RazorsEdge701 Wrote:
I've always liked Liu Kang. It's true that his personality and character development are ridiculously stifled in the games and that he had no business winning MK4, Shinnok wasn't his bad guy, he was Raiden's.

But I think that Shang Tsung IS Liu's archenemy, and no one deserves to win the tournament but Liu. And I believe that if the person who defeats Shang is NOT the one who then goes on to stop Shao Kahn in MK3, then you're failing at one of the basic rules of storytelling. You don't make a person the main hero and then suddenly change who the main hero is halfway through the story, and MK1 thru 3 is all one story. Beating Shang isn't an accomplishment in itself, it's a stepping stone. It's a rite of passage and whoever does it IS the man who must beat Shao Kahn at the end.

So MK9 needs to not fuck with that. They can change MK2 if they want to because the end fight of that part of the story's not really important to the narrative, but 1 and 3 BETTER have Liu, or Liu and Kung Lao as a team, doing the winning.

And I think Liu has a lot of potential endearing qualities and character flaws and, sadly, the only media that has successfully used him to his potential was the terrible Defenders of the Realm cartoon. That was the first and only thing to really look at the truths of Liu's storyline and go "Okay, being champion means you stop aging. All his friends will wither and die while he watches, how would someone feel about that?" or "Being champion means you spend your whole life fighting people, and it doesn't stop until you die, how would a kind, gentle pacifist feel about that?", and to really flesh out his romance with Kitana.

I also like the idea that because he's spent his whole life as an isolated monk devoted to training and eastern philosophy, and hasn't seen much of the outside world, that he's a bit naive and overly optimistic and expects the best from people. But I hate how it was executed in Shaolin Monks, where it just made him look childish and stupid. They can do better. In fact, I've always believed it would be this trait that makes him so appealing to Kitana. She's lived her whole life forced to kill for her evil stepfather and she wants to excape from that life and become a hero and fight back, and at just the right time, here comes this person who sees the good in people and has the power to defeat Kahn, to help her fight and inspire her to live up to her potential. Also, in the original MK2, Liu's storyline was about dealing with the fact that "I let Shang live...and as a result, he sent the Tarkatans to wipe out my monastery and everyone is dead. I want revenge, and I'm willing to kill this time." I want to actually SEE that emotional growth on the screen.


I think MKvsDCU did a really good job of characterizing Liu and didn't make the same mistakes Shaolin Monks did with him, so I have hope that MK9 will get him right as well. I'm just afraid that this idea of Raiden changing who wins the tournaments is going to completely screw over Liu, because being the champion is central to his character and without it, he serves no purpose in the franchise.

I'd also like to know more about how his "Chosen One"-ness works, how he taps into...whatever it is that he taps into that makes all his moves look like dragons and lets him transform into one. I believe he's calling on the power of the Elder Gods somehow, since they also look like the dragon shapes he's conjuring, and I'd like to know, did they secretly pass a gift down to him because they wanted a mortal to stop Shao Kahn for them? Or is he just reaching a level of spirituality and enlightenment through meditation that allows him to touch the power of the gods? Was he born this way and realizing his destiny? Is it something the Great Kung Lao passed down to his descendants, that Liu learned but Kung Lao hasn't because KL is too self-centered and not zen enough?