Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6747658-20130401084750/@comment-4913740-20140123164656

151.246.243.14 wrote: First of all he had a special mask created by signit which could take the face of anyone he wants, Second just as the Ground Zeroes trailer said " from FOX two Phantoms were born " somehow refers to Zero or Reikov in Virtuous Mission, Third he also holds a grudge against snake for being exiled and his participation in Volgen death ( note that he was also a coward lover of him ) The mask created by Sigint was OF Raikov, and it was given to Snake after it was recycled from a cancelled mission involving impersonating Raikov.

"From FOX, two Phantoms were born" makes reference to Zero and Snake. From the FOX Unit, these two 'phantoms' were born - Snake was turned into a legend and Zero operated from behind the scenes, thus acting as a phantom. The word also ties in with the title - The Phantom Pain - and the sensation of phantom limb pain.

In Portable Ops (which is, as of this moment, established as canonical still), Snake recruits Raikov into his unit, with Raikov thinking that working with Volgin's killer to redeem himself in the eyes of the Soviets AND to get revenge on Gene's unit for imprisoning him was better than remaining locked in a cell. Since he willingly worked with Snake and made no attempt on his life, I think it's safe to say no real grudge would be harboured there. Besides, I don't think Raikov would want to take on Snake.

Finally, the "Ghost without a past" description could be referring to the fact that he's some sort of character that is unknown up to this point, or could be a returning character who has "come back from the dead", as Kojima said a character would (although he did not specify whether he meant back from the literal dead within the MGS universe or just returning from being a cut character). I don't understand how you think that the description "A Ghost without a past" implies that he is Volgin reincarnated.