The way Dark Raiden was portrated sucked, if he returns I hope he is not a brainless killing machine, like Zombie Liu Kang.

Looks Cool.

You're assuming things though. You make it out to be that Raiden created Liu and just let him loose on the monks and enjoyed their slaughter. It was stated that the whole purpose behind Liu was to be his enforcer to "wreak havoc on those who threaten Earth", not to kill innocents who are weak and helpless for the hell of it. For all we know those monks were getting in the way of Liu's goals of stopping those from destroying Earth, and technically that makes those monks a threat to Earth's existence. Had they stopped or contained Liu, Liu wouldn't do his job, and Earth could be destroyed. Whatever way you want to look at it, nothing is for certain. You can't just assume Raiden created Liu, and had him kill the monks for no reason whatsoever other than to just kill something. What we are told doesn't even match up with that theory, I'd say my theory of them getting int he way, thus threatening Earth's protection, is a more likely scenario.

If a few citizens step in the way of a soldier, and their attempt to stop, kill, or contain him was going to result in him not saving his country, him killing them wouldn't be such an evil deed. It was forced. If they had just minded their business and let Liu do his job of killing those who are a threat to Earth, they wouldn't have been slaughtered. That's the way it seems, and it makes the most sense. They were unintentionally causing a greater threat by trying to stop Liu from killing off those who are attempting to destroy Earth. Thus, they are in the wrong.

You paint it out to be that they were just sitting in their homes, minding their business and living their lives, posing no threat to harm Earth, and then Liu bashed down the door and starting killing them for no reason. We don't know anything for sure as I said, but the theory I suggested goes along with what was written in the bios/endings and mindset being conveyed through them.

And people say story doesn't matter in a fighting game...

Yeah, I don't get that either. I guess those are the people who simply doesn't care about the storyline and simply looks to the graphics and gameplay.

Are they gonna make real poster out of these? I'd like to own this one

Well the story in most other fighting games is awful or they literally didn't write one. So if your entry point into the genre is something like Tekken or Marvel vs Capcom or...y'know, most of them that aren't MK, you're gonna think that all fighting games are just about the fighting and the characters don't need to have identities, they're just colorful figures who punch each other and you pick your favorites based on who punches the best.

If your entry point into the genre or favorite fighting franchise is MK, however, you're probably used to the depth and wishing every fighting game had a story.

Those being generalizations, of course. There's always odd men out.

And personally, I love the Street Fighter comic series by Udon. I would kill for MK to get something that adapts the canon that well and has art that nice.

Oh boy Im ready to hear Raidens giberish!!

I guess you could be somewhat right about me assuming too much, but his actions though may seem righteous in his eyes but it could have detrimental effects.

I could see him bringing Liu Kang's body back, then the Monks are shocked to see "The Champ" a zombie and try to stop him, but get killed in the process.

Shit, this is nothing, i wanna see minimally combo trailer.

K. Here is an example that would definitively make Raiden "evil".

:: When Raiden stops specifically targeting ONLY the bad guys, like he's been doing this whole time..... He's evil.

Throughout this Dark Raiden process, Raiden has only targeted the typical suspects. There's Shujinko, but it's not far fetched to justify him as a proponent of the evil scheme.

I personally don't think Shujinko deserved death for his part in the big scheme because he was ignorant the whole time but, Shujinko really did do everything in his power to help evil happen for Earth.

For a ruthless Raiden, I could see that constituting some sort of severe punishment for the greater good of EarthRealm.

The three fighting games I grew up with are Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct and Street Fighter, and I loved the storylines, the endings and the other story elements put into those games.

And true, the Udon SF comics were absolutely awesome! I loved how they explained Cammy's background (my favourite SF character). ^^ Would be awesome to see them do Mortal Kombat in the same manner... perhaps Jade's background will be revealed then - if not in this game, that is. ^^

As for Dark Raiden, I hope we will find out more about that side of him, if not in this game, then in the next.

IMO, the people who are trying to argue that Raiden isn't evil are going about it all wrong. Razor -- you make some very good points and IMO you are winning the debate, but let me refute your arguments by pointing out that Raiden is basically being mind controlled. Keep in mind all the good works that Raiden has done in the past. The effect that the One Being has on him (or whatever it is) is causing him to do things he would never do. He is just not himself.

Dark Raiden is basically Spidey when the symbiote is attached to him. Or Superman on Red Kryptonite.

I agree with your assessment of Raiden's actions as evil. Most convincing is the pre-emptive strike on EVERY realm, including Earth's allies such as Edenia, in his ending. While the ending isn't canon, it shows what the character would do if he were to win - e.g., what he is planning.

I just don't hold Raiden accountable for his actions. We don't have all the details of his transformation, but if it really is something very powerful such as the One Being corrupting him, the argument could be made that he's just as much a puppet as Zombie Liu is.

*looks at wallpaper*

*thinks about Raiden*

*crosses fingers*

Please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode, PLEASE don't explode.

Raiden's a god, having a few monks dead (even if not intentionally, it says Raiden set free Liu, he didnt govern his every action) is nothing compared to having earth destroyed. His loyalty is Earth, not Liu, not some monks, earth.

I mean, the realms were unstable, he's got this stern personality, and he's desperate. In the MKA opening, he was fighting Shinnok, and liu fought Shang. They werent on the bad side.

The way he turned out, it sounds like he's the god of Seido by how he acts.

To you Warcraft fans out there, you might recognize this...

Dark Raiden is like Deathwing. They are both being mind-controlled by a dormant evil, The One Being with Raiden, and The Old Gods with Deathwing.

It is something to speculate about indeed...

The One Being doesn't overtly control people, it's entirely "subconscious". That means it subtly pushes them farther and harder in directions they were already headed if taking them to an extreme could awaken him.

You have to already be on the verge of fucking up all the realms for the One Being's push to come in.

Shao Kahn wants to rule the world, pushing that makes him want to rule all worlds, and if all the worlds were merged, the One Being would come back.

Onaga wants to be invincible, having the Kamidogus makes him that...and the One Being's push tells him "combine the Kamidogus and become the ultimate god" which would turn Onaga into the One Being.

So The One Being isn't the catalyst for Raiden's behavior, just something piggybacking on him. It is making him act more extreme than he perhaps would, but it's not the major motivation.

The real catalyst for Raiden's personality change was given in Shang Tsung's MKA bio: when the three of them died at the same time, their souls wrestled "in the ether". Some of Shang and Quan has rubbed off on Raiden. Hence why he no longer cares for human life and turns to dark magic to accomplish his ends now.

LMFAO

I was wondering that too

Two things: OMG cannot wait to see Raiden in action, he's going to kill it for sure. Sweer wallpaper by the way:)

secondly: this debate is pretty awesome, kudos to Razor, Predator, Black cyborg, Darkhound etc. i don't have much to add as anything I would have said has already been covered, regardless kudos and very informative.

This is awesome! I love it!

The wallpaper or the argument?

That is some dull ass wallpaper.

Perhaps both?

Anyway, it's great to finally see some Raiden content showing up! We haven't seen any trace of our thunder man since the E3 teaser. Hopefully we'll get some info on story mode and some other things as well.

Is this how we're going to receive new info on characters? Month by month? Darn...with over 20 characters we'll be getting renders for the next two years, I reckon.

Nah, they said a while back the plan was to only do the 6 on the website. All the rest will be handled by the actual release of the game, where all this content is actually from.