I don't know, I kinda like corrupt raiden a little better. It gave his story an interesting arch nobody expected. It's an interesting paradox, he's still good as in, he wants what's best for earth realm, he's just going about it in an evil way.

.....**begins petition for Evil Raiden Emoticon**

Says you. I prefer the new Raiden and want to see where this story goes.


If Raiden should ever go "light" again....I don't say "good" because Raiden isn't "evil"....it should be a while from now after the current "dark" story has run its course.

I 2nd that!
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Anyway...I've had an idea for some time now. It's in part, going to be in the book of Raiden that I'm writing....here's the concept.

The way I would have it done, is to punish Raiden, and challenge him. You take his god rites away from him and make him human.

You challenge him by telling him he has to become the Champion of Earth in Mortal Kombat if he is to re-assume roll of the Thunder God of Earth again.

Maybe erase part of his memory, and replace it with "normal life" memories. Or, you could just have him be born on earth as a regular human altogether...taking him through a life unaware of his past mistakes..."Reincarnation" so to speak.

BUT, no matter what, he should still have an awareness of a "compelling purpose" in his life. That is the purpose that would lead him back into the Mortal Kombat contest....Name him "Raijin", or like "Jin Ra" or something coded simple like that, so that when he figures it out and the story blossoms, fulfillment of playing through all this is granted to us and him at the same time...
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Anyway, all this is done for his committing crimes against deity law. He has committed a few cardinal sins imO.

1. Killed an innocent mortal ("Even though the situation exposed him to an unknown entity [Onaga], he was always circumstantial as a threat to Earth"..[Shujinko] Which should have been considered in the punishment for Shujinko, by Raiden...and it wasn't.)

2. Resurrected a realm Champions dead body. (He didn't do it for the Elder Kung Lao, why would he be allowed to now? It must be dis-allowed for a god to use dark arts to violate the corpse of a fallen champion like Raiden did imO.)

3. Played the role of a decitful middle man(puppet master) and Consorted with Evil Forces for a means to an end.

4. Overall Ruthless behavior.

Irony is his love and compassion for mortals. If he makes it? We see the light Raiden return, purified of his sins... If he doesn't make it? He could logically be killed or just age out of the MK story forever...

I would be satisfied with this path, no matter either of the outcomes(though disapointed if he died in the process) as long as they don't just axe him, or "make him a boss" and kill him like more than a few people have suggested.

Raiden could return to his good state if he realizes that if he continues down the path of darkness, evil will consume him and the Elder gods can sentence him to the netherealm and make him become a fallen Elder god.

This dark curse or madness is lifted from Raiden through his own will (good side takes over), protector of earth realm, to set an example to the world he loves.

I liked both Raiden and Liu Kang's "Character Overhauls" as cute little 1-Off concepts for a single game, but not as permanant changes.

Frankly I think they should both be restored in MK8, should they appear in it. Heck, I think Liu Kang should have in his MKD Ending/MKA's Start... His still being zombified served very little purpose in MKA other than to reveal that Raiden was behind it... his being zombified serves very little purpose in general, seeing as it's been established that it's not actually Liu Kang in control... he's like... a lifeless meat puppet for Raiden... not Liu Kang himself. The real Liu Kang is just off floating around and being Green.

Raiden's change at least played a little bit of a role in Armageddon. I liked how they expanded it into him creating zombie Liu, and wheeling and dealing with the villains. Still, I think it's gone on long enough, and whatever the source of his corruption is should be revealed and erradicated in the next game.

I think that the only way Raiden could become light again would be too steal the kriss from Ashrah that would cleanse the evil from him.

Maybe corrupt Raiden is just a puppet

We're not talking about Liu Kang (who should never return) we're talking about Raiden. And you have Liu's zombie story all wrong. Not to mention that all charcters in MKA had no role, they were just there, the only ones that had a big role were Taven, Daegon and Blaze.

But anyways, this was an interesting twist to Raiden's character. (Surprise no one said Rayden yet....) And the fact that he should stay like this in the next game if he does return is a good move because now we have a chance to see what old Lordy can do in this "pissed off" state.

The only chance I see him restoring his good self, is if the Elder Gods stripped his powers from him and make him mortal, whoever said that had a good sense of creativity.

Therefore, I highly doubt that we'll see this side of Raiden again... unless Midway decides to totally forget about this corrupted side of Raiden and make him good again, which would totally piss a lot of people off.

CHEERS!

Also in MKA you could choose his alternate costume same with mkd and he's normal I hate zombified liu kang he looks retarted

i like the way he used to look in trilogy or 2 but thats about it he dose his kick the shit out of people harming earth relm in a lot cooler way

the good raiden better then the corrupted one. I would prefer the good raiden. Corrupt Raiden looks pail lol.

i like dark raiden but if you wanted him to return to normal just get raiden to fly a kite with a key attached during a thunderstorm. he will forget where he is and boom the lightning strikes hara kiri.

I don't think Raiden should come back as "light" again: make him follow his new path and pay dearly for it, even if it means his "death". His actions and choices need to be dramatic, otherwise there is no point in making him "dark".

Ooh... the death of Raiden... hmm... sounds rather interesting towards me. This I like.

CHEERS for MUFFINS!

i agree that raiden should stay dark not only cause its a good twost on his character, but at the same time hed make a good addition to mk8, think about its supposed to be darker, and well raiden fits the bill. So this is just me me but im pretty sure dark raiden is moving on the the next mk even more darker and less merciful than before

I like Dark Raiden, but me thinks a pure evil Raiden would be bad-ass.

Think of this as a future boss, somehow Raiden is killed. Perhaps he's betrayed by the Elder Gods and is cast into the netherealm. While in netherrealm his own hate for both the Elder Gods who took his life and the mortals whom abandoned him grows and festures within his heart. When the time comes he emerges out of the neatherrealm to seek his revenge and show all what true power is. Begins his slaughter, kills thousands, must be stopped yada yada yada, you get the picture. Maybe his look could be similar to Jax007's concept only a little more sinister and demonic, but not so demonic that he appears as a demon, he should still look like Raiden just a very angry Raiden.

I know some of you will hate this, and to be honest if the idea was as undeveloped as what i wrote i above i would to. I just think that if they decide to bring back old characters they need drastic changes, they're all for the most part pretty much the same as they've been since they debuted.

Wow, I can't believe this thread is still going.



I really like this idea.

pretty badass idea man. that'd be tight, but someone's gotta back up raiden if he stays evil, and if he stays evil, i don't think anyone might back up raiden simply cuz even the evil characters may not trust raiden. anyone remember reptile's endings thru mk4? yeah he came back in deadly alliance, but he couldn't trust a single person he worked for.

as for the question of raiden going "good" if you really want to turn him good, then start up a storyline where maybe raiden somehow gets the idea that shao kahn and/or shinnok couldn't be trusted after all after taven knocks his ass out and then ends up fight one of the two... all with the awakening of a totally new boss.

now THAT'S a lame idea, but it has potential. any other questions???

As for a purley evil Raiden and his back-ups. Why not the demons of the Netherrealm. I don't know, maybe something like he proves to them that he has truley become malevolent by murdering an established character he was once aligned with and once called friend. Or perhaps he destroys some of the most powerful beings in the Netherrealm and feeds their souls to lower demons who consume them and gain greater strength, thus trusting Raiden.

What i pictured was a really pissed off Raiden emerging from the Netherrealm through a portal to earthrealm or outworld with legions of demons following in his wake.

let's say dark raiden dies again and is sent to the netherrealm possibly he does what ashra did to get out and kills a lot o demons. over time he starts to look more and more like his old self eventually he ascends fom the netherrealm and is the thunder god once more

I've always liked Raiden and seeing him turn a little darker in Deception was a cool thing I guess.
If I had to choose a way for him to become like he was before again, I guess I'd do something along the lines of him coming into contact with Ashra's sword or something.

I like the whole dark thing. Think about it, Raiden is so pissed with people messing with Earthrealm he'll kill them. He might even get so corrupted he somehow takes over Outworld and tries to conquer Earthrealm thinking that if he rules it no one will ever threaten it again.

To be honest, fuck good Raiden.

as much as i like the old raiden, there is no way he would return. he's just become more ruthless in the way that he does his duty of defending earthrealm.