Raiden

Raiden, real name Jack, is the adoptive son of George Sears. He was adopted after his parents were both killed early in his childhood. From an early age he was trained to be a soldier and earned several nicknames about his skill in combat. During the Manhattan Incident he discovered that George Sears was Solidus Snake and that Solidus killed his parents. After this, he was outfitted with a cyborg exoskeleton to keep him alive after being tortured by The Patriots in which they removed his head.

Early Years
Raiden was adopted by Solidus Snake after Solidus killed his parents. He 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, And Meeting Rose
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 suppressed 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 with the two arguing over which building King Kong climbed in the movie of the same name. They continued to argue all the way to Battery Park only to discover the Skyscraper Museum was closed. The two went their seperate ways. They met again afterwards, shocked that they worked in the same place, and later went to the top of the Empire State Building, suddenly not caring who was right or wrong. That was their first date. 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 end of the Big Shell incident (see below) 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.

At the beginning of the Big Shell mission, he was shortly referred to as Snake 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 truly fell in 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.

However, after the incident, Raiden started to stay out late, and would sometimes come home completely drunk covered in cuts and bruises. Rose told Raiden that she had suffered a miscarriage and Raiden went to save Sunny Gurlukovich from The Patriots, being brutally tortured in the process. After being rescued by Dr. Madnar and fitted with an exo-skeleton (similar to Gray Fox) he traveled the globe.

Raiden returned in 2014, and while Solid Snake was in South America, he contacted him through Codec, helping him track Naomi, also commenting that he had been helping Big Mama find the corpse of Big Boss. Raiden appeared in person in the South American Marketplace where he helped Snake and Otacon escape by fighting off the Metal Gear Gekko and later Vamp. He defeated Vamp (who lived) and escaped with Snake, Otacon and Naomi.

After a dialysis and a "white blood" transfusion with the help of Dr. Madnar, he returned again to help Snake at Shadow Moses. He has a final face off with Vamp (after Snake returned him to his mortal state) on top of Metal Gear REX, with Raiden emerging the victor. With Snake controlling REX, Raiden assisted in his escape by warding off the Gekko chasing them, eventually being caught under debris caused by an exploding Gekko. He sets himself free from under the debris by removing his right arm. He put himself in the way of Outer Haven, stopping it's path and holding it back. Raiden is crushed under it, screaming Rose's name. He is confirmed later to be alive by Otacon but was in no state to help Snake in his final mission aboard Outer Haven.

However, as Snake makes his way deeper into Haven, he is saved from a group of FROGs by Raiden, who is wielding his sword between his teeth as he now has both arms missing. As he defeats several of them, he is eventually overwhelmed, but as Snake and Otacon destroy GW once again, the FROGs are incapacitated, unable to kill him.

Afterwards, Raiden is seen in a hospital bed with his artificial body removed and a more human-like synthetic body attached, although it's never really implied if is or a new technology advancement has made possible for a new human body in 2014. Rose and a small child enter the room, but Raiden appears to ignore them both, thinking the child is Campbell's. Rose then tells Raiden the child was his and the miscarriage was a lie. Her marriage to Campbell was a ploy to protect herself and their son from The Patriots. Raiden eventually forgives Rose as she feels desperately guilty from being unable to tell him from the danger it presented. She proceeds to introduce their son as John and all three huddle together in reunion. They begin their new life and future together as a family as sworn in Metal Gear Solid 2 which now came a reality once more for them both as they laugh in joy.

Behind the Scenes

 * Raiden is disliked by many fans of the series due largely to his apparently "whiny" personality and "girly" appearance, as well as acting as the protagonist over Snake. 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 explicitly stated that Raiden is his favorite character in Metal Gear Solid 2.
 * 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. Later in the game, Major Ivan Raidenovich Raikov (who also bears an identical appearance to Raiden) must be neutralized and stripped of his clothing to be impersonated to infiltrate a section of Groznyj Grad. This was obviously a means for fans who disliked Raiden to, in a sense, attack him as they have longed to.
 * Raiden himself appears as a recruit character in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus modeled after his original Metal Gear Solid 2 look, and not his Cyborg Ninja look.

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, signaling a chime. But just as Snake leaves and before the credits roll, Raiden is seen eying 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. Even once, after realizing he wasn't going to kill Naked Snake, he went back to the events of the Zanzibar Land Uprising (complete with MSX graphics) to kill Solid Snake himself, ending in similar failure.