The events of Metal Gear Solid 3 set the table for the franchise’s past and present, bridging the two eras and becoming the most important game in the series. Taking place before the events of the first Metal Gear title, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater gives players a glimpse at the rise of the man who would later go on to take the name Big Boss. During the course of the game’s eponymous mission, players meet new characters that supplement the story of Metal Gear as well as some familiar faces in their younger days.
Taking the story of the series to its days before the events of Metal Gear allows fans the chance to explore the formative events within MGS’ overarching narrative. Players meet a young Ocelot before he receives any of the nicknames he’s known for in the future of the game’s timeline. Throughout Snake Eater, fans see the development of Ocelot in his meetings with the future Big Boss in both combat and philosophical aspects. The game’s exploration of their dynamic culminates in a mutual respect that becomes a foundational part of Ocelot’s character moving forward, similar to the relationship the then-Naked Snake shared with his mentor and Ocelot’s mother.
Players are quickly introduced to The Boss, the acting leader of the fabled Cobra Unit as well as Naked Snake’s mentor in the arts of espionage and close-quarters combat, or “CQC.” Most importantly, The Boss’ beliefs serve as the foundation of the character of Big Boss after the events of Snake Eater. The course of MGS3‘s story sees The Boss revealed as a traitor to her country before the depths of her actions are shown in full, shaping the legacy of the franchise going forward.
The Boss’ Will And Its Effect on Metal Gear
The interpretation of the Boss’ will following the events of Snake Eater leads Big Boss and his commanding officer Zero down two paths that shape the events of the franchise. Zero’s formation of the unit known as the Patriots was a direct result of his interpretation of the Boss’ will. Big Boss, however, began to drift from Zero and splintered from the Patriots after learning of the Les Enfants Terribles, the project which created Solid, Liquid, and Solidus Snake clones from his very genes. While Zero maintained his beliefs of the Boss’ will, Big Boss, her final apprentice, had his own interpretation.
Big Boss believed that her will involved soldiers no longer being limited by politics or governments, leading to the formation of Militaires Sans Frontières. Once MSF had crumbled, Big Boss, alongside Ocelot, went on to form Diamond Dogs and eventually Outer Heaven in a misguided effort to continue his interpretation of her final wishes. Ocelot went on to enact plans to destroy what had become of the Patriots – now an AI system – through the manipulation of Solid Snake in an effort to see Boss’ will be done during Metal Gear Solid 4. It is only after the events of MGS4 does Big Boss come to truly understand the dream and final wish of his mentor.
Big Boss’s appearance at the finale of Metal Gear Solid 4 is the final realization of what the Boss truly wanted through her actions. Rather than a world constantly warring with itself, Big Boss realized that what the Boss truly wanted was the world to be left alone with respect given to the will of others. Confessing that he had metaphorically died the day he took the Boss’ life, Big Boss proclaimed that with his passing, all of the old evils will have gone as well to make room for a new future.
The events of the Metal Gear franchise begin to center themselves heavily around the era of Big Boss and the happenings of Snake Eater after the release of MGS3. The subsequent titles in the franchise either follow after Snake Eater chronologically or heavily reference its events as an impetus for characters in the main cast, particularly the characters of Big Boss and Ocelot as the most immediate connections to those events. By introducing a new cast of characters that would shape the perception of one of the franchise’s earliest antagonists – as well as providing further context for one of its recurring characters and later antagonist in Ocelot – Metal Gear Solid 3 stands as the sun around which the Metal Gear universe revolves, with the legend of The Boss coming to life as its focal point.
