he never become older or change his look,so i think he was really ageless.
You use the right adjective,and not the stupid "immortal" because immortal means "can't die" and the MK champion can die after being defeated and slained in battle.
So i think that Liu was really ageless.

I think that he was ageless, because it was a stipulation of the tournament so that the winner could come back and fight again.

Though a couple of characters went and screwed that right up. =P

Liu Kang is a fighting monk. His physiology, and conditioning allow him to retain his youth longer, so he can stay in peak physical condition later in his life than most people.

In this manner, Liu Kang is like a Saiyan.


Is it me or does Liu Kang look younger in 3, than in II?



Ka-Tra

It is you But seriously, maybe he looks younger to you, 'cause of the different actor in MK3 than in the first 2 games.

As for me, I've always thought that he was actually aging in accordance with the games and on the contrary to his agelessness. Just look at him:

→ →

I agree, he does look younger to me ; but I guess like how Mortalman said Its probably his skin tone

Incorrect.

Immortatum et exceptanti biathanathos. Literal translation: Immortal, least slayed by force. Greek proverb carved in the roman era. /funny is that the last phrase is actually written in latinized greek. Bie means force, thanathoi means deaths. Hence biathanathos means death by force.

Immortal means no natural cause can end your life. Invulnerable means
you cannot be harmed, etc. You should know the adjectives first...

Well for a start. Yes. But thos pics do make me think different. anyway



That was just pure wisdom.

He became ageless when he wone the tournament. Its a simple concept of wining and gaining the power. Ok mayube not so simple but I think its after he won the tounament.

OK, I swirched back now. I remember why I oposed liu being immortal (thanks chome) it in the first place. To anyone who thinks that Liu was immortal, i only have one thing to say...

...Prove it.

Never in any game or in the offical MK universe lore was it ever stated that the winner of the MK tourney gained immortality. no where in any game did it ever state that 10 tourneys in a row needed to be won in order for a side to win. It was all brought on by the movies therefore not canon.

Liu Kang's MK4 bio:
"Still the immortal champion of Mortal Kombat, Liu Kang finds himself venturing into the realm of Edenia..."



From MK Trilogy:
"For nine generations, the Mortal Kombat tournament was ruled by the Outworld's finest warrior, Prince Goro. It was agreed that if the Outworld could claim victory in 10 consecutive tournaments, it would then rule the Earth. With Earth on the brink of destruction, a new generation of warriors gathered and claimed victory."

I meant sprite wise. MK3 Liu just seems slimmer, and shorter to me.



Ka-Tra

That makes a difference. He indeed is slimmer in MK3, but again it's because of a different actor and more importantly, because of the changed digitising technics that were used in MK3. You can clearly see that every character in that game looks slimmer and generally is smaller than those from MK2.

We've also got...

• John Tobias's official MK2 comic has Sub-Zero's line... "You know the stories. Ten wins in a row, all hell is gonna come through a portal." This is important because even though it wasn't directly from the games, this came out BEFORE the movies so it shows that this is what was on the creator's minds before any of the other MK media could influence their decisions.
  
• MKD Konquest Mode when you do the secret Shaolin mission and to that one guy (Master Wu or Master Shen I think it is?) he explains that there is a Mortal Kombat tournament every 50 years. This makes sense if you do the math, as Goro was the champion for the last 500 years by MK1, which was the tenth tournament.

well that ends that...lol!!
So I guess this is how it went since they never truely explained it:

Shao Kahn wants earth so he sends Shang to unbalance the furies and open Earth's portals so that he can invade. Upon entering Earth, or sometime thereafter, Shang is met by Raiden and a deal is struck. In front of the Elder Gods (not literally), it is decreed that if Outworld can defeat Earthrealm in 10 consecutive mortal kombat victories, Earth would fall under Outworld rule.

It is also stipulated that after every tournament, the champion would recieve the blessing of the gods to remain ageless until the next tournament. This might have been because the average lifespan for an Outworlder is many years more than an Earthrealm mortal and so this just evens the playing field.

Kahn agreed to this because he felt his fighters were the best in the realms and Earth would fall with little effort. And we know Raiden wanted to do this because he wanted to avoid the devistation that an out right invasion would bring, ie. Shinnok's invasion.

I guess this also inderectly expains, or sheds light on, why Shang aged so dramaticly after he lost to Kung Lao. I've always wondered why after he was beaten that he "pre-maturely aged," I mean, he's Shang Tsung, he takes souls to stay young, he should have never gotten that old. But if the gods are in the mix then this eplains a lot.

Shang became MK champion and gained immortallity, losing his dependancy for talking souls to stay young. When Shang was ultimately defeated by Kung Lao, the "spell" was broken and there was a shock to his system, that's why he aged the way he did. He was weakend and no matter what he did or how many souls his took, returning his youth was beyond him. It would take someone of greater knowledge or something of great power to undo the damage done.

That's why he needed kahn to send help to win MK because he could do it in his aged state. Also as punishment, Kahn banished Tsung to Earth and kept him in his clinging-to-life state until he succeeded in the mission.