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“ | Your persona, experiences, triumphs and defeats are nothing but by-products. The real objective was ensuring that we could generate and manipulate them. It’s taken a lot of time and money, but it was well worth it considering the results. | „ |
~ The Colonel to Raiden. |
The Colonel is the overarching antagonist of the video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. He is a computer AI that was created by The Patriots' AIs, that took the form, as well as the voice of Colonel Roy Campbell.
His role is to interact with, then analyze the behavior of Jack (a.k.a. Raiden), and to gather data for the Selection of Societal Sanity project, which will allow Patriots to advance their capabilites for large-scale social engineering of mankind. He gains the results in a "resounding success", which further the Patriots agenda, all at expense of Jack's already declining mental health being further traumatized by the incident.
The Colonel AI is voiced by Paul Eiding (who also voiced Larry in Tarzan, Zeus in 2005s God of War, Theseus in God of War II, The Dissenter in God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Professor Hojo in Final Fantasy VII and Gul'dan in World of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne) in English and the late Takeshi Aono (who also voiced Dracule Mihawk in One Piece and Jinpachi Mishima in Tekken 5,) in Japanese.
History[]
Creation[]
The AI Colonel was a creation of GW, one of the Patriot's AIs. He was based on both GW itself, as well as Raiden's expectations of the Colonel, due GW being able to access Raiden's nanomachines whenever he used the Codec.
Mission command at Big Shell[]
The Colonel's role in the S3 plan is to first serve as a mission command for Jack/Raiden during the Big Shell Incident, along with another AI modelled after Rosemary. During the mission, he would generally emulate the attitude and instructions what the real Colonel Campbell provided during the Shadow Moses incident, to guide him to overcome the "terrorists", and to give him specific direction on how to complete the mission. At first, it is not obvious that the Colonel is anykind of AI. But upon careful examination, some things the Colonel clashes with things the real Colonel Campbell would say, as well as mentioning bizarre things like the operation being a "simulation."
The Colonel gets particularly agitated by the presence of Iroquois Pliskin - later revealed to be Solid Snake - whom the Colonel wants Raiden to minimize contact with. After disarming the final bomb, the Colonel calls Raiden to inform that the terrorists have executed a prisoner.
When Raiden comes in contact with Richard Ames at Shell 1 Core, it serves as the first sign that a lot is wrong with the mission. Ames rebukes the supposed prisoner execution and the terrorist threath of blowing up Big Shell. The Colonel AI emulates the denial of real Colonel Campbell from prior mission, with Raiden believing it is just on par with the course.
After Raiden acquires the MO Disc containing a "Worm Cluster" computer malware, he goes find its creator, Emma Emmerich. Raiden finds Emma and, per orders of both Colonel's side and Snake's side, heads to the Shell 1 Core's computer room. During one of their discussions, Emma mentions that the Patriots are fearing of digital information taking control in the internet, and says that a system within the Arsenal Gear was specifically designed to filter it. However, she mentions that the system still lacks ability to decide correctly, and that the Patriots are meant to provide a test for it to teach it to do so. Unbeknownst, however, either Emma or Raiden know, that Raiden is the very test subject for the project, conducted by the Colonel AI.
Raiden and Emma continue their voyage to Shell 1 Core. But during Emma's crossing of the oil fence, Vamp attacks and fatally stabs her. Raiden snipes Vamp, allowing Snake to secure Emma to safety. Raiden trails Snake and arrive at Shell 1 Core's computer room. There, Raiden provides a disc for Snake who inserts it to one of the computers. The malware installs, but Arsenal Gear disconnects from the computer room, leaving the download at 90% and the heroes unsure it if worked.
Disorder during Arsenal Gear[]
“ | Colonel AI: Raiden, turn the game console off right now! Raiden: What did you say? Colonel AI: The mission is a failure! Cut the power right now! Raiden: What's wrong with you? Colonel AI: Don't worry, it's a game! It's a game just like usual. [...] Raiden, something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go - I looked up and saw a glowing orange object in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly... suddenly there was intense light all around me - and when I came to, I was home. What do you think happened to me? Raiden: Huh? Colonel AI: Fine, forget it... |
„ |
~ From first batch of dialogue when Colonel AI starts being affected by Emma's Virus. |
Raiden ends up captured by Solidus Snake and his men, including the Patriots spy Revolver Ocelot, and restrained at a Torture Room within Arsenal Gear. Olga Gurlukovich appears and the two men leave, leaving her alone with Raiden. She contacts Raiden via codec and explains her actions; that she is a spy for the Patriots, as well as mentioning the S3 Plan.
After leaving the room, Olga releases Raiden's restrains. After Raiden has freed himself and accessed the nearby Node, Emma's cluster is finally starting to affect the Colonel AI. Upon exiting the Torture Room, the Colonel calls Raiden and orders him to "turn the game console off", greatly confusing Raiden. The Colonel keeps pestering Raiden with nonsense gibberish codec calls - in which he recites internet data GW was meant to handle and information from previous Metal Gear incidents - through-out Raiden's mission in Arsenal Gear. When Raiden meets up with Snake, he is also contacted by Otacon on Codec. Raiden asks Otacon to check on the Colonel and try figure out why he is acting the way he is.
After Raiden and Snake have defeated the first wave of the Tengu Soldiers, Otacon calls Raiden to report his findings. Otacon tells Raiden that the Colonel is the GW A.I. within Arsenal Gear. He explains that the Colonel is something the GW constructed using Raiden's psychological profile to be as convincing to him as possible. Raiden starts to question reality, but Snake attempts to snap him out of it. Eventually, Raiden reaches to Solidus Snake, then forced to fight an army of Arsenal's Metal Gear Ray. After being exhausted by them and Olga's sacrifice, the cluster starts to affect the Metal Gear Ray(s), with Ocelot informing Solidus that "GW is out of control."
Atop Arsenal Gear, Solidus tells awakened Raiden that GW "is corrupted beyond repair" due to Emma's cluster. After Solidus and Dead Cell leader Fortune have had their back-and-forth, Ocelot laughs and explains that the Big Shell incident was all a testing ground for the S3 Plan. Claiming that S3 stands for Solid Snake Simulation, Ocelot tells that the Shadow Moses Incident (from the previous game) served as a template for the experiment, meant to recreate a "memetic clone" of Solid Snake, that is Raiden.
Ocelot shoot Fortune, who momentarily survives due to her dextrocardia, and she repels the subsequent bombardment by Metal Gear Ray. After Fortune succumbs to her wounds, Liquid's personality reawakens within Ocelot, who escapes with Metal Gear Ray, with Arsenal Gear soon veering towards New York City.
Truth at Federal Hall[]
After Arsenal Gear crashes to Manhattan, New York; Raiden and Solidus land on the Federal Hall. After Solidus is done explaining his motives, Raiden recieves a codec call.
“ | To begin with -- we're not what you'd call -- human. (beat) Over the past two hundred years, a kind of conciousness formed layer by layer in the crucible of the White House. It's not unlike the way life started in the oceans four billion years ago. The White House was our primordial soup, a base of evolution. (beat) We are formless. We are the very discipline and morality that Americans invoke so often. How can anyone hope to eliminate us? As long as this nation exists, so will we. | „ |
~ Colonel AI |
It is the Colonel A.I., telling that he is still operational. Raiden says Emma's virus should have destroyed GW, to which the A.I. responds by affirming that GW did collapse, but he is part of something larger (I.E the Patriots A.I. network). With the help of the fake Rosemary, Colonel begins the explain his/the Patriots motives for the need to cersor internet for benefit of the society.
Colonel explains that information in digital age is always accessable, but most of it is very trivial of nature. That trivial information (rumors about petty issues, misinterpretations, slander) is valued more than important information, that is helpful for the development of mankind. That if they cannot socially engineer the mankind to reject the trivial for relevant, the world will end "not with a bang, but a whimper." That the A.I.s are there to create context because "who else could wade through the sea of garbage [mankind will] produce, retrive valuable truths and even interpret their meaning for later generations?"
The Colonel and Rosemary proceed to explain that Ocelot was telling only a half-truth regarding S3 being the Solid Snake Simulation, that it is actually meant to be Selection for Societal Sanity. That Raiden, the supposed memetic Solid Snake copy, is not what S3 was meant to produce, that the A.I.s are the system the S3 was meant to produce, using Raiden as subject of their assessment.
“ | Colonel AI: Raiden, there are also reasons behind your selection. Solidus raised plenty of other child soldiers. Do you know why we chose you over them? (beat) It was because you were the only one who refused to acknowledge the past. All the others remember what they were, and pay for it daily. Rosemary AI: But you turn your back on everything you don't like. You do whatever you like, see only the things you like, and for yourself alone. Colonel AI: So you see, you're a perfect representative of the masses we need to protect. This is why we chose you. You accepted the fiction we've provided, obeyed our orders and did everything you were told to. The exercise is a resounding success. |
„ |
~ The two A.I.s explaining why Jack/Raiden was chosen as subject for them to analyze. |
The A.I.s then go on to explain that Raiden was chosen simply because of his persona, that they deemed was perfect representative of the producers of all the most trivial data on the internet. To demonstrate their control of Raiden, they order him to kill Solidus. Raiden tries to rebel in vain, only for the A.I.s to remind him that Olga's child will die. The Colonel deems this the final test and wishes to his "beloved monsters" to "enjoy themselves."
During the fight against Solidus, Colonel AI calls one more time to interact with Raiden.
Super Smash Bros Brawl[]
Though the Colonel doesn't appear as a playable character in Super Smash Bros Brawl, he does appear as one of Snake's taunts, though only when calling while fighting Luigi (to which he insults Luigi by calling him the King of Second Banana), where he is implied to have replaced Roy Campbell during that instance.
Personality[]
At first the Colonel had roughly the same personality as Roy Campbell's, however was far more gruff and formal than the real Campbell, resembling the archetypal military officer. He was a convincing liar, being able to deceive Raiden and Rosemary into believing that he was a real person, and went along with "looking into" President Johnson's reveals about the Patriots.
After Raiden found out the Colonel was an AI, the Colonel's personality changed, becoming far more explicitly hostile to him. He firmly believed that the Patriots were the only beings with the qualifications to rule humanity, and took a very dim view on the human species, believing that they squandered free will.
Quotes[]
Serious dialogue[]
“ | Colonel AI: The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards development of convenient half-truths. Just look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you. Rose AI: Billions spent on new weapons in order to humanely murder other humans. Colonel AI: Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims. Rose AI: Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to protect endangered species. (beat) Everyone grows up being told the same thing." Colonel AI: Be nice to other people.. Rose AI: But beat out the competition. Colonel AI: You're special. Believe in yourself and you will succeed. Rose AI: But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed... Colonel AI: You exercise the right to "freedom" and this is the result. All rhetoric, to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems. Rose AI: Everyone withdraws into their own small gated community, afraid of a larger forum. They stay inside their little ponds, leaking whatever 'truth' suits them into the growing cesspool of society at large. Colonel AI: The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is invalidated, but nobody is right. Rose AI: Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in 'truth'. Colonel AI: And this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. Rose AI: We're trying to stop that from happening. Colonel AI: It's our responsibility as rulers. Just as in genetics, unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out to stimulate the evolution of the species." |
„ |
~ From the A.I.'s final codec from MGS2 |
“ | All this junk data preserved in an unfiltered state, growing at an alarming rate. | „ |
~ Colonel AI at the finale. |
Arsenal Gear gibberish lines[]
“ | I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61! | „ |
~ Colonel AI's most infamous gibberish quote. |
“ | You wouldn't be trying to give yourself a bogus score using some ingenious trick would you? That's just about as low as anyone could possibly stoop! I can't believe you sometimes... | „ |
~ Gibberish codec call from the Colonel AI. |
“ | Honestly though, you have played the game for a long time. Don't you have anything else to do with your time? | „ |
~ Colonel AI, if the player has actually spent pretty long playing the game. |
“ | Actually, I'm... in really bad shape financially. I pay money to my ex-wife as part of our divorce settlement, among other bills... I just had no choice but to make you pay for lunch the other day. I'm really sorry. | „ |
~ Colonel AI's supposed financial troubles. |
“ | Munch, munch... Um? Raiden? I'm eating right now. Get back to me later... munch, munch... | „ |
~ One of Colonel AI's gibberish codec calls |
“ | La-li-lu-le-lo! La-li-lu-le-lo!! La-li-lu-le-lo!!! | „ |
~ One of Colonel AI's gibberish codec calls |
“ | I'm not home right now. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP | „ |
~ One of Colonel AI's gibberish codec calls, he actually vocalizes the BEEP. |
“ | Actually, there is something I have been meaning to tell you but I just couldn't... I think you should know, though. On Saturday morning last week I saw a guy leaving Rosemary's room... How should I put it, it was like they were... "intimate." I'm sorry. Sorry to bring this up during the mission, but... | „ |
~ Colonel AI's telling of Rose having a affair with someone. |
“ | Colonel AI: Raiden, turn the game console off right now! Raiden: What did you say? Colonel AI: The mission is a failure! Cut the power right now! Raiden: What's wrong with you?! Colonel AI: Don't worry, it's a game! It's a game just like usual. |
„ |
~ The Colonel tells Raiden to 'turn the console off right now' |
Gallery[]
Images[]
Trivia[]
- Before the Colonel AI in Metal Gear Solid 2, the fourth-wall break of the villain commander of player character trying to order the player to "turn the game console off" was previously done in the original Metal Gear by Big Boss (or his body double).
- At the beginning of the game at bottom of Strut A, the explanation the Colonel AI gives about the solition radar is word-by-word same that Mei Ling (and real Colonel Campbell) gives in MGS1. This is one of the early clues that the "Colonel" from MGS2 is not who he claims to be.