It was literally Kojima's intention.
"Kojima intended it" is doing a lot of work there. Yes, Kojima deliberately subverted the expectation that you'd play as Snake and made Raiden a contrast to him. That doesn't establish that his intention was simply "Raiden is a pathetic poser and the player is supposed to understand that he sucks."
The character being inexperienced, emotional, and initially dependent on VR training is part of the setup. His development is about questioning that identity and becoming his own person. That's pretty different from saying the entire point was "Snake is a real man and Raiden isn't."
If anything, MGS2 spends a lot of time questioning the idea that "real" experience automatically makes someone more authentic. So I'd want to see the actual Kojima quote where he says his intention was specifically the interpretation you're giving it, rather than just the fact that he intentionally made Raiden different from Snake.
And then he becomes Gray Fox instead. wow how original. He never left the Snake imagery, he was disillusioned by learning that his support network was AI.
Oh no don't get me wrong, it's amazing writing. It's bold, it's daring, how often does an author write their protagonist to be cringe *on purpose? *
MGS is true art, and the game is still great in spite of their risky choice in protagonism. Literally EVERYONE ELSE is cool, even Rose. | Yes, it is, by giving us someone made of raw cringe to question that.
Snake is badass, Raiden is... trying too hard. THAT WAS THE ENTIRE POINT OF SNAKE ARGUING WITH HIM! IT'S WHY THE CUTSCENE MADE A POINT OF SHOWING MORE REALISTIC MOVEMENT COMPARED TO THE VR MISSION RAIDEN DID!
Stop skipping the cutscenes dude, it was explained very VERY plainly to the audience. We're supposed to notice this, they try to explain it to us super plainly, and Raiden as a result is by design meant to be cringe as a reflection of Kojima's perception of his own audience. Snake's the one saying it, as the realest one among them. They are literally AI Drones by the point of MGS4, controlled by machines rather than aided by nanomachines.
Dude you missed the entire point over seeing Raiden as a badass swordsman. Kojima is laughing at you and makes commentary about people like you in his games. Dude rewatch their cutscenes, he calls him out for it while Raiden is all "I DID THE VR TRAINING SO TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!".
Snake's the real one, Raiden, BY DESIGN, is fake. The writing reinforces this constantly, but him still winning and getting to the end of the game is supposed to display how a poser can still win if supported by a strong network of information.
Honestly they should have just let us play as Snake, but I respect the man trying to be an artist. It's not like he abandoned the concept, he made him a side character like Meryl felt in MGS1. Kojima is a genius who takes fucking weird risks.
I take it you never shot rockets at his chopper, or shot him in his sleep? 😏
There is an ENTIRE CUTSCENE that shows the VR from MGS1, we're supposed to notice Raiden's problems and relate to them as someone who enjoyed MGS1.
lol you really think Snake will ever respect Raiden beyond his utility?
You saw him at the end of MGS2, Raiden's just a tool to the guy that subverts the AI experiment. It's the entire point of his character, stop ignoring Kojima's genius.
He HAS to suck, it's the point of the story. Play it again or something, because you clearly missed the intended narrative when an action movie plot makes someone cringe on purpose. They wrote Otacon into MGS1, they wanted an Action Otacon to compare to the player as an insult towards us.
We're supposed to feel shitty because the game is calling us Raiden. It reinforces how badass Snake is by giving us a total cringelord instead. THAT IS LITERALLY THE STORYLINE! Uhhh, so you like Raiden more than Snake because he responds better to having his balls cupped?
We clearly have very different views of the series then.
The VR point doesn't mean Raiden's experiences are simply fake. That's part of what MGS2 is questioning. If someone's training, memories, information, and identity can all be constructed or manipulated, what exactly makes an experience "real"? Raiden being shaped by VR doesn't make him less of a person or invalidate what happens to him.
The Gray Fox comparison doesn't change that. Becoming a cyborg ninja doesn't mean Raiden literally became Gray Fox or failed to develop an identity. It's a deliberate callback while Raiden still has his own history and motivations.
You're also treating Snake's criticisms as though they're automatically Kojima speaking through him. Snake can tell Raiden that VR isn't the same as real combat without the author declaring "Raiden is fake and sucks." Characters can criticize each other without every criticism being the final truth of the story. By MGS4, Snake clearly treats Raiden as a capable ally.
Snake himself also complicates your "real = badass" hierarchy. In MGS4, he criticizes soldiers treating war like a game. Even if the immediate target is soldiers whose ideas of war were shaped by games, that still complicates the idea that real combat automatically makes someone more authentic or admirable. Snake himself is physically deteriorating, infected with FOXDIE, and confronting his own mortality. The series doesn't simply glorify him as the ultimate "real man."
And Raiden isn't ultimately supposed to spend his life trying to earn Snake's respect. In Revengeance, Armstrong tells him to think for himself, and Raiden rejects the idea that he has to be a conventional hero. He doesn't need to become Snake to have an identity of his own.
The "Kojima is laughing at you" argument doesn't establish anything either. If someone likes Raiden, you say they missed the point; if they dislike him, they understood Kojima. That's basically unfalsifiable. You're treating your interpretation of Kojima's intentions as proof of your interpretation.
If anything, the irony is that you're taking the Snake/Raiden hierarchy completely at face value: Snake is the "real man," Raiden is the fake poser, therefore Raiden's emotionality and awkwardness prove his inferiority. That's a pretty simplistic reading of a series that spends so much time questioning identity, authenticity, information, imposed roles, and the glorification of war.
And no, I never said I like Raiden more than Snake because of the Raikov scene or because he "responds better to having his balls cupped." I said the sexualized Raiden/Raikov humor can be funny or appealing without necessarily being hatred toward the characters. You turned that into a completely different claim and attacked that instead.
I don't have to think Raiden is cooler than Snake to like Raiden. I like that he's different from Snake. You see a deliberately cringe protagonist whose purpose is to make the player miss Snake. I see a deliberately unconventional protagonist whose insecurity, artificial training, and relationship to Snake are used to explore identity and expectations. Those are interpretations. You haven't established yours as the only possible reading.
