‘Shop Contest: Make Sense Of Death Stranding, Winners!

Last week we got to see some new stuff from the upcoming Death Stranding, but it was confusing. So I asked you to ‘shop up some explanations for me, and you did a great job.

Hideo Kojima, one of the key talents behind Death Stranding, has always leaned pretty hard on questions of “who the hell is this person?” to drive the plots of his games. I’d say 90% of the questions I have about the Metal Gear Solid universe derive from hijinks involving who major characters are and what their allegiance is to.

It looks like Death Stranding is gearing up for something strange like that, so I asked you to ‘shop up some solutions for me. I want to know who the person with the Golden Mask is.

Our winner this week is FreddyHardCandy, who has provided us with an image that must be considered in the top ten anime betrayals. I cannot believe that Animal Crossing’s Isabelle would head into the wastelands, strap a weird baby to her chest, and start bothering Norman Reedus. But that’s the Hideo Kojima move, right? He’s hitting us with something we would never expect.

I’ve got lots of honorable mentions this week. The submission quality was just super high! There are a lot of other great submissions over in the comments for the original post if you want to check that out (and you should).

Chris Mc dug deep in gaming culture to find a proper villain for Norman.

sciteach discovered a truly Cursed Image, and it makes a lot of sense to me that this fella would summon a giant scary anus dog.

Or, wait, I think that it might be a new pocket monster. Soapypickles makes a compelling case.

Tested_Ninja believes that it is The Showman himself, Dr. Scary, the Ole Surprise Master, Hideo Kojima.

Slinker knows that this is just an elaborate boss fight. For fun.

Duraigo is going to find “Nooooormaaaaaaan!”

A Fruehling has found the scariest possible version of this video game. Hideo Kojima, what are you doing? Seriously, Snipes is one of the best action heroes of all time, and he’s just not going to be in Death Stranding? What? Are you kidding me?

Constantine6 found a rude scientist.

Done With Kinja claims that this person must be The Golden Mask Guy, not just any Golden Mask Guy.

Bob found the real villain of the game, and he doesn’t even have a mask.

Lharm discovered that this is all part of a direct exploitation scheme by the Mushroom Kingdom.

ClassicDatsunDebate finally showed what everyone was thinking: this Golden Mask fella looks a lot like a Destiny character with a baby strapped to his chest.

GoldenKite knows that there is a deep connection between Solid Snake, who is goofy and clueless, and the wastelands of the death and its stranding.

Mrichston has found a lucrative crossover event, although hopefully that King Slime did not turn into the giant dog monster.

In our final honorable mention this week, netsquire suggests that we think about the ghost inside us all.

Wait, one more. MustangSaggy says that the flat earth did it.

That’s it for this week’s ‘Shop Contest! Congrats to the winner and honorable mentions, and look out for the next ‘Shop Contest on Sunday!