We'll find out next Kombat time!
Same Kombat channel!

Damn...really showed my age with that one. Anyways, no one has any idea yet. It hard to say since we have no idea how much info Raiden will be able send back to his younger self. Was it just a few words with a sense of urgency or did he send back all of his memories? For all we know its that message that ends up causing Armageddon.

I was just playing Armageddon yesterday and had this thought; I was thinking they could play it off as though he had always received that message. Just before his final battle with Shao Kahn; Raiden is narrating an internal dialogue.

"Standing before Shao Kahn for the future of the realms, I have finally come to understand the warning I had received prior to Lui Kang's victory in the first tournament. The battle before me with Shao Khan represents a contest I cannot win; Though the earthrealm warriors have staved off the forces of darkness, I now know that the skills these warriors possess have escalated the furies within the realms beyond the expectations of even the elder gods. During my Tenure as an Elder God I was able to transcend time and space.

Although it was believed that during my battle with Onaga I sacrificed my being to kill the Dragon King and save the realms; the reality is much different. I transferred what little shred of consciousness I could back to my former self before the events of the first tournament. As this transformation took place my essence touched that of the one being and became tainted, forever altering not only my essence is this reality, but the fate and destiny of the realms.

I must send one last echo to the past to prevent the final destruction of the realms, and to stop Armageddon. The only hope for earthrealms is absolute victory in Mortal Kombat."

From here they could take it a couple different ways, the message was always sent but raiden didn't understand it. Or it was always sent and is the direct reason why everything ended up the way it did. They could then either have raiden become more aggressive waging war on outworld, or perhaps the only real solution would be to have raiden not interfere at all. Just an idea.

MKRaiden..

Thats an amazing post. Really got my brain going.

You, sir, are awesome for this post.

That's a good post, mkraiden. I've been thinking about a similar thing, too. There's that dramatic change between Raiden in MK1 and Raiden going onwards. He debuted as almost a joke character, in the tournament because he could be, and if he wins everything is destroyed. Have a nice day. But then he becomes the mentor to Earth's heroes, and he cares about preserving the world. Why? It would make sense if Raiden in the timeline we know and love also got some message from the future (as painful as that is it admit), and that the timeline we attached ourselves to wasn't the true one, either.

Now, we could go from here onto the discussion of time travel, parallel universes and such, but eh. We'll just stick to what this means for the two Raidens we know about. I assume that if Raiden in Armageddon got a message from the future, and he decoded it too late, then he'd want to go back earlier. Prior to MK1 makes sense, as it would appear that Armageddon Raiden got the message post-MK1 at the earliest.

Raiden, being Raiden, would also probably choose to involve himself more than hold back. He only stayed on the sidelines when he absolutely had to (MK3), and Armageddon Raiden's attitude lost faith in the ability of mortals to fight for themselves. If ArmRaiden could send back three words to reboot Raiden, I'm sure it'd be something like "Fry Shao Kahn!" Doesn't encourage Raiden to sit on his thumbs.

Except that Raiden being the officially appointed protector-god of Earthrealm was canon in Mythologies, which is before MK1.

Raiden doesn't really have a plan. All he knows is that something bad is gonna happen, but he doesn't know what.

The thunder god, Raiden, overpowered Blaze and absorbed the energy intented to transform the sons of Argus.
His strength enhanced beyond that of other gods, Raiden became a deity of unimaginable power.
Releasing his fury upon the realms, he destroyed them all.
None would threaten Earthrealm again.

Just a thought but what if Raiden wanted to prevent himself from destroying the realms by defeating those who threatened them in the past?

I think it really all depends on HOW MUCH information Raiden sends back. IF he only sent a SMALL bit saying "ALL IS BAD BAD BAD" then anything could happen. BUT if Raiden was able to send ALL his current knowledge BACK to himself in the past then I think we COULD see Dark Raiden from the beginning. The Raiden we see in the teaser is the Raiden before he send the message I believe.....why he is not all light an normal looking I will let pass.....but I'd like to see a more DRASTIC and VIOLENT Raiden that GETS help from Fujin and other sources early.

First off thanks everyone for all the king words regarding my post. Greenroom this is similar to what I was thinking. They could really go either way with it. If Raiden's attempt to send back a message to the past was tainted if could have directly resulted in Armageddon. A retelling of the events could have Raiden more in his MK1 and MKA state of mind where he will save earthrealm at any cost interfering anytime it would benefit earthrealm. Or more of his MK2-MK3 persona where he mostly adheres to limits imposed apon him, perhaps refusing to interfere at all. They could use this as an opportunity to explain why the Elder Gods are so reluctant to interfere, as this escalation ultimately leads to Armageddon.

Because it was recently reported that Raiden is indeed playable, I doubt he will choose not to interfere at all. I think it is more likely that we see a more proactive Raiden in this coming game. Or another possibility is that he gives up his status as a God and competes more or less as a mortal.

A nice way to conclude the story and tie in the fact that it is both a retelling of shorts, and a sequel would be to have the events that happen in the game change the course of the future, they could then cut away back to the post MKA timeline where the changes present in this game, would change the current post MKA storyline....

For instance at the conclusion of this game, the champion (whoever that may be) finally defeats Shao Kahn... then the game cuts back to the intro fight between Raiden and Shao Kahn. Raiden is defeat and Shao Kahn is about to deliver the final blow when all of the sudden Shoa Kahn bursts into energy and is destroyed in that timeline as well. Then they could continue this theme showing the changes in the story, as the effects of what happened in this new game would be retroactive. Finally the last battle between Raiden and Shao Kahn blends into the final scene of the new MK3 storyline, where the new Champion defeated Shao Kahn.

This would blend the retelling of the events of MK1-MK3 with the Armageddon storyline, and bring us right back to Post MK3. From here they could easily make the next sequel with either Shinnok or a totally new villian, and it would be a way of not making the events of MK4-MKA totally irrelevant but would leave room for a new story without all the absolute madness and convoluted story from that era.