The gaming landscape has been home to numerous kinds of characters. These range from funny, stylish, emotional, and antagonistic, but there’s always something to learn from them. The Metal Gear Solid series made its former antagonist out to be one of the main characters, and Big Boss is the favorite among most.
In this list, we’ve considered both the original Big Boss and the character from The Phantom Pain to be one and the same, since they both identified with the Big Boss moniker and considered each other as the same person. To this end, let’s check out the 10 best quotes we heard out of the Big Boss characters.
10 “This Is Good, Isn’t It…?”
We all want to die with our families surrounding us, and despite Big Boss having tried to kill his biological son many times, he ended up leaving this world with Solid Snake by his side. Some thought Big Boss’s final words were strange, but you have to understand his character to get it.
After spending his whole life fighting wars, coming up with tactics, and having to undergo so many tragedies, Big Boss was pleasantly surprised that he still got to have a peaceful death, and that was the greatest gift life ever gave him.
9 “From Here On Out, You’re Big Boss.”
One of the biggest twists in the Metal Gear Solid series was the reveal that Big Boss was never just the one man, but two people. The second Big Boss turned out to be a brainwashed medic who took on the identity.
Big Boss himself endorsed this, as he met up with Venom Snake and congratulated him on a job well done. Venom Snake had proven himself up to bearing the mantle of Big Boss, and the latter bestowed upon the former this title. It would be the second Big Boss who went against Solid Snake in the original Metal Gear.
8 “To Do The Right Thing, You Sometimes Have To Leave The Things You Care About Behind.”
Fighting in wars and battles is honorable, but there’s no escaping the fact that these are still battles that belong to other people; as soldiers, these people don’t get the luxury of picking and choosing where they’re needed.
Even if fighting for what’s right carries with it the justification that people are taking on the good fight, there’s always a sacrifice that needs to be made. Most of the time, it’s sacrificing one’s family and those that are nearest and dearest.
7 “And Then When I Put It On, I Suddenly Got This Feeling Of Inner Peace.”
This series hasn’t made much sense a lot of times, and this quote also came over something that was completely ridiculous. In the earliest game set in the Metal Gear Solid chronology, Big Boss first happened upon a box - you’ll remember his affinity towards donning these things as part of his espionage.
Well, Big Boss felt as if he and a box were a match made in heaven, as he confessed he felt whole and complete when he hid under it. In fact, being inside a box gave him a sense of inner peace. It was all stupid, but we have to admire the clarity Big Boss achieved.
6 “We Are Soldiers Without Borders, Our Purpose Defined By The Era We Live In.”
Big Boss was a soldier at heart until the very end, even when there weren’t any wars to be fought. Perhaps this was why he died when he did, as there couldn’t be a Big Boss when the world didn’t have any conflict.
His ideology was that soldiers needed to be free; although the point of being a soldier was to fight, Big Boss didn’t want them to encumbered by needless legislation. At the time he was in command, Big Boss felt the era required a radical style of thinking.
5 “It’s Not About Changing The World. It’s About Doing Our Best To Leave The World The Way It Is.”
Why do we fight? To bring progress? To usher in a change in the system? All these questions might never be answered because there are so many different viewpoints people have. It’s true that a world without wars would be better, but that’s just not possible.
Big Boss felt that fighting in wars was a necessity, but his way of thinking differed in that he wasn’t after a specific change - he wanted things to stay the way he liked them as. For him, fighting was about preservation, not dominance.
4 “Pain Gets The Better Of Us All.”
It’s just not possible to be so pure that nothing gets to you. Inherently, we’re all scared of something, and there’s only a certain amount of pain one can endure before they say it’s enough. You can’t fault someone for buckling under pressure, as it’s inevitable that the pain will get to them.
Maybe it’s about the amount of pain one can handle that defines who was braver than others, but it’s for certain that no-one has been brought to this Earth who can handle the greatest tolls, physical or emotional, before it gets to them.
3 “Real Heroes Are Never As Polished As The Legends That Surround Them.”
Even the Assassin’s Creed series showed how legendary figures weren’t exactly the way they were made out to be, and that stands true for Metal Gear and the real world as well. Big Boss knew his limits and his strengths, but he was lauded as being something out of this world because of the aura that surrounded him.
While he did use people to further his own needs, Big Boss didn’t let the constant hero-worshiping that went on around delude him into believing he really was that legendary. He understood that the stuff of legends isn’t nearly as true as people believe them to be.
2 “I Won’t Scatter Your Sorrow To The Heartless Sea. I Will Always Be With You.”
Although Venom Snake accepted his role as another Big Boss in this world, he too carried the original’s sensitive side when it came to his comrades. These words are deeper than you’d think, as one realizes that letting someone go can be heartless.
After all, once we either set someone’s ashes into the sea or put them below the ground after their deaths, there’s a kind of remorseless separation. In a way, you’re signing off on that person for good. Venom Snake - or Big Boss by now - didn’t want to dispose of his comrades that way, and he wanted to carry them at all times in his heart.
1 “In Our Struggle To Survive The Present, We Push The Future Farther Away.”
Sadly, even Big Boss fell to the reality of this quote as he forfeited what could have been a future with his biological children in favor of battling them in a war that ultimately didn’t matter in the long-run. This quote was made by the Venom Snake Big Boss, but he too met his end not following the same words he’d spoken.
He met his demise when confronting Solid Snake, not thinking about the possibilities that were there had he forfeited his plans in killing Snake and understood who he was instead. In the end, it appears the lesson here was that realization just isn’t enough to escape the truth.
NEXT: 10 Video Game Sequels That Were Dramatically Different From Their Originals
