Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24488184-20140131090949/@comment-4247892-20140322042553

I have a theory... and that is that the creepy ghostly guys could very well be the "aborted" clones. Perhaps Liquid Snake was semi-lied to about them being "aborted". The word "abort" has several meanings, not all of them related to physical abortion which is of course the removal of fetus from womb. Defintion(s) of the word 'abort' from www.dictionary.com follows:

a·bort  [uh-bawrt]

verb (used without object)

1.  to bring forth a fetus from the uterus before the fetus is viable; miscarry.

2.  to develop incompletely; remain in a rudimentary or undeveloped state.

3.  to fail, cease, or stop at an early or premature stage.

4.  Military. to fail to accomplish a purpose or mission for any reason other than enemy action.

5.  Rocketry. (of a missile) to stop before the scheduled flight is completed.

Take a look at #s 2, 3 and 4. What actually happened could fall into one of those alternate definitions, and Liquid was lied to and told that the clones were physically aborted, as well as destroyed/discarded.

But wait, this could get even creepier. Played Portable Ops? Remember how Null was kept alive? These 'aborted' clones could have undergone similar treatment/mistreatment/experimentation. And possibly given advanced excelerated aging, even more extreme than what Solid, Liquid, and Solidus were created with.

Experimental super soldiers, like Null/Gray Fox.

Remember now, Liquid was lied to and convincingly told that he was the inferior of the two between Solid Snake and him. And it was revealed by Ocelot in MGS1 that the opposite was actually true. Liquid could have been half lied to about his other 5-6 brothers (I doubt he ever had knowledge of Solidus) being "aborted" as well.