List of Metal Gear Solid characters
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This is a list of fictional characters appearing in the video game Metal Gear Solid (and, by extension, its remake, ).
Several recurring characters in the Metal Gear series also appear in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes.
Main characters
Solid Snake
Meryl Silverburgh
Hal Emmerich
Cyborg Ninja (Gray Fox)
FOXHOUND
Liquid Snake
- See Liquid Snake
Revolver Ocelot
Psycho Mantis
Psycho Mantis is a psychic expert for the FOXHOUND unit. Prior to joining FOXHOUND, he worked with the KGB and the FBI. His special abilities include the psychic powers of psychokinesis and telepathy.
Psycho Mantis was born in a small Russian village before the collapse of the Soviet Union. His mother died giving birth to him, which made his father resent and hate him. He discovered his father's true emotions one day while accidentally reading his mind. He wondered if his father would kill him, and the shock of this revelation awoke his subconscious, and inadvertently caused the deaths of everyone in the village (approx. 1,000 people). This release of psychic energy caused severe burns across his body, particularly his face. He was then taken into custody by the KGB, who found his psychic powers impressive. He was taught to control his abilities and became a KGB spy.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mantis was drafted as a psychic profiler by the FBI. He moved to the United States and began to work immediately for the FBI. He would enter the minds of suspected killers and uncover the truth about their crimes. He eventually delved too far into the mind of a serial killer, and the killer's thoughts infected his mind, driving him insane.
He was recruited by FOXHOUND. By this time he had taken to wearing a gas mask, partially to hide his deformed facial features, but also to prevent the thoughts of others from entering his mind involuntarily.
In the current incarnation of FOXHOUND, its members (Liquid Snake, Vulcan Raven, Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf, and Decoy Octopus) grew tired of their roles as puppets to the government, and attacked Shadow Moses Island, a nuclear disposal facility. Psycho Mantis used his powers to gather the aid of the Genome Army, a group of genetically enhanced soldiers. However, upon his death, Mantis reveals he has never had any interest in the ideals that the rest of the revolutionaries have; he just wanted "an excuse to kill as many people as he could".
During the Shadow Moses island incident, Mantis attempts to stop Solid Snake's progress, at first taking control of Meryl Silverburgh, then revealing himself. Psycho Mantis is ultimately defeated by Snake. Snake removes his mask revealing his horrificaly deformed face which resembles that of his own skull with scars, bar codes, and stiches. He tells Snake of his past before revealing the route ahead in his dying moments. He remarks that it is the first time he has used his powers for good, and that it felt "nostalgic" (in the English original translation of the game, "kind of nice").
Although Mantis was put into the FOXDIE program, it had no effect on him. It is believed to be due to his wearing of a mask.
Cleverly enough, the Mantis moniker of "Psycho Mantis" has a double meaning; While being in reference to the insect known as the Preying Mantis, "mantis" is also a Latin word meaning "seer or prophet".
Gameplay
When Solid Snake faces Mantis, Mantis demonstrates his psychic powers by breaking the fourth wall. In the pre-battle cut-scene, he activates the controller's rumble feature, then reads the player's memory card and comments on how often you saved the game and your preference on certain other games. Then, at the beginning of the actual battle, Mantis yells "Blackout!" and causes the screen to go completely black except for the words Hideo (a reference to the director Hideo Kojima) in green all capital text in the top right corner of the screen, much like TV or VCR on-screen-displays. Many players mistook this to be a glitch in the game, while it was supposed to trick the player into thinking that he or someone else changed the TV or VCR input, as a slight attempt to throw the player off.In the original PlayStation game, he reads off the titles of Konami's other games (', Suikoden among others), while in the remake Twin Snakes, he reads Nintendo's games (Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, , and ', among others). In the Japanese PlayStation version, if the player has save data from Snatcher and Policenauts, a special message from Hideo Kojima will be played.
Sniper Wolf
Sniper Wolf is the sharpshooter of the FOXHOUND unit, and she goes rogue with the rest of her unit during the events of that game. She is the unit's sniper, a role in which she is exceptionally skilled. Though snipers usually work in pairs, she works alone.
She was a Kurdish member of FOXHOUND and a famed sniper capable of going without food and staying still for up to a week. She has been known to form an emotional connection with her targets before killing them with her preferred weapon, the Heckler & Koch PSG-1, and used special 'mercury-chip' rounds to poison the target(s) as well.
Being Kurdish, she was treated quite poorly. At the age of five, near the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, she witnessed the death of her family and thousands of others as they died to a gas attack by Saddam Hussein's troops. Sometime during the war she met Big Boss who brought her back to the U.S. Extremely grateful, she thought of Big Boss as Saladin (who defeated the Crusaders in the 12th century, not to mention also being Kurdish) and followed him in whatever he did until his death by Solid Snake. At this point, Liquid Snake was able to find her and convince her to join FOXHOUND.
During the Shadow Moses Island incident, she cared for the huskies that Liquid Snake intended to kill as she enjoyed their company. She was also impressed with Otacon giving his scarce food supply to the huskies. Otacon admitted to her that he loved her just before she died from the injuries Solid Snake had inflicted on her during their battle. She requested that Snake shoot her to relieve the pain, which he did after some hesitation and protests from Otacon.
During her final monologue to Solid Snake she wonders what her position in life is: whether she is a proud and noble Wolf or more of a scavenger like a dog. She confesses to Snake that in recent times she felt that she wasn't looking to kill people but waiting for someone to kill her. After her death Snake appears to be rather taken aback by her comments and ponders them for a while.
She was apparently unaffected by the FOXDIE virus. Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot suspected that this may be because of the Diazepam (Pentazemin in The Twin Snakes) tranquilizers she took regularly, which could have suppressed the activity of the virus.
Minor appearances
She appears in a flashback in when Otacon is reminiscing over why he always survives when people he loves die. The huskies she cared for are heard in the background of this flashback the same way they are heard before all the fights with Sniper Wolf (They are also heard after she is defeated by Solid Snake).Vulcan Raven
Vulcan Raven is a member of FOXHOUND who wields a giant vulcan cannon and has shaman powers. Raven was born to Alaskan Indian and Inuit parents, though he hates the word “Eskimo” used by white men. He was raised as a shaman by his people. Inuit worship the raven as the creator so he got a large tattoo of a raven on his forehead, along with other symbolic tattoos on his body (as done in shaman culture).
He graduated from the University of Alaska, and spent a few more years living in his homeland. He took part in the Eskimo-Indian Olympics, and won many “Ear Pull” contests (an event where two opponents pull each other's ear while enduring the harsh cold, intended to test both spiritual and physical strength).
Eventually, he left Alaska and went to Russia. He joined the Russian Special Forces unit Vympel and met with Revolver Ocelot there. After the fall of the Soviet Union he was demoted by President Boris Yeltsin after a failed coup attempt in Moscow in 1993.
He decided that he would not stay after this, and left Russia to become a mercenary for hire. It was then that he joined Big Boss' mercenary-dispatching company, Outer Heaven. The destruction of Outer Heaven was Solid Snake's first mission, but Raven and Snake did not meet on this occasion, nor did they meet during the After the death of Big Boss, he joined FOXHOUND thanks to the recommendations of Revolver Ocelot.
During his FOXHOUND years he took an M61 Vulcan cannon (a machine gun usually mounted on F-16's.) as his weapon of choice, and carried a huge barrel of ammunition on his back. He is 210 cm (nearly 6 ft. 9 in.) tall.
The most recent incarnation of FOXHOUND (Liquid Snake, Vulcan Raven, Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf and Decoy Octopus) grew tired of their roles as puppets to the government, and attacked Shadow Moses Island, a nuclear disposal facility.
During the course of the Shadow Moses island incident, Solid Snake (the player's character) encounters Vulcan Raven twice: once while Raven is piloting an M1 Abrams tank, and once inside a freezing cold warehouse. During the latter instance, Snake defeated Raven. In his final moments, Raven offered Snake a 'hint', telling him that the DARPA chief whom Snake had met had in fact been Decoy Octopus. He did not explain why or how he was killed, or why he was disguised in the first place, but declared that Snake would always follow a life of bloodshed wherever he went.
As he made this declaration, he was being eaten alive by his own ravens so that he could be "one with them."
Raven has displayed many abilities similar to magic, as he can control his ravens during the battle to attack Snake.
Minor appearances
In , the player can find an action figure of Raven in the as Snake. Shooting the figure causes it to fire what looks to be plastic pellets from the minigun. This brings up a conversation with Otacon about Raven. The same figure can also be seen floating in the water during the section in the Plant Chapter where Raiden goes to the flooded section of the Shell 2 Core to rescue Emma Emmerich.Decoy Octopus
Decoy Octopus is a member of FOXHOUND, and, with the rest of his unit, went rogue during the Shadow Moses island incident. He has an almost supernatural skill with disguises, as his name might imply, and is able to nearly perfectly take on the appearance and personality of his assigned target. He has cut off his own ears and shaved his cheekbones to help perfect his facial appearance, and if the target is dead, injects himself with the target's blood. This is how Snake saw the "DARPA Chief"'s nanomachines on his radar.
Octopus was disguised as the DARPA Chief (with the real Chief having been killed during a torture session with Ocelot). Octopus was killed by the FOXDIE virus that had been implanted on Solid Snake. The FOXDIE virus was programmed to kill the FOXHOUND members, therefore it killed him. Decoy Octopus is the only FOXHOUND member in the Shadow Moses incident whom Snake does not fight.
Supporting characters
Roy Campbell
Naomi Hunter
- See: Naomi Hunter
Mei Ling
- See: Mei Ling
Master Miller
- See: Master Miller
Nastasha Romanenko
Nastasha Romanenko is Solid Snake's codec contact on matters related to nuclear weapons. She was brought into the mission by Richard Ames, her ex-husband.
Nastasha Romanenko is a strong advocate of nuclear abolition. Nastasha was born in the 1970s in the Ukraine in the town of Prypiat, three kilometers north of the Chernobyl power plant. She and her family were showered by radiation after the Chernobyl accident on April 26, 1986. She was evacuated to another location after the disaster. Natasha was later found to be infertile from radiation poisoning that gave her problems with her thyroid gland. In 1990, Nastasha’s parents were killed when they were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation while helping in the clean-up. Nastasha then moved to the United States. In 1992, she joined the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) where she met Richard Ames. The two soon married. The marriage, however, did not last long and the two divorced soon after. Natasha did not see Ames for many years after that.
After Natasha's divorce, she left the DIA in 1995 and became a freelance military analysist. During this time she wrote for several different magazines as a journalist. In 1996, Nastasha attended the Canberra, the world's first nationally hosted nuclear weapon abolition proposal committee. After the Chernobyl disaster, Natasha had vowed to free the world from nuclear weapons. After that, Natasha joined NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) as a military and nuclear analysist.
In 2005, Nastasha came into contact with her ex-husband, Richard Ames and "asked" to help with the Shadow Moses mission as a nuclear analysist. She helped Snake by giving him information on his weapons and equipment, as well as the nuclear warheads in storage and such. At the mission's end, Richard gave Nastasha a data disc containing information about FoxDie and helped her escape before she was silenced for participating in the operation. She never saw Ames again after that, after which he died during the Big Shell Incident. Nastasha then went into hiding for some time. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
After the events of Shadow Moses incident, she writes a (fictional) autobiography titled In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth. This fictional publication serves as a plot summary of Metal Gear Solid (and reveals previously undisclosed plot details about the events of the games), and is included as a bonus feature in ' (by extension, '). Her name also appears during the MGS4 trailer in Metal Gear Mk. II's heads-up display (where it is revealed that she is the founder of Philanthropy), although whether she'll have a role in upcoming is still unknown.
Minor characters
Solidus Snake
- ''See Solidus Snake
Sergei Gurlukovich
- ''See Sergei Gurlukovich
Donald Anderson
Donald Anderson is the office chief of DARPA. As an advocate of the nuclear retaliation theory, he funds the Metal Gear REX project with ArmsTech as part of the US' black budget. He and Baker visit the Disposal Facility where REX is developed, only to be taken as hostages during Liquid Snake's takeover of the facility.
He is interrogated by Revolver Ocelot when he refuses to divulge his detonation code to the terrorist. However, Anderson is aware of Ocelot's true identity and is killed during a torture session, making his death appear accidental. As a result, Liquid arranges for Decoy Octopus to take his place as a hostage and trick Snake into revealing of an alternate method of activating REX. Snake finds the decomposed corpse of the real DARPA Chief while held in captivity by Ocelot, but is not aware of the switch until Vulcan Raven reveals it to him.
He appeared to had been a personal friend of Jim Houseman, who laments his death. Anderson was the only person Houseman intended to spare during the Shadow Moses incident. Anderson intended to steal the Metal Gear REX data from Baker and have it delivered to Houseman.
Kenneth Baker
Kenneth Baker is the president of ArmsTech, one of the leading manufacturers of the arms industry and is a middle-aged man. His company ininiates the development of Metal Gear REX for the purpose of recovering financial losses his company suffered (a result of several factors, including losing projects to rival companies and reduction in SDI spending). He bribed the DARPA Chief to support the project. However, during a planned field exercise of REX in the Nuclear Disposal Facility on Shadow Moses Island, Baker was taken hostage during Liquid Snake's takeover.
During his captivity, he hides the optical disk containing REX data and gives the PAL card to Meryl Silverburgh, a fellow prisoner. He is tortured by Ocelot and has his right arm broken during the interrogation. Baker is wired to a boobytrap of C4 explosives while Solid Snake battles Ocelot, but is saved by the Ninja. Ultimately, Baker dies after being exposed to the FOXDIE program by coming into contact with Snake.
Jim Houseman
Jim Houseman is the United States Secretary of Defense and serves as the mission controller during the Shadow Moses Island incident via AWACS. He orchestrated the Shadow Moses operation for the true purpose of obtaining the optical disk with the Metal Gear REX data, although he also has a seemingly genuine concern for his friend, Chief Anderson, who was taken hostage during the incident and planned on having him rescued. When Snake destroys REX, he puts Colonel Campbell under arrest and orders a nuclear strike over the disposal facility to cover up the incident, which would've destroyed the entire island and everyone in it, including Snake and Liquid. However, the proposed nuclear strike never occurs, as Houseman is forcefully relieved from his duties by Richard Ames under orders from the Patriots, who were against the strike. Instead, Campbell was exonerated from the charges as full blame was laid on Houseman for the incident.
After the Shadow Moses incident, Houseman reportedly suffered from an apparent nervous breakdown and died from a self-inflicted gunshot. However, it is implied in Nastasha Romanenko's book (In the Darkness of Shadow Moses) that his death might had actually been an assassination covered up as suicide due to his refusal for taking the fall.
References
| Main series | Metal Gear | ' | Metal Gear Solid | ' ' | ' | |
| Supplemental titles | ' | The Document of MGS2 | ' | ' | ' | MG Saga | |
| Side stories | Snake's Revenge | | Acid | Acid 2 | Metal Gear Solid (film) |
|---|---|
| Characters | Metal Gears | Solid Snake | Big Boss | Raiden | Gray Fox | Roy Campbell | Revolver Ocelot | Hal Emmerich | Meryl Silverburgh Recurring characters | Metal Gear 1 & 2 | Metal Gear Solid | Metal Gear Solid 2 | Metal Gear Solid 3 | Metal Gear Acid series |
| Locations | Outer Heaven | Zanzibar Land | Shadow Moses | Big Shell |
| Organizations | Philosophers | Cobra unit | Patriots | FOXHOUND | Genome Soldiers | Philanthropy | Dead Cell | Sons of Liberty | Outer Heaven (PMC) |
| Creators | Konami | Kojima Productions | Hideo Kojima Yoji Shinkawa | Shuyo Murata | Shinta Nojiri | Norihiko Hibino | Akio Otsuka | David Hayter |
| Timelines | Metal Gear timeline | Metal Gear timeline compared to reality |
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