Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-64.33.250.214-20150412202940

Misterbunnsy wrote: Nuhr wrote: I am quite sure that Ishmael is in fact Solidus.

Here's why:

When you see Ishmael, you think he's just some random guy with his face covered by bandages, but he's not. There's a valid reason for him looking the way he does.

Kojima often includes references to movies he likes. One of the movies which scared him the most is a French horror film named "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face"). In this movie, a surgeon kidnaps young women and removes their facial skin in order to graft it onto the face of his disfigured daughter. One of his victims, after the surgery has been performed, looks exactly the way Ishmael does. After the surgery, the victim wakes up and tries to flee, however she accidently enters the daughter's room and sees her "wearing" her former face. The victim screams and commits suicide by jumping out of a window in shock.

So I'm sure that Ishmael is Solidus, because he and Big Boss have "the same face".

That's quite interesting, that movie reference.

There's always one huge problem with this kind of theory though - Solidus was born later than the other two clones. Who are still young during this time,

He would not have the psychological and emotional development that a man would at his age in this time. Accelerated aging =/= accelerated brain development.

Not to mention, there's never a guarantee when his accelerated aging kicks in. All we know is he looked like he was late forties when he was actually in his twenties.

LET began and ended between 1974-76. Solidus would be 8-12 years old. There are children that age who've entered and graduated college. See "List of child prodigies" on Wikipedia, or search "10 Youngest College Students". Solidus is a genius with a 180 IQ. He would not be mentally impaired.

Accelerated aging would accelerate the internal organs, as well as physical appearance. If that weren't true, then Old Snake would've been capable of living much longer after MGS4 despite his looks.