EVA (Metal Gear)

EVA
Metal Gear character
First game	Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)[1]
Created by	Hideo Kojima
Designed by	Yoji Shinkawa
Voiced by (English)	Suzetta Miñet (MGS3, MGSPW) Vanessa Marshall (MPO) Lee Meriwether (MGS4)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Misa Watanabe (MGS3, MPO, MGSPW) Mari Natsuki (MGS4)
Motion capture	Yumiko Daikoku (MGS3) Mao Yuuki (MGS4)
Fictional profile
Aliases	Tatyana Tanya Matka Pluku Big Mama
Nationality	American Chinese
Affiliations	The Philosophers PLA General Staff Department The Patriots Paradise Lost Army

EVA (エヴァ) is a character from the Metal Gear series. EVA is introduced in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in 2004, and appears in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Appearances

According to her backstory, EVA was born in Meridian, Idaho, on May 15, 1936. At some point in her childhood, prior to the advent of World War II, she, along with several other children across the world, were taken by the Philosophers secret world government conspiracy and raised in a joint U.S.-Soviet-Chinese facility, receiving spy training at one of the Philosophers "charm schools," so she could become a sleeper agent. As a result of this, she was indistinguishable from any other native-born American. She eventually joined The Second Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Staff Headquarters, responsible for collecting military intelligence. There, she learned techniques such as "bandit shooting," a horizontal sweep using the Shanxi Type 17 handgun.

EVA first appears in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, set in 1964, as a motorbike-riding supposed KGB female spy and a former NSA codebreaker who has defected to the Soviets along with ADAM (Revolver Ocelot). She uses her charm and good looks to win over the trust of Naked Snake and his Soviet enemies.^[2] EVA wants to kill Ocelot to avoid breaking her cover, but is stopped by Snake, who starts to like him. Later, EVA infiltrates Colonel Volgin's GRU base through the disguise of being Sokolov's lover named Tatyana (タチアナ, Tachiana) and assists Naked Snake;^[3] "Tatyana" is tortured by Volgin with electric shocks in order to coerce an uncooperative Sokolov into completing the Shagohod's development and Volgin decided to have her "entertain" him. Throughout their respective missions, EVA and Snake began to develop romantic feelings for one another, but Snake was initially hesitant. She helps Snake destroy the Shagohod, kill Volgin and reach the treasure called the Philosophers' Legacy so that she can later steal it from him, even seeming to fall in love with him. At one point, EVA was nearly killed by the Colonel until The Boss volunteered to execute her personally (in reality, The Boss was actually trying to get her out of harm's way). After the mission is completed, EVA and Snake have a one-night stand, but she could not bring herself to carry out the order of assassinating Snake, as she promised The Boss she would not. Instead, she flees with what she believes to be a Philosophers' Legacy (half of it, the other taken by Ocelot and the CIA) as well as with intelligence data that leads to the breakthrough in the Chinese nuclear weapons program. After Snake awakens the next morning, he discovers a tape EVA has left revealing all her secrets. The epilogue prior to the credits goes on to state that EVA disappeared in Hanoi, North Vietnam, during the Vietnam War in 1968.^[4]

EVA reappears in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops as a recruitable character by completing a series of optional missions.^[5] In 1971, Big Boss (Naked Snake) and EVA reconciled after he tracked her down and rescued her in Hanoi. He invited her to become a founding member of the Patriots conspiracy along with himself, Zero, Para-Medic (Dr. Clark), Sigint, and Ocelot. At some point, she also discovered Ocelot's codename of Adam and reconciled with him too. In 1972, EVA volunteered to serve as a surrogate mother in Les Enfants Terribles, a project designed to clone Big Boss and maintain his image as an icon for the organization. She was originally implanted with eight clone fetuses, though six were intentionally aborted in order to encourage stronger growth in the remaining two. EVA later gave birth to the clones, who would become known as Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. Despite the fact that Big Boss disapproved, and eventually left the group in opposition to Zero's methods,^[6] EVA saw the clones as her own children.

While not making a direct appearance in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, EVA would remain in contact with Big Boss, passing on cassette tape recordings to his private military company, the Militaires Sans Frontieres in 1974. In them, she detailed further information on The Boss's final mission, and the motivations behind her actions, having been entrusted to pass this on to him. These tapes were later supplied to Big Boss with no return address except with the name EVA, with Big Boss hesitantly explaining that she was an "old acquaintance."

In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which is set in 2014, 50 years after the events of MGS3, she appears under the identity of Big Mama (ビッグ・ママ, Biggu Mama) (also called Matka Pluku, Czech for "Mother of the Regiment") as the leader of the Paradise Lost Army resistance movement against The Patriots. It is revealed that she was fired from her job as a spy after her failed mission in the previous game and was recruited by Big Boss to form part of the Patriots.^[7] She assists Solid Snake in Eastern Europe. At one point, EVA, in an exhausted and hallucinatory state, threw herself into the fire in order to save the corpse of Big Boss. Snake saved her from Liquid Ocelot's gunshot but badly burnt the left side of his face in the process. EVA ultimately dies due to coming into contact with the FOXDIE virus carried in Snake's body, although it initially appeared as if she died from injuries inflicted on her by the fire and when she fell off her motorbike during a pursuit of her and Snake by Raging Raven.^[8]

In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Ocelot says that Major Zero tasked EVA to arrange Big Boss' confinement at a hospital in Cyprus after the XOF attack on Mother Base.

EVA and Olga Gurlukovich's outfits can be used as costumes in Rumble Roses XX.^[9] EVA also makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an obtainable sticker, usable exclusively by Solid Snake in The Subspace Emissary.

Character design

EVA's character model was based by Hideo Kojima on a gravure idol he liked ("○○里", possibly meaning Chisato Morishita (森下 千里)),^[10] and her personality traits were inspired by Fujiko Mine from Lupin III.^[11] He also said: "On Eva's back are signs of torture. There are burn marks and cut marks, as well as some very old scars. The Colonel interrogated her with 'hentai play' (変態プレイ)." According to Kojima, EVA's character was disliked by the English voice actors for her personality.^[10] The defection of NSA codebreakers ADAM and EVA is based on a real life incident in September 1960. EVA's alias, Tatyana, is the name of Tatiana Romanova, the Bond Girl in From Russia with Love. Although Laughing Octopus is the first character to use the word "fuck" in the English version of the series, it was first used by EVA in the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid 3, when she says "fuck you" in English to Volgin (this line was changed to "go to hell" during localization).

Reception

Eva was well received by media. GameTrailers listed her at number eight among top-ten "gamer babes" in 2007^[12] and Chip ranked her as the 14th-top "girl of gaming" in 2008.^[13] In 2007, Tom's Games included her among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history, proposing that she should be portrayed in a live-action adaptation by "Uma Thurman, because she's tall, blonde and built to kick ass."^[14] In 2011, 1UP.com instead proposed Gillian Jacobs, adding that "EVA proved herself as one of the games' smartest and craftiest characters, playing heroes and villains alike like oversized flesh fiddles."^[15] The scene between the "sexy" EVA, Snake, and Ocelot in MGS3 was ranked as fifth on the 2010 list of the most Metal Gear amazing cutscenes by Joystick Division.^[16]

Multiple publications noted the character for her sex appeal. EVA was chosen as "the perfect one to top the list" of the "PlayStation 2 babes" by Chris Reiter of Gaming Target in 2005^[17] and ranked as the "43rd-hottest game babe" on all platforms by GameDaily in 2008.^[18] TF1 ranked her as 14th on their list of the sexiest video game characters to cosplay.^[19] In 2011, she was included on the list of the top 50 "video game hotties" by UGO, who called her "the epitome of a Bond girl when she shows up in MGS3."^[20] UGO later also included her on their 2012's list of 99 "hottest" fictional women in all media.^[21] That same year, GamerBliss ranked her as the third-sexiest "woman of gaming".^[22] PLAY put her undergarment in MGS3 as second on their list of top bras in games, commenting that few of them "can have been so gratuitously exposed as this one. Kojima truly is a genius."^[23]

References