Characters / Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Main Character Index | Metal Gear | Metal Gear 2 | Metal Gear Solid | Sons of Liberty | Snake Eater | Guns of the Patriots | Portable Ops | Peace Walker | Revengeance | Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain | Ac!d | Ac!d 2 | Ghost Babel | Snake's Revenge | Survive

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This page is for characters who debuted in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. If you are looking for Raiden's tropes, see here. For Sunny's tropes, see the Metal Gear Solid 4 Character Page.

For other characters in the franchise, see the Metal Gear character index at Characters.Metal Gear.

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Characters that debuted in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance:

Maverick Security Consulting, LLC

In General

• Defector from Decadence: Boris founded Maverick with several former members of the Paradise Lost Army, with his only conditions being that they fight for what they believed in and they kept their actions clean.
• Good Counterpart: As a PMC that actually does care about helping people rather than lining their own pockets or creating a dystopia ruled by Social Darwinism, Maverick Security serves as a heroic counter to Desperado Enforcement. They could also count as this to other PMCs as well.
• Insistent Terminology: Even though Maverick is officially recognised as a PMC, Raiden notes to N'mani that they prefer to be known as "Private Security Contractors", as Boris would rather be paid to protect people than brazenly attack others.
• Mission Control: Boris, Doktor, Kevin and Courtney supervise Raiden while he is on missions. Only Boris does any field work.
• Multinational Team: Boris is Russian, Kevin and Courtney are American, Raiden is Liberian and Doktor is German.
• Private Military Contractors: They are essentially a successor to Militaires Sans Frontieres, being a benevolent PMC that genuinely tries to do good in the world.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • Maverick publicly denounces Raiden's actions and disavows him while secretly aiding him in his fight against Deperado.
  • It's mentioned that Kevin left his old job for Maverick partly because he saw first hand how the United Nations screwed up handling the aftermath of the Patriots' downfall and how ultimately ineffectual the response was.
• True Companions: Maverick's staff shows that they truly support Raiden by continuing to help him while pretending to denounce his actions.

Boris Vyacheslavovich Popov

Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (JP), JB Blanc (EN)

"Kept you waiting, eh?"

After the Soviet Union dissolved, Boris was discharged from the army for letting his emotions get the better of him on the battlefield and forced to take up work as a mercenary doing "gray area" jobs, something he deeply regrets. He was a friend of Sergei Gurlukovich, and had first met Raiden when the latter was rescuing Sunny (who was Sergei's graddaughter) from Area 51 and helped him get her out of there, becoming Raiden's ally in an unknown capacity since then. In 2014, after the fall of the Patriots, Boris founded Maverick Security Consulting and strove to make a PMC that would keep its actions clean.

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• The Atoner: He regrets some of the "gray area" jobs he took after being discharged.
• Badass Normal: As he isn't a cyborg or enhanced, it takes a lot of gravitas for him to take on Sam with a .50 cal machine gun.
• Benevolent Boss: While he can't aid Raiden's assassination mission officially, he does all he can to help unofficially.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Sam has Raiden dead to rights, Boris rolls in firing a .50 cal machine gun, forcing him to retreat. He also tries to shoot down Desperado's VTOL with Stinger missiles, but didn't count on the aircraft having counter measures (or that the missiles were outdated enough for flares to fool them).
• Da Chief: Boris goes ballistic when Raiden tenders his resignation. Though to be fair, Raiden just did everything he could to protect Maverick's best interests.
• Husky Russkie: Big, loud, and not afraid to step into the battlefield personally.
• Poirot Speak: Uses the Russian word for comrade, "tovarich", uses the Russian cuss words and occasionally drops articles despite otherwise speaking exclusively in English.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite being the president of a PMC, he treats Raiden more like a friend than an employee, and even puts himself at risk to save Raiden in the opening chapter (though a lot of this is easily explained by them having a history together since before MGS4 and Raiden saving the graddaughter of one of Boris' old friends).
• Retired Badass: He's ex-Soviet military and still proficient in a wide range of weapons.
• Token Good Teammate: If Sundowner is of any indication, he's one of the most benevolent PMC leaders out there. He was also involved in the Russian-Afghanistan conflict and was disgusted over what he was ordered to do.

Kevin Washington

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (JP), Phil LaMarr (EN)

"Time to increase the peace."

A non-combatant responsible for research and strategic planning at Maverick Inc. and a member of Raiden's mission control team. He had worked in DDR^*Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration at a non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations. After seeing Boris's kind nature first hand, he joined Maverick to help out any way he could. He has a wide range of knowledge in geography, culture, and international sociopolitical conditions, which he provides to help Raiden understand the local cultures and histories of his opposition.

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• Deadpan Snarker: He often points out how silly things are.
• Only Sane Man: He's the only member of the Maverick support team who objects to Raiden mercilessly cutting down enemies. He changes his tone when Raiden fights Senator Armstrong. Calling him over codec during the final phase of Armstrong's boss fight has him yell out "Cut him, Raiden!"
• Token Minority: Kevin is the only black member of Maverick that we see.

Courtney Collins

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (JP), Kari Wahlgren (EN)

"Energy consumption, check. Damage levels, check. Blood pressure, brain waves, blood sugar - check, check, check. All this monitoring equipment, I got a better view than if I was standing next to you."

Courtney is a data analyst for Maverick Security Consulting. She monitors the information sent from Raiden's cyborg body to keep tabs on his condition. While at university, she studied business administration, but was more interested in doing her part to help relieve social unrest and decided to join Maverick on the advice of Kevin, a graduate from her university. She wanted to experience a clean private military security company from a civilian perspective.

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• Alliterative Name: Courtney Collins.
• Big Eater: Her codec conversations tends to have her focused on the local cuisine of the countries Raiden visits. It's almost a Continuity Nod to how Para-Medic was often exasperated at how Naked Snake inevitably questioned the flavor of the wildlife. She briefly considers getting cyborg conversion so she can eat whatever, whenever (Raiden makes an off-color remark that liposuction would be cheaper).
• The Heart:
  • In numerous codec conversations, Courtney gives unwavering emotional support to Raiden. Especially touching is her acceptance of his split personality, believing he still has a sense of right and wrong despite the things he's done.
  • She also states in an early Codec just why she's really so valuable for Maverick, being a civilian-esque mind in a company that's more focused on security and military effort. As such, she keeps them up to date on things from politics to local culture.
• The Klutz: Kevin keeps moving her coffee mug away from the edge of the table. She knocks it over in the ending cutscene (although it was more Boris' fault than hers) and in an optional codec call (right after she claims she's not clumsy, and she wordlessly closes the call right after).
• Save Point: Though, not as necessary as in previous games, due to the auto-save mechanic.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A young, fresh-faced kid, just out of graduate school with a genius level intellect and something of a klutz who handles your save data. So yet another character in the tradition of Mei Ling and Para-Medic.

Desperado Enforcement, LLC

In General

• Blood Knight: Sam, Sundowner, Mistral, Monsoon and Armstrong all show a disturbing obsession with violence.
• Classical Elements Ensemble: Despite every member being named after winds, both versions count via Elemental Personalities, with Sam replacing Khamsin as wind.
  • Sam's associated with wind. He has two wind-themed names, Minuano (after a cold wind that flows into southern Brazil) and Jetstream (after winds that rapidly circle the globe), more than any of the other Winds of Destruction, and his theme song describes high-altitude winds in particular. As a playable character, his in-game light and heavy attacks are named "Piercing Winds" and "Stiff Breeze" instead. Raiden kills him with a single stroke, a fast and swift way to die.
  • Sundowner is associated with fire. His name refers to a wind known for causing forest fires across southern California, and Kevin outright refers to him as "the Californian wildfire" in a cutscene. Beyond that, his theme song describes a wildfire, and Raiden kills him by using an explosion to propel him into a Blade Mode frenzy.
  • Mistral (the sole girl) is associated with water and ice; she's named after a "cold wind of France" that blows into the Mediterranean, her theme song describes her as being adrift at sea, her fighting style is the most graceful and fluid out of the Winds, and she's killed when Raiden tricks her into freezing herself with liquid nitrogen before cutting her to pieces.
  • Monsoon is associated with earth. His namesake is a wind that blows particularly across southern and southeastern Asia known for producing both mudslides and dust storms, his speech to Raiden can be described as "grounding" in multiple senses of the word, his battle song describes sinking into the mud, one of his battle quotes is "back to the earth with you!", his sai were originally adapted from farming tools used to till soil and his magnetism powers let him control metal ore. Finally, Raiden kills Monsoon by pressing him into the World Marshal logo, an image of the earth, before viciously cutting him while he's immobilized.
  • Prior to his death (and Sam's replacement of him), Khamsin is also associated with wind; his name comes from a hot, sandy wind that blows across Egypt and the Levant, he's referred to by the wind-themed Red Baron of "the desert storm", and his theme specifically makes heavy reference to his namesake wind and the way it drives him. His battle style involves using mech-mounted thrusters to briefly gather speed and rush toward his foes, much like how his namesake blows sporadically but at great speed. Finally, Blade Wolf defeats him by throwing him through the air (much like an object being caught by wind), then cutting him apart midair.
• Elemental Personalities:
  • Sam is associated with wind. His personality is the most carefree and adventurous out of the Winds, and his rivalry with Raiden echoes a Shinto rivalry between lightning and wind gods.
  • Sundowner is associated with fire and his personality is the most passionate and hot-blooded out of the Winds: he causes and feeds off of chaotic destruction like a fire does.
  • Mistral is associated with water and ice, with Blade Wolf's DLC revealing her personality to be rather cold and callous, and her fighting style is shown to be the most graceful of Desperado's captains.
  • Monsoon is associated with earth, and his personality is that of a nihilist who spouts tirades about the inherent "diseased" nature of humanity and how people are controlled by spreading memes to each other rather than free will.
• Evil Counterpart: If Maverick is an ideal PMC that wants to help and protect people, Desperado is the exact opposite, committing murder and atrocities in the name of profit. The game's climax reveals that their leader Armstrong is a Social Darwinist.
• Lightning/Wind Juxtaposition: Raiden's name is a typical transcription for "Raijin", he can generate electricity around his body to boost his speed and power his strikes, and at one point, he is even called "Mr. Lightning Bolt". The high-ranking members of Desperado are are known collectively as the Winds of Destruction. All of them, with the exception of Armstrong, are named after winds, and Raiden has a personal rivalry with Jetstream Sam.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Desperado's cyborg technology employs this color scheme liberally. The fact that only Jetstream Sam's arm has those colors while the other Winds of Destruction are fully decked out with them foreshadows the fact that the arm is the only true cybernetic augmentation he has and he's not nearly as much of a villain as the others are.
• Theme Naming: The Winds of Destruction are all named after different types of wind phenomena.

Samuel "Jetstream" Rodrigues

"We've both heard enough speeches about higher causes by now. History will decide who's right. End of story."

Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (JP), Philip-Anthony Rodriguez (EN)

Image Song and Leitmotif: The Only Thing I Know For Real

"Now I see... you deny your weapon its purpose! It yearns to bathe in the blood of your enemies, but you hold it back!"

A mysterious cyborg working for Desperado Enforcement. He is a master swordsman of the Brazilian "New Shadow School" technique, with a high frequency blade similar to the one used by Raiden. Early on, Sam is quick to point out that Raiden's view of his sword as a "tool of justice" only hinders his ability to fight effectively, before defeating and almost killing him. In keeping with the Theme Naming of the Winds of Destruction, he is occasionally referred to as "Minuano", the cool winds of Brazil; also, a jet stream is a fast flowing air current found in Earth's upper atmosphere.

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• Affably Evil: Easily the most approachable of the Winds of Destruction. He has a jovial sense of humor, is relatively easygoing outside of combat and genuinely respects Raiden as an enemy. This doesn't stop him from being a paid killer, however.
• Afraid of Blood: Not quite "afraid" considering he carves up nearly as many people as Raiden, but during N'mani's death and the beginning of his DLC, he brushes himself off when he gets blood on him and has a disgusted look on his face.
• An Arm and a Leg: He has a cybernetic right arm. The Jetstream DLC reveals how he lost it.
• Ancestral Weapon: Sam's Murasama sword has apparently been in the Rodrigues family for generations, and Sam personally inherited the blade from his father. This is part of how the Murasama's blade is stated to be overall better than other HF blades, as it is stated that the blade's quality carried over into its conversion from a regular sword to a HF one.
• Apologetic Attacker: During his first encounter with LQ-84i, Sam encourages his opponent to think for itself rather than work for others, but the AI makes it clear that if it did, its memory would be wiped and proceeds to apologize to the samurai for having to kill him, causing the latter to apologize in return.
• Awesome by Analysis: In the Jetstream DLC, during his fight with Armstrong, he analyzes the speed his nanomachine-armor comes out so he can sever his hand.
• Badass Biker: That bike that Raiden "borrowed?" The DLC story reveals that it was Sam's.
• Badass Normal: His backstory involves killing ten mob enforcers armed with automatic weapons with nothing but a sword, years before Cyborg technology became available. While he has a cybernetic arm, the rest of his body is real and is covered by an enhancing nanosuit to rival cyborgs. Even before he lost the right arm, he was capable of doing some amazing feats, including taking down a RAY, a Degraded Boss for Raiden when he had his original cyborg body.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: If you knock his sword out of his hands during the rematch, one of the button-tapping events results in him doing this. This trope actually becomes subverted, since Raiden overpowers Sam during the QTE and cuts a gash on his armor, through which Sam is stabbed and killed at the end of the boss fight.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The Jetstream DLC he fights and apparently beats Armstrong only for him to get back up and with no real damage. After getting pummeled, Sam manages to cut his hand off, but all that does is cause Armstrong to reel momentarily before impaling him with the sharp stump of his arm and then reattaching his severed hand.
• Blood Knight: With quite a bit of a Spirited Competitor as well, he just wants a fight against someone as good or better than he is... and he finds such a foe in Raiden. Kevin likens Sam to one of those Wild West cowboys that would only get into gun duels with people they felt were skilled enough to challenge them, there wouldn't be a thrill otherwise. In fact, Sam's song lyrics outright state that he only feels alive when he sees death face-to-face.
  • The Jetstream DLC campaign expands on this. Before encountering Raiden, he wandered the earth and tested his skills by single-handedly taking down various criminal organizations. There was no one who could land a single blow on him, with the exception of Senator Armstrong, and that was after Sam had managed to cut through his nanomachine armor and sever his hand.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Compared to the Determinator Raiden. Sam's power-based swordsmanship and his antics during cutscenes suggest that he prefers finishing off his foes with a single slice, and at the start of the game, he's a far superior swordsman than Raiden. The Reveal of him barely possessing cyborg enhancements, plus his short-sighted approach to finishing Armstrong off early in his DLC, suggests that Sam's failures stem from his unwillingness to persist or sacrifice in combat.
• But Not Too Foreign: A Brazilian with Japanese ancestry, which is actually not that rare. Brazil has 1.5 million Japanese immigrants, which is the highest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan in the world.
• Catchphrase: "Let's Dance!"
• Camera Abuse: Inverted; as outlined below under Simple, yet Awesome, Sam's special attack for stunned enemies is always a simple, short-ranged kick that follows up into a Blade Mode prompt. However, since the camera can actually be moved during his windup animation and Sam's aim is locked to the camera, the player can use camera movement to redirect his kick and One-Hit Kill any enemy that's within range.
• Climax Boss: Samuel's final duel with Raiden represents the moment where Raiden truly overcomes his own doubts, and comes to terms with this Ripper persona, leaving him ready to face Armstrong. Sam himself admits that he's not sure who's right anymore, and is relying on combat to prove out the truth of the matter. Samuel puts his money where his mouth is by asking Blade Wolf to deliver his Murasama to Raiden if Sam loses; this ultimately enables Raiden to defeat Armstrong after Sam's death.
• A Day in the Limelight: The protagonist of his own DLC story, "Jetstream."
• Dead Man Writing: Blade Wolf plays Sam's final message to Raiden to him during the final battle.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: A villainous example. He agrees to join Desperado after Armstrong defeats him.
• The Dog Bites Back: Sam tells Blade Wolf to give his sword to Raiden if he ended up losing their duel. Before the Murasama's ID lock disabled, Raiden only had Scratch Damage at his disposal through both his HF Blade and his hand-to-hand. While Sam probably had something like Katanas Are Just Better in mind, he actually ended up giving Raiden a weapon capable of killing Armstrong.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Started off as just a really good swordsman with an incredibly strong HF Blade. Then he got a suit to enhance his physical abilities to cyborg levels. Then he lost his sword arm and got a bigger, purely cybernetic replacement.
• Establishing Character Moment: He's first seen calmly walking towards a Maverick APC and attacks it while smiling once the gunner announces that they're authorized to open fire. He's later seen with Sundowner to stop Raiden from interfering in the assassination of prime minister N'Mani. This time, Sam's relaxing like a school student not paying attention during class and starts yawning when hearing Sundowner's speech about the positive aspects of war. Once the assassination is carried out, Sam wipes off the victim's blood with disgust while Raiden just stares in shock.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He could've easily stopped Raiden from entering Pakistan by simply razing Solis so there wouldn't be anyone to help him. Sam instead chooses to fight Raiden head-on without anyone in the way.
  • Sam reacts with disgust when blood gets on him unexpectedly. So at the very least, despite his enjoyment of fighting he isn't a fan of being caked in another person's innards.
• Expy:
  • Not only does he look like Mitsurugi, both Sam and Mitsurugi's fighting styles are based off of the same style, and they also duke out battoujutsu shots. This is most obvious in Sam's first cutscene in his story when he's approached by two officers.
  • Aside from differences in facial hair and in ethnicity, Sam's facial structure is extremely similar to that of the first Sam created by PlatinumGames, and their respective suits of Powered Armor frame their faces almost identically.
• Extremity Extremist: Upon examining his unarmed fighting style, he prefers to strike with kicks while reserving his hands to perform grapple counters and perform a brutal pavement slam (initally disguised as a fist).
• Facepalm Of Doom: When Raiden knocks his sword out of his hand during the battle with him, Sam switches to an unarmed fighting style and starts charging around the battlefield with his fist raised; if he hits Raiden, he grabs his face and slams his skull into the ground in a spray of blood and rubble.
• Fair-Play Villain: Sam is the only member of the Winds of Destruction to truly fight Raiden in a fair, one-to-one match, both times the two face off. The only imbalances in either fight are the ones YOU choose to bring. He has no mooks to help him, no backup from Desperado, no gimmicky nanomachine-related Eleventh Hour Super Power - it's just Samuel, his cyborg body, and his Murasama, all against Raiden. Once he dies, it's revealed that the only real augmentation he had was his arm; the rest was an exosuit, allowing him to fight on the same level as cyborgs like Raiden.
• Fallen Hero: As revealed in his DLC. Early on, he destroyed criminal groups, but as time wore on, he became disillusioned by his seeming inability to singlehandedly make the world a better place. By Rising, his defeat by Armstrong makes him give up completely and join Desperado's plot simply because he sees no other way to get things done.
• First Injury Reaction: Downplayed. After being fatally stabbed by Raiden, one of Sam's last motions before he collapses is to stare at his own bloodsoaked hand. Though this is not his first severe injury ever, it is the first he's sustained since gaining his robotic arm. The shot is more meant for the player's reaction, as they discover he was still mostly human, particularly in the Japanese version where cyborg's bloods are white, with Sam having a red blood.
• First-Name Basis: Nearly exclusively called Raiden by his real first name, Jack. In the entire game, Sam only says Raiden's codename once, right before making him fight another swarm of police officers.
• Foil: To Raiden, unsurprisingly. The two clash in virtually every way. Raiden is a Large Ham, whether in his normal or Ripper personas. He's also a deadly Cyber Ninja with a matte-black color scheme, unafraid to resort to dirty tricks like backstabs and additional weaponry in any combat engagement. He even wields a sword so lightly curved that it's hard to tell it's meant to be an Odachi, with a prominent blue color motif. Samuel is a calm, oft-sarcastic Cyber Samurai; his cyborg body is a light tan-and-green, and he wields a bright-red Odachi explicitly forged by Muramasa. His playable skillset furthers their contrast. Sam can't kill enemies from behind like Raiden, and doesn't have access to most of his other sneaky tricks; in exchange, he can perform numerous charges and powerful slash attacks that Raiden can't.
• For Great Justice: Double subverted in the Jetstream DLC, where it initially seems Sam's only declared war on World Marshal to sharpen his skills. When Armstrong gives him a call near the top of the skyscraper, though, Sam shows he wanders the world with more heroic purposes.
  Sam: I already have a job — destroying men like you! Bastards who keep the status quo, send others to die, all from your cushy corner office!
• Fragile Speedster: He has the lowest amount of health amongst all the bosses (except perhaps Sundowner after his shield has been destroyed) due to the fact he's not a Full-Conversion Cyborg and instead is relying on a set of Powered Armor, so he has plenty of important vulnerable fleshy bits he can't live without, meaning a few good hits are enough to take him down. Naturally, the way Sam likes to move around makes it extremely difficult for the player to actually land any hits on him, especially in the later phases of his fight. Notably, Raiden is able to finish him off with a simple sword thrust through his chest, whereas the other Winds of Destruction (and even Raiden himself) would have been able to shrug that off.
• Go Out with a Smile: And a wink to Blade Wolf.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Possibly subverted. Raiden points out point-blank during a codec call that if Sam hadn't had his attempt to Mind Rape Raiden backfire spectacularly, Monsoon would have killed him... assuming that was his intention. Instead of faltering completely, Raiden comes to terms with his Jack the Ripper self and is that much deadlier because of it.
  • Played straight in the Jetstream DLC, where his use of his quick-draw slash manages to sever Armstrong's nanomachine-hardened arm, leaving a sharpened stump that Armstrong uses to sever Sam's own arm.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: At the beginning of the game, you fight Sam, but don't expect to win... or leave with all your body parts for that matter. In fact, trying to parry him will immeditaely bypass your defenses as Raiden will still take damage even if you're really good at parrying.
  • Sam had his own Hopeless Boss Fight against Armstrong, which convinced him no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make the world a better place. ^note  According to Kojima, Sam actually could have defeated Armstrong if he hadn't been shortsighted enough to try to finish Armstrong quickly, but had instead dragged out the fight until Armstrong's nanomachines ran out of power.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: When you see him sheathe his sword, move. His scabbard was even built with this in mind: it fires the sword outward like a gun, allowing for Sam to catch it mid-launch and draw his sword at incredible speeds.
• Image Song: "The Only Thing I Know For Real," describing Sam's confusion in his own beliefs and that bloodshed is the only thing he knows at this point.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: There is absolutely no way a normal person could work Sam's gun-scabbard, as it would require stupendously precise reactions and probably also rip the arm off the user, to say nothing that plugging up the barrel of a firearm with a retracting piston like how it works would simply make it blow itself up with the first use. Sam is a cyborg (or is at least wearing a suit of Powered Armor), which can explain why his arm can survive being subjected to such intense force, but the only real explanation for the scabbard itself is the Metal Gear timeline's Schizo Tech.
• Inconsistent Spelling: His katana is called the Murasama, not the Muramasa. According to the writers, this was meant to reflect how transferring names and histories between real-life cultures tend to create inaccuracies.
• In-Series Nickname: "Jetstream" Sam. His DLC then reveals that his Winds of Destruction designation is Minuano,^note with Armstrong giving him the Red Baron title of "the cool Brazilian wind" a cold wind that blows in the South of Brazil.
• I Shall Taunt You: While playable, his AR mode is replaced with a taunt that enrages enemies that are engaging him. This causes them to attack recklessly and with more strength behind their swings, but also increases the damage they take. He also has his own original quotes with the final boss of his DLC, but is kinda difficult to hear them.
• Katanas Are Just Better: His katana is the only weapon capable of hurting Senator Armstrong. It's explained in a Codec call that HF blades' quality are amplified by how good it would be as a regular sword, so Sam's sword, converted from an existing 16th-century Muramasa work, does have the advantage over Raiden's mass-produced sword.
• Laughably Evil: In the sense that you're laughing with him more than at him, mind you. Sam has many great moments of dark humour, particularly in his A Day in the Limelight DLC.
• Lightning Bruiser: When playable, Sam is as fast as Raiden, but is bigger, bulkier, and uses a few powerful brute-force moves. The Sam DLC shows this aspect—While Raiden fought off Armstrong by outlasting his nanomachine defenses, Sam actually used his quick-draw scabbard to slice his arm faster than the nigh-instantaneous nanomachine reaction could harden it. The effect was that he managed to cut his arm off, but the armor formed an instant later, giving Armstrong a razor sharp stump.
• Like Cannot Cut Like: It applies to every High Frequency Blades in the game, but it's particularly noticeable with his Murasama. It is superior to any other HF Blades in terms of quality, durability and cutting power, but it cannot damage Raiden's fairly standard HF Blade. It is even more noticeable when Armstrong shatters Raiden's HF Blade with his nanomachine armoured skin, something Sam's blade cannot do, yet the Murasama can damage the nanomachines.
• Master Swordsman: Comes from a family of Brazilian sword martial arts practitioners. He was skilled enough to kill enemies armed with guns using nothing but his sword even before becoming a cyborg. Or rather, not becoming one, as it turns out.
• Meaningful Name: One meaning of Rodrigues is "son of a lauded power". It reflects into both his backstory (the scion of a long line of Japanese swordsmen who maintained their traditions even after a move to Brazil) and his weapon, an HF blade created using one of the famous swordsmith Sengo Muramasa's swords as the frame.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Not his sword but its container, Murasama's scabbard has the receiver of an M16 built into it that lets it "fire" the sword out, which Sam uses in conjunction with his Iaijutsu Practitioner skills to produce blade swings with superhuman amounts of force behind them. In his DLC it's shown the force is strong enough to cut a Metal Gear RAY clean in half from the front with one swing, something Raiden only managed in the main game's prologue by manually running his sword all along another RAY's back.
• Mirror Boss: Sam's the token PlatinumGames mirror boss: same style of weapon as Raiden, no obvious weaknesses to exploit, no arena gimmicks or underlings, a few powerful attacks that you don't have, and significantly better AI that encourages skillful play. Downplayed compared to other examples; Sam does not share any moves with Raiden, and his general attacking style is different.
• Motive Rant: Defied. Unlike other Metal Gear bosses, he decides that both him and Raiden have heard enough lectures about ideals and whatnot and chooses to just get to the fight.
• Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: It's revealed in his backstory that he was able to defeat ten men armed with machine guns using nothing but an ordinary sword, years before cyborg and HF blade technology was publicly available.
• Noble Demon: Unlike the other Winds of Destruction, Sundowner in particular, the fight with Sam is a straightforward sword fight. No gimmicks, no assistance from mooks or obvious pattern that you can exploit. Just Raiden, him and Blade Wolf as a spectator. Best man wins. Furthermore, he does not have the option to instantly dispatch of enemies from behind as Raiden does.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Sam's accent should be Brazilian, but his voice actor Philip-Anthony Rodriguez instead used his natural Puerto Rican accent when playing him.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Joined Desperado in search of a Worthy Opponent, and doesn't even bother trying to ensure that the Winds of Destruction's plan will succeed after realizing halfway through the game Raiden may be that opponent.
• One-Man Army: Sam made a name for himself killing ten heavily armed mob enforcers early in his career. He then wandered the world destroying whole criminal organizations. When that got boring he launched a direct attack on World Marshal's Denver headquarters. Later in Africa he charged an APC head on, slicing its gunner in half and defeating the rest of N'mani's security detail easily.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: It's always, "Jetstream Sam" or just "Sam"; the only character to call him "Samuel" is Blade Wolf and the only time his full name is spoken during the entire game is during a codec call with Kevin.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Apparently, the Breaking Speech/Mind Rape combo he dishes out to Raiden is not like him at all, according to Blade Wolf.
• Pet the Dog: When Raiden meets with him for their final duel, he catches a glimpse of Sam petting Blade Wolf. Beyond this literal example, Raiden notes that had Sam really wanted to he could have killed Sunny and every single person over at her aerospace testing center, therefore making it impossible for Raiden to get to Pakistan in time to stop Desperado's plans. Raiden thanks Sam for this courtesy. Considering Sam wants to make the world a better place and he was going to fight Raiden anyway (he probably left that bike there on purpose), even if killing everyone at the launch site wouldn't have made the outcome of their duel irrelevant (due to Raiden not being able to reach Pakistan in time without the ride), Sam probably would've considered slaughtering a bunch of innocent civilians and an innocent teenage girl more than a bit much even for him, and it wouldn't have been any fun for him anyway — he prefers targets who can actually fight back, such as Raiden. And besides, putting some important stake on the outcome of the duel is way more interesting, especially since Sam sympathized with Raiden's ideals and wanted to give him a fighting chance to take down Armstrong and succeed where Sam himself failed.
• Playing with Fire: Stabs his sword into a fuel tank during the train fight at the start of the game, causing his blade to light on fire as he swings it at Raiden.
• Powered Armor: Sam uses a unique nanomachine powered strength suit while he operates. It allows him to match and even exceed high end Cyborgs like Raiden. At least prior to the latter recieving further upgrades.
• Practical Taunt: His taunting causes enemies to glow red, attack more aggressively and makes their attacks do block damage along with making them uncounterable, but it also makes them more predictable and greatly lowers their defense, allowing Sam to do double damage to most enemies and cut weaker enraged enemies apart with his normal attacks. This also works on bosses, but the effect only lasts for a few seconds and you must taunt them again each time. Doing this on bosses also allows them to use a special taunt-only maneuver, such as Armstrong being able to do a flaming shoulder tackle.'
• Public Domain Artifact: His sword was forged by Muramasa. This makes it arguably one of the most dangerous weapons ever created, since the age and quality of a physical blade directly influence the resultant weapon if they're used to construct a High Frequency sword.
• Razor Wind: One of his charged quick draw attacks in the DLC, though he doesn't use it during his battle with Raiden.
• Red Baron: Armstrong refers to him as "the cool Brazilian wind."
• Redemption Equals Death: The "Jetstream" DLC more or less reveals that his final duel with Raiden is this.
• Retro Upgrade: Blade Wolf comments that the effectiveness of a High Frequency blade is always directly proportional to the quality of the sword used in it's construction. Because Sam's was created using one of the extremely skilled smith Muramasa's swords as the base, it's among the most powerful HF weapons ever produced.
• Rōnin: His previous "job" before the events of Revengeance.
• R-Rated Opening: In both the main game and his DLC, Sam sets up his character by bloodily bisecting a cyborg in the opening cutscene.
• Shadow Archetype: The Jetstream DLC reveals that he was rather similar to Raiden. Though instead of protecting the weak, he sharpened his skills by delivering justice to criminal organizations around the world, and following his fatigue towards being unable to change the world for the better, he chose to join Desperado after being bested by Armstrong.
• Simple, yet Awesome:
  • Essentially how he handles stunned enemies during the quick time event that makes them vulnerable. Instead of the acrobatic stuff that Raiden does, he just kicks them really hard.
  • Sam's moveset is a lot smaller than Raiden's and none of his combos use more than four inputs. However, since the moves he does have are extremely distinct in their purpose without being situational or weak, it's a lot easier to memorize everything Sam can do and start putting together combos.
• Smug Smiler: Sam has a characteristic grin that oozes confidence, most infamously in the intro when he faces several Maverick security personnel.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Averted as much as possible in his DLC. Sam cannot perform stealth kills, has no AR mode for scoping out enemies, and never collects any stealth sub-weapons^note 3D photo frames and jamming grenades. He does get a chance at using a cardboard box.
• Stealth Mentor: Possibly. He notes in his initial fight with Raiden that he lacks a certain quality and that his skills are suffering because of it; a proper thirst for battle. He later unearths Raiden's sadistic qualities and brings back Jack the Ripper, the embodiment of Raiden's deeply buried thirst for the blood of his enemies. Seeing Jack like this intrigues Sam and makes him more interested in fighting him, which he eventually gets after Jack secures the child brains in Denver and gets on his way to Solis.
• Sword and Fist: As a boss, Sam will use ordinary kicks alongside his swordplay. As a playable character, he'll do this as his parry counterattack and in his light attack combo, although he can still do this instantly with the Jaw Breaker technique.
• Sword Drag: He does this during one of his special attacks. In the intro, he drags it cross a fuel tank on the train. The Sword Sparks from the drag ignites the fuel, briefly turning his blade into a Flaming Sword before the fuel tank explodes.
• Take Up My Sword: Before his final duel with Raiden, he instructs Blade Wolf to give Raiden his sword should he die. Raiden later uses the blade in the battle with Armstrong.
• Too Clever by Half: Sam's attempts to take advantage of his very high level of intelligence often backfire spectacularly.
  • In the main game, his attempting to convince Raiden to join Desperado leads to Raiden becoming even deadlier.
  • Even more so in the Jetstream DLC. His attempt to finish Armstrong quickly by severing his arm proves to be his downfall, but if he'd taken Raiden's route of simply wearing out the nanomachines, the fight might've gone differently.
• Vigilante Man: Prior to the events of the game, Sam travelled the world as a mercenary to rid the world of scum like gangs and PMCs as well as to hone his skills. Eventually, he caught wind of World Marshal and chose to pay them a visit. The rest is history.
• Villainous Friendship: He seems to be on friendly terms with the rest of Winds of Destruction, especially Sundowner, with whom he casually jokes during and after the battle.
• Weak, but Skilled: Since he is mostly human, Sam lacks the sheer raw power of a full body cyborg like Raiden, as such he relies on his extraordinary swordsmanship, which combined with with Murasama's trigger mechanism and his artificial arm and cyber suit allows him kick ass with the best of them. Best shown during his DLC, the enemies he fights are far more aggressive and deal more damage, his dodge and parry timing are more strict, attacks that Raiden could block easily can send him stumbling back and one of Armstrong's attacks, which is blockable in the main game, is here an unblockable move that deals massive damage.
• Weapon Across the Shoulder: He sometimes holds his sword this way even while in battle, making him look inappropriately casual.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: A HF blade, just like Raiden, but with a few differences that reflect his personality. Sam's sword is a striking shade of red and curved, which reflects the Killing Intent that Raiden doesn't have (or at least doesn't want to have). The scabbard he keeps his sword in has an M-16 built in and is loaded with blanks, which allows him to deal immensely powerful slashes but also reflects his preference for finishing his enemies off quickly and easily.
• You Killed My Father: Sam's father was the head of a Dojo, where he ended up being murdered by one of his own students. Sam left the country, trained himself to be a Master Swordsman, came back and personally butchered the guy.

IF Prototype LQ-84i "Blade Wolf"

"Wordplay: My exoskeleton resembles a canine; canines enjoy bones. Amusing on two levels."

Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (JP), Michael Beattie (EN)

Image Song and Leitmotif: I'm My Own Master Now

"Are we both here only to fight then?"

A Desperado Enforcement Unmanned Gear (UG) equipped with an advanced artificial intelligence and a prototype interface that allows for verbal communication. It claims to have a supreme intellect that it is unable to use to its full extent, as anytime it disobeys a direct order its memory would be wiped. It is also for this reason that it reluctantly tries to fight Raiden to the death at Desperado's orders. It later becomes an important character that holds the key to the story.

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• AI Is A Crap Shoot: Its AI was an experiment, with the intent of replacing human intelligence on the battlefield, but it wasn't brutal enough. Also, it wasn't content to be a war machine.
• Apologetic Attacker: "I am sorry. You must die."
• Big Damn Heroes: He's responsible for Armstrong's defeat by delivering to Raiden the one weapon that could actually hurt him.
• Canine Companion: Befriends Raiden once defeated and revived, and acts as a sort of "ninja dog" conducting recon from the shadows during the course of the story.
• Canis Major: It's a giant robot wolf equipped with dozens of high frequency blades.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Combination Attack!"
  • Funnily enough, he calls it after a successful attack is complete.
  • Some of this might have been him Fighting from the Inside; his attack calls clearly warn Raiden what's he's about to do next and he often advises Raiden to move faster or die.
• Chainsaw Good: His chainsaw can slice through a building. And cyborgs, as Khamsin found out the hard way.
• Combat Pragmatist: During his boss fight, he makes a point of calling in for back-up when the battle swings in Raiden's favor.
  LQ-84i: A savvy warrior uses all of his tools.
• The Comically Serious: His interactions with Raiden run off of this. Case in point:
  LQ-84i: I possess an intellect far beyond human reckoning.
  Raiden: You don't say. Okay then: what's the meaning of life? Why are we here?
  LQ-84i: I am here to kill you.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Does this a great deal with Raiden during the course of the story.
• Cuteness Proximity: Simply seeing Blade Wolf once made Sunny act the same way most children do when their parents bring home a new puppy. It even veers into wanting him as a pet as seen above.
• Cyber Cyclops: Pre-Heel–Face Turn, it has one big red lamp for an "eye" on its face, which flashes whenever it talks. Later on, his head is reshaped into a wolf's head complete with eyes and teeth.
• A Day in the Limelight: The protagonist of its own DLC, which discusses its time working under Mistral.
• Deadpan Snarker: "I understand your attempts at humor. I simply do not find them entertaining."
• Defeat Means Friendship: After being rebuilt without the Desperado Restraining Bolt that forces him to be a loyal grunt, it joins up with Maverick Security Consulting as thanks.
  • Though Blade Wolf's loyalty is to Raiden above all else, when Raiden asks why Blade Wolf is helping him he responds that he owes a debt to Raiden that he plans to repay. Blade Wolf even sticks by Raiden when he leaves Maverick to deliver vigilante justice against World Marshal; Wolf is clearly even willing to break the law to help Raiden.
  • He also grows to respect Sam after being defeated by him, as shown in the DLC.
• Doomed by Canon: Downplayed, as he does get a peaceful life with Sunny, but you know that he's not going to get a happy ending in the Blade Wolf DLC when he has a chance of freedom.
• Expy: Word of God says Blade Wolf is inspired by Friender.
• Glass Cannon: He is definitely not this as a playable character, but as the first chapter's midboss LQ-84i can dish out much, much more damage than he can take — his strongest move, which involves pinning Raiden before stabbing him with his chainsaw, can shred through about a quarter of a player's health on normal difficulty. As outlined under Wake-Up Call Boss, he's only designed to be this tough for players who haven't incorporated parrying, Blade Mode, and lock-on into their combat — even passable parrying skill is enough to wreck him.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Directive Zero-One forces Blade Wolf into Self-Preservation no matter what, even if he has to try sacrificing himself to complete the mission. It was because of Raiden going out of his way to save Blade Wolf and learning from him that he managed to overcome this directive and toss Raiden Sams' sword when Armstrong threatened to destroy him should he do so.
  I have established new Parameters, now. Created my own Directives.
• Hot Blade: His knives are hot enough to penetrate and melt stone, as shown in his intro cutscene.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Believes this to be why he is a failure as a combat AI — as he is not human, he is incapable of true human brutality.
  • Despite extensive conversations on human freedom and what people decide to do with that freedom, Blade Wolf determines that there is no easy answer for why men fight. He wonders if there is any sure fire belief system that can bring lasting peace. Raiden suggests that Blade Wolf is better off discovering his own personal philosophy, and then trying to pass it on once he has found it.
• Image Song: "I'm My Own Master Now," describing Blade Wolf's chains and his need for freedom.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Sunny thinks that Blade Wolf is cute and expresses an interest in bringing him home with her, so long as Raiden is OK with it, of course. Raiden makes it known that Wolf isn't really his "pet" and that Wolf follows Raiden around of his own free will, Raiden does nothing to make Wolf help him. Ultimately it is Wolf's decision to make... and judging by the ending, Wolf decided to take Sunny up on her offer.
• Interspecies Friendship: Has a partnership with Raiden but shows degrees of hostility towards Raiden's behavior. He eventually warms up to Raiden. On the other hand he seems to trust Sam and shows more open affection around him than he does with Raiden. At one point Blade Wolf even interacts with Sunny on a fairly friendly basis.
  • Beyond the whole human and dog dynamic, Blade Wolf is also an AI. To that effect a lot of Wolf's dialogue centers on the moral and philosophical implications of relationships between AIs and humans. Judging by his interactions with Raiden, friendly interactions between AIs and humans are certainly possible.
• Kick the Dog: Blade Wolf never does this, but he is the recipient of this trope. At the ending of the game Senator Armstrong punts him like a football, making this a literal example.
• Mirror Boss: In his DLC (see A Day In The Limelight), during one of the story-related VR levels taking place in Denver, there is a chance to trigger the appearance of a green "optional fight" marker on the minimap. Reaching this marker results in a miniboss fight against ANOTHER LQ-84i. Not just a stock LQ-84 Fenrir, mind you. This can be explained by the fact that it's virtual reality.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: During Raiden's more outrageous moments Wolf does take moments to pause and question his motives, but afterward continues to support Raiden in his decisions. Even during moments where Raiden explicitly points out that things are going to get rough and that he is welcome to leave any time, Wolf continues to stay.
• Mythology Gag: As a boss, LQ-84i is a fast Glass Cannon. As a playable character, however, he cannot overpower his enemies in a fair fight, and his most dangerous tool is his proficiency in stealth kills – which lines right up with the gameplay style envisioned by Kojima for Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which he described as "a hunter stalking his prey."
• Noble Wolf: Sunny thinks that Blade Wolf is pretty cool, and encourages Raiden to keep him. Raiden however dismisses the idea of Wolf being his "pet", and notes that Wolf can leave any time he wants to. Interestingly Wolf never takes offense to being called Raiden's pet, nor does he correct Armstrong when he calls Raiden his master.
• No Sense of Humor: Subverted. He explicitly says that he understands Raiden's jokes and Deadpan Snarker tendencies; he just doesn't think they're funny.
• Pet the Dog: Blade Wolf shares several moments with Raiden that involve the both of them trying to understand each other, and during difficult emotional moments they provide reassurance. At one point he becomes the literal recipient of this trope when Samuel pets him.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Only fights for Desperado because its memory will be wiped if it doesn't. Upon being freed from this, it readily joins up with Raiden instead as thanks.
• Redemption Promotion: Goes from a Quirky Miniboss Raiden cuts to shreds on their first encounter to Raiden's number one source for recon and backup.
• Restraining Bolt: If it disobeys a direct order, its memory will be wiped. This feature ends up being removed when Raiden has him rebuilt.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Deconstructed — as Blade Wolf's neural network was designed along the same lines as an organic human brain, he is subject to the same limitations — he has no access to an Omniscient Database and can only extrapolate logical conclusions using evidence he has acquired himself; he is unable to remotely hack any computer due to "a matter of protocols"; and he does not have perfect recall of every single person he has met — he can only give estimations on the likelihood that he has seen that person before.
• Robot Buddy: Actually has a Heel–Face Turn after being freed from its Restraining Bolt, and proves quite helpful as both recon and backup for Raiden.
• Robot Dog: It's a prototype AI in the body of a robot wolf. Kev even calls him "K-9000."
• Servile Snarker: Blade Wolf is loyal, intelligent, unfailingly polite, and a complete smartass. Several of its Codec conversations with Raiden have it subtly mocking him, without breaking its normal speech patterns.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Exaggerated in his DLC; thanks to LQ-84i's degraded combat skills and the contrived positions of his enemies, backstabbing everything in sight is practically the point of his missions. That being said, he can stealth-kill enemies that Raiden never could, including the GRAD units that acted as a full boss encounter before Raiden met them. Also reflected in his final boss, who is not only susceptible to stealth attacks but takes Scratch Damage from everything else the player can throw at him.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Heavy on the ice. He's a bit of a dick towards Raiden, refusing to show any affection to him even though he does to others, and generally treating him with hostility. The only accommodation Wolf gives Raiden is that he is a "capable fighter." Despite this, his loyalty to Raiden is absolute even though he has no programming to encourage him to work with Raiden.
  • During the final boss battle Blade Wolf does concede that he owes a debt to Raiden and that he has learned much from Raiden's example so he does warm up to Raiden... as much as a robot can warm up anyway.
• Super Prototype: Is more durable and intelligent than any of the mass-produced LQ-84 Fenrir UGs you encounter elsewhere in the game. Though it should be noted that the mass-produced models can carry railguns, which LQ-84i never used, and that his AI was a failed experiment.
  Blade Wolf: The stock LQ-84 Fenrir. Unable to speak. A real dog has a far greater intellect.
  • Also note that it isn't clear whether the LQ-84i was the prototype of the Fenrirs, or simply a Fenrir that was used as a testbed for an experimental AI.
• Super-Speed: It is noted by Raiden during their battle that Wolf is faster than he is. Raiden decides based on this fact to wait for Wolf to come to him rather than try to outpace him. Also when you see the two of them running side by side Wolf is always noticeably in the lead ahead of Raiden.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: It serves a similar support role for Raiden in Rising as the Cyborg Ninja/Gray Fox did for Snake in Metal Gear Solid. Hilariously, Blade Wolf himself would get a retroactive counterpart in the form of D.D., an actual wolf who is a support buddy for Venom Snake.
• Talking Animal: It's a wolf-shaped robot with an Artificial Intelligence system that allows it to have complex conversations.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Raiden almost says this verbatim when discussing the modifications to him by Voigt, which included repairs, physical upgrades such as a face and most importantly, removal of most of the Desperado failsafes in his programming including the dreaded memory-wipe.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Despite being the mid-boss of the first stage, LQ-84i can absolutely destroy a player unless they're already comfortable with all of parrying^note most of his attacks can't be dodged, and perfect parries create 90% of counterattck opportunities, manual Blade Mode^note more reliable to deflect his knife attacks, but he throws at diagonals Button Mashing won't cover, Zandatsu^note the only way to refill health during the fight is by stab-and-grabbing his reinforcements, even lock-on^note in a very subtle Interface Screw, he telegraphs his deadliest attack by jumping back and forth faster than the player can manually move the camera and daring Raiden to keep up.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Not in battle, but in the way his sophisticated neural AI was made to copy a human brain as close as possible. This, and a lack of any sort of database memory, means he inherited some of the gray-matter shortcomings as well. For instance, he admits that since he usually identifies people by XIFF and only has basic symbol analysis, he's even worse at remembering faces than the average human.
• Weaponized Animal: It's a combat-oriented robot wolf equipped with military-grade weapons.
  • Beware My Stinger Tail + Chainsaw Good: Carries a powerful high frequency chainsaw on its back that it can swing with its tail to cut through concrete walls.
  • Flechette Storm: Throws high frequency knives from afar using the three small manipulator appendages on its tail.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: He uses a chainsaw with high-frequency "teeth" in combat as LQ-84i, which befits his character as an unwilling attack dog.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After LQ-84i◊ is destroyed, Raiden has Doktor rebuild the UG with a few "adjustments" as the more fearsome looking Blade Wolf,◊ complete with upgrades to its arsenal like an extra manipulator appendage in its new mouth and blades under its limbs.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: As an AI, Blade Wolf was considered below even third party contractors and as such was left almost entirely in the dark about Desperado's operations.
  • Even Raiden has degrees of this sentiment towards Blade Wolf at first, expressing amusement at the idea that Blade Wolf could even think of something like freedom. You get the impression that Raiden still has a distrust towards A.I.s because of the evil done to him by the Patriot A.I.s, more than once alluding to the Patriot A.I.s' actions in Blade Wolf's presence. Eventually Raiden begins to trust Wolf and gives him true moral consideration, claiming that Blade Wolf has the right to decide for himself. Far more consideration than Desperado ever gave him.
• Win Your Freedom: Desperately wanted to do this but had no way of disobeying orders or else he would be deleted, the equivalent of death for an AI. Raiden ultimately wins Blade Wolf's freedom for him by bringing Wolf home in the aftermath of their duel and repairing him. For this Raiden has earned Blade Wolf's loyalty. In the end, he has a happy life with Sunny.

Sundowner

"All we are saying is: Give war a chance!"

Voiced by: Ken Nishida (JP), Crispin Freeman (EN)

Image Song and Leitmotif: Red Sun

"We're just suppliers. We don't create the market for war. Didja think that every battle in history was all part of some big ol' conspiracy? BULLSHIT! War is just part'a who we are. Why fight it?"

The leader of Desperado Enforcement, he is known by the code name of "Sundowner", named after the hot, dry winds of California. As one of the dreaded Winds of Destruction he uses a powerful, specialized cyborg body, different from the ones used by typical contractors. He dual-wields a pair of high-frequency machetes, collectively called "Bloodlust." Go here for his self-demonstrating page.

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• Appeal to Inherent Nature: Along with Monsoon. Sundowner argues that people are inherently bloodthirsty and that war is the natural state of mankind... ignoring that he's engaged in a scheme to forcibly brainwash scores of children into war maniacs.
• Ax-Crazy: Sundowner is a vicious Blood Knight that relishes violence and slaughter.
• Bald of Evil: A cruel, war-loving psycho without any hair atop his head.
• Battle in the Rain: Fights Raiden on the top floor of World Marshal during a heavy thunder storm.
• Blade Below the Shoulder:
  • Sundowner can attach his second blade to a clamp on his forearm, effectively turning one arm into a pair of scissors. (Or "Pincer Blades.")
  • They also count as a BFS. Raiden has noticeable issues swinging them when he equips them. Then again, he's using both at once. In their combined scissor form.
• Blade Spam: During the first phase of the fight. If you see him rush forward when he's flashing with his bloodlust, swords raised and pointing forward, steer clear!
• Blood Knight: Sundowner's dominant characteristic. He always runs into battle with a special glee, and depending on his opponent's strength, he may either look bored (such as in his one-sided fight with a Maverick security guard) or outright excited. Sundowner even believes that conflict is a part of what humanity is as a whole.
• The Brute: Sundowner's the most physically imposing of the Winds of Destruction and also the least intellectually complex, with a motivation amounting to War for Fun and Profit (as opposed to the more complex and personal motives of the other Winds.) His fighting style also emphasises this by relying on powerful (sometimes unblockable) but heavily telegraphed swings from Bloodlust, straightforward charges backed up by his explosive shields, or tactics like tearing up bits of the environment to use as improvised weapons.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The most outstanding example among the game's villains. Sundowner doesn't try to justify his actions for a higher cause or hammer down the alleged pointlessness of life, he's just an "honest warmonger" fighting for fun and profit.
• Child Soldiers: Big fan of them, as they make him think his faulty logic is right.
  Sundowner: We've already commenced VR training, same one ol' Georgie-boy used on the kids in Liberia. Kids you can mold, manipulate into performing all kinds of atrocities, and there's nothing like a good atrocity to keep a war going.
• Combat Pragmatist: While none of the Winds would win awards for fair play, Sundowner in particular likes fighting dirty. His arena is surrounded by attack helicopters that will open fire on you while fighting him. In fact, when the fight starts turning against him, he resorts to "Battlefield Acquisition", AKA, "tearing down massive light towers ringing the helipad to use as makeshift bludgeons." When he decides "Playtime's over", he simply orders the helicopters to destroy the helipad outright and unload everything they have on the falling Raiden.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: In his introductory cutscene, Sundowner shows a lot more speed and finesse compared to his Boss Battle, making him closer to a Lightning Bruiser as opposed to a Mighty Glacier.
• Death by Irony: His theme song is about setting the world on fire. He gets killed by an explosion.
• Deep South: Sundowner's accent makes it sound like he walked right out of the Louisiana Bayou area. Except, you know, for the cyborg body.
• Doublethink: Sundowner claims humans are naturally cruel, but the things his company do to make child soldiers couldn't be less natural. Considered critically, his statement that "All people are [cruel] by nature, they just lose touch with it as they get older." is very self contradictory.
• The Dragon: He's Armstrong's right-hand man. Kevin says he's Desperado's chief of operations, a corporate position second only to CEO, who they report directly to.
• Establishing Character Moment: Sundowner literally drops down out of the sky to butcher N'Mani's guards, delivers a pair of monologues on war to Raiden to establish his war-loving nature, then tortures and murders the Prime Minister in front of him - all with a big old grin on his face. This neatly establishes his entire character as a vicious Blood Knight who loves war and acts as the bad guys' muscle.
• Expy: With his towering size and strength, bald head, and constant, ecstatic speechmaking and philosophizing about the greatness of War, he could be seen as a stand-in for Judge Holden, if the Judge traded in his worldly refinement for a big pair of machetes. His nickname, "Sundowner", and how he got it — by leaving battlefields stained with enough blood to look like sunsets — even references the book's full title, Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West.
• Famed In-Story: A codec conversation with Kevin in R04 reveals that he built up quite the reputation in his pre-cyborg soldier days.
• Fat Bastard: He's not obese, but he's noticeably on the hefty side under all the muscle and cybernetic armor.
• Faux Affably Evil: From describing himself as an honest warmonger to describing the VR program like a K-12 curriculum, Sundowner tends to be very casual when talking about his horrific goals.
• Freudian Excuse: He was dirt poor as a young man and only through war did he finally gain his wealth. So war is pretty much all he knows.
• Graceful Loser: He actually compliments Raiden for brutally slicing him into pieces and then calls Sam to tell him that he'll have a Worthy Opponent.
• The Heavy: The de facto leader of the Winds of Destruction and the main villain affiliated with Desperado that Raiden pursues. At least, until he finds out about Armstrong.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He can be damaged and killed by the missiles of the helicopter that's meant to support him.
• Hypocrite:
  • His philosophy is that humans are naturally inclined towards war, but his plan is to artificially turn a bunch of children into cold hearted killers by taking their brains out and putting them in VR Training, then putting the brains into an army of cyborg bodies.
  • Sundowner's rather dubious claims of Desperado and World Marshal only being suppliers, rather than the creators of the market for war. When you keep in mind the fact that Desperado's plan, under Armstrong's guidance, is to instigate a terrorist incident while the U.S President is in Pakistan in order to create another war on terror, thus increasing the market for war big time, then you can tell that Sundowner is full of crap.
• Image Song: "Red Sun," a guitar-heavy song basically dedicated to Sundowner's glorious love of blood and war, literally describing it as Eden.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Two giant machetes that can turn into a pair of giant scissors? Damn right. Also, explosive shields.
• Improbable Weapon User: Machete? That's fine. Two machetes? A bit tough on coordination, but plausible. Two machetes that combine into a pair of scissors? Not even Raiden can handle them without taking a large chunk of time for each swing. Sundowner's Bloodlust is clearly not trying to win points for realism.
• Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: After the aircraft that he's riding explodes, he's sent flying towards Raiden. In a cruel blend of Single-Stroke Battle and Death of a Thousand Cuts, Raiden hacks him to pieces as he flies past.
• Kids Are Cruel: Believes this is why they make effective soldiers. His actions state otherwise as his entire plan is to train an army of child soldier cyborgs using VR training not unlike the Sears Program, to make them know nothing but combat.
  "Kids are cruel. All people are by nature, they just lose touch with it as they get older."
• Laughably Evil: He and Senator Armstrong share Large Ham duty in this game, and the way he rattles off his Motive Rant and numerous war atrocities to Raiden certainly takes Refuge in Audacity. Of course, given that Sundowner kicks off the game by murdering N'Mani, none of the heroes find him to be sympathetic or entertaining.
• Large and in Charge: Has a brutish, muscular body. At 209 cm (over 6'10''), he's the tallest human in the game. He noticeably looms over the 200 cm/6'7 Armstrong in their one shared scene.
• Large Ham: As one would expect from Crispin Freeman.
  "I'M FUCKIN' INVINCIBLE!"
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: It has explosive reactive armor. Of course, it only protects him from the front and he's still vulnerable from behind. Alternatively, Raiden can cut it to pieces and negate it that way.
• Machete Mayhem: The Bloodlust, his unique weapons, are a pair of machetes that can be combined into a single, scissor-like weapon.
• Meaningful Name:
  • When sundowner winds are blowing around in California, they make wildfires much more likely and make the fires near impossible to put out. Firefighters are usually reduced to waiting for the wind to die down before they can do their jobs. Sundowner himself wants war to spread globally, and as long as he and his company exist, the fires would never go out around the world.
  • The name also recalls the "Sundown Towns" of the Jim Crow South, where any blacks and other "undesirables" caught outside after dark would be lynched. Sundowner doesn't seem particularly racist but he certainly has the cruelty and essentialist worldview that make things like that possible. He also kicks off the plot of the game by murdering a black man in cold blood, although his ethnicity is pretty incidental.
  • Codec calls with Kevin reveal Sundowner would often shed a huge amount of blood on battlefields, to the point where it looked like the light effect from a setting sun; this, coupled with allegations of torturing prisoners and committing other war crimes, was what earned him his name In-Universe.
  • "Sundowning" or "sundown syndrome" is a phenomenon seen in people with dementia, where they become confused and aggressive around the time the sun sets, befitting Sundowner's love of mindless violence. All in all, it's not a name with a lot of positive connotations.
  • The name of his Image Song, "Red Sun", is a real-life phenomenon where the sun appears to change color due to an excess of smoke or dust in the air. Appropriate for a war fanatic like himself.
• Mighty Glacier: While he can move pretty quickly for someone his size, he's still slower and easier to dodge compared to the other Winds of Destruction, and relies on his folding blast shields for defense. And he tends to put his oomph behind heavy individual attacks rather than lots of weaker ones, especially when he's trying to ram Raiden.
• More Despicable Minion: He is the worst of Desperado, being even more openly more sadistic and bloodthirsty then any of the rest, and his Freudian Excuse is not given as much depth or is as justifiable as the others. Senator Armstrong is also a man who wants to eliminate the war economy and create a lawless America where "every man will be free to fight his own wars" for better or worse, while Sundowner loves the war economy and the sheer bloodshed caused in war.
• Motive Rant: He reveals his motivation for kidnapping the prime minister when Raiden meets him for the first time.
  "Business ain't been the same since they shut down SOP. 'A clean break from the war economy.' HA! Well, some of us liked that economy. How's an honest warmonger supposed to make a living?"
• Off with His Head!: After disarming another bodyguard of N'Mani's, Sundowner takes the time to combine his blades into a scissor-like weapon and uses it to trap him in its grip and expose the guard to its high temperature before cutting his head off with a smile on his face. Ironically this eventually happens to himself, as Raiden's slice-and-dice finishing move destroys his body and leaves him as a dying talking head.
• Perpetual Smiler: Never seen without a Slasher Smile or Psychotic Smirk on his face.
• Psychopathic Manchild: By his own words:
  "Like I said, kids are cruel, Jack. And I'm very in touch with my inner child."
• Red Baron: "The Californian wildfire," used by Kevin during a codec call.
• Rule of Cool: Any real-world equivalent of Sundowner's pincer blades would be outrageously difficult to use, thanks to both the weapon's weight and the predictable angles of attack needed for a scissor cut. Still, when the damage you're inflicting with it is enough to skip entire stages of boss fights, who cares?
  "That feels like the dumbest, most impractical weapon ever. I hope I get it."
• Sadist: Whenever he has the opportunity, Sundowner always takes the time to inflict as much pain as possible before going in for the kill.
• Shear Menace: Thanks to his specialized arms, he can connect his machetes together into a shear. He uses this to decapitate one of Maverick's Red Shirts early in the game.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Drops a lot of F-bombs.
• Shield Bash: During the first part of the battle against Sundowner, he attacks using his six back-mounted shields in addition to his swords.
• Slasher Smile: Sundowner sports a big, creepy grin when he's about to cut someone up. His facemask in combat mode seems to evoke an even bigger one.
  • Smug Smiler: Pretty much his default expression. Just look at his page image for a prime example.
• Smug Super: He's very proud of his explosive armor and refers to himself as invincible because of it. Of course, punching through it results in him ranting and swearing in disbelief.
• The Sociopath: A man who is proudly willing to slaughter people and cause global conflicts for his financial enrichment and his overwhelming bloodlust. He doesn't care about innocent lives lost from his business or the torment he puts children through to make them perfect soldiers. In fact, he's looking forward to it.
• Stone Wall: His gimmick is that the first half of the fight involves him using explosive shields you need to cut off using Blade Mode; once you deal with them, he ramps up the aggression and leans more into Mighty Glacier territory.
• Super-Strength: Quite possibly the physically strongest character in the game alongside Armstrong, by virtue of the ease he's able to wield his Bloodlust swords even in one hand, in contrast to Raiden's difficulty. Raiden could swing one of Excelcus's arms no problem.
• Too Slow: Stated word for word if he manages to catch you with his Blade Spam. It's rather heavily telegraphed like most of his moves so you really shouldn't hear it too often if at all.
• Turns Red: Cutting off all his shields will cause Sundowner to shift to much more aggressive tactics, ditching the usual "Attack a few times then put up shields" routine in favour of attacking frequently with Bloodlust, using the light towers as improvised weapons with a large swing range, and gaining a new Unblockable Attack involving the 'shears' form of his weapon.
• Unfriendly Fire: The cyborgs that he brings into the second phase of the fight can and will be smacked to death when he starts swinging a giant pipe.
• Unwitting Pawn: With Armstrong working to completely break the concept of war economies, it’s rather clear that Sundowner only heard the first half of the plan of starting another war on terror. He'd profit mightily and get to kill more people like he wants for a while, but Armstrong would (possibly) work to end it all at some point.
• Uriah Gambit: Implied to be on the receiving end of one by Jetstream Sam, if his final words are to be believed:
  "You...knew this would happen...didn't you? Well...you'll get your wish. Up to you now... Sam."
• Villain Ball: If Sundowner hadn't gloated to Raiden about already being "too late" to stop Tecumseh and that he wouldn't make it "even at Mach 2", He and the rest of Maverick wouldn't have been able to deduce that they were planning to assassinate the president on his trip to Pakistan.
• War for Fun and Profit: Sundowner's Motive Rant more or less indicates this is his goal; he wants to restart the war economy and return to making money as a "legitimate warmonger."
• Weapon-Based Characterization: A pair of high-frequency machetes that can be combined into scissors (or "pincer blades" as the game calls them). Machetes have frequently been used in bloody uprisings and revolutionary wars, while Sundowner's horizontal scissors would likely leave the target alive but cause them to bleed out in seconds — fitting for a man who claims to just be a war profiteer but is really in it for the cruelty.

Mistral

"At times I envied my prey. At least they had a cause to die for."

Voiced by: Romi Park (JP), Salli Saffioti (EN)

Image Song and Leitmotif: A Stranger I Remain

"That's when I realized... I am a killer too. And a good one at that. I slaughtered dozens in Iraq, in Afghanistan... I'd found my calling."

A cyborg, and commanding officer working for Desperado Enforcement, she is one of the four cyborgs called the Winds of Destruction along with Sundowner, Monsoon, and Khamsin. Her codename, Mistral, comes from the cold regional winds along the Mediterranean coast of France. She wields the "L'Étranger", a dual-bladed staff, made from the arms of Dwarf Gekkos, that doubles as a whip.

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• Adorable Evil Minions: Dwarf Gekko are a personal tool for her and follow her everywhere, and the ones around her seem to actually take orders directly from her. Ask Courtney about them; according to her, any girl would find them absolutely cute.
• Ambiguous Robots: While her arms, legs and back attachment are obviously mechanical and her head seems to be augmented, it's unknown whether her torso is organic or high-quality cyborg parts that have Jiggle Physics. Given that every other cyborg in the game (apart from some red shirts in the prologue, Sam, George and Armstrong) is clearly bulky cybernetics from the neck down, this would make Mistral something of a rarity in either case.
• Ax-Crazy: When she found those who murdered her parents, she "butchered those fuckers" and discovered that she's quite a good killer herself.
• Bad Boss: Just look how she treats Blade Wolf in his DLC, as well as her Dwarf Gekkos.
• Batman Gambit: Pulls off an impressive one in the Blade Wolf DLC, in which she exploits his desire for freedom to trick him into killing Khamsin.
• Because I'm Good At It: One of her motivations, it seems. She began her life of bloodshed upon finding out that she was a very capable fighter and killer. It wouldn't seem to be the whole reason for her current actions, though.
• Benevolent Boss: She is this with Blade Wolf, though downplayed. Talk to Blade Wolf about her in the second level. According to the wolf himself, he believes she has a love of dogs.
  Blade Wolf: Mistral demanded 100% obedience. So long as it was given, she treated me well.
• Blood Knight: Definitely, as she only feels alive in a battlefield.
• Bloodbath Villain Origin: Shared with Monsoon, she grew up in the Algerian wars among slaughter and chaos.
• But Not Too Foreign: Half French, half Algerian.
• Characterization Marches On: Mistral straddles a lot of lines in the main game, being killed before too much about her can be gleaned but displaying enough that whether she's really all that terrible of a person is unclear, and her dialogue is much less heavy and harsh than Monsoon's or Sundowner's. The Blade Wolf DLC, however, shows her being a lot more geared towards her sadistic, more ruthless aspects. She backstabs Khamsin simply because he's a loudmouthed idiot and sets the LQ-84i up in a particularly cruel gambit. Notably, the times where she is openly cruel usually involve Blade Wolf or her Dwarf Gekkos—see What Measure Is a Non-Human? below.
• The Coats Are Off: She initially wears a thick camo-patterned winter coat while commanding from the sidelines, but dramatically flings it off to make full use of her Gekko arms before battling Raiden.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Just look at how she "enjoys" multiple arms being attached to her and used for combat.
• Combat Stilettos: Like Raiden's, they are a part of her actual feet.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets doused by liquid nitrogen, then has her body shattered.
• Dark Action Girl: She's a highly dangerous cyborg killer who makes no bones about how much she enjoys the thrill of risking her life.
• Dominance Through Furniture: The Blade Wolf DLC shows she has a few Dwarf Gekko stuck together to make a chair for her, and they're visibly struggling.
• Double Weapon: Her L'Étranger polearm has a knife at each end, complimenting its wide range.
• Evil Redhead: She's an openly sadistic redheaded cyborg mercenary who tries a "Not So Different" Remark on fellow Child Soldier Raiden while admiring his brutality as Jack the Ripper.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Her last words are hinted to be for Armstrong, the person who gave her ideals, and thus a cause to finally fight for on the battlefield.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: In the English versions, she's got a French accent and it's as sexy as it comes.
• Evil Is Petty: Planned for Khamsin's death because he annoyed her.
• Expy: Her character designs were noted to invoke Laughing Octopus from Metal Gear Solid 4, and later Screaming Mantis. The actual characters beyond that have very few similarities.
• Femme Fatale: Here and there. When she spots Raiden, she blows a kiss his way (complete with pink hearts) and later removes her coat rather suggestively before their battle. Factor in the aforementioned Combat Sadomasochist tendencies and her use of a whip, and she spends most of the Blade Wolf DLC sitting in a "chair" made of Dwarf Gekko, highly reminiscent of human chairs in BDSM.
• Flunky Boss: Her arenas can be positively swarming with Dwarf Gekkos running interference if you're not careful about them.
• Go Out with a Smile: Dying without regret since she knows how it feels to have something worth to die for, and giving Raiden encouragement to continue fight for his ideals. Dolzaev himself lost it when she died. However, in a Codec call, Raiden and Kevin speculates that the message was likely meant for someone else, hinted to be Armstrong.
• Gratuitous French: She's a half-Algerian, half-French mercenary, resulting in her peppering French phrases throughout her dialogue. Even her theme song gets into this with the lyrics, "La chaleur me dérange. Mais c'est le grincement du bateau qui m'a réveillé."^note The heat bothers me. But it was the creak of the boat that woke me up.
  "Come, mon gars." ("Come, my boy.")
  "Je t'aime... de tout mon coeur." ("I love you with all my heart.")
• Grievous Harm with a Body: When disarmed, she'll start tossing Dwarf Gekkos at Raiden. It helps that their secondary function is essentially being walking bombs
• Hoist by Her Own Petard:
  • If Mistral had not orchestrated the death of Khamsin, he would have been around when Raiden arrived, and they could have teamed up to defeat him.
  • And had she not been offended after his backhand and rushed in with her polearm, Raiden would have never thought to have sliced the liquid nitrogen tank and frozen her solid.
• Image Song: "A Stranger I Remain," left over from "Here I Come." It details the isolation Mistral feels from other people and how alive she feels in battle. Probably one of the most contributing factors in the metaphorical see-saw on whether she's good, evil, or both.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Whenever she attaches a Dwarf Gekko's arm to herself.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: It's implied that she's in love with Armstrong, though it's never shown what the man himself feels about her.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Long story short, thanks to her upbringing, there's a strong sexual undercurrent in Mistral's need and enjoyment of battle.
• Jiggle Physics: Downplayed. Her massive breasts are apparently natural and do jiggle a little during cutscenes. During battle, she uses one of her many pairs of arms to support and shield her chest. Then again, her "backup body" fought during the Boss Rush also has them, so...
• Kick the Dog: She's rather cruel to her Dwarf Gekkos, ripping their arms off without mercy, stomping them in half, and forcing them to form a throne for her while they visibly quiver from the strain in the Blade Wolf DLC. A Dwarf Gekko split in half in that scene seems to indicate she punished it for not performing its job properly. Mistral also plays a fairly cruel Batman Gambit on Blade Wolf, making him believe he had gained freedom before snatching it away and almost breaking his spirit. Her comments about making him "shake hands" like a dog and forcing him to do so are icing in the cake.
• Kill It with Ice: How she ultimately dies, after being frozen with liquid nitrogen in the plant. Even if Raiden doesn't slice her into a million pieces, or sliced her vertically after doing nothing in Blade Mode, or decapitated her and most of her Dwarf Gekko arms in one slice, or even beat her to death with the wooden sword (which would leave her entire body intact), Mistral still would've died from the cold freezing her internals solid.
• Literally Shattered Lives: After getting frozen over by a vat of liquid nitrogen that Raiden slices open, Raiden goes into Blade Mode and reduces her to as many pieces as the player sees fit. It's Averted if Raiden decides to beat her to death with the wooden sword instead, leaving behind a fully-intact Mistral to be frozen like a statue.
• Male Gaze: Has great tracts of land which she has to hold with a pair of Gekko arms so they don't jiggle in mid-fight, and in some of her promotional art, she gropes herself with two Gekko arms and has another between her legs. The Blade Wolf DLC also has several closeups of her butt as she sits on her Gekko underlings as a throne.
• Major Injury Underreaction: In fairness, she is a cyborg and it wasn't her true, less-replaceable arm, but her only initial reaction to the LQ-84i slicing off one of her extra arms unprovoked, stealing the range inhibitor, and leaving, is to give it a reproachful glare, before laughing it off.
• Manipulative Bitch: Concocts a Batman Gambit to trick Blade Wolf into killing Khamsin, just because she found Khamsin an obnoxious idiot. Also to break Blade Wolf's spirit when she reveals she can lock his system up any time, and does so just before he reaches freedom, forcing him to shake hands like a dog.
• Ms. Fanservice: While more modestly dressed than previous holders of this title within the Metal Gear verse and, until her boss fight, covered up in bulky overcoat, that bodysuit doesn't leave much of her figure to the imagination, never mind her personality and mannerisms in battle. Then taken much further in the Blade Wolf DLC, in which the camera lovingly focuses on her butt while she sits on her Gekko minions and they struggle to hold her up.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Mistral has various Gekko arms attached to her back, though their only purpose is to give her more arms to rebuild her weapon with.
• Precision F-Strike: Drops a few sometimes, most notably when describing how she "butchered those fuckers" in her backstory and when telling Raiden not to fuck with her (moments before she dies.)
• Red Baron: She introduces herself to Raiden as "the cold wind of France."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the TGS trailer, her right eye glows red at one point, hinting that, like Raiden, Mistral possesses optical implants. In-game, her eye glows after attaching the Dwarf Gekkos to her body.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Halfway, at least — her breaking of a container full of liquid nitrogen freezes her in place, and Raiden uses this opportunity to finish her off.
• Shout-Out: Her weapon, her Image Song and tropes associates with her is basically a giant Shout-Out toward Albert Camus' novel, L'Etranger, which was released in English-speaking country as The Stranger.
• Slipknot Ponytail: Her hair becomes increasingly loose and unkempt as the battle furthers.
• The Slow Walk: She'll do this in her battle when fully armed and armored, showing how unconcerned about injury she is.
• The Smurfette Principle: The sole female of the Winds of Destruction. Her theme is also the only song with female vocals.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Her speech patterns are pretty flowery until she gets a bloodlust going.
  "Don't fuck with me, boy!"
• Spin Attack: Can do a sequence quick, vertical spins with the L'Étranger.
• Statuesque Stunner: Although not much is made of Mistral's stature in-game, her height is officially listed as 190 cm — just a bit shy of 6'3".
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Her Image Song is all about how she feels like a stranger with no home but the battlefield, where she feels at home and alive.
• Super-Senses: Her intro scene subtly demonstrates that Mistral has enhanced eyesight thanks to cybernetics. Raiden uses his optical enhancements to scan over an area before noticing her. After she finishes her conversation with Dolzaev, she then looks over directly at Raiden and blows him a kiss, showing she has powerful observational enhancements as well.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: L'Étranger can switch between a whip and double spear configuration.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: A pair of HF knives held by a chain of Dwarf Gekko arms, which attests to how killing, manipulation and causing pain make up the core of Mistral's being.
  • Whip of Dominance: Her weapon has an alternate whip mode that pairs especially well with her Combat Sadomasochist tendencies.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies in her first level, not counting a brief glimpse of her in the prologue. The Blade Wolf DLC subverts this to a degree, showing her interactions with LQ-84i.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Mistral's most openly sadistic actions tend to involve Blade Wolf or the Dwarf Gekkos. Raiden points out how it's hard to feel sorry for the latter, given that their only purpose is to kill opponents.

Monsoon

"So tell me: Who saves the weak from the man who saves the weak?"

Voiced by: Masashi Ebara (JP), John Kassir (EN)

Image Song and Leitmotif: Stains of Time

"Wind blows, rain falls. The strong prey upon the weak. Don't be ashamed. It's only nature, running its course."

A cyborg, and commanding officer working for Desperado Enforcement, he is one of the four cyborgs called the Winds of Destruction along with Sundowner, Mistral, and Khamsin. His codename is Monsoon, referring to a seasonal wind that brings rain in tropical areas, especially in Southeast Asia. He wields a pair of Sai called "Dystopia", and has the ability to separate his body into pieces using an advanced system of magnets.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He sure likes to talk about the inevitability of death and nature, but if the player defeats him without using EM grenades or falling below a certain combat grade, Monsoon will scream at Raiden to stop before he's killed.
• Appeal to Inherent Nature: Monsoon talks about how people are entirely defined by the memes they carry, mostly pointing to war and bloodshed as mankind's nature and thus not to be denied—he's a hardcore nihilist and misanthrope.
• Attack Its Weak Point: During his fight, he uses his Magnetism Manipulation to become invulnerable to attacks. In order to force him back to normal, you have to hit his head (which is helpfully pointed out by the cylindrical protusion from his helmet). Of course that's only if you give him a BMI Error, done by either perfectly parrying his attacks or throwing an EM grenade his way.
• Battle in the Rain: He fights Raiden in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm. It's rather fitting, given Raiden's codename is based on lightning and Monsoon's is based on seasonal rain storms.
• Bloodbath Villain Origin: Shared with Mistral, Monsoon grew up in Cambodia while the Khmer Rouge was conducting its infamous genocide. It drove him to become a nihilistic, misanthropic killer who sees slaughter and destruction as natural.
• Body Horror: Judging by how he's able to magnetically break his body apart, then he likely lost his entire body from the neck down, almost to the same degree as Raiden. Concept art additionally shows that, behind the mask, Monsoon's eyes are surgically hooked up to cables connected to his helmet's interior space.
• Break Them by Talking: Gets in on Sam's act with a speech of his own.
• Character Filibuster: The man really likes to go on quite a bit about memes.
• Cyber Ninja: His appearance and fighting style invoke this, as his cybernetics look like a Ninja's outfit, and he wields a pair of sai and uses a smokescreen attack in his boss fight.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Monsoon's entire body sans the top half of his head explodes after Raiden chops him into even more pieces, likely due to the catastrophic failure of his unique cybernetics.
• Defiant to the End: If Raiden falls below a certain combat grade during their fight, Monsoon's last words would be a defiant "Do as you please!" before the former finishes him off.
• Detachment Combat: His specialty. It also seemingly grants him immunity to Blade Mode attacks.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The guy's no saint, but after Raiden lets his Jack the Ripper persona run wild, Monsoon seems shocked, even remorseful, and shakes his head, remarking that Raiden has "lost his mind." He recants soon after, saying that he misjudged Raiden and was happy to see that Raiden was just as bloodthirsty, sociopathic, and insane as the rest of the Winds of Destruction.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His Japanese voice is much deeper.
• Extremity Extremist: Because he wields sais in his hands, most of his attacks not involving Dystopia involve kicking.
• Eyeless Face: Monsoon's eyes are wired directly into his helmet, per concept art.
• The Faceless: Concept art aside, Monsoon's Cool Helmet covers everything but his lower face, unlike the other Winds of Destruction.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Can use a spinning tackle similar to the Psycho Crusher, only it's magnetized, has Monsoon zipping back and forth for multiple hits, and involves all of his limbs floating around in the air.
• Foil: To Raiden. Both are tall cyborg ninjas with a majority of their original body below the head gone, and with white hair, and both are usually calm and collected but can become psychopathic and enraged if pushed. Both also grew up in a life of war. However, unlike Raiden, Monsoon does nothing to hide his murderous, psychopathic tendencies and encourages them, while Raiden fights for others.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: A codec conversation between Raiden and Kevin sees the two of them discuss Monsoon's backstory, in particular the fact that he was forced to grow up in Cambodia during the reign of the mass-murdering Khmer Rouge regime. While Raiden (despite being a killer) feels bad for Monsoon (having known what it's like to grow up in a horrific war-torn nation and experience death first-hand as a child), Kevin says that while he also feels bad for Monsoon, plenty of other Cambodians had to endure it and yet they didn't become nihilistic and Social Darwinist sociopaths who wanted to start a international conflict. To be fair, Raiden agrees with him.
  Raiden: Yeah, I'm sure that's what gave him his whole survival-of-the-fittest worldview... Just one long series of traumatic events...
  Kevin: Well, directly or otherwise, the Khmer Rouge messed up a whole lotta lives... But all of their victims didn't start thinking like Monsoon. People have to stop the cycle of violence somewhere... Stop the bad meme, I guess you could say. Course that's easy for me to say, having grown up in a nice, stable First World country...
  Raiden: Nah, I get it. Growing up in bad circumstances... It's no excuse for the crimes you commit.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: While all of Desperado consists of this trope, Monsoon takes it a step further, by having nearly 90% of his body be cybernetic, with the only thing left of his original body being his head.
• Gangbangers: Unlike the other Winds of Destruction, he wasn't a former member of any military or paramilitary organizations prior to enlisting with the group. Instead, he was a former gang member.
• Get It Over With: Depending on how your fight plays out. Right as Raiden goes in for the kill in Blade Mode, Monsoon either solemnly tells Raiden to do as he will and finish him off or undergoes a Villainous Breakdown and begs for his life.
• Gone Horribly Right: He wanted to break down Raiden into a monstrous killer with no remorse for his victims. He got his wish, and he's one of them, especially if he's begging for mercy.
• Gratuitous English: In the Japanese version, he uses both the English version of his name and says "winds of destruction" in English amidst a speech that is otherwise refined Japanese. The fact that he's fluent in Khmer, Chinese, and English may have something to do with it.
• Hidden Depths: There are a lot of hints to him being a Nature Lover. Even when ignoring his Social Darwinist speeches, the guy even tends to get a little poetic when describing the rain or admiring the cherry blossom trees.
• Hitbox Dissonance: His head uses his standard-sized hitbox, making it possible to hurt him by slicing the thin air where his neck would be.
• Hypocrite: His entire iconic speech, when not delving into the brutal and violent nature of humanity, seems intended to point out some holes in Raiden's righteousness given that the men he's cutting down by the dozen aren't black and white, have families, and experience the terror of war even if they can't express it. Raiden quickly (and rightfully) points out that it's Desperado who's throwing them at him by the dozen as meat shields and have stripped them of the choice to deny the war.
• Image Song: "The Stains of Time," a song detailing Monsoon's nihilism and belief in war as a parallel to nature, also seen as a dedication to The Power of Hate as well.
• In a Single Bound: Similar to the fight with Blade Wolf, it's easy to loose track of Monsoon if he's leaping on top of walls and pillars and crossing from one side of the battlefield to another in mere seconds.
• Interface Screw: Getting trapped in the Red Phosphorus grenades he throws results in your lock-on being disabled, forcing you to orient yourself in Monsoon's direction manually each time he attacks you through the smoke.
• Ironic Echo: Monsoon claims that it's simply the law of nature that the strong prey upon the weak, it is just nature running its course when war happens. After Raiden defeats him by cutting off his head, Raiden throws it back in his face: "Don't be ashamed. It's only nature running its course."
• Lean and Mean: When compared to other cyborgs, such as his fellow Winds of Destruction members. He's also the tallest of the group at 202 cm (roughly 6'8").
• Lightning Bruiser: Played with. He's fast as hell, hits hard, is difficult to hit and has the most health of any Wind of Destruction. However, if the player has mastered parrying, makes the most out of Monsoon's helplessness when his weak spot is hit, and grabs health packs from his rubble-tossing attacks, they can nullify all of those advantages except for his speed. Raiden spending the entire fight locked in "Ripper Mode" also helps his numerically large amount of health feel smaller than it actually it is.
• Logical Weakness: Being that his cyborg body is held together by electromagnets, EMP grenades can disrupt them.
• Magnetism Manipulation: Monsoon's gimmick is Electromagnetism. Since his body is just segments put together by magnets, he does Detachment Combat by shooting his segments at you. Throughout his Boss Battle, he also uses magnetism to throw tanks and choppers at Raiden. Finally, his Boss Banter consists of referencing Genius Bonus terms like Lorentz Force and Left Hand Rule (which can be confused as the other left-hand rule, or rather, Path.)
• Misanthrope Supreme: Calls humans and they world they live in "diseased".
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Monsoon is the only Cyborg Ninja in Desperado that implements actual Ninjutsu techniques, such as smoke bombs and sais as weapons.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: In contrast with Mistral, Samuel and Sundowner, he doesn't speak with his native accent (Khmer). Might be a Justified Trope, given that he is an Omniglot.
• Off with His Head!: After Raiden pins Monsoon down and slices him into even more pieces, he makes one, nice lateral incision right between Monsoon's jaws, leaving the top half of Monsoon's head the only part of his body that didn't explode. Much like Sundowner, his severed head lasts long enough to deliver some final words to Raiden before shutting down.
• Older Than They Look: He claims to be old enough to remember the brutality of the Khmer Rouge^note He alludes to having "grown up on the killing fields" of Cambodia, placing his birth as somewhere in the early 1970s at the latest; Revengeance takes place in 2018, putting his age somewhere in the 40-50 years range, but looks surprisingly young.
• Omniglot: Fluent in Khmer, Chinese, and English.
• The Power of Hate: Gives this speech to Raiden about the memetic power of hate before their fight. In death, he believes that Raiden's re-descent into madness to kill him made him successful in imparting this and his survival of the fittest meme onto Raiden.
• Red Baron: None in-game, but the ambient track during his introduction scene calls him "the surge of blood."
• Selective Magnetism: In two forms.
  • His main trait shown is the ability to separate his body into pieces, levitating and reattaching them at will and even being able to fire his detached body parts at you like bullets. Curiously, despite your blade (and most of your body) being metal, even up close these magnets can't affect or hurt you.
  • At certain parts during the fight, he leaps to a higher area of the stage, and starts picking up tanks and helicopters to chuck at you. Then in the same vein, he can take a bunch of those tanks and helicopters, mash them together, and try to roll them over you in a gigantic wheel of death.
    "LEFT HAND RULE!"
• The Social Darwinist: Monsoon repeatedly remarks on how the strong prey on the weak, and this is "nature running its course."
• Sir Swearsalot: Averted; unlike most characters in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance he avoids using coarse language, even when losing his temper.
• Straw Nihilist: Considering what is implied to have happened in his past, you can't really blame him.
• Too Slow: Inverted; one of his taunts is that he's "too fast for that" (i.e. Raiden's attacks and tactics).
  • This is played straight in the Japanese version, as Monsoon will instead shout "Mikiremai!" (見きれまい！, You can't keep up with me!")
• Villains Want Mercy: Depending on how aggressive Raiden was during his battle, his last words are a horrified "Stop! Stop it!".
• Wake-Up Call Boss: If you haven't mastered parrying by the time you face Monsoon, he will absolutely eat you alive with his constant barrages.
• Wall Crawl: The Jetstream DLC shows he's capable of using his magnetism to attach his body to sheer surfaces, such as walking along the underside of a support beam on a hangar ceiling. However, it's also treated fairly realistically; with the magnetic power needed to grip the metal with just the soles of his feet, he can at most walk at a pace just below a slight amble, so he mostly uses it to maintain a safe talking distance.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: A pair of sai, which were originally used as farming tools before being repurposed as martial arts weapons. Fitting for a Straw Nihilist who spouts about the power of nature and the all-important instincts of humanity.

Khamsin

"If you don't know freedom, then I can't expect you to get our cause."

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (JP), Benito Martinez (ENG)

Image Song and Leitmotif: The Hot Wind Blowing

"Buckle the fuck up, little doggy. Remember this, we're bringin' freedom here if it kills us. Or better yet: them."

A cyborg, and commanding officer working for Desperado Enforcement, he is one of the four cyborgs called the Winds of Destruction along with Sundowner, Mistral, and Monsoon. His codename is Khamsin, referring to a hot, dry, desert wind in the Middle East. He pilots a large, mech-like suit with a massive, rocket powered chainsaw axe. He believes in freedom and bringing it to the people of Abkhazia.

---

• Anti-Villain: His goal was the liberation of Abkhazia.
• Attack Its Weak Point: To do the most damage to Khamsin, you need to attack his exposed torso, which can be attacked by sneaking up behind him after parrying one of his attacks which causes rocks to spring up creating barriers that Blade Wolf can hide behind.
• The Brute: Compared to the other Winds of Destruction who try for a one-on-one fight against Raiden at least, Khamsin prefers a much less subtle approach with a axe-wielding mech.
• Calling Your Attacks: Will sometimes belt out "Sandstorm!" while using his Spin Attack.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Lets one of these loose as he's close to being beaten.
• Concepts Are Cheap: Deconstructed. He's very keen on the idea of bringing "freedom" to the people of Abkhazia but doesn't really seem to understand the meaning of the phrase, and in practice what he fights for is just the interests of Desperado and the American government. This is in contrast to Blade Wolf, who claims "not to know about freedom" but clearly has a better working definition than his opponent.
• Doomed by Canon: It should be clear that considering how he isn't around or even mentioned in the main game, Khamsin doesn't survive the DLC.
• Eagleland: He spouts a lot about "freedom," but is very willing to spread it through force, something which the American government was criticized for during the second Iraq war, which he fought in.
• Final Boss: Of the Blade Wolf DLC.
• Final-Exam Boss: Seeing as though Blade Wolf's DLC is much more stealth focused than the rest of the game, his fight also has a stealth section along with the spectacle fighting.
• Foil: To Blade Wolf, appropriately, as the final boss of its DLC. Blade Wolf seeks to free itself from Desperado's control, while Khamsin blindly spreads "freedom" on Desperado's orders. Both use the only notable chainsaw toothed weapons in the game, and both are "leashed" to Desperado like attack dogs: Blade Wolf by its memory wipes, and Khamsin being literally attached to a war machine. As if to drive the point home, the shoulder assembly of his machine looks like the head of an LQ-84 Fenrir, the UG bodytype that Blade Wolf was given when he was created.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Khamsin's custom cyborg body removed the bottom half of his body; all that's left of it is a series of tentacles that allow him to move the rest of his body and interface with his mech.
• Hellhound: With his status as a guardian of the border between Blade Wolf and his freedom, combined with the visual cues described under Foil, he can be likened to Cerberus, with his mech's shoulder protrusions acting as his other two heads.
• Heroic Wannabe: Wants to be a soldier of justice and freedom, but is too crazed to see he's not doing anything of the sort by joining up with Desperado.
• Hypocrite: Believes in spreading "freedom", but is forcing it upon others rather than legitimately helping them. He also attacks and tries to destroy Blade Wolf, whose goal is to be free of Desperado.
  • On the other hand, considering Armstrong's conception of freedom...
• Image Song: "The Hot Wind Blowing," a song that can be a bit more difficult to decipher than others. It seems to straddle Khamsin's genuine desire to bring justice and freedom to Abkhazia, but also details that he "knows no disgrace" because his moral compass is off. There is also a heavy bit of the song that seems to imply his pride at being a Wind of Destruction.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He sincerely seems to believe in freedom, though he's enough a jerk to be discharged from the Marines. And his obnoxious attitude earns him enough of Mistral's ire for her to set up a Batman Gambit resulting in Blade Wolf killing him.
• Man in the Machine: The entire lower half of his body consists of wires that connect into a robot mecha.
• Obliviously Evil: Doesn't realize that he's doing more harm than good.
• Powered Armor: He deviates from the standard humanoid cyborg body by being connected to a large mobile suit.
• Red Baron: He's "the desert storm" and proud of it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Mistral's blue.
• The Reveal: The framing of the video call he has with Mistral shows he's in a mech of sorts, then the battle against him shows he's half-embedded into it.
• Sore Loser: Another thing that sets him apart from the other Winds of Destruction is the fact that he doesn't die without regrets. Unlike the others, who either find fulfilment in their deaths or congratulate Raiden, Khamsin angrily curses out LQ-84i and laments over the fact that he was beaten by a "goddamn mutt".
• Token Good Teammate: Of the Winds of Destruction, he's the only idealist one that thinks he's doing the right thing. Deconstructed since it doesn't fix his heinous actions or his aggravating attitude which makes him a target of Mistral.
• Unwitting Pawn: He was misled into believing that Desperado's mission in Abkhazia involved giving freedom to the people.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Khamsin wields a rocket-powered axe that's still easy to exploit despite its destructive capabilities, which attests to how Desperado was able to recruit and misguide him despite his apparently noble beliefs.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His zeal for freedom seems to go a bit too far.

Desperado Scientist

Voiced by: Benito Martinez (EN)

"You've heard of chloroform? A potent anesthetic in smaller doses. But breathe too much of it... And... adios, muchachos."

The chief researcher at a Desperado-owned lab in Mexico responsible for the removal of brains from young orphans and their encasement in cyborg cranium canisters so Desperado and World Marshal can train them via VR training.

---

• Cutscene Boss: Despite being the Arc Villain of R-02, he's ultimately "fought" in a cutscene where Raiden slashes him in half.
• No Name Given: We never learn his actual name.
• Only in It for the Money: Unlike most of the other villains, he is not doing this for a higher cause or acting out a set of ideals, he only cares that he gets paid.
• Out-Gambitted: Tries to prevent Raiden from rescuing the orphans from being gassed by threatening to kill George at gunpoint. George, however, gives Raiden permission to cut through him in order to kill the scientist. Reassured, Raiden then cuts him in half.
• Would Hurt a Child: His Mad Doctor schemes on Disposable Vagrant orphans.
• Stupid Evil: His plan was to hold a child hostage and make a hero decide on a Sadistic Choice. Said hero is Raiden.

Others

Senator Steven Armstrong (major spoilers!)

Senator Steven Armstrong

"I'm not one of those beltway pansies. I could break the president in two, with my bare hands!"

^{When powered up by nanomachines, son}
You can't hurt me, Jack!

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (JP), Alastair Duncan (EN)

Image Song and Leitmotif: It Has To Be This Way

"Nationalism! Unilateralism! Materialism! Welcome maxims for those with no faith — without guiding principles of their own. Give yourself up to the whole. No need to better yourself — you're American! You're number one!"

One of Colorado's elected Senators, and a candidate for the US Presidency, Steven Armstrong is the backer of Desperado Enforcement and the main villain of the game. A full-blown Social Darwinist at heart, Armstrong wishes for a world ruled solely by strength, where ideals are literally fought for, and the strong can mold the world in their image. He uses nanomachines^note , son! infused in his body to enhance his physical abilities to inhuman levels, granting him drastically increased strength, durability and speed during combat.

---

• Achilles' Heel:
  • Armstrong's body is infused with nanomachines that harden almost instantaneously upon contact with physical trauma, but they still have limits. Sufficiently powerful physical forces, such as attacks from the Murasama HF Blade, will force the nanomachines to converge and localize their energy into the targeted area of the body. Raiden exploits this during the last portion of their fight by first slashing Armstrong across his upper body, before proceeding to quickly stab through his midsection and critically injure him.
  • Another is that the nanomachines spread out from his heart, so Sam is able to use his gunsheath to outpace the response time of the nanomachines and cut off Armstrong's arm before it can harden, while Raiden ultimately kills Armstrong by Zandatsuing and crushing his heart.
  • According to Kojima, the nanomachines in Armstrong can run out of power, meaning that if there are no energy sources nearby along with him fighting an opponent who can outlast his onslaught, Armstrong would be rendered helpless. Kojima also states that this is what would've led to Armstrong's defeat against Sam in the DLC if it wasn't for Sam's impatience.
• Action Politician: Being a Senator doesn't stop him from piloting a Metal Gear or getting into personal combat with Raiden.
• Affably Evil: Between all his threats, he is also polite and respectful to his opponents, even when he's winning. Particularly in the Jetstream DLC, where he's gently smiling while completely schooling Sam in a fight. It's to the point where, during Raiden's I Surrender, Suckers moment, he immediately helps Raiden up and dusts him off when he thinks Raiden will join him. Before this, even when Raiden is utterly baffled at how he got to where he is, we get this gem.
  Raiden: How the hell did you get elected?
  Armstrong: (Chuckles) Well, I don't write my own speeches.
• Ambiguous Robots: Thanks to his nanomachines, Armstrong is a fusion of man and machine on the cellular level.
• An Arm and a Leg: In the Jetstream DLC, Sam manages to sever Armstrong's right arm, but his body-hardening nanomachines keep the stump sharp, allowing him to sever Sam's own arm in return, as well as reattaching his.
• The Anti-Nihilist: He has a sideways version of Solid Snake's philosophy. He sees a world full of citizens pacified by empty principles and soldiers dying for causes they don't believe in, but rather than a world of peace, he wants to create a world of freedom - one where people can choose their own principles and fight for their own causes. He may not be able to end all war, but at least he can make sure that those who put their lives at stake are doing it for their own good reasons.
• Anti-Villain: Though he isn't above using child soldiers and using Desperado to create conflicts in nations that are recovering from war, he is a man that wants what's best for his country... Or at least what he thinks is the best. Being one of the only antagonists in the series that doesn't want to use nuclear weapons is also a plus. He also believes in Defeat Equals Friendship, has genuine respect for Raiden and really wants him on his side. Raiden sums it up the best:
  Raiden: I was wrong. You're not greedy — you're bat-shit insane!
• Badass Boast: The entire fight with him is riddled with these. Everything coming out of his mouth that isn't about politics is this in spades. It's weird to hear that the man didn't write his own speeches. Then again, everything he says makes him sound crazy.
• Badass Bureaucrat: With the "Badass" part including physical badassery, unlike most examples of the trope.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As expected from a Senator, though he drops the jacket when he pilots Excelsus. His shirt also slowly gets torn off when he starts using his nanomachines.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Armstrong is a weapon, so he obviously doesn't one, marking quite the contrast to his Quirky Miniboss Squad's Impossibly Cool Weaponry.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: Not only does he catch Raiden's HF blade in one hand, he snaps it in half. He also does this if you get too trigger happy with Blade Mode on him.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Which is also the ruins of Metal Gear EXCELSUS.
• Battle Aura: Emits one during his fight with Raiden. In "Jetstream", he can also trigger an even bigger one when he Turns Red.
• Beat Still, My Heart: Raiden kills him by ripping out his still beating heart and crushing it.
• Berserk Button: Sam's extended taunt suggests that it's his age. Armstrong's impossibly mean rage-only attack suggests that it's definitely his age.
  Sam: [laughs] Not bad... for an old man!
• Big Bad: Of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. He's the ultimate backer of Desperado and the Winds of Destruction.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Armstrong finishes his duel with Sam by using the razor-sharp stump of his severed arm as a blade.
• Body Horror: Has giant veins coming out of a massive scar on his chest from which his nanomachine armor expands. Even Raiden looks shocked when he first sees it. His arms also gets covered with burn marks and scratches from using his nanomachines to generate massive amounts of heat for his punches.
• Blood Knight: Loves a good fight and says things like "Hah, that one hurt!" when he takes a lot of damage in the latter half in the fight. His biggest blood knight line of them all is probably "Hahaha! This is the greatest fight of my life!"
• Carbon Skin: Armstrong's nanomachines allow him to harden his body into a nigh-indestructible substance resembling graphene, so strong that even Raiden can't cut it.
• Character Filibuster: He gives two of the longest speeches in the game.
• Cigar Chomper: He has a cigar in hand while going on a Motive Rant about starting a war with Pakistan, and throws the half-smoken end of it at Raiden, who cuts it in half. He also takes a smoke break after kicking the shit out of a bruised-up Raiden.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Quite possibly the most foul-mouthed character in the Metal Gear franchise to date. His Motive Rant is composed in good part of f-bombs.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Zero from the previous installments in the chronology. Both are political leaders who tried to achieve their goals through power, but Zero stayed behind the scenes and used his brains to further his plans, while Armstrong was more physical. In addition, the two have completely opposite personalities, with Zero being a calm and refined Quintessential British Gentleman, and Armstrong being a vulgar Large Ham who embodies the Eagleland trope.
• Cool Old Guy: Villainous example. One can even see that his hair has started whitening a bit. And in his life he was a quarterback for the University of Texas, a Navy veteran, a United States Senator, and possibly the most dangerous fighter alive thanks to his superhuman physique. He seems to be touchy about his age, as Sam insulting him for it triggers a particularly brutal attack.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's the de facto head of World Mashal, which seeks to create war to gather funds and isn't above using cyberized child soldiers.
• Corrupt Politician: Is a Colorado Senator with links to Private Military Contractors and human trafficking.
• Could Have Been A Contender: Downplayed; Armstrong tells Raiden he played football at University of Texas, and that if he didn't enlist in the navy, he would've turned pro really.
• Covered with Scars: His nanomachine heart creates an ugly pulsating scar all over his chest. This is especially noticeable whenever he hulks up.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight with him is initially this, Raiden manages to get some hits in, but Armstrong mostly shrugs them off and gives him the worst beating he's ever endured, up until Blade Wolf gives Raiden the Murasama. Also, his fight with Sam in the Jetstream DLC. The whole fight he was just testing him, and when Sam attempts another go, Armstrong gets serious and beats his face, even losing a hand barely slows him down.
• The Cynic: Outright says the "average joe" only cares about money. He also thinks people don't care about information control, or right and wrong, as long as the information is spun well enough to make them feel comfortable.
• Dark Messiah: He believes he will be the one to usher in a stronger and more principled America...by turning it into an anarchist hellscape.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: He's a stern believer in this. He offers Sam a job and constantly offers Raiden a place too. Problem is, his job interviews involve a fight...
• Defeating the Undefeatable: He recruited Sam, who had garnered a reputation as an untouchable swordsman by breaking him in both body and spirit.
• Determinator: In the Final Battle he gets buried under rubble repeatedly, and if the player gets the Quick-Time Events right, kicked with enough force you can hear his ribs crack, punched repeatedly in the midsection, backhanded and smashed in the face with the full force of Raiden's fist hard enough to make him fly back several feet, yet still gets back up to kick ass. In the final part of the fight, Raiden jabs the Murasama right through his midriff, and Armstrong still tries to overpower him one last time!
  • The Jetstream DLC, Sam cuts his hand off, and he uses the sharp stump of his arm as a weapon.
• Dub Personality Change: It's subtle, but Armstrong's reasons for wanting to turn American into an anarchist dystopia are different in the English and Japanese scripts. In English, Armstrong puts a greater emphasis on giving freedom back to the people, while in Japanese, he's more focused on weeding out those he views as greedy political cowards who tout hollow ideals while forcing other people to fight for their personal gain.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Wishes to make America a nation based on Social Darwinism, where everyone is free to fight and kill for what they believe in.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Armstrong appears as early as Desperado Lab level in Mexico, where he's seen with Sundowner in one of visual logs. He's not addressed by his name and the camera deliberately obscures his face, presumably to set him up as a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
• Empowered Badass Normal: He was athletic and strong enough to play pro-football straight out of college before becoming a Navy SEAL. The nanomachines he uses bulk him up enormously, make him stronger than Raiden, and nearly impossible to kill to boot.
• Energy Absorption: Once EXCELSUS is down, green energy flows from the Metal Gear's exposed wiring into him in order to charge up his nanomachines. During the last part of the fight he will periodically stop to do this again and restore his health, but luckily this leaves him wide open for an attack to both stop him and stun him briefly for some punishment.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Will accept anybody from a Noble Demon to a Psycho for Hire who doesn't care about ideals into his ranks.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's disgusted by what the Patriot AIs did to the world, and when he reveals his plans before the Final Battle, he straight up says that his "Second War on Terror" is only out to kill extremists, madmen and the like. Of course, when he talks about his "Second War On Terror" he is pretending to be a stereotypical Corrupt Politician and has just gotten through a speech on how easily manipulated the masses can be and profiting on war. So, it is likely he was referring to "extremists, madmen, etc." as labels that can be used to justify attacking other countries and starting war for profit. As he reveals after Raiden destroys Metal Gear Excelsus and fights him hand-to-hand, Armstrong actually despises war as a business and how the masses can be manipulated through government, labels, media, etc.; he is a Corrupt Politician, but he actually is also a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to give America freedom from control by corrupt government, media, etc. ... by creating a Social Darwinist "utopia".
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Despite his goal being to recreate America into a nation where people will not be coerced, conned, or conscripted into fighting someone else's war, but will instead settle ideological differences with literal duels to the death to fight for what they personally believe, he simply cannot understand why truly ideal would-be citizens of this new nation such as Raiden and Blade Wolf refuse to fall in line behind him.
• Evil Is Hammy: Big time, to a memetic degree.
  • "Don't FUCK with this Senator!"
  • "Feel the Wrath of the U.S.A.!"
  • "Played college ball, ya know."
  • "Ashes to ashes motherfucker!"
  • "Hit the road, Jack!"
  • "Uncle Sam needs you to die, Jack!"
  • Every word of his cuss word-laden Motive Rant.
  • And of course, "Nanomachines, son!"
• Evil Is Petty: Calls cherry blossoms and other forms of transient beauty "sissy crap." Even mentions that he'll fire one of his executives for constructing the Japanese garden seen inside World Marshal, and that the guy will be lucky if he can even carry his box of personal belongings out of the office.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has possibly the deepest voice of all the villains in this game. Kinda goes without saying when he's built like a freight train.
• Expy: A lot of fans have pointed out that his plan would essentially create the lawless Hell that is the world of Fist of the North Star, minus the nuclear holocaust. (Even his plan is to "wipe the slate clean"...) Even when powered up, he looks and fights like Raoh, the very person in that world trying to bring about order and law.
• Face Death with Dignity: He admits defeat when Raiden pulls his heart out, but goes down with his chin held high and his ideals untarnished.
• Final Boss:
  • He's the final enemy of both the main game and the Jetstream DLC.
  • Chronologically, he's the Final Boss of the series as a whole, due to Revengeance being Left Hanging.
• Final-Exam Boss: If you haven't mastered every mechanic that the other bosses demanded, Armstrong will wreck you.
  • MG RAY: RAY teaches the basics of boss battles, which Armstrong also adheres to.
  • LQ-84i: Recognizing and properly responding to the UG's startup animations is key to surviving the following attacks. However, Armstrong's startup animations are harder to tell apart, and incorrect predictions tend to set you up for a damaging punish.
  • Mistral: Certain parts of the fight provide scripted Blade Mode setups that let the player chop off Mistral's arms or her spear. With Armstrong, Blade Mode is absolutely required during certain quick-time events that target his arms, and he can heal himself infinitely unless the player manually uses Blade Mode to hit him in the back.
  • GRAD: Armstrong's movement is both faster and more flexible than Raiden's, so understanding approach tools like Dystopia and purchasable Dash Attack skills is the only way to keep up with him.
  • Monsoon: Beating Monsoon requires that the player has mastered parrying. Armstrong requires that the player do it with better reflexes.
  • Sundowner: His explosive-shield gimmick can only be defeated by lining up the Blade Mode plane through multiple boxes. Armstrong's rubble-tossing attack demands the same skill, except performed multiple times in a row and at different angles.
  • Sam: Sam teaches defensive play by blocking overeager attacks. Armstrong doesn't even flinch from them, and he has enough HP to take a few attacks before hitting back with more power.
• Final Speech: When Raiden is about to kill him, Armstrong stops him short and states that although war will continue to thrive as a business, he leaves Raiden as a worthy successor to end war as a business, while also remarking how they're not so different.
  Armstrong: You've guaranteed the status-quo will go on, for a while longer at least... War... will continue as an institution. As an industry. Men will fight for reasons they don't understand, causes they don't believe in... But at least I'll leave a worthy successor... You, Jack. You carve your own path, use whatever methods you see fit... You don't let legal bullshit get in the way. And if it costs a few lives? So be it... Deep inside, we're... kindred spirits... you... and I...
• Foe-Tossing Charge: The first thing he does once he starts fighting Raiden is knock him back with a powerful shoulder tackle. He also performs plenty of these in the final battle proper.
• Foil:
  • To The Boss. They both have similar philosophies about war, they take in a younger man to uphold their will, and create a world where war should not be a necessity. The Boss wanted a world where soldiers should give up their arms and live in peace with each other. Armstrong wanted to end war as a business. The main difference is that Big Boss twisted The Boss's Will, thinking she gave herself up whereas Raiden took Armstrong's philosophies to heart (but not the methods).
  • To Raiden where they both want to end war as a business. They have similar goals and wants to fight for what they believe. Armstrong's Villain Song, It Has To Be This Way, even reinforces this with the words "I've carved my own path, you followed your wrath. But maybe we're both the same".
• Foreshadowing: "Huh, why does that politician in a suit look like he could bench press a small tank?", you might wonder when you first see Armstrong in the Desperado labs in Mexico. Of course, that's because he's the Lightning Bruiser Final Boss!
  • His first speech about maxims and "isms" when he exits the Metal Gear. At first, you may think it's a typical Evil Gloating speech about Eagleland superiority and/or how it makes people easy to manipulate. But if you pay attention to his tone and expressions, you realize Armstrong is disgusted by AND mocking the ideals he's exemplifying, hinting at his true motivation and Hidden Depths even before he feels Raiden earned his respect enough to learn what they are.
  • At the Airstrip, a Codec with Boris has him and Raiden ponder who could be waiting for them at the end of the base, specifically mentioning Armstrong just in case the player forgot about him. They rule him out as being at the base, though, instead assuming a cyborg to be leading Operation Tecumseh. The fact that he's even at the base and takes on Raiden with EXCELSUS, instead of hanging back on the other side of the planet watching the operation unfold, also shows that he is far tougher than a typical corrupt politician.
  • Throughout the Hopeless Bossfight portion of the battle, parts of his body including his head inexplicably turn metallic black when stuck or used for attacks, showing how he's curbstomping Raiden before he formally reveals his nanomachine enhancements.
• Forehead of Doom: According to the character designer, while Armstrong's original design made him look more intelligent, his forehead and chin were later emphasized to be more fitting with his character. Specifically, that of a man of action, not just words.
• Friendly Enemy: As he admits, he actually rather likes Raiden and would rather have him on his side. He wouldn't have spent all that time debating philosophy if he didn't want to convince Raiden. Even more evident in the Jetstream DLC, where he keeps offering Sam a job.
• Genius Bruiser: He is both a nigh-invincible juggernaut and a University of Texas graduate who can easily pilot an extremely advanced Metal Gear and orchestrate a series of large scale terrorism attacks.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: He's mentioned at various points throughout the game but he's only really prominent at the climax and at no point was it ever implied that he was anything other than some politician. Naturally, all of Raiden's mission support are utterly baffled at him being capable of fighting Raiden.
• The Glasses Come Off: He takes off his glasses when he gets serious against Raiden.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Armstrong never has a single strand of his slicked back hair out of place.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Unlike other enemies, he doesn't use an HF weapon, just his fists. He played college football, and served in the Navy (which trains in hand-to-hand), but never saw combat.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: The only one in the entire game who's seen smoking, and it's naturally cigars to boot.
• Go Out with a Smile: Dies happy knowing Raiden will keep trying to end war, even if unlike himself he won't try to create a Social-Darwinistic world.
• Graceful Loser: As he dies, he congratulates Raiden for his victory and encourages him to fight for what he believes in, thereby becoming the embodiment of his ideals.
• Having a Blast: He can cause explosions simply by punching the ground. He can even do this while on a helipad.
  • He also has an attack where he creates smaller explosions that chase you. It's possible that he's focusing superheated Nanomachines into the ground to cause fiery explosions. Or something else, who knows.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The fight with him in "Jetstream". Despite apparently losing by the end of the fight with Sam, in the cutscene afterwards he gets back like nothing happened (and from the look of him compared to other bosses when defeated, very little did) and beats the tar of out him.
• Healing Factor: Since his body is just as much a machine as it is flesh and blood, as long as his body is energized, his nanomachines will always recover; he can even reattach severed limbs just by slapping the severed appendage back on. Thus, he can heal by absorbing energy from the technology in his vicinity, though doing this forces him to halt whatever else he is doing, leaving him wide open to attacks.
• Hidden Badass: No one saw it coming that a US Senator would be one of the most powerful combatants in the Metal Gear universe to date.
• Hidden Depths: Twice. Like a good politician, he keeps his real motivations hidden very well. The first time you meet him, he gleefully admits to being a sort of neo-Patriot who's set on restarting the war economy to maintain America's status as a world power. When Raiden points out the hypocrisy of his speech and his politician persona, Armstrong admits even that is just a pretense, and actually loathes the shallow, sensationalist, materialistic culture he earlier claimed to support, and is actually planning to destroy America and rebuild it as a Darwinist utopia.
• Hobbes Was Right: Interestingly enough, his vision of an anarchic, social Darwinist utopia is very similar to what Hobbes believed was the natural endpoint of humanity without a sovereign to maintain order. The difference being Armstrong thinks this is a good thing.
• Hulking Out: He absorbs a massive amount of electricity from either several helicopters or what's left of Metal Gear EXCELSUS to activate his nanomachines. This causes him to temporarily bulk up to a huge degree.
• Human Hammer-Throw: In "Jetstream", he pulls off a Giant Swing on Sam near the end of the battle.
• Humongous Mecha: Shows up in the gigantic Metal Gear EXCELSUS to slaughter Raiden with.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: It becomes apparent by the final part of the fight that if Armstrong had fought seriously from the start, Raiden wouldn't have stood the tiniest of chances.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: Raiden points out that for all his talk about the survival of the fittest, Armstrong has never had to experience any kind of hardship in his life, let alone the kind that Raiden grew up with. Armstrong retorts that Raiden's hellish upbringing turned Raiden into what he is today, thus validating Armstrong's philosophy.
• Hypocritical Humor: One of his battle taunts against Raiden in the third phase of their final battle is calling him a "freak". Yes, this is coming from a guy who's basically a fusion of man and machine at the cellular level.
• I Know Madden Kombat: He "played college ball, ya know". Hence he likes to punt people around as if they were American footballs, and many of his attacks are powerful charging tackles.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Raiden thought it was over when he destroyed Metal Gear EXCELSUS... then Armstrong activates his Super Mode. He was also holding back the first two rounds, only using his Magma Man powers in the final round, once Raiden has a weapon capable of actually hurting him.
• Improbable Weapon User: In the Jetstream Sam campaign, he uses the sharp, curved nanomachine-hardened stump of his chopped-off hand, of all things, as a weapon.
• Instant Armor: His nanomachines harden in response to physical trauma (and likely through mental command, as well), allowing him to casually shrug off just about everything short of the Murasama.
• Internal Reformist: "I'm using War as a Business to get elected, so I can end War as a Business."
• Irony:
  • Each member of the Desperados suffered a Dark and Troubled Past, while Armstrong has a relatively good life. Tellingly, he's their leader and is the strongest member of them all.
  • There's also his belief that individuals should be able pursue freedom and fight for what they believe in. When Blade Wolf, an ideal example of the individual that Armstrong describes, challenges Armstrong's position, his response is to attack him and disregard what he says. This one, however, is built into what he said earlier: in his vision of a new America, if someone's views conflict with your own, you fight until one fighter's beliefs are rendered void. By punting Blade Wolf, he was trying to assert that his own views were superior to Wolf's.
  • Armstrong is obsessively into the idea of individualism and people fighting on their own terms, but his power is derived from nanomachines—as in, his body is flooded with tiny robots that practically do the fighting for him. Unlike genuinely skilled fighters like Sam, Armstrong is shown to be little more than a brawler; without his army of invisible helpers, his boss fight would have lasted four seconds.
• It Is Beyond Saving: Armstrong believes that America in its current state is too corrupted by political and bureaucratic "bullshit" to save in any capacity. He wants to tear the very foundation of the country apart and create a new society in its place where Might Makes Right.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Defied. When he mentions playing college football, Raiden assumes he attended "some cushy Ivy-League school." Armstrong proudly announces that he attended the University Of Texas (admittedly still regarded as a "Public Ivy") and played football.
• Jumped at the Call: In the "call to service" variety. He joined the navy instead of turning pro in football.
• The Juggernaut: For the first two phases of his fight, Raiden can barely put a dent in him. Even with the Murasama, Armstrong still shrugs off a lot of attacks.
• Kick the Dog: A literal example. He punts Blade Wolf away after the latter gives Raiden the Murasama.
  • At the end of Jetstream Sam's DLC, he extends his hand to shake Sam's. That is to say, the one he just cut off.
• Knight Templar: Claims he's a hero out to save America, despite being a "batshit insane" monster, according to Raiden.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: This guy's jaw puts Superman's to shame. Though his own dark brand of "justice" makes it a subversion.
• Large and in Charge: He's the Big Bad, who stands a full 200 centimeters tall with a heavy, muscular build.
• Large Ham: For as much of an amoral Social Darwinist as he is, Armstrong has quite possibly the most pork-infused lines and delivery of any Metal Gear villain to date. His masterful ability to Chew the Scenery and Milk The Giant Cow and do so with utter sincerity makes him astonishingly persuasive when he gives Raiden his Motive Rant.
• Last-Name Basis: He is almost never referred to by his given name, Steven, most of the time Armstrong is all Raiden and others will scream at the top of their lungs; him being mostly called just Armstrong also goes in hand with his imposing nature and presence, ironic since he gets personal with Raiden right way, only calling him by his given name of Jack.
  • Averted in the Japanese version, where Raiden angrily shouts "Steven!" when he catches the Murasama. This indicates to show that Raiden's been accepting some of Armstrong's ideas, but still wants to stop him. First names are also considered a lot more personal in Japan than the west.
• Laughably Evil: He spouts out some of the funniest lines a Metal Gear villain has delivered completely unironically. And that isn't even getting into his over-the-top transformation poses.
• Lightning Bruiser: He is both nigh-invulnerable and capable of dashing across the final battlefield in a few seconds; his basic moveset is also stronger and faster than Raiden's basic attacks, and can easily eat off an entire healthbar of yours if he gets to unleash a full combo or stun you, even on Normal difficulty.
• Magnetism Manipulation: In the "Jetstream" DLC, he demonstrates Monsoon's ability to levitate vehicles and toss them at his enemy. Possibly because he doesn't have any EXCELSUS wreckage to throw at Sam.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's the man behind World Marshal and Desperado, funding their attacks to further his agenda of plunging the world into war.
• Manipulative Bastard: Easily adjusts for Raiden's attempt to interfere with his plans to his advantage. By framing his actions as terrorist attacks to justify starting a war, it allowed him to pull his plan off without having to kill the President like he originally intended.
• Meaningful Name: Maybe a bit on the nose; his arms are indeed very strong. And that's not even getting into when he activates his Nanomachines. It also happens to be the surname of one of the most famous Americans to ever live, appropriate given Armstrong's intense nostalgia for America's past.
• Meet the New Boss: Thirteen years after George "Solidus Snake" Sears's resignation from the US presidency over the Shadow Moses Incident and nine years after his insurrection during the Manhattan Incident, Presidential candidate Steven Armstrong expresses a similar desire to reboot the United States by instigating a revolution within the American homeland. In-universe, Sundowner directly cites Desperado's Child Soldier as inspired by Solidus'.
• Might Makes Right: Armstrong tries to apply it with some sophistry, he believes only the strongest have what it takes to survive in the world he envisioned, people who can fight for what they truly believe in with their own hands, only these people could ever be in the right, and he, the man with great power, can create such world; at the end of the day Armstrong is a firm believer, since he wasn't dissuaded of his beliefs after being defeated, instead he sees Raiden as a kindred spirit, a successor of sorts who just proved himself to be stronger, a man who might just be what Armstrong wanted all along in his new world.
• Motive Rant: Delivers one as he's beating Raiden senseless atop Metal Gear EXCELSUS:
  "'I have a dream.' That one day every person in this nation will control their OWN destiny. A land of the TRULY free, dammit. A nation of ACTION, not words. Ruled by STRENGTH, not committee. Where the law changes to suit the individual, not the other way around. Where power and justice are back where they belong: in the hands of the people! Where every man is free to think — to act — for himself! Fuck all these limp-dick lawyers and chicken-shit bureaucrats. Fuck this 24/7 Internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit. Fuck 'American pride.' Fuck the media! Fuck all of it! America is diseased. Rotten to the core. There's no saving it — we need to pull it out by the roots. Wipe the slate clean. BURN IT DOWN! And from the ashes a new America will be born. Evolved, but untamed! The weak will be purged and the strongest will thrive — free to live as they see fit, they'll make America great again! ... In my new America, people will die and kill for what they BELIEVE! Not for money. Not for oil! Not for what they're told is right. Every man will be free to fight his own wars!"
• Multiple Life Bars: His final form has two.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Unlike every other boss in the game, Final Boss Armstrong has 200% health.
• Mysterious Past: Played With. Armstrong seems to have a relatively normal background in America, according to Raiden. The reasons behind his Social Darwinist Might Makes Right-based philosophy are a complete mystery, given he doesn't seem to have a Dark and Troubled Past like Raiden and the rest of Desperado. He does seem to have some knowledge about The Patriots, but how/if he is connected to them is never clarified.
  • There's no clear explanation as to how he met and recruited any of the other Winds of Destruction into his cause save for Jetstream Sam. He likely recruited Sundowner and Khamsin from the USA military, but the rest is a mystery. Mistral at least seems to be in love with him, but what his feelings towards her were are never revealed either (and he doesn't even mention any of the Winds save for Sam during his fight with Raiden).
  • We also have NO idea how he created and enhanced himself with the nanomachines, which seem to be VERY unique and powerful even by Metal Gear Solid standards.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: His body cells are fused with nanomachines. When they are activated, his flesh hardens to become many times more durable than the CNT Muscle Fiber that Raiden is made of. The nanomachines also harden in response to physical trauma, making him as durable as he needs to be.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Once he decides to go all out, Armstrong first delivers a punch that sends Raiden flying, then traps the cyborg underneath him while starting to punch him in a slow pace before going Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and finally finishes with a punch that's strong enough to blow up the Metal Gear EXCELSUS.
  Armstrong: Die, you PIECE OF SHIT!
• No Party Given: He hails from the swing state of Colorado. With his yellow tie (neither Democrat blue or Republican red) he's either independent or in the Libertarian Party, a party too small to be very controversial. His personal philosophy also makes speculating on him being right wing or left wing utterly misses the point, since his personal goal is extreme libertarianism combined with a good dose of insanity.
• No-Sell: He's special in that he is the only boss in the entire game that makes no attempt whatsoever to dodge any attack flung at him. He either catches, blocks, or straight up ignores it.
• Noble Demon: Inverted. His means are evil, but his goal not necessarily so. It depends on how much stock you put into Social Darwinism and Might Makes Right. In any case, he seems to put a lot of emphasis on its freedom and claritive aspects, and genuinely believes he's making the world a better place by whatever means necessary.
  • A more straight example is his apparent full belief in Defeat Means Friendship. While fighting Sam, he never gives up trying to recruit him, even while pounding his head into the concrete, even after Sam cuts off his arm, and always with that confident smile. When Raiden starts to look like he'll go the same route Sam did, Armstrong actually helps Raiden stand up and shakes his hand, and even gives him a Man Hug... which gives Raiden the perfect opening to attack.
• Non-Action Big Bad: At first. He spends most of the game hiding his true intentions and ties to Desperado...and then the truth comes out. The instant he enters the battlefield, he absolutely mops the floor with Raiden, again and again. And then he keeps going.
• "Not So Different" Remark: To Armstrong, Raiden is a perfect fit for his "Might Makes Right" philosophy, which is why he keeps trying to convince him to join his side, even after Raiden's I Surrender, Suckers moment. This isn't just an empty flattery; he truly thinks Raiden is like him, a belief he doesn't give up even in his death.
  Raiden: What do you know about "the weak"? You weren't born poor. You've never been hungry. You don't know what it's like to fight and steal and kill just to survive...
  Armstrong: But you did survive! Through sheer force of will, following your own set of rules. With your own two hands, you took back your life!
  • His Leitmotif It Has To Be This Way shows that Armstrong and Raiden has the same goals (stopping the war economy, ending pointless wars that have no meaning, violence is the only option when peace isn't), but the song treats the both of them as being blameless despite the bloodshed in their goals.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Seems at first to be a completely normal middle aged senator that is utterly defenseless without Metal Gear EXCELSUS. It soon turns out he's actually more dangerous on his own though.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While he has a number of points regarding the issues with his country, his pointed solution is to replace it with a society where "every man will be free to fight his own wars": a world where people would have complete freedom to do any good or bad thing they so desired so long as they had the pure strength to do so, with anyone weaker than them being "purged" and left at their mercy. Which is to say, a world where those with cybernetic enhancements, military strength or political power, like him, would be free to rule over the rest of mankind.
• Order Versus Chaos: Initially claims to adhere to Order, as shown in his first battle theme "Collective Consciousness," which is about telling the masses to give up their rights and free will for the good of the country, and boasts about the wonders a little war can do for the economy, essentially continuing the Patriot's legacy. Once EXCELSUS is destroyed however, he reveals he actually pushes for Chaos, wishing to create a country where the weak are purged, the strongest thrive, and everyone is able to fight for their own freedom and beliefs, and that his previous stance was merely an act to get elected.
• Our Presidents Are Different: Well, a senator of the "Action" variety. And by "Action", we do mean "Action."
• Out of the Inferno: Sometimes pulls this during the last part of his fight. When he punches the ground and creates literal fire walls, he sometimes walks through them instead of his charging attack.
• Patriotic Fervor: Armstrong is an incredibly fervent Eaglelander, if only for his vision of a Darwinist utopian America.
• Playing with Fire: He's able to punch the ground with enough force to trigger massive bursts of flame.
• Pride: Arguably what leads to his defeat. Armstrong holds back on Raiden for the first two phases of the fight, thinking he can still convince him to join his side. By the time he decides to get serious and finish off his opponent, Blade Wolf makes an appearance and grants Raiden the one weapon that can harm him. Nonetheless, though defeated, he dies happy, knowing that in Raiden he has "a worthy succesor", who like him, will fight for his ideals no matter what.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Raiden's attempts at Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs do nothing but slightly amuse him. The C-Shape Punch he hits Armstrong with at the end barely budges him a few feet backwards (this is the same guy that just Ippon Zeoi'd a Humongous Mecha minutes earlier) and get no more reaction out of Armstrong than having to push his glasses back in place.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's both the ultimate backer of Desperado, and the most advanced and lethal combatant they have, using Nanomachines in his body to become a nigh-invulnerable superhuman.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He wears black pants and shoes, his nanomachines turn his skin black as well with some bloody red, and his eyes glow bright red.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His glasses obscure his bright red eyes. In his final battle, he puts away the glasses to show he's no longer holding back.
• Rule of Symbolism: When claiming to be acting in the interests of the War Economy, you fight him as he pilots the multi-billion dollar Metal Gear Excelsus. When you pull him out of that "shell", he reveals his Social Darwinist agenda and proceeds to beat you down with his sheer strength.
  • Raiden fighting for his belief system's right to thrive over Armstrong's Social Darwinist ideals is reminiscent of a Presidential debate. Fittingly, Armstrong intends to be President in the year 2020, so Raiden is his first great debate opponent in the way of his presidency; if he wins here, then he's already symbolically guaranteed his right to the future of America. Raiden's eventual victory over Armstrong symbolically has placed him as the leader of the new America, where his ideals will now be glorified instead. If you wanted to be more blatant about it, you could apply the business suit costume to Raiden during gameplay.
  • On another level, Raiden fighting against Armstrong is symbolic of the struggle between the weak and the strong who prey on them. Raiden is symbolic of the citizens of America who for too long have been manipulated by politically powerful and wealthy men and women who dominate the way they live their lives, and Armstrong is symbolic of those crooked politicians. Raiden is symbolically representing every citizen who ever wanted to punch the politicians they hated in the face, and "fight the power" as the saying goes.
  • When Raiden finally deals the finishing blow, he does it by ripping out Armstrong's heart and crushing it in his fist—Zandatsu, which is Raiden absorbing what he requires to fight from his enemies—ergo, Raiden took into himself Armstrong's ideals as he killed him, which would fuel him for his future struggles, as implied by Raiden's words and actions during The Stinger.
  • Finally, as Armstrong lays dying, he gently claims that he and Raiden are kindred spirits deep down. His corpse's position, Raiden standing over it, the sun behind him and the camera's angle make it seem like Armstrong is the shadow cast by Raiden's figure.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Raiden's support crew repeatedly warns him that this is the number one reason taking down Armstrong and World Marshall will be so difficult. As a sitting senator with ties to the military and powerful PMCs, even if the ironclad evidence of Armstrong's crimes in Mexico were brought to light, no investigation would ensue and no media platform would ever consider airing it since anyone trying would be committing financial and political suicide in the process.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He encourages people to fight for what they believe in, regardless if it breaks the law, which Raiden had been doing after seeing the childrens' brains being used for VR training. When Raiden defeats him, he tells him not to let anyone get in his way for fighting what he thinks is right, even if it means more bloodshed and if the law is against it.
• Shadow Archetype: During the scene mentioned under Graceful Loser, he points out that he and Raiden aren't that different from each other. To make it even more blatant, after the whole thing is over, the final shot of Raiden standing over his corpse is laid out so that it looks as if Raiden's shadow cast by the sun behind him was Armstrong himself.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Easily the most foul-mouthed character in the Metal Gear franchise.
• The Social Darwinist: Wants to create a new America where the strong survive and the weak die. His motivations are very similar to the Patriots who wanted to socially engineer American evolution, only difference being is that instead of information control he intends to use violence to enforce this new world. Unlike most examples, he's not a hypocrite and proves to be enough of a believer that he accepts that Raiden beating him proves him right in his mind.
• Spanner in the Works: Raiden certainty wasn't expecting the backer of Desperado to be waiting for him in Pakistan with a giant robot and nano-machine enhancements that made him even stronger than his cyborg subordinates.
• Start X to Stop X: He himself admits that he's using war as a business to get elected so he can end war as a business.
• Strawman Political: Seems to take aspects of libertarianism to ludicrous, illogical extremes.
• Super-Strength: Strong enough to make the entire Metal Gear EXCELSUS explode with a single well-placed punch, albeit after it was already wrecked by Raiden and sucked dry of energy by Armstrong himself. Even Raiden, who can toss around a RAY unit and EXCELSUS itself, has trouble against him.
• Super Mode: In the Jetstream Sam DLC, he Turns Red at low enough health. Try taunting him in this part of the fight, see where it gets you.
• Survivorship Bias: Armstrong discusses this trope with Raiden, who disagrees with the former's darwinistic ideology because he suffered hell on the battlefield. Armstrong retorts that Raiden did survive and take back control of his life. This makes their discussion an unusual version of this trope where the survivor is the one arguing against the environment that he supposedly succeeded in, since he still has to live with the trauma.
• Take Up My Sword: Upon his death, he tells Raiden he considers Raiden his successor, and Raiden should do what he thinks is right, regardless of what anyone else thinks.
• Übermensch: He wants to create a world where EVERYONE is this, and any ideological/moral disputes are simply resolved by strength. Armstrong considers Raiden a perfect example, as someone who "took back [his] life, following [his] own set of rules", and can't understand why Raiden won't join his side.
• The Unfettered: Claims that things like laws and lives cost in the pursuit of your goal don't truly matter in the long run. In his words, "[I'm] making the mother of all omelettes here, Jack, can't fret over every egg", basically saying that in creating your ultimate utopia, you can't worry about what you sacrifice to get there.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Compared to Raiden and Sam, he possesses almost no fighting finesse, but compensates for it with sheer brute force, something he happens to have extraordinary amounts of.
• Villainous Friendship: Seems to be on very good terms with the Winds of Destruction. Has a Type III relationship with Mistral, a Type IV relationship with Monsoon, and while he doesn't interact much with Sundowner in-game, he trusts him with control of Desperado. Sam, however, is an exception, as he regards him as a "pain in his ass", and it's unknown how he feels about Khamsin.
• Villain Has a Point: Raiden admits he's right regarding people being forced to fight in wars they don't believe in and for causes they don't understand, judging by him echoing his words in The Stinger.
• Villain with Good Publicity: At least partially because he doesn't write his own speeches. Hell, he's even a candidate for the 2020 elections.
• Visionary Villain: Wants to destroy and then remake the United States so it can be a place where every man, woman and child can fight for what they believe in, without being told by anyone else what is right or wrong.
• Walking Spoiler: Everything related to his role in the end of the game is not what you expect when you first see him.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Averted. Every other major combatant in the game has a weapon that reflects their ideals, but Armstrong himself fights only with basic footballer moves and nanomachine power. However, this still keeps with his character: if you're difficult to kill and you're powerful enough to defeat anyone, you're right, ideals and beliefs be damned.
• We Can Rule Together: After Armstong is finished with his rhetoric, Raiden appears to relent, realizing he's not dealing with a mere criminal but a true believer. Armstrong extends his hand as a gesture of goodwill... but Raiden hasn't abandoned his moral compass just yet.
  "I was wrong. You're not greedy... YOU'RE BATSHIT INSANE!!!!"
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He really does want to make America great again and give the people true freedom. However, he plans to do this by creating hundreds of child soldiers, starting a war with Pakistan on false pretenses, and then burning the US government to the ground once he's in control of it.
  • He sums up his intent at the end of the Jetstream DLC with:
    "Organized violence, waging war as business. We're gonna put an end to all that bullshit."
  • This is also shown with Metal Gear Excelsus. It isn't a nuclear capable mecha, but rather it's meant to destroy extremist hideouts and positions. The reason why it's so huge is to warn anyone in the way of Excelsus, Armstrong designed it in a way that non-combatants would have a really good chance to escape.
• World's Strongest Man: When he's hulked out, he's the single strongest character in the entire Metal Gear universe at the time of his introduction. He's also the strongest member of the most powerful PMC in the world, and considering the other members include Sundowner, that's saying something. To put it simply, he's far more dangerous to Raiden than the Metal Gear he starts the fight in.
• The Worm That Walks: Dr. Voigt hypothesizes this as a possible explanation for Armstrong's invulnerability, calling it "claytronics." Most or all of his body is a mass of nanomachines taking human shape and instantly reshaping itself if damaged.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers Raiden to be this. During the final boss battle he actually says that "this is the greatest fight of my life."
• You Can't Make an Omelette...: Immediately after Raiden's I Surrender, Suckers moment:
  "Making the mother of all omelettes here, Jack! Can't fret over every egg!"
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Implied. It's not stated how Operation Tecumseh was supposed to work, but whatever the plan was, he managed to manipulate Raiden's involvement to his favor.

Prime Minister N'Mani

Voiced by: Nobuaki Fukuda (JP), Dorian Harewood (EN)

"I must admit, I once thought of groups like yours as opportunists - enablers of war. But you've trained our new army well - order has returned sooner than expected. Perhaps I was wrong about these 'private military companies'..."

The Prime Minister of an unidentified African country. He takes quite a liking to Raiden. He is later killed by Sundowner.

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• Black Dude Dies First: He's black and the third character to die, after the (also African) Gemini cyborgs that serve as his bodyguards.
• Face Death with Dignity: Despite being tortured by Sundowner, he never once pleads for mercy.
• Humble Hero: When his advisor says the state of the country is due to having a strong leader, he brushes it off, saying it's due to his peoples strong will.
• Meaningful Name: His name sounds like "mnemonic", meaning "relating to memory" or "designed to aid in memory", and the powerful memory of his death is the initial force that drives Raiden to go after Desperado Enforcement.
• The Nicknamer: He calls Raiden Mr. Lightning Bolt.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Is killed when Sundowner stabs him through the back.
• Killed Off for Real: He doesn't get resurrected or come back in any way after he's killed.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Invoked. N'Mani is reasonable, modest, cares about his people, remains calm in a crisis, admits when he's wrong, and calls Raiden "Mr. Lightning Bolt" despite him being contracted security. For his brief screentime, he gets a lot of characterization — so that when Sundowner kills him, the player will sympathize with Raiden's quest to avenge him, and maybe start thinking that all these Desperado cyborgs deserve violent deaths...
• Sacrificial Lamb: He's important in the game's first chapter, only to get killed in the same one.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: His only purpose in-story is for Sundowner to kill him to show that Desperado Enforcement are bad guys.

Gemini

Voiced by: ???

some caption text

Two identical cyborg bodyguards to Prime Minister N'Mani. Both are quickly dismembered by Sundowner.

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• An Arm and a Leg: One of the Geminis gets his arms slashed off by Sundowner during the latter's Dynamic Entry.
• Black Dude Dies First: Double-subverted. Sundowner effortlessly shreds both of them when kidnapping N'Mani, making them the first named characters to die (after the nameless Maverick guard Sam cuts down); however, a codec call with Doktor later reveals they survived due to their braincases' safety features kicking in.
• Flat Character: They're N'Mani's bodyguards and one of them is a fairly good driver. That's the full extent of their characterisation.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: They're both identical to each other, but otherwise seemingly unrelated.
• Machete Mayhem: Like most of the cyborg soldiers in the game, they use HF machetes in battle. They actually manage to take down a couple Desperado Mooks with these before being chopped into lunch meat by Sundowner.
• Meaningful Name: Gemini, as in the astrological sign for twins. Fittingly, they're identical cyborgs.
• Not Quite Dead: Despite being dismembered and decapitated by Sundowner, a codec call with Doktor reveals both survived due to their braincases' protection mode kicking in.
• Red Shirt: They exist to take down a couple Desperado mooks in a cutscene, then get ganked by Sundowner to show he's a threat and a bloodthirsty killer.

Wilhelm "Doktor" Voigt

"Rather gruesome, I realize. But then, you Americans enjoy a bit of gore, don't you?"

Voiced by: Mugihito (JP), Jim Ward (EN)

"Ich liebe Kapitalismus! Had the wall come down a few years earlier, I would have a Nobel Prize on my shelf."

Though his real name is Wilhelm Voigt, he prefers to be called "Doktor." He researched advanced weaponry in the GDR (East Germany). He had no job after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but thanks to his studies on myoelectric prosthetics, he found pay working on cyborg technology. Maverick contracted him to remodel and perform maintenance on Raiden. He also uses his vast knowledge of cyborg technology to provide additional support for Raiden during missions. His company is probably TransHominid Systems GmbH, whose brand is clearly visible on Raiden's combat visor.

---

• Ace Pilot: He's pretty good at flying a helicopter, especially when two unmanned drones are trying to shoot him down. Downplayed however, as he admits that most of the time the helicopter is flying itself and he's just there to provide additional support for it.
• Action Survivor: Despite his job normally being providing upgrades to Raiden, he still braved the field of battle when Raiden went for World Marshal, piloting a helicopter to get him out of there.
• Collector of the Strange: He asks Raiden to collect the left hands of any cyborgs he kills, as that's where their combat data is kept. This is manifested as a BP bonus for cleanly dismembering enemies while in Blade Mode as well as certain limbs containing secret Patriots data that can be collected for unlockables.
• Cool Old Guy: Very cool old guy, despite being a Mad Scientist. He remains one of the friendliest and good-natured characters in the game, even going as far as offering field support to Raiden in Denver, and outfitting kidnapped orphans and brains with cyborg bodies to try and lead normal lives.
• Deadpan Snarker: Apparently Germans do have a sense of humor, as lampshaded by Raiden.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He prefers to be called "Doktor" rather than Wilhelm or Dr. Voigt.
• Expy: A case could be made for him being one of Granin, given that he mentions as being on the other side of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, mentions he likely would've been recognized if he'd been working for the West, and he even praises Capitalism at one point.
• Gender Bender: Discussed: He mentions the possibility of getting a female-shaped cyborg body ("to surprise my colleagues") when he finds someone he considers competent enough to transfer his brain into one.
• Germanic Depressive: Defied: despite having come from East Germany, he's one of the most jovial characters in the game. Of course, the fact that he was paid to indulge in his favorite job probably helped. Raiden even lampshades the trope after the good Doktor responds to him jumping out of a helicopter with a cheery "have a nice flight!"
  Raiden: And people say Germans aren't funny.
• Gratuitous German: Throws in bits of German while speaking, despite being fully fluent in English.
• Herr Doktor: He's a brilliant German cyborg engineer. Also lampshaded by his call sign "Doktor."
• Mad Scientist: Keeps a collection of severed cyborg arms in his workshop. It's mostly averted though, as he's quite nice and sane. Also, he actually didn't much care about whom he supported, as long as he got work. At least, at first.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Downplayed. While he's informed on a large variety of topics, most of his knowledge is at least tangentially tied to his primary fields of robotics and cybernetics.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After getting his hands on Blade Wolf's remains, he made sure to repair him to full condition, apply some physical upgrades and remove the failsafes in his programming Desperado put in, including the memory-wipe.
  • When securing the child brains and producing bodies for them, he made use of the VR program Desperado was using and replaced the combat training with pretty much a luxurious stay at a four-star hotel until a body is ready for them.
  • At the end of the game, he built a firm to ensure the cyborgified children could have as close to a normal life as they can get, such as setting George up at Solis.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Looks like Dr. Madnar without a mustache and is a scientist that specializes in cybernetics. Note that Dr. Madnar was the one who turned Raiden into a cyborg between the events of MGS2 and MGS4 and the original cancelled version of Rising, which was meant to cover said events, would've presumably featured Dr. Madnar as part of Raiden's support crew.
• Transhuman: Considers cyborg technology the next stage of evolution, and the only reason he hasn't gotten himself a cyborg body yet is that he doesn't trust anyone else enough to implant his brain into one since he's obviously unable to do it himself, and he doesn't have anything life-threatening at the moment.
• Verbal Tic: He likes to ask a lot of rhetorical questions.

Andrey Dolzaev

Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP), Travis Willingham (EN)

"Built with Russia money, to make Russia money. It is no plant for Abkhaz — It is their prison!"

An Abkazhian terrorist affiliated with Desperado.

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• Cutscene Boss: He blows himself up in a cutscene after Mistral's battle in a Suicide Attack.
• Driven to Suicide: Raiden suspects this of him. Ultimately, he didn't get much out of blowing himself up, just putting a dent in Russia's budget so they could rebuild the plant, and just wanted to kill himself by his own hands instead of letting Raiden get to him.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Considers himself Abkhazia's savior against Russian domination and thinks Mistral is interested in him. In reality, he "barely registers as a blip on Russia's radar," Mistral is actually fixated on Raiden, and Dolzaev is merely just a pawn in Desperado's game.
• Taking You with Me: After being trapped in the refinery, he decides to blow himself up along with it in a final act of resistance against the Russians. Raiden begrudgingly respects Dolzaev's dedication, but laments that his attempt at a heroic sacrifice was futile.
• The Unfought: Raiden's mission in the R-01 chapter is to take down the one in charge of the enemy soldiers, in which Dolzaev leads. Raiden, however, merely faces his second-in-command that is Mistral in that chapter instead, with Dolzaev blowing himself up shortly afterwards.
• Villainous Breakdown: He completely loses it after Mistral's death.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Emphasis on the Extremist part but he does want what's best for Abkazhia.

George

Voiced by: Mutsumi Tamura (JP), Sean Krishan (EN)

"Mi? Wah da rass ayu fuh do here? Yuh lose da map a ninja hideout, ninja man?^note "Me? What the hell are you doing here? You lose the map to your ninja hideout, ninja man?"

A young Guyanese boy that meets Raiden in the sewers of Mexico. After being rescued, he's turned into a cyborg and joins Maverick.

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• Ascended Fanboy: When he first meets Raiden, after learning he's on the side of good, he says he'd quite enjoy being a cyborg and kicking the bad guys' asses. When Raiden cuts him and the Desperado doctor in two, he's rebuilt as a cyborg. Needless to say, he likes it much as he expected.
• Cyborg: What he ultimately becomes. He doesn't seem to mind it. He still retains his original head and left arm, and Doktor remarks that Raiden preserved his lower half, thus meaning he will still be able to have children.
• Damsel out of Distress: Gets kidnapped and held hostage at gunpoint, but tells Raiden to cut down his captor regardless of what happens to him. He even gives him an opening to slice through.
• Funetik Aksent: As shown in the quote above, all of George's dialogue is subtitled exactly how he pronounces it.
• One-Steve Limit: George has the same first name as Solidus Snake, which makes Raiden more than a tad uncomfortable.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: He wants to have the ability to fight against bad guys, and Raiden tries to dissuade him from otherwise. He considers getting a cyborg body to be a step up. Luckily, being a cyborg in Maverick's hands is a lot more better than the original idea that Sundowner had planned.
• Ship Tease: Openly flirts with Sunny.
• Shoot the Hostage: A Desperado doctor holds George at gunpoint is taken down when Raiden (with George's consent, mind you) cuts them both in half. Judging by where the blade cut, it went through both lungs and his heart. He survives however, thanks to Raiden quickly putting his remains into a nearby organ-preserving unit until Doktor managed to properly save his life.
• Taking You with Me: The reason he allows Raiden to endanger his own life is that he'd be "taking [The Doctor] to hell with [him]".
• Translation Convention: He speaks with a thick (and hilariously bad) Guyanese accent, but the subtitles translate it to normal English. It also exchanges some of his slang for more direct terms.
• Worth It: After his Heroic Sacrifice resulted in most of his body being severed, he enjoys his cybernetic replacements since he never has to worry about eating and his blood sugar levels are automatically maintained, keeping him awake.

Metal Gear Codename: EXCELSUS

Image Song and Leitmotif: Collective Consciousness

Another Metal Gear built by the United States, this weapon was not kept secret like other Metal Gears. Also unlike other MG weapons it does not contain nuclear firepower, but it can use retractable blades, fire two large plasma cannons to attack, and can also tunnel underground.

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• BFS: Two of them. Raiden ultimately severs one and uses it to Blade Lock with the other.
• Bullying a Dragon: Exploited: It was specifically meant to attack armed guerillas, who would likely stay behind to fight it but to no effect. Defenseless civilians, however, would do the more sensible thing and run away from it.
• Evil Is Bigger: While the previous Metal Gears just got smaller and smaller, this one is absolutely massive. This is a very pointed part of its design, since its size makes it hard for civilians to miss and makes it look even scarier, prompting them to run away.
• Flunky Boss: It has a payload of several GEKKO units which can spawn two at a time.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Raiden ends up using one of its own retractable blades to put it down for good.
• Humongous Mecha: Keeping in traditional Metal Gear fashion being gigantic in size. It was designed to be huge and highly visible specifically so that civilians would know to flee when it was sighted, allowing it to fight enemy combatants without fear of collateral damage.
• Meaningful Name: Excelsus means high or lofty. It's also the species name of the Apatosaurus dinosaur.
• Mighty Glacier: Given its size, this is obvious. This trait actually factors into its "scare civilians away" feature as its size and speed would cause them to panic and run away with more than enough time to do so.
• Non-Indicative Name: Despite having the title 'Metal Gear', it has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, which Raiden suggests they just called it that for PR.
• Pre-Final Boss: Raiden has to fight this Metal Gear in the final mission of the game before he can deal with Senator Armstrong.
• Remember the New Guy?: Practically everyone knew about the existence of EXCELSUS before the events of the game due to the In-Universe heavy promotion it got in the news, although no one such as Raiden doesn't bring it up beforehand since it wasn't likely to show up, until now.
• Roar Before Beating: Metal Gear EXCELSUS roars at Raiden before the battle against him begins.
• Spider Tank: It's got six legs.
• Theme Naming: Like Metal Gear REX, its named after the specific name of a famous dinosaur species.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: With cyborgs quickly becoming prominent on battlefields and proving to be far more dangerous than previous Metal Gears, this Metal Gear was designed to overwhelm them with sheer brute force.

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