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This article is about a non-canonical topic in the Metal Gear series.

La Clown was an assassin and master of disguise.

Biography[]

During La Clown's childhood, she was caught in a fire and suffered third degree burns. Her face was disfigured beyond healing and she could no longer stand showing it in public. From that point on she began to disguise herself indefinitely; she started using the codename of "La Clown," concealing her nationality and gender, and became a master of disguise and hypnotism. Clown's disguises weren't only visual as she could imitate voices and, for unexplained reasons, recall past memories. The only thing that remained the same when Clown changed her appearance and voice was that she carried a strong scent of unique perfume on her.

La Clown spent many years working as an assassin for hire; one noticeable assignment being the murder of Collin Friedman, who was falsely under suspicion of being the ringleader of a terrorist organization. Under the orders of the "six searchers" Clown killed him at a hotel in Manhattan and covered up the murder as a suicide.

During the Lobito Island Incident, BEAGLE feared that their hidden Pythagoras research data would be brought to light, so La Clown was hired to steal it before the Leone Unit or Solid Snake and his allies could get a hold of it, then to cover it up. La Clown captured the HRT agent known as Teliko Friedman and trapped her in a giant board game-style room of her creation. She then took Teliko's place and found Snake when he was about to be killed by Leone. Clown saved Snake by throwing a stun grenade at Leone and introduced herself as "Swallowtail" and a bringer of good fortune. According to Yin and Yang, finding a butterfly in the first throes of spring foretells luck throughout the year; finding a white butterfly is bad luck, while a yellow or swallowtail one brings good luck.

Clown was briefly separated from Snake while he confronted Dr. William Flemming and overheard him telling Snake that he had the Pythagoras data and that Snake had another personality called Hans Davis. Taking advantage of both pieces of information, Clown shot Flemming, causing him to drop the encrypted data, though he escaped unharmed. She then insisted that Snake hand the data over to her by claiming that Snake couldn't trust himself while Hans Davis was a threat.

Clown and Snake later survived a battle with Leone at a warehouse and attempted to pursue Flemming to FAR with the intention of forcing him to decode the Pythagoras data for them. It was around this point that Clown fired at Snake and escaped from him with the data. Snake later found out that the person he had been working for was not Teliko, but the assassin known as La Clown. When Snake found the real Teliko at the giant board game, the two were briefly forced to fight one another, but when Snake refused to kill Teliko after defeating her, La Clown blew the room up.

La Clown later attacked Snake and Teliko at FAR-B5; maintaining Teliko's appearance, so that Snake had trouble telling the two apart, she also used her hypnotism to "create" more copies of herself in an attempt to turn the battle in her favor. However, Snake and Teliko eventually managed to defeat Clown, who claimed that having never lost to anyone before, she felt like letting Snake win just to see what it was like. But she never thought losing would mean dying. Clown told Snake the location of both Flemming and Metal Gear KODOQUE; claiming that if she died right there and now, it meant that she was not the hero since the hero was supposed to survive to the end. So she concluded that made her the villain and that the villain was always supposed take the hero's side right before dying. Clown told Snake and Teliko about her incident with her childhood fire and mentioned that Snake and herself cannot be controlled by "No. 16" as they are not "name-knowers" (people who know their birthname). Snake had trouble understanding any of this and Clown simply said "I'm Swallowtail... I wish you the best of luck, Snake."

After dying, Clown's makeup dissolved and revealed burn marks shaped like swallowtail butterflies. Teliko recognized Clown's perfume and realized that she was the killer of her father, Collin Friedman. Snake and Teliko then took the Pythagoras data from her corpse and left her where she died.

Behind the scenes[]

In promotional art for Metal Gear Acid, La Clown is shown with two Tengu Commandos in the back and foreground.

Gallery[]

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