Venom Snake

Punished "Venom" Snake, also known as V, Ahab, or Big Boss's Phantom, was a medic who worked for the military unit Militaires Sans Frontières in 1975 and a military commander in 1984 and 1995. In 1984, facial surgeries permitted him to act as a double/look-alike for Big Boss, after the former medic passed 9 years in a coma, and further lead the military unit founded by his former boss as a successor to MSF, Diamond Dogs. While commanding the unit, Venom Snake defeated Skull Face and his XOF unit.

Venom Snake's new identity was purposely conceived as means of protecting the true Big Boss while exponentially spreading his legend on a wider scale. He became known as the "phantom" of Big Boss and his goals would deviate from the idea of Big Boss forming a nation without borders inhabited by and made for soldiers, preferring to build a military stronghold instead. Venom Snake, now known as Big Boss, commanded the military fortress of Outer Heaven. He was finally killed by one of Big Boss's clones, Solid Snake, in an operation commanded by Big Boss himself.

XOF Trojan Horse operation
In March 1975, the medic was stationed on board the helicopter sent to extract MSF commander Big Boss and rescued POWs Chico and Paz Ortega Andrade.

During the flight back to Mother Base, Big Boss ordered the medic to look over the unconscious Paz, after Chico noticed surgical scars on her abdomen. Suspecting that a bomb had been concealed inside her, the medic was forced to operate on her immediately, without time to administer anesthesia. During several dire moments, the medic successfully removed the bomb from her gut, as Big Boss and Chico held her down.

Although the bomb was quickly disposed of, their efforts were for naught, as a second bomb had been planted inside her. After coming to, Paz, aware of the impending detonation, jumped from the helicopter to avoid the MSF personnel being killed along with her. As the medic shielded Big Boss, the bomb detonated and his body bore the brunt of the explosion, somewhat shielding Big Boss, before the helicopter was sent into a collision with an enemy chopper.

He ultimately survived, although with extensive injuries, including 108 foreign agents embedded into his body that included human bones and teeth, as well as various metallic shrapnel, one of which was embedded into the right side of his forehead, penetrating the cerebral cortex. It was embedded deeply enough that it could not be removed due to it potentially causing a hemorrhage. He also fell into a coma, alongside Big Boss. Ocelot also inferred that the injuries were such that he was effectively dead. During the coma, at the behest of Zero, Venom Snake was given a makeover to resemble Big Boss to act as a decoy. In order to ensure the ruse worked, he was also given hypnotherapy to have him possess Big Boss's memories and thus have him believe he was the real deal, with Ocelot telling Big Boss that the medic would have wanted this.

The Phantom Pain
On February 26, 1984, Venom Snake would awaken from his coma. Another patient named Ishmael, who in actuality was the real Big Boss in disguise, managed to successfully get Venom Snake out of the hospital he was in. Venom Snake fought off the entire unit that was sent to kill him by himself. After escaping in an ambulance, the real Big Boss was knocked unconscious after taking a shot from a helicopter. Venom Snake attempted to drive the ambulance, but he crashed into a river bank. When Venom Snake regained consciousness, Ishmael was gone, and he was greeted by Ocelot, who would accompany Venom Snake on a trip to Afghanistan in order to rescue Miller.

After rescuing Miller, the three returned to the newly constructed Mother Base, where Venom Snake took command of Diamond Dogs. Venom Snake performed several missions in order to expand their new Mother Base so that they could fight Cipher. Unbeknownst to Venom Snake until later, Ocelot was aware of Venom Snake's true identity the whole time, and he was monitoring Venom Snake as part of a series of tests to see if the hypnotherapy to turn Venom Snake into Big Boss's body double had truly worked, which it did.

Venom Snake and Diamond Dogs rose to huge heights, recruiting soldiers from the battlefield and collecting animals, such as D.D.. With "Big Boss" and Kaz eventually exacting revenge on Skull Face and his XOF unit in addition of defeating Eli who controlled the ST-84 Metal Gear.

After shooting off Skull Faces' right arm and leg (exacting the same features from what Kaz lost); Snake and Kaz left him to die as Huey finished him off. The aftermath led Venom Snake to exile Huey for his recklessness, with Quiet either leaving or staying with Diamond Dogs. Venom Snake would later learn from Ishmael that he was a body double and that Ishmael himself was Big Boss. Venom Snake took up the name and kept up the ruse.

Outer Heaven Uprising
By 1995 Venom Snake either left Diamond Dogs to found Outer Heaven or converted the mercenary organization into the new country, and instigated an uprising (presumably under Big Boss's orders) in order to bring chaos to the Patriots, who had been growing without control in spite of their leader Zero falling into a vegetative state. Venom Snake managed to capture the first operative sent by Big Boss, codenamed Gray Fox. Big Boss then sent his least experienced agent, a rookie codenamed Solid Snake (who happened to be Big Boss's cloned son) with the true objective of finding false information regarding the Metal Gear weapon Venom Snake was building in Outer Heaven. Big Boss also sent Venom Snake a tape titled Operation Intrude N313, presumably to give Venom Snake a heads up in order to set Solid Snake up. Everything went wrong, however, when Solid Snake proved to be just as good as his father, and discovered the truth of the Metal Gear TX-55, forcing Venom Snake to intervene and reveal himself. The two fought, but in the end Solid Snake killed his father's phantom, forcing the true Big Boss to temporarily go into hiding and set up the eventual Zanzibarland disturbance with the remnants of Outer Heaven.

Personality and traits
Venom Snake, while impersonating Big Boss, adopted much of his personality. To his troops, he acted as a sort of father figure.

Physically, Venom Snake was similar to Big Boss, if taller. Following his escape from the Cyprian hospital and his recovery from muscle atrophy, Venom Snake gained muscle mass slightly greater than that of Big Boss. Before his operation, Venom Snake's face was Caucasian with slicked-back brown hair, green eyes, and chiseled features. After the operation, he greatly resembled a heavily-scarred Big Boss, so as to serve as his body double.

Like his mental and physical template, Venom Snake did show compassion for his enemies as he chose not to kill Huey and instead had him exiled with food and water.

Snake seemed to suffer a form of amnesia as both Miller and Ocelot had to remind him of certain events, such as how he led Militaires Sans Frontières and how Miller helped him led "his" old unit. Snake seemed to remember other things, such as the intent of Metal Gear ZEKE during the Peace Walker Incident, as Snake compared it to what Huey wanted to use his prototype Battle Gear for by privately remarking to Miller that the entire thing seemed like he was having "déjà vu."

Behind the scenes
Punished "Venom" Snake is the main protagonist of ''Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. ''It is heavily implied that Venom Snake himself (and his nondescript identity as a medic) serves as a deliberate player avatar, due to his original appearance being reliant on the player's decisions and how Big Boss addresses him in a manner that breaks the fourth wall.

The unidentified field medic appears during the closing cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Because of the cinematic angles during the ending scenes in Ground Zeroes, there is never a clear view of the medic's face. However, the medic's full appearance has been seen in the PC version through the use of mods. A PC user extracted the facial model and textures for the medic and found that he shared identical scars to Big Boss.

On the Command Center menu, if the player looks closely at Venom Snake's reflection, it shows the avatar the player created, hinting at the plot-twist of Venom Snake not being Big Boss. In addition, a leaked Italian version of the Piggyback game guide for The Phantom Pain strongly implied Venom Snake's true identity is separate from Big Boss, although they never explicitly confirmed it due to Konami and at that time Kojima Productions specifically forbade them from giving any statements about Ishmael's identity. The GDC 2013 reveal trailer for The Phantom Pain had first hinted at his existence when Kazuhira Miller, after learning about Big Boss falling into a coma, asks "What about him?" before the scene cut away.

The plot twist of Snake not truly being Big Boss is hinted when he meets The Boss AI and Huey, as the AI states, "You're not Snake, are you?", and Huey notices a difference between the two.

Fulfilling his role as the "Phantom" of Big Boss, he returns as the final boss of the original Metal Gear via a retcon established in the ending timeline though the shrapnel in his head was removed and his prosthetic left arm was replaced by the game's events.

Venom Snake's alias as Ahab is a reference to the central character from the novel Moby-Dick; the same way that Big Boss's adopted identity as Ishmael is also derived from the main character of the novel.

Venom Snake being made to believe he is Big Boss via hypnotherapy is similar to Ocelot being lead to believe he was Liquid.

According to Hideo Kojima's notes in the Piggyback Collector's Edition Guide's art gallery, Venom Snake (or rather, Big Boss as he is identified in the notes) losing his arm was decided early on in the project, and also implied that he was supposed to lose two fingers from his right hand as well. He also mentioned that the powerful prosthetic arm was implemented to allow players to appreciate the full intended experience, as while Snake could technically still wield weapons, it would have made it difficult to appreciate such.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear
 * Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
 * Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain