Mistral

"I lost my whole family, everything... But 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 was 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. 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, with a kill count in the dozens. 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 a pesky African politician, and several ops within Denver. Mistral then reflected upon seeing its kill 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 then contacted Khamsin, ordering him to take the LQ-84i for the mission to liberate Abkhazia. 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.

Abkhazia Coup
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 into killing Khamsin and then forced it to shake her hand (or rather, that of a Humanoid Dwarf Gekko). She commented that she'd cover up Khamsin's death during the debriefing. She then mentioned that LQ-84i, due to it only being logical and rational, could 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."

Mistral 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. Sensing the end of the battle to be near, Mistral then attempted to smash Raiden with "L'Etranger" with a downward slam. However, Raiden parried the blow with his sword, and then proceeded to inch closer and proceeded to backhand her. Irritated at Raiden's persistence, she then tried to thrust at him with the L'Etranger. However, 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 traits
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. She was the youngest member of the Winds of Destruction. Around 2018, Mistral had learned to cherish the notion of an individual possessing their own ideals, expressing her happiness upon learning to possess one of her own.

Because of her background, she sometimes utilized French accent and words when speaking, such as referring to fellow member Khamsin (then-recently deceased) as "batard odieux" and "l'imbecile," meaning "obnoxious bastard" and "the fool," respectively, as well as "mon gars," meaning "my boy" to Raiden, and also saying "Je t'aime... de tout mon coeur." upon her death, meaning "I love you... with all my heart."

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 Dwarf Gekko were clearly struggling and under strain supporting her weight. At times Mistral used her Dwarf Gekko for companionship, as she was playful and affectionate towards them. Mistral clearly viewed her Dwarf 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. Similarly, Mistral gave demeaning treatment towards LQ-84i. She viewed it as a pet, referring to as a "good doggy", referred to its training as "teaching new tricks" and took great pleasure in manipulating its intelligence which led to Khamsin's death.

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 losing 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.

Mistral seemed to have a tenuous relationship with fellow Desperado member Khamsin. Although she ordered 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.

Weapons and abilities
Mistral had the ability to take the arms of Dwarf Gekko, a.k.a. Tripods, and attach them to her body, while also using them as weapons. She could attach up to 14 arms of Dwarf Gekko to her body, 7 arms on each side of her body. She could also use the remaining cores as volleys to bombard her foes with, throwing them at a fast enough velocity to generate flames. In addition to using her L'Etranger as a whip and spear, she could also utilize it in addition to a cartwheel to mow people down in a similar manner to a buzz-saw. She could also loosen both ends to act as grappling hooks to damage the environment and her opponents with a slam, as evidenced with what she did with one of the pipes in the plant during the fight with Raiden.

Most of Mistral's body consisted of cybernetic parts. 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 could also can zoom in via AR. Her upper chest area was suspected by Doktor, due to its natural movement, to either be originally human or an advanced chassis, but believed the former was more likely.

Codename
Similar to her compatriots, Mistral's codename was derived from a weather pattern on Earth. In her case, it was from the cold northern winds in the French Alps. Although not originating from France herself, she did possess French heritage, and she did hold membership to the French Foreign Legion.

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  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 Avalokitesvara.

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 has similarities to the character 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. They both also have a fondness of wolfs and dogs.

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.

Owing to the character's background, her English voice actor, Salli Saffioti, voiced her with a French accent.

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

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. She is also the only one who gets a Codec picture in the DLCs after it being blank in the main game (specifically, in Bladewolf's DLC)

Mistral is a major character in the LQ-84i DLC, where she acted as the LQ-84i's commanding officer. As of the DLC, Mistral is the only major cyborg character whose reason for becoming a cyborg is never stated (Monsoon became a cyborg due to his body being violently shattered during a gang shootout; Sundowner became a cyborg after sustaining an injury from an IED that was severe enough to put him out of commission otherwise; Sam, although not stated in the main story, became a cyborg after Steven Armstrong severely injured the former's left arm in a fight; and Khamsin became a cyborg out of his own volition via funding he received as a PMC soldier).

Mistral also appeared in Versus Battle, where she fought against Sundowner.

"STRENGTHS: Ranged Hand-To-Hand Combat WEAKNESSES: Traps FEATURED FACT: Named after the dry northern winds that blow from the Alps to the Mediterranean FEATURED GAME: METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE"

- Mistral on Versus Battle

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops (trading card)
 * Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance