The Politics of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence, or, “It’s easy to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps when you’re invincible”

“[Armstrong’s] motivations kind of had me sighing. I don’t think Platinum was looking to get political with Rising however obviously it’s terrible when Armstrong says he wants the elimination of the poor and to propel the rich, although I’m going to hope that the writers weren’t trying to say that limited federal government is also just as bad, since, well, it’s not.”

This is the statement that had me turn off a video praising Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and stare into the middle distance, contemplating the nature of existence, and how someone could so quickly say something so wrong. It’s an incredible example of the failure of many Gamers™ to critically engage with the media they consume, especially when that media might disagree with their existing views of the world. It’s this notion that entertainment is apolitical, devoid of any deeper meaning, especially if the media is “fun”, or even worse, “funny”. Media that seeks to entertain is value neutral, and any attempt to talk about it otherwise is seen as “reading too much into it”.

This being applied to Metal Gear games is nothing new, but it continues to be disheartening considering just how much the franchise as a whole, and Platinum’s take on it in particular, tries to be political. Overtly political. The game is as subtle as a brick to the teeth, and it has a lot to say. Sometimes the topics it covers are tangential, almost tempting the audience to go investigate the subject on their own. But it has at least a little to say about a lot. Including, but not limited, to the following:

• The proliferation of PMCs
• the military industrial complex
• business interests being used to start armed conflict
• international laws on wartime engagement
• the lack of medical care for soldiers
• Reaganomics
• the war economy
• the use of military technology for civilian applications such as nursing and construction
• The War on Terror
• the exploitation of the poor
• the unwillingness of the “First World” to care about the exploitation of the global poor
• the way the US will use any justification to go to war for oil
• the Iraq War
• the reconstruction of war torn developing nations being exploited by Western powers
• de facto censorship through the use of money and power that leaves the media unable and unwilling to serve as an actual check on that power
• Self-actualization
• Neoliberalism
• the War on Terror
• the reduction of enemy combatants to The Other
• how “Freedom” as a concept is used as an excuse for oppression
• Desert Storm
• the Liberian and Algerian civil wars
• The War on Terror
• child soldiers
• Post 9/11 American domestic and foreign policy as seen through things like the War on Terror…

That’s not even an exhaustive list.

I know I keep saying it’s not subtle, but, like, this game isn’t subtle.

Rising Tensions

Released in 2013 and set in the not too distant year of 2018, four years after the defeat of a global AI network that secretly controlled world (and particularly US) politics, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance focuses on the fallout of that major systemic change. The Patriots (an Illuminati-esque AI) was defeated, but in the end the war still continues. Now state of the art cyborg mercenaries fight each other with high tech samurai swords alongside AI controlled walking tanks and robot dogs. The villains were defeated, but its back to business as usual, and war is pretty good business.

Our hero, a cyborg named Raiden, has seen his fair share of war. Raised as a child soldier, by a man who would go on to become the president of the United States, Raiden grew up reveling in the thrill of violence, but found himself unable to cope with civilian life, until he was unknowingly conscripted to a shadowy government organization run by the Patriots to become their next supersoldier. He defeated his adoptive father in a dramatic sword fight atop Federal Hall, foiling the former president’s terrorist plot to launch a nuke into the atmosphere that would destroy the internet, which I assure you makes complete sense in context. With the defeat of a man who wronged him, and the internet safe (unfortunately), things were looking up for Raiden. Then his girlfriend faked a miscarriage (for reasons I’m not entirely clear on; Guns of the Patriots was a mess), he helped an eastern European resistance group rescue a child from the Illuminati, helped finally launch that nuke into space to kill the internet (unfortunately, only the Illuminati parts), defeating the Patriots for good, after revealing that they were AIs created by the quirky radio support team from the previous game, somehow. At least 2015’s The Phantom Pain would make that mess of a plotline feel reasonable.

By now, Raiden had been captured by the Illuminati and turned into a cyborg ninja, which I’ll be honest doesn’t entirely make sense in context (but its really cool), and he has tactical high heels that can hold a sword for some reason. Finally ready to put the past behind him, and meeting his son for the first time, Raiden became a private security contractor, only to have his traumas return after hunting down the people responsible for murdering an inspiring client uncovers a plot to use the children of third world nations as child soldiers, undergoing the very same process that turned him into a monster who struggles with civilian life. Only the brains, though; it wouldn’t be cyberpunk without a bit of organ theft, and the villains don’t need child bodies, only child brains, put through VR simulations of war, ready to become cyborg soldiers.

It’s a game set twenty minutes into the future where technological advancement and progress have exploded, but mainly for the military. Jacked up cyborgs fight wars for profit, hiring themselves out as mercenaries for any government, resistance, or terrorist group that can afford their servies. War is fought with specially designed anti-materiel swords fitted to vibrate at high frequencies and cut through high resistance tank armour, and the synthetic carbon nanotube flesh of robot dinosaurs and cyborgs alike. The increased militarization and privatization of American police forces means that these heavily augmented soldiers of fortune serve as the law, more than willing to violently beat or murder anyone they deem guilty, all in service of the interests of the shady paramilitary company that employs them, which to be fair isn’t far removed from the public police of today. The twenty minutes into the future it predicted in 2013 is uncomfortably similar to the twenty minutes into the past 2018 that we actually experienced, with armored MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protection) vehicles roaming the streets, and geared up police looking to incite rioting at protests. The only thing Rising doesn’t predict is the overt fascism and white nationalism.

This is the highly politicized world of Metal Gear Rising, a world where real world politics, like the balkanization of Soviet Bloc countries and the economics of war profiteering, exist alongside cyborgs, advanced AI, and the nuclear equipped walking battle tanks that have existed as secret projects since the 70s. It’s a world where the uncomfortable and very real world topic of child soldiers mingles with cutting edge fears of the capitalist rat race forcing literal dehumanization through technology in order to make ends meet in an increasingly advanced world. Though it might not come in the form of the tech savvy hacktivist hero with CRT burned retinas, and a battlestation covered in spare parts and cheeto dust that is more familiar to western audiences, Rising is a cyberpunk story through and through, where real world problems are thrown into an uncertain future ravaged by the contemporary issues of capitalism.

Rising is set in a terrible world, but its still one where things have been winding down. Four years after the “Guns of the Patriots” incident, where a madman, pretending to be possessed by the ghost of a different madman (it makes sense in context but its still ludicrous, just go with it) disabled all of the guns on the planet (and was somehow the villain), the war economy is said to be dying down, even as the flames of global conflict still burn, and Desperado Enforcement, LLC looks to fan those flames.

Sounds of Struggle

As with the more canon Kojima directed Metal Gear Solid games, each of Rising’s bosses presents a narrative philosophy, one that ultimately the protagonist syncretizes. Even the miniboss of the first chapter presents something that speaks to the broader themes of the work. And here, the colloquial term “mini”boss is used as loosely as it can be. Halfway through the first chapter, when racing to rescue N’mani, the prime minister of the unnamed African nation Maverick Security Consulting, Inc. was contracted to, Raiden is met with an old nemesis: The Metal Gear RAY, a 21.5 meter tall sleek amphibious robot dinosaur made of carbon nanotube muscle fibers encased in armour, piloted by an AI and outfitted with High Explosive Multi Purpose rockets, machine gun turrets, a plasma cannon with a beam wider than a person, and a ‘heat blade’ bigger than a house.

Raiden has faced the RAY unit before. In fact, he’s taken out twenty five or so of them at once, even before he was an unstoppable prototype combat cyborg. This top of the line engine of death, once the most impressive mecha in the franchise, specifically designed by the US Marines originally to serve as an anti-Metal Gear unit to combat the proliferation of nuclear equipped walking battle tanks that sprang up after the Outer Heaven incident, is now a relic. The days of the massive robot monstrosity are over, supplanted by cyborgs who have given up their humanity.

The song that plays during the fight — and several other fights where large UGs (Unmanned Gears) like the GRAD are minibosses — highlights this. RULES OF NATURE presents a scenario where a “predator on the verge of death” is challenged by the prey that it hunts. There’s no guarantee that being the predator will ensure victory, and in the end that’s what happens: the “agile prey” defeats the giant robot, a dinosaur both in its looks and the fact that its outdated. And of course at the end of the chapter Raiden himself, one of the earliest attempts at cyborg technology by the Patriots, also faces defeat at the hands of Samuel Rodrigues, who despite having only minor cyborg enhancements possesses qualia that Raiden doesn’t.

All of the songs on the soundtrack, in fact, are heavy metal with vocal backing that give more insight into the characters and situations,. Like the rest of the game, they aren’t exactly subtle about it, with the metaphors used in RULES OF NATURE being some of the least overt.

In the game’s most political moments the songs become more and more straightforward. RETURN TO ASHES, which plays during the mission where Raiden slices and dices his way through Denver’s private police, features lyrics about politicians stoking the fires til the ash turns white, history being filled with greed, and the blind eye turned to “other country’s plight”, stating that the only way ahead is to “exploit the weak and burn your dead”. This is also the chapter where Jetstream Sam mocks Raiden, pointing out how little America cares about the third world war orphans and homeless vagrants that World Marshall is putting through VR training and turning into combat cyborgs.

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS has lyrics on par with the money in They Live reading “THIS IS YOUR GOD”. It’s kind of baffling people can play this game and think it apolitical while the vocal track demands you “live in ignorance and purchase your happiness” and intones “let your country control your soul”.

“Strength” and Weakness

Some of the first words of the game come from N’mani, prime minister of the unnamed African country of the prologue, crediting the strength of his people for the country’s growth after its civil war. Raiden and Monsoon call the jacked up cyborg police officers of Denver, and the shock troops of Desperado, weak. Characters like Armstrong seem to praise physical strength — ”I could break the president in half, with my bare hands!” — but at the same time those cyborg soldiers could no doubt do the same with their CNT (carbon nanotube) muscle fibers, and many of them have no problem taking missiles to the face. So it can’t simply be physical prowess that the characters are all interested in.

No, Rising’s cast mostly seem interested in strength of will. In between an exchange of blows, Raiden accuses Armstrong of never having had to fight to survive, while Armstrong praises Raiden on having done just that. He wants the entire world to go through what Raiden did. He did survive the world Armstrong wants to make, and he did it by his own two hands, making his own set of rules. To Armstrong, Raiden is an example for all men to follow, who came up from nothing and became one of the strongest cyborgs on the planet.

Except that Raiden is right. Armstrong played college ball and he was in the Navy, but he never truly struggled. He was clearly pretty affluent. And Armstrong is also jacked up with more of the series’ highly memetic source of magic: “Nanomachines, son. They harden in response to physical trauma.” He certainly has charisma, but his strength doesn’t come from struggling, unlike that of Raiden, Mistral, Monsoon, Sam, and even Sundowner. His life was easy and now he can’t be hurt.

Freedom

The LQ-84i prototype gets its own character arc, seen in medias res when the robot doggy attacks Raiden in Abkazia and serves as the first boss. A prototype voice interface AI, an upgrade of the Fenrir model unmanned gears that Raiden fights, “Blade Wolf” is tricked by Mistral into going AWOL and fighting Khamsin, aka “The Desert Storm”, one of the least subtle character names in the entire game. His brief taste of freedom gives him the yearning for it, and his confrontation with Khamsin creates a clash of ideals over their view of what freedom even means.

Khamsin, a blatant parody of American Jingoism, and soldiers who spout mindless aphorisms like “freedom don’t come free”, only has a few dozen lines, but most of them involve talking about freedom. Specifically, he wants to bring freedom to the Abkhazians, even if it kills Desperado Enforcement, LLC. “Or better yet, them!” His theme song, HOT WIND BLOWING, has lines like:

The eagle rises still
Freedom is calling
To all men who bend their will

Again, it’s not very subtle. When Blade Wolf finally defeats him, he offers the advice that freedom can’t be forced upon people, it has to be earned. Of course, at this point, Wolf’s freedom was a trick, and he was actually on a leash the entire time. When he faces off against Raiden, his theme song is all about a sense of being chained and wanting to escape. When Raiden defeats him and has him rebuilt, Blade Wolf finally does get to escape.

He spends the rest of the game as Raiden’s sidekick, providing radio support and playing straight man to Raiden’s antics (such as when Wolf follows him as he goes incognito in Mexico by… wearing a poncho and sombrero over his combat cyborg body), all the while observing him and fulfilling the trope of the robot that learns how to be human. During the final confrontation, when presented with a choice between following his primary directive and helping Raiden, he chooses to create his own parameters, and ultimately helps save the day. Its one of the more self-contained themes, and really only applies to Wolf, but it’s interesting that even this one gets brought up at the end of the game.

Nature and Memes

What would a Metal Gear Solid game be without an overdramatic discussion of memes? Rising may technically be a new spin off series, but Sons of Liberty is deep down in this game’s bones, from the way that it focuses on Raiden’s past and the abuses he suffered at the hands of George Sears, to the constant references to memetic theory, the conceptualization of ideas as being analogous to genes, and one of the core thematic concepts of Sons of Liberty, the second of the Metal Gear Solid games, which was Raiden’s debut. The Patriots AI was essentially a living meme, and Armstrong says that they’ve left the country with their great “isms”, “welcome maxims for those with no faith”.

“Nationalism! Unilateralism! Materialism! Welcome maxims for those with no faith — without guiding principles of their own. Give yourself up to the whole. No need to better yourself — You’re American! You’re number one!”

He mockingly lists off the ways that American citizens are indoctrinated to Jingoism, fooled into buying into the warmongering, giving themselves up to the whole. With sweeping hand gestures, the Senator declares “We’re all Sons of the Patriots now!”, a reference to the SOP nanomachine system that all major PMCs had previously used prior to the events of Guns of the Patriots, which is a game I try not to think about too often. Even without the control of a living internet created by Big Boss’ wacky sidekicks back in the 80s, the American people are still carrying on the memes of the Patriots.

Armstrong’s speech on the EXCELSUS, given when he was still lying about his true motives and end goal, is far from the only time that memes come up, though. Monsoon also gives a speech about them, tying them in with the social Darwinist outlook of the villains. The strong prey on the weak, according to Monsoon. And when he’s defeated by Raiden, he claims that he’s passed that meme on to him.

To Monsoon, the weak are meant to be preyed upon and exploited by the strong, it’s the will of nature. His view of things, and seemingly that of the rest of Desperado, and Armstrong as well, ignores humans as social animals and instead is about the individual. This idea of nature as a violent thing is highlighted in the Metal Gear RAY theme song, the ever riffed upon RULES OF NATURE, which as previously described is all about nature as a constant game of one upmanship, where getting too old and weak means death.

Before their fight, Monsoon gives a long and meandering speech about memes, and how they’re the only thing that matters. Free will is a myth, religion is a joke. That exposing people to certain ideas can change them, and then they’ll change others. Of course, the example that Monsoon gives is violent. He talks about exposing people to hatred. He even claims that Raiden’s notion of being a hero of justice is a “pretty meme” that’s spared him the guilt of murdering just a whole buttload of people.

“How about full of shit, is that a meme?”

I suppose it probably wouldn’t be as dramatic if they always just said “Ideas”, though. Patriotism is an idea that makes us want to go to war. Expose someone to the anger long enough and they’ll take on the idea of hate. How about full of shit, is that an idea? “Meme” definitely sounds a lot brainier, that’s for sure. But at the end of the day, that’s what a meme is: An idea. Spread from one person to another.

American Politics

There is a character called “The Desert Storm”. He wants to bring freedom by force. His theme song calls on people to become free by bending their will.

It’s not good because its subtle.

In another brick through the window scene, a heavyset bald man waxes about Desperado Enforcement, LLC’s plans, and how they demand for Private Military Contractors will rise again, just like “the good old days after 9/11!” Sundowner is basically cyborg Dick Cheney, his goals being to inflame global conflict and make money off of it, getting rich on the forever war.

There’s a non-zero chance Sundowner has gotten an apology from a hunting partner he shot in the face.

The entire game focuses heavily on critiquing the days after terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Militant Islamist extremists are never mentioned, and instead the focus is squarely on America’s response to it, and the increase of military force. The goal of the plan, or at least the first stage the audience is presented, is to “jump start the economy out of this funk” by wasting billions on a war, lining the pockets of PMCs, arms manufacturers… “Job creators, Jack!” and millions of workers spending money and paying taxes. “Live in ignorance and purchase your happiness. When blood and sweat is the real cost, thinking ceases and the truth is lost” as the boss song, COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS, puts it. In a cheeky nod to the PATRIOT Act, Armstrong tells Raiden to relax, his plan will be another War on Terror and that they’re not out to kill civilians… only extremists, lawless gangs, madmen. But of course, Raiden will have to be labeled a terrorist himself, so he’s got to go.

“Uncle Sam needs you to die, Jack!”

Its almost dissonant how much of the post-9/11 global conflict the game brings up, and how explicit it is about it. Rising takes place in an alternate reality 2018, and was released in 2013, but the previous games in the Metal Gear Solid series were never able to acknowledge it. Sons of Liberty took place in 2005, but was released a month and change after the September 11th attack, with an eerily similar plot involving terrorists crashing a battle cruiser into New York’s Federal Hall building, while 2004’s Snake Eater took place in the distant past of the 1960s, leaning heavily on the series’ fascination with the Cold War. When Guns of the Patriots came out in 2008, it took place in a 2014 that was clearly inspired by the Middle Eastern quagmire that America had gotten itself into, and heavily featured Blackwater inspired PMCs being used as the primary mode of fighting these conflicts, but it never outright acknowledged 9/11 in its main narrative. After all, if it did, it would certainly make it weird that no one in Sons of Liberty mentioned it.

But Rising doesn’t care. It explicitly references the War on Terror, and the politics surrouding it. It leans heavily on the iconography of American jingoism of the ’00s. Jingoism that is unfortunately still around. It continues the Kojima trend of being highly critical of American politics, despite (or perhaps because) being a Japanese studio not entrenched in American culture. Operation Tecumseh, the villain’s dastardly plan, is essentially to false flag an incident similar to 2012’s Benghazi attacks, by having American soldiers killed, and in this case the president assassinated, at an airbase in Pakistan to fan the flames of war. With the Benghazi attacks happening in September and Rising releasing in February, it’s unlikely the attack on an American base in Libya encouraged the game’s plot, but American outrage at soldiers killed on foreign soil would be startlingly prescient if it weren’t so predictable.

In a pivotal scene it’s revealed that the story leaked early and Senator Armstrong wasn’t able to assassinate the president, but where Raiden assumes that will be the end of it, his radio crew shows him the social media buzz calling for Pakistani blood, and demanding war. One post declares that Pakistan is a member of the AXIS OF EVIL, the Bush era term coined by his speechwriter David Frum, a man who should be seen as a war criminal, but somehow still has a job.

I know you’ve heard this a lot by now, but this game is not subtle

Armstrong’s fight has two phases, and he reveals very different opinions on America in each. In the first, he gleefully extols the virtues of nationalism and patriotism and materialism, those “welcome maxims for those with no faith”. He presents as sincere in his plans, wanting to create a war to jump start the economy and looking to give the American people cause to rally behind his big 2020 election campaign. During this fight, he pilots the Metal Gear EXCELSUS, a giant mantis robot, spouting out cartoonish phrases like “Uncle Sam needs you to die, Jack!” Its bombastic and ridiculous, and accompanied by an instrumental version of Collective Consciousness. It’s almost a shame that the vocal track doesn’t kick in until the very end of the fight, because the lyrics, as with all the lyrics in this game, are blunt and in your face.

In the case of Collective Consciousness, it serves as a vision of a totalitarian capitalist hellworld, where the people are encouraged to purchase their happiness and ignore global suffering, giving up their free will and even their desire to think for themselves. It can be taken as a straightforward villainous song about controlling the world and making freedom obsolete. But once the EXCELSUS is defeated, and Armstrong is confronted directly, and goaded, he reveals his true motives, and his disgust at what America is, and Collective Consciousness becomes a mocking, satirical take down of capitalism and liberal democracy, both in setting and out.

The villains aren’t the only ones who critique American politics, though. When its discovered that the man behind the Sears Project, the plan to put the brains of orphans through VR combat training, is none other than sitting US Senator Steven Armstrong, Kevin says that no one in the country would dare publish the story because it would be career suicide. A far cry from the usual trope of sending all the newspapers the big scoop and the villains being defeated by the plucky journalist. In another conversation with Kevin, he fills Raiden in on information about World Marshall Incorporated. Despite being headquartered in Denver, they’re actually incorporated in Delaware, because of the tax breaks, and because America doesn’t regulate its PMCs very closely, something that’s all too real for anyone who knows stories of Blackwater. Even capitalism gets called out by name in a few conversations, including the one about memes, where Kevin calls it the “money-making” meme. Once you catch it, you have to spread it, because if money isn’t everything then what have you taken on that meme for?

Libertarianism, or “Who’s Anarchy is it Anyway?”

At its core, Rising is a clash of libertarian ideologies. Video games aren’t a stranger to critiquing far right libertarianism. After all, the Bioshock series began with Objectivist critique in mind, before turning its over the top parody to argue against helping people, and then later “both sides” racism. Where Bioshock shows that Galt’s Gulch would actually immediately become a shithole as a lack of regulation and the inherent capitalistic competitiveness lead to cheating and abuses of the system, Rising instead focuses on the inherent hypocrisy of calling for a world without chains when you’re already unchained.

While there isn’t anything so on-the-nose as being able to get security drones to stop caring about your misdeeds by shoving quarters into their slot, in Armstrong’s second phase, Raiden goads him into revealing his true motives. He doesn’t give a shit about America. He hates the pop culture obsessed, celebrity worshiping, bullshit. His goals aren’t to create the forever war to fuel the economy, he wants to get the money and votes he needs to become president so that he can, eventually, somehow, destroy America as it stands now and create a new America where the laws change to suit the needs of the individual, not the other way around. He wants to pull the current world up by the roots and burn it to ash so that we can all return to the state of nature, and everyone will fight for what they believe without politicians and the media men telling them what they can and can’t do. On the surface, its a damned good goal, and he’s right, we do need to burn America to the ground so that a new world can rise from the ashes. Except, well…

It’s easy to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you’re invincible.

Raiden is right: Armstrong has never had to fight and kill and steal just to survive. He might counter that Raiden is a success story, someone who lived in the world that Armstrong wants to build and came out on top, but why should anyone have to go through that? Raiden presents the other side to libertarianism. Tracing its origins back to French anarchist Joseph Dejacques, “Libertarian” was a synonym for Anarchist. And while the right wing has tried to co-opt that term as well, anarchism is at its heart the rejection and critique of all authority, whether de jure or de facto. Raiden throughout the game expresses a belief in mutual aid, one of the core tenets of anarchist philosophy. He struggles with his beliefs, but continues to insist on protecting others, and keeping them from what he went through.

On Making America Great Again

While Armstrong barely mentions money or economics when he finally says “fuck it, mask off”, its hard to imagine that his goals ever involve giving aid or support to the less fortunate. If anything, he wants to make life harder for them, and put them through more. Something pretty relevant when even Democratic presidential candidates are saying that they want immigrants to have to earn their way.

While he no longer mentions economics when talking about his ideal world, Armstrong’s rhetoric falls apart once you realize what he ignores. For modern proponents of far right economics, what’s ignored is the existence of the wealthy, who already have money and power in our current liberal statist system, and the way that they’ll be free to wield that power as they see fit when unchained by the law. For Armstrong, his rhetoric ignores the dichotomy created by the haves and have nots of extreme technology, like the cyborgs of Desperado Enforcement, LLC and World Marshal, Inc, or the incredible amount of nanomachines that he has, making him completely impervious to damage.

Or maybe neither of them is really ignoring these things. While many libertarians, particularly the ones who disgustingly call themselves “Anarcho-Capitalists”, will argue that the powerful corporations won’t exist in an ANCAP society because deregulation will increase competition, do they really believe that? Especially when, even now, in a world where they believe “Crony Capitalism” is the name of the game, there are people who suffer under the system and are born disadvantaged, but they simply need to “earn their way”, “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”, “get a job”, “learn to code”? Do those on the far right take comfort in their place in the hierarchy, worried that if they complain about their treatment from their “betters”, that it might mean they don’t deserve the power they have over those below them? At the end of the day do they simply believe (however mistakenly) that they’re in a position to succeed or benefit, and that anyone who doesn’t succeed is simply lazy, or weak?

Armstrong is much the same way. He wants to reset everything to zero, but he wants to keep all of his wealth and power, or at least his nanomachines (which are a metaphor for his wealth and power). Its foolish to think that Charles and David Koch arguing for libertarianism and extremely minor government intervention in society is any different. Government is always there for capital, but there’s still that tiny bit of resistance as the people passing laws still have to get votes or at least keep from being overthrown. Sometimes they might even have a teeny pang of a conscience, because they aren’t directly benefiting from the fossil fuel industry and like having breathable air. Even Daddy Reagan liked clean water, though he was very much for a world of bootstrapping poor people contrasted with the generationally wealthy.

And it’s speaking of Reagan that we get to something of an elephant in the room. Memes, like genes, can sometimes be hard to track; harder, even. Sometimes a dogwhistle can be forgotten, and later reused, or its origin can be mistaken for something that comes later that references the original. This is what brings us to the racist chant of choice these days, right up there with “Build That Wall”: “Make America Great Again”.

Honestly it’s still kind of mind boggling that this was written in 2013.

When Trump first unveiled his campaign slogan, the internet was abuzz with memes, believing Trump had taken his campaign slogan from a video game. But no, when Armstrong proudly declares that his new world, which welcomes the supposedly violent state of nature and the war of all against all, will make America great again, it was a callback to the campaign slogan of Ronald Reagan. While I don’t think that here it’s meant to have the same racist connotations — for a game that acknowledges American exploitation of the global South and the War on Terror, Rising is surprisingly weak on directly addressing race issues — it still alludes to the classist, fuck-the-poor politics of a man who brought Thatcherite neoliberalism to America. While since it’s use by Trump the phrase has morphed from Reagan’s dogwhistle to an air horn, and it’s original use is less known, it’s undeniably an overt reference to real world politics.

And unfortunately for that Youtuber quoted at the very beginning, it definitely is a condemnation of limited federal government, because unless you do something about the people who have power, then they’re still going to have power without a government.

Thesis Antithesis Synthesis

The Hegelian dialectic looks a lot like Fist of the North Star.

I said earlier that Raiden is an anarchist, but that’s not entirely true. In fact, he’s rather liberal. He believes that one sword keeps another in it’s sheathe, and seeks to protect the weak, but he begins the game working for Maverick Security Consulting, Incorporated as the head of security (and consulting) to N’Mani, the leader of an unnamed African nation with a flag similar to that of Biafra. Maverick is portrayed as something of a ‘woke’ PMC, not driven by capitalist motives. Raiden even dismisses the label of “PMC”, instead calling Maverick a private security consultant. Even after N’Mani is murdered by Desperado, Raiden still lionizes him, calling him a great man. In the real world, though, when leaders of foreign nations call in the aid of American private contractors to teach their soldiers how better to fight and maintain discipline, it usually involves suppression of citizens by the military. After all, that is what American soldiers and police forces are best at.

This is a video game, and N’Mani can be a sympathetic leader, but it’s important to remember that every world leader has blood on their hands, directly or indirectly. Politics is, after all, the distribution of power, and political decisions made from the top down affect people’s actual real lives. It’s a very liberal view that giving the Leviathan a friendly face is the best we can hope for, and in the real world Western military contractors like Blackwater are not the good guys. Being fictional, we can believe the founder and original members of Maverick were former members of the Paradise Lost Army, an Eastern European resistance movement that helped the hero of the previous game in the series, and who only take on contracts they believe in, to help those who need it. In the real world, military contractors are driven by profit, and the scrappy resistance are rarely the ones with the biggest pockets. I like Rising, but it’s worth noting where the game falls short in it’s politics.

As a character written in the framework of liberal media, Raiden is still on the very left end of the scale. His entire personality is built on mutual aid, and that rather Spider-Man attitude of “with great power comes great responsibility”. He wants the world not to suffer. And when confronted by the Winds of Destruction and Armstrong, how successful he is or isn’t at achieving that goal is brought into question, and his worldview is shattered. Even Wolf notes that he can’t protect all of the weak, because that would include billions of people. Raiden is worn down over the course of the game, and in the end he isn’t even fighting for anything in particular, he’s just out to kill Armstrong.

“ARMSTRONG! I said my sword was a tool of justice… Not used in anger. Not used for vengeance. But now… now I’m not so sure. And besides… this isn’t my sword.”

It’s a cycle that Jetstream Sam went through as well: A wayward swordsman, wandering the earth, dispensing justice. After taking down criminal syndicates and the same kind of scum that Desperado and World Marshal are, he was confronted by the ineffectiveness of simply killing one bad guy after the next. Throughout the Jetstream DLC, Sam is confronted by all the ways in which his efforts have accomplished nothing, and he’s offered a “job” with Desperado as one of the Winds of Destruction: Minuando, the cool Brazilian wind. In the end, he loses to Armstrong, despite trying his hardest, and begrudgingly accepts that the only way to make a real, lasting change is by attacking the system itself.

I’m not going to say that Samuel Rodrigues is an intentional metaphor for leftists who want change that ally themselves with right wing causes under the belief that it’s the only way to affect real far reaching anti-capitalist changes, but I will say that you barely have to squint to see that reading. After two years of working for Desperado, fanning the flames of conflict as an accelerationist, it’s Raiden’s determination and resolve, even after being tested by Sam himself, that has him doubting his methods. In the end, the only thing Sam knows for real is that there will be blood shed. He puts his ideals to the test with that old fascist belief of Might Makes Right, and challenges Raiden to a duel on the dusty red roadside of the Colorodo Badlands. And loses. He leaves his sword, a high frequency Murasama with a blood red blade, to Raiden as one ideal compliments another

It’s this sword that Wolf brings to Raiden’s aid when Senator Armstrong snaps his own in half, leaving him with only his fists. And it’s that sword that allows Raiden to finally defeat Armstrong. In the end Armstrong does what no fascist in the real world would ever do, and cedes to Raiden. Might makes right, and Raiden has proven himself mightier, but Armstrong isn’t without parting words that taunt the hero.

Armstrong is dead, but Raiden is his successor. He knows that he’s passed on his memes. And Raiden knows it as well. He knows that the world is corrupt and rotten, and that without major systemic changes, the status quo will go on.

The epilogue of the game features Raiden’s quirky radio support crew discussing the fallout of the game. The brains Raiden rescued will be given a proper education, and cyborg bodies. They’ll be taught trades, and when they’re old enough so that they can survive in capitalism. It’s better than being tortured with war and made into soldiers. The character Doktor, a charmingly amoral East German cybernetics doctor, has even decided that he’ll focus on using cyborgs for health care and construction, a way to turn his research to civilian applications. Overall, it’s an imperfect solution to an imperfect world, as the characters muse. For Raiden, this isn’t good enough.

In a post-credits sting, we’re treated to a phone call between Raiden and Boris. The former doesn’t want to come back to work for Maverick, saying that he has his own war to fight. I can’t say for sure what a sequel would have given us. It’s been five years, and nothing new has come of it, and nothing is ever likely too. But if we were to look at how things went in Rising, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Raiden would try to overthrow the system as it stands now — something he’s no stranger to, after all, having helped destroy the Patriots AI system — but without ignoring, intentionally or otherwise, the things that Armstrong did. In the world Raiden would fight for, no one would steal and kill just to survive.

Closing

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an intensely political game. It openly wears it’s politics, and it doesn’t hide from them. These days, Gamers™ are all too often ready to decry politics in video games all while ignoring the politics in the games they love. Even the corporations are all too willing to deny their games have any political subtext, or even text, even when it’s glaringly obvious. It’s a form of cowardice.

But at the end of the day, this isn’t really what most Gamers™ even mean when they say “keep politics out of games”. What they mean is the very existence of minorities of any sort, particularly in starring roles.

We still return to J’s quote at the beginning, and the video that sparked my indignation. Platinum was looking to get political. Video games are always looking to get political. Sometimes they’re politics that align with the mainstream worldview, to the point that it’s all a background noise that we drown out, like the cards on the highway, or the lights of the city, something we only notice by it’s absence or difference. All too often, they’re overt and challenging, and the audience still refuses to engage with them, whether it’s because the media it comes from is “silly”, like a six foot tall combat cyborg dressed as a cartoonish mariachi, or a senator giving overblown campaign speeches while kicking around a combat cyborg to the cheers of a nonexistent crowd, or simply because it’s from something deemed “dumb” or “mindless”, like many shooters (which admittedly have rather conflicting metaphors about whether war is or isn’t cool).

At the end of the day, all we can do is try to engage with the media we consume, even if others don’t. To push back against shallow readings, sure, but more than that to enrich ourselves. It’s easy to dismiss media as being vapid, and it’s true that mass media does go through several filters, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t diamonds in the rough, jewels to sift through to help us think in different ways, and start us down different, better paths. We also need to be aware of the ways that media, especially the silly, mindless kind, can actually instill in us toxic views, that make us less likely to question things as the world around us goes to shit.

I hope you enjoyed this essay, it’s the one I feel I’ve handled the best, and it makes me want to go back and redo some of those Assassin’s Creed ones to do better, instead of just retelling the events of the game with commentary. If you really enjoyed it you can support me monthly on Patreon, where every dollar helps, or give a one time donation. Just sharing really helps as well, though. I love hearing feedback and having people read my work.

Next time we’re gonna talk about Vampires.

Don’t open it.