Final Impressions (Warning: Contains Spoilers)

There is one more thing I want to talk about from Metal Gear Solid 3, and that is the character of The Boss.

That's me

  

This is the third game in the Solid series, and there were also two for the NES. The original came out for the Japanese MSX2 computer and there have been other portable versions, as well as a MGS4 for the PS3 and MGS5 is in development. 

The main character is Solid Snake and sorry if I spoil anyone, but in 1998’s Metal Gear Solid we find out Snake is actually a clone of a man named Big Boss, a legendary soldier and all-around awesome warrior. The story is long and convoluted but suffice it to say that Big Boss is dead in the present. Metal Gear Solid 3 takes us back to 1963 and we get a chance to play as a young Big Boss. He looks and sounds just like Snake, cause they have the same DNA, but this is the original. This Snake is the real deal, the one who'll become the legendary warrior. Except, he's not quite Big Boss yet. He's just Snake the first. He won't be Big Boss while The Boss is The Boss.

This is going to be Darth Vader and Luke epic!

You see, Snake originally got his training from a woman codenamed The Boss. This has got to be one of the best female videogame characters ever conceived. 

Snake who? Oh, that kid?

The Boss is amazing. She's got nerves of steel and total dedication to her mission. The first time you see her in the game's first mission, you find out she's defecting to the USSR. Snake feebly tries to take her down and she effortlessly mops the floor with him, breaks his arm, knocks him out, and throws him off a bridge. You meet her a few more times, as your mission parameters now include killing The Boss along with her dangerous Cobra squadron, but every time you meet her, Snake consistently gets his ass handed to him by The Boss. She has taught you everything you know, but not necessarily everything SHE knows.

I can read you like a sentence. That's a burn on you.

There is a lot of pathos in the relationship. Maybe the reason Snake fails is that he can't forget years of fighting alongside each other and he truly can't beat her. He can't bear the thought of it. After The Boss throws Snake off the bridge, Snake grabs The Boss's headband. As he's curing his wounds and putting a splint on his badly broken arm, Snake silently puts on the headband, which he will wear till the game's end. When the boss sees him wearing her headband, she categorizes it as sentimentality and a sign of his weakness. Ouch!

Why didn't you just put on a dress?

Her facial features are those of a mature woman. She has seen joy and she has seen pain. She's got a look in her eye that tells you she means business.

She is dressed for battle. She is covered from the neck down in her uniform, a sort of white, silvery jumpsuit that she sometimes covers up with a hooded cloak. She is clearly a soldier. She's ready to do anything it takes to complete her mission.

Snake spends the entire game defeating The Boss's squad mates until he gets to confront her. In the end, they face off in a field of flowers. The Boss explains her motivations for her actions, and explains to Snake that after The Boss has taught him everything, there is only one thing left. Either Snake will kill The Boss, or she will kill him.

It is time

There are plenty more layers to the relationship. Multiple times, The Boss alludes to Snake's age and how she trained him for such a long time. There are no direct statements, but there's a serious implication that The Boss might be Snake's mother. Toward the end, The Boss explains to Snake that she once had a child. She once gave birth to a boy. She gave birth to this boy in an actual battle field, and this boy was taken from her. Her ability to bear any more children was also taken from her. While she's in the middle of a troubling confession, the implications of which we can only start to imagine, the game designers decided that this would be the perfect moment for The Boss to... ahem... alter her costume. For the final battle and the remainder of the game, she will look like this.

What? I didn't hear that. Wanna say that again?

You see, it was important to The Boss to show Snake the scar from when they took the baby out, so she opens up her suit. She says she sometimes feels the scar tingling and moving. The scar is shaped like a snake.

What? You've never seen a C-section?

The subtext is screaming in your face so loud that it just becomes text. It's just text now. It was imperative that she show Snake this scar that the game developers want us to believe is the scar of a cesarean birth. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just a scar from battle, but it is definitely a scar she got the day of the birth. I was really disappointed by this. I was disappointed that the game developers felt the need to sexualize such a complex character, a character that really needed no embellishment. She was picture perfect.

After the battle, Snake defeats her and he becomes Big Boss and he learns that The Boss had even deeper secrets and was even stronger and more amazing that anyone ever knew. She sacrificed everything for her country, even her legacy.

And still I was disappointed. So I want to know if I'm being ridiculous. I set up a poll. Please click below and let me know if this image changes how you feel about the character, like it did to me. I felt the character was unnecessarily sexualized. She was better than fine and this costume change does little more than cheapen her. Do you agree?