The Boss (a.k.a. The Joy) is a legendary American soldier, founder and leader of the Cobra unit, and is known as the mother of the U.S. special forces. She was born in 1922.She is known in Russia as Voyevoda, literally meaning The Warlord. 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 and 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 baby was taken by the Philosophers and would later grow up to be Revolver Ocelot.
The Boss is Naked Snake's mentor; he saw her as a mother-figure and she saw him as the son she never got to raise. The Boss and Snake took on numerous missions for the ten years they were together, and the two of them are responsible for creating CQC. During the events of The Virtuous Mission, The Boss defects to the Soviet Union and joins Colonel Volgin's renegade faction, becoming the lead instigator in the events that led to Operation Snake Eater. She serves as one of the game's main antagonists and as the final boss. Shortly after returning to the States, Snake learns from EVA that the Boss had not defected, but was actually undercover and had willingly and knowingly sacrificed her life and reputation to benefit America.
Despite her death, the Boss' ideal (or what is perceived of it) greatly influenced the events of the world of Metal Gear. Her ideal formed the basis of the Patriots, until Big Boss decided that the Patriots no longer follow her ideals, and formed Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land. In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Big Boss remarks sorrowfully that her death has greatly affected him to that point, going as far as to comment that the day she died is the day he died as well.
