Metal Gear Musings: Solidus Snake

I would like to start this off by saying that I am an absolutely freak. No, really I am. I have spent more time playing, reading, and thinking about the Metal Gear series than any normal human being. While our politicians debate over the state of the economy, I'm thinking about the “La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo.”

So to kick things off, I've been thinking a lot about this guy:

The third clone of the infamous Les Enfants Terribles project, and the 43^rd President of the United States of America, George Sears aka Solidus Snake. He serves as the main antagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. On the surface, he looks like your standard video game villain. The fact that he took over a clean-up facility that housed a new Metal Gear and threatened New York with a nuclear blast probably didn't help his case, either. However, when you look further into who Solidus is it becomes much more difficult to paint him with such broad brush strokes. To understand Solidus, you have to understand where he comes from.

As stated before, he is an exact clone of Big Boss. He joined a paramilitary branch of the CIA in his teenage years and fought a civil war in Liberia. It was there that he began to raise child soldiers, including Raiden. It was Solidus who taught Raiden how to fight, how to kill, and a reverence for blades. The act of killing Raiden's parents and raising the child is massively important to understanding Solidus. It wasn't done out of an act of random cruelty or sickness, but as an experiment of sorts by the third Snake. It was his attempt to understand the nature of his own legacy and whether or not he was the product of his own choices or the circumstances that made him. His exact words were, “I needed to know if we were really someone elses creation.” This sows the seed of legacy that defines who the character is later on.

(Solidus Snake at age 28. No, really.)

When the war was over, he was sent back to the United States and was chosen by The Patriots to become president of the United States. His entire presidency could be summarized as a man following orders. Every policy he created, every action he took, every program he started was designed by The Patriots. The only act that Solidus took on his own was using Revolver Ocelot to provoke his brother, Liquid Snake, into rebelling and seizing The Patriots' new project – Metal Gear Rex – so that Solidus might use that information against his creators. The plan backfired when The Patriots used Solid Snake to defeat Liquid and destroy Rex. Needless to say, George Sears was forced to resign his presidency shortly after that.

After that point it became a matter of survival for Solidus Snake. He had disobeyed his masters and in doing so earned their wrath. His only choice was to try and seize a new project that they were working on called Arsenal Gear. Solidus' plan from there was to gain control of the floating fortress and use it to liberate America from its secret rulers. While it is true that George Sears had killed quite a few people, raised dozens of child soldiers, and planned to take Manhattan hostage, I don't consider him a true antagonist. Especially when you consider that all of his actions in Metal Gear Solid 2 were arranged by The Patriots themselves. Without getting into too many details, The Big Shell takeover was apart of a larger exercise that The Patriots were conducting using both Raiden and Solidus as test subjects. 

(Design specs for Arsenal Gear, complete with a fleet of Rays)

Even in his rebellion and fight for survival, Solidus was being used as a pawn. At birth, throughout his life, and even in his death he was used by the very people who created him. The only times he was allowed his own freedom of real choice resulted in Raiden's upbringing and The Shadow Moses Incident. Everything else in his life was either a manipulation or a direct order. Even worse than that, his body was designed during its creation to age faster than a normal clone. At age 28, he looked old enough to run for president. Knowing that his lifespan was extremely short and knowing that none of the clones of Big Boss could produce children, Solidus Snake spent his entire life trying to create a legacy.

Solidus Snake is a tragic character who - while completely acknowledging the wrongness his actions – spent his entire life being manipulated and controlled by an organization without form or shape. He is less an evil man and more a desperate one who is trying to do anything he can to pass on the knowledge of his existence. In the end though, he fails. Raiden strikes him down and his body is used for major plot points in MGS4. Even in death, Solidus Snake is a tool for others.

Here's to you, Mr. President.