Yeah, sorry guys, been meaning to get to this... Here is the only ninja to appear in only one fighting game, RAIN!
Born of Kitana's former world of Edenia, Rain was smuggled away from the realm as a small child shortly after Shao Kahn's take over. Thousands of years later he resurfaced. His allegiance belonging to Kahn, he chose to betray his homeland rather than suffer at the hands of Kahn's extermination Squads.
That's his ENTIRE storyline! Wow, I should've copied and pasted it sooner! Anyway, it's believed that Kitana told him about Shao Kahn killing his father, but in Konquest mode, he still seemed to be siding with Shao Kahn, but we know how well we can trust Konquest mode, right?
About Rain now... I really just don't care about him at all, and I don't really care about his future either. I just hope that the scenario that people have with him hooking up with Kitana just never sees the light of day because it's just plain ridiculous; she can go for so many better guys than him, heck I can picture Mokap with Kitana more than Rain with Kitana... This is definitely going to be a short discussion, that's for sure...

I like Rain, but I know he doesn't have much of a story for obvious reasons.

I'd of course like to know where he's been all this time, what side he's on, and what his goals are.

He's one of those characters whose story has to be done carefully so that it won't be lame and predictable.

If he's on the good side, he could try to redeem himself for his past deeds as well as prove himself to Kitana. I could see his story partially involving Shao Kahn since he killed his father and all. However, what Rain can also do is find out about Mileena masquerading as Kitana, but having Rain been known as a traitor to Edenia, Mileena could use the Edenian people against him. There could also be involvement with Tanya in which she tempts him to join her, convincing him that they are the same. Rain could give it some thought but eventually reject her offer. Perhaps at the end of this game, we could have Rain become a general of the Edenian armies like his father.

If he's on the evil side, I guess there could be a Bonnie and Clyde thing with him and Tanya though they could be using each other. I personally don't like Tanya though, but if it means that Rain gets an interesting story and Tanya gets an improvement in her crappy story, I suppose I wouldn't mind it.

Now, he could always still be loyal to Shao Kahn with either still be ignorant of his father's death at the hands of Shao Kahn or being aware of it and not caring. What can be done from this route, well, I don't really see that much to be honest with you.

Perhaps there could even be an alliance between Rain and Mileena in which they help each other so that they can safely rule Edenia together as King and Queen. This could interesting involve Baraka and maybe him being jealous or something. I don't know.

I would personally like to see Rain somewhere in the middle. He'd be this guy who is deciding on which side he'll choose. I do see him liking Kitana and hating Shao Kahn, but I don't necessarily want him to go to the good side. I'm not quite sure what I'd want him to do, but I would like to see some interesting developments with his story.

Overall, I think they can do something good for him in this game and the next-gen MK games if done right.

Rain is one of my favourite top 10 characters, he was pretty good in MKT, but his story was never that well documented even though he always showed great potential. It is obvious we all want to know a bit more about his origins and his persona in general.
As Sub-Zero_7th stated the big question is what is Rain’s alignment. I personally think he will be on the good side due to his storyline, however limited, I really expect him to turn out to be this warrior greatly focused on honour and family honour especially.
Here come his three options in my view:
#1 The most obvious I think is the confrontation with Shao Khan, possibly siding with Kitana, Jade and Sindel. This isn’t a very original ending, it is especially very predictable from my point a view, however it isn’t a really bad ending, it makes sense and it follows a general plotline. I think Rain should really become the next Edenian general, couldn’t particularly say why, but it just seems a position fit for him.
#2 The only option for him if he is to become evil, is to side with Tanya, a character I dislike massively, so I hope such a turn in his storyline would be avoided, because I don’t see any good continues after such a choice.
#3 Neutrality is something most people don’t take into consideration, but this is my favourite option in his case, not necessarily clear neutrality but a good influenced neutrality. This type of ending would lead him to a fight with Shao Khan, but not for the good of Edenia, rather for restoring his honour alone. Here comes a bit of a self-spoiler, Rain should join the Honour Guard, which is a faction I envision to rise, I will probably post the first part of this story sometime soon in the Fanart Forum.
Rain is one of the characters that I am 99% sure will survive, Kenshi is the only character I rate with a better chance than Rain. Excluding Scorpion and Sub-Zero where the mystery has been resolved.

Rain is cool, I think his story could be taken in interesting directions, I think he'll survive to see further MK games.
I think it would be cool if him and Kitana hooked up, the new King and Queen of Edenia (assuming Sindel dies, which i think she will), since Lui Kang already turned her down.
Don't double post, just edit your original. -Jerrod

Rain is definitely the most underrated ninja. I actually like him better than Scorpion. At least Rain has potential. Anyways, this mysterious one timer appeared in UMK3 and hasn't been seen since. Finally making his big comeback, I can see big things for him (I just hope Boon & Co. do too). He had some of my favorite moves and hopefully they will make an appearence (especially the rain ball).

Considering Kitana told Rain the truth about his past, Rain shouldn't be aligned with Kahn anymore. If his ending did come true, it only partially did, because Lui defeated the Emperor. So Rain probably went on a trip to find himself somewhere in Outworld, and only recently returned to Edenia.

Rain seems more of the loner type, so he will probably have his own agenda to cover. However, I'm sure he'll be much help to Sindel's forces. One option is for him to join Bo' Rai Cho and help fight Onaga's/Kahn's forces. Since Onaga really doesn't have an army, I think they'll be more concentrated on Kahn. If this is the fact, then Rain will probably want to help a lot more, just to bring Kahn down. Maybe in the heat of battle, Rain will get a chance to strike at the Emperor, but fail and only fuel his fire more. After this, there is one of two choices for him: One, he can play the informant and help Sindel get closer to Kahn, also gaining Mileena's trust by telling her how Kahn treated him the same way. Two, Rain can assist in the final fight against Kahn, although I believe Mileena deserves this spot more, going back to option one.

If Rain goes the evil way (which I highly detest), many think he'll ally himself with Tanya, just because she is another traitor to Edenia. This is the dumbest reason ever, as Tanya works for Onaga and Rain for Kahn. I for one am tired of this switching between bosses, so if Rain is bad - MAKE HIM STAY WITH KAHN. That is all I ask. If this is Boon's choice, I'd like him to develop a fued with Kitana. I think it would be interesting as these two have probably been friends for a long time, and having them against each other would be interesting. In the end, Rain could either switch back to Edenia's side for future help in MK8, or be killed by Kitana.

I hope to see Rain in MK8, as I think he could play an important part in the next MK game. He could also develop a relationship with Kitana in the future too, as I think they would be good as king and queen. Though some more turmoil could plague Kitana in the future and Rain as the king could be killed off.

you all need to stop bitchin personally i like rain he has this manwhore vibe about him and secondly i think this is the second and last we see of him even though he doesn't have much of a story line all i think he has going for him is his costume.

I'm fairly neutral on Rain, story and character wise.

But I think he should be evil now. We only have one evil Edenian. (Tanya, as Mileena doesn't count) having him team up with Tanya is one thing I had in mind. I had an idea where Rain and Tanya would plot to kidnap Kitana and murder Mileena at the same time. Since Mileena was posing as Kitana, they would pose Kitana as Mileena and lead evidence that claim that "Mileena" killed "Kitana". After having Kitana hanged in front of her own people, Tanya would use this as a way to win back the good favors of the Edenian people and become the new Queen. (by of course having Sindel killed while she's still in Outworld.) And Tanya would have Rain do the killings.

And you know what? One outrageous idea I had would be to have Rain pretend he was a good guy at first, by helping Kitana, but... just as Kitana and Liu Kang (brought back to life) are about to reunite, Rain suddenly stabs her in the back, killing her right before Liu Kang's horrified eyes. (Though I never went further with this idea... Kitana fans would kill me if I did. ^^;;)

But anyway, if Rain's still evil, he should die as the cowardly traitor that he is, if good, perhaps he could die a hero's death and redeem himself for his cowardice, but to be honest, it really doesn't matter to me what happens to Rain as long as he does NOT end up with Kitana. (I hate the idea of Rain and Kitana being the new King and Queen of Edenia. I mean, call it corny if Liu Kang and Kitana were to become King and Queen, at least it wouldn't be out of nowhere and completely random as Rain and Kitana)

I'm looking forward to Rain's return. Even though he was pretty much the bottom of the barrel of pallette swipes, I always thought he had potential and could be cool with a good revampe. I like his new appearence and I'm looking froward to seeing how he plays. Thing I'm most interested about his story as of now is his alignment. Depending on what side he's on he can go in lots of directions.

As some may know, I always favored Rain's possible crush on Kitana and his wanting to prove himself for her. I liked the idea of Rain being a poor, spineless schmuck fighting to get a girl who's way out of his league in spite of himself. I find that interesting and somewhat unique for Mortal Kombat....but that's just me. The problem there is it limits his story possiblities in the long-term. However, if this is his and/or Kitana's last game, what difference would it make?

If Rain is a good guy and he does side with Kitana, he may help in the battle against Kahn and his forces....but I don't see him being the one to kill Kahn himself. That I feel should go to Kitana who deserves it a lot more. But if nothing else, maybe Rain will assist her...trying to prove himself for her.

However, I'm also interested in Rain being evil. There are already admiteddly a few too many reformed evil characters...do we need another one? In Trilogy it's suggested he turned good so he's expected to be a good guy. He sort of looks like a good guy....IMO anyway. Reason right there why he should be evil. And something to remember, just because he's evil doesn't mean he's still serving Shao Kahn. He could still be trying to kill Kahn while working for Onaga. Or just maybe, Rain's an asshole and just doesn't care about his father.

However, if they go the asshole route, I only caution them against making him too similar to Tanya, who something of an asshole herself. This can be solved by having it instead of Rain loving Kitana, he could love Tanya. I liked the idea of them teaming up as sort of a "Bonnie & Clyde" duo....two backstabbers screwing everyone over to get what they want. A potentially volatile relationship that could maybe work if done right. Could be fun.

Now another possibility to consider is not confine Rain to one alignment...or in essence make him purely neutral. Like Sareena, one of the focuses of his story could be "which side will he end up on?" Have him tempted to join both sides. Part of him would like to reform himself and get with Kitana and avenge his father.....but his cowardly nature draws him to easy path with Tanya or Shao Kahn.

Or maybe they what they could do is have him secretly seduce Kitana while also secretly seducing Tanya and simply wait to see which side wins. Make him like an evil, suave pretty boy who seduces women to get what he wants. Going back to what I mention about his appearence giving him sort of a noble, heroic look...like an Edenian knight or something. Maybe that's the point. He's purposely making himself look noble to deceive everyone.

Depending on what alignment he falls on, Rain can go in all sorts of directions. If he still wants to kill Shao Kahn, hopefully there'll be more to his than just that since simple revenge has been done to death in Mortal Kombat. I don't see him being the one to destroy Kahn though. If he's good maybe we can see him ally with Kitana or maybe Jade and try to help defend Edenia to redeem himself for betraying the realm. If he's evil, maybe we can see an alliance with Tanya to conquer Edenia. Maybe he'll be stuck in the middle or working both sides.
Or hell...maybe they MK team will really surprise us and have him doing something completely different that doesn't involve Shao Kahn or Edenia at all.

I have no real preference over the other. Either way, I'm looking forward to see what happens with Rain...last game or not.

^Hmm.. you know, I could've sworn I read some of those exact some words from you in a topic from a long time ago, do you save your rants on Microsoft Word or something? ^^;;; Just asking.

Rain has potential and should live. As I said when we were discussing Sindel, I could see him ultimately killing Shao Kahn or as others have said, picking a side. Since Rain is my third favorite character, I hope they do him justice and allow him to live on to the next game. Gameplay wise, Zi Ran Men is good for him, and I like his special moves so far. Rain appears to be headed towards mid tier at the absolute least.

Exatcly what I was thinking.

You can't even see Rain and Kitana together in the future PNF? I'm not saying it has to happen this game, but they can start establishing it.
)

No. I used the search and found a previous Rain topic I had posted in. Since my thoughts on Rain's story are pretty much the same now as they were then, why repeat myself when I can just copy & paste?

well heres wat i think...

when i got out mk trilogy a few weeks ago i couldnt beat it with ne1 so i playd as arain nd he owned and for some reason his teleport ball worked on motaro and shao kahn...

even though i doubt the same special will be in deception i think rain has a possible chance of making it to mk8

Oh. Well that makes sense.

I do think Rain is a good character. I would like to know a lot of things.

1.whose's sides he on
2. his past. Why did he disappear for that long

He also had huge respect for his father. Wonder what Rain knew about his father. Even though rain knows something, from what i can gather not much. So discovering his past and culture would be nice to see.

I just don't want to see Rain be like "you killed my father."
Kahn" No, i am your father."

I wouldn't want something like this or any other simple plot of this is what rain is doing without back story. Rain is a good character, and deserves a good back story.

i can see rain is next gen, for one reason, not becuase of the story or the gameplay, but becuase of what they did to him. midway made him look very different, i no that alot of the old mortalkombat 3 people all look different cuase of 3D, but rain looks nothing like how they made him look! before he looked like a ninja, now he has the vail and that other stuff, can't remeber. i just can't see midway, dressing up an old charater and then throwing it all away.

Now it's time to start the next character, we need to hurry up people! And now the final ninja... (not counting you Chameleon!) ERMAC! (Yeah, the red one)

Ermac was created from the souls of extinguished Outworld warriors souls by Shao Kahn, and was placed under his control. No one knows when this occured.

For many years, Ermac enforced Shao Kahn's will. (Apparently, one could say that Ermac and Ashrah's little scuffle in the Netherrealm is actually one of the few MKD Konquest events that happened... but who really knows?) And when Shao Kahn invaded Earth, Ermac served as one of his generals.

After Shao Kahn's defeat, Ermac was either wandering around aimlessly or still serving Shao Kahn when Kenshi encountered him in Outworld. (MKDA Konquest doesn't really say) Feeling sympathy for Ermac, Kenshi freed him from Shao Kahn's control and in return, Ermac taught Kenshi his Telekenetic Slam techinque.

Seeking to redeem himself for the atrocities he committed in Shao Kahn's name, Ermac encountered the spirit of Liu Kang, who understood Ermac's suffering. Ermac agreed to help Liu Kang free his allies from the Dragon King's control and thus the two set out to save Liu Kang's friends.

I like Ermac and thought his story took an interesting twist with him being released from Shao Kahn's control. While I doubt he'll play a major role in the grand scheme of things, I don't see him dying. Instead I would like to see him become the new guardian of Outworld. (The first good ruler the realm has had in a long time) Though you have to wonder if Ermac's apparent sensing of the One Being could tie into Armaggedon's story. (Well at this point... let's HOPE so)

I too like Ermac, and I think XiahouDun84 is onto something with the idea of Ermac becoming sort of like the next-gen Sub-Zero.

I hope that the One Being thing will be tied into his story. I wonder if he and Ashrah will ever cross paths again. The same goes for him and Kenshi as well as him and Shao Kahn.

I guess he could be one of Outworld's great defenders in the next-gen MKs. I'm not sure what else he could/should do.

this is what i think he and liu kangs spirit will merge to defeat the one being but once merged they can never be different beings or when the one being is defeated his spirit will go in ermac and he will play along being good and then he will use the force of all evil.

wErmac will be a cool guy that's not arabian (deception Costume) He will be contacted by Blaze and join him to stop all fighters. he will fail, and in mk8 he will kick ass in the tournament. He will become ruler of all. Until mk9 when another fighter comes and kills the shit out of him. IF there is an mk9.

I think Ermac will gain alot more power if he lives through Armageddon, then he will maybe become one of the main characters in the next game. That is, if he survives.

Alright,Ermac it is...

Essentially,he is an amalgam of legions of dead warriors. A being of truly immense power. A good example of that would be his Deception ending,where Ermac was kicking the collective asses of brainwashed Sonya,Kitana,Kung Lao,Johnny and Jax at the same time,and seemed to have no trouble whatsoever doing it. The collective consciousness he possesses makes him look like a man-made deity of sorts. To say the least,it's a brilliant,refreshing concept with limitless potential. I imagine that he can tap into the power,skills and knowledge of every soul in his body,much like good ol' Shang. Speaking of Shang,there's a good possibility he created Ermac,not Shao Kahn,despite what Trilogy ending says. It would make sense,since it's Shang who specializes in soul-weaving magic,after all. Now,bear with me,as I'm about to go on a little tangent here.

Kenshi's bio in MKD states that the souls of his ancestors have returned to his ancestral sword. Thus,Kenshi assumes that Shang is dead and goes on with his life. Since Shang appears in MKA,we know he somehow survived Raiden's big kaboom,but,obviously,nobody comes out of a blast like that unscathed (except Onaga,maybe)... From whatever spoilers we have on MKA's intro,we know that at one point,Shang quickly deteriorates from his MKDA appearance to that of a decrepit old man. Thus,I assume that he only managed to survive the blast at the cost of all the souls in his possession (inluding Liu's soul). He needs to get his power back,as fast as possible. But how? He can't possibly start beating the shit out of people and collecting their souls all over again;he doesn't stand a chance against anyone in the shape he's now. He doesn't even have any allies to turn to. In short,everybody's favorite shapeshifting sorcerer is very,very fucked.

But waitaminute,wasn't there some sort of spirit Frankenstein that Shang helped to concont back in the day when he worked for Kahn..? That's right... Ermac. If he manages to defeat him by any means necessary,he's going to absorb the souls that compose his body and get his power back all at once.

So there you have it. In Shang's eyes,Ermac is a walking jackpot,so the Red One will have to really watch his back.

As for Ermac's future beyond the Armageddon (which I'm pretty sure he will live through),I like the idea of him becoming a guardian of Outworld. After Shao Kanh,the Deadly Alliance and Onaga,Outworld is a lawless,fucked-up inner-city ghetto of a realm,and having somebody there to rely on in case of another danger to the realms will definitely be beneficial. Besides,Ermac will be of great help to Bo Rai Cho and Li Mei (if they survive,that is) in rebuliding Outworld.

Can Ermac even die?

Ermac is like another Shang Tsung 'cause he has a lot of souls. If you were to send him in the pit, theoretically many souls would leave his body, but he would have enough time to get up and still fight. But of course he is instantly killed in the games by deathtraps. No difference in characters there, no sirree.

Ermac is cool, i like him