u/BuckBreakingFilm

Explain

Obviously he can’t be Lorne as he is in prison for life, and fans won’t be able to continuously troll and prank him for content

BUT

This the amount of people posting about him left and right kinda reminds me of the LORNE OBSESSION.

I mean WHAT IS IT?

Is it a compulsion?

Help me out

I SAY JIDION 🤣 🤣 🤣

That’s his arch nemesis

The FINAL boss of To Catch a Predator 🎊

Such a fitting final boss 😌 wouldn’t have it any other way

In the end, he KINDA got the last laugh over Chris too 🤣

Anyone else ever get this impression?

I’ve felt this way since I was a kid watching Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and even though that movie obviously isn’t canon, the same basic feeling carried over into the games for me.

Whenever Raiden and Shao Kahn clash, it feels like Shao Kahn is genuinely trying to destroy Raiden, while Raiden is almost always fighting with one hand tied behind his back.

And no, I’m not talking about the whole “rock-paper-scissors” interpretation where:

Liu Kang > Shao Kahn

Shao Kahn > Raiden

Raiden > Liu Kang

I mean purely from how these characters are portrayed.

It has always seemed to me like if Raiden were somehow allowed to completely cut loose, with no Elder Gods, no rules, no restrictions on interfering with mortals, etc., he could probably beat Shao Kahn pretty comfortably.

The problem is that Raiden almost NEVER seems willing or able to do that.

It’s like there’s some cosmic line he’s terrified to cross, whereas Shao Kahn is constantly looking for loopholes in the rules and pushing things as far as he possibly can.

What’s interesting is that I think something similar happens with Shao Kahn vs. Liu Kang, except for a completely different reason.

I don’t think Shao Kahn historically held back against Liu Kang because of rules. I think he held back because he genuinely didn’t respect Liu Kang as a threat.

If Liu Kang is canonically the warrior defeating him during the arcade-era events, Shao Kahn’s behavior actually fits that pretty well.

Think about how much Kahn taunts the player during those games.

Obviously, in OUR universe, that’s the arcade machine talking shit to get another quarter out of you 😂

But in-universe?

Those taunts make Shao Kahn seem ridiculously arrogant and dismissive of whoever is challenging him, presumably Liu Kang in the canonical version of events.

He doesn’t come across like someone thinking, “I need to use every ounce of power I have or this guy might kill me.”

He comes across like:

“This little Earthrealm mortal actually thinks he can beat ME?”

And that arrogance may be exactly why Liu Kang keeps pulling off the upset.

That’s also why MK11: Aftermath stands out to me.

That’s one of the few times where Shao Kahn genuinely seems like he’s DONE playing around. He’s smashing through basically everybody in his path, and once he takes down Kotal and starts reclaiming his position, it feels like we finally see Shao Kahn fighting with the mentality of someone who realizes his throne and his entire status are actually on the line.

So I almost see it as two different kinds of “holding back”:

Raiden holds back because he believes he HAS to.

Shao Kahn holds back because he thinks he DOESN’T have to try.

And when Shao Kahn finally does feel genuinely threatened, like in Aftermath, he becomes a completely different animal.

Anyone else get this sense from the games?

And if so, is there actually a lore explanation for why Raiden always seems so restrained against Shao Kahn, or is it mostly just inconsistent power scaling depending on the game?

And this is coming from a Scorpion main

He’d have like no chance 🤣

Not even trolling

You know

Fake it till you make it 😔

I only ask because this guy on IG who I can’t tell is trying to use false confidence tactics or if this is just some ol’’fashioned “Jester Maxxing”

I genuinely don’t know

What say you?

And do you think either are healthy for our psyche?

Why or why not because I’ve been getting a lot of conflicting information

Facts!!!!

(And as much as I like the MK Legends cartoon movies, I consider them a different category, so no shade against them movies)

On takedown he always says

“We can do this….<pauses> one of two ways”

Like who speaks like that 🤣???

I can’t be the only one who’s noticed