The Metal Gear series is praised for its characters, characters who are more than cannon fodder or obstacles for the player to fight, who have desires and emotions, and specific views on the world. But who are the most sad, depressing and sorrowful of the bunch? Here are the five most bitter characters in the series.
“Ever since the day I killed The Boss with my own hands, I was already dead.”
Big Boss’ downfall first begins when he is forced to kill The Boss, his mother figure and mentor. After learning that she sacrificed herself for her country, in order for them to get their hands on a large sum of money, he starts his own mercenary company. Caught between a desperate desire to carry on The Boss’s will on one hand, and a bitter attempt to distance himself from her, he puts his faith in the hands of war. Fighting is all he believes in, and all he does for decades. It ultimately leads to a war between Zero and himself, and after being defeated by his enemy, he is kept into a coma like state for years. When he is freed from his endless slumber, he has just enough time to make amends before he finally dies forever. Realizing that the past 50 years of his life have been nothing but a mistake, his only hope for the future of the world lies in the hands of the coming generations. For him, it’s too late. While he dies with an optimistic outlook on the future, it’s only because his life can serve as an example, an example on how not to live.
“In the name of vengeance, I sold my body and my soul.”
When Snake first confronts Sniper Wolf, she seems like a cold, heartless woman. She grew up on the battlefield in the middle of a war, so her whole childhood was basically a concatenation of constant fear, fleeing from place to place, and seeing others getting killed. Eventually she became a sniper, and through the scope of her rifle she witnessed all the violence and brutality mankind had to offer. Angry at the world and the governments who should have protected her, she was driven by bitterness until her defeat by Snake’s hand. That’s when she finally realized how she had betrayed herself, blinded by fury. Her last request is to be able to hold her gun when she dies, the weapon that has become part of her, that has been her eye into the world. When she dies by Snake’s mercy shot, she is free at last.
“This world is one of sadness. Battle brings death. Death brings sorrow.”
If his name doesn’t say enough, his soft, melancholic voice will do the trick. Or how about the fact that this man literally cries tears of blood. After being killed voluntarily by his former lover, he lives among the dead for two years. As a spirit trapped between two worlds, he is the only one being able to hear their angry, regretful cries. The Sorrow’s presence is usually accompanied by miserable, depressing rainfall, or actually, bloodfall. He is the one who shows Naked Snake the terrible consequences of his actions. The man is quite literally the embodiment of sadness, representing the sorrow that results for war.
“Since no one can kill me… I may as well kill everyone I can.”
Fortune’s name doesn’t derive from her feeling fortunate. She’s called fortune because she is surrounded by incredible luck on the battlefield: no bullet will hit her, no grenade will detonate near her. To her, this is a curse, as this character wants nothing more than to be killed as soon as possible. She is devastated when her father is murdered, and is driven by nothing but an indiscriminate anger and a desire to be sent to the next world, where se can be together with her father again. Referring to her life as an ‘endless nightmare’ she carries around a huge railgun, firing bolts of electromagnetically accelerated projectiles at everyone who stands in her way, as if she were materializing her anger.
“Every living thing on this planet exists to mindlessly pass on their DNA.”
If there’s one character that is the very embodiment of pure, bitter hate, it has to be Psycho Mantis. He literally hates every single being on earth. People, animals, and possibly even plants. His special gift, the ability to read people’s minds, is where it all started. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father blamed him for this. Mantis saw hatred and disgust for him in his father’s mind, and got so afraid the man would kill him that it drove him to his first murder: he burned his entire village to the ground. After he moved away he worked for the secret service for a while, using his gift to dive into the minds of countless twisted killers. This did a number on his own sanity, all he ever saw in people’s mind was a atavistic desire to spread their DNA. To him, humans were no complex, civilized beings, but simple minded aggressors with dangerous driving forces. He joins Liquid not to realize his ideals or because he believes in the man’s cause, but simply to have an excuse to kill as many members of the human race as he possibly can. For Mantis, there’s no redemption anymore.
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