Kojima Productions has unveiled its next title as Death Stranding 2, the sequel to the blockbuster 2019 game that saw players take on the role of Norman Reedus' Sam Bridges as they traversed treacherous environments to deliver cargo between isolated settlements in a post-apocalyptic world. Making her return to the series is Lea Seydoux reprising her role as Fragile—an ally of Sam and owner of the courier company Fragile Express. It appears that Death Stranding 2 will expand upon Fragile's established character in a big way, giving fans a deeper look at her tragic backstory.
Despite not being the protagonist, Fragile is a crucial part of Death Stranding's plot as she supports Sam in his journey westward to connect the remaining Knot Cities to the Chiral Network. She offers Sam the use of her jump ability that acts as the game's fast travel system allowing players to return to previous private rooms they have activated as checkpoints. Additionally, she helps Sam avert nuclear disaster by warning him that the package given to him by a disguised Higgs is actually a bomb meant to destroy South Knot City. With how pivotal a role Fragile plays in the first game, it will be nice to see her backstory expanded in Death Stranding 2.
Death Stranding Only Gives Players a Glimpse at Fragile's Dark History
Once Fragile earns Sam's trust, she begins to open up to him about her early life and history with the villain Higgs. Fragile was born to a family of porters—her father the founder of Fragile Express and her mother, Coffin, a freelance courier. Coffin would go on to abandon the two in pursuit of her goal of stopping Bridges and their experiments with Bridge Babies, leading her to become a terrorist who would end up mentoring Higgs. Following the death of her father, Fragile would take over ownership of the company and merge it with a smaller company owned at the time by Higgs.
Unbeknownst to her, Higgs was not delivering supplies to the Knot Cities, but using the company as a front for transporting weapons for his terrorist organization, Homo Demens. Things escalated quickly when he tricks Fragile into delivering a nuclear bomb that ends up destroying Middle Knot City. In an attempt to avoid another tragedy, Fragile stands up to Higgs and steals the bomb intended to destroy South Knot City which results in her being punished by leaving her stranded in Timefall wearing only a hood to cover her head. This incident greatly disfigures her body due to the rapid time acceleration Timefall causes and leaves Fragile with a thirst for revenge.
How Death Stranding 2 Might Delve Deeper into Fragile's Backstory
Fragile is heavily featured in the reveal trailer for Death Stranding 2, suggesting that she may be the central focus of this game's plot. Not a lot is known about her life outside of her relation to Fragile Express and Higgs, so a chance to see more of the personal life of Fragile prior to her incident with South Knot City would be more than welcome. As can be seen in the trailer, Fragile appears to have a child that has yet to be mentioned as part of her backstory, suggesting she was a mother at some point or perhaps freed and adopted a Bridge Baby.
The trailer shows Fragile fleeing with the child from the safety of their bunker in an attempt to escape an unknown threat. In the process, her cycle crashes, and she appears to lose the baby. A BB pod presumed to be the child's is then shown to become corrupted with some sort of monstrous version of a BB, suggesting that there is an even darker element to the existence of Bridge Babies. It's highly likely this occurrence will be explored further during the plot of Death Stranding 2.
Death Stranding 2 is now in production for PS5.
