Old Snake

Solid Snake, real name David, also known as Old Snake, and briefly known as Iroquois Pliskin, or simply Snake, is a former spy, special operations soldier, and mercenary. Possessing an IQ of 180 and fluent in six languages, the fame he achieved from his military exploits earned him such monikers as "Legendary Soldier," "Legendary Hero," and "the Man Who Makes the Impossible Possible." Snake was one of the children born of the 1972 project Les Enfants Terribles. He was created as a clone of the world-renowned soldier Big Boss, along with his brothers Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. Initially a Green Beret, Snake was later inducted into the High-Tech Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND in the 1990s while it was commanded by Big Boss. Repeatedly tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear, a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed tank, Snake would thrice avert potential nuclear catastrophe, becoming a famed war hero. Following the Shadow Moses Incident and subsequent smear campaign by the Patriots, the secret organization behind American politics, Snake was labeled a terrorist. He faked his own death in the Manhattan Tanker Incident, though he re-emerged years later to assist Raiden in the Big Shell Incident. During this time, his health declined as his body entered a state of accelerated aging due to intentional genetic changes made during the cloning process. After the Big Shell Incident, Snake's Werner syndrome-like symptoms gradually grew worse. His body began to age rapidly, with no doctors being able to diagnose the cause. In addition, in 2011, although Snake had earlier promised Raiden that he would rescue Sunny from the Patriots, he wasn't able to get that chance and ended up receiving Sunny via Raiden (albeit covertly on the latter's part). By 2014, Otacon and the various doctors who treated Snake estimated that his remaining life span would be a year at best. Sometime prior to 2014, the Pentagon declassified documents relating to Big Boss's exploits during the 1960s, which evidently contributed greatly to his legend to the populace, and his CQC was also being taught in the military. Otacon initially believed that Snake lifted his self imposed ban to show them how it's really done but Snake corrected him and said his body just simply reacts with the "real deal" when he sees their "cookie cutter imitation" coming at him. At some point, he adopted the use of a stun knife. It was not until 2014 that Snake, now occasionally referred to as Old Snake, resurfaced for a final time. Liquid Ocelot (a fusion of Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot) was the leader of a new Outer Heaven, this time acting as a single mother company to five of the largest PMCs on the planet. With PMCs now taking over the world's armies in terms of firepower, Liquid was finally on the verge of world domination. With the world once again in crisis, Snake was dispatched to the Middle East as a personal favor to Campbell to assassinate Liquid. In addition, he was to meet up with a PMC investigation group, and was also given the cover job of inspecting PMCs. During the events of the Guns of the Patriots Incident, Snake calmly accepted the inevitability of his impending death. Because of this, he was more willing to risk his life, as demonstrated during the Missouri debriefing. However, he would often become annoyed upon being reminded of his accelerated age, once telling Otacon to "cut the senior citizen crap" and his psyche dropping at occasional moments when called "Old Snake." When Raiden offered to head to the microwave-protected server room on Outer Haven, Snake refused, saying that Raiden shouldn't "waste [his] youth." Through sheer willpower, Snake survived passing through the corridor, and went on to defeat Liquid Ocelot in hand-to-hand combat. Naomi stated an ordinary person wouldn't even be able to stand in his condition in 2014 and the only thing keeping him mobile, albeit limitedly, is his will. Big Boss noted that Snake had always fought for something more than himself. Big Boss also noted that if Snake had been in his place then the mistakes that he had made may not have come to pass. By this time, Snake had also developed an apprehension to nanomachine injections, due to Naomi's betrayal at Shadow Moses, and initially refused to allow Drebin 893 to administer a shot to him. In 2014, Snake performed his final mission, during which he defeated Liquid Ocelot and destroyed the Patriots. After one last encounter with Big Boss, Snake chose to live his remaining days in peace. Of all the relationships Snake has had, his connection to Big Boss had the biggest impact on him. When he first met the living legend, Snake felt honored to be serving alongside him in FOXHOUND. Big Boss saw great potential in Snake and personally trained him in advanced combat skills, particularly CQC. Snake even came to see Big Boss as a father figure, though not knowing that in truth he was Big Boss's clone. It was only until after he discovered that Big Boss was behind the Outer Heaven incident that he lost his faith in him. He constantly struggled between respect and anger towards his former commander as he truly respected Big Boss. When Snake found out that Big Boss was actually the leader of Outer Heaven, he thought that this was unacceptable. Because of this, he refrained from using CQC for years. Moreover, he suffered greatly with the thought that he committed "patricide" despite being forced to save the world from a disaster. Before Snake faced off with Liquid at Shadow Moses, he described Liquid's desire for re-creating Outer Heaven insane, calling it out as "Big Boss's fantasy". Snake struggled to understand Big Boss's true motive for two decades believing that his betrayal was based on foul intentions. Nevertheless, he could never truly give up his respect to the legendary soldier as he visited his grave and saluted it and later chose to end his life right then and there after destroying the Patriots. After deciding against it at the last moment, Big Boss appeared. When he explained his reasons for his uprising in the 1990s, Snake was finally able to find closure between their fates as old enemies. When Snake first met Otacon during the Shadow Moses Incident, Snake was irritated by Otacon's logic and just wanted his help to destroy REX, however throughout the incident Snake and Otacon opened up after Sniper Wolf's death. When Otacon was willing to sacrifice himself so Snake and Meryl could escape, Snake fully respected him. Following the Shadow Moses Incident, Snake and Otacon formed Philanthropy and developed a strong friendship, even creating their own personal handshake. When they returned to Shadow Moses and went to Otacon's office, where they first met, they looked back on the memory. Otacon was the only person Snake told about his plan to kill himself in order to prevent a FOXDIE outbreak and Otacon decided to stick with Snake to the day he died to pass his legacy and accomplishments with others.