Welcome to Heavy Metal, a weekly series on Kombo.com dedicated to trying to unravel unanswered questions and theories related to the Metal Gear Solid series. Every Monday leading up to the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, a question or theory will be analyzed or presented as extensively as possible.
It is important to note three things:
1.) This is all speculation, created using information presented in the Metal Gear Solid games and any MGS4 trailers or information released to the gaming public.
2.) This is as much for fun as it is thought provoking, so please do not take it too seriously.
3.) This feature will contain spoilers about existing games in the MGS series without warning or precaution. If there are MGS games that you haven’t beaten, it’s a good idea to stay away.
Question: Liquid Ocelot combines two men who serve completely opposite goals. How do they (or do they even) co-exist in the same body!?!
What We Know: Revolver Ocelot was a spy for the (then) Philosophers circa the time of Operation Snake Eater. Shortly thereafter, The Philosophers were replaced as a world power by The Patriots and Ocelot gained employment with them. Ocelot would be later thrust into another operation: Shadow Moses. Solidus Snake, originally known as President Sears, turned on the Patriots and initiated Shadow Moses so that he could use Metal Gear REX against them. However, Solidus was in league with Ocelot at the time, who went to Liquid Snake and got him to orchestrate Shadow Moses on orders from the Patriots to get REX back.
Liquid Snake is one of three confirmed clones of Big Boss born from the Les Enfants Terribles project in the early 1970s. Fearing himself to be the genetic inferior of Solid Snake, Liquid had only one other option to redeem himself: pick up Big Boss’ legacy. Ocelot played Liquid into Shadow Moses, feeding into his hatred of the United States government by convincing him that REX’s purpose would be to hurt the U.S. government by bombing a top-secret base. Liquid thought he was taking the first steps to obtaining the sort of power Big Boss had, but in reality, he was serving a much more sinister purpose. Solid Snake was sent into Shadow Moses believing his mission was to destroy Metal Gear REX. In reality, he was administered FOXDIE to eliminate all of the suspects in Shadow Moses except Ocelot, leaving the Patriots clean. In the epic battles (REX and the jeep) that followed, Liquid crashed into the snow and died from FOXDIE.
However, plans were complicated when Ocelot was dismembered by Gray Fox. Sometime soon thereafter, Ocelot picked up Liquid’s arm and had it surgically attached to his body by doctors in Lyon. Liquid’s consciousness was later discovered to live on in the arm, especially in the presence of Solid Snake. During the Big Shell incident while Ocelot was making the big reveal that Big Shell was Arsenal Gear (one of many Arsenals, actually) and that Dead Cell was being played, Liquid seized control of Ocelot while in the Metal Gear RAY. Liquid vowed to go off and hunt the Patriots, plunging RAY into the ocean in hot pursuit of the tyrannical despots.
In Metal Gear Solid 4, Liquid Ocelot is one merged being, who leads Big Boss’ dream of Outer Heaven in the Middle East in the form of Outer Haven–a dummy corporation that purchases private military companies (PMCs) for the sake of whatever Liquid Ocelot wants them to do. Liquid Ocelot’s constant assaults on The Middle East have drawn out the militaries of major nations and PMCs alike. It’s a world where soldiers rule each other (Outer Haven) and fight each other (almost everyone else,) almost recreating the original Outer Heaven vision to specification.
Analysis: The question at hand for Liquid Ocelot may not actually be whether or not they can tolerate each other, but how far they’re willing to go in terms of working together. Outer Haven is most definitely a worst-case nightmare scenario, as it combines the megalomaniac visions of Liquid to achieve Big Boss’ legacy as well as providing Ocelot a severe choke point for Team Snake in their pursuit of the Patriots. If the only thing Liquid cares about is Outer Haven living up to Big Boss’ legacy and killing Snake, then Liquid Ocelot may be unstoppable with that perfectly acceptable compromise.
The questions and problems arise if Liquid and Ocelot cannot agree or cannot decide. For the Patriots, Ocelot played Liquid like an instrument during Shadow Moses. He exploited Liquid’s admirations of Big Boss’ legacy in the name of something Liquid actually had nothing to do with in the first place. It was Donald Anderson (DARPA) and Kenneth Baker (ArmsTech) who created REX against the wishes of the Patriots. It was Solidus who went rogue. In reality, Ocelot could’ve had Shadow Moses without Liquid’s involvement at all. It’s Ocelot’s fault that the Patriots were exposed at all — first by involving Liquid in Shadow Moses and second by picking up Liquid’s arm. It seems to be that Ocelot is failing as a tactician. His miscalculations and ability to be caught off guard when things don’t go according to plan could stagger Ocelot–or even worse for him, pave the way for Team Snake to fight the Patriots.
Liquid didn’t like being used by the U.S. government when they made him their proverbial guinea pig for LET. Imagine how he’s going to feel when he finds out that the Patriots, who he presumably hates, used him and cost him his life in a scenario he had no business being involved in. To add insult to injury, he gets attached to the man who betrayed him and comes back to life during Big Shell — a simulation of Shadow Moses for the sake of testing Arsenal Gear. Liquid never seemed to have an enormous threshold when it came to Ocelot during Shadow Moses–now, he’s had to sacrifice his body and identity in the name of serving the spy of the Patriots.
Is Liquid Ocelot the wildcard of Metal Gear Solid 4, though? On one hand, we clearly see them working together and reaching compromises. However, Metal Gear–especially the Metal Gear Solid series — is the land of betrayal and unforeseen consequences. Is one now playing the other for maximum benefit? Are they playing each other? Does this duality of existence for Liquid Ocelot even come into play–have the two learned to perfectly coexist? It’s doubtful, but it could happen.
It’s mostly doubtful because of the subtitle of MGS4 — Guns Of The Patriots, not “Final Siege Of Liquid Ocelot.” There’s enough mention of the Patriots in the trailers to drive home the point that Liquid Ocelot is not the ultimate evil in MGS4. Snake’s mission on the surface is to kill Liquid, but it would be a disappointment if Liquid Ocelot managed to outlast even the Patriots for the final boss battle. It’s a near-given that through somebody’s hands, Liquid Ocelot will perish.
But how? The obvious answer lends itself to Snake fulfilling the immediate terms of success for his mission. The answer is not always what it seems, though. Is Liquid Ocelot dispensable now? With the Patriots putting in more money and presence than ever in the Middle East, Liquid Ocelot might not be the three-headed hellhound guarding the gates of the Patriots that he used to be. What about suicide — would one go to the greatest length to stop the other in the name of their beliefs?
The answers arrive June 12th.
Next Week’s Question: After the fallout of The Cold War, an enigmatic organization known as The Philosophers was replaced by an even more enigmatic one that was far more sinister: the Patriots. Since the early 1970s, the Patriots have grown and consolidated power wherever possible. Since circa 2000, the Patriots have gone through extremely radical means to keep their captive stranglehold on the world’s powers. But why? How did this process begin? Who are they, if not what are they? What’s the big deal with Metal Gear — why does it serve the Patriots so well? Furthermore, what’s going on with their constant pursuit of things related to Big Boss?
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