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This Villain was Headlined on August, 2023. | ||
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| “ | Raiden: Why won't you die?! Armstrong: Nanomachines, son. They harden in response to physical trauma. You can't hurt me, Jack. |
„ |
| ~ Armstrong revealing the true nature of his powers and his most famous quote. |
| “ | 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! | „ |
| ~ Senator Armstrong as he battles Raiden. |
| “ | You still don't get it. I'm using war as a business to get elected… so I can end war as a business! 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! So… what do you think? | „ |
| ~ Armstrong proposing his vision of the United States to Raiden. |
Senator Steven Armstrong is the main antagonist of the 2013 action-adventure game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and its DLC, Jetstream.
He is an ambitious Colorado senator who plans to get elected as the next U.S. President in order to convert the entire country into a social Darwinist regime that he believes would allow every citizen to fight on their own wars and for what they truly believe in. He is also a dark reflection of Raiden, showing how far the hero could fall if he chose to discard his morals in pursuit of his vision for a better world.
He was voiced by the late Unshō Ishizuka (who also voiced Heihachi Mishima, Zabuza Momochi, Kizaru, Kronos, and Gantu) in Japanese and Alastair Duncan (who also voiced Vulture, Curtis Blackburn, and Celebrimbor) in English.
Appearance[]
Standing at an imposing height of 2 meters (6'7"), Armstrong is a titan of an individual, with an incredibly muscular physique. He is a towering middle-aged, Caucasian man with black hair containing traces of white, and gray colored eyes. Armstrong's main attire appears to be primarily comprised of vertical lined striped dark suit worn over a white shirt with a yellow tie, as well as dark pants to match his political outfit. He also dons a lapel pin on his suit in the shape of the flag of the United States of America.
When Armstrong powers up to his nanite-empowered state, Armstrong goes through considerable physical changes. In his empowered state, Armstrong's muscular frame, height and weight increases substantially to the point his shirt completely shreds off, revealing his impressive build. His body bears many scars, due to the procedure of implanting the nanomachines into his body. Due to the nanomachines empowering him, his body is riddled with energy, covering him in a powerful aura, which also adds as a layer of defense.
Personality[]
| “ | Armstrong: Played college ball, ya know. Raiden: At some cushy Ivy League school. Armstrong: Try University of Texas. Coulda gone pro if I hadn't joined the Navy. I'm not one of those beltway pansies. I could break the president in two… with my bare hands! Don't f**k with this senator! |
„ |
| ~ Senator Armstrong boasting about his immense strength. |
Armstrong is shown to be an extremely nationalistic, patriotic and libertarian individual. He shows this by expressing the desire to "reclaim the American dream" by instigating another American Revolution after Liquid Ocelot's insurrection and the Patriots' actions that weakened America. His intense patriotism was fully demonstrated while he was fighting Raiden, by declaring that if Raiden was not for the United States and her goals, he was effectively against it. He also told Raiden to feel the wrath of the USA and that Samuel desired Raiden's death.
Despite his patriotism, Armstrong held great resentment towards the "current" America; criticizing the war economy, the mass media, as well as the notion of "American pride", and it became his motivation to enact the revival of the "War on Terror" in hopes of using war as a business to get elected as the next U.S. President, thereby granting him enough power so that he would be able to end war as a business in its entirety. He was also shown to be extremely cynical in his views of people and especially his electorate, stating that people wouldn't care if a bad act happened or if there was information control as long as there's money involved or if it's at least given a good spin.
Because of his power both in politics and combat thanks to his nanomachines and his influence as senator, Armstrong is highly arrogant and he held a sarcastic attitude along with belief of the notion "might makes right". In this regard, he viewed those who were "strong" as the ones deserving of dictating the laws of society, and that the "weak" should be purged so as to create a perfect world. His arrogance also occasionally leads him to do brash and reckless things, such as deliberately provoking Raiden by sending Blade Wolf away as soon as the wolf-like robot sends Sam's HF Murasama.
Powers and Abilities[]
Armstrong demonstrating his nanomachine enhanced body.
Even before his nanotech infusion, Steven Armstrong was considered to be quite strong - something he acquired from his days as a college ball player and as a sailor in the United States Navy. He was also very skilled in hand-to-hand combat, though it would seem that he preferred a much more brawl-like style of fighting. After his nanotech infusion however, Armstrong's strength grew to immense superhuman levels by orders of magnitude. His nanomachines, which were regulated by his artificial heart, granted him far more power than anyone could imagine.
- Self-Nanite Manipulation: With his blood being primed with specialized nanotechnology, his already impressive abilities were amplified to an extremely boundless degree, this results in monstrous levels of strength, speed, durability, agility and reflexes, surpassing any enhanced, mystical and even cybernetic beings ever shown in the Metal Gear series. Indeed, his strength surpasses the combined might of the Winds of Destruction, and along side the likes of Sam and Raiden, is among the most powerful individuals in the world. He activates his nanomachines with a unique motion sequence, his being a pseudo-sumo stomp, after this sequence, he charged his nanomachines by absorbing energy from vehicles including: Metal Gears, Hammerheads, APCs and other sources of energy, and enters his nanite-empowered immense state. Furthermore, he can power up to an even stronger state, where he reach his apex level of power.
Armstrong throwing a punch powerful enough to destroy the Metal Gear he's fighting on.
- Immense Strength: Empowered by his nanomachines, Armstrong reaches an unprecedented level of physical strength that virtually surpasses all superior beings to date. His punches alone are able to generate powerful shock-waves and he is able to carry, lift and exert millions of tons of force (e.g lifting giant Metal Gears or cause the ground to rupture). He effortlessly overpower other individuals who were superhuman to begin, such as Jetstream Sam and Raiden. In the former's case, Armstrong casually overpowers Sam with little effort, going as far as severing the Brazilian Samurai's right arm, despite Sam's superhuman durability. In the finale of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, he again effortlessly overpowered Raiden and even broke his HF Blade with his bare hands (Doktor stating it defies modern physics). A single punch from Armstrong thrown into Raiden produced such powerful force, it completely destroyed the remains of the Metal Gear EXCELSUS, leaving a large crater, a feat which rivals nuclear warheads. Later on, when Raiden obtains Sam's superior Murasama Blade and activated his ripper mode to match and ultimately defeating him, Armstrong in his full powered state still prove to be superior in strength, as even a single blow could prove fatal for Raiden.
Armstrong casually withstanding Raiden's barrage of devastating strikes.
- Nigh-invulnerability: The most prominent attributes of the nanomachines; they harden different parts of his skin in response to any and all types of physical trauma, with the side-effect of turning the affected areas black, with some splotches of red on the outer edges. His skin, as a result of the hardening, renders Armstrong virtually indestructible that even HF Blades, weapons which cuts on a quantum level, have little to no effect on him. Even Raiden or Sam, powerful enhanced cyborgs who could easily annihilate mountain-sized Metal Gears, were unable to do any serious or permanent damage to him.
- Immense Durability: Even without the nanomachines hardening his skin, Armstrong still possesses incredible durability and resilience, greater than that of other super characters and even towering Metal Gears. He was virtually unfazed when he withstood the complete destruction of the EXCELSUS, a blast that rivals Nuclear Warheads and he was even strong enough to tank numerous powerful blows from Raiden in his Ripper Mode state.
- Immense Speed: While Senator Armstrong is not as swift as the likes of Jetstream Sam and Raiden, he is still able to keep up with them in combat, being able to parry attacks from them as well as surprise them or catch them by the throat.
- Nanite Relocation: Through the use of nanite relocation, Armstrong can harden the skin on certain areas of his body to further enhance his resilience to physical trauma and boost his already impressive superhuman strength. This method even prevents him from bleeding out by hardening up the injured area. When Sam severed Armstrong's arm, he used this to prevent the bleeding and create a makeshift blade which was strong enough to pierce through Sam's cybernetic armor.
- Regeneration: Senator Armstrong can use his nanite relocation ability to heal all damage done to his physiology and even fully reattach severed body parts. Senator Armstrong can even use his nanite relocation to cover up wounded areas to prevent himself from loosing too much blood. He did this when Sam severed off his arm.
- Energy Manipulation: Steven Armstrong's main ability is allowing him to absorb and store energy within his nano-tech primed body. He is also shown that he can levitate and throw vehicles as he is absorbing their energy. The energy in him can be redirected and be used to generate balls of fiery energy, fiery shockwaves and even trigger ground explosions. He can even use this energy to perform impressive dashes of superhuman speed from varied distances. Using it as a propelling force to increase the strength behind his charging strikes.
- Genius Intelligence: Armstrong is very intelligent as he managed to hire Desperado and selected the perfect henchmen to help him achieve his goals and plotted the whole scheme, and made every Desperado's move in the perfect time. Also, he built the Metal Gear EXCELSUS accurately. In addition, he managed to convince Raiden about his ideal and thoughts. Plus, he possesses knowledge of sports, and background of military and politics, while also having extensive knowledge about the Patriots.
- Master Tactician: Armstrong is a genius level planner as he secretly operated Desperado and World Marshal from behind the scenes without leaving any evidence of his connection them for authorities to find out. He also incited a war with Pakistan under false pretenses that the president was almost assassinated while visiting the country for a peace talk. When Raiden tried to stop him, he used the opportunity to frame the situation as a terrorist attack on an American base to rally the American people to war.
- Master Politician: Senator Steven Armstrong is a highly skilled political who earned himself a seat on the senate and became the Senator of Colorado. He used his knowledge of politics and economics as well as the Patriots and their war economy to guarantee his election into the Presidency of the United States.
- Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: While combating Raiden, Senator Armstrong has bragged about his combat prowess from his Navy service. Armstrong combines his nanite manipulation abilities with combat techniques from sumo, boxing, wrestling, and even football moves like shoulder tackles and punting kicks. He was able to fight Jetstream Sam, only winning when he improvised his nanomachine-infused arm injury into a blade. He later fought Raiden, holding the edge until Raiden got Sam's sword and exploited his weak point.
- Piloting Skills: Armstrong was able to pilot Metal Gear EXCELSUS most likely owing to his Navy experience.
- Immense Resources: Given his status as a U.S. senator as well as his knowledge of the Patriot's activities, Senator Armstrong has gained a vast variety of financial assets and commodities which he can use at his disposal. He has been using his fortune to fund Desperado Enforcement LLC, a PMC with specialized enhanced soldiers and the latest military technology.
Themes[]
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Sound Files |
|---|---|
| File | Description |
| Collective Consciousness Theme. | |
| It Has to Be This Way Theme. |
Quotes[]
| “ | Last I checked, vagrant children weren't exactly rare in this part of the world. Millions of them, in fact. You can get more once we've set up a new lab. They lead lives of hunger and pain. We're performing a service here -- for them, and the cities they burden. | „ |
| ~ Armstrong regarding the kidnapped children whilst speaking with Sundowner and a Desperado scientist. |
| “ | Idiot. You're not ending our plan, you're expanding it. | „ |
| ~ Senator Armstrong to Raiden. |
Trivia[]
- Armstrong is often considered by many to be the most powerful character in the Metal Gear series as he casually overpowered Raiden and rag doll him throughout much of the fight, with the latter only able to barely defeat him when he was bloodlusted (Ripper Mode) and with the aid of Jetstream's HF Murasama blade.
- The moment Armstrong is about to absorb his nanomachines, he does a sumo pose. Armstrong also performs a variety of wrestling moves during his fight with Raiden.
- Due to the loud, "hammy" way Armstrong's lines are delivered, Armstrong has been a character commonly associated with memes, with "Nanomachines, son!" and "Don't f*** with this senator!" being particular popular, and memeable lines.
- Raiden's furious melee assault against Armstrong, alongside the song that plays during his fight, "It Has To Be This Way", have also received a large memetic following as well.
- During his monologue, Armstrong briefly yells "Make America great again!". This phrase had already been used in connection to Donald Trump by his campaign adviser as early as 2011, and is a modification of a slogan used by Ronald Reagan in the 80's.
- Armstrong himself also directly references Star Wars in the Metal Gear EXCELSUS boss fight, with some of his dialogue. Firstly, is his line: "Impressive, Jack. Most impressive", which references this line by Darth Vader. Secondly, his line "Don't get too cocky, kid", references one of Han Solo's lines.
- Senator Armstrong appeared on Death Battle's podcast and was put against Funny Valentine and lost.
- Several video game publications, as well as Armstrong's voice actor Alastair Duncan himself, have compared Armstrong to former United States President Donald Trump. Similarly to Trump, Armstrong uses reactionary and anti-establishment rhetoric to win over the American public, as well as the exact slogan "Make America Great Again", a line uttered by Armstrong that had also been used by Ronald Reagan. In 2016, Harper Jay MacIntyre in an article for Kotaku drew parallels between Armstrong's ideology and that of then-presidential candidate Trump as a form of protest against Trump's policies and to urge people to vote in the impending election.
External Links[]
- Senator Armstrong on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Senator Armstrong on the Metal Gear Wiki
- Senator Armstrong on Wikipedia
