The Boss

The Boss, also known as The Joy, The Mother of Special Forces and Voyevoda (Russian for "Warlord"), was the "final child of the Philosophers," and the mentor of Naked Snake. She was the founding leader of the Cobra Unit, in which she was known as "The Joy," however, when they were disbanded at the end of World War II, she was granted the codename of "The Boss." Together with Naked Snake, she developed the technique of CQC.

In the Virtuous Mission, The Boss wore a bandana and Olive Drab uniform (which appeared to be the staple FOX unit battle fatigues). After Naked Snake pulled it from her head when she threw him from the bridge in Dolinovodno, Snake wore it during Operation Snake Eater and later wore it in tribute to her. The Boss commented on his inability to let go of the past by taunting him for wearing her bandana as a reminder of her during his mission.

Early life and career
The Boss was born in 1922 as the daughter of one of the original and higher ranking members of the Wisemen's Committee, and grew up in the care of the Philosophers. However, she also learned from her father even the most forbidden secrets of the Philosophers, and as a consequence, the shadowy organization arranged for his death. The Boss later went on to become an instructor at one of the Philosophers' "charm schools."

World War II
In 1941, during World War II, she was invited to the SAS as a special advisor, which resulted in the creation of Rayforce and the L Detachment. She met David Oh, with whom she formed the 22nd SAS Regiment. She planned the dummy raids on Heliopolis and the bombings of German Air Bases during the North African Campaign. She participated in many "snatch" missions, in which she had to capture an important officer without killing him; the incidents later served as the basis for her development of CQC.

In 1942, The Boss (then known as The Joy) founded the Cobra Unit, which consisted of her and six superhumans codenamed The Pain, The Fear, The End, The Fury, and The Sorrow, and participated in many special operations during World War II, contributing heavily to the Allied forces's victory. The entire Cobra Unit looked up to her as their mother and leader, but she became extremely close to The Sorrow, with whom she would become a lover. She became a legendary soldier, and was considered by many to be the "Mother" of America's special forces.

In 1943, she was suddenly called off of a Special Forces mission to infiltrate Los Alamos. She was given a mission by her superiors to infiltrate Los Alamos to assassinate one of the Manhattan Project scientists: John von Neumann, under the belief that he was a Nazi spy, and make it seem like his death was accidental. She proceeded as planned with the mission the day it was to be done. However, she ended up blowing her cover for just a second after learning that she was pregnant by The Sorrow. She managed to dodge a bullet aimed for her gut, but it also resulted in it just scraping the side of her brain and being placed in a coma for three months, and completely recovering by six months. She theorized that her body may have willed her to live for her child. She also grew to regret failing the mission, even after it turned out that Neumann being a Nazi spy was actually Soviet misinformation to sabotage the Manhattan Project (as he designed the explosive lens), as she felt his living resulted in the Cold War, which made her partially responsible as well.

During the D-Day landings at Normandy, she and the Cobras were sent on a mission to destroy V2 rocket installations. At the time, The Boss was pregnant; The Sorrow (one of her comrades) was the father. She gave birth to her and The Sorrow's son on the battlefield, going into labor after she had been shot in the gut. The caesarean section required in the chaos left her with a snake-shaped scar on her torso. She gave birth to a baby boy, though he was soon taken away from her by the Philosophers. In 1947, after the end of the war, The Boss disbanded the Cobra Unit.

The Cold War
Afterwards, The Boss began participating in secret projects run by the U.S. Government. On November 1, 1951, The Boss was involved in the atomic testing at the Nevada desert, where she was exposed to radiation, and rendered infertile. It was around this time that she first met a young John (a.k.a. Jack). She spent nearly a decade with Jack, training him as her disciple and developing the tactics of CQC, a basic form of close quarters combat. Jack claimed that because of his training part of him belonged to The Boss and that they were more then just friends, soldiers and lovers. During 1957, she also was invited to the newly instated HALO School at the JFK Special Operations center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and was also responsible for the development of the HALO jump.

The Boss was forced to leave Jack when she was assigned a new top secret mission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 12, 1959 involving recruiting Russians who were against the new single-party regime in Moscow to steal and sabotage various Soviet space projects and possibly directly become involved when necessary. However, the CIA disagreed with this, and refused to help The Boss, forcing her to utilize the Philosophers' spy channels for the first time to accomplish it. She managed to succeed in placing a sleeper agent to recruit them, and the CIA took over, namely to take all the credit. The Boss didn't mind. However, late into the year, The Boss discovered some discrepencies relating to the Soviet blueprints that their sleeper agent was sending, namely in regards to the Sputnik 5 where there was an ejection pod. She tried to report her findings to the CIA and get them to investigate, but they ignored her, thinking she wanted to regain her glory. She ended up infiltrating the Soviet Union without any official support and infiltrated the OKB-1 research facility. She discovered not only had her sleeper agent defected to the Soviet Union entirely, but also that the reason he did so was because the CIA was pocketing a large amount of his paycheck, and that the ejection pod on the Sputnik 5 was actually an ejection seat for human personnel to utilize to survive reentry. She reported her findings to NASA, which resulted in the CIA blaming The Boss on everything that went wrong to cover up their failures to the recently inaugerated President John F. Kennedy.

Later on, The Boss was chosen for participation in the 1960 Mercury Project and met for the first time Strangelove, who was assigned to Mercury as a key staff member. She was sent to space on a mission to acquire data on how well the human body could cope in such conditions, but during which radiation was an inevitability. She unofficially became the first person in space, and seeing the Earth from above sparked her dream of uniting the world as one. Unfortunately, as she returned to Earth from her flight on April 12, 1961, the addition of a "window" caused her re-entry capsule to veer off course and crash land in the ocean, resulting in The Boss being thrown from the capsule and severely burned by both the cosmic radiation, and the heat of re-entry. Miraculously, The Boss did survive, but she was hospitalized as a result, and she and Strangelove never saw each other again. The Boss also never realized that Strangelove had very deep feelings for her. The injuries sent The Boss into another deep coma for six months. The military covered up the accident by claiming that The Boss took part in the CIA's botched Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba.

The Boss recovered, but the current administration resented the fact that the Russians had a widely publicized successful space flight, while The Boss' injuries and crash landing forced them to cover up the entire experiment, despite her being in space first. This resentment resulted in them sending her on a new mission in Soviet territory. In 1962, she was sent on a mission that culminated in the assassination of The Sorrow (her lover) who had returned to the Soviet Union after the disbandment of the Cobra Unit, with the threat of the death of their child, if they both survived. She and The Sorrow met on top of the bridge at the Virgin Cliffs. For a long time they discussed what they were going to do. They concluded not to fight and just kill. In the end The Boss shot The Sorrow through the eye. Being a powerful medium and psychic, The Sorrow returned from the dead two years later as a spirit and trailed after The Boss. Once this operation was over, she was reached out by one of her former SAS comrades, Zero, and formed FOX with him. She continued to act as an agent in Soviet territory, effectively going "underground" for the next 2 years.

In 1964, the CIA began to fear The Boss's overwhelming charisma, so they had the DCI make plans to eliminate her. In July, The Boss, who still remained in contact with the US homeland, was then ordered to take part in a major operation to recover the Philosophers' Legacy from Volgin, known as the Virtuous Mission. In order to acquire the Legacy, The Boss had to trade her way into Volgin's ranks. To do so, she contacted Volgin through the Philosophers' spy network where she is contacted by Volgin with the suggestion of defection, as well as learning about Sokolov's current location as well as some details of a weapon nearing completion. Afterwards, she was given two portable nuclear warheads and a launcher, with the intention of handing them over to Colonel Volgin to gain his trust, one of which was ultimately used by Volgin to destroy Sokolov's design bureau. She also helped Volgin recover Sokolov before he could escape the Soviet Union with Naked Snake's help. On the surface, the destruction of the bureau was made to look like an unplanned factor which called for The Boss's mission to be greatly expanded and revised. She would have to prove the innocence of the United States in a mission known as Operation Snake Eater, but in reality this was how the DCI had planned for it to go all along and (behind the scenes) sent Naked Snake, the first FOX operative and The Boss's beloved protégé as the assassin.

Understanding the fact that in order to save the world and her country she had to give her life, The Boss subtly helped Snake with his mission while at the same time maintaining Volgin's trust. One by one Snake killes of the remaining Cobra Unit members. In their last moments of life The End and The Fury became worried for the life of The Boss. After Snake defeated Volgin and destroyed the Shagohod with the help of EVA, The Boss met Snake in a field of white flowers to tell him of the Philosophers and remind him of his duty as a soldier prior to engaging him in a final duel.

"One must die and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny... The one who survives will inherit the title of Boss. And the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle."

- The Boss to Naked Snake.

Also, to ensure that at least one of them died, she radioed Russian fighters to begin bombing Rokovoj Bereg, which was ten minutes away from their position. The Boss fought Snake with the intent to kill him, but he had gained much expierience from the mission. She disassembled his weapons, but he put them back together, she shot at him with her Patriot, but he ducked and dodged, she engaged him in CQC, only to find that he now equaled her skill. Her white stealth suit aided to her cammoflage among the white flower petals and leaves, but she eventually collapsed from Snakes ongoing attacks. After falling at the hands of her most loved disciple, The Boss passed the microfilm, containing the Philosophers' Legacy, to him. He then shot her with her own Patriot. The Boss's horse appeared and in the distance Snake could have sworn he saw the spirits of The Boss and The Sorrow fade away. She explained what had happened to EVA, who in turn told Snake. She also made EVA and Ocelot promise not to kill Snake, nor aid in killing him. In the end, she left everything in the hands of Snake.

Posthumous
After Operation Snake Eater, Snake was promoted and given the Big Boss codename to show that he had surpassed The Boss, though he refused to acknowledge that codename for some time, believing that he was not worthy of it. Despite her death, The Boss's beliefs (or what was perceived of it) greatly influenced major events that came later. In 1970, Zero (inspired by The Boss's ideas) formed the Patriots, of which Big Boss was a founding member. However, Big Boss broke away from the Patriots in 1972, and formed a mercenary group in response to (what he perceived to be) the Patriots' misinterpretation of The Boss's will.

In 1974, The Boss's personality was used as the model for the AI housed within Peace Walker's Mammal Pod, in a project carried out by the Peace Sentinels. The person directly involved in her "revival" was a former acquaintance of hers, the AI researcher known as Strangelove, who requested that she have all the data on The Boss for the AI in exchange for her participation in the project. A simulation test of the AI was accidentally recorded by French ornithologist Cécile Cosina Caminades, who had come to Costa Rica to observe the Quetzal, resulting in her capture.

Big Boss and the Militaires Sans Frontieres were then dispatched to Costa Rica after both learning of the Peace Sentinel's activities as well as rumors of The Boss's survival from Ramón Gálvez Mena. After encountering a recently escaped and exhausted Cécile near the AI Facility (disguised as a Mayan temple), he learned from her that a "large tube" (an AI pod) was heard calling out to "Jack," causing Big Boss to realize what was really going on. Big Boss attempted to remove the core memory of The Boss's AI after being goaded by Strangelove, who hated him due to killing The Boss, but passed out before he could remove all of the memory boards.

Big Boss then tried to converse with The Boss's AI, asking if she had any regrets about her final mission, to which The Boss did not recognize. He was captured shortly thereafter because his conversation with the AI had caused a similar signal to when he had first encountered it. The Boss's AI directly aided Big Boss afterwards by allowing him inside the Mammal Pod, when Peace Walker began transmitting false data as part of the Peace Walker Project, and when that didn't work, decided to sacrifice "herself" by drowning Peace Walker in the Nicaraguan Lake, in order to save the world from Hot Coldman's threat of a nuclear war.

Post-Peace Walker
Big Boss later formed the nations of Outer Heaven in 1995 and Zanzibar Land in 1999, in order to bring about the world that he interpreted as what The Boss had envisioned. In 2014, Big Boss remarked sorrowfully that her death had greatly affected him to that point, going as far as to comment that he had been dead since the day he killed her.

"In Memory of a Patriot, Who Saved the World"

- The Boss's Epitaph

Trivia

 * Despite "The Joy" being her former codename, The Boss rarely smiled during the events of Operation Snake Eater. In contrast, The Sorrow always smiled during his encounters with Naked Snake, with not one occasion where there was a frown on his face.
 * According to Major Zero, the SAS motto, "Who Dares, Wins," was a tribute to The Boss. Solid Snake (disguised as Iroquois Pliskin) used the motto in 2009.
 * The Boss used to smoke cigars, but quit sometime prior to the Virtuous Mission.
 * Despite her participation in the Bay of Pigs Invasion being a cover story (to conceal the true events of the Mercury Project that resulted in her entering a coma), The Boss nevertheless passed this account on to Naked Snake, prior to their battle in Rokovoj Bereg.
 * The Boss's words to Naked Snake in 1964 were often paraphrased by the latter and others in later events:
 * The speech that The Boss gave to Naked Snake in their final battle is paraphrased by Gene in one of his speeches in his final battle with Big Boss (Naked Snake) in 1970.
 * The Boss's final speech to Naked Snake was similar to that given by Big Boss to Solid Snake in 1999.
 * The Boss's last words ("There's room for only one Boss and one Snake") to Naked Snake were similar to the speech given by Solidus Snake ("The world needs only one Big Boss!") to Solid Snake and Raiden and the speech given by Liquid Snake ("There's room for only one Snake and one Big Boss") to Solid Snake and Solidus Snake, both which was said in 2009.
 * The Boss's grave was located in Arlington National Cemetary.
 * In the early 1970s, Big Boss fashioned a fake snake-shaped scar across his chest, similar to that of The Boss. This was used to conceal a jigsaw on himself for use in emergency situations.
 * "The Boss" was Old Snake's brand of cigarettes in 2014.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Hideo Kojima revealed in the Metal Gear Solid 3 commentary that The Boss (ザ・ボス) was designed based on the image of actress Charlotte Rampling. One of the game's cutscenes, in which Naked Snake's disguise as Major Raikov is discovered, The Boss comments, while removing his mask, "What is this fairy disguise? It's gonna rub off on you. And then you'll lose sight of who you really are." According to Kojima's commentary, this was intended to be a reference to herself, as well as an early hint at the true nature of her defection to the Soviet Union.

A voice casting sheet for Metal Gear Solid 3, which was leaked prior to E3 2004, stated that The Boss was a Green Beret and Navy SEAL, and that she was of British descent, though this was never mentioned in-game.

In Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, a film in the Secret Theatre portrays the death of The Boss in a manner similar to the rest of the Cobra Unit, with the detonation of a microbomb and the exclamation of her codename, "The Joy."

Gameplay
Draining The Boss's stamina during the final battle in Metal Gear Solid 3, will yield the Snake Camo. Though not as effective as The Fear's Spider Camo, it nevertheless provides a high Camo Index in the average environment. Also, if the player attempts to use the fake death pill, The Boss will see right through the trick.

Other appearances
During the March 29, 2007 edition of the Metal Gear Solid Podcast, David Hayter when explaining Big Boss's characterization and why he went down the path he did, erroneously implied that The Boss was Big Boss's biological mother.

In Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, female hunters can unlock an outfit based on The Boss's appearance.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater