Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-5085906-20130819172102

42.98.41.253 wrote: Honestly, I am starting to have divided opinions on Ishmael in my mind.

To that second image, I agree it is more like he is adjusting his clothing. But to say the first image with burning petal(s) proves what we saw is completely in a dream is too much. Sorry to say this, but I felt that many people are confused with [thnigs proven to be ture], [things proven to be false] and [things not proven] in this discussion. Some are even fitting evidence into theories (instead of shaping theory from evidence).

There is also the matter of what we take as reliable evidence. For me, I count "facts" from previous games to be more reliable and consider things shown in trailers as something that can be referred to but is incomplete (e.g. we never see a MG Rex gameplay trailer but we got it in the final game) and occasionally, misleading (The MGS2 traliers on Raiden).

The reason why I buy the [Chico = Ishmael = Octopus] more than [Ishmael = hallucination] is that the former theory is based mostly out of information avaliable to us from previous games (e.g. age of Chico, the estimated age of Octopus, the covered face of Ishmael, Mantis' known power and the MGS timeline) combined with the trailer, while the latter is based mainly on speculations and information that we see from a tralier, how well the medicine (in the tralier), the make up of the medicine (partly second guessed by someone) works plus the fact that Mantis is there. Take a look at Mantis' MGS1 records, we know that he is capable of a wide range of psychic power, including, but probably not limited to, creating illusions to Snake without him falling asleep (TTS version). Since we are merely talking about [things not proven] at this stage, so instead of saying one theory is certainly right or wrong, I will just say it is comparatively less reliable to say Ishmael is a hallucination, more porbable that Ishmael is a real person, with the possibility that Chico or Octopus is involved in some way, without shutting the door on the possibility that Ishmael can be a new character.

If anyone think I am just putting down almost anything people said prior to this post so to make sure I will at least be right at something, then I will stress again --> at this stage, it's only about possibilities, not certainty. I will only say something is proven when we see it happening (e.g. Fox taking Ocelot's arm). If someone have solid proof from confirmed sources (previous games) that Ishmael is a real person in-game or the opposite, do raise it to narrow down our guesses : ) It would make sense if Chico later turned into Octopuss. Nothing suggest that he does though, besides the reason that Octopus joined the "Sons of Big Boss" in the later years of his life, implying that he had met Big Boss previously and came to admire him. But, him being Ishmael doesn't just fit at all. Why would both Chico and Snake share the same voice actor? How did Chico's voice become so mature and heavy? That's non-sense.