RAIDEN'S CYBORG BACKSTORY
So I watched this video recently where it's discussed what the original Metal Gear Rising story was going to be about: take place between mgs2 and mgs4, save Sunny, get kidnapped and experimented on, turned into a cyborg, tasked to kill targets and eventually turn against the captors and escape.
I love MGRR as much as every other Platinum fan, but I can't let go of the possible good story we never got. The original sounds more in line with MGS and it would have filled the massive gap between mgs2 and mgs4.
It always seemed strange to me that Raiden in MGRR would get such an aggressive looking body, he literally looks like a villain. (I love his goth look btw don't get me wrong). But now knowing this was supposed to be the body given to him by his captors, this changes his character: he's some evil guy's weapon, of course he'd look like a villain.
Also recently we got the 1st episode of Siren and Lockboy, a beautiful sci-fi musical following an android escaping her abuser and a poor guy who tried to help her and got caught in the crossfire. The scene where she discovers her abuser owns every single bit of her will be engraved in my mind for a long time, it's haunting. I won't spoil more, go check the episode out, it's great!
Another series that comes to mind that has a similar character is Knights of Guinevere where 2 engineer women try to fix an escaped android who was being tortured by her owner. Guinevere herself looks absolutely broken to the point of being almost unrecognizable and while it's not explained if she got damaged escaping or she did that to herself, she does echo Siren: destroying the prefect being her creator designed in order to be herself, even if now she's broken.
What I'm trying to say is that it's never fully explored what Raiden's reaction to his new body was. In mgs4 he's depressed, meanwhile in mgrr he has mostly positive things to say about his new body. But we don't get anything about the negatives of a fully robotic body in the every day life. If in mgs4 he still had his original head (minus jaw) and spine, it's safe to assume he lost even more after that as his eye glows red, his visor is mounted to his head and the only reason he didn't crack under Armstrong's punches is because his face and head are made out of metal too. Our guy is basically a brain in a jar with synthetic organs that can be turned on and off either by himself or remotely by Doktor.
We have no idea what he must have felt in the cut out story that was supposed to be mgsr, but I could see a moment like Siren and Lockboy or Knights of Guinevere in that story, especially because he's human, not some AI who gained consciousness, yet he falls in the same role until he snaps and runs away.
Did I forget to mention the black armor body is OWNED by Maverick?? Because Boris states that in the game and he says if Raiden were to leave the company, like when he went rogue and got fired, he'd have to give it back or buy it which unless Raiden is some secret millionaire, he'd have to give up fighting guys like Desperado. His old body is also broken or gone, so I assume he'd only have his civilian mgs4 ending body that clearly isn't meant for battle.
Is there any fanfiction that explores the original Metal Gear Solid Rising story? Or at least one where day to day life is explored? A robotic body, even if paid by some else initially, surely would have a heavy maintenance cost.
I mean Raiden states in MGRR how he didn't feel like he could live a normal life with a normal job and that's why he joined Maverick to make money for his family. Tho he only justifies it as "people were staring at him as some kind of freak because of his artificial skin".
p.s. I know about this live action parody which does both a funny and eerie representation of the subject. But it's as deep as any comedy skit.
