As Metal Gear Solid Delta plunges fans back into the world of Snake Eater, the franchise has one last surprise for fans in the form of an ambitious fan theory. Often hailed as the best game in the franchise, Snake Eater follows an operative named Naked Snake as he attempts to prevent Cold War paranoia erupting into World War III, uncovering the origins of a secretive group exerting control over world politics.
Like any Hideo Kojima project, Snake Eater has a seemingly simple plot with labyrinthine details hidden beneath the surface, returning again and again to the theme of family and legacy. It’s therefore perfect that this fan theory speculates that two of the franchise’s most creative villains are connected as father and son – Psycho Mantis and the Sorrow.
One Moment Establishes a Connection Between the Villains
With Metal Gear Solid Delta on the horizon, I returned to reread the comics adaptating the first two games, by artist Ashley Wood and writers Kris Oprisko (Metal Gear Solid) and Alex Garner (Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty.) While Wood’s art is evocative and unique, the comics famously have very few deviations from the games, which is why one slight change caught my eye.
In Metal Gear Solid, Snake faces off against Psycho Mantis in a recreation of their iconic boss fight. In the original game, the fight includes metatextual elements like Psycho Mantis being able to ‘read’ the player’s memory card. That’s difficult to recreate, and so instead the comic depicts Psycho Mantis submitting Solid Snake (Naked Snake’s clone) to several illusions, including being set on fire and being accosted by the soldiers he’s killed on his mission.
That latter detail was interesting in the context of the Snake Eater remake, where Naked Snake encounters the similarly psychic villain the Sorrow. In a brilliantly metatexual moment, the ‘fight’ against the Sorrow forces the player to walk a gauntlet of ghosts. The ghosts are made up of every soldier the player has killed in the game (which never forces the player to take a life, at least technically), animated differently depending on their manner of death.
It was a fun connection that the two psychic villains both used Snake’s victims to attack him, and I reflected (not for the first time) that it’s a huge shame Ashely Wood never adapted Snake Eater – or at least, not yet. However, once I started thinking about the similarities between the Sorrow and Psycho Mantis, I started to realize that them being related is so satisfying, it almost seems deliberate…
So, How Are Sorrow and Psycho Mantis Connected?
The Theory Imagines Psycho Mantis as Sorrow’s Son with an Unknown Mother
Across the Metal Gear Solid series, fans learn a few details about Psycho Mantis’ childhood. His mother died in childbirth, causing his father to grow to resent him. As he grew, Psycho Mantis’ psychic talents led to him discovering his father’s true feelings, and he manifested pyrokinesis, burning down his Russian hometown. His psychic talents led to him being recruited by various shadowy groups, including the XOF and KGB, eventually encountering Solid Snake.
The theory supposes that Psycho Mantis’ father was the Sorrow – a Russian operative with similar psychic abilities. The Sorrow conceived Psycho Mantis with an unknown mother either before he fathered Revolver Ocelot with the Boss, or during the period the two were separated in the early 1960s.
It’s a pretty simple theory that fills in a gap in the Sorrow’s backstory, but with some major implications further down the line of MGS‘ story.
What Problems Does This Theory Solve?
Metal Gear Solid’s Complex Story Has Some Major Dangling Threads
While any fan theory can fit characters together, the best solve problems within their given franchise, and I’m convinced that the Sorrow/Psycho Mantis connection does exactly that. Here are some questions about Psycho Mantis and the Sorrow that the series never satisfyingly answers:
- Why is Psycho Mantis codenamed ‘Third Child’? – In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the player encounters a villain named Tretij Rebenok – a Russian agent whose name translates to ‘Third Child.’ The character is very strongly suggested to be a young Psycho Mantis, leading fans to wonder why he was given this codename.
- Why does the Sorrow fight Psycho Mantis? – In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Psycho Mantis’ ghost attacks the player. His spirit is then banished by the Sorrow, who manifests to save a man he never met (Solid Snake) from another man he never met (Psycho Mantis.)
- Why does Psycho Mantis appear in so many games? – Psycho Mantis appears in the first, fourth and fifth games, but why? Every other recurring character is tied into the byzantine plot of clones and legacy, while Psycho Mantis is seemingly just in the right place at the right time.
If the Sorrow is Psycho Mantis’ father, then it makes sense why he keeps appearing – the Metal Gear Solid saga is about the children of the Boss, including Revolver Ocelot and the Snake clone line. Given the Sorrow is Ocelot’s biological father, Psycho Mantis is a half-brother to that legacy. Likewise, of course Sorrow would show up to stop his evil son doing any more damage in MGS4. As for Psycho Mantis being the ‘third child’…
Psycho Mantis’ Parentage Is Perfect for MGS’ Themes
And Even More Relevant to Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid lore is deliberately obscure on paper, with multiple identical-looking people (only some of them clones) using the ‘Snake’ codename, and everyone else known by at least three codenames each. However, Snake Eater is the key to understanding the series, revealing that all the chaos of the other games stems from different people trying to honor the legacy of an American hero known as the Boss. Naked Snake, Revolver Ocelot and even the Illuminati-esque Patriots were all trying to deliver on the Boss’ vision, and they all got it wrong in different ways.
This theme of dark legacy permeates the series in countless ways, and making Psycho Mantis the Sorrow’s son introduces yet another villain shaped by a flawed parent. It also creates a new set of ‘triplets’ in contrast to Naked Snake’s clones Solid Snake, Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. In fact, once Ocelot takes on Liquid’s identity in the second game and Solid Snake kills Psycho Mantis in the first, the two sets end up subsuming or destroying each other until only one is left.
In Snake Eater, it’s revealed the Ocelot is the Sorrow and the Boss’ son, stolen from them and turned into a Soviet agent. At the same time, it’s thematically established that Naked Snake is the Boss’ surrogate son – the one she actually got to raise, and who is obsessed with saving her and, later, embodying her legacy. Giving the Sorrow a son with someone else creates a trinity – one biological son of the Boss and the Sorrow, and one each raised separately, making Mantis the ‘third child.’
If that sounds like a reach, it is! But it’s also exactly the kind of narrative trick that Metal Gear Solid loves to play. This is a series that delights in revealing key events were secretly a simulation or that the main character was someone entirely different to who you assumed. MGS runs on a mix of endless thematic mirroring and family connections, and this theory serves up both.
Are There Any Holes in the Theory?
Is the Relation Between Sorrow and Psycho Mantis Possible in the Series’ Timeline?
So those are the benefits of the Snake Eater fan theory, adding an extra thread to the dynastic struggle that defines the franchise. But what are the weak points? First, the timeline. Metal Gear Solid suggests Psycho Mantis was born in the early 1970s, while the Sorrow was killed in 1962. Could Psycho Mantis actually be in his ’40s when Solid Snake kills him? Kojima has papered over bigger plot holes in the past.
Likewise, Psycho Mantis’ backstory certainly implies that his father died when he burned down his hometown. Again, however, Kojima has brought characters back after far more definitive fates.
Finally, Metal Gear Solid is a game that embraces metatexual, self-referential humor, and it’s clear that Kojima simply loves Psycho Mantis as a villain – something he’s said in various interviews. The questions raised by Mantis returning in multiple games and his similarities to the Sorrow can both be explained by a creator including nods to a great character at every opportunity. That ‘Third Child’ thing is a real mystery, though.
Ultimately, the test of a fan theory is whether it makes a franchise more enjoyable, and I’d argue that the Sorrow being Psycho Mantis’ father passes that test with flying colors. Metal Gear Solid tells two stories – a generation of characters who loved their mom and tore the world apart trying to honor her, and a resulting generation of characters who hated their dads and saved the world by defying him. Psycho Mantis and the Sorrow fit perfectly into that tapestry, as yet another Metal Gear Solid character fails to communicate with their kid and turns them into a monster.
