Hal Emmerich

Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich was the chief engineer of Metal Gear REX. He became a close friend of Solid Snake after Snake rescued him during the Shadow Moses Incident in 2005. Later that year, he and Snake founded the anti-Metal Gear NGO Philanthropy. Following the Guns of the Patriots Incident, he became the adoptive father of Sunny. A devoted fan of anime, Hal's chosen nickname was derived from the Japanese animation convention Otakon.

Early years
Hal Emmerich was born in 1980 to scientists Huey Emmerich and Strangelove via C-section. Huey was a big fan of science fiction movies, specially the HAL 9000 computer featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as a result of the film getting himself and Strangelove closer. Strangelove had no real love for Huey and desired a child only for the purpose of educating them about The Boss's will as a means of passing it on to a new generation.

Hal spent his early years living with his parents in a XOF research facility in Afghanistan. He ended up being considered by his father for use as a test subject for Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, as its cockpit was so small that only a child could pilot it. This resulted in a huge falling out between Hal's parents. Strangelove vehemently disagreed with Huey's proposition. Wanting to protect Hal from Huey's experiment, Strangelove's secretly hid Hal in America. In retaliation, Huey sealed Strangelove inside the Mammal Pod where she later suffocated.

Hal's father, having been exiled from Mother Base, returned to America and eventually reunited with Hal. By the time Hal was a teenager, his father had married British native Julie Danziger. Danziger had a daughter of her own, named Emma, who adopted the Emmerich surname. Hal and Emma oftentimes played "House" together in their childhood.

When Hal was a teenager, he was seduced by his stepmother Julie and they had an affair. In 1997, Hal's father, after learning about this, committed suicide by drowning himself in the family pool. He dragged Emma with him, but she managed to survive. Emma expected Hal to come to the rescue, but Hal didn't know it was happening as he was with Julie at the time. Surviving the incident, Emma always claimed to hate her brother because she believed he had abandoned her.

Afterwards, Hal, experiencing tremendous guilt for "betraying" Emma and his role in his father's suicide, ran away from home and didn't see any of his family members until several years later, although he did maintain contact with Julie via letters, where he ended up learning about Emma's intense aquaphobia as a result of the "accident." Hal dropped out of school but through Internet-based self study, he secured acceptance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his PhD at a young age. He also earned additional Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from Princeton University. Scouted by the FBI as a student, he joined their ERF (Engineering Research Facility). After being caught monitoring and hacking their central database, Hal was forced out of the FBI.

Eventually, Hal was hired by the defense contractor ArmsTech. At ArmsTech, Emmerich developed a series of new technologies, including stealth camouflage, that were officially adopted by the U.S. Army. Following this, he became the lead engineer for the Metal Gear REX project. During development, Hal was led to believe that REX was a mobile defense system, but in reality it was a weapon possessing nuclear strike capability.

In late February 2005, Hal was held hostage by the Sons of Big Boss on Shadow Moses Island, where he was forced to continue his work on Metal Gear REX under heavy guard. During this time, Otacon developed a strong attraction to FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf, possibly under the effects of Stockholm Syndrome.

While confined to his lab, the security detail outside was later eliminated by Gray Fox who then threatened Hal and demanded to know the whereabouts of Solid Snake. In fear of Fox, Hal lost bladder control and urinated on himself and the floor. When Snake interrupted the confrontation shortly thereafter, Hal hid in a nearby locker while Snake and Fox fought in the lab, spraining his ankle in the process. When Snake finally forced Fox to flee, Hal reluctantly revealed himself and was shocked to learn the true nature of his creation from Snake, after being interrogated on the subject (as Snake was unaware of Hal's ignorance of its purpose). Devastated, he decided to take responsibility his actions by aiding Snake in his mission, utilizing his stealth camouflage to sneak around the base and provide support.

Hal later aided Snake when he was imprisoned in the medical facility by supplying Snake with ketchup, as a means to fake injury and trick the guard into investigating (not having the necessary clearance level to open the cell himself). He also supplied Snake with Wolf's handkerchief. The same time, he also discovered that the DARPA Chief had been killed, giving him horror and rage. He later returned to his lab in order to retrieve a stealth camouflage prototype to give to Snake, only to discover that all remaining four had been stolen.

Hal then went to the communication towers, by hiding in the back of an enemy truck, and met Snake inside Tower B, momentarily startling him and almost causing him to shoot the stealth camouflaged scientist. Otacon was surprised to learn from Snake that the tower's elevator had become inoperable, having just used it himself, and attempted to repair it, due to the lower circular staircase being inaccessible. Around the time Snake shot down a Hind D gunship on the roof, the elevator inexplicably began to function again by itself, with Hal becoming suspicious of the weight limit alarm being set off after boarding it. When Snake later used it, Hal soon realized that soldiers must be waiting inside to ambush him, using the stolen stealth camouflage from his lab, and frantically warned him via Codec. Snake was then successful in defeating his would-be attackers.

Distraught that Snake would have to kill Wolf following a snowfield duel, Hal eventually came to terms with Wolf, himself, and his position in life. Afterwards, he vowed to continue helping with Snake's mission, although he didn't answer radio calls for a short time during his grieving of Wolf's death. Otacon later overheard the Sons of Big Boss talking about completing the preparations for Metal Gear REX's launch, and told Snake this when Snake entered the REX hangar. He then got the idea of hacking into Baker's private files, to locate information on the weapon's PAL system. During his search, he also relayed any information he found to Snake, including the purpose of REX and its development. Otacon also helped Snake in escaping the gas-filled hangar control room by hacking into the door's main computer, after the latter unwittingly aided terrorist leader Liquid Snake in REX's activation. With Hal's advice, Snake was able to destroy REX and thus defeat the terrorist uprising.

After it was discovered that the Pentagon had ordered a nuclear air strike at Shadow Moses, destroying all evidence of what had happened, Hal decided to remain in the base to aid Snake in his escape. He disabled the security locks for the loading tunnel that led outside, nearly sacrificing himself in the process in order to help Solid Snake and Meryl Silverburgh escape. However, the bombing orders were cancelled shortly before the bombers arrived.

Post-Shadow Moses
Afterwards, Otacon moved to England for a time, because relatives were living there. Following Revolver Ocelot's leaking of REX's schematics on the black market, Otacon and Nastasha Romanenko decide to set up the anti-Metal Gear NGO Philanthropy. Solid Snake and Otacon soon began a partnership and close friendship that would continue through the next decade, as they would continue to destroy Metal Gear REX derivatives that were being developed by almost every country in the world. During their operations, they also broke into a facility and stole Liquid's corpse, deducing that Liquid's corpse might prove useful. During one of their investigations, this time in regards to a U.S. Navy derivative of Metal Gear, Otacon stumbled upon evidence of the Patriots' involvement in the project, although he couldn't find out any more about the organization due to heavy security. He then decided that they should learn more about them in a future operation.

In August 2007, Hal acted as Solid Snake's radio support during his infiltration of the dummy oil tanker USS Discovery (tanker). Philanthropy intended to expose the existence of the U.S. Marines' Metal Gear RAY, which was being transported along the Hudson River, based on intel leaked to Otacon by a trusted source. Snake was to transfer photographs of RAY directly to Otacon, via the Codec, but after discovering that their transmissions were being monitored, he requested that Snake use a terminal on board the tanker instead. To do this, he hacked into an Army IC router in Ohio, disguising the data transfer within the Marine Commandant's speech feed, using BATON and TADIL-J format.

Hal had intended to extract Snake at the Verazanno Bridge, but the mission ended in disaster when the tanker was sunk by Revolver Ocelot. Hal managed to sail over to the still sinking vessel in a small boat and rescue Snake. Faking Snake's death by using Liquid's body, the two went underground after Snake was framed for causing the incident, and they continued their anti-Metal Gear work outside of the public's watchful eye.

In April 2009, Hal and Snake came out of hiding after learning that a new Metal Gear was being developed at the Big Shell; an offshore cleanup facility set up in the wake of the tanker's supposed oil spill, and recently taken over by terrorists; without his knowledge, someone sent information in order to lure Snake to the Big Shell. Hal also discovered that his stepsister Emma Emmerich was involved in developing the new Metal Gear. They infiltrated the facility in order to rescue Emma and stop the Patriots' Arsenal Gear project from continuing, which the Sons of Liberty terrorists intended to hijack. Snake disguised himself as Navy SEAL Iroquois Pliskin, while Otacon pretended to be Big Shell's security systems architect, entering the facility with Peter Stillman and SEAL Team 10, in order to bypass the plant's security measures for them. Hal later assisted Snake, when the latter was knocked unconscious from an explosion in one of the plants struts. He later was introduced to Raiden via Codec by Snake, but they were forced to cut it short when they were spotted by various Gurlukovich Mercenaries.

After meeting Raiden, Hal and Snake were able to rescue Emma from the bowels of the Big Shell and reunite the two step siblings. They learned that Emma was actually a Patriot engineer who had been hired to build the Arsenal's AI system GW. Otacon eventually reconciled with his estranged sister, and she helped them to upload a worm cluster into GW, which they assumed would destroy it. However, Emma died shortly afterwards after succumbing to a knife wound inflicted by terrorist member Vamp. Despite falling into deep despair over the loss of his sister, Snake encouraged Hal to move on and rescue all the hostages held in the Big Shell. When Raiden discovered that the Colonel was acting strangely, Otacon decided to analyze previous transmissions between the two. He found that the Colonel's signal originated from within GW itself. Otacon stayed in contact to support until Raiden defeated terrorist leader Solidus Snake.

After Solidus's defeat, Snake met back with Hal and he was given the disk to go over that contained the data of the Wisemen's Committee's names and whereabouts. Hal found from the disc that not only was one of the names was one of Philanthropy's biggest contributors, but apparently all twelve members had been dead for more than 100 years. This turned out to be a false lead and, as Snake bluntly put it, "a load of crap."

Post-Big Shell
Afterwards, Solid Snake and Hal disappeared and lived a quiet life. In 2011, Raiden was able to rescue Sunny from the Patriots' clutches and Hal adopted Sunny.

In 2014, Roy Campbell contracted Solid Snake and Hal to help eliminate Liquid Ocelot, the CEO of the Outer Heaven mother company because of the booming war economy. Snake and Hal reluctantly accepted, and Otacon assisted Snake from their aircraft using Metal Gear Mk. II. Their first mission in the Middle East was a failure after Liquid activated a first test attempt at disabling the SOP system in his own PMC troops.

When Snake then infiltrated South America and managed to rescue Naomi Hunter, Hal piloted the helicopter which was able to get Naomi, Snake and Raiden out. He also bore a grudge against Vamp due to his sister's murder. Afterwards, aboard the Nomad, Otacon and Naomi became romantically involved, and he started to not wear his glasses because Naomi commented that he looked "handsome" without them. He also cited his experience of making Metal Gear REX to explain to Naomi why they weren't stopping the Cyborg Ninja project.

However, Hal was crushed when Naomi rejoined Liquid and Vamp again in Eastern Europe. Returning to Shadow Moses Island, Naomi confronted Snake, Raiden and Hal (via the Metal Gear Mk. III) after Raiden defeated Vamp. It was then Naomi revealed having terminal cancer, suppressed only by the life supporting nanomachines. Naomi then injected herself with the nanomachine-suppressing syringe to disable them, effectively committing suicide. Devastated, Hal could not help but recall how many women in his life whom he had loved had died.

Hal later assisted Snake when they were aboard Outer Haven and helped to disable Liquid's restored GW. After Ocelot himself was defeated for good, Hal was seen a guest at the relatively small wedding of Meryl Silverburgh and Johnny Sasaki. Here, after Sunny made an outside friend, he finally gave consent for Sunny to live on the outside. It appeared as though Otacon was aware of Snake's plan to kill himself, as he started to cry and explain that Snake wouldn't be back for a long time when Sunny asked where Snake was.

When Snake did not commit suicide, Otacon and Snake had a short conversation about what they would do now. Hal said he would gladly stay with Snake and chronicle the remainder of Snake's life as Snake waited to see what the era would bring.

Post-Guns of the Patriots
Sometime after the Guns of the Patriots Incident, Hal officially became Sunny's legal guardian and adoptive father. It was thanks to his connections that Sunny was able to work in Solis Space & Aeronautics. He also started to take more care about his appearance, becoming more attractive. According to a Codec call with Sunny, he spent most of his time being a ladies man, though he still had the bad habit of keeping women at arm's length (probably due to the fact that every woman he fell in love with died in unfortunate circumstances).

Technologies developed

 * Metal Gear REX
 * Stealth camouflage
 * OctoCamo
 * Solid Eye
 * Metal Gear Mk. II and Metal Gear Mk. III
 * Virtual Range

Personality and traits
Like his biological parents, Hal was a gifted scientist, possessing a high intellect in computer programming and mechanical engineering. A big fan of Japanese animation shows, especially that of the sci-fi and mecha genres, his hobby also gave him an optimistic inspiration and drive to help create new beneficial technologies and innovations for society with his genius, which was also reinforced with a sense of responsibility and level-headed perspective, especially during his experience of the Shadow Moses Incident. He also did not wish to create weapons of war, in particular weapons of mass destruction. He was also a selfless individual, willing to sacrifice himself to save Snake and Meryl.

Hal was a self-confessed hacker, which proved invaluable during Philanthropy's intelligence gathering activities. At some point prior to the Big Shell Incident, Hal had illegally manipulated his and Emma's account on the internet, which his sister later discovered and told him off for during an argument.

Because of Sniper Wolf's death, he also has a hard time coping with women he knew personally being killed, including Emma Emmerich (his stepsister) and Naomi Hunter.

Over time, Hal became Snake's closet friend and ally, having formed their own handshake, as shown by the duo after Otacons' stepsister, Emma, died of her wounds. Otacon remained loyal to Snake throughout the years, even when Snake began suffering from accelerated aging and was becoming more distant.

Hal claimed to have a fear of heights, informing Solid Snake of this in 2005 after watching him rappel down a communications tower. However, he later became a proficient helicopter pilot, having flown helicopters in 2009 (in the Harrier fight and in rescuing hostages) and 2014 (Naomi's escape from South America, Snake's insertion into/recovery from Shadow Moses, and during the attack on Outer Haven). He previously underwent VR training on the Kamov KA-62 civilian model, explaining his ability to pilot the KA-60.

While highly intelligent, his wisdom and thoughtfulness left something to be desired; Otacon's poor attempts to interpret literature and Chinese proverbs for Solid Snake in 2007 prompted Mei Ling to interrupt one of their Codec conversations.

Like his father before him, Hal and his sister Emma had difficulty controlling their fear, having wet themselves when confronted by possible danger. Snake poked fun at this during a Codec conversion inside a locker during the Tanker Incident, in which Hal mentioned "I was the one inside the locker that time. We're equal now, huh?" to which Snake responded "Not unless I wet my pants," to which Otacon replies "That's a low blow."

Hal had the habit of adjusting his glasses on occasion by pushing them up his nose. Even after he stopped wearing them for a brief period in 2014, he still touched the top of his nose during Codec conversations with Snake.

According to a Codec call between Raiden and Sunny, when Hal turned 30, he adopted a more extroverted personality. He started to become more attractive and became a hit with the ladies. However, because of the trauma caused by Sniper Wolf and Naomi Hunter's deaths, he still kept them at arms length.

Hal told Snake in a Codec conversation that he believed aliens had been visiting Earth for thousands of years.

Etymology
Emmerich's nickname Otacon, was derived from "Otaku", a term of Japanese origin that referred to someone who is obsessed with their hobby but in America means being a fan of anime. Otaku are stereotyped as loners; so on a deeper level, Otacon chose his name because he was always alone. This was referenced after being told that Snake worked alone and Otacon replied "Are you an otaku too?"

His first name, Hal, was taken directly from the antagonist, HAL 9000, from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. His father named him after the character due to being a fan of the film, although Emmerich himself was not too proud of his name, as he "wasn't a computer."

Unconfirmed history
Hal Emmerich was of Jewish descent. Shortly before Hal's birth, his father had been watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

During his college years, Hal Emmerich formulated a fool-proof program to solve the Year 2000 digit changing problem in computers. However, despite receiving major attention, and being regarded by his contemporaries as the savior of the computer world, he didn't make any money off the idea due to his never patenting it.

Character development
Hideo Kojima states that he created Otacon (オタコン) as his way of glorifying the otaku stereotype by having a character who fights the terrorists with his intellect rather than his brawn. According to Kojima, the original idea of Otacon was to make him "heavier, wearing a cap, and programming while eating a chocolate bar." However, the design Yoji Shinkawa came up with the idea to made him slender instead. Otacon's real name of Hal Emmerich (ハル・エメリッヒ博士) is a reference to both the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (highlighted by Snake's real name, David) and Roland Emmerich, one of Kojima's favorite film directors. When asked who his favorite Metal Gear character is, Kojima said if he had to choose it would be Otacon due to the fact he proudly calls himself an otaku, which is Japanese for "geek", and that he helps Snake without getting his hands dirty.

Otacon's hair color is different in each game he appears in: in Metal Gear Solid and The Twin Snakes, he has gray hair; in Metal Gear Solid 2, he has black hair; and in Metal Gear Solid 4, he has brown hair. According to Kojima's comments on Metal Gear Solid 2, certain portions of his physical appearance and mannerisms were based on himself.

Although Otacon was originally described as being in his thirties in 2005, according to his official biography for Metal Gear Solid, his year of birth was retconned as being 1980 in the end credits of Peace Walker, a game in which his father stars in. This change in age retroactively makes Hal's affair with his stepmother, as mentioned in Metal Gear Solid 2, a case of statutory rape under U.S. federal law, as well as the laws of several individual states.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
In the original plot of Metal Gear Solid 4, Otacon and Snake were to have turned themselves in for their crimes and executed, but the majority of the development staff vetoed this decision. During the game's mission briefings, Otacon's computer aboard the Nomad has a wallpaper that features Dingo Egret; the main protagonist of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, another game produced by Kojima. If the player kills a wolfdog and calls Otacon shortly thereafter, Otacon will only make a disgusted grunt and turn away. If the player calls Otacon when Laughing Octopus tries to disguise herself as the Metal Gear Mk. II, Otacon will deny trying to call Snake over to another area.

A kanji symbol called "Otaku Spirit" appears on equipment designed by Otacon, such as Snake's OctoCamo suit, and is also visible during his first Codec transmissions to Snake in the game. The exact word is a mix of "ota" in Katakana (オタ) and then the Kanji "tamashi" (魂). It is often accompanied by the English words "to let the world be." The symbol can also be seen in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, on the clothing worn by Otacon's adopted daughter Sunny, and in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, as an unlockable emblem design.

If the player downloaded the trophy patch and looked at all the posters scattered across the game, the player will unlock the trophy, "Are you an Otaku, too?", referring to a line Otacon uttered in Metal Gear Solid upon meeting Solid Snake.

Otacon also acted as the in-universe narrator of the novelization of Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots by Project Itoh, explaining the events of the story and Snake's life during this time.

Other appearances
"STRENGTHS: Snake Ally, Created METAL GEAR REX WEAKNESSES: Combat Skills, Sniper Wolf, Naomi FEATURED FACT: Nicknamed after the Japanese anime event “Otakon”, Dr. Hal Emmerich also developed OctoCamo, the Solid Eye, and MK II & III FEATURED GAME: METAL GEAR SOLID: THE LEGACY COLLECTION"
 * In the Snake Tales story, External Gazer, Otacon created a VR headset that inadvertently allowed Solid Snake to travel to alternate realities.
 * In the Snake vs. Monkey minigame, Colonel Campbell tells Solid Snake that the Professor, the inventor of the Peak Point Helmet, is a friend of Otacon, and that it was because of the Professor that Otacon was inspired to create several of his inventions.
 * Otacon can be contacted by Snake via Codec in Super Smash Bros. Brawl if Snake is fighting against: Pit; Samus; Yoshi; Donkey Kong; Diddy Kong; Sonic; Link; Ganondorf; Kirby; Captain Falcon; R.O.B.; and Mr. Game &amp; Watch. When contacting Otacon in regards to Captain Falcon, it is revealed that he and Snake are both fans of the character. In Japan, Otacon and Captain Falcon share the same voice actor. He also appears as a sticker, which when worn, will grant the player an increase in slash resistance by 9.
 * Otacon appeared in the Versus Battle section of the official site.

- Otacon's bio in Versus Battle


 * A young Otacon is seen in a photograph with his mother, Strangelove, in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (Snake Tales; non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (mentioned in manual timeline and Snake vs. Monkey; Snake vs. Monkey is non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid Mobile (non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
 * Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (mentioned)
 * Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops (trading card)
 * Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (mentioned)
 * Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (mentioned)
 * Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (mentioned and photograph)