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Liu Kang went from being the face of his series to constantly forgotten or even outright shat on
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
He was also originally the only one without a legitimate fatality because, at the time, they wanted him to be a pacifist monk who wouldn't kill.
He just punched you really hard.
I admit, I scratched a hole in my head watching that scene. but I couldn't tear myself away.
I loved Robin Shou's portrayal in the original movie.
Why the fuck would you put a good guy like Liu Kang through all that shit?
Why would you turn Christopher Lambert's character into a fucking dipshit?
I'm amped as hell that MK11 is coming to Switch but Liu's fate may actually determine whether I buy the game.
Why the fuck would you put a good guy like Liu Kang through all that shit?
Why would you turn Christopher Lambert's character into a fucking dipshit?
I'm amped as hell that MK11 is coming to Switch but Liu's fate may actually determine whether I buy the game.
It makes perfect sense. The content the story mode provides isn't the same as the contintiniuity of the lore being good or well written.
X was a million times more entertaining than the bloated, meandering, and poorly written slog fest that was 9. X had actual intrigue, well developed factions, characters with arcs, and moved the world forward into a more interesting place. It's only failing was not leveraging the civil war as fully as it could have, as well as not giving Undead Kitana and Kang more to do.
9 could have been ripped from Fanfiction.net and no one would have been the wiser and is the worst MK story going from Deadly Alliance onwards. The best thing about it is how it jettisoned the established timeline and cleared the board for X, but it was a by the numbers bore to get there.
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It's OK to say the story isn't good.... But it's a completely different stratosphere to go around claiming Mortal Kombat has a worse story than the stuff seen in Dead or Alive or Street Fighter.
Funny that you say that when the Kombat Kids, Erron Black, and Kotal Khan all could have fallen off fanfiction.net
Bruh, what you even talking about?
Street Fighter and DOA don't go out of their way to retcon the entire history of the series into two games with conflicting timeline events, origin stories that no longer make sense, events that straight up CAN'T HAPPEN because of retcons that the story ignores and pretends they happen anyway, among a host of other issues.
MK's story isn't well-written or good at all. Just because the games are packed with single player content and high production values doesn't change the fact the narrative is fuckin awful, dude.
The Mk series has never had great writting, but the biggest criticism of X is that some elements leave you wanting more.
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No. They try every time and his story peters out into hot trash. They just can't write him. Look at how every MK arc ends. MK 9 was poised to rectify that and they just reiterated! Hopefully this time around when they rewrite history they just write him the fuck out.
Being the face of the franchise doesn't mean you're immune to getting shat on in the lore. Scorpion may be the face of the franchise, but canonically speaking he's:
-used by Quan Chi to get Shinnok's amulet only to find out Quan Chi hired the original Sub-Zero to do the same thing
-is beaten by Sub-Zero and has his head ripped off
-has his entire clan and family massacred as a result
-is reborn as a demon and tricked into serving Quan Chi
-learns Quan Chi has been manipulating him all this time and instead of just murdering him he tortures(?) him in hell for a seemingly long period of time
-is beaten by Moloch and Drahmin, two of the worst characters ever in any MK, and thrown into a soulnado
-rescued by the Elder Gods and chosen as their Champion in a desperation attempt to stop Onaga
-only for Shujinko to beat Onaga himself
-doesn't even make it to the Armageddon Pyramid steps, going by the cutscenes in Armageddon and MK9
-timeline is reset only for him to go through exactly the same story arc
-finally restored to humanity, admittedly ends up doing some cool stuff like reforming his clan and making peace with Sub-Zero
-only for him to fuck it all up again by (deservedly) killing Quan Chi, releasing Shinnok, and preventing the restoration of all the other good guys
So yeah, it looks like Liu Kang got a better deal to me. Even if Scorpion gets to kill someone in a new game trailer every now and then.
-used by Quan Chi to get Shinnok's amulet only to find out Quan Chi hired the original Sub-Zero to do the same thing
-is beaten by Sub-Zero and has his head ripped off
-has his entire clan and family massacred as a result
-is reborn as a demon and tricked into serving Quan Chi
-learns Quan Chi has been manipulating him all this time and instead of just murdering him he tortures(?) him in hell for a seemingly long period of time
-is beaten by Moloch and Drahmin, two of the worst characters ever in any MK, and thrown into a soulnado
-rescued by the Elder Gods and chosen as their Champion in a desperation attempt to stop Onaga
-only for Shujinko to beat Onaga himself
-doesn't even make it to the Armageddon Pyramid steps, going by the cutscenes in Armageddon and MK9
-timeline is reset only for him to go through exactly the same story arc
-finally restored to humanity, admittedly ends up doing some cool stuff like reforming his clan and making peace with Sub-Zero
-only for him to fuck it all up again by (deservedly) killing Quan Chi, releasing Shinnok, and preventing the restoration of all the other good guys
So yeah, it looks like Liu Kang got a better deal to me. Even if Scorpion gets to kill someone in a new game trailer every now and then.
Not sure if you can say that when Liu was basically out of the picture for most of MKX and the Cage family had a much bigger role than ever before.
I think they played with the chosen one storyline and turned it on its head once DA happened.
That was the point of DA, to kill the hero and cause havoc. But then, they bring him back as a zombie and you can tell Boon just said fuck it. And then you can say MK9 changed things up because it's the MK1-3 shook up and then, MKX turns him into a bad guy because ???
I guess MK11 will right this wrong but who knows?
That was the point of DA, to kill the hero and cause havoc. But then, they bring him back as a zombie and you can tell Boon just said fuck it. And then you can say MK9 changed things up because it's the MK1-3 shook up and then, MKX turns him into a bad guy because ???
I guess MK11 will right this wrong but who knows?
Sometimes the main eventers has to let the new talent shine. Hopefully the new MK has more sibling type characters in it.
I can see why you'd think he's the face of the franchise, but I've always thought Scorpion and Sub-Zero were.
I never thought Liu Kang had the charisma to carry the franchise. Killing him and bringing him back as undead (twice) was cool because at least it showed the devs were ready and willing to make changes and play around with archetypes these games usually never mess with.
That being said, I really didnt like that the MKX revenants are cookie cutter evil versions of themselves but not as strong. Sindel killed half the cast while alive but as a revenant shes easily dealt with all the time? It feels like a copout.
That being said, I really didnt like that the MKX revenants are cookie cutter evil versions of themselves but not as strong. Sindel killed half the cast while alive but as a revenant shes easily dealt with all the time? It feels like a copout.
Ninjas have been the most popular characters since MK came out. Even if their intention was for Liu Kang to be the face of the franchise, that role has been usurped by Scorpion/Sub-Zero ever since the first game.
Pretty sure the vast majority of people first think about Scorpion/Sub-Zero when asked to name a Mortal Kombat character. Hell, with time I'm pretty sure Johnny Cage has also passed Liu. It doesn't mean the character is lame, or that they abandoned him. He was the main character for a long time, just not the face of the franchise.
Pretty sure the vast majority of people first think about Scorpion/Sub-Zero when asked to name a Mortal Kombat character. Hell, with time I'm pretty sure Johnny Cage has also passed Liu. It doesn't mean the character is lame, or that they abandoned him. He was the main character for a long time, just not the face of the franchise.
Well you may be in luck OP because the way MK11 is shaking up it may be a bit of a redemption for Liu Kang since younger versions of him and Kung Lao are making an appearance in the new story. Seems like this may be a pseudo-redemption arc where an uncorrupted Liu Kang sees what happens to him when he loses balance and falls for his own ambition and rage which ultimately is what leads to his downfall, turning into a revenant and becoming the ruler of the Nether Realm.
At least that's my guess based on what little we've seen.
At least that's my guess based on what little we've seen.
Wait what he was a zombie and now a revenant what ever that is lol? Is this real? Last mk I've played was mk2 lol
EMBRACE THE RUSH-JOB TO MURDER HALF THE CAST BECAUSE THERE WASN'T TIME FOR ANYTHING ELSE
Killed in Deadly Alliance and came back as a zombie in Timeline A.
Timeline B starts when Raiden in Armageddon sends a message to his past self that "he must win" in MK 9 whose story retells 1-3 with this wrinkle. Smoke stays as a human while Sub Zero becomes a cyborg. Most of the heroes die, and Raiden accidentally kills Liu Kang after the Thunder God realizes "he must win" means Shao Khan has to invade Earthrealm, thus breaking the rules of Mortal Kombat and face the wrath of the Elder Gods.
Kang was pissed watching his friends die, in particular Kitana. He blamed Raiden for everything and tried fighting Shao Khan which forced Raiden to intervene. So in MKX Quan-Chi uses that anger to turn Kang and some of the other dead heroes into revanents, or spirits of vengeance like Scorpion. Quan-Chi gets merc'd and that frees Kang and the others from his control, but they're still revanents. So Kang and Kitana become the emperor and empress of the Nether Realm.
Hope that helps.
.... So is Scorpion? And Sub Zero? Shit, Scorp is literally the SF Ryu equivalent to MK that Liu initially was supposed to be in the very beginning.
I thought this was cool at the time! I quickly adapted when he became just as blood thirsty as everyone else in MK2, but I liked his non-lethal fatality in MK1.He was also originally the only one without a legitimate fatality because, at the time, they wanted him to be a pacifist monk who wouldn't kill.
He just punched you really hard.
Lmfao. You said it with those images better than I ever could.
Zombie Liu Kang had chains, yes. (And also fireballs, but regular Liu Kang had that.)
I don't actually follow modern Mortal Kombat xD. But I will make a final retort, that fire balls are not as cool as fire breath!
Masks: iconic, and aspirational. Scorpion and sub zero are badass ninja vessels to project yourself into. Liu K is a face, a name and a personality.
Look at their key art for starters.
liu kang is cool in the movie but unfortunately they never actually decided to pick up on the playful rogue/americanized shaolin monk aspect of the movie and decided that he should be a stuffy boring asshole forever so unsurprisingly he was sidelined into villainy as a twist despite being the "main character" for so long
he's basically the neverending butt of a bad joke because he's a "boring chinese guy" who used to be the main character and i have no doubt mk11 will continue this trend rather than havin' liu and kung lao actually do some fuckin' damage
he's basically the neverending butt of a bad joke because he's a "boring chinese guy" who used to be the main character and i have no doubt mk11 will continue this trend rather than havin' liu and kung lao actually do some fuckin' damage
One thing especially it die better is that X had halfway decent excuse for fights while 9 fight starts because it's a fighting game and another character made a shitty joke and it's fight time