Psycho Mantis

Psycho Mantis
Biographical information
Nationality	Russian
Born	c. 1966 – c. 1975 Russia
Died	February 2005 Shadow Moses Island, Alaska, USA
Age	30s at death
Physical description
Eye color	Blue
Hair color	Bald
Ethnicity	Caucasian
Height	190 cm (2005)
Career and family information
Affiliation(s)	KGB FBI FOXHOUND Sons of Big Boss
Notable family	Parents
Behind the scenes
Main appearance(s)	Metal Gear Solid Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Created by	Hideo Kojima
Designed by	Yoji Shinkawa
Voiced by (Japanese)	Kazuyuki Sogabe (MGS) Shozo Iizuka (MGS4) Hiroshi Yanaka (MGS: DGN)
Voiced by (English)	Doug Stone

Psycho Mantis was a psychic member of FOXHOUND, who participated in the armed takeover of Shadow Moses Island in 2005. He wore a gas mask to help prevent people's thoughts from "forcing their way into his mind."

Biography

Early life and career

Psycho Mantis was born in a small Russian village before the collapse of the Soviet Union. His mother died giving birth to him, which made his father resent and hate him. He discovered his powers and his father's true emotions one day while accidentally reading his mind. Disgusted with his father's inner thoughts, and fearing that he would be killed, Mantis burned down his own village, killing his father in the process.

Later career

Mantis later joined the KGB and was part of its psychic intelligence division. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he moved to the United States and began work for the FBI. He would enter the minds of suspected killers and uncover the truth about their crimes. However, during one interrogation in the year 2000, Mantis dove too deeply into the mind of a serial killer and subsequently adopted the subject's personality, becoming psychotic.

Mantis eventually left the FBI and became a freelance psychic spy, offering his services to the highest bidder. During his travels throughout the world, he read thousands of peoples thoughts, and became disgusted with humanity for, as he called it, their "selfish and atavistic desire to pass on one's seed." He was eventually enlisted by FOXHOUND, becoming the unit's psychic expert and its psychological warfare specialist. By this time, he had taken to wearing a gas mask, partially to hide his deformed facial features, but also to prevent the thoughts of others from entering his mind. At some point, Mantis received barcode tattoos on each of his shoulders and on the right side of his head, along with a large scar across his head.

Shadow Moses Incident

Main article: Shadow Moses Incident

In February 2005, Psycho Mantis and the other members of FOXHOUND grew tired of their roles as puppets to the government and they took over Shadow Moses Island. Mantis used his psychic powers to brainwash those soldiers that didn't support the insurrection into participating in the revolt.

While on Shadow Moses, Mantis attempted to read Donald Anderson's and Kenneth Baker's minds but failed due to the surgical implants in their brains that provided them with "psychic insulation." When Revolver Ocelot "accidentally" killed Anderson during a torture session, Mantis came up with the idea of tricking Solid Snake into getting the PAL key from Baker and using the keys to activate Metal Gear REX, while making Snake think he was de-activating REX. They made Decoy Octopus disguise himself as Anderson to talk Snake into the act.

Psycho Mantis

Mantis later managed to take over the mind of a rookie soldier, whom Snake had encountered in the holding cells, and had the soldier fire at Snake shortly after Decoy Octopus's death from FOXDIE. Shortly afterwards, Snake experienced a brief hallucination, in which he saw the FOXHOUND psychic himself, resulting from psychometric interference emanating from Mantis's actions.

As Snake and Meryl Silverburgh made their way through the island, Mantis managed to gain control over Meryl's mind. He turned her against Snake and tried to make her shoot him, though Snake was able to knock her unconscious. Mantis then revealed himself and fought Snake himself. On the edge of defeat, Mantis decided to awaken Meryl and try to make her shoot herself in the head, having anticipated that this was Snake's weak point. However, Snake managed to both prevent Meryl from killing herself and defeat Mantis.

• Original
• Twin Snakes

Mantis unmasked.

Mantis unmasked.

Close to death, Mantis's mask was removed by Snake, allowing him to speak his final words. He told of his tragic past, comparing it to that of Snake's, and explained that his past experiences had shown him that all humans were fated to bring each other pain and misery. He stated that he never really agreed with Liquid's revolution, only that he wanted the chance to kill as many people as he could. However, he went on to say he was "not so bad," in comparison to Snake, saying that the legendary soldier was even worse than Liquid himself, stating that Snake was true evil. Mantis also revealed that he had read Meryl's mind and that Snake had a large place in her heart, though he did not know if their futures lay together.

Mantis then asked Snake to put his mask back on, as he wished to be by himself in his final moments. Using his powers, he opened a secret passageway that led to the communications towers and Metal Gear's underground maintenance base. Right before he died, Mantis said that this action was the first time in his life that he had used his power to help someone, and that it felt "kind of nice."

After Mantis's death, Meryl utilized lingering remnants of his memory from the earlier mind possession, to help Snake and herself safely cross a minefield in an underground passageway. In addition, the effects of his brainwashing on the Genome Soldiers began to wear off, and they began to lose morale. Ocelot later theorized that Mantis had been included in the programming of the FOXDIE assassination virus, but that his mask may have shielded him from infection.

Guns of the Patriots Incident

See also: Liquid Sun, Solid Sun, Third Sun, Twin Suns, Old Sun, and Naked Sin/Naked Son

When Liquid Ocelot was building up his PMC forces, Psycho Mantis's psychic remnants were somehow harnessed with nanomachines. Liquid wasted no time putting Mantis's harnessed psyche to use, with it playing a vital role in the creation of the Beauty and the Beast Unit. Mantis's psyche was integrated into the mind of BB Corps member Screaming Mantis via nanomachines and hypnosis, which made it possible for her to channel her constant state of fear so that she could use it in battle, although in time, her psyche was ripped out almost entirely. Using Screaming Mantis and the nanomachines as a medium, Psycho Mantis's psychic powers were also used to control the minds of the other BB Corps members so that they could be effective in combat as well. Like Psycho Mantis, Screaming Mantis had what seemed like a form of psychokinesis, but in reality she was only able to manipulate the nanomachines inside the bodies of soldiers—both living and dead—by using dolls fashioned after Psycho Mantis and The Sorrow. Effectively, the spirit of Psycho Mantis was the leader of the BB Corps. Consequentially, as a result of Screaming Mantis' fusion with Psycho Mantis' psyche via nanomachines, the former also reacted to Snake's presence as if she had encountered him before.

In 2014, after Snake infiltrated Liquid Ocelot's Outer Haven, he was confronted by the final member of the Beauty and the Beast Unit, Screaming Mantis. After defeating Screaming Beauty, Screaming Mantis's suit reformed and floated in the air, with Psycho Mantis's spirit appearing behind it. Psycho Mantis once again showed Snake his telekinetic powers. Afterwards, The Sorrow intervened and sent his ghost back to the grave for good.

Personality and traits

Psycho Mantis's artwork.

Psycho Mantis was a powerful practitioner of psychokinesis and telepathy, with Nastasha Romanenko considering him to be one of the most powerful psychics in the world. He was capable of moving objects with the power of thought, spinning them around himself to create a makeshift barrier, or throwing them towards an opponent. He was also capable of generating a ball of psychic energy, as evidenced during his battle with Solid Snake. Through telepathy, Mantis could read people's minds and learn about their pasts. This power could even be extended to mind control, which he used to sway members of the Next-Generation Special Forces into joining FOXHOUND's revolt, and to force Meryl to attack Snake. However, his telepathic abilities could be rendered ineffective if his subject was either strong willed or possessed surgical implants in their brain, as evidenced by his failure to defeat Solid Snake in battle, and to read Donald Anderson and Kenneth Baker's minds, respectively. Because of his constantly wearing a gas mask to ensure he focused on his psychic powers, he frequently had a rasping breath accompanying him.

By the time of the Shadow Moses Incident, Mantis possessed an emaciated body and a hairless skull. He had a misshapen nose, with surgical scars and stitching adorning his cranium and lower face, causing Mantis to despise his own appearance.

Mantis's work with serial killers' minds for the FBI caused Mantis to develop insanity. He also held nihilistic views, feeling disgust towards humanity's ultimate desire to simply reproduce, and the "selfish" passing on of one's genes. His contempt was such that, during his death, he freely admitted that he didn't actually care for Liquid Snake's goals, and had only collaborated with the Sons of Big Boss in order to kill as many people as he could. Despite his insanity, Mantis also displayed some skill in strategizing, having originated the idea of using Decoy Octopus to impersonate the (then-recently) deceased DARPA Chief, which succeeded in tricking Solid Snake into activating Metal Gear REX.

Unconfirmed history

The following information has been detailed in official Konami-licensed media, written by various external authors. Its status in the Metal Gear canon is unconfirmed.[?]

At an early age, Mantis discovered the different facets of his conscience, specifically the inner demons he could not shake, from which he unwittingly created an alternate persona known as "parasite." This shock changed his personality, the despair awakening his subconscious and making him kill his father in a crushing release of psychic energy. This mental shockwave killed the 1,000 residents of his home village, with Mantis himself suffering facial burns.

Recruited by the KGB due to his impressive ESP abilities, Mantis honed his psychokinetic powers, suppressing the "parasite" persona within himself to prevent his self-destruction. Successfully holding "the parasite" in check, he managed to avoid descending into insanity, a problem that had plagued other psychic agents. It was from this alternate personality that he earned the nickname "Mantis." His choice of restrictive attire helped him to contain his persona within, while his KGB trenchcoat hid his emaciated body, caused by psychic channeling. Mantis became a full-fledged KGB member shortly after controlling his abilities, although his employment was short-lived due to the fall of the Soviet Union.

At some point, Mantis and Ocelot worked together, although the event left Ocelot deeply distrusting of Mantis due to his "inhuman" nature. This led Ocelot to later try to dissuade Liquid from trusting him at Shadow Moses, though he dismissed his warning as simply being the typical rivalry between ex-Soviet operatives.

Mantis's primary job in regards to the FBI was learning the locations of victims' bodies from the minds of serial killers. However, his mind became linked with all those of the killers he had read, resulting in his loss of control over the parasite, which subsequently urged him to commit horrific acts of psychic manslaughter. His ability to correctly point out the actions of an individual by looking at their paths in life also ended up even shocking Liquid Snake. He also sought his own death as he believed that only with that would the parasite fade away, allowing him a brief period of peace, and thus be mentally cleansed.

Immediately prior to his death, Psycho Mantis foresaw that Snake, as an old man, would place a gun in his mouth.

Behind the scenes

Psycho Mantis's Metal Gear Solid artwork.

Psycho Mantis (サイコ・マンティス, Saiko Mantisu^?) appears in Metal Gear Solid as an antagonist to Solid Snake, and is fought by the player during a boss battle. His spirit later makes a cameo appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, where he is revealed to be the controlling influence behind the Beauty and the Beast Unit.

Psycho Mantis was chosen as the #3 best boss fight ever by GameSpot. He also ranked eighth in IGN's recent "Top 100 Videogame Villains" poll, beating out fellow FOXHOUND members Sniper Wolf, Liquid Snake, and Revolver Ocelot; even beating Big Boss.

Metal Gear Solid

The boss battle with Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid is widely remembered for him "displaying" his mental powers through breaking the fourth wall. This includes making the controller move by activating the rumble feature, and making players think the TV channel has changed by turning the screen to black, with the green caption "HIDEO" displayed in the top-right corner. He also "reads" the player's memory card, commenting on the number of saves that have been made in the game so far, and the presence of other saved games, first noting their genre, then mentioning specific examples (e.g. "You like Castlevania, don't you?"). In the original game, Mantis mentions  Azure Dreams, Suikoden, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Vandal Hearts (plus Policenauts and Snatcher in the Japanese version), while in the 2004 remake, he references Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

Psycho Mantis, as depicted in The Twin Snakes.

Mantis' powers were inspired by another fictional psychic character from the 1978 film The Fury, with Hideo Kojima telling his motion designer to go see it. During the battle, the player is forced to plug the game controller into another port in order to avoid Mantis reading Snake's mind. Kojima took inspiration from various Japanese animations, in which masters would advise their students to clear their minds to prevent their enemies from reading their thoughts. The only way he could think of to show this idea was the controller switch, though the younger members of his development team did not like this idea.

After the battle with Mantis, he states that he is unsure whether Snake's and Meryl's futures lie together, alluding to the game's two endings; one in which Meryl survives, and the other in which she dies. Additionally, the script for the original Japanese version had Mantis mention that his helping Snake on his deathbed felt "nostalgic," though this was changed to "it feels pretty nice" in the English version (nevertheless, the original dialogue is maintained in the remake The Twin Snakes). According to Kojima, Mantis's nostalgia was due to him sensing his own mother's emotions during childbirth, where she had used the last of her dying strength to help her son survive; similar to Mantis's own actions towards Snake upon his death.

According to Kojima's "Grand Game Plan" for Metal Gear Solid 2, there was originally supposed to be a mask based on Mantis's likeness (called the Mantis Mask), that allowed Raiden to read the thoughts of other characters. One example would be using the mask to discern a SEAL's identity as Solid Snake. This item ultimately never made it into the final version.

In the 2004 Nintendo GameCube remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Mantis creates fiery hallucinations using his psychic powers, though he is unable to affect Snake. In addition, he uses a technique that appears to cause the room to "tilt"; this is a reference of one of the sanity effects in Eternal Darkness, a game made by The Twin Snakes' developer Silicon Knights. He had a Russian accent when unmasked, although this was removed in the remake. Following the battle, the player can shake Mantis's body to procure his dog tag. Because the GameCube has four controller ports instead of two, the player has to unconnect and reconnect the controller two more times before finally defeating him during the boss fight.

Although Mantis never appears in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater itself, he does appear in an article covering elements of Metal Gear Solid 3 in PSM during the leadup to its release, where he won the "Who Rules over FOXHOUND?" poll by a margin of 55%.

During his trip to Dubai in January 2013, Kojima revealed that Mantis is his favorite villain in the series. In addition, on September 3 of the same year, in a ranking of the 15 most memorable moments in the franchise, the battle with Mantis ranked #1 among the staff on the official Metal Gear Solid Facebook page.

Later appearances

Psycho Mantis is also mentioned in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Roy Campbell can feed Snake data on Ness if he uses his Codec taunt. During the talk, Snake will recall his encounters with Psycho Mantis, to the point of even asking if Ness can also read minds. Campbell assures him that Ness is "a good kid" and would not use telepathic powers to scan Snake's mind against his will, whether he had such powers or not.

The manner in which Solid Snake defeats Psycho Mantis in the Metal Gear Solid novelization is portrayed differently to the game, with Snake tricking Mantis into levitating all the contents of the commander's room and making himself vulnerable to attack (Mantis used his psychic abilities to prevent Snake from even touching his holstered gun). Mantis is also successful in placing Snake under his mental control for a brief period of time, causing him to hallucinate the appearance of Master Miller. The illusion involved both Miller and Snake visiting a theme park from Snake's childhood, where he attempted to save Meryl from the funhouse, later encountering her reflection in the funhouse's mirrors, along with that of Otacon and Big Boss himself. The Digital Graphic Novel of Metal Gear Solid depicted Psycho Mantis's fight with Snake in a similar fashion to the above, where Miller apparently takes out Psycho Mantis and leads Snake to the hangar, only for Liquid and Ocelot to ambush him. Snake deduced that it was all an illusion projected by Mantis after he noticed that Ocelot retained both arms (Gray Fox had amputated Ocelot's right arm earlier).

The fight against Screaming Mantis in Metal Gear Solid 4 is designed to play off the player's memory of fighting Psycho Mantis in the original Metal Gear Solid, right down to the music being a recreation of "Mantis' Hymn." After Screaming Mantis screams "Blackout!" the screen turns to black and displays a green caption saying "HIDEO2." If the player switches the PS3 controller over to Controller Port 2, Snake will call Otacon saying that he can't move, with Otacon telling him that the trick won't work this time, much to Snake's chagrin. Roy Campbell also suggests that Snake try either swapping controller ports or destroying the mask on the bust of Mantis's face, but Rosemary and Snake rebuke him, stating that neither of those strategies is applicable in the situation. After the battle, when Mantis himself appears, he attempts to read the memory card once more, but fails due to the PS3's hard drive-based memory system. He also tries to repeat his controller-moving trick, but is unsuccessful due to the lack of rumble feature in the SIXAXIS controller. Enraged, he disappears after The Sorrow sends his ghost back to the grave. However, if the scene is played with a DualShock 3, Mantis will perform the trick successfully and gleefully declare that vibration is back before disappearing.

Mantis is also referenced in two trophies upon downloading the trophy patch for the game. The first was "That Tune Is His Mind Control Music", unlocked after playing "Oishii Two-han Seikatsu" on the iPod with at least one of the Beauty and the Beast Unit members and thus made her dance, which referred to Naomi's in-universe acknowledgement of his theme song, "Mantis' Hymn." The second was "Can You Feel My Power Now!!??", unlocked after the player defeated soldiers with either the Mantis Doll or the Sorrow Doll, referring to his line to Snake upon using his psychic powers to read the player's memory card and move the player's controller.

Although Mantis himself does not reappear in Metal Gear Online, his gas mask can be obtained as an accessory for the player. Unlike most items stated to have formerly belonged to a main character, Psycho Mantis's Gas Mask has colored variations rather than it being a fixed color.

Psycho Mantis later appeared as a participant in the Konami sponsored event E3 Battle, where he defeated Sheena E. from the 1994 game Contra: Hard Corps in the first round. He proceeded to face off against, and defeated Django from the Solar Boy Django series in the second round. He then faced off against Naked Snake in the third round, to which he lost.

"PSYCHO MANTIS
FIRST APPEARED IN:
Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Psychic member of the FOXHOUND unit. Previously employed for both the KGB and the FBI. Capable of psychokinesis and telepathy."

―Psycho Mantis' bio from E3 Battle

Mantis has also appeared in Versus Battle on the official Metal Gear Solid website.

"STRENGTHS:
The Mind is Stronger than the Body
WEAKNESSES:
One's Biggest Enemy Lies Within
FEATURED FACT:
Psycho Mantis’s telepathic & psychokinetic powers allow him to control minds, move objects, and wreak terrible destruction
FEATURED GAME:
METAL GEAR SOLID: THE LEGACY COLLECTION"

―Psycho Mantis's bio in Versus Battle; while fighting Vulcan Raven

"STRENGTHS:
Scary Powerful Psychic & Mind Manipulator
WEAKNESSES:
Strong Wills, Masked Minds, Peripheral Vision
FEATURED FACT:
Not only incredibly powerful, Psycho Mantis was also extremely smart, conceiving the plan to use Decoy Octopus to deceive Solid Snake into activating METAL GEAR REX
FEATURED GAME:
METAL GEAR SOLID: THE LEGACY COLLECTION"

―Psycho Mantis's bio in Versus Battle; while fighting The Sorrow

Metal Gear Solid V

Psycho Mantis appears in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes' "Déjà Vu" mission, based on the events of the Shadow Moses Incident. He is featured as one of the seven "scenes" that the player has to recreate in order to complete the mission, although the only clue that is provided is the "HIDEO" blackout screen image featured in the game's manual as well as the box. In-game, Miller forgot to upload the image depicting Psycho Mantis, and suggested that the player look at "the back of the case," alluding to something Kenneth Baker said regarding finding Meryl Silverburgh's frequency. To make him appear, the player has to turn off the power generator of the base. This also makes him the only FOXHOUND member to be encountered in the mission, and if the player isn't using either the Classic Snake/Cyborg Ninja skin, the only other Metal Gear Solid-era character (the other being Johnny Sasaki) to be encountered. Besides his appearance, Miller also quotes him occasionally.

The child featured in the GDC trailer, who bears strong similarities to Psycho Mantis.

A gas mask-wearing child who demonstrates supernatural powers similar to Mantis appeared in the GDC 2013 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The March 2014 issue of Game Informer likewise speculated that the child was Mantis. The child appears before Big Boss and Ishmael in front of a hospital elevator, before rising through the ceiling and disappearing; Mantis performed an identical action in The Twin Snakes, via psychometric interference experienced by Solid Snake (in the original Metal Gear Solid, he simply disappears in a flash). This child reappears in a later scene, where he apparently summons a fiery apparition resembling a white blue whale; in The Twin Snakes, Mantis created illusions of fire prior to his battle with Solid Snake. Although the two characters exhibit similar behaviors and appearance, the child's identity hasn't been officially revealed yet.

Appearances

• Metal Gear Solid/Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (mentioned; via In the Darkness of Shadow Moses)
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Déjà Vu mission; non-canon)

Gallery

Psycho Mantis artwork by Yoji Shinkawa.

Psycho Mantis concept art in Metal Gear Solid

Psycho Mantis concept art in Metal Gear Solid

Mantis' artwork in The Art of Metal Gear Solid.

Front view of Mantis's mask, from Metal Gear Online.

Rear view of Mantis's mask, from Metal Gear Online.

The appearence of a character similar to Psycho Mantis in Phantom Pain.

See also

• Screaming Mantis