Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Remember, Big Boss/Naked Snake debuted in the original Metal Gear, and tropes for him should go on that page. This is only for characters that debuted in Metal Gear Solid 3.

See also:

Characters that debuted in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Major Zero

Voiced by: Banjo Ginga (JP), Jim Piddock (EN)

Naked Snake's Commanding Officer in FOX. Also known (briefly) as "Major Tom." A British man obsessed with James Bond and scones.

Is mentioned in Guns of the Patriots as the man who founded the Patriots. Through a series of Retcons Zero is probably the closest thing to a main antagonist that the series has.

  • Adult Child: Not explicitly portrayed as such, but Peace Walker gives a very subtle hint that he qualifies as such. In Peace Walker, Paz explains when reciting the formation and splitting up of the Patriots (something that Big Boss, for some strange reason doesn't seem to either know or remember) that two men (Big Boss and Major Zero) viewed The Boss as being a mother figure to them. Want to know why this makes him eligable for this trope? It's because Major Zero is actually 13 years older than The Boss (Zero was born in 1909, The Boss was born in 1922).
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Possible In-Universe example. At the end of Guns of the Patriots, Big Boss expresses pity for Zero shortly before killing him.
  • Badass: Can be seen in Portable Ops, even though recruiting him is non-canon.
  • Bigger Bad: The founder of the patriots and thus responsible for a great deal of the events of the series. He can't be considered the absolute Big Bad as his actions don't drive most of the plot (his network of A Is run things instead) and he is never actually encountered either (until The Stinger in 4).
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Sort of. His real name David Oh (which is only revealed in supplementary materials such as the MGS4 Database and a leaked voice casting sheet for MGS3) was on one of the collectable dog tags in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
  • Evil Brit
  • Fallen Hero
  • The Man Behind the Man: For Peace Walker.
  • Mission Control
  • My Hero Zero: Tragically subverted
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: After Big Boss leaves the Patriots, he loses faith in humanity.
  • Noodle Incident: When calling Sigint about the Active Sonar, Sigint will remark that Zero must have lived in the stone age, and that he bought a brand new washing machine, but Zero cuts him off. It is never revealed what exactly happened.
    • Walking Techbane: Implied in several radio conversations to Sigint. When calling Sigint about the Active Sonar, he will remark that Major Zero must have come from the Stone Age, and was about to mention something about buying a brand new washing machine, but the story was cut off by Zero. It is never revealed exactly what happened, but it can be assumed that Zero ended up wrecking it somehow, perhaps even flooding his living place with it.
  • Scars Are Forever: To the very end.
  • The Unfought: Justified. By the time you encounter him in Metal Gear Solid 4 he is in a permanent vegatative state and is over 100 years old.


Sigint/Donald Anderson

Young Voice: Keiji Fujiwara (JP), James Mathis (EN)
Old Voice: Masaharu Sato (JP), Greg Eagles (EN)

The CIA's tech specialist. Sigint developed most of Naked Snake's on hand equipment and is the one Snake talks to about said equipment.

Sigint would later join DARPA under his regular name Donald Anderson and help develop Metal Gear REX. He is kidnapped during the Shadow Moses Incident and Solid Snake has to rescue him. He is killed by the FOXDIE virus, but not before revealing that FOXHOUND cannot activate REX. Snake learns later that Anderson was killed before Snake even got to Shadow Moses, and the Donald Anderson Snake talked to was Decoy Octopus.

That Sigint was also Donald Anderson was a Retcon we did not learn until Guns of the Patriots. Patriots also revealed that he was a founder of the Patriots.

  • Black Dude Dies First: In Metal Gear Solid. Heck, he dies before the game even starts.
    • Subverted in the overall chronology. He was actually the second of the Patriot founders (particularly those still loyal to Zero) to die, the first being Dr. Clark, AKA Para Medic, who is white.
  • Breakout Character: In the Secret Theatre clip "Metal Gear S..." from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Subsistence, Sigint ends up stealing scenes from Naked Snake, right to the punch, in fact. At one point, it's even implied that Naked Snake ended up killed by the air raid after Sigint killed The Boss.
  • Captain Obvious: When the player calls Sigint, he comments the weapon they have equipped, the item, or the camouflage they are wearing, and some of them are so obvious it's just plain stupid. Here's one: You're wearing the snow face paint. Snow face paint was originally invented for arctic operations. If you want to use it efficiently, wear it in snowy environment.
  • Corrupt Government Executive: As the head of DARPA, he ends up taking in bribe money, one of these bribe payments was for Metal Gear REX.
  • Fantastic Racism: Inverted. He was unable to get a job anywhere else before he met Major Zero because of his skin color, and it is heavily implied that the CIA hated Zero for allowing him to work at the CIA, submitting complaint letters three days per month.
  • Hypocritical Humor: He often complains about being the only normal person within the FOX Unit in some conversations, yet he's also the same person who developed a useless mask whose only sole feature is that it can blink, and it is also implied that he was the one who developed a bioelectric battery for FOX's equipment.
  • Irony: Shortly after Snake gets a nightmare after Para-Medic tells him about Dracula, Sigint tells him about the worst dream he's had, which bore various similarities to Metal Gear, and then asks Snake not to let his dream come true. Snake ends up not being able to keep his promise later in life. Bonus points come in when Metal Gear Solid 4 reveals that Sigint was actually Donald Anderson, the one who had REX developed in exchange for bribe money, meaning he didn't even allow himself to prevent his nightmare from coming true, and if we go by Peace Walker, he apparently had a hand in developing the AI weapons, meaning he made his nightmare come true even before Snake did.
  • Mad Scientist: Has shades of this. Namely, he developed a mask of which what he views as his proudest achievement is that it was the first mask that could blink, and it was referred to as a crackpot a few times.
  • Only Sane Man: Sigint seems to think everyone else on Fox Unit are nuts. He may be right.
  • The Straight Man: Attempts to be this to the entire FOX team, at least.
  • Unfazed Everyman: He even lampshades it at one point.


Para-Medic (Dr. Clarke)

Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (JP), Heather Halley(EN)

Another member of Naked Snake's mission control who gives Snake information on the edible flora and fauna in the Russian forests, as well as medical advice. She's also quite the movie buff, telling Snake about all kinds of popular movies from the time.

MGS4 revealed that she, like the rest of FOX, went on to create The Patriots and was also the scientist behind the Les Enfants Terribles Project as well as the sequencing of the soldier genes. She meets her end at the hands of Grey Fox.

  • Bob Haircut
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Loves her movies and Japanese pop culture.
  • Composite Character: Her whole characterization in MGS3 is like a combination of Otacon, Naomi Hunter and Mei Ling.
  • Does Not Like Spam: She really does not like crabs.
  • For Science!: Actually admits that while she can't condone things like cloning on moral grounds, she is fascinated by the possibilities. Guess what happens later on?
  • The Ghost: She (technically he, given the information at the time) didn't actually appear on-screen until Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but was given a few mentions in Metal Gear Solid as the one responsible for the creation of the Gene Therapy as well as the creation of the Genome Soldiers.
  • The Heart: Served this role in MGS3.
  • Hot Scientist
  • Large Ham: According to the novelization for Metal Gear Solid (which also acted as the first clue to Dr. Clark actually being a woman), she pretty much became this (it mentioned she acted Shakespearian in the first chapter taking place during Solid and Liquid's birth).
  • Lovable Nerd
  • The Medic
  • Motor Mouth: She was even called "Quack" because she talks so much.
  • Nerds Are Sexy
  • Occidental Otaku
  • Retcon: Dr. Clark was originally meant to be a man, until Raymond Benson's novelization, which may make this an early bird spoiler.
    • MGSV papered over this little goof with Huey discussing Dr. Clark's work, admitting he doesn't know for sure if Clark is male or female.
  • Team Mom

The Boss/The Joy

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (JP), Lori Alan (EN)

Naked Snake's mentor, and a war hero who led the Cobra Unit, a multinational team of elite Supernatural Warriors who practically won World War Two for the Allies. During the events of Metal Gear Solid 3, she apparently defects to the Soviet Union with her fellow Cobras, and Snake is assigned the mission of assassinating her.

  • The Ace
  • Action Girl: During World War II
  • Anti-Villain: Type IV: She was only an enemy because the US Government essentially screwed her over after her Fake Defection backfired due to Volgin and presumably the CIA's influence.
  • Badass: Metal Gear's standout example.
    • Badass Normal: Compared to her supernaturally empowered apprentices, she is still the greatest warrior amongst them all.
    • Lady of War
    • Pregnant Badass: At the Battle of Normandy (and presumably earlier).
  • Battle Couple: With The Sorrow during World War II.
  • Cool Old Lady
  • Cry Cute: Well, not exactly "cute"; she's too dignified for that. But any doubt to her being a fundamentally good person should disappear at the end.
  • Death Faked for You: Twice, to two different people, as a matter of fact. The first was in the Virtuous Mission, where she had thrown Snake over a bridge nearing the end of the mission, knowing full well that Snake would in fact survive the fall. The second time was prior to Sokolov and Snake's torture at the hands of Volgin, where she apparently supplied him with a fake death pill.
  • Even the Girls Want Her
  • Fake Defector
  • Flower Motifs: Her white sneaking suit sticks out like a sore thumb among the pitch black jungles of Russia - until you get to her boss fight, which takes place entirely in a field of white flowers.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Possesses a snake-shaped scar resulting from an emergency C-section deliverance of her baby, Adamska, AKA Ocelot during the Invasion of Normandy. After her death, the scar transforms into a real snake and slithers away.
  • Hair of Gold
  • Hero Antagonist
  • Heroic Sacrifice: After it became apparent that an unexpected occurance (Volgin bombing the Sokolov Design Bureau) will force her to have to give up her life at the hands of her desciple, she willingly does so to prevent a Nuclear War. Subverted in later games where it turns out that, although she did still intend to prevent the world from beginning a Nuclear War, her death was actually intended from the very beginning.
  • Hot Mom
  • Jerkass Facade
  • Kill the Ones You Love
  • Kung Fu Jesus
  • Lady of War: One of the strongest, most graceful and heroic characters in the entire series. Her unrivaled skill at playing this role is one of the reasons she's so well loved.
  • Mama Bear: It was established that she and The Sorrow ended up fighting each other and she ended up killing him in 1962 at Tselinoyarsk, and the only "visual" aspect (a flashback from The Sorrow's memories) implies that The Boss killed him unwillingly. Peace Walker elaborates on the exact circumstances as to why she and The Sorrow fought: Basically, the American and Russian Philosophers forced them to fight each other (in a manner that is eerily similar to Raiden and Solidus's fight in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty) with the threat that if both survived the fight, they would murder The Sorrow and The Boss's child, Revolver Ocelot.
  • The Messiah
  • A Mother To Her Men: Both to Naked Snake and to the other Cobras. It pains her that they fight each other to the death.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Even after being betrayed and used by the government multiple times, she still continues to fight for America.
  • Necessarily Evil
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Boss's intention of getting the Philosophers' Legacy for America was to reunite the warring factions of the Philosophers and make it as it once was, and organization to revert the brutal aspects of warfare. Unfortunately, she not only forgot to specify that it was to stop war, but when it got to the United States, and the Patriots were founded, it arguably made the feuding even worse.
    • Also earlier. The CIA offered to take over mission control of the mission to exploit some Russian Philosophers who were dissatisfied with Moscow into sabotaging various Soviet projects (with the not to subtle reason of wanting to take the credit). The Boss let them do so. Afterwards, they cut the sleeper agent The Boss planted in there's pay by a large percentage, resulting in him defecting completely to the Soviet Union, and then falsify several documents. The Boss got suspicious and decided to go in alone after the CIA refused to back her up. In other words, she really should have continued being directly involved in the operation a bit longer rather than let the CIA take over.
  • Ocelot I Am Your Mother
  • Shout-Out}: To actress Charlotte Rampling
  • Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains: Unquestionably a Type IV. The only reason you fight her is because she's wrongfully branded a traitor, and revealing the truth would only compromise her mission.
  • Super Strength: She certainly had enough strength to carry the container with two Davy Crockett warheads and the container with the launcher, which had a combined weight of 300 kg (700 lbs), and presumably use it by hand.
  • Thanatos Gambit
  • The Heavy
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth
  • Training from Hell: It's implied that this was her method of training Naked Snake in Snake Eater. The Boss told Volgin that his methods of torturing Snake for information are fruitless, as he was trained by her to not break under torture. Now, take note of the fact that he was delivering electric shocks at Naked Snake that were heavily implied to be within the ten million volt range ("This is where the fun really begins! My body carries an electric charge of ten million volts! Let's see how you like this!") at the time she told him, so the mere fact that that wasn't enough to even break Snake due to The Boss's training speaks for itself.
  • Vasquez Always Dies: She's not exactly butch, but is considerably more experienced and less fanservicey than EVA, MGS 3's other Action Girl. Guess which one survives the game.
  • Virtual Ghost: As the Mammal Pod in Peace Walker.
  • The Wise Princess
  • Woman in White
  • Zen Survivor
  • Zero-Approval Gambit


EVA

Voiced by: Misa Watanabe (JP), Suzetta Miñet (EN, MGS3 & MGPW), Vanessa Marshall (MGSPO)
Big Mama: Mari Natsuki (JP), Lee Meriwether (EN)

An American spy who defected to the USSR, sent to help Naked Snake during Operation Snake Eater. It turned out, however, that she was working with the Chinese in an attempt to obtain the Philosopher's Legacy. She later joins The Patriots and serves as the surrogate mother for the "Les Enfants Terrible" project.

She also shows up again in Metal Gear Solid 4, this time with the code name "Big Mama".

  • Absolute Cleavage
  • Badass: Just watch some of the awesome she pulls off with her Mauser.
  • Big Eater: During an escort mission with her, her stamina goes down very quick. Made worse by having lost all your food a bit before and not much of a chance to replenish it.
  • Bond Girl
  • But Not Too Foreign: She is a Chinese agent, but her birthplace is in Meridian, Idaho, which is in America. It's strongly implied in her message to Naked Snake in the ending that she was taken by the Philosophers at a very early age alongside other children across the world to be trained as a sleeper agent.
  • Double Agent
  • Genre Savvy: It is implied in a radio conversation with Sigint that the reason why Snake could shoot out the C3 on the rail bridge despite them being stable enough to not explode when shot is because EVA rigged them with detonators to activate its explosive properties when touched in case they were discovered so GRU would not be able to disarm them.
  • Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!
  • Honey Trap
  • Lady Swears A Lot: See Precision F-Strike. Although most of the characters swear in the series, only two (one in the English version) actually went as serious as dropping the F-bomb.
  • Ms. Fanservice
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye: Neither she nor Ocelot ever saw Big Boss again before they died, despite the fact that their entire motive was to revive him.
  • Nice Boots: Ocelot says this exact phrase when, after briefly threatening to shoot her with the Little Joe crossbow that formerly belonged to The Fear under suspicions of her being the spy (which are well founded), hinted that she's wearing the wrong boots (She's wearing her biking boots instead of her officer boots).
  • Precision F-Strike: In the Japanese version, after EVA (as Tatyana) was discovered to be the spy within Volgin's ranks, she says "Fuck you!" to Volgin before attempting to shoot him with the Kiss of Death. This was toned down during localization to "Go to Hell!"
  • Redemption Equals Death.
  • Shout-Out: Her appearance in MGS 4 is a tribute to ultimate Bond Girl, Honor Blackman aka Pussy Galore.
  • Snake I Am Your Mother: Surrogate Mother to be precise.
  • Stripperific
  • Trojan Prisoner: She posed as the KGB officer Tatyana as early as a few weeks before the Virtuous Mission, and was later captured by Volgin. Given Sokolov's comments on her to Snake, its implied that she deliberately allowed herself to be captured in order to infiltrate Groznyj Grad.


The Cobra Unit

The Boss's greatest apprentices. Each legendary warriors in their own right, their supernatural powers allowed them to win the Second World War for the Allies in the Metal Gear Universe... and Snake have the misfortune of having to fight them. They consist of The Pain, a guy who's covered in bees; The Fear, a crossbow-wielding man who acts more like an animal; The Fury, a pyromaniac cosmonaut; The End, an aged sniper; and The Sorrow, a deceased member who is able to communicate with other dead people.


The Pain

Voiced By: Hisao Egawa (JP), Gregg Berger (EN)

A member of the Cobra Unit. Controls a nest of bees, and can form them into weapons like guns and grenades.

  • Bald of Evil
  • Bee-Bee Gun: The Pain's special skill is getting his pet bees (except when they're hornets) to carry grenades for him, tossing a special liquid at Snake that attracts the hornets, using them as makeshift armor and even creating a duplicate of himself out of hornets. He also has an attack that involves spitting a "bullet bee" at Snake (which he keeps inside himself), which burrows underneath the skin and has to be removed via the survival window. They can also form a metal-and-wood Tommy Gun that actually fires. Feel sorry for the one that has to be the firing pin. How he does all this is never explained in-game, but the downloadable Metal Gear Solid 4 Database and the official Metal Gear Solid 3 website's character bio for The Pain explains it as him having a queen bee inside of his backpack that he has its sounds amplified.
  • Everything's Worse with Bees
  • Facial Horror: His face (and other parts of his body) is covered with welts from the numerous stings he's endured.
  • Large Ham


The Fear

Voiced By: Kazumi Tanaka (JP), Michael Bell (EN)

A member of the Cobra Unit. Is double-jointed and very animalistic. Likes to use booby traps and poison-tipped arrows.


The End

Voiced By: Osamu Saka (JP), Grant Albrecht (EN)

The world's oldest and greatest sniper, and a member of the Cobra Unit. The End is responsible for all modern sniping tactics. He is also able to photosynthesize.

  • Badass Grandpa: He's over 100 years old.
  • Cherry Tapping: The End actually does this to the player. He only uses tranquilizer rounds, and if the player loses to him, then he must backtrack from the lab Snake visited earlier. The player can pull the same thing on him, by using the tranquilizer pistol he has been carrying since the beginning of the game. In fact, the player must do this in order to get his tranquilizer rifle.
  • The Ghost: Appears as a literal one in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, communicating beyond the grave via the player's radio.
  • Plant Person: This may explain his (admittedly limited) Green Thumb abilities and longer-than-average lifespan, among other things. And his photosynthetic body.
  • Skippable Boss: He can be sniped a while before you actually have to fight him. If you kill him early, another Ocelot Unit battle will happen.
  • Sleepyhead: Due to his age, he spends a lot of his time sleeping. He also has the potential to frequently doze off during the actual boss fight, making it easier to sneak up on him.
  • Worthy Opponent: Views Snake as one.


The Fury

Voiced By: Takeshi Endo (JP), Richard Doyle (EN)

A cosmonaut that survived re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in only his spacesuit, which he wears all the time. A member of the Cobra Unit.

  • Badass Normal
  • Kill It with Fire
  • Playing with Fire
  • Pyromaniac: The Fury uses a rather nasty flamethrower that is so strong it can block the player's bullets. Hell, even his jetpack lights up the terrain he flies over.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Strongly implied to be the case: He suffered from a Cosmonaut mission-related accident that resulted in most of skin being burned and being incapable of feeling any pain. When killed, he is also seen "radioing" mission control, to which the director's commentary strongly implies is actually his reliving his memories of the day of his accident.
  • Turns Red: The Fury gets much more aggressive near the end of his fight.


The Sorrow

Voiced By: Yukitoshi Hori (JP), David Thomas (EN)

A member of the Cobra Unit that is dead before Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater begins. The Sorrow had psychic powers and could communicate with the dead. He was killed by The Boss, but Snake still see him as a ghost during his mission.


Colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin

Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi (JP), Neil Ross (EN)

A GRU Colonel nicknamed "Thunderbolt" and the primary antagonist of Metal Gear Solid 3, seeking to claim the Philosopher's Legacy by merit of his father being entrusted with it during World War II.

  • 0% Approval Rating: Implied in Portable Ops, where Jonathan reveals that after Volgin's death, Naked Snake/Big Boss, the person who killed him, was made a hero of the Soviet Union.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking
  • Axe Crazy
  • Badass
  • Bad Boss
  • Big Bad: Of MGS3.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: He tends to fall into this.
  • The Brute
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: He often tortures people, although he is an extremely bad interrogator (bad as in skill, it should be noted). Basically, all the people whom he interrogates either die before giving out information, or they don't give out information, and usually (as evidenced with Naked Snake) the only thing he succeeds in is backwards interrogation (ie, he gives the interrogatee information they didn't already know), also within earshot of other people. The commentary strongly implies that its because he failed to control his sadistic nature during his interrogation.
  • Covered in Scars
  • Crazy Prepared: Implied a few times: For one thing, Groznyj Grad, his creation was built around the mountains of Krasnogorje, which he also arranged to have them be heavily fortified with anti-aircraft turrets to prevent the enemy (whether it be American or the pro-Khrushchev faction) from attacking them from the air, and he also arranged for helicopters to patrol Krasnogorje and have additional manpower just in case Naked Snake somehow managed to defeat the Cobra Unit members. Oh, and that tunnel Snake had to go through to get into Groznyj Grad? That was an underground air-raid shelter according to one of the guards at Krasnogorje, implying that Volgin took into account even the already very unlikely possibility that an air-raid would actually occur at Groznyj Grad/Tselinoyarsk and built the shelter for his personnel.
  • Cruel Mercy: After torturing Naked Snake, Volgin allowed Snake to keep his medical supplies so he could mend his wounds, although only because he intended to torture him shortly thereafter.
  • Deadly Fireworks Display: A somewhat literal example: Shortly after he us defeated for the final time by Naked Snake, Volgin ends up being hit by lightning. Then he is immolated, and the bullet bandoleers he is wearing are being set off one by one due to being in the flames, ensuring he died a slow and painful death, with the bullets also making miniature firework explosions in the process.
  • Death by Irony: Was killed by a lightning bolt, which is especially ironic given the element he manipulates. However, there is some evidence that he may have intentionally allowed himself to be electrocuted.
  • Depraved Bisexual: He's in relationships with EVA (disguised as Tatyana) and Major Ivan Raidenovich Raikov, who are a woman and a man, respectively.
    • Also overlaps into Dirty Old Man, as Volgin at the time of the game is in his fifties, and EVA and Major Raikov are in their late and early twenties, respectively (and in Raikov's case, that's the oldest, the youngest would be late teens).
  • Dirty Old Man: Both of his lovers are in their twenties whereas he himself is approximately fifty years old. In the case of Raikov, he's probably in his very early twenties or in his very late teenage years.
  • Driven to Suicide: Some of his actions (such as responding rather starkly to a thunderbolt with "whose afraid of a little thunder?", and, just a split second before being hit by lightning, gave this grimace that indicated that he was either in pain or bracing himself) arguably imply that his being hit by lightning was actually intentional.
  • Drives Like Crazy: See Badass Driver.
  • Dystopia Justifies the Means: Volgin's exact plans after overthrowing Khrushchev and installing Breshnev and Kosygin in his place, involving the Shagohod and the Philosophers' Legacy essentially amount to this: complete the Shagohod, mass-produce it to all countries within the Eastern Bloc and Communist Asia, and then constantly orchestrate uprisings in various third-world countries, then plummit the planet into eternal war.
  • Evil Is Hammy
  • Evil Laugh
  • For the Evulz: Volgin has an alarming habit of getting through situations just by picking whatever option harms the most people near him. Highlights of Volgin's epic dickery include nuking his own country, trying to destabilize the Cold War, stealing a ludicrous amount of money, randomly torturing people, and repeatedly slaughtering his own troops just because he can. It is also established that his lover, Raikov, is much the same and takes great joy in punching his men.
  • Genius Bruiser: A villainous example. Basically, several of the weapons were implied to have been designed by him, and it is also strongly implied that, aside from using the money to have Groznyj Grad built, he was also the one who actually designed Groznyj Grad. In addition, as noted in the Crazy Prepared entry, he also planned ahead of occurances relating to Naked Snake's infiltration, and even a direct attack on Groznyj Grad via air raid, and his reason for nuking the Sokolov Design Bureau without fear of reprisal implies that he knew that the various intelligence agencies would blame The Boss instead. He's also very large and strong, and possesses electrical abilities.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face, nevermind his arms, possess a lot of scarring. The director's commentary implies that the scars are the result of his electrical abilities backfiring on him without that rubber suit.
  • Husky Russkie
  • Karmic Death: See Death by Irony or Driven to Suicide
  • Large and In Charge
  • Laughing Mad: Most of his evil laughs absolutely reek of this. For one thing, according to the director's commentary, the reason why he was laughing for no apparent reason when he deduced that Tatyana was the spy and was considering executing her? It's because he was reliving memories of several low-class and despicable things that he did.
  • May–December Romance: With Raikov, and to a slightly lesser extent with Tatyana/EVA.
  • Mighty Glacier
  • Pet the Dog: The closest thing to a redeemable aspect to his character is that he legitimately cares for his second-in-command, Raikov, being genuinely upset when he discovers that Snake disguised himself as such (not to the mention the implication that he hurt Raikov in order to do so).
  • Properly Paranoid: He suspected that there was indeed a spy within Tselinoyarsk, and was accusing his own men and even murdering them. He's right in that there was a spy helping Snake.
  • Psycho Electro: Albeit only he is crazy, not his powers, which he seems to have a firm grasp of.
  • Puppet King: Not him specifically, but he basically intended to run the country from behind the scenes with Brezhnev and Kosygin as the "official" leaders of the Soviet Union.
  • Renegade Russian: A rare case of such a character existing during the time where the Soviet Union was still in power and in its prime. Volgin spent most of his career under Stalin, and it is implied that his wanting to overthrow Khrushchev and replacing him with Brezhnev was so he could get the Soviet Union back to the days where it was under Stalin.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them: His response to Ocelot after the latter told him off in regards to his methods at Groznyj Grad tells all.

Volgin: I don't need Your [Ocelot's] approval. I'm in command here.

  • Slasher Smile: Every single time he smiles.
  • The Starscream: Acted as this to Khrushchev.
  • Super Strength: It's unknown whether he was able to shatter concrete without his electricity, but it is clear that he at least had enough strength to not only carry the containers with the davy crockett warheads and the launcher, but also actually use them simply by holding it.
  • Tempting Fate: "Who's afraid of a little thunder?", unless one theorises that he deliberately allowed himself to be electrocuted.
  • Torture First, Ask Questions Later
  • Unwitting Pawn: It is implied in the Plot Twist in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops that Volgin actually served as one to a single deviously cunning strategist within the American government, or at best an unwilling one. Peace Walker reveals the man in question was Hot Coldman, who is even worse than Volgin.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Volgin explained that part of his motivation for the things he did was as a means to reunify the Philosophers and essentially heal the rift caused by their infighting. Of course, whether that's a genuinely redeemable excuse for his behavior is debatable.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: Volgin only really has one superpower (besides his enormous size and strength), the ability to generate electricity. He finds a number of creative uses for it, though, most notably the ability to fire bullets held in his hands by cooking off the gunpowder. The aforementioned size and strength are probably Required Secondary Powers since the kickback would really be rough on the palms.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Volgin is shown to have some fear of rain and water. Given the element he wields, as well as Word of God's statement about it interfering with his electrical abilities, his fear is perfectly justified. Also causes some questions as to how Volgin's even able to clean himself. He seems to get over the fear, though, as he fights against Snake and EVA for the last time while it is raining.


Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov

Voiced by: Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP), Charlie Schlatter (EN)

The second-in-command to Colonel Volgin. Naked Snake had to strip him in order to infiltrate Groznyj Grad's West Wing. Is later found on the San Hieronymo Peninsula. Looks almost exactly like Raiden.

  • Asshole Victim: Depending on the players actions, Snake could kill him or spare him. If the former, he fits in due to being rather abusive towards his officers.
  • Bad Boss: It is heavily implied in an optional call to EVA that the reason why Snake can get away with beating up soldiers and scientists without breaking cover is because this is exactly what Raikov does to them, and thus not make him suspect. This also acts as the reason why he ends up on San Hieronymo later on, although he presumably learned his lesson by the time Big Boss's group got to him and got better.
  • Bishonen
  • Blond Guys Are Jerkasses
  • Bookworm: Implied by one of his stops at the East Wing of Groznyj Grad being the library.
  • Butt Monkey: Pretty much the reason for his existance.
  • Dirty Coward / Know When to Fold'Em: If an alert is triggered, Raikov immediately runs into the lavatories and hides there. Assuming that Raikov was aware of the fact that the intruder (Naked Snake) was planning on trying to impersonate him alive or dead to get to the West Wing of Groznyj Grad and rescue Sokolov, its probable that his hiding was realization that he most likely wouldn't stand a chance against Snake should he take him on, which is supported by the fact that when he is cornered in the bathroom, he attacks Snake with various CQC attacks.
  • The Dragon: He fits the technical definition for Volgin (he's Volgin's second-in-command) as Ocelot filled the role for Volgin in spirit in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
  • Enemy Mine: One of the reasons why he teamed up with Big Boss in Portable Ops amounted to this, due to the fact that he was locked up and humiliated by Gene's men as soon as the Red Army turned on him (he was also presumably humiliated before FOX arrived as well).
  • Expy: He was created as a result of the backlash towards Raiden during Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, hence why he has an uncanny resemblance to Raiden.
  • Groin Attack: Has it both ways. He inflicts this onto a disguised Snake if wearing a Raikov Mask (apparently even going so far as to unzip Snake's fly to do so), and at least one of the actions Snake does when disguised as him involves punching his "subordinates" in the groin. He himself apparently is on the receiving end by Colonel Volgin, as Volgin does this to test if Raikov is actually Raikov or an imposter (two guesses as to which one he discovers), and the directors commentary implies that Volgin does this with Raikov a lot, since they mentioned that the scene where EVA's photograph was taken from had Volgin having his hand in inches reaches of Raikov's groin, but the action was cut off from the photo.
  • Jerkass: His behavior to his subordinates is quite despicable. The only reason why he isn't considered a Complete Monster unlike his superior, Colonel Volgin, is because his appearance in Portable Ops suggests that he is embarrassed about his actions leading to his (pretty much well-deserved) exile.
  • May–December Romance: With Volgin.
  • Raiden, I Might Be Related To You: Even though Word of God was stated to be not related to Raiden at all (among other evidences), some fans still speculate that Raikov might have familial ties to Raiden, if not be his father due to his resemblance to Raiden.
    • Taken to even more strange levels, because of the name. "-ovitch" is a common Russian suffix for middle names, meaning "the son of". To take the middle name into translation, "Raidenovitch" essentially means "The son of Raiden."
  • Reassigned to San Hieronymo Missile Base, Colombia: He was exiled to San Hieronymo due to his abusive actions to his subordinates.
    • Reassignment Backfire: Potentially. Although it's not explicitly revealed whether the Soviets allowed him back for his involvement in stopping a nuclear strike against Russia, or if the Soviets would still keep him exiled (probably the latter, as its implied that Russia was in fact already aware of Gene's real plan being to nuke America, and not Russia from Gene's call to Ocelot, and plus his potential involvement in stopping the ICBMG from being launched at America would probably be indicative of betrayal on his part).
  • The Stool Pigeon: Despite being Volgin's most trusted man (and lover), he apparently has a habit of squealing about Volgin's various weaknesses if interrogated by knifepoint, like the fact that he is weak against water.
  • Take That: See Expy.
  • Unique Enemy
  • Villainous Glutton: He's not fat, but a radio conversation with EVA, as well as his bio in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus establishes that he is a glutton, although in the former game he apparently has a weak stomach (which explains why one of the places he stops at in Groznyj Grad is the lavatories).


Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov/Ghost

Voiced By: Naoki Tatsuta (JP), Brian Cummings (EN)

A Russian rocket scientist who defected to the United States during the Cold War. He had to be returned to Russia, where he was forced to work on the Shagohod by Colonel Volgin as part of a deal following the Cuban Missile Crisis. Snake is tasked to rescue him at the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 3. He fails, which results in Operation Snake Eater. Sokolov is later killed by Volgin as a warm up for his torture of Snake. Actually, he used a fake death pill to survive, and escaped with the help of The Boss. He reappears in Portable Ops, using the alias Ghost, and helped Snake to destroy RAXA and ICBMG.

  • Burn, Baby, Burn: His introductory cutscene has him burning documents that presumably related to the Shagohod project before he encounters Snake.
  • Cower Power
  • Defector From Decadence: The reason why he was to be rescued by America in the Virtuous Mission.
  • Despair Event Horizon: When the Shagohod wis completed, Sokolov refuses to let Naked Snake help him defect, as he realizes that Volgin would most likely kill him as his usefulness was outlived, and even if he was going to be spared, Khrushchev will send him to the Gulags for similar reasons to Volgin's attempts to kill him, and even if he managed to successfully defect to America, he would end up being used by them to make weapons of mass destruction. He pretty much gave up.
  • Disney Death
  • Large Ham
  • Lethal Joke Character: He is unlocked in the first Online by the player by getting the lowest score when playing as a KGB unit.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Kind of: Although Sokolov disliked the Soviet Union's policies enough to attempt to defect to the West three times (with the third time being successful), he nonetheless retained a small amount of love for Russia as he was unwilling to let the ICBMG be launched into it.
  • The Queen's Latin: Sokolov appears to have a vaguely British accent. It fits with his monocle.
  • Reverse Mole: He was working for Gene, but he leaked information relating to the ICBMG to Snake's group under the alias of Ghost. It's also implied that he got imprisoned for this until Snake's group rescues him in a side mission.


Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin

Voiced By: Takeshi Anno (JP), Jim Ward (EN)

A Soviet scientist and the original creator of the Metal Gear concept.

  • Drowning My Sorrows
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Of the "blood seeping on the floor from a crack near the floor" variety, when Volgin kills him while torturing him inside of a drum canister.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Despite his being used and later killed by his own country, he has shown himself to be completely devoted to the Soviet Union.
  • Nice Shoes: His transmitter shoes. Snake even says that exact phrase when missing the point of Granin's attempts at communicating that the perfect weapon needs legs to merge infantry with artillery. Granin takes it as a compliment, although the director's commentary implies that Snake was attempting to be sarcastic.
  • Vodka Drunkenski: His first (and only living) appearance has him drinking vodka. It's justified in this case, as he's drowning his sorrows from the fact that he is basically going to rot away in mediocrity, especially after Volgin cast him aside for Sokolov after it became apparent that his invention, the Metal Gear, did not possess the results needed to be immediately useful, thus essentially leaving him out of a job (he initially worked with Volgin specifically because Sokolov was hired by Khrushchev). It should be noted that he is the only Russian character to actually fit this stereotype (the main plot setting was the USSR, meaning the vast majority of the characters are Russian either by birth or via defecting from another country).
  • Wrote the Book: Apparently designed the SS-1C missile system, and if his comments are anything to go by, he was also directly responsible for some of the weapons used to drive out the Nazis during the Eastern Front.
  • Unknown Rival: He has an intense rivalry with Sokolov, strong enough to ally himself with Volgin's forces simply because Sokolov found favor in Khrushchev, although it is strongly implied that only he has any negative vibes towards Sokolov.
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