The games refer to Liu as "immortal".

The definition of "immortal" is very clear. It doesn't mean "doesn't age, but can die other ways" or anything like that. Immortal means you cannot die. Period.


I am not sure how Liu can die then. It's possible he actually faced Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat.

Originally the championship and title Liu won was simply from the Shaolin Tournament. It wasn't anything particularly important(aside from being the most elite martial arts competition in the world). Shang's involvement and all that was over unbalancing the furies, not because the championship was actually the key to taking over realms. In the later games it's been retconned into "Mortal Kombat" being used to defend realms(and more than just Earth, Kahn won Edenia through Mortal Kombat) via martial arts.

The past few games(like MK3 and on) make it seem that the idea of Mortal Kombat goes beyond martial arts tournaments hosted by monks. Raiden refers to the events of MK3 as it, in MK4 Goro wants to beat Liu in MK and in MKDA Raiden mentions MK. None of those are part of the Shaolin Tournament.

I think the idea is that Mortal Kombat and the MK title has grown beyond a standard tournament. It is now just the Earth warriors defending the realm with their fighting. The way I picture it is actually somewhat like the movie. Remember how Cage challenges Goro, Shang challenges Sonya or Liu challenging Shang at the end? It's not like there's brackets or something, they're just challening each other to one on one, hand to hand combat.

If this is true it would also explain why MK3 is refered to as "the third tournament" many times despite everyone insisting it's "just a war". The definition of a "tournament" is simply a series of contests that all lead to a victor being declared. If the later games like MK where all a series of fights like I just brought up it would still be a tournament, just not a traditional one with brackets.

It is my belief that Liu Kang may actually have been defending his title the entire time. He defended it against Outworld in MK II, he defended it to save Earth in 3, and so on, up until Shang challenged him and beat him. The only problem with my speculation is that it would mean Shang is the current champ. You'd think something big like that would be mentioned in DA, but it's not...

Who knows?

Originally he did not age... but then they changed it to immortal probably cuse they are lazy and wanted to use only one word

It's always been ageless... then they used the word "immortal" in MKG (which I'm sure was a mistake, since they also use the word "ancestor" instead of "descendant" at one point).

Either way, they seemed to make it pretty clear that the winner does not age, but still can be killed.

When is not aging even mentioned in the games, besides MK4? I cannot think of a single example outside the "still the immortal champion" quote in MK4.

Just look at the facts...

-Kang won mortal kombat and that means he is "immortal/ageless" whatever.
-Kang is killed in MKDA by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi which proves that the title of Mortal Kombat doesn't make you invincible it just maintains your youth.

But when does it say anything about being ageless in the games? The "Still the immortal champion of MK" line in MK4 is the only one I know of.


Also define "Mortal Kombat". What exactly is "Mortal Kombat"? Is it just the tournament Liu won a decade ago? If so, why did Raiden call MK3 Mortal Kombat, why does Goro's bio refer to MK4 as it and so on?