Raiden Punching Armstrong / Standing Here I Realize

Confirmed 88,100

Part of a series on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. [View Related Entries]

Featured Episode

About

Raiden Punching Armstrong refers to a quick-time event from the 2013 video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in which the protagonist Raiden rapidly punches the main villain Senator Steven Armstrong in the stomach to no effect. The scene, often combined from the song "It Has to Be This Way" (better known by its first lyric "Standing Here I Realize") from the game's soundtrack, has been used as source material for image macros, video captions, GIF captions and remakes.

Origin

On February 19th, 2013, the hack-and-slash video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a spin-off installment in the Metal Gear series, was released.^[1] The final boss fight of the game, a duel between the protagonist Raiden and the main villain Senator Armstrong, included a quick-time event in which Raidens rapidly punches Armstrong in the stomach to zero effect (scene shown below).

Prior to February 2021, the scene saw a minor presence in memes online. For example, on July 22nd, 2015, Pikabu user raf996 posted^[2] the GIF, captioning it, "when you're fighting your older brother." The post gained nearly 590 upvotes on the site. On June 4th, 2018, Twitter^[3] user @OolongEarlGrey posted the GIF to Twitter, captioning it, "When you start putting down money on student loans in small weekly payments." The post received 26 retweets and over 100 likes in three years.

On February 20th, 2021, iFunny^[4] user ElliotRogerisAllah posted a GIF caption meme based on the GIF, speeding it up and captioning it, "Cyberbullies trying to bully me after I turn off the computer." The post gained over 80 smiles in one year (shown below).

In the following weeks, an unknown user paired the GIF caption with the final theme Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, with the video caption going viral in early March on Discord.^[8]

On March 12th, 2021, gimmick Twitter^[5] account @TheFunny_mp4 reposted a video caption meme based on ElliotRogerisAllah's post, with the GIF caption now paired with the final theme Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. The post gained over 2,300 retweets, 15,300 likes and 113,500 views in one year (shown below).

On March 14th, 2021, YouTuber^[6] Rad Dude uploaded another version of the video caption, now paired with the song "It Has to Be This Way" (better known by its first lyric "Standing Here I Realize") from the game's soundtrack. The video received more than 723,000 views in 10 months (shown below).

"It Has to Be This Way" / "Standing Here I Realize"

While the song "Standing Here I Realize," better known by its first lyric "Standing Here I Realize," does not appear during the quick time event, it appears later in the fight against Senator Armstrong. The song is heavily associated with the fight scene and with the Raiden Punching Armstrong meme (music audio shown below). The song was composed by Jamie Cristopherson & Logan Mader and features vocals by Jimmy Gnecco.^[7]

The song has been used as source material for memes at least since April 2014, primarily being used to accompany various fighting scenes. For example, on April 10th, 2014, YouTuber^[9] NotTimWakefield paired a fighting scene from Star Trek fighting scene with the song, with the video gaining over 189,600 views in eight years (shown below, left). On January 15th, 2015, YouTuber^[10] Iceberger posted a modded cutscene from Saints Row IV with Senator Armstrong edited in, with the video accumulating over 1.3 million views in seven years (shown below, right).

Spread

Prior to 2021, the song has been used in more similar memes posted on YouTube. For example, on October 14th, 2018, YouTuber^[11] The Memester uploaded a Thor: Ragnarok battle scene paired with the song, with video gaining over 103,000 views in three years (shown below, left). On June 6th, 2021, YouTuber^[12] ElMaxitos uploaded a Dark Souls edit that gained over 241,000 views in six months (shown below, right).

On May 18th, 2021, Instagram^[13] user lynx.mf posted the earliest found derivative GIF caption meme based on the GIF of Raiden punching Armstrong; the post (shown below), captioned "me trying to fight my drunk father to protect my siblings," gained over 2,000 views and 620 likes in eight months, with a same-day repost by Instagram^[14] user bokudere gaining over 86,000 views and 20,100 likes in the same period.

On July 26th, 2021, YouTuber^[15] Hemotoksin uploaded the looped clip of Raiden punching Armstrong, which gained over 1.1 million views in 6 months.

Starting in late 2021, the two formats merged into a single trend as the GIF set to the song has been used both for video caption memes and for remakes. For example, on November 17th, 2021, Redditor YeetBomer23 posted a GIF caption meme to the /r/subnautica^[16] subreddit, where it gained over 3,000 upvotes in two months. On December 18th, 2021, YouTube^[19] user Andra uploaded a Stick figure remake of the video which received more than 185,000 views in one month (shown below, left). On January 7th, 2022, YouTube^[18] user Verdigus uploaded a video titled "Standing Here I Realise but it's ROBLOX" which gained over 18,000 views in two weeks (shown below, right).

The trend also spread to other social media, including Twitter and Facebook. For example, on January 2nd, 2022, Twitter^[19] user @ARgaytec uploaded a Girls' Frontline version which received over 110 retweets and 330 likes in three weeks. A January 4th, 2022, repost by Facebook^[20] page "Girls' Realine Raifuposting Echelon" gained over 430 reactions and 150 shares in the same period. On January 18th, 2022, Facebook^[21] user John Salsa uploaded a Team Fortress 2 version (created by Discord user cimex749) to the "Team Fortress 2" group. The video received over 1,100 reactions and 770 shares in two days.

Additionally, the video has been used as source material for object-labeling memes. For example, on January 2nd, 2022, Facebook^[22] user Luis Ramos uploaded the video with the characters labeled "Weakest Tomboy" and "Strongest Femboy" to "Metal gear rising Nanoposting," where it gained over 660 reactions and 660 shares in three weeks (shown below, left).