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If nothing else, fans seem to be coming around to Venom Snake, Big Boss’ literal body double and the game’s actual protagonist. While Venom is yet another clone of Big Boss, the fact that he had an entire life before becoming a clone makes him a far more interesting character as a result. In many respects, he’s The Phantom Pain’s silver lining.
Updated June 10, 2022 by Ruby Modica: Nearly seven years on, Metal Gear Solid V has proven itself a strong series contender despite the overshadowing controversy that took place between series director Hideo Kojima and Konami shortly after release. The now-infamous ending plot twist reveals that Venom Snake is simply a “clone” of Big Boss, a double created to distract the world while the real Big Boss betrays his allegiances to build Outer Heaven.
Despite the backlash this initially received, compelling anti-hero Venom “Punished” Snake is still considered a suitable protagonist worthy of Big Boss himself, and loved by many Metal Gear Solid fans to this day. Thanks to Venom’s surprising amount of character depth which hides crucial facts about his identity, many players can still overlook profound details about Big Boss while exploring his dramatic legacy.
10 The Many Codenames Of Venom Snake
Venom Snake is not the only moniker worn by the villain protagonist of MGSV thanks to the abundant symbolism and double meanings provided by Kojima’s typical naming conventions. Where codenames like “Solid” and “Naked” depicted personality, so too does “Venom” due to the character being deemed hazardous and snake-like as his peaceful aspirations turn to obsession and war. The additional nickname “V” provides a more meta explanation for the name choice too, as Venom is the fifth character to bear the codename across the franchise, plus a continuation of the mantra V for Victory, which appeared in Peace Walker.
Focusing on the game’s story, players likely caught the overt references to Moby Dick with the codename “Ahab,” echoing the story’s self-destructive protagonist bent on revenge at any cost and the tragic outcome that befalls all characters involved. “Punished Snake” also appeared frequently in the trailers and promotional material in reference to living through MSF’s destruction witnessed at the climax of Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes. The constant callbacks and literature parallels enforce the powerful emotive drive used to paint Venom Snake’s character arc across The Phantom Pain’s story.
9 Venom Is The First Snake To Die
With that in mind, it’s worth noting that Venom is the first Snake to chronologically die in the series. Worse yet, he’s the only Snake to be killed by another Snake, as old age or final battles to the death end up claiming the lives of other Snake soldiers. This tragedy has been honored with video re-creations depicting Venom’s last day in Outer Heaven, proving that Kojima’s lore-altering decision was met well by fans after the initial controversy.
The only Snake who was straight up forced against his nature to be a clone of Big Boss, it’s actually quite tragic how Venom meets his end. He lives as he died: in Big Boss’ shadow. No one ever learns who Venom was or that Big Boss had a double all along. Snake simply believes that Big Boss somehow survived.
8 The Big Boss To Surpass Big Boss
Venom Snake isn’t just a Big Boss clone, in many respects, he’s the better Big Boss. He’s the one who builds up Diamond Dogs, he’s the one who ultimately builds Outer Heaven, and he’s the one who faces off against Solid Snake at the end of the first game. In fact, Venom makes Big Boss’ legacy tricky to pinpoint.
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It seems that while Venom was setting up the events that would kick off the entire series, Big Boss was just getting Zanzibar Land ready for Metal Gear 2 and little else. It’s not even clear if the real Big Boss trained Snake or not. It’s entirely possible that the Big Boss Snake trained under was Venom all along.
7 The Kinder Big Boss
While Venom Snake has a literal Demon Point system that shows players how terrible he is, he’s significantly kinder and more composed than Big Boss. If nothing else, he isn’t nearly as jaded as Big Boss seems to become. Venom dearly cares for his soldiers, to the point where they seem to be the only thing he cares about.
He also has severe PTSD over what happened with Paz, not because he’s Big Boss, but because he was the medic who watched her die. It’s a subtle detail that serves as a reminder that Venom Snake is not entirely Big Boss. He has his own personality, his own demons, and his own morals.
6 Venom Snake’s Shared Voices
The short-lived controversy surrounding David Hayter’s voice replacement with Kiefer Sutherland is likely what helped keep Venom Snake’s identity well-hidden due to being Big Boss’s body double. However, astute players were able to find a subtle hint at Venom’s true identity thanks to a cutscene in Ground Zeroes featuring the main cast plus an MSF medic surgically removing a bomb. All the shocking visuals can easily distract players from the Medic’s dialogue, which is also voiced by Kiefer Sutherland (albeit disguised).
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It’s important to remember that Ground Zeroes immediately follows Peace Walker, which allowed players to play as captured soldiers instead of Big Boss if they wished, adding to the franchise theme that “Anyone can be Big Boss.” While he’s technically a medic, Big Boss cared about him enough to bring him along to save Paz, so there’s nothing that indicates he wasn’t a trusted MSF soldier. Since all present MSF soldiers are carried over into the first part of MGSV, the medic’s status and eventual fate add even more caliber to the lore surrounding Venom Snake as a powerful icon more than a lone soldier.
5 Venom’s Been Around Since Day 1
Metal Gear is no stranger when it comes to retcons, each game altering the last to produce a heavily convoluted storyline. By the first Metal Gear Solid, friendly villain Gray Fox had been unabashedly returned to the series twice just to battle Solid Snake again. Most interestingly, the biggest retcon in the series comes from The Phantom Pain, and it’s actually two retcons at that!
Since the chronological release of Metal Gear in 1987, Solid Snake killed Big Boss at Outer Heaven, but it was retconned that he survived to become the main villain again for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Come The Phantom Pain, however, and it turns out that Snake actually killed the Venom body double instead of Big Boss. With that in mind, this means that Venom Snake has had a presence in the franchise since its very first installment.
4 MGSV Constantly Foreshadows Venom Snake’s Fate
Despite some fan backlash, Venom’s fate and identity are concealed from the player in creative story beats which show the ending was intentionally designed to correct the retcon from the first Metal Gear game mentioned above. Venom Snake’s presence as a body double can be found through specific player actions that foreshadow not only his true identity but his eventual demise at the hand of Solid Snake, such as the iconic cigar often wielded by Big Boss. Talk of e-cigars appeared in a Peace Walker audio tape, which Big Boss declines due to “not being a fan of imitations” when compared to the real thing.
This serves as an allegory to Venom Snake’s imitator identity for the real Big Boss, who would never be seen smoking the e-cigar wielded by Venom all throughout MGSV. Furthermore, the mission control helicopter used by the player bears a reflection of the medic’s original face when zoomed in on the opposite window, and characters like Huey do not initially recognize Venom despite having worked together for years. These subtle details foreshadow Venom never truly forgot who he was, plus the potential ironic death Big Boss is fated to suffer from being burned alive by Solid Snake’s cigarette lighter.
3 Venom Snake VS Raiden
Having Venom Snake being analogous to the player may not be wholly uplifting, as the Metal Gear series is often quite critical of war and mindless soldiers as a whole. None of Venom’s or Big Boss’ atrocities would have been committed had players simply not picked up the controller, a concept which is discussed close to the end of Metal Gear Solid 2. In this respect, Venom becomes Raiden’s foil thanks to the latter’s contrasting presence symbolizing player control.
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Where Venom Snake embraces the fact that he’s being controlled, Raiden literally rips away the player’s control at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 by rejecting the player’s name etched on dog tags, choosing to embrace his own identity instead. He forges his own path no matter the cost while Venom is content just being another player in Metal Gear’s story.
2 Venom Doesn’t Care Who He Was
Another way in which Venom Snake directly parallels Raiden is the fact that Venom does not care about his past whatsoever. Where Raiden assumes his Jack the Ripper persona, even heavily relapsing into it, Venom Snake barely acknowledges the fact that he was the medic all along. Right now, he’s Big Boss and that’s all that matters.
He isn’t even the least bit upset when he finds out that he’s not Big Boss. If anything, he seems happy to know that there’s another Big Boss he can count on. After all, they’re the only two men who truly understand one another. In Venom’s eyes, he always was and always will be Big Boss.
1 Kojima’s Love Letter To The Fans
Above all else, Venom Snake is Hideo Kojima’s way of celebrating the fans who have stuck with the series since its emergence in 1987. “I’m Big Boss… and you are too” isn’t Big Boss talking directly to Venom, it’s Hideo Kojima speaking directly to the player. After years of following Big Boss’ story, Kojima takes Metal Gear one step further by creating Big Boss in the hands of the player however the individual decides to shape the fate of the character and themselves.
Venom Snake becomes Kojima’s love letter to the fans, one that embraces the idea of controlling another being — something exclusive to the video game medium. No matter what Metal Gear Solid 5’s review scores may be, Venom Snake is a celebration of all things Metal Gear with an unforgettable legacy behind it.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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