Raiden Punching Armstrong Standing Here I Realize

2021viral videoclassic

Raiden Punching Armstrong Standing Here I Realize is a video meme built from a quick-time event in the 2013 game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, where the cyborg protagonist rapidly punches Senator Steven Armstrong to no effect. The clip went viral in early 2021 after users paired the loop with the boss fight vocal track It Has to Be This Way, spawning waves of GIF captions, video captions and remakes.

metal gear memesvideo game music memesgamingmashup video memesboss fight memes

Overview

Raiden Punching Armstrong Standing Here I Realize is a video meme sourced from the final boss fight of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a 2013 hack-and-slash spin-off in the Metal Gear series1. The specific footage is a quick-time event where the cyborg ninja Raiden throws a flurry of tiny fists into Senator Steven Armstrong's stomach while the nanomachine-enhanced villain stands there unbothered2.

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The loop is almost always paired with It Has to Be This Way, the vocal track by Jamie Christopherson and Logan Mader with vocals by Jimmy Gnecco, which plays later in the same fight3. The song is universally known online by its opening lyric, Standing Here I Realize, which is where the meme gets the second half of its name2.

How It Spread

On March 12th, 2021, gimmick Twitter account @TheFunny_mp4 reposted the Bowser's Inside Story version, racking up more than 2,300 retweets and 15,300 likes4. Two days later YouTuber Rad Dude uploaded a version that swapped the audio for Standing Here I Realize, and that upload alone pulled over 723,000 views inside ten months, locking in the song pairing that defines the meme today2.

Remix culture around the clip exploded through the second half of 2021. On July 26th, 2021, YouTuber Hemotoksin posted an extended looped version of the punching animation that passed 1.1 million views in six months2. GIF caption edits jumped onto Instagram in May 2021 through user lynx.mf and a same-day repost by bokudere that hit over 86,000 views and 20,100 likes2. Reddit picked it up too, with a November 17th, 2021 post to r/subnautica by YeetBomer23 gaining more than 3,000 upvotes2.

By late 2021 the caption format and the audio remakes merged into one trend, and full recreations started appearing. Verdigus uploaded a Roblox remake on January 7th, 2022, and a stick figure version by YouTuber Andra from December 18th, 2021 pulled more than 185,000 views in a month2. Facebook groups for Team Fortress 2, Girls' Frontline and Metal Gear Rising itself all produced their own recreations in the first weeks of 2022, keeping the format in steady circulation2.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically takes the Raiden punching Armstrong loop, sets it to a segment of It Has to Be This Way, and adds an object-labeling or subject-labeling caption. Common conventions include labeling Raiden as the small or weaker force flailing at Armstrong as the immovable obstacle, or replacing one or both characters with sprites, models or footage from another game or show2. Full remakes often rebuild the punching animation in another engine or artstyle while keeping the audio timing intact2.

Frequently Asked Questions

Raiden Punching Armstrong Standing Here I Realize

2021viral videoclassic

Raiden Punching Armstrong Standing Here I Realize is a video meme built from a quick-time event in the 2013 game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, where the cyborg protagonist rapidly punches Senator Steven Armstrong to no effect. The clip went viral in early 2021 after users paired the loop with the boss fight vocal track It Has to Be This Way, spawning waves of GIF captions, video captions and remakes.

metal gear memes video game music memes gaming mashup video memes boss fight memes

Overview

Raiden Punching Armstrong Standing Here I Realize is a video meme sourced from the final boss fight of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a 2013 hack-and-slash spin-off in the Metal Gear series1. The specific footage is a quick-time event where the cyborg ninja Raiden throws a flurry of tiny fists into Senator Steven Armstrong's stomach while the nanomachine-enhanced villain stands there unbothered2.

Loading tweet...

The loop is almost always paired with It Has to Be This Way, the vocal track by Jamie Christopherson and Logan Mader with vocals by Jimmy Gnecco, which plays later in the same fight3. The song is universally known online by its opening lyric, Standing Here I Realize, which is where the meme gets the second half of its name2.

How It Spread

On March 12th, 2021, gimmick Twitter account @TheFunny_mp4 reposted the Bowser's Inside Story version, racking up more than 2,300 retweets and 15,300 likes4. Two days later YouTuber Rad Dude uploaded a version that swapped the audio for Standing Here I Realize, and that upload alone pulled over 723,000 views inside ten months, locking in the song pairing that defines the meme today2.

Remix culture around the clip exploded through the second half of 2021. On July 26th, 2021, YouTuber Hemotoksin posted an extended looped version of the punching animation that passed 1.1 million views in six months2. GIF caption edits jumped onto Instagram in May 2021 through user lynx.mf and a same-day repost by bokudere that hit over 86,000 views and 20,100 likes2. Reddit picked it up too, with a November 17th, 2021 post to r/subnautica by YeetBomer23 gaining more than 3,000 upvotes2.

By late 2021 the caption format and the audio remakes merged into one trend, and full recreations started appearing. Verdigus uploaded a Roblox remake on January 7th, 2022, and a stick figure version by YouTuber Andra from December 18th, 2021 pulled more than 185,000 views in a month2. Facebook groups for Team Fortress 2, Girls' Frontline and Metal Gear Rising itself all produced their own recreations in the first weeks of 2022, keeping the format in steady circulation2.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically takes the Raiden punching Armstrong loop, sets it to a segment of It Has to Be This Way, and adds an object-labeling or subject-labeling caption. Common conventions include labeling Raiden as the small or weaker force flailing at Armstrong as the immovable obstacle, or replacing one or both characters with sprites, models or footage from another game or show2. Full remakes often rebuild the punching animation in another engine or artstyle while keeping the audio timing intact2.

Frequently Asked Questions