Raiden (Metal Gear)

Raiden, real name Jack, also known as Jack the Ripper, White Devil, and Snakeis one of the main characters from the Metal Gear franchise.

Raiden was a Liberian-American mercenary and former special forces soldier. Previously a child soldier under Solidus Snake, Raiden was later selected by the Patriots to test the S3 Plan at the Big Shell, as a new recruit to the reformed FOXHOUND unit. He later worked alongside the Paradise Lost Army in their anti-Patriot activities, but was captured and forced to undergo heavy cybernetic experimentation. After successfully escaping, Raiden went on to assist Solid Snake during the Guns of the Patriots Incident.

Personality
Due to his participation in the Liberian Civil War, Raiden was one of the few Force XXI VR subjects to possess actual combat experience. Also, because of his past as a child soldier, as well as his possessing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as a result, he also occasionally pushed away even people he cared about due to his being "afraid of the night." Because of this, he was outwardly cold and distant even to people whom he personally knew, such as his then-girlfriend Rosemary. It was largely because of this cold nature, as well as his pushing people he knew away that resulted in Rosemary initially fearing that he was unfaithful to her. When he first infiltrated the Big Shell, Raiden appeared to be a young and "inexperienced" agent of a "reformed" FOXHOUND unit, occasionally prone to emotional outbursts.

Throughout his mission, however, being that the memories of his past began to slowly resurface, he also began to suspect that he enjoyed killing, and reluctantly informed Rosemary as much.[24] When the memories of his time as a child soldier began to resurface, he gained somewhat of a low opinion of himself, especially in comparison to Solid Snake's accomplishments. He also held some hero worship for Solid Snake, as part of the reason for his agreeing to partake in the Big Shell Incident to take down the terrorist leader was so he'd meet the legend face-to-face, and was initially disappointed when it seemed Snake had truly died in the Tanker Incident.

Although he immensely respected Solid Snake, there were instances where it had its rough spots during the Big Shell Incident, such as when he learned that Snake and Otacon lied to him about whether they knew about the Big Shell being a great big conspiracy, as well as a remark Snake made that got him angered enough to make explosive insults about Snake, not realizing that he was in earshot, and when Snake "betrayed" Raiden at Arsenal Gear to lessen security onboard without warning him beforehand. Prior to finding out that Pliskin was in fact Snake, he also held some respect for Pliskin in terms of mentorship and camaraderie. Nonetheless, he did end up suspicious when Rosemary seemed to be praiseworthy of Pliskin.

Raiden used to smoke cigarettes at one point in his life, but had quit by the time of the Big Shell Incident. He also possessed barcode tattoos all over his body.

Raiden shared some similarities with his Cyborg Ninja predecessor, Gray Fox: both had been child soldiers who were given nicknames (and to a lesser extent, formal names) due to their brutality, underwent cybernetic experimentation by the Patriots, had their memories suppressed, used technologically advanced blades, and they both saved Solid Snake from a Metal Gear (Fox with Metal Gear REX, and Raiden with Outer Haven). Raiden was also similar to Gray Fox's adopted sister, Naomi, in that he was adopted by the same person who murdered his parents. Raiden was also similar to Kazuhira Miller, in that he bore unusual features regarding his country of origin. Raiden was the only known Cyborg Ninja to have survived, and also the only one who hadn't fought Solid Snake.

Raiden was skilled at cleaning up messes, as he mentioned to the Colonel regarding not leaving stuff lying around at Strut C during the Big Shell Incident. He implied that he gained the skill at cleaning up from having to clean up various messes that Rosemary left at her apartment.

Raiden had some knowledge of pop culture, as his meeting with Rose occurred from an argument relating to the building the titular monster climbed in the film King Kong (Rose claimed it was the Chrystler Building which Raiden pointed out was in Godzilla), and was at least familiar with the film Escape from New York, as he deduced the partial origin of Solid Snake's alias, Iroquois Pliskin, from that film.

Abilities

 * Due to his harsh childhood, training from Solidus and the Army's virtual training, his mental state and capacity were well suited to combat operations behind enemy lines. He was calm under pressure, adaptive, and somewhat critical. This training and conditioning also put penalties on some of his social capabilities and mental stability. He was adept with a variety of weapons, from small arms to surface-to-air missiles. His training with Solidus suggested some emphasis in melee combat, and particularly in bladed weapons, as demonstrated by his defeat of Solidus in a sword fight during the Big Shell Incident. Raiden also showed great endurance and perseverance, as evidenced by his taking down multiple RAYs aboard Arsenal Gear, before becoming too exhausted to continue fighting.


 * After becoming a cyborg, Raiden possessed incredible superhuman strength, speed, and endurance. His strength enabled him to lift a tremendous amount of weight, evidently ranging to several thousand tons. Prime examples include swinging Gekko around in a circle by his legs, and momentarily stopping Outer Haven, an Arsenal Gear class submarine with his body. His body had similar design to that of a Gekko, as his feet could be used as hands, allowing him to grip and grab hold of objects and edges in a similar manner to an ape or bat. He could stretch out his legs as if they were arms to in this fashion as well, all without any strain or discomfort of any kind. This allowed him to operate at high efficiency even when he lost both his arms at the shoulders. He also could grip, hold, and even throw objects with inhuman ease and precision in his mouth. This allowed him to weild his sword between his teeth, throw and jam his blade into a wall exactly infront of Snake to stop him, and fend off against several FROG soldiers without his arms. He also was skilled at being attuned with nature, also known as scouting, which he gave Solid Snake pointers in it when contacting him about in South America.


 * Raiden's superhuman durability makes him virtually indestructible due to the parts of his body made entirely out of steel and artificial muscle fibers. Because of his durability, Raiden, at times, had to resort to self mutilation in order to get his missions done, such as stabbing himself with his own blade to subdue Vamp and slicing his own arm off to free himself from fallen debris so he could save Snake. In addition, his durability was such that he claimed that he was immune to the effects of microwave emitters.
 * Due to his cyborg body's design, he could sometimes generate electricity. He demonstrated such an ability when preventing a group of Haven Troopers from reaching an immobilized Snake. Raiden demonstrated lightning-like powers, conducting electricity all over his body with which he struck down several of the would-be attackers after he turned on the ceiling sprinklers, allowing him to create electric bolts in the air until the water stopped.


 * Raiden's superhuman speed enabled him to run extremely fast for great distances. He can run at speeds faster than sound, and can swing his sword faster than the human eye can see, such as when he toppled several storage containers while protecting N'mani. Raiden was also capable of running fast enough to scale walls without falling.
 * His original cyborg body's durability was relatively low, as it was lacking armor, and was obsolete with limited battlefield potential as of 2018. With his custom cyborg body, his durability increased tremendously, as demonstrated in Denver, Colorado after raiding World Marshal HQ. While escaping with Doktor, he fell off the cargo helicopter and survived largely intact, while leaving a large crater.
 * Because of his status as a cyborg, his left arm also was directly connected to his cranial nerves. Because of this, removing it caused serious and unpleasant side effects of undergoing temporary memory loss as well as intense flashbacks to his time as a child soldier in Liberia, due to his hippocampus being stimulated, a side effect of the left arm's holographic storage data being connected to cranial nerves to record everything around him and his senses.
 * His eye after his upgrade in 2018 occassionally turned crimson when being deployed or when about to undergo a deadly maneuver, a side effect of his eye being modified with an optical implant. He did possess optical implants to a slightly lesser degree prior to the upgrade, which displayed things in a HUD.
 * After becoming an cyborg, Raiden implied that he would drown if he attempted to swim due to his immense weight. More than that he can raise over 300 ton in extreme energy, and punching on steel. charge his foot in raise level it will be result to highest power by the electric nano device system to pain deactivation.

Trivia

 * The mention by Colonel on how Raiden completed 300 VR missions only occurs if the player beat the Tanker Chapter immediately prior to the Plant Chapter.