Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-1672596-20150407165350

64.33.250.214 wrote: Weedle McHairybug wrote: Although I agree overall with your point (besides, even with the Fight Club reference, I honestly don't buy the whole "hallucination" theory when Ishmael was clearly seen driving the vehicle, not to mention Big Boss obviously couldn't have driven since A., he's just gotten out of a coma, and lost quite a bit of muscle memory as a result, and even if he DID somehow manage to remember how to drive in time, he's missing a functional arm, since he had a hook device in its place, which isn't going to have a lot of functionality in gripping, which, you know, you need to do to use the steering wheel), I do have some things to point out:

Namely, the only characters whose names specifically were intended to reference the bible were Ocelot and EVA, owing to the ADAM and EVA bit. Even then, only EVA actually plays up the references a lot. Solid Snake's name of David was actually meant to reference either Dave from 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Dave from Policenauts, John/Jack for Big Boss I suspect was to play out on the whole Raiden aspect after Raiden himself was initially viewed unfavorably by the Western Market, and we don't even know if Eli is actually going to be Liquid Snake, especially when Kojima never indicated one way or another that he actually IS Liquid. Don't forget, during Peace Walker's development, Kojima actually confirmed fairly early on that Kazuhira Miller and Master Miller were intended to be the same character, not to mention strongly implied that Huey Emmerich was indeed related to Otacon in a way only we would know, and I think he pulled similar stunts with Naked Snake and Major Ocelot in Snake Eater (and the former we never even see him identified as Big Boss until very late into the game), and if Eli actually were intended to be Liquid, he would have indicated it long before now. Besides, not all of the Les Enfants Terribles children had biblical names. Just look at Solidus Snake: His real name was George Sears, which unless I'm mistaken never even originated from the Bible. As far as Ishmael, that was actually intended to reference Moby Dick (as evidenced by the burning whale in the VGA 2012 trailer plus the GDC reveal trailer for 2013). Most of the names having biblical ties (again, exempting EVA and arguably Ocelot) are coincidental at best (not to mention I doubt Kojima has a lot of good views on the Christian or Biblical religion anyhow considering he effectively made an implied comparison between God and the Patriots, not to mention a comparison between Solidus and Satan and even implied the latter was the lesser of two evils).

Video games are often chock-full of religious references. Particularly in the Final Fantasy franchise. There are too many to go into detail here. If you want to know more, look up "Religious Allusions in Final Fantasy" on Final Fantasy Wikia. Needless to say, Japanese game creators are not ignorant of Christian religion.

If Kojima knows about Adam and Eve, then it's unlikely he has never heard of the story of David. He has no doubt learned a lot about history, culture, and religion while searching subject material for his games. He knew about the story of Saladin, who fought a religious holy war with the Christians during the Crusades. How could he not know about David and Goliath?

You've only pointed out how Kojima gives multiple names for his characters. You're forgetting that Kojima makes up new names and new references as he goes along. I'll list a couple just to give an example. You can read up on the multiple meanings for these names by reading the character's Wiki entries:

Revolver Ocelot names: Adamska, Adam, Ivan, Shalashaska, Liquid Ocelot

Big Boss: John Doe, John, Jack, Snake, Naked Snake, Punished Snake, Venom Snake

Solid Snake: David, Dave, Snake, Iroquois Pliskin, Old Snake

Because the main characters have numerous aliases, it is unlikely that Liquid and Solidus have only one name. Phantom Pain is going to be the biggest game in the franchise, and possibly the last MGS Kojima works on. Chances are high that Liquid and Solidus will make an appearance.

George Sears was probably a name given to Solidus by the Patriots. The Patriots created Solidus to be President. Several Presidents share the name George, namely George Washington and George Bush.

Going back to the subject of Biblical references, Solid Snake's Wikia entry has this to say:

"The name David is of Hebrew origin and was used by the biblical King David, who managed to slay the giant Goliath with a slingshot and a sword. Similarly, Snake also overcame several almost impossible challenges despite being a clone created from supposedly inferior genes."

There is also a tanked called Goliath, appearing in MG2. According to Goliath's Wikia entry:

"The name "Goliath" is derived from that of the giant from "David and Goliath" in the Old Testament of the Bible. Similarly, Solid Snake's real name was later revealed to be David."

I find it highly implausible that the similarities between David in MGS being one of eight embryos, and Biblical David being one of eight children, are mere coincidences. That Kojima has knowledge of other religious stories, but not the story of David.

You seem to be alone in thinking that Eli is not Liquid. There is a closed thread on the MGSV board titled "Eli is Liquid Snake", which mentions the story of Eliab and David. Final Fantasy, however, actually DOES deal with religious elements of various bits, not just Christianity, but also Buddhism, Judaism, Gnosticism. Heck, Final Fantasy XIII even included a bit of a reference to Deism as well.

And I know about the Solid Snake and Goliath bits in there. I'm the one who added them in. However, we still don't know if it's actually the case that Kojima named him after that. He has, after all, indicated that he named Solid Snake such as a reference to either 2001: A Space Odyssey or Policenauts. And in any case, considering the rather disgusting things in MGS2 and MGS3 especially with the Patriots in the former, I doubt Kojima has many good things to say about the Christian religion or about the Bible anyhow.

And actually, I'm saying that we don't know for sure if Eli and Liquid are the same thing. We also thought just because Kojima said so in TGS2009 that Liquid would actually have a major role in Peace Walker, maybe even find out how he went bad, yet when push came to shove, the only real reference to Liquid was in the secret call, with little suggesting what actually made him go bad. Heck, Kojima also indicated that Nixon's resignation would play a major role in Peace Walker, yet there was absolutely nothing to suggest Nixon resigning was even mentioned, directly or indirectly, in Peace Walker at all when it was released. Not to mention Kojima usually actually strongly hints if not outright states whether characters are either the same as prior characters or otherwise related to prior characters, like how he revealed Ocelot in MGS3, Naked Snake is Big Boss (all before the game was actually released), how Kazuhira Miller and Master Miller are one and the same, and strongly implied that Huey is Otacon's father in TGS2009, yet he hasn't done anything of the sort with Eli and Liquid. Use common sense, if Kojima really intended for Eli and Liquid to be one and the same, he would have revealed it by now, not keep quiet about it, especially considering that's exactly what he's done before with Kaz, Major Ocelot, Huey, and even Naked Snake being Big Boss.