Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

Raiden (Japanese: 雷電) is the overarching protagonist of the franchise.
He was portrayed by Carlos Pesina from Mortal Kombat to Deadly Alliance, with Ed Boon and the late Allan Stagg voicing him in MK 4 and Deadly Alliance respectively. Michael Garvey played him in MK Mythologies: Sub Zero, and Dan Bakkedahl in Shaolin Monks. Raiden has been voiced by Richard Epcar from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe to Mortal Kombat 11, and Travis Willingham in Mortal Kombat: Onslaught. His New Era self is voiced by Vincent Rodriguez III in Mortal Kombat 1.
==Biography==
===Original Timeline===
===Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe===
After a version of Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Khan attempted to escape in a portal, Raiden lasted him with lightning, causing him to fuse with Darkseid and become Dark Kahn. As the merger went on, the thunder god gathered the warriors of the Mortal Kombat universe and acted as their leader. When they ventured into the fusion of Outworld and Apokolips, Raiden initially fought against Superman when he went to confront Dark Kahn. But when they realized that they shouldn’t be fighting each other, the thunder god and the Man of Steel teamed up to defeat Dark Kahn. The merger was stopped and after finding Darkseid had been brought to the Mortal Kombat universe, Raiden imprisoned him in the Netherrealm.
In his ending, exposure to the sun weakened him greatly, reducing him to the level of a mortal. Quan Chi offered him a strange amulet made of green stone (Kryptonite) that would restore his powers, but only if the thunder god swore to serve him. Raiden was left to decide between serving Quan Chi or mortality.
===Second Timeline===
===New Era===
===Mortal Kombat: Onslaught===
In the distant past, Raiden and Fujin aided the Elder Gods in battling Shinnok, leading to the fallen Elder God's banishment. In the ages that followed, Raiden acted as protector of Earthrealm, facing threats such as Shao Kahn. 
TBA
==Appearance==
Although being formless and eternal, Raiden often takes human form on mortal planes. As such, he appears as a fully-grown man wearing predominately white robes and a blue vest, his face usually shadowed by a straw hat. The effect is enhanced by his glowing blue eyes that radiate with electricity and long white hair, befitting of his god-like status. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, one of his outfits is finished by a flowing blue cape. Lastly, his power is so great that he constantly radiates with lightning energy, electricity constantly dancing and crackling around his being.
In Deception and Armageddon, his visage is warped by Onaga's malevolent aura when he sacrifices himself, reforming as a dark warrior dressed in black robes and dark armor, his eyes changed from a soothing blue to a belligerent red. His cape was changed to a subdued red and appears tattered at the end. Due to the events of Mortal Kombat (2011), this change was rendered null. However, he seems to return to this form in the post-credits scene of Mortal Kombat X, though now he wears Shinnok's Amulet.
His New Era self is a young Asian man with dark hair and brown eyes, but retains his white and blue color pallette and straw conical hat. Raiden's eyes only glow blue when he is using his lightning powers. 
==Personality==
Raiden's godhood and duty to protect Earthrealm makes him a somewhat cold individual as he refuses to get close to humans, something him and his brother disagree on. He is very dedicated to protecting Earthrealm and will do whatever it takes (even trying to literally make a deal with the devil) to ensure it's safety. In Deadly Alliance, Raiden was the only Elder God who tried to intervene, eventually abandoning his position. Raiden serves as a mentor to many kombatants mainly due to his wisdom and hopeful outlook. Him never giving up on the Elder Gods was the main reason he stopped Shao Kahn in Mk9 and he put immense faith in Liu Kang to reshape the timeline for the better in Mk11. Despite his best efforts to keep a dutiful life of protecting Earthrealm he ended up forming actual bonds with the humans, seeing Kung Lao and Liu Kang as his sons, forming strong friendships with Nightwolf and Bo' Rai Cho and offering great wisdom and inspiration to the other Earthrealmers.
One of Raiden's most notable flaws to his rage, which is motivated by his care for Earthrealmers. He was ready to kill Shao Kahn after his murder of Kung Lao and becomes a far more anti-heroic in MKX with corruption of the Jinsei temple, turning him into Dark Raiden, a more wrathful angry side of Raiden that will eliminate all threats to Earthrealm without a second thought. 
==Powers and Abilities==
===Powers===
*Divine Empowerment/Godly Physiology: Raiden originates from the Heavens and the Elder Gods granted him power to become the Eternal God of Thunder and Electricity. He has a bunch of incredible abilities.
**Superhuman Strength: Raiden possesses incredible strength that he has used to catch a falling plane effortlessly and smash Motaro through a concrete bridge with ease.
**Superhuman Speed: Raiden has immeasurable speed who is able to face the One Being in a timeless void and can defeat Kabal, Scorpion, and other beings with incredible speed.
***Superhuman Agility
***Superhuman Reflexes
**Flight: As a demigod, he has the ability to fly.
**Superhuman Stamina: Being a god, Raiden has unlimited stamina.
***Self-Sustenance: Raiden doesn't need to eat or drink to survive.
**Superhuman Durability: Raiden is able to resist bullets from being fired at him. He was fine after Erron Black shot him. Raiden has also been beaten up by a victorious Shao Kahn during the end of the Battle of Armageddon.
***Superhuman Endurance:
**Superhuman Senses: Raiden is able to sense the presence of beings who are using stealth and approaching him.
***Cosmic Awareness: Raiden can even sense Kronika
***Universal Awareness: Raiden can sense the presence of others in different realms.
**Regenerative Healing Factor: Raiden can heal very quickly when being injured.
**Time Manipulation Resistance: Kronika's ability to stop and rewind time has no effect on Raiden.
**Magic Lightning: Raiden can use his magic lightning to damage his opponents and can kill them as well. He can also use it to control his opponents movements.
***Lightning Shields: Raiden can use his lightning to create deflective shields to protect himself from attacks like Shang Tsung's sorcery.
***Counterattack Amplification: Raiden can take the attacks of his opponents amplified attacks by using his lightning and can direct the attacks back at the opponent. As Liu Kang was about to punch him with a flaming fist, Raiden redirected it back at him and accidently fried him alive.
***Weapon Creation: Raiden can create blades of lightning to cut off an Elder God's head while in their physical form and can slice through opponents, disintegrating them.
***Telekinesis: Raiden is able to use his lightning to levitate and freeze his opponents. 
***Projections: Raiden can make projections of where people currently are.
***Healing Ability: Raiden can use his lightning to heal the injure.
***Jinsei Connection: Raiden can tap into Earthrealm's lifeforce, the Jinsei, to gain immense power. He also informed that Liu Kang can do the same thing when Raiden was fused with him.
***Necromancy: Raiden can bring people back from death as what he did to Johnny Cage.
***Petrification: In Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, Raiden can cast a spell that can turn his enemies into stone.
***Portal Creation: Raiden can create portals between universes and remove enemies and allies from a battle.
***Weather Manipulation: Raiden is able to make powerful storms like creating tornados and gales at a moment's notice.
***Light Manipulation: Raiden is able to conjure up a blinding white light from his eyes.
***Power Nullification/Absorption: Raiden can absorb the magical power of others nullifying the effects and can steal back Jinsei that was stolen. 
***Cosmic Barriers: In the comics, Raiden can create cosmic barriers which contain, protect, and block entire realms.
***Essence Blast: Raiden is capable of putting forth his godly essence to sacrifice himself in a blast that destroyed Shang Tsung's palace in the beginning of Deadly Alliance.
**Foresight: Raiden can have visions for what's going to happen in the future.
**Teleportation: Raiden has the ability to teleport and anyone else with him. He also uses teleportation in combat to fake opponents by teleportation behind them and can use it to teleport objects from anyone's hands. He can also teleport his essence into the bodies of others which makes them explode due to them can't hold godly essence.
**immortality: Being a god, Raiden is immortal, and has been the protector of Earthrealm since the beginning.
===Abilities===
*Master Martial Artist: Whether a god or mortal, Raiden had a millennium of experience in martial arts which makes him one of the best martial artists in the universe. Raiden knows 750 forms of Jujutsu and three other martial arts. He is well versed in the art of Bojutsu as well.
**Nan Chuan
**Jujutsu
**Judo
**Tae Kwan Do
**Bojutsu
*Master Acrobat: Raiden is also a very skilled acrobat no matter if he is a god or human. He can perform flips as well.
*Weapon Mastery: Raiden has expertise in using the Bo staff in combat when using Bojutsu.
*Advanced Intelligence: Raiden is very intelligent that he has knowledge of other warriors across the realms and can advise his champions if they have never fought a certain fighter before.
**Master Tactician and Stratagist: Raiden is excellent at forming strategies in order to deal with serious threats. He had instructed Liu Kang and Kung Lao to help save their Shaolin Masters and has been capable of turning Kitana and Jade away from Shao Kahn to help them. 
*Indomitable Will: Raiden possesses immense willpower that even if he faces losses, he will not give up compassion. 
Raiden is extremely powerful, being a god of thunder and can use lightning as his weapon, able to fire it as concentrated blasts or torrents. He can also fly and one of his attacks is to fly at his opponent and drive them into walls. Raiden can also become ethereal, allowing him to teleport and possesses a lightning staff that he can use to fight with. Despite being a god, he is not invincible and has his limits, though it does not seem as if he can ever be fully killed.
Raiden, like all other gods, loses his powers when he enters a realm that is not native to him, but he will regain them when he leaves. He can also take on a mortal form so as to be allowed to take part in Mortal Kombat tournaments.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*He is the first god to appear in a versus fighting game, as well as the first one to be playable.
*Raiden's popularity as a "thunder god" and fan reaction to him lead to the creation of other god characters, such as Fujin. Despite this, he has remained the most popular god character.
*Raiden is modelled after the character, Lightning, from the 1986 movie, Big Trouble in Little China.
*Raiden's fatality in the SNES port of the original Mortal Kombat, where he used lightning to blow up his opponents head was changed to the lightning turning them to ash, due to Nintendo’s no blood policy at the time.
*In the Super NES version of the original Mortal Kombat, if Raiden performs his fatality on the final opponent in the third endurance match, it will make Goro appear the same gray as the ashes of his opponent.
*He was originally going to wield his staff in Mortal Kombat II, but this was scrapped due to memory constraints.
*Nightwolf's Friendship in MK3 and UMK3 has him transform into Raiden and then an MK2 arcade game drops down with one of two quotes, “Yes But I Can Do a Raiden Transformation” or “I’ve Never Seen a Kano Transformation”. This was gotten rid of in MK Trilogy since Raiden was in it.
*Raiden has been portrayed in the 2D games by Carlos Pesina, but his versus screen image was portrayed by Sal Divita in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
*In the home versions of games from Mortal Kombat 4 onward and the arcade games, his name was spelled “Raiden.” In other home versions, his name was spelled “Rayden,” possibly to because of copyright, since there was a shoot’em up game called Raiden or to avoid confusion between him and Raiden from the Fatal Fury video game series.
*His favorite food is "nuclear buffalo wings" according to his profile in Brady Games' Official MK4 Fighters Companion strategy guide.
*Raiden was originally not going to be in Mortal Kombat Deception, but this was changed after fan complaint. Fujin, who was going to replace him, instead made a cameo in the Dark Prison stage.
*Raiden's fatality from Deception, where he blasted the opponent with lightning but blew himself at the same time, was voted number 5 on Screwattack's list of Top 10 Worst Mortal Kombat Fatalities.
*Raiden's ending in MK vs. DC is a reference to the fact that he is meant to be Superman’s counterpart. The way that he loses strength from the sun and gains strength from kryptonite is the opposite of the Man of Steel.
*Raiden appeared as a secret character in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, NFL Blitz, and NBA Jam: Tournament edition.
*He had two female servants named Wynd and Rayne in the non-canon Malibu Comics three issue miniseries, Rayden and Kano. In another three issue series, he did not take part in the tournament, claiming he was not allowed to.
*In the Kombat Pavilion, Raiden has a set of comics, the weirdest of which is "How Dan Hibiki Became The Defender Of Earthrealm".
*Raiden's Sky Temple Represents the Willis Tower Design in Chicago where he remains.
*While the "main" version of Raiden seen in Injustice 2 is from the events of Mortal Kombat X, another version is clearly from MK vs DC, remembering his alliance with Superman, and battling Dark Kahn. It is implied that Liu Kang and Kitana went onto rule Edenia. In intro dialogues, he is disappointed by how far the Injustice Superman has fallen, and is shocked that his other self's version of Kang and Kitana govern the Netherrealm.
*In DEATH BATTLE, Raiden fought and lost to Thor Odinson.
*In Mortal Kombat 1, one of Raiden's moves involves creating a circle of lightning bolts, as a reference to his mythological inspiration Raijin, who is often depicted as having a circle of drums in the some position.
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