Can somebody tell how Roy Campbell isn't a founding member of the Patriots or how he wasn't the first person Big Boss recruited when he went broke away for Zero? Also, Gray Fox should have been among the first recruited by Big Boss when breaking away from the Patriots.
Obviously Campbell wasnt recruited and Big Boss didnt want him to be part of them. Or it was not up to him. Ocelot and Zero decided for Big Boss to join anyways. He wasnt exactly part of the planners.
I didnt play the original Metal Gear games, but my question is why was Campbell against Big Boss' plans in the first titles.
This suggests that Campbell never knew BB was one of the original Patriots or that Patriots existed at the beginning. He thought of BB as a retaliative who tried to establish a new order that threatened the balance of the old one, so he was forced to do something as a tool of the government (or the Patriots).
Snake being a clone would have been obvious to alot of people as Big Boss was considered a national hero and a legendary soldier. This had to be one of the worst kept secrets in the series yet it takes Snake a decade after being recruited by Foxhound for him to find out. Question to Big Boss. Who in their right mind would send a clone of himself after himself?
The best explanation I can give is that most met the face of Big Boss when he was old. Also Big Boss's retaliation may have spoiled his name before he would become an established national symbol to the masses. The game also hints that he was mostly known in military cycles not to every common citizen.
Snake was a less known figure though, since he acted secretly behind "curtains". Big Boss was a known quantity, Snake wasnt.
Big Boss didnt want his clones. He despised his clones, which was Zero's work. He probably would have attracted Snake towards him to take one of his clones out, who he knew was a tool of the Patriots.
The second worst kept secret has to be the Patriots themselves. Just about everyone outside of Snake and Octagon are aware of the presence of the Patroits and who is really running the world except the most important character of the series. Every antagonist of the Metal Gears series has known of the Patriots, yet it takes years for Snake to find out and he really never breaks free from their control. For all the dialogue Snake is forced to hear by his enemies, you think the line "You're working for the wrong side!!!" should of came up a couple of dozen times.
Not everyone. Key characters and select few only knew. Not even Meryl (and probably not even Campbell) knew. Only those that were in high governmental positions, those that retaliated with Big Boss, those who worked for Solidus and some who worked for Liquid seemed to know. Which were some of the few that were aware of them and so tried to take the Patriots down.
Snake was an important character but he was simultaneously a tragic character and a tool that was used by the patriots. He who didnt know was sent to fight those few that knew. So he ended up in an environment where he was the one that was aware of the least.
It was kind of expected that he would be one of the few that wouldnt know until MGS2.