Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-151.246.240.247-20130913120522/@comment-140.198.32.130-20140319162416

109.148.201.233 wrote: Naa skull face has to be Volgin, it dident specifiy if he died at the end of MGS3 plus he could be the cause for these demonic Volgin illiusions that Big Boss has been seeing. To end the idea that Skull Face is Volgin because of Big Boss' visions of Volgin, consider that when we see the Volgin ghost (and, from the trailer, a giant flaming whale and a fiery pegasus/unicorn that the Volgin ghost rides), Big Boss is in the presence of a young Psycho Mantis who proved (moreso in The Twin Snakes than the original MGS1, but still) that he has the ability to produce the illusion of fire. The fiery damage to the hospital, as well as the ghosts that chase Big Boss are nothing more than Psycho Mantis' powers in effect. As for who set Mantis up at the hospital, it could be Skull Face or someone else altogether.

As for who Skull Face is, I have seen evidence that his model resembles Zadornov's, but even then Skull Face does not seem to have a prosthetic hand nor did we see Zadornov on fire (he got shot once, and Big Boss could have been mistaken about having killed Zadornov from the shot). Given the short time frame between the end of Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes, I don't see how Zadornov could have gotten burned, recovered, and began his business at Camp Omega in time for Ground Zeroes.

I discredit the idea of Coldman being Skull Face because, despite the burns, the back of Skull Face's head seems rather smooth (as if not burned), and Coldman's wolf tattoo is not there.

There is some debatable room for Gene to be Skull Face, though. Before I get attacked because Portable Ops wasn't made by Kojima and therefore non-canon:

1 - Kojima acknowledges the canonicity of Portable Ops in Peace Walker by having Miller mention the 'crap in San Hieronymo' which is where Portable Ops takes place.

2 - Kojima included images from Portable Ops in MGS4 as part of the story

3 - Rising wasn't made by Kojima either, but it is still canon because he wrote it.

However, the voice actors between Gene and Skull Face are different in Japan and America. Unless Kojima's excuse for that is damage from being burned, I will ahve to discredit the idea that Gene is Skull Face.

What we do know is that Skull Face knows Big Boss and Zero, but where from has yet to be discussed. He could be a former FOX member, or at least knew of FOX from Big Boss and Zero, which is where he would know the logo to mirror it for his XOF logo. Altogether, I would count Skull Face as a new character to the audience but familiar to Big Boss (sort of like Python was in Portable Ops).