Rayden
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For other meanings of the name Raiden, see Raiden (disambiguation).
Rayden, also written Raiden, is a video game character who appears in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise. He is loosely based on Raiden, the Japanese god of thunder and lightning.
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Biography
Rayden is the God of Thunder and protector of Earthrealm. Being a god, he possesses many supernatural abilities, such as the ability to teleport, control lightning and fly. Furthermore, he is practically immortal. Concerned with Earth's protection as he may be, however, he is also unscrupulous about using mortals for these purposes, and will sacrifice them if he deems this necessary. As a god, he is used to thinking in terms of eternity rather than normal human lifespans, and as such he has a radically different outlook on life. As a friend, he may be fickle, and as a foe, he is a vengeful force of nature.
Fighting styles
In both Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception, Rayden uses the styles nan chuan and jujutsu. His weapon of choice is the staff. In both games, he is considered a mid-tier character.
Game storyline
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When Sub-Zero stole Shinnok's amulet for Quan Chi millions of years later, Rayden appeared to Sub-Zero and told him to enter the Netherealm and steal it back, lest Shinnok free himself. Rayden couldn't go himself, as he would lose all of his powers in the Netherealm. Sometime later, Shang Tsung invited Rayden to participate in Mortal Kombat. He met Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage, whom he mentored during the tournament. His advice gave Liu Kang the edge against Shang Tsung, and he was the only witness to Scorpion's retributive murder of Sub-Zero.
One year later, Rayden found that he had no choice but to accept Shang Tsung's offer of Mortal Kombat in Outworld. With his tremendous powers only dampened in Outworld, Rayden managed to vapourise the Shokan warrior Kintaro in Kombat. After the Earthrealm victory, Rayden had to scramble to protect the Earthrealm warriors' souls when Shao Kahn reached across the realms and reclaimed his resurrected Queen Sindel. After protecting the souls, Rayden wished to fight for Earthrealm, but the Elder Gods informed him that Earthrealm and Outworld were indistinct at that point. Rayden had to give up his godhood in order to fight, and reclaimed his status when Shao Kahn's forces were forced back.
Rayden and his warriors again entered battle when Shinnok escaped the Netherealm. Johnny Cage, who was killed in the previous wars, begged Rayden for the chance to return to Earthrealm from Heavens, and he managed to give Cage that chance. Rayden's warriors forced Shinnok back into the Netherealm, along with Quan Chi, and Rayden earned the status of Elder God. As an Elder God, Rayden could not interfere when Shang Tsung and Quan Chi killed Liu Kang as the Deadly Alliance, so he renounced it and gathered his warriors to stop the Deadly Alliance. This time, his plan proved to be a major disaster. The Earthrealm warriors were all slain. In a desperate measure, he confronted Shang Tsung and Quan Chi in front of the Soulnado, but was defeated.
He returned to his feet when Onaga, the Dragon King, entered the chamber, and stood beside Tsung and Chi as they attacked Onaga. When he saw that their attacks barely slowed Onaga down, Rayden concentrated all of his power into a single explosion. It obliterated the Dragon King's tomb, snuffed out the Soulnado, apparently obliterated the Deadly Alliance and Rayden himself, but did not harm Onaga. Rayden's essences soon gathered again in the Earthrealm where he became angry with the way Earthrealm's inhabitants had treated their own realm. He became even more frustrated when he learned that Shujinko had foolishly unleashed the Dragon King by attaining the Kamidogu of various realms for him. With that, Rayden then decided he was going to punish those who placed Earthrealm in harm's way. As harsh and unkind as it may sound, it served Rayden a discplinary purpose to impose on the ones he was going to protect.
Movie storyline
In the first Mortal Kombat movie, Rayden remains the guiding god of thunder, bent on doing all within his power to help the warriors of earth gain victory. According to the movie, Rayden is forbidden from directly interfering in the tournament of Mortal Kombat. In the second movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Rayden is revealed to be low in the hierarchy of the gods, as he must seek their guidance when the emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn, begins his invasion of Earthrealm.
Rayden is portrayed by Christopher Lambert in the first film and by James Remar in the second. On television, Clancy Brown provided Rayden's voice in the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm and Jeffrey Meek played Rayden in the live-action series Mortal Kombat: Conquest. Neither program ran for more than one season.
Trivia
Rayden's name is spelled Raiden in the arcade iterations of the Mortal Kombat games, and both Deadly Alliance and Deception. On the other home versions, his name is spelled Rayden. This was allegedly because of copyright issues as a shoot 'em up game was named Raiden. The console versions up until Mortal Kombat 4 changed the name to Rayden.
Originally, Rayden was not going to be in Deception, and the opening of MK Deception was going to explain why Rayden would not be in the game. However, this changed after fan complaints, and Rayden remained in the game; the character who would have replaced him, Fujin, now makes only a cameo appearance in the Prison stage.
Is one of the most popular video game characters in Mortal Kombat not only because of his abilities, but also his uniqueness and the mystique that surrounds him.
Because of Rayden's popularity as a "thunder god" and the way fans reacted to him when he made his debut, this popularity was to lead to the creation of other gods such as Fujin (the "wind god"). While they had their own uniqueness, Rayden was still considered to be the most popular of all the gods that Mortal Kombat released.
He also appeared as a secret character in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.