Raiden

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

Early Years
Although, at first, Raiden believed himself to have no actual combat experience, he regained the memories of his childhood during the Big Shell incident.

Raiden was adopted by Solidus Snake after Solidus killed his parents. He was a child soldier without a past, absent from the databases of the NSA, CIA and FBI. In the 1990's, Raiden fought in the Liberian Civil War under Solidus Snake as a killing machine known alternately as the "White Devil" and "Jack the Ripper". Armed with a gun at the age of six, he proved a superior soldier, rising to become captain of the Small Boys Unit at ten.

On April 30th, 2007, Jack met Rosemary during an argument about King Kong. After they parted ways, they met again afterward, shocked that they worked in the same place. Eventually, Jack grew to love Rose deeply, but his harsh experiences had left him melancholic and emotionally distant, and he constantly shut her out of his problems. However, all of this drama was a ruse by the Patriots to gain control of Raiden's life, with Rosemary as a Patriot spy.

At the beginning of the Big Shell mission, he was shortly referred to as Snake before his codename was quickly changed to Raiden by the Colonel, as the leader of the terrorists was also referring to himself as Solid Snake. The terrorist leader was later revealed to be none other than Raiden's adoptive father, Solidus Snake. Raiden took to the mission with much hesitance, as he had only been trained in VR missions and had no actual field experience and often proved somewhat indecisive at times.

Raiden later met up with Iroquois Pliskin a Lieutenant Junior Grade with the United States Navy SEALs, who was revealed to be the true Solid Snake, who had faked his death two years prior during The Tanker Incident. Raiden and Snake were able to join forces to take down Dead Cell and implant a virus into GW, the Patriots AI that was running Arsenal Gear, an enormous Patriots warship built under the Big Shell. He was then captured by Olga and Snake, but Olga freed him shortly afterward, telling him they needed to use him so Snake could sneak on board. Raiden then met up with Snake, who gave him Olga's High Frequency Blade. The pair battled through Arsenal Gear's Arsenal Tengu commando soldiers before encountering Fortune. Snake told Raiden to go ahead, with Fortune claiming that Snake was the root of all her misery. Raiden, hesitant at first, left Snake to face Fortune. Raiden went on to battle against the horde of mass-produced versions of Metal Gear RAYs managing to defeat several of the before collapsing from exhaustion. Just as Raiden was about to be killed, Olga came to his aid. By doing this, she revealed herself as an enemy of Solidus, who appeared and killed Olga. Olga's final words were for Raiden to live. As Solidus ordered the remaining RAYs to kill Raiden, the virus planted into GW went into effect, disabling the RAYs which were disposed by Solidus out of anger. Later into the mission, it was revealed that Raiden was merely a puppet of The Patriots, and that his entire mission on the Big Shell was a lie, a scripted event cunningly devised by the Patriots. Additionally, the "Colonel" he was speaking to was actually GW, an AI created by the Patriots, posing as Colonel Roy Campbell, created by Raiden's hopes and expectations of Campbell. They told him that he was just a weapon, a creation of the Patriots with no purpose but for what they made him. The AI instructed Raiden to defeat Solidus, which he had no choice but to do, as Solidus planned on launching a nuclear strike which would wipe out Manhattan.

After the fierce battle on top of Federal Hall, it was then revealed that even Rose, Raiden's longtime girlfriend, was a Patriots spy sent to keep tabs on him, who even went as far as to alter her appearance to Raiden's liking so that he would keep her in his life. Raiden solemnly forgave Rose, who had actually fallen in love with him over time, and they agreed to start a new life together.

Post-Big Shell
Raiden began living together with Rosemary, but the tragic memories of his days as a child soldier started to resurface, causing tension in their relationship and leading him to leave her.

Raiden learned from Big Mama in exchange for the location of Big Boss that he obtained from GW that Olga's daughter, Sunny, was being held in Area 51, and successfully rescued her with the help of the rebellious group, the Paradise Lost, led by Big Mama herself. After hearing of Rosemary's miscarriage and subsequent remarriage to Roy Campbell, Raiden became despondent. He left Sunny in the care of Otacon and Snake, then began work on retrieving Big Boss' remains from the Patriots for the Paradise Lost Army, leading to his capture. As a prisoner, the Patriots used Raiden as a test subject for experiments in exoskeletal enhancement surgery, during which he had his head and spine dislocated from his lower jaw and grafted into an enhanced synthetic body.

With the help of the Paradise Lost Army, Raiden managed to escape his captivity. After undergoing surgery to clear his body of nanomachines, he was successful in reclaiming Big Boss' remains from the Patriots. The enhancements implanted throughout Raiden's body, however, were too severe to allow him to live a normal life again. He elected to disappear from the life of his fiancee, Rosemary. Left to the wander the Earth, Raiden studied scouting techniques under a Native American shaman living in Alaska, also learning to hunt.

Upon receiving orders from Big Mama to assist Snake and lead him to the Paradise Lost Army, Raiden set out into battle once more.

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 Gekko and later Vamp. He defeated Vamp once again and escaped with Snake, Otacon, and Naomi, but not before being badly injured from the previous fights.

After a dialysis and a "white blood" transfusion with the help of Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, he returned again and saved Snake's life at Shadow Moses after disabling the suicide gekko that were attacking. He has a final face off with Vamp, after Snake returned him to a near mortal state via the nanomachine supressors Naomi gave him, on top of Metal Gear REX, with Raiden emerging the victor, finally killing Vamp once and for all. With Snake controlling REX, Raiden assisted in his escape by warding off the Gekko chasing them, eventually being caught under debris caused by the Suicide Gekko. He sets himself free from under the debris by removing his right arm. After doing so he put himself in the way of Outer Haven, stopping it in its path and holding it back from crushing Snake allowing him to get out of the way. Raiden eventually was crushed under it, screaming Rose's name and remembering a conversation of how they met as well as images reuniting with her at Federal Hall during the the end of the Manhattan Incident before he loses consciousness. He was 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 made his way deeper into Haven, he was saved once again by Raiden wielding his sword in between his teeth, from a group of FROGS. He was able to defeat several of them but was eventually overwhelmed and taken down. Once Snake and Otacon destroyed GW along with the other four AIs, the FROGS were incapacitated and unable to kill him.

Afterward, Raiden was sent to a hospital where he is fitted with what seems to be a more practical looking body. Upon Raiden waking up from his surgery, Rose and a small child entered the room, with Raiden ignoring them both, thinking that the child was Roy Campbell's, who Rose had married during Raiden's disappearance into the Alaskan wilderness. Rose told Raiden that the child was his, and her miscarriage was a lie. She explained that her marriage to Campbell was a plan that they both had orchestrated to protect herself and their son from The Patriots so as to not give the Patriots any reason to capture Rose and John, as they would provide no leverage against Raiden. In other words, Raiden's lack of awareness of his son and his disdain for Rose meant that both would serve no purpose to the Patriots, as their suffering would not move him in any way. Stunned, Raiden forgave Rose once again, as she felt desperately guilty from being unable to tell him from the danger it presented. She proceeded to introduce their son as John and the three huddled together in reunion. To him, at that moment, it felt like a scene from Beauty and the Beast. But Rose reassured him that he was no beast, but her husband. Raiden then vowed that he was done running, while Rose vowed that she was no longer afraid.

Trivia

 * The word "Raiden" (雷電) literally means "thunder and lightning" in Japanese. In the later half of Metal Gear Solid 4, there are various references to this, notably his dialogue referencing lightning when he makes his appearance right before Snake enters the microwave corridor. He also mentions that he was born on a rainy day - with a pessimistic tone - to which Snake replies that he is "the lightning in that rain."
 * Raiden is the only Cyborg Ninja out of the entire series to have survived, as Gray Fox was killed by Liquid Snake and Olga Gurlukovich was killed by Solidus Snake.
 * Raiden is also the only Cyborg Ninja out of the entire series to have never fought Solid Snake in his career as a Cyborg Ninja (it's implied via dialogue that Olga had fought Snake while Raiden was rescuing Emma).
 * Raiden's never-used sidearm in MGS4 is the classic SOCOM, as demonstrated by the Medicom Action Figure based off of the designs by Yoji Shinkawa. This was also Raiden's sidearm in MGS2, given to him by Snake during the Big Shell incident. Whether or not this is that same SOCOM is unknown. In Metal Gear Online, Raiden is a playable character, equipped with the SOCOM (dubbed Mk.23) in the game.
 * At the time of Metal Gear Solid 2 's release, Raiden was disliked by many fans of the series due largely to his apparently "whiny" personality and largely androgynous 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. Kojima 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 eying up the chair, and as the screen fades to black the same chime is heard.
 * Raiden also appears in one of the Secret Theater 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 MSX2 graphics) to kill Solid Snake himself, ending in similar failure.
 * A costume available to download for LittleBigPlanet allows the Sackboys to dress up as Cyborg Raiden.
 * Game Informer ranked Raiden #2 in their list of the top 10 heroes of 2008.