Discussion Characters / MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty

Removed from main page, as there is a cleanup effort on BastardBoyfriend underway and I am not sure what to do with this entry:

• Bastard Boyfriend: In the beginning of the novel, he is shown to be somewhat unpleasant: He strong-armed Nastasha Romanenko into participating in the Shadow Moses Incident, and was also implied to have roped Roy Campbell into participating as well. That said, he does show genuine affection for his ex, even if they're at cross purposes.

This was cut:

• The events of Revengeance turn him into a dark mirror of Big Boss (which is saying something). Both go through the cycle of naivety, betrayal, disillusionment, becoming mercenaries and finally breaking with society and moral conventions to pursue justice. Big Boss became a mercenary leader and created his own country while Raiden became a sadistic superhuman assassin planning to do...something. Rather frightening at the end of Revengeance, which leaves Raiden's mental state ambiguous, since we all know how Big Boss ended up. (Armstrong's final words seem to imply that he's anointed the one-eyed Raiden as his successor, much like The Boss to Big Boss.)

with the reason of:

" Just an Ubermench plotline that Solid Snake, Gray Fox, the Patriots, Ocelot and more have all followed. So not specific to Big Boss, especially since Raiden comes to a different conclusion / plan. Are there other elements that are specifcally like Big Boss? "

To be clear, Raiden does share more with Big Boss than either Snake or Gray Fox, who are his other obvious analogues.

The specifics that were glossed over help make it more apparent. The "cycle of naivety, betrayal, disillusionment, becoming mercenaries" is what is specific to both of them. Their first adventures (Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater) involve them being heavily manipulated and victimized, Raiden by the Patriots and Big Boss by Major Zero, into working for an agenda they consider villainous.

This was followed by them cutting ties to their governments and eventually creating/joining mercenary firms (Militaire Sans Frontier and Maverick). Their work with those firms climaxed with them furthering how seperated they were from the government and society—Big Boss turns the MSF into Outer Haven with his new Blood Knight focus, while Raiden cut ties with Maverick to become a super-hero or something.

These are not elements shared by other characters, and are extremely crucial to their character development. What's most important is the villainous descent. Both Snake and Gray Fox rejected what they saw as their predetermined traits and sought and found redemption; Big Boss and Raiden decided to embrace their sociopathic traits. Hence, foils.