Raiden (Metal Gear)

Raiden
Metal Gear series character
File:MGSraiden.jpg Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, illustrated by Yoji Shinkawa.
First game	Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Created by	Hideo Kojima

Raiden, real name Jack, is a character in the Metal Gear series. He is the protagonist of the Plant Chapter, the main act of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and a character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

His role as the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 was a controversial twist, both for the unexpected substitution of the established hero, Solid Snake, and for his androgynous appearance, the latter so much that the ridiculing of his effeminate appearance became a recurring joke in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and several early Metal Gear Solid 4 promotional videos.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Big Shell

In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Raiden is initially introduced in the Big Shell chapter as "Snake", serving as a member of what appears to be a newly-reinstated FOXHOUND. Through encounters with Solid Snake and the Sons Of Liberty terrorist unit holding the "Big Shell" facility, he discovers he is being manipulated by a powerful government-controlling organization known as The Patriots.

Despite revelations that he is under the command of an AI commanding officer and being used as a guinea-pig to test a powerful information-control system, he is unable to prevent himself carrying out his objective. He is unwittingly responsible for a near-complete recreation of the events of the Shadow Moses Incident of Metal Gear Solid. While sharing the same goal as the terrorist leader and his adoptive father Solidus Snake by the close of MGS2, he is manipulated into killing him, mirroring Solid Snake's own patricide. His use as a human weapon controlled by misinformation forms the central crux of Metal Gear Solid 2; even his name, "Raiden", is a deliberate reference by his manipulators to Japanese bombers used in World War II.

However, he is not without the possibility of salvation; as the game ends, Snake reveals to Raiden and the player the key messages of the title--that humanity must find something to believe in and not merely accept what we are told, and that we must pass on those beliefs that are important to us.

File:MGS2 young Jack.jpg

A young Jack, during his service in Liberia

Early life

According to Solidus Snake's account of his childhood in Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden was originally in the Liberian Civil War during the early 90s, where he was orphaned. Taken under Solidus' wing (due to him having killed his parents) and trained to be the leader of his Small Boys Unit, to become child soldiers. Raiden disappears towards the end of the conflict, taken by The Patriots.

After gaining US citizenship and joining the military, he takes part the US Army's Force XXI trials, and during his indoctrination into a false reformed FOXHOUND unit, undergoes VR training where he carries out simulations of Solid Snake's previous missions- which despite their realism apparently do not endow him with Snake's fighting abilities.

It is during this time that he meets and falls in love with Rose, a Patriot spy who tracks his progress and during his mission in Metal Gear Solid 2, provides moral support and a degree of psychological manipulation to ensure his continued progress.Template:Endspoiler

File:MGS4 Raiden render.jpg

Raiden in Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

In the E3 2006 trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Raiden appears wearing an exoskeleton manufactured by the fictional company, Tokugawa Heavy Industries. The exoskeleton is similar to the ones worn by previous Cyborg Ninjas (such as Gray Fox and Olga Gurlukovich). He is shown fighting against several GEKKO units on the streets. He easily dodges their attacks and single-handedly disables each unit with his high frequency blade and knife. It has been stated by Kojima that Raiden's blood in MGS4 is white which is the cause of his pallor skin color. It has been recently confirmed by Lead Character Designer: Yoji Shinkawa, that Raiden is indeed a Cyborg like Gray Fox, and the only things still human about him are apparantly his his face and spine. He commented that Raiden is "falling apart", making it seem that Raiden needs the exoskeleton to survive. It is not yet known what has caused this condition with Raiden.

Despite not being a playable player in the single-player game, he will serve as Snake's backup. He will still be playable in the next iteration of Metal Gear Online, which will be included as a feature in MGS4.

Other appearances

While Raiden doesn't appear in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, several references are made to him in that game. Most visible is Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, an eccentric, homosexual Soviet major, and dead ringer for Raiden. His name when translated to English, means "Son of Raiden", but is also a Japanese pun on the phrase "Raiden's no bitch" or "Thunderbolt's Bitch", a reference to his relationship with Colonel Volgin.

In addition, when the player first begins the game, they are asked if they played Metal Gear Solid 2. If they respond that they did, the game's prologue will begin with a sequence where it appears that the main character is Raiden (and is referred to as "Jack"). However, at the end of the opening sequence, "Jack" tears off his mask, revealing Snake's face underneath. This something of a meta-joke, tricking players into thinking they will be playing as Raiden again but then symbolically removing him in favor of Snake.

Raiden also appears in several early Metal Gear Solid 4 promotional videos, literally fighting for control of the franchise with Snake in a series of comedic sequences. One of these promotional videos was named Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser, which was included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Behind the scenes

Character development

According to the series' creator, Hideo Kojima, the decision of using Raiden instead of Snake as the main playable character was done in order to develop Snake from a third-person perspective, as well as to avoid treating Snake like a rookie again (considering the fact that Snake was already acquainted with most of the gadgets and weapons in earlier Metal Gear titles). Hideo Kojima has also stated that Raiden's character and its perception by the audience were important for the overall feel of the story (i.e. they contribute to a sense of lack of control, being subjected to major manipulation by unknown, deceptive and/or mysterious persons, and a general lack of knowledge about the conditions and motives of several characters as well as the twists and turns of the plot).

Raiden was originally designed to be more appealing to female fans, and in The Making of Metal Gear Solid 2, designer Yoji Shinkawa mentions that he designed Raiden in reference to what a "beautiful man" (bishonen) looked like. Raiden's Japanese voice actor Kenyu Horiuchi had a relatively deep voice in comparison to his English voice actor Quinton Flynn.

His given name, Jack, was derived from Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the movie Titanic, while his love interest in the game (Rosemary) was named after Kate Winslet's character from the same film. His name also pertains to the Jack in a deck of playing cards, with Fortune being the Queen, Solidus Snake being the King, and SEAL Team 10 being the expendable "spot" cards (Solid Snake infiltrates the Big Shell posing as a SEAL Team 10 member, thus being the "ace in the hole" himself).

Konami kept Raiden's presence in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty a well-guarded secret prior to its release, even to the point of editing pre-release footage of the game. (Scenes that featured Raiden were reprogrammed to have Snake in his place.) Although the game was leaked by pirates prior to its release, this secret was still unknown to the majority of fans.

Trivia

• In Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden's exoskeleton bears the logo of Tokugawa Heavy Industries, an obvious reference to the super-conglomerate from Kojima's Policenauts. Additionally, when asked about Raiden's dealthy pallor in an interview, Kojima has stated that it's because Raiden's blood has been replaced with white, artificial blood, a referance to the so-called "milk blood" from the same game. Both of these aspects may have a deeper role in the plot, due to the business-driven nature of war in Guns of the Patriots, and the fact that Raiden's blood from Sons of Liberty contains nanomachines controlled by the Patriots, which will result in the death of Olga's child should they detect his death.