Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1918136-20140126051852/@comment-1210805-20140126122856

Solid Snake's story is of a monster, or more accurately, a weapon who becomes human.

Big Boss' story is of a man who becomes a monster.

All the Snake's are basically people stumbling through life trying to find the answers. In MGS1 Snake is purely focussed on the mission, he'll kill who he has to kill and do what he has to do to get the job done. We basically learn that the only people he has ever been close to are those he worked with on the battlefield, two of which he killed (or at least believed he had at the time). Throughout these events we don't see him working towards any sort of ideal, he's simply doing the mission. Things start to change though, he meets Meryl and develops feelings for her. He meets his brother and learns the truth of their origins. He encounters his old friend who has been turned into a weapon by the same people who created Snake himself. And as he fights and defeats the members of FOXHOUND he learns how the world took these people and turned them into weapons like him. Remember when Otacon asks what Snake is fighting for? Snake never answers, he doesn't know yet. That answer isn't given for another four years, when Snake tells Raiden that he's fighting for the future. The events of MGS1 transformed Snake and instead of fighting under orders, he fights for what he believes in, for the future, to stop the proliferation of Metal Gear weapons, and eventually to bring down the Patriots. Through all the manipulation and bloodshed Snake goes from doing what he's told to fulfilling the Boss' will. Even Big Boss basically says so when he realises the true message of the Boss: ''“It’s not about changing the world. It’s about doing our best to leave the world the way it is. It’s about respecting the will of others and believing in your own.”'' That's basically what Snake told Raiden after the Big Shell Incident. He told Raiden that he's fighting for a future and when Raiden offered to help Snake turned him down and told him to find his own reasons for fighting. He basically said "This is my will, I'm going to do whatever it takes to see it through. You need to find your own reason for living, for doing whatever you choose to do". In the end he is willing to end his own life to protect others. To even say he lacks emotion is fairly inaccurate. He has it, he just doesn't really know how to properly express it, but as he grows he expresses it more and more.

Big Boss was born normally and was, for all intents and purposes, a normal human. He learnt to fight under The Boss, who comes to be like family to Big Boss. When we start his story he, like his son, operates under orders. The difference being how they react to their orders. After the betrayal of the Boss that becomes his driving force. His support team is also at stake and their protection is further motivation. He fights his urges with Eva and he refuses to kill Ocelot. The events of the Boss' betrayal and death at his own hands haunts him and he stops fighting simply because of orders. He and Zero set about fulfilling the Boss' will and uniting the world, but turns against his friend when he secretly clones Big Boss. They become enemies, and yet he, as a human, can't simply let go of their past, and some fondness remains. Big Boss' reason for going against the Patriots isn't because the Patriots as a concept is evil, it's because they used him.

This is where many of the misconceptions of the Metal Gear story stem from. See, people hear Patriots=evil and assume that the enemy of the enemy is the good guy. Kojima himself has basically said that was wrong. He invented the Patriots so something would be more evil than Solidus. Not so that Solidus would seem like the good guy, just so that Solidus would be a villain with reasons you can understand. Likewise, Big Boss is the hero in MGS3, PO, PW and probably MGSV, but he's a villain in the rest of the series and only has a change of heart on his death bed. He wanted a perpetual war that would give soldiers a world they could thrive in. This goes against the Boss' will in every possible way. He will was respecting the will of others, Big Boss was only working for his own, regardless of what was right for anyone else. Big Boss became a villain, and with him so did the other character people call "the hero of the series": Ocelot. Ocelot wasn't trying to bring down the Patriots for the good of the world, he was trying to put Big Boss back on top. Big Boss would have replaced the Patriots with Outer Heaven (again, completely the opposite of the Boss' will), just as the Patriots replaced the Philosophers. Its just trading one evil for another, possible worse evil. Think about it, Ocelot says he wants to see Outer Heaven rise, but actively works to bring down Liquid's attempt (which was very close to becoming exactly what his father achieved) and Solidus' attempt (which was all based around freeing the US from the Patriots). If he was truly about that concept he would've helped them, not hindered them.

An appropriate comparison can be found in Star Wars. Anakin is a hero, helps keep the Galaxy safe, but through selfish desires he turns evil. He helps build and control an all powerful and controlling empire. He kills many people, blows up a planet and cuts off his son's hand. It's only in his final act that he becomes good again and kills the Emperor, yet know one denies that Vader is a villain in the original trilogy. Him being evil doesn't undo any of the good from his past, but his final act being good doesn't wash away the decades of evil he was responsible for.

So in short, Snake isn't a monster and Big Boss isn't THE hero. Snake is one hero, Raiden another, and Big Boss has been both a hero and a villain.