CHARACTERS

This biography comes from MGSV:TPP The Complete Official Guide by Piggyback.

BIG BOSS

1935-2014

Real Name: John
Also Known As: Jack, Naked Snake, Ishmael, The Lengendary Soldier/Mercenary, The Man Who Sold the World
Affiliations: US Army, Green Berets, FOXHOUND, CIA, FBI, FOX, The Patriots, Long-range reconnaissance patrol, SOG, Wild Geese, Militaries Sans Frontieres, Outer Heaven, Zanzibar Land
Notable Relationships: The Boss [mother figure], EVA [lover], Solid Snake [son], Liquid Snake [son], Solidus Snake [son], Venom Snake [body double]

An American special agent almost exclusively known by his military designation of Naked Snake in his early professional career, Big Boss was forced to assassinate his spiritual mother and mentor, The Boss, during Operation Snake Eater in 1964. Thought his promotion and new appellation were of little solace in the immediate aftermath, Big Boss ultimately embraced the title as he joined Major Zero and Ocelot (among others) to establish Cipher in 1970 - a secret intelligence organization that would later grow and mutate to become The Patriots.

Though still a girm friend of the organization's leader, Major Zero, during Cipher's early days, Big Boss's gradual estrangment from Zero and dissatisfaction with his methods - which he regarded as a betrayal of the message of liberty bequeathed to them by The Boss - caused him to distance himself from active involvement in the clandestine agency's activities. He later left entirely after discovering that Zero had commissioned a project dubbed "Les Enfants Terribles" - an initiative that involved the theft of Big Boss's genetic material, used to create three clones that would safeguard the reproductive legacy of a man regarded as the greatest soldier of all time.

After spending a few years on his own gathering a merccenary force and establishing Mother Base on an offshore platform, Big Boss had his first direct confrontation with Zero during the Peace Walker Incident in 1974. Zero used a specially trained triple agent named Paz to infiltrate Big Boss's ranks on Mother Base and steal Metal Gear ZEKE, their proprietary nuclear deterrent designed by Huey Emmerich. Big Boss defeated the Cipher spy, and rejected the offer from Zero that she delivered -- that Big Boss rejoin the fold and have his mercenaries become Cipher's military wing -- without hesitation.

Skull Face ordered that Big Boss's Mother Base be razed during the Ground Zeroes Incident in 1975, leading to events that left Big Boss in a coma. On awakening in 1984, Big Boss rejoined his former second-in-command Miller to build a new Mother Base with a mercenary force (the Diamond Dogs) that would exceed the strength of the predecessor destroyed by Cipher. With Major Zero presumed to be out of the game

completely, the primary antaognist that Big Boss faced during this timeframe is Skull Face. Zero's traitorous former XO successfully manipulated and exploited aspects of the global Cipher organization to prepare a grand, world-changing plan.

Big Boss ostensibly makes a remarkable physical recovery (scars, lost body parts and disfiguremnts notwithstand) in the aftermath of his long-term coma, but his mental state is less assured. Though his personality and incomparable military expertise are seemingly unchanged, he regularly experiences visual disturbances and distortions, and even participates in outright hallucinations (such as the instances where he believes Paz to be alive and on Mother Base).

Ultimately, Big Boss aspired all along to create a "warrior's utopia", a nation of mercenaries free from governmental influence, whose sole purpose would be to develop their military strength without restiction. This is what he attempted to do by establishing the governments of Outer Heaven in 1995 and Zanzibar Land in 1999. His goal was to remain free from the control of the rapidly encroaching influence of Zero's artificial intelligence system: The Patriots. In both instances the Patriots send his clone "son, Solid Snake to foil his plans. Gravely wounded after their second clash in Zanzibar Land, the body of Big Boss was retrieved by The Patriots and maintained in a perpetual artificial coma.

Raiden, with the assistance of other protagonists, was eventually able to reclaim Big Boss's body. Reconstructed with organs and limbs harvested from the carefully maintained corpses of Liquid and Solidus, Big Boss was restored to life in 2014. Finally comprehending the true sense of his former mentor's legacy, he took the opportunity to pass this message on to his son, Solid Snake. The two share a poignant connection, more as two soldiers than as father and son, before Big Boss chooses to die on the grave of the woman he had worshipped throughout his adult life.

NAVIGATION