Beauty and the Beast Unit

The Beauty and the Beast Unit, also known as the B&B Corps, were a group of female soldiers who were given special suits to turn them into incredible combatants, after each one suffered from intense Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by the horrors of war.

History
The suits worn by the B&B members, combined with their unstable mental states, made them potentially invincible soldiers, which caused them to be exploited for their skills. Although their damaged minds gave them a momentous edge in combat, it was also their greatest weakness.

During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, the group were convinced that their goal was to destroy Solid Snake, believing it would ease their anguish, and make them "whole" again. Snake fought and defeated each of the unit's members in turn, usually when they were accompanied by a small unit of FROGS. When out of their suits, they began to relive their respective traumatic memories, due to their fragile mental state.

Regardless of the method in which Snake chose to defeat them, Drebin's comment that they can only survive outside of their suits for a few minutes, made it certain that they would die. When out of their suits, they start having a nervous breakdown and reliving their respective traumatic moment. This is most likely due to their fragile mental state. If the player chooses to wait a certain amount of time after they get out of their suits, they eventually collapse and die. Their clothes burn to a crisp. This proved that Drebin's information was true.

Members

 * Laughing Octopus
 * Raging Raven
 * Crying Wolf
 * Screaming Mantis

Trivia

 * The suits of each Beast literally resembled the animal after which they were named. Octopus's had four tentacles (for eight limbs total), Raven's used flight, Wolf's was quadrupedal, complete with tail, and Mantis's had multiple arms.
 * Drebin once referred to the group as the SNAKEHOUND Unit, due to their FOXHOUND-like names and their obsession with killing Solid Snake.
 * According to Big Boss, the technology that was used to completely seal him in his coma was similar to the technology used to control the members of the Beauty and the Beast Unit.

Gameplay
If the Beast form of each B&B member is defeated non-lethally (with the exception of Screaming Mantis, due to the nature of the battle with her Beast form), a statue of their Beast form can be found and obtained during the "Beauty" stage of the battle. Collecting all four (as well as the FROG Statue) will unlock the Solar Gun, from one of Hideo Kojima's other games, Boktai. Similarly, FaceCamos of each of the Beauties can be unlocked by defeating their respective Beauty forms non-lethally.

When their Beauty forms are advancing upon the player, not killing them for several minutes will result in transportation to an infinitely sized White Room, with a three minute timer. It is impossible to call Otacon or Rosemary while in this room. Equipping the camera will cause the Beauties to pose. If the player selects and de-selects the camera, they will change their pose. Equipping the iPod and playing "Oishii Two-han Seikatsu" will make them dance. When the timer expires, the Beauties collapse and die.

Game Informer ranked the Beauty and the Beast Unit #5 in their list of the top 10 villians of 2008.

Behind the Scenes
During development of Metal Gear Solid 4, Hideo Kojima wanted the Beauty and the Beast Unit to be naked, though this would have severely affected the game's censorship rating. Yoji Shinkawa stated that the motion capture actors were asked to do the motion capture nude, though this could also not be used in the game.

The Beauty and the Beast Unit share many similarities with the special forces units involved in previous events. As a result the name of each member was derived from those belonging to members of FOXHOUND (Metal Gear Solid), their weapons were a derivative of those used by Dead Cell (Metal Gear Solid 2), and their emotions in battle were similar to those of the Cobra Unit (Metal Gear Solid 3):
 * Laughing Octopus: Derived from the name and abilities of Decoy Octopus, the P90 submachine gun and tentacles of Solidus Snake, and the emotion of The Joy.
 * Raging Raven: Derived from the name and the flying accomplices of Vulcan Raven, the explosives of Fatman, and the rage of The Fury.
 * Crying Wolf: Derived from the name and fighting style of Sniper Wolf, the railgun of Fortune, and the emotion of The Sorrow and The End.
 * Screaming Mantis: Derived from the name and psychic abilities of Psycho Mantis, the throwing knife weapons of Vamp, and a mixture of The Fear and The Pain.

Each B&B member also appears in reverse chronological order to their namesake's boss fight in Metal Gear Solid (Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, and Decoy Octopus). Decoy Octopus is last on the list because his idenitity divulged as "the fake Donald Anderson" after Snake beat Vulcan Raven, since Decoy Octopus never actually fought Snake. Laughing Octopus may have been put first since she is also a tribute to the final boss of both Metal Gear Solid 2 (Solidus Snake) and Metal Gear Solid 3 (The Boss (The Joy)).