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This article is about the titular organization. You may be looking for the video game, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Sons of Liberty flag

The Sons of Liberty flag, viewed on the Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge of the Big Shell.

The Sons of Liberty were a terrorist group led by Solidus Snake in 2009. Other members included Revolver Ocelot, Fortune, Vamp, Fatman, and Olga Gurlukovich.

The Manhattan Incident[]

See also: Tanker Incident and the Big Shell Incident

On April 29, 2009, the Sons of Liberty took control of the Big Shell offshore oil cleanup facility off the coast of Manhattan. After assuming command of the facility, they appropriated the secretly-developed Arsenal Gear warship and its artificial intelligence program GW. Solidus planned to decode GW in order to discover the Patriots' identities and launch a nuclear weapon in the skies above Manhattan, thus causing a gigantic electromagnetic pulse – effectively "unplugging" Manhattan and leading it to become a free republic. However, the entire plan was being manipulated by the Patriots' intervention through their agent, Revolver Ocelot.

20111008011836!Solidus Snake

The Sons of Liberty's logo as seen on Solidus Snake's battle suit.

Thirty hostages (including Richard Ames and President Johnson) were being held captive in the Big Shell. Solidus allegedly demanded a massive ransom, or he would detonate the Shell and therefore horribly contaminate the ecosystem beyond immediate repair. Special forces agent Raiden was sent in to thwart the plot. In reality, Raiden was sent in by the Patriots as the entire event was scripted and manipulated by the Patriots to mold Raiden into the perfect soldier (much like Solid Snake) as part of their plot to control humanity. Also, the Sons of Liberty never demanded the ransom of thirty billion dollars to begin with. At one point in the mission, the Colonel contacted Raiden informing him that the Sons of Liberty had killed one of the hostages, but Ames later revealed that they had not killed any of them by that point.

Raiden later rescued GW's programmer, Emma Emmerich, convincing her that he was not a member of the Sons of Liberty due to his possession of internal nanomachines. However, the terrorists had no further use for her, and to prevent her from infecting GW with a worm cluster, Dead Cell member Vamp fatally wounded her.

After Arsenal Gear's destruction, nearly every member of the Sons of Liberty group was killed, except for Vamp, Revolver Ocelot, and Johnny Sasaki.

Members[]

Military resources[]

Inspiration[]

The Sons of Liberty were named after the colonial Sons of Liberty, a group of American Patriots that attacked the apparatus and symbols of the British Empire's authority and power through both words and deeds. Even today, the Sons of Liberty are used as a symbol of the American spirit and what is possible if one only believes.

The Sons of Liberty's flag was also inspired by flags used during the American Revolution (1776 - 1783). The 13 strips on the flag represent the original 13 Colonies and resembles the colonial Sons of Liberty flag used by American merchant ships during the Revolutionary War. The rattlesnake on the flag is also a symbol of the Revolutionary War (though it may also be a reference to Solidus Snake). It was inspired by the revolutionary "Rattlesnake Flags", created in 1775 and contained the slogans "Liberty or Death" and "Don't Tread on Me." The original rattlesnake flag itself was created by Benjamin Franklin in 1754.

Behind the scenes[]

Metal Gear series (11)

Clockwise from top: Vamp, Fatman, Solidus Snake and Fortune.

In the Metal Gear Solid 2 Grand Game Plan, units within the Sons of Liberty (自由の息子達?) were given the names of "legion" and "phalanx." The game was also to include Aquatic Troops and Heavily Armed Mechanized High-Tech Troops (which presumably became the Arsenal Tengu soldiers and the High-Tech soldier Attack Teams in the final version). Their demand was originally supposed to be the release of the Genome Army, imprisoned after 2005.[1]

Although the Sons of Liberty itself does not appear in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, its ideals are somewhat referenced with Steven Armstrong, a U.S. Senator representing Colorado, who planned to instigate a new American Revolution in order to reawaken the American Dream, as he felt the Tea Party Movement was not accomplishing it enough.

See also[]

Notes and references[]

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