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"Mature Content!" |
| “ | Hold it, Snake. Time to change the disc. I know. I know. It's a pain. But you need to swap disc 1 for disc 2. You see the disc labeled 2? Huh? Oh, wait! We're on Playstation 3! It's a Blu-Ray Disc. Dual-layered, too. No need to swap. | „ |
| ~ Otacon's famous 4th wall breaking moment in MGS4 |
| “ |
Otacon: Have you ever... loved someone? |
„ |
| ~ Otacon discussing love with Snake |
| “ | The whole reason I got into science in the first place was because I was no good with people. I was scared of them. I was scared of life. I thought that I could never understand them because they're so illogical. But I've finally learned how to like people. I'm not afraid anymore. | „ |
| ~ Otacon explaining his background |
Doctor Hal Emmerich, also known as Otacon, is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Raiden) in the Solid Snake saga of the Metal Gear franchise.
He is the son of Huey Emmerich and Strangelove, Solid Snake's most trusted partner and best friend, Sunny's adoptive father and guardian and the co-founder/member of Philanthropy. At first, he was enthusiastic in building machines like Metal Gear in real life, but after realizing the consequences, he tried his best to learn from his mistakes and ultimately contributed in stopping several villainous acts.
He was voiced by Christopher Randolph.
What Makes Him Pure Good?[]
In General/Background[]
- He helped Solid Snake in his missions, despite possibly not having anything to gain, taking responsibility for his actions.
- He is shown to be kindhearted, having remained loyal to Snake throughout the years and providing him one of his few consistent companions and people he can emotionally rely upon.
- While he has a skittish and easily terrified personality, he gradually gets over this in the first game and it never prevents him from doing the right thing afterwards.
- Gradually outgrows his social awkwardness which stemmed from being an isolated scientist, subverting potential corrupting qualities that came from it in process. Among such qualities were minor perverted tendencies (ex. making comments about Meryl Silverburgh's rear to Snake) which fortunately not only played for laughs, but also abandoned completely later on.
- Puts his remarkable skill in hacking to expose and counter corruption which marred U.S. government despite sordid circumstances surrounding his discovery of such talent (hacking and monitoring into the FBI's central database while working for them out of curiosity thus getting kicked out for his troubles).
- Ultimately proves to be critical in helping Snake dismantle the control of the Patriots, liberating humanity from their control.
- While he wasn't present to save his sister Emma Emmerich from nearly drowning as a child, this was because he was being raped by his sexually abusive step-mother at the time it happened, and he felt immense regret for not doing so.
- Despite being raised by his incredibly evil father and his sexually abusive step-mother, he refused to let them corrupt him and grew up to be a good person as an adult.
Metal Gear Solid 1[]
- Despite helping develop the Metal Gear, he didn't realize that it was going to be used for nuclear attacks by FOXHOUND and only wanted to advance science and make the giant mechas that he loved in anime a reality. He was immediately horrified when he discovered the truth and allied with Snake to assist him in Shadow Moses, being incredibly important in ensuring he was able to destroy the Metal Gear and defeat Liquid.
- This one is probably more on the nose, but while working on said Metal Gear, he ensured said Metal Gear, Metal Gear REX, allowed its pilot to perceive their surroundings via. radome that provided its interface system considering the cockpit being completely enclosed and lacked windows to see through — a design flaw he deemed necessary because he wanted it to be "complete" by giving it a weakness, or character flaw as he put it. This later proved crucial for Snake as he won't have to worry about the prospect of facing Liquid who used what was supposedly an overpowered weapon of mass-destruction against him.
- He told Snake where he could find a sniper to save Meryl from Sniper Wolf.
- He helped in freeing Snake after he got captured by FOXHOUND.
- Tried to convince Sniper Wolf to stop committing illegal actions after falling in love with her, pleaded with Snake not to kill her, and emotionally comforted her in her final moments.
- While it appeared to be signs of stockholm syndrome on the first glance, there's no denying he correctly deduced that there's some good in Sniper Wolf after all as proven through her decision to spare wolf dogs at Shadow Moses, not the one who killed for sport, and hated seeing women and children hurt hence could only incapacitate Meryl. Sniper Wolf herself in turn felt a measure of friendship and sympathy for Otacon despit not necessarily reciprocated his feelings for her, allowing him to feed the dogs whenever he asked, and even giving him her handkerchief as a small gift. If anything, had it not for her stubborness, he would've succeeded to redeem her.
- He saved Snake when Liquid trapped him in a room with nerve gas.
- Agreed to stay on Shadow Moses despite the U.S. Government planning to destroy it initially, risking his own life to ensure that what happened was properly exposed.
- Comforts Snake after Meryl dies in the non-canonical Bad Ending.
Metal Gear Solid 2[]
- Together with Snake, he formed the N.G.O Philanthropy in order to expose and dismantle Metal Gears throughout the world for the future stability of humanity, assisting Snake as mission control in several missions including the prologue Tanker mission.
- Helped Snake to fake his death using Liquid's dead body, so that both of them could get out of the tanker safely, as well as to continue their noble missions of exposing the Metal Gear plan.
- Risked his personal safety by taking a Helicopter onto Big Shell in order to foil the plans of Dead Cell and Solidus Snake, who planned to annihilate the world economy to counter The Patriots.
- Comforted his younger sister Emma as she was dying, telling her that her virus had succeeded despite it initially seeming it might not work.
- After mourning his sister's death, he did not get it distract his missions, but rather successfully rescued the dozens of hostages that were being held in the Big Shell.
Metal Gear Solid 4[]
- After Olga Gurlukovich's death, he adopted her daughter and named her Sunny, being her guardian as well as making her his trusted supporter in his missions.
- He understood Naomi Hunter's motives and tried to encourage her in life.
- He refused to kill Vamp, despite him killing his sister. To elaborate, when he saw Vamp in pain from injuries Raiden inflicted upon him followed by Naomi allowed Otacon to make a choice of ending the latter's misery, he visibly hesitated. In fact, he didn't feel any better when Vamp did Otacon a favor by snatching the nanomachine suppressor and used it on himself before his horrified eyes.
- Reactivated Metal Gear REX so he, Snake, and Raiden could escape Shadow Moses and later, counter Liquid Ocelot/Revolver Ocelot's Metal Gear RAY.
- After Snake defeating Liquid Ocelot/Revolver Ocelot, he reached out and rescued him.
- He pledged to stay with Snake as long as he was alive in the ending, who had only a few years to live as a result of his built-in accelerated aging from being a clone of Big Boss.
Trivia[]
- He was initially considered Near Pure Good character up until his corrupting qualities were reviewed further and confirmed to be not problematic enough to warrant such status.
- He's currently one of the two confirmed Metal Gear characters to be Pure Good (formerly assumed Near Pure Good as stated previously) so far, alongside adoptive daughter Sunny, considering the franchise's characters have some corrupting qualities and the theme discusses about moral ambiguity.
- Ironically, his father Huey is likely to be a Pure Evil villain, making the father-son duo possibly having a complete opposite morality.
- Interestingly, the big three heroes of the first Metal Gear Solid have three different heroic rankings. While Otacon is Pure Good, Meryl and Snake are Near Pure Good and Inconsistently Admirable respectively.
External Links[]
- Hal "Otacon" Emmerich on the Heroes Wiki
- Hal "Otacon" Emmerich on the Metal Gear Wiki
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 Pure Goods
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Playable Characters Assist Trophies Trophies/Spirits/Stickers See Also | ||