Mistral

"I lost my whole family, everything... But then I butchered those fuckers, My family's killers. That's when I realized I am a killer too and a good one at that."

- Mistral

Mistral was a female Cyborg Ninja and a member of Desperado Enforcement LLC. She was one of the Winds of Destruction alongside Sundowner and Monsoon, and named after the dry northern winds that blow from the Alps to the Mediterranean. Mistral used weapons called "L'Étranger" in whip and rod configurations. Outside of combat operations, she wore a violet coat with pauldrons, which she removed in a suggestive manner when about to fight an enemy. Her serial number is 977-AZQEE.

Early life
Born to French and Algerian parents in the country of Algeria, she was orphaned at a very early age during the Algerian Civil War in the 1990s, and she ended participating in battles as a child soldier throughout the war. She would eventually find her parents' murderers, and in her words, "butcher" them. Afterwards, she decided that killing people was her calling, and served in the French Foreign Legion. She participated in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite killing being her calling, she found the action itself to be "dull," comparing it to dominoes. She even grew envious of her prey because they had causes to fight for. Eventually, she met a man who changed all that and allowed her to fight for an ideal.

Training Bladewolf
After the IF prototype LQ-84i was reactivated by Sundowner, she was assigned command to the UG due to his getting bored with it. She then proceeded to give it several VR missions, including the assassination of an African pesky politician, and several ops within Denver. Mistral then reflected upon seeing its rating that it was disappointing and felt Sundowner may have been right about it, but eventually decided it was ultimately useful and had it continue VR training. She was later contacted by Khamsin, who requested the LQ-84i for the mission to liberate Abkhazia, which she accepted the offer. However, shortly after Khamsin signed off upon being introduced to the LQ-84i, she privately planned to backstab Khamsin. She also smirked when the LQ-84i questioned why it was not allowed freedom, even when their mission was to liberate Abkhazia.

Desperado Incursions
A day later, Mistral arrived at Abkhazia, and allowed the LQ-84i to scout ahead in case PMCs arrived, despite being under orders to have the LQ-84i guard her at all times. She eventually released it from her control, although the LQ-84i seized that chance by removing the restraint inhibitor remote signal from her. After Khamsin was killed attempting to stop the now-renegade LQ-84i, she managed to reinstate the restraint inhibitors via Codec, revealing she had tricked the LQ-84i to kill Khamsin and then forced it to shake her hand (or rather, that of a Humanoid Dwarf Gekko). She then commented that with Khamsin out of the way, she was free to take control of the occupying forces, and that she'll cover up her usurping command from Khamsin during the debriefing. She then mentioned that LQ-84i, due to it only being logical and rational, can never "understand" her motives. Shortly thereafter, around the time the Maverick agent Raiden located the plant, Mistral and Desperado client Andrey Dolzaev had a conversation near the top of the plant. He attempted to threaten her with a gun, but backed off. As he left, she turned around, spotted Raiden from afar, and blew a kiss at him. This alarmed Raiden and he crouched into a defensive stance that caused Doktor some concern regarding his spiked heart rate. As Raiden redirected his attention back to Mistral, he noticed that she had disappeared. Raiden remarked that he was okay and that he simply "dodged a bullet."

She later encountered Raiden at Desperado's base of operations, a refinery plant located near the coastline. After dropping her coat off, she revealed all she knew about him, including his former nickname from the Liberian Civil War, "Jack the Ripper." She remarked about their similar pasts, although she quickly learned that the similarities ended there and that they were quite different as people. At first, she had her Dwarf Gekko fight Raiden, but eventually the two fought on the rooftops.

Later on, their fight fell down to the main level of the plant. Raiden jumped over one of her thrusts and L'Étranger pierced a liquid nitrogen tank instead. Landing on her weapon, Raiden performed a flip and cut open the tank, freezing her with the liquid nitrogen. Raiden then finished off the immobilized Mistral in mid-air. Despite her defeat, she nonetheless felt some content in her death because she realized what it felt like to die for a cause, and expressed her wish towards someone (implied to be Steven Armstrong) to continue to fight due to her belief that he wouldn't fall. Her last words, however, were imparted in French as she expressed her love with all her heart. Her client, Dolzaev, having contacted Mistral just after Raiden had landed the finishing blows to her, ended up confused with her remarks and almost broke down regarding her last words due to her never having said this before then, before Raiden took over Mistral's communication radio and informed Dolzaev that she was not talking to him. Afterwards, her Pole-Arm weapon was later copied after a careful analysis of her battle data.

After death
Although she herself died, her overall form was later given a body double that was controlled by an AI. Such a body double was later dispatched to guard the World Marshal Inc. HQ building's server room at Denver, Colorado, alongside a Monsoon body double. The double's appearance was similar enough that Raiden initially mistook it for the real deal and expressed shock that she apparently survived his duel.

Personality and ablities
Mistral, like Raiden, experienced civil war at a very young age and has been made into a cold killer as a result. Before she came to Desperado she felt she did not have a purpose other than to kill anything in her path. She said that she even envied her prey due to many of her enemies actually having had a cause to fight for. Around 2018, she had learned to cherish the notion of an individual possessing their own ideals, expressing her happiness upon learning to possess one of her own. The trauma of her service as a child soldier appears to have instilled in her a depraved sexual objectification of war; with seductive mannerisms and her pre-battle transformation containing the subtext of a seeming orgasm.

Mistral demonstrated ruthless and cruel behavior, particularly towards the Dwarf Gekko. She objectified the Dwarf Gekko and seemed to have little regard for them except for when they were useful to her in battle or for her own pleasure; for example she utilized their arms and discarded their cores. During another point, Mistral used Dwarf Gekko as a makeshift chair and to cradle herself, while the Gekko were clearly struggling and under strain supporting her weight. Mistral clearly viewed her Gekko as subservient; although their being machines, Mistral lacked any empathy and hence treated them callously. Evidence of her callous treatment can be seen when Raiden confronted her: A lone Dwarf Gekko attempted to ambush Raiden, but Raiden managed to parry the attack, leaving a scratch on its core. Mistral then proceeded to briefly give tender care to it, before suddenly yanking two of its arms off forcibly, before promptly stomping the core and shattering it, the Dwarf Gekko evidently expressing a degree of fear just before being destroyed, while taunting Raiden about his ideal of protecting the weak.

Mistral held some respect for Raiden, even recognizing his reputation as an effective soldier and killer. This is due to similarities in their upbringing as well as both being previously child soldiers who had lost their parents in the past. Valuing the notion of possessing one's own ideals, she even asked Raiden about his own ideals out of curiosity. Upon learning about Raiden's desire of protecting the weak, she expressed that they both had "less in common than [she] thought"; further adding that Raiden's mentality was "still so naive". During her battle with Raiden, she exclaimed tremendous excitement and joy towards Raiden's fighting prowess even going so far as to claim that she desired "more" of it in a seductive manner. This later turned into frustration as Raiden bested her at the end of their fight.

Based on her last words, it is heavily implied that Mistral had loved Steven Armstrong and held him in high regard due to his non-conformist ideals as well as his philosophy regarding a person's free will to make their own decisions in life. This is evidenced by the fact that during one of Kevin and Raiden's codec conversation, Raiden speculated that her last words were directed towards someone who held strong ideals, as well as seemingly someone that he hasn't met yet at the time of Mistral's demise (Raiden had already met Jetstream Sam and Sundowner, with the only exception being Monsoon). This greatly adheres to Mistral's statement of finding value in ideals ever since meeting "him". Also both Raiden and Kevin speculate that this individual was possibly a financial backer of Desperado as opposed to an actual member of the organization, further implicating Armstrong to be the identity of said individual.

She was very similar to Sniper Wolf as she was "rescued" by someone she admires on the battlefield without a purpose and they were both grateful to their killers for freeing them. Mistral had the ability to take the arms of Dwarf Gekko and attach them to her body, while also using them as weapons.

She can attach up to 14 arms of Dwarf Gekkos to her body, 7 arms on each of the two sides of her body. She can also use the remaining cores as volleys to bombard her foes with, throwing them at a fast enough velocity to generate flames.

Most of her body was consisted of cybernetic parts, although her upper chest area was suspected by Doktor, due to its natural movement, to either be originally human or an advanced chasis, which he deduced the former was more likely. Similar to Raiden, she possessed optical implants in her eyes. Shortly after her arms were inserted into her body, her eye glowed crimson. In addition, she also saw Raiden from afar and even blew a kiss at him, revealing that her optical implants also can zoom in via AR.

Mistral seemed to have a tenuous relationship with fellow Desperado member Khamsin. Although she allows Khamsin to take the LQ-84i along with him for a mission, she also says shortly after Khamsin signs off "We will see who gets the education" while chuckling to herself, in response to his final line before signing off, implying that she intended for him to be killed off.

Behind the scenes
Mistral (ミストラル Misutoraru) is a cyborg boss character who appears in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Her multiple arms give her a slight resemblance to Screaming Mantis, though her original concepts show more similarity to Laughing Octopus. In concept artist Yong-Hee Cho's official blog on Platinum Games' website, he explained that he was tasked to create Mistral by director Kenji Saito, as he wanted "tendril like objects to come out of this girl [Mistral]." It eventually resulted in the concept of her fusing with Dwarf Gekko. Cho also implied that, similar to other female boss characters in the Metal Gear series such as Sniper Wolf, Fortune, The Boss, and the Beauty and the Beast Unit, he was going to make her a femme fatale with a tragic backstory. He also wanted to make her sick and perverse looking initially. He also wanted to place a helmet on her, although this ended up cut. In commentary for Mistral's concept art, included in the Collector's Edition of Piggyback Guide's  Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance strategy guide, Kenji Saito, Etsu Tamari, and Cho explained the process of her development: Her overall concept, according to Saito, was namely created as he wanted a whip-based boss character who used AI weapons, due to the whips adding a mysterious and erotic touch to Mistral's fighting style, in addition to being a key component to her weapon. Her pole arm was also initially intended to twist around her body, and could be loosened to use as a weapon, with gradual damage being done that would reveal more of her body. However, this concept was not used. Because of Saito wanting to add a bit of a Japanese touch to the character design, she also bore a strong resemblance to the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara. Etsu Tamari also explained that they made Mistral a French-Algerian woman for two reasons: To give her a similarity to Raiden regarding her past; and their being fans of "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. Cho also explained that the reason they decided on using Dwarf Gekko arms for the Pole Arms/protective gear was because they were a natural fit in the Metal Gear world, as they were searching for something that could be freely attached and removed, and also noted that they carried both a sense of disgust and sensuality regarding their attachment to Mistral, as they were androgynous. Cho also was inspired to use the 'spider woman' from Japanese folk tales for the basis of Mistral, due to her role as a femme fatale, and his desire to add a Japanese flavor to Mistral.

Mistral's weapon is an improvised double-sided polearm called L'Étranger, a reference to the novel L’Étranger by Albert Camus. The novel's protagonist is a French-Algerian man named Meursault. It is literally made out of multiple Dwarf Gekko arms, with the end arms holding a knife.

Full details of Mistral's battle were leaked in UK Official PlayStation Magazine 's coverage of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

At one point in the TGS trailer, Mistral's right eye glowed red, hinting that, similar to Raiden, she possessed optical implants.

Mistral's boss theme is called "A Stranger I Remain". Its lyrics talk about a constant stranger who can only consider the battlefield her home. Owing to her partial heritage, some of the lyrics are also sung in French.

She shares the same serial number as Samuel Rodrigues. She is the only human boss other than Senator Armstrong not to have at least part of her face covered in battle by cybernetic parts. The left side of her face is, however, covered by locks of her red hair. She is also the only "talking" boss (ie, those that utilize the Codec immediately after being defeated) whom Raiden doesn't talk to at all.

Mistral will be a major character in the LQ-84i DLC, where she acted as the LQ-84i's commanding officer.