Headscratchers / Metal Gear Solid V

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• Why does Skull face wears a domino mask? To protect his identity, so nobody could discern a man with most his face burned down like a skull from another?
  • To hide the fact that he too is infected with the parasite, which manifests itself as dark patches around the eyes - like Quiet's. That it fits his cowboy theme is probably a plus.

• During the game we learn that a certain psychic child is able to control Sahelanthropus with his powers. If the psychic child is in fact the same character as Mantis from Metal Gear Solid 1 (as we are led to believe), why did he not utilise his abilities to control REX at Shadow Moses? Even if Mantis was dead by the time Ocelot and Liquid manipulate Solid Snake into activating it for them, the entire premise of their plan was ALREADY based upon relying on Solid to activate REX. Why rely on an elaborate gambit roulette when you already have someone with such a convinient ability on your side? To add to the confusion, Liquid already knows of (and has already taken advantage of) Mantis's said abilities. Unless it's explained why Mantis is not using this ability by the time of the Shadow Moses incident, Kojima has inadvertantly punched a gaping plot hole into the narrative of MGS 1.
  • Foxhound were all manipulated into their role during Shadow Moses at the behest of Ocelot, ostensibly doing it for George Sears/Solidus Snake, supposedly really doing it for the Patriots, but actually doing it to clean up shop and take down the Patriots. Given Foxhound's medical staff included Naomi 'I'm going to alter your nanomachines to kill you' Hunter and resulted in a project like that of the Cyborg Ninja, maybe Foxhound underwent extensive therapy/manipulation to limit the damage they would cause.
  • REX also is fully designed to use a cockpit with a pilot while Sahelanthropus had AI functions with the cockpit as a secondary feature. You could infer that Mantis was able to control it through the mind like AI but couldn't control REX's more manual systems easily.
  • The dialogue between Huey and Skull Face seemed to imply that it was specifically designed to be controlled that way. Note how much Huey protests about the lack of control options and Skull Face just blows him off. It seems the cockpit was designed to be secondary.

• So, at the beginning of the MGSV trailer with "Not Your Kind Of People", there's a bit where we see Big Boss go into a coma with Miller next to him. As the doctors fail to completely resuscitate him, Miller (obviously in despair) glances at the camera (i.e. us) and says "What about him?", and the doctors all begin to look towards the viewer's direction. Was that scene supposed to be from the point of view of a character? Because the rest of trailer has similar scenes, but those are from the point of view of Big Boss himself.
  • It's probably Ishmael's point of view, considering he says he'd been watching Big Boss for his whole comatose period.
  • According to Hideo himself, it's Hideo himself. Since it's easy enough to recruit in Peace Walker he's no doubt on Mother Base during XOF's assault, and you can bet that Kaz and Snake are going to be rescuing the god of their world. Now to be a bit more serious here, both Ishmael and Big Boss share the same VO (Kiether Sutherland), so he might actually be a hallucination. I hate to be that guy but this isn't technically a headscratcher since the answer will be obvious once the game comes out (unless it's not).
  • In actuality, it's the Medic from Ground Zeroes. This sequence is part of the "Truth: The Man Who Sold The World" flashback/true ending, and explains why the Medic was transformed into Big Boss at the beginning of Phantom Pain.

• The XOF patches. Why dump them around the place where they can be found if you're appearing to be a black ops unit that doesn't exist?
  • It's subtle, but there's some Gameplay and Story Segregation there - the cutscene where they're released shows the patches flying in roughly the same direction, falling into the ocean near the cliff Big Boss climbs. Their status as collectibles doesn't seem to tie in to the story - Miller even lampshades it the first few times you pick one up, berating Snake for not focusing on the mission. Alternatively, it could be Gameplay and Story Integration as part of Skull Face's mysterious Xanatos Gambit involving Big Boss and Chiper.
    • Well to be fair to Skull Face they were headed off to go destroy Mother Base, those patches having a resemblance to Big Boss's old unit would tip them off that something strange was about to happen. But of course that would raise an even bigger question of why a completely unofficial unit would even have identifying tags to begin with, especially if they don't want to hold onto them. One would want to assume that Skull Face dropped them off in his own facility so that Big Boss would find them, and that perhaps Big Boss finding and holding onto them has some significance.

• What is the emphasis on some of these missions being "top secret"? It even gets to the point that in a few of them Kaz points out that stealth should be emphasized because it's a "top secret black op". But why? Unless Big Boss still works for the US Government they have no one to report to or answer to, so why do they need to keep things quiet? In fact since they're an unofficial unit no one would even know where to come looking for them if they were to be noticed in a mission.
  • The undercover operative mission is stated to have been given to MSF by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff who Big Boss spoke with at the end of Peace Walker and that the MSF got a few U.S. government contracts thanks to preventing the nuclear launch. Since he's ordering Snake into a base staffed by U.S. Marines, it's understandable that he'd want as few of them killed as possible.
  • Big Boss is still wearing two patches (MSF and FOX) that would identify exactly who he is, and while MSF is an independent organisation infiltrating a military base would put you on the top of the U.S. military's shit list.
  • There's also the fact that the main mission and a few of the side ops are rescue missions. You never know what the enemy will do to any of the prisoners at the first sign of trouble in any situation. They have to go in thinking that if they are detected, their target will be killed. For gameplay reasons they aren't, but it can be easily seen once you rescue Paz. On one playthrough I was out of ammo for my sidearm and carrying her, so I was trying to run and what did they do? Instead of shooting me they shot her and mission failed. Even answering to no one, and even if the operative is a legendary soldier who can handle himself, none of that matters if the very reason you went on a mission in the first place is eliminated because that's morale breaker, a time waster, and a waste of resources. Stealth is best in these situations and the "top secret" part is just to help nail it in since it rarely shows up in gameplay.

• Has there ever been a justified reason as to why Big Boss has his knife back instead of the stun rod?
  • Might boil down to censorship issues. Peace Walker was heavily bowdlerized in Japan because it was on a handheld (and thus "for kids") - most notably changing the electric torture scene to Snake being tickled with "laughing rods" - and some of those censors made it into international releases as well. It's possible that the stun rod was one of those censors, and that for all intents and purposes, Snake has been using a knife (or knife-like object) all along.
  • Personally, the whole use of the stun rod to begin with was a headscratcher for me, as in Snake Eater (and even, to a lesser extent, Portable Ops), the knife was integral to CQC (to the point where you couldn't use CQC when captured due to not having a knife). Going back to the knife makes a lot more sense especially when threatening someone with a stun rod in the same way as with a knife by use of the game mechanics, as it's a good way to electrocute yourself as well.

• Regarding the CQC, would some of the slams Big Boss uses really be that effective in knocking an opponent out? I know slams and suplexes can be very incapacitating due to internal injuries to the brain and other organs. But a lot Big Boss's CQC take-downs resemble either particularly forceful tripping/sweeping maneuvers or even shoves. While I can buy these incapacitating an opponent in a "too injured/in pain to fight effectively" kind of way, I can't really see them knocking an opponent unconscious so that he is unable to call or radio for help, particularly as many of these attacks don't even seem to target the opponents head.
  • The wind could be knocked out of them, temporarily cutting off oxygen to the brain, knocking them out. Big Boss is probably well aware how to do this reliably without damaging the head, thus reducing the risk of brain damage from blunt force trauma.
  • Taking them out via CQC throws doesn't put them down for that long all things considered, so it's less them being knocked out and more they're knocked silly and unable to move until they regain their senses. That doesn't explain why they go completely still, but it would explain why some they're unable to take any kind of action.

• A dumb/minor one. What would Raiden do with/need the XOF patches for?
  • He knows how the FOX/XOF showdown ends and goes down in history, so he's looking to grab some historic merchandise and then sell them for massive profits in his own time.
  • Jamais Vu takes place in an alternate timeline, so presumably it makes sense in a completely different version of Metal Gear's convoluted story that we don't get to see.

• Okay, I was rewatching the trailers a couple of minutes ago, and I'm still baffled with the horn/rock on the side of Big Boss' forehead. What the flying fuck is it doing there? And why won't he take it out?
  • It's shrapnel, presumably from the helicopter we see incoming immediately in Ground Zeroes' ending or from the subsequent crash which will presumably be part of Phantom Pain's prologue. Chances are it can't be removed without damaging his skull further - although it's clearly removed by the time of Metal Gear/Metal Gear 2 - and it's stated that the shrapnel has essentially contributed to the bag-of-spilling nature of Big Boss losing some of his skills, particularly that of language, implying it could have caused brain damage.
  • Oh, so it's shrapnel. Is it also meant to symbolize Big Boss' descent into darkness? Considering that, at some angle, the really do resemble Devil horns.
    • "Kaz... I'm already a demon." along with those shots of Big Boss doused in blood and looking like he's spewing smoke in the 'Nuclear' trailer are your answer. So.. Yeah, pretty much. However much you consider Big Boss to be the lesser of two evils when he - much like his own children - has been prodded into the role he occupies is a real YMMV, but.. Absolutely. This game ends with Big Boss as the Villain Protagonist, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a neat Call-Forward to the Outer Heaven of the 90's, complete with old, white-haired, trench-coated Big Boss, for he epilogue.
  • At the beginning of the game the doctor intends to provide plastic surgery for Big Boss for him to look like a different person. Now that would have to involve at least shaving down the shrapnel enough for it to not protrude since changing his face would be pointless with such an obvious distinguishing mark. So obviously they can take care of that shrapnel safely. Now the question is, why haven't they done that at any point during the previous nine years?

• How can Skull Face quote Big Boss so readily? It's one thing to have a general psyche profile of an agent, and even to have a brief overview of the mission they went on, but to have specific quotes of what the man said would require pin point accuracy on his spies/double agents. Most troubling of all is the quotes that Big Boss directed to Chico, said in a shack isolated in the middle of the wilderness with no one else around for miles. Only two people on Earth could possibly have heard Big Boss say those words, Chico and Big Boss himself. How the hell does Skull Face know?
  • You've answered your own question. While not tortured as thoroughly or horribly as Paz - just about - Skull Face still tortured Chico extensively... And Chico, as per Peace Walker, has a habit of caving in and talking under pressure. That's why he was so afraid of Big Boss when he's approached in his cage - he thinks Big Boss is there to kill him because he's essentially betrayed that second life Big Boss gave him in that shack in Costa Rica. So Chico spilled - just like Paz did, as per the finale of Ground Zeroes.
    • But what about the Extra Ops missions? In one of them Big Boss can extract a Mother Base POW, and he talks about how Cipher's multi-national spy ring interrogated him but never broke him; however Skull Face was the only one who came close to breaking him because he quoted Big Boss's words to him. Chronologically those Extra Ops missions take place BEFORE Ground Zeroes. Or are they not meant to be canon?
    • I think the Extra Ops missions have to be approached with a grain of salt (much like some of the missions in Peace Walker, where canon was debatable for a number of missions), given they involve repeated assaults and infiltrations of the same base over and over, which would make the mission of finding Chico and Paz impossible. I'm also pretty sure Skull Face had Chico for a prolonged period, meaning he could have gotten what he needed out of Chico and then continued interrogating other POW's. Again, he was clearly done with Chico after a point, and Skull Face's final visit to his cage before leaving was basically one final turning of the screw to make him think Paz was dead. So.. Yeah. Either the approach is 'non-canon' or 'Skull Face was performing multiple interrogations at once'.
    • They're outright stated to be "Pseudo-Historical Recreations", making them Broad Strokes. Some of them may have happened in different locations or had different outcomes.
    • Furthermore, Chico is just a kid who has had zero training to resist interrogation, let alone torture. There's a whole order of difference between a scared kid in over his head, and an adult MSF operative who has specialized training in how to withstand pain.
  • The Phantom Pain explains that Skull Face has such in depth knowledge of Big Boss because XOF used to be a covert support unit for FOX, so Skull Face was basically Big Boss' shadow for years.
  • There are also numerous instances of characters quoting eachother on accident in all of Metal Gear. It may simply be a parallel in the writing, not a deliberate quote on Skull Face's part.

• Why do the Diamond Dogs need to recruit a Russian translator when Ocelot was already an officer in Spetsnaz?
  • Word of Giantbomb says the game has Ocelot explaining the special skills needed to be an interpreter and that he doesn't have them. The difference between an interpreter and translator is the big distinction here. Ocelot could probably translate Russian to English roughly but they need someone who can convey the right nuances.
  • Because being a translator is a full-time role and Ocelot has other duties to perform for Diamond Dogs.
  • Considering that he's on the other end of the radio to offer advice, surely he could translate while he's there.
    • Even a professional translator needs to be very concentrated to do a real-time translation of a restrained and potentially confused person. Ocelot, being busy giving Snake advice, training men and maybe, even, doing paperwork, probably doesn't have the time to translate what every single soldier Snake interrogates on the field says.
  • Fluency in the language does not automatically mean one is a good interpreter. An interpreter needs to be an expert in multiple languages and be able to do context sensitive translations: for example, in Malaysia, trying to order cold water with "air sejuk" (cold water) gets you blank looks, you need to order "ais kosong" (empty ice). "Air sejuk" is the "correct" translation, but it's not the term used locally.
  • Ocelot confirms from the very first mission in Afghanistan that while he speaks Russian, there's a major difference between speaking it and acting as an interpreter for another person.
  • For the same reason that speaking english doesn't automatically makes a person qualified to teach english. As someone who speaks 2 languages (Spanish and English) this troper can verify that being fluent in a language doesn't qualify you to act as translator. Translating for yourself is easy, translating for someone else in real time is most certainly not. Ocelot speaks russian, fair enough, but he's never had the training or practice or experience required to act as an interpreter and translator in real time. He could easily translate a document in russian for Big Boss without breaking a sweat, but translating a conversation happening right now is a much taller order. Notice how when you're securing a translator, the game makes a point to refer to them as language specialists as opposed to just a soldier that happens to speak 2 languages. They're not the same thing.

• Coming from a series of games featuring, in no particular order, a psychic s&m adept, a bisexual vampire flamenco dancer, and more recently, a François Hollande lookalike who hulk out to fight a cyborg ninja, you'd think I'd be a little more accepting of weird stuff just happening in this installment.
  • But how the fuck did Paz manage to stand up and make a few steps to perform her heroic sacrifice?
    • First she fall into the ocean, from quite high I may add, stay for, what, hours, days? Following that she's hauled to the club med from hell, get the living shit tortured out of her literally mentally and physically for days, by a guy who is pretty much the anthropomorphic personification of torture in its purest form. Seriously, Skullface make Ocelot look like Fluttershy in comparison. While said torture is going on, a good chunk of her vital organs are removed, to make place for a decoy bomb ya see, and she's stitched close with something that a drunk veterinarian wouldn't manage if he tried to, and then she's reopened without anesthetic in a hurry to remove said decoy bomb. It's a major miracle she didn't die halfway trough that ordeal, never mind how she also survived being carried by Snake like a sack of rotten potatoes. Her abdomen, by this point, could not have been more fucked up if she had catch an anti tank rocket with her belly, never mind the rest of her body. And after all of that, she literally bolt upright faster than most people can manage after a good night sleep. Shit, she even makes Liquid "indestructible" Snake look like a pansy who died of a paper cut.
    • Nanomachines, son.

• How is the Old Save Bonus from Ground Zeroes going to work in The Phantom Pain if Mother Base is destroyed? Where are all those extra prisoners and Marines I'm extracting being taken to if not Mother Base? Are they being held somewhere for safe keeping for 9 years until it can be reconstructed?
  • Same hospital that was willing to keep Big Boss for nine years?
  • Both Ocelot and Kaz appear to have done some work in maintaining whatever resources and personnel were left following the destruction of Mother Base in '75; given Big Boss was seemingly never one for the administrative/thinking role in MSF, and this simply makes it less jarring in terms of him getting right back into the game in '84. It's simple to assume that the marines and other prisoners got airlifted out either on the same flight as Big Boss (and simply survived the likely crash) or got to Mother Base and survived it being destroyed following a prior flight.
  • Since they thought the IAEA was inspecting them, they probably brought them to another location (the old shack on the Baranquilla coast maybe) as it would probably look a tad suspicious bringing unconscious marines on board during a nuclear inspection.
  • As the game explains, there were a number of MSF personnel who happened to be off base when Mother Base was attacked, and they all either went their own ways or eventually joined up with Diamond Dogs.

• Why is Snake still using binoculars? Seems like a monocular would be a smarter choice from at least a space-saving perspective.
  • Perhaps the electronics in the binos (assuming that they are electronic, given the analyser upgrade that will become available for them) require them to be that big.
  • Or the right lens tube has been replaced with a directional microphone. Would explain why you can zoom in on people and hear what they're saying; normal binoculars lack that function since both tubes are used, but when you're only using one tube, why not find something useful to do with the unused tube?
  • The "Int-scope" as the game calls it is a monocular.

• Why is Eli kept on Mother Base with total freedom of movement when he does nothing but cause problems, bully the African kids and regularly attack Snake and Diamond Dog staff?
  • It's explicitly stated in the audio tapes that Miller is a Friend to All Children, and therefore throws his weight around to allow Eli to get away with things that should have gotten him thrown overboard a dozen times over in a misguided attempt to treat Eli well.
  • In addition, Ocelot keeps insisting that Eli be isolated. It's only until definitive proof of Eli's crimes are discovered that Miller finally relents.

• If this man-made parasite was meant to eliminate every person that does not speak English, why should the people that speak English still not talk? Are they actually in danger even though it's been implied that they would survive?
  • Well first of all, the parasite isn't man-made, as explained in the briefing tapes and mentioned off-hand in several cutscenes. Second, Skull Face's plan was the exact opposite of what you described. The parasites were originally weaponized by Cipher as "ethnic cleanser" weapons to target non-english languages, but when Skull Face pulled off his coup and XOF took over, he revised the project to do the opposite, for various reasons mostly centered around a hatred for imperialism and the like. He used other languages as a testing ground and, presumably, as a deterrent against future opponents, while his end goal was to create an english-killing strain. Basically, whereas Cipher wanted to wipe out other languages and unite the world with english, Skull Face wanted to wipe out english and unite the world with an eternal arms race that he would hold a monopoly on.
    • And as for why English speakers still shouldn't speak even if they are infected with a non-English parasite, it's best to just not speak at all rather than risk accidentally activating them. This isn't brought up, but think about the loanwords. English speakers use foreign words quite often with most not realizing that the word isn't even English. Ninja, kindergarten, bazaar, detente, etc. Use those words and you'll easily activate the Japanese, German, Persian, and French strains respectively. Along with that is the fact that words can be misspoken and sound like other words, words that the parasites probably know. Finally, there's a risk of mutations, you never know when the offspring of a non-English speaking strain could be born mutated to be English speaking strains.

• What exactly is the point of, what has to be incredibly loud, music constantly blaring in Quiet's room on the medical platform? From a gameplay perspective I guess it does show all the tracks you can find a cassette of in game since all of the music is also on the cassettes, but from about from an in-universe reason for it all? Miller and/or Ocelot using the loud music to torture Quiet, sort of like the FBI did at Waco?
  • Or, maybe Quiet just likes to listen to music? She doesn't have much to do sitting around in that cell, after all.
    • That loud, though? It's so loud I can hear it quite clearly from pretty much anywhere on the medical platform.
  • I figured it was the soldiers' way of aggravating her. They can't directly interfere with Quiet so why not be really passive-aggressive about it via the magic of really loud music? That she doesn't seem to mind it, content to work on her tan, makes the situation extra hilarious.
  • Information deprivation, the same reason her cell is located beneath ground level on the medical platform. Especially when she was first captured, she was under suspicion of being a spy and was placed in what was essentially solitary confinement. She needed sunlight, so throwing her in the brig wasn't a viable option. Her cell was located below ground level so she couldn't observe the daily activity on Mother Base (an understandable risk given her visual acuity), and loud music played so she couldn't overhear anything said nearby; you can watch soldiers nearby carry on conversations near her cell, and Miller's paranoid enough not to expect the soldiers to always remember not to discuss sensitive information nearby.

• Why did Code Talker simply not tell Diamond Dogs that Quiet can speak perfectly fine in Navajo? It would have prevented quite a few problems?
  • Probably because he respected Quiet's request to keep it a secret. His loyalty is to his fellow Navajo first.
    • This, except that Quiet ISN'T a Navajo just because she can speak the language. Code Talker really just respects the choice, Navajo or not.

• Why does Kaz have white pupils by the end of the game? His eyes were fine when you rescue him (you can see this for yourself by laying him on the floor after rescuing him in the first mission and using your binoculars) and it is never explained why or how this may have happened at all in game.
  • The gameplay model might just be an oversight as his eyes are messed up elsewhere. It's eye injuries he received during his imprisonment, though can't quite remember where it's explained.

• Whatever happened to Metal Gear ZEKE? Did Skullface just leave a nuclear equipped superweapon sitting on the ocean floor? I'm surprised this was never brought up in the audio tapes.
  • It was probably left there, or parts may have been refitted for Sahelanthropus. That Huey explicitly mentions the Hybrid Pod tech taken from the Basilisk/Peace Walker suggests that Strangelove had that recovered while he pursued the bipedal technology seemingly from the ground up, meaning ZEKE may have been worthless. After all, it isn't particularly special in the grand scheme of things.
  • Depends on how long it sits there. More than a few months in salt water and it would be worthless.

• How does knocking a soldier out and transporting him to your base makes him loyal to you ? Is there some kind of brainwashing going on ?
  • Much like the recruits who join as volunteers, lots of soldiers are stated to be drawn to Big Boss as the legendary soldier of the 20th Century, who established the world's first Private Military Force alongside Miller. If you've been kidnapped by that man, whose personnel offer you a better life at Mother Base alongside plenty of other soldiers, chances are you'd leave your exploitative government/army bosses and side with Big Boss. In the instances that recruits are not-so-willing, Kaz and Ocelot occasionally detail that interrogation and imprisonment are employed, hence a number of recruits ending up in the brig.
    • "Hey you should join our experienced mercenary band where you get treated with respect by troops loyal to one another, conditions far better than the crumbling Communist country/Third-World hellhole you currently live, good pay, the best tech we can buy, and its led by the best soldier of the 20th century." Would you say no?
    • "Hey, I know we basically kidnapped you, but would you like to join our brand new army to serve a guy that killed his mentor/mother figure because his governement said so, is American, and who you had (and still has) orders to kill ? Oh, there's a strong probability you will have to fight/kill your old comrades/friends." Would anybody says yes?
    • Yes, any person with half a brain would say yes! Seriously, do you not know your history? The Soviet Union and the African dictatorships were some of the worst dictators on the face of the planet and treated their soldiers as disposable fodder. Also, Big Boss was a hero for killing his mentor as far as the world knows. As far as anyone knows, the Boss was going to start World War 3 with Russia and Big Boss killing her prevented it. So again, why would you say no to a group that will treat you like an actual human being led by a legendary soldier who only killed his mom to save the world from a potential nuclear holocaust and probably won't continue to try to kill you as long as you play ball (and will probably let you recruit your old friends and comrades if you are good enough to extract them)?
    • Big Boss is a living legend among soldiers in the Metal Gear universe, and the people he extracts are from the Soviet military and African militias - both are notoriously awful employers. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime moment for the people who get whisked away, they're not going to piss all over it and go back to living as a conscript or warlord's toy.
    • Because everybody's gay for Big Boss. Seriously though, who'd refuse the offer to serve someone as renowned as he is?
    • Because he killed his mentor/mother figure because his governement told him to? Because you're kidnapping people and possibly making them fight their former friend? But honestly, considering Ocelot and Miller brainwashed you into thinking you're Big Boss, I wouldn't be surprised if Ocelot had a hypnose/brainwashing room somewhere on the base.
    • ^ He killed the person who was previously considered the best soldier on the planet and earned the reputation as the greatest soldier of the 20th century, and his exploits since Snake Eater up to the fall of MSF made him into a living legend, and he's asking random enemy soldier "Hey, do you want to come work with me?" Combine that with the fact that by every objective measure Diamond Dogs has better conditions than any enemy force you can kidnap soldiers from and you have an offer that anyone who was not a super patriot would be unlikely to refuse. Miller had nothing to do with the brainwashing, the stringer at the end makes it clear that he had no idea about Venom until he was awake and felt so betrayed by Big Boss he swore to help his son destroy him and everything he built, while Ocelot brainwashed himself into forgetting all about the brainwashing. It's doubtful any further brainwashing was used.
  • If you're captured by the enemy in combat you're probably going to assume that they will either torture or kill you, so being greeted with "want to join our cool club where everyone's friends?" is a vastly better deal in comparison. Even if they're left in the brig, they might hear or see the other soldiers doing fun things (this isn't portrayed in Phantom Pain, but Peace Walker states that the MSF soldiers were partying and doing activities all the time when not on missions; even Phantom Pain has the dog that everyone loves) and be persuaded. Even if you're not sure about Big Boss, many other soldiers on Mother Base have also been taken from your same force and so you can relate to them.
  • I mean, Ocelot hypnotized himself into blocking out his memories of the real Big Boss and even into acting like Liquid Snake, so brainwashing isn't totally ruled out.

• Why are the soldiers you play as besides for Venom always treated as "Boss" by Ocelot and Miller? Clearly the random soldier you're playing as is not Big Boss.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • Well, technically speaking, you never were Big Boss. You were always some random soldier.

• Didn't Skullface's resulting "death" prior to his debut happen because of being burnt alive? The same thing happened to Quiet in the prologue of Phantom Pain, right? So they both should have burnt lungs, unable to breathe except through the skin, right? If so... then why is Quiet beautiful and Skullface is ugly? Since they both went through parasite therapy, they both should either look fine or still look bad. I bet it's because Quiet is a woman that she gets the special treatment for all the male gamers... while female gamers are dying to get the XOF uniform unlock.
  • While 'fanservice' is the clear answer when it comes to how Quiet looks, it could be the point at which they underwent the treatment; Skull Face was burned horribly in the factory fire he details from his childhood in the hidden tape from Ground Zeroes, and his appearance is the result of whatever grafts and surgery the doctors could do at the time to keep him alive, which the parasites couldn't undo. Quiet, on the other hand, seems to have an entirely different strain to Skull Face, who doesn't display her abilities at all; I'd also question how much of her appearance is real, given the instances in which we can see musculature and the like when she's actively employing her stealth abilities; but 'fanservice' is probably the key answer here.
  • Because no one would like to see Stefanie Joosten as a bikini-clad zombie. Well, maybe a few people.
  • I'd say it actually has more to do with timing. We don't know the exact birth date of Skull Face, but his home village was destroyed by Allied bombing, which means he was born during or before WWII, and the same incident is what burned him so badly. So 1945 at the very very latest. He was treated with only the medical care available at the time, having absolutely no contact with the parasites until at least 1964, during or after Operation Snake Eater. After the mission, Code Talker studied The End and found the live specimens of the parasite. So at least 19 years passed between then, and Skull Face didn't get infected with the parasites until approximately 1975, at least 30 years after his initial death. The parasites didn't save him from that, they just kept him alive after he started his coup. After about three decades, all of his skin would be scar tissue, and thus all they could be replaced with is scar tissue. Quiet was subjected to treatment nearly immediately after her burns, and thus spared her of the severe scarring that Skull Face had.
  • And re: fanservice: not all players are straight.

• Why did Quiet refuse the Wolbachia treatment, anyway? Code Talker's suggestion that she still desired revenge is absurd, especially when considering she told him she'd never speak English and activate the parasite, in addition to her relationship with Venom Snake deepening to the point of romantic attraction and her sacrificing herself to save his life. I get that she knows it's highly probable that Kaz would have her tortured relentlessly for information after inoculation, but it's never really covered by the narrative.
  • It's directly stated that she still might want revenge.
  • Don't try to make sense of Quiet's bipolar characterization. This is the woman who had no qualms about strangling an innocent Nurse and Doctor to death and then was willing to jump into a pit of poisonous gas to try to get a necklace for some kids.
    • That isn't 'bipolar', that's development. I can't comment on the main question, but by the time she jumps into the gas tank to retrieve the necklace, she's been around Snake and Diamond Dogs for a sufficient period and taken on a number of missions; she knows that despite Kaz's ranting about revenge, the Dogs are something of a family and are fighting for a better world. That she killed innocents earlier merely plays into the idea posited by the Boss, that today's friend can become tomorrow's enemy, and vice versa.
  • She can't undergo the Wolbachia treatment because, unlike everyone else on the base, she needs the parasites to stay alive. Her lungs and many of her other vital organs were severely damaged when she was set on fire in the prologue, and the parasites are what is keeping them functioning. It's simultaneously her greatest curse and her only lifeline.

• Silly question: Is the mocap actor for hospital Snake chosen because he has one arm, is skinny enough to look like an atrophied Snake, or both?
  • Painsakingly created body from the fox engine. Likely after tons of research on unhealthy bodies.

• A butterfly seems to be a very recurring symbol in the series but is there any significance with the Morpho species?
  • Morpho butterflies symbolize seeking peace. Guess what the running theme in the series is again?

• Why is there just a random tank of chlorine gas on Mother Base? If it's there for a purpose, like disinfecting things, then surely they'd have to release the gas at some point and could get the necklace then. It seemed the kid was really impatient to get that necklace.
  • The tank may have been involved in the processing of the raw materials we collect as players. As for the necklace, the materials it's made from may have been destroyed by spending too long in the tank.

• What the hell is up with the parasites? They're even more ridiculous than FOXDIE. So each different strain responds to different languages, and when they hear their host speaking that language, they start reproducing, which kills the host, yes? So what if I'm infected with the French strain and say that I'm having deja vu? Do I die? What about accents and individual pronunciation? How does a parasite know, presumably solely from the vibrations and movements of the throat muscles, that "CARR-sool" and "CAH-sool" are both English? What if I am, say, infected with the German strain, and say the word chef - which in German, means boss - do the parasites start reproducing? The entire thing feels entirely contrived and ridiculous, and for this troper at least, it breaks the Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
  • You've pretty much stated how they work; the parasites are bred in different strains to target languages - hence the run-down hellhole Skull Face is running where the hosts are being played tapes - the intent is to train and rear them to recognise languages. Skull Face's key strain in the game is designed to recognise English and as essentially the biggest bridge language/langua franca in the world, it shares numerous words from other languages; so with that in mind, if you were infected with the Italian strain but spoke English predominantly, and then happened to make say, a menu order in an Italian restaurant, then that would active the parasites. They can be bred to recognise different dialects/accents/regional changes, too; Skull Face himself is infected with a strain which means he can never speak his own language again.
  • The above troper is mostly wrong. Code Talker states in one of his tapes that the parasites wouldn't react to individual words so loan words to other languages wouldn't trigger, the English strain parasites wouldn't react to the word chef if the speaker was talking in German, the parasites need sustained exposure to start copulating. The parasites were so accurate that they could tell the difference between two incredibly similar languages. The reason why the above troper is only mostly wrong is that Code Talker also stated that there was nothing to stop the parasites mutating so they could infect similar languages.

• How did Skull Face plan to spread his parasites throughout the world? At first I thought he was going to do some parasite missile with Sahelanthropus for COMPLETE GLOBAL SATURATION, but Sally's purpose had nothing to do with the parasites, but to cause a new age of nuclear proliferation so he could find buyers for his nukes. I can imagine spreading enough parasites throughout the world in order to destroy English would be a difficult task, so how exactly did he plan to manage that?
  • During the Phantom Pain Skull Face is Cipher and has an incredible amount of power, such as being able to threaten the entire existence of Code Talker's tribe with complete ease. All he has to do is use his control over the organisation to start dispersing the virus at major population centres and locations (such as airports and shopping centres). The vocal cord parasites take some time to copulate and for their larva to hatch and start feeding on the host, and as shown from the Mother Base outbreak it spreads incredibly rapidly similar to the way FOXDIE spreads. If he had the right people infected with the parasites (such as the people at the front desk, flight attendants etc.) then by the time people realise what's going on every hospital in the English speaking world is infested with vocal cord parasites. This wouldn't wipe out every English speaker in the world, but the fear of the parasites would stop it from being used as a Lingua Franca and from being spoken as a common language.
  • Skull Face's plan was to proliferate Metal Gears until every country was nuclear capable and conventional war became impossible. The next step was to start selling the various strains of the Vocal Cord Parasite and let someone else handle the logistics of spreading them until every language but English had been wiped out. After that, he would be able to go to the world's leaders and say "I have an English language strain of the parasite too, do as I say or I wipe out mankind."
  • The above troper is wrong. Cipher's initial intention was to erase every language except English so they can control words and the flow of information, not to mention ensure domination of English-centric culture and values, a form of imperialism which grated on Skull Face. So he did the opposite, create the English strains, a liberator "to free the world from Zero." Sans lingua franca, his sale of readily-available nukes will ensure a chain of retaliation makes every country recognize their neighbor. And the spread wouldn't be too hard. Since the parasites are triggered by speech, keep English-infected hostages gagged, release them in major cities across the USA and the world. Before people can realise what's up, it's a 9/11 meets COVID situation, where people will be afraid to talk to each other in English. The world will abandon English in terror. Mission Complete.

• Is there an in-universe explanation for how Sahelanthropus escaped Mother Base? It wasn't towed away by helicopters, it kind of...flew away, using some kind of anti-gravity to make it hover over the water.
  • I think it was being flown away by Young Mantis, he was the one making it run in the boss fight, and considering his feet rarely touch the ground, it stands to reason that he can make other things float.

• Is there a gameplay or story reason Venom Snake can't equip the Ground Zeroes helicopter, the HP-48 Krokodil as his ACC? It makes multiple appearances as an enemy helicopter in Phantom Pain, but no option to switch from the Blackhawk (excuse me, Blackfoot) to the Krokodil exists, despite it being a superior gunship and having an all-around menacing design.
  • It might've been out of budget. Plus the cabin isn't as roomy as the Blackfoot, which was definitely meant to be more passenger-friendly.
  • The Blackfoot/Blackhawk is an American helicopter, while the Krokodil is based off the Soviet-made Mi-24 and Mi-28. Considering how Diamond Dogs is actively carrying out attacks against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, it makes sense that the US is more willing to sell helicopters to them than the Soviets would be.

• Why was everyone more forgiving towards Strangelove over Huey? Considering she was a former Cipher employee, apathetic to Big Boss's cause, left the base when Huey told her to (wouldn't that make her an accomplice?); I would have suspected her of being the mole.
  • It boils down to Huey having obviously murdered her, and this coming to light when everybody on Mother Base openly hated his guts already.
    • But what about before the trial? Miller talked about her request to Amanda like it was just a side note.
  • Strangelove didn't know about the attack nor Huey's betrayal. The only way she could be an accomplice is if she directly contributed to XOF's assault.

• What is the ultimate fate of Sahelanthropus? It's last seen in the cut Episode 51, being towed away in pieces by Diamond Dogs. Did it become the blueprint for TX-55 Metal Gear, which weirdly is a quarter of its size, or was it destroyed? Its never mentioned again, not even by Otacon, who seemingly used it as a subconscious blueprint to design REX.
  • According to an unfinished mission, Eli and his pals steal it and head to some island. Snake takes it down, then it gets destroyed by napalm.

• Why did Diamond Dogs suddenly left for South Africa and rebrand themselves as Outer Heaven? They seem to have a good thing going for them at Seychelles.
  • They didn't. That was a separate organization set up by the real Boss. Maybe they merged, IDK.

• I apologise if this is obvious but I often find Kojima's plots to be hard to follow. In 4 it was stated that the reason why Big Boss was in his coma is because of the injuries he sustained at Solid Snake's hands in Zanzibar. But now it is revealed that this WASN'T Big Boss, so how did Zero ever put him into that nanomachine induced coma? Or was that just a smokescreen, and Big Boss has been perfectly fine up until he turned up in the graveyard?
  • Big Boss is in a coma because of injuries sustained in Zanzibar. Venom Snake was the Big Boss who died in Outer Heaven, not Zanzibar Land.

• Sahelanthropus... Despite the whole cockpit thing, what the hell is up with it being in the 80s? that thing in terms of the titual bipedal "metal gear" is waaayyyy more advanced in concept than anything produced in the entire series, even the weaponary, it can stand up on two legs, without any balancing design, like RE Xs' squatting t-rex design and digitigrade legs, it seems to be an anarchonism in the MGS universe, 3 peace walker, TPP, all had things like the shagohod, peace walker, Sahelanthropus, etc that were much better than REX, by a long long way. what is up with that?
  • Sahelanthropus has several things working for it: Cipher's budget, metallic archaea for its weapons, and the Third Child for its mobility. Every other Metal Gear is a conventional machine, so naturally they'd be less impressive (by comparison).
  • What made Shagohod better than Metal Gear REX? It had little mobility, and needed a runway to launch its payload. Its defensive capabilities were practically nonexistent. It was a neat design, but hardly superior to any true Metal Gear.
  • The Shagohod was pretty much easily destroyed and needed Volgin's electric powers to prolong it's lifespan. Peace Walker and the other AI Weapons needed the help of a complicated Boss AI system to help it. Finally, Sahelanthropus practically didn't work unless The Third Boy was controlling it.
  • I meant that in terms of linear progression, in chronological order, the designs made sense, tech at the time etc (It's implied and outright shown that tech advanced at a slightly faster rate in the MGS universe than ours) then they made Sahelanthropus, remember the only flaw in its design was the late change from AI to pilot, apparently everything else worked great until Skull Face told Huey to add a stonking great MG REX head onto it, messing up it's balance, it wetn from crawlers to chicken walkers but apparently inbetween they made a humanoid one, and never really refined that design.

• How did Eli go from hating Snake's guts to sharing his dream of Outer Heaven? Did his opinion of Big Boss change after he learned about the Venom Snake ruse? Did they just share a common enemy, with Eli/Liquid not caring for Big Boss as a person? Or did he just change his mind as he grew up?
  • Go watch Liquid's speech from Metal Gear Solid again; he actively declares he still hates Big Boss for how he treated him, implying he - like Solid Snake - never learned about Venom. As such, his embracing Outer Heaven is intended to surpass Big Boss' success with the concept... Despite the fact he fails miserably.

• Have they ever addressed why you can't just use the helicopter to take you from one LZ to another? Seems like a very useful thing to do and doesn't sound like it would make the game too easy.
  • Well it’s not like they couldn’t do it since you can do exactly that to get around Mother Base. They likely decided not to because 1) There are already various means to get around such as vehicles, D-Horse, D-Walker, the cardboard box delivery systems, and good old-fashioned sprinting, and 2) Having the ability to travel between L Zs in the field by chopper would likely expose to chopper to longer periods of enemy fire. It offers more freedom of choice but isn’t catered towards the encouraged method of scouting out areas before infiltrating stealthily

• Why is mother base constructed in such a bad design? I don't mean it looks crap, i mean the several mile long highways to each module, its handwaved as if motherbase gets attacked again or something they can cut off the attackers, but they are in the middle of the ocean, anyone attacking will have helis, and even then,those modules can't get backup very quickly, a little closer wouldn't hurt, I initially assumed that when you added another module of the same type it would appear on the highway, but they are circled round the main module of that type. I personally would of loved it to look like an offshore city rather than the spindly /thing they made it.
  • Kaz explains that the spacious architecture was to make it less vulnerable to attacks like the one XOF commenced on MSF.

• Why are the soviet soldiers listening to western music on cassette tapes? Given that western music was banned in the Soviet Union and that it would be nearly impossible to get a cassette player (and tapes) in a society that went so far to control the media as to regulate the distribution of typewriters.
  • This is set in 1984, the height of the Cold War, as far as I'm aware getting sent to Afghanistan was basically the soviet version of Reassigned to Antarctica, due to the fact that they were trying and failing to prop up a communist government in the country, basically you were as far flung from the core of the union as you could be, the tapes were probably found during sweeps of villages suspected to be rebels, who got support from places like the US, and probably kept the tapes to alleviate boredom, its not like there was anyone important enough to care in those outposts.

• Question Number One: Why don't you use fulton balloons to extract YOURSELF anymore? Semi-justified by the new countermeasures against fulton extraction and dangerous weather conditions, but effectively a wasted solution for when you're unspotted but relatively surrounded by enemies. Especially when you need to escape from the Skulls on your own, who are far more dangerous than fulton extracting in a dust storm!
  • You're still Big Boss, the World's Greatest Soldier. Tieing your life to a balloon is likely seen as unnecessary risk compared to at least trying to flee. Likewise the Skulls always fight in mist which drastically lowers success rate. It'd be pretty uncharacteristic of Big Boss to look at even the Skulls and say "Yeah, I'll flip a coin on a 50% chance of surviving a balloon trip just so I don't have to face them." Likewise, if you NEED to use the fulton to escape the Skulls, you're likely already injured which lowers the chance even further.
  • Technically you were never able to fulton yourself in Peace Walker. It was just the game's way of ending the mission. You do hear Snake fulton himself if you decide to abort the mission.
  • I say because unspotted is always a temporary condition. There's always a chance that Snake can be spotted at any point from the time he attaches the balloon, to getting retrieved by the helicopter. Enemies can and will notice someone attached to a balloon floating away. The fast takeoff after attaching to enemies is a break from reality as can be seen in the Pooyan missions from Peace Walker where the balloons drift up relatively slowly. "Hey, look at that. Shoot it!" "Waaaaaaaaaaaaagh~!" TIME PARADOX.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Besides the obvious, Snake can stand on top of cargo containers and already Fulton himself out of the area. (That, and giving the player additional functionality to hit a button and get ziplined out, as you already have the capability in menus to abort a mission and head back to the ACC instantly, could be seen as a redundant bit of programming.) Additionally, once you get the Wormhole Fulton, the whole issue becomes even more ridiculous, as Snake can functionally transport items out of the battlefield (himself included, while standing on containers) in moments via the same method.
• Why can't Venom Snake understand Russian, when in MGS3 his Russian is noted as superb by a native Russian speaker? Ocelot explains its because of the shrapnel lodged in Snake's head. The real reason is that Venom Snake is not Big Boss. He is the MSF medic that was with Big Boss during Ground Zeros, thus he probably has never been taught to speak Russian! Not to mention that Ocelot himself isn't fond of speaking Russian either, as it reminds him of the pre-Soviet decadent court of the Czars.
• Using the chopper minigun on Soviet troops in Afghanistan could be considered Hoisted By His Own Petard when you remember that in the real Soviet-Afghan War this same tactic was a Soviet staple, hence why in real life and in-game U.S intelligence concentrated on providing the Mujahadeen with a portable Surface to Air missle launcher (in real life the FIM-92 Stinger, "the Honey Bee" in-game).
• What happened to Mantis, after the events of V? He could bring a man back from the dead as a nigh-invincible fire god, summon a flaming whale, control an upright supermech, amongst other things, in MGS1, he can... make some statues fly and read your "mind".
  • He also has almost no will of his own in V, he's basically a parasite feeding off the emotions of the people around him. It's likely that by gaining his own agency, he stopped his mental feeding, which lessened his mental abilities and saw no reason or benefit to feeding again as an adult.
• Something that's always bothered me is why didn't Miller get any comeuppance for the shit he pulled when Venom brings Quiet back to Motherbase. He had two gunships put guns on the chopper, one of the soldiers actually aimed his gun at Snake, and Miller's standing there on the landing pad with a squad of soldiers saying he's not going to let the Boss, who is the commanding officer of Diamond Dogs, land with her on board. It wasn't just insubordination, it was an act of mutiny, and he never got so much as a slap on the wrist for it.
  • Highly unlikely — look at it from his perspective. He has been made aware (either by Venom or Ocelot) that Quiet/the same assassin was part of an XOF strike team that brutally massacred the inhabitants of a hospital in Cyprus, to say nothing of their actions destroying Mother Base nine years earlier. It's then discovered (in the early missions) that the same assassin, presumably thought to have been killed during the hospital raid, is the same "boogeyman" legend that's running around Afghanistan tearing encampments up and causing fear in everyone that encounters them. This is also the same sniper that, just a few minutes earlier (from Miller's perspective) was camped out in the ruins to the north of the region with the apparent purpose of shooting and killing their commanding officer... who has now inexplicably (from their perspective) rescued her, prevented her from shooting herself and brought her back with them. Miller's seniority precedes Venom's when it comes to the base — it is highly unlikely that he or any of the other soldiers that were present would have been initially comfortable with letting such a wild card onto the base. The most unrealistic part of that arrival scene with Quiet at Mother Base is having Miller talk with barely more than a raised voice when the helicopter is still several stories above him and there's numerous noises that should be drowning him out.
• How/When did Venom Snake find out the Truth? The way it's revealed to the audience via flashback and showing a different character, so it's only for the audience. We're shown Venom knows immediately before Metal Gear at the latest. Yet all of Diamond Dogs seem aware of the revelation after the mission.
  • The memory therapy might've had a crack in it that caused Venom to become aware that something was amiss about him. The dialogue between Kaz and Ocelot at the end implies that it's still the 80s by the time the revelation comes to light, so Venom may have found out not too long before then. The allusions to Outer Heaven and MG1 were probably just some metaphorical time lapse.

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