LogFAQs > #895601468

16. The Boss (Metal Gear Solid series)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/metalgear/images/7/79/Mgs3-5.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131012111300

"What about you, Jack? What's it going to be? Loyalty to your country, or loyalty to me?"

Outside of Solid Snake himself, The Boss is the biggest hero in the entire MGS world. She's such a selfless and principled character in every respect. While few can match her status as a warrior, what truly makes The Boss such a legendary figure in-universe is the aura of respect she commands from virtually everyone. Volgin is a crasy, arrogant, uncaring, sadistic fuck and he still doesn't mess with The Boss. People respect The Boss so much that her last wishes - misinterpreted as they are - reverberate through history many decades after her death. And what's even more amazing is that you don't realize any of this until the very end of Metal Gear Solid 3 (and a ways into Peace Walker).

The first major thing you see The Boss do is betray her country and defect to the Soviets. It's actually the one major flaw I can say about her character - she gets very little screentime before that twist. She's introduced as Snake's mentor and 5 minutes later she's changed sides. I feel like more time to build her up would have made that hit pretty hard but it is what it is. Regardless; to Snake, the betrayal shakes his worldview to its core. The Boss is his mentor and the closest thing he had to a mother, and now he has to kill her. Taking on Volgin and The Cobras is nothing compared to the emotional turmoil caused by the very idea of The Boss being his enemy.

Further muddling matters is the fact that The Boss doesn't seem to want to take him down either. She has multiple chances to deal with the threat that Snake poses and passes up on it every time; the most blatant example being when she saves his life when Snake is being tortured by Volgin and even helps him escape. Despite defecting, The Boss doesn't lose one bit of that untouchable presence she has. It seems increasingly implausible that a person like this would ever commit such a self-centered betrayal, and, well...

Snake vs. The Boss is considered one of the greatest final boss fights in gaming, and for good reason. The atmosphere is incredible. The Boss' pre and post-fight dialogue are words that define the MGS series. In an almost suicide-by-cop situation, The Boss eggs Snake on to surpass her and complete his mission, which he does. The game even forces you to press the button and take that final shot! Dick move! It feels extremely tragic even before you find out that, whoops, The Boss defecting was ordered by the US and she allowed herself to be scapegoated for the sake of preventing a nuclear war. Snake becomes so disillusioned with the US and politics as a whole that he leaves the country, starts Soldiers Without Borders, and the rest is history.

Which is a shame, because if he'd listened a little more closely to what The Boss was telling him, he'd realize that none of that was what she wanted. The Boss wasn't loyal to the US or any other nation. She recognized that there was never any true enemy except the times themselves, and that protecting the world from a threat - wherever it may come from - was the sole mission of any true soldier. This shown evidently in Peace Walker, where an AI version of The Boss (it's complicated) directly states that she would shoot the President if he was about to order the nukes to be fired. And then the AI version of The Boss sacrifices itself AGAIN to help save the world, because that's just what The Boss does. It's so selfless that no other character in the series can really wrap their head around it. The word Hero is thrown around a lot, often undeservingly, but The Boss not only deserves the title - she elevates it.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.