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Liquid Ocelot wore sunglasses while operating in the Middle East.

Sunglasses, informally referred to as shades, are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes, via lenses that are colored, polarized or darkened. Sunglasses can also be worn to hide one's eyes, such as those with severe visual impairment, who may wear them to avoid making others uncomfortable. Sunglasses come in a variety of forms, including aviator sunglasses and sun visors.

Usage

EVA, when leaving from the cabin in Alaska during the aftermath of Operation Snake Eater, wore sunglasses. Kazuhira Miller, also known as Master Miller, was known to wear aviator sunglasses most of the time, even wearing them in instances of low lighting, such as indoors or while driving in a thunderstorm, largely because he possessed photosensitivity.[1] Strangelove also wore sunglasses during the Peace Walker Incident, apparently due to her albinism. Several of the soldiers under the employ of the CIA mercenary group Peace Sentinel also wore sunglasses while indoors. When not wearing military uniforms or any actual uniforms, such as swimwear or a tuxedo, the Militaires Sans Frontières members frequently wore sunglasses.

Warning: The following events occur in the pseudo-historical Side Ops in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes; its level of canonicity is ambiguous.

In addition, Glaz, a member of a sniper assassination team and Marine, wore sunglasses in 1974, due to having replaced his own eye with a glass one as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the Laotian Civil War. The Intel Team member Hideo, during his Intel team mission at the Naval prison facility in Cuba as well as his emergency extraction on December 7, 1974, wore sunglasses due to having earlier sent his regular glasses to Big Boss.

Side Ops information ends here.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain may follow.

During the events of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Ocelot proceeded to wear sunglasses. Some soldiers on the battlefield also wore Aviator sunglasses, such as the Wakh Sind Platoon commander and the leader of Rogue Coyote known only as The Major.

Spoilers end here.

In 2014, Liquid Ocelot wore sunglasses during his business operations with the PMC mother company Outer Heaven. Soldiers from one of these PMCs, the French-based PMC Pieuvre Armement, also had several of its members wearing sunglasses. Johnny Sasaki, going by the codename Akiba, also wore sunglasses. Even after ditching the balaclava, he still retained the sunglasses.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

In 2018, during Maverick's mission in Africa, Raiden also wore sunglasses while meeting with the Prime Minister, complete with a suit. However, he discarded them when fighting cyborgs that ambushed them. The Gemini cyborg bodyguards wore sunglasses. The security guard manning the check-in station for Solis Space & Aeronautics wore aviator sunglasses.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Behind the scenes

In Metal Gear Solid, Liquid Snake wore sunglasses while disguising himself as Master Miller, something he also briefly referenced to Solid Snake when the latter escaped from a death trap when the ruse was exposed. However, it is unclear as to whether it actually occurred or if it was one of the Metal Gear series standard fourth wall breaks due to the Codec being an audio device.

In the non-canon Game Boy Color game Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, titled Metal Gear Solid outside of Japan, the character Marionette Owl wore sunglasses due to his natural nightvision having the disadvantageous side-effect of causing his eyes to shine in the dark and thus give away his position otherwise.

MGS2 sunglasses

Raiden and Snake wearing sunglasses in Metal Gear Solid 2.

In both the "Grand Game Plan" and script for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, as well as the McFarlane Toys action figure for Fortune, the Dead Cell members were to have worn shades that they would remove right before battle, although this was cut from the final version to avoid being mistaken for copying the then-recently released 1999 cyberpunk film The Matrix.[2] In the Japanese and European versions of the game, completing the game twice will result in both Snake and Raiden wearing sunglasses during the third playthrough, and then in every second playthrough thereafter. Raiden's sunglasses are roughly square-shaped with bright orange lenses, while Snake's sunglasses are prism-shaped with dark lenses.

In Metal Gear Online, the player could unlock Liquid Ocelot's and Johnny Sasaki's respective sunglasses with enough DP.

In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the soldiers for MSF, if the player selected for them to wear swimwear or a tuxedo, will wear sunglasses in place of the balaclava. The female soldiers will resemble Strangelove if the tuxedo is chosen.

The French eyewear company J.F. Rey Eyewear Design is doing a collaborative effort with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to create eyewear, two of which are based on the sunglasses Kazuhira Miller and Ocelot are wearing in the game. Miller's sunglasses, called Kaz Gear, have three versions, while Ocelot's sunglasses, called Ocelot Gear, have two versions.

On August 3, Kojima tweeted that the wing of Kazuhira Miller's sunglasses have the logo for the game on them.[3]

Notes and references

  1. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/42cnak/so_looks_like_kaz/
  2. ^ http://www.metalgearsolid.net/features/yoji-shinkawa-interview
    KCEJ: She [Fortune] is wearing shades here, unlike in the game. // Yoji Shinkawa: In the beginning, all of them [Dead Cell] wore sunglasses. They were supposed to remove them right before battle. Then we saw "The Matrix" and everyone in that movie were wearing sunglasses. We didn't want to do something someone else has already done.
  3. ^ https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/628217229071364096
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