Solidus Snake

_Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty_

Background

The information gained from the Human Genome Project opened the door for a number of genetic experiments. Aiming to create “super soldiers”, scientists isolated over sixty “soldier genes” in the greatest soldier of all time, a man code-named “Big Boss”. In a program that came to be known as Les Enfants Terribles , or The Terrible Children, three clones of Big Boss were engineered. One, a direct clone with balanced attributes, was code-named Solidus Snake.

Solidus trains child soldiers in countries torn by civil wars. He deals with his genetic heritage not by hunting down Big Boss or trying to surpass him, as Solid Snake and Liquid Snake do, but rather by seeking to make his own mark in history. First he needs to know if people are really the creations of other people. To that end he kills the family of a boy named Jack and raises him as a child soldier. Satisfied with the knowledge that people and reality are malleable, Solidus next becomes aware of The Patriots, a shadow-government organization that controls every aspect of American life. He ingratiates himself with the mysterious group and is entrusted with the American Presidency under the moniker George Sears.

Aware of his lack of real power, Solidus sends his most trusted agent, Revolver Ocelot, to provoke Liquid Snake into starting the Shadow Moses uprising. Solidus expects to recover Metal Gear REX from Liquid Snake, but after Solid Snake stops Liquid and destroys REX, Solidus is exposed. He goes underground with Ocelot's help and organizes the takeover of “Arsenal Gear”, a mobile fortress that will give The Patriots the power to control the flow of digital information. Solidus plans to learn the identities of The Patriots and destroy them, liberating America and leaving his mark in history. However, child soldier Jack, now a FOXHOUND elite soldier code-named Raiden, defeats Solidus outside Federal Hall in Manhattan . Solidus dies reaching reverently up to a statue of George Washington.

Analysis

A major theme among genetic villains is a desire to verify their existence. Solidus, above all else, wants there to be proof of his existence after he dies. The products of Les Enfants Terribles all have their reproductive abilities engineered out, and so Solidus cannot create progeny. So, he attempts to destroy the governing force behind America and replace it with the liberty that the nation used to enjoy. “Rather than an intron of history, I shall be remembered as an exon!” he declares before the final battle with Raiden. “I will triumph over The Patriots and liberate us all…and we shall become the Sons of Liberty!” The name refers to a group of rabble rousers during the American Revolutionary period. Solidus sees his mission as another rebellion against tyranny, though he is ultimately just another pawn of The Patriots. His motives are understandable and almost noble, if not for his bloody past and methods. He pays no heed to the thought of the catastrophic power vacuum that will exist if he destroys The Patriots, concerned primarily with the endurance of his own legacy.