This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011)

The term Solid South describes the electoral support of the Southern United States for Democratic Party candidates from 1877 (the end of Reconstruction) to 1964 (the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). During this time, the vast majority of local and state officeholders in the South were Democrats, as were federal politicians the region sent to Washington, D.C.. The virtual non-existence of the Republican Party in the region meant that a candidate's victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself.

The first break in the "Solid South": Missouri goes for Republican Theodore Roosevelt in the 1904 election. (Cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.)

The Democratic dominance of the South originated in many white Southerners' animosity towards the Republican Party's stance in favor of political rights for blacks during Reconstruction and Republican economic policies such as the high tariff and the support for continuing the gold standard, both of which were seen as benefiting Northern industrial interests at the expense of the agrarian South in the 19th century. It was maintained by the Democratic Party's willingness to back Jim Crow laws and racial segregation.^[1]

Democrats won by large margins in the region in every presidential election from 1876 to 1948 except for 1928, when candidate Al Smith, a Catholic and a New Yorker, ran on the Democratic ticket; even in that election, the divided South provided Smith with nearly three-fourths of his electoral votes. Beginning in about 1948, the national Democratic Party's support of the civil rights movement significantly reduced Southern support for the Democratic Party and allowed the Republican Party to make gains in the South by way of its "Southern strategy". Today, the South is considered a Republican stronghold at all levels above the local level, and even there Republicans have made generally increasing inroads. Political experts have often cited a southernization of politics following the fall of the Solid South.

Democratic factionalization over the Civil Rights Movement[link]

The "Solid South" is today usually defined as the eleven states of the old Confederacy plus Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. Missouri was also included in the original Solid South although since the early 1900s Missouri has been seen as a Midwestern bellwether state mostly because Missouri is classified as a Midwestern State by the U.S. Census. West Virginia was never included with the Solid South because the state was established during the Civil War and admitted to the Union by the Lincoln Administration. Many Southerners for years after the war considered the state an illegal seizure of Virginia's territory. Predictably West Virginians tended to vote Republican in the early years as a show of gratitude toward the North but by the 1930s West Virginia was completely identified with the South. Oklahoma was not included originally with the Solid South as it has only voted in Presidential elections since 1908 but Oklahoma's voting history mirrors the Solid South only going Republican after the Civil Rights era began in the 1940s. Maryland and Delaware are classified by the U.S. Census as Southern States however only Maryland was occasionally classified with the Solid South.

The Solid South had already begun to erode in the 1890s. William Jennings Bryan's western populist movement had split the Democratic Party between the old guard Bourbon Democrats and the Progressives. The split allowed McKinley to win Kentucky by 277 votes out of 445,928 votes cast. Maryland went for William McKinley by a margin of 32,809 votes out of 250,249 votes cast. In 1904, Missouri would bolt the Solid South to support Roosevelt while Maryland in a controversial election reminscient of the 2000 Florida Election would award the state to Alton Parker. The 1920 Election was a referrendum on President Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations. Pro-isolation sentiment in the South would benefit Republican Warren G.Harding who would go on to win Tennessee and Missouri. In 1924, Coolidge would win Kentucky and Missouri. In 1928, Hoover, perhaps benefiting from bias against his Roman Catholic Anti-Prohibition opponent Al Smith, won not only Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, but also Florida, North Carolina, Texas,and Virginia. Maryland defected to the Republicans in the 1920s and would not vote Democratic again until Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1932 Presidential landslide over Republican President Herbert Hoover.

The South appeared "solid" again during the period of Franklin D. Roosevelt's political dominance, but cracks began to appear in the following administration. Democratic President Harry S. Truman's support of the civil rights movement, combined with the adoption of a civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic platform, prompted many Southerners to walk out of the Democratic National Convention and form the Dixiecrat Party. This splinter party played a significant role in the 1948 election; the Dixiecrat candidate, Strom Thurmond, carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. In the elections of 1952 and 1956, the popular Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower carried several border southern states, with especially strong showings in the new suburbs. In 1956, Eisenhower also carried Louisiana, becoming the first Republican to win the state since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, but the rest of the Deep South was still a bastion for Eisenhower's Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson. The 1948 Election also marked Maryland's permanent defection from the Solid South as the expansion of the federal government led to a population explosion in the state that changed Maryland politically into a Northeastern State.

In the 1960 election, the Democratic nominee, John F. Kennedy, continued his party's tradition of selecting a Southerner as the vice presidential candidate (in this case, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas). Kennedy, however, supported civil rights. In October 1960, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at a peaceful sit-in in Atlanta, Georgia, Kennedy placed a sympathetic phone call to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and Robert Kennedy helped secure King's release. King expressed his appreciation for these calls. Although King himself made no endorsement, his father, who had previously endorsed Republican Richard Nixon, switched his support to Kennedy.

Because of these and other events, the Democrats lost ground with white voters in the South, as those same voters increasingly lost control over what was once a whites-only Democratic Party in much of the South. The 1960 election was the first in which a Republican presidential candidate received electoral votes in the South while losing nationally. Nixon carried Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida. Though Kennedy also won Alabama and Mississippi. slates of unpledged electors, representing Democratic segregationists, would award the states' electoral votes to Harry Byrd.

The parties' positions on civil rights continued to evolve in the run up to the 1964 election. The Democratic candidate, Johnson, who had become president after Kennedy's assassination, spared no effort to win passage of a strong Civil Rights Act. After signing the landmark legislation, Johnson said to his aide, Bill Moyers, "I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come."^[2] In contrast, Johnson's Republican opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing it gave too much power to the federal government (Goldwater did in fact support civil rights in general; for example the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts as well as the 24th Amendment banning the poll tax. Additionally he was a member of the NAACP).^{[citation needed]}

That November, Johnson won a landslide electoral victory, and the Republicans suffered significant losses in Congress. Goldwater, however, besides carrying his home state of Arizona, carried the deep South: the South had switched parties for the first time. Goldwater notably won only in southern states that had voted against Republican Richard Nixon in 1960, while not winning a single state that Nixon had carried, a complete inversion of the electoral pattern of just four years earlier. Prior to 1956, the region had almost always provided the only victories for Democratic challengers to popular Republican incumbent presidents. Now, however, the South had provided a Republican challenger with electoral victories against a popular Democratic incumbent.

"Southern Strategy": End of Solid South[link]

In the 1968 election, the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, saw this trend and capitalized on it with his "Southern strategy." The new method of campaigning was designed to appeal to white Southerners who were more conservative than the national Democratic Party. As a result of the strategy, the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey, was almost shut out in the South; he carried only Texas, the rest of the region being divided between Nixon and the American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace, the governor of Alabama, who had gained fame for opposing integration. Nationwide, Nixon won a decisive Electoral College victory, although he received only a plurality of the popular vote.

After Nixon's landslide re-election in 1972, the election of Jimmy Carter, a southern governor, gave Democrats a short-lived comeback in the South (winning every state in the Old Confederacy except for Virginia, which was narrowly lost) in 1976, but in his unsuccessful re-election bid in 1980, the only Southern state he won was his native state of Georgia. The year 1976 was the last year a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of Southern electoral votes. The Republicans took all the region's electoral votes in 1984 and 1988.

In 1977, political scientist Larry Sabato analyzed the rise of two-party politics in the Southern United States, particularly with his 1977 publication of The Democratic Party Primary in Virginia: Tantamount to Election No Longer.^[3] See also tantamount to election.

In 1992 and 1996, when the Democratic ticket consisted of two Southerners, (Bill Clinton and Al Gore), the Democrats and Republicans split the region. In both elections, Clinton won Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, while the Republican won Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Bill Clinton won Georgia in 1992, but lost it in 1996 to Bob Dole. Conversely, Clinton lost Florida in 1992 to George Bush, but won it in 1996.

In 2000, however, Gore received no electoral votes from the South, even from his home state of Tennessee, but the popular vote in Florida was extraordinarily close in awarding the state's electoral votes to George W. Bush. This pattern continued in the 2004 election; the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards received no electoral votes from the South, even though Edwards was from North Carolina, and was born in South Carolina.

While the South was shifting from the Democrats to the Republicans, the Northeastern United States went the other way. The Northeastern United States is defined by the US Census Bureau as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and the New England States although politically the Northeast also includes Maryland and Delaware. Well into the 1900s, the Northeast was a bastion of the Republican Party. The Democratic Party made steady gains there, however, and in 1992, 1996, 2004, and 2008 all eleven Northeastern states, from Maryland to Maine, voted for the Democrats.

"Southern strategy" today[link]

Today, the South has a mix of Republican and Democratic officeholders (Senators, Representatives and state governors). In presidential elections, however, the region is a Republican stronghold. During the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans swept the South, successfully reelecting every Senate incumbent and electing freshmen Marco Rubio in Florida and Rand Paul in Kentucky. In the House, Republicans reelected every incumbent except for Joseph Cao of New Orleans and defeated several Democratic incumbents. Republicans are now the majority in the congressional delegations of every Southern state. Every Southern state, with the exception of Arkansas, elected or reelected Republicans governors. Even in Arkansas, however, the GOP won three of six statewide down-ballot positions that they often did not field candidates for in even recent years as well as went from eight to fifteen out of thirty-five seats in the state senate and from twenty-eight to forty-five out of one hundred in the state house of representatives. Republicans also took control of both houses of the Alabama and North Carolina state legislatures for the first time since Reconstruction. Many analysts believe the so-called "Southern Strategy," that has been employed by Republicans since the 1960s is now complete, with Republicans in firm, almost total, control of political offices in the South.

South in Presidential elections[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Frederickson, Kari A. (2001). The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2594-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=EWu2AX7Gx4YC. 
• Grantham, Dewey W. (1992). The Life and Death of the Solid South. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-0813-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=KzSZCyEeUZ8C. 
• Herbert, Hilary Abner (1890). Why the Solid South?. R. H. Woodward & company. http://books.google.com/books?id=cUYdAAAAMAAJ. 

James Clarence Wakeley (February 16, 1914 - September 23, 1982),^[1] better known as Jimmy Wakely, was an American country-Western singer and actor, one of the last crooning cowpokes following World War II. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he released records, appeared in several B-Western movies with most of the major studios, appeared on radio and television and even had his own series of comic books.

His duet singles with Margaret Whiting from 1949–51 produced a string of top seven hits, including 1949's number one hit on the US country and pop music charts, "Slippin' Around." Wakely owned two music publishing companies in later years and performed at the Grand Ole Opry until shortly before his death.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

James Clarence Wakeley was born in Mineola, Howard County, Arkansas on February 16, 1914 to Major Anderson Wakeley and Caroline (or Carolin) "Cali" Wakeley (née Burgess). His family moved to Rosedale, Oklahoma by 1920. As a teenager, he changed James to Jimmy and his last name to Wakely, dropping the second "e".^[2]

Country Western musician[link]

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1937, Wakely formed The Bell Boys, a country Western singing group named after their Bell Clothing sponsor. The group performed locally, made some recordings, and did frequent radio broadcasts over Oklahoma City's WKY. Johnny Bond, Dick Reinhart, Scotty Harrell and Jack Cheney were members of the Bell Boys and later groups.^[2] Over time, Wakely's groups were known as The Jimmy Wakely Trio, Jimmy Wakely and His Saddle Pals, Jimmy Wakely Trio and James Wakely.^[1]

During a tour through Oklahoma, Western movie star Gene Autry invited Wakely to come to California. Autry felt the group might be a good addition to his new Melody Ranch radio show which debuted on CBS in January 1940. The Wakely Trio joined the show in mid-1940. He stayed for a couple of years, then left because of movie commitments and a recording contract with Decca Records that ran from 1941–1942 through 1947. Johnny Bond stayed with the show for most of its run (the show left the air in 1956).^[2]

Personal life[link]

Wakely married Dora Inez Miser on Friday the 13th, December 13, 1935. They had four children: Deanna, Carol, Linda and son Johnny. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1982.^[2]

Western movie actor[link]

In 1939, Wakely made his screen debut (with the Jimmy Wakely Trio) in a Roy Rogers Western, Saga of Death Valley.^[3] In the 1940s, Wakely groups provided songs and musical support for several B-western movies, including appearances with:

• the Range Busters at Monogram Pictures
• Don "Red" Barry at Republic Pictures
• Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter at Universal Pictures
• Charles Starrett at Columbia Pictures
• Hopalong Cassidy at Paramount Pictures

Wakely made only one film with Autry, Heart of the Rio Grande, at Republic in 1942.^[2] He was sometimes referred to as a low-budget Autry in films. His response was, "Everybody reminds somebody of someone else until they are somebody. And I had rather be compared to Gene Autry than anyone else. Through the grace of God and Gene Autry, I got a career."^[3] He appeared in 28 Westerns at Monogram between 1944 and 1949.^[2][3]

Wakely also appeared in some non-Westerns, including I'm from Arkansas in 1944, a showcase for country and hillbilly performers who bring their comedy, tunes and yodeling to Pitchfork, Arkansas.^[2]

Recording career[link]

About 1941–1942, Decca gave Wakeley a recording contract that ran until 1947.^[2] After leaving films, he continued to record, switching to the Columbia label. Though most of his songs were country Western, some crossed over to the pop charts, including collaborations with singer Margaret Whiting and Karen Chandler, and for the Christmas song "Silver Bells".^[3] He had a number one country hit with "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)", a song originally released by Western singer Eddie Dean.

Comic books[link]

Like other Western film stars of the era, Wakely had his own comic book series. DC Comics published 18 issues from Sept/Oct 1949–July/Aug 1952, billing him as "HOLLYWOOD'S SENSATIONAL COWBOY STAR!"^[2][3]

Radio and television appearances[link]

In addition to Autry's Melody Ranch, Wakely had his own CBS Radio show and co-hosted other programs. He also made several appearances on television variety shows;^[2] and in 1961 he was one of five rotating hosts on the NBC-TV program Five Star Jubilee.

He also had one of the last live network radio programs at the NBC radio studios at the corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, California in 1958.^{[citation needed]} Excerpts of the program appear on Wakely's albums and CDs.

Recording company[link]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Wakely developed Shasta Records and owned two music publishing companies. He converted part of his California ranch into a recording studio, producing recordings for himself as well as for other country Western performers, including Tex Williams, Merle Travis, Eddie Dean, Tex Ritter and Rex Allen.^[1][2] For his recording work, Wakely has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.^[4]

Later years[link]

In his later years, Wakely performed at the Grand Ole Opry and National Barn Dance. His nightclub act visited Las Vegas, Reno and other venues. He did a Christmas USO Tour with Bob Hope. He made a few recordings on the Coral, Decca/Vocalion and Dot labels. He also made appearances at Western film nostalgia conventions and continued personal appearances and stage shows, often with his daughter Linda and son Johnny in the act.^[2]

Death[link]

After contracting emphysema, Wakely died of heart failure at Mission Hills, California on September 23, 1982.^[1] He and his wife, who died in 1997, are interred next to each other in the Court of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California.^[2]

Awards and honors[link]

Wakely was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Western Music Association Hall of Fame in 1991.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Collaborations[link]

Filmography[link]

Movies[link]

This is a partial list of his movie credits, most of them are Westerns:^[1][2]

Radio[link]

• The Jimmy Wakely Show (1952–1958)^[1][2]
• Melody Ranch (1940–1942)^[2]
• CBS Hollywood Barn Dance (1945–1947)^[2]

Television[link]

Wakely appeared as himself on several TV shows including:

• The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950)^[1]
• Toast of the Town (1951)^[1]
• Ozark Jubilee (ABC, 1956–58, 60)
• Country Hoedown (late 1950s, syndicated) sponsored by US Navy Recruiting^[2]
• Five Star Jubilee (NBC, 1961)^[1][2]
• Here's Hollywood (1961)^[1]

Notes[link]

Notably unmentioned is Wakely's Los Angeles television show, broadcast in the early 50's on KNXT, channel 2. Jimmy and his band performed weekly and featured many of the musicians and Western artists who recorded with him. His daughter, Deanna, worked in the KNXT business office. D. Gingold

References[link]

• Seemann, Charlie (1998). "Jimmy Wakely". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 566.

External links[link]

• Jimmy Wakely at the Internet Movie Database
• Find A Grave

Solid Snake (ソリッド・スネーク, Soriddo Sunēku^?), real name David (デイビッド, Deibiddo^?),^[2][3] is a fictional character and the protagonist of Konami's Metal Gear series. Created by Hideo Kojima, Snake is introduced in the first game of the series, Metal Gear from 1987. Snake has appeared in the majority of subsequent games and spin-offs. Japanese voice actor Akio Ōtsuka voices Snake in Japanese, while actor and screenwriter David Hayter provides the English voice of the character.

Introduced in Metal Gear, Solid Snake is a combination of spy, special operations soldier, and mercenary commando of FOXHOUND – a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear, a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha. Controlled by the player, Solid Snake must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. While during his first two appearances Snake's designs were references to Hollywood films, by Metal Gear Solid he was given a consistent design by artist Yoji Shinkawa alongside an established personality.

The character of Solid Snake has been well-received by critics to the point he appeared in several lists of best characters in gaming history. His development in the series has been praised although his accelerated aging in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots resulted in mixed reactions.

Description[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (December 2010)

While during his debut appearances, Solid Snake's visual appearances were references to popular actors, he was given his own consistent design in Metal Gear Solid. Such design shows him as a an brown haired adult wearing dark sneaking suit as well as a bandana. This appearance suffered little changes in the sequel besides the fact Snake was older but during the beginning of the Plant Chapter he disguises himself wearing a uniform and bleaches his hair. By Metal Gear Solid 4, Solid Snake suffered a notable change as a result of his accelerated aging which makes him look like an elder. Nevertheless, he still wears his sneaking suit for missions and has access to different disguises to look like other characters as well as his younger self.

Solid Snake has been on the battlefield for most of his life,^[4] a hardened veteran, he has his emotions buried very deep inside himself. Every one of his missions has different motives.^[5] He is immediately shown as a loner^[6][7] and with no intentions of taking orders from anyone anymore,^[8] he shows no sign of longing for the army or the country he was part of.^[9]

Along with these traits he has a more human side, being flirtatious,^[10] self-sacrificing^[11] and with a strong belief that even on a battlefield friendship^[12] and love^[13] can flourish, and that violence is not glorious.^[14] Although the last bit is debatable due to statements from his enemies and at least one of his allies that he might enjoy all the killing, and even being labelled as being truly evil at one point.^[15][16][17]

[edit] Metal Gear series

[edit] Metal Gear games

Metal Gear, initially released in 1987, introduces Solid Snake, the rookie recruit of the elite special-forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by team leader Big Boss into the rogue nation Outer Heaven to rescue his missing teammate Gray Fox and discover who or what the "METAL GEAR" mentioned is.^[18][19] As his mission progresses he finds out that he has been set up; the leader of Outer Heaven is actually Big Boss, who intends to use Metal Gear—an experimental, nuclear-armed mecha—to establish Outer Heaven as a nuclear power.^[20] After destroying the Metal Gear itself, he then confronts Big Boss and defeats him.^[21]

In the sequel, titled Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and initially released only in Japan for the MSX2, follows after the original Metal Gear rather than Snake's Revenge; indeed, all later games ignore the events of Snake's Revenge.^[22]

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake sees Solid Snake once again called up to infiltrate a heavily fortified enemy base, this time in Zanzibarland. Zanzibarland has aggravated an international oil crisis and declared themselves a nuclear power by kidnapping Dr. Kio Marv, the creator of a bio-engineered algae that produces an oil substitute, and Dr. Pettrovich Madnar, the developer of the original Metal Gear.^[23] Snake infiltrates the base and discovers that Pettrovich and his former comrade Gray Fox have defected to Zanzibar Land, and that Zanzibar Land is led by Big Boss.^[24] Snake destroys their new Metal Gear D, and defeats his former comrades Gray Fox and Big Boss.^[25][26]

[edit] Metal Gear Solid games

Metal Gear Solid sees Solid Snake pulled out of retirement by Colonel Campbell in a mission to deal with FOXHOUND. Under the leadership of Liquid Snake, FOXHOUND has gone rogue, seizing Shadow Moses Island, an isolated American nuclear weapons disposal facility.^[27] Snake infiltrates the base and meets up with Meryl Silverburgh, a rookie soldier, and Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, the designer of Metal Gear REX. Snake defeats each member of FOXHOUND one by one, destroys Metal Gear REX, and confronts Liquid. Liquid reveals that he and Solid are twin brothers artificially conceived from Big Boss' genes during a government project designed to create the perfect soldier titled "Les Enfants Terribles", in which one brother was genetically modified to be superior over the other.^[28] Liquid harbors a strong resentment towards Snake since his brother was given their father's dominant "soldier genes" and Liquid was cast aside. After a grueling series of battles, Liquid dies from the Fox-Die virus that was previously implanted into Snake in order to wipe out FOXHOUND without risking any damage to Metal Gear REX and the Genome soldiers' bodies for retrieval.^[29] In the end, it is revealed that Liquid got Big Boss' superior "soldier genes", not Solid.^[30]

Solid Snake is the playable character of the extensive prologue sequence of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in which he is sent by the anti-proliferation organization Philanthropy to infiltrate a cargo tanker and photograph Metal Gear RAY, the latest Metal Gear model.^[31] During the operation, however, the Metal Gear RAY is hijacked and the tanker destroyed, with the apparently dead Snake framed for the deed.^[32] The remainder of Sons of Liberty follows the actions of the rookie FOXHOUND agent Raiden (the character now controlled by the player), who has been assigned to rescue the U.S. President and a number of other government officials being held hostage at a remote offshore oil shell facility. Solid Snake, who survived the explosion in the prologue, appears throughout the main portion of the game (initially adopting the pseudonym Iroquois Pliskin (イロコィ・プリスキン , Irokoi Purisukin^?), as a non-playable character who assists Raiden.^[33]

The PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features an aged Snake, once again the main protagonist and identified as Old Snake (オールド・スネーク, Ōrudo Sunēku^?) by the game. On account of his genetic code being a potential threat if it fell into enemy hands, he was designed with a short life span; as such, while Snake is only 42 years old, he has the body of an old man.^[34] In the game, he wears a sneaking suit outfitted with "Octocamo" technology, which allows him to blend with his environment, as well as a face mask which alters his appearance.^[35] Snake is once again enlisted by Campbell to defeat Revolver Ocelot who is following Big Boss' by taking control of the Patriots' A.I.s.^[36] Snake and his allies are forced to destroy the Patriots' A.I.s to stop Ocelot, and fights most of his soldiers, until killing Ocelot. Having learned that his rapid aging can cause an epidemic because of the FOXDIE virus mutating, Snake tries to commit suicide but changes his mind and is then confronted by the surviving Big Boss who reveals he can spend the rest of his life peacefully. After making up with Big Boss, Snake decides to live out the remainder of his life in peace.^[37]

In spinoffs[link]

Three Metal Gear spinoffs, which do not follow the storyline of the main Kojima-directed series, were directed by Shinta Nojiri.^[38] The first of these games is the Game Boy Color version of Metal Gear Solid (released in Japan as Metal Gear: Ghost Babel). In Ghost Babel, Solid Snake infiltrates a rebuilt Outer Heaven (now called Galuade) to defeat a FOXHOUND-like team of rogue agents called Black Chamber and destroy a stolen Metal Gear prototype, Gander. While the promotional art for the game was drawn by Yoji Shinkawa, the actual in-game character designs were done by Ikuya Nakamura.

In Metal Gear Acid, Solid Snake must retrieve "Pythagoras" from the Lobito Physics and Research Laboratory, in order to satisfy hijackers who have kidnapped presidential candidate Viggo Hach. This mission is complicated by La Clown, an expert mimic who impersonates Solid Snake's contact Teliko, and subtle brainwashing that nearly convinces him that he is Hans Davis, a ruthless scientist that worked at the Lobito facility. He overcomes both and contacts the real Teliko, then destroys the latest model of Metal Gear, Metal Gear KODOQUE. The sequel, Metal Gear Acid 2, features a main character who is not the real Solid Snake, but a clone created from tissue samples of the Solid Snake from the original Metal Gear Acid, following the events of the Lobito Island mission; the Solid Snake from the original Acid is dead.

Though Snake does not explicitly appear in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, he is mentioned, though not referred to by name; Elisa, a teenage German psychic with multiple personalities, has a prophetic vision of Naked Snake's future as she dies: she mentions that one of his sons will save the world after another son (Liquid Snake) brings it to ruin.^[39] He appears in his Metal Gear Solid 4 form as a recruitable character in Portable Ops Plus.^[40] He is also playable in an updated pack from Metal Gear Online.^[41]

Other appearances[link]

Solid Snake has appeared in a number of other games, including other Konami games, and more unusually, under license in games developed and published by other companies, such as Sony and Nintendo.

Hideo Kojima makes a habit of referencing his previous work. In the Kojima-produced Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django (and Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack), Snake appears as an unnamed character who sells items to the player. Konami's Evolution Skateboarding features Snake and Raiden as hidden characters, as well two stages set in the Big Shell (the Skateboarding minigame in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is a demo of Evolution Skateboarding composed exclusively of these elements).^[42]

Solid Snake also appears in both halves of a crossover between the Metal Gear and Ape Escape franchises: the Ape Escape monkeys appear with Solid Snake in the "Snake vs. Monkey" minigame featured in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In turn, Snake (voiced by Peter Lurie in the English version instead of David Hayter, his usual voice actor) appears in the corresponding Metal Gear Solid minigame featured in Ape Escape 3, where he is rescued by Pipo Snake. Snake's character design in this mini-game is taken directly from Naked Snake's.

He has also appeared in a pair of cross-company fighting games. In DreamMix TV World Fighters, Solid Snake appears as a playable character alongside other third-party characters such as Bomberman and Convoy (Optimus Prime). Similarly, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a popular fighting game from Nintendo, Solid Snake appeared alongside Nintendo-owned characters such as Mario and Donkey Kong, and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. According to producer Masahiro Sakurai, Snake's inclusion in Brawl was done under Kojima's request, who wanted Snake to be featured.^[43]

Snake has appeared as a playable character in the Nintendo DS game, New International Track & Field, alongside fellow Konami characters such as Sparkster and Simon Belmont, as well as new original characters.^[44] Also, Old Snake has appeared in the Japanese version of Scribblenauts, having been published by Konami in that region.^[45]

Customizations in Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3 allow the player character, Sackboy, to take on the appearance of Old Snake.^[46]

Creation and development[link]

Much as Metal Gear began as a pastiche of action movies of the time, Solid Snake began as a pastiche of contemporary action movie heroes. For example, on the cover artwork of the original Metal Gear, he resembles Michael Biehn in The Terminator, and the in-game portrait of Snake in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake resembles Mel Gibson in the game's opening sequence.^[47] Solid Snake was even named after another fictional special forces operative: Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell's character in Escape from New York.^[48][49] In Guns of the Patriots, Snake is modeled after Lee Van Cleef, who appeared in Escape from New York.^[50] His real name, David, is a tribute to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey that has a character with the same name.^[51] Kojima later described Snake's role in the original Metal Gear as the "player's presence", contrasting the defined personality Solid Snake acquired in Metal Gear Solid.^[52]

In addition to expanding Solid Snake's backstory, as the first Metal Gear game to feature voice acting Metal Gear Solid established his characteristic voice and appearance.^[53] Yoji Shinkawa's Solid Snake design, characterized by his navy blue bandanna and "sneaking suit", would serve as the template for all future incarnations of Snake in later Metal Gear games. According to Shinkawa, Snake's physique in Metal Gear Solid was based on that of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, while his facial appearance in the same game was inspired by actor Christopher Walken. Shinkawa described his rendition of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid as a "middle ground" between the younger Snake who graced the cover artwork of the first Metal Gear and the middle-aged Snake from the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2.^[49][54] For the initial events from the Big Shell chapter from Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake's visual appearance was sightly modified with his hair being more blonde.^[55] Solid Snake became one of the characters easiest to draw by Shinkawa as he notes that his appearance is consistence, suffering minor changes across the games.^[56]

Various scenes from the games relate Snake's ideals with Hideo Kojima's. During Metal Gear Solid 2 Snake encourages Raiden to trust himself in making his own choices with the former representing the veteran developer and the latter the younger staff who are to decide whether a sequel to the series would be made without Kojima.^[51] In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake tries to protect the next generation by stopping Ocelot which was representing by Kojima working with the staff to avoid bugs from occurying within the game.^[57] Kojima introduced the cloning origins of Solid Snake to Metal Gear Solid in order to provide Solid Snake with an adversary who would be his equal, since the story, being a continuation to the original MSX2 games, established Snake as an experienced soldier.^[58] Kojima explained that his decision to introduce a new playable character in Solid Snake's place for Sons of Liberty was done in order to develop Snake from another character's perspective, but also to avoid treating Snake as a rookie by having a new character be instructed via Codec instead.^[59]

By the time of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots started development, Kojima told Shinkawa about his idea of making Snake look like an elder which surprised the designer. Once Shinkawa showed his artwork of Old Snake to the staff, they were all also surprised by the idea of playing as an old Solid Snake. However, as they were satisfied with end product as the staff started liking the character.^[57] In Guns of the Patriots one of Kojima's endings for the game would have had Snake and Otacon turn themselves in for breaking the law, and subsequently they would be convicted and executed.^[58] However, comments from Kojima's staff who were disappointed with his death resulted in the character's survival.^[60] According to Ryan Payton of Konami, Guns of the Patriots is the final canonical Metal Gear game to feature Solid Snake as the main character.^[61] Kojima himself stated that the series will continue but he does not want the character to be handled by anyone else.^[58]

In the games, Snake has been voiced by Akio Ōtsuka starting with Metal Gear Solid. Ōtsuka remembers being surprised during his debut as a result of the large amount dialogue Snake was given.^[62] In the English adaptations, Snake's role was made by David Hayter who found his work notable as he was originally a screenwriter and did not expect to become famous for dubbing a character.^[63] While Hayter comments having issues with some of Snake's lines in his first game, most notably a conversation regarding romance with Hal Emmerich, he stated he would talk about such things if he was asked again. By the time Metal Gear Solid 4 had its first trailers released, Hayter was frustrated by Snake's flinchs during his attempt of committing suicide based on the character's experience in the battlefield.^[64] For the crossover game Super Smash Bros, Hayter remembers having fun in voicing the character due to the comical lines Snake had to say.^[63]

Reception[link]

The character of Solid Snake has received positive response, ranking in various polls as one of the best video games characters in history. In an Oricon poll from 2008, he was voted as the fourth most popular video game character in Japan, tying with Nintendo's Pikachu.^[65] In a Famitsu poll done in February 2010, Snake was voted by readers as the most popular video game character.^[66] In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition from 2011, Snake was voted as the fourth most popular video game character.^[67] Also, Electronic Gaming Monthly listed him as number three as the Top Ten Video Game characters of all time.^[35]

Critics have often praised Snake's commitment to war as well as his appealing personality.^[35][68] Snake appeared in multiple GameFAQs "Character Battle" contests, and was runner-up in two, the "Character Battle V" in 2006,^[69] and the "Character Battle VII" in 2008.^[70] His character was amongst the last sixteen contestants on the greatest video game hero on GameSpot contest held in 2009, and lost out to Gordon Freeman on a tiebreaker.^[71] He was ranked seventeenth in UGO Networks's "Best Heroes in Entertainment."^[68] GameDaily listed him on their top 10 Smash Bros. characters list,^[72] while Play listed him as one of the characters they wanted to be playable in Mortal Kombat.^[73] Sites have also commented on his traits and appearance. 1UP listed him second in the "Top 5 Video Game Smokers" while GamesRadar placed him at the top of "The 10 manliest men in videogame history."^[74][75] Complex.com ranked him as fourth on the list of "Top 25 Pervs in Games".^[76] Solid Snake's endurance in the face of extreme punishment was even made the focus of a comedy article in the satirical newspaper, The Onion.^[77] The character customization in Soul Calibur 4 that allowed to create Snake was listed by UGO as one of the best ones from the series owing to his popularity within gamers.^[78] The character's Metal Gear Solid 2 design was at the bottom of the "8 Worst Game Character Makeovers" by GamePro, condemning his conversion in hairstyle in comparison to the one in Metal Gear Solid,^[79] and was also at the top of IGN's "Worst Videogame Haircuts".^[80] Before Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Snake was thought to be the game's protagonist because of the physical resemblances between him and Naked Snake. However, later previews speculated how was it possible for Solid Snake to be in the game's settings, leading to the conclusion it was a young Big Boss.^[81][82][83] A comparison between Solid Snake's and Big Boss' characters was made by IGN's Phil Pirrello in articled called "Stars Thunderdome: Snake vs. Big Boss."^[84] David Hayter's performance as Snake's English voice actor has received praise to the point of being called one of the best ones in gaming as well as one of the character's most recognizable traits.^[85][86]

Snake's appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4 has received mixed opinions. Before it was released, various speculations were made regarding Snake's role. As he was the only who suffered from a drastic change in appearance, IGN commented that the most famous rumor was the one of Snake's body deteriorating across the game.^[87] Moreover, since it had been announced it would be his last appearance, IGN and GamesRadar wondered whether the character would die during the game and if Raiden would replace him following his death.^[88][89] GamesRadar commented that Snake was one of the few gaming characters that aged across video games.^[90] GamePro also listed Old Snake as one of the biggest surprises from Metal Gear Solid 4 as the character was found interesting in contrast to pessimistic thoughts they had before the game's release.^[91] GameDaily listed the "old hero" as one of their top 25 video game archetypes, using the old version of Snake as an example of this.^[92] Play gave praise to his moustache considering how highly detailed it is, and represents the change from Snake's character.^[93] On the other hand, 1UP placed him third in the article of "Top 5 Gracelessly Aging Characters" as it gave negative messages about aging.^[94]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Solid Snake - The Metal Gear Wiki

v t e Metal Gear series Main games Metal Gear Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes MGS2: Sons of Liberty 3: Snake Eater Portable Ops 4: Guns of the Patriots Peace Walker Spin-off games Snake's Revenge Ghost Babel Acid Acid 2 Acid Mobile Mobile Online Touch Arcade Rising: Revengeance Creators Hideo Kojima Shuyo Murata Yoji Shinkawa Motosada Mori Shinta Nojiri Mineshi Kimura Characters Solid Snake Big Boss Gray Fox Revolver Ocelot Raiden Related articles Metal Gear (weapon) List of media HD Collection Kojima Productions Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy (fan film) DreamMix TV World Fighters Super Smash Bros. Brawl Book:Metal Gear series  · Category:Metal Gear  · Portal:Video games