Kung Lao was never killed in MK3. His attack was foiled..and he went on to live happily for a couple of years, until the Deadly Alliance killed his friend.

Yet still, I think it was a terrific idea for him to return, and it will be exciting to see him again in another mortal kombat game...

^um... it was probably planned originally to keep him dead... oh and he came back in Mortal Kombat Gold (the update to MK4) when he learned of Shinnok's threat and the apparent return of Goro that he revealed that he did not die..

It was never said he died, so they probably wanted to bring him back. They threw in the "apparent" death stuff, but even when they state a fact they can change it later. Anything that "apparently" happens has a 40/60 chance of happening, in favor of it not happening as far as the MK team is concerned. I mean they had to love Kung Lao, look how deadly they made MK2 Kung Lao in trilogy. If that ain't hero worship I don't know what is.

Kung Lao never died.

I think it was a good thing to bring him back. He is a great character, his concept is awesome, and his storyline is Ok I guess, too much like Liu Kang, but still, he is a great character, a fan fave.

Kung Lao had to return, too many fans (like me) woulda been pissed off if he hadn't. He's the one MK character who has rocked in every game he has appeared in; MKII, 3/U/T, G, DA, SM - every one he is at the very least solid. His look is always one of the coolest (like taker said, his DA alt. was sick) and his special's are some of my faves of the series: Serrated hat, Dive Kick, DOUBLE teleport (MKT and SM), spin shield, whirlwind kick - all innovative, cool moves. Even the torpedo in MKT was a good addition to his arsenal imo.

As for the storyline, well it woulda been cool to actually see Kung Lao fight Shao Kahn and die in a cinematic (perhaps in MK4's intro) but since we didn't, there was no need to have him killed off.
However, when they brought him back for MKG, I really liked the fact that he had scarred Baraka with his MKII fatal. Also his ending turned out to be one of the best.
And come on, everyone wanted to see KL as champion in MKDA if the good guys were gonna win.

Sooo with all the pluses, hardly any negatives, and especialy since he is one of the more creative and individual character's the series has, he had to return...

Kung Lao didn't die, but I beleive that in MK3, the original idea was to have him killed off. It is strongly suggested in both his own, and Liu Kang's endings, and it plays a big part in giving Liu the extra incentive to step it up against Shao Kahn and defeat him (and Liu is most likely the one who beat Kahn).

I think they added the "apparently" as a kind of get out clause, so that if, as it turned out, many MK fans didn't want to see Kung Lao killed off, they could just bring him back without another half arsed ressurection plot. So his death was softened to having been defeated, then tried to retire after Kahn's invasion, only to find himself coming back to join the fight against Shinnok. They use "apparently" in quite a few possible character death scenarios, I'm sure the same word was used when Kabal was meant to have been killed by Mavado.

As a Kung Lao fan, I think it was good that he came back after MK3, and I think they handled his comeback well. To me, he always made a far more convincing hero character for MK than holier than thou Liu Kang. Yes, Kung Lao's another Shaolin member, but he has more of a killer edge that Liu lacked (and Liu had gotten very stale by MK3), and that's something I think is essential for a hero in this series. Plus they built him up after Liu's death in MKDA, so I think we've yet to see Kung Lao at his peak, and as long as they don't shit on him again like in MKD, I will be very interested to see where they go with him next.

Kung Lao does NOT have a killer edge. Only in MK:DA does he want to kill someone, and it's only Shang Tsung. Kung Lao is a Shaolin Monk like Liu Kang, so therefore he wouldn't believe in killing his opponents either... Geez... people need to learn that..

One of Kung Lao's big reasons for entering the tournament was vengance against Shang Tsung, on behalf of his ancestor. And Kung Lao had left the Shaolin before MK2 (according to MK2, I am not taking MKSM into account here) and the MK2 comic suggests that he didn't leave on the best of terms. Kung Lao then rejoined Liu when they found the temple destroyed after the first tournament. Kung Lao has always been presented as the bad boy of the Shaolin temples.

I didn't really mean killer edge in that Kung Lao is some kind of raving phsycopath, and maybe I did choose my words wrong. But he doesn't have the goody two shoes holier than thou persona that his fellow Shaolin Liu Kang always had. I think he would be more willing to end an opponent's life if necessary, besides, he's been wearing a razor brimmed hat long before weapons became standard in MK. That's not something you carry around unless you are willing to use it to kill or seriously wound.

Red_dragon has some very valid points. I agree with hist post.

And yes, the official Mk2 comic did revealed to us that Kung Lao had left the shaolin years ago.

And we all know the Shaolin Monks are honorable people who don’t kill, blablabla, but Mk gives us a totally different version of them. For one, they HAVE to kill to survive in mk, and lets not forget Kung Lao went crazy in MKDA after learning of Liu Kangs death, abandoning all supposed “believesâ€? he has or had. Also, since or if the intro of MKSM is considered official, Kung Lao killed the Tarkatan.

Its silly to think that Liu Kang and Kung Lao havent killed once in their years in Mk.

^Hey guys, Liu Kang went crazy too when Kung Lao apparently died, in fact it was probably thought at first that Shao Kahn had died after MK3..

i thought it was a good idea to bring him back


when i saw his mk3 ending that mentioned his death,i was hoping it wasnt true,but then he came back,and he ruled in mkda,kung lao was my favorite character to pla yas in mkda,other than cyrax