Steven Armstrong

"I'm using war as a business to get elected... so I can end war as a business! 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!"

- Steven Armstrong

Steven Armstrong was a United States Senator representing Colorado, as well as a candidate for the 2020 United States Presidential Elections.

Early life
Armstrong was born and raised in Texas. Prior to pursuing politics at the national stage, Armstrong played college football for the University of Texas, in which he excelled at the game, even acting as the team's Quarterback. He later joined the United States Navy due to wanting to serve his country, which also sacrificed his chances of going pro. However, although a member of the Navy, he never actually saw actual combat during his time in it. By the time of 2018, he maintained his physique and even managed to enhance it further via nanomachines to put his strength on par against even a cyborg soldier. At some point, he moved to Colorado.

Political career
He eventually ran for state senator of the state of Colorado before eventually reaching the national senate, to which he implies that he was only able to win the seat because he "doesn't write his own speeches." One of his legislations while acting as state senator was slashing the state funding, effectively allowing World Marshal to gain control of the Denver's police force.

In 2016, Armstrong delivered a speech, and then talked with his speech writer where he apparently said the speech to get his approval ratings up, expressing his belief that people only care about spin, and no longer care about information control or even right or wrong. He also had some involvement with the Desperado PMSC and its activities, to which his speech writer warned him that he'd appear before a grand jury had his connection to the group been revealed, although he himself believed that they won't do a thing in either case, as he believed that the "average joe" wouldn't care due to believing that money is the only thing that truly matters. Armstrong also expressed a desire to actually remake America's position as the most powerful nation in the world and reclaim the American Dream, also blithely stating that the Tea Party Movement was not going to succeed due to its unwillingness to make sacrifices, implying that he wanted to instigate a redo of the American Revolution, and compared himself to the true Sons of Liberty. Armstrong then dismissed him as he had to run, although not before promising to talk to him soon. The conversation was later leaked. That same year, just as was feared by his speechwriter, he was investigated for his ties to World Marshal Inc., the world's largest PMC as well as the largest distributor of cybernetic parts. Despite this, he was still considered a presidential nominee for the 2020 elections, and was even considered to be a "shoo-in".

Direct involvement in Desperado activities


Two years later, he also personally inspected a Desperado research lab in Mexico alongside Sundowner, regarding the transportation of children's brains in cyborg head casings before delivering them to World Marshal for the Sears Program, replicating former president George Sears' training of child soldiers in Liberia. He also plotted for Operation Tecumseh, which involved starting a war with Pakistan under false pretenses while President Hamilton is visiting the country with Pakistani President Farooq Salam for peace talks.

He later fought against Raiden in Pakistan with Metal Gear EXCELSUS. He also revealed that, since the fall of SOP and the Patriots, America was hit with a recession, hence he needed to orchestrate a false flag operation to ensure the war economy to put America back to work again. In addition, although his initial plan was to assassinate the president, he decided instead to have the American base framed for being killed by Pakistani extremists, feeling that would have accomplished things all the same. However, he fought Raiden because he is the only one who would expose the truth of what happened. After it was destroyed, he proceeded to fight Raiden and even bring him to his mercy. During the battle, he explained his motives of wanting to remake America, feeling it had become rotten to the core, and re-establish America as a world where people fight for their own reasons, rather than that of the government. Raiden then deduced that he was not merely a "greedy politician" as he initially thought, but completely insane due to his reference to culling the weak and having the strong be free. Although Raiden attempted to defeat Armstrong, he ultimately proved to be too powerful, with Armstrong revealing his nanomachines to be the cause of his nigh-invulnerability.

Armstrong then proceeded to savagely beat Raiden to a pulp with his enhanced strength, with his blows being powerful enough to heavily damage and even destroy EXCELSUS's ruined frame. However, Bladewolf saved him by bringing to him Samuel Rodrigues' sword. Armstrong, angrily calling Bladewolf a "little fuck" and a "damn mutt" for its defiance, kicked it away, although not before Bladewolf threw the sword to Raiden. Upon being defeated, Raiden then finishes the former senator off by ripping out his nanomachine-laced pale heart and crushing it with his hand.

Despite his death, and thus World Marshal's funding being crippled, World Marshal itself nonetheless continued to exist, and his plan of reorchestrating the War Economy nonetheless succeeded.

Personality and traits
Armstrong was shown to be extremely nationalistic, expressing the desire to "reclaim the American Dream" by instigating another American Revolution after Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection and the Patriots' actions weakened America. His intense patriotism was fully demonstrated during his fight with Raiden, declaring that if Raiden was not for the United States and his goals, he was effectively against it. Despite his patriotism, Armstrong held great resentment towards the "current" America; criticizing the war economy, the mass media, as well as the notion of "American pride."

His plans involved in governing the current USA and then reforming it so that people could fight for their own decisions, in accordance with objectivist ideals. Using the people's desire for war as his justification, Armstrong plannned to initiate the revival of the "War on Terror" in hopes of using war as a business to get elected as the next U.S. President, thereby granting him enough power so that he would be able to end war as a business in its entirety. He was also shown to be extremely cynical in regards to his views of people and especially his electorate, stating that people won't care about if a bad action happens or information control as long as there's money involved or if it's at least given a good spin such as effective scapegoating.

Armstrong believed on the notion that the "might is right." In this regard, he viewed those who were "strong" as the ones deserving of dictating the laws of society, and that the "weak" should be purged so as to create a perfect world. It is because of this mentality that he's able to hold great respect for Raiden despite his desire to kill him, as he viewed Raiden's experiences as evidence of his philosophy due to Raiden's ubringing as a child soldier and his eventual role as a fugitive that refuses to conform to society. At the end of their final battle, he likened himself to Raiden, claiming that they both live their lives in accordance to their own free will, even going so far as to claim that they were "kindred spirits."

He's very arrogant and used excessive nanomachines in battle. His arrogance was evident when about to fight Raiden in his body, where he shouted "Man to man, I can't be beat! Come on!" The nanomachine base he used harden upon experiencing physical trauma, giving him blackened skin to shield from various blows. The effects caused by these nanomachines maade him virtually invulnerable to blunt force. The nanomachines act as self-repair units, but they also augment his strength, flowing through his body and can even be altered simply by his own will. The nanomachines also temporarily fuse with the skin and muscles to harden the flesh to its absolute limit, which causes the side-effect of turning his affected body parts black with some red near the edges, and also makes his heart and blood vessels stand out to an extreme. It also vastly improved his strength to the extent that he even would give a cyborg such as Raiden difficulty in fighting him, and personally stated that he could "break the President in two with [his] own bare hands" if he wished. He was able to fight Raiden bare-handed, easily tossing Raiden through the air, as well as destroying both Raiden's AR visor and HF Blade.

Besides his nanomachines, he was also in supreme physical condition, which he attributes to playing several sports in college, most notably football. He also seems to harbor a similar energy-based/wire ability to Volgin, shown when he gathers all the wires while absorbing energy from the ruins of Excelsus to unleash his full power. Also his body was riddled with scars due to being infused with nanomachines, bearing a similar appearance to the scars seen on Volgin. He seemed to possess optical implants similar to a cyborg, although unlike cyborgs, his pupils only glowed a faint red, and didn't emit a horizontal shine as it's heavily implied to be a side-effect of his infused nanomachines.

Armstrong was a cigar smoker and shown to be extremely coarse in his language, the latter trait being especially evident during his rant about his motives while fighting Raiden on Excelsus, where he repeatedly used the word "fuck" in reference to lawyers, bureaucrats, the 24/7 Internet spew of trivia and celebrity information, "American Pride," the media, and pretty much everything about current-age America, with him also referring to the lawyers, bureaucrats, and the 24/7 Internet spew as being "limpdick," "chickenshit," and "bullshit" respectively. He commented to Raiden that he got elected to the Senate because he "doesn't write his own speeches," implying that his extreme views were borderline uncontrollable. At one point during their battle, when Raiden had faked believability of his views, Armstrong was shown to be rather welcoming, as he was quick to change his mind and accept Raiden, even going as far as dusting him and shaking hands with him (reflective of his image as a politician). This moment of understanding between the two proved to be false as Raiden quickly declared Armstrong's motive as being "bat-shit insane" in an act of defiance, quickly throwing him on the ground afterwards. He's also shown to be somewhat sarcastic as well, as evidenced by his calling Raiden's HF Blade a "nice knife" just before shattering it, as well as his calling Raiden's robotic companion Bladewolf "Fido" when proceeding to threaten it with termination after he defeated Raiden should he supply Sam's sword to Raiden.

Armstrong seemed to harbor a bit of a dislike, or at the very least gets annoyed with, Samuel Rodrigues, as after hearing an audio recording of Sam's final words to Bladewolf before his duel with Raiden, Armstrong remarked "Heh, even dead, that guy's [Sam] a pain in my ass."

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

- Armstrong conversing with Raiden

Even before his nanotech infusion, Steven Armstrong was considered quite strong, given his background as a college football player and a sailor in the Navy. He even went as far as claiming that he could break the President in two with his bare hands. His body was infused with nanomachines (with the heart acting as the origin of his power source), which upon his will could merge with his body parts and hardened in response to physical trauma. This made him incredibly difficult to injure all while granting him extreme durability and strength. After having absorbed the energy stored in Metal Gear Excelsus through the use of his nanomachines, his muscle mass multiplied and his strength was elevated to superhuman levels, enough to physically overcome a cybernetic ninja such as Raiden as well as being able to lift large remains of Excelsus. This stored energy also allowed him to create bursts of shockwaves around himself.

In his peak fighting condition, through the use of his nanomachines he is able to further manipulate the energy stored inside his body well enough to the point of being capable of accumulating said energy into his fists (similar to how he is able to compress his nanomachines to form a stronger exterior), thereby greatly enhancing his punches while also allowing him to create extremely powerful bursts of energy on impact; in which the dispersal of said energy through the ground can even create flaming shockwaves and gigantic firewalls. His ability to create bursts of shockwaves is also heightened to the point of causing massive explosions around himself all while causing damage at a much wider range than before. In addition, he can seemingly use this energy-manipulating ability to dash and propel himself in large distances through short bursts of energy expenditure.

Beyond just granting him super-human capabilities, his nanomachines also acted as self-repair units in his body. When inflicted with further injury, he is able to heal himself and restore energy by continually absorbing it from his surroundings; notably from the remains of Excelsus just like when he first absorbed energy from it before battling Raiden. This energy-absorbing system mainly circulated on his back, emitting a glow of green light shining from a specific area located near his heart. Despite his immense durability, he wasn't entirely invincible, as Raiden was able to injure him with Sam's VT7 high-frequency blade after a prolonged battle, albeit by targeting the area near his heart. Also Armstrong's nanomachines are shown as being unable to function in rapid succession across different body parts when in use, such as when Raiden defended against his charging attack by parrying Armstrong's upper body all while being able to quickly stab his lower abdomen before his nanomachines could respond and harden in time.

Behind the scenes
Steven Armstrong (スティーヴン·アームストロングSutīvun· Amusutorongu) was first heard in a "leaked" conversation with one of his staff writers on the website http://www.waronourshores.com, and later on the teaser site, as part of a viral marketing campaign for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, with the description stating that listening to it will have the viewer learn the horrifying truth of what Armstrong's plans for America are. His motivations of wanting to restore the American Dream by instigating another American Revolution on its borders is similar to that of Solidus Snake, who also created a group known as the Sons of Liberty.

Armstrong makes his first "physical" appearance in a 2020 presidential poster depicting his face being issued to various schools promoting Metal Gear Rising, although most of his face is obscured by graffitied words "War Monger." The poster's date as well as his leaked conversation being on the Make It Right Viral Marketing Site implied that the events of Metal Gear Rising would take place around 2020. The pre-E3 show later claimed that the game would actually take place in 2023. However, producer Yuji Korekado said in an E3 preview that the game takes place about ten years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and the TGS 2012 pamphlet later confirmed that it would take place in 2018.

There is some conflicting sources regarding how his first name is supposed to be spelled. The defaced poster mentioned above spells it as "Steven" (with the "ve" being partially obscured by part of the "Monger" graffiti). However, the description for the official trailer on YouTube, posted by Konami, spelled his first name as "Stephen."

A leaked list of trophies/achievements reveals that Armstrong will act as the final boss in the game. Despite his being the main antagonist, he does not appear among the other main characters on the official Metal Gear Rising website.

Armstrong's boss theme while he is piloting Metal Gear Excelsus is "Collective Consciousness." The lyrics contain a message to the unenlightened masses to give up their free will forever and let the country control their souls. The boss theme during the third and final battle is "It Has to Be This Way." The lyrics are almost an apology for fighting, acknowledging the sameness between two fighters and accepting that their conflict is inevitable. The theme itself is a remix of Peace Walker's theme.

He is voiced in the English version by Scottish actor Alastair Duncan. His motion capture actor is Masahiro Nagai, who also did the motion acting for Sundowner and Boris.

Armstrong refers to Raiden as Saucy Jack before their final battle, This is a reference to the second letter the serial killer Jack the Ripper (Raiden's namesake) sent to the British police stationed at the Scotland Yard during the time of investigation for the murders.

Armstrong is also one of only two talking bosses who do not contact Raiden via Codec upon being defeated, the only other character being Sam. This was most likely because Armstrong was not a cyborg (his nanomachine base nonwithstanding).

When elaborating on his motives in the cutscene between the first and second phase of the battle, Armstrong says "I Have a Dream," which is a reference to the speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave during the Civil Rights era.

In a Codec conversation with Kevin Washington, Raiden jokes that Armstrong would not have a problem dodging shoes from angry protestors. This is a reference to an incident involving real life U.S. President George W. Bush in 2008. Similarly, when elaborating on his motives of ending war and having each individual fight for their own beliefs, one of the things he stated was that the reasons for war will not be for oil, referencing a common critique of the second War in Iraq, which claimed that the war was conceptualized due to oil companies greed for the oil underneath Iraq.

In developer notes for his concept art, included in the Collector's Edition of the Piggyback Guide, Character Designer Yonghee Cho mentioned that his body was full of nanomachines that was at an even higher capacity to Vamp, and thus granted him far more power than anyone could imagine. They also deliberately made him a nanomachine laced human being in order to show that even humans could prove to be even stronger than cyborgs should the former possessed enhancements to the human body. He also mentioned that his initial designs emphasized intelligence and made him look sharper, but it was changed because some members felt that the face was not impressive enough, with Cho agreeing the final design corresponded well with his [Armstrong's] vocal style and personal philosophy, although he personally felt that his initial design was preferred. Cho also elaborated on how his nanomachines worked in his commentary.

Armstrong, due to physical appearence, name, and attacks bears great similarities to Major Armstrong whereas his nanomachines ability are heavily reminiscent of Greed and his carbon-based ability known as the "Ultimate Shield". Both characters originate from the manga/anime series Fullmetal Alchemist.