Raiden (Metal Gear)

Raiden (real name Jack) is the protagonist of the Plant Chapter, the main portion of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. His substitution for Solid Snake as the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 was a controversial twist, and making fun of his effeminate appearance became a recurring joke in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Raiden returns as a major character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots with a significantly altered character design.

In culture

The player is led to believe that Solid Snake died at the end of the "Tanker Chapter." Konami kept Raiden's presence in the game 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. Some believed he was a woman when they looked at the characters in the instruction booklet.

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 introduced in the original Metal Gear Solid).

In The Making of Metal Gear Solid 2, designer Yoji Shinkawa reveals that he designed Raiden in reference to what a "beautiful man" looked like. However, Raiden's androgynous appearance has made him an object of ridicule among English-speaking gamers (although he is fairly popular in Japan). This is reflected in the games, as poking fun at his effeminate features becomes a recurring joke; in Metal Gear Solid 2, President Johnson is shocked to discover that Raiden is a man (after grabbing Raiden's crotch), and in Metal Gear Solid 3, an eccentric, homosexual Soviet major (who is Colonel Volgin's lover) is a dead ringer for Raiden. Raiden also makes a (non-canon) comically ineffective trip through time in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots promotional videos, attempting to kill Big Boss, thus Solid Snake would never have been born, so that he can be the star of Metal Gear Solid 4. (This promotional video called 'Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser', is included as a bonus feature in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.)

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, Solid Snake being an "ace in the hole" and SEAL Team 10 being the expendable "spot" cards. The codename Raiden is a reference to the Mitsubishi J2M "Raiden" aircraft, which was nicknamed Jack by the Allied forces. In the fictional context, the Patriots selected this codename for Jack due to his role as a "living weapon".

He was voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi in the Japanese version and by Quinton Flynn in the localized English versions. In the English version of the Metal Gear Raiden parody scene contained in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, he is voiced by Charlie Schlatter.

History

Early life and career

As a child, Jack was adopted by Solidus Snake, who (unbeknownst to him) had killed his parents. Jack became a child soldier for Solidus' "small boy platoon" during the first Liberian Civil War. He soon became the platoon leader of the small boy unit, and developed a reputation for ruthless efficiency in battle, earning nicknames like "White Devil" and "Jack the Ripper".

By the time Jack became an adult, sometime after the civil war was over, he left Liberia and forgot about his past (presumably as a result of either cerebral implants that altered his memory or because of "selective amnesia" on Jack's part), though his battle experience remained. After moving to the United States, he joined the Task Force 21 Corps, and began training through various VR simulations, including some which were based on the Outer Heaven (Operation Intrude N313), Shadow Moses and Tanker incidents that Solid Snake was a major participant in. He may also have trained through the Galuade mission, which could have been a fictional VR simulation based on Solid Snake. Jack was soon romantically involved with a data analyst named Rosemary.

Big Shell incident

Events in this section take place during Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

During the Big Shell incident, Jack, under his codename of "Raiden", infiltrates the Big Shell, a facility set up to contain and gradually clean up an oil spill off the shore of Manhattan. His mission is to rescue President James Johnson from a terrorist group known as the "Sons of Liberty" (composed of the members of Dead Cell, as well as the remainder of Olga Gurlukovich's mercenary forces), a terrorist group that has taken over the Big Shell.

Raiden goes on to team up with Solid Snake (masquerading as a U.S. Navy SEAL named "Iroquois Pliskin") and "Mr. X" (Olga Gurlukovich in a cybernetic suit), and discovers that the Big Shell is actually a front for "Arsenal Gear", a supercomputer with an AI that controls the flow of information on the internet (to protect the interests of an Illuminati-like group known as the Patriots), and that the Sons of Liberty were trying to prevent its completion.

After disabling Arsenal Gear, Raiden confronts Solidus Snake, discovers that the entire scenario was orchestrated by the Patriots for their S3 (Selection for Societal Sanity) simulation, and that his commanding officer is actually just an image created by the Arsenal Gear's AI. He then destroys most of the Metal Gear RAY units defending Arsenal Gear, confronts and kills Solidus, and is eventually reunited with Rose.

Guns of the Patriots

File:MGS4 Raiden.png

Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Raiden has made an appearance in the E3 2006 trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In this trailer, Raiden's character design has been radically altered since his appearance in Metal Gear Solid 2. Wearing an exoskeleton resembling the one wore by Gray Fox (and Raiden himself in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance) and has the same enhanced strength and agility Fox did as the Cyborg Ninja. He is shown destroying several GEKKO units single-handedly. It is unknown whether Raiden is wearing the suit out of neccesity like Fox or as a supplement like Olga. The only sure thing is the fact that he is still on Snake's side.