Strangelove

Strangelove
Biographical information
Nationality	British American
Born	Late 1930s
Died	1983
Physical description
Eye color	Blue
Hair color	Silver
Ethnicity	Caucasian
Career and family information
Affiliation(s)	NASA ARPA/DARPA Peace Sentinel Militaires Sans Frontières
Occupation	AI researcher
Notable family	Huey Emmerich (husband) Hal Emmerich (son)
Behind the scenes
Main appearance(s)	Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Created by	Hideo Kojima
Designed by	Yoji Shinkawa
Voiced by (Japanese)	Yumi Kikuchi
Voiced by (English)	Vanessa Marshall

Dr. Strangelove was an AI research scientist, responsible for the development of the Mammal Pod AI, as part of the Peace Walker Project in the 1970s. As her nickname implies, she had "a strange love"; a reference to her sexuality. She originally held a grudge against the mercenary Big Boss for his killing of The Boss.

Biography

Early life and career

Strangelove was born shortly before World War II, and spent her early childhood in Manchester, England. She was born an albino, and thus could not play outside without experiencing severe burns in a minute. She also didn't understand nor care to understand how kids of both genders seemed to behave towards one another. She usually goes out at night due to her love of the stars, even when going outside at night was far too dangerous at the time due to the air raids conducted by Nazi Germany. At roughly age ten, she was recognized for her talent in logic and mathematics, and was educated in these subjects by Professor Alan Turing. Under his tutelage, she obtained an appreciation for the concept of Artificial Intelligence. Several years later, while studying to be a computer engineer at the California Institute of Technology, the recently founded NASA (circa 1958) recruited her as a key staff member of the Mercury Project. In early 1961, she was acquainted with The Boss, who was assigned to Mercury as a backup pilot and advisor, and also with Emmerich, the latter of whom she gave the nickname of "Huey" after the crippled service droid in Silent Running, largely due to Huey himself being a cripple. She tried to stop the launch, or at least stop The Boss from participating in the launch, after the Department of Defense requested that they add in a Window to the spacecraft. She also never bought the official reason for choosing The Boss, as her being irradiated once would actually place her in even greater risk than before. She also attempted to report that she found a damaged portion of her brain in an attempt to keep her off the mission, but The Boss stopped her, and explained the origins of the damaged brain portion: The Boss was distracted during a mission in 1943 because she found out that was pregnant with her child.

Owing to concerns for the safety of the official pilots, Strangelove oversaw the experimental launch of the first manned American spacecraft on April 21, 1961, piloted by The Boss, an incident during which The Boss was severely injured. Strangelove tried to save The Boss, not caring whether her skin would burn. The Boss was rotated out of Project Mercury during her subsequent hospitalization, and Strangelove never saw her again.

Though Strangelove came to love The Boss in the course of their cooperation, their association never progressed to anything beyond a one-sided relationship, and she was aware that the woman's attentions were focused upon a certain individual whose identity she was never able to confirm. In 1964, after receiving notice that Naked Snake killed The Boss as a "traitor", Strangelove began to mentally identify him as this "certain individual." The thought that The Boss died at the hands of the student she loved filled Strangelove with jealousy and anger, and she was unable to believe that The Boss had truly betrayed the country.

Shortly thereafter, she was transferred to ARPA to pursue AI development, as a result of the disastrous results of the Lady Mercury project. She ended up being completely engrossed with her work, however, which didn't work well for her when her co-workers derided her for her orientation. She later ended up downsized from ARPA, which had become DARPA, after Détente, and was brought into the Peace Walker Project, seeing it as her one and only chance at bringing The Boss back to life and clearing her name. However, she did realize that she might not make it back alive after the Peace Walker tests are completed, with the possibility of even being killed by Hot Coldman.

Peace Walker Incident

Main article: Peace Walker Incident

In 1974, Strangelove was recruited by CIA Station Chief Hot Coldman and Peace Sentinel to create the AI pod BS-Imago, also known as the Mammal Pod; a highly advanced AI that would be capable of handling complex decisions regarding nuclear retaliation, which would be housed aboard the Peace Walker unmanned weapon. She chose The Boss to be the model, as she was "the most logical" of the minds to do so, and requested all information on The Boss in exchange for her help in the project. Despite her participation in the project, she didn't care for Coldman's goals, as she only wanted to revive The Boss so she could learn the truth about what happened in Tselinoyarsk and then clear her name.

Ornithologist Cécile Cosima Caminades later stumbled upon the project while Dr. Strangelove was running a routine simulation with the Mammal Pod in Costa Rica. Strangelove was kind to Cécile despite her being a prisoner, feeding her and even bathing her. She also stated that she would be released in a month, but she had to keep her blindfold on. The reason for this was due to a compromise between saving Cécile and finishing the Mammal Pod on schedule, as she knew full well that if Coldman found out that the project had potentially been uncovered, he would have had Cécile executed as soon as possible.

Strangelove

Strangelove later encountered Big Boss (Naked Snake) outside of the AI Facility in an environment similar to Rokovo Berej, the setting of The Boss and Snake's final battle, and after verbally telling him off for murdering "the woman she loved." She then directed him to the facility where she explained that she planned on reviving The Boss as an AI. She then goaded him into trying to deactivate the AI pod if he could. Just prior to Big Boss fainted due to trauma relating to killing The Boss, Strangelove ended the simulation in shock to a response from the AI pod.

After Big Boss was captured by Peace Sentinel, Strangelove tortured him for information on why he had killed The Boss, doubting that it was related to her betrayal of America due to the mementos he kept on her. The torture continued up to three times, with Strangelove slowly becoming more unwilling to continue with the torture to the point that by the third torture session, she admitted that she no longer hated Big Boss when refusing his request to kill him. From Snake's lack of response to the torture, Strangelove deduced the information she needed to complete the Mammal Pod.

Stangelove later joined Peace Sentinel forces at a U.S. missile base in Nicaragua, where she input false data into the Peace Walker, in order to test its nuclear strike capability by attacking the Militaires Sans Frontières' Mother Base. However, when Soviet troops captured the base, Strangelove was forced to change Peace Walker's target to Cuba, after Vladimir Zadornov threatened to kill her and her beloved. After Zadornov's forces were neutralized by MSF, Strangelove apologized to Big Boss about how she had treated him, and invited him to find out the answers about The Boss together from the AI.

While Strangelove and Big Boss made their way to the Peace Walker unit, a dying Coldman was able to activate the weapon, forcing MSF to attack it. At the advice of Strangelove, Big Boss destroyed The Boss AI, although the Mammal Pod's directive was transferred to Peace Walker's Reptile Pod. However, remnants of The Boss's personality also manifested in the Reptile Pod, causing it to destroy itself and halt the false data uplink to NORAD, preventing a U.S. nuclear response to a perceived Soviet attack. This selfless act convinced Strangelove that The Boss had never betrayed America ten years earlier, and that her name had been cleared.

After the fiasco, Strangelove joined the MSF, due to being unemployed and unable to return to England. She also admitted when Snake asked that part of the reason she joined MSF was because she was impressed with Snake's role in MSF, due to his being the last disciple of The Boss, as well as viewing MSF itself as like the development of the nervous system. She also stated that, although uploading Big Boss's mind into an AI isn't a bad idea, she has no intention of doing any human transplants into AIs again. She also mentioned she'll repay Snake by using her AI research for MSF, and suggested placing her into the R&D Team. She later worked with Huey Emmerich to develop Metal Gear ZEKE, explaining to an astonished Big Boss that she has nothing against deterrence itself, but rather the dependency of it on nations, also promising that she won't try to make it into an AI like Peace Walker's Mammal Pod. During Zadornov's various escapes, Strangelove, presumably due to her being threatened by him earlier, stated to the MSF that they should have killed Zadornov when they had the chance. After ZEKE was nearly destroyed during an attempted hijacking by Paz Ortega Andrade (who was revealed to have been a triple agent for "Cipher"), she informed Huey that its AI had a backup module, so at the very least it could walk again, although it would be up to Big Boss as to what would happen to it. When asked by Huey if she hated him, she wondered with astonishment if he's asking her out. Huey denied it, and she remarked that it was a shame, as she "had her heart broken before", and she wanted someone who could stand up for themselves, remarking that love was blind (implying that she was attracted to Huey).

Post-Peace Walker

Sometime later, Strangelove, due to the AI development program no longer being a necessity due to ZEKE's completion and the AI branch itself being stagnate, resigned from MSF and left Mother Base. Big Boss had been on assignment at the time and thus did not find this out until a week later, when Miller remarked that her absence was beneficial since that made less people directly involved with ZEKE, and thus much less of a risk of it being exposed by a then-upcoming UN inspection at Mother Base.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain may follow.

Strangelove with her son Hal, before her death.

Afterwards, Strangelove returned to DARPA was tasked by Zero (who by that point was succumbing to parasites that Skull Face infected him with) to create the AI network. She eventually reunited with Huey, and bore their son, Hal, by 1980. However, she ended up getting into an argument with Huey about using Hal as a test subject for Metal Gear ST-84 (as ST-84's cockpit can only allow for a child to pilot it, something Strangelove was against). She accidentally ends up sealed inside the Mammal Pod, and was sealed inside, with Huey letting her suffocate to death inside. Diamond Dogs would eventually discover this when finding the Mammal Pod.

Spoilers end here.

Personality and characteristics

Since she was a young girl, Strangelove was interested in the cosmos as well as arithmetic. However, her interactions with other people were somewhat cold and asocial, not knowing nor caring how to interact with her coworkers and/or children, the latter being the case when she herself was a child. Until the Peace Walker Incident in late 1974, the only time she interacted in an uncold manner to anyone was during her interactions with The Boss. Presumably because of her albinism, she also has to wear a large red coat everywhere even in environments where such clothing is disadvantageous (such as the Jungles of Costa Rica or the exterior areas of Mother Base). Strangelove originally intended to commit suicide when the Peace Walker project was completed, but The Boss's sacrifice nearing the end inspired her to continue living as well as open up to people, even Snake. She also generally looked at things with an inherent machine-based logic, trying not to let emotion cloud her judgment, although she lost control of this when The Boss was killed by Naked Snake. She was in love with The Boss, twice christening her as a "noble soul", the only mind in the world excellent enough to be used for Peace Walker's AI. She spoke very fondly of her to Snake and even admitted that the thought of making an android in her likeness once crossed her mind as robotics and AI research continued to advance.

Strangelove

Strangelove was greatly fascinated with AIs and eventually dedicated herself in researching and developing AI-driven machinery. Though her affinity for AIs is one of passion and intrigue, the original reason she decided to learn about AIs stemmed from the failure of the Lady Mercury mission. As such, Strangelove dedicated herself in creating mechanical agents with AI, believing that no human being should ever have to suffer the same way that The Boss did. This developed passion for AI research also led her to become a fan of science fiction movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Silent Running, the former of which also led to her having a very decent conversation with Huey Emmerich, who was also a fan of the film. The latter was evidenced when she gave Dr. Emmerich the derisive nickname of "Huey" after one of the service robots in the film. Despite her original goals and intentions, the aftermath of the Peace Walker Incident caused her to abandon her goal of implanting human-like thought patterns in machines.

Strangelove was bisexual with more emphasis on lesbianism, further emphasized by her romantic attraction towards The Boss. Proud of her sexual orientation, she often expressed disdain towards males and viewed females in a superior light, claiming that females were better when it came to empathizing with fellow humans whereas males tend to act with a machine-like logic and mentality. It was for this reason that she decided to use a female subject as her basis for Peace Walker's Mammal Pod AI beyond simply wanting to re-create The Boss. In this regard, her preferred alias as "Strangelove" was originally a derogatory nickname that was given to her by her fellow co-workers at ARPA from the title of the film called Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. This was based on the fact that she kept a photo of The Boss on her desk, as well as her apparently being completely uninterested in the opposite sex (i.e. a "strange" love). Recognizing that being "strange" meant that one possessed a unique point of view, she considered it an honor as opposed to an insult and as a result, she reclaimed the nickname as a title of her own. Strangelove's attraction to females was further emphasized during her encounters with Cécile Cosima Caminades, in which she revealed in a briefing between herself and Big Boss that she felt concerned for her, giving her personal baths while admiring her beauty, as well as lessening the security in the facility to allow her to escape. This attraction also extended to Paz Ortega Andrade (even though she was supposedly only sixteen years old) based on two occassions: Strangelove once expressed admiration for Paz's delicate skin and talked Paz into allowing her to apply sunscreen lotion to her body while the latter was sun-bathing (much to Paz's surprise and initial protest), and at a later point when Paz had become ill, Strangelove offered to rub a rare medicinal "Indian cure" onto Paz's chest while forcibly trying to remove the other's shirt until she was smacked with a pillow, thus forcing her out of the room.

During her work with Huey, she detested her fellow co-worker, largely because of his social awkwardness regarding talking to people, which included sending her a letter. Big Boss ultimately agreed that Strangelove most likely would not have been impressed with Huey's letter if he inspected it without his permission. Strangelove later referred to a "furtive letter," when explaining the reasons behind her dislike for Huey, suggesting that she eventually got Huey's letter. She later grew to respect him after Huey managed to ask her upfront whether she hated him.

Despite her seeming dislike for men and her proudness over her sexuality, she had been shown to have a soft side, especially towards specific individuals such as Huey Emmerich. This was evidenced when she confronted Huey about his love for her when he asked her if she hated him, in which she was willing to give him a chance should he decide to confess to her with confidence. In addition, she accidentally praised Huey for his work despite attempting to give an unbiased opinion about Huey's credentials when discussing about him with Snake. Also, although Strangelove employed torture to interrogate Snake, as a scientist, she personally felt disgusted with its philosophy. She would later express deep shock when she found out Paz was a spy during the battle. She considered saying something about Paz until deciding against it. She also was demonstrated to care deeply for her son Hal, as one of her last actions in life was entering a falling out with Huey due to the latter suggesting he use Hal as a test subject for Metal Gear ST-84.

At first, Strangelove hated Big Boss/Snake because he killed The Boss. She tortured him (with great distress) when he wouldn't reveal the truth of The Boss' fateful final mission. After he defeated Peace Walker and the weapon; infused with The Boss' AI destroyed itself, Strangelove defected to MSF. As well as apologizing to Snake, she talked very candidly and civilly with him about her work, AI in general, her relationship with The Boss and others. She lightly teased Big Boss at times and posed a no-nonsense attitude in their conversations. She was inspired by MSF, intrigued in seeing how Snake would live out The Boss's will. She compared MSF to the nervous system and at her behest, worked on its R&D team and allowed Snake to utilize all of her future research.

Similar to her compatriots, Strangelove was also a tobacco user. In her case, she utilized snuff tobacco, which she utilized due to cigarette and cigar smoke ruining various computers and/or precision equipment. Likewise, during her meeting with Big Boss, she also had him ingest snuff tobacco before entering the interior of the AI lab in order to prevent his cigar smoke from ruining the equipment inside.

Behind the scenes

Dr. Strangelove is a character who appears in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Her sexuality had been alluded to as a major character point since TGS 2009, where Hideo Kojima when discussing the characters refused to give any specific details about her other than that "she's [Strangelove] a really 'strange love.'" He also confirmed that she was the woman asking the questions at the beginning of the trailer. When Strangelove is first introduced in the game, the player can zoom in on her to see that her "heart" is full of lilies (this is a subtle suggestion about her female-preferential bisexuality, as the Japanese word for lily, "yuri", is also slang for "lesbian"). In the English version, she is voiced by Vanessa Marshall, the English voice actress of Olga Gurlukovich (whom Strangelove coincidentally resembles to a small extent) in Metal Gear Solid 2 and EVA in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. In the Japanese version, Strangelove's voice actress, Yumi Kikuchi, also worked with Kikuko Inoue (The Boss's voice actress) in the in-house music production band "Two-Han Princess."

Strangelove

Strangelove's name is a reference to the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The film's plot concerns the Cold War crisis and a possible nuclear apocalypse. Strangelove also bears some resemblance to Dr. Strangelove from the movie; both have short hair and wear similar sunglasses and black leather gloves. The movie was previously referenced in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops by Para-Medic and Dr. Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov, respectively.

Due to their coming to a mutual understanding at the conclusion of Peace Walker, some fans have speculated that Strangelove may have become Huey's first wife (as well as Hal Emmerich's mother). This was ultimately confirmed in The Phantom Pain, with there even being a collectable memento photo showing Strangelove with the then-toddler Hal Emmerich.

The GDC 2013 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain showed a scene detailing a devastating attack on Mother Base by the military group XOF. However, Strangelove was mentioned in a podcast about The Phantom Pain. In addition, one of the cassette tapes in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes confirms that Strangelove left Mother Base beforehand, due to her role as AI inspector being complete.

In several ways, Strangelove resembles Naomi Hunter:

• Her hatred for Big Boss because of The Boss's death mirrors Naomi's hatred for Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid for Gray Fox's "death" in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
• Her attraction to Huey mirrors Naomi's attraction to Hal Emmerich in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
• Coincidentally, Naomi, in the original Metal Gear Solid, spoke with a British accent (Strangelove's nationality).

Torture cutscene

If the player fails to complete the interactive cutscene where Big Boss swipes Strangelove's film ID card, he won't have the card on him when the player takes control of Big Boss in the torture chamber/prison. However, he will still unlock his cell, using a hidden jigsaw stitched into his scar.

The torture cutscene in Peace Walker bore many similarities to Ocelot's torture of Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid. Both had at least three torture rounds. Both involved three button prompts to withstand torture for each round, with the last button prompt being the most intense. Lastly, both tortures have the option of an easier escape upon fulfilling certain requirements.

Likewise, the cutscene may also pay homage to the torture Naked Snake suffered under Colonel Volgin ten years prior to Peace Walker since Snake was hung up and electrocuted in both instances.

In the Japanese version of Peace Walker, her method of torture was censored to be the use of "laughing rods" that would tickle the victim, and was implied that the frequency that can tickle the victim can kill them if raised higher. This was because the Japanese rating simply could not allow torture to be used. On a related note, any future references to the torture were omitted or at the very least not directly stated (such as when Strangelove apologized to Snake shortly after Coldman and Zadornov were stopped).

Mother Base staff

"Why was a legendary hero forced to betray her country? Why was she targeted for assassination by you, her most beloved disciple?
I've no use for fabrications.
I want the truth... The Boss's last will."

―Strangelove's character quote on her staff menu on the Mother Base menu.

Strangelove is a unique staff member at Mother Base, available after completing Chapter 4. Her skill (AI Development Technology) allows AI to be installed on Metal Gear ZEKE. Her job is AI Researcher.

• Life: 2000
• Psyche: 8000
• GMP: 4893/4781

Strangelove's Mother Base staff profile.

• Combat Unit: E
  • Shoot: D
  • Reload: D
  • Throw: D/-
  • Place: D/-
  • Walk Speed: -/D
  • Run Speed: -/D
  • Fight: -
  • Defense: D
• R&D Team: S
• Mess Hall Team: B
• Medical Team: B
• Intel Team: A

"Once a promising young scientist at NASA, Dr. Strangelove later moved to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and devoted herself to AI research. She is a misanthrope and rarely deigns to show herself around other people."

―Strangelove's bio on the Mother Base model viewer, in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Although Strangelove herself is not a playable character, outfitting any female MSF soldiers with the Tuxedo will have them resemble Strangelove.

Strangelove's memories

The AI weapons in Main Ops have tapes apparently planted in between two sides of the AI's mainframe by Strangelove. To get them the player character must take notice to them by getting moving from one side of the mainframe to the other via choosing a memory board in a column. In the Pupa it's located between side A and B, in Chrysalis it's between B and C, and for Cocoon it's between C and D. There are 3 tapes in total. The tapes in question supplied background info about Strangelove, as well as her working with The Boss during the Lady Mercury project.

Artbook

According to the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Official Arts Works, before she was settled to appear as an albino, she was originally conceived to have either blue hair or blond hair with some covering her right eye, and would have worn an outfit resembling that of an engineer. Similarly, her first appearance was intended to have Big Boss discover the entrance to the AI Lab, walk in, and find Strangelove sitting in a red chair waiting for him, instead of having her wait at the door outside.

Metal Gear Solid V

Ground Zeroes

Strangelove does not make a physical appearance in the first part of Metal Gear Solid V, Ground Zeroes, although she is mentioned in the briefing tapes leading up to the mission, where it is revealed that she resigned at least a week before the UN's request to inspect Mother Base.

She also appears in the Ground Zeroes app in the Mother Base development game, where she is an unlockable officer when Mother Base reaches an overall level of 40.

The Phantom Pain

A Kojima Productions podcast implied that Strangelove would be making an appearance in Metal Gear Solid V, The Phantom Pain. Yumi Kikuchi also implied she would be appearing when confirming that she and Kikuko Inoue would be doing voicework for the game.

Appearances

• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops (trading card)
• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (mentioned)

Other appearances

Strangelove later appeared in the official series website's versus battle, where she fought against Cécile.

"STRENGTHS:
AI Expert, Able to Capture Big Boss
WEAKNESSES:
Sunlight, Friend to Cecile, Love for The Boss
FEATURED FACT:
Strangelove created the PEACE WALKER AI in the mold of The Boss, ultimately helped the Big Boss, and helped developed METAL GEAR ZEKE
FEATURED GAME:
METAL GEAR SOLID: THE LEGACY COLLECTION"

―Strangelove's data in Versus Battle.

Gallery

Dr. Strangelove, circa 1974.

Strangelove's model viewer, upon gaining an S-rank/gaining the bikini top, front.

Strangelove's model viewer, upon gaining an S-rank/gaining the bikini top, back.

Strangelove's artwork in a promotional art booklet.

Photo of Strangelove with Hal.