Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-26910219-20150820174841

86.46.22.35 wrote: Personally, I think this Ishmael guy is Null/Grey Fox/Frank Jaeger. Considering Big Boss rescued Frank and in later years promoted him as an LT to FOXHOUND, it's a very plausible reason. Also, Ishmael watched over Big Boss' coma for 9 years. Frank admired Big Boss greatly.

What you guys think? Discuss. I think that he uses a Bible name, which leads me to this assumption:

David - Solid Snake

Eli - Liquid Snake

Ismael - Solidus Snake

He is a full grown adult by this timeline, which fits. Also, being a fan of Big Boss, it means that he shared in his vision for PMC paradigm for the subsequent wars and after Big Boss goes under in Zanzibarland, he becomes the official holder of the Outer Heaven legacy, which Eli always wanted but was kept at arm's reach because of his tender age and that Solid was unaware of and kept in the dark about, given that he was deemed the inferior clone, therefore a disposable asset for Foxhound.

Eli then gets manipulated by Ocelot at Ismail's behest in order to launch the Shadow Moses incident and after Metal Gear becomes a worldwide notorious threat to peace, Ismail finally reveals himself as Solidus, once former president George Sears, the antagonist for the GW's logic-motivated plan to shut down the role of Outer Heaven, as it is deemed a threat by the Patriots. He infiltrated US government to keep tabs on Cypher, which held a tight grip on all of its proceedings, then later exposed and quietly removed from politics to ensure they didn't get another Solid Snake style glimpse into the les Enfants Terribles project, which has been at the source of their frustrations: If Big Boss would die and leave no progeny, Outer Heaven would die with him. Turns out they failed utterly and compltely by the end of this saga.

In MGS4, Ocelot is the sole remainder of this legacy, now outright refused by Solid Snake and with the results of the Big Shell incident, manages to rebuild his own twisted version of Foxhound and steadily unleashes the PMC crisis that we see in that game over the course of several years while Solid Snake continues to engage in Philantropy until he loses heart because of the current geopolitical climate. And his illness, naturally.

When Big Boss turns out to be alive, it is then finally explained to us that both Ocelot and Solidus took it way too far, as his only concern was to keep the nefarious influence of Cypher (the official Patriot black ops division) from plunging the world in totalitarian rule of the Patriots. His rivalry with Zero turned out to be one of mere preservation of the status quo. He never wanted to destroy the Patriots, just keep them in check.

After playing through the entire saga, it seems very clear to me that this game is to establish the closing chapter on Big Boss's descent to villainy, with a depiction of him becoming so attached to his legacy and his revenge on those who betrayed him that he disregards the looming zealots he has at his employ, which will result tragically for the original MSF members like Miller, which were actually more attuned to his original intentions to become a deterrent in worldwide conflicts.

Ismail is probably the creepy fanboy that turns out to be a rather dangerous zealot in his pursuit to become the first military power to actually control every other government and system in the world, a distortion of the true Outer Heaven legacy. And Ocelot will coach him throughout the entire timeline post-Phantom Pain.

That's my theory.