Mortal Kombat Fun Fact! - Raidens Name
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posted01/07/2014 09:21 PM (UTC)by
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02/22/2006 12:35 AM (UTC)
It is known to most MK fans that Raiden is based on the Japanese thunder god Raijin.

What I didn't know until recently was that Raiden's name and the name of the Japanese god are not one in the same, but bare separate meanings.

First we have 雷神, which is the name for Raijin. This literally means 'thunder god.'

Then, we have 雷電, which is the name for Raiden. This literally means 'thunder and lighting,' which is concept for Raiden's powers.


I had not even known 'Raiden' was an actual Japanese word, believing it to be an English translation of 'Raijin.' This is very interesting considering the character Fujin, who bares the exact name of the Japanese god of wind he's based on.


Well, that's all I got. Thanks for reading! grin
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Sub-Zero_7th
01/01/2014 08:52 PM (UTC)
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It probably would have worked better had John Tobias called him Raijin to begin with. Hell, maybe it would have worked even better to have called him Lei Shen, who is basically the Daoist equivalent (same Han characters used as well) since he interacts with Chinese people such as Liu Kang and Kung Lao.
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RazorsEdge701
01/02/2014 01:36 AM (UTC)
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To be fair, "Raiden" sounds cooler than "Lei Shen" does, and Raiden wasn't written as being tied to Liu and the Shaolin until the movie and MK Mythologies.

Anyway, yeah, note that "Rai" is the symbol Raiden wears all over his costumes, particularly in the yellow circles on his sleeves in MK2 and MK9.

And while we're on the subject, Fujin's name, unlike Raiden's, does mean "Wind" (Fuu) and "God" (Jin). And like Raiden, he also has a kanji on his back in MK4:


Except it isn't "fuu"/Wind like you'd think. It's "kuu", which means Air.

And the Chinese on Kung Lao's shirt in MK2 (and his back in Shaolin Monks/MK9) is "Wǔ" (as in the martial art "wushu"). He has a different symbol on his back in Deadly Alliance, but I can't remember what it is.

I'd also be interested to know if anybody can say what the symbols on the chests of both of Sub-Zero's costumes in Deadly Alliance are though, those ones I haven't gotten around to looking into yet.
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01/02/2014 05:13 AM (UTC)
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RazorsEdge701 Wrote:


And while we're on the subject, Fujin's name, unlike Raiden's, does mean "Wind" (Fuu) and "God" (Jin). And like Raiden, he also has a kanji on his back in MK4:




I've actually found that very interesting.

It seems 'wind god' in Japanese and 'god of wind' in Japanese are very different. While 風神 is immediately identified as Fujin, 風の神 is not. However, with Raijin's name, either instance can be identified as the deity's name. I wonder why it's different with Fujin.


RazorsEdge701 Wrote:

I'd also be interested to know if anybody can say what the symbols on the chests of both of Sub-Zero's costumes in Deadly Alliance are though, those ones I haven't gotten around to looking into yet.


After much searching and checking, the calligraphy on Sub-Zero's costume seems to be a poor wording of 'ice cold.'

While both individual words are present, the actual phrase for 'ice cold' is 冰冷 .
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RazorsEdge701
01/02/2014 06:49 AM (UTC)
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Perhaps Shinto might have more than one god for certain elements like wind, but only one for Thunder? I remember trying to read through their pantheon once and it was one of the longest and most confusing I've ever seen, there were a lot of redundancies. I found at least two different names for Fire and Water Gods too, that I can recall.

'Course, that's the way it is with pantheistic religions sometimes. Even the Greeks, who most people are familiar with the A-Listers of, still had tons of obscure ones for pointless or repetitive shit, all like "Okay, Poseidon rules over water...but mostly just the sea. We also have a god for lakes and a god for rivers. And Ares and Athena both get War, because one is for when we're winning and happy and one is for cheating and retreating and all the parts of war we don't like...plus Ares has kids, so there's a god for minor skirmishes that're fought using only nunchucks, and a goddess for sissy slapfights, and a god for stabbing someone in the eye with a spork."
I imagine a day in ancient Greece went a lot like this: "Oh god, I drank too much and have to pee but I don't think I'm gonna make it to the bathroom, who do I pray to for help here? Pee's a liquid, so Poseidon? I have to run fast, so maybe Hermes? Perhaps Dionysis, the god of drunken binges! Surely he watches over all those who make mistakes related to imbibing? Aww fuck it, I'll just make up a new one! O' save me mighty Bladderon, God of Pee!"
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Spider804
01/02/2014 06:56 AM (UTC)
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That musta been one super spork....Also, "Bladderon" deserves a gross of Dragon Points.
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PickleMendip
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STATE FED LIES CHARM EMPTY EYES. Anon.

01/04/2014 06:00 AM (UTC)
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I made a connection that is unknown to be provably accurate.

Angel season 4 introduced a recurring background character called Gwen Raiden. Her power? Electricity manipulation.
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01/04/2014 02:49 PM (UTC)
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PickleMendip Wrote:
I made a connection that is unknown to be provably accurate.

Angel season 4 introduced a recurring background character called Gwen Raiden. Her power? Electricity manipulation.


Well, since Raiden literally means 'thunder and lightning,' that could be the reason for her name.

Still, the MK character Raiden is pretty iconic, so it may likely be him as inspiration.
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RazorsEdge701
01/04/2014 10:08 PM (UTC)
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To be fair, the similarity pretty much ends at the name and powers.

As I recall, her character was a professional thief, and a lot more like Rogue from the X-Men. She couldn't control her powers or touch anyone without shocking them to death, so she wore gloves. Even had a light streak in her hair.
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Zmoke
01/05/2014 09:14 PM (UTC)
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Sub-Zero_7th Wrote:
It probably would have worked better had John Tobias called him Raijin to begin with. Hell, maybe it would have worked even better to have called him Lei Shen, who is basically the Daoist equivalent (same Han characters used as well) since he interacts with Chinese people such as Liu Kang and Kung Lao.

I would like Lei Shen as an alternative name for Raiden, it sounds more personal. Only peers like Shao Kahn would call him Lei Shen, etymology aside. Originally Haokah was called Rayden with a Y anyway, in MK1.

RazorsEdge701 Wrote:
I'd also be interested to know if anybody can say what the symbols on the chests of both of Sub-Zero's costumes in Deadly Alliance are though, those ones I haven't gotten around to looking into yet.
I would be a lot more interested in figuring out what all those symbols seen in Cyber Sub-Zero's HUD meant. It was funny how the HUD revealed that Kuai Liang's body temperature was minus fifty degrees Fahrenheit; the exoskeleton is literally a freezer. It must be "convenient" for combat.
Riyakou Wrote:
Well, since Raiden literally means 'thunder and lightning,' that could be the reason for her name.
Still, the MK character Raiden is pretty iconic, so it may likely be him as inspiration.
"Raiden" is one of the cooler names in Mortal Kombat, no wonder it has also been adopted by the Metal Gear series. Another one is "Jax", which is at least the name of the protagonist of the Sons of Anarchy tv series.
Post Sc‹i›‹/i›ript: Many of the god characters of MK bear a similarity in their names. Rain, Daegon, Taven, Raiden, Kahn... Fujin. They all end with -n.
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RazorsEdge701
01/06/2014 06:22 AM (UTC)
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Zmoke Wrote:
I would be a lot more interested in figuring out what all those symbols seen in Cyber Sub-Zero's HUD meant. It was funny how the HUD revealed that Kuai Liang's body temperature was minus fifty degrees Fahrenheit; the exoskeleton is literally a freezer. It must be "convenient" for combat.


Well it makes a lot of sense when you consider that canonically, Cyber-Ninjas for some reason lose any natural magic powers they had when they become automated, and have to have those powers replaced by technology that does the same thing.

Like Cyber-Smoke doesn't have Tomas's enenra abilities, his smoke is made by shooting clouds of nanobots.
Also, Sub-Zero has a lower than normal natural body temperature as a human too, which is why when he breathes, you can see condensation no matter what environment he's standing in.
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Zmoke
01/07/2014 12:15 PM (UTC)
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RazorsEdge701 Wrote:
Zmoke Wrote:
I would be a lot more interested in figuring out what all those symbols seen in Cyber Sub-Zero's HUD meant. It was funny how the HUD revealed that Kuai Liang's body temperature was minus fifty degrees Fahrenheit; the exoskeleton is literally a freezer. It must be "convenient" for combat.

Well it makes a lot of sense when you consider that canonically, Cyber-Ninjas for some reason lose any natural magic powers they had when they become automated, and have to have those powers replaced by technology that does the same thing.
Like Cyber-Smoke doesn't have Tomas's enenra abilities, his smoke is made by shooting clouds of nanobots.
Also, Sub-Zero has a lower than normal natural body temperature as a human too, which is why when he breathes, you can see condensation no matter what environment he's standing in.

I never stated that it wouldn't make sense. Well yeah I knew those things.
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RazorsEdge701
01/07/2014 09:21 PM (UTC)
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I just like pointing that out because I find it fascinating.

It sort of reminds me of how in Star Wars, Anakin was supposed to be the most powerful Jedi, but after he got his limbs chopped off, the loss of bodymass actually made his powers weaker, which is why Vader barely ever uses the force in his cyborg outfit and his lightsaber fights are way lamer than the ones in the prequels (also, he literally can't learn Palpatine's lightning move, because if he ever tried it, he'd fry his own life support gear).
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