WMG / Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Jossed Examples

Due to a gross excess of examples (this being a Metal Gear game and all), this folder is specifically for examples that have been "Jossed" — proven incorrect by Word of God or by the final product. For examples that still stand, please see the examples below this folder.

David Hayter will voice Snake in the Ground Zeroes portion of the game, while Kiefer Sutherland will take over for the rest of the game.

Considering that Ground Zeroes takes place shortly after Peace Walker (making it seem odd for a change in voice actors to take place), and that Big Boss is in a coma for a decade after Mother Base is destroyed, it's fairly possible that his voice could have changed as a response to his body's atrophy.

• Jossed, Ground Zeroes has been released and Kiefer is voicing Big Boss.

The game will be about Paz's befriending

Well, this mostly seiyuu's joke, but I think you can draw parallel between Fate Testarossa and Paz; both are (technically, in Paz case) Dark Magical Girl, both feel indebted and fearing their boss, both are The Woobie of quite proportion. And what is Big Boss in Peace Walker? A Badass Normal person do impossible feat, which get his troops from his former enemies (all they need is changing Fulton balloon color to pink), master of Non-Lethal K.O. (especially by CQC) and everyone who isn't evil will be swayed to his side. Basically, he's muggle, manly version of Nanoha.

• Jossed, since Paz is killed by a bomb at the end of Ground Zeroes before she can do anything of note.
  • Double jossed, if the E3 2015 trailer is to be believed

Cipher set up everything to carry out Les Enfants Terribles

Think about it. The project is dated to have been carried out during the early nineteen-seventies, and its common knowledge that Big Boss was either comatose or at least somehow cloned using his cells and the Super Baby Method. Of course, they couldn't just use hair or skin cells, they needed a much meatier sample than that.

This is Cipher killing two birds with one stone: He manipulates Big Boss and MSF into a vulnerable state, where he can kick both in the teeth and leave them a non-issue for the long term, even if it only slows them down. He also gets a chance to also bring the Snake back he once knew, so to speak. While comatose in the hospital from his wounds during the evacuation of Mother Base, Cipher sent someone to retrieve samples of Big Boss.

They didn't use the small stuff. They couldn't, it wouldn't be enough. So they took his arm at the elbow, then sent a cleanup crew to take out any traces of him.

• Jossed by Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The Les Enfrants Terribles project happened in 1972. Ground Zeroes took place in 1974/75. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots made it clear the project is what led to Big Boss deserting the Patriots and striking out on his own, which we see in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and is confirmed again by EVA's tapes to Snake.

Richard Doyle will voice Snake

Considering David Hayter is apparently not reprising his role (though it may be another case of misinformation), and BB is closer than ever to his MG 1 age, this makes sense. A handwave could be given thanks to the coma.

• Jossed. It's Kiefer Sutherland.

Skullface will be Affably Evil if not just affable.

• Jossed: From what can be discovered while playing Ground Zeroes, listening to the various tapes and seeing what he did to Chico and Paz, Skull Face is actually Faux Affably Evil and, while obviously in the realm of subjectivity, is one of the very few candidates in the entire franchise to be considered as bad as Volgin, Sundowner and Wiseman.

Ground Zeroes will not be a separate game

Despite what Konami says, it's not going to be a separate game because the trailer shows that Mother Base will be destroyed shortly after the events of Peace Walker. Instead, it's going to be a tutorial about managing your team which will play a larger role later; which makes more sense since Mother Base should have a sizeable army at that moment.

• Jossed. Ground Zeroes had a Spring 2014 release; there is still no definite release date for The Phantom Pain beyond "2015."

Skullface is Sokolov

His description is "A Ghost Without A Past." In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Ghost turned out to be Sokolov. Given that Kojima said he was bringing back a character he had killed off, the makes for a nice Discontinuity Nod towards Portable Ops, since Kojima had no involvement in that game.

• Jossed. Skull Face was burned horribly during his youth, which disqualifies him from being Sokolov or any adult character we've seen before.

Skull Face is Granin.

• Jossed with his Western voice revealed, as he distinctly doesn't sound Russian, nor does he match Granin's tubby build.

Skull Face is Coldman.

• Jossed. Skull Face was burned during his youth which left him like he is, which would be years-to-decades before the events of Peace Walker, where Coldman appeared and was not burned. Plus, Coldman clearly died in Peace Walker from his wounds; since it wasn't a case of Never Found the Body like most other "back from the dead" MGS villains, it's probable he's staying that way.

There will be an Old Save Bonus for your save file from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This will give benefits for the Ground Zeroes section of the game and will also serve as a bigger Player Punch when Mother Base is destroyed.

• Jossed, but there is going to be a save bonus for those who have Ground Zeroes for The Phantom Pain.

Raiden

On the off chance that this game reveals that Chico and Paz are Raiden's biological parents, expect a reference to Liberia and for the revelation that Raiden was named after Big Boss, his prowess with blades was inherited from Chico, and his Jack the Ripper personality be his equivalent to Paz's Pacifica Ocean personality.

• Jossed in Ground Zeroes, as unfortunately for all Paz/Chico shippers and "Raiden's parents" theorists, Paz dies at the end of Ground Zeroes, and Chico's fate is currently ambiguous (as he's caught in the same blast as Big Boss and Miller).

David Hayter's voicing Big Boss will be available as a DLC, at least for Ground Zeroes.

It can be possible that Kojima or any other of the producers can use the controversy regarding David Hayter being replaced by Kiefer Sutherland, to their advantage, creating a DLC to replace Sutherland's Voice with Hayters. Of course, it can be likely it works only for Ground Zeroes.

• Jossed. Hayter has not returned for Ground Zeroes, nor was he asked to voice the "Snake Soul Sword" in Revengeance; since his Japanese counterpart Akio Ōtsuka appeared in both, the chances of him playing Big Boss in MGS:GZ and/or MGSV can be ruled out.

The Boy in the cage being choked is a Young Solid Snake

• Jossed. It's Chico, same face down to the bandage on his eyebrow. That part clearly takes place during the Ground Zeroes segment and Solid Snake would have been three years old then.

The Burned Man is Psycho Mantis

• Jossed. Psycho Mantis appears as a child.

The Burned Man is Major Zero

He seems to be leading the attack against FOX and Mother Base, and we know he was behind Cipher in Peace Walker...and he hates Big Boss by now.

• Jossed by ingame tapes, which establishes he is both a separate entity to Zero and an enemy of him. Also discredited by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as Zero's appearance in the ending of 4 shows he isn't coated in burns and, since he still holds his huge eye scar, it's incredibly unlikely anyone would have such extreme scarring fixed but have an older mark left intact.

The XOF Commander is Lyndon B. Johnson

A lot of people have been saying that the XOF Commander is a victim of severe burns, but that doesn't make sense because his ears and nose are still mostly intact and those would be the first tissues to be completely destroyed by fire. If anything he looks withered, like a corpse thats been decomposing for a few months.

Now, bear with me here. In the MGS Universe, LBJ was the one who signed off on Operation Snake Eater, which not only led to the founding of the Patriots, but led to Big Boss' longstanding distrust of the Government. Moreover, its been implied that LBJ is the one who authorized the Les Enfants Terribles project that spawned the clones of Big Boss. Lastly, this is fucking MGS - In a world where gay vampires, spirit mediums, and giant robots are commonplace, a zombie is hardly irregular.

LBJ died in 1973, and the Ground Zeroes trailer apparently takes place in 1974. More to the point, its suspected that the voice actor for the XOF Commander is the same one who portrayed LBJ in Snake Eater. Kojima has already stated that Ground Zeroes will tackle "taboo" subjects he's afraid might seriously impact release of the game, and what could be more taboo than having your game's villain literally be the rotting, resurrected revenant of a World Leader who was active during living memory, especially one with a real-life record of positive legislation like the Civil Rights movement?

• Considering that the game is tackling Child Soldiers and Blood Diamonds, and considering that to date the series has let you kill one former president (who is the main villian) and witness the death of the current president and kill a high-profile Senator whose a shoe-in to become the next president (before you reply Hideo approved Rising's storyline so it counts), simply including a real life figure political figure as a villian is hardly taboo and in fact has been done to death in movies and literature and been done many times in games, so it's hardly a taboo.
  • I think he means an actual President but you might be right about making a historical President a villain not being a novelty anymore. Just like how the how King George Washington outcry in Assassin's Creed III just sort of fizzled.
• Jossed, Skull Face is from an unidentified European country (speculated to be Hungary), the burns really are just burns.

Ishmael was rescued from Camp Omega by Big Boss in Ground Zeroes.

He was detained in Camp Omega because he's actually Gray Fox.

• With Ishmael and Big Boss sharing a Voice Actor that's highly unlikely. Considering that Keither Sutherland is in his 40s while Gray Fox would be in his twenties or early thirties.
  • Jossed. All of the rescued prisoners have voices, none of them are Keither. Not to mention that all of them can be ignored bar Paz and Chico. He's actually Big Boss.

Chico is Quiet

This made the rounds on the internet shortly after GZ's release, figured I'll put it here, since I subscribe to it. Quiet might be a post-surgery Chico. He becomes a woman so he won't rape, he becomes quiet so he won't betray.

• They have the same green eyes and generally look similar to each other.
• Chico mentions wanting to be a hunter when he grows up in PW.
• In one of the interrogation tapes in GZ, Paz tells Chico to just be quiet when he tries to talk to her.
• She is apparently tortured and interrogated by Kaz alongside Huey, which could be related to the destruction of MSF - Kaz already blames it on Chico.
• Chico feels guilt over betraying MSF and being forced by Skull Face to have sex with Paz.
• Kojima mentioned that the audience will feel ashamed at their misconceptions about Quiet's design and character.

Stefanie Joosten, Quiet's motion capture actress, personally Jossed this one.

• Even without Joosten saying anything, this theory was jossed from the start, it was made as a joke to mock all the crazy Big Boss body double theories, it was never meant to be taken seriously.

Big Boss's "shrapnel wound horn" isn't shrapnel lodged in his head at all, it's an actual horn that grew from his head

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutaneous_horn, as the article here will tell you Cutaneous Horn is a condition where a horn will literally grow out of someone's forehead. It is thought to be a condition brought on by exposure to radiation, and Big Boss would definitely count given his exposure to 3 nuclear blasts over the course of his life time.

• Except that he doesn't seem to have it when he wakes from his coma. It looks to be the result of whatever happens during the hospital incident.
  • You could easily say that the bandages were covering the horn.
  • Jossed. Kojima has said that the horn is part bone, part shrapnel.

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Venom is a full-blown augmented cyborg

There's of course Venom's arm prosthesis, but there's also plenty of evidence to suggest that he's got more than just upgrades to his arm. When you rescue the Soviet Bionics Engineer, he insists "My specialty is not humdrum mechanics. My field is bionics. I create hybrids of organisms and artifacts." This seems more just a case of Insistent Terminology, but look at some of the upgrades he grants you after he joins Mother Base. mobility upgrades that increase your speed, and medical upgrades that increase your health and resilience? Those don't sounds like any kind of abilities you could get from a robot hand alone. While this may be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, in a series like Metal Gear that line is pretty blurry already. I posit that, with his consent or not, Venom is getting more extensive, invasive upgrades to give him a higher chance of succeeding. How else is a medic, albeit one held in high regard, able to pose as the Big Boss without the experience the real BB had or any actual training from The Boss?

• This also explains why he's so durable in Metal Gear.

There will be two protagonists

In different time periods as well.

• Definitely jossed by Word of God; the Ground Zeroes prologue takes place just after Peace Walker, and the Phantom Pain takes place in 1984.
  • Scratch that, this has been confirmed.

Big Shell was built from the blueprints of Venom Snake's Mother Base.

How else do you explain the similarities in their overall structures?

• This does seem like a given; The Seychelles Mother Base follows on from the design of the previous base, which Cipher actively threatened to destroy even before Skull Face actively did so. It also makes sense that the Big Shell - with a name almost appropriate for a villain's hideout - would be used as part of an elaborate scenario to assert control over a wayward Son of Big Boss, given the Patriot AI seems to have completely misinterpreted Zero's will and ideology.

Imports of the English version of the game will be popular in Japan

Because Japan loves Kiefer Sutherland... a lot.

Assuming that Sergei Gurlukovich will turn up, he will be voiced by Travis Willingham.

Well, Troy Baker is playing Ocelot in this game.

Ishmael is the co-op buddy

There's a lot of speculation over a character whose face happens to be entirely bandaged and who shares Big Boss's VA. It's possible that Ishmael's entire design was meant to facilitate two-player co-op, possibly drop-in/drop-out. Giving him the same model and VA as Big Boss along with a hidden face allows for the system that was in Peace Walker in which every player saw himself as Snake and the other player as a masked figure. Ishmael presumably has the same build/character model as Big Boss, so there'll be no conflict with different animations between a player's POV and the other player's POV. Likewise, the identical voices means there doesn't have to be any conflict with in-game dialogue. Essentially, Ishmael is one big in-story justification for a co-op system like Peace Walker's. This explains, in part at least, the perplexing nature of his masked appearance and voice.

• Well there are a few problems there. The first is that Ishmael is interacting with Punished Snake in the trailer, in a very plot-crucial manner that would lose it's impact if removed. They don't have the same models on account of the different clothing (which would present it's only challenges) and because the bandages obscure a lot of facial expressions, which can't just be covered up by slapping some bandages on him post production. Plus there is no announced co-op feature; Ground Zeroes certainly is confirmed to be a single-player experience, and Peace Walker was co-op because of it's nature as a portable game and because the missions were broken up into comparatively short stand-alone missions. Grand Theft Auto V shows all the problems with a massive open world game with multiplayer thrown in. Several features would be a pain to code (such as the reaction time), and the plot really would suffer for it (how many times in the trailers have we heard "You need to handle this one on your own?" Wouldn't really work if you had a partner with you).
  • Wall of text response: The WMG doesn't exactly preclude Ishmael being important to the plot; going back to Peace Walker, playing co-op would insert the masked sidekick into (in-game engine) cutscenes with somewhat unique reactions. A similar method would have to be used to maintain any important actions Ishmael takes in the story. As far as the trailer goes, I'd assume that certain missions would be single player (once again taking PW's precedent), including the mission portrayed in that trailer, hence Ishmael's interactivity. Not sure what to make of the "models" comment above; they seemed to have the similar builds in the trailer. And what exactly is the issue with facial expressions? Peace Walker being portable doesn't mean that co-op should strictly be reserved for games on portable devices; the success of the game gives reason to believe that porting over some of its newer features is worthwhile. I agree that programming would be a pain, especially with slow-mo. Regarding the story, Peace Walker (yes, I know, again) had a metric ton of "It's all up to you, Snake!" moments while still allowing for back-up. Even if Snake has to accomplish his mission supposedly by himself, his building a support team, which might include physical backup, from scratch still plays into the whole idea of being cut off.
  • Jossed. He's Big Boss.

Kiefer Sutherland will be playing Big Boss because David Hayter will return as Solid Snake.

Solid Snake should be about around 11 years old at the start of the Phantom Pain portion of the game, which may or may not be too young for Hayter to voice well at that point. But if half a decade or so passes during the game, we'll see the beginnings of the ridiculously manly ~16 year old Solid Snake and his super-puberty induced throat cancer voice's induction into FOXHOUND, and training him will be a core part of the gameplay as part of Big Boss's revenge plans.

• You could also take his accelerated aging into account - even though it isn't mentioned until Guns Of The Patriots, there's no proof that he can't have undergone an early growth spurt. He's probably less likely to be a Guttural Growler, though.
  • Though if you believe the somewhat plausible "Eli=Liquid Snake" theory, an early growth spurt would be unlikely as then Snake and Eli would have different apparent ages. Considering how important their duality and their status as twins is to the overall series, I doubt Kojima would put in such a difference in character designs. Assuming Eli is Liquid, which, granted, is definitely not confirmed.

Kojima is trolling somehow with the voice of Big Boss and/or the trailers

If anyone remembers the trailers of Metal Gear Solid 2, many things were in those trailers that were not in the game. For example, Raiden seemed like a minor character and that Snake was the main playable character.

What if Kiefer only voices Big Boss in the trailers? Or if Hayter is coming back as a Snake, but a much younger Solid, Liquid or even Solidus Snake? What if the trailers are lying to the audience about what is and isn't in the game?

MGS2 had a bunch of lies in its trailers, as reflections of its themes of memetics and information control. Maybe Kojima is doing the same here, especially since this game will most likely deal with Big Boss versus his former friends, who were all original Patriots and created the Patriot AIs who drove the plot of MGS1, MGS2 and MGS4. Kojima is also heavily disillusioned with Metal Gear in general, since he views the franchise as preventing him from working on other titles...and he does want this to be his last, like MGS4 and MGS2 before him. That could factor in as well.

• It does seem more likely to me that Sutherland would be more appropriate for one of the Snakes, but then having listened to his voice in the trailer, it does seem like it bridges the gap nicely between Hayter's Snake voice and Doyle's Big Boss voice from MGS4. It's also stated that they think Sutherland will be able to put across some of the more dramatic, bleaker moments a little better than Hayter would, which seems unlikely; Hayter did great work across MGS3, Portable Ops and Peace Walker with Big Boss, so I'm not so certain they'd replace him. As for Big Boss confronting Cipher - later to become the Patriots, we presume, unless the AI's adopted that title of their own will - that could be tricky; Kojima still needs to reconcile Big Boss coming back to take charge of FOXHOUND in time for Metal Gear. So would we actually be seeing a big confrontation?

Ocelot Will reappear or at least make a cameo

Like Peace Walker Ground Zeros takes place four years after Portable Ops. With all the references in the last game to The Boss and her child, why shouldn't the Magnificent Bastard himself make an appearance?

• Confirmed, and it appears to be more than a cameo. He will apparently be one of the supporting characters aiding Big Boss.

Frank Jaeger will return at some point

The Mozambican Civil War doesn't begin until 1977. Also at the end of Peace Walker there are hints about something going near Angoloa. Unless Kojima is trolling again.

• With the game taking place during 1983 after Big Boss' coma ends, Gray Fox may very well show up.
  • 1984 per word of God.

Sniper Wolf will turn up.

• Possible, though there is only one sniper character confirmed for the game and it's not her.
  • Unlikely though since Wolf would still be a child, although Big Boss at least is in the right area of the world when rescuing Miller to stop by.
    • He's not actually, Sniper Wolf is from Iraqi Kurdistan while Big Boss is in Afghanistan. Iran is inbetween the two.
  • Perhaps Quiet trained Sniper Wolf, which would explain why both are Ms. Fanservice.
    • Jossed. Quiet dies regardless of player's choices. Either at the beginning or later when she sacrificed herself for Snake

The Snake kids will appear

They should have been born by the time the game takes place. Liquid Snake seemed to have been raised directly by Big Boss so he might come into custody within the game, and Solid Snake seemed to have at least Big Boss' string-pulling involved in his life so he might get sent off somewhere of Big Boss' choosing too.

• How old would they be? If this game is truly a lead-in to Metal Gear 5, and if that stars Solid Snake again, we may get some teen Solid Snake action to set it up. And the two Snakes playable in the same game? My god, the possibilities... In fact, Big Boss had to become Solid Snake's boss somehow.
  • Ten years old, at the most, actually. So maybe no teen Snake, but Big Boss isn't averse to child soldiers.
    • Since their born in 1972, they would be two come Peace Walker and by 1983, 11 years old. Since the latest trailer says Big Boss was in a coma for 9 years.
    • 1984. It's been confirmed to be set in 1984 by Word of God himself because all of the main Big Boss games take place ten years appart (Snake Eater = 1964, Peace Walker = 1974, Phantom Pain = 1984).
    • We never did learn how Big Boss knew Solid Snake was his "son", and this game may show this.
  • Maybe confirmed, since it's possible that Eli may be Liquid.
  • Confirmed as of the E3 2015 trailer.
    • Not necessarily. We see two Snake Children, and LET has offered up more secrets in the past - like Solidus; What if the 'V has come to' line refers to not only a fourth, but fifth Snake Child? Although that it's Liquid is increasingly likely; it matches up with the unusual statement from Liquid in the original game that he hated Big Boss, like he knew him on a personal level. But I think it's especially unlikely that the other child is David, given.. Well, surely Snake would remember that during the Outer Heaven mission?.
    • Leave it to Kojima to turn an Ass Pull into a shocking revelation, I guess.
  • Eli is Liquid.

"Ishmael" is really Chico or Gray Fox

In the GDC trailer, the man in the bandages says he's been looking after Big Boss for 9 years, given Chico's hinted role as a coerced sleeper agent, he might have looked after Big Boss for those 9 years out of guilt for betraying him, which would explain why he doesn't give his real name. Or he could be Gray Fox undergoing reconstructive surgery for his ears and nose....

• Unlikely, since Gray Fox said he lost his ears and nose in an incident that ended with Big Boss rescuing him, while Big Boss has just woken up from a coma and is unlikely to have rescued Frank from armed soldiers whilst sleep-walking. Considering that Ishmael shares the same VO as Big Boss it's probable he's just an hallucination (hence why he gets covered in flames when apparaition!Volgin shows up and is trying to put himself out but when the camera cuts back to him he doesnt' have so much as a singed hair on his head.
• He's Big Boss.

The Pain will return as a ghost.

• Leaked achievements for the game hint at one called "Beekeeper", so this might not be as absurd as it sounds.

Psycho Mantis will appear, possibly as the source of Big Boss' nightmares

• Confirmed in a recent trailer, with a child with extremely powerful psychic abilities wearing Mantis' famous unique gasmask shows up following a series of paranormal events. He also has hair now.

This will be the final link between the Big Boss and Solid Snake eras.

Peace Walker showed the beginnings of what'd become Outer Heaven, but not the actual founding. Not to mention the main part takes place 12 years before Metal Gear 1. This game could show Big Boss founding Outer Heaven proper, as well as the start of the clash between Zero and Big Boss, as well as Big Boss completing his journey to villain.

• There's room for one or two more games in the series—The events leading to Big Boss rejoining American special forces, and Snake's early days. They could be folded into MGSV, but most MGS games are on too short of a timeline to encompass all those events. One time skip is probably novel enough for a new element, and they'll likely want to explore the 80s thoroughly instead of jump forward in a single game.
  • The first Metal Gear game was Solid's early days, so that idea's out.

The game will use Moby-Dick as an analogy for Big Boss' transformation into the Big Bad by the end of the game.

If "Ishmael" isn't obvious enough, the protagonist of the game is a leader who's lost a limb in a traumatic attack. After being painted as the enemy of the world, Big Boss will lose complete faith in the world by the end of this game, finally tired of being a pawn of one conspiracy after another, and begin to seek creating a true Outer Heaven.

Also, flaming whales.

We will not be playing as Big Boss, but another "clone"

This will require some explaining. Let me start with the trailer's opening, which shows "Big Boss" being resuscitated by a doctor. Notice that our angle makes it look like we are seeing this through another's eyes, and a few times during this, the doctor across from the one saving "Big Boss" glances in our direction sometimes. After Big Boss is stabilized, we see Miller looking at us, and he says "What about him?", and before the trailer cuts away, we see the doctors turning around.

• Hideo's answer to "who is the POV character" is that he is the POV character. Considering you can actually recruit Hideo in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker to work at Mother Base that's...not actually that implausable.

Next, we have the title, "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain". Why is it that, prior to this, we have 2, 3, and 4, but now we have the roman numeral "V"? At the end of the trailer, we hear a voice say "V has come to"... Just like "Big Boss" does at the beginning of Phantom Pain! But why the nickname "V"? Because he would be the fifth version of Big Boss (Liquid, Solid, Solidus, and of course Big Boss himself being his predecessors). Another thing that made me think of this theory was David Hayter not being asked to come voice Big Boss, though I suppose this could be explained away due to him aging (After all, he didn't have Hayter voice him in one installment). If they have the same voice actor in the Japanese version, this part of the theory is Jossed.

• They have the same VO in the Japanese version. The reason given for Hayter's replacement is that they are combining the voice acting with facial motion capture for the game. Since the motion capture is done in English with Kiefer they have no reason to change the VO for the Japanese version (who is a much bigger name there making it suicidal to change it over).

But what about the age? This man we're seeing is clearly older than what Liquid, Solid, and Solidus would be in 1974/1983. That's why I put the clone in quotation marks, since I don't think it's actually a clone of Big Boss, but rather somebody they found and implanted the DNA of Big Boss into. I got this part of the theory from a friend, but when he mentioned it, it all made sense. Originally, I thought they might have tried to engineer an adult clone, but ended up not doing it again because this one aged much faster than the others and ended up dying very quickly. But what he said, about it being a different person but with DNA implanted in them, it fit in a lot better. After all, "Joakim" was saying that this wasn't a Metal Gear game, and that the man in the trailer just looked like Big Boss... Which would mean that Kojima was telling the truth, disguised as a lie, while lying about what the game was. It fits, doesn't it?

• Implanting the DNA of Big Boss into someone doesn't change that person at all. There was an entire Genome Army that had parts of Big Boss' DNA into them and didn't change, that's just not how it works. It would take extensive plastic surgery on his face as well as duplicating all of his scars, which by 1980s standards would not create someone who could fool people who know Big Boss very well.

Now, I do have some other points, but I am not so sure about these. The rest of this title, "The Phantom Pain". I thought that this could have been the title because all of this pain is being experienced by another clone, or somebody with the DNA, of Big Boss, a "phantom", if you will. Of course, I thought this before being reminded what Phantom Pain meant (the article here explains it pretty well, but if you don't want to look back, it means you feel where you no longer have a limb), so this is a highly unlikely part. And then there was the song chosen for the trailer, "Not Your Kind of People" by Garbage. This may have been chosen because of how it sounded, and in all likelihood that's the only reason, but couldn't it also have been because this man really is not our kind? He was a normal man, but then he was altered by the DNA of Big Boss, thus making him not like normal people and not even like Big Boss's real clones.

• The second song is Sins of the Father which fits Big Boss' relationship with his own sons, but loses it's meaning if the main character is some random guy.

Now, a lot of you could argue that this has all already been Jossed. Kojima has stated in a recent interview that the "pov" we were experiencing in the trailer was Kojima himself, and that the V stood for "Victory". Kojima also pretended to be a man named Joakim Mogren, head of Moby Dick Studios, so make what you will of that.

• It was a stunt. Hideo has never directly lied to us. He also never pretended to be Joakim Mogren except for his appearance at the GDC, which was just a joke.

Now, two last points that could be used against this. If this is a clone, or a genetically altered man, then why does he experience Big Boss's "flashbacks" seen in the trailer? That could be explained away by saying this man was also given Big Boss's memories, so that he would believe he truly was Big Boss. And finally, what's up with the horn on Big Boss at the end? Well, I don't know. Maybe a side effect of being genetically altered by Big Boss's DNA improperly?

• Memories aren't stored in DNA. It also doesn't explain why all these characters who have met the real Big Boss and known him well treat this guy like the real deal, including his best friend (Kaz) and his biggest Fanboy (Ocelot), two of the three people (EVA) who would be able to instantly tell a fake after holding a five second conversation with them. The Horn is also confirmed to be a piece of shrapnel that's embedded in his skull, as seen in the x-rays during the E3 trailer.

Also, one point that can't be made is Big Boss missing an arm. That's easily explained by Big Boss using the body parts of Liquid and Solidus Snake to fix his injuries.

• We never see Big Boss' natural arms in either Metal Gear games, with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake stating he had some of his limbs replaced with robotic versions.

I think that's all, but I feel like I forgot to mention something..... If I remember it, I'll put it here.

"You also forgetting one very basic thing..." This "Punished" Snake has GREEN eyes. Think about it. That's right, Big Boss has BLUE eyes. Ergo, this confirms that this is new character and not Big Boss.

• His eye looks blue to me.◊ We don't ever see Big Boss' eyes clear enough in the trailers. Plus when Hideo pulled this trick before he went and swapped out Raiden's character model and environments with Snake's. The eye colour is such a simple thing to swap so....not to mention that you'd think that Kaz or Ocelot would take one look at this new guy and say "Hey Snake, why has your eye colour changed to a different colour?"
  • Please, it's Hideo we're talking about, you can't take anything for granted. Just think about it, would THAT Hideo Kojima do a really stupid mistake of mixing up really small, but important thing? Even if by some bizarre chance this "Punished Snake" really is Big Boss (which I seriously doubt, Big Boss never had a horn, not in Metal Gear 1-2, nor in MGS4, and pattern of scars doesn't match up) there's gotta be something more to it. If Kojima showed it with a close-up of something that is 'wrong', (eyes can be seen during extended cut trailer, about 6 minutes in) I'd say something is definitely up. And of course they(Ocelot and Kaz) know it's not real Big Boss, duh, they all in cahoots. But I will admit it's hard to say anything for sure, because actual content with answers is not released, so all we can do for now is wait. Still, my money is on theory that it's not Big Boss.
    • Yeah, that was my point. It is this Hideo Kojima, the guy who hid the Raiden twist to such levels that he made scenes specifically for the trailers that would never appear in the game. The horn is a piece of shrapnel which can be removed anytime in the ten years between Phantom Pain and Metal Gear 1 and 2, scars heal with time and surgery to fix burns all over your body (both of which makes his horn and scar-free appearance in 4 irrelevant), and the eyes thing is bogus too (his eye colour in 1984 is the same as in the Ground Zeroes section in 1975, visible 7 minutes 52 seconds in the E3 trailer during the Ground Zeroes segment, the exact same shade as it is with the close up with the Punished Snake popup). In both the Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain he's voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, the characters are the same. Same VO, same eye colour (which at worst looks like it's between blue and green, which can be explained by the lighting but it is still the exact same shade between Big Boss riding in the helicopter and "Punished Snake" firing his gun in the cave), not to mention that Ocelot worships the ground Big Boss walks on. He is the ultimate BB fanboy, if he came across someone pretending to be him he's not going to play along and be in cahoots, he'd shoot the motherfucker dead. Same deal with Kaz. These are two people who are loyal to Big Boss to a fault, they are not going to just sit back and treat someone they know to be a fake as their best friend.
• Confirmed! Though instead of a clone he's a body-double who was willingly brainwashed into believing he's the genuine article, and is every bit as badass as Big Boss of his own accord.

The Phantom Pain may take place in more than one location

When Big Boss wakes up in the hospital, there is a Union Jack hanging in the room. This could suggest that he has awoken in British-run facility, though its location would be a good question (seeing as the last place we have seen Big Boss was fleeing the destruction of Mother Base in Central America). Given the conflicts going on, it could be possible that the facility is linked to Cipher or Zero.

The idea that there is another location that the Phantom Pain will play out in is very circumstantial. Given the presence of Ocelot, someone that appears to be Psycho Mantis, and the new red prosthetic hand Big Boss has in the Diamond Dogs outfit (a hand similar to Zadornov's hand), part of the game may be in the Soviet Union.

• Confirmed. The E3 trailer shows that there will be missions in both Afghanistan and Africa.

"From FOX, two phantoms were born" refers to...

• Zero and Big Boss. FOX served as the point of origin for both, the "zero" from which they diverged after founding the Patriots.

• Big Boss and Skull Face, who have many parallels, and who may be directly related somehow. Both are, or were, involved with the defunct FOX unit, and both use their iconography.

• Solid and Liquid Snake. "Shadows in the shape of men," "beasts created by man," and so forth. Both were created as a result of experiments conducted by former FOX personnel.

• Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. Two games born of the FOX Engine.

There will be a Player Punch moment involving the hospital

Perhaps this is a credit to whoever edited together the GDC13 Phantom Pain trailer and to "Not Your Kind of People", but it almost feels like there will some moment for this. It could be the nurse that finds Big Boss waking up from the coma, it could be the doctor, or it could be some other patients that the player will meet and get to know. It just seems that there will be some disheartening moment when the hospital is raided and someone you have come to know and possibly like will get killed offed during your escape. The only other punch that could happen is if the person you care for turns out to be a Cipher agent or someone working for Zero, sent to keep tabs on you (or worse, take certain actions if you wake up).

• Confirmed somewhat by trailers and teasers, as a good few Kick the Dog instances can be seen; namely, there are sequences involving defenseless patients being executed and gunned down en masse by soldiers and Those Who Do Not Exist.

Drago Madnar will make an appearance in "The Phantom Pain".

Since it is known that Dr. Madnar is capable of creating a cyborg body for Raiden, it may not be a far stretch to think that he could make an effective prosthetic hand given 80's technology in a Metal Gear world. He could be to one to fit Big Boss with a new hand after the hospital escape, and the moment could also make a nod to his eventual role in the first "Metal Gear" as the designer of the TX-55.

The Phantom Pain takes place entirely in Big Boss's nine-year coma, which he doesn't know he's in.

It explains all the strange imagery. And the scene where the doctor tells Big Boss that he's been in a coma for nine years is the end of The Phantom Pain.

• So the first numbered Metal Gear game since 2008 and it's All Just a Dream. I can see no way in which this could possibly piss off the entire fanbase and kill the franchise.

The game will at some point feature a much younger FOXHOUND team rescuing Big Boss.

We already more or less have Psycho Mantis and Revolver Ocelot confirmed, apparently helping BB in some manner, and the voice at the end of the trailer sounds pretty similar to Sniper Wolf. What if Ishmael is actually Decoy Octopus? It would explain why his face is covered, as if I recall we never see Octopus's true appearance in-game.

• Wolf would still be a child in 1984, Ishmael is voiced by Kiefer Sutherland who is also voicing BB, so that makes no sense and again you run into the "too young" thing since Ishmael is claiming to have watched over BB during his coma, which would mean by 2005 Decoy Octopus would be just shy of 50 assuming that A) he was already affiliated with MSF and B) Chico was the only Child Soldier MSF employed. While there is literally nothing on Octopus' past to rule out his involvement...there is also literally nothing to warrant bringing him back in.

The taboo subject will involve child soldiers

This was brought up in a few forums and they make an interesting point. Think about it, what's the last game you played where you were encouraged to shoot children?

• Confirmed to an extent — while child soldiers is a recurring, controversial theme, whether the scenes of Snake shooting children is "creative" editing or simply a cutscene (i.e. players can only watch Big Boss do it, as most would just refuse to keep playing) is yet to be seen.
  • It's creative editing both out- and In-Universe: A PFC commander has hired Diamond Dogs to eliminate his former subordinates, and they only find out on site that most of them are children. So Snake and Kaz decide to record a tape of Snake shooting at the kids (it's eventually revealed he's actually aiming at a random bucket) in order to both save the kids and get paid anyway.

'Eli' is a young Liquid Snake.

Because no one else could wear that open vest and mullet as well as he can.

• "A Youth who Curses his Fate." Sound familiar?
• Confirmed. He is referred to as Liquid in the closing timeline.

Raiden and Solidus will appear.

While Liberia hasn't been confirmed as a location, we see child soldiers of African ethnicity. Solidus mentioned how he "discovered" Raiden in the Liberian civil war. Therefore, we may see Raiden's and Solidus' first canonical appearances. Even though Solidues would be a bit too young by the 80's, this doesn't mean that he wasn't a child soldier, too. Thus, appearances by both would make sense.

• It's doubtful Raiden would show up or play any significant role, considering he was born in the 1980s. At the very most, he'd be 3 years old during the events of Phantom Pain. Or at least be seen in a cameo role.

Code Talker is the last survivor of the original Philosophers.

His subtitle lists him as a "WISE MAN denied his homeland", and being around 100 years old he certainly could have been part of the Wiseman's Committee during World War I.

The mech seen at the end of the Director's Cut trailer is an early version of TX-55.

Unlike ZEKE, which was known for not looking like the first MSX Metal Gear at all, this one has a similar size and overall shape (including a similar camera position).

All of the paranormal events Big Boss witnesses in the hospital are hallucinations.

It's quite possible he was hallucinating the flaming man, Psycho Mantis, and the giant flaming whale. For example, when Big Boss sees Psycho Mantis in front of the elevator, Ishmael, who is right next to him, apparently doesn't notice him.

• Ironically Ichmael is the most likely to be an hallucination since he shares Big Boss' voice actor.

Ishmael isn't real.

It seems mighty convenient that Ishmael has been hanging around in the hospital for at least nine years waiting for Big Boss to wake up from his coma. His comment about watching over Big Boss is true because he's part of Big Boss! It would also make sense how the drug Ishmael tries to administer to Big Boss to get his muscles working again fails to do anything. Lastly, Ishmael has the exact same voice actor as Big Boss, which is yet another hint they may both be the same person.

Miller will betray Big Boss

Kaz will have a Heel Realization and/or My God, What Have I Done? moment, so he will turn on BB, who will be unwilling to abandon his current ways, thus contributing to BB's journey to villainy.

• To add fuel to the fire for this, Miller did call Big Boss a monster by Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, so yeah....
  • That line had a much different context in the game but it would be a nice happy accident if this becomes confirmed.
• There might actually be some support to this theory: in one of the trailers, there is a split second scene of Big Boss and Miller walking away from each other. It's a very short scene and Kojima has by now made clear that we should never trust his trailers, but it could very well represent the final rift between the two friends and their subsequent going separate ways. After all, Miller must have at some point abandoned Big Boss prior to (or at most during) Operation Intrude N313. This could also have interesting developments, such as the game taking alternatively Big Boss's and Miller's POV, one compromising his ideals more and more in his amoral pursuit of revenge, the other trying to repair the damage he himself once contributed to cause.
  • Miller would actually argue that it's the other way around, and because of this vows to help take Big Boss down eventually.

XOF is Foxhound or related to it in some form.

It would explain what they where doing from the between the 70's and the Outer Heaven uprising.

• That would involve Cipher deciding that the best way to kill a man would be to go to the group he created and recruited for, no doubt filled with people who respect the man, and trying to convince them that they should kill their old boss.
• They are, in fact the cleanup crew for FOX.

Code Talker is The Boss' father

As the above theories claim, Code Talker is likely a survivor of the Philosophers. In the E3 trailer, the way Ocelot raises his hand, only for the footage to cut to Code Talker lowering his hand in a similar but reversed fashion does hint at them being linked...

Ishmael is a hallucination, and represents the player character

He says he's been watching over Big Boss for nine years. Since MGS3 was released in 2004, in a way, so have players. When asked who he is, Ishmael hesitates, then points right at the camera. Additionally, the way he uses items on Big Boss to help him recover and pushes him to move forward, are eerily similar to the ways a player manipulates their player character.

The hospital Big Boss wakes up in is a British military base in Cyprus.

Largely based off of some detective work a few IGN forumgoers did.

• Confirmed.

There will have another Assassin's Creed crossover

Hideo Kojima says that he likes the series. Game is confirmed to take place in the Middle East and will feature open world gameplay and they've done crossovers before.

The whole plot of the game is Big Boss having to come to terms with the fact that he's a clone-daddy.

Around this time, Solid and Liquid are around 12 years old. It's already generally assumed that Eli is Liquid (since they look nearly identical and he is "A Youth who Curses his Fate"). The theme song of the game is called "Sins of the Father", obviously referring to Big Boss. "Those Who 'Don't' Exist" are the six aborted clones of Big Boss, hence their horrible deformities. Each one will encompass a different sin; one will be Sloth, one will be Greed, one will be Envy, etc. It's possible that the role of Envy will go to Liquid, or that Wrath will be placed upon Big Boss himself ("Kaz, I'm already a demon"). As Big Boss fights his children, everything will come to a head with a conflict with Liquid, and Big Boss will have to accept that his "sin" was bringing his clones into such a harsh world. He'll then ask Master Miller to take Solid under his wing and be his mentor, so that at least one of his children can live without a troubled youth.

At least a few of the bosses from Metal Gear 1 and 2 will make their appearance

Because Big Boss had to meet them sometime. Besides, it'll be interesting to see how Kojima tries to fit guys like Dirty Duck and Running Man into the mold established after MGS1.

Sergei Gurlukovich will make an appearance with a unit, possibly alongside Ocelot

The soldiers Big Boss is presented as fighting during the the 'Dynamic CQC' section of the E3 trailer sport black-and-white striped vests and caps that are remarkably similar to Olga's. We know that part of the game takes place in Afghanistan during the USSR's operations there. Given Kojima's love for tying everything together, we can perhaps assume Sergei - being one of Ocelot's colleagues - will put in an appearance, albeit younger and sans Olga.

There will be an achievement for standing around to watch a horse poop.

...It seems like the most Kojima thing to do.

• And the achievement description will be "Snake... what took you so long?"

XOF answers to JD, not Cipher.

While the Patriots remain the Greater-Scope Villain, the AI's will first become important here, as their activation leads to the unforeseen creation of XOF and its preemptive assault on MSF, since the latter is identified as a threat to the A.I.s scheme and Cipher still wants Big Boss back in the fold instead of dead. The Moby Dick parallels identify how there is no real way for Big Boss and Kaz to avenge themselves on the new Patriots aside from destroying XOF. Big Boss will become obsessed with defeating the Patriots regardless, and will pretend to rejoin them by forming Foxhound while he ensures Outer Heaven's survivalAs a country of mercenaries, while Miller will break with him and become Master Miller after seeing how distorted his friend has become.

• Possible, although the only problem is that we know GW is the first operational Patriot AI - the simulation with Raiden was designed to see whether people could be fed information and still go along with what they were told - and that's the initial purpose the AI were designed for, before they decided the best path to guide mankind was via the war economy. That doesn't stop Skullface and XOF receiving their orders from a prototype. We also know that Cipher is perfectly willing to blow MSF out of the water if necessary, given what happened with Paz, and she was receiving orders from them.
  • Incorrect. GW was the key to the S3 plan, but you are talking to the Patriot AI throughout the entire game. There is no evidence that the S3 plan is anything but their creation.
• XOF doesn't answer to Cipher, but it's Skull Face's own unit. Although, after Skull Face's death, they take orders from Zero's proxies.

There will be another time skip in this game.

To the 90s and Operation Intrude N313. You'll play as both Big Boss and Solid Snake before their inevitable final confrontation.

• Personally, I think they'd save that for another game. In particular, after wrapping up this portion of the Metal Gear saga, they'll begin development of the true culmination of the series—an HD remake of the original Metal Gear (possibly both 1 & 2), with campaigns for both Snake and Big Boss as suggested above. It'll be released in 2017, marking the 30 year anniversary of the franchise.

There will be some emphasis on multiplayer

Notice how the subtitle said "Tactical Espionage Operations"? That's the same exact subtitle used in Peace Walker. I don't know how they will pull this off but it most likely won't be like PW as this game will be more open-ended. I predict that it may involve "dropping in and out" of a game, similar to an MMO but don't count on it.

• The FOB system is this. It's mandatory after episode 22.

Skullface is Sergeant Avitus

He didn't die he just went back in time because the chaos gods thought it would be funny.

The biggest plot twist of the century

On the day of release, Kiefer Sutherland will peel off his skin and reveal that he is actually David Hayter. And then Hideo Kojima will confess that there never was a Hideo Kojima. he too will peel off his face and reveal that all this time, he was Uwe Boll! And then, not content with his first reveal, David Hayter will peel off his face and reveal that he's a blueberry pie.

• And then he'll peel off his skin and reveal that he's a broom.

Remakes of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake will appear as DLC.

I'm basing this on the fact that the Deja Vu content for the PlayStation version of the game is apparently a Metal Gear Solid remake. This will also bring the series full circle.

• The Deja Vu content isn't a remake, it's a homage where the character models are swapped out for the PS1 versions, with the environments still being the Ground Zeroes ones.
• Fair enough. It'd be nice to see them as DLC for The Phantom Pain though.
• Samuel Rodriguez will also appear in this remake.
  • Well, Samuel will ask John or David if they know about MSX. Brazilians knew about MSX, so why not? However, Americans don't know about MSX.

The prosthetic hand Big Boss gets will have more available functions than just being a hand.

The player will be able to choose a specific loadout for the hand for each mission, such as a single shot silenced pistol, stun prod or hidden blades.

• Given Kojima's love for Assassin's Creed, I don't see why they couldn't use that last one.
• The hand can be used to make a knocking noise for distraction, but any further functions remain to be seen.
• A stun function has been confirmed in a similar manner to the stun knife from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the stun rod from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
• Non-lethal and lethal variants of a rocket punch function can be developed for the hand.

Some guess about the weapon that could surpass Metal Gear.

• I expect most of them to be jossed by the time the games comes out. I would not be surprised if all of them a jossed.
  • The internet as in arpanet (well Peace walker ending alludes to that)
  • Influencing the public (could tie in with the internet).
  • Something or someone human sized or shaped
  • Solid Snake - If you can't get Naked Snake/Big Boss to bust some mecha for you then make a copy of the legendary mechabuster (the reason why I used the term mecha was because Shagohod is not a metal gear)
  • Reality warping- we already have a guy that could teleport (Gene/Viper) and with Hideo Kojima in the game META GEAR!
  • Just another Mecha as in Metal Gear Ray was was
  • Psychological warfare with zombies (remember those gray guys from the trailer. They look like cyborg zombies with numbers instead of barcodes. By zombies I mean bringing back to life but unlike Raiden or Gray Fox the process bring them back gray with a bit of rotting.
  • According to Hideo Kojima theme of Metal Gear Solid was about "gene" and how the far prequel MGSV theme is "race". Looks like it might involve lots of racist eugenic research before gene research starts or a search for some lost papers involving racist eugenic research.
  • Something vague and unexpected with Big Boss destroying it before we find out.
  • Stuff from space such as a satelite launch, the A.I.s, or NUKE FROM SPACE!!!

Big Boss' amputated left arm will become a MacGuffin.

J.D. is stated to be accessed with Big Boss' biometric data in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In order to do so, somebody at some point cuts off his arm to access J.D. and keeps it on ice.

• Well, shenanigans involving amputated Snake arms certainly wouldn't be new for Metal Gear...

Grown up Chico

Since Kojima has said that the man overseeing Huey's torture isn't Kaz, it could very well be Chico, who would be about 22.

• I kind of think that Kojima he meant that Kaz is slowly becoming the man nicknamed Hellmaster.
• It is Miller. The E3 trailer clearly shows him minus An Arm and a Leg and it looks like he didn't avail of the same prosthetic as Snake.

Big Boss isn't sanctioning the torture of Huey and Quiet out of sadism or because he thinks they're traitors, but to prepare them for if they ever get captured and interrogated

Big Boss has been captured and tortured multiple times in the past, and was interrogated at length about what he knew; and thanks to his training he was able to resist being broken. Big Boss is trying to toughen up Huey and Quiet for the purpose of making sure they can keep a straight face in the event they are tortured for information, so that they will not reveal compromising intel to an enemy interrogator.

• I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. The Boss more or less said that that's what Big Boss went through himself during his own training.
• Going further, it might be another level of moral gameplay choices that the series is occasionally known for. Just like how repeatedly electrocuting helpless/defenseless enemies keeps them out of your hair, torturing/"conditioning" allies may bring gameplay benefits (possibly of a gamebreaker nature to make it more of a moral quandary) at the cost of, you know, the player's soul.
• To show Big Boss's descent in antagonism, the series might be moving away from the tradition of making you destroy your thumbs for gameplay reasons to destroying your soul for gameplay reasons.
• However, in Ground Zeroes, we find out that inviting the UN inspection of Mother Base was solely Huey's idea, which he requested without consulting Snake beforehand. Couple that with the fact that he somehow survived the assault, and it would be pretty reasonable that Big Boss would suspect him to be a traitor. As for Quiet's case, we still don't know enough about her.
  • Part of the confusion about Quiet's torture seems to stem from people assuming that she's on Big Boss's side, likely due to her prominence in trailers and sympathetic traits, when the reality is that she could very well be an antagonist - possibly even part of a Quirky Miniboss Squad.

Kojima is trying to kill off the series again.

Let's face it, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was Kojima unsubtly beating fans over the head with the fact the Metal Gear series had become a Franchise Zombie. Before that he tried pissing off the fans with the Mind Screw that was Metal Gear Solid 2 Sonsof Liberty. This time he seems to be trying for a combination of Too Bleak, Stopped Caring and Wangst. I mean seriously, "Punished" Snake?

• I think he was being legit with MGS 2, just too highbrow. His commentary on memes and the whole video-game experience is actually interesting; it doesn't seem like he was out to offend anybody. Not that he wasn't occasionally trolling.
• Peace Walker and Revengeance were pretty badass. I think he's still open to milking the cash cow. And he's apparently trying to be tasteful with the heavier material like child soldiers and stuff. I don't think that's a bald-faced lie. So I get the feeling that he doesn't hate us yet.
• I think the fact that he keeps coming back says a lot, really. At this point, he could do anything he liked, but he can't cut the cord when it comes to Metal Gear. I do think he no longer gives a shit about making sure every last little thing links up - take, for instance, the utterly ridiculous mechs of Peace Walker, but I think he's more interested in just telling the stories he wants to tell. After Portable Ops, he's clearly wary of letting anyone else touch the franchise, so.. I think it could be a love/hate thing.

Regardless of whether it's a smokescreen, the English voice acting controversy is just another Shout-Out by Kojima.

• Hideo Kojima loves Metal Gear's Friendly Rivalry with other notable stealth series. In this case, the controversy surrounding replacing the voice acting can go two different ways. If Kiefer really ends up being Snake, it's an homage to Sam Fisher's Michael Ironside being replaced by Eric Johnson. If Hayter reprises the role, it's a shout-out to David Bateson returning to the role of Agent 47 in "Absolution" following fan backlash.

Vietnam or any other country in Southeast Asia will be playable in The Phantom Pain

• It's where Big Boss rescued Grey Fox and served with him, and given how the game seems to be tying everything up, it's unlikely that this detail would be left unaddressed.
  • The timeline would suggest that this is the case - locations like certain nations in Africa and the country of Afghanistan, are featured prominently in the list, and these locations have been confirmed to be playable. Vietnam is mentioned a few times as well.
  • 1984 is when the Cambodian-Vietnam War was currently being fought so the timeline is plausible. Meeting Gray Fox might be an issue since he was already in Rhodesia in 1979.

Code Talker has a relative

• And that relative will grow up to become Vulcan Raven.
  • Not likely Vulcan Raven is Inuit while Code Talker is most likely Navajo.

Most of the characters in the E3 trailer are or are related to characters from Metal Gear Solid

Quiet=Sniper Wolf, Eli-Liquid Snake, Skull Face=Decoy Octopus, Huey=Hal, Ocelot=Ocelot, Code Talker=Vulcan Raven, Those Who Don't Exist=Psycho Mantis, Punished Snake=Solid Snake

• Psycho Mantis looks like he is appearing if the kid with the gas mask is any indication. Eli probably is Liquid.
  • Kojima has confirmed through GameInformer that the child is Psycho Mantis.

Sequel

Kojima is going to pull a fast one and put in a Secret Ending that hints a Metal Gear Solid 6 (regardless if he's directing it or not).

• Which will either be a prequel starring The Boss or cover the events of The Mercenary War.
  • Or The Movie adaptation will be a Metal Gear retelling.

Chico is going to Take a Level in Badass

My theory for this game is that Chico is going to be a major character in Phantom Pain. He is going to survive the events of Ground Zeroes but will be traumatized by seeing so many people die because of him and will possibly see his sister die either trying to save his life or right in front him as he tries to save her. This will cause him to Take a Level in Badass over the timeskip and go on an Up to Eleven Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Cipher for what they made him do. He may even be the V people are talking about in the trailer since his full name has been revealed for this game to be Ricardo Valenciano Libre.

• Seems to be increasingly likely with the events of Ground Zeroes, only that instead of Amanda dying, it was Paz.
• Jossed, as he died in the helicopter crash.

After Credits Scene

I am of the opinion that the after credits audio sequence will be Big Boss briefing a soldier on an infiltration mission. After this briefing he'll ask if the soldier understands what is at stake, or he'll play the words Metal Gear from a tranceiver recording, at this point we'll hear a young non-chain smokey Snake either say Yes Sir, or Metal Gear?! Then large letters will appear saying 1995 David Hayter is Solid Snake. It sounds a bit far fetched, but it also sounds like something Kojima would do in my opinion.

Paz's death will change the world

So Skull Face basically mocks Paz's death saying that it won't change the world the way she hoped it would. The Phantom Pain will end with Paz's death indeed changing the world, maybe even being the catalsyt for all the events of the Metal Gear Solid Snake Saga. What do you guys think?

• Well, it looks like it'll drive Snake in his desire for revenge, so that's plausible.
• Since Paz dies at the end of Ground Zeroes, the biggest impact it would be additional motivation for Big Boss's revenge, as well as possibly Chico.

Skull Face's nationality is Hungarian

In one of the Chico interrogation tapes, Skull Face issues a command to his soldiers in Hungarian: "Vigyétek a ketrecébe," (Take him back to his cage). It would also indicate where and when he gained his scarred appearance, either during the Second World War or the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. As an added bonus, the force responsible for destroying Skull Face's village was commanded by Colonel Volgin.

• His backstory strongly resembles a Real Life incident which occurred in 1944. The Metal Gear wiki actually does list his nationality as Hungarian.

The second half of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be a remake of the original Metal Gear

Exactly what it says on the tin. The first half of the game will be about building up the base. The second half will be tearing it back down... As Solid Snake, voiced by David Hayter.

• Seems like a waste of a concept and as a sales point. A standalone remake of the original Metal Gear would sell on it's own merits, no reason to waste half of a game on a remake and thus lose the extra sales.

The incident at the end of the game does not directly lead into Big Boss's coma

After completing the "Ground Zeroes" mission, Snake can be seen - fully conscious - with the burns that he had attained from Paz's explosion. In addition, the incident in question takes place in the middle of the ocean, far from land or a hospital of any sort. This could potentially imply that he manages to do something before he is hospitalized.

• The menu screen doesn't count as canon.
  • That still wouldn't explain why Big Boss has the burn marks in the trailers.

Paz was a decoy

If you notice, the way she speaks during the final cutscene is without an accent, while in the various tapes, her accent is left intact. It's possible that the Paz Snake rescued was simply a Trojan Horse that Skull Face used to make sure that he wouldn't have to contend with any potential survivors.

• But that doesn't explain why the decoy Paz would willingly perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save Snake from the bomb implanted inside her.
  • To sell the deception. In any case, would you really want to kill the people that tried to save you from a man who shoved two bombs inside of you?

Skull Face was scarred during World War II, at the earliest

Large scale conventional bombing did not become a common occurrence until World War II, and while bombing did take place in World War I it wasn't anywhere near what we would call accurate or powerful, so it's likely it was some time during WWII. Plus Skull Face doesn't sound like a super old man (unless of course he has just aged super gracefully), probably in his 40s or 50s at most, so it would be logical to assume that the war in question happened within the past few decades, as World War I would have been over for 57 years as of 1975. You could probably push it a little bit further into the 1950s and still have him be a grown man, but any further than that seems illogical given his appearance and tone of voice.

• As detailed in the Wild Mass Guess above about him being Hungarian, his backstory sounds a lot like a Real Life incident that did occur during World War II.

Metal Gear ZEKE is going to play a major part in the plot

Since the MSF sank it into the ocean to hide it, XOF or Cypher is going to spend a lot of time looking for it. When Snake gets out of his coma and builds up his army again, he will retrieve it once he has sufficient resources to do so. Although, since the TX-55 will come later, ZEKE will probably be destroyed at some point.

• Or ZEKE will be stolen and reversed engineered to become the prototype for REX.

Chico is going to become just like Skull Face

Skull Face in one of his tapes says that he wants to create someone just like him, who lives for the sake of vengeance. If this is true, then Chico may be the one torturing Huey along with Ocelot. With Paz's death, Chico is going to become obsessed with avenging her. In the process, he will be willing to torture anyone in order to get revenge, and may even record the events, just like Skull Face did.

Ishmael is real, and only seems to be fake because that's just what the developers want the players to think.

Ishmael will not be voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, as earlier trailers would indicate

The character was given a Sutherland's voice as a way to mask the fact that he would actually be voicing Big Boss, which came as quite a shock to the fandom. The person that will actually voice the character will be a bigger surprise this way.

Ishmael is a full adult clone and/or imitation of Big Boss, an advanced prototype that was highly unique and experimental

I propose that the Snatcher mission with Raiden is not just a tongue in cheek reference to Kojima's game Snatcher but is a foreshadowing of what "Those Who Don't Exist" and Ishmael himself is. The Metal Gear version of Snatchers in this sense are bio-synthetic organisms that are hybrids of man and machine and are fully identical on the genetic level to those they copy. As far as Ishmael is concerned the reason why he sounds like Big Boss is because on the genetic level he is Big Boss, and the reason why he was in that facility was because he was being cultivated from the DNA of the comatose Big Boss for all that time. Furthermore the bandages on Ishmael's face aren't concealing wounds, they are concealing his resemblance to Big Boss! Ishmael might very well be a more youthful looking Big Boss underneath all those bandages.

• That's farfetched, even for Metal Gear. Also; the Xbox exclusive mission is plot-important but the Playstation one is irrelevant? That'll go over well with the fanboys.

Ishmael is Decoy Octopus

The reason he has bandages on his face is because he was undergoing surgery to look like Big Boss. In addition, he has the same voice actor since he needs to be able to impersonate Big Boss' voice. Most likely, Big Boss' remaining allies arranged to have Decoy Octopus secretly replace Big Boss in the hospital before he woke up. However, Big Boss regained consciousness earlier than expected, which caused a change of plans.

• Unlikely, since the game takes place in 1984 and Metal Gear Solid takes place in 2005. Assuming Octopus is 20 and already a master of disguise in 1984 that would make him 41 at the time of his death. His photos make him look a bit to young to be in his forties, and considering the lengths he went through for his disguises he'd be in to poor a shape to be in FOXHOUND.
  • But... but he went to those same extreme lengths in the first game too. How would he be in poorer shape from doing it here than from doing it in Metal Gear Solid?
    • Because he was still in the prime of his life? Because when you're younger your body can handle injuries better than when you're older? Not everyone can be like The End and have weathered a physically rough life so well.

Snatchers, or maybe even some type of demon, will show up that can imitate the appearances of other people

I'll cite the song "Not Your Kind of People" as my proof. The lyrics for the song allude to "creatures in disguise" so at some point in the story creatures that can look like other people will become part of the enemy forces Big Boss must fight. Given that Snatchers are already established in Kojima's gaming mythology as creatures who can do that, and we have a (most likely non-canonical) side mission where Raiden takes on Snatchers, it will probably be them. However given that we see a demonic entity that takes on the appearance of Volgin in the trailers I wouldn't be surprised if the creatures in disguise were supernatural in origin.

• That would be fine, if those were the lyrics. The line you're referring to is "We are not your kind of people/Won't be cast as demons/Creatures you despise" It's a shockingly common mondegreen that I've seen twice already on this wiki. Is it that hard to google the lyrics?
  • I made the same mistake with the song Sins of The Father until I saw the official lyrics. I was just so certain that it was creatures in disguise that I never bothered to look, I apologize. Anyway the theory itself seems at least somewhat plausible, because it seems odd to me for Kojima to plant something in a game where it doesn't have greater significance later on. The demonic Volgin and the Snatchers will likely come into play at some point.

The reason David Hayter could not voice Big Boss was because of Metal Gear Solid 4

After all, Metal Gear Solid 4 took place in 2014. As we speak, David Hayter is actually on a mission to finally take down Revolver Ocelot and finally give us the Grand Finale of one of the best video game series.

• Or he's busy working on that movie that he promoted As Himself in that game.

Skull Face is Big Boss from an alternate future timeline

All the references to his childhood, a weapons factory and him being burned when his nation died are all metaphors for the destruction of Outer Heaven. Childhood = His innocence in believing that he could make a difference in world affairs. Weapons factory = He's the leader of a mercenary force that provides services and weapons for various wars. Nation dying and him being burned = NATO bombing Outer Heaven and him being burned alive by Snake. Furthermore the mission with Raiden going back in time is not strictly non-canon, it's just an alternate timeline that branched off from the main one, and using the same means as that Raiden Skull Face has gone back in time to change his fate.

Memory discrepancies will be a recurring theme in the game

I thought of this when I realize that the flaming whale could be a surreal version of Big Boss remembering the moment he crashed into the helicopter. Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain will be about Big Boss remembering the events but with some odd bits here and there.

Alternatively, both could be a VR simulation trying to recall Big Boss's memories while he was in a coma (and I mean after the time Solid Snake burned him in Zanzibarland).

• Confirmed. Snake hallucinates Paz in the medical unit. He's also the Medic who has been given memories from the real Big Boss.

Huey's eventual suicide was a result of his experiences in the prequels

It was established in Metal Gear Solid 2 that Otacon's father died because he drowned in a pool in 1997. Ostensibly it was because he was upset that his wife was cheating on him, but I propose that it was guilt over associating himself with Big Boss's misdeeds. 1997 is the same year that Big Boss had recovered from his failed rebellion in 1995 and took over Zanzibar Land, the timing of his death is oddly convenient if you put it in those terms. It seems logical to me that Big Boss would want to go to the foremost Metal Gear expert in the world and confronted Huey with the possibility of resuming their rebellion, but by that point Huey had enough guilt on his conscience for ensuring that Metal Gear existed in the first place and was weary of what Big Boss had become as of the Phantom Pain and subsequently committed suicide so as to avoid being used by Big Boss.

• Considering what we know about Huey now, his suicide likely had a lot to do with his guilt about putting his son in mortal danger to push his research, letting his wife die while listening to her plead, and, oh I don't know, murdering a crap ton of his supposed allies in a pretty horrible way. Ocelot said that someday, he'd see through his own BS.

Huey's "suicide" was engineered by the Patriots

...on the other hand it is equally plausible that someone with Huey's knowledge of Metal Gear would be a liability to the Patriots if they just let him sit idly with that information in his head. Best to neutralize him before he is compromised.

• Well, Ocelot's final words regarding him were that he would see what kind of man he really was, and see through his own BS. I think it was hinting at this being a contributing factor in his suicide...

Zero's crippled state as of Metal Gear Solid 4 happened as a result of Big Boss exacting his revenge on Zero in this game

A man as influential as Zero should not have been in a vegetative state as of MGS4 as he has access to literally the best health care in human history what with gene therapy and cybernetics at his finger tips. I propose that Big Boss injured him in some way that left him crippled beyond his capacity to continue running the Patriots directly and had to have other associates build up the AI system for him given his weakened state. After that his mind gave out as his body deteriorated from old age and the strain of his wounds.

• Given the state of Big Boss after Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, it must have been pretty bad for all the technology Zero has access to to not be able to restore him to some sort of working condition.
  • Or it could have just been old age. Even the wiki (spoilers obviously) confirms he was born 1909, making him 30 at the start of WWII, making him 55 during Snake Eater (1964), 75 during The Phantom Pain (1984), and 105 during Guns of the Patriots (2014). All of that gene therapy and cybernetics only entered practical use during the 2000s, no help to a man whose already pushing it in years.
  • Bear in mind that the Metal Gear series is essentially an Alternate History where human cloning and relatively sophisticated cybernetic limbs have existed since The '70s.
    • Yet only ever entered use in the 2000s - gene therapy was explicated stated to be revolutionary in the 2000s (so no anti-aging available until Zero was in his 90s), cybernetics weren't at the level of usefulness until the 2010s (hence why they were limited to either exoskeletons or replacing lost limbs). Nothing seen in the series really helps you deal with the fact that he was a 105 year old man at his last sighting being kept alive by machines, that he's even still alive is exceptional. No need to convoluted explanations when reality provides the perfect one.
    • Since when did Metal Gear ever go for the realistic explanation? Or even the simple one?
• Confirmed. Skull Face infects Zero with a disease that simulates dementia. Over the years, Zero loses his mind until he becomes the vegetable that Big Boss Mercy Kills at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Zero was one of the soldiers who took part in the mission that scarred Skull Face

We know very little about Zero's backstory as a soldier, only that a long time ago he served with the British SAS during World War II, so it wouldn't be out of line to suggest that one of the many missions he went on might have crossed paths with Skull Face when he was a younger soldier. If we go with the potential backstory that Skull Face was Hungarian then Hungary was part of the Axis Powers during World War II and therefore would have been subject to attack from Allied Powers. Perhaps the SAS got word of Skull Face's village and were sent in to destroy the factory, and Skull Face's hatred for what Zero did to him all those years ago was burned into his memory while Zero himself forgot about it most likely.

Big Boss is not voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, but actually by David Hayter.

Hayter's impression of Sutherland is that good that he's just been mistaken by everyone for Sutherland. Given that this is Kojima we're talking about, it'd be the ultimate Troll move.

The medic in Ground Zeroes is Ishmael

See this video for details.

• Jossed. The Medic is Venom Snake and Ishmael is Big Boss.

Things will likely turn out to be Diamond Dogs vs Patroits vs XOF and Ocelot's role in the two MS games

And as a result of Big Boss/Diamond Dogs taking down Skull Face/XOF, he'll find himself back into Zero's good graces, which he'll take advantage of for the time being. This combine with the Patriots' complacence created by XOF's fall leads into Metal Gear 1's scenario. In extension Ocelot wasn't assisting him during that time due to being an inside man on the Patriots, possibly running what interference he could. He would most likely helped Big boss set up shop again in Zanzibar Land discreetly.

Quiet suffered from Rape as Backstory

Kojima said that there's a plot reason that she dresses the way she does in part to make players "feel ashamed of your words & deeds", and that she is meant to be a Deconstruction of the Ms. Fanservice archetype. Given that she has evidently been "deprived of her words", there's a possibility that she had the Freudian Excuse that she was raped, but no one could hear her screams for help.

• One trailer depicts her in fatigues, being choked by a Soviet soldier. In the game itself, he tries to rape her, but once he gets her pants off, her powers come back.

Huey isn't the traitor

The trailers contain lines about how MSF's HQ was invaded through "the scientist", and there are scenes of Huey being tortured. Due to his plot importance, and that the trailer is probably lying, the real traitor will be the strangely trailer absent Dr. Strangelove — it even makes sense that Huey would protect her, as he's shown to have a blossoming crush on her during the end of Peace Walker.

• Jossed. She's dead and it's left ambiguous as to Huey's loyalties until Episode 43, where it transpires he's responsible for the new strain of vocal chord parasite.

Big Boss's horn is of demonic origin, and "Those Who Don't Exist" like the Fire Demon are the Phantoms of Phantom Pain

Curiously, if you look at the fire demon/entity that is personified in the shape of Volgin, you'll notice that it has the same kind of horns that Big Boss himself has in the Red Band trailer. Perhaps when Big Boss fought the demonic entity its essence somehow infected Big Boss and he has thus started to become whatever that demonic entity was, and the horn is there to symbolize that fact.

'Those That Don't Exist' are all Mantis' doing

We know the guy's going to be in the game. Mantis has confirmed pyrokinetic, telekinetic and telepathic abilities. He's the cause of 'Those That Don't Exist'. His presence in the hospital will cause Big Boss to hallucinate images of Volgin, plus the whale and other imagery. His telekinesis explains the weird, creepy ragdoll effect you can see in the soldiers before they're pulled up into the air. And Mantis is either another one of Ocelot's gambits - using him to prod Big Boss back into action - or Mantis is being used by the Patriots to prod Big Boss back to joining them.

Paz will become Chico's Lost Lenore

Common, do I even have to explain this one? Ground Zeroes was practically a set-up for this to happen.

Quiet's outfit is a direct result of Ocelot's torture

Okay, thus far we've only seen one outfit for Quiet - the incredibly revealing one with the holes in her nylons. However, we've also got plenty of photos of Stefanie Joosten (the actress playing her) being 3D scanned while wearing a much more typical soldier's uniform. Additionally, the Red Band trailer revealed just how Quiet got the holes in her nylons - they were ripped by the electricity which was run through her body during the scene where she's tortured by electric rods. The rods themselves look very similar to the ones used on Big Boss himself during "Peace Walker", and in that game, Strangelove had him stripped shirtless (most likely because the rods don't really work unless they're touching bare flesh). Additionally, Hideo Kojima has stated that there's a very good reason why Quiet is dressed the way she is. Really, only one possible answer comes to mind.

At first, Quiet will be dressed in a very typical soldier's attire. At some point, she'll be captured by Big Boss and Ocelot, and that's when she'll lose her top and possibly her pants. After the torture session, she managed to escape and acquire a sniper rifle from Big Boss' own arsenal, though she was unable to retrieve her clothes. If I had to guess, I'd say that's probably going to be followed by a boss fight where she's killed, but really, that's nothing more than pure speculation on my part with no reference to back it up.

• The E3 2014 trailer clearly shows Quiet fighting Diamond Dogs soldiers on the platform where their new base is, and she's dressed in her bare outfit while doing so, thus lending even more credibility to the theory that she was captured and stripped by Ocelot.

The Diamond Dogs will join forces with Zero against XOF...

...at Miller's instigation and will be reclassified FOXHOUND. The name change will signal their switch in allegiances from money and personal revenge (Dogs of war fighting for Diamonds) into more "noble" and nationalized command (as the FOX's Hound.) Then, with Big Boss's troops and skills allied with Zero's resources, FOXHOUND will cease to be a "phantom" organization and will eradicate XOF with such extreme prejudice that the only thing left will be Big Boss's hate and obsession with directly opposing Zero, who he will blame for XOF's creation. And of course, Big Boss will then form Outer Heaven as a new phantom organization, even as his new Government unit receives accolades and acceptance.

• Miller mentions in Peace Walker that FOXHOUND already exists. I presume this WMG is based on Portable Ops being non-canon. Unless the Diamond Dogs are absorbed into FOXHOUND that part is unlikely.
• Confirmed. Zero assists the Diamond Dogs in hiding Big Boss from XOF.

Huey is being tortured because of Strangelove

Strangelove's departure from Mother Base prior to its destruction is extremely suspicious, and would no doubt be brought up among Outer Heaven personnel in the aftermath of the incident. Strangelove, for whatever reason, let XOF into Mother Base to plant the bombs they would need to destroy it, and then with her job done she left. Miller is torturing Huey because of his close association with Strangelove and is trying to find out where she's located by beating the truth out of Huey.

Chico will eventually be Together in Death with Paz

Considering how much Chico loves Paz and how much her death must have traumatized him, I can see Chico actually becoming a Death Seeker so that he can be together with Paz again.

• Definitely seems legit to me.

The game will reveal that Solid and Liquid weren't octuplets but, in fact, nonuplets

It will be revealed that Solid and Liquid have a third twin who survived, leaving the door open for MGS6.

Paz's death scene...

Was a hallucination.Think about it. Big Boss must have gone crazy after he saw/heard the things that Skullface and co. did back at Camp Omega. So maybe he was just imagining disarming the bomb in Paz's stomach and her death scene. Maybe he was the one that crashed the helicopter. Maybe the hospital's really an insane asylum. Maybe The Phantom Pain's gonna be the Spec Ops: The Line of the series. Or maybe I'm just thinking to hard about this.

• Nope, sounds pretty legit to me.
• This is actually subverted ingame. When she turns up on Mother Base, tt seems like she could have survived in a flashback, but it turns out that Snake is hallucinating her himself.

The Phantom Pain will end up being similar to X-Men Days of Future Past.

Halfway through we'll find out that Old Snake was sent back to his younger body to help prevent the creation of the Patriot's AI's and change the timeline. It would also certainly explain why they would keep Hayter's role such a secret.

The Child Soldier from the E3 2014 trailer is Drebin.

Drebin mentions having been a child soldier. Seems likely that he'd turn up in Africa, along with Raiden.

Ishmael is Chico and will get killed during the hospital sequence.

There's no sign of either Chico or Ishmael in any of the trailers outside of Ishmael's appearance in the hospital. Considering that Snake appears to link up with Ocelot later minus Ishmael, it's reasonable to assume that he died in the incident. Furthermore, the ashes that Snake rubs into his face during the cremation scene are Chico/Ishmael's, adding to the scene's emotional impact.

Kojima is rewriting the canon for the Metal Gear models in the series with the Phantom Pain

.That's quite clearly Metal Gear Rex - or an early variant - at the end of the newest trailer. We know that the Emmerichs have been accused of steal their designs before - there's that line from Coldman directed at Huey in Peace Walker about his work ethic - and perhaps we are meant to accept the models in Granin's lab at face value. Put it this was - it makes no sense for the old Metal Gear models to exist following the reveal of ZEKE, but perhaps Kojima is going to make the Metal Gear models from MG 1 and MG 2 more mass-production models, as suggested following the end of the first trailer.

• That looked like ZEKE to me. Remember that the MSF hid ZEKE at the bottom of the ocean prior to the events of Ground Zeroes. It's entirely possible that Skull Face could have found it.
  • Possible - it's just the structure of it looks more like Rex, to me. It seems to have that same hunched stance, plus the shape of the head. Again, it also would make more sense with the a weapon to surpass Metal Gear line from the earlier trailer, since it is, again, a step-up from ZEKE, and Kojima could want to address the inconsistency. It's also worth noting that in the original Solid game, Rex itself isn't a big deal, for whatever reason - the railgun and the associated nuke is.
  • It's still got ZEKE's AI Pod, but it's possible, since ZEKE heads are interchangeable, that the head was changed to a REX-style cockpit to accommodate a human pilot.
  • The launch trailer shows the full thing. It has a similar appearance to REX... when it's crouching. Standing at full height, it's twice the size of both REX and Peace Walker. But like REX, it has a cannon on its cod-piece

Ground Zeroes was separated from Phantom Pain for ratings reasons.

• Just an idle thought today after seeing the E3 2014 trailer of Phantom Pain. Considering how very dark Ground Zeroes is, and just how big Phantom Pain is intended to be, Kojima may have very well decided that, among other reasons, the subject matter in Ground Zeroes could have pushed a combined Metal Gear Solid 5 deep into the killer AO (US), Z (Japan) or 18/R18 ratings (Europe).

Big Boss and Kaz will part ways halfway through

We know for a fact that A) Kaz and Snake hate each other's guts by the time Metal Gear 2 rolls around, and B) Outer Heaven is located in South Africa while the Diamond Dogs HQ seems to be at sea, possibly on top of Mother Base's remains. The E3 2014 trailer also shows what appears to be Snake killing three Diamond Dogs soldiers in cold blood. Since we know that both Big Boss and Miller go pretty far in their pursuit of vengeance, it's entirely possible that Snake crosses the line at some point, causing a violent rift between the friends. As such, halfway through the game, Big Boss will be forced to leave the Diamond Dogs HQ and found Outer Heaven, thus making the main strggle of the game between four different forces - Diamond Dogs, Outer Heaven, XOF and Cipher.

• They could be XOF troopers. But, on the other hand, Snake and Skull Face get off a jeep together. Snake doesn't appear to be a prisoner (yet), as he's still carrying his rifle. Perhaps Snake joins forces with Skull Face to combat Cypher and Kaz thinks it's a step too far and leaves.

Big Boss and Kaz will subject the Diamond Dogs to Training from Hell taken up to eleven.

The torture, the supposed infighting from the trailers. Big Boss and Kaz decide that the MSF were ill-prepared for the XOF attack and decide to up the ante with the training they give their troops in order to toughen them up properly. Thus, the Diamond Dogs will be much hardier and ruthless than the MSF ever were.

XOF will merge with the Diamond Dogs to form Outer Heaven.

We know that Big Boss is a Magnetic Hero who is capable of getting people he defeats to join his side. Since Skull Face is a new character, he is likely Doomed by Canon whether Big Boss defeats him or joins with him (as implied by the E3 trailer), leaving the XOF troopers with nowhere to go. Either way, both sides look like they'll take heavy losses and with nowhere left to go, Big Boss will allow XOF to join up with him to give them a place in the world.

Out of a petty desire for revenge, Big Boss will put aside all of his grievances with Skull Face and join forces with him to fight Cipher...

...and this will be intended to be the one Moral Event Horizon that not even the most hardcore of Big Boss' Misaimed Fandom can ignore. Given that one shot of the two together in the E3 2014 trailer, I could see Kojima doing this. Ground Zeroes has been one long Establishing Character Moment for Skull Face's magnificent bastardry. What better way to finalize Big Boss' Protagonist Journey to Villain than siding with a Complete Monster in order to fight what he thinks is a greater evil?

• Alternatively, the final battle could be combination of Cipher and Big Boss fighting Skull Face. If this goes, this is explain why Big Boss was on a good term with US government during Metal Gear; he get their good graces after save the world from whatever Skull Face is cooked. Of course, that doesn't mean he would be graceful about it....
• Alternatively? You have to choose. Fight Cipher and satisfy your own inner demons, at the cost of your humanity, or fight Skull Face, and lost the chance for revenge, and enduring your inner hatred. And if Kojima feels like it, he can add third option, takes them both. Which ended with all your assets gone, your soldiers dead. Yes, it was glorious, but you still dead without accomplishing anything.

Possible DLC.

We all know that pre order bonuses are coming to the Japanese version, but, like a lot of games, later DLC packs are a possibility. Possible content:

• The Custom 1911 or possibly The Patriot.
• A Mother Base soldier with good stats or a small squad to prop up Mother Base early on.
• The Battle Suit skin, since the fatigues are confirmed to appear in game and the sneaking suit appears in Ground Zeroes (The tux will become available upon completion of the main story).
• A full extra side story mission.

Chico talked before he was forced to have sex with Paz

We don't actually hear them doing it in front of Skull Face, all we get is Chico spilling his guts. And then later on it's strongly implied they do it for real while in their cell. Could you be forced to have sex with someone you deeply like as part of Cold-Blooded Torture and then do it again of your own free will with them later? Even if you could, the psychological traumas, especially for a child, wouldn't go away within a few days, it would take years, so my WMG: Chico broke and talked before he could sleep with Paz, and then later on they did it for real as comfort.

Snake will return to Camp Omega at some point....

....Where the final confrontation with Skull Face will occur.

• Confirmed that the player will be able to return to Camp Omega at some point, though it's not clear what exactly will be there. Given how it's restricted to people who have played Ground Zeroes, it's unlikely that Camp Omega is going to be plot critical in The Phantom Pain.

Hideo Kojima will return as a Mother Base staff member.

But only to those who rescued him in ''Ground Zeroes''.

• Nope, you get a side op to rescue and re-recruit him in The Phantom Pain even if you don't have Ground Zeroes.

Hideo Kojima will return as a True Final Boss.

Retconning with Police911, Hideo becomes the leader of Gokudou-kai during the 90s. With Gokudou-kai's members being a shoutout to the Konami staff members, it's not avoidable that Hideo will be among the Yakuza, controlling everything behind the Metal Gear story.

Skull Face was an apprentice of The Boss.

He blames Zero for the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and consequently wants revenge.

Chico will be a good counterpart to Big Boss.

Chico will obviously be heavily affected by the events of Ground Zeroes. Just as much, if not even more than Big Boss. However, I believe that Chico will grow up to become a hero very much like Snake was before his fall. And (bear with me because this one is REALLY grasping at straws) at the end E3 2013 trailer, Chico is shown together with the word "light", whereas Big Boss (and Kaz) are associated with the word "dark", and then the right side of Chico's face is shown covered in light by the lightning while Big Boss' is still covered in darkness....Am I trying too hard?

There will be a division within the core MSF members.

What I'm saying is that, just as with the Patriots, who eventually split sides with Big Boss, EVA, and Ocelot against Zero, Para-Medic, and Sigint, there will be a rift within the (majority) of the cast of Peace Walker and some other characters. Maybe some will even serve as Evil Counterparts to each other such as:Strangelove=Huey- Both are genius scientists. But maybe Strangelove will be willing to help Big Boss in his quest for revenge because he's all that's left of the Boss' will, causing Huey to finally stand up to her and the path she's chosen.Kaz=Paz-Both are "named" after peace, are/were affiliated with Cipher, and care deeply about Big Boss, MSF, and its people. But Kaz is willing to go off the deep end for the sake of revenge.Ocelot=EVA??-If EVA makes an appearance she could serve as this along with Paradise Lost.Big Boss=??-I have know idea who could serve as Big Boss' counterpart. Maybe Chico.

Sins of the Father is actually a foreshadowing from a character's POV.

The song is being sung from a character's, presumably Quiet's, feelings in regards to Big Boss and Diamond Dogs, as well as everything that they're doing. It could be that Quiet used to know Big Boss or at least heard of him, and is now seeing him and the people around them become demons throughout the Phantom Pain.

Another Big Bad.

Aside from Skull Face, there will be a second Big Bad or a Greater-Scope Villain. It is actually Hideo Kojima, who is actually the leader of Gokudou-kai, and is trying to assassinate everyone.

• The Greater-Scope Villain would, inevitably, be Zero. Well, not really.

Chico will be the one to kill Skull Face.

Connected with the above WMG, during the boss battle with Skull Face, instead of controlling Snake, we will switch to Chico, while Big Boss goes fight someone else. Chico will have a CQC battle in Camp Omega with Skull Face, in the same boiler room where Skull Face tortured him and Paz, with "Here's to You" playing in the background.

The doctor from the hospital sequence is the medic from Ground Zeroes.

Assuming that he isn't Ishmael, the medic tends to Snake's injuries over the years. He is asked to be informed immediately when Snake comes to and knows exactly how long he's been in a coma.

The Medic is a spy.

The Medic is actually a spy for either XOF or Cipher and was keeping tabs on Big Boss for Skull Face, acting as an informant from inside Mother Base. If he was working for XOF, he was the one who planted the C4 from within the base and gave confirmation of Big Boss' chopper lifting off. If he was working for Cipher, then he had no idea that Skull Face was going to attack MSF instead of retrieving the nuke, and spent the next 9 years watching over Big Boss as a way to atone for what happened and protect Big Boss from Skull Face's men.

There will be a Player Punch involving Paz.

Despite the fact that Paz died, there will still be some references and revelations regarding her. Such as possibly Skull Face revealing that Paz was a few days pregnant when he implanted the bomb in her that caused her to die.

Skull Face's line "You're a real man now, soldier" to Chico was in reference to Chico being forced to have sex with Paz.

The line's implications say it all. Of course, this could also symbolize the end of Chico's innocence and he will wind up doing things just as dark as the rest of the Diamond Dogs are implied to be doing in the main game.

• Alternatively, it could reference to the fact that Chico chose to betray Big Boss and send out the distress signal.

Chico is with Huey.

Another reason Huey is being tortured is possibly because, aside from the tape that incriminates him in betraying MSF, Huey knows of Chico's whereabouts in 1984. Kaz has with him what appears to be an outdated 1975 Walkman that Chico had during Ground Zeroes instead of an updated version. Assuming that Chico isn't with Diamond Dogs, that Walkman would most likely be the latest version he has. It could be that, when capturing Huey, they found Chico's old Walkman with Huey and are torturing him to know the location of the other person who "betrayed" MSF. It would make sense. Maybe Huey finds Chico after the destruction of MB and he sympathizes with the boy due to both feeling responsible for the destruction of MSF, having possibly betrayed their friends in order to save someone they love (Paz for Chico and Strangelove for Huey), and the fact that neither one of them can walk (possibly temporarily in Chico's case). Thus, the two become Heterosexual Life-Partners trying to make amends and tracking down Cipher and XOF.

There will be another Snake.

There will be a second character who uses the codename of Snake (possibly called Vanished Snake).

• Venom Snake is not actually Big Boss, but the Medic from Ground Zeroes.

Quiet is Sokolov's daughter.

She stops speaking after hearing of the death of her father (assuming his appearance in Portable Ops isn't canon) and travels the world looking for answers.

All of these Wild Mass Guesses will be Jossed by the time the game comes out.

Including this one. It seems like the kind of thing Kojima would do.

The third person in the hospital is Chico, but Ishmael is either the Medic or a hallucination.

Okay, so we know that Skull Face and his unit removed their XOF patches to make everyone think that Cipher was responsible for the attack on MB. However, when Skull Face visited Chico, he and his men were still wearing their patches. As seen in the GDC trailer, the person in the hospital zooms in when he sees the FOX patch on Snake. It could be that Chico is recognizing the patch, since it's only a reversed XOF patch. However, it's never stated that there are only 3 people in the hospital. It could be possible that Ishmael is a fourth patient at the hospital (the Medic), and is Ishmael, or that Big Boss projects a hallucination of the Medic as Ishmael due to the Medic possibly being the last person he saw before falling into a coma.

• Didn't Kojima come out and say that he himself was the third person in the hospital?
  • Yes, but he said that it was from a game director's perspective, meaning that they were referring to a character, whose eyes Kojima and the audience are seeing through. He most likely said that as a way to avoid answering who the character Kaz was referring to in-universe when they asked him in the interview. Besides, it's not like Kojima to add his own character to plot integral parts of the storyline such as Snake falling into a 9 year long coma.
  • I doubt he's going to drop a bridge on himself either, unless he was one of the troublemakers that was transferred ashore before the events of Ground Zeroes and, therefore, was not present at Mother Base during the attack.
  • I also agree he wouldn't just kill off his own character. There's a much bigger chance that Kojima really was offshore for whatever reason, or managed to escape the attack on MB, rather than including himself in such a critical plot point of the story.

Big Boss will lose more body parts at some point in the game and have them replaced with cybernetics.

In the original Metal Gear, the only weapon that will harm Big Boss is the rocket launcher. Furthermore, in the second game, he will No-Sell Snake's hand-to-hand techniques (unless, this is a representation of his CQC abilities unable to be shown due to technical limitations) and it takes a makeshift flamethrower to take him down. He might be Made of Iron, but not to that level. The only thing I can think of is if he gets a few more cybernetics or Kojima decides to go down the remake route and Retcon the whole thing.

Chico will be the Final Boss of TPP.

Since Big Boss will become more villainous throughout the game and it will ultimately end with Big Boss becoming the antagonist we meet in Metal Gear, it would be a nice way to show how far he's fallen. Chico will oppose Big Boss' ways and cruelty, and the two will have a battle. Ultimately, Big Boss wins, points his gun at Chico, who is on his knees and hands, mirroring the scene in Peace Walker, where Big Boss makes makes Chico hombre nuevo. Only this time, Chico will say that someone else will rise to stop Big Boss and "Shoot. You will only kill a man." And this time, Big Boss actually pulls the trigger, completing his transformation. Metal Gear Solid V started with the heroic Snake rescuing Chico, and it will end with the villainous Big Boss killing Chico.

Chico or Quiet will have a Golden Eagle as an animal motif/companion.

Chico will copy Paz's V-shaped scar.

We all know that, aside from from loving Paz, Chico also admires Big Boss as his hero and father-figure. So the same way Big Boss copied The Boss' S-shaped scar, Chico will copy Paz's V-shaped scar. Kojima already said that Paz's "cesarian" was meant to parallel her to The Boss. I also don't think that it was for nothing that Chico was the one to discover Paz's scar, when you know, there was a Medic and Big Boss onboard and none of them noticed that Paz's shirt was drenched in blood.

Ocelot will be the one to kill Skull Face.

Since both characters are inspired by The Western and they both prefer older weapons (Ocelot and his Single Action Army and the Marines talk about Skull Face carrying a lever action weapon), they'll end up in a Quick Draw duel, possibly in a Shout-Out to the final confrontation between Joe and Ramon Rojos at the end of A Fistful of Dollars, where Ocelot will demonstrate his revolver's superiority to a lever action rifle in loading a single round.

• Eagle-eyed viewers have pointed out that in August 2015's Gamescom trailer, there is a shot of Big Boss and Kaz from a perspective as though they're standing over someone, and the former has a rifle exactly the same as Skull Face's in his hand.

Skull Face will be a Damage-Sponge Boss.

• His whole backstory seems like one big justification for why someone like him Feels No Pain. Alternatively, Skull Face will have the most HP of any boss in the series and his fight will turn into a Marathon Level similar to The End's.

The Ocelot Unit will join the Diamond Dogs.

Ocelot is most likely still officially in command of them and will bring them with him as Elite Player Mooks. I'm basing this on the appearance of balaclava-clad soldiers in red berets in the latest screenshots.

TPP will both begin and end in a hospital.

Big Boss will wake up again to go meet Old Snake at the graveyard bringing Zero with him. It'd be a cool way to bring his character full circle and maybe even explain some of his actions.

• Confirmed, but not in the way you think.

Big Boss' advanced prosthetic arm was made by Doktor

In a cutscene in Metal Gear Rising, Doktor mentions that he would've won a Nobel Prize if the Berlin Wall came down a few years earlier. This implies that he was doing groundbreaking work in the 80s. It's possible that Ocelot uses his Soviet connections to acquire the best Artificial Limbs available at the time. Furthermore, Doktor has fondness for left hands, so it would be fitting if he designed it.

You will be able to upgrade Quiet's abilities, such as allowing her to run faster.

Her final upgrade will allow her to travel between sniping points faster than the speed of sound, but doing so causes a sonic boom which can alert nearby enemies. I just imagine it's the sort of the thing Kojima would likely do.

If the player misses the opportunity to take Quiet back to Mother Base, she will turn into a boss fight.

If nothing else, this type of fight would be the best opportunity for a Call-Back to the sniper duel versus The End.

• She'll have to be immune to the game's tag mechanic for this to work. Which probably will be the case if implemented.
  • They could defy the Permanently Missable Content trope by allowing Big Boss to non-lethally defeat Quiet, which will give the player a second chance to bring her back to Mother Base.

Deja Vu is a dream Big Boss has during his coma.

• Why else would he be able to experience stuff that won't happen for another thirty years? Also, if the skins unlocked in Ground Zeroes carry over to The Phantom Pain, this wouldn't be the first time a Snake has been able to acquire stuff from a dream.

The Phantom Pain's big twist will be that Big Boss won the war between Outer Heaven and the Patriots

Big Boss will defeat XOF, beat Zero, and take over control of the Patriots, thus explaining why he was allowed to return to the US and take over FOXHOUND — no one had the authority to stop him at that point. Metal Gear 1 and 2 will thus be retconned as Big Boss consolidating his PMC network as the true vision for the Patriots' power-base, which is what Liquid Ocelot was trying to do in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Solid Snake in this scenario was sent by the parts of the Patriots that sympathized with Zero and disapproved of Big Boss's leadership, making Snake the only reason Big Boss lost his war with the Patriots.

The Joint Chiefs Of Staff will play the role of Chekhov's Gunman / Chekhov's Army.

A couple of the side ops from Ground Zeroes are implied to be given by the JCS or supported by them. At some point, they'll figure out what's happening between the Diamond Dogs and XOF, unaware of Cipher's involvement, since Zero has become reclusive since the Les Enfants Terrible project. Since they've apparently placed faith in Big Boss after Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, they'll come to his aid when they figure out he's still alive, though this won't happen until the endgame, possibly with the Joint Chiefs unaware of the Diamond Dogs unit. After dealing with the XOF threat, Big Boss will be offered command of FOXHOUND so as to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Quiet is Natasha's daughter.

Fanservicey Sniper chick. At some point after the war, Natasha goes home and settles down. Quiet inherits her mother's sniping abilities and looks along with her Super Speed from her father. Quiet ends up in Afghanistan with the Soviet military but ends up deserting due to mistreatment from fellow soldiers.

The Inquisitor made a visit to the Metal Gear verse.

This is why Big Boss is now played by Kiefer Sutherland. He's been replaced. Also, several gun designers such as John Browning, Eugene Stoner and others were also visited and changed, which is why Real Life firearms have been replaced by weapons that are combinations of several different weapons.

The darker and grittier atmosphere was inspired by Breaking Bad

One of Kojima's tweets confirm that he is a Breaking Bad fan. Part of the story is going to be about how Big Boss is going to lose what humanity he had left. Hell, Big Boss gave me a Walter White vibe more than he gives me Jack Bauer.

Quiet's halfnakedness is going to be bait and switch

She'll lose most of her clothes in one portion of the game and gets her clothes back for the rest. Meanwhile, Kojima tries his hardest to keep a straight face until release day.

• Potentially jossed as we have seen varying cutscenes and missions with her in the same costume, which is not to say she won't have alternate outfits or Kojima might be outright trolling us.
• The E3 2014 trailer shows her in combat fatigues being choked by a Soviet soldier.
• The player can invoke this with the Grey XOF and Sniper Wolf outfits.

Chico died in the helicopter crash at the end of Ground Zeroes.

It's unlikely that everybody could survive that. So, for Rule of Drama, Chico dies in the crash, hence why there's no (confirmed) sign of him in The Phantom Pain trailers.

• The same could also apply to the Medic and the one MSF soldier who was onboard the chopper.
• A tape confirms that Chico died on the chopper. The other two, not so.

Skullface hid the XOF insignias in the uniforms and the helicopters so it'd look like Cipher ordered the attack on Mother Base so they'd join forces.

By destroying Mother Base in a False Flag Operation, he escalates the war between Big Boss and Zero, maybe to later enlist the former as an ally against the latter. Note how when Paz asked Skull Face if telling him the location of Zero would save Big Boss he says, "it may". It would also explain why they are seemingly working together in the trailer.

• I always understood that this was canon.

For the first time, Ocelot's loyalties will be unambiguous.

It'll be the ultimate plot twist. Confirmed. He was being honest with Miller that his loyalty belongs to nobody but Big Boss and will destroy anybody who gets in the way, including Miller.

Boris from Metal Gear Rising will make a cameo as a random soldier.

This is way out there but it is mentioned in Rising that Boris fought during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, so it would make sense for him to be an easter egg for people who played Rising, maybe even a recruitable guy.

Glaz and Palitz are alive and well.

Provided, of course, Snake choses the non-lethal option for them. They were scheduled for execution, but it happens around the time Mother Base gets destroyed. They either escape and turn up as a bonus objective in The Phantom Pain or they helped out MSF members and join the Diamond Dogs.

• Confirmed.

David will be recruitable.

Perhaps at one point Venom Snake will encounter a Young Solid Snake, named David in the game, wandering around Afghanistan (sent there by Cipher), and Snake will recruit him in the similar vein as he recruited Chico, not knowing that he's his son/clone. And to Snake he becomes a combination of Replacement Goldfish, Morality Pet, and My Greatest Second Chance. And like Chico, David can be assigned to Intel at Mother Base and will occasionally be seen wandering around Mother Base where Snake can interact with him, providing either Funny, Heartwarming and Tearjerker moments.

Venom Snake is more quiet in this game because Sutherland was too expensive.

The developers couldn't afford Sutherland to speak as much as Hayter in previous games, so Snake speaking less in this installment is to help with costs.

• He's also the facial capture actor, so they're paying for his facial expressions as well as his voice.
• No, he doesn't speak as much because that's the direction they want to go in, and really, he never spoke that much in the previous games, all the other cast members easily had twice or three times the amount of dialogue both Solid and Naked Snake did. That and which actor is chosen to play the part is not relevant to how much dialogue that character gets, he'd get the same amount of lines regardless of whether he was played by Hayter or Sutherland.

Big Boss won't be shooting at the kids extending their hands to him with diamonds.

We know that Kaz in particular has been duplicitous toward Big Boss before, and was more interested in MSF as a money-making enterprise to an extent. What's to say that his agreement with Big Boss to make diamonds out of the ashes of the people they've lost won't turn to simple greed again, resulting in Big Boss' need to defend these kids? We do know, for instance, that following the first showdown with Snake in Outer Heaven, he actively helped rescue those trying to escape, and despite his speech to Snake in Zanzibar Land about the cycle of war and using war orphans to continue that cycle, they are actively loyal to him. I bet money that this is one of the things that results in the scene with Big Boss seemingly blowing his own men away from the 2014 trailer.

• We do see some of them at Mother Base, so it's likely he recruits them instead.
• Confirmed. He shoots their cage instead.

The cremation scenes will happen either halfway or towards the end of the game.

And everyone that Venom Snake has recruited up to that point will be in attendance, from ordinary soldiers to special characters, like D.D. and Quiet.

• The latest trailer seems to suggest they're a recurring event (maybe based on losing troops in MGO or the other multiplayer aspects?), and that your troops and assembled characters will turn up at other assemblies too.

There will be a morale system

Where you have to manage your army and treat each and every one well. Low morale can lead to some of your men turning on you. This includes characters like Quiet, and even Kaz if you do poorly enough.

• A morale system has been confirmed. Returning to Mother Base regularly and keeping a good cash flow is apparently a good way to keep it up. Also, Quiet and D.D. will have effects on base morale.

At some point in the game, there will be a Nostalgia Level...

...except instead of MGS1, it's of MGS3. You'll return to the location where MGS3 takes place and do one or more missions there.

• While we're at it, we should get a Peace Walker one in the ruins of the old Mother Base or somewhere in Costa Rica.

A Pacifist Run will be impossible.

Given the game's Darker and Edgier nature and the theme of Revenge, Snake will be forced to kill certain enemies throughout the game. Skull Face will obviously die at some point, but others will need to die as well.

• Alternatively, the developers will Take a Third Option and force Snake to kill in cutscenes (which we've already seen a few times in trailer, and is also something we've almost never seen Solid Snake do in his games) and leave it up to the player whether they wish to join Big Boss on his killing spree.
• Confirmed. You must kill at least one XOF trooper in the hospital sequence and Mercy Kill several of your own men in episode 43.

The game will end with a crazy stinger involving Big Boss and a young Solid Snake as a lead-in to Metal Gear.

At the end of MGS 4, in the Japanese version, Big Boss was voiced by Akio Otsuka's father. However, Kiefer Sutherland is now voicing Pained Snake/Big Boss, and Kiefer's real-life father, Donald, is still acting and could feasibly play an older Big Boss. The recasting of Snake from Hayter to Kiefer could have been a way of setting up a stinger involving a real-life and in-game father and son. Or it could be a DLC mission.

• maybe the stinger will feature a young Solid Snake being briefed by Big Boss on Operation N132 and is also given the objective to investigate on the cause of Gray Fox's mysterious disappearance. it would be awesome to see this because David's Snake is finally conversing with Kiefer's Snake

"Those Who Don't Exist" are cybernetically augmented dead soldiers much like UniSols.

They have grey skin and what appears to be extensive scarring, giving them the appearance of corpses. Perhaps they are even prototypes for the head transplant surgery that Raiden later has. Perhaps they are even prototypes for the Bloody Brad/Arnold cyborgs from Metal Gear.

Big Boss will influence the formation of Al-Qaeda .

What was Bin Laden doing in the 1980s? Fighting alongside the muhadajeen in Afghanistan. What was Big Boss doing in the 1980s? Theres no way Bin Laden couldn't have heard about Big Boss's exploits running an ideological "terrorist" organization as a business model. Al-Qaeda is basically the poor man's Outer Heaven with a Salafist Jihadist vision of utopia, not unlike the world of constant warfare Big Boss wanted to usher in. In the early 21st century, both will launch a violent insurrection against the US and become public enemy number one, reshaping the geopolitical landscape for decades. This is hinted at by Miller at the end of *Peace Walker* when he remarks that Outer Heaven is an ideal model to fight small-scale regional conflicts in the 21st Century. Big Boss influencing Al Qaeda or even collaborating with Bin Laden isn't out of the question for a game this edgy. Come to think of it, Bin Laden is probably the closeat real world analogue to Big Boss.

• The Mujahadeen have been confirmed as a faction ingame.

The Diamond Horse is the son of the horse The Boss used in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

And it is drawn to Snake just as the Boss' horse was drawn to him in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Quiet has biological Octo Camo

All that black pigmentation/invisibility is her body having the power to produce an Octo Camo esque thermal shielding and pattern copying. In the same way Old Snake in Metal Gear Online 2 had a phantom outline when he was blending in, Quiet has the same effect.

Quiet's traumatic backstory will be that she was a lab rat, and that's why she lost her voice

Confirmed to an extent. She gets burnt in the prologue and has to undergo parasite therapy to survive. One of the parasites she's infected with is the English strain of the vocal chord parasite, meaning that if she speaks, she will eventually die. So, she's an Elective Mute.

Quiet's big identity reveal will be that she's...

Gray Fox. And it will be explained that her chameleon powers don't just grant her invisibility but give her a form of biological Octo Camo where she can shape shift to blend in; or to list an X-Men example, she's like Mystique. The game will explain her persona as Gray Fox as her trying to hide under Big Boss's FOXHOUND Umbrella so the people who were chasing her for her unique powers won't get a hold of it.

Diamond Horse will suffer a Death by Newbery Medal towards the end of the game that strips Big Boss of whatever tiny shred of humanity he has left.

Kojima has confirmed that Diamond Horse is the only buddy who can't suffer a Final Death during a mission. My guess is because they're saving his death for a real Player Punch moment like this. Aside from Epona, can you think of any other video game horse with a name and personality who has lived to tell the tale? I'm looking at you, Agro.

Paz is a clone

She is one in a series of clones of The Boss. It makes sense because why would Major Zero chose to clone Snake when there was a soldier he idolized more than him, and it explains her importance to Cipher and Skullface.

• He cloned Big Boss because he surpassed the Boss, and while the Boss' message provided the basis for both Big Boss' and Cipher/The Patriots moving forward, Zero considered Big Boss to be superior and a friend, but fell into the same pitfall as the people who had destroyed the Boss; Although quite why Zero - once he managed to place himself in a position where he essentially ruled the world - never revealed the truth and established that the Boss died to prevent war and that the nuclear detonation was actually the work of a renegade general, is beyond me. But.. Yeah. The Boss clearly offered up the message they used going forward and botched horribly - but Big Boss got cloned because he was the greatest soldier of the 20th Century. There also doesn't seem to be anything particularly special about Paz beyond her being picked as a Cipher agent because of how unassuming she is, and where would they get the material to clone the Boss? Her body was most likely destroyed in the bombing run immediately after her final fight with Snake.

Those Who Don't Exist are experiment's of Dr. Clark

We know that Dr. Clark, AKA Para-Medic is the creator of the Cyborg Ninja. These could very well be the prototypes that led up to his creation. As mentioned above they could be controlled psychically. Another guess is that the psychic control method was too unstable and the result is that they moved on to simply keeping the cyborgs in a drugged stupor much like Gray Fox was coming down from in MGS1.

Paz is a clone.

Specifically, in Metal Gear Solid V, you will meet Paz, who will turn out to be a clone. Unlike the other example above, though, she is a clone of the original Paz, whom we saw explode at the end of Ground Zeroes. This Paz is about 15-16 years old, and was merely meant as a prototype for the Les Enfants Terrible project, to test the cloning process before they attempt to clone Big Boss. She was a success, and they decided to keep her around even after the original Paz died because they could always use more agents. The decision to clone Paz for the test was made arbitrarily.

• Addendum: The Paz we meet in MGSV will also have had major stomach surgery (and possibly have a bomb in her abdomen) because, as was established in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the Patriots love repeating the same patterns over and over.

Quiet is a lab rat of Cipher.

Cipher is real big on controlling people by controlling their language, which will possibly tie into the Patriot's use of "la-li-lu-le-lo" and wide-scale information control. My theory is that Quiet was a guinea pig of Cipher, who experimented on her to give her exceptional marksman abilities. Quiet is mute, because what better way to control language then by completely removing it altogether? She was meant to be Zero's philosophy given human form, but that idea fell apart when she escaped and joined Big Boss.

• Confirmed. She undergoes parasite therapy.

"La-li-lu-le-lo" will be used in MGSV.

As stated above, Cipher is real big on controlling language to take away identity. "La-li-lu-le-lo" was a way to control language to keep the Patriots hidden, so the phrase is bound to come up at least once.

• Confirmed but only as an easter egg. Tranq Ocelot on Mother Base to reveal it.

Other mission locations.

Afghanistan and Africa have been confirmed and show as locations in gameplay demos, but these are only two chapters of the game. Other possible locations, based on the timeline at the end of the credits for Ground Zeroes.

• Nicaragua to meet up with Amanda and/or Chico again.
• Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war to fight through the trenches for some MacGuffin in the ruins of the reactor destroyed in Operation Opera.
• Vietnam and Laos, just so we can have a proper jungle operation.
• South Africa, where the final conflict will occur in the facility in the desert. This facility will later become the fortress known as Outer Heaven.
• Promotional material released by Gamestop have implied that Russia and the United States may be locations.

Camp Omega is where Skull Face developed the vocal cord parasites.

It's clearly run by Cipher. And in one of the interrogation tapes, he tells the prisoner that he built Omega "to listen to the words that people had to say." Oh dear...

The guy we see with the messed up lungs and the earphone plugged into him is a research subject for either nanomachines or the Genome soldiers.

Clearly, he's a Flawed Prototype as the changes messed up his body. These experiments might even have begun at Camp Omega, as Chico has a hole in him where a set of headphones are plugged in.

Quiet will speak at some point, with the intent being a wham line or episode.

'Nuff said. There has to be some sort of a reason behind her lack of speech, and if it's non-permanent, then Kojima can easily use that for shock effect or a bit of storytelling.

• She's probably got some very early nanomachines and has been censored as an experiment (see the "Lab Rat" theory above).
• Confirmed. She can speak and does in her last mission.

There is a fourth survivor of the Les Enfants Terrible project.

Because why not? Gas Snake or Plasma Snake, anyone?

• The appearance of a second Eli at the very end of the E3 2015 trailer could certainly point to this.
  • Liquid does state that he and Solid Snake are the last two surviving Sons of Big Boss prior to their battle atop Rex. He never states when the other clones died, and it would make no sense for Solid Snake to be present in this game based on the existing history.
  • It's probably Solidus.
    • Due to his unique status as a 'perfect clone', Sears was probably already off running his child army already, and would be older than Liquid or Solid.
    • OP here. Solidus was created as part of the Les Enfants Terrible project, so he can't be older than the beginning of the project (which was in 1972, I think?) The other Eli could be Solidus, considering that he was in Liberia in the 80's and Big Boss will be visiting Africa in the game. However, in Metal Gear Solid 4, Eva talks a lot about being the mother of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake, but she never brings up Solidus and she keeps implying she only had two children (out of 8 embryos). Either she deliberately didn't mention Solidus being her son to sell the deception that Big Boss wasn't in that black van, or Solidus was born to another woman. If Solidus was born to another woman, then how many women were there in total? How many Snake clones could there still be running around?
• the whole "perfect clone" thing's always bugged me. all three of the surving sons of big boss from the experiment had some level of genetic tampering (liquid and solid's accelerated-aging failsafe, discounting liquids biology-flunk-induced blathering, and Solidus's even faster development). by definition, there's no way they could really count as "perfect" clones. was this a never-fixed plothole, or just a running gag about how little liquid actually understood genetics?
  • With MGS, Kojima seemed to be pushing the idea that you can't let yourself be bound by your genetics, which is seemingly the moral of the story with the 'weaker' Solid Snake triumphing over the 'stronger' Liquid. I think it's possible the pair were tampered with to give Liquid the more appealing traits to make a soldier - or at least that's what Dr Clark and Cipher thought they were doing; if they found out what they were doing was not terribly effective then that maybe explains LET's abandonment in '76. Neither of the two were perfect clones; Solidus was designed as such following their creation, and his status as a 'perfect clone' caused his even more advanced ageing - presumably the Patriots wanted him in the presidential chair as soon as possible - and meant that his material and his material alone allowed the activation of JD during Guns of the Patriots. But given Liquid would have likely never been told the full story, it's likely his grasp of genetics is just terrible, too. He is delusional enough, after all, to think he can still hold the world to ransom despite REX being trashed.

We will meet EVA again.

Because why not? Ocelot defected from Cipher before Big Boss's defeat at Zanzibarland, so it's possible Eva could've as well.

'V has come to' is a reference to Big Boss.

And possibly refers to the order in which the initial 'Patriots' group was formed; Zero, Sigint, Paramedic, Ocelot, and then Big Boss, invited into the fold by Ocelot as the fifth member. 'Come to' is typically used for waking up, meaning the other Patriots are aware of Big Boss coming out of his coma.

• Or V could refer to Big Boss's new codename, which will apparently be Venom Snake.

Alternatively, 'V has come to' refers to...

Another pair of LET clones including the fourth and fifth, and neither Liquid or Solid Snake are in the game. 'Come to' in this instance would mean the fifth Snake Child has woken up.

• in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Eva talks a lot about being Solid and Liquid's mother, but never brings up Solidus. So either she decided to keep quiet about Solidus being her son, or Solidus was born to another woman. If the latter is true, then there could be more surrogate mothers that were part of the LET project, which means there could be more clones running around. This theory could be plausible.

Twofer: The second Eli is Solidus, and we'll see a cameo of a young Raiden.

Raiden was a child soldier in the Liberian Civil War under the command of Solidus in the 80s, and in Phantom Pain, we'll apparently be visiting Africa. The end of one of the trailers showed Eli standing next to another boy who looked identical to him, and their independent motions show that the second boy is not some sort of mirror reflection. However, Solid Snake has brown hair and Liquid's is blond (which Liquid got thanks to being out in the desert for so long.), yet the second boy was also blonde. However, I realized that Solidus is gray-haired in MGS2 for some reason, so we don't know his previous hair color. So, either they're gonna retcon that the snake clones are naturally blonde like how they were in MGS1, or that second boy is Solidus, who got his blonde hair from his actions in Liberia.So, I predict that in Phantom Pain, we'll be visiting Liberia and meet up with Solidus. Possibly in a cutscene, there will be a lineup of child soldiers in training, and one of them will be inexplicably white with long straight hair, just like Raiden.

• Jossed. The second Eli is part of a visual shorthand demonstrating how Psycho Mantis' powers are tied to another person's emotions.

The "weapon to surpass Metal Gear" is the Les Enfants Terrible project.

Because what's superior to Metal Gear other than the man who would eventually come to destroy so many of them?

• Doubtful, since the project was abandoned in 1976. It's probably more likely to be nanomachines or AI technology.
  • The line actually seems to refer to the ST-84 model Metal Gear that Skull Face appears to take possession of (based on the fact concept art has it with a skull daubed across it's 'head'). Metal Gear, based on the revised timeline from Peace Walker, ostensibly started out with Big Boss. He and Kaz commissioned the first Metal Gear; while ST-84 is supposedly Soviet-made, Cipher could easily be behind that, given they've assumed the same world-controlling stance as their predecessors, the Philosophers.

Naomi will appear.

Big Boss will run into Gray Fox and he'll have Naomi with him. He'll take her away from Africa from the war, as is established by her backstory.

The Phantom Cigar will have meaning

• By the time MGS4 wraps up, Big Boss will be able to smoke his first real cigar in decades. That's why he said "this is good, isn't it?"

The "Paz" we saw in trailer isn't Paz

It's Chico who went completely nuts out of guilt for Paz death and his betrayal of Big Boss so he deluded himself that he is Paz and turned himself transsexual.

• Jossed. One of the cassette tapes indicates that Chico died in the helicopter crash that put BB in a coma.

Quiet and Boss.

• Could this be Big Boss' daughter from where he slept with Eva? Could go a long way to explain the relation between the two, as well as serve as a possible source for players to feel ashamed for lusting after her.
  • Jossed. Big Boss is sterile due to being a nuclear test subject during The '50s. That's why he was cloned in the first place.

The real reason Boss rejected Liquid.

• It's pretty obvious who Eli is. What if Boss rejected him not because he was inferior, but because the use of Child Soldiers as the game plot revolves around would be one Moral Event Horizon too many?
• This troper though that BB rejected him was from finding out that he was a LET baby (it was implied that finding out Clark started the project was the straw that broke the camel's back in BB's eyes), and even if he doesn't directly hate him, could easily see him as deeply into the Uncanny Valley, as far as he's concerned. Heck, even if BB doesn't actually hate him. The feeling of discomfort could easily convince Eli that BB hated him.

The Russians Have Time Travel.

• One of the cassette tapes you can liberate from a soviet encampment is a 1999 remaster of Rebel Yell. The year the game takes place is 1984.
  • Europe's "The Final Countdown" wasn't released until '86, too. I'm sure there are a few other examples, but that just makes the music as much of an Anachronism Stew as the tech available in the game, which is light years ahead of the stuff in the canonically last game.

The band Styx prophesized the Diamond Dog's Big Boss' true identity with the 1983 song Mr. Roboto

• The lyrics make sense if you listen closely and think about the story of MGS V.

The burning man with fire powers is Volgin

Snake is also attacked by a lightning strike in that scene, so it would make sense.

• Except Volgin can't control lightning, which is what finally kills him because with that much electricty running through his body he's already a giant lightning rod. Before or during every scene of him so far we see the gas-mask child, who could be a young Psycho Mantis (he appears before the elevator opens and all the flames come out, and if you look a the firey unicorn you can see the child is sitting in front of the Volgin-apparition), so it's more probable it's Mantis using his powers to manifest apparations of Snake's past (considering that the real Volgin didn't have glowing eyes or horns and is most certainly dead after getting hit by lighting which set off the ammunition pressed against his chest and being next to the facility when The Boss uses the last Davey Crocket on it pretty much means that only Gray Fox can claim to be killed deader than him).
  • Confirmed. it's Volgin's comatose body controlled by a combination of his burning hatred for snake and the psychic child.

The Grand Quiet somehow survived WMG!

You know you want it so post your hopes and theories below. Personally, I say she survives because she doesn't have fully functioning lungs for the vocal cord parasite to reproduce in. That or the other parasites fight off the vocal cord parasite so they can stay alive in her system. Either way she then goes on to get her own Revengeance style Platinum Games spinoff. She has a butterfly theme so she gets Bayonetta's outfit as an unlockable costume.

• Did she really have the parasite though? What if it was simply an excuse because she could no longer be a part of this? Blood diamonds. Child Soldiers? Cold-Blooded Torture. Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil. Most if not all this, and more, committed by the protagonists. Snake, Miller, they're so driven by revenge none of this matters. Quiet, not so much, like the Eli example above maybe one Moral Event Horizon too many had been crossed and even Boss was not enough to stay.

Johnny (from MGS3) is still alive in MGSV

One of the cassette tapes the player unlocks in TPP is called "Recording from a toilet" under the section "Soldier with stomach issues". The recording is of a soldier having diahorrea. Perhaps Johnny wasn't punished after MGS3 and was posted to Afghanistan (The area of the game the player gets the tape and the only area with Soviet soldiers.)

• He'd at least be in his forties by MGSV. If him being in Afghanistan is the case then the Soviet Army sounds rough.

The horse Volgin rides on as The Man on Fire is The Boss's horse, revived by Tretij.

When Volgin drops dead after seeing that Venom isn't Big Boss, the horse similarly dies, with a wound on it's body that doesn't look anything like the burn marks on it's right side.

Zero got the idea of the Phantom from the fake pin Skull Face gave him

I'm sure Skull Face would have appreciated the sentiment, had they known.

Chapter 3 would have focused on what another character was doing while Venom Snake was active

The other character in question being the real Big Boss - since the Boss was going to show up somehow. Presumably, it actually would have shown his descent into villainy.

Metal Gear REX's design is subconsciously based on Metal Gear Sahelanthropus

Given how Hal Emmerich, aka Otacon almost became a guinea pig in his own father's experiments involving Sahelanthropus, it's possible if not outright likely that REX was created based on subconscious memories in addition to whatever Huey might have saved from Granin's research.

• This seems fairly likely. Armstech might have been provided with research by DARPA throught Sigint - who would have had at least some hand in the development of Sahelanthrophus before Skull Face seized control of Cipher. REX naturally lacks the bipedal mode that it's predecessor boasts simply because even Huey couldn't get that to work and it seems to have been activated through supernatural/psychic means, but seeing a huge, dinosaur-based mech? I imagine that'd leave an impression on a kid.

Huey betrayed MSF because he wanted to build more Metal Gears

Why? He simply thought that giant robots and other such advanced weapons were cool. Since MSF already had ZEKE and were thus unwilling to fund another giant robot just for fun, Huey contacted XOF and made a deal with them to build Sahelanthropus, before trying to ensure his safety through Diamond Dogs, where he would then continue satisfying his fetish for advanced weaponry by designing the Battle Gear. This way, Huey becomes an even greater Foil to Otacon since both of them had designed Metal Gears for the cool factor, but unlike Otacon, who stopped when he realized REX's true purpose, while Huey continued on, regardless of who he had to betray or what the Metal Gear was being used for.

Venom is actually Raiden, having traveled back in time to kill Big Boss to be in MGS4.

This comes from the fact that Venom is supposed to represent the players themselves, much like Raiden, and how Raiden's Cyborg Ninja outfit is unlockable as well. Basically, after failing to kill Big Boss, Raiden finds himself stuck in the past, so he eventually joins up with MSF, trying to get close to Big Boss to kill him again. However, Big Boss's sheer charisma wins him over and Raiden becomes his best soldier and medic, eventually becoming Big Boss's phantom later on.

Yes, this does mean that Raiden DOES become the main character in MGSV.

Venom is Big Boss

Exhibit Paz as to why you cannot believe Episode 46: "Truth". Auditory and visual hallucinations occur throughout the game, you cannot accept this "truth" at face value.

• Supporting this is the lyrics game's unofficial theme song, "The Man Who Sold the World", which is about a man having an identity crisis, not about two separate individuals. Big Boss's "Phantom" is simply an alternate personality he developed as part of his Survivor's Guilt over losing the Medic, who was both his best soldier and one of his close friends. Data mining in the PC version has even shown that Ishmael's face under the bandages is the same face model used for the Medic in Ground Zeroes.
  • Venom could also be the part of Big Boss trying to escape his role as the inevitable role he had made for himself as the villain at the end of Peace Walker, when he abandoned The Boss's ideals and began to seek a world of endless war. Venom is the noble part of himself that still wanted peace, even if he knew it was never going to happen in his lifetime, while "Big Boss" is the cruel warlord who has come to love everything about war and the battlefield and is the "demon inside of me" that Venom Snake is referring to. Venom begins to believe he's the Medic partly out of Survivor's Guilt, and partly because he has come to see The Medic as a symbol in his mind for sacrifice and protection along with Paz, his "angel of peace" (who he has also experienced elaborate delusions about, as mentioned above). Between the head trauma, his hesitation to fully come to terms with the "existence of endless battle” The Boss warned him about at the end of Snake Eater, his Survivor's Guilt, and people not recognizing him after his nine-year coma, his damaged brain has begun to spin an elaborate fantasy to run away from who he inevitably has to become. When Huey is banished, Ocelot mentions how someone can't run away from themselves forever...and the camera pans over to Snake and stays there. This scene is the last mandatory one you see before Mission 46 "Truth". At the end of Truth, Big Boss's speech is literally him talking to himself (and when he flips the tape over, it's shown to be a data tape, not an audio tape meant to be listened to). It's the scene where Venom Snake finally comes to accept his role and who he is, and when he finally becomes one with "Big Boss" again and ceases to be a mere "phantom" of his true self.

Chico is still alive

Is there any proof that he actually died other than by Miller's word? This could mean that Chico is with the real Big Boss.

Skull Face knows Venom isn't Big Boss

During the mission to retireve the Honey Bee, he captures Venom with the use of Sahelanthrophus, and proceeds to look 'Big Boss' over for a long moment; when leaving, he addresses Venom as 'Boss' in quotation marks; while it could simply be him disregarding Big Boss' status and showing he's finally done living as the man's phantom and emerging onto the global stage, the choice of wording seems curious. Therefore, Skull Face knows Venom isn't Big Boss, but doesn't care; it's still an opportunity to make someone as filled with hate as he is.

D-Horse is a Legendary Animal.

Since the highest of a lot of powers, you can only develop after capturing certain "Legendary" Animals, Legendary Ibis for Hand of Jehuty (teleport enemies to you), Legendary Jackal gives you the Wormhole Extraction Fulton. Both are related to teleporting, and D-Horse teleports to you whenever you whistle; Epona-style.

Skull Face was responsible for Paz's attempted Hijacking of ZEKE back in the 70's

In one of her Tapes, Paz expresses slight confusion during a communique and asks if she is actually Talking to the real Zero/Cipher and not a proxy. its is possible that Skullface, who was likely allready planning his Rebellion, subverted the lines of communication used to maintain contact with the sleeper agent in an early attempt to Kill Big boss.

Skull Face was originally going to be none other than Sokolov

With strong evidence from a certain page of Skull Face concept art [1], Skull Face is seen to have a similar facial structure and moustache to everyone's favorite Cold War scientist. When you think about it, it makes even more sense - Sokolov has suffered so much because of Big Boss it's hardly funny (especially if you count the events of Portable Ops). This guy's been through a lot of stuff that connects back to Big Boss' antics, so it wouldn't be surprising if he'd want to get revenge. Maybe Snake never took care of his wife and kid like he asked him to in MGS3? (those two never really show up again, so it's possible). Unfortunately, this amazing twist was either cut for the game or never even real, possibly due to issues with making Sokolov the head of a military unit or getting people to treat him seriously.

The consequences of Mission 45 were a Batman Gambit masterminded by Kaz and possibly Ocelot without the knowledge of Venom Snake.

Specifically, this means that Kaz and possibly Ocelot conspired to assassinate Quiet after she escaped Mother Base.

On the first day that Quiet arrives at Mother Base, Kaz emphasizes that if Quiet ever escapes Mother Base, she must be eliminated in order to keep the location of Mother Base secret. Venom Snake agrees, and even states that he'll do it himself. However, with time, it is likely and Kaz would have doutbed that Venom Snake would have killed Quiet if necessary. He has observed that Venom Snake shows signs of irrationality when it comes to Quiet. For example, when Shabani's necklace falls into the chlorine bath and Quiet jumps down to retrieve it for the child soldiers, Venom Snake is willing to dive down after her in a suicidal attempt to retrieve what he thinks might be her body. Furthermore, Kaz generally observes that Venom Snake is unwilling to kill former companions if not absolutely necessary. Venom Snake abstains from killing Huey, for example, even though Huey was responsible for killing several dozen DD mercs through the creation of the mutated vocal cord parasite. Therefore, Kaz would have had to assassinate Quiet without Venom Snake's knowledge if he believed it was necessary.

Quiet poses two serious risks to Mother Base which would have made killing her necessary in Kaz's eyes. Firstly, the Mother Base staff discover that Quiet has the vocal cord parasites within her. While Quiet refuses to speak when interrogated - because her strain of the parasite is English, and also because if she reveals that she has the English strain, she cannot reside on Mother Base - Code Talker is able to communicate with Quiet after her interrogation and discovers that she has the English strain. Even though he chooses to keep this a secret out of respect for her resolve in abandoning the English language, it would not have been difficult for Ocelot and Kaz to conclude that the strain Quiet has is English. The staff is at this point aware that Quiet was sent to kill Snake in Dhekelia, where Venom Snake at least overheard her speaking English. Since she does not speak English anymore, and they know she has vocal cord parasites within her, it is likely that they were able to draw the obvious conclusion. Furthermore, both Kaz and Ocelot are aware of Skull Face's statement that the last English-responsive pair of vocal cord parasites is "close to [Snake]." During the interrogation, Ocelot demonstrates his understanding that Quiet is "in love with the legend," so it is likely that he was able to put two and two together and conclude that Quiet was the final known host to the English strain (instead of coming up with five). Finally, Code Talker's conversation with Quiet took place in the interrogation room, where it could easily have been recorded for later analysis, making the discovery that Quiet's strain of the parasite is English-responsive a simple task.

The second risk Quiet poses to Mother Base is her escape. While up until this point Ocelot has been unwilling to kill Quiet, it is possible that at this point he would be on board, seeing Quiet as a threat to Venom Snake. Although Ocelot is genuinely loyal to Big Boss, he has demonstrated that he is not opposed to exposing Venom Snake to some risk if he believes that doing so will expose or eliminate other risks as a result; he gave Quiet numerous openings to assassinate Venom Snake prior to her escape. The risk Quiet poses would be obvious to Ocelot; she knows the location of Mother Base, and if that ever got out, it would put the entirety of Diamond Dogs in jeopardy. These conditions would be sufficient to convince Kaz and Ocelot to devise a plan to eliminate Quiet without Venom Snake's approval or involvement.

In order to avoid antagonizing Code Talker, who sympathizes with Quiet to some degree, the pair pretends to be unaware of Quiet's possession of the vocal cord parasites. For obvious reasons, the two do not reveal their plan to assassinate Quiet.

The conditions of Mission 45 which result in Quiet deciding to exile herself to a death in isolation, could very well have been orchestrated by Kaz and Ocelot working as a team. The recovery mission for Quiet takes place shortly before an intense sandstorm hits the area surrounding Lamar Khaate Palace, even though the Intel team has the ability to predict natural weather which might have impeded the mission, and the Support Team can even influence the weather somewhat. Kaz, as XO, could have designed the mission such that it would take place before the sandstorm in order to prevent Pequod from landing without directions. The snake which bites Venom Snake could have been planted there as well - and it could easily have been a bite that would not have killed Snake until at least an hour later or that would have only temporarily incapacitated him. Ocelot, as a master of psychological warfare and manipulation, would have been able to perform a Batman Gambit in which Quiet, unwilling to let Venom Snake die due to her feelings for him, would have spoken English in order to direct Pequod to the LZ, thereby activating her vocal cord parasites and condemning her to death. In this way, Ocelot and Kaz guarantee Quiet's death without Venom Snake ever becoming suspicious of their involvement.

• You're saying he managed to plant a snake by the exact rock, in several acres, that Snake and Quiet would just happen to end up hiding behind after an intense battle with tanks.

Big Boss eventually learned the truth about Zero, likely from at least Ocelot and/or Venom.

There seems to be evidence throughout the entire series to imply it. It was never made clear if the Truth Records weren't discovered by anyone, Ocelot had played an important part in them, having made contact with Zero, yet remained loyal to Big Boss. One tape has him say he would eventually remember who was the real Boss after initially erasing it from his mind. His loyalty and reports would suggest that he would later share to the real Boss what he knew after the events of the game, and he made it clear that no one would stand in his way to helping him. Not even Miller. Venom Snake was revealed to be the Big Boss killed in Outer Heaven, which suggests he may have kept in contact with the real one to eventually be appointed there in his place while he presumably works on Zanzibar Land. There doesn't seem to be anything from stopping Venom from telling Boss what had transpired throughout the game. Even Miller swore to continue helping Venom (and even if he possibly tried anything like manipulating him, Ocelot already knows about Miller's intentions and could simply tell the real Boss about them, plus the fact that Venom still got stationed in Outer Heaven). So it's still possible for Big Boss to have learned the truth from either of them unless proven otherwise.

As for Big Boss' speech at the end of 4, it may have had some metaphors in it if he actually knows the truth. He probably told Snake the more important details of how he left the Patriots and how they ultimately became what they were:

• When he refers to the now-vegetative Zero was "the source of it all," he could be referring to the fact he was still their original creator, but also acknowledging that even he couldn't have known what ended up happening. Which is exactly why he attempted to reconcile with Big Boss to stop whatever was going to happen before (or maybe after) Skull Face prevented this. Something Boss didn't know back when it originally happened.
• Saying he doesn't even realize what he ultimately caused could refer to how being infected by Skull Face's parasite has resulted in him being immobile and unaware of his surroundings, so even though he tried to prevent it, he'll never know exactly how much damage had been done.
• This also goes for how Boss says he doesn't know if Zero had hated or feared him. He could mean how after their fallout, he wasn't sure if Zero ever felt the same way Boss felt about him at one point or another, before he finally attempted to patch things up with Boss. Because of what Skull Face did, he would never get that answer from Zero directly. Perhaps by then, this is when Big Boss took pity and possibly decided that his enemy wasn't exactly Zero, but rather his creations, and must put an end to both of them because he'd at least know that it's what Zero originally wanted to do alongside him. All as an act of mercy considering his horrible fate. Actually knowing all along what could have happened instead, but was now too late to do so.

If there's anything that actually Josses this theory, feel free to explain. There doesn't appear to be any as far as I've looked.

The Vocal Chord Parasites will be a Chekhov's Gun for the next game.

They'll be implanted into Solid Snake to keep him alive despite his accelerated ageing.

"Return to Camp Omega"

I think what was intended was a Old Save Bonus where you can upload data from Phantom Pain to Ground Zeroes. This time you can see the Medic's face in while replaying Ground Zeroes. Imagine the backlash for that one.

Despite The Stinger, revenge against the real Big Boss probably wasn't the only motivation Miller had by the events of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

Considering everything he already went through, you can't really blame him for thinking Big Boss apparently abandoned him and left him with a decoy, but considering he already learned from almost killing Skull Face how it won't bring anything back. He may have eventually had more noble reasons for mentoring and helping Solid Snake with his missions. Maybe in the end, the real Outer Heaven turned out not to be what he hoped to make, and that Big Boss really had gone insane. So he really did have to stop him, and wasn't just manipulating Snake for his own goals. Maybe Kaz wasn't exactly as noble as we originally thought, but he couldn't have been in it for himself the whole time either.

One of the cut chapters would've focused on an all-out war between the PFs in the game.

Why else would there be so many of them? Missions would involve attacking enemy PF bases and ultimately destroying them. Once all of the PFs are gone, the climax of the chapter would be a battle against XOF, in order to take them out once and for all.

The Twist Ending is one big Take That! from Hideo Kojima to his now-former corporation Konami

If you play through the entire game, annoying and tacked-on challenge mission rehashes and all, you find out that the Big Boss you've been playing [b]isn't John Doe[/b]. Many fans were disappointed at the sheer anticlimax and cop-out, [i]and then Kojima quit Konami[/i]. Interviews have revealed that Konami was outright abusing its gaming employees to the point that most of them quit from the sheer stress (mostly due to the understandable incompetent management of a Pachinko company trying to rein in the quirks of a video game subdivision), and anyone who stayed wouldn't be enough to keep making AAA games. This could be one big warning to all the die-hard fans: "Accept No Substitutes. Especially now that it won't be Metal Gear without Kojima Productions. Here, let me show you what it's like when you replace an integral character with a look-alike substitute."

Theoretical RetCons for MG1/MG2 Remakes

So we know the big twist. So what is the possibility that, had Konami not boned the beagle, Kojima decided to re-envision MG1 and 2 to get them in line with the rest of the story? Possible setup: Big Boss (The real one) is actually Foxhound's Commander and is trying to cover for Venom Snake (The Big Boss of Outer Heaven). Solid Snake was sent in because of his rookie status, but as Snake became too successful, BB was worried about blowing VS's and his own covers, thus the "Turn off the (Game system flavor of choice)" scene: he's only partially trying to cover his own butt, but also trying to protect his loyal ally and friend. Snake ends up killing VS, and MG2's plotline is partially BB trying to establish Zanzibarland/New Outer Heaven, but also trying to get revenge against the 'murderer' of his ally. However, Col. Campbell sends Snake on a mission to stop him, not realizing his sources are cutouts for the Patriots, who are trying to get rid of BB. It's only after he is nearly killed by Snake that he realizes that he's trapped in the same death spiral of revenge and completely missing that the Patriots are still playing him like a fiddle. Thus fastforward to the plots of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 and the eventual switcharoo of a mostly recovered BB with the corpse of Solidus.