Death Stranding trailer was revealed at the video game awards earlier so we have a lot to talk about. But first, we would like to congratulate Hideo Kojima for being honored with the industry icon award at the show. Like Keighley mentioned, he was robbed of his award last year by Konami but now he can finally step into the limelight to claim what’s rightfully his.
After receiving his award, Hideo Kojima revealed the new trailer for Death Stranding. The footage confirmed Del Toro to be a part of the game itself along with Mads Mikkelsen. The trailer teases the idea of the multiverse, different dimensions, and even time travel. From the looks of it, it is pretty safe to say that Mads will be playing the antagonist in Death Stranding and I believe Mads could be Death itself, trying to end it all.
The footage opens with dead gray crabs that have dark strands attached to the eggs. Further down the footage we see similar strands attached to mads. It can be speculated that one of the characteristics of these strands is that they can be attached to anything that gives birth or has any sort of life inside and then it probably kills everything.
Del Toro is the very first character we see in the Death Stranding trailer and you can see he is wearing the same kind of glowing handcuffs Norman Reedus wore in the first trailer for Death Stranding.
There are noticeable scars on his forehead that appear to be the result of a lobotomy, a surgical operation involving incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, formerly used to treat mental illness. Since he is being hunted by Mads and he clearly escaped from some facility, it is possible that he may have removed some form of a tracking or controlling device from his brain, making it hard for Mads and his group to locate Del Toto.
The setting is World War 2 judging by the planes (A6M Zero) and a tank we will discuss below. A very interesting thing that we noticed is an upside-down rainbow.
Stranger Things is that you?
The next image we will be looking at features a rusted tank that appears to be controlled by the black strands.
The World War 2 tank has squid-like tentacles all over the place and if I’m not wrong, squids do have dark ink inside them which they often use to blind the enemy and escape. The tank itself is a M36 tank destroyer, formally 90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36, was an American tank destroyer used during World War II.
Del Toro is doing his best to hide and protect the fetus-in-a-box he is carrying. Mads is not only after Del Toro but he also wants the baby which Del Toro apparently took with him when he escaped.
We know Hideo Kojima likes to hide little secrets and easter eggs inside his games and Death Stranding is no different. Death Stranding has references for The Phantom Pain and what I believe to be a reference for Solidus Snake.
The child can not properly open his left eye so as a Metal Gear fan my mind goes straight to Solidus Snake, the Snake with no left eye. There is another and very clear reference to Venom Snake in the picture below.
V has come to!
And now for the big one, Mads Mikkelson!
There is defiantly some element of time travel or jumping from dimension to dimension in Death Stranding because the weapons used by the skeleton soldiers differ from the one in possession of Mikkelson.
Mikkelson’s weapon is way ahead of its time, it looks like an automatic rifle from the future. Meanwhile, the skeleton soldiers are carrying WWII rifles.
Skeletons are clearly WWII soldiers that are controlled by Mads. It seems that they have possibly traveled to a dimension where the world ended after WWII, hence, the skeleton soldiers and rusted tanks, and mads came here and took control of the dead world. Is Mads one of the horsemen?
Furthermore, it is possible that Del Toro escaped into this new dimension but Mads tracked him to the dead world. He controls the skeleton soldiers using strands, the same ones we saw on the planes as well as the tanks.
The strands are later sucked back into his body and soldiers are free from their leash, commanded to attack. The baby doll appears for the last time but this time we can see the scars on its stomach that are identical to the one we saw on Norman Reedus.
Mads also gives a nudge to Big Boss: “Kept You Waiting, Huh?”
via GIPHY
We can’t even begin to try and make sense of what’s going on but one thing is for sure, Death Stranding is indeed “A Hideo Kojima Game.”
