Ho Yay / Metal Gear

aka: Metal Gear Solid

"I know the Major better than anyone else."

— Volgin, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, after identifying an impostor of the Major by grabbing his crotch

"Snake, this page is about Ho Yay in the Metal Gear series."

"Stuff the fans find homoerotic, huh?"

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Examples:

Solid Snake

• Solid Snake and Otacon are probably the most blatantly and extensively Ship Teased couple who have NOT been confirmed as Canon. They've talked at length about the meaning of love, and say several times that they taught each other how to love. Add to this lots of snarky banter, the natural chemistry between the two as a potential Agents Dating scenario, and Otacon's famous statement "I know Snake better than anyone else" ^note "I know _____ better than anyone else" is a Running Gag innuendo throughout Metal Gear, often accompanying an identification by groin grope., and you can make a pretty good case that they're more than just partners in crime.
  • David Hayter has also confirmed that he and Christopher Randolph saw the relationship as "romantic" and played much of their dialogue as love scenes, particularly the 'Bad' Ending of the remake of the first game.
  David Hayter: [Otacon] is just Snake's gay sidekick. In a platonic way.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Otacon monologues about how he found a 'happy family' and 'learned that [he] could love'. Since his love interest in the previous game was hardly family, it's natural to assume he's talking about Snake, and they're implied to be living together. By Metal Gear Solid 4 they're shown to both be living on the Nomad, raising Olga's daughter together. Lampshaded in the Zero Punctuation review as the stuff of Yaoi Fangirl fantasies.
  • The "romantic" nature of their relationship is also evident in the second stinger at the end of MGS4, when Snake decides to live the rest of his (short) life in peace and Otacon doesn't hesitate to go with him. This is chronologically the last time the audience hears Snake speak, and Snake's last word is Otacon's name.
  • In Metal Gear Solid Mobile, Snake gets out of a Mind Screw when Otacon asks him to remember what it was like when they first met. This was played for laughs because it wasn't exactly Otacon's finest moment, but the Does This Remind You of Anything? is still strong and their first meeting could pass for a particularly warped sort of Meet Cute Rescue Romance.
  • In MGS4, when Otacon and Naomi started acting lovesick towards each other, Snake looked damned annoyed and really rather jealous, with a hefty side order of heartbroken. Your call whether the annoyance was jealousy or just wincing at how awkward their attempts at flirting were.
  • "Hal and Dave, that's a good one," says Snake, as Otacon sits pressed against his back on the snowmobile. "Maybe we should take a trip to Jupiter."
  • In Metal Gear Online, Otacon will only sing the victory hymn if Snake is whistling with him.
  • Quoth Otacon to Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2: "You and your overactive libido." Know a lot about that libido, eh Hal?
  • In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, during the codec call easter eggs, Otacon acts very irritated and jealous during the Samus call ("Yeah, well, Samus is deadly"), and in most of their conversations there's this flirty undertone, especially in the ROB call ("You sure know your geeky tech stuff, Otacon." "Heh heh, well, y'know...").
  • In Metal Gear Solid 4, calling Otacon while hiding in a dumpster causes Snake to tease Otacon about how gross it is. They laugh together, and Otacon then says, in a flirty tone, that Snake needs to clean himself off before he's allowed to come back. Snake responds, in an equally flirty tone, "I'll see what I can do." (Keep in mind this is a Call-Back to the conversation between Rose and Raiden if Raiden gets pissed on in MGS 2.)
  • In Metal Gear Solid, there's a weird moment where Snake takes Otacon's shoulder and asks him if he's feeling okay, checking for symptoms of FOX-DIE. Otacon accuses Snake of "getting friendly all of a sudden". Snake immediately jumps back a couple of metres and begins to act really coyly - "N-No, I'm just glad you're okay.". In The Twin Snakes, Snake does some much more invasive groping, shot from Otacon's POV, and Snake looks really into it.
  • An easter egg in the Tanker mission of Metal Gear Solid 2 involves a codec call where Otacon catches Snake masturbating to one of the pin-up posters. Pressing the shoulder buttons to hear Snake's thoughts results in a shocked Snake muttering "You were watching?!" and "...you too?".
    • Interestingly, while the thought dialogue is typically reused in multiple conversations, these are both unique to this call.
  • A 2013 tweet from Hideo Kojima's Japanese account has him discuss the then-popular JohnLock ship (asking why Sherlock doesn't just marry Watson already) while comparing the dynamic directly to Snake and Otacon.
• Solid Snake and Gray Fox used to be partners, before the latter defected to Big Boss and Snake had to kill him man-to-man. After being rebuilt as the Cyborg Ninja, Fox wants nothing more than to die at Snake's hands, their fight peppered with lines like "Yes, hurt me more! More!", and Fox having screaming orgasms every time Snake hits him, before he performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Snake.
• Try taking a photograph of the anonymous manchest on the door of the open locker near the Engine Room in MGS2, show it to Otacon, and see what happens! Or, if that's not your thing, once you get into the third room of the Tanker hold, show Otacon a full film of photographs of Scott Dolph.
  Otacon: Snake, if you like him so much, I'll print this out and make a panel out of it. Put it over your bed or something.
  • Also, you'll hear Snake say "good" if you manage to take clear enough shots.
• A rather infamous example from the first Solid game:
  Snake: (to Miller) There's no one else I'd rather have in a foxhole than you.
• Also, Snake's post-battle conversation with Psycho Mantis has a (probably accidental) line. It's fine to have the guy who can look deeply into minds rant about the common man's prevalent desire to mindlessly breed and pass on genes, but following with the statement "But you... you are different..." to Snake (granted, MGS4 points out that the cloning process made him sterile anyway) is just asking for trouble.

Big Boss

• Big Boss and Revolver Ocelot outdo Snake and Otacon in the "barely even subtext" category: a Japanese commentary track confirms that Ocelot and Big Boss from the minute they first met shared a "Pure Love". [1].
• Metal Gear Solid 3 plays out exactly like Ocelot has a crush on Naked Snake. He spends almost all of their encounters desperate to impress Snake, following his advice and improving his technique, with their battle having all the usual MGS homoeroticism ("I've never felt a tension like this before."). He gets turned on by torture for the first time because it was Snake getting it, and after Snake escapes he discovers that Ocelot had stolen his food, to eat the same things Snake eats. EVA hassles Snake repeatedly through the game about how infatuated Ocelot is with him; he remains oblivious to Ocelot's crush, which results in EVA laughing at him. Ocelot disgustedly denies suggested attraction to EVA, yet fails to do so when the same is suggested about Snake. For his part Snake is surprisingly warm towards Ocelot, treating him like a Worthy Opponent and then a close confidant, trusting him enough to tell him his real name.
• Volgin actually taunts Ocelot on his transparent crush on Big Boss, to which he has no rebuttal.
  Ocelot: (admiringly) He's good.
  Volgin: Fallen for him?
• Gene from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops remarks on how Big Boss "caught Ocelot's eye", prompting Big Boss to ask confusedly what Ocelot has to do with anything.
• The codec conversation upon recruiting Ocelot in Portable Ops:
  Ocelot: You're out of breath... almost sounds like you're still in battle.
  Snake: Like I said, I'm on vacation— not a mission. It's a little resort in the Caribbean. Nice and hot. The scenery... well, I can't complain. I'm keeping busy, though— care to join me?
  Ocelot: Hmm. Sounds tempting. Let me think it over...
• The end of Metal Gear Solid 4 reveals that everything Ocelot had done after Big Boss's death, all the manipulations and quadruple crossing and having his personality buried under a facsimile of Liquid was all for Big Boss. His last words were even "You're pretty good..."
• As if it needed any further confirmation, Ocelot basically admits it during a discussion of Quiet's motives, and romantic feelings towards Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
  Ocelot: If she wanted to kill the Boss, he’d already be dead. Same goes for us. She’s had plenty of chances. She can’t talk. She’s not here to kill anyone. You’re wasting your time. She’s in love with the Legend.
  Miller: What makes you so sure?
  Ocelot: I was the same way once.
• In The Phantom Pain if you return from a mission too dirty, Ocelot will tell Snake he stinks and throw a bucket of water on him. However, if your bond with Quiet is high enough she will interrupt and invite Snake to shower with her. Ocelot's jealousy is hilariously obvious the entire time.
• In this hidden cutscene in MGSV where Ocelot removes a knife from Snake's chest manages to come pretty close. "Morale taken care of," indeed. It certainly doesn't help that it sounds like the two of them are flirting right before Ocelot pulls the knife out.
  Venom Snake: Be gentle.
  Ocelot: Of course.
• In the final scene of The Phantom Pain, Ocelot lights the real Big Boss's cigar as he says his last goodbyes. The framing of the scene (not to mention how unnecessarily close Ocelot leans in) strongly resembles a farewell kiss.
• Thanks to the PC version of Phantom Pain it is possible to switch Ocelot for Quiet in a number of her scenes. This also includes the rather famous/infamous rain dance scene that Quiet and Snake share in said game (as can be seen here). Sadly Ocelot doesn't strip in this version.
• Ocelot often tosses double entendres at Naked Snake's near-identical clone-son Solid Snake in MGS ("There's nothing like sliding a long silver bullet into a well-greased chamber."), with Snake flirting back during the torture room scene. He moans Snake's name and kisses Snake on the cheek in MGS 4, and when Snake gets kissed his Psyche restores. Yeah, Snake's. For that matter, look at the placement of the joystick icon on the screen during that moment.
• In 3, Big Boss's attempt to get out of the cell by persuading Johnny gives the impression he's trying to exchange sexual favours for his freedom, particularly the shot where he runs his palm up and down the bar before asking, "you must be pretty lonely". Johnny responds by showing Big Boss a picture of his wife, which causes Big Boss to visibly and audibly change his mannerisms.
• Pretty much every single line spoken between Big Boss and Python, down to Big Boss recalling their 'training sessions' and Python yelling "Feels good to me, how about you!" before returning fire during the boss battle. It's ridiculous.
• Hideo Kojima has been known to occasionally retweet ship fanart of both Metal Gear and Death Stranding on Twitter; this includes fanart of Bosselot (Big Boss x Ocelot) and BBKaz (Big Boss x Miller).
• Big Boss and Kaz in Peace Walker seem to exist mainly as Hideo Kojima's attempt to outgay his previous one-game subtext record with Snake and Otacon:
  • Paz mentions in her audio diary that she saw Big Boss and Kaz fighting, in the showers completely naked, after Big Boss found out that Kaz was sleeping with one of his comrade's girlfriend. She goes into graphic description about the "sweat flying off their muscular bodies", and realises at the end that there's no way she can get between their closeness. The whole thing reads like a slash fic.
  • Attempting to go on a mission with no clothes on will make Kaz threaten to take off his own clothes "if that's what you want". And then he'll actually do it.
  • Pictured above, the mission "Date with Kaz". Your objective is to flirt with Kaz and call him to your love box.
  • In both versions of the game, Kaz taunts Big Boss about parachuting into the jungle 'completely naked', pretending not to understand what Big Boss really meant (he was unarmed). In the Japanese version, he follows this up with trying to persuade Big Boss to do naked skydiving with him sometime. Big Boss isn't too enthusiastic, though.
  • The Japanese promo "Kazradio" podcast contains little, mostly improvised skits performed by the voice actors for Big Boss and Kaz. In one of them, they visit an onsen, and Kaz slaps Big Boss on the ass. Twice.
  • There's also this exchange:
  Big Boss: Kaz, I want you to go behind me... there.
  Kaz: Boss, what -
  Big Boss: SNAKE IN!
  • Ground Zeroes piles subtext about Kaz and Big Boss. Paz calls Kaz's relationship with Big Boss "infatuation", and one of the Japanese-exclusive "Peace and Kazuira Blues" tapes details the "Gay Shower Fight" between Big Boss and Kaz. Words cannot do it justice, you have to listen to it yourself.
    • Extra content that Paz apparently didn't mention in her tape is how Big Boss/Snake orders Kaz around, asking him to turn around and eventually drop his towel, specifically so he can analyse Kaz's body for scratch-marks and other signs of the affairs Kaz has been rumoured to have had (he even remarks on the marks that Kaz has on his ass, and Kaz keeps worriedly asking where Big Boss' hands are going), and how Snake eventually gives the ultimatum of "It's either women, or us." Kaz's response - "can't I have both?" - can easily be interpreted as him expressing an interest in both women and Big Boss.
  • In The Phantom Pain, the Ho Yay between Kaz and Big Boss got to the point that Kojima himself stated on Twitter that he had to push for certain shots of the pair in close proximity, because his staff were concerned by the implications, and in-game, some of Kaz's protestations - particularly in disagreements with Ocelot and over Quiet - can come across as overly jealous. This is to say nothing of the true ending, where Kaz refuses to follow the real Big Boss' plan and sounds overly spurned.
    • If you use mods to be able to use freecam in cutscenes, you can see Venom briefly touch Kaz's hand when he's being lied down on a stroller after he's rescused from Afghanistan.
    • Using the same kind mod, you can see Kaz smiling at Venom when he gets into the chopper after the fight with Sahelanthropus.
    • Venom seems very protective about Kaz, always helping him get on and off choppers, give him his cane whenever he drops it and helps him stand and walk whenever it's needed.
• In Peace Walker, some of the missions involve looking through the doors of houses to find people inside. One of the 'incorrect' houses is surrounded by the sound of a shower. If you make Big Boss look through, he makes an aroused 'Oooh' sound, which is rudely responded to by a male "Who's there?"
• Each soldier recruited in Peace Walker has a quote from their conversations with Big Boss on their profile, one of which is this gem:
  "You want me to forget last night...? Too late. It's all in my diary now."

Raiden

• Raiden's relationship with Snake in Sons of Liberty has the same hero-worshipping chemistry as Ocelot and Naked Snake's first meeting. Quinton Flynn does a great job playing Raiden's first encounter with Snake like a mixed-up Fangirl, both mad at Snake for using him like a pawn and jawdroppingly impressed by the fact that it was Solid Snake.
• Vamp flirts with and gets uncomfortably close to Raiden all throughout MGS 2. Their encounter in 4 drops any pretense of subtlety, with a scene that's more erotic than some actual sex scenes, including Vamp licking Raiden's thick white artificial blood off of his crotch-knives, and a session of grappling and groaning that involves Raiden penetrating Vamp with his sword (the non-metaphorical one).
• In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Raiden can cut off the clothes of (male) civilians. Doing so will have your support team berating you for "non-consensual activities". Raiden will feebly defend himself by saying it was impulse on his part.
• Jetstream Sam, like Vamp before him, is quite clearly flirting with Raiden, getting really excited while fighting him, calling him "pretty boy", and giving him battle pointers, relishing the opportunity for a rematch and hopefully to be killed by him.

Other characters

• Volgin sees through the Raikov disguise by grabbing Snake's crotch. If you put on the Raikov mask during the battle with him, Volgin will actually hesitate and stop attacking. EVA notes that a Major having so much authority is unusual, but Volgin basically gave Raikov the power to do whatever he wants. The MGS 4 downloadable plot and character map on the PS Store confirms that Volgin and Raikov are lovers, surprising exactly no-one.
• Going beyond subtext into actual stated text, Vamp was sleeping with Scott Dolph, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, circa MGS 2.
• EVA seems to have a sweet little crush on The Boss in MGS 3. She talks obsessively about how she's jealous of the very pure love between Snake and The Boss, since she herself only understands sexual love. And moans The Boss's name in her sleep. (She also moans for "Snake" and "Fido", though.)
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has the rather aptly-named Strangelove ranting about The Boss, referring to her as "the woman I loved". She'll also outright state that "naked men are not my cup of tea" if you call her while wearing Swim Trunks.
  • Paz's audio diary tapes reveal she was approached by Strangelove while sunbathing, who gushes about her beautiful skin and implores her to take better care of it. Despite initially sounding almost homophobic about her, Paz becomes a lot more interested when Strangelove starts to apply sunscreen to her despite her protests. She gets more and more audibly aroused as she recalls the memory, until she's able to add little more than that Strangelove is "very beautiful" and then coldly adds that Strangelove is "dangerous".
  • Cecile is telling Big Boss about her private baths from Strangelove, and when he seems bothered by the idea of Strangelove giving another woman a bath, she responds with a very sensual insinuation that she likes woman-on-woman as much as a heterosexual relationship.
  • It's telling as well that, in her last recorded message in The Phantom Pain Strangelove says she prefers to see her son Hal (aka Otacon) as her child with The Boss. Which goes a long way in explaining some of Otacon's tendencies.
• After seeing Mistral for the first time, calling Raiden's support on the codec will have all of them reveal they find her attractive, including Courtney.
• In the aftermath of the battle of Outer Haven in MGS 4, two of the Haven Troopers (who are specifically noted to be all female) can be seen holding each other rather intimately.

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