Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-1672596-20140613005014

0nighthawk0 wrote: I'll blame Kojima :P

Also, I've known cases were men were already gray before their twenties...hair color is a fickle thing really.

But let's assume the did make a clone, it cannot have been at Ground Zeroes because it would be an infant and that would just be too far fetched. As for Ishmael, unless the clone grew up in said hospital that Big Boss was in, I cannot see how he kept an eye in Big Boss for 9 years as said clone would have to have been there before Big Boss came in, and this still seems far fetched, again because of age.

As for us playing the clone...I could bring up age as a factor again, but let's approach it differently. Why? Why would they produce a clone of Big Boss, mutilate him and take away his eye and arm, stick shrapnel in his head and all that. Would they not want a more perfect clone like Solidus was? And if they already had Solidus as well as the Twin snakes, why would they make another clone and turn him into an aged and mutilated Big Boss?

So the cloning project stopped 4 years after the Twin Snakes are born, is this really reason to believe that we're playing a clone in either Ground Zeroes or in The Phantom Pain? Or that Ishmael, the man in question in this whole topic, is a clone? It just seems way too far fetched for that, even with Solidus appearing as middle aged man when he's in his late teens, which also a good example then. Why would said clone appear as old as Big Boss, whom is clearly older then Solidus in appearance where as Solidus looks middle aged when being in his late teens, after 1984. I had a mom who went gray during her teenage years, so I know about premature graying. However, it's not just the gray hair. Even his face, and his voice, was more or less similar to in MGS2.

And BTW, I'm not one who believes Ishmael to be a clone. More likely than not, if he exists, he's one of the survivors from MSF's destruction who was caught in whatever it was that got Big Boss into a coma.

And the reason why I'm doubtful about the date being relevant to Liquid or Solid Snake is because by the time the project is cancelled, they would already be four years old, and thus not actually be impacted by it being cancelled, not to mention they don't even know about their being a clone until much later. If they were born in 1975, or even 1976, that's one thing, as that actually would be a good reason for it. But they were born in 1972, meaning it can't be relevant to them as they were already born, they don't know their origins, and thus wouldn't be impacted one way or another by the cancellation of the project. It's not important to them or the story to list an end date. The only other mention of the Les Enfants Terribles project in Ground Zeroes was from Skull Face, and even that didn't mention much that we didn't already know before other than Zero going into hiding (and really, MGS4 already inferred that a while back, as well as Peace Walker to a lesser extent). Plus, if a reference to LET to foreshadow Liquid and possibly Solid in TPP was what they were aiming for, Skull Face's reference would have sufficed enough.

As far as why they'd mutilate him and possibly take away his eye and arm, they probably wanted to make sure he was as accurate as possible to the real deal in case they needed him to infiltrate Diamond Dogs. After all, if he had two eyes, and he had both arms when the real Big Boss actually did lose an arm in whatever it was that caused him to be knocked out for nine years, most of the staff, especially those who know him, would probably be suspicious about "Big Boss." Had I been someone who wanted a look alike to infiltrate and act as an unwitting agent in subverting the group under my control, I'd make darn sure that they are as accurate as possible to ensure that the group is fooled, even if it means removing arms or eyes just to ensure the act was sold.