Character Spotlight: Solid Snake

Hideo Kojima's legendary character Solid Snake is this week's selection for our Character Spotlight. Solid Snake is a fictional character and the protagonist of Konami's Metal Gear series.

Created by Hideo Kojima, Snake is introduced in the first game of the series, Metal Gear from 1987. Snake has appeared in the majority of subsequent games and spin-offs.

LOWDOWN:

Introduced in Metal Gear, Solid Snake is a combination of spy, special operations soldier, and mercenary commando of FOXHOUND – a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear, a bipedal nuclear weapon-armedmecha. Controlled by the player, Solid Snake must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. While during his first two appearances Snake's designs were references to Hollywood films, by Metal Gear Solid he was given a consistent design by artist Yoji Shinkawaalongside an established personality.

The character of Solid Snake has been well received by critics to the point he appeared in several lists of best characters in gaming history. His development in the series has been praised although his accelerated aging in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots resulted in mixed reactions.

REAL NAME: David
OCCUPATION: Soldier, Spy, and Mercenary
AFFILIATIONS: USSF, FOXHOUND, CIA
EYE COLOR: Blue Gray
HAIR COLOR: Gray
HEIGHT: 182 cm
WEIGHT: 63.5 kg
AGE: 42


EDUCATION: Possessing an IQ of 180 and fluent in six languages, including English and French, he was known as "the man who makes the impossible possible" and his exploits made him into a living legend among the military black ops. Initially a Green Beret, Snake was later inducted into High-Tech Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND in the mid-1990s while it was under the leadership of Big Boss.

KNOWN RELATIVES: Liquid Snake (brother) Solidus Snake (brother) Big Boss (father) EVA (surrogate mother) Biological mother(mitochondrial DNA donor)

FIRST APPEARANCE: Metal Gear

BIOGRAPHY:
David was born in 1972, along with his twin brother, Liquid Snake, as a result of "Les Enfants Terribles," a secret government project designed to create the perfect soldier, using the genes of the "Greatest Warrior of the 20th Century," Big Boss.

Using the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer, eight clone embryos were created by inserting Big Boss's DNA into enucleated egg cells, donated by a healthy Japanese woman. By utilizing the Super Baby Method, the embryos were then implanted into the womb of a surrogate mother, with six of the babies eventually being aborted to promote growth in the remaining two.

The two clones were also modified on the genetic level, with one clone expressing Big Boss's dominant genetic traits, and the other, his recessive traits. Nine months later, the twins were born, who would later receive the codenames of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. A third clone was also later created, known as Solidus Snake, who inherited an identical genetic code to Big Boss. Liquid was later led to believe that he was the result of Big Boss's "inferior" recessive traits, and would inform an unknowing Solid Snake as such.

PERSONALITY/TRAITS:

Solid Snake, a hardened career soldier, often displayed a calm and collected demeanor, rarely showing any signs of fear in extreme circumstances. He also demonstrated compassion towards his fallen enemies, allowing Psycho Mantis and Sniper Wolf to speak their final words to him, even after both had tried to kill Meryl Silverburgh. During the Zanzibar Land Disturbance, Snake claimed to be different from Big Boss, and that he loved life

Solid Snake was often perceived as holding a degree of enjoyment towards warfare by his own allies as well as his enemies, although he himself was not as open about such behavior in comparison to his clone brothers. He was accused of being in self-denial by Liquid Snake, claiming that he also enjoys the killing, and was remarked upon by Psycho Mantis as being "worse" than his clone brother. In addition, he also holds a particular dislike towards politicians, although not to the same degree as Liquid Snake or his father, Big Boss, as evidenced by his cold remark about the U.S. President's desire for START III to be passed so it could go down in the history books. Snake also displayed little emotion towards people he did not know personally, as with the deaths of SEAL Team 10 on board the Big Shell. In regards to his anti-Metal Gear sabotage efforts, Snake did not consider himself a terrorist, though he admitted that Philanthropy's actions could be perceived as more like terrorism than grassroots activism. Snake was also willing to use unwitting allies to further his own goals, if it allowed him to infiltrate an enemy complex more easily, as evidenced by his "betrayal" of Raiden on board the Big Shell.

Snake was fluent in six languages, including French. Although he was unfamiliar with Czech during the Zanzibar Land Disturbance, he was able to recognize the term "Matka Pluku," when Raiden told him of Big Mama's alias during Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection.

Snake and Otacon appear to have their own handshake, as shown by the two after the latter's stepsister died from her wounds.

During the events of Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, Solid Snake calmly accepted the inevitability of his impending death. Because of this, he was also more willing to risk his life, as demonstrated during the Missouri debriefing. However, he would often become annoyed upon being reminded of his accelerated age, once telling Otacon to "cut the senior citizen crap" and his Psyche dropping at occasional moments when called "Old Snake".

Just as Gray Fox did for him during Outer Heaven, Snake "showed the ropes" to Raiden, acting as a de facto mentor to the "rookie" and teaching him about his supplies and how to become a better soldier. During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection of 2014, he showed sincere concern for his comrade in South America (after his first fight with Vamp) and on Shadow Moses (after Outer Haven crushed him). Later on a mission to destroy GW, Raiden offered to head to the microwave-protected server room on Outer Haven, when Snake refused, saying that Raiden shouldn't "waste [his] youth", and admits apologetically that the Sons of Big Boss "tore the world apart and made [Raiden's] life a living hell." In addition, during Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, he was apprehensive about getting nanomachine injections, because of the time Naomi Hunter injected him with FOXDIE via this method, as evidenced by his hesitance to let Drebin 893 to inject him with a shot to give him an update on his nanomachines when in the Middle East.

Solid Snake was a heavy cigarette smoker. During Operations Intrude N313 and F014, he smoked an unfiltered version of "Lucky Strikes." During the Shadow Moses Incident, he smoked "Moslems,"designed to reduce second-hand smoke. During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, he smoked a brand called "The Boss," which were unfiltered hand-rolled cigarettes, each containing 16mg of tar. During the same time, he often ignored the no-smoking policy on board the Nomad, often resulting in Sunny telling him off when she finds out or caught him in the act.

Solid Snake disliked wearing hats, preferring his bandana, despite "Master Miller" warning him that 70% of body heat dissipates from the head.

Snake did not possess any qualms for doing what is normally unacceptable social behavior like going into women's restrooms if it meant completing his mission, once even encouraging Raiden to do the same when the latter was searching for Peter Stillman. Likewise, he also held some sexual emotions for various females, sometimes reading pornographic magazines during the Big Shell Incident and Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection. During the early stages of the Shadow Moses Incident, when Naomi Hunter promised that she'd let Snake "do a strip search on her," Snake remarked that he's "holding her to that statement." Once, when he learned about Mei Ling's promotion to commanding officer of the USS Missouri and her earlier liking older men, Snake expressed regret for retiring from official military service as early as he did, although he remained resolute in his having learned everything he could when Otacon asked whether that meant he would want to train to become a sailor.

Snake's knowledge of computer programs and computer-related terms was somewhat limited, often insisting that Otacon "get to the point" during conversations on the subject. While Emma Emmerich was accessing GW's defensive capabilities in the Shell 1 Core computer room, onboard the Big Shell, Snake could only describe to Raiden that she was "doing something."

Despite his emotionless appearance, he has showed a soft, emotional side as he expressed extreme concern for Raiden when he got run over by a boat, and sadness at the deaths of his parents Big Boss and EVA.

When Snake gave Raiden the H.F. blade from Olga Gurlukovich, while inside Arsenal Gear, he revealed that he was "not a big fan of blades." However, he did show Raiden that he knew how to use it. During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, Snake adopted the use of a stun knife, once he had begun to use CQC again.

Snake also seems not to believe in the supernatural; when Otacon explained the equipment to attach to walls, he asked if Vamp could have used it during the Big Shell Incident. Otacon said it was possible, but Snake assured Otacon that he is not supernatural and despite the visual evidence, believed that Vamp was not actually immortal.

During the events of Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, Snake primarily used the Magpul dynamic gun combat style, invented by Chris Costas, as his combat style.

Snake also displayed great levels of endurance and heightened reflexes:

• He survived passing over an electrified floor;
• He survived being set on fire after destroying Metal Gear D;
• He successfully evaded cannon fire from an M1 Abrams tank;
• He withstood extensive electrical torture by Revolver Ocelot;
• Despite having little warning beforehand, he evaded gunshots from a sniper rifle, a revolver and a ballistic knife, the latter of which also had Olga implying that Snake was the first to evade it;
• Though his forearm was badly cut by Vamp, causing him significant blood loss, he recuperated within a short period of time;
• He survived passing through a corridor installed with microwave emitters, despite having recently undergone advanced aging, and went on to defeat Liquid Ocelot in hand-to-hand combat; according to Naomi Hunter, it was only Snake's sheer will power that allowed him to do   this.

-Brian Lansangan
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