Birthday

"Happy Birthday // Congratulations // Happy Birthday // With Salutations // Happy Birthday // May your sky stay blue // Happy Birthday to you"

- Diamond Dogs birthday song

A birthday is an institution when a person or institution celebrates the anniversary of his or her birth. It is not to be confused with birthdate, which details the exact date a person was born.

Venom Snake, the leader of Diamond Dogs, was called back to Mother Base by Kazuhira Miller under the pretense of a grave emergency that befell Mother Base. Upon arrival, Snake found the base to be seemingly empty only to hear explosions from fireworks only to relax when he discovers his men had actually lured him back to celebrate his birthday, with those in attendance including Miller and Ocelot and several Diamond Dogs members, who after singing a variation of Happy Birthday with a boom box playing the tune, then wished him a happy birthday. Snake then attempted to use one of the candles to light a cigar provided by Ocelot, only for Miller to snatch it away and gently remind him that he's supposed to blow out the candles on the birthday cake, which he does. Later that evening, Snake then proceeded to try and smoke the cigar he got earlier, only to suddenly be shot at by Quiet via a high-powered sniper rifle. However, he then discovered she was not actually aiming at him, but was firing a birthday salutation message ("HBD") into the cigar storage crates just behind him, and then used another round to help Snake light one of the cigars before taking her leave.

Behind the scenes
Several characters in the have a birthday that fell on either important events in history or on holidays (namely, Donald Anderson's birthday fell on November 11, which was the American holiday Veteran's Day; Revolver Ocelot's birthday fell on the June 6, during the Allied Invasion of Normandy; and Huey Emmerich's birthday fell on August 6, the day of the Hiroshima bombing during World War II).



In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the player character Venom Snake, due to essentially being an avatar for the player, is given the birthday of the assigned player. As such, if the player completes a mission on their birthday, a cutscene will occur where the player is called back to Mother Base under the pretense of an emergency with Miller not willing to explain what is going on. It then shows te Mother Base staff wheeling out a birthday cake and singing their own variation of the Happy Birthday song. The scene will vary depending on when the player gets the birthday cutscene: If the player has Huey among the base members, but not Code Talker, Huey will be present with the group of staff. Likewise, if it occurs after Huey was evicted from Mother Base, Code Talker will be present. If it occurs after Code Talker joins the staff, but before Huey leaves, both will be present. In addition, if the player has Quiet's bond level reach a high enough level, there will be an additional scene where Quiet manages to give Snake a birthday salutation in her own way. Encountering the first staff member after this cutscene will also have the staff member greet Snake with "Many happy returns, Boss!" instead of the usual "Boss, welcome home!"