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troperville

This is a "Wild Mass Guess" entry, where we pull out all the sanity stops on theorizing. The regular entry on this topic is elsewhere. Please see this programme note.

Metal Gear

Before putting a WMG here, consider putting it on one of the following pages first:

Due to Single Issue Wonkers, all theories regarding Time Lords have been moved to Time Lord, including one for this work.

All games after Metal Gear Solid 1 are V.R. simulations.

It's implied that Metal Gear Solid 2 is a V.R. simulation; however, Metal Gear Solid 4 seems to have Jossed that explanation. But who says Metal Gear Solid 4 is real? Maybe it's a V.R. simulation as well.

And just to top it off, maybe all the games that take place during the Cold War are Animus styled reproductions of Big Boss' memories. (of course, this would require Raiden to have some of Big Boss' genetic code, but that's another WMG)

Metal Gear Solid 5 will be an extreme prequel featuring The Boss and her unit.

Think about it, she's pretty much the entire reason all this shit happened in the first place. Why WOULDN'T there be a game with her as the main character.

While this probably won't happen, it would, in fact, be freaking awesome. We can only hope Kojima happens to stumble along this theory and find it to his liking one day...
Better yet, playing as the entire Cobra Unit.
- Or, even better yet, have a game that takes place between PortableOps and the original game, and the main character is Gray Fox.
- Given the Kojima teaser site and the Raiden looking cyborg with one eye bandaged I'd say it's plausible.
- Close. There's two more Metal Gear Solid games coming out, one starring Big Boss, the other starring Raiden.
- If there is a prequel featuring The Boss as the main character — and I think it's bound to happen eventually — I bet you a penny it's prior to her "The Joy" days and her codename is "Hidden Snake", or something
- To be honest, I don't think they'll ever let us play as The Boss. None of us would be Badass enough to play the game as her properly. The game would probably be too easy anyways...
Kojima pitched the idea after MGS4, but didn't feel that the team was experienced enough to make the game without his involvement. Hopefully, we can say that we called it one day.
A game featuring the Boss is plausible, given this.

Big Boss is a metaphor for Hideo Kojima's penis.

He's got one eye, is called 'Big Boss' and 'Naked Snake,' and just about every character he meets gets a crush on him. Also, there weren't any silly/ridiculous WMGs on this page, and I couldn't stand that.

Big Boss is sterile - I hate to think what this implies.
- It's Kojima's way of saying "And YOU people can't have it! Neener neener neener!"
  - Don't forget 'Solid Snake' and how he hides in a box.
  - So the box is Hideo's wife's vagina?
  - It's that old dick in the box prank.
So I guess Raiden, the Cyborg Ninjas, and Snatchers are supposed to be indicative of the sex toy industry? Great for a cheap fix, but incomparable to the real thing (consider how Raiden's role in MGS2 was to make Snake look even bigger than life by observing him in the third person).

John Clark, from Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series, is actually Big Boss

Consider the following:

Warfare Background
- John Clark was a former Navy SEAL who served eighteen months in Vietnam, earning (at last tally) a Silver Star, Navy Cross, and a belated Medal of Honor for his actions. His most well-known mission was a several-day solo excursion deep into enemy territory to rescue a man captured deep behind enemy lines.
- Big Boss was a special forces agent who was active during the post-Cuban Missile Crisis era, same as the Vietnam War. His most well-known mission was a several-day solo excursion deep into enemy territory to rescue a man captured deep behind enemy lines.
Later History
- John Clark retired briefly from the service after his time in Vietnam. He later joined the CIA as a special covert agent. During the process he faked his own death.
- After his standard military service as a member of FOX, Big Boss remained with the unit as it separated itself from the regular military hierarchy to become a special operations task force. Subsequent to the Outer Heaven incident, he faked his own death.
Techniques
- John Clark has throughout his career been an expert in all manner of hand-to-hand and armed combat. Even into his sixties, he still has the physique of a man nearly half his age and can out shoot almost anyone.
- Big Boss was taught combat and warfare skills by The Boss herself. And likewise, into his later years he is still able to outfight almost anyone he comes across, even disarming Solid Snake at the end of MGS4.
Names
- John Clark's first name is John. During his time in the service his nickname was "Snake".
- Big Boss identifies himself as "John". His earlier and best-known codename is Snake.
Continuity
- Putting aside the story of Big Boss being in a coma for most of fifteen years, there is nothing in either man's history that would prevent one from being the other. They, in fact, were the same man, living two separate lives. In the early 60's, John Clark served as a Navy SEAL, during which he studied and learned much of his skill in covert warfare at the feet of The Boss. During his service in Vietnam he distinguished himself during several covert ops. During a brief separation, he returned to civilian life, during which he met a girlfriend who was soon after killed by drug lords she had escaped from. Clark then embarked on a months-long killing spree against those responsible and, with the help of the CIA, faked his own death.

Soon afterward, he entered the service of the FOX unit, which was under CIA direction, as a paramilitary operative. One of his first missions was the famed Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater, during which he killed The Boss and her breakaway special forces group, as well as a renegade Russian Colonel and a private army financed by a shadowy political faction. During the 70's, he helped to form the Patriots, but soon became disgruntled in the directions it took and broke off ties. Rejoining the CIA proper, John Clark undertook several missions against the Soviet Union, including extracting the head of the KGB and his family in "Cardinal of the Kremlin", and leading a secret military excursion against Columbian drug cartels in "Clear and Present Danger". The callous treatment he and his men received at the hands of the political leadership, up to and including being cut off and left to die for the sake of avoiding public embarrassment, further convinced him that politicians would never really respect soldiers the way he believed they should be treated.

During the late 80's, at the CIA's command, Clark established contact with a rebellious faction to attempt to establish Outer Heaven, a small African country where he felt that soldiers could gather to receive the respect and dignity he felt they deserved. In the CIA's eyes this was a harmless diversion, as it attracted rebel generals from the region to seek save haven under Outer Heaven's decree of amnesty for all military personnel, thus gathering many of world's worst dictators and rebel faction leaders together in one place. True to form, Outer Heaven soon collapsed, thanks to the efforts of a young operative, codenamed "Solid Snake" who was sent in without the knowledge of the CIA hierarchy. Despite this, the effort was deemed a success; though Big Boss never stopped thinking what might have been if Outer Heaven had been given a true chance to succeed.

Throughout most of the 90's, Clark continued his work with the CIA, mostly in the agency's field school training new agents and keeping a low profile. Eventually he was called back to active duty, culminating in several missions which lead to a terrorist attack against the American congress, the elevation of President Jack Ryan, and a biological war waged from the Middle East. After these crises were resolved, Big Boss left public service soon before President Ryan's resignation and Robert Jackson's assassination, which lead to the ascension of Solidus Snake as President of the United States. It is unknown what role, if any, Big Boss had to play in this turn of events.

Now out of the public eye, Clark became "Rainbow Six", given command of a small, but elite, group of special ops soldiers for the purpose of worldwide counter terrorism operations. For every mission Rainbow fought against standard terrorists, they fought another against agents and soldiers working for an as-yet-unknown group. This group's operatives were richly financed, and there was evidence of a massive intelligence network at work. Despite this, Clark was able to out think them at almost every turn, saving countless lives in the process. None of his subordinates ever stopped to think how one man, supposedly a mere field operative for most of the past forty years, could consistently unravel the plans of what had to be a worldwide terrorist military network. If ever a statistical study were done, the only logical conclusion would be that Big Boss had some intimate knowledge of this group's plans and methods.

It kinda odd. But looking at all the stuff that goes on in this series, and the Gainax Ending of 2, it seems reasonable.
One problem with this theory: According to The Other Wiki, John Clark was born in 1944, which would make him twenty years old (i.e., the same age as Ocelot) during Operation: Snake Eater. And it's been mentioned (or at least implied) that Big Boss joined the military around 1950. Unless the U.S. has a "Child Soldier" Program that we don't know about, the numbers don't match up.
Child soldiers? AKA one of the main plot points in the series?
- I simply meant that, based on the numbers from Peace Walker, Big Boss was born in 1935, or nine years before John Clark. Big Boss joined the military around 1950 (probably lying about his age), and I don't know if he saw any six-year-olds running around like the way Abraham Simpson did in World War I.

Ocelot's entire adult life has been a Long Con against the Patriots

Everything but everything: his forty years of unswerving service to the Patriots, his betrayal of everyone who knew him, every waking moment under the eyes of his masters, have all been an immense ruse to bring him into the same room as the men who killed his mother and betrayed his idol. And then... there will be a old-western style reckoning. "Six bullets. More than enough to kill anything that moves."

Of course, if the Patriots are as inhuman/immortal as they sell themselves, he may be in for a rude awakening.
Also, there are twelve Patriots. Maybe he should start carrying around two guns.
He owns like three. He has it covered. Ocelot always has it covered.
Nah. He can kill them all with one bullet.
Interestingly enough, there were six founding Patriots. And they all ended up dead.
And Guns of the Patriots confirmed he's been against the Patriots all along, and that the Philosophers and Patriots were different organizations. He was loyal to the latter, but became disenchanted with the group alongside Big Boss and EVA.

Vamp was infected with Dark Matter from the Doomsday World of Boktai.

We know that portals open there, as Snake was himself sucked into the End Of The World twice in Boktai 2 and Boktai 3 (wasn't officially translated in the U.S.). Being forced to feed on the blood of his family just attracted the portal.

Jossed: The Applied Phlebotinum in this case was nanomachines that healed him really fast.
- New theory, Dark Matter is actually nanomachines powered by negative psychic energy. The Gun De Sol massively purifies this. Given the Schizo Tech setting of Boktai, it's not too far a stretch. Vamp's are hybridized with Earth tech.

Meanwhile, Snake has the Lunarian and Solarian genetic markers.

Gotta hand it to the Enfante Terrible project, really. Both the Gun Del Sol and the Gun Del Hell are findable weapons in the Metal Gear Ac!d games. Snake can use them, which in Boktai is explained only those of Solarian and Lunarian blood can do. He really, really should bring along the Gun Del Sol the next time he fights Vamp.

In MGS4, the Solar Gun is an unlockable weapon. That you can use against Vamp. So, he kinda did. However, the Solar Gun's slow-moving projectile makes it very, very easy for him to dodge. It does, however, cause aggravated psyche damage so that if it does hit, beats Vamp quickly.
Bear this in mind: Due to the card-based nature of the Ac!d games, the Lunarian and Solarian genetic markers extend to Teliko, Venus, and the Model 3 Snake clone by default. Which means any of the following:
- The Guns Del Sol/Hell are replicas with no wacky genetic mysticism tied to them.
- Mani Really Gets Around.
- The following WMG-type chart:

People in the Metal Gear continuity with Cross-Continuity Blood Ties

Boktai
- Solid Snake (and presumably the other Les Enfants Terribles children): Solid wields the Gun Del Sol in MGS4 and Ac!d 1 as stated above. EVA was the current Moon Beauty; Big Boss's fear of vampires (try calling Para-Medic in MGS3 and watch what happens when she mentions Dracula) betrays Solarian heritage.
- Teliko: Can wield either Gun Del in Ac!d 1. When she became a Bonus Boss in Ac!d 2's Arena Mode, she decided to trade for a repeating insta-kill SOCOM.
- Venus and Model 3 Snake: Can wield either Gun Del in Ac!d 2. Snake at least has the excuse of being cloned from Solid. Venus might be an attempt to create a Moon Beauty among the Model 3s.
- Sunny: Has apparently been visited by Otenko at least once.
Snatcher
- Solid Snake: May be a temporal Distaff Counterpart of Gillian Seed himself. See further below.
- Dr. Petrovich Madnar: Having apparently survived forcing Solid Snake to either stumble onto mines or shoot RC Missiles at his own back (depending on which way you knocked the sense into him in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake), spent part of the 50 years in between the Great Catastrophe and the events of Snatcher creating Random using Raiden's specs and skin tissue as a base. Elijah was fathered separately of the events of the MSX Metal Gear games.

Fox Hound doesn't give out codenames.

Solid Snake has a brother, named Liquid Snake, and another named Solidus Snake. Their dad went by Naked Snake for a while. Does this look familiar? They're just names!

Why does Solid Snake say his name is David then?
- It's a surname. His full name is David Snake.
- To screw with Hal? "Hal and Dave, lawlz!"

Otacon is not going to go bad-ass.

The much-cited Medicom figures include "Octocom". Given that it's a figure wearing Snake's full set of Octocamo with a mask and we've seen that there's an Octocamo mask in Snake's inventory, surely the figure's name is far more likely to be a transliteration error of "Octocamo" than anything bizarre involving an engineer who's never fired a gun in his life?

But... but... Metal Gear!
But wouldn't it be cool if it ''did''?
- As it turns out, this is subjective re: Otacon himself, but in-game the Octocamo mask can be replaced with the head of Snake's younger self with or without bandanna — this actually is revealed in Act 3's opening cutscene — or the pixelated PS1-graphics head of his MGS1 self, or the different Metal Gear Solid NPCs... including Otacon. Nothing like the scientist who wet his pants now sneaking around as Snake.

Arsenal Gear had a different primary purpose

It was actually designed to run Crysis on maximum settings, after a year or so of casual attempts proved this was impossible on conventional machines.

Explains why it crashed, at any rate.tropes

Snake isn't actually fluent in six languages

Snake appears fluent in multiple languages because he's able to recognize intonation. This allows him to recognize an ideal sentence fragment to repeat back to the speaker with a question mark at the end. He doesn't actually know what he's saying.

A Hind D?
Metal Gear?!
Your Russian is superb?
Subverted/Averted. His VA can do it, therefore, so can he.

Continuing with that theory, all of Metal Gear Solid is a historical reenactment, with or without VR

Could explain why killing people lowers your score.

In a twist on the above...

Hideo Kojima is behind everything, and will be the final boss of the final game. That game's plot will involve Snake learning that the Metal Gear Solid games inspired the builders of the "real" Metal Gears, and he will invade Konami headquarters in order to stop the franchise once and for all.

In a series wherein the fourth wall wasn't so much broken as only half-built to begin with, what could be a more fitting end?

David Hayter actually being the real author of the entire series, from 1987, as well as plot to rule the world from his real Outer Heaven in northern South Africa. He gave us shades of it, after all, on one of the channels in the opening scenes of MGS4.

Going along with the above, Ocelot - or at least the older version thereof - is actually Hideo Kojima in disguise.

Because honestly, he would pretty much have to be the god of the franchise's universe in order to survive all the vendettas he must've piled up over the years.

Considering that the Patriots are supposed to be Memes, who want to control and destroy other memes...

...What would be more appropriate (and horrific) than recruiting other memes to fight back?

Snake is going to use a Kalashnikitty to destroy the Patriots' Metal Gear Crab. Despite losing an eye in the process, he will have to defeat it by attacking its weak point, for massive damage. He will then proceed to get in the Patriots' base and start killing their dudes by doing a barrel roll.
- Assuming the Patriots are Memes, then logically speaking, what is the single largest known Meme spawning point? Yes, that's right: the Patriots are 4CHAN!! Arsenal Gear was designed to control the internet to ensure 4chan's survival! The entire Metal Gear series has been a plan to get 4chan to make up memes ABOUT METAL GEAR! And the best bit? Hideo Kojima is leading the Patriots, and is behind the whole damn thing!
- Which would mean... that the real hero of MGS4 is going to be Tom Cruise!
  - Let's not get crazy now.
  - It doesn't matter though, because about halfway through the game, Chuck Norris would sneeze, and everyone would die instantly from the blast.
  - Including the player and his family.

The Patriots, in particular the Wisemans' Committee, aren't memes or AI or anything so strange.

They're zombies. All twelve members of the Wisemans' Committee died about a hundred years ago. It didn't stop them.

They're all vampires. All twelve members of the Wisemans' Committee died about a hundred years ago.
Turns out that Old Snake calls the hundred-years-ago thing "a load of crap," and the Wisemen's Committee's last member died after World War II. As for the Patriots, which really had nothing to do with the Wisemen's Committee, the original six founding Patriots were human but were succeeded by AIs after the falling-out and presumably the deaths of Dr. Clark/Para-Medic and Donald Anderson/Sigint.

Solid Snake is not a clone

He is Big Boss's son the old fashioned way. Maybe with EVA, thus 'Big Mama'. Or (since it is Wild Mass Guessing) Para-Medic!

He's an imperfect clone, along with Liquid Snake, like the Star Wars clone troopers; in contrast, Solidus Snake would be the 'true' clone, like Boba Fett.

The Metal Gears are precursors of the Dreadnoughts of Warhammer 40000

Realistically speaking, bipedal robots are a pain in the ass to build and get working, simply due to the mechanics of human movement. As such, the modern military normally doesn't consider them a viable combat option. However, the Metal Gear series has depicted various government and terrorist organizations building Metal Gears for various military purposes, which leads to the logical question: if conventional tanks are more effective than bipedal robots, why the hell are they going through all this fuss to build bipedal war machines, let alone making them nuclear? The answer: because the Emperor is pulling the strings behind the scenes (or even in front of the scenes) to make sure the perfect design is created for a bipedal robot to mass produce as part of the original Space Marine legions.

Which means that the Emperor is either Big Boss (and isn't actually dead, this explains why they did experiments to create super soldiers from Big Boss' genes) or Hideo Kojima (which, knowing the Metal Gear series, is probably more likely...).
Coincidentally, Big Boss' "Super Soldier" genes would eventually be used to create the first proto-Astartes. That means that all the Thunder Warriors, Primarchs and Space Marines can trace their lineage directly back to Jack.

Hideo Kojima reads TV Tropes regularly, particularly the WMG sections

It's the only way to explain how he managed to single-handedly deal with almost every WMG issue regarding Metal Gear in one fell swoop with MGS4.

Johnny Sasaki is going to be the protagonist in Metal Gear Solid 5

Sure, he spends the majority of the series as a diarrhea-plagued Butt Monkey, but man, does he ever power level during the later parts of the fourth game. Once that mask comes off, he looks exactly like a younger blonde Snake. Not only that, but he even gets Meryl in the end, who a lot of fans consider 'Snake's Girl.' Given that Snake won't be the protagonist in future games, someone's gotta replace him. So why not Johnny? Why else would they spend time deconstructing the Joke Character when he could have just remained a faceless Mook? It even makes some sense considering the very nature of the Metal Gear games.

Following this, Johnny is the fourth Son of Big Boss, either biologically or clone-ically.
- Or rather, Johnny is the only remaining and only successful Genome Soldier. He survived ten years on pure "Soldier Genes" of the highest caliber. He certainly takes bullets like a Snake.
  - His codename? Bose-Einsteinium-Condensate Snake.
  - I have a really bad sore throat, and this put me in a lot of pain from laughing so hard...
Alternatively, Meryl will be the main character and Johnny will take the Mission Control role.
- Or both will be playable, with online co-op.

Ghost Babel, Metal Gear Acid and its sequel are an alternate continuity

Specifically, one where the events of Metal Gear Solid 1-4 never took place because Solidus and Liquid Snake were not cloned-or perhaps killed at some point (perhaps by Big Boss himself), leaving Solid as the only survivor (in Metal Gear Acid 2, it specifically says that the main character is a clone). This had a stabilizing effect on world affairs as neither of his brothers tried to start uprisings, and ironically the Patriots interfered less in global affairs due to the decrease in overall conflict around the world. As a result, any conflicts remained primarily physical (rogue Metal Gear units) instead of biological or information-based.

True, at least for the Acid games. The Snake of Acid 1 is stated to have toppled Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land per the MSX games, but never bothered coming back after leaving the military and either didn't participate in the Shadow Moses incident or got the Otacon ending and never formed Philanthropy. However, the allegation of fewer biologically motivated conflicts is wrong, since both Acid games feature a wealth of genetically (or chemically) modified soldiers.

Big Boss eventually becomes Shelly de Killer.

If the info from the Metal Gear Wiki

is accurate (since I haven't played all the games yet, I don't know for sure), then Big Boss' real full name is John Doe. This is also the real name of gentleman assassin Shelly de Killer. From this, we can conclude that Big Boss, in fact, does not die at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, but instead manages to stubbornly cling to life for at least until early 2017, during which time he became the third professional assassin to use the de Killer name.

Since we know de Killer values trust above all else, and trust isn't too far removed from loyalty, Big Boss shouldn't have too much trouble filling the role.
- Big Boss' name is just John. Calling himself "John Doe" was a joke.

Solid Snake is really his voice actor.

Did anyone but me notice that David Hayter voices Snake? And Snake says his name is Dave? And of course Metal Gear Solid loves to break the fourth wall.

Logically, then, Solid Snake is also Captain America, which...well, yeah, actually.
In MGS4, possibly false insofar as David Hayter actually appears as an in-universe version of himself... if somehow the pre-gameplay TV commercials have any status in continuity.
- This proves nothing. He's even wearing a Solid Eye in the commercial.
- And don't forget the talk-show host interviewing him is Eva's voice actor, too. Any who, I don't see why the TV content can't be in-canon; they're just shows that exist circa 2014 with today's propensity for bling-bling turned up to eleven as well as a highly bizarre Mood Dissonance for us, the player, because the world as it is in Guns of the Patriots is rather bleaker than it is today. Also, the commercials are all for the five largest PMCs, and the question the contestant on the talk-show host fails is trivia about them, as well.

The ending of MGS2 and MGS4 never happened.

Snake really did pass to Solidus' side in MGS2, Raiden was killed by Ninja Olga and the ending of MGS2 plus all of MGS4 are a dream he had while dying.

No, of course not. It's obvious that the entirety of Metal Gear Solid 2 is a dream. Whose nightmare is it? That one marine in the tanker chapter who came to work in his underwear. It's the standard "came to work naked" dream, which eventually gets a little out of hand.

The Snake Tales DID happen!.

"Confidential Legacy" happens in 2005 just a few months after Shadow Moses, then in 2006, Snake is introduced to the Big Shell, the hidden place where the US is constructing another Metal Gear (Kept in secret) he goes through "Dead Man's Whisper" then on early 2007, before the Tanker incident, "A Wrongdoing" happens (Ames is referring to "Confidential Legacy" when he speaks about Snake's mission on a tanker, instead of the proper Tanker incident) much later in the year, Snake and Otacon form Philantrophy, and Snake is implicated in the Tanker incident, then, the government makes the Big Shell public, although hiding it's true purpose, Snake rescues Emma in "Big Shell Evil" (E. E. later returns to the plant after having an argument with Otacon) and finally in 2008 he infiltrates Big Shell again to do the "External Gazer" mission (Which is mostly VR anyways). Snake completed all of them with non-lethal methods.

Hideo Kojima is any combination of the following:

Blessed with the gift of prophecy, a Time Lord and/or The Chessmaster behind Anonymous.

Observe the following conversation, taken from the game script of MGS2 on GameFAQs:

Otacon: Snake — There's something I have to tell you.

Snake: What?

Otacon: We didn't dig up this info — about the new Metal Gear — on our own. Not like usual...

Snake: How did you find out, then?

Otacon: It was a tip. An anonymous tip.

Snake: Anonymous? You've never trusted those — why would you start now?

I assume this sounds perfectly innocent when it's voice-acted, but consider the actual words: Capitalize the 'a' in Otacon's last line, and consider the '—' in Snake's last line him interrupting himself (presumably to stop himself calling them "hackers on steroids") and suddenly it's NOT. SO. INNOCENT! According to The Other Wiki, 4chan was launched in October 2003, almost two years after Metal Gear Solid 2 itself was released! So you see, clearly this means that— hang on, there's someone at the door, I'll be back to finish this post shortly.

The previous poster is clearly insane. Pay him no mind. His absence is due to ordinary liver problems and will be...resolved shortly.
You shouldn't have done that...

Snake does not actually recognize "Master Miller" in Metal Gear Solid.

The characters are well aware of the fourth wall (or lack thereof). As such, they are also aware of technical improvements from one game console to the next, and that their own appearances can change from game to game. So when Liquid impersonated Miller, Snake had no idea what Miller was actually supposed to look like (not having seen him since Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake on the MSX2), and as a result was easily fooled by Liquid's Paper-Thin Disguise. This also explains why nobody noticed Otacon's hair change from gray to brown between the first two games or his inexplicable bishiefication in MGS4. For the same reason, Snake can hardly be expected to notice anything unusual about Miller's voice, since until that point everyone had spoken in subtitles.

This fits in well with the polygon mask in MGS4 and the flashbacks to original graphics in MGS2 and 4.

Zone Of The Enders takes place in Metal Gear Solid's future.

The Orbital Frames and L.E.V.s are "descendants" of the Metal Gears. Furthermore, The Patriots are somehow connected to "The Will Of Metatron".

This is actually supported in MGS3. Check out the model of Jehuty on Granin's desk.

Johnny Sasaki has a codename, and it is Gaseous Snake.

They call him that because of his bowel problems and the fact that, well, he kinda looks like Snake.

Solid Snake is actually Gillian Seed from Snatcher

See Snatcher for an explanation.

There are no clones of Big Boss.

He's just so awesome that he stuck his toes through a rift in space/time and they all became little replicas of him once they popped out the other side.

Big Boss has a Code

Explains how he fell a really long distance—twice—and survived, along with all the other punishment he takes, and how he was still alive in MGS4. For a really happy ending, he gives it to Snake at the end, so he can live longer than a few months.

So, what was Snake's geass before he was given Big Boss's code?
- The Solid Eye of course.
But if he had a Code during the Virtuous Mission, then how did he age? You don't age when you have a Code.
- Nanomachines.

Big Boss is Odin in disguise.

He looks the part. And it would explain everything he's managed to survive.

This, of course, means that he faked his death again at the end of MGS4, as the All Father is fated to perish at the hands of Fenrir, and as such he couldn't die to a new FOXDIE variant.
- Really? Fenrir is often depicted as a wolf or other canine. Dogs are used to hunt foxes (much to This Troper's fury), hence making dogs "Foxdie." So FOXDIE (Fenrir) killed Big Boss (Odin).
Which would also make Outer Heaven Valhalla, the Norse "warrior's heaven" (which Odin was in charge of).

Metal Gear Solid 5 will involve the original Metal Gear RAY.

Plenty of speculation goes on about who the protagonist will be in MGS5 without any thought about the opposition. Pay attention to the fight in MGS4 between Metal Gear REX and Metal Gear RAY; although RAY has a cockpit, it has no tail. This is not the original Metal Gear RAY built by the Marines and stolen from the tanker by Ocelot, but a production-model. Liquid didn't just have the tail removed (and what reason he'd have for doing that, I don't know anyway) because the AI-driven RAY units that launch from Outer Haven and attack the Missouri later have the same two-eyed, no-tail design. They're likely a newer version of the AI driven production models seen at the end of Sons of Liberty, incorporating a cockpit but remaining, primarily, unmanned units.

Thus, the original Metal Gear RAY is pretty much the only loose end in MGS4. We have no idea where it is. Odds are it's going to show up in the next game, possibly absconded with by some militant group seeking to impose their will on a smaller country that lacks a sizable state army and no longer has large PMCs to hire. Though RAY isn't nuclear capable like REX, it can still attack strategic targets from the water or a decent distance inland, where local forces too weak to take on entire armored columns would be incapable of fighting it off. It could very well be an effective tool for terrorism, able to hit hard and retreat very quickly.

Also, if it was one of the mass-produced RAY:s and not the original, it gives us a good explanation for how Snake managed to beat it while piloting REX (aside from sheer baddassness, that is), despite RAY being designed to counter REX. Since it was one of the mass-produced RAY:s, it would likely be of lesser quality and thus weaker than the original. Compare with the RAY:s Raiden was fighting in MGS2; they were mass-produced to guard Arsenal Gear, and Raiden managed to take down a number of them.

Otacon is an otakin of Snake.

It makes sense. Although he has to believe that reincarnation is not time-constrained for it to work.

Otacon is an otakin of Konata.

Otacon... o-ta-kon... Konota.. Konata! They're both self-professed otaku, and well, somebody back me up on this. (This implies nothing about a connection to Suzumiya Haruhi.)

The Boss and the Big Boss were prior (or future) The Guys

Mainly because every time I type "The Boss (the Joy)", or vice versa, I immediately think of The Kid The Guy or Grandfather the Guy, etc.

Big Boss is actually the reason that early bacteria evolved differentiation between the sexes

This one honestly makes perfect sense. Big Boss is SO SEXY that it created a ripple in time, back to before life began. This aura of sexiness covered the universe, and when life began to develop, the bacterium that were originally just splitting in two to procreate evolved sex chromosomes out of the futile hope that it would allow them to sleep with him. Since then, all animal and plant life and more or less anything with an urge to procreate has that urge in the off chance that it means that they'll get to have sex with Big Boss.

Adrian Veidt was a secret associate of the Patriots whose fate wasn't settled in Guns of the Patriots, and will be the Big Bad in MGS 5.

Given the different political situations of the Metal Gear and Watchmen universes, Veidt had to channel his Dark Messiah tendencies into something a bit more subtle.

Kojima Production's special E3 2010 shows a bunch of video screens showing different programs. Hmm, now where have we seen that before?

The main character of MGS5 will be Sunny.

The sun is a recurring motif in MGS4. All Acts, with the exception of Naked Sin, have the word 'sun' in their title. Sunny even gets the final line in the series (as of now) which incidentally refers to the sun again. Sunny will take on the role of main character, with Otacon as support and perhaps some help from Raiden's son and Meryl and her team.

Tai-yooooooooh!

Snake's Revenge exists in the Metal Gear Solid universe...

As a Hollywood action movie based on the Zanzibar Land incident, or what the public THINKS happened there. Campbell mentions he and Snake being the only ones who know the truth of what happened there, suggesting that what the public knows is very different.

Roy Campbell is part Nanoha.

How else can he instantly befriend prisoners from within an army truck AND detect when the wrong people are killed in Snake Eater? Green Beret cross-training with the TSAB, that's how.

Solid Snake has a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome or another high-functioning autism spectrum condition.

It might explain the echolalia.

Echolalia?
- Echolalia.

The name "Metal Gear Solid" refers to Snake himself.

In MGS4, Otacon says that the name 'Metal Gear' is applied to a walking tank relevant in terms of the tactical nuclear map (hence why the non-nuke carrying RAY and Mk II were still Metal Gears), and MGS2 makes it clear that Philanthropy was allowed and encouraged to exist by the Patriots, presumably for controlling the wild Metal Gear proliferation that Ocelot had been forced to start under the guise of working for Solidus. Basically, Solid Snake himself is a 'walking tank', relevant in terms of the tactical nuclear map. "Metal Gear Solid" could therefore be an in-universe description of him, and it's just like Kojima to do something like that, isn't it?

Big Boss's scar is due to an operation he underwent as a result of the injury that put him in a coma.

Alternatively, Kojima read one too many M-Preg fics...

Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar is a cyborg

There's cyborg Ninjas, why not a cyborg scientist? Who better to Cyborgize somebody than Doctor Madnar, Cyborg Doctor?

The deaths of Sigint and Para-Medic were both assisted suicides

In The Last Days Of Foxhound webcomic, DARPA chief Donald Anderson talks Ocelot into killing him so he wouldn't reveal that Ocelot was involved with the Patriots in exchange for not letting Foxhound have the code to activate REX. Since he's Sigint it would explain why he knew all this as he founded the Patriots with Ocelot, so that would fit into canon. Whether Sigint still supported Zero's methods or just wanted to keep nukes out of Foxhound's hands is up for debate. Dr Clark aka Para-Medic may have also done a similar thing although her motivations are a little more sketchy, possibly to prevent herself from messing with the laws of nature, or possibly so she'd never have to deal with any of the recessive/dominant bullshit ever again, which she tried to explain to Big Boss who grasped completely the wrong end of completely the wrong stick and used it to drill in an inferiority complex in Liquid Snake.

Zero was behind Liquid's upbringing

They are both Brits and Zero seems to have been behind a lot of things, why not his old teammate's project.

Considering they share the same Japanese voice actor, this would be really fitting.

Ocelot raised Liquid and Solid and Snake and both had their memories of this replaced/wiped.

Because it would be dramatic.

EXTREMELY STUPID CROSSOVER-TYPE THEORY GO!!

House is the fourth clone of Big Boss and he found a way to fix and reverse the rapid aging problem, along with FOXDIE. Through cardboard box-related threats, Snake made him share this secret with him and became young again/FOXDIE-less. He faked his own death so that far into the future he could become the mysterious Master Chief. And, in the past, Ocelot fathered Light Yagami, Lelouch Lamperouge, and many others, including God. Because his Manipulative Bastard / Chess Master / Magnificent Bastard skills are In the Blood.

Metal Gear and Hellsing share a universe.

Big Boss is said to have been with a group called the Wild Geese for some amount of time. That could be the mercenaries from Hellsing, hell Big Boss could've been fighting alongside Pip's dad/grandpa. Other than that I have no proof besides Rule Of Cool and wouldn't it have just been awesome to see what Millennium would've done with their own Metal Gear?

The reference is most likely directed towards the classic war movie The Wild Geese, featuring a group of mercenaries.

Ocelot knew he was the biological son of The Boss.

Two versions.
1) Big Boss figured it out after finding out that he's a x-tuple agent brought up in a Philosopher-controlled facility. The time frame fits, and he even looks like his parents in MGS3, as far as This Troper is concerned (she didn't know that they were related before the end of MGS4, mind you.) He then used this to cement his trust with Ocelot and earn him a lifelong and loyal-to-death subordinate (without realizing that he didn't have to do any of this, of course.)
2) The Boss herself told Ocelot/he figured it out himself during the events of Operation Snake Eater. Given that Ocelot was ADAM all along he must have picked up on The Boss' true mission from the start, and might have even called her out on this. The Boss must have also been aware of Ocelot's true status, both as a triple agent and her son, so she might have either outright told Ocelot or let him cautiously probe the information out of him. If her impending Heroic Sacrifice wasn't enough a reason for Ocelot to trust her and make a promise that he wouldn't intervene with Volgin's and Snake's match, this information surely was.

As a side note, regarding Ocelot's sudden ability to counter and act against Snake's CQC in the plane sequence after defeating The Boss, The Boss might have, either by her own volition or after being asked by Ocelot, taught him some basic CQC. As she and Snake were both the very best in CQC, basics is a pretty liberal term here, so a small-scale Training from Hell might have ensued. All the more time for The Boss to tell him or for Ocelot to figure it out.

Besides, Ocelot is ever only portrayed showing real loyalty towards The Boss and Big Boss. The latter he was in love with (canonically now) and the former... well, Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas.

The entirety of Metal Gear Solid is a fantasy concocted by Roach, and also his Dying Dream.

At some point during the campaign, Roach gets a little disgruntled at how much he's done, for seemingly little effect. He starts thinking back to "Cliffhangers" - the basic elements are there, a sneaking mission in a frozen environment, complete with near-sighted guards using FAMAS'. However, in his hypothetical world, Roach is a great and respected hero, with a better codename - Snake, that sounds good. Solid Snake, the brave war hero, single-handedly stopping the evil terrorists from destroying the world, none of this shoddy Gray and Grey Morality. Metal Gear, of course, is a representation of the submarine from "Contingency."

After retrieving the DSM, and being knocked silly by an artillery blast, Roach's scrambled mind rethinks the events of his original story, and...well...Metal Gear Solid 2. Finally, after being shot by Shepherd, who he finds represents the scheming politicians of the world, who could care less about soldiers, Snake (now much older, as Roach realizes the end is nigh) destroys the Patriots. He then reconciles with Big Boss (Price, whom Roach was more than a little annoyed at after he launched the nuke). And then he dies.

The entire series is one big Stealth Parody...

...of Hollywood action movies.

The poisonous Zanzibar hamsters are poisonous because they were injected with nanomachines

Hey, if they can make a guy into an invincible vampire who walks on water, prototypes could probably make a hamster poisonous...at least in the Metal Gear world.

The HD Collection will have a Nintendo 6 version, with Twin Snakes as an exclusive bonus

Being a partnership with Nintendo is 99% the reason it isn't in the PS2 or 360 versions.

Kojima thinks that the gene for blond hair is common in all non-Japanese ethnic groups.

The games have several fair-haired characters of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (Scott Dolph, Fortune, and Drebin), a blonde Kurd (Sniper Wolf), a couple of blond Eurasians (Kazuhira Miller, and possibly Liquid Snake if you consider Vulcan Raven's remark about Snake's Asian ancestry to be canon), and Paz is pretending to be a blonde Latina. None of this is impossible (see the Real Life section of Dark-Skinned Blond), but fair-haired people of color seem uncommonly thick on the ground in this universe. Combined with all the blond and white-haired Europeans and white Americans, maybe someone on the creative team just has a blond hair fetish?

Metal Gear Solid 5 will be a remake of Metal Gear and/or Metal Gear 2.

It has been announced

that Metal Gear Solid 5 is being developed and Solid Snake is in it. Since the story of the series for the time featuring Solid Snake has been pretty much settled with Metal Gear Solid 4, the first two installments will be redone. This will mean a lot more background info on the bosses, possibly new characters and redesigned environments in Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land.

The only problem with this theory is that it makes too much sense.

Metal Gear Solid 5 will include VR simulations of the Normandy Invasion.

Kojima did say that he wanted to set a Metal Gear during that scenario. VR simulations will allow him to include that as well as Solid Snake. Who might technically play as the Boss in a game-within-a-game.

Metal Gear Solid 5 will feature all three Snake brothers and Raiden as playable characters.

Because why the hell not? This would allow all of them to get more fleshed out backstories, show the plot from multiple perspectives, and give Liquid and Solidus another chance to strut their stuff. Depending on when it takes place, Raiden could be a child soldier, a partially trained Foxhound operative, or in his cyborg body from Solid 4.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is actually Metal Gear Solid 2.

Ground Zeros was said to be a prologue for Solid 5. If Ground Zeros deals with the founding of the Patriots or the birth of the Sons of Big Boss, it would actually explain what the hell was going on in that game. And yes, it did technically star Solid Snake for part of the game.

The Giant Death Robots in Civilization 5 are actually Metal Gears.

They look fairly similar. They also require Uranium to run, and the description references several of REX's weapons- missiles, gattling gun, laser, kung-fu -, as well as it's origins: Although not currently found on the modern battlefield, no doubt across the world governments and evil corporations are secretly developing these metal behemoths even as we speak

The bosses in Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake had microbombs much like the Cobra Unit.

It explains why they all explode when killed. Well, I'll give Grey Fox a mulligan if you assume stumbled onto a mine. Why microbombs? Big Boss was inspired by the Cobras. Simple.

Burned Face from the new trailer is a new character.

His name will be Major General Adolf Draken, former black ops commander of the CIA, and of a direct military intervention of the African government of Nyumba. He proceeded to eliminate both factions and set up a puppet government, the main export of which is Blood Diamonds. He proceeds to siphon off most of the proceeds to fund his own organisation: Valhalla Express (disguised as, but not a part of XOF)

Adolf is titled "The Wolf" to contrast with "Fox, not after Hitler.

Metal Gear Solid 5 will end up being the obligatory series reboot.

Kojima has a way of going back on his words, but from a business perspective, it seems all the more likely. For one, the series is both storied and a massive hit, but it has yet to break into mainstream success. Konami will want there to be a new jump-in point for a new market unfamiliar with the series's convoluted continuity. The easy solution is to start over from the beginning. It helps that number five is set to appear on next-gen consoles. Since it's already in a planning stage, it could debut early on the next-gen lineup, meaning more people will gravitate to it and Konami will be rolling in cash.

In Metal Gear Solid 5, you'll play a man infused with Solid Snake's personality.

Solid Snake would've obviously died of old age by MGS 5. However, as Liquid Ocelot and Screaming Mantis show, it's perfectly possible to use nanomachines and hypnosis to brainwash someone into having another person's personality. Solid Snake is one of the greatest soldiers who ever lived, and the government would find it incredibly useful to get a new one. Hell, maybe they plan on using this technology on more than one person at a time, so that they can get an entire army of Solid Snakes. Over the course of the game, the conditioning slowly slips away, and the protagonist regains his former personality.

Raiden is an alternate-universe Spider-Man

Think about it. Raiden is a Butt Monkey rookie hero, following in the footsteps of a legendary Super-soldier, who later becomes a superhuman with super strength, and has a [[Comic Book/Venom monstrous nemesis]]. Sound familliar at all?

Mercenaries

WMG/Video Games

Metal Gear Solid