clear conscience."

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

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• Badass Boast: His humble, no-frills exterior conceals some degree of manly pride, especially when Snake barks at him to stay behind in the kitchen and keep out of everyone's way. When Stillman finally reveals that he faked his career-ending injury, he lets off some steam about his supposed old age: "I can keep my footing on catwalks and hike across deserts!"
• Bat Deduction: He deduces that Pliskin is not a Navy SEAL just because he quotes the mottos of both the Marines and the British SAS, which is even more illogical since Stillman himself recognises both and he isn't a Navy SEAL either. He's right, but the fact that Pliskin knows and quotes two different special forces groups is hardly grounds for that. He also decides that even though Pliskin is an impostor, he can be trusted, based on little more than the vibe he gets from him.
• Black Dude Dies First: He's the first to go in the Plant Chapter (if you don't count SEAL Team 10), just as Scott Dolph was in the Tanker chapter.
• Cool Teacher: Pete coaches Raiden through the hairy task of disarming the bombs. He's full of great quotes:
  "Put simply, bomb disposal is a one-on-one with fear itself. Don't try to run away from it. Instead, acknowledge the fear, and take it straight on."
  "Discretion is the key when taking on a bomb. A degree of caution that taxes your sense of meticulousness. Don't confuse this with cowardice, as it is the extreme opposite."
• Face Death with Dignity: After falling into Fatman's proximity trigger bomb trap, he calmly calls Snake and Raiden on Codec to encourage Raiden and warn Snake to get away from Strut H, accepting that he could not escape in time.
• Fallen Hero: Not to the extent that he turned evil, but after he failed to disarm a bomb at a church, he mainly attempted to deflect his evident panic attack by faking his leg being lost, although it did him more harm than good before he atoned for his sins at the Big Shell.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. He's staked a lot on his reputation as a bomb disposal expert and fakes being disabled to avoid having to confront an angry public and face his own feelings of guilt and shame over failing to defuse a bomb that ended up killing several people. His death comes about mostly because he refuses to accept that Fatman could ever improve on the techniques that he taught him or truly surpass him in the art of bombmaking.
• Handshake Refusal: When "Pliskin" gushes over meeting a fellow legend, Stillman pointedly ignores him and demands to know his credentials. This is not merely Stillman's no-nonsense attitude but also a clue that he doesn't feel worthy of such praise.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: During the mission to disarm the bombs, Stillman grows uneasy at their seemingly amateurish placement, claiming that their positions are all wrong if Fatman really intended to destroy the Big Shell. Indeed, many of the bombs are placed in comical places, such as in the ladies' room, or on a soldier's back.
  Raiden: Even Fatman can make mistakes, right?
  Stillman: No.
• Like a Son to Me: During his time as an instructor in Maryland, Stillman met his best student, Fatman. Never having had a son, Stillman thought he saw one in Fatman and taught him everything he knew about bombs (including their construction and demolition). What he didn't tell him, however, was how to properly utilize that knowledge. This would prove to be a deadly mistake, tying into the game's "MEMES" message of being mindful about what is to left behind for the future generation of people.
• Macgyvering: He jury-rigs a sensor which can detect Fatman's odorless bombs; two of them, in fact… while in a food pantry.
• Married to the Job: In 2004, Stillman was called to defuse a terrorist bomb in a famous church. During the disposal, Stillman panicked and fled, leaving the bomb to explode. The church was obliterated along with a nearby playground. Due to not having a family or children, his reputation was the only thing he had and couldn't afford to lose that, so he faked losing a leg in the explosion.
• My Greatest Failure: He panicked when attempting to disarm a bomb at a church, which blew up and left several victims, including children. He also had to hide the fact that he lost his cool…
  • My Greatest Second Chance: His participating in the Big Shell, and ultimately stopping the second bomb's detonation after his attempts at disarming the first one fail.
• Obi-Wan Moment: Realizing that he cannot escape Fatman's bomb in time, he warns Raiden and Pliskin of the proximity trigger, which have a 7 foot radius, and encourages Raiden to dismantle its counterpart in Shell 1. The bomb then detonates, killing Stillman and destroying a large section of Shell 2.
• Obfuscating Disability: Peter faked his disability to avoid facing the families of the victims of a bomb he was unable to defuse.
• One Last Job: Now working as a consultant for the NYPD, Stillman is coaxed out of retirement to deal with a cluster of C4 bombs planted on the Big Shell by his former student Fatman. Near the end of the game, Ocelot admits the Patriots "arranged" for Stillman's presence in the plant to fulfill Fatman's conditions for working with them.
• Redemption Equals Death: He ends up redeeming himself for his cowardice by willingly remaining near the bomb at Shell H after getting snared in its proximity sensor.
• Shout-Out: Stillman's name is a reference to one of the assumed names of the lead character in the New York Trilogy novel City of Glass. Similarly, according to character designer Yoji Shinkawa, Stillman was originally intended to be an alternate version of Ed from Policenauts.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Stillman's corpse is later discovered by Raiden in the flooded basement of the Shell 2 Core.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Knowing that he can never hope to dismantle Shell 2's bomb through vocal commands, he finally exposes himself as a fraud by walking upright.
• The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): "Demolition is a kind of ideology; it makes no exceptions for time or place." While this statement may seem impressively badass at first glance, it becomes less so after one gives more than one second's thought as to what it actually means. The assumption is that Fatman's understanding of demolition is based on Stillman's theories. Stillman also concludes that you need a total of twelve bombs to take the Big Shell out. Actually, you only need two, placed on opposite ends of the plant, setting off a chain reaction that would cause the whole structure to tumble. Snake and Raiden were operating on false data from the beginning. Fatman's placement of the baby C4s seem to mockingly hint at this.

Sons of Liberty

In General

A combination of two groups: The remnants of Sergei Gurlukovich's mercenary group (led by Olga), and the rogue anti-terrorist group Dead Cell, made up of Fortune, Vamp, and Fatman (and led by Solidus Snake). The combined group took over the Big Shell decontamination plant, held everyone inside hostage (including the United States president), and was believed to have also demanded a ransom. In reality, the group never actually demanded a ransom in the first place, and in fact planned to take control of the Arsenal Gear built under the Big Shell and use its nuclear payload to create an electromagnetic surge over Manhattan, destroying all its electronics and cutting it off from the Patriots.

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• Badass Normal: The Gurlukovich faction.
• Divided States of America: Their goal is to sever the Manhattan island from the Patriots' control by... simply turning off the electricity. Arsenal Gear will then move in and defend the city with RAYs and Olga's troops. Solidus has a new national flag ready for it.
  • It's unclear, though, if Solidus was going to hold onto Manhattan for very long, as he admits to Fortune that Arsenal can't withstand a full-on assault. He knew the Patriots were based somewhere in the city, and presumably intended to kill them all after gleaning their address from Arsenal's CPU.
• Elite Mooks: The Arsenal Tengus; gameplay-wise they are stronger, more agile, and have better equipment then their more mundane comrades, and can be a serious threat. The big difference, however, is that they are equipped with swords that gives them the unique ability to block bullets, making them all the more deadly.
• Expy: In-universe, Dead Cell was intended to be an expy of FOXHOUND from the previous game. However, overall, their actions and motivations are more similar to Black Chamber.
• Faceless Mooks: All of the soldiers of the Sons of Liberty, barring the top leaders, wear balaclavas. Justified, as those were the Gurlukovich Mercenaries, who often wore balaclavas to mask their identities and thus make it more difficult to trace.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The Arsenal Tengus wear similar masks to the one Raiden removed in the opening prologue. As a practical matter, the masks allow them to breathe more easily in the frigid confines of Arsenal Gear; The insulation from cold grants them better mobility and an advantage over intruders.
• McNinja: Shortly before Arsenal goes online, Solidus orders Olga's men to to trade in their uniforms for Tengu Armor before they can board. Unlike the mercenaries, the Tengu guards are wearing body armor and wield high-frequency katanas or P90s. Olga nicks one of their swords and passes it off to Raiden, allowing him to fight fire with fire.
• Meet the New Boss: With the Genome Soliders put permanently on ice, Olga's unit is the closest analog to Outer Heaven the modern world has—At least, until Metal Gear Rising. Ocelot claims he went out of his way to find circus freaks on par with FOXHOUND; It's no accident that they're the ones who help seize the Tanker & Plant. (Note that with the imprisonment of Colonel Jackson and the decimation of his unit, Dead Cell has four members to Liquid Snake's six—five if you count Olga Gurlukovich; as a result, no one member can be said to be an exact copy of Liquid's henchmen.)
  • Fortune is Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty stand-in for Sniper Wolf, with her long-range weapon, laser sight, and preference for wildlife over people. Equally reckless in battle, and absolutely fixated on hunting down Solid Snake. (Fortune's giant railgun is another reference to REX, which is why he faces her alone in Arsenal Gear.)
  • Fortune doesn't show up for the torture room reenactment, but Olga is present. Humorously, Olga decks Raiden instead of nail-scratching him (à la Wolf).
  • Vamp might be the most complex example of all. To start with, he's very similar to Liquid Snake in look and attire (longcoat, no shirt, dog tags), as well as his stubborn refusal to die. His battle arena features a square barrier in the center which Raiden may not cross, just like when Revolver Ocelot wired up his hostage with plastic explosives. He also pilots a Harrier, similar to the battle with Liquid's Hind D, and survives several fatal injuries. During Emma's precarious walk across the oil fences, he reenacts Sniper Wolf's wounding of Meryl with his trusty bowie knife.
  • Solidus is obviously patterned on Big Boss, but there's a parallel to Liquid Snake, as well: He co-pilots the Harrier jet; he restrains and tortures Raiden in a facsimile of the Shadow Moses prison (with Ocelot standing on hand, no less); and his Motive Rant and boss battle near the crashed hull of Arsenal are reminiscent of Liquid's "Let's Fight Like Gentlemen" challenge to Snake on REX's hide.
  • Fatman is the bald muscle, in keeping with Vulcan Raven. In fact, his battlefield is nearly identical (as is his vulnerability to claymore mines), and both bosses wind up slumped against a wall as they die. Considering his wild card role, can be also considered the "Ocelot" in Dead Cell's camp. Note that Ocelot's battle arena on Shadow Moses also made use of C4 explosives.
• Playing Card Motifs: Solidus and his men use codenames during the plant operation. Solidus is, naturally, their "King", while Fortune is "Queen". Raiden (or Jack) is so named for his unknown relation to Solidus. Seal Team 10 make up the expandable face cards.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Dead Cell faction is more extreme than the Gurlukovich side: Fortune wanted to nuke New York City out of spite, viewing the civilians as collateral. Solidus quietly snuffed out her plan, and Ocelot pulled the rug out from both by revealing there were no hydrogen bombs in the first place.
  • Olga resents having to work alongside Ocelot, whom she suspects had a hand in her father's death.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With Arsenal left defenseless, Dead Cell would be helpless against the first wave, allowing Solidus to beat a hasty retreat.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Gurlukovich soldiers are arguably the most sympathetic mooks next to those in Revengeance. Contrary to the Colonel's cover story, their aim is not to nuke Manhattan but to "liberate" it from the Patriots' surveillance and turn it into a free republic of sorts.

Solidus Snake

"We need to decide which monstrosity will have the privilege of survival."

a.k.a. George Sears, Solid Snake, King

Voiced by: Akio Ōtsuka (JP), John Cygan (EN)

"The end of the Patriots' secret rule, liberation of this country — this was where it was supposed to begin. This is where freedom could have been born."

In the first game, he shows up in The Stinger at the end of the game in the role of the U.S. President, and is a major character in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. He's the third of Big Boss's clones, a former agent of the Patriots, and Raiden's adopted father. He was once the 43rd President under the alias of George Sears, but was forced to resign from office after Metal Gear REX and the Genome Project soldiers, as well as the events of the Shadow Moses Incident and his involvement in the Sons of Big Boss's actions, were exposed to the public. The Patriots pinned him as the scapegoat, as he'd before advocated against genetic engineering, and becomes a terrorist with the group The Sons of Liberty. He reappears in viral marketing trailers for Metal Gear Rising, though he does not actually appear in the game (other than a couple of references in a few conversations).

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• All for Nothing: All of his plans worked in excess to find out and kill the Patriots personally. The 'list of names' he sought the entire time within GW was literally nothing more than bait, as the Patriots were just an AI that never had any human identities in the first place. And all of his plans, his entire rebellion, were a gigantic, elaborate effort to have him die by Raiden's hands to prove the S3 Plan was a success to them.
• Alliterative Codename: Solidus Snake.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: He casually mentions to Raiden that he murdered Raiden's parents to ensure he could take the youth in as a child soldier before their final battle.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Solidus's philosophy befits of the 'middle child' in the Les Enfant Terribles project. He shares the biological determinism of Liquid Snake but he's determined to overcome destiny no matter the cost like Solid Snake.
• Anti-Villain: Type III. Word of God stated that Solidus was intended to be of this trope.
• Archnemesis Dad:
  • Plays the role of one for Raiden, having raised Raiden and dozens of other child soldiers. His brutal methods are even remarked upon as being an inspiration for the antagonists of Revengeance. Solidus also has his own father figures that he is waging war on - although rather than seeking to humiliate Big Boss's legacy, Solidus targets the Patriots, who have guided his career from birth to the Presidency he once held.
  • His second scene with Raiden heralds a sort of 'rebirth' for the character: he momentarily loses his sneaking suit and is forced to wander around in his birthday suit. Second, the stealth mechanics of the game are stripped away as Raiden becomes accustomed to the HF Blade, his default weapon in the sequels. The FOXHOUND personality was completely fake, and only Raiden's 'father' could expose that fact.
• Bad Boss:
  • Solidus would have abandoned Dead Cell and the now-useless Arsenal had their plan been carried to completion. He's also very harsh with his lieutenants; when Revolver Ocelot and Olga Gurlukovich begin bickering, he threatens to cut them loose and see how well they do finding a new job — bad news for cold warriors without a Cold War.
    "I took you in when no one else would. You think any government would have you as irregulars in this political climate? The worst kind of wetworks, maybe — but even that's doubtful."
  • He also straight up kills Olga later, which adds to this. Admittedly Olga had just betrayed Solidus by defending Raiden due to orders from the Patriots, so he does have some reason for it.
• Badass Boast: Has quite a few, but one in particular sticks out:
  Solidus: Brother, I'm a whole different game from Liquid!
• Badass Cape: Until it gets incinerated.
• The Bad Guy Wins: While he is unable to end the Patriots' reign, he was able to achieved his goal to leave behind a legacy through his godson Raiden.
• Baritone of Strength: As befitting a former world leader, and would be revolutionary, Solidus speaks with a commanding and eloquent voice, provided by John Cygan.
• Best Served Cold: As they say, if you come at the King, you'd best not miss. After the Patriots tried to put him on ice, Solidus made it his priority to obtain the Wiseman's Committee's real names to track down and then kill them.
• Big Bad: Of Metal Gear Solid 2. He was the Greater-Scope Villain in the original Metal Gear Solid, however.
• Big Bad Wannabe: By the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, it's clear he was just a puppet in the Patriots' scheme.
• Cain and Abel and Seth: He's the third clone of Big Boss, coming as a surprise to Solid Snake (and proably would have been one to Liquid too if the latter lived to find out.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He was first mentioned in Meryl's ending (and The Stinger for both endings) of Metal Gear Solid.
• Child Soldier: In the 1980s, Solidus served in the CIA's paramilitary forces in the Liberian Civil War, eventually commanding a unit of child soldiers including Raiden while only a teenager himself. This was likely to further emulate Big Boss, as Solidus suggests in his final speech. Unlike Solid Snake rejecting their genetic legacy, Solidus is in the You Can't Fight Fate camp.
• The Coats Are Off: Solidus's cape is burned off when he first engages his flame jets.
• Combat Tentacles: The "snake arms" on his exoskeleton suit. He ditches them when he Turns Red during his boss fight.
• Crucified Hero Shot: His outstretched arm as he tumbles off the roof of Federal Hall.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: While his final death is not unusual for a villain, what had sealed his fate is: Raiden sliced open his back with the HF Blade.
• Dark Messiah: Whatever his motives, Solidus definitely has a giant messiah complex.
• Disney Villain Death: Raiden slices his spine with the katana, causing him to stumble for a bit (apparently his artificial muscles kicked in) before falling to the ground with a sickening crunch.
• Dual Wielding: He wields two swords named Democrat and Republican.
• Eagleland: An anti-villainous Type 1. Everything that he does in the game is done because he truly believes in the American ideals of freedom and equality for all. Something that the Patriots have destroyed.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In Metal Gear Solid, he finds out the Secretary of Defense, Jim Houseman, ordered a nuclear strike on Shadow Moses from Colonel Campbell and immediately calls it off. This is questionable whether he finds a nuclear strike too much or he needed data on REX from Ocelot.
• Evil Is Hammy: This guy gives Liquid a run for his money. Twirling his cape for emphasis, exploding with maniacal laughter, Milking the Giant Cow...and who can forget his ecstatic cry to the heavens, "The SONS of LIBERTY!"
• Eye Scream: He loses his left eye following the Harrier's destruction.
• The Extremist Was Right: Despite his rather horrible methods, as it turns out, Solidus was basically right about everything, which both Raiden and Solid Snake admit to in MGS4.
• Eyepatch of Power: Zigzagged. During the final boss fight, Raiden can exploit Solidus's blind spot. Of course, this doesn't stop him from gunning down a Metal Gear RAY while his back is turned.
• False Flag Operation: A few. The hostage-taking was all a feint; Solidus just needed the President's login to activate Arsenal Gear. The nuclear strike wasn't a threat, but rather the final step in Solidus's plan to isolate Manhattan — and more importantly, the Patriots who were based there. Lastly, Dead Cell plotted to swipe Arsenal Gear out from under his nose, not realizing that it would be a sitting duck without any sea or air support; Solidus's faction would have abandoned them and the now-useless Arsenal had their plan been carried to completion.
• Final Boss: Of Metal Gear Solid 2.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of the original Metal Gear Solid, having been behind the Shadow Moses Incident.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Solidus's defeat could be considered one. His early career in Liberia notwithstanding, Solidus truly believed in equal rights and freedom of expression for everyone. As U.S. President, he caught wind of the atrocious S3 program, and sought to prevent its implementation. As usual for Raiden, his assumptions about the Sons of Liberty being power-mad terrorists was a Patriot fabrication; Raiden is forced to do his masters' bidding even to the end.
• High Collar of Doom: Solidus's version is both robotic and retractable.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Solidus quickly slots back into his old field commander role with Raiden, admiring the bloodshed and congratulating him on his killings. He had been planning to ditch his troops anyway, and didn't mind serving them up to "The Ripper".
• Irony: He once stated to President Johnson that "Pawns can never become players." It later turns out he was an Unwitting Pawn to the Patriots the entire time.
• Karmic Death: His dream was to be "inaugurated" on the steps of Federal Hall just like President Washington (The insurrection happens on the bicentennial of Washington's first term). He is instead assassinated on those very steps.
• Lack of Empathy: He may try to style himself after Big Boss, but he lacks the compassion and understanding that his father had for allies and enemies alike. For example, what does he do when he finds out that Olga was working as a spy for the Patriots to save her daughter's life? Shoot her in the head without hesitation.
• Legacy Seeker: One of his primary motivations. Since he is unable to have children and leave a genetic heritage, Solidus instead intends to leave his mark on history and be remembered forever as the man who took down the Patriots.
• Legendary Impostor: In the early stages of the game he pretends to be his much more famous "clone brother" Solid Snake.
• Logical Weakness: Solidus hasn't had time to adjust to lacking depth perception, and he'll lose track of Raiden if you circle him. His heat-seeking rockets have a weakness, too: Since they home in on Raiden, all he has to do is hang from a ledge. The rockets don't know to navigate around the roof and explode harmlessly.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: It turns out that Solidus was Raiden's Godfather. Unlike other uses of this, it was even foreshadowed earlier when Solidus and Raiden first meet face to face: "Where do I know him from?"
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Following the fallout of the Shadow Moses affair, Solidus's health was "scheduled to fail him" but he outmaneuvered his bosses and went underground. His only mistake was selecting Ocelot as his agent.
• Meaningful Name:
  • In chemistry, a "solidus" is a temperature that lies somewhere between a substance's melting point and freezing point (i.e. its "liquid" form and "solid" form); above which it becomes completely solid, and below which it begins the melting process. Similarly, Solidus falls somewhere between his brothers ("Solid" Snake and "Liquid" Snake) in more than one way.
  • Physically, he's an amalgamation of both brothers' genetic traits, being an identical clone of Big Boss with both dominant and recessive genes. Morally, he's neither an altruistic pacifist like Snake nor an unstable terrorist like Liquid, being a calculating Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to bring down the greater evil of the Patriots through violence and manipulation.
  • His U.S. President codename "George" is prescient of his desire to kickstart a second American Revolution.
• Military Brat: He's a clone of Big Boss, and he also participated as a Child Soldier (actually, not just a child soldier, but a child soldier who leads an entire army of child soldiers) in the Liberian Civil War.
• Motive Rant: Has a damn good one on the rooftop of Federal Hall where he reveals that he wants to destroy the Patriots both to be remembered and to restore the American ideals that the Patriots had taken away.
• Named Weapons: His katana and wakizashi set (i.e. daishou), Minshuto ("Democrat") and Kyowato ("Republican"). Possibly, the swords that come with the Powered Armors in the setting are also made by Tokugawa Heavy Industries.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His actions did leave a twisted legacy. One inherited by Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Rising.
• No Honor Among Thieves: President Johnson only colluded with Solidus in return for blackmailing the Patriots into joining their ranks. It was only later that Solidus revealed that he had no intention of cutting a deal: he's going to challenge them directly. Solidus obviously didn't much care for Johnson's plans to be a part of the group himself.
• Odd Name Out: With the other two clones of Big Boss being given the codenames of Solid and Liquid, one might expect his codename to be Gas Snake, but instead it's Solidus. This may be justified as who in their right mind would take someone named "Gas" seriously? (Although, the name Vapor Snake might have been a good compromise). However, as explained in Meaningful Name, he's more of an inbetween of Solid and Liquid than just a third clone, having dominant and recessive genes and being a Well-Intentioned Extremist to Snake's straight heroism and Liquid's straight terrorism. Also, Solid and Liquid were both named after Biblical figureheads (Solid's real name was David and Liquid's real name was Eli). Solidus' real name (as far as we know) is George.
• Organ Theft: As revealed in MGS4. The battle with Raiden left Solidus brain-dead (shades of Big Boss again), and later used for transplants to revive Big Boss. Yuck.
• The Pawn: In Metal Gear Solid 2, it turned out that he was actually helping the Patriots without his even realizing it until Revolver Ocelot made it clear. In MGS4, his corpse is used as a decoy for Big Boss's body.
• Papa Wolf: He did not take it well when he learned that the Patriots had wiped Raiden's memory, and probably stole him from Solidus's home.
• Patriotic Fervor: Solidus has a genuine love for America and what the U.S. stands for, taking pride in seeing himself as a successor to the Founding Fathers. So much so that he's willing to start a new American Revolution to free it and the world from the Patriots.
• Pet the Dog:
  • For what it was worth, he gave Raiden an HF Blade before their fight. Solidus had every intent of winning, but he did give Raiden a fighting chance against him when he could have killed him the easy way. Naturally this bites him in the ass.
  • Despite his ruthlessness and cruelty, in the final act of the game he DOES tell Fortune to get out of the way when she's in danger. Something the game cleverly has Snake do in the very same scene, telling allies and enemies alike to get down. Hinting that Solidus has a similar capacity as his brother to care about others, albeit much less so.
  • Partly due to the script, and partly due to John Cygan's voice acting, his final speech to Raiden can be seen as this. Solidus seems to be making a genuine attempt to impart some greater knowledge to his son. Something Raiden himself takes to heart, admitting that Solidus did teach him some good lessons.
• Powered Armor: He wears a superior version of the exoskeleton worn by Tengu soldiers, made with the same material used for Metal Gear RAY. It's muscles can expand that enhances the wearers strength, and even without it, it proved durable that he suffered zero damage from an M203 grenade.
• Predecessor Villain: In Metal Gear Rising. Although he's been dead for nearly a decade, World Marshal's Sears Program was directly inspired by what he put Raiden and several other children through in Liberia. Senator Armstrong's ideals for a new, free America are also implied to have been inspired by Solidus.
• President Evil: In MGS1, we're told that the President has tacitly given Sec. Houseman permission to vaporize Shadow Moses to save face, particularly since REX is a blatantly-crafted loophole to circumvent Solidus's own arms treaty with Russia and China. The deal goes sour and President Sears is shortly hounded from office; Houseman is executed by the Patriots for refusing to resign and keep quiet about the whole mess.
• Properly Paranoid: Nearing the end of MGS2, Solidus gives Raiden a speech about how the Patriots intended to protect their own power via massive censorship. Come MGS4, and we see that Solidus's fears turned out to be quite correct.
  Old Snake: Everything that Solidus feared five years ago...it's all come to pass.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Somewhat. After he Turns Red and ditches his "snake arms", he becomes much faster.
• Shoulders of Doom: Emphasized by his comically-evil black cape (when he wears it).
• Sophisticated as Hell: Solidus freely makes use of phrases like "Burn, baby!", "Let's go out in style!", or "Go to hell!" during the first battle with him, contrasting his earlier, more professional behavior and his long, eloquent monologues later in the game. Even then, he still uses less sophisticated phrases such as "You were going to screw me over, weren't you?"
• Super-Soldier: Like his brothers he was a Designer Baby made in the shadow of Big Boss, by The Patriots.
• Take Over the City: Solidus aims to 'unplug' Manhattan and claim it as his own, in another nod to Escape From New York.
• There Can Be Only One: "The world needs only one Big Boss!"
• Unperson: There is a bitter quality to Solidus, as he suspects that his meager life will be overshadowed by Big Boss if not outright forgotten; the Patriots will make sure of that. Solidus later confesses that the reason he stole Raiden as a child was because he craved a legacy of his own.
• Turns Red: In Raiden's battle with him, he eventually disengages his Snake Suit's tentacles and ejects them in the air. This greatly increases his speed and dexterity.
• The Unfettered: While he does intend to destroy the Patriots and free the world of their grasp, he's also very remorseless about the extreme methods he uses to get there.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Patriots played him like an absolute fiddle in getting him to instigate the Big Shell takeover for their S3 plan, and ultimately he helped solidify their rule even further rather than actually do a damn thing to stop it. However, by the time of MGS4, with the damage to GW, the influence that these events gave Ocelot, and the firm idea of a centralized antagonist in mind for the heroes, in a sense Solidus managed to set the seeds of hope for the future by failing so miserably.
• Villain Has a Point: Even if nobody agreed with his methods, everyone agrees that the Patriots' control should stop. Going by Raiden's interactions with GW, the Patriots' A.I.s appear worse than he ever imagined.
• We Have Reserves: Solidus has some serious buyer's remorse toward Dead Cell. He instructs Ocelot to keep them out of the loop, then reveals that he'd planned to use them as ballast when the Patriots came knocking. (In fairness, Dead Cell had been planning to betray him, anyway.)
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The script of MGS2 originally had Raiden slicing a rope off the flagpole at Federal Hall, draping an American flag onto Solidus's dead body (mirroring a President's coffin during a state funeral). This can be interpreted as either sympathy with Solidus's cause (having stopped his revolution and maintained the status quo), or an ironic gesture. However, the visual of an American flag falling from its pole ended up being cut from the final version due to the events of 9/11. The scene, however, was kept in the novelization.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to free America's founded nature from the threat of the Patriots' controlling nature, as well as having a personal motive of wanting to be remembered somehow, as he isn't able to pass on his genes due to his clone nature. However, in order to do this, he had to organize a terrorist organization in order to do so.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite his appearance looking like someone in his sixties or seventies, he's actually in his thirties. He implies that his appearance was the result of genetic engineering done by the Patriots, likely to make him appear as a believable US Presidential candidate. It's explained that the three LET clones had artificially shortened telomeres as a protection mechanism, inducing rapid aging in the two clones that lived long enough to reach that point.

Sergei Gurlukovich

"Russia will rise again. And RAY is the key."

Voiced By: Osamu Saka (JP), Earl Boen (EN)

"After the Cold War ended, my home was bought out by the Americans. Not that you would understand. Land, friends, dignity...all sold to the highest bidder!"

The leader of a loose cannon mercenary group and Olga Gurlukovich's father. Sergei was previously involved in Liquid's revolt on Shadow Moses Island; he was the supplier of some of their heavy weaponry and Liquid's Hind D. Since then, Sergei has been working with Revolver Ocelot in the hopes of hijacking Metal Gear RAY to restore power to Russia. He is predictably stabbed in the back by Ocelot and sinks to the bottom of the bay with the tanker.

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• Big Bad Wannabe: His stint at lead villain doesn't last long. Leadership of his troops transferred to Olga, who answers directly to Solidus Snake. (Though she doesn't like it.)
• Cruel to Be Kind: Sergei attempts to ditch his daughter once the tanker is secured. He assured Olga that, once the ball was rolling, she could leave the mercenary unit and stay in America, telling her that it was a "country of liberty." Olga waves off the extraction chopper, implying that she has no intention of leaving.
• A Father to His Men: In a sense, he is the Russian counterpart to Big Boss. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sergei brought together ex-Soviet soldiers who had nowhere left to go, forming a mercenary army of at least a thousand strong. Olga inherits his leadership role over the Gurlukovich soldiers in the Plant chapter.
• Freudian Excuse: According to his backstory, Sergei's home was turned into an American weapons depot following the collapse of the USSR.
• The Ghost: Was briefly mentioned in the first Metal Gear Solid as being one of Liquid's backers in his revolution, and his being the reason why Liquid had a Hind D in that game.
• Glorious Mother Russia: With Metal Gear in his clutches, he aims to put Russia back on top again. Sergei feels justified since it was a Russian engineer, Granin, who helped birth the Metal Gear technology.
• Gut Feeling: He starts having second thoughts about the tanker assault when he spots a Bad Moon Rising. Having Ocelot and his pregnant daughter onboard only adds to his sense of anxiety.
• Killed Off for Real: At the end of the Tanker Chapter after getting double-crossed by Ocelot.
• Motive Rant: He doesn't take kindly to Dolph referring to him as a black marketeer. Jamming his Makarov pistol in Dolph's temple, Sergei says he plans to settle his accounts with the U.S. once and for all.
• Mysterious Employer: During the events of Metal Gear Solid 1, Sergei allies himself with Liquid's terrorist group via Ocelot. Sergei provided them with a Hind D as a down payment for data on the REX project. The plan was for the Gurlukovich Mercenaries to link up with the Genome Soldiers, though Snake took REX out of commission before this could happen. In all likelihood, Liquid would have welshed on his end of the bargain, anyway, as he dismissed Sergei as a mere politician (rather than a true "warrior" like himself). Likewise, Sergei had some doubts about whether REX was as powerful as advertised, telling Ocelot and Liquid to contact him only once REX had successfully fired a nuke.
• Papa Wolf/Morality Pet: It's very clear that he does deeply care about his daughter, Olga, as well as the well-being of his grandchild. Also, as evidenced in the Lame Comeback line, he was not pleased with Ocelot's threat against his daughter when the latter betrayed him.
• Properly Paranoid: Just before the Olga battle, he tells Olga that she should leave, and cited that part of the reason he wants her to leave was because he saw the moon "pale as death" in the storm, and suspected that the mission wasn't going to end well. He's right, but not in the way that even he anticipated, as Ocelot betrays and guns him down in cold blood.
• Say My Name: Sergei weakly calls out his daughter's name as he sinks to the bottom of the tanker's flooded cargo hold.
• You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: Ocelot is quick to cut Gurlukovich and his troops loose once they secure RAY.

Olga Gurlukovich

"Not too shabby, is it? New York, I mean."

AKA: Mr. X

Voiced by: Kyoko Terase (JP), Vanessa Marshall (EN)

"We leave for Russia when this mission is over. I want half the money for that. We're living for ourselves after this."

A Russian mercenary whom Snake first encounters aboard the tanker, Olga is a tough cookie. She has been raised all her life to be strong, both out of necessity and because her father was a colonel for a Russian private army. She is seen again in the Plant, having inherited her father's unit after the old man died. She may or may not be having her own agenda.

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• Action Girl: In the Tanker Chapter as a boss battle. She has been with the unit since she was born, "conflict and victory were her parents."
• Action Mom: She's one tough cookie, and she has a daughter. A tragic example, however, since she never carried her or met her personally due to the Patriots.
• Anti-Villain: Type II: She legitimately cared for her own troops, and hated the fact that she had to betray and kill them off under Patriot orders, even though she had to do it to ensure the survival of her child.
• Badass Normal: A female soldier who is ready to fight at a moment's notice and has no unusual augmentations or special powers to commit it. Play the game on a higher difficulty and she's even a Wake-Up Call Boss for Solid Snake. Technically becomes an Empowered Badass Normal thanks to the Ninja Suit she wears as "Mr. X", but unlike the character she's supposed to Expy in the plan, it's just that: a suit, with no actual body-altering changes involved whatsoever.
• Bifauxnen: Which actually causes some awkwardness for the game's other androgynous platinum blond character when he's mistaken for her.
• Boom, Headshot!: How she met her end.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Olga can be seen smiling to herself when Snake holds her up on the Tanker. Later, a hapless Raiden also tries it. Sorry, this is one enemy who won't whimper and toss her dog tags if you point a gun.
• Child Soldier: It is heavily implied that she was born and raised on the battlefield, and that she has nowhere else to go.
• Combat Pragmatist: Just like our hero. Olga shoots an overhanging spotlight to blind you, tosses grenades from behind the safety of some crates, and generally makes your job hell.
• Distaff Counterpart: Unlike Meryl, Olga seems closer to how a feminized Snake would look and act. She's handy with a knife, packs a Heckler & Koch handgun (the USP, which Snake nicks for his own use in place of the Mk.23 during the Tanker), utilizes cover and corner-leaning in battle, dislikes razors, and — like Snake — she lives a nomadic existence traveling from one battlefield to the next. Olga also gets a Dramatic Unmask through her cap blowing off in the wind, similar to Snake's famous entrances over the years.
• Does Not Like Men: She's a bit of a misandrist.
• Double Agent: Albeit a reluctant one. Solidus calls out her for the wholesale slaughter of her extended "family", and Olga confesses that she's going to Hell for it.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For a given value of "evil", but she did not take having to betray and kill her Gurlukovich comrades very well at all, even though it was to keep her child alive.
• Gender-Concealing Voice: As the Cyborg Ninja, she speaks with a distortion filter that pitches her voice to be much deeper.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Olga possessed a long scar across her face, above her right eye to below her left eye (this is made more apparent in artwork of her, being barely visible in the game itself). Presumably, she got the scar during combat.
• Hairy Girl: Her character model has unshaved armpits.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Snake attempts — with some difficulty — to disarm Olga without taking a thrown knife to the forehead. First, she removes her cap as a means of identification, only to let it blow away in the wind in an attempt to distract Snake. Then she veerrry sloooowly put the knife down, but still within reach so she can easily somersault and grab it. (Much later on, she doesn't even bother pretending to surrender to the neophyte Raiden.)
• Killed Off for Real: In the climax of MGS2.
• Mama Bear: Tragically exploited by the Patriots as blackmail to ensure she does her part in keeping Raiden alive in the S3 Plan. Basically, she had to kill off the unit she had considered her family, never mind her friends, just to protect Raiden because if she failed, they would kill her baby.
• Married to the Job: In her first appearance, Olga values "the unit" more than the seed growing inside of her. We see neither hide nor hair of baby daddy.
• Military Brat: Well, for one thing, her father is both the leader of a pro-communist mercenary group, and he also served in the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
• Mysterious Informant: As Mr. X.
• The Not-Love Interest: After the boss battle with her, Snake will (if the player calls Otacon while looking at Olga in first person mode) comment on how "peaceful" she looks while she sleeps. Otacon then warns him not to get any ideas. But Snake just growls back that he's had enough of tomboys pointing guns at him.
• Pregnant Badass: Remember Snake's fight with Olga during the Tanker Chapter? Well, she was pregnant at the time by at least three months, which served as the primary reason why her father wanted her out of the operation and off the mercenary as soon as possible. Ironically, all the tranquilizers that she took during the fight would have had a negative effect on her developing fetus. Thank God Sunny turned out okay.
• Samus Is a Girl: Snake couldn't help exclaiming, 'A woman?' after Olga removed her cap. Later, when "Pliskin" briefs Raiden on what to expect from the enemy leader, he's clearly still stung over underestimating Olga on that boat.
  Olga: You men. You're all the same.
• See You in Hell: Olga stated that she was going to hell for sacrificing the lives of her men, but at least her daughter has a chance. Solidus concurred, blowing her head off.
• Tragic Villain: At the end of the day, Olga could hardly be called a bad person when considering the true nature of the Patriots and how they blackmailed her into working with them by holding her child hostage.
• Vasquez Always Dies: Though truthfully, it was Olga's blossoming maternal instinct which got her killed.
• Worthy Opponent: She and Snake first sizing each other up. Snake insists that she toss her bowie knife overboard, knowing she would otherwise just roll and pick it up.
  Olga: You know what you're doing.
• You Killed My Father: She blames Snake for her father Sergei's death, but later discovers it was Ocelot's doing.

Helena Dolph Jackson/Fortune

"Today is another bad day."

Voiced by: Yumi Touma (JP), Maura Gale (EN)

"Maybe you can give me death? My name is Fortune. Lucky in war and nothing else. "

The leader of Dead Cell, with the miraculous ability to avoid death. She erroneously believes that story that Solid Snake was responsible for her father's death. With Colonel Jackson thrown into the clink, Fortune becomes the de facto leader of Dead Cell.

---

• BFG: Her weapon is a large and somewhat impractical rail gun.
  • In a way, it's also due to her "powers" that she's even capable of using it, going by Rosemary's statements in a Codec call.
• Bizarre Human Biology: She was born with her heart on the right side, due to situs inversus. It briefly prolongs her life expectancy when Revolver Ocelot decides to off her with a shot to the heart, while forgetting that little fact.
• Blessed with Suck: She has mixed feelings towards her ability. Lampshaded in a cutscene when Raiden fires blindly around a corner, accidentally(!) plugging Vamp in the forehead when Fortune deflects his bullet.
• Blood from the Mouth: After getting lungshot like Wolf. (Ocelot was aiming for the heart, but hers is on the right.)
• Born Lucky: Played With. While she is impossibly lucky in battle, she is otherwise a Doom Magnet as her loved ones has a disturbing tendency to meet with untimely ends, and this renders her very depressed.
• Broken Bird: Symbolized by her kinship with the Big Shell's seagulls. "I'll see you again someday."
• Bullet Dodges You: A type 2 case. Bullets avoid her, and grenades don't explode when they land near her, much to her consternation.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Once Ocelot removes her jamming device, he shoots her in the chest and calls it a day. Nevertheless, she staggers to her feet and seems to channel Lady Luck once again; Ocelot's missile barrage goes completely haywire, exhausting RAY's ammo and protecting Raiden and company from harm. Might possibly be justified in that the jammer either didn't get completely shut off, or a jolt of bioelectricity caused by the adrenaline of her dying gave it enough juice to deflect the barrage. Regardless of how it happened, Snake still says it was luck all the same.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: Her gun will reduce wooden crates to so much kindling. After awhile, Fortune gets bored and starts blasting at the rafters, causing debris and light fixtures to rain down on poor Raiden.
• Death Seeker: "KILL ME NOW!"
• Deus Angst Machina: The way her whole family died in rapid succession. Her father, Scott Dolph, was the Commandant that got killed on the tanker and her mother committed suicide shortly afterwards. Then her husband, the founder of Dead Cell, was imprisoned for misappropriation of funds shortly before the game started and died in prison, and the stress and emotional trauma made Fortune miscarry her three month pregnancy. Or not. Ocelot claims that killing her father and framing her husband for theft were orchestrated by the Patriots, entirely to manipulate her and Dead Cell into going terrorist, so what to her seemed like a string of bad luck was actually all carefully orchestrated attempts to break her mind.
• Doom Magnet: The bitterness and sorrow from experiencing the deaths of her family is what has turned her into a Death Seeker.
• Evil Laugh: Targeting her with the SOCOM will only amuse Fortune.
• Flawed Prototype: Implied with her gun. Reports that Rosemary dug up during a codec conversation was that the rail gun had issues with its rail plasma and its inner-electromagnetic release were yet to be solved, making it unusable as a field weapon due to a high rate of discharge, hurting if not killing the wielder. It doesn't fail on her because of her luck. That, or if the end game scene with Ocelot is any indication, she might have actually gotten a working model that the Patriots won't release into official circulation. Peace Walker confirms this, since the MSF is able to develop one in 1974, albeit one that requires charging up from an external power source to fire at full power.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: You fight her once, and the time spent fighting her is trying to avoid being hit by her railgun blasts until the colonel calls you. On the Extreme difficulty, surviving her onslaught is almost a puzzle in itself. To add insult to injury, her health bar is only an inch long.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: As much as Fortune hates living, she can't bring herself to commit suicide, so she seeks death in battle instead...which is difficult to achieve, given that bullets and grenades can't touch her. Once Ocelot reveals that she could have died at any time by switching off the EM device she didn't know she had, she's pretty bummed, but Ocelot's quick to put her out of her misery. Still, the fact that she's able to deflect RAY's missiles before she dies, even without the device, makes one wonder.
• Interface Spoiler: Downplayed, in that it's interface foreshadowing. The characters apparently don't see the bullet contrails that the player can, and if they could, they would notice those bullets veer away from her at the last instant in trails that describe a perfect sphere.
• It's All About Me: Ocelot claims this about her as if she really wanted to die as she claimed, she could have done so at any time but instead chose to lash out at the world.
  Ocelot: Pure self-indulgence, absorbed in your own misfortune. You couldn't get enough of the drama.
• Leg Focus: Just about every scene she's in introduces her with the camera slowly panning up those long legs of hers.
• Leotard of Power: Like the rest of Dead Cell, she wears a khaki trenchcoat over her leotard, but ditches the jacket onboard Arsenal.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In the end, it's not clear if the Patriots planted a second EM device on her or if she really was Lady Luck.
• Military Brat: Her father is Scott Dolph, the commandant of the Marine Corps killed in the tanker chapter.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Vamp has Pliskin completely at his mercy, but spares him once he picks up Snake's scent, knowing that Fortune has already called dibs. This is an inversion; Fortune not only wants to kill Snake, but believes he's the only adversary able to kill her as well.
• The Pawn: The Patriots used her for their own goals.
• Pet the Dog: She apologizes to the birds caught up in the path of her railgun. Granted, she has just finished slaughtering the remnants of Seal Team 10 and watching dead-eyed as they fall to their deaths, so it's very eerie.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: "Since no one can kill me, I may as well kill everyone I can."
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Vamp. Snake tells Raiden that while they're closer than friends, they're not lovers.
• Run or Die: Since Fortune can't be targeted, Raiden can only outlast her until the elevator arrives.
• Together in Death: She expresses hope in seeing her family again as she dies.
• Trauma Conga Line: She lost her father, mother, husband and unborn child in rapid succession.
• Villain's Dying Grace: After Ocelot fatally shoots her and takes control of RAY, she lives long enough to repel the missiles he rains down on her and everyone else...even though her EM device has already been destroyed. Snake wonders aloud if she wasn't Lady Luck after all.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Vamp and Fortune want to destroy Manhattan (which was also against Solidus' supposed goals) as their revenge against the Patriots for their involvement in the destruction of Dead Cell's unit, and presumably for framing Dead Cell for terrorist actions that the Patriots orchestrated. Not to mention the pain they endured from the deaths of Scott Dolph and Colonel Jackson. Unfortunately, they ended up being used by them anyway.
• You Killed My Father: Has a score to settle with Solid Snake due to believing he killed Scott Dolph. She however can't fully kill him due to orders. How unfortunate for her that she is working with the same man responsible for truly killing him and finding death at his hand.

Vamp

"Unfortunately, Hell had no vacancies."

Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (JP, MGS2), Shinya Tsukamoto (JP, MGS4), Phil LaMarr (EN)

"I died once already. I cannot die twice."

Vamp is an apparently immortal Romanian with a penchant for knives and a taste for blood. He was once involved with Commander Scott Dolph before becoming close with Dolph's daughter Helena/Fortune.

In the fourth game, he begins to look for a Worthy Opponent who can finally finish him — Raiden.

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• Awesomeness by Analysis: The source behind his ability to dodge bullets; by reading his opponent's body language/muscles, he can accurately predict what their next move will be and respond accordingly. However, this ability is hampered when his opponent is wearing a pressurized suit (i.e. Raiden's Skull Suit).
• Ax-Crazy: Enjoys knives, blood, and stabbing people a little too much. It's significantly downplayed in MGS4, however, where he questions some of Liquid Ocelot's plans, and was shown to be the only one capable of controlling the definitively Ax-Crazy BATB unit (like when he threw a knife at Laughing Octopus specifically to stop her from slaughtering too many of the rebel soldiers).
• Badass Longcoat: Wears one when not in combat situations in the second game.
• Baritone of Strength: Deep voice? Check. Fast, physically powerful and Made of Iron? Check.
• Beyond the Impossible: In MGS2, he manages to swim in water that has been so heavily oxygenated that it's completely non-buoyant.
• Blood Knight: Vamp notes that fighting Raiden, after he managed to inflict a wound on him (which he sincerely was impressed that Raiden could do that), would be "well worth the wait."
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: The sediment pool is of no great danger to Raiden, as the gaps in the fence are easily avoided. Actually, the gaps allow him to fire rockets and grenades into the pool, thereby damaging Vamp and depleting his oxygen supply while he swims.
• Brought Down to Badass: During his final showdown in the fourth game, Snake uses a nanomachine suppressor to disable the nanobots that power Vamp's Healing Factor. Vamp still has all his other powers, like his Super-Speed and knife-fighting skills, and manages to put up a hell of a fight against Raiden before going down.
• Carpet of Virility: Vamp has a lot more chest hair in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots than he did in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Word of God says that he's always had that much chest hair, and Konami couldn't manage to get a good render of the chest hair with the PS2's hardware.
• The Coats Are Off: He loses the coat sometime after ejecting from the Harrier. However, he keeps a remnant of its torn sleeve in MGS4, presumably because of its numerous pockets for keeping knives.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Vamp really loves hurting people. Especially Raiden. Just watch this fight scene. Likewise, Vamp also really enjoys being hurt himself in the same scene. Note what he said to Raiden when Raiden delivered the final blow.
• Compelling Voice: This is apparently how Vamp manages to "pin" his opponent's shadow to the ground and get them stuck. He uses a hypnotic voice and then uses the light on the blade to amplify it.
• Composite Character: He inherited a lot of his abilities from Chinaman, a character that was cut during the game's development for being too similar to Vamp in terms of combat style. This explains why he's seen meditating in the room where you fight him, since Chinaman was a mystic and martial artist.
• Conveniently an Orphan: He lost his entire family in a Romanian church bombing that he himself was also a victim to.
• Dance Battler: Dances the flamenco... with knives. In practical terms, it serves only to infuriate the player: Vamp strikes poses, he minces, he sashays around. He even takes a bow if he successfully disembowels Raiden.
• Death Is Cheap: Apparently, he's "died" enough times that by the time Snake snipes him through the forehead in MGS4, he simply tells the nearby mooks that he'll "be taking a nap" before collapsing and getting back up again moments later.
• Death Seeker: In the fourth game, he's picked up Fortune's desire for death. While fighting Raiden, he gleefully wonders if Raiden could be the one to finally kill him. At the end of his boss fight in Shadow Moses, once he's defeated, he immediately injects himself with another nanomachine suppressor so he can finally die for good.
• Depraved Bisexual: He sleeps with Scott, may be sleeping with Fortune and may want Raiden too. He also does most of what he does in a sexually suggestive manner.
• The Dragon: Acted as the second-in-command to Liquid Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 4.
• Driven to Suicide: Implied by his injecting himself with the nanomachine suppressor when he is severely injured.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene, he wastes no time slaughtering a group of terrified soldiers, before adding scars to his chest and licking his blade, letting you and Raiden know exactly what kind of person he is from the get-go.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's all but stated that he really did love Scott Dolph, and his close friendship with Scott's daughter shows that they're a great source of comfort for one another.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Vamp was not too pleased when learning about Fatman's attempt at bombing the Big Shell afterwards.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has a deep and suave voice, and he's very much evil.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: The single sleeve he wears on his left arm in MGS4.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason for Vamp's desire for drinking blood is because that's literally what he had to drink from his family members just to survive his predicament of being impaled by a cross for three days after a church he attended in Romania was bombed. Had it also been included, his fear of the crucifix would also have stemmed from the same event.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Laughing Octopus was enjoying herself too much when killing the Rebel soldiers, Vamp threw a knife at Laughing Octopus to get her to stop, and told her to let one live.
• Healing Factor: Due to the Patriots giving him an experimental strain of nanobots.
• Icy Blue Eyes: In the second game.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After the bombing of a Romanian church during his childhood, he was orphaned as a result of the destruction, and was also impaled by a crucifix that was knocked down during the destruction. It is also what caused him to feast on human blood, as he needed it to survive for three whole days, and was also implied to be his first "death." This was also originally intended to also have a major role in the story, with the traumatic experience actually causing him to develop the stereotypical vampire fear of the cross.
• Implacable Man: Even more so than Liquid.
• Invincible Villain: Justified. Nanomachines are keeping him alive.
• Latin Lover: Has some of these traits. Then again, he is Romanian.
• Lecherous Licking: Towards Raiden.
• Levitating Lotus Position: How Raiden comes across Vamp in the oxygenated pool area. For some reason, Vamp has no difficulty standing on the non-buoyant water, and even swimming in it, but succumbs to his own weight after being shot enough times.
• Licking the Blade: He does this in the 4th game, often with Raiden's white blood on the knife, to the point where you wonder if the game is making fun of his tendency to do this.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's as fast and powerful as he's resilient.
• Logical Weakness: Vamp is able to read the subtle twinge in his target's muscles and anticipate his movements, but he can't read Raiden's artificial muscles.
• Made of Iron: Vamp can consistently take an incredible amount of punishment thanks to his natural healing ability, even without his nanomachines.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Zigzagged. While his Healing Factor and ability to Wall Crawl are explained in MGS4 as medical nanomachines and technology that uses van der Waals force, respectively, there is no official explanation for his other abilities, such as his Super-Speed and ability to run on water.
• Meaningful Name: Vamp is essentially a pseudo-vampire. Played for Laughs and Double Subverted with its actual intended meaning, according to Snake, as it refers to his bisexuality.
• Mercy Kill: Effectively what the end result of his fight with Snake and Raiden at Shadow Moses ends up as. He's in crippling pain, his nanomachines keeping him alive while not healing him. Naomi even asks Otacon to give him the nanomachine suppressor to end his pain.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Subverted: Similar to Kuja from Final Fantasy IX, Vamp managed to dodge all of Raiden's gunfire, but ended up being grazed on the cheek. He actually is impressed with Raiden for inflicting the cut, as he notes that he has the ability to predict people's actions by their muscles, but Raiden's are "different" (referring to the Skull Suit's pressure against his vital organs), and notes that this will be as much of a promising battle as Ocelot mentioned.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 4, not only does Vamp not react negatively to being injured, he even reacts with ecstasy when Raiden delivered the final blow in Act 2, asking if Raiden will be the one to finally finish him off.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His design is modeled on flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes.
• Nanomachines: The reason for his apparent "immortality".
• Obviously Evil: Come on, he's a very pale guy with an eastern European accent, loves to lick blood from his knife, has red eyes in the fourth game, wears a Badass Longcoat when he isn't shirtless, has a Beard of Evil, this could go on for paragraphs.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Inverted in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. When he is defeated by Raiden, he asks with ecstasy if Raiden is going to be the one to finally kill him for good.
• Only Sane Man: In comparison to his boss, Liquid Ocelot, whom he questions his plans somewhat, and the B&B Corps, who are so Ax-Crazy that the only way to prevent them from getting out of hand is to throw a knife at them, Vamp seems to be the closest thing to a sane member of Outer Haven that they could have.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vamp apparently only drinks blood due to a neurosis, and his running on water as well as straight up high walls is apparently due to wearing special footwear. Gets back into familiar territory with his Healing Factor; while nanomachines enhance it and allow him to revive from mortal wounds in seconds without a scratch, it's stated that he always had this trait to a lesser degree.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Has one, making his inhuman image that much stronger
• Recurring Boss: He is first fought in the Harrier, with Solidus manning the rockets. He survives and pursues Raiden into Shell 2, where he is apparently drowned in the oxygenated water tank. However, he resurfaces on the oil fence with Emma, where he is again shot numerous times and knocked into the ocean.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has red eyes in the fourth game for some reason.
• Scars Are Forever: In MGS4, despite his Healing Factor, he still retains the scar from where Raiden shot him in the head at the Big Shell.
• Shadow Pin: Can immobilize you by hitting your shadow with a knife. But he only does this in the second game. Shooting out the lights in the room will prevent this.
• Sole Survivor: He's the only major member of the Sons of Liberty other than Ocelot, who isn't really a member of either component group, not to die during the game, and he returns in the fourth game.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Otacon and Snake later theorize that his wall-climbing ability was made possible through footwear using van der Waals force, after witnessing similar feats performed by Haven Troopers. Naomi explains that his healing factor is due to nanomachines inside his body healing his injuries at an accelerated rate; this is proven when Snake injects him with a nanomachine suppressor. Finally, Otacon hypothesizes on the codec that his "shadow-binding" (also known as Kagenui) is some form of hypnotism via Vamp's speech and movements, coupled with the light reflecting off his knife. His only inherent superpower is his ability to read movements.
• Super-Speed: Part of the reason why he's so dangerous. His speed and agility make him able to slaughter countless soldiers with them none the wiser as to what hit them.
• Super-Strength: Sometimes, it's hard to notice that Vamp is also physically strong to the point of rivaling cyborgs due to his perchance of battle dancing and Super-Speed.
• Turns Red: During Raiden's first battle with him in the plant, Vamp follows a set pattern of throwing knives and charging. Once he's down to about a quarter of his HP, he changes his pattern to throw Raiden off his game; he also begins flipping around and shooting knives like there's no tomorrow.
• Tragic Keepsake: Those dog tags he wears in MGS4? Word of God says that they're those of his fallen Dead Cell comrades.
• The Vamp: Despite his codename being "Vamp" due to his open bisexuality, it's subverted, as it is hinted that he did genuinely love Marine Commandant General Scott Dolph (if he hadn't and played the trope straight, then Helena/Fortune, Scott's daughter, certainly would not have even been friends with him, never mind possible lovers).
• Waterfront Boss Battle: Vamp swims through the water in the room, but only attacks you when above it.

Fatman

"I am the greatest humanity has to offer, and the lowest."

Voiced by: Kōzō Shioya (JP), Barry Dennen (EN)

"Can you hear it? Hear this rhythm? It's the rhythm of time — and life!"

The "Emperor among Detonation Devotees", a rogue bomb squad member who has turned his skills toward setting bombs, rather than defusing them. Basically, an obese man on roller-skates. In anticipation of the U.S. military attempt to seize the Big Shell, Fatman has placed explosives around the plant that Raiden has to defuse.

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• Acrofatic: For a guy who is extraordinarily overweight, and has his overall weight made even heavier with his bomb blast suit (complete with a cooling vest), a laminated ballistic protector covering most of his head, and a protective plate for his spine (which, overall, would add about fifty kilograms to his body), he is surprisingly very good at rollerblading, something that the Colonel Lamp Shaded by stating that the amount of added weight that Fatman has should render him incapable of rollerblading. And then there's the small matter of the significant amount of explosives secretly strapped to his back as an insurance policy should he be defeated.
• Allergic to Routine: If he even has a bit of spare time, he'll spend it disassembling and assembling his Glock 18 over and over again. Fatman hates not having his hands occupied.
• Ax-Crazy: He placed bombs all around the plant for fun.
• Axes at School: It is heavily implied in a Codec conversation that this happened with Fatman, as Stillman mentions that although he desired fame due to being hated at his own high school, the only thing he ever amounted to before being transferred to Indian Head was 'occasionally' bringing a gun into school.
• Bald of Evil: The game's script implies that the reason for his baldness is from chemical burns.
• Calling Card: Placing trace amounts of cologne on the C4 he uses to blow up targets.
• Card-Carrying Villain: If his introductory statement is anything to go by, he apparently takes pride in being the lowest humanity has to offer even more so than being the greatest humanity has to offer.
• Challenging the Chief: He actually holds little personal animus toward Peter Stillman. In their first meeting, Snake mentioned that you could crack open any explosives or demolition handbook and find Stillman's name. This was Fatman's motivation: to replace Peter's name with his own. Indeed, Stillman is forced to admit that Fatman has "far surpassed" him in terms of skill.
• Clock King: The son of a clockmaker, Fatman has always had a fascination with time and ticking clockwork.
• Complexity Addiction: Hence why he cooked up that convoluted bomb trap for Stillman instead of just, y'know, shooting him.
• Deceptive Disciple: Fatman absorbed all the knowledge he could from Stillman, then discarded him.
• Demolitions Expert: His main role in group was being the Demoman.
• Doomed New Clothes: Fatman is distraught when his blast suit gets stained with blood — his own.
  "Aw, no... I've nothing to wear to the party."
• Dramatic Shattering: He tosses his drink glass to the ground in anger when Raiden tells him that he is nothing but a common criminal.
• Dramatic Unmask: Although we see his mugshot in Stillman's flashbacks, it's still a victory when Raiden rips off Fatman's protective face-mask.
• Evil Is Hammy: "HOW DARE YOU! I'M AN ARTIST!!"
• Evil Is Petty: Fatman's entire career seems to be based around snubbing his co-workers. He joined up with Dead Cell after being hounded out of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). Fatman helped organize drills that would embarrass his old colleagues at NEST, and later his old mentor Peg-Leg Peter.
• Fame Through Infamy: His ultimate goal. Whether he dies in the Big Shell incident is irrelevant to him; as long as he blows the place sky high and kills Peter Stillman in the process, he'll go down in history as the greatest bomber who ever lived. Or so he believes, anyway.
• Fat Bastard: He's actually so fat, Raiden can only lug around his dead body for a few seconds.
  Snake: He's supposedly named after an atomic bomb, but to me, he's just a fat man. Something straight out of a sideshow.
• Fat Idiot: Inverted. Although he is shown as severely insane, his backstory indicates that he was also quite intelligent, at least in regards to bomb-making.
• Freudian Excuse: Stillman describes the young Fatman as a latchkey kid, abandoned by his father and shunned at school. He embraced demolition as a field where he could easily achieve adoration. But no matter how hard he tried, Fatman's name was only known 'in the trade.'
• Genius Bruiser: Aside from his weight, and thus large size, it was also stated in his backstory that he managed to build an atomic bomb at age ten, simply from the use of a guidebook, and his high marks under Stillman's training were unprecedented.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Fatman is notoriously hard to catch. There are, however, multiple ways to slow him down. Laying down mines in front of his C4s works best, as he always returns to defend his bombs.
• A Glass of Chianti: Although he has to drink it from a straw, because of his blast suit covering his face up to the eye lines.
• Glory Seeker: Due to being neglected and disrespected by both his parents and his childhood peers, he instead seeks recognition by doing the only things he's good at; building bombs and blowing shit up with them.
• Gonk: He's not exactly a hunk, with that baldness and obesity of his.
• High Collar of Doom: His blast suit goes up to his mouth, giving the impression of the trope.
• Hitler Cam: The camera zooms beneath Fatman as he starts to pontificate about his "art."
• It's All About Me: Fatman always had issues with authority and preferred to play by his own bizarre rules. He held contempt for his former mentor Peter Stillman, despite being raised like a son to him, and his ego cost him his job at NEST.
• Joisey: He shows hints of the classic New Jersey accent when speaking.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Stillman thinks he's outmaneuvered Fatman when he sneaks down to the bottom of Shell 2's core, telling Pliskin to continue disarming the decoys as a distraction. However, Fatman had surpassed Stillman in his skills and set a trap; it turned out that the decoy C4s were actually "keys" to activate the real C4s once the decoys had been disarmed. Stillman runs right into an unscented proximity, microwave-triggered bomb, which subsequently activates the countdown.
• Laughably Evil: Compared to the other characters, it's actually quite refreshing to meet someone who wouldn't feel out of place in Team Fortress 2.
• Mad Artist: Fatman views his explosions as performance pieces. He is still obsessed with achieving the recognition he feels he deserves. Having grown bored with his role as a lowly bomb disposal expert, he is bent on becoming the most "famous" bomber of all time.
• Mad Bomber: Vamp even refers to him by that specific name.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: As long as the Big Shell is intact, Fatman will remain unknown to the world at large. His first priority is humiliating and surpassing Peter Stillman; after that, Fatman is perfectly fine with dying in an explosion if it means a Hollywood movie about his exploits.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: The only reason he agreed to act as an agent to the Patriots and participate in the S3 Plan as a test for Raiden's skills was for the opportunity to kill off his mentor Peter Stillman, and otherwise did not actually care one bit for the Patriot's plans.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Inverted: The Patriots got him to cooperate by offering to let him kill Stillman in exchange for participating in the S3 Plan.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Suspicious of Fatman's seeming ineptitude with placing bombs on the struts, Stillman asks Pliskin to take a look at the bottom of Shell 2's Strut H in case bombs had been planted there. Pliskin radios back to Stillman that he was correct and that the other bombs were indeed decoys. Stillman is disturbed at this, not because of the use of decoys, but because Fatman had become so out of control as to abandon his long-standing rules of bombmaking.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Revered as a god in demolition circles. According to Stillman, a quarter of the students at Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal flunk out due to the "hellish" curriculum. Despite that, Fatman surpassed everyone and scored unprecedented high marks (it just came naturally to him). Stillman still believes he can outhink his old student, though Fatman ultimately runs circles around him.
• Parental Neglect: While he was very young, he was pretty much neglected by both his own parents, and often hung around at his father's clock shop.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Going by how he's behaving when meeting up with Raiden, as well as saying "It's time to start the party!" in a clownish tone, he seems to be both insane and almost childish.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Stillman did not fully grasp his protégé's fixation with fame. Natually he feels culpable.
  Stillman: I didn't teach him the most important thing I had to tell him. There are some things you have to pass on. The trick is to know which one. Right... All I taught him were skills. And now I have to stop him from using it to destroy us all.
  • Funnily enough, Stillman calls him this verbatim in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Abridgerty.
• The Mole: Was planted by the Patriots to test Raiden's capabilities in exchange for gaining the chance of killing his mentor Peter Stillman (although Ocelot's explanation during The Reveal implies that he was closer to a Wild Card).
• Real Men Wear Pink: Snake mentions that Fatman takes good care of his hands, even giving himself manicures.
• Small Name, Big Ego: His reign of terror didn't last long — Fatman thought the revolution was his ticket to immortality, but with Stillman dead, his masterpiece was buried along with the Shell.
• Tantrum Throwing: He smashes his wine glass on the ground when Raiden insults his work. Go figure.
• Terrible Ticking: He claims to be able to hear the ticking of impending death, and urges Raiden to try and listen with him.
• Thanatos Gambit: Before dying, he activates a remote detonator and gloats to Raiden that one last bomb remains. Fatman's death did not bother him, as, in his eyes, he was already a "legend" for having killed Stillman. As it turned out, Fatman had hidden the final bomb beneath his body, and once it was defused by Raiden, nobody would ever know about Fatman or his crimes.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He built an ATOMIC BOMB at age 10!
• The Unfavorite: Presumably the reason why he desired fame and was not controllable: he was neglected by his parents while he was very young, and even though he built an atomic bomb at age ten from a guidebook, and was well known in the bomb trade for this, he was hated and shunned at his own school.
• Villainous Glutton: "Laugh and grow fat!"
• Wild Card: Is strongly implied to be this: Ocelot mentioned during The Reveal that even the Patriots had a lot of trouble getting him to cooperate in the S3 Plan, with the proposed murder of Peter Stillman being implied to be the only reason they successfully managed to get him to cooperate.

The Patriots and Associates

The Patriots

"In the end, they're no more than a program. All they can do is repeat the same pattern over and over again. "

"We are formless. We are the very discipline and morality that Americans invoke so often. How can anyone hope to eliminate us? As long as this nation exists, so shall we."

An unseen Omniscient Council of Vagueness introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2 that secretly control United States politics and media. They created the Big Shell incident to see if their new "GW" AI information manipulation system could extend their control to human thought as well, with Raiden as the test subject. The end of Metal Gear Solid 2 suggests that they are a group of twelve people who have been dead for 100 years, or possibly a sentient meme representing the will of the United States. Metal Gear Solid 4, however, reveals the truth behind the group: they were founded by Major Zero, Ocelot, Big Boss, EVA, Sigint, and Para-Medic some time after Portable Ops, with the group splitting into two factions ultimately with one led by Zero and the other by Big Boss. It was later perpetuated by five AIs: GW, TJ, AL, TR, and JD. ("Washington", "Jefferson", "Lincoln", "Roosevelt", and "John Doe"). They also play a role in Big Boss' story, under the alias of Cipher at the time.

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• Anthropomorphic Personification: Campbell referred to them once as the embodiment of the war economy. Considering the Patriots are, as of the 1980s, artificial intelligences that perpetuate the war economy and created it in the first place, this isn't exactly wrong so much as Metaphorically True.
• Abusive Parents: As revealed in Peace Walker, Paz's diary tapes show the Patriots/Cipher adopted her when she was an orphan, and threatened her with Fate Worse than Death if she abandoned or failed her missions. Then there's the sons of Big Boss, who all turned into sociopaths and killers thanks to the way the Patriots had them raised. And that's not even getting into how their predecessor organization, The Philosophers, abducted children from birth and trained them into becoming their agents.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The SOP system was supposed to create a world in which soldiers would always have a place. Instead, it made them unthinking, easily replaceable cogs in meaningless conflicts.
• Ancient Conspiracy:
  • Subverted. They were actually formed in the 1970s and only used the real Ancient Conspiracy, The Philosophers, as a cover story.
  • Likewise, as of The Phantom Pain it's revealed that the Patriots took hold over Cipher, thanks in part to Zero being incapacitated to stop them.
• Bad Boss: In Metal Gear Solid 2, they hold Olga's baby daughter hostage and user her life to threaten her into doing what she wants. They weren't much better during their days as Cipher, as revealed in Peace Walker: Paz openly admitted in her diary that she was terrified of failing them and considered the penalty for doing so a Fate Worse than Death.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Retroactively in Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake stops both of Big Boss' attempts to go to war with the organization, essentially assuring that they control the entire planet by the 21st century.
  • In Metal Gear Solid, Snake stops Liquid's own attempt to go to war with the Patriots. Though Sigint/Donald Anderson and Para-Medic/Dr. Clark are both killed thanks to Ocelot and Gray Fox.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2, their information control system proves to be an outstanding success, and goes on to be the basis of the full SOP system in MGS4. Raiden even fails to halt the terrorist threat; Arsenal Gear crashes into the New York harbor and each of the VIPs die.
• Canon Character All Along: While the AIs and the members that have been dead for a century were first introduced in Sons of Liberty, it's eventually revealed that three member of the modern Patriots were the previously-unseen Dr. Clark (who turned out to be Para-Medic), the DARPA Chief (previously known as Sigint), and none other than Big Boss himself. Out of the remaining two members, EVA was introduced in Snake Eater as an agent of the Patriots' predecessor organization, while Zero is a more roundabout example; despite also being introduced in Snake Eater, his status as the leader of the Patriots isn't revealed until Guns of the Patriots.
• The Chessmaster: Not for nothing does Solidus refer to them as "Players" and the President as an expendable "pawn". Every sneaking mission you play from Metal Gear to Metal Gear Solid 4 is at their behest, to help them realize their own nefarious plans.
• Creative Sterility: Big Boss reveals in Metal Gear Solid 4 that, for all their intelligence and power, the Patriots can only repeat patterns over and over, a weakness that Ocelot exploits to destroy them.
• Death by Irony: Their experiments on Sunny eventually bit them in the ass one last time as said experiments and Otacon's raising of her gave her the intellect to create a worm which obliterated them.
• Didn't See That Coming: There is only a handful of things which the Patriots didn't predict, and most of them worked to their advantage anyway. The two notable exceptions are Ocelot rebuilding GW for his own purposes and faking his possession by Liquid, both examples of him secretly manipulating events to ensure the Patriots' demise. By thinking that they were dealing with Liquid Snake they underestimated their opponent and ended up Out-Gambitted by the true chessmaster himself.
• Evil Is Petty: Murdered Ames via making his pacemaker malfunction, and not just to help sell the "S3 Plan" by mimicking Decoy Octopus' death by FOXDIE. The real reasons why? Because not only had he fulfilled his role in their mission, but they were pissed that he leaked Shadow Moses to Nastasha for her to release to the public, and used it as blackmail to keep her safe and off the board from their influence. So really, they mostly just set up the situation ahead of time as an excuse to kill him out of spite.
• The Evils of Free Will: Free will plus Information Age equals way too much "junk data" accumulating in society. Their goal is to filter and control it all because people obviously cannot be trusted to make their own decisions about what truths to cling to. They also go so far to say that people like Raiden have no rights as individuals by default. Indeed, all of Sons of Liberty is actually an experiment to find the proper method for controlling the Evils of Free Will — the S3 plan stands for "Selection for Societal Sanity", which says volumes about their philosophy.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Even through the Patriots achieved their objectives during the Shadow Moses takeover, they didn't get their maximal objective, which was the death of Solid Snake. Otacon points out that Snake became a counter-cultural hero with the release of Nastasha's book, something the Patriots "weren’t too happy" about. They couldn't tolerate the activity of a "hero" they didn't control, so they laid a trap for him in the Hudson River. This makes perfect sense in the larger scheme of Metal Gear: Big Boss went off the reservation in the 70's and went on to create Big Problems for his old Patriot confederates.
• Full-Circle Revolution: Their creators wanted a replacement for the governments of the world that seemed to care little for their own soldiers and wound up with a collective that doesn't care about them at all.
• Genocide Backfire: Subverted. They deliberately spared only a few members of Dead Cell when they liquidated it specifically to have them try to get revenge on them just to further manipulate them for the S3 Plan. It worked.
• Gone Horribly Wrong:
  • When the A.I.s were being developed by Dr. Strangelove, she initially intended them to be programmed to understand human concepts like empathy so that they could better understand why humans do things and could guide humanity along a brighter path more directly inspired by The Boss' will. However, after she was killed by a vengeful Huey due to not wanting their child to pilot Metal Gear, their development was handed over to Sigint. He instilled them with a much broader set of instructions and gave them the ability to learn for themselves, but they developed their exceedingly pessimistic view of humanity from this.
  • The clones of Big Boss were meant to enforce their will, but it ends up being Solid Snake, one of those clones, who ultimately destroys them and frees the world from their control. For added irony, all three clones rebelled against the Patriots at different points in their career, much like their progenitor
• Greater-Scope Villain: Word of God stated that the reason why the Patriots were created was so Solidus would not be shown as the absolute bad guy.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: With Zero incapacitated as of The Phantom Pain and none of Cipher's "original" members able to stop the AI until it was too late, the Patriots took what they perceived as The Boss's will to its logical if twisted conclusion.
• Hated by All: The A.I.s, for anybody who is aware of their existence. Everyone agrees they need to die, the only question is how.
• He Who Must Not Be Named: Anyone with SOP nanomachines are actually incapable of saying their name, and instead say and/or hear "La Li Lu Le Lo."
• Hypocrite: The Patriots claim humans aren't fit to make their own decisions while criticizing humanity for things they are guilty of.
  • They criticize humans for spending billions on weapons, despite doing the same thing themselves. In fact, it's the main thing they are seen spending money on.
  • They call out humans for spending billions on saving endangered animals rather than aiding against human suffering. The same conversation has the Patriots show themselves to have no concern for the suffering of humans, and even outright relish in holding power over others. In fact, their control over the world sees suffering spread thanks to the war economy.
• I Have Many Names: La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, and the Patriots.
• I Am the Noun: The Patriots don't run the United States, they are the United States. President Johnson alludes to this when he promises the country will implode overnight should the Patriots be unplugged. In a subsequent game, Campbell comments that "the Patriots are the embodiment of the war economy." By that time, however, the framework they put in place is so institutionalized that it can run fine without them.
• I Have Your Wife: The Patriots regularly threaten their agents' loved ones to force compliance, including:
  • Forcing Roy Campbell to spy for them on Snake by threatening to have his daughter Meryl killed.
  • Forcing Olga to aid Raiden by kidnapping and then threatening to kill her newborn daughter.
  • Forcing Rosemary to spy for them by threatening to have her and Raiden's unborn child aborted.
  • Forcing Raiden to kill Solidus by threatening Rosemary, though in this case Solidus himself tried to kill Raiden anyway.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: The Patriot AI Raiden talks with in MGS2 suggests they're memes that simply aggregated into sentience. The AIs actually turn out to have been developed at Zero's behest to serve as his successors.
• Kick the Dog: Hypocrisy aside, they condemn humans for not adhering to Ape Shall Never Kill Ape by spending money on saving endangered animals rather than use it to aid their fellow man, giving a clear indicator that they don't give a damn about rendering endangered species extinct, or about the implication of causing ecological damage.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Snake and his allies consider them this compared to Liquid in MGS4, and do what they can to stop the latter from taking over SOP and thus gaining complete control over the world. As bad as the Patriots are, given how much of a nut Liquid proves to be, they all agree that at least the former would give the world more stability.
• Mission Control: All the Patriots have served as support staff for your missions: Big Boss in Metal Gear, Zero/Para-Medic/SIGINT/EVA during MGS3, the Patriot AIs during MGS2, and Ocelot in MGSV.
• Mysterious Watcher: Smile, you're on candid camera! It's teased by the cypher taking overhead-view snapshots of Snake in the Tanker chapter.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Patriots were this close to assuring their eternal victory in Guns of the Patriots if not for both Snake's actions and Liquid Ocelot's own plots ruining their plans.
• New Media Are Evil:
  • The Patriot AIs ended up creating the constant "war economy" through online systems like SOP.
  • The plan of the Patriot Computer system. They explain that they wish to filter information deemed harmful to the progression of humanity. It is their key program to protect us, to help us prosper, by any means necessary. They rationalize this with an analogy about phenotypic and memetic passing on of both DNA and information. DNA is brutally challenged again and again, resulting in strains that are stronger and more resilient to change or uncertainty; ideas are similar, ideologies die and disappear, ways of thinking change, etc.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: They claim that they act in the best interest of humanity. Given their blatant disregard for human life they display in a needlessly dangerous and expensive plan which only served to test their ability to manipulate human beings, which included likely deliberately leaving the hostages on Big Shell to die since it was made without lifeboats, they seem far more interested in maintaining their own control over anything else.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Their initial appearance in MGS2 has shades of this. Aside from some vague notion that they were born in the White House absolutely nothing is readily known about them, and any attempts at finding out were shown to be futile at best. Not only that but their capacity for control and intimidation made them an unseen specter that most of the MGS2 cast either feared or hated, with even Solidus' actions paling in comparison to the horrors that the Patriots intended to inflict on society. Even at the very end of the game what was shown to be their true human origins was revealed to be fake as well. Meaning that at the end after the credits rolled, their machinations were still in full force and Snake and co. being no closer in finding them.
• Omniscient Council of Vagueness: As Cipher, to the point that by The Phantom Pain, no one knows where Zero is or even Dr. Clark's aka, Para-medic's gender is unknown. Afterwards however, the Patriot AI assume this position using the long-dead Philosophers as their cover.
• Oppressive States of America: They alone run the government and media, censoring or silencing anyone who speaks out against them.
  • One World Order: In addition to their grip over America, their influence and machinations are felt across much of the planet. The most visible manifestion by Guns of the Patriots being the "war economy."
• Pet the Dog: Maybe? They had no reason whatsoever to let Raiden or Rosemary live at the end of Sons of Liberty, especially given everything the former learned about them. Almost as if a reward for killing Solidus and completing the mission, however, they keep eyes on the pair but let them off the hook entirely. This is especially notable since they effectively had Rosemary as a hostage that would die if Raiden failed at any point, meaning they were either lying the entire time, or they held to their word entirely despite total control of the situation.
• Playing with Syringes: Responsible for the Les Enfants Terribles project, cyborgs like Gray Fox, and the FOXDIE Synthetic Plague.
• Pragmatic Villainy: There's no real reason to let most of the heroes walk away from the events that transpire in the first two Solid titles. But they still keep the loose ends around as pawns on the board nonetheless, besides attempting to get Snake branded a terrorist and killed in the Hudson River trap. This ends up biting them in the ass because it leaves the rest of their pawns to be used by Ocelot, who puts them to far better use against the Patriots.
• Prescience Is Predictable: The goal of the S3 plan is to be able to predict and control anything.
• Redemption Equals Death: Big Boss, Ocelot, and EVA believed the world would be a much better place if every member of the Patriots was dead... including them.
  • Subverted with Zero, as revealed in The Phantom Pain. Given that his attempts to atone for his actions and stifle the Patriots at their formative stages were cut short thanks to Skull Face's meddling.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: An extended one to Raiden at the conclusion of MGS2, bordering on a filibuster. Among the greatest hits: The revelation that Raiden's codename is the U.S. Army designation for WWII Japanese bombers, branding him a "weapon" of sorts; that Raiden was selected as a template for the gullible masses whose sense of reality is subliminally dictated by the Patriots; and that Raiden was unknowingly perfecting GW over the course of his mission, even when he believed he was rebelling. Like Solidus, his plan was "invalidated even before execution."
• Repressive, but Efficient: As oppressive and cruel as they can be, the Patriots still run the world effectively and keep things stable, managing critical economic necessities such as water, electricity, communications and transportation. President Johnson and Colonel Campbell both state that without the Patriots, civilization as they know it would collapse entirely, and a big part of MGS4 has Snake and his allies fighting to stop Liquid Ocelot from destroying them, viewing them as the Lesser of Two Evils.
  Snake: No matter who wins, the world has no future. Until we stop Liquid and destroy the System, we'll never be free.
  Campbell: Snake, what we call "peace" is an equilibrium kept in check by the war economy. Destroying the System means wiping out the information society, the end of modern civilization. Like it or not, we may have no choice but to protract the System.
• Revision: MGS4 establishes the entire "Solid Snake saga" has been a civil war between the former support staff that make up the Patriots (Sigint, Para-medic, Zero, the AIs) vs the old guard Philosophers (Big Boss, Eva, Ocelot).
• The Scottish Trope: The Patriots have programmed everybody's Nanomachines with the same blindspot: whenever you try to say "The Patriots," your vocal cords actually produce "The La-li-lu-le-lo." If you have nanomachines in you, you Cannot Spit It Out. ("La-li-lu-le-lo" being a set of sounds that lack corresponding characters in written Japanese, making them impossible to transcribe.)
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Solid Snake, the man who just won't stay dead. "He wasn't included in the simulation!"
  • Liquid Ocelot given that part of his plan involved hijacking the Patriots' own schemes to advance his own.
  • Otacon, given how his actions and upbringing are far more in line with what The Boss wanted than the Patriots could ever hope to achieve.
• Straw Nihilist: The Patriots eventually developed off a very pessimistic view on human nature, and the Patriot AI system was made to avoid the downsides of organic thought, i.e. The Evils of Free Will.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: Every ounce of their philosophy and motivations end up considering humanity so self-destructive that they should have no true, unalienable rights, and that the Patriots do entirely what they think they need to do as self-proclaimed rulers above all, no matter how many people they kill or what minds and emotions they break in the process. Everything they commit is entirely of their own interests in controlling the public's perceived minds, and their manipulations "for the good of all."
• The Unmasqued World: Following the events of MGS4, cyborg and Metal Gear manufacturing runs rampant across the globe, due to a giant backlog of Patriot-suppressed data being disseminated to the public. In the space of four years, military hardware leaps forward a century.
• Voice Changeling: The Patriots taunt Raiden with the voices of dead characters he met in the Shell, as well as a computerized mockery of Rosemary. "Johnson" echoes his earlier line about GW, not Arsenal Gear, being the lynchpin of the Patriots' plot. "Emma" reminds Raiden that the project couldn't have been completed without his unknowing help. Rosemary once more professes her devotion to him, adding sinisterly, "You've got to beLIEve me!" Cold as ice.
• Voice of the Legion: Only one voice at a time, but when they speak, they speak as various different characters, usually Colonel Campbell or Rosemary. Emma Emmerich, President Johnson, and Olga are also imitated a few times.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: As much Raiden tries in MGS2, he can't hope to outthink or outmaneuver the Patriots because his psychological makeup is an open book to them. The whole game is rigged to result in a win for Raiden's masters no matter what.
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Invoked. When Raiden speaks with the Patriot AI at the end of MGS2, it claims the Patriots are a formless entity of consciousness that embodies the will of America itself.

Richard Ames

"You'll never escape the La-li-lu-le-lo!"

Voiced by: Masaharu Sato (JP), Peter Renaday (EN)

"There is not a single record. Let alone his social security number, address, or background, I couldn't even find Ames' gender, age, or full name...All I found out was 'Ames,' just that one word."

Allegedly as a member of the secret service under official records, Richard is actually a DIA/Patriot agent going undercover, presumably to assassinate President Johnson for "betraying" the Patriots. Of course, he ends up being an unwitting pawn himself and dies from his nanomachines getting shut down in a similar fashion to FOXDIE.

---

• Love Redeems: It is heavily implied via Nastasha Romanenko's novel, In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth, that the reason why he ended up not only letting her live from the Shadow Moses Incident, but also supplying evidence against his superiors, the Patriots, to ensure they don't hurt her was because he was starting to fall for Nastasha Romanenko again.
• The Men in Black: No tricks, no superpowers: Just an ordinary spook with a necktie and a bum ticker.
• Redemption Equals Death: Initially believed to be what happened to him in the novel, ends up happening for real during the Big Shell Incident.
• Remember the New Guy?: His first actual appearance was in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, but he was established to have been involved in the events of Metal Gear Solid in the book In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth included in Metal Gear Solid 2. Somewhat justified in this case, as the book was written from the point of view of Nastasha Romanenko regarding the Shadow Moses Incident, so it wouldn't have been likely that Snake would have known about all of this during the mission.
• Unwitting Pawn: Ultimately turned out to be this, and killed for this, along with other reasons.
• You Have Failed Me: After reading In The Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth, it becomes especially apparent that one of the reasons why he was killed off by the Patriots (by causing his pacemaker nanomachines to malfunction) also dealt with this, since he was directly responsible for supplying Nastasha Romanenko with the evidence that led to the publishing of the book in the first place, in addition to the more obvious reasons.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When playing the game without reading Nastasha's novel first, it initially seems like they did this for this trope only.

President James Johnson

"You're... a man...?"

Voiced By: Yuzuru Fujimoto (JP), Paul Lukather (EN)

"It's all a show. 'Democracy' is just a filler for textbooks! Think about it! Do you actually believe that public opinion influences the government?"

The 44th president of the United States who was captured during a press conference at the plant; Raiden is tasked with rescuing him. In reality, Johnson is just a mouthpiece while the real rulers are lurking in the shadows.

---

• Alliterative Name: James Johnson.
• Bread and Circuses: Johnson's election victory was evidently a tight one, mirroring the 2000 Bush/Gore Election. It was all bogus; Johnson's victory was rigged from beginning.
• Crotch-Grab Sex Check: How he makes sure Raiden is a man. At ease, solider!
• The Cynic: He takes it for granted that The Patriots need to exist, and that total societal breakdown, or something worse taking their place would be inevitable with them gone.
• Despair Event Horizon: Originally, Johnson planned on working together with Solidus in order to blackmail the Patriots into giving him more power and influence within the group, but the Patriots manipulated even that desire. Abandoning all hope, Johnson decides to carry out his allotted "role" in the plan.
• Dirty Old Man: His idea of checking if Raiden was a man by a Crotch-Grab Sex Check is hilariously weird — and then you find out he had mistaken him for Olga, meaning he was presumably going to attempt to crotch check her if she confronted him again.
• Distressed Dude: Early in the chapter, Vamp knocks Johnson out and slings him over his shoulder. Subverted in the second half, when he discover that...
• Expy: Like Donald Pleasance in Escape From New York, this President finds himself tossed in jail and his valuable briefcase stolen.
• Faked Kidnapping: The tour of the Big Shell was a cover to allow Johnson to boost Arsenal Gear. It seems Solidus ended up taking him prisoner for real. Oops.
• Foreshadowing: Realizing he was checking if Raiden was actually Olga, mistaking him for a "Patriots assassin" and his surprise that Raiden is a male with effectively only a small handful of potential female candidates on the Big Shell, starts to unravel some of the mysteries and allegiances tied to this entire mess.
• Hidden Depths: In a rare situation, when using the Nikita missile to blow the generator in his room he may randomly backflip with agile grace out of the way instead of simply running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Amusingly, this same animation is used to try to evade the player's camera in a Photograph Mode VR Mission.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: President Johnson ended up defecting to his predecessor's terrorist group, the Sons of Liberty, because he wanted power, more specifically, he was not granted any power whatsoever, basically just being used as a puppet of the Patriots in order to trick the American public into believing that the American public still had any control of who actually is voted into office, and that the Constitution was still being upheld. Unfortunately, it was double subverted, as not only did Solidus end up essentially using him to activate Arsenal Gear to eliminate the Patriots, but it also turned out that even his ambition to wield power similar to that of the Patriots was in fact manipulated by the Patriots (stated in the script, as well as implied by Ocelot in the game itself).
• Punny Name: Johnson's great contribution to the MGS mythos is grabbing other men's johnsons. Volgin continues this proud tradition in MGS3.
• Puppet King: Describing himself as an "insignificant son of a senator," Johnson was selected by the Patriots to succeed George Sears after pledging his loyalty to them. His motivation for cooperating with Solidus was to get a chance to be able to wield actual power.
• Redemption Equals Death: Subverted — though Johnson seems to sacrifice himself to prevent nuclear Armageddon, it's merely a performance. Even in death, he continues to serve the Patriots -– an organization which, in Johnson's mind, must continue to exist.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Solidus floored Johnson by taking him hostage for real. He spends much of the game cooling his heels in a cell, until Ocelot finally gets around to executing him.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn't live beyond the scene he's introduced in. But said scene is a massive Exposition Dump that lasts quite a long while, and Johnson outlines more about the manipulative terror of the Patriots than what the cast knows up to that point, as well as the real purpose of the Big Shell as a cover for Arsenal Gear. And without him trying to gain power through a failed alliance with Solidus, Dead Cell and the Sons of Liberty wouldn't have had access to Arsenal Gear in the first place.
• Take Up My Sword: With his dying breath, the President reiterated his final orders, as "Commander-in-Chief", for Raiden to find Emma and stop Arsenal.
• Too Dumb to Live: On the higher difficulties. Rather than simply diving away from Raiden's incoming missile, he'll start to juke around the room. If he's too close to the generator upon impact, the splash damage will kill him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Patriots arrange for Ocelot to kill him.

GW *SPOILERS*

"The Colonel"/GW

"Raiden, do you copy? You must continue your muh-mission..."

Voiced by: Takeshi Aono (JP), Paul Eiding (EN)

"This is a type of role-playing game. The point is that you play out your part — and I expect you to turn in a perfect performance!"

Initially seeming to be reprising his role as Mission Control to the Player Character, Colonel Roy Campbell appears to be Raiden's commanding officer during the Big Shell Incident. However, Campbell doesn't actually make an appearance in Metal Gear Solid 2 at all. Instead, in a shocking twist, "The Colonel" turns out to be GW, an AI created by The Patriots to control the media released in the United States. Appearing to Raiden as his trusted Mission Control, and occasionally his girlfriend Rose, it manages to deceive him almost the entire game, manipulating him into following its orders.

However, after Emma's virus has been posthumously uploaded into GW's core, and after Raiden has been "betrayed" by Snake and Olga, he malfunctions and, eventually, after some of the most horrifying scenes in the entire game, revealing that he is in fact, not human at all.

After the Big Shell incident, Liquid Ocelot manages to get his hands on GW's remains and rebuilds it to gain access to the Patriot's AI network and take control of the SOP system, with his ultimate goal being to replace JD by GW.

---

• Artificial Intelligence: Although he appears to be human, it becomes apparent by the end of the game that he is not. He tends to think and speak in highly regimented, robotic ways.
• Blunt "Yes": When Raiden asks if GW thinks he has the right to make decisions for the people, GW says, "Absolutely."
• Body Horror: After being infected by Emma's virus, GW's portrait in the Codec calls quickly switches between Campbell's normal face and a terrifying skeletal version with empty eye sockets. Don't believe us? See for yourself.
• Bothering by the Book: The Colonel sounds like he swallowed an army regulations manual.
• The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: Otacon tries tracing his signal after Raiden asks and comes to the conclusion that it can only come from within Arsenal Gear itself. And indeed, his true identity is GW, the AI created by the Patriots to control Arsenal Gear.
• Consummate Liar: Does an excellent job of deceiving Raiden (and the unspoiled player) for most of the game. Even when Raiden starts getting clued into his true identity (after President Johnson informs him of the Patriots and gives Raiden instructions on how to outright attack GW) he keeps his cool, promises to look into the matter, and actually orders Raiden to follow the President's instructions.
• Commander Contrarian: On occasion in the game, but moreso in the graphic novel adaptation. He deflects every question Raiden throws his way, either claiming to be in the dark himself, or assuring him to relax.
• Composite Character: His computerized jibbering proves the Colonel is at least partly based on past FOXHOUND commanders, including Big Boss and UFO-chaser Major Zero. Almost at random, he claims "they've" got Rose in the holds, a flimsy attempt to evoke Meryl's capture in Alaska. (It doesn't work, either.) He also repeats Grey Fox's gibberish from MGS1 in one of his calls.
• Dirty Old Man: As shown in Easter eggs where he harshly criticizes Raiden for being a peeping-tom and consoles Rosemary, or makes allusions to Rose's figure when discussing the enemy disguise item. Additionally, the glitched GW seems to be trying to drive a wedge between her and Raiden, claiming he saw her being "intimate" with a man whose description he conveniently omits.
• Enemy Without: Otacon later explains that Colonel isn't based on any one person, but is rather an amalgam of Raiden's past experiences and training.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The character is only known as "The Colonel". Well, until he turns out to be an AI, where he is given the name "GW" though even that's not a fully accurate description of him.
• Game Master: Practically lampshaded by the Colonel at one point, though it's only when Raiden threatens to go off-script that he loses his cool. He basically acts as Raiden's DM, rail roading the agent from room to room, with a rhetorical flourish to give it a veneer of legitimacy. He even goes along with Raiden's anger of being kept in the dark about things, claiming that even he's being jerked around by the powers that be.
• Humans Are Morons: Makes the case for this during his final Codec call. He seems to believe that people are fundamentally incapable of making the right choices on what information is worthy of being passed down to future generations, so the Patriots will just do that for them.
• Meaningful Name: GW is short for George Washington, someone who is remembered as well... a patriot.
• Mission Control: Like in the first game.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Once affected by Emma's virus. He turns into the Trope Codifier and provides the trope's page image.
• Mouth of Sauron: He is essentially a software personification of the Patriots. He turns up the heat on Raiden whenever he deviates from the mission, and deflects any inconvenient questions with stock military jargon. After the virus is inserted into GW, he appears to malfunction; eventually the Patriots hijack the codec frequency and speak through him.
• Skull for a Head: As his program degenerates, the Colonel's flickers between a skull and an approximation of Campbell's real face. By the end, his head is permanently transparent.
• Spot the Imposter: His name-tag reads Campbell, and he shares his VA. The entire performance, though, is less gruff and more formalized.
• Stop Poking Me!: Push his call buttons many times when he is deteriorating, and this happens:
  Colonel: You wouldn't be trying to give yourself a bogus score using some ingenious trick, would you? That's just about as low as anyone could possibly stoop! I can't believe you sometimes...
• Thanatos Gambit: He actually orchestrates his own breakdown by subtly directing Raiden to discover not just the truth about the Patriots, but the means to attack him via Emma's virus. After all, keeping his true nature secret isn't his end objective. It's to direct Raiden to complete the mission anyway despite that. Indeed, shortly after the destruction of Arsenal, he shows up again alive and well, and proudly claims to have succeeded completely.
• Walking Spoiler: By virtue of being GW and not actually Campbell.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Villainous example as he's rebuilt by Liquid Ocelot to serve his purposes.
• Word-Salad Horror: After Emma's virus infects GW, he begins to spurt off random nonsense:
  Colonel: I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hari Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!
• We Used to Be Friends: The Colonel has no doubt that Snake caused the tanker to sink, that he was a terrorist and was successfully brought to justice. He refuses to even acknowledge that they were once friends. This is obviously not the Colonel Campbell we know, but instead Snake's sworn enemies talking.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The "Colonel" entity itself is not GW, but a result of the AI tampering with Raiden's cerebral nanomachines. What Raiden initially believes to be a real commanding officer, apparently attempting a reformation of FOXHOUND, is actually little more than a pale imitation of Roy Campbell, cobbled together in his mind by his expectations and experience, fed through a computer, and spat back out at him via Codec.

Other

Scott Dolph

"The enemy is sometimes closer than you think, gentlemen."

Voiced By: Daisuke Gōri (JP), Kevin Michael Richardson (EN)

"As a father, I want to leave a better world for the future generation. As a soldier, I know that is my duty."

Fortune's father, and the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, in charge of transporting Metal Gear RAY. He's currently competing with other branches of the military over who gets to develop Metal Gear first — hence the secrecy. For this indiscretion, he falls under the sword. His death has a Disaster Dominoes effect on Dead Cell and causes them to go rogue.

---

• Artistic License – Military: His portrayal of the U.S. Marines' uniforms, jargon, etc. isn't even close to accurate. As seen his page quote above, at one point in his speech, he calls himself a "soldier," an unforgiveable sin for even the lowliest Marine to commit, let alone the single highest ranking officer in the entire Corps.
• Chekhov's Lecture: His speech to the assembled crew of the Discovery provides the Cliff's Notes for MGS1. Dolph also hints at a "major player" who's been interfering the RAY project, but he hesitates to mention who. In an Orwellian twist, MGS4 revealed that anybody carrying nanomachines is blocked from speaking the word "Patriots", depriving them of the ability to even define what the conspiracy is about.
• Creator Cameo: Named after a Konami representative, who also voices one of the hostages in the Plant chapter and was at one point Kojima's personal translator.
• Interservice Rivalry: After the U.S. Army blew its wad with Metal Gear Rex, other branches of the military began to feud over it. Dolph is currently in a race with the Navy to see who will oversee deployment of the next-generation Metal Gears. As it turns out, the Navy (really the Patriots) pinches RAY and tailors it to their own purposes. It's odd that the Marines would be competing with the Navy for war assets since the Marines actually belong to the Department of the Navy. In a real life scenario, the Navy and Marines would share access to a Metal Gear.
• Mauve Shirt: Assassinated by Ocelot in the name of the Patriots. This is the first time anyone name-dropped the organization, if you don't count Otacon in miscellaneous Codec calls.
• Morton's Fork: His goal all along was to maintain a nuclear deterrent.
• Properly Paranoid: He anticipated that several politicians and military personnel would try to stop the project. He was right.
• Semper Fi: Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.
• Throw It In!: In-Universe example: Snake (and the player) had to sneak into RAY's holding chamber during Dolph's speech to photograph RAY and upload the photos, with the timer indicating how long he has left before the speech ends. The timer freezes, however, when he throws a few things into his speech that weren't originally there, such as jokes or stretching exercises.
• Twofer Token Minority: He's African-American and, if rumors are to be believed, bisexual.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wanted to create RAY out of a genuine belief that it would end nuclear proliferation.

Liquid Ocelot

Our raw materials are vintage, brother! Big Boss was in his late fifties when they created his copies! But I...I live on through this arm!

Voiced by: Banjo Ginga (JP; MGS2, MGS4), Cam Clarke (EN; MGS2), Patric Zimmerman (EN; MGS4)

After having Liquid Snake's arm grafted onto his right stump, Revolver Ocelot was apparently possessed by the spirit of the former character. Surviving the events of Sons of Liberty, he took over several PMCs and formed his own version of Outer Heaven. However, Big Boss at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 reveals that this merger wasn't real, though external materials and Word of God have stated that Oceleot was possessed by Liquid but removed the arm and recreated his "possession" because "Liquid" would be less unpredictable and easier for Ocelot to control.

---

• An Arm and a Leg: The reason for his creation: After losing his right arm to the Cyborg Ninja, Ocelot used Liquid's arm for a transplant and gradually gained the latter's personality. By the time of Metal Gear Solid 4 it has been replaced with a robotic arm.
• Badass Longcoat: He wears one in Metal Gear Solid 4 to copy Liquid's trademark style of dress, though he takes it off for the final battle.
• Bad Boss: Displays this in Metal Gear Solid 4, with his hacking the SOP System twice causing his henchmen to have mental breakdowns. During his second attempt, when Vamp warns him of what might happen, Ocelot tells him outright that he's "willing to make a few sacrifices"; the end result is that several of his troops suffer brain damage and become Technically Living Zombies. In the Act 3 mission briefing, Naomi tells Snake and Otacon that Ocelot knew from the very beginning that his hacking attempt in South America would fail, and yet he went ahead with it regardless. All to just revive his war buddy!
• Because Destiny Says So: Part of the reason he gives for his actions in Metal Gear Solid 4, when he explains his Evil Plan to Snake.
  Snake: Liquid, you're planning to recreate the Patriots?
  Liquid: Snake, we were created by the Patriots. We're not men. We're shadows in the shape of men. We're freaks who never should have existed! We're a system... insurance that future generations never prosper. The Patriots saw fit to create us, and in doing so became our only raison d'étre! I won't fight my fate any longer. I'll kill Zero and Big Boss, and become a Patriot myself.
• Big Bad: Of Metal Gear Solid 4. Or maybe not...
• Dark Is Evil: His black sunglasses and coat, items that are distinct to Liquid and not Ocelot.
• Dying as Yourself: After being beaten to a pulp, Ocelot snaps out of possession by Liquid and spends the last thirty seconds of his life as himself.
• Evil Brit: Gains Liquid's distinct accent in his debut, but it's gone by Metal Gear Solid 4. Given Ocelot's true plans, this was likely intentional, though it helps that Ocelot had Liquid's spirit exorcised and his arm replaced.
• Evil Is Petty: In his debut appearance, he taunts Snake over the fact that he will soon undergo Rapid Aging. In Metal Gear Solid 4, he mockingly offers Snake One Last Smoke before blowing his own cigar smoke into his face.
• Final Boss: Of Metal Gear Solid 4, and of Solid Snake's storyline as a whole.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Resorts to fighting Snake with his bare hands in the final battle.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: While Snake smokes cigarettes, he has taken up cigars because they were "father's favorite."
• Grand Theft Me: He is the result of Ocelot being possessed by Liquid Snake. In Metal Gear Solid 4, though, it's revealed that Ocelot is using hypnosis and nanomachines to attain Liquid's personality, though he was actually possessed for a time, with hypnosis mainly being used as a more controllable alternative.
• Hijacked by Ganon: A complicated case. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Solidus and the Patriots were among the Big Bad Ensemble, but by the end of that game, he would become Snake's Arch-Enemy just like in Metal Gear Solid. It is downplayed in Metal Gear Solid 4 however when the "Liquid" encountered since the Tanker Incident was an artificial personality self-induced by Ocelot to fool the Patriots. Then again, Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
• Large Ham: "BROTHEEEERSS!!!"
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It is stated that Ocelot began his "Liquid Ocelot" ruse as far back as when he had Liquid's actual arm attached (ie. Metal Gear Solid 2's Tanker and Big Shell Incidents) but he replaces it for a synthetic arm in the intervening time between 2 and 4 because the initial transplant was unstable and affected his psyche. The implications of this and the apparent cause of instability are left vague, but given that The Sorrow, a medium is his father, and (according to MGSV) Liquid himself may or may not have possessed paranormal abilities, it's more than possible that Liquid really was possessing Ocelot for a time. Word of God says that was indeed the case, the only reason the original arm was replaced was because Liquid's spirit was too difficult to control for Ocelot's plans.
• Nanomachines: He makes liberal use of them when it comes to his soldiers. He also used them to maintain his "possession" ruse.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: He dresses like this on occasion, another trait evocative of Liquid Snake.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He has the personality of Liquid Snake, so this is a given, but it's even more on display here. Just look at his finger guns and childish running away from Snake.
• Robotic Reveal: In the final fight between himself and Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4, he casts off his Badass Longcoat to reveal he's replaced Liquid Snake's transplanted arm with a cybernetic one.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Defied. Not only does he not use Ocelot's trademark revolver when he has the chance, but he switches it out for a single-shot hunting pistol in Metal Gear Solid 4.
• Sinister Shades: In Metal Gear Solid 4, another of Liquid's trademarks.
• Second-Face Smoke: Does this to Snake with cigar smoke.
• Spanner in the Works: Liquid's possession of Ocelot is ultimately what undoes the Patriots, as Ocelot later able to regain his body from Liquid while hypnotizing himself to make it seem as if Liquid was still possessing him, thus making the Patriots think they were dealing with Liquid instead of Ocelot, and allowing for Ocelot to bring about their defeat.
• Visionary Villain: He believes the destruction of the Patriots will bring along a lawless world, but a better one than the previous.
• Voices Are Mental: In Sons Of Liberty, he actually speaks in Liquid's voice when Liquid possesses him. Also serves as clever foreshadowing of his true nature in Guns of the Patriots when "Liquid" spends the whole game voiced by Patric Zimmerman instead of Clarke.

Metal Gear Codename: RAY

Liquid's Ray

^{Mass Produced RAYs}

^{Desperado Ray}

Image Song and Leitmotif (Desperado Ray): Rules of Nature

A new Metal Gear created by the United States Marine Corps. Despite it being a Metal Gear it's purpose was to be an "Anti-Metal Gear" weapon designed to destroy the competition. RAY was also mass-produced into a small army of unmanned units built to protect Arsenal Gear from attack. Later it produced copies used by Liquid Ocelot and Desperado Enforcement, LLC.

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• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • For all it's toughness, the inside of it's mouth might as well be made of styrofoam. One Stinger missile fired inside the mouth will knock off a third of the Mass Produced RAYs and, with some help of Cutscene Power to the Max, Solidus can kill them by shooting in their mouths with a P90, albeit, loaded with customized explosive rounds designed to pierce tank armor.
  • Like most Metal Gear variants, Knee-capping a RAY is a good way to weaken it, at least temporarily.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: RAY was meant to be an "Anti-Metal Gear" designed to end the proliferation of Metal Gears. By the time of Revengeance it's become a destructive weapon available to whoever has the money to buy one.
• BFS: The Desperado RAY includes a massive high-frequency blade in the right pod. Raiden ends up severing it.
• Fragile Speedster: Compared to REX. RAY is sleeker, faster, much more agile, and the prototype was even designed to traverse underwater, but it doesn't have the sheer destructive capabilities that REX did and it's nowhere near as sturdy. To wit, REX can take multiple Stinger missiles without slowing down and remains functional even after being abandoned for ten years, while one missile to the legs is enough to make the RAY lose its footing, and a few to the mouth will outright destroy it.
• Healing Factor: Mass Produced RAYs execrete large volumes of nanopaste once damaged to plug holes in their armor, making it look like they're bleeding.
• Humongous Mecha: Naturally its size is very massive and even the mass-copied RAYs happen to be quite tall.
• Informed Ability: RAY's ability to take down REX and its clones is either an informed ability, or in-universe false advertising.
  • It's built for the express purpose of hunting down and destroying REX units, but the only time REX and RAY square off in MGS4, REX can take it down without too much difficulty. And this is a brand-new RAY^note no, it's not the prototype stolen by Ocelot in MGS2, since it lacks the original's long tail fighting a damaged REX after the latter was blown up, left in a freezing cold warehouse for almost a decade, and then had a major structural component removed without much thought for how the rest was going to balance without it, leaving it a wonder the REX in question can even stand upright, magical-science software upgrades from Otacon or not. Not to mention the fact that it's piloted by a man who has never piloted a Metal Gear, versus Ocelot who has spent considerable time VR training and personally piloting REX. Explained by the fact that RAY was made to fight cookie-cutter imperfect copies of REX built with incomplete data and lesser quality; despite being battered and outdated, REX is the real deal and outperforms anything RAY is supposed to face.
  • Another possible reason is the difference in tactics and numbers. Compared to one-of-a kind Metal Gears, many, many RAY’s appear. They clearly are far easier to mass produce. A single RAY might lose but multiple RAYs may win. Presumably, the ideal strategy is for many, unmanned RAY’s to handle a single REX clone with almost SOP level A.I. guided coordination. Their superior mobility means chasing a fleeing enemy or maneuvering to a better position is more than doable. Focusing on an individual RAY would be difficult. It’s like being hunted by a pack of animals.
• Know When to Fold Them: During their boss fight with Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, a mass produced RAY will simply retreat rather than be destroyed if their HP is completely depleted.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Desperado RAY variant can fire volumes of missiles.
• Making a Splash: Its main weapon is a powerful water cutter allowing it to slice through dense armor. The Desperado model uses a plasma cannon instead. This goes hand-in-hand with the fact RAY models are designed to swim and are almost universally fielded near water sources where they can both restock their ammunition and launch surprise attacks - the two exceptions, both fought in Revengeance, are fought in a densely populated cityscape where getting more water would be difficult, and inside a massive building, where it would be impossible to access the water necessary to fuel their weapon; these models instead work with plasma weapons.
• Meaningful Name: Ray is supposed to work with the 'king' motif REX set, deriving from the French roi. Notably, however, RAY also fits neatly with its aquatic nature, as its 'fins' are designed to look like a penguin's flippers or narrow variants of a manta ray's wings. Fitting, then, that its main weapon is a hydraulic laser and that the RAY line are made up of adept swimmers.
• Our Wyverns Are Different: As opposed to Metal Gear REX, which was named after the dinosaur, RAY is a mecha based on a wyvern, with two wings, two legs, and a tail.
• Sole Survivor: Look at RAY when you fight it in Metal Gear Solid 4. See the tail on it that it didn't have in Sons of Liberty? Interesting that the original Metal Gear RAY, the only non-nuclear Metal Gear, the Metal Gear designed not to launch nuclear weapons from any point on the globe, not to defend bigger nuclear-launch platforms like its production-model knockoffs, but to destroy those weapons of mass destruction, is unaccounted for and spared the fate of every other Metal Gear ever seen; destruction.
• Starter Villain: The RAY deployed by Desperado in Revengeance is the biggest obstacle of the game's first level. It's not the strongest thing there, though; that honor goes to Sundowner and Sam.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Subverted twice-over come Revengeance. Though the RAY fought there is stronger and puts up a much greater fight than the ones from 2, Raiden is also considerably stronger as well needing nothing more than a sword.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Desperado RAY variant replaces the water cutter with a plasma cannon that can cleave a building in half.
• Wolfpack Boss: You don't fight one RAY near the end of Metal Gear Solid 2; you fight multiple RAYs. How many depends on what you set the difficulty level to; it could be as few as three RAYs or as many as 20.
• The Worf Effect: The RAY in Rising is quite a bit stronger than the original model, but it's only the boss of the game's intro level, only testing your basic combat capabilities and Blade Mode. Raiden takes it down without much trouble, with much smaller enemies like Blade Wolf, the Grad in 02, the Winds of Destruction and Armstrong being far tougher opponents.

Metal Gear Codename: Arsenal Gear

Arsenal Gear is a submersible mobile fortress developed by U.S. Navy for cyberwarfare. While it is armed with multiple nuclear warheads, this is the only the tip of the iceberg. Arsenal's true power is the ability to control the information that flows within society via GW, the A.I. inside of Arsenal. This, combine with its seize and nuclear payloads Arsenal Gear is considered to be the largest and most powerful Metal Gear.

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• Artifact Name: Instead of a bipedal tank, Arsenal is actually a gigantic warship. This fits well to its name being a metaphor to the evolutionary change in warfare.
• Awesome, but Impractical: As Solidus points out, while Arsenal Gear is impressive with its nuclear arnaments and its information control capabilites, it requires full aerial and naval support, an army of Metal Gear RAYs to defend it as well as an army of staff to maintain it. Without these requirements, it is nothing more than "a gigantic coffin".
• Base on Wheels: The easiest way to describe Arsenal Gear by its appearance is that it is practically a submersible aircraft carrier.
• Cool Ship: Arsenal Gear is a giant size battleship and the largest of all Metal Gears. In Guns of Patriot, the Outer Heaven battleship that Liquid Ocelot stole is modeled after Arsenal.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: You know that oil decontamination facility you have been exploring for most of the game? It is actually housing a giant submersible ship underneath it below the waves, which is highlighted with its murky shadow whilst the Big Shell facility sinks.
• Humongous Mecha: Averted. Unlike other Metal Gears, Arsenal Gear is not a walker but a giant battleship that towers even the Metal Gears.
• Meaningful Name: Arsenal Gear is a metaphor for the change in warfare the last decades of the 20th century, from nuclear war to war of culture, information, and espionage.
• Military Mashup Machine: In addition to being a giant moving nuclear silo and data collection and processing center, Arsenal also serves as a giant submarine, aircraft carrier and a forward development and operative base for all three military branches of the US Armed Forces.
• The Unfought: Ultimately, Arsenal is not fought as a boss unlike most Metal Gears. Granted that it is too big to fight with conventional weapons since its a warship, not a mecha.

Gary McGolden

A Conspiracy Theorist who wrote the article The Shocking Conspiracy Behind Shadow Moses. After receiving a mysterious optical disc containing information on the Shadow Moses incident, he ventures to the island itself and gets more than he bargained for.

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• Cloudcuckoolander: The guy could give Ronaldo Fryman a run for his money, claiming to have been abducted by aliens as a child, and using a giant fish costume to sneak onto Shadow Moses.
• The Ghost: Never appears in person, although he wrote the article in question.
• Uncertain Doom: He vanishes without a trace after publishing his article, presumably killed off by The Patriots. Quack or not, He Knows Too Much.
• Unwitting Pawn: His conspiracy theories, mixed in what the player knows is true about the Shadow Moses incident, are likely being exploited by The Patriots to discredit the truth of Shadow Moses by association.

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