Raiden

Raiden is a playable character in the game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty. He is disliked by many fans of the series due largely to his personality and character, however Hideo Kojima has stated in interviews that he was mainly put in for new fans of the series so that he could ask questions that a veteran like Solid Snake wouldn't ask, and to make Snake seem more impressive as a character. Hideo has also explicitely stated that Raiden is his favorite character in Metal Gear Solid 2.

Current status: Alive (nanomachines and exoskeleton are keeping him alive, without them he can't live. Unknown reason for exoskeleton at present point in time.)

Background
As a child, Raiden was adopted by Solidus Snake (later also known as George Sears), who (unbeknownst to him) had killed his parents. He was given the name "Jack" by Solidus, who taught Jack how to kill, in order for him to join his child army during the Liberian Civil War in the 80s. His outstanding kill record earned him nicknames, such as "White Devil" and "Jack the Ripper" (according to Solidus).

Liberian Civil War
The following events are revealed in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Raiden became a child soldier from as young as the age of six, in Solidus' "Army of the Devil" as part of the "small boys unit" during the first Liberian Civil War. Like the rest of his unit, he was regularly drugged in order to be conditioned and kept under control. Survival meant he was commended and rewarded, and killing to survive became his only purpose. He was trained personally by Soldius, to the extent that Solidus declared, "Your name... your skills... everything you know, you learned from me." Due to Jack's outstanding kill record, he gained a number of nicknames, two of the most prominent being "Jack the Ripper" and "White Devil", the latter probably in reference to his pale skin and fair hair. When the war ended, Jack was one of the survivors, and Solidus lost track of him.

Early Career In America
The following events are revealed in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

After the end of the Civil War, Jack left Liberia for the United States and eventually forgot his past. There he joined the Task Force 21 Corps, where he received further training, and possible mental reconditioning (or else he surpressed his bloody childhood memories, as he had no recollection of them until Solidus jogged his memory when they met again years later) before being eventually deployed on the ill-fated Big Shell mission. He also trained through various VR (virtual reality) simulations, including some which were based on the Shadow Moses and Tanker incidents that Solid Snake was a major participant in.

On April 30th 2007, Jack met Rosemary, who eventually became his girlfriend. Jack loved Rose deeply, but his harsh experiences had left him melancholic and emotionally distant, and he constantly shut her out of his problems. Rose was persistent in getting Jack to open up to her, even during his missions, which became a constant source vexation for him. It isn't until the Big Shell incident that Jack regains his memories and finally opens up to her, explaining that his past had for a long time been a jumbled mess, and even though it haunted him he could never quite put it together to figure out why. Jack's revelation later brings Rose closer to him.

Manhattan Incident
At the beginning of the Big Shell mission, he was shortly referred to as Snake (perhaps he inherited it from Solid Snake, this is unknown however) before his codename was quickly changed to Raiden by Colonel Campbell because the leader of the terrorists was also referring to himself as Solid Snake (later revealed to actually be Solidus Snake).

Quite late into the mission it was revealed that Raiden was merely a puppet of The Patriots, his entire mission was a lie (a scripted event devised by the Patriots), the Colonel he was speaking to was actually GW, an AI created by the Patriots, posing as the Colonel. They were telling him that he was just a weapon ... a creation of the Patriots with no purpose but what they made for him.



He dates Rosemary, but towards the end of the mission she revealed she was just a Spy sent by the Patriots to keep an eye on him, before she eventually fell in true love with him. She also told Jack that she was pregnant. She said to him "See me for what I am, okay?" and he nodded, and they agreed to find their future together.

Guns of the Patriots
Raiden has been confirmed to return in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. He will not be a playable character, however. In the 2006 E3 15 minute trailer, Raiden was shown at the end in Cyborg Ninja attire which is created by Tokugawa Heavy Industries the same company who also created Frank Jaeger's Cyborg Ninja exoskeleton suit.

According to Yoji Shinkawa, Raiden appears to be "Falling Apart" with most of his body being made up of cybernetic prosthetics. It is unclear how he had become cybernetic, though the only organic parts is his head and spine. To show further proof of his cyborg-like body, Raiden stabbed himself while Vamp held him -- The blade entered into his body and out of Vamp's back. Raiden, unflenching and unaffected by the pain. What reason Raiden had for trading in his humanity for a powered exo-skeleton suit is unknown, but it may have had something to do with the fact that the Patriots never gave him back his real blood when they replaced it with his nano-machines during the events of the Plant Chapter in MGS2.

Uses of the character
Metal Gear Solid 3 makes use of Raiden's character as well as his appearance. Selecting the option "I like MGS2" before starting a new game, triggers a change in the opening, in which Naked Snake is wearing a mask that looks identical to Raiden's face.

Also in MGS3 a Major Ivan Raidenovich Raikov (who also bears a identical appearance to Raiden) must be neutralized and stripped of his clothing to be impersonated to infltrate a section of a base. This was obviously a means for fans who disliked Raiden to, in a sense, attack him as they have longed to.

Guns of the Patriots trailer
In the first Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer (which ran on the engine for MGS3, also known as the Metal Gear Solid 4 Directors trailer), Raiden makes a parody appearance along with Snake (dressed to look like Sam Fisher, the main character of the UbiSoft game, Splinter Cell). The trailer depicts them fighting over who will be the main character of MGS4, Snake wins the fight easily, sitting in the "main character" chair, signalling a chime. But just as Snake leaves and before the credits roll, Raiden is seen eyeing up the chair, and as the screen fades to black the same chime is heard.

Raiden also appears in one of the Secret Theatre shorts made by Kojima Productions for their website. Entitled "Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser" where Raiden attempts to "erase" Solid Snake by traveling back in time in a Terminator-like style and attempting to assassinate Naked Snake, all ending in failure in a humorous fashion.