"The Reason Was Always You"
AKA: The timeline of Metal Gear Solid as per Ocelot’s intervention. Even more specifically, this is my attempt at helping a friend understand what Ocelot was about, and all the nonsense he got up too and why. Of course, the why in this case is simple: Big Boss. Big Boss has been the singular motivation for absolutely everything Ocelot does in series since the day he met the man, and it remained so up until his death.
Yes, all of this.
So. How to explain? I've gone with a general "summary and timeline" compilation that I'll do my very best to keep concise. But given that this is me don't quote me on that eh? ;)
So let's get to it!
Below is a quick-notes version of people and agencies that’ll serve as a sort of fast guide for who I end up talking about that show up more than once in the summary. It’s very messy and if I’ve forgotten anyone or anything I’ll have it included later.
People and Agencies:
Ocelot himself (okay that’s not funny I just included it because it was to me for ten seconds shh)
Big Boss (obviously, ‘father’ of Solid and Liquid Snake)
Colonel Volgin (AKA the Man on Fire: Colonel commanding the GRU during the time of Operation Snake Eater)
EVA (AKA Tatyana, AKA Big Mama: Chinese Philosopher Agent who later became the surrogate mother for the twins)
Paramedic (AKA Dr Jane Clark, the main creator of Les Enfants Terribles, and later the Genome Project which is part of what turns Gray Fox into the Cyborg Ninja, as well as having a driving force behind the PMC’S in 2014, during the events of MGS4. The ‘perfect soldier gene’, more on that later)
SIGINT (AKA Donald Anderson)
The CIA Director
Major Zero (AKA David Oh: The Founder of FOX, The Patriots and Cipher)
Kazuhira Miller (MSF and Diamond Dogs Sub Commander)
Dr Strangelove (A scientist who specialises in AI, works with the CIA and the MSF, she creates the AI that powers the unmanned weapons Big Boss fights in MGS Peace Walker, and eventually the AI that powers the Boss in the mammal pod in the 1980s’. She marries Huey Emmerich and has their son, Hal Emmerich aka Otacon with him. Killed by Huey Emmerich sometime between 1983 and 1984)
Skull Face (Originally the XO of Major Zero, and the head of XOF)
Venom Snake (aka the Medic, later the commander of Diamond Dogs and Outer Heaven, killed in 1995 during Operation Intrude N313 by Solid Snake)
Solid Snake (Dave, a Foxhound Soldier who kills Venom Snake, and later assumes to have killed Big Boss in Zanzibarland in 1999. Meets Ocelot in 2005 during the Shadow Moses Incident)
Liquid Snake (Eli aka The White Mamba, meets Ocelot in 1984 when he's with Diamond Dogs as a captured child soldier, later works with him in 2005 under the 'new' Foxhound
Solidus Snake (aka George Sears, aka the third clone 'the perfect' clone of Big Boss aka the 44th President of the United States)Dr Dr. Naomi Hunter: (Part of the New Foxhound and the creator of Foxdie, a virus that attacks a certain gene to kill the infected person very quickly. Said Foxdie is implanted in Solid Snake as revenge against him for killing her brother, Gray Fox, during the Zanzibarland Incident)
Sergei Gurlukovich (Head of the Russian Mercenary Faction the Gurlukovich Mercenaries)
Olga Gurlukovich (Daughter of Sergei, takes over the Gurkulovich Mercenaries after his death)
Raiden (AKA Jack the Ripper: Former child soldier adopted by Solidus Snake, later a Foxhound agent unaware it's not real, per se)
Agencies (I couldn’t think of a better word for them but ‘agencies’ is a kind of loose term in this sense)
I have not included the CIA and the GRU but they are there.
The Patriots 1.0 (Not an official way of terming them, I’m just trying to distinguish between that and the later, AI only version of the Patriots)
Cipher (Another name for The Patriots when it was under the command of Major Zero)
XOF (Assumed to have been Cipher, they are a rogue faction of Cipher headed up by Skull Face, originally the XO of Zero, he breaks apart from him)
The Patriots 2.0 (After Major Zero becomes non-functional due to being infected with parasites by Skull Face, SIGINT takes over the Patriots before they slowly begin to fully convert to being an AI controlled system. By the 2000’s, the Patriots are little more than AI, and only AI)
MSF (AKA Militaries Sans Frontiers: The first PMC created and headed by Big Boss)
Diamond Dogs (A PMC created by Kazuhira Miller and Revolver Ocelot, later commanded by Venom Snake)
Outer Heaven (A PMC under Venom Snake that absorbed Diamond Dogs and became something 'bigger' or new. This is a touch confusing, as Venom Snake refers to Diamond Dogs base as 'Outer Heaven' and Solid Snake storms Outer Heaven in 1995 but it's moved inland by that point)
Foxhound (A special forces group headed by Big Boss within the US military)
Zanzibarland (A private military nation headed by Big Boss. Where he is 'killed' by Solid Snake)
The 'New' Foxhound: (Foxhound after it's been created for a second time, with Liquid Snake in charge)
Dead Cell: (A faction Ocelot works with designed to bring about the SSS Project, aka the Solid Snake Simulation project, more on that later)
Who's Ocelot? (Speedy Ass Biography)
Revolver Ocelot aka Adamska aka Adam aka Shalashaska and eventually Liquid Snake was born in Normandy, on D Day. 6th June 1944. He is the son of the Boss, and the Sorrow. Both part of the elite COBRA Unit.
Ocelot was removed from the Boss very shortly after his birth and raised by the Philosopher's as one of their agents. Up until being sent to infiltrate the GRU for the CIA sometime before 1964.
Then, Ocelot was established as a Major under the command of Colonel Volgin. His birth aside, there are almost no confirmed details of his life before this.
Ocelot dies in 2014, of the new Foxdie virus, after fighing Solid Snake. He's 70 years old at the time.
The world's fastest biography out of the way, let's get into the more nitty-gritty of it-the timeline.
RUSSIA: 1964
*One of the few times Ocelot wasn’t doing things for the sake of Big Boss, as they don’t meet until Operation Snake Eater. (That I'm aware of at any rate)
Key Events:
The Virtuous Mission ( Late August)
Operation Snake Eater ( Early September)
As quickly stated above, Ocelot is a Major within the GRU under Colonel Volgin but secretly working with the CIA. (In the post credits, Ocelot reports directly to the CIA director in the USA.) He was sent in to recover part of the Philosopher’s Legacy. He succeeds, and gives the USA blueprints that are assumed to be Metal Gear.
EARLY 1970’s:
NOTE: Portable Ops canon is in debate within the fandom. I personally take it as canon, but some don’t. So Ocelot’s actions in this time period get argued. The way Portable Ops often gets argued. Since I take Portable Ops as canon, I included it. I’m using Wiki Fandom’s summary of events here, so again-there is interpretation that could be up for debate.
This could also be another portion of events that are not directly for the sake of Big Boss. But when the Patriots are formed, Ocelot helps them use the Legacy in it’s funding. The Patriots operated (at least originally) to ‘execute the Boss’s will’ post-humus for her. And create what they believed to be her desired world.
Ocelot recovers the second half of the Philosopher’s Legacy, and assassinates the DCI.
Foundation of the Patriots with Major Zero, Big Boss, Eva, Paramedic and SIGINT.
1972:
This is what I believe is the turning point for where Ocelot begins to put almost all of his focus into making sure everything he does serves Big Boss and his efforts.
Solid and Liquid Snake are born as the first successful experiment from Les Enfants Terribles. Big Boss leaves the Patriots. Ocelot remains.
Big Boss founds the MSF, and eventually takes on Kazuhira Miller as his sub-commander. Ocelot is not directly involved with the MSF. During the days of the MSF, Kaz forms a secret deal with Major Zero, which is how Zadornov (a KGB spy under the alias of Professor Galvez) and Paz Ortega Andrade (A Cipher Agent posing as a Latin American school-girl) are able to get Big Boss into Costa Rica. This is also where Chico (a kid Big Boss meets who is the younger brother of Amanda, the new commander of her late father’s rebel unit) meets Big Boss and is taken into the MSF.
1975:
XOF attacks Mother Base when Big Boss is coming back from his mission to save a captured Chico and Paz. Paz jumps from the chopper and dies before XOF shoots it out of the sky, killing Chico and the pilot, MORPHO in the process. The Medic jumps in front of Big Boss to shield him from the worst of the blast, but Big Boss ends up in a coma for the next nine years. Kaz is left with only minor or non-life-threatening injuries.
"This is an emergency, otherwise I sure as hell wouldn't-"-Ocelot, when Major Zero contacts him after the attack. The betrayal of Big Boss has forever left a sour taste in his mouth, regarding Zero.
Sometime later, after Kaz has been released from the hospital, Major Zero gets in contact with Ocelot and fills him in on a plan he has to keep Big Boss safe from his enemies. First, he has Big Boss and the Medic transferred into Cipher’s care through Eva, at the military hospital in Dhkelia, Cyprus. He proposes to Ocelot the idea of turning the Medic into a body double for Big Boss. Ocelot agrees and this begins the creation of Venom Snake through (as Ocelot puts it ‘powerful hypnogia’) and intense plastic surgery. In addition, he also spends the next nine years creating Diamond Dogs with Kazuhira Miller. The intention being that while Kaz, himself and Venom work with Diamond Dogs, Big Boss is free to get himself back up and running with his own base and men safely, away from the radar of XOF. With Diamond Dogs and Venom at the helm, nobody will know Big Boss is alive and building his own army (what eventually becomes Foxhound and later Zanzibarland) and will be safe.
XOF ATTACK ON DHKELIA, 1984:
Sometime in late February, Big Boss awakes from his coma and is filled in on what Ocelot has been up too. Ocelot and he prepare for the upcoming attack on the hospital, and when the Medic (now officially Venom Snake) wakes up two weeks later, Big Boss ‘helps’ escort and protect him from the hospital. XOF annihilate the place searching for Big Boss. Leaving nearly (if not every) occupant killed in the line of fire. The assault on Dhkelia is deemed necessary by Ocelot, and serves as a way to get Big Boss and Venom Snake out and free, without XOF continuing chase.
After they escape, Venom is left briefly unconscious. Ocelot retrieves Big Boss, then Venom. He puts Venom on the Heiwa Maru for transport to Afghanistan to save Kaz (who has now been captured by the 40th Russian Army and needs to be saved by Venom) and says his goodbye’s to Big Boss before joining up with Venom. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Big Boss before Ocelot lights his cigar, 1984.
"We'll meet again."
At some point, Ocelot hypnotises himself, to keep up the ruse that Venom Snake is the ‘real’ Big Boss, so that he won’t blow his cover to soon.
After Venom rescues Kaz, the three of them work with Diamond Dogs and take down Skull Face. During this time, the vocal chord parasite is present, and Venom eliminates Skull Face, XOF and the virus. Around this time they also have Huey Emmerich (after having ‘saved’ him from Skull Face, who he’d been working under since the attack on Mother Base back in the 70’s)
"I maintainted limited contact, though in truth, we were just keeping tabs on each other." -Ocelot about his relationship with Major Zero, after LET and the dissolution of the Patriots. Keeping tabs on Zero was of course, useful for keeping Big Boss safe. Including from Zero.
I’ll also note real quick that it is around this time in the early 1980’s that Ocelot is dubbed ‘Shalashaska’ due to his torture techniques being so feared amongst guerilla’s he interrogated during the Soviet Afghan War. A monikers he’s given before Venom Snake is awake, and one that’s fully established by 1984.
TIMELINE UNKNOWN (Assumed to be sometime in the 80’s)
The details are unknown and undetermined, but at some point Ocelot reveals to Kaz that not only is Venom Snake a body double of Big Boss, but that Big Boss is alive and ‘safe’ doing his own thing to establish himself with Foxhound. Kaz, infuriated at being mislead and lied too, vows his revenge on Big Boss. Ocelot, simply says that eventually there will only be one Big Boss, and if Kaz wants to keep that vow, so be it. They’ll fight when the time comes (against each other, that is).
Venom Snake (at another undetermined time) learns the truth about himself. He remains in his role until his death.
At some point between 1984 and 1995, Kaz and Ocelot both exit Diamond Dogs/ Outer Heaven. The time period for when they do this, is unknown.
OPERATION INTRUDE N313, 1995:
Outer Heaven is no longer necessary, and is in possession of a Metal Gear. The time for there to be ‘only one Big Boss’ has come. Venom Snake fights Solid Snake, and is eventually defeated and killed by him. Venom Snake’s exploits are absorbed and attributed into the legend and legacy of Big Boss, leaving Venom to be forgotten. Having ‘done his job’ and outlived his usefulness.
THE 90’s:
Ocelot does some mercenary work around this time, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ocelot does not directly work within Foxhound, or the later Zanizbarland with Big Boss, but supports him in other ways during this time period. He is keeping a close eye on the Patriots 2.0 and establishing what will become his eventual take down of them completely.
But why take down the Patriots?
At the risk of veering off into headcanon territory (which a lot of this post already does so I’m not even sure why that’s a concern as it isn’t) I believe Ocelot wanted to eliminate and dismantle the Patriot’s because they wronged Big Boss. The Patriot’s harmed him, and later served as a threat to him. In many respects they threatened the world too; but for Ocelot, I believe Big Boss matters to him far more than the world ever did.
Leading into,
ZANIZBARLAND DISTURBANCE (Christmas Eve, 1999)
It is assumed that Solid Snake managed to kill Big Boss. However, the Patriot’s swoop in and steal his remains, placing him in a coma before he can expire. Following this, Ocelot teams back up with EVA, and they form a plan to eventually steal Big Boss from the Patriot’s. A process that ends up taking decades. And during which ends up requiring Ocelot to eventually make new ‘alliances’ and later, even develop into Liquid Ocelot.
But, before all that, comes a slow, methodical take down. Starting with Ocelot joining the New Foxhound in 2000.
I like this summary of it the best.
26th February, 2005
Death of Kazuhira Miller.
Canon has never confirmed if Ocelot killed him but I headcanon that he did and I stick with that headcanon. Kaz’s glasses are given over to Liquid, to help him take on the impression of Kaz to fool Solid Snake with the ruse. Ocelot would be one of the most efficient people to achieve that, and they have that talk about it in the end of MGSV so ANYWAY. That is a bit of a ramble.
Shadow Moses Incident 2005
The elimination of the New Foxhound. All but Ocelot are killed via the Foxdie virus that is implanted in Solid Snake by Dr. Hunter. This also ends up killing Liquid Snake. Ocelot reveals (to the audience) in the ending, to have been working behind the scenes the entire time as well with the then-President George Sears. Solidus Snake.
The Arm, 2005
Ok.
So. Bare with me. The Cyborg Ninja (Gray Fox) takes off Ocelot’s right arm with his sword during their fight. Sometime after the Shadow Moses incident, Ocelot has the right arm of the then-deceased Liquid Snake surgically grafted onto himself. This arm, ahem. Takes on the soul or spirit of Liquid Snake, and it can possess Ocelot periodically. Creating the character of Liquid Ocelot that is first seen in 2007. Two years later. When Ocelot is working with the Gurkulovich Mercenaries to steal Metal Gear RAY, before Ocelot betrays them. The “Liquid Ocelot” persona is up for debate.
2007
Mentioned quickly up above, Ocelot steals Metal Gear RAY and the Tanker Incident.
2009
“Sergei was my best friend!” Ocelot to Olga during Big Shell in 2009, when she accuses him of betraying her father and killing him (which he did). Loyalty to no-one is important. Unless it’s Big Boss.
Big Shell and the Solid Snake Simulation. Ocelot believes that the Big Shell is an experiment by the Patriots to establish any old person as Solid Snake. In this case, the unwitting patsy being Raiden. Dead Cell being a replacement for Foxhound. However, the Patriots are now completely an AI and they claim that they mislead Ocelot, and that their real goal was something else entirely. A system to control all people in the world. It is also revealed during the events of Big Shell that the Patriots are in control of every single aspect of society. And that the presidents are little more than Patriot selected plants, that are meant to exert their will unto society. Solidus Snake is killed by Raiden. Post Big Shell: The Creation of Liquid Ocelot.
Following the events of the Big Shell, Ocelot and EVA (now operating under the alias of Big Mama) are covertly working to dismantle the Patriots. By this point, the Patriot’s are in full control of society. The control PMC’s and other militaries with nanomachines that are a step up from the Genome Soldiers, and are an even more ‘perfect’ establishment of the Perfect Soldier Project. This is a project that used DNA from Big Boss to create the best soldiers. As said before, the Patriot’s are also a fully AI system. It is assumed that around this time, Revolver Ocelot is ‘possessed’ completely by the spirit of Liquid Snake (via the arm). And that Ocelot as he was known up until that point no longer exists. (While I’ve also found it kind of fun to toy with this theory, especially because the Sorrow was a medium and I really like the idea of Ocelot being supernaturally inclined) for the sake of this, I need to go with the way Ocelot himself ends up describing what happened. Ocelot is an extremely skilled hypnotist. (At least in Metal Gear’s lore sense of hypnotism). We already know that he hypnotized himself back in the 80’s, and it was using a more advanced version of this technique that he put himself ‘away’ and took on the persona of Liquid Snake. Said persona included the creation of more PMC’s, to help fight in a society of near total war. By 2014, an aged Solid Snake and Otacon are working to bring down the Patriot’s as well, but they have different motives. Ocelot wants to recreate Outer Heaven (in a sense) for Big Boss and the world he would’ve wanted. Philanthropy is for the salvation of the world and society. While I do still believe that Ocelot had a personal beef with the original Patriot’s for betraying Big Boss, I imagine that both things can be true. Ocelot knows the Patriot’s AI has infected everything in their society. Liquid Ocelot is created as a way to fool and interrupt the system. By working within the system itself, Ocelot takes it down from the inside, deliberately going against the AI’s predictions and algorithm to annihilate it. Solid Snake and the new Foxdie killing him, helps to bring about that goal. In the process, EVA is killed by the New Foxdie. Liquid Ocelot and Solid Snake fight, culminating in the death of Liquid Ocelot (and Ocelot entirely) via the new Foxdie. Outer Heaven 2.0 does not come to pass, but the Patriots are destroyed thanks to Philanthrophy’s efforts (and a worm created by Sunny Emmerich, the adopted daughter of Otacon and Solid Snake). Around this time as well, Big Boss briefly comes back to life (using body parts from the deceased Solidus Snake, I think Eva and Ocelot helped with that one but don’t quote me) and kills Major Zero (who is barely alive and only functions with life support) and dies of the new Foxdie virus. Thus a lifetime of betrayal and deceit, or torture and more alliances than one can shake a stick at, comes to a close.
"She's in love with the legend." "What makes you so sure?" "I was the same way, once."- Ocelot and Kaz arguing during Quiet's interrogation. Only for all the lies Ocelot tels, he was never lying about that. Except he loved the man, not just the legend.
CONCLUSION
So, at the end of the day, if one looks to the question ‘what was Ocelot’s motivation’? The answer is simply “for Big Boss” the motivation is sometimes debated, thrown around, tossed up, etc. So, for the sake of my own personal argument I say it’s because he loved him.
Not the purest kind of love no. We’re talking the devotional (one could even argue obsessive) intense kind of love that has a lot of toxic or ‘dark’ to be blasé about it kind of love. The kind of love that drives a person to do countless immoral, sometimes world-ending things in the face of it. From the time Ocelot met Big Boss to the time he died, nearly everything was in service of him. It did not matter to Ocelot how long that took, or how much ended up destroyed because of it.
It did not matter that it had a body count in the thousands. It did not matter who became necessary collateral along the way. Or whether Big Boss could ever even appropriately acknowledge or reciprocate it. At the end of the day, at the end of it all. For Ocelot it was all for him.
Everything.
I probably didn't need this entire post to explain it but I am who I am and here we are.
