The Boss (Metal Gear)

The Boss (ザ・ボス), also known as The Joy (ザ・ジョイ), is a fictional character in the Metal Gear series by Hideo Kojima and Konami, introduced in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in 2004.

Appearances
In the Metal Gear series, The Boss is a legendary American soldier, founder and leader of the Cobra unit, mentor and mother figure to Naked Snake, and is known as the mother of the U.S. special forces. In June 1944, during World War II, she led the Cobra unit to victory at the Battle of Normandy. She was pregnant at the time with a baby fathered by The Sorrow. The Boss gave birth to a baby boy on the battlefield via a messy caesarian section that left her with a long, snaking scar across her abdomen. The Philosophers took the baby, who was later confirmed to be Revolver Ocelot.

She appears as an antagonist in Snake Eater, having moved to the Soviet Union with Colonel Volgin alongside the Cobra Unit. Throughout the game, Naked Snake repeatedly encounters The Boss to kill her as ordered by his superiors. Following Volgin's death, The Boss reveals she is the daughter of one of the original members of the Philosophers behind the Philosophers' Legacy. Snake fights and kills The Boss who gives him the Philosopher's Legacy hidden by Volgin. The whole mission is later revealed to be a coverup by the United States so that The Boss would steal Volgin's treasure and give it to Snake, then die at his hands to avoid a conflict between America and the Soviet Union.

In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, EVA reveals that The Boss infiltrated a sleeper agent into the USSR's OKB-1 from 1959 to 1961 to gather more information about the Sputnik program with a little help from the Philosophers. She was eventually commissioned into Project Mercury to test the Mercury capsule and launched into space at roughly the same time as Yuri Gagarin's flight on April 12, 1961. However, the capsule suffered heavy damage upon reentry. The Boss, dubbed within the program as the "Mercury Lady," survived the crash, but was rendered comatose for six months. All evidence of her role in the program was erased, including airbrushing her out of an official picture of the Mercury astronauts, she being the eighth member. Her entire career is also reconstructed in a special AI system developed by Dr. Strangelove for the Peace Walker mech.

In 2012, Kojima said he would "love" to create a new prequel game starring The Boss as the protagonist.

Character design
The Boss' looks were, according to Kojima, inspired by actress Charlotte Rampling. While in the finished game she wears a pale-colored combat outfit, Kojima originally planned to have her in a blue sneaking suit similar to Solid Snake for the finale of the game, but this idea was ultimately cut. During the shooting of the final scene between the Boss and Naked Snake, The Boss' motion capture actress Eriko Hirata, having read the script beforehand, was so moved by the scene that she broke down into tears.

Reception
The character was very well received by media. According to Eurogamer, "The Boss is often touted as being one of the strongest female characters in gaming." Some are even calling her "arguably the single most amazing female character in all of video games."

In 2007, Tom's Games included The Boss among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history, proposing that she should be portrayed in a live-action adaptation by "Sharon Stone, who reportedly served as the inspiration for the character's design." In 2011, UGO included her on their list of the 50 top "video game hotties", commenting that "The Boss is a bit of a tough one because we instantly find her attractive, but we can't find a hint of sexuality to her at all," and adding that "of all the ladies on our list, she's the one we'd be the most wary to mess with." That same year, GamingUnion.net included The Boss on their list of top ten video game heroines for "her sheer strength and determination", similarly commenting "we will simply say the Boss is one chick you do not want to mess with which is why we've given her the number 7 spot."

In 2008, the staff of GameSpy placed her at the top of Metal Gear boss battles. She was also included on IGN's 2008 lists of the Metal Gear series' top ten villains (ranked seventh) as well as its top ten boss battles (ranked ninth). That same year, Destructoid ranked this "beautiful" yet "haunting" battle as sixth on their list of top Metal Gear boss fights. In 2012, 1UP.com editor Bob Mackey wrote about the final fight against her that "the confrontation takes place in what could be the most beautiful video game environment of all time, regardless of the PS2's relatively low horsepower." In 2013, PLAY ranked The Boss as the eight top character in the series, calling her "one of the most important and influential characters in the Metal Gear timeline."

In 2011, Complex ranked her as first on the list of "most diabolical video game she-villains". PlayStation Official Magazine included her on the lists of PlayStation's six meanest mothers in 2011, and listed the MGS3's final battle against her among the ten most emotional moments in PlayStation history in 2012. In 2013, she was placed ninth on the list of worst betrayals in gaming history by Cheat Code Central, who added that "than again, [...] when it came time to die for her country, The Boss did so gracefully and with a sense of style." GamesRadar praised The Boss's role as an antagonist, putting her in their 2013 list of 100 best villains in video games, and commenting: "No wonder Snake ended up saluting her grave; she deserved no less."