Venom Snake

"I won't scatter your sorrow to the heartless sea. I will always be with you. Plant your roots in me. I won't see you end as ashes. You're all diamonds."

- Venom Snake to his fallen Diamond Dogs

Punished "Venom" Snake, also known as Big Boss, was a mercenary commander, formerly a combat medic for Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF), who led Diamond Dogs and Outer Heaven as one of Big Boss's most trusted lieutenants.

During his time as a medic, Venom Snake saved Big Boss's life during the destruction of MSF in 1975. Despite his sacrifice, Big Boss fell into a coma, and Venom lost his left arm and right eye. Venom Snake was then placed into an artificially induced coma, undergoing hypnotherapy and plastic surgery so that he could act as a body double for Big Boss. This was done in order to protect Big Boss from XOF forces who had destroyed MSF nine years earlier.

In 1984, Venom Snake was given command over the mercenary unit Diamond Dogs, which had been founded by Kazuhira Miller as a successor to MSF. While in charge, Venom Snake defeated the XOF unit and took vengeance on its leader, Skull Face.

Venom Snake went on to command the military fortress of Outer Heaven during the time the real Big Boss returned to FOXHOUND. In 1995, Venom Snake was killed by Solid Snake, one of Big Boss's clones, in an operation commanded by the real Big Boss himself.

Militaires Sans Frontières
"He was always the best man we had."

- Big Boss on Venom Snake during tape "Doublethink"

Venom Sake was born in 1932 in California. Around the time of the Peace Walker Incident in 1974, Venom Snake served as a member of Militaires Sans Frontières, acting as a combat medic. According to Big Boss, Venom Snake was "always the best man [MSF] had", implying that he was an incredibly capable soldier. Venom Snake was also very close with Morpho, Miller and Big Boss as they were all good friends.

XOF Trojan Horse operation
On March 16, 1975, Venom Snake 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 Venom to look over the unconscious Paz, after Chico had noticed surgical scars on her abdomen. Suspecting that a bomb had been concealed inside her, Venom Snake was forced to operate on her immediately, as there was no time to administer anesthesia. He successfully removed the bomb from her gut.

Although the bomb was quickly disposed of, they had been unaware of the fact that a second bomb had been planted inside Paz's vaginal cavity. After coming to, Paz, aware of the impending detonation, jumped out of the helicopter to prevent the MSF personnel from being killed along with her. As Venom Snake shielded Big Boss while the bomb detonated, his body bore the brunt of the explosion, before the helicopter was sent into a collision with an XOF chopper.

Both men survived the incident and entered into a coma. Venom Snake had suffered specifically extensive injuries. His left hand had to be amputated and 108 foreign agents (shrapnel, human bone and teeth) had been embedded in his body, which, for the most part, could be removed successfully. However, certain pieces of shrapnel, which were located close to his heart and inside his cerebral cortex, were too risky to extract as impairment or even death would have been likely to occur upon removal. Ocelot also implied the injuries were severe enough that he was effectively dead.

The Phantom Pain
On February 26, 1984, Venom Snake was woken up from his induced coma. At the behest of Zero, Venom Snake was given plastic surgery to resemble Big Boss so he could act as a decoy for XOF. 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 Big Boss. On March 11, 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. As the two escaped 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. Upon confirming the hypnotherapy's success, Ocelot preformed a similar technique on himself, as to trick himself into believing that Venom Snake was indeed the one and only "Big Boss."

Along the way, Venom Snake was briefed on what had happened in the world in general due to the coma, as well as more specifically what happened while he was in a coma. He also had his loose prosthetic replaced with a bionic arm. He ultimately succeeded in saving Miller, and evacuated, although not before encountering the group responsible for slaughtering Miller's men and giving him over to the Soviets to be tortured.

Venom Snake and Diamond Dogs rose to huge heights as they collected resources, expanded their facilities, and swelled their ranks with volunteers and "recruits" forcibly extracted from the field. Venom Snake and Miller were eventually able to exact revenge on Skull Face and his XOF unit. After shooting off Skull Face's right arm and leg, mirroring injuries sustained by Miller when he was originally captured by XOF, Venom Snake and Miller left him to die as Huey Emmerich finished him off. Venom Snake later exiled Huey for his recklessness (more specifically, his collaboration with Eli as well as causing a devastating parasite outbreak and Wolbachia mutation on Mother Base that forced Venom Snake to kill many of his own men that were infected). Some time later, Venom Snake would 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. Diamond Dogs itself was a smoke screen to place all focus on Venom while the real Big Boss could lay the ground work for Outer Heaven.

After Outer Heaven's construction had been completed, Big Boss's reputation as a mercenary had traveled far and wide thanks to the activities of Venom Snake. While he knew that mercenaries around the world would eventually rally to his cause, he knew that it would also bring the attention of government agencies that would grow suspicious of his activities. Needing to draw attention away from Outer Heaven, Big Boss himself decided to return to the U.S. to rejoin FOXHOUND as its commander and left Venom Snake in charge. In 1995, Venom Snake began an uprising within Outer Heaven by the order of Big Boss 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 objective of rescuing Fox and destroying Metal Gear. He also sent a tape labeled, "Operation Intrude N313," the name of Solid Snake's operation, to Venom Snake to make sure he was prepared. Despite all this, Solid Snake rescued Fox and destroyed the Metal Gear weapon known as TX-55 Metal Gear. Afterwards, Venom Snake intervened and revealed himself. The two fought with Solid Snake being the victor, killing Venom Snake. This led to the real Big Boss setting up the eventual Zanzibar Land Disturbance with the remnants of Outer Heaven.

Personality and traits
Unlike Big Boss, Venom Snake was far more reserved in his speech. He rarely retorted or commented against his enemies, and most of his reactions are inferred through obvious body language. During the medic's days in MSF, Big Boss considered him the group's "best man." While impersonating Big Boss as Venom Snake, he adopted much of his commander's personality and possessed a similar physical appearance, having undergone hypnotherapy and plastic surgery. Following his escape from a Cypriot hospital and recovery from muscle atrophy, Venom Snake gained muscle mass similar to that of Big Boss.

As a result of wounds suffered during the destruction of MSF, Venom Snake had a piece of shrapnel embedded in his forehead in the shape of a horn, and had also lost his right eye and left arm, the latter was later replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic.

Like his mental and physical template, Venom Snake did show compassion for his enemies as he chose not to kill Quiet or Huey and instead had the former imprisoned and the latter exiled with food and water. He would even develop a mutual bond with Quiet. Though the two shared similarities in their compassion over enemies, Venom Snake differed from Big Boss with respect to Paz; in which Venom Snake notably viewed Paz in a more positive light. Being formerly an MSF soldier himself, he sympathized with her and it was implied that he held a fondness for her peaceful personality. He felt guilt and grief over her death to the point of experiencing hallucinatory scenarios where he had meetings with a phantom of Paz. It was heavily implied that Venom Snake did not know the truth about her role as an agent for Cipher, or at the very least he denied it in his mind, having not accepted it as truth. This is markedly different from Big Boss's view of Paz, who greatly recognized her traitorous role towards MSF, in which he was even willing to kill her to avoid having her give away intelligence regarding MSF.

Venom Snake appeared to suffer from a form of amnesia (or more accurately, the memory transfer was not completed), as both Miller and Ocelot had to remind him of certain events, such as how the real Big Boss had led Militaires Sans Frontières and how Miller helped him lead "his" old unit. He also did not possess Big Boss's fluency in Russian, relying instead on a translator. Despite this, however, he did seem to remember events from the Peace Walker Incident, such as the prototype Battle Gear's similarity to Metal Gear ZEKE giving him déjà vu, and his quoting of Hot Coldman regarding the ineffectiveness of nuclear deterrence. When he asked why he's suffering from amnesia, Ocelot stated it might have to do with the shrapnel in his forehead, while on the Truth tapes, it's because they had to cut the memory transfer as XOF was set to attack ahead of schedule.

Behind the scenes
Punished "Venom" Snake is the main protagonist of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Although he is never called "Punished" in the game, it appears in the opening and end credits of nearly every main mission in the game.

Venom Snake first appears as an unidentified field medic during the closing cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Because of the cinematic angles, there is never a clear view of the medic's face, although his character model can briefly be glimpsed as possessing white skin and brown hair. The full character model was discovered in the PC version through the use of mods, with the facial model and textures for the medic sharing identical scars to those of Big Boss. Despite this predetermined, albeit obscured, appearance in Ground Zeroes, Venom Snake's name and facial features prior to surgery is chosen by the player in The Phantom Pain. In the cutscene showing a flashback to the events of Ground Zeroes, the medic is instead shown wearing a balaclava.

It is heavily implied in The Phantom Pain 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 the "Truth" ending, in a manner that breaks the fourth wall.

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. It was also hinted at when Ocelot explained that Eli was not Venom Snake's clone, and that the genetic examination of the two had resulted negative.

Fulfilling his role as a "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.

If Snake runs low on GMP, he will be forced to return to base due to morale having fallen to such an extent that at least two personnel had gotten into a particularly violent brawl amongst each other, resulting in Snake breaking up the fight and even forcing one of the soldiers to stab him when he attempted to draw a weapon on the other soldier he restrained, also suggesting to Ocelot that they form a Combat Unit to get them focused on something other than their tenuous relationship with other personnel. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions (2015) Pequod's chopper arrives at the landing pad and Venom Snake disembarks only to see a crowd present at the base and arrives to observe, with it cutting to a fight between two Diamond Dogs members // Diamond Dogs member 1: Son of a... // ''The soldier shoves the other DD member, only to be socked in the face in return as Venom Snake walks up. The soldiers then exchange blows, only for the second soldier to kick the first soldier in the gut. Two soldiers attempt to restrain them, only for the soldiers to knock them away and rush at each other. They then grapple each other and are in a lock, only for the second soldier to be kneed in the face and punched by the first soldier'' // Diamond Dogs member 1: Bring it on! // Diamond Dogs member 2: Get off me! (Socks the first soldier in the face and then kicks him upside the head just as he turns around) // ''The second soldier then draws a knife and raises it up high, as the crowd cheers him on. As the soldier is about to make the killing blow, Venom Snake suddenly tackles the soldier, forcibly disarms the knife, knocks down the first soldier, then throws the second soldier away. The first soldier then draws his knife and attempts to go at the downed second soldier only to be stopped by Venom Snake via the latter grabbing his knife arm'' // Diamond Dogs member 1: Boss! // Venom Snake: We don't draw weapons on comrades. (the soldier struggles) Look around you. This is your family. // (Snake then forces the unwilling soldier to stab him through the chest and then releases him, the soldier landing on his back as the crowd looks on in shock at what happened). // Ocelot: Show is over! Get out of here! // ''Ocelot arrives just as the soldiers do as they are told and leave the area. Snake then gets up and attempts to remove the knife himself, only for Ocelot to nonverbally suggest against it and request removing it for him.'' // Snake: Be gentle. // Ocelot: Of course. (Ocelot then proceeds to remove the knife swiftly yet gently.) // Ocelot: These [knife] are bad for you, you know. // Snake: (looking to the soldiers who were fighting amongst each other) Morale has fallen. // The two soldiers stand at attention // Ocelot: They just need a mission. Orders to follow. If you see someone stuck in the Waiting Room, you give 'em a job to do. (Turns to the soldiers) You two! (motioning the knife) You just earned yourselves a week in the brig with deck-cleaning duty by day. // Snake: (grabs Ocelot's knife hand) No. Wait. (Grabs the knife from Ocelot) You've got some blood to pay me back for first. Your CQC is sloppy - Come see me later for a lesson you won't forget. (wipes blood off the blade via his thigh before handing it back to the first DD soldier. The soldiers then salute and walk off). // Ocelot: Well morale taken care of. (Ocelot walks off)

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 led to believe he was Liquid.

Despite being the same height as Big Boss, who stood toe-to-toe with Ocelot in the Truth ending, Venom Snake appeared shorter in several cut scenes of The Phantom Pain. Whether this was an intentional nod to Snake not being Big Boss is unknown.

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.

Although the Truth ending reveals that Venom Snake is not Big Boss, his exact reaction to learning of this revelation is left ambiguous, as he briefly demonstrates a smirk as if accepting and embracing the role. After he flips the tape "From Man Who Sold the World", he sees Operation Intrude N313, which is the name of the mission in the original Metal Gear, implying a time skip occurs. In the next scene, Venom sees himself in the mirror with a bloody face and larger horn, before punching the mirror.

A hidden ending of The Phantom Pain is unlocked if all worldwide FOB nukes are destroyed, effectively making the world peaceful. Venom Snake addresses The Boss as he states the similar phrase said from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: "We have no tomorrow, but there is still hope for the future."

Overall, Venom Snake is the fifth canonical Snake in the Metal Gear series. Venom Snake is also the second playable character whose true role is revealed via a plot twist, similar to Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Venom Snake's stats in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are:
 * Combat Unit: A++
 * Research & Development Team: A++
 * Base Development Unit: A++
 * Support Unit: A++
 * Intel Team: A++
 * Medical Team: A++

Appearances

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