#the boss and solid snake are the characters i carry around in my pockets

[deadscell]

when naked snake finally fights the boss, there’s something that sticks with me. if she does manage to take the players life in the final fight she doesn’t say some snarky remark, or even try to run away. she just stands there, staring at jacks’ body, completely unmoving. i. will. never. not. think. about. this.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Senator Armstrong

(WARNING! This analysis contains MAJOR SPOILERS! Hell, just knowing Armstrong is the ultimate final boss is kind of a spoiler.)

The Metal Gear series is known for quite a few things: ridiculous over-the-top characters, complex and entertaining villains, awesome boss battles, and just generally being absolutely insane while also being very philosophical and deep. Now imagine, if you will, if all of those things congealed together into a single character. That, my friends, is Senator Armstrong, the final boss of Metal Gear Rising and easily one of the greatest characters in the entire franchise. He only has the cutscenes prior to his boss fight to establish himself, but I guarantee that you will never forget this man after you’ve beaten him.

Actor: Armstrong is portrayed by Alastair Duncan, who you may know as Alfred Pennyworth from The Batman, Mimir from the 2018 God of War, or Councilor Sparatus from Mass Effect. To say he does an incredible job is an understatement; his performance is easily the most hilariously quotable one in a franchise where nearly every single character is hilariously quotable.

Motivation/Goals: For a villain who comes almost entirely out of nowhere, he sure does deliver a very well thought out speech about his true motives:

"'I have a dream.' That one day every person in this nation will control their own destiny. A nation of the truly free, dammit. A nation of action, not words, ruled by strength, not committee! Where the law changes to suit the individual, not the other way around. Where power and justice are back where they belong: in the hands of the people! Where every man is free to think — to act — for himself! Fuck all these limp-dick lawyers and chickenshit bureaucrats. Fuck this 24-hour Internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit! Fuck American pride! Fuck the media! FUCK ALL OF IT! America is diseased. Rotten to the core. There's no saving it — we need to pull it out by the roots. Wipe the slate clean. BURN IT DOWN! And from the ashes a new America will be born. Evolved, but untamed! The weak will be purged and the strongest will thrive — free to live as they see fit, they'll make America great again! ... 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!"

Now, for those who don’t quite understand, let me explain: Armstrong wishes to end war as a business and create a Social Darwinist utopia, where all the citizens of America fight their own battles and the strong survive while the weak perish. From a certain point of view, his arguments actually do make sense, and considering America, and by extension the world, were until recently controlled by the whims of the Patriot AI, it’s not hard to see where he’s coming from. For what it’s worth, he very much despises the Patriots; in fact, Armstrong is ideologically quite similar to fellow Patriot-hating politician George Sears, AKA Solidus Snake, who coincidentally Raiden also fought. Hell, much like Solidus, Armstrong also has some connection to the creation of child soldiers.

Of course, it needs to be noted that while Armstrong definitely makes a good case, he is also a bonafide anti-villain. For those who need clarification, TVTropes describes an anti-villain as “a character with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues who is ultimately villainous. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there are evil. Alternatively, their desired ends are evil, but on a personal level they are far more ethical or moral than most villains and they thus use fairly benign means to achieve it, and can be heroic on occasion. They could also be someone or something whose desired ends or means are not necessarily ‘evil’ at all, but their actions simply conflict with that of whoever seems to be the protagonist.” While he does have good intentions and seems to genuinely want to better his country, the fact he resorts to terrorist actions, child soldiers, and ridiculous levels of violence makes him clearly the bad guy.

Personality: Armstrong’s personality is very, very intense. He is a man capable of delivering the most impassioned, honest speeches you will ever hear from a politician… and according to him, he doesn’t even write his own speeches! He is loud, he’s brash, he’s proud, he curses up a storm, but he also has lines he won’t cross and shows nothing but respect for those he fights, and when he beats Sam in the DLC storyline and when Raiden defeats him, he has nothing but respect for the men. It’s honestly impressive how they could cram so much nuanced personality into a man that is maybe onscreen for twenty minutes tops.

Final Fate: Of course, as is the fate of any politician who thinks he can beat Raiden, he is not only killed, but has his heart ripped out by Raiden and crushed in his hands.

Best Scene: The entirety of his speech to Raiden, where he explains his entire plan. Mostly for the fact that Raiden is likely as stunned by all of this as any first-time player.

Best Quote: Literally everything out of this man’s mouth is golden; there’s a reason he’s one of the most quoted, meme-worthy characters in one of the most quotable, meme-worthy games of all time. But credit where credit is due, his immortal words to Raiden as he kicks him like a football and apparently rips a hole in the fourth wall that lets in the cheering of a stadium crowd stand out:

“Don’t fuck with this senator!”

Final Thoughts & Score: Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Armstrong is an easy 10/10. But why is that? Well, beyond his personality, which basically consumes your attention, there’s a lot of symbolism to his final match with Raiden.

Firstly, there is the fact his philosophy is very similar to Raiden’s mentor’s philosophy. Much like Solid Snake, Armstrong sees a world where soldiers fight and die for causes they don’t believe in, and citizens being suppressed by meaningless, trivial garbage. The philosophies fork from there: Snake wished for a world of peace, where there would be no need for fighting anymore, while Armstrong wishes for a world of freedom, where all people choose to fight the battles that they want, where they decide what is worth fighting for and what isn’t. Armstrong knows he could never end all war; he just wants those who put their lives at stake to be doing it for good reasons, and not to line the pockets of bureaucrats. As Raiden carries on Snake’s philosophy in his own way, this is sort of a test of Armstrong’s ideologies, to see whose vision is truly worth upholding in this world.

This brings us into the symbolism of the fight itself, which is set up like a political debate, though of course one tailored to Armstrong’s “Might Makes Right” philosophy. Armstrong is running for president in 2020, so is it not fitting that he defend his viewpoints the way he believes they ought to be defended as the final great debate on the way to the presidency? There’s also the inherent symbolism in the weak vs. the strong, with Raiden representing all the long-suffering American people and Armstrong representing the politicians who prey on the weak. He is still a politician, and his philosophy outright values the strong over the weak, so Raiden is something for a voice for the voiceless, a hero to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Raiden in the battle represents what true strength should be: a tool of justice, used to protect those who cannot protect themselves, while Armstrong of course represents his own philosophies.

And of course, there is the fact that in the end, Armstrong s very much the shadow archetype to Raiden, a dark reflection of what he could be. As you may have noted, ultimately Raiden and Armstrong’s philosophies aren’t entirely different from each other. This is even pointed out in the song that plays over his battle, the epic “It Has To Be This Way.” The lyrics are as follows:

Standing here, I realize

You were just like me, trying to make history.

But who's to judge the right from wrong?

When our guard is down, I think we'll both agree

That violence breeds violence,

But in the end it has to be this way.

I've carved my own path, you've followed your wrath,

But maybe we're both the same.

The world has turned, and so many have burned,

But nobody is to blame.

Yet staring across this barren wasted land

I feel new life will be born beneath the bloodstained sand.

Beneath the bloodstained sand!

Armstrong isn’t just brilliant because he’s a hardcore badass whose every line is quotable and who is souped up on NANOMACHINES, SON! Armstrong is brilliant because of how he symbolically contrasts Raiden’s own philosophy and, even if he is ultimately defeated, has passed on some of his philosophy to Raiden in a way. Did Raiden not prove his philosophy was the correct one by killing Armstrong? Did Raiden not just fight for what he believed in, fought a war to prove the superiority of what he believed in?

Alongside Ocelot, the antagonizing forces of the Metal Gear series just didn’t get better than this.