Board Thread:Metal Gear Solid V/@comment-24486170-20140929163922/@comment-192.160.117.141-20141209213450

On the subject of how old the AI Patriots are, it may be pertinent that naming AIs after the Mt. Rushmore presidents was originally the idea of Hot Coldman; the 1974 CIA AI weapon pods all had these names, even including a fifth master AI, BS (The Boss), corresponding to JD (Big Boss). This AI project had also been created for the express purpose of world governance (though at the time, only in the context of nuclear deterrence). What's more, most of the pods were never actually conclusively destroyed during the Peace Walker Incident. Zero, also CIA, would likely have had little trouble acquiring the pods after Coldman's death.

Though this conflicts with the notion that Emma Emmerich wrote the Patriot GW between 2007 and 2009, it's possible that the CIA AI pods were not only precursors to the AI Patriots, but their original forms. As for when they began running the show for Zero, it could really have been any time between 1975 and 2009 (by 2009 it's clear that they've developed their own identity and beliefs divergent from Zero's original vision, and he's most likely no longer in a position to stop them). Big Boss went through two deathlike comas, one from 1975 to 1984 and then again from 1999 to 2014, and either could be a good time for Big Boss's #1 stalker to retire.

As an elaboration on a side point, Zero doesn't actually need to be around for Big Boss's FOXHOUND - on the one hand, if Big Boss were to for some reason try to return to service in the United States (not actually a stretch, given that we now know Outer Heaven already existed in 1984 and Big Boss's entire tenure with FOXHOUND was probably a cover story from the beginning), Zero would probably take him back in a heartbeat. On the other, "JFK" says in 2009 that the AI Patriots do not actually care about Big Boss's legacy, or about the charisma or power of any individual soldier (what they wanted from the Big Shell Incident was the S3 plan data, which would evolve into their SOP system, a means of fully regulating and depersonalizing soldiers - the exact antithesis to Big Boss) - therefore, if they had already taken the reins from Zero at the time, they would likely see no issue with letting Big Boss return. It would be irrelevant.

Canonically, Zero is so far underground during Solid Snake's career between 1995 and 2014 that even Ocelot and Solidus never allude to him until MGS4 (plus, of course, his character hadn't been invented yet), so we don't know what he was up to for any of that. If the AI Patriots truly had been around in some form or another since 1975, I don't think there's actually any reason in canon that they couldn't have been running the Patriots even in 1984. Skull Face's attempt at vengence being completely futile could certainly be in the cards for this game.