Meryl Silverburgh (Policenauts)
Meryl Silverburgh is the name of two video game characters appearing in video games created by video game designer Hideo Kojima. The original Meryl appeared in Kojima's sci-fi adventure game Policenauts in 1994. The second and better known version of Meryl appeared in Metal Gear Solid in 1998 and has become a reccurring character thorough the Metal Gear series. Kojima reused the original Meryl's name and likeness for the Metal Gear version since she was his favorite character in Policenauts according to an interview in the Policenauts Visual Data Book.
The Meryl from Policenauts was a former female soldier from Earth who works for the Vice Squad at the Beyond Coast Police. She is a tall, strong-minded woman who is always ready for action (longing for the same kind of excitement during her military days) and wears a headband with a paint tatoo on her shoulder. She is a major character who helps the protagonist (Jonathan Ingram) in his search for his ex-wife's killer. She has a partner named Dave Forrest, who is her exact opposite.
The Metal Gear version of the character is a lot younger and appears as an inexperienced soldier in Metal Gear Solid who is taken prisoner during the Shadow Moses takeover. She serves as Solid Snake's sidekick and love interest during the events of the game.
Despite the similar appearances and coinciding backstory, the MGS and Policenauts versions of the character are considered to be separate characters (presumably the same character in alternate dimensions or even descendants from each other) due to the discrepancies between the timeline in both games. Policenauts (2040) and Metal Gear Solid (2005) are set 35 years apart, yet the Meryl from Policenauts is only a few years older than her MGS counterpart.
Meryl is voiced by Kyôko Terase (also known as Megumi Terase) in the Japanese version, while Debi Mae West (aka Mae Zadler) played her in the English-dubbed Metal Gear Solid games.
History
Policenauts version
- Age: 24
- Height: 185 cm
A member of the Beyond Coast Police's Vice Squad, she is Ed Brown's subordinate and Dave Forrest's partner. An unusually tall woman in Beyond, she is a military freak who wields a combat knife and has a well-trained body. She has the logo of Special Forces Group FOXHOUND tatooed on her arm. She has voluminous curly hair and a bandanna on her head and wears a bullet extracted from a previous wound as an earring. She has a natural face and barely has any make-up applied. She wears combat boots and motorcycle leather. Keeps a large handgun on her shoulder holster.
Born to a military household, she joined the armed forces the moment she graduated from high school. She participated in various regional conflicts and her talents earned her a spot to join High-Tech Special Forces unit FOXHOUND at the time. She was a member of FOXHOUND during their last mission, the Fall of Zanzibar, and she began working as an instructor at an intensive training center after the unit was disbanded for their gene therapy. But she quickly grew tired of that job and moved to Beyond to seek excitement and joined the BCP. She is very rough and strong-minded and has a great sense of justice. She is the total opposite of her partner, Dave. Her hobbies are motorcycles and fighting.
She and Dave manage to help Jonathan Ingram in his search for his ex-wife's (Lorraine) missing husband, Kenzo Hojo, who dissappeared after discovering a conspiracy involving the sales of narcotics. At some point during the investigation, Meryl and Dave encountered the assassin that killed Lorraine. During the shoot-out, Dave was fatally shot and the assassin escaped. In his dying breath, Dave revealed that he always had a crush on Meryl. The assassin shortly left a time bomb in a bagshop full of similar-looking imitation bags and a genuine ELES-brand bag, in which the bomb was placed inside. Meryl provided Jonathan and Ed with another genuine ELES bag, which she once received as a gift from Dave and the two of them were able to deactive the bomb without any problem.
Later, Meryl manages to help Jonathan exposed the conspiracy between Gatse Becker and Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa by providing a miniature camcorder to Jonathan and broadcasting the signal to network TV. She honors Dave's memory by wearing his goggles around her neck.
Metal Gear version
- Age: Late teens
- Height: 175 cm
- Blood Type: A
In Metal Gear Solid Meryl is first introduced as the daughter of Roy Campbell's deceased brother however it is later revealed that she was conceived as a result of an affair between Roy Campbell and his sister-in-law. The secret was kept from Meryl by her biological parents.
Born to a house of military traditions, Meryl trained herself throughout her childhood in the 'arts' of soldiery. She admired the FOXHOUND unit (a high-tech special forces group), viewing the days when her uncle and Solid Snake were members as the unit’s heyday, and wears a paint tattoo of the unit's old logo on her left shoulder. She joined the armed forces after graduating high school and received extensive psychotherapy to prevent any attraction to the opposite sex. Her weapon of choice is a heavy Desert Eagle – she claims to have used the gun since she was eight years old and states, “I’m more comfortable with this than I am with a bra.”
She was recruited by the Next-Generation Special Forces US military group and assigned to Shadow Moses island in 2005. Following her arrival on the island, the unit involved with the exercise revolted along with members of FOXHOUND and took over the nuclear disposal site on the island and the Metal Gear tank being developed there. Meryl refused to join in with the rebellion and was taken prisoner. After a time, she managed to escape confinement and met up with Solid Snake, who had been forced out of retirement by the US government in order to neutralize the terrorists and the two eventually began working together.
Later the pair met up on the B1 Floor of the Nuclear Disposal Facility. They headed to the Commander's Room where Psycho Mantis controlled Meryl's mind. Meryl held her gun against Snake, but Snake, realizing she was not her self, managed to knock her out. Snake then dispatched of Mantis and he and Meryl headed North in order to destroy Metal Gear. However, Meryl was shot and subsequently captured by FOXHOUND member, Sniper Wolf. In an attempt to rescue Meryl and complete his mission, Snake engaged in a sniping duel with Wolf and was eventually lured into an ambush by her where he was also captured. Snake is then put through a series of torture trials by Revolver Ocelot. She tells Snake that she never gave into the torture "and things worse than that" (implying possible rape).
At this point in the game, the player's actions dictate Meryl's fate. If the player successfully completes the torture section, Snake rescues a wounded Meryl in the final section of the game and they escape the facility together before their deaths are faked by Roy Campbell and Mei Ling. If the player submits to the torture, Snake discovers that Meryl has died during her imprisonment and leaves her body to be buried by the collapsing structure. Most fans choose to accept Meryl's survival as series canon. The fictional publication, In the Darkness of Shadow Moses by Nastasha Romanenko offered as an bonus feature with Metal Gear Solid 2 suggests that Snake and Meryl escaped together. It is theorised that she resided in Alaska with Snake for a small number of years before leaving him. Promotional artwork for Metal Gear Solid 4 which is set several years after the Shadow Moses incident seems to show Meryl, implying that she will feature in the game however the series creator Hideo Kojima, has a reputation for misleading fans through prerelease footage and withholding important details regarding the games (for example, the fact that the player would not control Solid Snake for the majority of MGS2 was not revealed until the game's release) and as such, this artwork can only suggest a possible scenario, rather than confirm any fan theories.
Miscellaneous Info and Other Appearances
- Meryl appeared in both volumes of the Metal Gear Solid Drama CD series. The Drama CD series contained non-canonical storylines set after the Shadow Moses incident featuring the characters from the game. Meryl appeared in these scenarios as an independent covert-op agent working for UN Peacekeeping Force. She wore the same type of sneaking suit Snake wore in the original game, which was depicted by character designer Yoji Shinkawa in the CDs' booklet. This outfit was made into an unlockable extra in Metal Gear Solid: Integral, and later in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (without the bandanna).
- In the original Metal Gear Solid, there are two ways to see Meryl without her pants on.
- Olga Gurlukovich, a character resembling Meryl, appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2 and plays a vital role within the story. Otacon points her resemblance to Meryl in a radio conversation with Snake, which is emphasized further in the Japanese version by the fact that they shared the same voice actress.
- Meryl herself appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (an expanded version of MGS2) as a supporting character in a Snake Tales mission titled Confidential Legacy, in which she takes Olga's place as the boss of the Tanker stage. Her new polygonal model was also used in Substance's Missions mode, as well as in Casting Theater mode.
- Meryl's partner in Policenauts (Dave Forrest) shares the same given name Solid Snake has, whose true name is also Dave (David).