Some villains want to watch the world burn. Some villains want to bring the world to its knees. Few succeed. Fewer still succeed without meaning to do so. Today's villain is a man who nearly destroyed the world when all he wanted was to save it. All he wanted was to honor the wish of the greatest hero of the 20th century, but his actions not only bastardized and betrayed that vision, he brought human civilization to its worst era ever. He is a man who goes by many code names, but he is best known as Major Zero, from the Metal Gear Solid series.
Patriot, soldier, gentleman, James Bond fanatic, these are but a few words that describe David Oh, better known as Major Zero. Born in 1909, David Oh dedicated his entire life to British and American military. A member of MI6, the CIA, the Special Air Forces, his resume is a shining example of a life dedicated to the service of Queen and Country. He was also a man who recognized talent above all else, which is why he recruited Dr Clark, a woman, and Donald Anderson, a black man, into his new unit FOX, a unit specialized in high risk covert operations. Major Zero received many complaints for his hiring of Donald Anderson, but he disregarded them always. Originally calling himself Major Tom, after what he thought was the tunnel from The Great Escape, he changed his code name to Major Zero, a bit of a play on his last name being "Oh", as in 0.
Major Zero's unit also counted with a highly trained soldier, code named Naked Snake. Their first mission together was the rescue of Soviet defector Doctor Nikolai Sokolov, a rocket engineer. The mission, known as Virtuous Mission, turned out a failure, however, due to the unexpected betrayal of The Boss, the greatest soldier of the 20th century, Naked Snakes mentor, and personal hero to Major Zero.
Ordered by the US government to take her down lest he and Naked Snake be executed for treason, Major Zero heads a second mission known as Operation Snake Eater. The goal: sneak into the Soviet Union, find The Boss, kill her. The second goal of OSE was to kill a mad GRU agent named Volgin, who possessed a super weapon called the Shagohod, a super tank with nuclear capabilities.
After Naked Snake kills The Boss, it turns out her defection was actually staged. The CIA, seeing her as a threat to the US, plotted to have her killed. They ordered her to fake a defection in order to cover up the fact that Volgin possessed American nuclear weapons, which he used on his own countrymen. Had she not faked her own defection, the Soviet Union would have blamed America for this situation and World War 3 would occur.
Both Zero and Naked Snake were angry at this revelation, and both sought to make The Boss' vision a reality: a world without borders, where a soldier would always have a place. To this end, a new society was created: The Patriots. Zero also oversaw the new Les Enfants Terrible project, a project designed to create the ultimate soldier. However, this entailed cloning Naked Snake, creating children based on his DNA and raising them to be soldiers. Naked Snake, now given the title Big Boss, rejected this idea, and he and Zero parted ways.
Griefed by the loss of his friend, Zero proceeded with Les Enfants Terrible, and created 3 clones of Big Boss: Liquid Snake, who went on to become a British agent, Solidus Snake, who went on to become president of the US and a terrorist (long, convoluted story), and Solid Snake, whom I've spoken of before here: http://vidgameanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-top-11-video-game-heroes-number-4.html
Zero had a vision: a unified world state devoid of borders and individuality, where machines made all the political and economic decisions for mankind. But to do this, he needed one more tool, something that had not yet been done. He had the perfect soldiers, but now he needed the perfect machines.
Nearing the end of his life, Zero developed a new system of Artificial Intelligence to continue giving out instructions to his various organizations, including the Patriots. By the 1990's, the Patriots completely ruled over the United States behind the scenes; ten years later, the entire world was under the control of the Patriots. Zero, for all intents and purposes, and for a brief moment, was the world's true ruler. But as the effects of old age began to kick in, he deferred more and more to his AI program, to the point that it continued ruling the world in his stead.
Starting in 2007, war began to change. The Patriots AI system began to go move away from Zero's will, and began creating a world of perpetual war. War was no longer waged for any greater reason than profit. The new world market was war; everything mankind made for seven whole years was geared towards war, one way or another, a war economy.
Soldiers were injected with nano machines that completely changed how war was fought. These nano machines made soldiers faster, stronger, more observant and alert. One shot of nano machines could turn a green rookie into the equivalent of a 10 year veteran of war. This system was known as Sons of the Patriots, and it did not take long for the common citizenry to be subject to the nano machines as well. Nano machines could do anything, from instantly heal any wound to breaking up alcohol and water impurities as you drank them.
The world was slowly being devastated by the will of machinery. It was only the efforts of Solid Snake, then suffering from the debilitating effects of advanced aging brought by the cloning process, that put an end to this madness. And Zero? By the time this was all taken place, he was brain dead. At the end of his life, his old friend John, aka Naked Snake, aka Big Boss, solemnly put him out of his misery by disconnecting his oxygen tank, bringing a final end to the Patriots.
After Naked Snake kills The Boss, it turns out her defection was actually staged. The CIA, seeing her as a threat to the US, plotted to have her killed. They ordered her to fake a defection in order to cover up the fact that Volgin possessed American nuclear weapons, which he used on his own countrymen. Had she not faked her own defection, the Soviet Union would have blamed America for this situation and World War 3 would occur.
Both Zero and Naked Snake were angry at this revelation, and both sought to make The Boss' vision a reality: a world without borders, where a soldier would always have a place. To this end, a new society was created: The Patriots. Zero also oversaw the new Les Enfants Terrible project, a project designed to create the ultimate soldier. However, this entailed cloning Naked Snake, creating children based on his DNA and raising them to be soldiers. Naked Snake, now given the title Big Boss, rejected this idea, and he and Zero parted ways.
Griefed by the loss of his friend, Zero proceeded with Les Enfants Terrible, and created 3 clones of Big Boss: Liquid Snake, who went on to become a British agent, Solidus Snake, who went on to become president of the US and a terrorist (long, convoluted story), and Solid Snake, whom I've spoken of before here: http://vidgameanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-top-11-video-game-heroes-number-4.html
Zero had a vision: a unified world state devoid of borders and individuality, where machines made all the political and economic decisions for mankind. But to do this, he needed one more tool, something that had not yet been done. He had the perfect soldiers, but now he needed the perfect machines.
Nearing the end of his life, Zero developed a new system of Artificial Intelligence to continue giving out instructions to his various organizations, including the Patriots. By the 1990's, the Patriots completely ruled over the United States behind the scenes; ten years later, the entire world was under the control of the Patriots. Zero, for all intents and purposes, and for a brief moment, was the world's true ruler. But as the effects of old age began to kick in, he deferred more and more to his AI program, to the point that it continued ruling the world in his stead.
Starting in 2007, war began to change. The Patriots AI system began to go move away from Zero's will, and began creating a world of perpetual war. War was no longer waged for any greater reason than profit. The new world market was war; everything mankind made for seven whole years was geared towards war, one way or another, a war economy.
Soldiers were injected with nano machines that completely changed how war was fought. These nano machines made soldiers faster, stronger, more observant and alert. One shot of nano machines could turn a green rookie into the equivalent of a 10 year veteran of war. This system was known as Sons of the Patriots, and it did not take long for the common citizenry to be subject to the nano machines as well. Nano machines could do anything, from instantly heal any wound to breaking up alcohol and water impurities as you drank them.
The world was slowly being devastated by the will of machinery. It was only the efforts of Solid Snake, then suffering from the debilitating effects of advanced aging brought by the cloning process, that put an end to this madness. And Zero? By the time this was all taken place, he was brain dead. At the end of his life, his old friend John, aka Naked Snake, aka Big Boss, solemnly put him out of his misery by disconnecting his oxygen tank, bringing a final end to the Patriots.
Major Zero, while the world around him burns due to his actions.
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." One meaning to this popular phrase is the often good intentions mask evil works. Zero intended to create a unified world, one free of strife. But his vision was a world devoid of free will, one where the reigns of history were out of the hands of man and in the hands of machines.
Zero's great mistake was believing himself so superior to the common man that he alone could decide what humanity's path ought be. His second mistake was to allow his machines to go unsupervised; to let them do as they please. Yes, he was too old to overlook their works, but he should have had someone else in on his plan.
Zero almost destroyed the world, plain and simple. Many cities were destroyed because of the war economy his AI's created, many lives were lost. The AI's made a mess of the world, but they it was Zero himself who created them and placed them in the position they were. He may have been an old man by then, but that does not absolve Zero of his responsibility.
Still, there is the element of tragedy to it this entire situation. Zero could not have foreseen what his machines would do to the world, and in fact, this was far from his intention. He wanted a unified world, not one ravaged by war. But that economy controlled by machines he dreamed of, he got exactly that.
What makes Zero stand out as a villain is that he was one by complete accident; everything he did, he did for the betterment of the world. Les Enfants Terrible? Having a suitable super soldier replacement for when Big Boss inevitably grew old and died. The Patriots? An organization dedicated to creating a better world, one without borders or wars. The Patriots AI? Merely a replacement for him as he himself grew older, to carry on his mission long after he's passed. The greater tragedy is that he couldn't even contemplate what he had done; he was already a vegetable by the time the AI's began to take over.
Zero was not a bad man. He was a man who was free from the prejudices of his time, hiring a woman and a black man to high level positions during a time when such an idea was laughable at best. He was a James Bond fanatic, a man who enjoyed a spot of tea, a quintessential British fellow. He was polite and friendly, stern when he had to be, and he always kept a promise.
But his crimes are great, and impossible to ignore. He cloned someone without his knowledge or consent at least thrice, to create child soldiers. He then made these children, and had their DNA manipulated so they could age faster and die of old age by the time they are in their forties. He then made Artificial Intelligence programs to control the world, and these machines became the direct cause for a global state of perpetual war.
Who was Zero? He was a good man who did terrible things. He liked James Bond. He made child soldiers. He liked drinking tea. He made machines that destroyed the world. He always kept a promise. He paid for his crimes with his life at the hands of his old friend. His early life was dedicated to service to his country. His later life was spent as a vegetable. He was a hero once. He is the ninth greatest video game villain.
The summary:
Name: David Oh, aka Major Zero
Type of Villain: The Fallen Hero, The Villain with Good Intentions
Greatest Crime: Creating the system that made the war economy a reality.
Current Status: Dead.
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