u/AveMain

https://preview.redd.it/8uyouz6a6aah1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=47eaa83716c6322f874c3c1e009207db3cfbebf7

I mean, why does he want to destroy the world?

After the events of mgs4 Raiden lives a peaceful live (somehow) with Rose and his child and far away from his "jack the ripper" persona. However as it is stated in the game (in a codec call IIRC), the maintenance of his body is expensive and he has to return to a life closer to the violence he moved away from (I mean working for Maverick).

After some events in the game he is faced with the reality that the people he kills seldom become cyborgs of their own volition and are also vulnerable people. He is faced with the fact that in his own quest for doing good (i.e. helping children being experimented on) his enemies might have had as little of a chance as the people he's trying to save.

Monsoon tell's to his face that he's being a hypocrite to declare he's helping the weak when he also kills weak people that didn't hve a choice. Then the most important part to me happens and it is Raiden accepting he is being a hypocrite and that he needed to do so (to say he fights for justice despite killing also weak people) in order to keep jack the ripper in check and not let him take over (to avoid that bloodthirsty version of him to dictate his life) but then he taps into it for a bit in order to come out alive of the situation and continue. after that, he tells Courtney that he is sorry she had to witness that and that he has to keep going so that other innocent people do not live through something simmilar as to what he lived.

In doing so he implicitly accepts that even if that people didn't have a choice, they are part of the group of terrorists that brainwash and experiment children into deadly weapons and cyborgs and that their deaths are not as unjustifiable as he thinks.

Now, when fighting Armstrong he declares that he wants a world where each individual can choose their live and not be manipulated by media, corporations, governments, etc. But he won't do it in a darwinian (survival of the fittest) way as Armstrong wants. Therefore he sets out to most surely aid other people in need or children so they don't have to live through the same he went through. In doing so he is effectively putting the lives of these weak people above the life of the weak people that is willing to hurt other people even if it's for their life (i.e. desperado enforcement troopers) or to earn a living.

This actually didn't feel that bad as other people make out to be; coming to terms with your childhood trauma and taping into it from time to time to get the best out of you and help innocent people (other thing would be whether he just wants to go in a killing spree and searches justifiable targets to do so, which I don't think is like that tbh because he has shown being capable of suppressing that part of himself for years and after the monsoon thingy he comes back to his normal senses mostly and even apologizes to Courtney) seems also a very reasonable line of thought just as trying to live a normal family guy live (it is also not clear whether he abandons completely his child and Rose after the events of the game or whether he goes in missions from time to time).

Sorry for the yapping and thanks for reading, I just wanted to pour here my thoughts after playing the game.

What are your thoughts about this?

What do you think of him as a character besides his Lame Aim (pun intended) and piloting skills.

To me he reminds me of Amuro Ray in the sense of a young fed pilot that dislikes the fed's methods but still works for them and that Hathaway and him remind me in terms of rivalry of Amuro and Char, what are your thoughts? I've seen only the movies, so I don't know whether he's different in the novels.

Thanks for answering beforehand.