Senator Armstrong

About

Senator Armstrong is the antagonist from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The character proved memorable due to his over-the-top muscular structure and how he parodies American politics. Online, he has appeared in several memes, including Nanomachines, Son and 200% Mad.

Origin

Senator Steven Armstrong is the main antagonist in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which was released on February 19th, 2013.^[1] He is a far-right conservative Senator and a candidate for President involved with the Desperado private military company. Ultimately, part of Armstrong's plan is to have the current American president killed to start another War on Terror during which he can seize power. He is the final boss of the game.

Spread

The character quickly proved popular online following the game's release. On August 2nd, 2015, YouTuber KirbyBulborb posted a compilation of moments from the game highlighting Armstrong's over-the-top character, gaining over 402,000 views (shown below). On December 18th, 2018, YouTuber Rycluse posted a video analyzing the character, gaining over 499,000 views (shown below, right).

Many of his lines have been used in memes parodying the character, such as "I'm making the mother of all omelettes here, Jack" and "Played college ball, you know" (examples shown below).

Related Memes

Nanomachines Son

"Nanomachines, Son" is an expression uttered by Armstrong character in a cinematic sequence from the 2013 action video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. On the web, the phrase is typically employed as a non sequitur response to an unrelated question, in a similar vein to the use of Aliens.

In Metal Gear Rising, Senator Armstrong is confronted by the game’s protagonist as to why he cannot be killed, to which he responds “Nanomachines, son” (shown below). The phrase is meant to indicate that he is using nanotechnology to armor himself and achieve invulnerability.

Raiden: Why won't you die?
Senator Armstrong: Nanomachines, son!

200% Mad

"200% Mad" is a reaction image series featuring Senator Armstrong and other subjects accompanied by the caption "200% Mad" written in the cut-out character style of the Expand Dong meme.

On January 26th, 2014, an image macro featuring Senator Armstrong with the caption "200% Mad" was posted to the /v/ (video games) board on 4chan in a thread about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (shown below, right).

Throughout 2014, the image was posted on various other 4chan boards. On May 30th, Funnyjunk user rdangerdash submitted the image macro in the comment section of a post about an angry ex-girlfriend. On January 8th, 2015, Tumblr user commanderofpie highlighted a variation of the image with the caption "420 blaze it" (shown below).

Search Interest

External References