Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-25366375-20140908075413

I've recently tweaked my theory a little bit after watching a few of the earliers trailers for The Phantom Pain. Or at the very least, I have two main theories, with my first being more likely than the second. That said, I'd love to see some more theories come out.

1. Ishmael is a hallucination. Plenty of my reasoning has been stated above.

JaCuS wrote: Ishmael is a hallucination created by Psycho Mantis.

All supernatural events in this trailer are the work of young Mantis.

Mistery solved:D Now, while I agree that Ishmael is most likely a hallucination, I happen to disagree that he is created by the young boy we're all pretty sure is Psycho Mantis. I think young Mantis probably made Big Boss' visions worse--in the case of Man on Fire and the flaming whale--however I just don't think he's responsible for Ishmael. My reasoning for that would be that Ishmael was around as soon as Big Boss woke up, and I hardly see Mantis diving in to the brain of somebody in a coma. I realise my logic is kinda weak here, considering all the other weird stuff that happens not long after, but I guess all I've got is a gut instinct.

2. Ishmael is not a hallucination, but most probably some significant character that either has not been revealed, or hasn't been cast yet. Why do I say "cast"? Well, the earliest trailer of The Phantom Pain was roughly about the back end of 2012, and we have Kiefer Sutherland voicing Ishmael in that trailer. As it wasn't announced as a Metal Gear Solid game, Snake didn't have a voice. This was all way before any of the David Hayter getting canned stuff happened, and as other users have said it's possible that they were just testing out Sutherland's voice (and knowing Konami they were probably fully aware of the theories that would arise) as one last confirmation. So, when The Phantom Pain gets a release, I think it's also possible that Ishmael may have a different voice actor, and that's the basis of this theory.

My second supporting argument for this theory is the fact that Ishmael physically interacts with Big Boss. This entire theory is kind of weak, I'm more than happy to admit that, but unless we're dealing with some sort of Fight Club twist in The Phantom Pain, I think that's pretty significant. Ishmael pushes and pulls Big Boss out of sight, and we're yet to see any sort of apparition in previous Metal Gear Solid games that interact in such a way (as far as I can remember, please feel free to correct me) so it's odd if nothing else.

Does this rescinding of my 100% belief in Theory 1 mean I believe all the associated stuff like Ishmael is Gray Fox and such? Absolutely not. I've just gone from 100% sure he's a hallucination to about 95% sure. And Kojima is no stranger to acting on the 5%.

That build of The Phantom Pain is almost 2 years old, and the game must have changed drastically since then. Either way, we really can't know who Ishmael is until either TGS (where I think an Ishmael-related announcement is highly unlikely) or until release, I just find this particular question incredibly fun to discuss.

[tl;dr - I offered up some kind of weak logic "Ishmael is real" theory, which I don't believe as such, but it was enough for me to at least reconsider.]