Raiden in MGS2
Click here to see Raiden in MGS4
Click here to see Raiden in MGR
A.K.A.: Jack the Ripper, Snake, Mr. Lightning Bolt
Voiced by: Kenyū Horiuchi (JP), Quinton Flynn (EN), Kiefer Sutherland (Ground Zeroes Jamais Vu sub-mission)
"I am lightning. The rain transformed."
Raiden is the main protagonist and Player Character of Metal Gear Solid 2 after the events of the Tanker Chapter. He is the main operative of the Big Shell Incident, where, under the command of Colonel Campbell and his girlfriend Rosemary and aided by the mysterious Iroquois Pliskin, he is put under constant pressure, betrayed by Snake/Pliskin, Mr. X/Olga, Rosemary, "Campbell"/G.W. and pretty much everyone else, and is just generally put through hell for the majority of the game. Near the game's climax he discovers that he is a former Child Soldier, and has killed a massive amount of people in the past, causing him to deliberately repress his memories of it (though the effect was made worse by his Nanomachines). He then learns that his father figure, who personally molded him into said Enfant Terrible, is the game's main antagonist, Solidus Snake, who he is then forced to kill. Despite all of this, Raiden was hated by many fans due to wanting to play as Solid Snake and feeling ripped off that Raiden was never mentioned in box art, trailers or promotional materials.
As an apology to disgruntled fans, Kojima created a helpless look-a-like by the name of Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov in Metal Gear Solid 3, who he put through all sorts of humiliation. However, the general reaction towards Raiden changed somewhat upon his return in Metal Gear Solid 4, where he reappears as the latest Cyber Ninja and aids Snake in his quest to assassinate Liquid and destroy the Patriots.
Following MGS4, Raiden got his own spinoff game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, where after nearly being killed on a VIP bodyguard mission by a PMC looking to destabilize the region, Raiden re-upgrades his cyborg body and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Expect Late Arrival Spoilers for MGS4 to be unmarked below.
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- 11th-Hour Superpower: In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Raiden gains access to Sam's HF Murasama during the final boss. It can be purchased during a New Game Plus run for use outside the final boss.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: He's usually associated with HF Blades. Think of an electric turkey cutter shaped like a sword which goes really fast.
- Action Dad: After the events of Liquid Ocelot's war Rose returns to visit Raiden and reveals that the son she had with her was his.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the graphic novel, Raiden figures out on his own that "Roy Campbell" is actually a A.I. construct, whereas in the game he had to rely on Otacon to dig into why the Colonel was acting crazy.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the Metal Gear Solid 2 graphic novel, he loses the final fight with Solidus and only survives thanks to Snake arriving to finish him off. In the game, Raiden wins on his own and Snake doesn't even show up until after Solidus is already dead.
- Alien Blood: Raiden's artificial blood is white in Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Japanese version of Metal Gear Rising.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Mentions that after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, he tried to live a civilian life with his family, but the technology behind his artificial skin was imperfect and unnatural looking, causing him to be shunned from society and gave him a hard time finding a job.
- An Arm and a Leg: Cuts off his right arm after being pinned down by debris at Shadow Moses, and loses his other arm after saving Snake from being crushed by Outer Haven in Metal Gear Solid 4. In Metal Gear Rising, he loses an arm in his first battle with Samuel Rodrigues.
- Anti-Hero: Has Ax-Crazy and Sociopathic Hero tendencies, despite wanting to do the right thing.
- Artificial Limbs: Has had artificial blood to improve his physical performance since Metal Gear Solid 2. Since Metal Gear Solid 4, his entire body save for part of his head and spine are robotic as well.
- Ascended Fanboy: Starting in Metal Gear Solid 2. Gives a brief account of his history with Snake to his friends at Maverick Security, mentioning he was the best combat soldier Raiden had ever seen. Ends up getting teased as a Snake fanboy, though mostly out of disappointment no one else working at Maverick got to meet him.
- Audience Surrogate: Raiden is overtly a representation of the player in Sons of Liberty. He's a virtual reality "veteran" of every VR Mission based on Snake's adventures (literally a videogame player) and, at first, his personality is a complete cypher. It's no accident that the dog tags around his neck are branded with the player's input from the game's start. The revelation of his severely Dark and Troubled Past plays with this trope; apparently even people who don't live ordinary lives like most of the audience want to imagine themselves as heroes.
- Even his dark and tragic backstory adds to the idea of audience escapism - just as the audience is using video games for escapism purposes, so is Raiden using the VR to try and escape his own past.
- Ax-Crazy: Subverted. Metal Gear Rising has him gradually descend into his "Jack the Ripper" persona, where he outright states that he enjoys killing… yet is fully aware of how aberrant and broken he is. Not only does he embrace the Ripper to take action in part so World Marshal can't produce more like him, the Ripper even laments the deaths he's caused to Boris.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: With Snake himself outside of Outer Haven's microwave corridor. And two games before that, when facing off against the Arsenal Gear troopers.
- Badass Biker: See Hero Stole My Bike below.
- Badass Boast: Before shredding some FROGs,Raiden: I am lightning. The rain transformed.
- Badass Family: Although never really brought up, from a technical standpoint of being Solidus' adopted son, this makes Raiden the nephew of both Snake and Liquid, and also the grandson of Big Boss.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Spends both the prologue and epilogue of Rising in a black suit and sunglasses. Clearing the prologue on Very Hard Mode unlocks the suit as body type.
- Badass Longcoat: His standard cyborg disguise in Metal Gear Solid 4 is a long black trenchcoat...
- The Coats Are Off: ...which he casts off while fighting Gekkos in South America.
- Badass Normal: Before he becomes a cyborg, he can still use pure skill to infiltrate Big Shell and deflect bullets with his sword. He also holds the record for the most full-size Metal Gears destroyed in one battlenote and also has more full-size Metal Gears destroyed than Solid Snakenote .
- Despite all this, Raiden also functions as a deconstruction of what it would take to become so badass. Raiden's past as a Child Soldier has left him very badass, but also traumatized and with Combat Sadomasochist Blood Knight tendencies that he has much trouble controlling. Even with his amazing combat ability, Raiden tried to ignore his past so he could live a normal life in Metal Gear Solid 2. However, he could not escape the battlefield nor fully repress his violent tendencies; even after settling down with Rose and his son, once he fights against Desperado, he denies going back to them to instead wage a one-man war on Private Military Companies.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Done during the final showdown of Rising. After listening to Armstrong's Motive Rant, Raiden seems to relent, realizing he's dealing with a true believer, not a mere criminal. Armstrong extends his hand as a gesture of goodwill... but Raiden hasn't lost his moral compass just yet.Raiden: I was wrong. You're not greedy... you're batshit insane!
- Batman Grabs a Gun: Done subtly throughout Metal Gear Rising. Raiden says multiple times that he fights for justice, and he sees his sword as a tool to protect people weaker than himself. However, over the course of the game, he slowly starts going back on this, being forced to nearly kill a kid and unleash his psychotic Jack the Ripper persona to defeat his enemies. This comes to a head in the final battle where he has to use Sam's sword against Armstrong, proclaiming "This isn't my sword!" and going to town on his opponent. Armstrong seems proud of him, using his dying words to congratulate him for shedding his ideals and being willing to kill. This rocks Raiden to his core as he realises everything he's had to give up to win. After all is said and done, it's clear in end that he's starting to feel like he's no different from his foes.
- Berserk Button: Don't kill, abuse or exploit children and laugh about it in Raiden's face. Just don't. Press the reminder button of his own unhappy childhood in this manner one time too many, and Jack will come out to play.
- The Berserker: In Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden repeatedly throws himself into situations where he should be dying. The events of/following Metal Gear Solid 2 have reduced him to little more than a shell of his human self.Vamp: You, too... Immortal?
Raiden: No. I just don't fear death. - Big Damn Heroes: On Outer Haven, he shows up just in time to save an incapacitated Snake from being killed by a group of Haven Troopers.
- The Big Guy: He becomes this in Metal Gear Solid 4, due to his new cyborg body making him the most physically powerful and capable out of all the protagonists.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: One of the guards comments he "wishes that he had that" if he sees the naked Raiden restrained in the torture device in Metal Gear Solid 2.
- Blade Enthusiast: Raiden prefers fighting with blades, to the point that despite having a gun strapped to his leg throughout the fourth game, he never once uses it.
- Blood from the Mouth: Seems to happen to him as a cyborg often enough. In Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden is shown uncontrollably vomiting blood after being critically injured in his first fight with Vamp. Upon being stabbed by several FROGS inside Outer Haven he coughs up some blood as well.
- In Metal Gear Rising, he gets his ass kicked by Senator Armstrong to the point where he's coughing up blood.
- Blood Knight:
- As a child soldier, Raiden derived pleasure out of fighting and killing. As an adult, he tried to ignore this aspect of his personality, only to embrace it in Metal Gear Rising out of necessity.Raiden: I learned young that killing enemies felt good... Really good.
- Though much more subdued in comparison, the big smile Raiden has on his face while cutting up Metal Gear RAY
◊ suggests that he lets himself fully enjoy combat against non-living foes.
- As a child soldier, Raiden derived pleasure out of fighting and killing. As an adult, he tried to ignore this aspect of his personality, only to embrace it in Metal Gear Rising out of necessity.
- Body Horror: The Patriots transformed Raiden into a cyborg by removing his head and spine from his body from the lower jaw down and grafting it onto Powered Armor.
- Boomerang Bigot: In Metal Gear Rising he shows disdain for cyborgs, mercilessly killing dozens of them without a thought, despite being more machine than man himself by that point. His interactions with Bladewolf help him grow out of it.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Quotes Sam's "Ok, let's dance!" right before the battle with Armstrong. He says this while wielding Sam's sword.
- Break Them by Talking: And how! GW and the other Patriot A.I.s routinely mock him and humanity as a collective once the jig is up, and the Selection for Societal Sanity ruse is revealed. They say they chose Jack because of his similarities to Snake's background. However the real reason they chose Jack was because of his denials and delusions of heroism, they tell him that his escapism made him the perfect tool to manipulate and he is worth next to nothing to the Patriots in their grand scheme. Raiden takes this revelation pretty badly and spends the rest of the mission unable to tell fact from fiction or find something to believe in. Snake has to occasionally talk to him to break him out of his stupor.
- Butt-Monkey: Compared to both Big Boss and Solid Snake, he gets treated far worse during isolated situations, such when doing something "morally questionable" like looking at toilets in a woman's bathroom or cutting dudes' clothes off. He catches infinitely more shit from his support teams than either of his predecessors. In addition, any time he mentions (and starts gushing over) Solid Snake, folks are quick to point out what a total fanboy he is.
- Even Prime Minister N'Mani made fun of his name, christening him "Mr. Lightning Bolt" instead. Raiden didn't mind that much, mostly because he respected N'Mani deeply, but any time somebody else makes fun of his name in the same way, he grumbles and complains.
- But Not Too Foreign: Details about his parents' ethnicity are never disclosed, but series canon makes him a Liberian-American who was born in Liberia,note fought in one of the Liberian Civil Wars as a child, holds U.S. citizenship, and has lived in the U.S. for most of his life. Lampshaded when his appearance is commented upon in Metal Gear Rising.Mistral: Liberian, yet white as snow.
- Character Development: Goes from an apparent Naïve Newcomer to an ex-Child Soldier trying to live out a hero fantasy to a jaded soldier fighting For Great Justice to an Ax-Crazy Übermensch. He's a good guy all the way through, though.
- Child Soldier: Was already an infamous soldier in the Liberian Civil War known as "Jack the Ripper" before the age of 10.
- Chewing the Scenery: Boy does he ever in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
- Clark Kent Outfit: For his day job, Raiden wears expensive-looking suits in meetings with clients. He's always ready to spring into action, though; in the opening of Metal Gear Rising, he effortlessly rips his suit off to reveal an exoskeleton underneath.
- Coat Cape: In the final act of Metal Gear Solid 4, he wears his Badass Longcoat as such after losing his arms, holding it in place with one of Snake's flak jackets.
- Combat Sadomasochist: "Jack the Ripper" has this trait, and it is shown prominently in Metal Gear Rising:Raiden: Pain... this is why I fight.
- Also overlaps with Actor Allusion in that game, as his Japanese VA voiced Pain.
- Combat Stilettos: Raiden's cyborg bodies feature rubberized heels that allow him to grip swords and other weapons with his feet.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Raiden was taken in at a very young age by his "Godfather" Solidus after his birth parents were killed. It's later revealed that Solidus was the one who murdered Raiden's parents.
- Cool Car: In Metal Gear Rising, he has a black sports car with holograms for watching the news and communication and it drives itself. Sadly, it gets destroyed when the police shoot an RPG at it. He later states to Blade Wolf in a Codec that it was for operations only, not personal use.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: After commandeering a parked motorcycle in Metal Gear Rising, he politely leaves a note apologising for this along with a contact number. Said note was some scrawling in the sidewalk he made with his HF Blade.
- The Cowl: The final shot of Metal Gear Rising seems to imply this is the case.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Nobody takes him very seriously in Metal Gear Solid 2, not even civilians. Turns out he's been fighting and killing since he was a child.
- Cutlass Between the Teeth: While fighting Haven Troopers to buy Snake time to upload FOXALIVE. Justified since he's lost both arms by then.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Is portrayed as a far more violent man after his Cyborg upgrade between the second and fourth games, though this is attributed more to his memories of Liberia and PTSD.
- Cyber Ninja: Starting in 4 he becomes a stealthy infiltration expert with a robotic body and a Vibroweapon katana for equipment. That said, in Rising he takes a much more blatant approach and, while he can still stealth through many potential combat encounters, many fights are unavoidable. It's here he also starts to pick up more samurai influences, like following the bushido.
- Dance Battler: In Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Rising, he can breakdance while holding a sword in one of his feet to slice up everyone around him. It's about as insane as it sounds.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Raiden had a brutal experience growing up. He was orphaned at a young age by Solidus Snake who then adopted him and raised him as a Child Soldier.
- Darker and Edgier: Goes from a spy with a Dark and Troubled Past in Metal Gear Solid 2 to a barely human Cyborg in Metal Gear Solid 4 to an Ax-Crazy Sociopathic Hero in Metal Gear Rising.
- Death Seeker: Gives this attitude in Metal Gear Solid 4, where he tells Snake, Otacon, and Sunny that he has nothing to lose, and explicitly tells Vamp that he does not fear death.
- Deconstruction: Of a lot of things in Metal Gear Solid 2, such as Naive Newcomers, self-insert gratification characters, and the player themselves. Metal Gear Solid 4 proceeded to show that this did no small number on his psyche in the long-term. Then Metal Gear Rising kicks in and demonstrates that an over-the-top action game hero protagonist who has Seen It All and gained a Deadpan Snarker streak a mile wide is still a psychological mess, horrified in the long-term by all the slaughter he's committed, and utterly despises his Sociopathic Hero status in an attempt to find something that actually means something to himself— and is disappointed but ultimately resolved when he realizes he's just too good at what he does anyway, even if he can direct it towards stopping far worse people.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: While fighting Vamp in South America, Vamp restrains him, to which Raiden runs them both through with his sword. Vamp responds by driving the blade in even further and then twisting it.
- Determinator: Has continued fighting seemingly hopeless battles even while bleeding to death, missing both his arms, and having one of his eyes cut out. In the Final Battle of Metal Gear Rising, by the time the final quicktime event set comes around, he can barely even stand up.
- Divergent Character Evolution: An important element of his Character Development is becoming more than a copy of Snake. After spending most of Metal Gear Solid 2 as exactly that, he starts using swordplay near the story's climax and never looks back; while Snake remains a Badass Normal spy who deals with his enemies via stealth and light, ranged weaponry like guns, Raiden would become a Cyborg Ninja who defeats his opponents with his HF blade or, if he's feeling fancy, a variety of melee weapons and explosives.
- Domestic Abuse: When Rose reminiscences about the one time she forced her way to Raiden's room, she remembers it as the "first time" he got violently angry and raised his hand against her, at least strongly implying there where other such incidents in their relationship.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Rosemary claimed that Raiden took to drinking heavily after regaining his Shell-Shocked Veteran memories as a Child Soldier.
- Electronic Eyes: In Metal Gear Rising.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Raiden was, for all intents and purposes, a normal human in The Sons of Liberty. By the time of The Guns of the Patriots, he's had cybernetics upgrade his powerset to include Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Nigh-Invulnerability, and on a few rare occasions, Shock and Awe.
- Experienced Protagonist: While not made clear at first, due to the Mind Screw nature of the game, Raiden is already an accomplished soldier, and a veteran of the Liberian Civil War.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, it's implied that Raiden's Jack the Ripper persona is disgusted with Armstrong, at least at first.
- Evil Laugh: As "Jack The Ripper", he has an impish cackle.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: In Metal Gear Rising, when he's in "The Ripper" persona. Justified, as everything but his head and spine have been replaced with cybernetics, including his vocal cords. He averts this when speaking to Sunny, using a voice more similar to his MGS2 one, showing he has a soft spot for her.
- Eyepatch of Power: Starts wearing a black bandana over the left side of his face after Sam cuts out his left eye during their first duel in Metal Gear Rising. It's not just for appearance's sake, though: there wasn't enough time to make him another artificial eyeball and the bandana works as a compound eye that gives him equal or better vision than that of a real eye. The epilogue shows that Raiden's ditched the bandana in favor of a proper artificial eye, since his behind-the-scenes war against World Marshall requires a less conspicuous look.
- Female Gaze: Kojima admitted that Raiden was designed to appeal to women after a girl told him she didn't want to play a game starring "an old man".
- The Fettered: He tries to be one in Rising. He says that his sword is purely a tool of justice not to be used in anger and that he only fights cyborgs who knew what they were signing up for and Unmanned and Metal Gears designed for nothing but combat. Unfortunately, to fight Desperado's operations he has to break the law and attack World Marshal directly in Denver. It's only when he's just about there that Sam reveals that many of the cyborgs weren't exactly willing in their decision to join Desperado, many being disabled, poor, homeless or generally needing the money or enhancements just to get by, putting Raiden's massacre in a much worse light. In order to continue on, he admits that he still enjoys killing, bringing back Jack the Ripper to do so. Later on, he finds that he agrees with Senator Armstrong's beliefs, but not his methods, so when Blade Wolf gives him the ID-unlocked Murasama, Raiden uses it to subvert his "tool of justice" speech as it's not his sword. The end of the game implies he's completely given up the facade, and now fights regardless of the expectations of anybody else, or himself.
- Flashback Nightmare: Metal Gear Solid 2 implies that he experiences vivid nightmares of his childhood as a soldier in the Liberian Civil War, to the point he fears he'll harm Rosemary if he lets her sleep next to him.
- Foil: To Solid Snake. Snake is a gruff, grizzled, Tall, Dark, and Handsome ladies' man, Raiden is a young, idealistic, White Haired Pretty Boy with a steady girlfriend. (At least at first). Snake recognizes that Raiden was groomed as his successor, which doesn't instill him with much confidence in today's military.Otacon: You know, you're a pretty interesting guy. You're just like Snake said.
Raiden: (piqued interest) ...What did he say?
Otacon: That you're a weak, simple-minded, stubborn fool. Ah, don't worry, he didn't mean anything bad by it.
Raiden: "Nothing bad"?! What could POSSIBLY BE WORSE THAN THAT?!- This eventually leads into Divergent Character Evolution in regards to their combat styles. While both are trained in all sorts of weapons and can sneak or fight depending on the circumstances, Snake prefers guns and stealth while Raiden can charge into battle with just his HF Blade and come out no worse for wear.
- For Great Justice: His sword is "a tool of justice, not used in anger"... Of course, this need not apply when holding somebody else's sword.
- Friend to All Children: Raiden loses his shit when he discovers that Desperado and World Marshal are converting children into cyborg child soldiers and goes out of his way to save them from going through what he did. Summed up quite well in this line to Sundowner:Raiden: I chose this. They're kids, you son of a bitch!
- Full-Conversion Cyborg: In between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Raiden is converted into a full-body cyborg. He usually leaves his mechanical parts uncovered, with only his face looking consistently organic.
- Gag Penis: There's a Running Gag that Raiden, of all people, is absurdly well endowed. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, if an alert is caused and Raiden gets back on the torture rack while naked, a soldier will come, investigate him, and be shocked and envious at the size. Later, Snake teases him about it - "Amazing how you can walk around". In Metal Gear Solid 4 Online, Vamp, when tranquilised, will say "Raiden... is so big..." In the Metal Gear Solid 2 comic book, we do actually get to see it, and it's halfway to his knees. (Flaccid. In sub-zero temperatures.)
- Gameplay and Story Integration: In the story, Jack the Ripper Raiden absolutely enjoys killing and slashing people, and will let all his mental restrains go only to feel the delicious taste of blood. In the game, press both analog sticks with your Electrolyte reserve at maximum to engage Ripper mode and destroy all the enemies on your screen with just a couple slashes.
- Glasgow Grin: His entire body from the lower jaw down was removed when the Patriots turned him into a cyborg, leaving disturbing smile-like lines running up his cheeks where what's left of his skull meets his cybernetics.
- Gollum Made Me Do It: Jack's repressed memories as a child soldier eventually manifest as an ultra-violent split personality dubbed "The Ripper." His reversion to the Ripper persona is signaled by a blood-red Battle Aura.
- Groin Attack: President James Johnson grabs his groin to see if he's a man or a woman in Metal Gear Solid 2. The original game script implies the President was expecting Olga, assumed Raiden was some kind of impostor, and grabbed his crotch to confirm this.
- Guest Fighter: In Playstation All Stars Battle Royale, sporting his Cyborg Ninja look. Somewhat ironic, considering Solid Snake's appearance in Super Smash Bros.. Brawl.
- Handicapped Badass: Fights off dozens of cyborg Haven Troopers at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 even after having both his arms ripped off earlier.
- Handy Feet: In MGS4 and Rising, he often wields his sword with his feet.
- Happily Married: Come Metal Gear Rising, he's married to Rosemary, though she and his son live in New Zealand to avoid all the conflict that Raiden is involved in.
- Hero Stole My Bike: He steals a souped-up chopper bike in Denver, stopping to politely carve a note to its owner in the sidewalk. Turns out it was Sam's chopper, who he kills soon afterwards.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Has apparently become this by the end of Metal Gear Rising. Going on a rampage through the city of Denver and butchering legions of cops (dirty cops, yes, but cops nonetheless) on a mission to dismantle the biggest Private Military Contractor in the world'll do that.
- Heroic Resolve: A running trend at the climax of every game Raiden's been in.
- In Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden collapses from exhaustion while fighting the army of Metal Gear RAYs. With almost no time for a breather, though, he's forced into combat against Solidus — a man said to be a better fighter than Snake — and manages to win.
- In Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden gets critically injured during his first duel with Vamp and gets only a bare-bones repair job before the mission to Shadow Moses. During their rematch, Raiden is pushed to the brink but narrowly manages to kill him for good, and subsequently has to escape Shadow Moses with Snake and Otacon, fending off FROGS. In the final chapter, Raiden ends up holding off more of Ocelot's soldiers without even the use of his arms.
- In Metal Gear Rising, even when he's thoroughly outclassed by Sam in the prologue, Raiden keeps fighting even without the use of one hand and after losing an eye. In the final boss fight, he ends up on the receiving end of multiple beatdowns strong enough to partially bury him into and shatter the main body of Metal Gear Excelsus before finally getting a weapon strong enough to harm Armstrong.
- This is after he decided to turn off his pain inhibitors, though to be fair, pain helps Raiden fight.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Appears to be killed in Act Four of Metal Gear Solid 4 when he saves Snake from being crushed by Outer Haven. Subverted when he shows up in the final act having only lost his remaining arm.
- Hero-Worshipper: In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, he gushes to Kevin about how Solid Snake helped him leave behind his name and about how great he is.
- Hidden Depths:
- When you first meet him in Metal Gear Solid 2, he appears to be a gullible rookie with no real world combat experience. He eventually turns out to be a highly trained ex-Child Soldier with even bigger issues than Solid Snake himself.
- A Codec call in Rising reveals that, after his run-in with the AI Colonel, he's done research on the nature of AI and whether they can actually think for themselves.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: He declares himself a ninja, and others refer to him as such, though he admits to following bushido, the code of the samurai, and let's face it, a cybernetic body isn't all that stealthy.
- Horrifying the Horror: Once his Ripper persona comes out, hardened nihilistic terrorist Monsoon becomes unnerved and has a full-blown Villainous Breakdown if the player performs well enough in the ensuing boss fight.
- Hot-Blooded: Becomes this in Revengeance and takes it up a notch when "Jack" lets it rip.
- How Much More Can He Take?:
- Whenever he appears in Metal Gear Solid 4, you can be certain of two things - 1) Raiden will do something awesome; 2) Raiden will get his ass kicked even worse than he did the last time he turned up. It gets to the point that Raiden loses both arms, and the plans to storm Outer Haven are made without involving him in either the planning or the actual plan, specifically because he's in such bad shape by that point; and then he somehow still turns up to help Snake, resorting to using his mouth & feet to wield his sword due to losing both arms.
- During the final battle against Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Rising, the buildup to the actual boss fight involves Raiden getting beat literally into the pavement multiple times. Not that it slows him down once he gets a fighting chance.
- Humiliation Conga: In Metal Gear Solid 4, he suffers a relapse in his PTSD, then his wife Rosemary has an apparent miscarriage, then she leaves him for Colonel Campbell, and then the Patriots remove 90% of his body to turn him into a cyborg. At the end of the game, he gets a more human cyborg body, and the miscarriage and divorce turn out to be a ploy to protect his son from the Patriots.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Icy and piercing.
- It's Not You, It's Me: It is heavily implied in Metal Gear Solid 4 that the reason why he and Rosemary split up was because of his PTSD worsening. Subverted in that Rosemary actually left in order to be protected by Roy Campbell, and returned to Raiden once the danger had passed.
- In-Series Nickname: Known by multiple codenames and nicknames, including Raiden, Jack the Ripper, the White Devil, and Mr. Lightning Bolt.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: Spent his childhood being abused and conditioned into a killing machine by Solidus. He's been extremely cynical when it comes to war and trusting others ever since.
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- Katanas Are Just Better: His Japanese styled high frequency blades cut through armored enemies resistant to gun and rocket fire like butter.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Has shades of it 2, what with his awkwardness and getting flustered when Snake points out his “book”. All the stuff he went through with Snake just made him admire the man more in Metal Gear Rising, to the point he even gets called a fanboy in a codec conversation there.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: After being pinned to the ground by debris at Shadow Moses, Raiden cuts off his own right arm to save Snake from being crushed by Liquid Ocelot's Outer Haven.
- Lightning Bruiser: No pun intended. After becoming a Cyborg, he is both incredibly agile and strong enough to flip dozens of mobile tanks.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Treats Sunny like she was his own kid, and does his best to treat her with all the kindness in the world.
- Master Swordsman: Highly proficient with blades and knives.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Raiden's response to Sam cutting his arm off in Metal Gear Rising's prologue is merely an annoyed "Not again," while he shows little reaction to having his left eye sliced out completely. Though this is most likely because of his pain suppressing nanomachines, and he bleeds out not half a minute after.
- Meaningful Name: In-Universe example, as the Patriots note. His codename of Raiden comes from the Japanese name for one of its interceptors. The U.S name for this interceptor? Jack.note His nickname of "Jack the Ripper" is because of his proficiency with blades and extreme brutality.
- Mistaken Identity:
- In the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence's short Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser, Volgin mistakes him for his Russian look-a-like Raikov, and tries to sexually assault Raiden.
- In Metal Gear Solid 2, President James Johnson mistakes Raiden for Olga Gurlukovich due to his androgynous looks.
- The Movie Buff: In a roundabout sort of way, it was his love of movies that led to his and Rose's relationship.
- Mr. Fanservice: The widely-known naked mission comes to mind...
- Multi-Melee Master: In Metal Gear Rising, he can use a good variety of melee weapons.
- High-Frequency Blade: A high-frequency ninja sword, and Raiden's primary weapon. Short-range, but powerful and fast.
- L'Étranger: A pole-arm (arm-pole?) researched after his battle with Mistral. A sort of double-ended spear that has very wide reach and versatile, if long, attacks.
- Dystopia: A sai, charged with magnetic force, that Raiden researches after his battle with Monsoon. He can anchor it to an enemy and magnetically pull himself to them for an attack. If the weapon's magnetic force is charged up further, it can disrupt cyborgs and prevent them from moving.
- Bloodlust: A pair of extremely heavy high-frequency blades, connected like a giant pair of scissors, that Raiden researches after fighting Sundowner. Exceedingly strong, but just as slow.
- Murasama: Jetstream Sam's high-frequency blade, made from a samurai sword forged by the legendary weaponsmith Muramasa. The conversion from an actual katana makes the blade's cutting power stronger than other HF Blades. Raiden gains it during the fight against Senator Armstrong, using it to replace his broken sword, and can use it in a new playthrough as his primary weapon.
- The Musketeer: Just before the final assault on Arsenal Gear at the end of MGS2, Snake gives him a sword. The player can switch between this or guns at any time, though the sword is required for the final battle against Solidus. In MGS4, he is shown with a holstered pistol, though never uses it, preferring edged weapons.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Averted. He identifies as an American citizen, but he doesn't see himself as American. Nor does he consider himself a citizen of the world either, preferring instead to "be his own man."
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Jack the Ripper".
- Nice Guy: When he's off duty, he's laid-back, genuinely nice and a Friend to All Children.
- Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: By Metal Gear Rising, he is a samurai ninja cyborg secret-agent, though he's not as heavily into the espionage by that time. He's also described as a "scout" in Metal Gear Solid 4 in reference to his training with knives and tracking.
- Noodle Incident: The Area 51 incident that turned Raiden into a Cyborg Ninja. It is constantly alluded to throughout Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Rising, with Big Mama and Boris Popov both being involved in said incident, but the actual events has never been shown on-screen. The canceled version of Metal Gear Solid: Rising was intended to be based on said events.
- Nominal Hero: Not usually, as he tries his best to stick to his moral code despite any sort of instilled thoughts that go against them, but Jack the Ripper is a dangerous entity that can and will decimate all of his enemies sadistically; the only reason Raiden has to unleash him is because he had no other way to deal with Monsoon than to admit he truly does enjoy killing. Luckily, the Ripper is restrained enough that he bares no harm to any civilians or allies when he comes out.
- Not Afraid to Die: His Pre Ass Kicking One Liner to Vamp before their fight in South America says it all.
- Not So Stoic: Though he remains calm and collected throughout Metal Gear Solid 4, he has a minor breakdown in the briefing before the Shadow Moses mission, collapsing to the ground and begging Snake not to leave him alone while clinging to his ankle.
- Oh, Crap!: Says exactly that when he encounters Fortune directly and she finds his hiding spot.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: His reaction to getting his left arm sliced off by Sam in Rising, after having already lost both arms during the events of MGS4.Raiden: Shit! Not again...
- Only Sane Man: He really thinks he's this in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, at least at first. And given that he's the only one at the receiving end of the insane Gambit Pileup that is the game's plot, he's probably right.
- One-Man Army: Has taken out entire commando units, tank battalions, and metal gear detachments on his own.
- Paint It Black: Raiden's upgraded exoskeleton is sharp-edged and black, like his mood.
- Papa Wolf: Having become a father, and given a chance to give an innocent boy the love and happy childhood that he never had, Raiden has sworn that no child will ever be made to endure what Solidus put him through. Hence, it is a suicidally stupid idea to abuse, harm, kill, and exploit children and gloat about it in Raiden's face. The black-hearted mercenary-doctor in Chapter 2 of Metal Gear Rising found this out the hard way.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Raiden's idea of blending in while in Mexico is wearing a mariachi uniform he bought from a souvenir stand over his still clearly visible cyborg body.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Gets a moment with Snake during the Not So Stoic moment mentioned above:Raiden: I have always been alone... Always! Don't leave me here... alone...
- Pop-Cultured Badass: Met his wife arguing over which building King Kong climbed up, gets the reference to Escape from New York in Snake's Metal Gear Solid 2 alias "Pliskin", and has an obsession with the depiction of samurai in Japanese pop culture.
- Power-Upgrading Deformation: Twice. His Unwilling Roboticization before Metal Gear Solid 4 involved losing his lower jaw, which was replaced with an artificial jaw and gave him a rather unsettling Glasgow Grin. His new body at the end of the game gives him a more realistic jaw that restores his good looks, but at the cost of externalizing his combat capabilities into a suit of Powered Armor. When that body gets trashed at the beginning of Rising, Raiden gets a new body that is much more combat-ready - but gives him another fake jaw that pronounces his Glasgow Grin even further.
- Powered Armor: Raiden uses one of these at the beginning of Rising, to augment the more humanlike body he received at the very end of 4. It doesn't last long, however, as the body gets greatly damaged and he receives a more combat-oriented body with built-in armor.
- Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": His Ax-Crazy Jack the Ripper persona finds killing deeply amusing.Raiden: That nickname you love so much... wanna know how I got it? Actually... why don't I give you a demonstration?
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Pulls this off in desperation against Armstrong, twice. The first round does absolutely nothing. The second round, he has a bit more luck: he manages to make Armstrong flinch and knock him back a foot or two, but that's about it.
- Red Baron: While most of the time he is referred to by his codename Raiden, he is much better known as Jack the Ripper
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: After re-upgrading his cyborg body in Rising, his eye glows red whenever he activates one of his body's deadlier functions.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Samuel observes that Raiden's fighting style is lacking something — namely, a thirst for violence. It isn't until Raiden embraces his inner sociopath that he stands a chance against the truly ruthless Desperado. Subverted in that Raiden's life of perpetual abuse, violence, and mind-shattering post-traumatic stress is not shown as something that's "cool," but tragic.
- Reluctant Psycho: In Rising. While Raiden embraces his Ripper side, it's solely out of necessity; he's well aware of how broken and unstable he is, and is not happy about it.
- Reversible Roboticizing: He was forcibly turned into a cyborg sometime after the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty losing 90% of his original body. By the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots we see him in a human body but it's really just cybernetic body meant to look as human-like as possible.
- The Rival: Vamp. They have three fights across Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots, each more brutal than the last.
- Scannable Man: Raiden gets a big barcode on his forehead once he becomes a cyborg.
- During the sequence in 2 where Raiden is stripped of his clothing and gear, he is seen to possess barcode tattoos all over his body.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: His reasons for taking on World Marshal to stop them from harvesting kids' brains and turning them into cyborg soldiers."Being legal doesn't make it right!"
- Self-Deprecation: Makes fun of the Hideo Kojima Policenauts poster in Emma's office during a Codec call with Rosemary in Metal Gear Solid 2.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: It is heavily implied that he suffers from PTSD as a result of his experiences as a Child Soldier, and that it worsened by Metal Gear Solid 4.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Dealing with the fact he still feels more at home on the battlefield than in civilian life is a major plot thread in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
- Shock and Awe: The tagline for Metal Gear Rising is "Lightning Bolt Action", as electricity constantly courses through Raiden's cyborg body and high frequency blades during gameplay.
- Shout-Out: Raiden's white artificial blood is a reference to the white blooded androids in the Alien franchise.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Back when he still had one, Raiden's body was hooked up intravenously to a custom sneaking suit, dubbed the "Skull Suit." The headgear and chestplate resembled an actual skull and ribcage.
- Slasher Smile: Starts making big toothy grins after going completely Ax-Crazy in Metal Gear Rising, which is only made creepier by his black skull shaped lower jaw.
- So Last Season: Goes from a well-equipped spy in Metal Gear Solid 2 to a Lightning Bruiser Cyborg in Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Rising.
- Spring Cleaning Fever: Raiden states he became a bit of a neat-freak after having to clean up after his messy girlfriend Rosemary on several occasions.
- Superpowered Evil Side: What his Jack the Ripper persona is treated as in Rising. Despite this the worst he does to his support team is snark on them occasionally. Raiden still maintains control over who he directs his anger at, and despite his development is still motivated to save others. Not only that but he can turn it on or off like a lightswitch, meaning he is still capable of having a decent conversation with other people.
- Super Mode: As the above states, Jack the Ripper can be brought out at Raiden's will if his fuel gauge is full, heavily increasing his combat capabilities.
- Super-Strength: No other way to describe what he can do once he becomes a Cyber Ninja. In Guns of the Patriots he can fling around the tank-sized Gekko's by their cables as if they were toys, and his new and improved one in Rising can fling Metal Gears through the air and do a One Armed Shoulder Throw with Metal Gear EXCELSUS, which is the size of a large apartment complex. It's ludicrous and amazingly satisfying.
- Supporting Protagonist: Though you play as Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake is the actual focus of the events in that game.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- Invoked in Metal Gear Solid 2. The Patriots engineered the Big Shell incident to see if they could use information control to make Raiden a copy of Snake, and by extension use information manipulation to control humanity.
- Raiden's history as a child soldier, relationship with Solidus, and later transformation into a Cyborg makes him extremely similar to Frank Jaeger/Gray Fox.
- He has his own copy, Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, walking around in Metal Gear Solid 3. No relation.
- That Man Is Dead: Uses a variation of this Stock Phrase in Metal Gear Solid 4.Raiden: I am Raiden. Jack is no more.
- Subverted with his Superpowered Evil Side in Rising, which ecstatically identifies himself as not just Jack, but Jack the Ripper.Monsoon: What are you saying?
Raiden: I'm saying... JACK IS BACK!
- Subverted with his Superpowered Evil Side in Rising, which ecstatically identifies himself as not just Jack, but Jack the Ripper.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: At the end of Rising after killing Armstrong, the one person in the world who truly understood Raiden and his ideals. The epilogue with Raiden going rogue to fight for his own cause implies that Armstrong's death was The Last Straw for him.
- Three-Point Landing: One of his Zandatsu animations in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
- Took a Level in Badass: While never much of a wimp, he was about Snake's equal in combat in Metal Gear Solid 2 due to his training as a child soldier and VR missions. Come 4, he's much more powerful, able to beat Vamp in physical combat where Snake needed guns. By the end of Metal Gear Rising, it's unlikely there is a single person who could match him in pure combat prowess, to the point he can take on machines of nuclear war on his own.
- Trauma Conga Line: Metal Gear Rising forces him to make exceptions and loopholes to get away with acts that defy his moral code in the name of stopping Desperado, like unleashing Jack the Ripper and using Sam's sword to fight Armstrong instead of his own. His gradual slipping from his beliefs wrack his mind horribly, to the point that Armstrong's last words, that Raiden will continue his ideals after his demise, appear to make him entirely forego his moral code entirely to just deliver justice without any obstruction.
- Tritagonist: Of the whole series, since he has the third most playable appearances only after Solid Snake and Big Boss.
- Trojan Prisoner: Invoked. In order to reduce security around Arsenal Gear, Solid Snake and Mr. X/Olga Gurlukovich knock out Raiden and hand him over to Solidus, then proceed to sneak in and free him to help defeat the Sons of Liberty once and for all.
- Tyke-Bomb: Solidus trained him to be a killer during the Liberian Civil War. This still affects him even as an adult, although he pushes any violent or sadistic thoughts aside by manifesting it into "Jack the Ripper" for the sake of following his ideals and beliefs.
- Undying Loyalty: To Snake, especially in MGS4. In the briefing before the Shadow Moses mission, he states outright that he has nothing left to live for except for following Snake and his vision for freedom for themselves, and goes so far as to cut his own arm off to save him from being crushed by Outer Haven.
- Unskilled, but Strong: During the climax of Revengeance's Metal Gear Excelsus fight, where he's rather clumsy in his swordplay. Justified because he's wielding a giant sword the size of a skyscraper.
- Unstoppable Rage: Pretty much anytime the Ripper is involved. He goes on a rampage and will destroy and murderously rage until he's had his fill.
- Unwitting Pawn: Big time in Sons of Liberty, wherein he's deceived, manipulated and outright used by almost every other major character, both good and bad.
- Villain Killer: In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, he kills Fatman and Solidus Snake. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance adds to Raiden's body count as he kills every member of Desperado all the way up to their leader Armstrong.
- Vocal Evolution: Both in Japanese and English, much more noticeable though in the latter. Raiden's initial voice was youthful to highlight his inexperience, with Quinton Flynn giving him a high pitch to hammer down his age. By the time Raiden became a cyborg ninja, his voice became deeper and gained a growl. Rising, and in the second digital graphic novel based on Sons of Liberty, saw Raiden adopt the growl but with a more neutral pitch to balance his performances in 2 and 4.
- Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: It's noted that Raiden, the new protagonist, has mostly only been trained by virtual reality simulations. Snake (who said simulations were based on the personal experience of) far outclasses him. In a twist, the whole game turns out to have been a plot by The Patriots to recreate the events of the previous games, using Raiden as an Unwitting Pawn to produce enough data to create a simulation which averts this trope.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Whenever the Ripper persona is released.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: In Metal Gear Solid 2.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Colonel's offhand remark about how the B.D.U. that Raiden has to disguise himself with seemed to be a better fit for Rosemary implied that the B.D.U. was actually meant for a woman.
- Wolverine Wannabe: Raiden is an anti-heroic Living Weapon given cybernetic enhancements and uses an Absurdly Sharp Blade capable of cutting through anything. Like Wolverine, he also possesses Laser-Guided Amnesia and an innate Berserk Mode mindset that makes him even more dangerous. DEATH BATTLE! even chose to pit him and Wolverine against each other.
- World's Strongest Man: As of his last appearance, there is likely not a single person in the world who surpasses him in terms of sheer, destructive power. He has destroyed multiple Humongous Mecha, held his own against an elite commando unit with no arms and is the only person who has proved to be a Worthy Opponent to both Jetstream Sam and Senator Armstrong.
