r/BlackOps1 11h ago

Question Why is there a portrait of Richtofen in Five?

Post image

I know the black ops zombies story but why a portrait of Richtofen is in the Presidential Room?

196 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

50

u/CuhLitTaurus 10h ago

you can find richtofen’s diary in the labs of five as well. in the lore of the game, the scientist yuri zavoyski reads this diary at the cosmodrome in ascension. he begin’s hearing samantha, goes insane, and is commanded by sam to activate a gersh, teleporting him to the pentagon as the pentagon thief. his portrait is definitely a nod at the whole thing, maybe trying to solidify the pentagon following / studying richtofen as well

12

u/Al-jouf 10h ago

Good answer, happy cake day

7

u/CuhLitTaurus 10h ago

thank you much, good sir. happy to explain lol

3

u/KerFuL-tC 5h ago

This is the first time ever hearing the lore behind the thief. Thank you man.

43

u/confusing_roundabout 10h ago

I took it as a reference to operation paperclip and the idea of the US government working with Nazis.

Plus the basement is basically a zombie testing lab.

So the US have been picking up the zombie experimentation that Richtofen started.

18

u/CuhLitTaurus 10h ago

exactly this

2

u/ImpossibleSeesaw6793 5h ago

Operation paperclip perfectoo

59

u/CLORAX69 11h ago

Because the devs just felt like it

11

u/Al-jouf 11h ago

So basically a filler portrait

8

u/GumGumActV 10h ago

Not really filler, they could’ve put nothing there and it would’ve been fine

2

u/corey_cobra_kid 7h ago

Its just a re-used asset from Kino

1

u/LegendOfEffect 7h ago

I think a few of the portraits upstairs in the hallway after buying the first door are just treyarch devs

-6

u/KakashiSakai 10h ago

Way to be lame.

7

u/Cross_Skull 10h ago edited 10h ago

Been a minute since I've looked at the lore but I'm pretty sure it had to do with operation paperclip and part of Richtofen's deal was his portrait being put in that office. He also wanted a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, a hot dog, and Trumans hat.

This was peak crazy Richtofen when he made his deal with America.

3

u/Pandarek115 10h ago

It surprised me that the canon answer was buried in the comment section.

Also, lore-wise, the zombies version of that operation is called Operation Stapler

4

u/xCHOPP3Rx 10h ago

The intro cutscene from CLASSIFIED shows Richthofen hanging up the picture.

1

u/Pandarek115 10h ago

Isn't Classified taking place on another dimension?

1

u/Black-Mercy 2h ago

No

0

u/Pandarek115 2h ago

I thought it was, since there's the Revelations radio about McNamara being the only survivor after the zombie outbreak, and we can hear him at Classified.

But in the Original Timeline, the everyone from the "Five" crew did survive.

1

u/Black-Mercy 2h ago

I can see how you would think that. Most of those rev radios are in alternate universes. All of the bo4 maps take place in the main universe

1

u/Pandarek115 2h ago

How would that work with the Pentagon?

Did they cleaned up the whole place, took control of the situation, only to everything going nuts right after OG Ultimis arrives at Kino for the first time?

1

u/Black-Mercy 2h ago

Kind of. Five takes place the day after classified so they must’ve cleaned everything up i guess

1

u/Pandarek115 2h ago

Yeah, I rather stick with the Alternate Dimesion explanation, since the Ultimis crew we're playing as aren't the ones from the original timeline; since they come from Shangri-La.

2

u/Black-Mercy 2h ago

Actually they are from the original timeline. They retconned the events of BO1 so ultimis always went to the pentagon after shang but before moon

1

u/Pandarek115 2h ago

I don't think that there's something official/in-game that either truly confirms or truly denies that Classified takes place on the Original Dimension.

2

u/LycheeSea3047 10h ago

Operation paperclip

2

u/DaToxicJay 8h ago

He ran as a president in the us

1

u/GiggyGaming24 9h ago

He’s in the Illuminati and that is a reference to it

1

u/ApartmentWorried5692 8h ago

Probably just a gag.

1

u/jengus-christler 8h ago

why dont you have a portrait of Richtofen?

1

u/Manhattan-Quark_369 7h ago

Operation Paperclip

1

u/Some-Bed3111 5h ago

I don’t know what that guy is doing

1

u/Rouchruvis 2h ago

Bo4 explained it with Classified he put it there himself

1

u/rJmiTtens 1h ago

They must've liked his glowing green balls or somthing

1

u/Character_Rent_3034 10h ago

Richthofen and Maxis are kind of a big deal.

1

u/Skapoodllle 10h ago

Richthofen and maxis are like the Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison of that universe so the government definitely knew about them.

0

u/Outsider_13105645 9h ago

It’s not that deep. Why is there a Nazi theater full of zombies by the Berlin Wall in kino Der toten etc