Strangelove

Strangelove is a character who appears in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. She is also the second heroine of the game. As the name implies, she has "a strange love". She is involved with the Peace Sentinels, and is the researcher who developed the Mammal AI for Basilisk (aka Peace Walker).

Early Life
Strangelove was born shortly before World War II, and spent her early childhood in Manchester, England. She was born an albino, and thus could not play outside without experiencing severe burns in a minute. At roughly age ten, she was recognized for her talent in logic and mathematics, and was educated in these subjects by Professor Alan Turing. Under his tutelage, she obtained an appreciation for concept of Artificial Intelligence. Several years later, while studying to be a computer engineer at the California Institute of Technology, the recently founded NASA (circa 1958) recruited her as a key staff member of Project Mercury. In early 1961, she was acquainted with The Boss, who was assigned to Mercury as a backup pilot and advisor. She tried to stop the launch, or at least stop The Boss from participating in the launch, after the Department of Defense requested that they add in a Window to the spacecraft. She also never bought the official reason for choosing The Boss, as her being irradiated once would actually place her in even greater risk than before.

Owing to concerns for the safety of the official pilots, Strangelove oversaw the experimental launch of the first manned American spacecraft on April 21, 1961, piloted by The Boss -- an incident during which The Boss was severely injured. Apparently, Strangelove tried to save The Boss despite experiencing several burns trying to do so. The Boss was rotated out of Project Mercury during her subsequent hospitalization, and Strangelove never saw her again.

Though Strangelove came to love The Boss in the course of their cooperation, their association never progressed to anything beyond a one-sided relationship, and she was aware that the woman's attentions were focused upon a certain individual whose identity she was never able to confirm. In 1964, after recieving notice that Naked Snake killed The Boss during Operation Snake Eater as a "traitor", Strangelove began to mentally identify him as this "certain individual". The thought that The Boss died at the hands of the student she loved filled Strangelove with jealousy and anger, and she was unable to believe that The Boss had truly betrayed the country.

Operation Peace Walker
Main Article

She was recruited by the Peace Sentinels by Coldman for the Peace Walker Project, commissioned to build the Mammal Pod, a highly advanced AI that was capable of handling complex decisions such as deciding to launch a retalitory nuclear strike. She chose The Boss to be the model, as she was "the most logical" of the minds to do so, and requested all information on The Boss in exchange for her help in the project. Despite her participation in the project, she didn't care for Coldman's goals, as she only wanted to revive The Boss so she could learn the truth about what happened in Tselinoyarsk and then clear her name.

Cecile later stumbled upon the project while Dr. Strangelove was running a routine simulation with the Mammal Pod. Strangelove was kind to Cecile despite her being a prisoner, feeding her and even bathing her. She also stated that she'll be released in a month, but she has to keep her blindfold on. The reason for this was due to a compromise between saving Cecile and finishing the Mammal pod on schedule, as she knew full well that if Coldman found out about Cecile stumbling on the project, he would have had Cecile executed as soon as possible.

She later encountered Big Boss outside of the AI Facility in an environment similar to Rokovo Berej, the setting of The Boss and Snake's final battle, and after verbally telling him off for murdering "the woman she loved". She then directed him to the facility where she explained that she planned on reviving The Boss as an AI. She then goaded him into trying to deactivate the AI pod if he could. She later appeared to do a systems check on the Mammal Pod, and discovered Snake inside the pod, alerting the Peace Sentinels of his presence.

She later captured Big Boss and proceeded to torture him (although she personally felt disgusted with the philosophy of torture, as she was a scientist) with Shock Rods. She tortured him for information on why he wanted to kill The Boss, doubting that it had anything to do with betraying the United States, due to the fact that Big Boss still has mementos on her. However, she allowed for Big Boss to keep her Film ID that he swiped from her before being arrested, suggesting that she wanted him to escape.

Shortly afterwards, she discovered the final key to Mammal from him, ironically by him not answering to the torture. She later accompanied the Peace Sentinels to an American Missile Base in Nicaragua, and inputted the False Data directed towards the Mother Base. However, Vladimir Zadornov broke into the base and demanded that she change the False Data to Cuba, threatening that he'll kill her as well as her beloved if she didn't comply. Shortly after Vladimir was arrested by the MSF and his plans halted (ironically by his allies, the FSLN group led by Amanda Valenciano Libre), she apologized to Big Boss about how she treated him, and invited him to find out the answers about The Boss together from the AI.

Unfortunately, while on their way to the Peace Walker unit, Coldman managed to activate Peace Walker, resulting in not only Cuba being targeted for a retalitory strike, but also causing NORAD and the Pentagon to panic about a possible nuclear attack from the Soviets due to the false data being leaked to their computer, forcing them to destroy Peace Walker (as Coldman died before he could reveal the abort code).

After the fiasco, Strangelove apparently joined the Militaires Sans Frontieres/Outer Heaven, due to having an inability to return to England, and works with Huey Emmerich on developing Metal Gear Zeke. Her occupation was presumably developing its AI. After it was nearly trashed after an incident involving Paz nearly launching a nuclear weapon from Zeke towards the East Coast of the United States, she mentioned that it's AI had a backup module, so at the very least it can walk, although it's up to Big Boss as to what will happen to it. When asked by Huey if she hated him, she wondered with astonishment if he's asking her out. Huey denied it, and she remarked that it was a shame, as she already broke up with someone, and she wanted someone who can stand up for themselves, and remarking that love was blind (implying that she was attracted to Huey).

Trivia

 * Strangelove is bisexual, as evidenced by romantic fascination of The Boss as well as her implied attraction to Huey Emmerich when he asks if she hated him.
 * Strangelove's bisexual tendencies were emphasised during a radio transmission between herself and Big Boss concerning the personal baths she gave to Cécile while admiring her beauty, and in a similar radio transmission involving Huey where, when describing why she hates Huey, she makes a contradictory remark (She mentioned that the biggest reason why she hated Huey was because he's male, when an earlier reason she stated had her indicate that she wanted him to be more of a man by standing up for himself.), as well as, when attempting to give an unbiased opinion about Huey's credentials, Snake noting that it sounded slightly like praise. Also, Paz mentioned in her diary that Strangelove seduced her while sun bathing.
 * Her nickname originated from the fact that Strangelove kept a photo of The Boss on her desk as well as her apparently being completely uninterested in the opposite sex during her time at DARPA. In essence, it was namely used as an insult to her sexual orientation by her coworkers.

Behind the Scenes

 * The name is a reference to the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). The film's plot concerns the Cold War crisis and a possible nuclear apocalypse. Strangelove also bears some resemblance to Dr. Strangelove from the movie; both have short blond hair and wear similar sunglasses and black leather gloves.
 * In her appearence in MPW, Strangelove is voiced by Yumi Kikuchi in the Japanese version and in the English version by Vanessa Marshall, who previously voiced the English versions of Olga Gurlukovich in Metal Gear Solid 2 and EVA in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
 * If the player fails to complete the interactive cutscene where Big Boss swipes Strangelove's Film ID card, he won't have the ID card on him when the player takes control of Big Boss in the torture chamber/prison. However, he still will unlock his cell, although only with a Jigsaw stitched into his scar.
 * In the Japanese version of Peace Walker, her method of torture was censored to be the use of "Laughing rods" that would tickle the victim, and was implied that the frequency that can tickle the victim can kill them if raised higher. This was because the Japanese rating simply could not allow torture to be used. On a related note, any future references to the torture were omitted or at the very least not directly stated (such as when Strangelove apologized to Snake shortly after Coldman and Zadornov were stopped.)