Kung Lao or Liu kang?

Mortal Kombat (2011)

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EvilStarLegacy

@EvilStarLegacy

•11/05/2011 03:01 PM (UTC) •

I personally like them as a team.BUT :

I really hate what they've done with Kung Lao in recent games.

In MK2 and 3 he was a mysterious character with the hat hiding his face and his canon story being more about him wanting peace and everything made it seem like he only fought to maintain peace.

Then with Shaolin Monks they turned him into a whiny jealous douchebag and he never recovered from that in the games coming out after, keeping the vibe of the guy who wishes he was in Liu Kang's place(when his original story had him voluntarely NOT join the first tournament). It annoys me.

I now most of it comes from my own nostalgia related to the character and how I saw him in the earlier games, but he always striked me as that mysterious badass who shows up when necessary in every cartoon ever.

As far as Liu Kang goes, I used to play as him a lot thanks to his simple moveset but the character himself, storywise, is very uninteresting. He's your regular chosen one that's too busy being put in stories when he saves the day that he doesn't receive any of the character development the others get. Like someone said, Liu Kang's only saving grace is the fact that the character relates to Robin Shou, who did a fantastic job playing him. I wish they would have included a little bit of him in the character, just like Kano pretty much became movie Kano.

Chrome

@Chrome

About Me

•11/05/2011 04:51 PM (UTC) •

Too little too late for me to care, I actually stopped when they undid the MK:DA plotline by having Liu around again, Kang should have been kept dead. Lao could have became something else entirely.

Not to mention that they are both ne'er mockeries of the Shaolin concept...

The problem is, there is little to no personality to either of them. Kang is generic good guy no. 123, which in itself isn't unrealistic, he is a basic good dude who is pretty much the only decent chance against Kahn and co.

They couldn't write Lao once the videos started to kick in. MKSM is MK basically MK Abridged, they needed some sort of personality for him, so they made an incredibly annoying foil to Tool-Kang.

The MK2011 version is better, I can even understand some sibling rivalry kinf of stuff you can find in wu xia movies, and generally in martial arts movies, but he gets killed off before anything even began to take place with him. Lao was filler.

The only hope the Lao character has is perhaps the new MK movie, or a second season for Legacy. The games? Past Perfect tense.

Nephrite

@Nephrite

About Me

•11/05/2011 07:35 PM (UTC) •

Personal comparison:

GAMEPLAY: Liu Kang < Kung Lao (Liu has bicycle kicks and the flying kick, Lao has the hat and the spin. I prefer Lao though as I always had more fun playing with him, especially in MKSM where he was godlike to play as. Liu's sound effects as he's fighting are annoying to me, while I enjoy Lao's gibberish, especially in MK2011.)

DESIGN: Liu Kang < Kung Lao (Liu's design is boring at best. Lao on the other hand is stylish. It's especially cool when you can't see his eyes because of the hat. Love the shiny edge of the hat. Not sure if this goes into gameplay or design or maybe even both, but Lao's 2nd fatality in MK2011 is my favorite fatality ever so that's a little plus for him too. I prefer his win poses as well.)

STORY: Liu Kang < Kung Lao (Both suck these days, but Lao was interesting, or should I say intriguing back in the day. I never found Liu interesting, him dying in DA was the only interesting thing about him. Finally, as a Kitana fan, I can't stand Liu Kang.)

::: ::: :::

Generally, I'd say Liu has a bigger fan-base, but bigger hater-base too.

mkwhopper

@mkwhopper

About Me

•11/05/2011 08:14 PM (UTC) •

Neither...

Shadaloo

@Shadaloo

About Me

MK Khronology: 58.49% complete...

•11/07/2011 07:32 PM (UTC) •

May as well contribute. I got tired of Kang in MK3, yawned in MK4, and rejoiced at his death. MKD came along and...well.... I'm sorry folks, but I loved Zombie Kang. First time they did anything with him that wasn't 'Save the Day'. His own little conflict, body vs. soul, was nice, and it was great seeing him find an unlikely ally in Ermac.

I was scared shitless that 2011 would just reduce Kang back to being his boring old predictable self, but he came away from Story mode strong. It was really great to have him step up and tell Raiden he was being an idiot. Even if Raiden was 'right' - and I use that term loosely - Kang still came across as anything but the worshipful, deferential follower we all expected him to be.

Kung Lao was one of my faves up until the abortion that was MKSM's plot. I don't need to tell you what went wrong with him. You know. But why the decided to incorporate his idiocy, whiny traits into 2011 I will never understand

I'm eagerly looking forward to Kang's return. I'm afraid of Kung Lao's, unless they use his carelessness as a way to help him grow back into the stoic character he once was.

Right now, Kang by a mile.

Shadow_17

@Shadow_17

•06/17/2020 03:16 AM (UTC) •

@RazorsEdge701

XiahouDun84 Wrote:

RazorsEdge701 Wrote:...but he's never won the big stakes boss fights like Liu can because he doesn't have Liu's...I dunno, dragon/elder god-themed chosen one powers?

Like rooting for the guy who gets a promotion for banging the boss' daughter.

OUR HERO FOLKS!

I'm just saying, Shao Kahn's got the power of a god, what's a bladed hat gonna do to him? Liu has much more impressive seeming powers, and rather than shrug and go "Anyone can beat him, Liu just happened to be the one who did", which simply doesn't make sense, the more logical thing to do would be to EXPLAIN why Liu is the one, and IMO, the best course would be to go "it's no coincidence that Liu's moves and animal form look exactly like the Elder Gods do. The dragon theme is symbolic, he's got a gift. He's the only one who CAN fight Kahn." And then flesh out the REASON he's the chosen one. Did he work really hard for it and achieve some sort of enlightenment? Is it just destiny?
I believe there's a story to be told there and it's more interesting to me than Kung's standing around grimacing all the time going either "I don't wanna be a hero, it's too hard" or "I wish I were the hero, I'm so jealous". Either way, I don't hate Mr. dark and broody, but in this particular scenario, fuck 'im.

Of course, your problem with Liu has always been his personality and I don't agree with that one either. I think there's depth to be found if a writer who actually cared to show it was at the helm, and the only time we've ever had a writer care about exploring Liu's thoughts and feelings about being immortal and his relationship with Kitana and all that stuff was, shamefully, Defenders of the fucking Realm.
Also, I used to like talking story with you, man. Is this bitter old man phase ever gonna end or what?

I would prefer Liu worked really for this. I'd like to keep destiny/fate away from MK. It's like you said mortals make their own choices and that determines their lives.

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