The Metal Gear Solid franchise is brimming with memorable characters. Not only do they earn a place in gamers' hearts for their abilities, but it's their unique stories that brought them to the battlefield that solidifies their place in one's memory. Given the nature of the games, most of these souls grew up in oppressive environments.
Some came from war zones, while others were just dealt a bad hand in life. The following list will rank the characters with the most tragic backstories. Keep in mind: It's not counting what happened to them during the games, but what they went through before they showed up.
10 Sunny
Right after her birth, Sunny was taken away from her mother by The Patriots, a shadowy organization controlling the world from behind the scenes. Olga Gurlukovich only saw her newborn child for moments before the infant was held at ransom to get the Russian soldier to do the organization's bidding.
Unfortunately, Olga lost her life during the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 and never reunited with her daughter. The silver lining is at least Sunny was saved by Raiden and raised by Snake and Otacon in an atypical, yet still loving, environment.
9 The Boss
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater's main antagonist is a legendary soldier with her share of war wounds, but no wound could have been greater than having her son taken away after giving birth on the battlefield. Fan-favorite Revolver Ocelot is heavily implied to be her son, though she never seems to discover this before her demise at the hand of her apprentice.
On top of that, she was also the first person in space, but the feat exposed her to deadly radiation. The woman gave up everything for her country and got nothing in return.
8 Nastasha Romanenko
Nastasha grew up in a relatively normal home in Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the Chernobyl Disaster occurred in 1986 and her parents assisted in the cleanup. As a result, they both succumbed to the fatal effects of radiation.
This explains her strongly held beliefs about nuclear energy and its dangers. Things improved for the analyst, and she suffered no strife during the events of Metal Gear Solid. It's unfortunate this charming personality was only in one game, though.
7 Frank Jaeger
Frank Jaeger grew up as a child soldier in Mozambique. His skill was said to be unparalleled, and he would use his small size and friendly demeanor to lull guards into a sense of safety before going in for the fatal attacks. After leaving the battlefield and going into rehabilitation, the CIA put him into a special project to turn him into a super-soldier.
He was given the code name "Null" and this is the earliest gamers see of the character in Portable Ops. From there, his life manages to go even further downhill, as the games' events show.
6 Psycho Mantis
Psycho Mantis is memorable for his unique boss battle which requires players to put the controller into the second slot for a more manageable encounter. The cutscene after his defeat is just as striking, as he details his dark past in his dying breaths.
His mother died in labor, and he grew up with a hateful father. After he read his father's mind, he murdered him. In 1984, Mantis had his first run-in with Snake in Cyprus, where the opening of The Phantom Pain takes place.
5 Sniper Wolf
Sniper Wolf seems malicious even by Foxhound standards, but she explains what her life was like moments before her passing. The deadly sniper was born in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, spending the majority of her childhood on the run as friends and family around her were continually killed.
Big Boss eventually found her and trained her as a soldier. He may have saved her life, but gave her no other choice than to be on the battlefield.
4 Naomi Hunter
Naomi Hunter was in Rhodesia when her parents were slain by Frank Jaeger, also known as Grey Fox. Driven by the guilt he had for orphaning the child, he took her in and raised her. Frank was left near death by Solid Snake during Metal Gear 2, causing her to plan vengeance against him.
Naomi Hunter isn't even her real name, and the player never finds out what it is during the games. Fortunately for Snake, her thirst for vengeance subsides, though she remained a complicated character throughout the series.
3 Beauty And The Beast Unit
The whole point of these characters is their trauma is so intense that it breaks them. After every boss battle with one of these tortured souls in MGS4, Drebin calls Snake to detail the events that made them who they are.
Their pasts are too long to explain here, but they all involve escaping death and experiencing intense violence during a war or armed conflict. The player can opt to non-lethally incapacitate them, perhaps giving the unit a second chance at life.
2 Skull Face
Skull Face is one of the evilest characters in the entire series. He commits some of the most heinous acts of violence against people who don't deserve it. Sure, Paz betrayed Big Boss and Mother Base, but the cruelty she endured under Skull Face's watch was too horrific to describe.
Skull Face's childhood was marred with pain and torment. He received his burns from a bombing his home town suffered at the hands of Allied Forces during World War II. On top of that, he considers the loss of his language and foreign powers insisting on him speaking their tongue a major tragedy.
1 Raiden
A lot of people hated Raiden when he first debuted. They felt he was too soft and different from the gruff and grizzled Solid Snake. Little did they know, he grew up in a hellish environment that would break anyone.
Later in the game, Raiden describes his childhood in a codec conversation with his girlfriend, Rose. In Liberia, he was a child soldier led by Solidus Snake, programmed to kill from a young age by the clone of Big Boss. After leaving the war behind, Raiden tried to forget his past, but it always kept calling him, and it comes to a head after meeting Solidus once again in MGS2.