The Secret Origins of Skull Face

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Even though it's been six long years since Hideo Kojima's final triumph for the MGS series, THE PHANTOM PAIN, one character's memory haunts the fandom like a phantom: Skull Face.
In this, SKULL FACE: A SECRET HISTORY part one of three, we'll delve into the character's background, while beginning with an oral history of his general arc, as told by characters from MGSV itself.
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"Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on September 1, 2015.
The tenth and final main installment of the Metal Gear series, Phantom Pain follows legendary mercenary Big Boss (now known by his codename "Venom Snake") as he awakens in 1984 from a nine-year coma following the destruction of his private military company "Militaires Sans Frontières". With help from his old business partner Kazuhira Miller and rival-turned-ally Revolver Ocelot, Snake must rebuild his mercenary army (now called "Diamond Dogs") while plotting revenge against the shadowy organization "Cipher," as well as its XOF paramilitary unit led by the enigmatic Skull Face.
Similar to its standalone prologue Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Phantom Pain focuses on executing mission objectives in open world environments set in both Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border region of central Africa, complete with dynamic weather and day-night systems. Stealth is a major component of gameplay, but often optional thanks to Snake's arsenal of combat gear. Players can also upgrade Diamond Dogs' new "Mother Base" in a fashion similar to Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, allowing them to develop new weapons and items. In addition to its single-player campaign, the game includes two player-vs-player multiplayer modes, as well as optional microtransactions and other paid downloadable content.
The Phantom Pain is notable as the final game in the series with involvement from series creator Hideo Kojima and his Kojima Productions team. Several months before the game's release, Konami began a major restructuring of its games division, ultimately leading to Kojima Productions being treated more as a contractor rather than an internal studio. Unlike prior Metal Gear titles from the same team, Kojima Productions' logo and branding is absent from promotional materials and packaging for the final game. After leaving Konami, Kojima would go on to establish a new independent studio with the same name in 2015.
The Phantom Pain was bundled together with Ground Zeroes and all DLC as Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience in late 2016 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Phantom Pain's gameplay and graphics engine were later reused for the 2018 survival-focused spin-off title Metal Gear Survive."
www.giantbomb....

[@solidus0079]

It just occurred to me. Skull Face wears a Hamburglar mask, and seems to have a bone to pick with Miller, the hamburger cook.

[@drkinferno72]

He was never the same after the French fry incident

[@RossOfRoni]

@@drkinferno72 I heard it was some hot coffee

[@drkinferno72]

@@RossOfRoni nah, that's some old lady

[@Sternertime]

lmao. best comment.

[@thalamusdredge3937]

He's embarrassed that the Rapeseed oil was actually French Fry oil

[@ryandanger2036]

Not only is it highly relevant that skullface is szekelys; but it's also a callback to mgs3. Where we learn after saving the game, after Volgins torture, that Big Boss is afraid of Dracula/Vampires.

[@Rupiee]

interestingly, it is actually just szekely, not szekelys. In Hungarian it would be Szekelyek for plural. I find it fascinating that Kojima would include a small Hungarian diaspora and their whole situation but get the etymology wrong.

[@jose87668]

Very interesting stuff it feelsike its supposed to correlate with our deception.

[@zambekiller]

​@@Rupieethat was probably the translators fault not kojima's or maybe it's all apart of the miss information that is littered throughout the game

[@thelastcrow5660]

Dracula was Romanian. Székely people are Hungarians who lived near the border. How does that even make sense?

[@METAL-ADDICT]

Major Zero's voice actor is the Vampire Lord Harkan from Skyrim. 😁

[@KarimJovian]

All these recordings would have made incredible cut scenes. Damn the fans who hated on mgs 4 cutscenes. Kojimas game play and cutscenes were amazing. They robbed us of some incredible cutscenes with the new engine

[@CuackTheDucks]

true...

[@abdallahbridja2651]

Agreed

[@stargate1990]

Yes and I can't stand we've not had a mgs4 port on ps5/ps4 as I no longer have a ps3 and I travel alot for work so having a ps3 isn't practical for me atm lol

[@cleveruserid]

​@@stargate1990rpcs3

[@xerodelacroix5552]

I'm kind of glad a certain tape from Ground Zeroes was never shown.

[@noescapefromreality1749]

I've never been more interested in something like this since pequod arriving shortly at LZ

[@henrik1743]

Pequod best wife

[@Flashv28]

@@henrik1743 sad Morpho :(

[@Juppie902]

@@Flashv28 morpho kia in overseas deployment

[@raptor_boquita]

Almost got killed by eli

[@kronosleblu888]

Pequod always showed up with the song Rebel yell playing. What a legend.

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

I honestly really like Skullface as a villain and character.

[@lerp5555]

He’s such a bastard that I can’t say I like him. But he’s a great and fascinating character.

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

@@lerp5555 well yeah that is what I intended to say.

[@CaptainTripppz]

@@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT He's mostly disliked among orthodox gamers because there is no actual boss fight with him.

[@Ner0mancer]

@@CaptainTripppz would've been cool tbh, like you could have fought against his XOF soldiers and him, kinda like the Ocelot Unit fight in MGS3

[@megashillyshally]

He’s one of the most fascinating characters from the MGS gallery of villains, and honestly I think half of the reason he’s so damm compelling is the vocal performance. Seriously underrated aspect of the character.

[@etaoinshrdlu927]

Important note: per MGS3, Big Boss is big scared of Draculas.

[@ArtofLunatik]

And skullface is transylvanian . Or hungarian i guess

[@willa1018]

Good thing this trait didn't stick to Solid Snake, or else his moments with Vamp in MGS2 and MGS4 would be pretty awkward

[@BagelKami]

@@willa1018 solidus could be 🤷🏻🤔

[@bobincognito]

Im still fascinated by how they "shot" the cutscenes in mgsV. Its so good and juicy

[@lerp5555]

Just goes to show that gaming communities can complain about anything. People shat all over this game on release, but recently have come around to see how great it is

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

@@lerp5555 kind of like on Zack Snyder’s movies where they are hated at first but people see years later that they are better than they initially thought.

[@Rihcterwilker]

@@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT snyder movies are still very bad, specially the super hero ones.

[@montgomerynovak2194]

Skullface told a speech he prepared for... 9 years (i think) to the wrong person. Epic

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

@@Rihcterwilker nah they are great, I respect your opinion though.

[@shareofmoney]

Great video. This explains almost everything to happen throughout the series. It’s amazing to see how Skull Face warped the Boss’ vision.

[@shareofmoney]

@cogitoergo Really good point. He had a deep hatred for Zero.

[@Ner0mancer]

@cogitoergo XOF - hugs and kisses followed by a big F you lol

[@Ner0mancer]

@cogitoergo Skullface is the original Alex Jones LOL

[@vixenpeon]

Playing as your avatar during major cutscenes hammers home that whole experience I had during the dog tags stuff from MGS2

[@Ryosuke1208]

What about the dog tags?

[@Stowneyo]

@@Ryosuke1208 collecting hats from dog tags and equipping them which you still had on looking like a doofus during Cutscenes. Both laughing to yourself while serious content is playing

[@SerpentineDeity]

Wow I just gained so much respect for Code Talker. He was like the only one to hurt Skullface psychologically with the term "Bilagaana". This is Navajo for "New white person" more often used for the American colonizers. This cut deep because Code Talker is making fun of how despite Skullface's bravado, he has become an English-speaking, cowboy-loving, movie-quoting American. Skullface hates them and thus himself most of all. Guy knows just where to strike!

[@drkinferno72]

Double whammy, skull face can’t speak Hungarian cause of his parasyte infection

[@SerpentineDeity]

@cogitoergo I am not sure it's racism on the Navajo but more of a word of convenience to quickly express a very specific people that oftentime tended to attack them. When you're being oppressed you can hardly have the time to be politically sensitive. As for Code Talker...Guy was being tortured and that was all he could do to get back at Skull Face. War brings the worse in people, no?

[@jharju2352]

@@drkinferno72 This brings up something that I've been wondering about. When did Skull Face get parasite treatment? Who chose to use a Hungarian strain on him?

[@robertpatter5509]

Skullface is using English , the cowboy Archetypes and movie quoting slogans against those who inflicted that upon him as a child. This doesn't mean he enjoys them. It's a kind of poetic Justice one might say. To use the tools and images of your enemy against them. He uses what he has at his disposal. Since his identity, language and customs were stolen from him. So he adapts. He can use the tools and symbols as weapons. I don't think he hates himself. He hates what was forced upon him.

[@SerpentineDeity]

@@robertpatter5509 I respectfully disagree and yet this is so complex that I can also see it from your point of view. The thing is that Skullface so clearly speaks so lowly of brainwashed individuals like Venom and himself and he clearly knows he has lost his individuality. The very fact with the way he dresses alone speaks volume and I really doubt Zero bothers to enforce that. It's just something he can no longer control and it eats him from the inside. He simply is Venom personified by the fact he hates himself AND the world around him and the poetry lies in how he was able to pass on his venomous meme onto medic after he passed.

[@vinsonjames]

Dude has 526,445 heroism in mgsv, damn I'm impressed.

[@ursaber]

I just wish Venom Snake would have had a fight with Skull Face in OKB Zero, a fisticuffs CQC contest. I feel that's one of the things that was missing from MGSV, a final 1v1 CQC fight it would make sense for Skull Face to know how to fight (imo at least) seeing as he was the shadow of the FOX unit and Zero's XO for over 20 years his efforts and master plan were hijacked last minute by Eli which i hated

[@mercury2157]

how would it even work though? every CQC prompt is a QTE and there's no real melee combat in the game

[@ursaber]

@@mercury2157 a modified version of the Eli fight. They can also take a cue from the Old Snake vs Liquid Ocelot final battle in which they limit only to cqc based on the styles of the past games

[@henrikaugustsson4041]

CQC is the best. I would’ve loved to fight Skullface similar to how the Liquid Ocelot fight was in MGS4.

[@ursaber]

@@henrikaugustsson4041 or like a hybrid of an MGS3 Ocelot gunfight and The Boss cqc match

[@PautinoPR]

But why tho? Skull face is more like a Bond villain

[@caleb-mk5tk]

Bro, your content got me into playing the MGS series. Thank you so much for your work, without your videos I never would've decided to jump into this series.

[@Megaman54327]

his videos made me realize after 17 years of being a MG fan I honestly know very little.

[@rayfriedrich5224]

What are the odds.

[@pluginleah]

SkullFace says in his monologue that he's going to use Cipher's control of codes against them to free the world... "to let the world be". Literally that's the motto of Philanthropy. Using their codes against them is how Solid Snake defeats the Patriots in MGS4.

[@Garland846]

I really love Skull Face's character, ideaology and the way the game slowly uncovers his master plan. But I feel like a real boss fight with him using all of the parasites' abilities would've been the cherry on top. You wouldn't even need to sacrifice the whole "hollow revenge" thing, just have the cutscene where Huey kills him right after.

[@Ner0mancer]

While XOF was the phantom of FOX and Skull Face was the phantom of Big Boss... Venom Snake was the phantom of Big Boss, too. SF was there to clean up any mess by Big Boss and when he's had enough and tried to kill Big Boss (and Zero), Zero devised his mental copy plan. If it weren't for Venom, everything that SF did to him he would've done to Big Boss and there's a slim chance that he could've succeded in killing Big Boss for good. If it wasn't for Venom, Big Boss could've died. At the latest when Solid Snake raided Outer Heaven. And so Venom became for Big Boss what Skull Face was before: a phantom, a front and someone who gets thrown in front of the bus in Big Boss' stead. Really sad if you think about it, that is why we can see Venom turning to Skull Face in the red band trailer. He became him. And DD became something of an organization like Cipher, through mass surveillance and fanatism. Big Brother. Be careful when hunting monsters, not to become one yourself. EDIT: not to say Venom's character became as foul as SF's, but he served the same purpose for BB really. A smoke screen. That's why he walks into the mirror and gets enveloped with smoke in the truth scene.

[@jacksonpb]

That is well said and done, although I'd like to point out that there is a slight difference. XOF and Skull Face were doing secret, inside work for their oppressors [who are, as you state, Big Boss and FOX] doing miscellaneous tasks, and FOX and Big Boss were doing the public, surface-level work, especially when Big Boss was handled with doing the task of being the warrior saving the world. Skull Face was envious that he couldn't attain the power that Zero's strong forces had, and some people say Skull Face was envious that he couldn't get to be the warrior Big Boss was, and therefore couldn't get to bask in his glory; the irony being that Skull Face is more of an espionist than a warrior. Skull Face was a parasite benefiting off cleaning up Snake Eater for Big Boss, and XOF was a parasite benefiting off the task force operations that were assigned by Zero. Zero was not a parasite but rather nothing more than a desperate, lonely beast of prey seeking to conquer the weak (the language he was spreading might have been indeed parasitic, but he himself had no idea of the language's parasitic effects; he was a beast who accidentally carried a parasite, and ironically attempted to use genocidal parasites in a failed experiment to spread that parasite), and Big Boss was a 6'4" beast on a physical level. Surely, Venom's situation in the end is, in the most blatant sense, the same as Skull Face, and there is quite a strong resemblance: Venom was consumed much like how Skull Face was, Venom's missions were entirely just a small, miscellaneous figment in a grand operation. Big Boss, much like Zero, wanted to conquer the weak, and Venom was just a wrench on the pipe for that purpose much like Skull Face was. But there's a discrepancy in origins that contrasts Venom and Skull Face still, and therefore, highlights a contrast in their endgame actions. This is where the "slight difference" between the two characters come in. This time, Venom was doing the surface work and handled the task of being the warrior who was saving the world basking in Big Boss's glory, and Big Boss was the one doing all the secret, inside work. Whereas FOX was the face of the world and we had saw none of XOF, Diamond Dogs technically was the face of the world, and we had seen none of Outer Heaven until precisely the time of the uprising. Additionally, whereas Skull Face consciously agreed, in some sort of perverted sense, to being a miscellaneous aid to Zero's tasks and cleanup of Snake Eater by the forge of his own will, Venom did not consciously agree to anything that Big Boss forced him through. In this way, Big Boss was the parasite, and Venom was the beast. And it even makes more sense when you think about Nietzschean dialectics. If an organism incites others to create ressentiment, sickness, and bad conscience, it is a beast of prey, a Nietzschean master. If an organism infects others with ressentiment, sickness, and bad conscience, it is a parasite, a Nietzschean slave. To Venom, being a demon is all about having ressentiment-- petty rage and envy marked by hatred-- towards Cipher, and he talks about how he's not himself a demon, but rather he's being possessed and taken ahold by one. It's not that the demon is simply living in his head for any irrelevant reason and therefore Venom has to survive through ressentiment, but rather the demon is that very ressentiment itself. "The abode of some demonic being who has entered into his body as the consequence of a guilt he has incurred here the rule is: every sick person is a guilty person!" That demon is Big Boss and his influence. Venom is a strong man being made sick and infected by Big Boss with ressentiment, sickness, and the bad conscience. Big Boss is a parasite who deliberately uses Venom as the foundation for his own power; contrast that to the Nietzschean master, who has their own foundation of power and uses it against the weak. But does that mean Big Boss is a Nietzschean slave, if he uses others for the foundation of his power unlike the textbook Nietzschean master? In an ironic sense, not at all. Despite everything, Big Boss is, in the most looney sense, still a Nietzschean master. So why does he infect Venom with bad conscience for his own personal scheme if he doesn't envy him? It's because he sees the reductivity of bad conscience as the only viable way to return to master morality in the modern world that is against him and wants his head. In Ingsoc, it is through ressentiment that Big Brother becomes strong. Ressentiment is all about ignorance. Big Boss forces Venom to ignore himself so that Big Boss can regain his own warrior's pride and strength. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Therefore, freedom is slavery.

[@revell7156]

It's an interesting note, that (almost) every time a character wants to reimagine the world (in Metal Gear), we call them Big Boss. When BB is born, so is their demise in the form of a "snake". The MG series is a massive example of equal and opposite waveforms that end up canceling themselves out. I believe the example changes with Ryden, and the birth of Fox Alive, which is also a counter to Fox Die...

[@jacksonpb]

Nevertheless, once more, these meticulous differences in the origins between Venom and Skull Face may as well be irrelevant and petty, as in the end, it doesn't matter. Venom Snake, despite being stronger in Nietzschean physiology than Skull Face, eventually goes the route of Skull Face anyway when he clearly shows ressentiment at Big Boss through punching the reflection in his mirror. This may be a reference to the factor of 'optimistic hopelessness' that Orwell intended when he wrote 1984, that continuing to exist and participate in the ressentiment manufactured by the priests of power is the only way to defeat the priests and therefore Big Brother. In other words, ressentiment is the only way to defeat the priests and Big Brother. This is the deadliest form of irony, since it was earlier established in the novel that Winston Smith is, to Nietzsche, a strong man, especially when he is against slave morality, and therefore ressentiment, and therefore desires to eliminate the priests of power for the same reason that Nietzsche is against priests in real life: they use ressentiment to drain life wherever they go. If Winston were to collapse into thinking that the only way to defeat the priests of power is through ressentiment, it would be detrimental, since in that case, the priests will win and Winston will lose. The priests would become strong men and Winston would become a weak rather than a strong man. Winston's victory would become through his loss.

[@Ner0mancer]

@@jacksonpb Great observation. TPP as "incomplete" as it may be, is still so unbelievably deep in it's lore, symbols and characters that we can analyze it for years and still find new stuff or revelations. It's a very personal game to me, as I was in a very dark place when it came out...

[@CorruptedCircuit]

@@revell7156 nice Dead Vector quote

[@byzhiphop]

Imagine the surprise when I found out that the last entry in my favorite game series has one of my people as the antagonist when nobody even knows about us in general :)

[@jackhammertwo1]

To be fair when it comes to Eastern Europe bad guys in MGS, most people think of Ocelot (Russian) Volgin (Also Russian) or Vamp (Romanian)

[@solidusgadget]

We should thank Metal Gear series for reminding people about nations that rarely appear in media. Abkhazia was just a decoration in MGR but at least it's something.

[@Mate_Antal_Zoltan]

@@jackhammertwo1 isn't Vamp *also* Székely?

[@biglootums5243]

My god, what an absolute masterpiece of a character.

[@djgreggo8216]

Scull face and Venom Snake are quite alike indeed...

[@A-B101]

Ghosts without pasts

[@Hussman493]

My god this game is deep. I love all the history as well.

[@TrevorThatBandanaGuy]

All if not most of the games are deep

[@Hussman493]

@@TrevorThatBandanaGuy True. I'm just saying this game in particular keeps wowing me because I'm still finding new stuff years later.

[@Jeffplsgo]

@@0887franco bro what

[@Jeffplsgo]

@@0887franco bro what

[@johnny2920]

41:45 Moments like these remind myself that I'm watching a Metal Gear video, lol. Great work!

[@johnpaulmckeown3124]

These video essays are amazing!!! I'd love to see an indepth look at special forces unit Fox Hound. led by the man with same code name as you, Liquid Snake

[@deividpastore4649]

It's nice to notice there's two iconic game villains from Romania, Skullface and Dimitrescu, both enduring the times with parasites...

[@huanquocmanh416]

Take the wormpill

[@Ner0mancer]

Diamond Horse meds lol

[@Sashalexandros]

Only one is romanian

[@thelastcrow5660]

Skullface is from Hungary, not Romania

[@gewzer]

“Let the World Be” that’s solids mantra written on his suit in mgs4 ... wow skullface made some points apparently

[@Raiden3651]

Raiden did a great job carrying on Skullface's, Chico's, and Vamp's legacy with Ripper Mode. No wonder he wanted to stop child soldiers from getting influenced by Samurai/Cowboy/Horror films.

[@lucasdavid5453]

Thanks Lee, the work you did is amazing, most of us probably never see mgs through this prism without you. Un fan français 🇨🇵✌

[@Ryosuke1208]

C'est fou de trouver toujours des français sur youtube. Vous devez être très fière de votre pays :) salutations du Mexique !

[@WatashiWaTraneDesu]

I loved the Hungarian references and language, greetings from Hungary!

[@stinkystealthysloth]

One of the MGSV trailers opens with a quote by Emil Cioran, a Romanian philosopher

[@Lee313FGC]

I recently just getting into the berserk manga. The similarities between mgs5 and berserk kinda shocking... its kinda random

[@johnwax9606]

What references do you see?

[@henrikaugustsson4041]

Berserk is the best manga.

[@bol4death]

@@johnwax9606 Venum snake, Lost an eye, An arm replaced by prosthetic arm and utilized, His story is about revenge, His outfit (The default one) similar to guts from berserk from "Lost children arc". So some of these are reference to berserk manga

[@Xeno_Solarus]

@@bol4death Eh, those are kinda weak comparisons.

[@bol4death]

@@Xeno_Solarus Okay

[@RobertGordon811]

Dude your videos are astounding. I always look forward to them. So we'll produced, edited, and researched. No one else could secretly teach me so much in the medium of my favorite game series. Legit the only metal gear lore channel in my eyes

[@suckassmork2972]

Such a lust for knowledge! WHOOOOO?

[@randominternettoaster7859]

me explaining the sounds owls make to my partially deaf friend:

[@prophetsix0151]

This is very well put together! Playing the recordings and cut scenes in that order made it easy to follow the timeline. Thank you!

[@theparadox420]

Clicked so fast on this one! Skull Face is one of my favorite antagonists in gaming: His tragic upbringing and tragic ending is just perfect

[@theparadox420]

@@Sternertime One of my all time favorites in the series. The voice acting is incredible and his expertise and skill in the field can be compared to BB himself (cleaning up after him during Operation Snake Eater without a trace). He also gives me serious Viper vibes from MGS: Portable Ops. Incredibly underrated Character

[@theparadox420]

@@Sternertime It's an opinion, get over it

[@yourewallsareveryconvenien8292]

@@Sternertime You should learn that opinions exists fam.

[@intandemdj]

Really great content here, and an opportunity to learn about the history of my own Hungarian heritage, thank you for this!

[@Eletheo]

I was wondering if you make these videos as you learn new things (I mean, obviously they are planned in advance) or do you already have the vast majority of this analysis already roughly put together (at least in your head) and are producing it in the most tantalizingly way possible instead of one 600-hour video?

[@austinlee3458]

This is a great question!

[@DDRMR]

Man your cool voice is now synonymous with metal gear for me and the other way around it's kind of endearing. Absolutely love your channel, and how much deeper I've connected with my favourite video game series with all of your video essays. This was a solid video

[@user-kv6ki9ge2z]

My only complaint is we didn't get enough Skullface and he should've been the real big bad of game. In all honesty he was just a means to an end. We need more Skullface.

[@mercury2157]

I had an idea for a safe next step for Metal Gear as an IP. If Konami really won't greenlight new, sensible games, then maybe they should just do animated anthologies for lesser explored characters. Ideally one for the villains of MSX Metal Gear, Solidus Snake, Granin and Huey, pre-SOP Jetstream Sam, and one for Skull Face.

[@user-kv6ki9ge2z]

@@mercury2157 Now that is a great idea. 100% agree with you. They all have interesting stories and I personally would love to see them get more fleshed out.

[@SplitScreamOFFICIAL]

Skullface feels like we where going to have a western style shootout with him, there's even a baren town where it feels like it was going to be used for a boss battle

[@BabyKobeeee]

I just wanna know why he’s wearing a masquerade mask lol

[@andreadebernardis4390]

it looks cool on him i don't blame him

[@maybemablemaples2144]

The drip requires the mask. He's Zorro come to cause chaos baby!

[@nelsonw9483]

To hide the small blemishes around his eyes.

[@robbindahood2164]

I think it's a nod to masked vigilante cowboys from American movies and television.

[@TheJackster-tl8oi]

What’s very strange is when I first played the game I thought Skullface was so lame and his motivation was dubious at best. But then I realized that in a word where Zero, through the use of controlling information, has such an influence over people’s lives due to the English language, the only way to truly stamp out his influence would be to get rid of the words that carry along that controlling ideology. Skullface was evil as hell but the thing he was planning really could’ve made people freer (minus all the stupid loss of life and nuke stuff)

[@ISCREAMSODAsmr]

More Death Stranding Brother! No one hits the ball out of the park like you dood.

[@victorcippitelli2242]

Awesome video :D ! You should do more origin videos of MGS characters like this in the future

[@kylewilliams7265]

I haven't started watching yet, I'm about to, but my god the excitement I got when I saw you had uploaded this. Thank you for all your work boss.

[@karolkacyna925]

Greeting from Poland :) Good job ! Pozdrawiam serdecznie Karol

[@HANIMEME]

i think i have reached metal gear enlightenment after watching this video

[@DoomNerd67200]

Love your work man nice one! Skullface was certainly one of the most dangerous yet most fascinating vilains of the saga

[@duncanmacleod7287]

I think this game is so ambiguous because Kojima apparently didn't have a clear idea about the direction he wanted the story to go. Stuff like concept art of Venom full of burns, or Skull face's head having a wound in the same place Venom gets the Shrapnel, Chico's returning as a villain in the concept art., Venom Snake on a bike at the ending instead of BB.... Kojima should've hired somebody to help him with the story and writing, I enjoyed MGSV but story wise feels so incomplete and nowhere as well written as MGS1 or 3.

[@Zack-tx7oz]

Perhaps it is a feature, and not uncompleted.

[@duncanmacleod7287]

@@Zack-tx7oz If it is a feature then Kojima didn't learn what made him successful in the first place. Codec communication was such an important part of story telling and well developed character too. Beauty and Beast unit was already so behind Foxhound or Cobra, but Kojima managed to make it even worse with the Skull Unit, they are just a bunch of irrelevant zombified ninjas.

[@MrAwesomeSaucesome]

@@duncanmacleod7287 but this game was successfull

[@rh7474]

@@MrAwesomeSaucesome It sold decently well but amongst the hardcore fan base it is probably the most criticized and widely agreed to be lacking in some of it's story elements.

[@rh7474]

@@Zack-tx7oz I'm pretty sure it's been confirmed there was content that got cut because of time constraints.

[@OctoberOmicron]

Awesome work as always Futurasound! I could listen to your history lessons even if they weren't related to Metal Gear.

[@georgg1996]

The fact that venom woke up in cyprus just months after turkey's invasion is not just a coincidence anymore... reminds me of romanian-hungary war too much to ignore.

[@kapsyvoneisenberg8735]

As a Hungarian, I really loved this video, btw, here is how to pronounce székely: s - a (like in pale) - k - e (like in red) - y (like in the german name Johann)

[@PattPlays]

19:20 And that's it. That's Skullface's Solidus Federal Hall moment. The moment where you think- "If your war crime high score weren't so high I'd be on your side because that logic is sound and also *DAMN THE PATRIOTS*

[@PattPlays]

Like, of course skullface is a good villain. His entire shtick is that people look at him and think "look at this ridiculous boss character nobody can take seriously" when even if he spent his life making friendship bracelets he would still look like that and people would think that way about him. bruh why is this the *ultimate satire*

[@PattPlays]

and the MOMENT I unpause he mentions sahalanthropus and becomes not obly comically unforgiveable but he's using Zero's resoueces and ripping off peacewalker and sah existing means the plot about Mantis exists and UHHHGGGG

[@Xeno_Solarus]

@@PattPlays wtf are you on about

[@_tikho5220]

You deserve far more attention. Your effort put forth in this essay was pretty astounding. Very well done, dude.

[@willm-m5173]

From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop

[@josephmoffatt4696]

25:23 "They'll never understand what you really wanted." Just like The Boss and her will.

[@MGrey-qb5xz]

Jesus did you read my mind,I was literally doing a okb mission and listening to his backstory

[@willianfurlan5420]

Man your videos always put a smile on my face

[@T34RG45]

Why are there so many ads on this video? I cant fucking fall asleep with all the interruption causing me to get up and press skip. Great job

[@METAL-ADDICT]

Zero's voice is the Vampire Lord from Skyrim. Lord Harkan. Neat!

[@skullkid8094]

The boss without a boss fight

[@artemisarrow179]

Nothing more chill than a good MGS essay

[@Shin_Mando]

Man, you tricked into learning! This was an amazing video, I can’t wait for the next one.

[@STARglitcher3]

This must have taken so long to make, I love it, very good.

[@Redolentleek]

The mgsv audio tapes are so satisfying to listen to. All the sounds

[@emptybin4542]

I'm still so dumbfounded by how articulate and wordful he is.

[@jorgehanel8837]

So Skullface hated Zero for saying Cypher with the hard r? Neat

[@HyperDefective]

Hey at the beginning you said "metal gear solid five" instead of the usual MGS-Vee, lol

[@LikeAGentlemanPlease]

Aye, it’s an evil plan but I slick understand it. Especially when he says it’s not war it’s peace. The more I hear his plans the more it makes sense. It’s still evil af but I get it.

[@bioarv111]

Ohhh I only just figured out he's doing Hugo Weaving in the Matrix but like ten times hammier.

[@thomastheperson3600]

I am continually pissed at how stupid I am for completing the game and still missing such crucial story bits… This game would have been 100 times more interesting if I chose to listen to the cassettes, and even before hearing them, this was still my favorite game to play for gameplay alone.

[@JINORU_]

Great editing here

[@CrossfireTheory]

4:00 the sound in the background. Isn't that the same as Lisa's wailing from P.T.?

[@DialloMoore503]

I never knew a country named Cyprus existed until I played this game, and I’ve been looking at maps and globes for years. LOL!! That’s the power of ART.

[@demoxcro786]

Can learn about things as well, like Nanomachines,foxdie, patriots and their control sistem

[@henrik1743]

How to tell you are American without actually saying you are American 🤣

[@DialloMoore503]

@@henrik1743 LOL!! I guess so.

[@Xeno_Solarus]

@@henrik1743 Because ignorance only exists in America? Sure buddy, I'll just keep living in the best country in the world.

[@Savantastic]

@@Xeno_Solarus Congratulations you just prove it.

[@yosos2]

Every non English speaker that has felt the consequences of the Us actions in other countries can relate to skullface even if a little bit

[@Xeno_Solarus]

Come off it.

[@MarkDavidKnight]

Extremely well put together, well done!

[@jerrywil7012]

All of this is amazing in concept and had the potential to truly make Skullface one of the best villains in the series, kind of a twisted evil parallel to Venom (even though Venom is, in any sense of the word, evil). Unfortunately, the game’s execution didn’t give him enough of a presence to make him memorable or intimidating enough…

[@rdowg]

Doesnt having backup or a cleanup crew during operation snake eater defeat the entire purpose of proving foxhound's purpose of sending in a lone soldier with no back-up?

[@pablosantibanez5338]

Maybe they only need created (sry if something is wrong writter, not my languaje) that image to created that figure to be the simbol of cipher

[@it6647]

It was only for clean-up but the primary operations were still conducted by one man The way I see it, it's more about showing the limits of a soldier under ideal scenario than anything

[@jonasbravo7642]

Skull face is Jack himself, aka big boss

[@rdowg]

@∃&?it but what exactly were they cleaning up? Im pretty sure the entire legend of big boss started when he snuck through the entirety of mgs3's events aside from what we saw in cutscenes It's just weird to think that there was even time for a cleanup crew, they had to essentially drop him in with adrone to get past surveillance, the game only went for 2-3 in game days, the base was nuked and there was only one escaoe route with the plane at the end Idk, skullface couldve worked if he was just another operative zero picked up after snake left to form MSF, it was just another one of those random kojima-brand lore dumps with many more questions than answers

[@Boss.X5]

@@jonasbravo7642 how

[@ajstrange]

Another amazing video 👍🏾

[@alejandronavarro9712]

Another great video. Keep up the good work!

[@CoolAndNormal]

ahh this was a great watch, thank you for the research

[@charosnz]

This channel deserves more like and sub.

[@jakcridgway3244]

I swear all your videos are timeless classic

[@Zoliqa]

🇭🇺 here. Very good video. So, after ww1 the country's 2/3 was given to the neighbouring countries. Almost half of romania was ours. This "give away" still affect us but in the 30's it was given that we want the land back. Then the moustache guy swore that if we join to Germany he will gives these land back to us. What happened during ww2...sort of. Skullface how we call after ww1 is a romanian hungarian (romániai magyar) and this is why he speaks the language. For us our expressive and deep language is our special thing. What barely can be translated properly. This is why he fascinated with the language. BUT. tbh he is such a wasted potential. He speaks 2 times in hungarian with a very bad russian accent what is the actor's failure. And his motivation should have been the treaty of trianon (2/3 of land loss) not the language. Yes, romania still forces people to dont speak hungarian (they even beat you up if you speak hungarian in public) and back then you had to change your name to a romanian one. The language is prescious to us, but "trianon" in 2022 still a huge topic what Hungary never forgets. Every hungarian who born have this huge loss in his/her blood what can't be reverse and from a burning mistake where we were forced to take part in a war (ww1) what we didn't even wanted at all. We had other problems.

[@MrPolicekarim]

I love it when native speakers rip apart films, tv, and games, language mistakes!

[@chrisr6503]

Fascinating, didn’t know there was that much depth. Skullface mentions he hardly even remembers his original language since it was taken from him so long ago, but Code Talker guesses that he’s infected with that language parasite among others, and so cannot speak it correctly or it will trigger

[@YordkarYordkar]

My question is Big Boss was build up to the legendary super soldier, but in mgsv mission 30 skull face said any mess big boss made he had to clean up. What mess did Big Boss made?

[@Toastboy776]

In operation snake eater he dealt with any trace of snake being there

[@BagelKami]

yeah, i imagine him and XOF would follow behind snake and carry out any dead bodies or dropped magazines. try to patch bullet holes or fix kicked in doors.

[@knightshousegames]

The big question is.....where did he get the Domino mask between GZ and TPP? And why? But also, Skullface was another example of them hinting at Grey Fox without actually showing him Before I got spoiled on the ending of TPP, I had caught onto the hints of Body Double stuff, and was of the theory that it was going to be revealed in the end that we were playing as Frank Jaeger, Big Boss' Most Trusted Lieutenant, playing Big Boss' body double to under his direct orders in some way to help him build his own legend and draw Cipher's attention away from Outer Heaven. When that didn't happen, I thought maybe it would be Skullface, as it is in Grey Fox's canon biography that he got disfigured in the Rhodesian Civil War in the 80s, around the time he adopted Naomi Hunter. I thought some of these events would come up during the Africa section of the story. Frank Jaeger being completely absent from this game felt like a pretty big disappointment for me. It was their big chance to humanize him and develop him into what he would become in MG1 and MG2

[@Xeno_Solarus]

Why the hell would you think Skullface is Frank? Frank has a distinct accent that Skullface lacks.

[@knightshousegames]

@@Xeno_Solarus Except he hasn't ever had a consistent voice, so it's hard to say for sure. He's only had a voice twice, in MGS1, and Twin Snakes, with two different voice actors that played him differently. Besides, Snake used to sound different before MGSV as well. I think we all remember that.

[@therac197]

​@@knightshousegames pretty Sure he is also voiced in Portable ops

[@knightshousegames]

@@therac197 I don't think that game is considered canon though Also, I've not seen his appearance in that one, so I don't know who voices him there, but that might also be a different voice

[@therac197]

@@knightshousegames MGS1 is Greg Eagles Twin Snakes and MGS4 is Rob Paulsen MPO and the digital novels is Larc Spies

[@BoTheJo]

there was always something special about skull face

[@SPFLDAngler]

This video is only 10 minutes long without the video game cutscenes…

[@NewRetroLetsPlays]

Skull Face and President Shinra from the FF7 Remake have the same actor. When I first heard him speak I immediately recognized it as Skull Face.

[@MetalSnake6199]

Skull Face man... What a character.

[@brandbusters183]

The Legend is back!

[@lexscarlet]

I maintain that kojima's works require damn near PhD level academic rigor to fully appreciate.

[@Xeno_Solarus]

Uh, what? Absolutely not. This feels suspiciously similar to an Appeal to Authority argument.

[@lilbu223]

@@Xeno_Solarus reddit is that way

[@chrisr6503]

Haven’t seen anyone point out how insane 42:50 is

[@BagelKami]

grade A irony right there 💀😭

[@Jose-se9pu]

So much wasted potential, he had the potential to be the ultimate villain from the prequels, and ended up being just a meme; "whooooooo???"

[@deewatsoon6036]

Yet... He did a lot of damage to both Big Boss and Major Zero... So many dead... So many physically and mentally scarred...

[@smith6752]

another great cutscene highlight real lol

[@OfficialVendetta100]

ayo that book like intro as if im bout to dive into a good ass read? RAW

[@EzraEpic]

I used to hate the fact that I was born with Hungarian blood but after so many things I realize Hungary is literally embedded into our world. I constantly see reminders, references to Hungary in some way or another. This just makes me happy

[@themagalanium9491]

why would you ever hate being a Hungarian?

[@EzraEpic]

@@themagalanium9491 i was young and thought America was number one and nothing could beat it. Nowadays I think this entire planet is garbage 🗿

[@KOTEBANAROT]

​@@EzraEpicso you traded one absolutist mindset for another

[@EzraEpic]

@@KOTEBANAROT I've changed mindsets again believe it or not. I've seen the world in a better light and just hope we all make it to end times together. If there's one thing I could remove, it would be hatred, it destroys so much it comes across.

[@tusharkumar7044]

Wouldn't it be cool if after Huey kills him it is revealed that he was a mental copy of real skull face and that triggers Venom realizing who he is slowly?

[@NewRetroLetsPlays]

I hope Delta isnt just a remake of MGS 3 and actually expands on the story. Like explaining Skull Face and XOFs role in Operation Snake Eater.

[@DRGGY]

I've never known choice! #MGSV

[@Nutterbutter123]

Bro awesome video could you do psycho mantis next??

[@ThatGuyKh1]

Skull face is the incarnation of evil in metal gear solid. Volgin would blush if he was still conscious