Metal Gear Solid 5 was very different from its predecessors as it opted for a more open-world gameplay style while getting rid of staples of the series like the constant thirty-minute cutscenes and David Hayter's grizzled tones.
Despite moving away from what people expect from a Metal Gear game, it still managed to be popular with fans and critics mainly due to its amazing gameplay.
However, the game's brilliance didn't stop it being the last Metal Gear Solid made by Hideo Kojima, following the creator's well-documented break up with Konami. Fans to this day still show their appreciation for Kojima and his game largely in the form of memes, ten of which you'll find on this list.
10 Quiet Can Handle It
Many MGSV players were guilty of this, as sending Quiet to a location and instructing her to tranquilize or kill everyone there just made things easier. After years of sneaking around bases and jungles alone with minimal ammo, it was nice to have someone else do a lot of the work. Also, there's an abundance of ops to complete in the game, so Big Boss needs a rest or two.
Unfortunately, the game doesn't provide a folding chair or beer, but at least Snake has plenty of great music to listen to due to the mountains of cassette tapes everywhere.
9 From Here On Out, You're Principal Skinner
A South Park episode once pointed out that The Simpsons has been on TV so long that they've done everything already well that includes the plot of The Phantom Pain. MGS5's big reveal that Venom Snake isn't the original Big Boss is similar to when Principal Skinner confesses that his old friend is the real Seymour Skinner.
Big Boss even rides away on a bike while wearing a leather jacket like Skinner in this meme, and he probably also said, "Up yours, children" when he heard about the Les Enfants Terribles project. They even share similar reputations, as neither twist was universally beloved by their respective fanbases.
8 Only Way They'll Learn
Mother Base was always filled with a litany of loyal employees ready to help Snake with anything he wanted, unfortunately for them, in the wrong hands, Snake becomes the worst boss ever.
It was just so tempting to mess with all the NPCs that were walking around minding their own business. In real life, driving into your employees or firing tranquilizers into their heads would be horrible, but in a video game, it is hilarious.
So be thankful that as mad as your boss gets at least they're not constantly choking you out just for greeting them, and if they are, then you should look for a new job.
7 All Video Games Are Beautiful
Somehow Mass Effect: Andromeda (depicted as "you" in this meme) came out a whole two years AFTER Metal Gear Solid V. The latest Mass Effect game was heavily criticized for its character faces and when put next to Quiet it's easy to see why.
You could try to defend Andromeda by mentioning that players create their character so it isn't going to look as good, however, the face shown in the meme is the default one. As this is a Metal Gear Solid list (not a Mass Effect one), it would be wrong to not acknowledge the incredible job Kojima's team did making Quiet look so lifelike.
6 The Worst Type Of Criminal
Your parents putting snacks into your backpack to avoid paying cinema prices was a lot of people's first experience with criminal activity. As a kid, it likely made you feel like Kaz in this meme, thinking it was some incredibly heinous crime you were committing.
With cinema snacks continuing to get more expensive, many people carry on living outside of the movie-going laws when they get to adulthood. Luckily for Diamond Dogs, if they ever went on a cinema trip, they have multiple stealth operatives that could easily sneak in snacks without being seen.
5 The Ultimate Fantasy
Regardless of gender, that bottom image is a fantasy. Not enough has been written about how gaming's advancements in graphics have made video game dogs cuter. The most adorable moment in gaming history occurred when little D-Dog first came bundling up to Snake.
The only issue was when it came to choosing who to take on missions with you, because as previously mentioned, Quiet was amazing at taking out every guard in sight, but D-Dog was such a good boy that you wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.
4 Kaz's Hard Life
The Metal Gear Solid franchise includes plenty of characters who can't catch a break. Everyone Otacon loves keeps dying, and Raiden has a deeply tragic past that he can't get over.
Kaz fits perfectly into the down on your luck club, as in Phantom Pain alone, he lost his right arm and left leg. Also, nobody even informed him that Venom Snake wasn't the real Big Boss, so he was deceived by his close friend all throughout the fifth game.
Even after the events of the MGS5, it doesn't get better for Kaz as he gets killed a few days before the Shadow Moses incident, a moment that wasn't even depicted on screen.
3 Even His Wife Prefers His Son
Huey Emmerich has also had a difficult life, but the difference between him and the others is that he also tries to ruin everyone else's life too, hence the meme.
The inspection he pushed for was the reason the MSF base got destroyed, he caused a parasite outbreak on Mother Base to test it before he sold it to Diamond Dogs' greatest enemy Cipher, and he killed Dr. Strangelove. It's like Kojima wanted fans to hate Huey so that they wouldn't turn on his son Otacon for sleeping with his wife.
2 Konami Taking Credit
Metal Gear Solid V brought an end to the relationship between Hideo Kojima and Konami. Fans did not hide their allegiances as nearly everyone sided with Kojima. This serious business decision inspired a host of memes, with many following the formula of Konami taking all the credit for the franchise.
Konami having the rights to Metal Gear did allow them to prove memes like this one wrong and show that they were the real masterminds behind the series, however, they ended up making pachinko machines and Metal Gear Survive instead.
1 Big Boss' Voice Transplant
This meme does amusingly identify a flaw in the Metal Gear Solid fanbase's logic, as Richard Doyle's portrayal as Big Boss shows that the character isn't tied to David Hayter. However, when Big Boss arrived to talk to Old Snake during Metal Gear Solid 4, fans were too busy wetting themselves with excitement to really care about his voice.
In the end, the controversy didn't really matter as Kiefer Sutherland barely said anything in the fifth game anyway, leaving the talking to Ocelot and Kaz. Having an essentially mute David Hayter might have hurt more than him not being there at all.