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Meryl SilverburghMeryl Silverburgh is a fictional character created by video game designer Hideo Kojima. Meryl first appeared in Kojima's sci-fi adventure game Policenauts in 1994, but she is much better known for her appearance in Metal Gear Solid in 1998, which made her into a reoccurring character in the Metal Gear series. Kojima reused this character for Metal Gear since she was one of his favorite characters in Policenauts. The original 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 (always 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 the protagonist's (Solid Snake) sidekick and love interest. 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 six years older than her MGS counterpart. Meryl is voiced by Kyko Terase (also known as Megumi Terase) in the Japanese games, while Debi Mae West (aka Mae Zadler) played her in the localized Metal Gear Solid games. History (contains spoilers) Policenauts version 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 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 assasin that killed Jonathan's ex-wife. During the shoot-out, Dave was fatally shot and the assasin escaped. In his dying breath, Dave revealed that he always had a crush on Meryl. The assasin 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 Solid version The apparent daughter of Roy Campbell's deceased brother, Matt Campbell, in reality Meryl was conceived from an affair between Roy Campbell himself and his sister-in-law, Matt's wife, making her Roy's actual biological child. Born to a house of military traditions, Meryl has trained herself since childhood to become a soldier. She admired FOXHOUND (a high-tech special forces group) during the days when her uncle and Solid Snake were members and wears a paint tattoo of the unit's logo on her left shoulder. She finally joined the armed forces after graduating high school and received gene therapy to prevent any attraction to the opposite sex. She handles the Desert Eagle with only one hand. She was assigned as a recruit for the Next-Generation Special Forces in Shadow Moses island during 2005. When she arrived at Shadow Moses, the unit involved with the exercise revolted along with FOXHOUND and took over the nuclear disposal site on the island. However, she did not join the rebellion and was taken prisoner. She managed to escape and meet up with Solid Snake, who was employed by the US goverment to neutralize the terrorists and they began working together. About midway through the game, Meryl gets captured after being wounded by FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf. Depending on the player's performance during the "torture event" with Revolver Ocelot, her fate in the outcome of the game is very different. Does Snake resist Ocelot's torture (in which case she escapes with Snake after Metal Gear Rex is destroyed)? Or does he submit (she dies and Snake escapes with Otacon instead)? Miscellaneous Info and Other Appearances In addition to her appearance in Policenauts and Metal Gear Solid, Meryl also 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 of the game. Meryl appeared in these scenarios as an independent covert-op agent working for her uncle. She wore the same type of Sneaking Suit Snake wore, which was depicted by character designer Yoji Shinkawa in the CDs' booklet. This outfit was later made into an unlockable extra in both and , both of which are updated versions of the original Metal Gear Solid. While Meryl doesn't appear in , a character that bears her likeness called Olga Gurlukovich appears as a major character in the game. Snake and Otacon even make reference to her likeness to Meryl. It's also worth noting than in the Japanese version, Olga was also voiced by Kyko Terase. While the original MGS had two different endings in which Meryl lives or dies, MGS2 makes no specific reference to either ending (although a mock document written by one of the game's characters, accessable only on the game's disc, implies her survival in the first game). featured a "Snake Tales" mission titled "Confidential Legacy", in which Meryl played a role, although her presence was merely that of a skin-swapped Olga. Meryl's partner in Policenauts (Dave Forrest) shares the same given name Solid Snake has, whose true name is also Dave (David). Silverburgh
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