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Raiden - The MGS Ninja

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Raiden - The MGS Ninja Empty Raiden - The MGS Ninja

Post by Paragon-Yoshi Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:12 pm

My subject here is Raiden. A hero character from the "Metal Gear Solid" franchise.


Raiden, who was born in Liberia, and raised to be a child soldier and killing machne by Solidus Snake.
He was a natural killer and people started to fear him, giving him the nickname "Jack the Ripper".

After the war ended, he grew up, suppressed the memories of his past and got to live a normal life.
Eventually he joined the non-existant FOXHOUND group and was the hero character of the Big Shell Incident.

After a lot of story events, he would meet Solidus Snake again, remembering his past, battling his Godfather in a duel with blades.
In which Raiden killed him, finally overcoming his past.

Raiden began to live a normal life again, but was later involved in another mission.
He saved Sunny Gurlukovich, but was captured by the Patriots and turned into a cyborg.
He escaped eventually and was stabilized and rescued by Dr. Madnar.


He would return on the game screen again, as a cyborg ninja with superhuman powers, in MGS4.
And as a support character for Solid Snake.

After sustaining a lot of fatal injuries and limbs removed, Raiden's body was organic again at the end.
Suggesting that he now was back in his real body.
He makes peace with his wife and got to learn his son.

With the threat of the Patriots gone. He could finally live as a happy family with his wife and son.
This time, for all time.
...


At least this is the story I got out of it.
This is just an extremely shortened summary.
If you want to read the full story, I suggest you look up WIki's.


Raiden was negatively received at first, when he made his debut as hero of MGS2.
People hated the fact that Solid Snake wasn't the main playable character in his game.
And that compared to Snake, he is whiney, weak and pathetic.

Personally, I liked Raiden from the beginning. And I cannot understand this high amount of criticism at all.
It's true that his personality was a lot less... professional, compared to Snake.
But come on, HE WAS JUST A ROOKIE!
So it was expected that he would act a lot different from Snake.


Of course, he was changed a lot in MGS4.
To become a superhuman cyborg ****. Kinda like the change from RE2 Leon to RE4 Leon, only on a higher scale.
Raiden acted a lot more professional, cold and superhuman. Ditching his previous behavior almost entirely.

I didn't like this at first. But got to like the concept of him in the end.


He returned as **** Cyborg Ninja in his own game "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance".
In which his previous attitude from MGS2 was brought back, but to a lesser extent. Making him still appear professional.
He wasn't completely cold and detached in this game, like he was in MGS4. Kinda a flaw here, but forgivable.
And he would have been perfect this way....
....

But then, the plot had to go down the drain.
Three words: JACK THE RIPPER!

Seriously, WHAT IN THE BURNING CESSPIT WERE THE DEVELOPERS THINKING HERE?!?


For those who do not know, half-way through the game, he is brought to an emotional weak state.
Due to the realization, that not all enemies he killed were bad guys. Some had no choices or were compromised.

It is then dictated by both Monsoon and Jetstream Sam, that he is still "Jack the Ripper" from back then, when he was still a child soldier.
(Also minor plothole: "How the heck did they know about this?!?")
That he is a killer who enjoys killing like nothing else. Which is why he slashed up all those enemies throughout the game.

Which is a load of bull!!!
The reason Raiden was brought down to this emotional state was merely because he was oblivious to the fact that not all enemies he killed were bad guys and he started to feel guilty for it.

But sadly, the developers apparently couldn't keep it anymore and had to pull another "Evil Ryu/Super Saiyajin" moment.
By taking the NICKNAME (just a **** nickname!!!) "Jack the Ripper", and turned it into a demonic split-personality.

YOu know when Capcom created "Evil Ryu"?
Who in concept is Ryu who cannot control his powers anymore and in result turns evil and only enjoys killing then?
(A story concept I also hate for Street Fighter. And it's one of many ridiculous sub-plots that ruined the Street Fighter series for me.)

This is essentially the Metal Gear version of Evil Ryu.
Raiden split into a Good Raiden and Evil Raiden (Jack the Ripper), with his evil side more and more dominating him.
Even subtle codec messages such as "I know the joy of killing. I don't deny it anymore, I don't fear it anymore" are a clear indication.


Of course, it only seems as if Evil Raiden only makes an appearance in the Monsoon boss battle.
But if you just look hard enough, you can see that he lingers for the rest of the game.
Codec calls make it clear the most.


So all the is left in this game at the end, is that Raiden left Maverick again, because he has his "own war to fight".
I dunno about you, but with all those indications, I think it is very possible that his evil side is pretty much dominating him at this point already, only going to war to satisfy his joy of killing.
And the fear is there that in the end, just killing in war will not suffice anymore and  he will become a psychotic killer, slashing up anyone who is near.

THAT is what this ridiculous sub-plot conveys to me.
And this is why I think this Jack the Ripper sub-plot destroyed his character.
Turning him from a hero to an anti-hero/villain mix, who will possibly become a mad villain himself in the end.


I do like the concept of a super-form, that powered him up.
But WHY THIS SUB-PLOT?!?
Wouldn't a simple "Fuel Cell Overcharge" have sufficed?!?


I can only hope that this spin-off will stay a spin-off and will not become part of the actual MGS-plotline.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about Raiden.


Last edited by .Luke on Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:08 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Another curse word I missed in the year-old filter. Fixed. - .Luke)
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Post by Maetch Thu Aug 01, 2013 1:43 am

The overall plot of Metal Gear is already insane and nonsensical as it is, and you act like this is a surprise?

And personally, I didn't mind Raiden in MGS2, but I feel that MGS4 really screwed his character up.

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Post by Axol The Axolotl Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:28 am

That was a good background story.
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Post by Paragon-Yoshi Thu Aug 01, 2013 3:09 pm

Maetch wrote:The overall plot of Metal Gear is already insane and nonsensical as it is, and you act like this is a surprise?
Not really a surprise, but a bad decision in my eyes.

I am seriously wondering: Are the japanese game makers really so in love with their "super-forms", that they had to pull another one here?
Like I said, Raiden essentially turned into his own kind of "Evil Ryu".

I don't like the "Evil Form" for Ryu and I don't like it here either.
Even more considering how Raiden so obviously got the wrong idea.

And personally, I didn't mind Raiden in MGS2, but I feel that MGS4 really screwed his character up.
I felt the same at first.
Truly, seeing him as a superhuman cyborg ninja for the first time was a "WTF?" moment.
I thought "WTF did they do to Raiden?!?" as well at first.
But over time, I actually got to like it more and more.

And I guess it's also obvious why Kojima and friends decided to take this route:
Raiden was really hated as main playable character of MGS2. He pretty much became the laughing stock of the series.
As evidenced by the parody-character "Raikov" in MGS3, as well as in the "Snake Eraser" parody and some other small bits of seeing him getting humiliated time and time again.

But they didn't want him to be the laughing stock of the series. Thus they had to do something to get the people to like him.
Which is why they have taken this U-turn and made him ****... and it worked.

If they had decided to keep him the same, it might would'Ve been the better decision for the sake of plot consistency, but he would never have grown out of his role as "laughing stock of MGS".
Guess Kojima saw no other way to get him the popularity he deserved back then.
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