On the one hand, theMetal Gearstoryline can get quite intellectual in places, likeMetal Gear Solid 2’s somewhat prophetic view of the internet. On the other, it has a vampire-like man who’s called Vamp because he’s bisexual and a cowboy possessed by his transplanted arm.
Series creator Hideo Kojima also liked to mess with his fans’ expectations, like pretending’The Phantom Pain' wasn’tMGS5and was being made by ‘Moby Dick Studios’. So, it’s no surprise that the fans have tried to get one step ahead of him by analyzing his work, finding stray story threads, and coming up with these popularMetal Geartheories.
9Quiet is Sniper Wolf’s Mother
The Two Snipers are Related
InMetal Gear Solid, one of the FOXHOUND members that went rogue was Sniper Wolf. As her codename suggests, she’s an expert sniper. Before then, she was a young Kurdish girl from Iraq who was adopted off of the battlefield by ‘Saladin’, aka Big Boss, and raised within his outposts as a child soldier. But what if her sniping skills came from nature rather than nurture?
MGS5had itsown expert sniper in Quiet. Maybe before she’d become part of Diamond Dogs and XOF, she wasthe mother of Sniper Wolf. It would have to be before the events of the game, as Sniper Wolf was born in 1976, and Quiet disappeared in Afghanistan in 1984. Why she’d have a child in Iraq, and whether she was old enough to have one at the time, haven’t been figured out yet.
8Chico is Quiet
Chico Survived and Transitioned to Get Revenge
It’d be easier to join the dots for Sniper Wolf’s parentage than for this curious theory. Introduced inMGS: Peace Walker, Chico was a child soldier in the Sandinistas. He’d largely talk to Big Boss about cryptids and other mysterious monsters, tying into theMonster Hunterboss fights.Ground Zeroestook him in a darker direction where, after being tortured, he died during the bombing of Mother Base.
Kojima Productions did consider bringing him back as a male, melee-based equivalent to Quiet. He ultimately didn’t make it in, but it got fans thinking. Perhaps KojiPro combined Chico’s design into Quiet by making her trans?Chico transitioned into Quietand sought revenge against Big Boss. This got quashed pretty quickly by Quiet’s VA and model Stefanie Joosten. Interesting as it is, the series is still waiting for its first trans character.
7The Twins Snakes is Otacon’s Recollection of Events
The Gamecube Remake is How Otacon RemembersMGS1
WithMGS3currently being remadeasMetal Gear SolidΔ, fans are wondering if more games will be remade, or re-remade in the case ofMGS1. It was previously remade asMetal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakesfor the Gamecube, which had new cutscenes that cranked the action up to 11. For example, Solid Snake backflips off of a missile to fire a Stinger at a helicopter. But it led to a question: how didMGS1actually happen?
Did it follow the PS1 game’s events? Or was the remake canon?MGS4’s return to Shadow Moses played it coy by hidingMGS1’sPolicenautsposter underTwin Snakes’Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runnerposter. Fans have settled the difference by sayingTwin SnakesisOtacon’s interpretation of the game’s events, as he reacted to Snake’s memories ofMGS1rather excitedly. He imagined the events in a more dramatic way than Snake did.
6Solidus Snake and Senator Armstrong Knew Each Other
Armstrong May Have Been Solidus' Protégé
Metal Gear Risingsaw Raiden discover the private military company, World Marshal, was planning to start a fresh war on terror. But it was being done so that World Marshal’s primary shareholder, Senator Armstrong, could get into power and “end war as a business”. But he’d still need soldiers, and these would come via cyborgs powered by brains taken from impoverished children.
They’d be raised in a virtual environment based on the training George Sears, aka Solidus Snake, provided for his child troops in the Liberian Civil War. Why would he make that specific choice?Perhaps because Armstrong knew Solidus?Solidus could’ve known Armstrong back when he was President and thus passed on what he knew to the then-upcoming politician. It’s possible, maybe even plausible. Though it’s unlikely to become canon.
5Raiden Never Escaped the Patriots
The Patriots Kept Controlling Raiden’s Life
Raiden’s attempts to ignore his time as a child soldier under Solidus made him easier to manipulate by the Patriots. He eventually accepted his past and took what he learned from Solidus to (literally) cut his ties with him. Then he took control of his own life and moved on. Or did he? ThePatriots were still controlling thingsbehind the scenes inMGS4, working through Drebinand the Rat Patrolwithout their knowledge.
They could’ve been controlling Raiden too. Rose did keep her and their son at a distance due to Raiden being a security risk and for his own erratic behavior. His personal downward spiral could’ve also been engineered to make him easier to capture when he rescued Sunny from their clutches. They’d lose her as a bargaining chip but gain him as an unwitting mole into Big Mama’s operations. He wasn’t free until the Patriots were gone for good.
4Otacon is The Hero
The Nerdy Hacker Played The Biggest Role in Defeating the Patriots
Big Boss, Solid Snake, and Raiden may be the characters that save the day, yet the most important character to theSolidgames is arguably Hal ‘Otacon’ Emmerich. He started off as an engineer manipulated into making a “nuclear-equipped, walking deathmobile”. The “Emmerich Curse” meant he’d be as doomed to help make machines of misery as his father (Sahelanthropus) and grandfather (the atom bomb) were.
But by the end ofMGS1, he saved Snake’s life numerous times and told him how to destroy REX. Then, grieving the death of his foster sister, he still managed to save 30+ hostages from the Big Shell inMGS2. Then he completed the FOXALIVE virus (co-written by Sunny and his late sister Emma) that ended the Patriots once and for all as well. Without Otacon, the world might have remained in the Patriots’ thrall,making him a true hero.
3Solid Snake is The Villain
The Protagonist Isn’t Strictly a Good Guy
Conversely, Snake avoids describing himself as a hero. He flat-out denies the title inMGS4(“I’m no hero. Never was”), scoffed at the idea inMGS1(“I’m just a man who’s good at what he does: killing”), and even admitted his efforts inMGS2were no different to terrorism. These could be written off as him being morose about his legacy or knowing it all too well.
He saved the world from nuclear threats and an oil crisis. But he was being used as a tool, either by Big Boss against the Patriots (Metal Gear) or vice versa (MG2). His actions also cost people their lives and livelihoods, like Kyle Schneider, Grey Fox, and Naomi Hunter. So, no matter how much they were for the best, he could never honestly call himself a “hero”. ButSnake ismore of an anti-herothan an outright villain.
2The Games Are Simulations
MGS1, 2, 3, and GBC are VR Missions
The series has been breaking the 4th wall sinceMG1, where a rumbled Big Boss orders Snake to “turn off the console!”. The series has since used nearly every part of its device’s hardware to mess with players in one way or another. So, it’s no wonder that fans may also thinkthe games are VR simulations, which is actually partially canon. If players play the Tanker-Plant campaign, Raiden will reveal he went through a VR simulation of the Tanker incident.
But he won’t mention it if players only play the Plant chapter. He also wentthrough VR missionsbased onMGS1, and possibly the Game Boy ColorMGSgame (the end of the Special Missions mentions ‘Jack’, aka Raiden).MGS3may also be a simulation, as the modern-day Colonel Campbell turns up in a game set in the 1960s and chastises the player if they cause any ‘Time Paradoxes’. So, whatever the player does may just be emulations of canon events.
1Never Be Game Over!
Kojima Never Left Konami
MGS5was left with a bunch of unfinished content due to its chaotic development, which eventually saw Kojima and much of his team ousted from Konami. They would eventually find a new home in the new Kojima Productions, where they’d makeDeath Stranding. But like ‘Moby Dick Studios’, his departure had to be another publicity stunt. He hadn’t really left Konami.Death Strandingwas just a spin-off in between finishing upMGS5.
They formed a subreddit, ‘Never Be Game Over’, and pored over details fromMGS5,Death Stranding, their trailer footage, and even from Kojima’s Twitter for clues. But this wasn’t the case. Kojima and co had left, andMGS5’s story content would be left unfinished in favor of microtransactions and online updates. ‘Never Be Game Over’ was ultimately a phantom pain in itself, as fans were left hurting overMGS5’s missing features.
More:Games You Need To Play If You Love Metal Gear Solid
