My take on Ivan

[unwillinghelper]

After waking up in hospital following the destruction of Groznyj Grad, Ivan thought he had died and gone to hell. Ocelot was missing, Volgin was dead and Snake was not only alive, but being hailed as a hero over in America. When he finally returned to his duties, he found it hard to cope. Over time, his behavior grew steadily worse, resulting in

Comments

O HI I'M A STALKER 8(

[thatkindofguy]

IT'S JUST AS THE SUBJECT SAYS. I'M SORRY.

Anyway, I haven't played in fissionmailed in like some crazy amount of months, but it was really exciting to check back after oddly seeing one of your posts on a Google search and find out there's like...more Raikovs that LJ obviously needs. You in particular have been interesting to stalk, and your canon point really intrigues me because, well, I still haven't quite established a view of him post Portable Ops rescue in my head yet. This is mildly a problem since I'm leaning toward a canon update to MPO in my current game.

S-SO I JUST WANTED TO TALK? 8( HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS MORE because I like what you have written so far (and am very glad you wrote it in the first place) and like lol discussion want. Hopefully you're not all omg wtf is this gtfo suze rite naoooo.

♥

Hi! I don't mind!

[unwillinghelper]

Oh hi!

...I kinda stalked you first, I think. I read through all the Raikov-centric posts on Fission Mailed that weren't locked and I noticed very few of the Raikovs were still around, so I decided it needed more. XD Sorry, I guess I'm kinda a stalker myself!

It's nice to meet you! And thanks for the compliment. ^_^ I'm happy to talk and discuss at any time!

lol runons :\

[thatkindofguy]

Haha well I'm glad you decided to fill the void and that you don't think me commenting like this is too creepy

Runons are fun! Also, neat icon.

[unwillinghelper]

Alright, basically, if you place spies in the western wilderness and hang around after Snake is rescued, you'll get a spy report about a "handsome prisoner". Whomever you send there has to navigate the area and go underground to knock out a guard there who has the key to Raikov's prison, which is handily nearby. Once he's there, he speaks (in perfect english) to Campbell, recognising him as an American, and Campbell persuades him to help. Oddly, he doesn't seem to recognise Snake if Snake is the one that rescues him and links him to Campbell

Haha thanks but unfortunately I have no idea wtf it is or where I found it :(

[thatkindofguy]

I do remember that it takes Campbell to persuade him - and I do remember Campbell's persuasion and...a lot of silence from Raikov's end? - and that he doesn't really talk to Snake. But he speaks perfect English with Campbell? Like actual English and not the thing they pulled in MGS3 where they're speaking English...but really they're speaking Russian (sob I wish the game had been in the language they were really speaking with just regional subtitles)?

Your theory about Gene makes a lot of sense ♥ I can't imagine that in the search for the other half of the Legacy they'd just skip investigating Raikov for whatever reason.

Haha, no worries. I'm like that with nearly all downloaded icons.

[unwillinghelper]

I think it is actual english. They don't do the whole "You speak Russian quite well" thing, and his speech strikes me as oddly formal considering the way he talks normally, the way someone who wasn't comfortable with the language would speak. I wish they did that too... but I guess a lot of people would have bitched about it.

I can't imagine it either. It would be like ignoring the butler when reading through an old mystery novel.

[thatkindofguy]

Ooh, nice catch then ♥ I'M JUST REALLY GLAD NOW THAT MY GAME HAS LIKE A COMMON LANGUAGE EVERYONE SUDDENLY SPEAKS so I don't have to alter speech patterns all of a sudden :|a

It would be fun to play around with that theory in conjunction with the Raikov as the Real EVA theory... But I guess it would be more supported had they ever actually found the other half of the Legacy.

[unwillinghelper]

Well... they did find the other half of the Legacy, but Ivan doesn't have it. It's a spoiler, though. Want to know? I will skip down a little before I say it and put it in small text so you can ignore it if you want.

Ocelot. He recovered both halves by the end of Portable Ops, if I remember correctly, and shot out the last remaining members of the Philosophers in the process.

[thatkindofguy]

WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST HALF and the other half was lost forever. Oh god MGS why do you have to be so convoluted? >B|

[thatkindofguy]

Ohhh I actually didn't think of that - the Legacy as a whole in terms of the original funding. I thought what they were talking about was the microfilm data record itself - there being two or whatever. That makes sense; and I wouldn't be surprised with the Shagohod, Groznyj Grad, all the weaponry, and R&D if it wasn't Volgin who spent most of it. But yeah.

You can...tell how much I love to uh you know analyze this series :|

Thank you ♥

[unwillinghelper]

Volgin seemed to imply there was only one considering he kept it on his person and gave it to the Boss for safekeeping. It would be odd for him to keep just one with him if there was more than one since he doesn't seem to have any sense of reservation at all. As well as that, while it might be safer to have the Legacy split up, so that only a small part of it is lost if it disappears, EVA and the Boss seem to think there is only one. Admittedly they didn't know it was a fake that they got, but it makes sense for them to know their targets and it also makes sense for the Philosophers to keep their assets together.

What is possible is either, Volgin spent a ton of it, or the microfilm was damaged enough (possibly from close proximity to electricity) to remove some of the data. There are other possibilities, though.

I do too. I don't get to do it often, though. Most of the people I know get irritated when I do.

No problem!

[thatkindofguy]

...Jesus that's a good observation about the microfilm. LMFAO I FEEL SO STUPID NOW and this is why I'm playing a character like Raikov instead of like Volgin or whatever. Except I just always thought that what he had wasn't the whole thing because even though Volgin is quick to be all HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT I HAVE...he is pretty cunning. But yeah, your reasoning is better 8D

♥

[unwillinghelper]

Don't feel stupid! You're smart!

Well, he is cunning, yes, but considering I'm pretty sure he didn't make the microfilm - that was most likely his father or one of the others - it's unlikely that he'd want to risk tampering with it. On the one hand, if he doesn't have the knowledge required to create a new one (please note I have no idea how microfilms are made), he wouldn't want anyone else to have access to the information in order to do it for him, or to have access to the Legacy itself

[thatkindofguy]

Nooo they're really good points. I had a brief experience with microfilm once while working at university library, but the only thing I remember is that the film readers were a pain in the ass :( SO WIKIPEDIA TIME: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform

It is virtually impossible to mutilate. Users cannot tear pages from or deface microforms.

Aaand I realize this entire time I was thinking it to be microfiche instead god wow. I think it's actually what my brief experience was with.

And I can't really find anything I understand on how electric shock affects microfilm :(

Snap.

[unwillinghelper]

I don't think there would be too many cases of electric shock on the Colonel's scale, which is why I mentioned it. I guess it wouldn't be too damaged by him carrying it around but I can't see him risking the charge damaging it. Well, he might if he was sure it wouldn't cause it harm, but to find that out would probably mean to involve either the scientists or some tests.

...huh. Now I have the image of him getting some random microfilm from somewhere and electrocuting it until it goes boom just to find out.