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* CigarChomper: He picked up the habit from The Boss, who was known to smoke them.
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* CigarChomper: He picked up the habit from The Boss, who was known to smoke them. His preferred smokes appearing to be a fictional brand of Cuban cigars, modeled after the H. Uppman No. 2.
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** Subverted with his battle against The End, where if the player kills the old sniper early or lets him die of old age first, Snake will mention disappointment that he didn't beat the old man in a fair battle.
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* RunningBothSides: Since he founded FOXHOUND and Outer Heaven, he ran both organizations till Solid Snake exposed him.
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* TraumaCongaLine: Let's face it. From ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' to ''Metal Gear 2'', his life has been one huge TraumaCongaLine.
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* TraumaCongaLine: Let's face it. From ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' Operation Snake Eater to ''Metal Gear 2'', Zanzibar Land, his life has been one huge TraumaCongaLine.
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* {{Revenge}}: One of the key reasons for his actions, as well as being a FatalFlaw. A lot of his actions began because of being an UnwittingPawn forced by the government to kill The Boss for an unjustifiable reason. Unfortunately, his anger toward the government makes him want to create a world where soldiers will always be needed, and forgets the Boss's wish for a peaceful world that she wanted him to continue in her steed.
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* CoveredWithScars: Admits to this in ''Snake Eater'', and Volgin acknowledges this in his torture scene.
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* CoveredWithScars: Admits to this in ''Snake Eater'', and Volgin acknowledges this in his torture scene.scene if you received enough wounds to max out your life bar.
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->AKA: Jack, John Doe, Naked Snake, Vic Boss, The Legendary Soldier, The Legendary Mercenary, Saladin, [[spoiler:Ishmael]]
->Naked Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/DavidHayter (EN)\\
Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland (EN)\\
Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
->Naked Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/DavidHayter (EN)\\
Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland (EN)\\
Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: #-E]]
[[folder: #-E]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: F-M]]
[[folder: F-M]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: N-Z]]
[[folder: N-Z]]
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* ZenSurvivor: [[spoiler: With moments left to live, Boss is completely calm and offers some final wisdom to Snake.]]
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* ZenSurvivor: [[spoiler: With moments left to live, Boss is completely calm and offers some final wisdom to Snake.]]]]
[[/folder]]
[[/folder]]
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* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first game, Big Boss is a generic villain with no personality. Come Metal Gear 2, he becomes far more complex and with more complicated motives and philosophies than most villains in modern games, let alone the 8-bit era. The prequel games add on to this, detailing that he was an eccentric dork prior to his FaceHeelTurn.
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* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first game, Big Boss is a generic villain with no personality. Come Metal Gear 2, he becomes far more complex and with more complicated motives and philosophies than most villains in modern games, let alone the 8-bit era. However, his father-son relationship with Solid Snake is completely absent, since the plot point wasn't even introduced at that point, leaving his appearance in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' to address that. The prequel games add on to this, detailing that he was an eccentric dork prior to his FaceHeelTurn.
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* AndIMustScream: After his [[spoiler:battle with Snake at Zanzibar, was he was left heavy burned and just barely alive, but the Patriots recovered him and injected him with nanomachines to keep him from dying. After this he was kept in a cryogenic coma, during which he was semi-aware, as the Patriots as they used him for extensive experiments, leaving quite the marks on his already damaged body. He was in that state for 15 years until the destruction of the Patriot [=AIs=] finally let him wake up. Luckily for him, EVA had in the meantime been able to steal his body back from where the Patriots kept him and used parts of Liquid and Solidus' bodies to restore him to his former appearance.]]
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* AndIMustScream: After his [[spoiler:battle with Snake at Zanzibar, was he was left heavy heavily burned and just barely alive, but the Patriots recovered him and injected him with nanomachines to keep him from dying. After this he was kept in a cryogenic coma, during which he was semi-aware, as the Patriots as they used him for extensive experiments, leaving quite the marks on his already damaged body. He was in that state for 15 years until the destruction of the Patriot [=AIs=] finally let him wake up. Luckily for him, EVA had in the meantime been able to steal his body back from where the Patriots kept him and used parts of Liquid and Solidus' bodies to restore him to his former appearance.]]
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Big Boss is still "Big Boss" in the original Japanese.
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* MeaningfulName: "[[FinalBoss Big Boss]]" is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? His Japanese name is "Tai-pan", a clever double meaning; it's shorthand for "big shot" or "boss" in corporate culture, but taipan is also a type of snake.
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* MeaningfulName: "[[FinalBoss Big Boss]]" is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? His Japanese Chinese name is "Tai-pan", a clever double meaning; it's shorthand for "big shot" or "boss" in corporate culture, but taipan is also a type of snake.
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* BigBad: Of ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', wanting to enforce his ideals of Outer Heaven and giving soldiers like him a place in the world through nuclear superiority, using Outer Heaven in South Africa (''Metal Gear'') and Zanzibarland (''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'') as his bases of operations.
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* BigBad: Of ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', wanting to enforce his ideals of Outer Heaven and giving give soldiers like him a place in the world through nuclear superiority, using Outer Heaven in South Africa (''Metal Gear'') and Zanzibarland Zanzibar Land (''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'') as his bases of operations.
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Removing misinformation
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* ShroudedInMyth: Big Boss literally has no identity, making him a perfect candidate for FOX. Even "John" is suggested to be yet another alias. ''[=MGS4=]'' suggests that the Patriots actually exaggerated a good portion of his reputation to cement his status as their icon.
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* ShroudedInMyth: Big Boss literally has no identity, making him a perfect candidate for FOX. Even "John" is suggested to be yet another alias. ''[=MGS4=]'' suggests that the Patriots actually exaggerated a good portion of his reputation to cement his status as their icon.
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** The phrasing of Big Mama's speech about this time period during the events of [=Metal Gear Solid 4=] implies that Big Boss feigned surrender and friendship to [[spoiler:Zero]] while simultaneously maintaining quiet, remote leadership of Outer Heaven. [[spoiler: ''The Phantom Pain'' makes this a bit more believable when you realize that the "Big Boss" one running Outer Heaven at that point was really Venom Snake--relieving Big Boss of the demand of being in two places at the same time.]]
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** The phrasing of Big Mama's speech about this time period during the events of [=Metal Gear Solid 4=] implies that Big Boss feigned surrender and friendship to [[spoiler:Zero]] while simultaneously maintaining quiet, remote leadership of Outer Heaven. [[spoiler: ''The Phantom Pain'' makes this a bit more believable when you realize that the "Big Boss" one running Outer Heaven at that point was really Venom Snake--relieving Snake -- relieving Big Boss of the demand of being in two places at the same time.]]
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* HesJustHiding: {{In-universe}}. Not that he had much of a choice, though, given the fact that he was injected with will-subduing nanomachines shortly after being [[spoiler:recovered from Zanzibar Land]] by the Patriots.
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* HesJustHiding: {{In-universe}}.InUniverse. Not that he had much of a choice, though, given the fact that he was injected with will-subduing nanomachines shortly after being [[spoiler:recovered from Zanzibar Land]] by the Patriots.
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* AbsurdPhobia: He is quite afraid of Vampires. Played With a bit though, in that, in the ''Metal Gear'' universe, that might not an entirely irrational fear.
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* AbsurdPhobia: He is quite afraid of Vampires. Played With a bit though, in that, In his defense, in the ''Metal Gear'' universe, universe that might not an entirely irrational fear.
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* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have To Be Vampires?]]: He's ''deathly'' afraid of vampires and all subject matter related to them - specifically, Bram Stoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''. Para-Medic uses this to raise his adrenaline levels and spur him into action.
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** In ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'' alone, on the ill-fated Virtuous Mission he ends up getting his arm broken, a broken rib and multiple lacerations from [[CurbStompBattle coming out second-best]] to The Boss and being thrown off a bridge. Not even given a week of recovery where his medical officer admits he should be back in intensive care rather than on a mission to save the world, he then gets shot in the thigh with a crossbow bolt, poisoned by the venom of one of the deadliest spiders on earth, beaten to within an inch of his life, subjected to 10 million volts of electroshock torture which is so painful that he ''pisses himself'' and ''then'' gets his eye shot out. A normal person put through this would be a physical and psychological wreck, but this is the greatest soldier in the world we're talking about, so this doesn't even slow him down.
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** In ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'' alone, on the ill-fated Virtuous Mission he ends up getting his arm broken, a broken rib and multiple lacerations from [[CurbStompBattle coming out second-best]] to The Boss and being thrown off a bridge. Not even given a week of recovery where his medical officer admits he should be back in intensive care rather than on a mission to save the world, he then gets shot in the thigh with a crossbow bolt, poisoned by the venom of one of the deadliest spiders on earth, beaten to within an inch of his life, subjected to 10 million volts of electroshock torture which is so painful that he ''pisses himself'' and ''then'' gets his eye shot out. And this is ''just'' what happens to him canonically in the story cutscenes, not even counting injuries that can be received in the game. A normal person put through all this would be a physical and psychological wreck, but this is the greatest soldier in the world we're talking about, so this doesn't even slow him down.
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** In ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'' alone, on the ill-fated Virtuous Mission he ends up getting his arm broken, a broken rib and multiple lacerations from [[CurbStompBattle coming out second-best]] to The Boss and being thrown off a bridge. Not even given a week of recovery where his medical officer admits he should be back in intensive care rather than on a mission to save the world, he then gets shot in the thigh with a crossbow bolt, poisoned by the venom of one of the deadliest spiders on earth, beaten to within an inch of his life, subjected to 10 million volts of electroshock torture which is so painful that he ''pisses himself'' and ''then'' gets his eye shot out. A normal person put through this would be a physical and psychological wreck, but this is the greatest soldier in the world we're talking about, so this doesn't even slow him down.
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This is Ho-Yay. Not enough to push the concept of intentional design.
Deleted line(s) 31 (click to see context) :
* AmbiguouslyBi: A rather...complicated aspect of his character, is Big Boss's sexuality, which is often debated by fans. While he's canonically only had sex with a woman, and reacts with confusion to EVA informing him of Ocelot's attraction to him, his relationships with both Miller and Ocelot is ''dripping'' with homoeroticism and UnresolvedSexualTension. It should also be noted that he goes on a date, and has ''sex'' with Miller in an admittedly non-canon sideop in Peacewalker.
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Hard to clarify, but Snake explicitly said this to Naomi in Metal Gear Solid.
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** In ''Metal Gear Solid'', Snake tell Naomi that [Big Boss] wanted to die after telling the Snake told him that Big Boss himself told him he was his father.
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* AmbiguouslyBi: A rather...complicated aspect of his character, is Big Boss's sexuality, which is often debated by fans. While he's canonically only had sex with a woman, and reacts with confusion to EVA informing him of Ocelot's attraction to him, his relationships with both Miller and Ocelot is ''dripping'' with homoeroticism and UnresolvedSexualTension. It should also be noted that he goes on a date, and has ''sex'' with Miller in an admittedly non-canon sideop in Peacewalker.
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While he was originally little more than the BigBad of the first two ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games, Big Boss later received a great deal of CharacterDevelopment, becoming the [[TragicHero tragic]] [[TragicVillain protagonist]] of the prequel games. For tropes pertaining to his appearances in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Phantom Pain]]'' as Venom Snake, [[spoiler:err, Ishmael, sorry,]] go [[Characters/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain here]].
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While he was originally little more than the BigBad of the first two ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games, Big Boss later received a great deal of CharacterDevelopment, becoming the [[TragicHero tragic]] [[TragicVillain protagonist]] of the prequel games. For tropes pertaining to his appearances in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Phantom Pain]]'' as Venom Snake, [[spoiler:err, Ishmael, sorry,]] go [[Characters/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain [[Characters/MetalGearSolidV here]].
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->Naked Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/DavidHayter (EN)
->Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland (EN)
->Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
->Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland (EN)
->Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
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->Naked Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/DavidHayter (EN)
->Snake(EN)\\
Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland(EN)
->Big(EN)\\
Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
->Snake
Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland
->Big
Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
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** He believed the government's story that The Boss defected to the USSR. It took Eva flatly telling him the truth to get him to understand. To his credit, even tho he witnessed the "defection" with his own eyes, he still didn't FULLY believe it and constantly kept pressing The Boss for answers or to admit she didn't really defect.
** He originally misunderstood The Boss's goals that she wanted to pass on. Instead of seeking a united and peaceful world where soldiers would no longer be needed, or to live happily by leaving the world to its own devices, Big Boss sought to change the world and reshape it to where there was constant war and soldiers would always be valued and have a place. It wasn't until years later, at the end of his life, did he finally understand what she wanted and managed to pass it onto his son.
** He originally misunderstood The Boss's goals that she wanted to pass on. Instead of seeking a united and peaceful world where soldiers would no longer be needed, or to live happily by leaving the world to its own devices, Big Boss sought to change the world and reshape it to where there was constant war and soldiers would always be valued and have a place. It wasn't until years later, at the end of his life, did he finally understand what she wanted and managed to pass it onto his son.
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** He believed the government's story that The Boss defected to the USSR. It took Eva flatly telling him the truth to get him to understand. To his credit, even tho though he witnessed the "defection" with his own eyes, he still didn't FULLY ''fully'' believe it and constantly kept pressing The Boss for answers or to admit she didn't really defect.
** He originally misunderstood The Boss's goals that she wanted to pass on. Instead of seeking a united and peaceful world where soldiers would no longer be needed, or to live happily by leaving the world to its own devices, Big Boss sought to change the world and reshape it to where there was constant war and soldiers would always be valued and have a place. It wasn't until years later, at the end of his life,did that he finally understand understood what she wanted and managed to pass it onto his son.
** He originally misunderstood The Boss's goals that she wanted to pass on. Instead of seeking a united and peaceful world where soldiers would no longer be needed, or to live happily by leaving the world to its own devices, Big Boss sought to change the world and reshape it to where there was constant war and soldiers would always be valued and have a place. It wasn't until years later, at the end of his life,
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** He trusted Miller as his partner and co-leader of his PMC, the MSF. It was then revealed that Miller had been in collusion with and receiving funding from Zero. Who Big Boss considered his greatest enemy at the time.
** He allowed Chico to try to sell a photo of the Chrysalis and pass it off as a UFO photograph because he believed that Chico wouldn't actually be able to. The end result was that Chico successfully sell a Chrysalis photograph to a tabloid magazine in Grenada, to which Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada's prime minister at the time, read it, and believing it as well as various rumors about various cattle mutilations and abductions being reported across the Americas that were suspected to be the result of the CIA Peace Sentinels activities, requested for the UN to set up a research facility to investigate aliens, which also nearly got the Prime Minister targeted by the CIA.
** He allowed Chico to try to sell a photo of the Chrysalis and pass it off as a UFO photograph because he believed that Chico wouldn't actually be able to. The end result was that Chico successfully sell a Chrysalis photograph to a tabloid magazine in Grenada, to which Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada's prime minister at the time, read it, and believing it as well as various rumors about various cattle mutilations and abductions being reported across the Americas that were suspected to be the result of the CIA Peace Sentinels activities, requested for the UN to set up a research facility to investigate aliens, which also nearly got the Prime Minister targeted by the CIA.
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** He trusted Miller as his partner and co-leader of his PMC, the MSF. It was then revealed that Miller had been in collusion with and receiving funding from Zero. Who Zero, who Big Boss considered his greatest enemy at the time.
** He allowed Chico to try to sell a photo of the Chrysalis and pass it off as a UFO photograph because he believed that Chico wouldn't actually be able to. The end result was that Chico successfullysell sold a Chrysalis photograph to a tabloid magazine in Grenada, to which Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada's prime minister at the time, read it, and believing it as well as various rumors about various cattle mutilations and abductions being reported across the Americas that were suspected to be the result of the CIA Peace Sentinels activities, requested for the UN to set up a research facility to investigate aliens, which also nearly got the Prime Minister targeted by the CIA.
** He allowed Chico to try to sell a photo of the Chrysalis and pass it off as a UFO photograph because he believed that Chico wouldn't actually be able to. The end result was that Chico successfully
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** He trusted and recruited Huey Emmerich to his PMC as the head of his research staff. Huey in turn sold the PMC out to Skull Face and helped them with the attack on Motherbase that destroyed the MSF and nearly killed Big Boss.
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** He trusted and recruited Huey Emmerich to his PMC as the head of his research staff. Huey in turn sold the PMC out to Skull Face and helped them with the attack on Motherbase Mother Base that destroyed the MSF and nearly killed Big Boss.
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* HumanPopsicle: For the duration of the [=MGS=] games. His frozen remains serve as a MacGuffin for the Genome Soldiers.
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* HumanPopsicle: For the duration of the [=MGS=] MGS games. His frozen remains serve as a MacGuffin for the Genome Soldiers.soldiers and the rogue FOXHOUND, who are demanding his remains so they can use them to cure genetic disorders the Genome army is apparently suffering from as a result of gene therapy.
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* IHaveManyNames: Sniper Wolf knows him as "Saladin", a high honor in the middle east. He has also gone by the name Naked Snake, John Doe, and Jack.
** In the NES localizations, he's "Commander South" (a play on the controversial [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Col. Olliver North]]), "Colonel Vermon [=CaTaffy=]" (UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi), and "[[AwesomeMcCoolName Higharolla]] [[PunnyName Kockamamie]]" (Ruhollah Khomeini -- subtle, eh?).
** In the NES localizations, he's "Commander South" (a play on the controversial [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Col. Olliver North]]), "Colonel Vermon [=CaTaffy=]" (UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi), and "[[AwesomeMcCoolName Higharolla]] [[PunnyName Kockamamie]]" (Ruhollah Khomeini -- subtle, eh?).
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* IHaveManyNames: Sniper Wolf knows him as "Saladin", a high honor in the middle east.Middle East. He has also gone by the name Naked Snake, John Doe, and Jack.
** In the NES localizations, he's "Commander South" (a play on the controversial [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Col.Olliver Oliver North]]), "Colonel Vermon [=CaTaffy=]" (UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi), and "[[AwesomeMcCoolName Higharolla]] [[PunnyName Kockamamie]]" (Ruhollah Khomeini -- subtle, eh?).
** In the NES localizations, he's "Commander South" (a play on the controversial [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Col.
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* MeaningfulName: "[[FinalBoss Big Boss]]" is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? (His Japanese name is "Tai-pan", a clever double meaning; it's shorthand for "big shot" or "boss" in corporate culture, but taipan is also a type of snake.)
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* MeaningfulName: "[[FinalBoss Big Boss]]" is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? (His His Japanese name is "Tai-pan", a clever double meaning; it's shorthand for "big shot" or "boss" in corporate culture, but taipan is also a type of snake.)
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wrong snake
Deleted line(s) 99 (click to see context) :
** In ''Metal Gear Solid'', Snake tell Naomi that he ''wanted'' to die after telling the latter that Big Boss told him he was his father.
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Badass Grandpa is no longer considered a trope and in correspondence with this thread
, all links to it are being deleted.
, all links to it are being deleted.Deleted line(s) 41 (click to see context) :
* BadassGrandpa: By the end of his life, he's well into his later years.
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Changed line(s) 224 (click to see context) from:
* StartOfDarkness: his character arcs over ''Snake Eater'' and ''Peace Walker'' {{prequel}} games show you just what motivated him to create Outer Heaven and become the BigBad of the first two ''Metal Gear'' games: seeing how disposable soldiers are to the world first hand over and over again eventaully drove him to create a place where soldiers would be honored rather than thrown to the side.
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* StartOfDarkness: his His character arcs over ''Snake Eater'' and ''Peace Walker'' {{prequel}} games show you just what motivated him to create Outer Heaven and become the BigBad of the first two ''Metal Gear'' games: seeing how disposable soldiers are to the world first hand over and over again eventaully drove him to create a place where soldiers would be honored rather than thrown to the side.
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Changed line(s) 224 (click to see context) from:
* StartOfDarkness: Got to experience how disposable soldiers are to the world first hand during Operation Snake Eater, and it played a large part in motivating him to create Outer Heaven, a place where soldiers would be honored rather than thrown to the side.
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* StartOfDarkness: Got his character arcs over ''Snake Eater'' and ''Peace Walker'' {{prequel}} games show you just what motivated him to experience create Outer Heaven and become the BigBad of the first two ''Metal Gear'' games: seeing how disposable soldiers are to the world first hand during Operation Snake Eater, over and it played a large part in motivating over again eventaully drove him to create Outer Heaven, a place where soldiers would be honored rather than thrown to the side.side.
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Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
[[caption-width-right:370:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgsv_snake.png[[/labelnote]] to see Big Boss in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'']]
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Changed line(s) 122 (click to see context) from:
* EyepatchOfPower
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* EyepatchOfPowerEyepatchOfPower: Losing an eye doesn't stop him from being a good shot..
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* WouldntHurtAChild: In ''[=MGS3=]'', though he's perfectly willing to fight and beat up Ocelot, he refuses to let EVA shoot him InTheBack as he's running away because he's "still young."
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Go [[Characters/MetalGear here]] for the main character index.
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[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/big_boss_2_857.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:340:"This is good, isn't it?"]]
[[caption-width-right:340:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgs3_bb_7986.png[[/labelnote]] to see Naked Snake in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater MGS3]]'']]
[[caption-width-right:340:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/big_boss_1_877.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see Snake in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker MGS:PW]]'']]
[[caption-width-right:370:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgsv_snake.png[[/labelnote]] to see Big Boss in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'']]
->AKA: Jack, John Doe, Naked Snake, Vic Boss, The Legendary Soldier, The Legendary Mercenary, Saladin, [[spoiler:Ishmael]]
->Naked Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/DavidHayter (EN)
->Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland (EN)
->Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
-->''"If the times demand it, we'll be revolutionaries, criminals, terrorists. And yes, we may all be headed straight to hell. But what better place for us than this? It is our only home. Our heaven and our hell. This is Outer Heaven."''
In 1964, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater a man named John, an agent of the Black Ops unit FOX, saves the world from nuclear Armageddon]]. Along the way, he's forced to slay his teacher and adoptive mother, codenamed "The Boss". For his actions, he is christened "[[YouKillItYouBoughtIt Big Boss]]" by the President of the United States and inherits his teacher's title of "The Greatest Warrior of The Twentieth Century".
He later goes on to found the private military companies Militaires Sans Frontieres and Diamond Dogs, as well as the U.S. Army black ops group FOXHOUND. In the first ''Metal Gear'' game Big Boss secretly leads the uprising at Outer Heaven and sends FOXHOUND rookie Solid Snake to investigate it, not expecting that he will actually survive. In ''Metal Gear 2'' Big Boss takes control of Zanzibar Land and kidnaps a scientist who developed an alternative fuel source. Solid Snake is sent in to rescue the scientist, and ultimately kills Big Boss with a makeshift flamethrower.
While he was originally little more than the BigBad of the first two ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games, Big Boss later received a great deal of CharacterDevelopment, becoming the [[TragicHero tragic]] [[TragicVillain protagonist]] of the prequel games. For tropes pertaining to his appearances in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Phantom Pain]]'' as Venom Snake, [[spoiler:err, Ishmael, sorry,]] go [[Characters/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain here]].
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* EightiesHair: Has a mullet [[TheSixties twenty years early]] and sports it throughout TheSeventies.
* TheAce: Considered this throughout [=MGS3=], and his legend exploits this. He's good enough that losing an eye only leads to one instance of trouble with depth perception. Then he gets [[BrokenAce broken]].
* AbsurdPhobia: He is quite afraid of Vampires. Played With a bit though, in that, in the ''Metal Gear'' universe, that might not an entirely irrational fear.
* {{Adorkable}}: In ''Snake Eater'', it turns out that he's a huge dork for cardboard boxes, has a penchant for weird food, and has a phobia of [[{{Vampire}} Vampires]]. [[BreakTheCutie Unfortunately, this changes drastically over time]], [[NotSoAboveItAll though he does retain some of his endearing traits afterwards.]]
** One of the said endearing traits includes believing in Santa Claus. Yes, the battle hardened soldier that turned his back on his country and founded his own army without borders...believes in Santa Claus.
* AffablyEvil: He may have been willing to cross any line to give soldiers a place in the world, but he was an otherwise likable guy: [[BenevolentBoss kind to his subordinates]], [[BaddieFlattery respectful of his enemies]], and full of many {{adorkable}} character quirks.
* AlliterativeName: His {{codename}} is '''B'''ig '''B'''oss.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Shows shades of this in ''Snake Eater'' and ''Peace Walker''. Despite his charisma, he's not very sociable and tends to not handle emotions well, has a tendency for [[ParrotExposition repeating other people's phrases]], has unusually dedicated obsessions with guns and cardboard boxes, is surprisingly naive and trusting towards people who end up deceiving him in some major way (Miller, Paz, Huey), and has some rather unusual beliefs (such as being afraid of vampires and believing in Santa Claus well into his 30s). His sons also exhibit a few of these traits.
* AndIMustScream: After his [[spoiler:battle with Snake at Zanzibar, was he was left heavy burned and just barely alive, but the Patriots recovered him and injected him with nanomachines to keep him from dying. After this he was kept in a cryogenic coma, during which he was semi-aware, as the Patriots as they used him for extensive experiments, leaving quite the marks on his already damaged body. He was in that state for 15 years until the destruction of the Patriot [=AIs=] finally let him wake up. Luckily for him, EVA had in the meantime been able to steal his body back from where the Patriots kept him and used parts of Liquid and Solidus' bodies to restore him to his former appearance.]]
* AntiHero: During his younger days, he was trying to make the world a better place, even if it meant fighting and killing on the battlefield to do so. And even after becoming [[KnightInSourArmour extremely disillusioned]] at the end of ''Snake Eater'', he nonetheless keeps trying to do the right thing.
* AntiVillain: After realizing in the 1970s that he rejects the Boss's philosophy of self-sacrifice for nations that care nothing for you, he becomes willing to kill, torture and brainwash even non-combatants to make his dream of a nation where soldiers will always be needed a reality. Eventually, he even threatens the world with a nuclear weapon. However, even at his most villainous, he still showed compassion to his former enemies and [[AFatherToHisMen cared deeply for his men]].
* ArchnemesisDad: He's the nemesis of one of his own sons, Solid Snake, in ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2''. Liquid is immensely jealous, having wanted to kill Big Boss for years, and Solidus was likely thinking along similar lines.
* TheAtoner: While he's very much aware of how far he's fallen, takes him decades [[spoiler:until the end of ''Guns of the Patriots'']] before he at long last atones.
* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:He returns at the end of ''[=MGS4=]'', only to die shortly after.]]
* BadassBack: Some of his CQC moves allow for these moments.
* BadassBaritone: David Hayter gives him the same baritone Snake's famous for. Replaced later by Richard Doyle and Kiefer Sutherland.
* BadassBeard: Though some in the world community would consider it a BeardOfEvil.
* BadassBoast: "You don't have what it takes to kill me."
* BadassGrandpa: By the end of his life, he's well into his later years.
* BadassInANiceSuit: For his final appearance in [[spoiler:''The Guns of the Patriots''.]]
* BadassLongcoat: In his later years. The khaki trenchcoat is standard attire for FOXHOUND, but it originated with Gene's FOX unit.
* BadassNormal: Unlike his sons, Big Boss has had no genetic tampering, nor nano-augmentation, nor suit of power armor. Yet he has pulled off feats that rival or even surpass even Solid Snake's accomplishments, time and time again.
* BadLiar: During the Peace Walker incident, whenever confronted in regards to why Big Boss is in Costa Rica, he always comes up with a lie about why he's there, a lie that's very easy to pick apart. These include:
** Claiming that he was a Colombian bird photographer when meeting Amanda and the FSLN. His camera is not even set right, and when he rescues Chico, he actually slips up and calls himself a War Photographer. To cover up his mistake, he says that he takes pictures of "the birds at the battlefield" in a somewhat unsure tone.
** Claiming that he's an Entymologist, and that he's looking for the Ulysses butterfly. Huey points out that Ulysses butterflies are not present in Costa Rica, and Snakes says he meant the Morphos butterfly, and he's trying to get some for the CITES Washington Treaty. Huey tells him they aren't covered in the treaty.
** Claiming that he's an Ornithologist and that he was looking for the Quetzal for the CITES Washington Treaty.
* BagOfSpilling: A rival military outfit, the XOF, takes out Mother Base, along with Big Boss' entire arsenal. Big Boss lands in a nine-year coma after this incident, which strips away his muscle mass.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: In ''[=MGS3=]'' he, along with Sigint and Major Zero, came up with the American classification for the dreaded Mil Mi-24 (the "Hind"), and he was also the one who came up with the cardboard box trick that Snake and Raiden made frequent use of. With the help of Kazuhira Miller, he also founded the world's first private military companies.
* BeingGoodSucks: Moreso than Solid Snake, and he knows it too. ''Everything'' he did was for the sake of his country and The Boss, but no matter what, life found a way to take everything from him. When he finds out the whole world wants him dead, he decides he's had enough and created Outer Heaven.
** BeingEvilSucks: At the same time, he ultimately realizes how selfish his goal was, and wants to fulfill The Boss' will correctly. When he sees Snake one last time, he commends him for not falling the path he did.
* BenevolentBoss: There's a reason why his followers have genuine undying loyalty to Big Boss.
* BigBad: Of ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', wanting to enforce his ideals of Outer Heaven and giving soldiers like him a place in the world through nuclear superiority, using Outer Heaven in South Africa (''Metal Gear'') and Zanzibarland (''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'') as his bases of operations.
* BigNo: Lets one out during [[spoiler: Paz's HeroicSuicide at the end of ''Ground Zeroes'']].
* BloodKnight: One of his primary reasons for creating Outer Heaven, and later, Zanzibar Land, was to give him and his soldiers a place where they can go to war endlessly, due to the fact that he only ever felt truly alive when fighting in a war. He did originally intend and, more importantly, attempted to live his life peacefully after Operation Snake Eater (namely as an instructor or a hunting guide), but he ended up dragged back onto the battlefield.
* BodyDouble: [[spoiler:How he survived the original game, as revealed in ''The Phantom Pain''.]]
* BookEnds: ''[=MGS3=]'' ended with Big Boss saluting the Boss at her grave, thus beginning his StartOfDarkness, while ''[=MGS4=]'' ended with him saluting the Boss once more in his death throes.
** Chronologically, the whole series begins and ends with him smoking a cigar.
* BreakTheCutie: He was a fairly nice guy who wanted nothing more than to serve his country. Operation Snake Eater changed that, and turned him into a bitter and angry shell of a man. Losing an eye and [[spoiler:killing your old mentor ([[FakeDefector who never even betrayed her country]])]] will do that to you. Granted, he kept some of his quirks as well as a strong sense of morality, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain but for only so long...]]
* BreakoutCharacter: While Big Boss has always been an important character to the series since the very first MSX game, it wasn't until the debut of his younger self (Naked Snake) that he gradually began taking the role of the series' protagonist away from his clone son Solid Snake. Having already starred in four prequels (''Snake Eater'', ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'', and ''Ground Zeroes''), the amount of canonical ''Metal Gear'' games starring Big Boss matches the amount starring Solid Snake.
* BrokenAce: In Peace Walker.
* BrokenPedestal
** The Boss becomes the former to him after her defection. At the end of ''Peace Walker'', he denounces the Boss as a fraud for laying down her gun and embracing peace, but still tries to enforce his interpretation of her will and honor her memory.
** The U.S. government becomes one to him and stays a broken one because of what they did to the Boss, though he retains some respect for his country.
** He himself becomes this to Solid Snake, who was his prized student as well as his son, as he sent Solid to die in his own renegade organisation. This was so bad that Solid Snake refused to use CQC, until Metal Gear Solid 4. [[spoiler:It maybe even rebuilt by now, as Big Boss and Snake have a heart-to-heart conversation, with the former dying soon after,not ignored by Solid.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: The man is a total geek over his guns and cardboard boxes.
** Also, he apparently has a tendency to misunderstand exactly how some items are considered valuable to most people in other ways besides battle.
** In ''Portable Ops'', in a conversation with Para-Medic, Para-Medic explains about El Dorado and that even though it technically doesn't exist, there is evidence to suggest that there were similar civilizations that used gold even in the present, and mentioned that they used gold knives. Snake expressed interest in the knives, although not in regards to its value as much as using the knife to distract the enemy so he could CQC them into submission, with Para-Medic exasperatedly explaining that she wasn't meaning that.
** In ''Peace Walker'', Paz explains to Big Boss about the Stone Spheres in Costa Rica, where it is not known what they were used for, but Big Boss guesses that he could use them for a trap, and that being nearly perfect spheres would make them perfect for rolling down slopes, causing Paz to express shock at what Big Boss is implying.
*** Though all of that is perfectly in character for Big Boss as in ''Metal Gear 2'', he claims that personal wealth doesn't mean anything to him, war is the only thing that has ever satisfied him. He doesn't look at those things in terms of how valuable they would be because money doesn't have any intrinsic value to him; money is nothing more than a means to an end, namely funding his ability to wage war.
** At several points, he didn't seem to understand much about sexual orientations. Notable examples include when he calls EVA about Raikov, to which, despite EVA's not-so-subtle hints that Raikov was homosexual, Naked Snake seemed completely oblivious and didn't seem to know what EVA was talking about (at one point, he even misconstrues her hints as believing that she formerly dated Raikov yet he broke up with her), expressing confusion to Para-Medic's suggestion that he use the Raikov mask to shake up Volgin[[note]]Volgin's bisexual and in a relationship with Raikov[[/note]], and he also seemed slightly taken aback and confused when Cecile reveals that Strangelove, her captor, seemed to be a lesbian and have a romantic fascination with the same sex. Pretty much the only one where Snake seemed to have any clue about was heterosexuality, going by his reaction to some of EVA's comments.
* ByronicHero: Particularly in his ProtagonistJourneyToVillain.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first game, Big Boss is a generic villain with no personality. Come Metal Gear 2, he becomes far more complex and with more complicated motives and philosophies than most villains in modern games, let alone the 8-bit era. The prequel games add on to this, detailing that he was an eccentric dork prior to his FaceHeelTurn.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Big Boss' superior soldier genes apparently have some mutant healing factor thrown in for good measure, since he's able to still move around after breaking his legs twenty times as long as he's put splints on them.
** Apparently Big Boss is also capable of ''[[UpToEleven bench-pressing the equivalent weight of AI Weapon Cocoon's main body above his head]]''.
--->'''Paz:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YniykBNZa0w It's a miracle]]!
* ChildSoldier: ''Portable Ops'' implied that Naked Snake had participated in the battlefield while he was still very young. He was also a member of the Green Berets (a special forces group) and a veteran of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar as early in his twenties; however, he is canonically born in 1935, so the only known way he could join a special forces group and be a veteran of the Korean War (assuming the former actually preceded the latter) is if he joined the military at a really young age. Being the Boss' apprentice might have helped as he was 15 when The Boss took him.
** He later attempts to raise child soldiers in Zanzibar Land.
* CigarChomper: He picked up the habit from The Boss, who was known to smoke them.
* CombatPragmatist: Going by the scene where Naked Snake first enters Dolinovodno during the Virtuous Mission, Snake has absolutely no problems with shooting down a hornet’s nest that's directly above a KGB soldier if it meant passing by undetected.
** This habit annoys Ocelot, who protests if Snake shoots the hornet nest or flings grenades during their fight. "Fight fair!", he whines.
** Notably, he had no problem brandishing an automatic weapon (the Patriot, perhaps?) against a totally-unarmed and wounded Solid Snake. He still lost.
* CommanderContrarian: Some of his quotes in the original ''Metal Gear'' stand out:
-->"Enemy Uniform? What, like a girl's high school uniform?"\\
"Cardboard box? Are you moving house or something?"
* CompositeCharacter: Made of equals parts UsefulNotes/CheGuevara, John J. Franchise/{{Rambo}}, [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork Snake Plissken]] and Commander Film/JamesBond (young and old Creator/SeanConnery).
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Quite aside from the training from hell he received from The Boss, on top of what he went through to become a Green Beret, Big Boss's many painful experiences have made him cynical about his flirtation with horror. He's come to accept that he's destined to live in the heat of battle as long as he lives. When Paz asks Big Boss about his thoughts on peace he says flat out that he doesn't know what peace looks like, and in an odd way the battlefield itself brings him a type of peace that "real peace" could never satisfy. By the time he fights Snake in Zanzibar, his stance has become progressively worse as he claims that it's his fate to die bitterly like a dog on the battlefield. He goes so far as to say that nothing else matters to him; not money, not power, not even lust -- only war.
* CoolOldGuy
* CoveredWithScars: Admits to this in ''Snake Eater'', and Volgin acknowledges this in his torture scene.
* CrazyPrepared: In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', he apparently wised up to the two [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater prior]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps captures]] he endured, and fashioned a fake snake-shaped scar as a means to smuggle in a jigsaw which he can use to cut the lock off in the event that he did end up captured and didn't have an alternate means of escape.
* DarkMessiah: Witness the unlimited sway he holds over thousands of troops across the globe, and it's clear how dangerous this man can be if pushed too far.
-->'''Big Boss:''' Yes, we may all be headed straight to hell. But what better place for us than this?
* DeathSeeker:
** He pretty much ''begs'' Dr. Strangelove to torture him to death in ''Peace Walker''.
** The lyrics to "Heavens Divide" from ''Peace Walker'' seem to indicate he wishes for death so he can [[TogetherInDeath rejoin]] [[spoiler:The Boss]].
--> ''When Heavens Divide\\
Time will come, to softly lay me down\\
Then I can see [[spoiler: her face]], that I long to see''
** In ''Metal Gear Solid'', Snake tell Naomi that he ''wanted'' to die after telling the latter that Big Boss told him he was his father.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: He takes the deconstruction of the ActionHero even further than his son. While we initially meet Snake as a seasoned soldier, Big Boss's first mission turns him from being a WideEyedIdealist with PatrioticFervor into a ShellShockedVeteran who felt that he became an UnwittingPawn to the government when the mission's true nature was revealed to him - a petty political affair carried out to kill an innocent soldier (who served as his mentor) and ensure that the United States made off with a fortune. As such, he left the United States to start his own private military company that became involved with increasingly morally-questionable operations, which eventually led to him being [[FallenHero branded as a terrorist]] in spite of the fact that his actions successfully prevented nuclear war. After his base of operations was destroyed for the first time, he became a shell of a man that decided to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embrace his role as a war criminal]] as long as it meant he could create a Heaven for soldiers like himself - which, of course, would come at the cost of making the rest of the world a living Hell for everyone else.
* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: An odd case in V. He is the protagonist of the first part ''Ground Zeroes'' but TheReveal is that the ''Phantom Pain'' section was in fact not him but his body double Venom Snake. So the twist is essentially that he was a DecoyProtagonist when we were lead to believe he was simply protagonist of the whole thing.]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: Ultimately, a soldier (no matter how legendary) is just a tool, something to be used and then readily replaced. Big Boss lost some respect for his native land after he learned that The Boss [[spoiler:was in fact innocent of defection and that the US Government cast her aside because of an unanticipated factor involving Volgin and a nuclear weapon[[note]]Of course, it's revealed in both ''Portable Ops'' and ''Peace Walker'' that The Boss' death was planned from the very beginning[[/note]]]]. This was a major impetus for Big Boss founding a Spartan-esque 'nation of soldiers.'
** Eventually, he ended up leaving the Patriots after [[spoiler:Zero]] had Big Boss cloned without his knowledge or his consent.
* DentedIron:
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', not counting any injuries the player sustains ingame, he gets a couple of broken bones during the Virtuous Mission and loses an eye during Operation Snake Eater.
** His injuries rack up further in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' following his encounters with Solid Snake and he winds up as a charred, limbless shell. [[AndIMustScream And he's still alive]]. He gets better after some surgery though.
* DespairEventHorizon: He crossed it when he was forced to kill The Boss. In his own words:
-->'''Big Boss''': The day I killed the Boss... with my own hands... I... was already dead.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Of the whole series. He's got the second-most playable appearances (4) after Snake, and still plays a major role behind the scenes in the few games he doesn't appear in.
* DifficultButAwesome: His [=CQC=] in 3 is generally held to be extremely complex. That said, it's also generally held to be the most overpowered version of said [=CQC=].
* DisappearedDad: Intentionally remained out of the lives of Snake, Liquid, and Solidus, due to not considering them sons. He did personally mentor Snake when he joined FOXHOUND, and informed him of their relationship before Snake "killed" him, but there is no evidence to suggest that he ever met Liquid or Solidus.
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Twice]].
** Though with the reveal in ''The Phantom Pain'' that [[spoiler:there are two Big Bosses after MGSV, this has been {{Retcon}}ned to once. The "Big Boss" who died in the first VideoGame/MetalGear1 was actually Venom Snake.]]
* DontCallMeSir: For at least ten years after the events of ''Snake Eater'', he preferred to go by the codename Naked Snake or just Snake rather than Big Boss. It takes until the end of ''Peace Walker'' for him to embrace the title.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When the Peace Walker weapon, powered by an AI patterned after The Boss's personality and memories, drowns itself rather than risk nuclear war, Big Boss is irritated and declares it as proof that The Boss betrayed him and everything that a soldier should stand for.
* DrivenToVillainy: His own existence is a kind of premature Hell. So why not share it?
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Almost every guy shows some attraction to him.
* EvilCounterpart: To Solid Snake. Their lives mirror each other, they faced very similar hardships, betrayals, and formed powerful friendships. But Snake was able to overcome his pain, forgive his friends for betraying him due to circumstance beyond their power and not succumb into a FaceHeelTurn, while when Big Boss' allies (Zero, Para-Medic, Signit, Paz, and eventually Kaz) turned on him, he became a villain. Lampshaded by Big Boss himself, who says that if Snake was put into the same situations he was in, Snake wouldn't have made the same mistakes.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: By the time of ''Snake Eater'', he's a Green Beret and a veteran of both the Vietnam War and Korean War.
* ExtremeOmnivore: The first question he asks of any wildlife in ''Snake Eater'' is how it tastes, assuming he even waits to call Para-Medic before eating it.
* EyepatchOfPower
* EyeScream: He is well-known for having an eyepatch, so players can expect him to lose an eye at some point during ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]]''. [[spoiler:The scene comes when he is being tortured by Volgin, although it ends up being a DoubleSubversion. Volgin orders The Boss to take out his eyes, and she very nearly does, but is stopped at the last minute by EVA/Tatyana. Ocelot is then threatening EVA with three revolvers, loaded with a single bullet. Snake jumps in to push him out of the way, but [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace ends up on the receiving end of a shot]]. However, it wasn't even a bullet that cost him his eye - the cornea was burnt out from the ''muzzle flash''.]]
* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor
* FakeUltimateHero: Zigzagged. According to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', Zero and the Patriots actually exaggerated most of Big Boss' reputation to cement his status as their icon, though the feats he pulls off during the prequels (particularly in ''Peace Walker'') calls this into question. ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'' [[spoiler:plays with it further when you realize that part of his reputation, strictly speaking, didn't come from his own actions, but to [[CollectiveIdentity Venom Snake doing these exploits]] on his behalf]].
* FallenHero: A formerly good and idealistic man who got sick of seeing how soldiers were used, abused and then thrown away by their ungrateful governments, and eventually threatened to put the world in a state of never-ending warfare to ensure this would stop happening.
* FamousLastWords: "This is good, isn't it?"
* AFatherToHisMen: Most of his subordinates thought the world of him. He even helped extract some, like Gray Fox and his sister, or Sniper Wolf, from warzones into relative safety in America or Outer Heaven.
* FinalBoss: Kind of appropriate, considering his codename, but he serves as this in the first two games. [[spoiler: Except not, as the Big Boss fought in the first game was Venom Snake.]]
* FinalFirstHug: With [[spoiler:Solid Snake]].
* FlashbackNightmare: It's implied in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' that Big Boss himself suffered from nightmares from the battlefield (he reacts to Snake's mention of nightmares with some recognition). In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'', Big Boss awakes from a nightmare that presumably was flashing back to his capture by the FOX unit and Null. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', the two instances that Big Boss was unconscious, he had dreams relating to his fights against The Boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''.
* FourStarBadass: Sometime after [=MGS3=].
* FriendToAllChildren: Before ''Snake Eater'', the only clue we had to Big Boss' kinder side was his adoption of [[FreeRangeChildren war orphans from across the globe]]. He and his surrogate son, Frank Jaeger, formed a 'family' of sorts with one of their charges, a girl who would grow up to assume the identity of Naomi Hunter.
** In ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', Snake can converse with Big Boss' children who appear throughout Zanzibar. Ominously, one orphan mentions that their father "doesn't like adults", alluding to Big Boss' hatred of the world's politicians.
* FreudianExcuse: Oh good lord. It's all over his page, [[TragicHero it actually holds]] ''[[KillTheOnesYouLove a lot]]'' [[DefectorFromDecadence of water.]]
* TheGeneralissimo: With the U.S. believing him dead, Big Boss took over the third world backwater of Zanzibar Land sometime in the late nineties. His sprite wears the official beret of Zanzibar's troops, but his fatigues are green rather than tan.
* GeniusBruiser
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:At the end of ''[=MGS4=]'']].
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Both before and after his FaceHeelTurn, he smokes cigars.
* GutturalGrowler: Like father, like son.
* HandicappedBadass: You know his accomplishments in ''Snake Eater''? Well, it was strongly implied that he hadn't even fully recovered from the injuries he sustained during the Virtuous Mission, which included a broken arm, lacerations, and a broken rib, during that time, not to mention losing an eye during the course of said mission and still accomplishing it.
** He's also apparently able to aim with his missing eye. How? Because he's Big Boss.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: After twenty years of protecting earth from sci-fi warmongers with bottomless bank accounts, Big Boss fancies becoming one himself. Of course, the same could be said for the rest of the FOX unit, too.
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Like Venom Snake,]] Big Boss is aware of how far he's fallen, but nonetheless pushes through as he's come too far. It's not until decades later that he rejects his actions however.
* HesJustHiding: {{In-universe}}. Not that he had much of a choice, though, given the fact that he was injected with will-subduing nanomachines shortly after being [[spoiler:recovered from Zanzibar Land]] by the Patriots.
* HeroesLoveDogs: In an optional Codec call with Para-Medic in ''[=MGS3=]'', he reveals that he's a fan of dog-sledding.
* HijackedByGanon: Snake is called into Zanzibar to rescue Dr. Marv and prevent his formula from being turned against the United States. FOXHOUND is initially unaware of Big Boss' hand in the kidnapping.
* HonorBeforeReason: In ''Portable Ops'', he refused to kill a helpless Null in his culture tank because he couldn't defend himself.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: A common trait of his and possibly his biggest character flaw.
** He trusted Eva throughout Operation Snake Eater even though she never provided the correct passphrase. While she did assist him in completing it, it turns out she was actually a Chinese double agent who was using him to complete her own mission.
** He believed the government's story that The Boss defected to the USSR. It took Eva flatly telling him the truth to get him to understand. To his credit, even tho he witnessed the "defection" with his own eyes, he still didn't FULLY believe it and constantly kept pressing The Boss for answers or to admit she didn't really defect.
** He originally misunderstood The Boss's goals that she wanted to pass on. Instead of seeking a united and peaceful world where soldiers would no longer be needed, or to live happily by leaving the world to its own devices, Big Boss sought to change the world and reshape it to where there was constant war and soldiers would always be valued and have a place. It wasn't until years later, at the end of his life, did he finally understand what she wanted and managed to pass it onto his son.
** He misjudged Zero after he left the Patriots, figuring that Zero was his worst enemy who wanted him either under control or dead. In reality, Zero never stopped considering Big Boss his closest friend and readily came to save and protect Big Boss's life when he was in danger.
** He trusted Miller as his partner and co-leader of his PMC, the MSF. It was then revealed that Miller had been in collusion with and receiving funding from Zero. Who Big Boss considered his greatest enemy at the time.
** He allowed Chico to try to sell a photo of the Chrysalis and pass it off as a UFO photograph because he believed that Chico wouldn't actually be able to. The end result was that Chico successfully sell a Chrysalis photograph to a tabloid magazine in Grenada, to which Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada's prime minister at the time, read it, and believing it as well as various rumors about various cattle mutilations and abductions being reported across the Americas that were suspected to be the result of the CIA Peace Sentinels activities, requested for the UN to set up a research facility to investigate aliens, which also nearly got the Prime Minister targeted by the CIA.
** He fell for Zadornov's deception as "Professor Gálvez" until he fell right into an ambush by set up by Zadornov.
** He was fooled by Paz's deception (thinking that she was just a little school girl) and allowed her free roam of the base. Paz went on to modify and hijack Metal Gear ZEKE on Cipher's orders then use it to attack Big Boss.
** He trusted and recruited Huey Emmerich to his PMC as the head of his research staff. Huey in turn sold the PMC out to Skull Face and helped them with the attack on Motherbase that destroyed the MSF and nearly killed Big Boss.
** His most notable example is during [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 Operation Intrude N313]]: He sent his clone, Solid Snake, to infiltrate Outer Heaven, a private military company run by his BodyDouble -- Venom Snake. He was sure that the rookie agent would be overwhelmed by Outer Heaven's forces quickly. Surprisingly to him, Solid Snake managed to infiltrate Outer Heaven, defeat its elite forces, destroy Metal Gear TX-55, and kill Venom Snake (despite Venom Snake having the full intel on the infiltration and Big Boss misleading Solid Snake the whole time).
* HumanPopsicle: For the duration of the [=MGS=] games. His frozen remains serve as a MacGuffin for the Genome Soldiers.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Snake flat-out calls him one before their second and final duel after Big Boss declares the only satisfaction true soldiers need is war itself. At first Big Boss ''claims'' he wished to uphold The Boss' will of a peaceful world... but his choices, tactics and philosophy (soldiers and war are a chaotic freedom unto themselves), make Outer Heaven little more than a dark mirror against the Patriots. When he is presented evidence contrary to his viewpoint in that The Boss eventually wanted soldiers to put down their arms and live in peace, Big Boss views this as a personal betrayal. During the decades long Cold War with Zero's AIs, he was content to twist the Boss' legacy for his own revenge, something he later comes to deeply regret.
* IHaveManyNames: Sniper Wolf knows him as "Saladin", a high honor in the middle east. He has also gone by the name Naked Snake, John Doe, and Jack.
** In the NES localizations, he's "Commander South" (a play on the controversial [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Col. Olliver North]]), "Colonel Vermon [=CaTaffy=]" (UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi), and "[[AwesomeMcCoolName Higharolla]] [[PunnyName Kockamamie]]" (Ruhollah Khomeini -- subtle, eh?).
* IHaveNoSon: In the Truth Records of ''[=MGS5=]'', he was repulsed by the Les Enfants Terribles project, but gradually came to respect Solid Snake as a man.
* IWasQuiteALooker: Averted. Old age hasn't diminished his good looks one bit. If anything, he turned into a SilverFox.
* IfIWantedYouDead: When he [[spoiler:reappears at the Boss's grave after Snake's attempted suicide in ''[=MGS4=]'', Snake thinks he's come back to settle the score and reloads, a thought supported by the fact that he's brandishing the Boss's Patriot machine gun. After a brief MexicanStandoff, Big Boss casually drops the gun, disarms Snake, and embraces him in a combination CooldownHug[=/=]FinalFirstHug, softly reassuring his last living son that he didn't come all this way to pick a fight.]]
* InsistentTerminology: He's known as "Big Boss" after Operation Snake Eater, but the marketing for the series consistently refers to him as "Snake". While this is justified in the earlier installments, where he considers the title a MedalOfDishonor and a source of internal conflict, it becomes increasingly confounding as the series goes on and he embraces the title. This becomes particularly noticeable in ''Ground Zeroes'', where the game introduces him as "Snake", and even refers to him as "a former hero once known by the code name 'Big Boss'", when the '''reverse''' is true, and the only times he's referred to as "Snake" is when receiving certain orders and the game over sequence.
* KickTheDog: Delivers several at the height of his fall. He callously brainwashed his top soldier for use as a decoy from the Patriots while he built Outer Heaven, threatened and attacked several nations, using stolen nukes and OILIX, which resulted in the death of doctor Kio Marv, gave a cynical breaking speech to Solid Snake, convinced that life has no meaning beyond the battlefield, and finally decided on the unequivocal use of child soldiers in Zanzibar Land, feeling it was "only logical" to feed them back onto the battlefield against his enemies. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
* KillTheOnesYouLove: The Boss, to be precise. He never really recovered from it.
* KnifeNut: Big Boss is very handy with a hunting knife. A firm stab will gut his opponent, or he can dice them up with skillful slashes. For a showy death, Big Boss can use CQC to slit their throats. In ''Peace Walker'', he swaps out the knife for a non-lethal stun rod.
* KnightInSourArmor: He was pretty idealistic, even if he was just operating under orders, until the end of Operation Snake Eater. After that his view of the world and the world's governments was drastically altered for the worse.
* KungFuJesus: Big Boss has some overtones of a Messiah. [[spoiler:His reappearance in the graveyard of [=MGS4=] marks both his Resurrection and Second Coming as he prevents Snake's suicide and casually switches off Lucifer (Zero).]]
* LastRequest: Just before he dies [[spoiler:in ''[=MGS4=]'', he asks Snake to live out what little time he has left to live in peace and not to waste it fighting. Snake promises to do so, deciding to [[SmokingIsNotCool finally quit smoking]] as the first step.]]
* LegacyCharacter: Serves as Solid Snake's predecessor in the prequels. Even after attaining the title of Big Boss at the end of ''[=MGS3=]'', he still prefers to go by Snake, as evident by the fact that it's still his primary name in ''MPO'', ''PW'' and ''MGS V''.
* LukeIAmYourFather: This does not actually happen during ''Solid Snake'', but is rather a {{retcon}} introduced in [=MGS1=]. Snake only shared this revelation with Campbell, but it's an open secret amongst Liquid's faction.
* MadeOfIron: In the original ''Metal Gear'', the guy took 4 propelled rockets to the chest before collapsing, and somehow survived the nuclear explosion that engulfed Outer Heaven. [[spoiler: The truth is, the guy who fought Solid Snake in Outer Heaven, BodyDouble Venom Snake, didn't survive.]] ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' and all of the prequels expand upon this to hilariously absurd levels.
* MagneticHero: Big Boss builds an army from scratch; Cipher blows them all to hell; Big Boss sets about building another, bigger one.
** Three of Solid Snake's former allies, Grey Fox, Kyle Schneider, and Dr. Madnar, all defected to Big Boss' side in the wake of [=MG1=]. Grey Fox stayed with him out of filial and professional loyalty; Kyle was moved by how Big Boss remained behind in Outer Heaven to help the refugees (after NATO callously bombed the ruins). Dr. Madnar joined Big Boss as he felt that he had been shunned by the scientific community for his revolutionary ideas.
* ManOnFire: Snake immolates him at the end of ''Metal Gear 2'', resulting in a messy death. The Patriots immediately extracted his remains and put them on ice, setting the stage for [=MGS1=].
* MartialArtsHeadband: He wears a bandana [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater for]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps ten]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker years]]. By the time of ''Metal Gear Solid V'', he's stopped wearing one.
* ManlyTears: [[spoiler:Shedding them is one of the very last things he does.]]
* MeaningfulName: "[[FinalBoss Big Boss]]" is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? (His Japanese name is "Tai-pan", a clever double meaning; it's shorthand for "big shot" or "boss" in corporate culture, but taipan is also a type of snake.)
* MedalOfDishonor: Awarded [[spoiler:for murdering The Boss]] to save America's face.
** Made even more so when it is later made apparent that the reason that [[spoiler:The Boss had to die didn't even to do with saving America's face and that a certain member of the American Government wanted her offed from the start, and actually manipulated the events of the ending of the Virtuous Mission just so there could be an excuse to send Naked Snake in to kill The Boss]].
* MoleInCharge: He was leading both FOXHOUND and Outer Heaven during the 1990s. However, given what happened in Peace Walker, it's unknown how he was even able to hide his loyalties or ties to Outer Heaven in the first place, especially after [[spoiler:Zero]] already knew about Big Boss's leadership of Outer Heaven, and attempted to gain control of it before eventually deciding to frame them with a nuclear strike on the US via an agent of Cipher due to Big Boss's refusal.
** The phrasing of Big Mama's speech about this time period during the events of [=Metal Gear Solid 4=] implies that Big Boss feigned surrender and friendship to [[spoiler:Zero]] while simultaneously maintaining quiet, remote leadership of Outer Heaven. [[spoiler: ''The Phantom Pain'' makes this a bit more believable when you realize that the "Big Boss" one running Outer Heaven at that point was really Venom Snake--relieving Big Boss of the demand of being in two places at the same time.]]
* MrSmith: The guy's real name is literally "John" (and even that isn't quite certain), and some even calls him by "John Doe".
* MyGreatestFailure:
** He views the killing of The Boss, his mentor and friend who taught him everything he ever knew as a soldier, and then going on to fight for causes that she never would have believed in as his greatest failure. He goes so far as to claim after that point he was already dead emotionally. At the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' as he stands above her grave, Big Boss proclaims to his son that if their roles had been reversed, he probably wouldn't have made the same mistakes and that he still has a chance to do things better than he ever had.
** As of ''Peace Walker'' and ''The Phantom Pain,'' Paz is all but outright stated to have become this for him as well.
* NoSell: Throughout ''Snake Eater'', Eva (a highly trained spy and seductress) keeps coming on to him in increasingly direct ways, and he usually just flat-out ''ignores'' her. [[spoiler:This turns out to have thematic resonance, as she points out, she was the deceiving "Eve" who tempted the "Snake".]]
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:As revealed in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', he actually survived his final showdown with Solid Snake at Zanzibar, albeit barely.]]
* OneLastSmoke: [[spoiler:He does this right before he passes away.]]
* OneManArmy: Where do you think Solid Snake got it from? Big Boss isn't known as The Legendary Soldier for nothing!
* OrderVersusChaos: What his conflict with [[spoiler:Zero]] ultimately boils down to. Big Boss's goal is to establish an anarchic perpetual battleground where soldiers are free to serve as mercenaries and do battle without allegiance to any government, ideology, or creed, whereas the latter hopes to unite the world under a OneWorldOrder government run by [[BigBrotherIsWatching Big Brother]] {{AIs}}.
* PapaWolf: [[AFatherToHisMen Don't ever hurt soldiers under his command.]] XOF learned this the hard way in ''Ground Zeroes'', with help from Big Boss's assault rifle. Notable is that for almost the entire attack on Mother Base, he was completely calm while fighting, until he sees one of his men get killed in front of him, at which point he yells in anger and almost goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge right there.
* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: As Naked Snake, he was an American hero and came back home well-decorated after the events of Operation Snake Eater. The same mission disillusions him to the war machine and tries to create a nation where soldiers can serve free from their home nations.
* ParentalSubstitute: Was this to Sniper Wolf, Gray Fox, and Naomi Hunter. Ironically, Snake viewed him as this before Big Boss revealed that he was actually his father.
* {{Polyglot}}: ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' reveals he's perfectly fluent in Russian and ''Peace Walker'' shows that he has at least some basic knowledge of French, Spanish, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Cat]]
* PosthumousCharacter: His impact and legacy are felt long after [[{{Patricide}} Solid Snake kills him]] in ''Metal Gear 2''. Many characters worship the ground he walked on (some more literally than others), and his body is even used as a MacGuffin in ''Metal Gear Solid''. [[spoiler:This ends up being subverted, as ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' reveals that he is being kept alive in a barely-cognitive state by the Patriots. ''Metal Gear Rising'', the only game in the series to take place after his actual death, barely mentions him at all.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Naked Snake mentions his being exposed to the Bravo Shot atomic blast in 1954. He mentions that while he hasn't shown any symptoms, he suspects that symptoms will pop up sooner or later in his life. This was later confirmed when he was revealed to have been made sterile as a result of the event.
* TheProtagonist: Of ''[=MGS3=]'', ''MPO'', ''MGSPW'' and ''MGSV''.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: At the beginning of his story, Big Boss is, essentially, as green and naive as Solid Snake was during the original MSX ''Metal Gear''. His exploits in the prequels (''Snake Eater'', ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'', and finally ''The Phantom Pain'') all lead to him eventually becoming the BigBad of the original two Metal Gear games. His speech at the end of ''Peace Walker'' particularly cements his role as the future villain:
-->'''Big Boss:''' We will forsake our countries. We will leave our motherlands behind us and become one with this earth. We have no nation, no philosophy, no ideology. We go where we're needed, fighting not for country, not for government, but for ourselves. We need no reason to fight. We fight because we are needed. We will be the deterrent for those with no other recourse. We are soldiers without borders, our purpose defined by the era we live in. We will sometimes have to sell ourselves and services. If the times demand it, we'll be revolutionaries, criminals, terrorists. And yes, we may all be headed straight to Hell. But what better place for us than this? It is our only home. Our Heaven and Our Hell. This is Outer Heaven.
* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: At the end of ''[=MGS3=]'', he's awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
* RealMenWearPink: He likes wearing the "Oyama" face paint and doesn't mind the GA-KO camo, even asking "What's wrong with being cute?" and also molded a piece of C3 into a butterfly, albeit more as a reference to a previous scene.
* RedRightHand: Big Boss loses a good deal of his anatomy over the course of his story. If you played any of the previous ''Metal Gear'' games, [[LateArrivalSpoiler you would know that this was going to happen anyway]]. In fact, his amputated arm was foreshadowed all the way back in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake Metal Gear 2]]'', though it was assumed Solid Snake caused that injury.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: At the end of [[spoiler:''Metal Gear Solid 4'']].
* RepairedPedestal: [[spoiler: Feels this way towards the Boss after learning of the conspiracy against her. At the very end of ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', considers himself to be "already dead" since he killed her. ]]
* RetiredBadass: Between [=MGS3=] and Portable Ops.
* ScarsAreForever:
** He has a facial scar on the left side of his face under his left eye that carries on with him all the way through his old age.
** Subverted in ''Peace Walker''. It initially seemed like he cut himself a scar in the shape of The Boss's scar, but it is later revealed to be faked, having placed a jigsaw on his person by disguising it as a scar in case he got captured.
* SharedFamilyQuirks: He shares his son's affinity for cardboard boxes, as well as smoking, though he prefers cigars over cigarettes. He even wears a MartialArtsHeadband [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater for]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps ten]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker years]].
* ShellShockedVeteran: He states that on the day he killed The Boss, he pretty much died inside.
** Alluded to in Metal Gear 2 when he's quite candid with Snake about the nightmares soldiers suffer from their experiences. Big Boss explains to Snake that those nightmares never go away, those feelings are ingrained into a soldier and will always be a part of them; in the same way the killer instincts that drive soldiers to desire more conflict are equally as ingrained, and there is no way to exorcise these demons, therefore the only sane solution is to embrace them.
* SmokingIsCool: [[spoiler:He even smokes while he's dying, even [[LampshadeHanging lampshading it]] saying: "[[FamousLastWords This is good, isn't it?]]"]]
* StillWearingTheOldColors: In ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'' and ''Ground Zeroes'', each one of his uniforms still bears a FOX unit logo. Justified in ''Portable Ops'' in that his sneaking suit has been stolen from FOX.
** This is brought up by Snake in ''[=MGS4=]'' when Otacon asks why Meryl is still wearing a FOXHOUND patch on her uniform when FOXHOUND no longer exists. Snake's response is that some soldiers like to keep patches, or other mementos like maybe a tattoo, to remind themselves of their old units out of some leftover fondness or loyalty they may have to those memories. This implies that Big Boss has some attachment to his old unit.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Just look at his images, as each game in the prequel game progresses, Big Boss becomes a darker character.
* TheStoolPigeon: Inversion of the Lacerated Larry type in ''Peace Walker''. He remained silent about the truth behind his killing of The Boss outside of the official story of her betraying the United States when Strangelove tortured him. Unfortunately, his remaining silent on the issue is ''exactly'' how Strangelove managed to deduce the truth behind her final mission.
* ShroudedInMyth: Big Boss literally has no identity, making him a perfect candidate for FOX. Even "John" is suggested to be yet another alias. ''[=MGS4=]'' suggests that the Patriots actually exaggerated a good portion of his reputation to cement his status as their icon.
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: He doesn't really believe in peace, even during his Cold Warrior days.
* StartOfDarkness: Got to experience how disposable soldiers are to the world first hand during Operation Snake Eater, and it played a large part in motivating him to create Outer Heaven, a place where soldiers would be honored rather than thrown to the side.
* SuperStrength: Implied in ''Peace Walker'', where Big Boss was capable of lifting up a sealed garage door to gain entry to Peace Walker's hangar twice with his own bare hands, and, at least in gameplay, bench-pressing even Cocoon. Which is roughly the size of a small-town municipal building.
%% TallDarkAndHandsome
* ThatThingIsNotMyChild: His initial reaction to the three Snake brothers, his clones; in fact, the discovery that Para-Medic had cloned him under Zero's orders in the first place was ultimately what led him to defect from the Patriots. As revealed in the Truth tapes in ''The Phantom Pain'', [[spoiler:he adamantly refuses to acknowledge them as his sons, to the point of refusing to see Eli in Africa]]. Nonetheless, he respected Solid Snake as a person and fellow soldier, and personally trained him.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Prefers to simply tranquilize or knock out enemies rather than kill them unless killing is the only option.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Used to express a one-track interest regarding eating the many animals he came across during Operation Snake Eater, but Snakes stuck out as a particular favorite to the point where he reacted with confusion when hearing about Snakes being imported as pets, not food.
* TragicHero: Big Boss's dedication to his allies and his desire to avoid war ultimately causes him to lose everyone he cares about while being hunted by governments and militaries from all over the world.
* TragicKeepsake: He keeps wearing The Boss's bandanna, which he snatched from her head during the Virtuous Mission, for ten years. After watching the Peace Walker AI weapon drown itself in the ocean, he finds some closure to the event at last and casts it off to the winds.
* TrainingFromHell: It's strongly implied that he underwent this when under The Boss's tutelage and when joining FOX. In regards to the former, she tells Volgin (who at the time was electrocuting him with electric shocks that was said by him to be around ten million volts) that it wouldn't break him as she trained him not to, and in the case of the latter, Cunningham stated that his attempts at beating him wouldn't even qualify as torture to Snake due to his former FOX membership.
* TraumaCongaLine: Let's face it. From ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' to ''Metal Gear 2'', his life has been one huge TraumaCongaLine.
* TrojanPrisoner: Kind of. See CrazyPrepared.
* {{Ubermensch}}: He develops his own moral code, and doesn't care if that makes him evil in the eyes of others.
* UnfortunateName: Although his original codename, Naked Snake, referred to the fact that he infiltrated Tselinoyarsk with minimal equipment and weapons during the Virtuous Mission, Miller makes fun of him by jokingly implying that Snake went into missions completely nude.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Well, young adult, anyway.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Up until his plans for Outer Heaven are stopped by Solid Snake. However, in ''[=MGS4=]'', his popularity skyrockets once more after the Patriots de-classify all files relating to his past exploits, including Operation Snake Eater, much to Snake's annoyance.
* VindicatedByHistory: In-universe. As mentioned above, Big Boss' exploits had gotten recognition to the point people wanted to use CQC. Snake naturally finds it stupid, to the point that he even calls the [=PMCs'=] CQC as cookie-cutter imitations.
* WarForFunAndProfit: The ethos behind Outer Heaven. Big Boss' objective was to give soldiers without a home someplace to belong, as well as an escape from Cipher/The Patriots' umbrella. As Big Boss happened across war orphans during his travels, he began integrating child soldiers into his army too. His intentions were benevolent, but Outer Heaven set the stage for a perpetual war machine, which The Sons of Big Boss and Desperado later accelerated.
* WeakToFire: The only way to kill him in ''Metal Gear 2'' is to immolate him with a lighter and a can of hairspray.
* WeCanRebuildHim: After his death, [[spoiler:EVA recovered his body and patched it up using parts of Liquid's and Solidus's corpses.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Given how horrifically Governments and groups like Cipher treat soldiers in the ''Metal Gear'' Universe, it's not surprising Big Boss wanted to make a world where they'd always be needed.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
* WroteTheBook: Co-invented CQC with The Boss, and invented the use of the tactical cardboard box as a hiding place. He even originated the very idea of the "Stealth Mission" -- hence, the ''Metal Gear'' franchise owes its existence to this man. Zero pitched the idea after hearing about The Boss' war stories; the Stealth Mission is actually a modified version of what The Boss termed "Snatch" missions, wherein an agent is sent to extract a VIP. Obviously, these missions ruled out a full-on assault or tripping alarms since the hostage would instantly be killed. Virtuous Mission (a Snatch Mission) and Operation Snake Eater (a Sneaking Mission) were intended as test drives, to convince the higher-ups at Langley to marry spies and soldiers into a single unit.
* YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive: When he confronts Snake in Zanzibar, the agent has just emerged from a fire, lost all of his gear, and is utterly defenseless. Snake still refuses Big Boss's offer of a quick death. Big Boss can only marvel at his audacity.
-->'''Big Boss:''' In such a situation, with no weapon, against '''me'''?\\
'''Snake''': Never give up. Always believe you will succeed, even when the odds are against you. ...Those are your words.\\
'''Big Boss''': Even I make mistakes from time to time.
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: His codenames, "Snake" and "Big Boss", both stem from his assignment to kill the Boss and her Cobra Unit.
** The original bipedal Metal Gear, ZEKE, is created using parts borrowed from Cipher: the rocket boosters from Pupa, the radome and railgun from Chrysalis, the armor from Cocoon, and the legs from Peace Walker, along with detachable heads from all four.
** Peace Walker and Pupa utilize the same type of missile launcher and augers as the Shagohod, respectively. It could be said that each of Big Boss' [[BattleTrophy battle trophies]] now comprise the standard Metal Gear design.
* ZenSurvivor: [[spoiler: With moments left to live, Boss is completely calm and offers some final wisdom to Snake.]]
[[caption-width-right:340:"This is good, isn't it?"]]
[[caption-width-right:340:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgs3_bb_7986.png[[/labelnote]] to see Naked Snake in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater MGS3]]'']]
[[caption-width-right:340:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/big_boss_1_877.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see Snake in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker MGS:PW]]'']]
[[caption-width-right:370:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgsv_snake.png[[/labelnote]] to see Big Boss in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'']]
->AKA: Jack, John Doe, Naked Snake, Vic Boss, The Legendary Soldier, The Legendary Mercenary, Saladin, [[spoiler:Ishmael]]
->Naked Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/DavidHayter (EN)
->Snake voiced by: Creator/AkioOhtsuka (JP), Creator/KieferSutherland (EN)
->Big Boss voiced by: Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)
-->''"If the times demand it, we'll be revolutionaries, criminals, terrorists. And yes, we may all be headed straight to hell. But what better place for us than this? It is our only home. Our heaven and our hell. This is Outer Heaven."''
In 1964, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater a man named John, an agent of the Black Ops unit FOX, saves the world from nuclear Armageddon]]. Along the way, he's forced to slay his teacher and adoptive mother, codenamed "The Boss". For his actions, he is christened "[[YouKillItYouBoughtIt Big Boss]]" by the President of the United States and inherits his teacher's title of "The Greatest Warrior of The Twentieth Century".
He later goes on to found the private military companies Militaires Sans Frontieres and Diamond Dogs, as well as the U.S. Army black ops group FOXHOUND. In the first ''Metal Gear'' game Big Boss secretly leads the uprising at Outer Heaven and sends FOXHOUND rookie Solid Snake to investigate it, not expecting that he will actually survive. In ''Metal Gear 2'' Big Boss takes control of Zanzibar Land and kidnaps a scientist who developed an alternative fuel source. Solid Snake is sent in to rescue the scientist, and ultimately kills Big Boss with a makeshift flamethrower.
While he was originally little more than the BigBad of the first two ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games, Big Boss later received a great deal of CharacterDevelopment, becoming the [[TragicHero tragic]] [[TragicVillain protagonist]] of the prequel games. For tropes pertaining to his appearances in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Phantom Pain]]'' as Venom Snake, [[spoiler:err, Ishmael, sorry,]] go [[Characters/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain here]].
-----
* EightiesHair: Has a mullet [[TheSixties twenty years early]] and sports it throughout TheSeventies.
* TheAce: Considered this throughout [=MGS3=], and his legend exploits this. He's good enough that losing an eye only leads to one instance of trouble with depth perception. Then he gets [[BrokenAce broken]].
* AbsurdPhobia: He is quite afraid of Vampires. Played With a bit though, in that, in the ''Metal Gear'' universe, that might not an entirely irrational fear.
* {{Adorkable}}: In ''Snake Eater'', it turns out that he's a huge dork for cardboard boxes, has a penchant for weird food, and has a phobia of [[{{Vampire}} Vampires]]. [[BreakTheCutie Unfortunately, this changes drastically over time]], [[NotSoAboveItAll though he does retain some of his endearing traits afterwards.]]
** One of the said endearing traits includes believing in Santa Claus. Yes, the battle hardened soldier that turned his back on his country and founded his own army without borders...believes in Santa Claus.
* AffablyEvil: He may have been willing to cross any line to give soldiers a place in the world, but he was an otherwise likable guy: [[BenevolentBoss kind to his subordinates]], [[BaddieFlattery respectful of his enemies]], and full of many {{adorkable}} character quirks.
* AlliterativeName: His {{codename}} is '''B'''ig '''B'''oss.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Shows shades of this in ''Snake Eater'' and ''Peace Walker''. Despite his charisma, he's not very sociable and tends to not handle emotions well, has a tendency for [[ParrotExposition repeating other people's phrases]], has unusually dedicated obsessions with guns and cardboard boxes, is surprisingly naive and trusting towards people who end up deceiving him in some major way (Miller, Paz, Huey), and has some rather unusual beliefs (such as being afraid of vampires and believing in Santa Claus well into his 30s). His sons also exhibit a few of these traits.
* AndIMustScream: After his [[spoiler:battle with Snake at Zanzibar, was he was left heavy burned and just barely alive, but the Patriots recovered him and injected him with nanomachines to keep him from dying. After this he was kept in a cryogenic coma, during which he was semi-aware, as the Patriots as they used him for extensive experiments, leaving quite the marks on his already damaged body. He was in that state for 15 years until the destruction of the Patriot [=AIs=] finally let him wake up. Luckily for him, EVA had in the meantime been able to steal his body back from where the Patriots kept him and used parts of Liquid and Solidus' bodies to restore him to his former appearance.]]
* AntiHero: During his younger days, he was trying to make the world a better place, even if it meant fighting and killing on the battlefield to do so. And even after becoming [[KnightInSourArmour extremely disillusioned]] at the end of ''Snake Eater'', he nonetheless keeps trying to do the right thing.
* AntiVillain: After realizing in the 1970s that he rejects the Boss's philosophy of self-sacrifice for nations that care nothing for you, he becomes willing to kill, torture and brainwash even non-combatants to make his dream of a nation where soldiers will always be needed a reality. Eventually, he even threatens the world with a nuclear weapon. However, even at his most villainous, he still showed compassion to his former enemies and [[AFatherToHisMen cared deeply for his men]].
* ArchnemesisDad: He's the nemesis of one of his own sons, Solid Snake, in ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2''. Liquid is immensely jealous, having wanted to kill Big Boss for years, and Solidus was likely thinking along similar lines.
* TheAtoner: While he's very much aware of how far he's fallen, takes him decades [[spoiler:until the end of ''Guns of the Patriots'']] before he at long last atones.
* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:He returns at the end of ''[=MGS4=]'', only to die shortly after.]]
* BadassBack: Some of his CQC moves allow for these moments.
* BadassBaritone: David Hayter gives him the same baritone Snake's famous for. Replaced later by Richard Doyle and Kiefer Sutherland.
* BadassBeard: Though some in the world community would consider it a BeardOfEvil.
* BadassBoast: "You don't have what it takes to kill me."
* BadassGrandpa: By the end of his life, he's well into his later years.
* BadassInANiceSuit: For his final appearance in [[spoiler:''The Guns of the Patriots''.]]
* BadassLongcoat: In his later years. The khaki trenchcoat is standard attire for FOXHOUND, but it originated with Gene's FOX unit.
* BadassNormal: Unlike his sons, Big Boss has had no genetic tampering, nor nano-augmentation, nor suit of power armor. Yet he has pulled off feats that rival or even surpass even Solid Snake's accomplishments, time and time again.
* BadLiar: During the Peace Walker incident, whenever confronted in regards to why Big Boss is in Costa Rica, he always comes up with a lie about why he's there, a lie that's very easy to pick apart. These include:
** Claiming that he was a Colombian bird photographer when meeting Amanda and the FSLN. His camera is not even set right, and when he rescues Chico, he actually slips up and calls himself a War Photographer. To cover up his mistake, he says that he takes pictures of "the birds at the battlefield" in a somewhat unsure tone.
** Claiming that he's an Entymologist, and that he's looking for the Ulysses butterfly. Huey points out that Ulysses butterflies are not present in Costa Rica, and Snakes says he meant the Morphos butterfly, and he's trying to get some for the CITES Washington Treaty. Huey tells him they aren't covered in the treaty.
** Claiming that he's an Ornithologist and that he was looking for the Quetzal for the CITES Washington Treaty.
* BagOfSpilling: A rival military outfit, the XOF, takes out Mother Base, along with Big Boss' entire arsenal. Big Boss lands in a nine-year coma after this incident, which strips away his muscle mass.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: In ''[=MGS3=]'' he, along with Sigint and Major Zero, came up with the American classification for the dreaded Mil Mi-24 (the "Hind"), and he was also the one who came up with the cardboard box trick that Snake and Raiden made frequent use of. With the help of Kazuhira Miller, he also founded the world's first private military companies.
* BeingGoodSucks: Moreso than Solid Snake, and he knows it too. ''Everything'' he did was for the sake of his country and The Boss, but no matter what, life found a way to take everything from him. When he finds out the whole world wants him dead, he decides he's had enough and created Outer Heaven.
** BeingEvilSucks: At the same time, he ultimately realizes how selfish his goal was, and wants to fulfill The Boss' will correctly. When he sees Snake one last time, he commends him for not falling the path he did.
* BenevolentBoss: There's a reason why his followers have genuine undying loyalty to Big Boss.
* BigBad: Of ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', wanting to enforce his ideals of Outer Heaven and giving soldiers like him a place in the world through nuclear superiority, using Outer Heaven in South Africa (''Metal Gear'') and Zanzibarland (''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'') as his bases of operations.
* BigNo: Lets one out during [[spoiler: Paz's HeroicSuicide at the end of ''Ground Zeroes'']].
* BloodKnight: One of his primary reasons for creating Outer Heaven, and later, Zanzibar Land, was to give him and his soldiers a place where they can go to war endlessly, due to the fact that he only ever felt truly alive when fighting in a war. He did originally intend and, more importantly, attempted to live his life peacefully after Operation Snake Eater (namely as an instructor or a hunting guide), but he ended up dragged back onto the battlefield.
* BodyDouble: [[spoiler:How he survived the original game, as revealed in ''The Phantom Pain''.]]
* BookEnds: ''[=MGS3=]'' ended with Big Boss saluting the Boss at her grave, thus beginning his StartOfDarkness, while ''[=MGS4=]'' ended with him saluting the Boss once more in his death throes.
** Chronologically, the whole series begins and ends with him smoking a cigar.
* BreakTheCutie: He was a fairly nice guy who wanted nothing more than to serve his country. Operation Snake Eater changed that, and turned him into a bitter and angry shell of a man. Losing an eye and [[spoiler:killing your old mentor ([[FakeDefector who never even betrayed her country]])]] will do that to you. Granted, he kept some of his quirks as well as a strong sense of morality, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain but for only so long...]]
* BreakoutCharacter: While Big Boss has always been an important character to the series since the very first MSX game, it wasn't until the debut of his younger self (Naked Snake) that he gradually began taking the role of the series' protagonist away from his clone son Solid Snake. Having already starred in four prequels (''Snake Eater'', ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'', and ''Ground Zeroes''), the amount of canonical ''Metal Gear'' games starring Big Boss matches the amount starring Solid Snake.
* BrokenAce: In Peace Walker.
* BrokenPedestal
** The Boss becomes the former to him after her defection. At the end of ''Peace Walker'', he denounces the Boss as a fraud for laying down her gun and embracing peace, but still tries to enforce his interpretation of her will and honor her memory.
** The U.S. government becomes one to him and stays a broken one because of what they did to the Boss, though he retains some respect for his country.
** He himself becomes this to Solid Snake, who was his prized student as well as his son, as he sent Solid to die in his own renegade organisation. This was so bad that Solid Snake refused to use CQC, until Metal Gear Solid 4. [[spoiler:It maybe even rebuilt by now, as Big Boss and Snake have a heart-to-heart conversation, with the former dying soon after,not ignored by Solid.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: The man is a total geek over his guns and cardboard boxes.
** Also, he apparently has a tendency to misunderstand exactly how some items are considered valuable to most people in other ways besides battle.
** In ''Portable Ops'', in a conversation with Para-Medic, Para-Medic explains about El Dorado and that even though it technically doesn't exist, there is evidence to suggest that there were similar civilizations that used gold even in the present, and mentioned that they used gold knives. Snake expressed interest in the knives, although not in regards to its value as much as using the knife to distract the enemy so he could CQC them into submission, with Para-Medic exasperatedly explaining that she wasn't meaning that.
** In ''Peace Walker'', Paz explains to Big Boss about the Stone Spheres in Costa Rica, where it is not known what they were used for, but Big Boss guesses that he could use them for a trap, and that being nearly perfect spheres would make them perfect for rolling down slopes, causing Paz to express shock at what Big Boss is implying.
*** Though all of that is perfectly in character for Big Boss as in ''Metal Gear 2'', he claims that personal wealth doesn't mean anything to him, war is the only thing that has ever satisfied him. He doesn't look at those things in terms of how valuable they would be because money doesn't have any intrinsic value to him; money is nothing more than a means to an end, namely funding his ability to wage war.
** At several points, he didn't seem to understand much about sexual orientations. Notable examples include when he calls EVA about Raikov, to which, despite EVA's not-so-subtle hints that Raikov was homosexual, Naked Snake seemed completely oblivious and didn't seem to know what EVA was talking about (at one point, he even misconstrues her hints as believing that she formerly dated Raikov yet he broke up with her), expressing confusion to Para-Medic's suggestion that he use the Raikov mask to shake up Volgin[[note]]Volgin's bisexual and in a relationship with Raikov[[/note]], and he also seemed slightly taken aback and confused when Cecile reveals that Strangelove, her captor, seemed to be a lesbian and have a romantic fascination with the same sex. Pretty much the only one where Snake seemed to have any clue about was heterosexuality, going by his reaction to some of EVA's comments.
* ByronicHero: Particularly in his ProtagonistJourneyToVillain.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first game, Big Boss is a generic villain with no personality. Come Metal Gear 2, he becomes far more complex and with more complicated motives and philosophies than most villains in modern games, let alone the 8-bit era. The prequel games add on to this, detailing that he was an eccentric dork prior to his FaceHeelTurn.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Big Boss' superior soldier genes apparently have some mutant healing factor thrown in for good measure, since he's able to still move around after breaking his legs twenty times as long as he's put splints on them.
** Apparently Big Boss is also capable of ''[[UpToEleven bench-pressing the equivalent weight of AI Weapon Cocoon's main body above his head]]''.
--->'''Paz:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YniykBNZa0w It's a miracle]]!
* ChildSoldier: ''Portable Ops'' implied that Naked Snake had participated in the battlefield while he was still very young. He was also a member of the Green Berets (a special forces group) and a veteran of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar as early in his twenties; however, he is canonically born in 1935, so the only known way he could join a special forces group and be a veteran of the Korean War (assuming the former actually preceded the latter) is if he joined the military at a really young age. Being the Boss' apprentice might have helped as he was 15 when The Boss took him.
** He later attempts to raise child soldiers in Zanzibar Land.
* CigarChomper: He picked up the habit from The Boss, who was known to smoke them.
* CombatPragmatist: Going by the scene where Naked Snake first enters Dolinovodno during the Virtuous Mission, Snake has absolutely no problems with shooting down a hornet’s nest that's directly above a KGB soldier if it meant passing by undetected.
** This habit annoys Ocelot, who protests if Snake shoots the hornet nest or flings grenades during their fight. "Fight fair!", he whines.
** Notably, he had no problem brandishing an automatic weapon (the Patriot, perhaps?) against a totally-unarmed and wounded Solid Snake. He still lost.
* CommanderContrarian: Some of his quotes in the original ''Metal Gear'' stand out:
-->"Enemy Uniform? What, like a girl's high school uniform?"\\
"Cardboard box? Are you moving house or something?"
* CompositeCharacter: Made of equals parts UsefulNotes/CheGuevara, John J. Franchise/{{Rambo}}, [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork Snake Plissken]] and Commander Film/JamesBond (young and old Creator/SeanConnery).
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Quite aside from the training from hell he received from The Boss, on top of what he went through to become a Green Beret, Big Boss's many painful experiences have made him cynical about his flirtation with horror. He's come to accept that he's destined to live in the heat of battle as long as he lives. When Paz asks Big Boss about his thoughts on peace he says flat out that he doesn't know what peace looks like, and in an odd way the battlefield itself brings him a type of peace that "real peace" could never satisfy. By the time he fights Snake in Zanzibar, his stance has become progressively worse as he claims that it's his fate to die bitterly like a dog on the battlefield. He goes so far as to say that nothing else matters to him; not money, not power, not even lust -- only war.
* CoolOldGuy
* CoveredWithScars: Admits to this in ''Snake Eater'', and Volgin acknowledges this in his torture scene.
* CrazyPrepared: In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', he apparently wised up to the two [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater prior]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps captures]] he endured, and fashioned a fake snake-shaped scar as a means to smuggle in a jigsaw which he can use to cut the lock off in the event that he did end up captured and didn't have an alternate means of escape.
* DarkMessiah: Witness the unlimited sway he holds over thousands of troops across the globe, and it's clear how dangerous this man can be if pushed too far.
-->'''Big Boss:''' Yes, we may all be headed straight to hell. But what better place for us than this?
* DeathSeeker:
** He pretty much ''begs'' Dr. Strangelove to torture him to death in ''Peace Walker''.
** The lyrics to "Heavens Divide" from ''Peace Walker'' seem to indicate he wishes for death so he can [[TogetherInDeath rejoin]] [[spoiler:The Boss]].
--> ''When Heavens Divide\\
Time will come, to softly lay me down\\
Then I can see [[spoiler: her face]], that I long to see''
** In ''Metal Gear Solid'', Snake tell Naomi that he ''wanted'' to die after telling the latter that Big Boss told him he was his father.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: He takes the deconstruction of the ActionHero even further than his son. While we initially meet Snake as a seasoned soldier, Big Boss's first mission turns him from being a WideEyedIdealist with PatrioticFervor into a ShellShockedVeteran who felt that he became an UnwittingPawn to the government when the mission's true nature was revealed to him - a petty political affair carried out to kill an innocent soldier (who served as his mentor) and ensure that the United States made off with a fortune. As such, he left the United States to start his own private military company that became involved with increasingly morally-questionable operations, which eventually led to him being [[FallenHero branded as a terrorist]] in spite of the fact that his actions successfully prevented nuclear war. After his base of operations was destroyed for the first time, he became a shell of a man that decided to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embrace his role as a war criminal]] as long as it meant he could create a Heaven for soldiers like himself - which, of course, would come at the cost of making the rest of the world a living Hell for everyone else.
* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: An odd case in V. He is the protagonist of the first part ''Ground Zeroes'' but TheReveal is that the ''Phantom Pain'' section was in fact not him but his body double Venom Snake. So the twist is essentially that he was a DecoyProtagonist when we were lead to believe he was simply protagonist of the whole thing.]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: Ultimately, a soldier (no matter how legendary) is just a tool, something to be used and then readily replaced. Big Boss lost some respect for his native land after he learned that The Boss [[spoiler:was in fact innocent of defection and that the US Government cast her aside because of an unanticipated factor involving Volgin and a nuclear weapon[[note]]Of course, it's revealed in both ''Portable Ops'' and ''Peace Walker'' that The Boss' death was planned from the very beginning[[/note]]]]. This was a major impetus for Big Boss founding a Spartan-esque 'nation of soldiers.'
** Eventually, he ended up leaving the Patriots after [[spoiler:Zero]] had Big Boss cloned without his knowledge or his consent.
* DentedIron:
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', not counting any injuries the player sustains ingame, he gets a couple of broken bones during the Virtuous Mission and loses an eye during Operation Snake Eater.
** His injuries rack up further in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' following his encounters with Solid Snake and he winds up as a charred, limbless shell. [[AndIMustScream And he's still alive]]. He gets better after some surgery though.
* DespairEventHorizon: He crossed it when he was forced to kill The Boss. In his own words:
-->'''Big Boss''': The day I killed the Boss... with my own hands... I... was already dead.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Of the whole series. He's got the second-most playable appearances (4) after Snake, and still plays a major role behind the scenes in the few games he doesn't appear in.
* DifficultButAwesome: His [=CQC=] in 3 is generally held to be extremely complex. That said, it's also generally held to be the most overpowered version of said [=CQC=].
* DisappearedDad: Intentionally remained out of the lives of Snake, Liquid, and Solidus, due to not considering them sons. He did personally mentor Snake when he joined FOXHOUND, and informed him of their relationship before Snake "killed" him, but there is no evidence to suggest that he ever met Liquid or Solidus.
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Twice]].
** Though with the reveal in ''The Phantom Pain'' that [[spoiler:there are two Big Bosses after MGSV, this has been {{Retcon}}ned to once. The "Big Boss" who died in the first VideoGame/MetalGear1 was actually Venom Snake.]]
* DontCallMeSir: For at least ten years after the events of ''Snake Eater'', he preferred to go by the codename Naked Snake or just Snake rather than Big Boss. It takes until the end of ''Peace Walker'' for him to embrace the title.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When the Peace Walker weapon, powered by an AI patterned after The Boss's personality and memories, drowns itself rather than risk nuclear war, Big Boss is irritated and declares it as proof that The Boss betrayed him and everything that a soldier should stand for.
* DrivenToVillainy: His own existence is a kind of premature Hell. So why not share it?
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Almost every guy shows some attraction to him.
* EvilCounterpart: To Solid Snake. Their lives mirror each other, they faced very similar hardships, betrayals, and formed powerful friendships. But Snake was able to overcome his pain, forgive his friends for betraying him due to circumstance beyond their power and not succumb into a FaceHeelTurn, while when Big Boss' allies (Zero, Para-Medic, Signit, Paz, and eventually Kaz) turned on him, he became a villain. Lampshaded by Big Boss himself, who says that if Snake was put into the same situations he was in, Snake wouldn't have made the same mistakes.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: By the time of ''Snake Eater'', he's a Green Beret and a veteran of both the Vietnam War and Korean War.
* ExtremeOmnivore: The first question he asks of any wildlife in ''Snake Eater'' is how it tastes, assuming he even waits to call Para-Medic before eating it.
* EyepatchOfPower
* EyeScream: He is well-known for having an eyepatch, so players can expect him to lose an eye at some point during ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]]''. [[spoiler:The scene comes when he is being tortured by Volgin, although it ends up being a DoubleSubversion. Volgin orders The Boss to take out his eyes, and she very nearly does, but is stopped at the last minute by EVA/Tatyana. Ocelot is then threatening EVA with three revolvers, loaded with a single bullet. Snake jumps in to push him out of the way, but [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace ends up on the receiving end of a shot]]. However, it wasn't even a bullet that cost him his eye - the cornea was burnt out from the ''muzzle flash''.]]
* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor
* FakeUltimateHero: Zigzagged. According to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', Zero and the Patriots actually exaggerated most of Big Boss' reputation to cement his status as their icon, though the feats he pulls off during the prequels (particularly in ''Peace Walker'') calls this into question. ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]'' [[spoiler:plays with it further when you realize that part of his reputation, strictly speaking, didn't come from his own actions, but to [[CollectiveIdentity Venom Snake doing these exploits]] on his behalf]].
* FallenHero: A formerly good and idealistic man who got sick of seeing how soldiers were used, abused and then thrown away by their ungrateful governments, and eventually threatened to put the world in a state of never-ending warfare to ensure this would stop happening.
* FamousLastWords: "This is good, isn't it?"
* AFatherToHisMen: Most of his subordinates thought the world of him. He even helped extract some, like Gray Fox and his sister, or Sniper Wolf, from warzones into relative safety in America or Outer Heaven.
* FinalBoss: Kind of appropriate, considering his codename, but he serves as this in the first two games. [[spoiler: Except not, as the Big Boss fought in the first game was Venom Snake.]]
* FinalFirstHug: With [[spoiler:Solid Snake]].
* FlashbackNightmare: It's implied in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' that Big Boss himself suffered from nightmares from the battlefield (he reacts to Snake's mention of nightmares with some recognition). In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'', Big Boss awakes from a nightmare that presumably was flashing back to his capture by the FOX unit and Null. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', the two instances that Big Boss was unconscious, he had dreams relating to his fights against The Boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''.
* FourStarBadass: Sometime after [=MGS3=].
* FriendToAllChildren: Before ''Snake Eater'', the only clue we had to Big Boss' kinder side was his adoption of [[FreeRangeChildren war orphans from across the globe]]. He and his surrogate son, Frank Jaeger, formed a 'family' of sorts with one of their charges, a girl who would grow up to assume the identity of Naomi Hunter.
** In ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', Snake can converse with Big Boss' children who appear throughout Zanzibar. Ominously, one orphan mentions that their father "doesn't like adults", alluding to Big Boss' hatred of the world's politicians.
* FreudianExcuse: Oh good lord. It's all over his page, [[TragicHero it actually holds]] ''[[KillTheOnesYouLove a lot]]'' [[DefectorFromDecadence of water.]]
* TheGeneralissimo: With the U.S. believing him dead, Big Boss took over the third world backwater of Zanzibar Land sometime in the late nineties. His sprite wears the official beret of Zanzibar's troops, but his fatigues are green rather than tan.
* GeniusBruiser
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:At the end of ''[=MGS4=]'']].
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Both before and after his FaceHeelTurn, he smokes cigars.
* GutturalGrowler: Like father, like son.
* HandicappedBadass: You know his accomplishments in ''Snake Eater''? Well, it was strongly implied that he hadn't even fully recovered from the injuries he sustained during the Virtuous Mission, which included a broken arm, lacerations, and a broken rib, during that time, not to mention losing an eye during the course of said mission and still accomplishing it.
** He's also apparently able to aim with his missing eye. How? Because he's Big Boss.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: After twenty years of protecting earth from sci-fi warmongers with bottomless bank accounts, Big Boss fancies becoming one himself. Of course, the same could be said for the rest of the FOX unit, too.
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Like Venom Snake,]] Big Boss is aware of how far he's fallen, but nonetheless pushes through as he's come too far. It's not until decades later that he rejects his actions however.
* HesJustHiding: {{In-universe}}. Not that he had much of a choice, though, given the fact that he was injected with will-subduing nanomachines shortly after being [[spoiler:recovered from Zanzibar Land]] by the Patriots.
* HeroesLoveDogs: In an optional Codec call with Para-Medic in ''[=MGS3=]'', he reveals that he's a fan of dog-sledding.
* HijackedByGanon: Snake is called into Zanzibar to rescue Dr. Marv and prevent his formula from being turned against the United States. FOXHOUND is initially unaware of Big Boss' hand in the kidnapping.
* HonorBeforeReason: In ''Portable Ops'', he refused to kill a helpless Null in his culture tank because he couldn't defend himself.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: A common trait of his and possibly his biggest character flaw.
** He trusted Eva throughout Operation Snake Eater even though she never provided the correct passphrase. While she did assist him in completing it, it turns out she was actually a Chinese double agent who was using him to complete her own mission.
** He believed the government's story that The Boss defected to the USSR. It took Eva flatly telling him the truth to get him to understand. To his credit, even tho he witnessed the "defection" with his own eyes, he still didn't FULLY believe it and constantly kept pressing The Boss for answers or to admit she didn't really defect.
** He originally misunderstood The Boss's goals that she wanted to pass on. Instead of seeking a united and peaceful world where soldiers would no longer be needed, or to live happily by leaving the world to its own devices, Big Boss sought to change the world and reshape it to where there was constant war and soldiers would always be valued and have a place. It wasn't until years later, at the end of his life, did he finally understand what she wanted and managed to pass it onto his son.
** He misjudged Zero after he left the Patriots, figuring that Zero was his worst enemy who wanted him either under control or dead. In reality, Zero never stopped considering Big Boss his closest friend and readily came to save and protect Big Boss's life when he was in danger.
** He trusted Miller as his partner and co-leader of his PMC, the MSF. It was then revealed that Miller had been in collusion with and receiving funding from Zero. Who Big Boss considered his greatest enemy at the time.
** He allowed Chico to try to sell a photo of the Chrysalis and pass it off as a UFO photograph because he believed that Chico wouldn't actually be able to. The end result was that Chico successfully sell a Chrysalis photograph to a tabloid magazine in Grenada, to which Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada's prime minister at the time, read it, and believing it as well as various rumors about various cattle mutilations and abductions being reported across the Americas that were suspected to be the result of the CIA Peace Sentinels activities, requested for the UN to set up a research facility to investigate aliens, which also nearly got the Prime Minister targeted by the CIA.
** He fell for Zadornov's deception as "Professor Gálvez" until he fell right into an ambush by set up by Zadornov.
** He was fooled by Paz's deception (thinking that she was just a little school girl) and allowed her free roam of the base. Paz went on to modify and hijack Metal Gear ZEKE on Cipher's orders then use it to attack Big Boss.
** He trusted and recruited Huey Emmerich to his PMC as the head of his research staff. Huey in turn sold the PMC out to Skull Face and helped them with the attack on Motherbase that destroyed the MSF and nearly killed Big Boss.
** His most notable example is during [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 Operation Intrude N313]]: He sent his clone, Solid Snake, to infiltrate Outer Heaven, a private military company run by his BodyDouble -- Venom Snake. He was sure that the rookie agent would be overwhelmed by Outer Heaven's forces quickly. Surprisingly to him, Solid Snake managed to infiltrate Outer Heaven, defeat its elite forces, destroy Metal Gear TX-55, and kill Venom Snake (despite Venom Snake having the full intel on the infiltration and Big Boss misleading Solid Snake the whole time).
* HumanPopsicle: For the duration of the [=MGS=] games. His frozen remains serve as a MacGuffin for the Genome Soldiers.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Snake flat-out calls him one before their second and final duel after Big Boss declares the only satisfaction true soldiers need is war itself. At first Big Boss ''claims'' he wished to uphold The Boss' will of a peaceful world... but his choices, tactics and philosophy (soldiers and war are a chaotic freedom unto themselves), make Outer Heaven little more than a dark mirror against the Patriots. When he is presented evidence contrary to his viewpoint in that The Boss eventually wanted soldiers to put down their arms and live in peace, Big Boss views this as a personal betrayal. During the decades long Cold War with Zero's AIs, he was content to twist the Boss' legacy for his own revenge, something he later comes to deeply regret.
* IHaveManyNames: Sniper Wolf knows him as "Saladin", a high honor in the middle east. He has also gone by the name Naked Snake, John Doe, and Jack.
** In the NES localizations, he's "Commander South" (a play on the controversial [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Col. Olliver North]]), "Colonel Vermon [=CaTaffy=]" (UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi), and "[[AwesomeMcCoolName Higharolla]] [[PunnyName Kockamamie]]" (Ruhollah Khomeini -- subtle, eh?).
* IHaveNoSon: In the Truth Records of ''[=MGS5=]'', he was repulsed by the Les Enfants Terribles project, but gradually came to respect Solid Snake as a man.
* IWasQuiteALooker: Averted. Old age hasn't diminished his good looks one bit. If anything, he turned into a SilverFox.
* IfIWantedYouDead: When he [[spoiler:reappears at the Boss's grave after Snake's attempted suicide in ''[=MGS4=]'', Snake thinks he's come back to settle the score and reloads, a thought supported by the fact that he's brandishing the Boss's Patriot machine gun. After a brief MexicanStandoff, Big Boss casually drops the gun, disarms Snake, and embraces him in a combination CooldownHug[=/=]FinalFirstHug, softly reassuring his last living son that he didn't come all this way to pick a fight.]]
* InsistentTerminology: He's known as "Big Boss" after Operation Snake Eater, but the marketing for the series consistently refers to him as "Snake". While this is justified in the earlier installments, where he considers the title a MedalOfDishonor and a source of internal conflict, it becomes increasingly confounding as the series goes on and he embraces the title. This becomes particularly noticeable in ''Ground Zeroes'', where the game introduces him as "Snake", and even refers to him as "a former hero once known by the code name 'Big Boss'", when the '''reverse''' is true, and the only times he's referred to as "Snake" is when receiving certain orders and the game over sequence.
* KickTheDog: Delivers several at the height of his fall. He callously brainwashed his top soldier for use as a decoy from the Patriots while he built Outer Heaven, threatened and attacked several nations, using stolen nukes and OILIX, which resulted in the death of doctor Kio Marv, gave a cynical breaking speech to Solid Snake, convinced that life has no meaning beyond the battlefield, and finally decided on the unequivocal use of child soldiers in Zanzibar Land, feeling it was "only logical" to feed them back onto the battlefield against his enemies. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
* KillTheOnesYouLove: The Boss, to be precise. He never really recovered from it.
* KnifeNut: Big Boss is very handy with a hunting knife. A firm stab will gut his opponent, or he can dice them up with skillful slashes. For a showy death, Big Boss can use CQC to slit their throats. In ''Peace Walker'', he swaps out the knife for a non-lethal stun rod.
* KnightInSourArmor: He was pretty idealistic, even if he was just operating under orders, until the end of Operation Snake Eater. After that his view of the world and the world's governments was drastically altered for the worse.
* KungFuJesus: Big Boss has some overtones of a Messiah. [[spoiler:His reappearance in the graveyard of [=MGS4=] marks both his Resurrection and Second Coming as he prevents Snake's suicide and casually switches off Lucifer (Zero).]]
* LastRequest: Just before he dies [[spoiler:in ''[=MGS4=]'', he asks Snake to live out what little time he has left to live in peace and not to waste it fighting. Snake promises to do so, deciding to [[SmokingIsNotCool finally quit smoking]] as the first step.]]
* LegacyCharacter: Serves as Solid Snake's predecessor in the prequels. Even after attaining the title of Big Boss at the end of ''[=MGS3=]'', he still prefers to go by Snake, as evident by the fact that it's still his primary name in ''MPO'', ''PW'' and ''MGS V''.
* LukeIAmYourFather: This does not actually happen during ''Solid Snake'', but is rather a {{retcon}} introduced in [=MGS1=]. Snake only shared this revelation with Campbell, but it's an open secret amongst Liquid's faction.
* MadeOfIron: In the original ''Metal Gear'', the guy took 4 propelled rockets to the chest before collapsing, and somehow survived the nuclear explosion that engulfed Outer Heaven. [[spoiler: The truth is, the guy who fought Solid Snake in Outer Heaven, BodyDouble Venom Snake, didn't survive.]] ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' and all of the prequels expand upon this to hilariously absurd levels.
* MagneticHero: Big Boss builds an army from scratch; Cipher blows them all to hell; Big Boss sets about building another, bigger one.
** Three of Solid Snake's former allies, Grey Fox, Kyle Schneider, and Dr. Madnar, all defected to Big Boss' side in the wake of [=MG1=]. Grey Fox stayed with him out of filial and professional loyalty; Kyle was moved by how Big Boss remained behind in Outer Heaven to help the refugees (after NATO callously bombed the ruins). Dr. Madnar joined Big Boss as he felt that he had been shunned by the scientific community for his revolutionary ideas.
* ManOnFire: Snake immolates him at the end of ''Metal Gear 2'', resulting in a messy death. The Patriots immediately extracted his remains and put them on ice, setting the stage for [=MGS1=].
* MartialArtsHeadband: He wears a bandana [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater for]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps ten]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker years]]. By the time of ''Metal Gear Solid V'', he's stopped wearing one.
* ManlyTears: [[spoiler:Shedding them is one of the very last things he does.]]
* MeaningfulName: "[[FinalBoss Big Boss]]" is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? (His Japanese name is "Tai-pan", a clever double meaning; it's shorthand for "big shot" or "boss" in corporate culture, but taipan is also a type of snake.)
* MedalOfDishonor: Awarded [[spoiler:for murdering The Boss]] to save America's face.
** Made even more so when it is later made apparent that the reason that [[spoiler:The Boss had to die didn't even to do with saving America's face and that a certain member of the American Government wanted her offed from the start, and actually manipulated the events of the ending of the Virtuous Mission just so there could be an excuse to send Naked Snake in to kill The Boss]].
* MoleInCharge: He was leading both FOXHOUND and Outer Heaven during the 1990s. However, given what happened in Peace Walker, it's unknown how he was even able to hide his loyalties or ties to Outer Heaven in the first place, especially after [[spoiler:Zero]] already knew about Big Boss's leadership of Outer Heaven, and attempted to gain control of it before eventually deciding to frame them with a nuclear strike on the US via an agent of Cipher due to Big Boss's refusal.
** The phrasing of Big Mama's speech about this time period during the events of [=Metal Gear Solid 4=] implies that Big Boss feigned surrender and friendship to [[spoiler:Zero]] while simultaneously maintaining quiet, remote leadership of Outer Heaven. [[spoiler: ''The Phantom Pain'' makes this a bit more believable when you realize that the "Big Boss" one running Outer Heaven at that point was really Venom Snake--relieving Big Boss of the demand of being in two places at the same time.]]
* MrSmith: The guy's real name is literally "John" (and even that isn't quite certain), and some even calls him by "John Doe".
* MyGreatestFailure:
** He views the killing of The Boss, his mentor and friend who taught him everything he ever knew as a soldier, and then going on to fight for causes that she never would have believed in as his greatest failure. He goes so far as to claim after that point he was already dead emotionally. At the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' as he stands above her grave, Big Boss proclaims to his son that if their roles had been reversed, he probably wouldn't have made the same mistakes and that he still has a chance to do things better than he ever had.
** As of ''Peace Walker'' and ''The Phantom Pain,'' Paz is all but outright stated to have become this for him as well.
* NoSell: Throughout ''Snake Eater'', Eva (a highly trained spy and seductress) keeps coming on to him in increasingly direct ways, and he usually just flat-out ''ignores'' her. [[spoiler:This turns out to have thematic resonance, as she points out, she was the deceiving "Eve" who tempted the "Snake".]]
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:As revealed in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', he actually survived his final showdown with Solid Snake at Zanzibar, albeit barely.]]
* OneLastSmoke: [[spoiler:He does this right before he passes away.]]
* OneManArmy: Where do you think Solid Snake got it from? Big Boss isn't known as The Legendary Soldier for nothing!
* OrderVersusChaos: What his conflict with [[spoiler:Zero]] ultimately boils down to. Big Boss's goal is to establish an anarchic perpetual battleground where soldiers are free to serve as mercenaries and do battle without allegiance to any government, ideology, or creed, whereas the latter hopes to unite the world under a OneWorldOrder government run by [[BigBrotherIsWatching Big Brother]] {{AIs}}.
* PapaWolf: [[AFatherToHisMen Don't ever hurt soldiers under his command.]] XOF learned this the hard way in ''Ground Zeroes'', with help from Big Boss's assault rifle. Notable is that for almost the entire attack on Mother Base, he was completely calm while fighting, until he sees one of his men get killed in front of him, at which point he yells in anger and almost goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge right there.
* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: As Naked Snake, he was an American hero and came back home well-decorated after the events of Operation Snake Eater. The same mission disillusions him to the war machine and tries to create a nation where soldiers can serve free from their home nations.
* ParentalSubstitute: Was this to Sniper Wolf, Gray Fox, and Naomi Hunter. Ironically, Snake viewed him as this before Big Boss revealed that he was actually his father.
* {{Polyglot}}: ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' reveals he's perfectly fluent in Russian and ''Peace Walker'' shows that he has at least some basic knowledge of French, Spanish, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Cat]]
* PosthumousCharacter: His impact and legacy are felt long after [[{{Patricide}} Solid Snake kills him]] in ''Metal Gear 2''. Many characters worship the ground he walked on (some more literally than others), and his body is even used as a MacGuffin in ''Metal Gear Solid''. [[spoiler:This ends up being subverted, as ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' reveals that he is being kept alive in a barely-cognitive state by the Patriots. ''Metal Gear Rising'', the only game in the series to take place after his actual death, barely mentions him at all.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Naked Snake mentions his being exposed to the Bravo Shot atomic blast in 1954. He mentions that while he hasn't shown any symptoms, he suspects that symptoms will pop up sooner or later in his life. This was later confirmed when he was revealed to have been made sterile as a result of the event.
* TheProtagonist: Of ''[=MGS3=]'', ''MPO'', ''MGSPW'' and ''MGSV''.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: At the beginning of his story, Big Boss is, essentially, as green and naive as Solid Snake was during the original MSX ''Metal Gear''. His exploits in the prequels (''Snake Eater'', ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'', and finally ''The Phantom Pain'') all lead to him eventually becoming the BigBad of the original two Metal Gear games. His speech at the end of ''Peace Walker'' particularly cements his role as the future villain:
-->'''Big Boss:''' We will forsake our countries. We will leave our motherlands behind us and become one with this earth. We have no nation, no philosophy, no ideology. We go where we're needed, fighting not for country, not for government, but for ourselves. We need no reason to fight. We fight because we are needed. We will be the deterrent for those with no other recourse. We are soldiers without borders, our purpose defined by the era we live in. We will sometimes have to sell ourselves and services. If the times demand it, we'll be revolutionaries, criminals, terrorists. And yes, we may all be headed straight to Hell. But what better place for us than this? It is our only home. Our Heaven and Our Hell. This is Outer Heaven.
* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: At the end of ''[=MGS3=]'', he's awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
* RealMenWearPink: He likes wearing the "Oyama" face paint and doesn't mind the GA-KO camo, even asking "What's wrong with being cute?" and also molded a piece of C3 into a butterfly, albeit more as a reference to a previous scene.
* RedRightHand: Big Boss loses a good deal of his anatomy over the course of his story. If you played any of the previous ''Metal Gear'' games, [[LateArrivalSpoiler you would know that this was going to happen anyway]]. In fact, his amputated arm was foreshadowed all the way back in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake Metal Gear 2]]'', though it was assumed Solid Snake caused that injury.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: At the end of [[spoiler:''Metal Gear Solid 4'']].
* RepairedPedestal: [[spoiler: Feels this way towards the Boss after learning of the conspiracy against her. At the very end of ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', considers himself to be "already dead" since he killed her. ]]
* RetiredBadass: Between [=MGS3=] and Portable Ops.
* ScarsAreForever:
** He has a facial scar on the left side of his face under his left eye that carries on with him all the way through his old age.
** Subverted in ''Peace Walker''. It initially seemed like he cut himself a scar in the shape of The Boss's scar, but it is later revealed to be faked, having placed a jigsaw on his person by disguising it as a scar in case he got captured.
* SharedFamilyQuirks: He shares his son's affinity for cardboard boxes, as well as smoking, though he prefers cigars over cigarettes. He even wears a MartialArtsHeadband [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater for]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps ten]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker years]].
* ShellShockedVeteran: He states that on the day he killed The Boss, he pretty much died inside.
** Alluded to in Metal Gear 2 when he's quite candid with Snake about the nightmares soldiers suffer from their experiences. Big Boss explains to Snake that those nightmares never go away, those feelings are ingrained into a soldier and will always be a part of them; in the same way the killer instincts that drive soldiers to desire more conflict are equally as ingrained, and there is no way to exorcise these demons, therefore the only sane solution is to embrace them.
* SmokingIsCool: [[spoiler:He even smokes while he's dying, even [[LampshadeHanging lampshading it]] saying: "[[FamousLastWords This is good, isn't it?]]"]]
* StillWearingTheOldColors: In ''Portable Ops'', ''Peace Walker'' and ''Ground Zeroes'', each one of his uniforms still bears a FOX unit logo. Justified in ''Portable Ops'' in that his sneaking suit has been stolen from FOX.
** This is brought up by Snake in ''[=MGS4=]'' when Otacon asks why Meryl is still wearing a FOXHOUND patch on her uniform when FOXHOUND no longer exists. Snake's response is that some soldiers like to keep patches, or other mementos like maybe a tattoo, to remind themselves of their old units out of some leftover fondness or loyalty they may have to those memories. This implies that Big Boss has some attachment to his old unit.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Just look at his images, as each game in the prequel game progresses, Big Boss becomes a darker character.
* TheStoolPigeon: Inversion of the Lacerated Larry type in ''Peace Walker''. He remained silent about the truth behind his killing of The Boss outside of the official story of her betraying the United States when Strangelove tortured him. Unfortunately, his remaining silent on the issue is ''exactly'' how Strangelove managed to deduce the truth behind her final mission.
* ShroudedInMyth: Big Boss literally has no identity, making him a perfect candidate for FOX. Even "John" is suggested to be yet another alias. ''[=MGS4=]'' suggests that the Patriots actually exaggerated a good portion of his reputation to cement his status as their icon.
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: He doesn't really believe in peace, even during his Cold Warrior days.
* StartOfDarkness: Got to experience how disposable soldiers are to the world first hand during Operation Snake Eater, and it played a large part in motivating him to create Outer Heaven, a place where soldiers would be honored rather than thrown to the side.
* SuperStrength: Implied in ''Peace Walker'', where Big Boss was capable of lifting up a sealed garage door to gain entry to Peace Walker's hangar twice with his own bare hands, and, at least in gameplay, bench-pressing even Cocoon. Which is roughly the size of a small-town municipal building.
%% TallDarkAndHandsome
* ThatThingIsNotMyChild: His initial reaction to the three Snake brothers, his clones; in fact, the discovery that Para-Medic had cloned him under Zero's orders in the first place was ultimately what led him to defect from the Patriots. As revealed in the Truth tapes in ''The Phantom Pain'', [[spoiler:he adamantly refuses to acknowledge them as his sons, to the point of refusing to see Eli in Africa]]. Nonetheless, he respected Solid Snake as a person and fellow soldier, and personally trained him.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Prefers to simply tranquilize or knock out enemies rather than kill them unless killing is the only option.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Used to express a one-track interest regarding eating the many animals he came across during Operation Snake Eater, but Snakes stuck out as a particular favorite to the point where he reacted with confusion when hearing about Snakes being imported as pets, not food.
* TragicHero: Big Boss's dedication to his allies and his desire to avoid war ultimately causes him to lose everyone he cares about while being hunted by governments and militaries from all over the world.
* TragicKeepsake: He keeps wearing The Boss's bandanna, which he snatched from her head during the Virtuous Mission, for ten years. After watching the Peace Walker AI weapon drown itself in the ocean, he finds some closure to the event at last and casts it off to the winds.
* TrainingFromHell: It's strongly implied that he underwent this when under The Boss's tutelage and when joining FOX. In regards to the former, she tells Volgin (who at the time was electrocuting him with electric shocks that was said by him to be around ten million volts) that it wouldn't break him as she trained him not to, and in the case of the latter, Cunningham stated that his attempts at beating him wouldn't even qualify as torture to Snake due to his former FOX membership.
* TraumaCongaLine: Let's face it. From ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' to ''Metal Gear 2'', his life has been one huge TraumaCongaLine.
* TrojanPrisoner: Kind of. See CrazyPrepared.
* {{Ubermensch}}: He develops his own moral code, and doesn't care if that makes him evil in the eyes of others.
* UnfortunateName: Although his original codename, Naked Snake, referred to the fact that he infiltrated Tselinoyarsk with minimal equipment and weapons during the Virtuous Mission, Miller makes fun of him by jokingly implying that Snake went into missions completely nude.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Well, young adult, anyway.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Up until his plans for Outer Heaven are stopped by Solid Snake. However, in ''[=MGS4=]'', his popularity skyrockets once more after the Patriots de-classify all files relating to his past exploits, including Operation Snake Eater, much to Snake's annoyance.
* VindicatedByHistory: In-universe. As mentioned above, Big Boss' exploits had gotten recognition to the point people wanted to use CQC. Snake naturally finds it stupid, to the point that he even calls the [=PMCs'=] CQC as cookie-cutter imitations.
* WarForFunAndProfit: The ethos behind Outer Heaven. Big Boss' objective was to give soldiers without a home someplace to belong, as well as an escape from Cipher/The Patriots' umbrella. As Big Boss happened across war orphans during his travels, he began integrating child soldiers into his army too. His intentions were benevolent, but Outer Heaven set the stage for a perpetual war machine, which The Sons of Big Boss and Desperado later accelerated.
* WeakToFire: The only way to kill him in ''Metal Gear 2'' is to immolate him with a lighter and a can of hairspray.
* WeCanRebuildHim: After his death, [[spoiler:EVA recovered his body and patched it up using parts of Liquid's and Solidus's corpses.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Given how horrifically Governments and groups like Cipher treat soldiers in the ''Metal Gear'' Universe, it's not surprising Big Boss wanted to make a world where they'd always be needed.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
* WroteTheBook: Co-invented CQC with The Boss, and invented the use of the tactical cardboard box as a hiding place. He even originated the very idea of the "Stealth Mission" -- hence, the ''Metal Gear'' franchise owes its existence to this man. Zero pitched the idea after hearing about The Boss' war stories; the Stealth Mission is actually a modified version of what The Boss termed "Snatch" missions, wherein an agent is sent to extract a VIP. Obviously, these missions ruled out a full-on assault or tripping alarms since the hostage would instantly be killed. Virtuous Mission (a Snatch Mission) and Operation Snake Eater (a Sneaking Mission) were intended as test drives, to convince the higher-ups at Langley to marry spies and soldiers into a single unit.
* YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive: When he confronts Snake in Zanzibar, the agent has just emerged from a fire, lost all of his gear, and is utterly defenseless. Snake still refuses Big Boss's offer of a quick death. Big Boss can only marvel at his audacity.
-->'''Big Boss:''' In such a situation, with no weapon, against '''me'''?\\
'''Snake''': Never give up. Always believe you will succeed, even when the odds are against you. ...Those are your words.\\
'''Big Boss''': Even I make mistakes from time to time.
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: His codenames, "Snake" and "Big Boss", both stem from his assignment to kill the Boss and her Cobra Unit.
** The original bipedal Metal Gear, ZEKE, is created using parts borrowed from Cipher: the rocket boosters from Pupa, the radome and railgun from Chrysalis, the armor from Cocoon, and the legs from Peace Walker, along with detachable heads from all four.
** Peace Walker and Pupa utilize the same type of missile launcher and augers as the Shagohod, respectively. It could be said that each of Big Boss' [[BattleTrophy battle trophies]] now comprise the standard Metal Gear design.
* ZenSurvivor: [[spoiler: With moments left to live, Boss is completely calm and offers some final wisdom to Snake.]]
