“No matter what country you were born in, what ethnicity, what household, everyone is different but everyone's total sum of fortune is the same. So don't give up. That's the message I wanted to convey through this character.”
When Peele told Kojima that Fortune, from Metal Gear Solid 2, struck him as a character of singular ingenuity who had stayed with him — someone who wanted to die and could not, and whose tragedy was also her threat — Kojima explained the character's origin: he had been thinking about luck and arrived at the idea that a person’s degree of happiness over a lifetime is constant and that everyone’s total sum of fortune is the same. Fortune, as a character, has all the luck in the world on the battlefield and spends it there, so in everyday life she is struck by misfortune. The message Kojima wanted to convey with her was that many people feel unhappy — born poor, without good parents — but if you think the total amount of fortune for everyone is the same, you can feel a little better; no matter what country you were born in, what ethnicity, what household, do not give up. Peele connected the idea to the name of his production company, Monkey Paw, and Kojima acknowledged he did not know that story.
“it's one that has stuck out in my mind as something of particular genius. […] it's Fortune. […] Somebody wanted to die and couldn't, and that was the problem. […] the idea of her came about when I was thinking about luck and how a person's degree of happiness is the same throughout one's life. […] So, Fortune, the character, has all the luck in the world while on the battlefield and ends up using all of her luck there. […] My production company I named Monkey Paw Productions. […] I don't know that story.”