By Benjamin Ruz Vega
The Metal Gear saga is widely regarded as creator Hideo Kojima’s magnum opus. Across 11 videogames, the player is immersed in a highly complex story that spans several decades from the Cold War to the Information Era, and deals with detailed political scenarios filled with conspiracies and secrets. The inclusion of these aspects act as Kojima’s commentary about real world developments, doctrines and ideas. Nationalism has an overarching presence in the saga, where its construction, effects and corruption are thoroughly explored through different factions and characters. Accordingly, through Metal Gear Solid 3’s main character Kojima critiques the systemic imposition of nationalism, illustrating how it constructs a sense of self-security that ultimately serves the interests of the state at the expense of individual agency.
One of the main protagonists of the videogame saga, Big Boss’s first chronological appearance in it occurs in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Kojima Productions, 2004). Codenamed Naked Snake, he is initially presented as a young soldier with an unquestioned devotion to his nation. He has no personal identity beyond that of a soldier whose personal purpose is intrinsically aligned with that of the United States. According to Foucault’s analysis of the systemic operation of power and its role in shaping perceptions of reality, Snake’s nationalist identity can be interpreted as a product of the army’s disciplinary power. The institutional practices to which he has been subjected have constructed a nationalist vision of the world, shaping his ethical framework, moral code, and sense of duty (Christensen, 2023).
Moreover, Snake’s nationalist identity is further determined by his relationships, who are mostly related to the military and his job as a soldier. Among them, the most significant is “The Boss”, a legendary American soldier and hero, who is also Snake’s mentor and his closest relationship. Ontological Security can be defined as a relatively stable understanding of who one is, which enables and motivates action and choice (Mitzen, 2006). Accordingly, Snake’s relationship with The Boss is crucial for his identity and beliefs, as significant relationships play a key role in Identity formation (Mitzen, 2006). Therefore, Snake’s initial nationalist identity is a product of the army’s disciplinary power and his relation to his mentor, who is one of the nation’s greatest heroes and a symbol of American patriotism.
However, the Boss soon defects to the USSR, and Snake is tasked with killing his most important relationship. The uncertainty regarding the reasons of The Boss’s defection drives Snake into a state of anxiety that disrupts his sense of self-security and directly challenges his identity. This mirror’s Kierkegaard’s account of the origin of anxiety as the awareness of freedom’s possibility that arises when an individual becomes conscious of their ability to choose among countless possibilities (Berenskötter, 2020). Now, Snake’s world is shaken as he struggles to understand the possibility of defecting to its biggest enemy after a lifetime of service.
In their final confrontation, Snake learns that The Boss’s betrayal was fabricated by the American government to prevent a global nuclear disaster, and that she remained loyal to her nation as a true soldier to the end. However, Snake then witnesses how the Boss’s legacy is destroyed, and she is publicly framed as a traitor to serve political and nationalist ends, despite arguably being the nation’s greatest hero. This marks the culmination of Snake’s ideological transformation, as he comes to the difficult realization that the ideals he has been defending regard him as nothing more than a disposable cog in a vast, impersonal machine, ready to be discarded the moment his usefulness expires.
Big Boss: the (anti) nationalist hero
In an ironic twist, the government pridefully names Snake the “Big Boss” only after the events of the game have planted the seeds of a new identity in him. The game’s conclusion shows him not as an anti-American radical but as someone who has seen beyond the nationalist framework entirely, recognizing how nationalist narratives ultimately subordinate individual lives to systemic, imposed national interests that do not care about the individual. In fact, later entries in the franchise will see him undertake a mission of creating a world where soldiers are valued as individuals rather than expendable tools of the state by creating institutions like “Militaires Sans Frontières” and Outer Heaven (Kojima Productions, 2010).
Through Snake’s journey in MGS3, Kojima delivers a sophisticated critique of how nationalist narratives function as psychological systems that, imposed through institutional and personal attachments can align individual identity with national purpose, creating perfect soldiers who never question their missions. When these ideological constraints break, the reclamation of personal agency becomes possible, transforming the loyal operative into someone who can even become to oppose the nationalist order itself.
Identity Hunters 