No!

Liu is in a coma after Raiden's lightning with Liu's fire collided.

So he's not dead.

Watch the MK9 ending again, Raiden and Sonya explain how they've suffered great losses and how they need to tend to the fallen, unless NRS decides to explain that Liu Kang is in fact, as you put it in a "coma", those sound like terms describing that the heroes, from Kung Lao to Liu Kang, died.

It seemed ambiguous and I didn't think he was dead considering Raiden's lightning has a tendency to explode people or heal people and it did neither to Kang, but if he was dead he can just come back.

They teleported his body away to bury or awake him from a coma at some later time. His soul wouldn't be in Quan Chi's possession because this was after Raiden beat all of their asses.

Let him dream.


Kang died. He's by far the Netherrealm's most powerful warrior now since Kahn wasn't defeated and that BS deal happened. Unless he becomes a god after being resurrected by the Elder gods for whatever reason.

But yea, he dead.

Nobody died in MK9. They just all eventually come back when you select the rematch button, or when the producers get around to redesigning new costumes.

What would Raiden beating Quan Chis minions up change? The soul would still most likely go to Quan Chi

Didn't Raiden offer their souls to Quan Chi and that's why he got them? Quan Chi was only able to instantly mess with Bi Han and Scorpion because they were already going to hell when they died for being assassins in life. If Liu died he'd ascend to the heavens or whatever.

Raiden offered, but Quan Chi told him it was pointless saying that he already struck a deal with Shao Kahn "as payment for the Netherrealm's allegiance". Quan Chi had their souls before Raiden ever approached him for an offer.

Evidence? Sources?

Delusions of an addled mind...

Addled seems almost like an understatement

I like this answer.

Ah okay, thanks for clearing that up. It's been a while since I saw that scene.

If he was indeed in a coma, I'd like to think that Raiden just healed him. He healed Jax in just a few seconds. He also healed up that giant hole in Fujin's stomach in the comic.

Or Raiden simply asked the Elder gods to bring back Kang. Remember that Raiden told Scorpion "I will ask the Elder Gods to resurrect your family and clan" so it's already established that they r capable of this feat.

But what's more than likely going to happen, is that Liukang will be a revenant just like the others, then he will be "deputized" by the Elder Gods as the new Fire God of EarthRealm.

Yeah Liu's tower pose seems too calm for him to return a villain.

I expect some tension between him and Raiden but either Liu will take Raiden's mantle or the two will try to smooth things out, but I see both sitting a game out and taking up a mentor role to the newer crew of heroes.

Yeah if Liu returns I don't see him and Raiden being on the best of terms at first lol

*OFF TOPIC*

Liu can be (Understandably) mad all he wants but Raiden did accomplish his goal if you really think about it. He was to stop Armageddon and to prevent Kahn from eventually defeating Blaze. So far there is no sign of Armageddon or Blaze, and even if there was Kahn isn't there to win it (at the moment)

Raiden gets shit for making dumb decisions but if we compare the death toll of the heroes who died in MK9 and who died in Armageddon, MK9's outcome was still "less bad" lol in Armageddon everybody dies except for Kahn.

Don't know why I felt the need to post this here, but it popped in my head and just started typing lol

Considering Armageddon happened because there was way too much powerful warriors that kept fighting and fighting and fighting it's ok for it not to happen anymore. The fabrics of the realms were wearing thin because of the amount of energy going on through these war. Considering the 25 year break before the next interrealm war, it's safe to say the fabrics got a much needed break.

Anyway, I think it's indeed time for Liu Kang to be reinvented. He's been wearing nearly the same attire and doing the exact same thing(champion of earthrealm beats bad guy) for so many years now. He's the stallest character in the entire universe. A new purpose and a new look will do just that. You know, maybe the Elder Gods saved Liu Kang's soul in case Raiden dies and he'll be reborn at the end when Raiden is finally killed.

This. If Liu is even slightly reasonable at the end he'll see that Raiden was right, at least about Kahn needing to attempt a merge. Yes they won't be friendly but based on that challenge tower pose and the character Liu is I just can't see him being flat out evil, he just won't like Raiden.

The only fuckup Raiden is guilty of is accidentally frying Kang. I'm normally judgemental with this shit but he was trying to prevent an actual fucking Armageddon end of all things scenario so I think there was probably a little bit of pressure. He still saved everyone from Armageddon and future Raiden is the asshole that caused the mess and arguably could've prevented it if he coordinated Earthrealm's heroes instead of leaving them to get ready late when Johnny gathered them. Not saying Cage can't be a good leader, but Evil/Dark/AssholeRaiden would've been a big fucking help.

Blaming MK9 Raiden for shit and acting like he was flat out incompetent is a forced meme at this point.

Though why the hell Raiden or Kahn should have the authority to barter other people's souls in the first place is something NRS has never bothered to explain.

I could see where it could be argued that the souls belonged to the victor in combat... but there are still holes there: If it's the victor of the overall conflict, Kahn lost, so Quan Chi shouldn't have any of them. If it's the victor of individual combats, we can assume all souls claimed by Sindel were won for Kahn by proxy, but I don't see why Quan Chi should have claim to Nightwolf in that scenario, as he sacrificed himself to stop Sindel. Or Kung Lao if you ask me, because he was murdered outside combat.

If the souls were automatically awarded to Quan Chi through some sort of magical contract, some of them should be exempt.

If they were simply stolen at the time of death and given to Quan Chi, he has no real claim to them in the first place, and I don't see why Raiden (or even the Elder Gods) wouldn't step in. Nor how he got them in the first place, as neither Kahn nor Quan was present at the time most of these characters died.

Furthermore, why the hell doesn't Quan Chi have Motaro's soul? (Oh right, because we don't care about him and we're supposed to forget he existed...)

John Vogel replied to a tweet about Motaro not appearing in the NetherRealm with the others and said 'Just because you die doesn't mean you go to the NetherRealm'

Made a thread called 'Where is Shang Tsung?' That featured that tweet...

The coma idea is cool maybe that will make him go neutral. Oh the possibilities that could happen when he wakes up.

What I want to know is why it still says tigerstyle has zero visits. He's/she's been here for like two weeks. It's driving me nuts!

Oh and uh, to be on topic. It is highly possible that Liu is indeed in Quan's hands if he died. Although I get that Quan is a sorcerer, I hate that a demon can just rips souls from the afterlife like that. He wasn't even around when the others died.

This still irritates me to no end. Basing it off of his entire story, I would have thought Nightwolf is more qualified than...any of the characters who died in the church that would be able to fight off Quan Chi's hold on his soul. He has the most experience of the bunch in a scenario like that.

Although I'm probably digging too deep, and giving him more credit than NRS intended. Since the obvious goal was to just slaughter half of the cast in one fell swoop.

And then bringing about half of them back to life one game later

Highly logical, captain