The Metal Gear Solid series is known for its complicated narrative that spans decades of militaristic and political intrigue. Its story is filled with a cast of colorful characters, capable operatives, and dastardly villains. But because the story of Metal Gear Solid is chaotic, many fans play could through the entire series without fully understanding what is going on or who the key actors behind its events are. This isn't helped by the series' infamously long cutscenes that reveal a penchant for secret societies and organizations which obfuscate who is really behind everything.
The most iconic of these secret organizations are the Patriots. Introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2, the Patriots are one of the most long-lasting factions in the series that challenged and teased players throughout its many entries. Now that the Metal Gear series has seemingly come to a close, the Patriots have been revealed, as well as how large of an impact the group had on the overall storyline.
The Origin of The Patriots
The Patriots were originally founded in 1970 as a group called Cipher. They rose from the ashes of another group known as the Philosophers, formed by six members: Zero, Ocelot, Big Boss, Sigint, Para-medic, and EVA. All members were influenced by a mysterious figure known as The Boss, and participated in Operation Snake Eater aiming to assassinate The Boss. The group wanted to influence world events following The Boss' dying wish while remaining in the shadows and away from suspicion, and Zero began positioning Big Boss as a public icon to help grow the group's influence. However, Big Boss did not want to be placed in that position, which led to a divide between him and Zero as well as the start of Metal Gear Solid's Les Enfants Terribles program.
The program cloned Big Boss, leading to the births of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake, but ended up pushing Big Boss to leave the group for good and find his own mercenary group: The Diamond Dogs. Big Boss' departure was followed by EVA's, meanwhile Ocelot remained to spy on the group from the inside. This left only Zero, Para-Medi, and Sigint as good-faith members of the Patriots, and all three became increasingly power-hungry in subsequent years.
This led to Zero increasing his political influence and wealth, Sigint developing a variety of powerful AIs, and Para-Medic illegally researching and developing genetic therapy operations. While the Metal Gear series sees these technologies being developed early on in history, they are some of the more frightening real-world influences that Metal Gear draws from, and quickly establish the characters as villains who need to be stopped.
The Sons of The Patriots
Later in the series, it is revealed that Zero was killed by a degenerative disorder, but he developed an A.I. to lead in his absence. The A.I. was thus in control of the group's actions starting in Metal Gear Solid 2, but eventually developed its own goals separate from the directives instilled by Zero. The A.I. Patriots decided to take a more brazen approach to world domination by developing Metal Gear Solid's iconic nanomachine injections that allowed them to control anyone. The A.I. Patriots then developed what is referred to as the War Economy, a critique of the Military-Industrial Complex that made never-ending war profitable for those in power.
This allowed the group to get more access and influence over governments throughout the world, as well as create wars whenever they needed one. Once the wars were started, the A.I. Patriots would decide who the victor should be to best serve its interests through its nanomachine injections. Eventually, they hoped to inject the nanomachines in every civilian across the planet to achieve complete control. This effort was particularly difficult to uncover because the nanomachines would censor anyone trying to talk about The Patriots with the codename La Li Lu Le Lo, strongly associated with Metal Gear Solid's legacy in the years to follow.
The Fall of The Patriots
The fall of the Patriots began in earnest when Metal Gear's Ocelot wrangled the combined strength of the world's five largest private military companies under a single company named Outer Heaven. Outer Heaven's scale and power rivaled that of the United States military, and Ocelot was prepared to use the army to seize the control over the Sons of Patriots from The Patriots themselves. To counter his efforts, the Patriots secretly assisted Solid Snake in his efforts to kill Ocelot. They injected Solid Snake with a virus known as FOXDIE that would kill all of the group's defected founding members if Snake came into contact with them, including Ocelot, Big Boss, and EVA.
However, The Patriots were ultimately defeated when their agents Sunny and Naomi Hunter developed a virus dubbed FOXALIVE; created to destroy the A.I. leading The Patriots. Solid Snake succeeded in his mission to kill Ocelot, and the destruction of the A.I. caused Big Boss to wake from a years-long coma and track down Zero. Big Boss then found Zero in a vegetative state, barely being kept alive by machines. He took Solid Snake and Zero to Arlington Cemetary, where he explained the history and influence of The Patriots to Solid Snake before disconnected Zero from his oxygen supply. Big Boss eventually succumbed to the FOXDIE virus that Snake had been carrying, thus bringing a true end to The Patriots as all of its founded members were dead.
The story of the Metal Gear series can be difficult to contain, with its characters changing aliases, allegiances, and motives frequently. However, that is a large part of what makes Metal Gear so iconic, and has allowed it to have a massive impact on the games industry. It is unfortunate that Hideo Kojima's departure from Konami likely means Metal Gear as fans know it is no more, but it will also be interesting to see what Kojima creates in the future.