Where does McDonnel Benedict come from?

[TheFinkinator]

(Im only a few hours in to this game so if its explained somewhere in here please dont spoil it for me)So I get the "Master" title since the dud loves training troops, but he seems to go by his actual name, or the shortened version of Kaz for like the entire time we know him, until suddenly in like 2005 he does by "McDonnel Benedict" which is a really weird name for a Japanese guy to take, especially one who has never gone under a fake name. Also strange to use an alias where you dont change your last name, so I doubt he's using it to hide his past, especially since even after switching to McDonnel, he still goes by Master Miller, which is a name he got even before he met Big Boss.

TLDR I cant think of a good reason why Kaz would suddenly start going by McDonnel, and no matter how hard I search on the internet I cant seem to find it (while avoiding the info for MGSV on those sites of course)

[Stridsvagn69420]

I think there's nothing in MGSV that even mentions his name change

[TheFinkinator]

Originally posted by Stridsvagn69420 (DarkPit):

I think there's nothing in MGSV that even mentions his name change

hes still going by Kaz at the end of the game?

[Stridsvagn69420]

yes

[TheFinkinator]

Originally posted by Stridsvagn69420 (DarkPit):

yes

lol what the hell. Oh well, toss that in the bin i guess

[Snake-XCIII]

My guess is sometime between MGS5 and MG2 He changes his name because hes very likely a war criminal and wishes to hide his past for safty reasons.

[TheFinkinator]

Originally posted by Snake-XCIII:

My guess is sometime between MGS5 and MG2 He changes his name because hes very likely a war criminal and wishes to hide his past for safty reasons.

well yeah i thought that, but like i said, the guy kept the same last name, and kept using the title "Master Miller", which is a name he was using since 1970 or so, so everyone would still know who he was. So i dont think he was hiding his identity.

[Doragor]

I wouldn't draw any conclusions since Liquid probably murders him between MGS5 and MGS2 to assume his identity.
Changing his name might just be another of distancing him even further from people that might acuatlly know who Miller really was (like any survivor from DD). Might even be a suggestion from Ocelot, the Triple Agent himself.

[Farrel]

There's an interesting video here looking at Miller as a character and his history.

I'm not sure if it's canon, but they say that 'Benedict' is in reference to Benedict Arnold, a historical American traitor... Which is what he viewed himself as after leaving Big Boss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPe41T-QoFQ

Spoilers, by the way.

My guess for McDonell was due to his burger chain, but... you know... Copyright.

[TheFinkinator]

Originally posted by Doragor:

I wouldn't draw any conclusions since Liquid probably murders him between MGS5 and MGS2 to assume his identity.
Changing his name might just be another of distancing him even further from people that might acuatlly know who Miller really was (like any survivor from DD). Might even be a suggestion from Ocelot, the Triple Agent himself.

No, they mention in MGS1 that after liquid (impersonating miller) says something suspicious they send an agent to millers actual house and find his corpse there, so he definitely only started impersonating miller a few days before shadow moses.

Not to mention theres no way Liquid could have pulled off impersonating miller in the 80s. in 85 miller was 39 and liquid was 13 XD. ALSO, Im guessing his impersonation only worked in the first place because he did it entirely over Codec. Its pretty hard to impersonate Miller in person, you know, with all the missing limbs.

And again, even though he changed his name to McDonnel, he literally never stops calling himself Master Miller, before, during, and after serving under Big Boss, if he was hiding his identity he would have ditched that name.

I cant think of any logical reason he would suddenly change his name, other than what I think is the real reason, which is that Kojima just decided later on that he wanted Miller to be half Japanese and thought it would be neat if his real name was Kazuhira, continuity be damned.

[TheFinkinator]

Originally posted by Farrel:

There's an interesting video here looking at Miller as a character and his history.

I'm not sure if it's canon, but they say that 'Benedict' is in reference to Benedict Arnold, a historical American traitor... Which is what he viewed himself as after leaving Big Boss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPe41T-QoFQ

Spoilers, by the way.

My guess for McDonell was due to his burger chain, but... you know... Copyright.

I will have to watch that after i finish the game i dont want any more spoilers than I already have.

[dprog1995]

It's a retcon. Similar to the way that MGS 1 turned him into a white man from a black man he was in Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake.

[sWX]

Originally posted by TheFinkinator:

I cant think of any logical reason he would suddenly change his name, other than what I think is the real reason, which is that Kojima just decided later on that he wanted Miller to be half Japanese and thought it would be neat if his real name was Kazuhira, continuity be damned.

This.