Metal Gear Topics

Dead Cell, 死の細胞, Cell of Death
Dead Cell, デッドセル aka 死の細胞. During conversation with some of my game friends who's only played the English versions of MGS2, I out of the blue became aware of something that had never before occurred to me. A realization that lead me to begin making inquiries to arrive at the following conclusion. Nearly all the English version gamers of this game I know have an understandable misunderstanding of the word "cell" in Dead Cell. The "cell" in Dead Cell is not cell as in "sleeper cell" or "terrorist cell", but is in fact cell as in genes, DNA, "cell". Dead Cell is referring to dead cells from inside the body of living things. The Japanese kanji name of the special military group is the "死の細胞". 死の細胞 [しのさいぼう / shi-no-saibou] : cell(s) that are dead, dead cell(s), dead cell(s) from a living organism, cell(s) of the dead, cell(s) of death. In the game too, Pliskin refers to Dead Cell by name to Raiden as "死の細胞 Shinosaibou", before explaining to Raiden how the group's name also carries the meaning of bringing death to enemy terrorist cells. And when Pliskin mentions enemy cells, the kanji captions does not read "細胞 saibou (cell)", but read "組織 soshiki (organization)". Almost all the Japanese players I asked knew Dead Cell meant dead organic cells, and only a few understood it as military cells. While for English version players, the opposite was true. Not surprisingly, most of the English version players thought of the name of this organization in terms of "splinter cell". That is just not right. The notion of dead cells is actually a theme in the game. The notion of life coming out of dead cells, of dead cells coming back to life. Liquid Snake's dead cells inside his dead arm coming back to life inside Revolver Ocelot. Vamp having already died previously (according to himself), and coming back to life. Vamp being killed by Raiden at the Strut A Deep Sea Dock (end of Fortune battle), and coming back to life. Fortune joining the military and leading Dead Cell was due to the deaths of her father, her mother, her baby, and her husband. Fortune the Dead Cell member was born out of deaths, out of dead cells. Solid Snake being dead by reputation since the tanker sinking incident, and coming back to life on Big Shell. Peter Stillman's dead cells in his crippled leg coming back to life, due to the fact that his leg being dead was a lie. The Colonel being a living being in the codec, but his cells are all dead cells and not living cells, due to the fact that he is a computer simulated human being and not a real life human being. Raiden being a man who's dead inside (an easy conclusion after seeing his room), and yet a new living baby is born out of this dead man. Members of the Patriots are all dead, but living. Examples are more than I can list. Even the beloved Shiozawa Kaneto (塩沢兼人, 1954.1.28 ~ 2000.5.10) was attributed to as a symbol of dead coming back to life in the game in a magazine article I remember reading. He made a guest appearance recording for Director Kojima reprising his role as the voice of Mister X and Ninja just prior to his death. Can the translation loss of this notion be the reason behind Vamp's resurrection being much debated among English gaming circles? Because Vamp's resurrection wasn't that prominent a topic of discussion among Japanese gaming circles. One more defect in the translated English script of this game to add to those already discussed in the "Translated English Script" topic (currently lost). As Vamp said to Fortune after he awoke in her arms, "There is no death for he who is already dead." (I'm not sure this line was properly translated or present in the English versions of the game, I don't remember it. I'll pick up Substance and check out the English dialogue later.) I remember seeing some kind of English water theory pointing out that there is always water present prior to Vamp's resurrections, mentioning some coincidences. Which though coincidences they might appear to be, there is absolutely no real evidence to suggest anything of that line of thought to be the motive behind the production team's emphasis on that drop of tear. However, all the examples of coincidences mentioned together with the said theory are forgetting one fact, and that is Vamp actually only died once in the game. In Shell 2 Core B1 Filtration Chamber No.2, the water wasn't what resurrected Vamp, but if anything, was in fact what killed Vamp. Not to mention the actual fact being it did not kill him, so there wasn't even a resurrection here. And at the Strut L Oil Fence, Vamp was simply shot backwards off of the floating oil fence, there wasn't even evidence to show Raiden even killed him here, not to mention a resurrection. (In addition we not forget the cinematic result being exactly the same be it a PSG1 battle or a PSG1-T battle.) So the water thing isn't a recurring theme at all. At best, Vamp died in this game only once, at the Strut A Deep Sea Dock. Once of something happening isn't enough of anything to demonstrate recurring pattern. If anything, the only thing that event demonstrated was that Fortune's tear has the ability to resurrect Vamp, and it did not demonstrate even that. Therefore, the water theory is bunk. Nothing more, and not worth paying attention to. (It's not a discussion worthy of a topic of its own, so I put it here to pad up a bit this otherwise somewhat short topic.) The recurring theme of MGS2 is actually the notion of dead cells coming back to life. Liquid's dead cells in his dead arm managed to resurrect and come back to life inside Ocelot's body. There are no water-related coincidences here. Vamp's one single resurrection is of the exact same underlying logic, the notion of dead cells resurrecting and coming back to life. Dead cell. 死の細胞. Cell of death. Now that this confusion is cleared up, I have an inquiry to make. So which "cell" did you think the cell in "Dead Cell" was? An extra note about the Japanese term "細胞 (cell)". Nowadays, the term 細胞(cell) is already also widely used in terms of "テロリスト細胞 (terrorist cell)", or "テロ細胞 (terror cell)" for short. But arguably, this term didn't become commonly used this way until after the American 9.11 terrorist incident. Before this usage became common, the term was still more commonly written as "テロリストセル (terorisuto seru)", セル(seru) being the Japanese language pronunciation of the English word "cell". "スリーパー細胞 (sleeper cell)" on the other hand is still not as commonly used nowadays, the term is still more commonly written as "スリーパーセル (sleeper seru)". Even now, the official definition of the term 細胞(cell) in dictionaries still doesn't include meanings of human social organization, regardless of the fact that it is already commonly used as such. 1.22.06

Dead Cell, 死の細胞, Cell of Death

Dead Cell, デッドセル aka 死の細胞.

During conversation with some of my game friends who's only played the English versions of MGS2, I out of the blue became aware of something that had never before occurred to me.
A realization that lead me to begin making inquiries to arrive at the following conclusion.
Nearly all the English version gamers of this game I know have an understandable misunderstanding of the word "cell" in Dead Cell.

The "cell" in Dead Cell is not cell as in "sleeper cell" or "terrorist cell", but is in fact cell as in genes, DNA, "cell".
Dead Cell is referring to dead cells from inside the body of living things.

The Japanese kanji name of the special military group is the "死の細胞".
死の細胞 [しのさいぼう / shi-no-saibou] : cell(s) that are dead, dead cell(s), dead cell(s) from a living organism, cell(s) of the dead, cell(s) of death.
In the game too, Pliskin refers to Dead Cell by name to Raiden as "死の細胞 Shinosaibou", before explaining to Raiden how the group's name also carries the meaning of bringing death to enemy terrorist cells. And when Pliskin mentions enemy cells, the kanji captions does not read "細胞 saibou (cell)", but read "組織 soshiki (organization)".

Almost all the Japanese players I asked knew Dead Cell meant dead organic cells, and only a few understood it as military cells. While for English version players, the opposite was true.
Not surprisingly, most of the English version players thought of the name of this organization in terms of "splinter cell".
That is just not right.

The notion of dead cells is actually a theme in the game.
The notion of life coming out of dead cells, of dead cells coming back to life.

Liquid Snake's dead cells inside his dead arm coming back to life inside Revolver Ocelot.
Vamp having already died previously (according to himself), and coming back to life.
Vamp being killed by Raiden at the Strut A Deep Sea Dock (end of Fortune battle), and coming back to life.
Fortune joining the military and leading Dead Cell was due to the deaths of her father, her mother, her baby, and her husband. Fortune the Dead Cell member was born out of deaths, out of dead cells.
Solid Snake being dead by reputation since the tanker sinking incident, and coming back to life on Big Shell.
Peter Stillman's dead cells in his crippled leg coming back to life, due to the fact that his leg being dead was a lie.
The Colonel being a living being in the codec, but his cells are all dead cells and not living cells, due to the fact that he is a computer simulated human being and not a real life human being.
Raiden being a man who's dead inside (an easy conclusion after seeing his room), and yet a new living baby is born out of this dead man.
Members of the Patriots are all dead, but living.
Examples are more than I can list.
Even the beloved Shiozawa Kaneto (塩沢兼人, 1954.1.28 ~ 2000.5.10) was attributed to as a symbol of dead coming back to life in the game in a magazine article I remember reading. He made a guest appearance recording for Director Kojima reprising his role as the voice of Mister X and Ninja just prior to his death.

Can the translation loss of this notion be the reason behind Vamp's resurrection being much debated among English gaming circles? Because Vamp's resurrection wasn't that prominent a topic of discussion among Japanese gaming circles.
One more defect in the translated English script of this game to add to those already discussed in the "Translated English Script" topic (currently lost).

As Vamp said to Fortune after he awoke in her arms, "There is no death for he who is already dead."
(I'm not sure this line was properly translated or present in the English versions of the game, I don't remember it. I'll pick up Substance and check out the English dialogue later.)

I remember seeing some kind of English water theory pointing out that there is always water present prior to Vamp's resurrections, mentioning some coincidences. Which though coincidences they might appear to be, there is absolutely no real evidence to suggest anything of that line of thought to be the motive behind the production team's emphasis on that drop of tear.
However, all the examples of coincidences mentioned together with the said theory are forgetting one fact, and that is Vamp actually only died once in the game.
In Shell 2 Core B1 Filtration Chamber No.2, the water wasn't what resurrected Vamp, but if anything, was in fact what killed Vamp. Not to mention the actual fact being it did not kill him, so there wasn't even a resurrection here.
And at the Strut L Oil Fence, Vamp was simply shot backwards off of the floating oil fence, there wasn't even evidence to show Raiden even killed him here, not to mention a resurrection. (In addition we not forget the cinematic result being exactly the same be it a PSG1 battle or a PSG1-T battle.)
So the water thing isn't a recurring theme at all. At best, Vamp died in this game only once, at the Strut A Deep Sea Dock. Once of something happening isn't enough of anything to demonstrate recurring pattern. If anything, the only thing that event demonstrated was that Fortune's tear has the ability to resurrect Vamp, and it did not demonstrate even that.
Therefore, the water theory is bunk. Nothing more, and not worth paying attention to.
(It's not a discussion worthy of a topic of its own, so I put it here to pad up a bit this otherwise somewhat short topic.)

The recurring theme of MGS2 is actually the notion of dead cells coming back to life.
Liquid's dead cells in his dead arm managed to resurrect and come back to life inside Ocelot's body. There are no water-related coincidences here.
Vamp's one single resurrection is of the exact same underlying logic, the notion of dead cells resurrecting and coming back to life.

Dead cell. 死の細胞. Cell of death.

Now that this confusion is cleared up, I have an inquiry to make.
So which "cell" did you think the cell in "Dead Cell" was?

An extra note about the Japanese term "細胞 (cell)".
Nowadays, the term 細胞(cell) is already also widely used in terms of "テロリスト細胞 (terrorist cell)", or "テロ細胞 (terror cell)" for short. But arguably, this term didn't become commonly used this way until after the American 9.11 terrorist incident. Before this usage became common, the term was still more commonly written as "テロリストセル (terorisuto seru)", セル(seru) being the Japanese language pronunciation of the English word "cell".
"スリーパー細胞 (sleeper cell)" on the other hand is still not as commonly used nowadays, the term is still more commonly written as "スリーパーセル (sleeper seru)".
Even now, the official definition of the term 細胞(cell) in dictionaries still doesn't include meanings of human social organization, regardless of the fact that it is already commonly used as such.

1.22.06

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