Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-64.33.250.214-20150405202850

Adachi Did It wrote: Very possible, however other than that hospital scene we've seen nothing of Ishmael since. Now it's more than likely that Ishmael is a character and Kojima is simply withholding info on him, I personally don't agree. Just differing opinions really, there's not enough info to say 1 way or another yet.

But canonically, who could the character be, assuming you're right and he's a returning character. We'd have to assume it's someone in a game set previously in canon, so we have MGS3, PW and maybe PO (genuinely don't know whether it's canon or not). I can't help but wonder who it was that convinced people that Ishmael was a hallucination in the first place. Yong Yea doesn't support the theory or covered the topic, despite having discussed the possibility of Chico being Quiet. Did someone on 4chan put the theory out there?

Kojima tends to repeat himself, and rehash concepts/themes from previous games. Like how there's usually a team between 4-5 Bosses and a Final Boss. There has always been a character in disguise, often as a throwback to another character. Kyle Schneider from MG1 became Black Ninja in MG2. Gray Fox from MG2 became Cyborg Ninja in MGS1. Olga Gurlukovich became Cyborg Ninja in MGS2. Naked Snake became Raidenovich in MGS3. Raiden became Cyborg Ninja in MGS4.

Of the characters who've appeared in the trailers for MGS5, only one appears to be in a possible disguise. That character is Ishmael. I'd rather not make bold claims about the character's true identity, as I could either end up being wrong or it could spoil a potential plot twist. You can offer your own theories if you want. Alls I know is that there's strong evidence indicating that Ishmael is not a hallucination.