How Mosquito Could Fit into Death Stranding’s Post-Apocalyptic World
The following contains mild spoilers for Death Stranding.
Announced at the Kojima Productions 10th Anniversary event, dubbed Beyond the Strand, Death Stranding Mosquito is the Death Stranding franchise’s enigmatic foray into anime/animation. Produced by Death Stranding’s Hideo Kojima, directed by ABC Animation’s Hiroshi Miyamoto, and written by Raised by Wolves and Prisoners’ Aaron Guzikowski, Mosquito is reportedly only a working title for the animation film project thus far. Nevertheless, with Death Stranding and Kojima’s work rarely bothering with subtlety regarding people’s names and the symbology ascribed to them, ‘Mosquito’ reflects its masked protagonist.
It’s unclear whether the protagonist’s name will be Mosquito, even if Mosquito turns out to be the final title of the movie, but it’s representative of the unique mask they wear and how it functions. Translated to English during the event, and in the midst of Miyamoto and Kojima frantically tiptoeing around spoiler territory, “the character has the ability to suck something,” and it’s not blood. As for what that could be, as well as what role this mysterious Mosquito character might play in the larger mythos, there are already several clues peppering the brief reveal teaser for Death Stranding Mosquito.
The Elephant in the Room is Mosquito’s Tar Mask
Like Sam, Mosquito’s protagonist is one of Death Stranding’s repatriates. This is clear as the teaser begins with them submerging into the Seam, the vast body of water Sam is seen floating in whenever he dies in-game, and they repatriate by electing to return to the world of the living as the soul (ka) reenters the body (ha).
However, the protagonist’s repatriation process is quite remarkable as their ka is seen following the golden ‘strand’ to what is presumably their ha, though it’s difficult to tell from a distance, and, instead of doing what Sam does—gaining entry via the mouth and being met with a BB—the protagonist’s tar facial apparatus tentacle seems to be what enters, and what happens thereafter is unknown as the teaser cuts to a title card.
It’s clear the protagonist doesn’t require it in order to breathe, for instance, as it is removed to reveal their face during the fight and they don’t seem hindered. If it’s “sucking” something that isn’t blood, a decent bet would be that it harvests Death Stranding’s chiralium. Otherwise, it’s anyone’s guess what it might be “sucking” from the protagonist’s own ha in the Seam. Perhaps they absorb their ha into their ka as they repatriate, sort of like an inverse of the usual repatriation process, in order to fuel their DOOMs, or potentially as a means of curing their chiral contamination or delivery dependence syndrome (DSS).
Death Stranding Mosquito’s Protagonist is Nothing Like the MULEs They May Be Affiliated With
Made evident by the suit they wear and the design of their odradek, Mosquito’s protagonist is one of Death Stranding’s MULEs. This is an intriguing perspective to tell the story of Death Stranding Mosquito from, assuming that the animated movie dives a little deeper into MULEs overall, especially if the Mosquito-esque protagonist is a Homo gestalt who’s suffering prolonged exposure to chiral radiation.
Who is Death Stranding Mosquito’s Suspiciously Sam-Looking Bridges Porter?
Death Stranding Mosquito’s reveal teaser cuts to a lengthy clip of the protagonist engaging in a cinematic and beautifully animated fight against a Bridges porter, who may or may not be Death Stranding’s Sam Porter Bridges. This porter wears a blue Special Delivery Team (SDT) Bridges suit and even has the same ponytail hairstyle and facial hair that is as synonymous with Norman Reedus as it is with Sam. Of course, it isn’t wholly undeniable that it’s Sam, but the resemblance is probably deliberately striking regardless.
MULEs are porters’ natural antagonists, so it’s not inherently surprising that a MULE and a Bridges porter would be duking it out. What’s interesting is that the porter doesn’t appear to have any cargo; to be fair, a hilariously tall stack of meticulously organized containers and equipment could merely be out of frame and not seen during the fight scene.
Rather, the clip begins at 0:50 in the teaser with the protagonist protecting the dog BT from the porter, who tosses the BT aside before approaching it again, when he’s struck by the protagonist and sent hurtling backward in the craterous landscape. The protagonist seemingly has a BT pet, which conveniently resembles a dog and not one of the nightmarish Death Stranding BT types Sam has had to battle in seas of tar.
The fact that the protagonist then kneels to comfort and inspect the BT creature ensures that they are concerned for its well-being and protecting it. Death Stranding Mosquito’s action is what fans would come to expect from a more traditional anime, to be sure, but it’s far from what players may expect a fight between a MULE and a Bridges porter to look like. Indeed, Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s melee combat is considerably sluggish in comparison.
It’s impossible to deny that Sam, let alone any MULE or Bridges porter, could fight as stylishly and superhumanly once players are introduced to Death Stranding 2’s Pizza-Do karate techniques, even if the animated movie is as purposefully exaggerated as an anime.
The games emphasize stealth with Sam’s parry/bind strand maneuver more than actual fisticuffs, unless players decide to throw haymakers and dropkicks, and creative gunplay, whether lethal or non-lethal, over any other kind of action. That said, the games also don’t lean into action as heavily as they do exploration via route navigation and inventory management.
Perhaps Death Stranding Mosquito’s action is merely intended to represent how adept the characters in the franchise’s world actually are at close-quarters combat and martial arts, while the games’ focal point and genre are much more leisurely and passive. Nonetheless, if this is truly Sam that the Mosquito character is sparring with, they may be able to kill each other and continuously repatriate, so it’ll be neat to see how their quarrel is resolved.
