Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain/Characters

For other characters see:

Punished "Venom" Snake

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Anti-Hero: He is a mercenary helping the brutal, corrupt dictatorship of José Eduardo dos Santos in Angola to win battles in the country's civil war, in the name of getting revenge on Skull Face, which is no saint herself.
Badass: This is Big Boss, after all. Or at least as badass as the real deal and effectively indistinguishable in ability.
- Handicapped Badass: Missing a hand, and while is able to compensate with a cyber arm, Venom does mention feeling phantom pain from the real one he's missing's from time to time.
Brainwashed and Crazy: He is led to believe he is the real Big Boss through hypnotherapy and one hell of a plastic surgery.
Deadpan Snarker: In his more chatty and good-humored moments.
Hidden Depths: It could be due to the fact he was the unwitting victim of a medical experiment, but the usually Book Dumb Big Boss is able to follow Huey's medical discussions more competently than one would expect. Then again, Venom pre-brainwashing was medically trained.
Supporting Protagonist: In the grand scheme of things, he's just a pawn for the real Big Boss.
The Quiet One: Big Boss in the previous games wasn't a Large Ham, but in this game he talks only from time to time and don't express a lot of his thoughts.
Red Right Hand: Default color of the cybernetic arm that replaces Venom's missing stub of a hand.
- He also has a conspicuous chunk of the helicopter he survived death inside of embedded in his skull like a horn.
Undying Loyalty: Any individual who wasn't completely loyal to the Snake Eater would freak out at minimum at discovering who he was forced to pose as a double for him. That or the brainwashing is that damn good.
Walking Spoiler: Despite being the protagonist. If you pay attention, Venom doesn't talk a lot. There's a reason for that.
Would Hurt a Child: Zig-zagged. He can't (and won't in cutscenes) get away with killing a kid, but taking them down non-lethally is perfectly fine, even if that means knocking the kid crosseyed to prevent them from doing any damage. The real Big Boss, however, is not bound to this.

Quiet

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Driven to Suicide: If you decide to not kill her in Mission 11, she takes her gun to her chin, but Venom takes it away before she properly kills herself.
Everything Fades: Played with; if you decide to kill her in Mission 11, her camouflage malfunctions and she disappears from your vision.
Miss Fanservice: She exposes a lot of her body.
Never Found the Body: At the end of the mission "A Quiet Exit", she wanders into desert after being forced to activate her parasite by talking english on the radio.
Optional Party Member: You can just kill her after her boss battle, or recruit her.
Super Strength: She can lift two strong men with her hands and push a man towards the ground with one hand.

Code Talker

An ancient Navajo scientist, forced to help Skull Face with his plans, joins Venom when he finds out about the parasites killing people on Mother Base.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Applied Phlebotinum: The parasites, which he refined and weaponized based on their naturally occurring variants.
The Atoner: Joins Venom to atone for helping Skull Face, an act he regretted not long after he (by his own admission, foolishly) thought Skull Face would help him.
Bio Augmentation: The parasites, as he explains, are this for their host, aiding them in continual cell processes long after their natural lives end. In fact, he himself has a bunch of parasites that do this for him.
Deadly Doctor: His knowledge of parasites allows him to use them to heal and destroy, and he's not proud of any of his work involving the latter.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Was dubbed "George" by a Native American re-educator, which he resented. Ocelot wonders if calling him "Code Talker" would also be offensive, given that's what Skull Face called him, but he clarifies he doesn't mind, as it describes his past and present activities perfectly and he bears that name as a reminder of what he has to atone for.
Heel Realization: He confesses he realized his own depravity not long after he stupidly accepted Skull Face's aid, citing that he realized Skull Face was a total monster and that what Skull Face made him do made him realize the evil in what he had originally desired.
I Have Your Wife: Skull Face the threat of killing the Navajo people to force Code Talker to do his bidding, a fact Code Talker intensely hated.
Mad Scientist: Was teetering on the border of this trope prior to the events of TPP, but being forced to help Skull Face made him realize the error in that path.
Magical Native American: Subverted. He's over a century old and it's implied he's immortal thanks to being infested with the parasites that keep his body running without his help, but he has no gifts the parasites didn't grant him.
- However, it does not explain how he can be seen on one of the highest parts of the Command Platform in his wheelchair while departing Mother Base, since even with assistance he's in a place where getting both himself and the wheelchair in the same place would be impossible.
Old Soldier: Subverted. Given his past and age, Miller and Ocelot thought he was one of the Navajo code talkers from WWII, but he explains he was over the enlistment age and merely served in a civilian advisory role to the army during the development of the codes used.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Was motivated by one initially, but by the time he joins Venom, he has deep regrets about it.
The Stool Pigeon: Was duped into giving up information about the parasites he never wanted to divulge to Skull Face due to the latter tricking him with a convincing threat that later turned out to be an elaborate ruse.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hamburgers.

Pequod

The helicopter pilot that brings Venom Snake on missions.

Mauve Shirt
Legacy Character: Pequoid is apparently a codename for Venom Snake's pilot, whoever that might be, as Pequod actually dies in one mission, yet is still apparently around afterwards, implying someone else took over and assumed the codename.
Shout Out: Like his Ground Zeroes counterpart, one to Moby Dick.
Suspiciously Similar Replacement: Is basically the TPP version of Morpho from Ground Zeroes.