The Sorrow

"Now, you shall feel...the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended."

- The Sorrow, to Snake

The Sorrow (ザ・ソロー) was the "Spirit Medium Soldier" of the Cobra Unit. Although he has no actual unique combat abilities like the other Cobras, The Sorrow is gifted with the powers of a medium. He is able to summon the dead and assume their combat abilities by bringing their spirits into himself. Communicating with dead soldiers also gives him several advantages during a battle, such as learning of enemy positions. Like the other Cobras, his codename reflects the emotion he brings to the battlefield.

Early Life and Career
The Boss and The Sorrow fought together as part of the Cobra Unit during World War II and participated in the Allied landing at Normandy in 1944. During D-Day, The Boss was pregnant with her and The Sorrow's child and she gave birth to their son, who was taken from them by agents of The Philosophers. After the war, he worked for the Soviet Union and was ultimately killed by The Boss (at his request) during one of her covert mission at Tselinoyarsk in 1962. Before he died, he told her "the spirit of the warrior will always be with you".

In 1964, The Sorrow appeared to Naked Snake as a ghost, and was often seen to be crying blood. Whenever he did, rain fell from the sky. He frequently appeared during Operation Snake Eater, where he observed Snake and the events of the mission, and occasionally offered helpful hints, such as a key radio frequency.

When Snake met The Sorrow in the spiritual realm after jumping off a water fall, he was forced to walk down a seemingly endless river, so that he would "feel the sorrow of those whose lives he ended". He made Snake face the spirits of every single person he killed during his mission. However, he did not intend for Snake to stay forever, as evidenced by his comments when Snake tried to touch the Sorrow's corpse near the end of the spiritual walk. The spirits of the fallen Cobra Unit members also appear. The Sorrow also tried to project images into his mind with an attack, which foreshadowed his past and his death.

The next time he was seen helping Snake by indicating how much time was left before the C3 explosives destroyed the Shagohod's hangar. It was also theorized that The Sorrow was responsible for summoning the lightning that killed Colonel Volgin, because he was seen shortly thereafter, floating behind EVA and smiling.

The Sorrow was last seen by Naked Snake towards the end of Operation Snake Eater, standing next to the ghost of The Boss, reunited and vanishing together.

Guns of the Patriots
In 2014, The Sorrow's likeness made an appearance as one of Screaming Mantis puppets. His puppet gives Screaming Mantis control over dead FROGS in the vicinity. It was not until after Solid Snake defeated Screaming Mantis, that The Sorrow made a short appearance as a ghost, reciting his last words that he said to the Boss before she killed him, "The spirit of the warrior will always be with you." He may possibly have been the reason for Psycho Mantis's ghost suddenly disappearing, possibly banishing him back to the spiritual realm.

Trivia

 * During the Virtuous Mission, The Sorrow's remains were seen by Naked Snake before his rescue from Tselinoyarsk.
 * Despite "The Sorrow" being his codename, the ghost of The Sorrow was always smiling, with not one occasion where there was a frown on his face. This is similar to The Boss/The Joy who was rarely seen smiling.
 * The Sorrow, along with The Boss, are the only Cobra Unit members who did not have their microbombs activate upon death.
 * During Naked Snake's encounter with him, The Sorrow exclaimed that "you will all be killed by your own sons".
 * The Sorrow and The End are the only two Cobra Unit villains whose camouflages you cannot acquire by nonlethally defeating them (draining their stamina).

Behind the Scenes

 * The Sorrow's skeleton can be seen during a secret R1 scene after Snake is thrown off of the Dolinovodno bridge, after Snake bandages himself. In Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, if the free camera is on, the player can also see the skeleton by rotating the camera before going into the menu to cure Snake's wounds.
 * If the player makes it to the end of The Sorrow's river and uses the revival pill, when Snake gets his gear back, he will have obtained the Spirit camouflage, which allows Snake to drain stamina using the CQC choke, and eliminates footstep noise.
 * After Volgin dies, when EVA is about to hug Snake, holding R1 will allow the player to see The Sorrow floating behind her.
 * After The Boss is defeated, holding R1 and looking to the left allows the player to see both The Sorrow and The Boss's ghosts.
 * During Naked Snake's "fight" against The Sorrow, everybody (Major Zero, Sigint, and EVA) contacted by Codec will all be screaming "Snake!" as if the player has just died. This includes Para-Medic, although the player can still save.
 * If the player saves the game while in the fight with The Sorrow, their location will be listed as "?"
 * Because of the nature of his boss fight, The Sorrow is one of only two bosses where the player can get his camouflage without defeating him non-lethally, the other boss being The End.
 * Until the revelation at the end of Guns of the Patriots that Revolver Ocelot had merely been imitating Liquid Snake through hypnotherapy, it was heavily suspected in the fan community that Ocelot, being the son of The Sorrow, had inherited a form of his father's spiritual medium powers in order to explain how Liquid's spirit took over Ocelot's body in Metal Gear Solid 2.
 * In Metal Gear Solid 4, there is a secret L1 scene after defeating Screaming Mantis and Psycho Mantis appears, and then disappears again is when The Sorrow is heard saying, "The spirit of the warrior will always be with you." The Sorrow will be seen floating on the second floor, before dissipating. To see this, the player must press L1 and look to the top right-hand side corner.
 * During the "fight" against The Sorrow, Naked Snake will have obtained all of his weapons and equipment (besides camo and food) prior to his capture, although the weapons are useless during the battle, as The Sorrow nor the dead spirits can be wounded. However, after the fight, Snake will no longer have this equipment (except for the equipment he obtained after his capture) until he meets EVA behind the waterfall when she returns it to him.
 * Yukitoshi Hori, The Sorrow's Japanese voice actor, also voiced Vulcan Raven, who coincidentally also was a spirit medium and a practitioner of the supernatural.
 * When Volgin is torturing Snake in the interrogation chamber in Groznyj Grad in Operation Snake Eater of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, hitting the R1 button when the screen prompts the action causes Snake to see the Sorrow floating behind Volgin, holding up a cardboard with the digit 144.75 scribbled on it. This radio frequency will later open Snake's cell door when he gets sealed in the holding block.