revenge raiden is pandering, fellas.
his character was toyed with and pulled and twisted in MGS2 and after it all, as he stares the ruins of Federal Hall, Snake tosses him dog tags, YOUR dog tags, and tells him he's free of you, the player and to go on.
In Metal Gear Solid 4 he's a ninja that gets broken like 10 times or some shit, its kind of cool in that he is still free of the player. And in the end he is finally walking away from violence, by requesting to be turned into something not capable of it, a regular body.
In Metal Gear Rising Raiden is a stupid, filthy fed in the employ of the same governments that made his life what it is and growls a lot so people can finally believe he's a bad ass and a long standing promise to play as a cyber ninja is finally fulfilled. He also gets a robot that has a crush on him. That's pandering, daddy. That's pandering.