Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-25133295-20140709164738

First I don't mind Ishmael embodies Kojima. It is not plausible because the man has blue eyes, and has no asian accent. Then if it was the personification of Kojima, he would not say "i've been wondering you for nine years". Kojima already appeared in Ground Zeroes demo, so I think he would go too far by making himself a (real/unreal) character of the Phantom Pain.

The thought of making a link between Ocelot's rescuing and Ishamel's help is interesting. But Ocelot would not be able to appear to Snake as a ghost. According to me Ishmael is in Snake's mind, but he could have appear and sent to Snake by the action of another person. I'm thinking of another mysterious character, the one wearing a gas mask, even if his role in the hospital episode is unclear. If he is Psycho Mantis, we can easily make a link between him and Ocelot, probably on the same side. Then it could be possible that the first one's role was to wake up and guide Snake out from the hospital, and the second one's role was to bring Snake away from the hospital area. But there is no evidence to that the levitating boy is present to help Snake, and on the same side as Ocelot.

The name Ishmael exists in the Moby-Dick novel. On french Wikipedia's page of this novel there is a description of the character : "It seems to be a silent witness, the narrative voice (...)  It participates in the work carried out on board, held various positions but the adventure seems to proceed without him once boarded the boat." For this moment I continue to think this character is an abstract entity in Snake's mind as Moby-Dick Studios and Joakim Mogren were created by Hideo Kojima's imagination and do not really exist.