Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-25366375-20140831112953

64.33.250.214 wrote:

Has Kojima ever Tweeted the hallucination theory? Or what about the Solidus theory? I wouldn't know because I only started following him recently. I have no firm opinion in who Ishmael is, and based on what little evidence there is, any and all theories are presumptious. I wont be convinced on way or another until the game is released.

I highly doubt Mantis Boy would create a hallucination to assist Big Boss. From what we've seen, the psychic images he projects are unnatural and ghostly. There's some logic in the trauma theory, but how do you explain the name? Ishmael is a Biblical name, and Kojima has only given such names to real characters who are usually important. Someone in the thread argued that Kojima chose the name to trick us into believing Ishmael is important, but that's not so much an argument as it is a means to diffuse an argument. I don't think he has ever posted about either theory. I suspect he indirectly retweeted the Gray Fox theory because he and the rest of the time find the theories interesting and funny--as you may have seen through your wiki viewings, was the case with the Chico is Quiet theory. I think if I made a game I'd like to share all the theories about it that I could.

[As an aside I don't think there's any chance that Ishmael could be Solidus, personally. He'd be 12 years old, and while he was apparently hit hardest by the accelerated ageing, I think that would be really poor form on Kojima's behalf.]

They aren't using Ishmael in the biblical sense, however, as Ishmael refers to BB as Ahab (if I remember correctly, haven't seen the trailer for quite some time). You do have a point about biblical names and significance though (John, David, ADAM, EVA, so on), but then again the use of Ishmael could represent the 'illegitimate' lineage of Abraham that Ishmael heads (not said to cause any offense, of course, just a potential thematic device) and therefore we can suspect that Ishmael is himself, perhaps not 'legitimate', or therefore real. Grasping at straws here of course, but the TGS news is due tomorrow so we may soon learn more.