Dark Raiden | Wasted Plotential 

Dark Raiden is so cool. They should make a Light Raiden XD

"Such wasted potential." - Grandmaster Blueberry Ice.

Dark Raiden really said “By the elder gods” and dipped.

I will say though, Dark Raiden's monologue at the end of MKX, is one of my favorite moments of Richard Epcar's voice acting

"There are fates worse than death!"- E V I L Raiden Like being relegated to Costume Realm for both games.

Honestly the biggest offender the fact that a dark Raiden scared Liu Kang and Kitana he literally made The Fearless former protagonist quake in his goddamn boots setting up the idea that Raiden is going to become surprise antagonist instead of Liu Kang the greatest potential and a fucking alley-oop for a storyline and they somehow miss it like Shaq at a free throw line

We deserved to see Raiden invading Outworld with how much they were hyping it up.

I honestly feel like NRS only plans a beginning and ending and then comes up with everything in between when they get to it, instead of actually planning everything.

You have no idea how pissed off I was when they got rid of Dark Raiden. I was in LOVE with the concept. Raiden no longer putting up with anyone's shit, not even the elder gods. I was all like: "Shit just got real AF!"

Dark Raiden could have, at the very least, been the secondary bad in MK11 next to Kronika. They gave no care to him whatsoever.

4th Snake posted Wasted Potential of Dark Raiden!?!? Get the popcorn, this gonna be an instant classic!

That MKX had such a cool ending. I feel like them not doing anything with Dark Raiden in MK11 would be a lot easier to stomach if they didn't give him such a badass introduction as a cliffhanger in MKX.

"I suck, do I? Is that what you think? Listen, buddy, I'm under a lot of stress!" --Raiden (The4thSnake), "Mortal Kombat 2011 - Raiden SUCKS" 2023

When I saw him get dusted in MK11, I said, "Don't bring him back again, guys! You keep bringing him back and do *nothing* with him!"

It feels like they just like the aesthetic of Dark Raiden but don't want to actually commit to doing anything with the concept beyond having an excuse to fight Raiden in the story mode. Reminds me of how I once read someone, I do not recall who, say that it feels like Ed Boon just cares for the look of a yellow ninja with a certain power set named Scorpion, he does not actually care who's in the outfit, using the powers, and what their character actually is. Also with all this multiverse stuff I think it'd be interesting to see a Raiden that started out dark, they were created that way, perhaps by a Titan Shang Tsung or one of the other villains, but somehow ended up rebelling against them and their own naturally dark/evil nature to become good and have to constantly fight against those temptations to fall back into those old habits a lot more than your typical Raiden has to.

I swear, the inclusion and subsequent exclusion of D.R must have been an elaborate joke, imagine hyping up a character for like, 3 years only to have them do basically nothing.

He had to go consult the Elder Gods again...

Raiden vs Fujin would be better than Raiden vs Lui Kang as it would serve to show the contrasts better. Fujin is someone who took the time to understand why he must protect mortals, while Dark Raiden is more like MK11 Geras carrying out a mission without a concern for mortals. It actually could lead to fun ideas like maybe he recruits the Cyber Lin Kuei as they are suppose to emotionless and Cold robots like he is when he defends Earth realm.

I do like that the possible inner darkness is having this mortal Raiden train with the Shirai Ryu, I just wish it was Hanzo training him

Kronika really made sure she erase Dark Raiden cause he definitely would have been a problem for her despite her being a Titan.

MK11 should've been Dark Raiden as the main villain with Revenant Liu Kang and Kitana as that timeline's version of the Deadly Alliance. Or maybe even Revenant Liu Kang and Dark Raiden as the new Deadly Alliance. Making a new Deadly Alliance with corrupted heroes is a neat twist.

Imagine what we could've had: Raiden threatning Kotal Kahn. Raiden going too far with his plans and making the heroes rebel against him. Raiden vs Raiden. This way Dark Raiden would see the error of his ways, and Good Raiden would see what he could've become if he wasn't careful. And so much more.

Surprised he didn't mention Kidd Thunder is also one of the good Raidens that helps against M1K Invasion Dark Raiden

Dark Raiden should've been more important in mk11 and honestly, a boss fight due to him being corrupted.

Imagine saying no to Dark Raiden vs Revenant Liu Kang and going with more played out time travel/multiverse fuckshit.

I remember what you said in in your MK 2011 review, that Dark Raiden is a combination of Raiden's MK1 personality and his role as Earthrealm's protector from MK2 onwards.

Dark Raiden is always wasted because Netherrealm always resets the timeline!

Dark raiden is such a wasted concept that could’ve been really awesome and tons of fun to explore in my opinion.

he is one of my favorite redesigns of a character and was a believable progression. I freaking love his Deception ending. Thanks for bringing that up and the what if? MK7 was a very interesting plot

Imagine having the perfect character to be their main villain just to fumble this hard

MK11 was my first proper way into MK. I watched your videos and history behind the worry to get caught up. That chilling line: “there are fates worse than death” was so cool. I’d hoped that, when I played the intro Dark raiden would be a big focus… When the story dlc was announced, I was hoping for his return in that… also didn’t happen. In the end, he has an awesome design, awesome one-liners, yet no substance given by the writers. Like he’s there for shock value and not much else.

It's amazing how even the main characters of Mortal Kombat are wasted

The part about external factor being the reason for Dark Raiden. I wholeheartedly agree with. It should be a choice he made due to being frustrated with how people kept fucking up no matter how hard he tried. Because of Bi-Han’s gullibility, Bi-Han helped free Shinnok. Because of Shujinko’s gullibility, the One Being was almost freed. Because of Hanzo’s idiocy, the realms were almost taken by Shinnok. All of this would make someone pissed but they keep going for ‘he’s corrupted’ when in this case, it being his choice would be the best narrative decision in my opinion.

Dark Raiden is trapped in this perpetual cycle of death and rebirth where there's glimmers of potential narrative goodness but he gets deleted before anything really kicks off. It is a bit frustrating.

While most other MK topics that are considered to be missed opportunities or poorly handled by some are up to debate (usage of 3D Era characters, the Kombat Kids, MK9's Sindel massacre scene, etc.), Dark Raiden is perhaps the one character near-unanimously agreed upon to be wasted potential.

10:32 I just noticed that dwarf Raiden lol

Honestly I think it’s cool to have Dark Raiden as the main villain because I would like to see the defender of earthrealm & mentor to be dark & take things into his own measures, like it’s so interesting if you ask me having Liu Kang defeat his father figure without being a revenant or use to lose trust in Raiden like in the original timeline would be a cool dynamic fight. I want Dark Raiden to be more of a ruthless god who is willing to protect earthrealm even means to destroy other realms. That right there is dark and show that Dark Raiden isn’t fucking around with threats against earthrealm he would be a cool antagonist to the heroes who sees his methods inhuman & rebel against him, they should try to reason with him to stop because this isn’t who he is but he doesn’t listen and do his own thing. I hope Legends make Dark Raiden as the main villain if they were to make another Legends animated movie.

Dark Raiden's abrupt disappearance in MK11's story felt like the writers giving their biggest middle fingers before the much more infamous Sindel retcon.

This was my favorite Invasions season ngl. I was hesitant over seeing Young Mortal Raiden as Dark Raiden but heck even some of the unlockable skins along the way showed the design works as even normal God Raiden with a few adjustments (mainly the glowing eyes). Your observations and assumptions/theories on how a Young Raiden could've become Dark Raiden are very interesting and not something I considered, especially the fact Fire God Liu Kang was there, really makes you think how many other universes there are with Lord Liu's haha. Great and inspiring content as usual! Much love!

Dark Raiden is one of many victims of Netherrealm throwing out the plot they establish at the end of the previous MK and just doing something completely different. "Oh, Shinnok had Quan-Chi manipulate the original Trilogy in 9 to give Shinnok the edge to win in MK4? Just have Johnny Cage beat Shinnok in Chapter 1!" "Dark Raiden preparing to attack the Netherrealm in all-out war at the end of MKX? Nope, he disappears at the end of Chapter 1 of MK11!" "Liu Kang becomes a god and recruits the Great Kung Lao for Mortal Kombat? Completely skipped what happened next in M1K in favor of Multiverse stuff."

4:11 I still don’t understand why Dark Raiden ceased to exist when the time warp happened. If time affects him differently due to his godhood, how was Kronika ever able to bring the past Raiden back?? Poor writing has always plagued MK 😖

All the revenants are wasted. They don't realise that evil versions of former heroes are still the same characters just with corrupted minds & hearts, the recent games made them generic goons with nothing to distinguish them apart

I'm going to repeat a comment I made on Reddit talking about Evil Raiden: I honestly hope they utilize and evil Raiden further down Liu Kang's timeline. Say, in MK2, Kung Lao and Raiden's sister both die tragically in a way Liu Kang could have stopped, and Raiden ragefully calls out Liu for it. Over and over again in the story, Raiden's generosity is met with violence, and by the end, he's had enough of Liu's and the other realm's bullshit. Completely changed from the sweet, humble farm man to a broken, sad, wrathful man who has had enough of Liu Kang's excuses. It would be an epicly tragic final battle, where Raiden wins. Then, MK3 would be about evil Raiden taking over Earthrealm to "protect" it, and having a chokehold on the hourglass, so no more timelines may interfere. Sort of like Injustice Superman, but unlike him, it doesn't bother Raiden one bit that the people of Earthream hate him and his "protection". A severely weakened Liu Kang creates a resistance of both allies and enemies to stop Raiden, and perhaps, bring him back to the light.

Despite LKang being the MK Earthrrealm champion... Raiden is the True Protagonist of the Story seen as he has to assemble the forces of Light to protect earthrealm in most installments and its the one direct opposition to SKang and Shinnok since the beginning of time.... Having said that, since the NRS era the use of dark Raiden is sooo Mediocre... they never commit to the idea of making him the true enemy or even let him be a chaotic neutral (or even C.Good) character... The definition of Waste

Dark Raiden is so cool... But, they never done good anything about it. To be honest I was so hyped about Raiden about being MK11's boss, not to mention that when I saw Shao kahn in pre-order I was certain that he revived Zombified Shao-Kahn to conquer the realms for himself. I don't usually say this but, imagine a world Shao-Kahn and Raiden in Alliance. Brutal and metal as hell.

I think dark raiden is cooler, when he was just a raiden who cares more about earthrealm than the people who live on it. And not like corrupted by shinnok amulet

Can't wait for the Deception retrospective. Loved the DA one

For MK11, I thought that Dark Raiden would be the Dragon to Kronika in trying to restore the MK world to status quo with a Liu Kang being his good rival to flip what was set up in MK9 with the premise being "you can't hang on to nostalgia"... ...then I found out the Writers' process was "pitch and reject" for 12 people who, more or less, doesn't care for consistency 😒

I don’t even need to watch the video to know I agree with this

Speaking about wasted potential MK Armageddon's Smoke I think that is the best concept, design, set of powers and even voice acting Smoke ever had it is just such a cool mean asshole design, he literally makes the opponent cough cause a cloud of smoke he spawns, that is just so mean spirited of him. And the design he haves is a mixture of his smoke, ninja and cyborg self, that is just so cool and original

I always assumed Dark Raiden was a result of: even though he sacrificed himself with the greater good in mind, the act of "Hara Kiri" is enough to taint your soul. Though that may simply be a very catholic reading of the events.

It feels like I'm never going to get around to actually writing this, but I've been conceptualizing a MK universe for a while. It sort of is a synthesis of the Midway and NRS V1 timeline with some new era stuff. In the universe, I wanted Dark Raiden to be a big deal in the Armageddon portion, trying to use the power of Blaze to do as you described in the video, destroy all of the realms besides Earthrealm. On the other hand is zombie/undead Liu Kang. Liu Kang starts off mind controlled around the end of the Deadly Alliance portion, but gains autonomy later on in that Deception. His autonomy leads him down a slightly darker path. His jadedness leads him to realize how this universe is beyond saving by conventional means. He remembers his days as MK's champion/savior, and decides to take it back in a slightly twisted way. He wants to rule over the realms like a tyrant and make them bend to his will. He will use the power of blaze to merge the realms, consolidating them to one territory for rule. He chooses to merge them instead of destroy them because he has friends on both sides. This conflict of interest leads to the two of them being the last two on the tower, fighting for the fate of the MK universe.

I get the feeling that Mortal Kombat 11 was original gonna have every character fight or turning on Raiden after realizing his ideals are going to far with Sonya's death, but scrapped it after the executives wanted new vision for the series, who knows that's just me.

Im so glad Im not the only one who feels this way. He was suched a waste. They did him no justice.

Part of me wants MK1 Raiden to reject turning into Dark Raiden at somepoint. It will emphasize how Liu Kang isn't Kronika wanting a fight with Raiden and how everyone has a choice in his timeline.

When I think of an angle to pursue with Dark Raiden. Oddly enough it brings Bloody Roar to mind. Shenlong and Long Shin, specifically. Clone characters. One good, one evil. Characterisation (and eventually moveset differences) define the two. If they stick with human M1K Raiden. There is no reason, _because multiverse,_ you can't have Dark Raiden too. Give the latter the characterisation of (the forgotten) MK1 Raiden and that's all it would take to define each.

Trying to unlock dark raiden right now for my own donut steel timeline! You're an inspiration 4th Snake!

Turning the MK series into Kombat on Infinite Realms has created a situation where there are no stakes worth investing in. The story is nothing but mindless fluff to sell the next batch of toy action figures. That's the real wasted potential.

I like the idea of Dark Raiden because all throughout MK it makes sense that he would eventually just be done will dealing with everyone else's shit. If you had to deal with the horrors of Outrealm and Netherrealm and they have the audacity to ever criticize you or your subjects you'd snap too. Hurdur guns are a cowards' weapon STFU you work with cannibals. Team Dark Raiden all the way.

I'm legit curious why MK always get cold feet with Dark Raiden especially when their the ones who put him in. Like why hype him up at the end of MKX only to make him vanish in MK11. The concept is actually a really interesting one as its basically Raiden going to the extreme to protect earthrealm and his former allies for years trying to stop him. Theres a lot of as this video says plotential. Also you shouldn't expect to much from NRS MK at this point since they just keep fumbling stuff as MK1 still has huge problems when it comes to the story.

Dark Raiden would have been so cool!! Imagine an Earthrealm vs Outworld Mortal Kombat tournament led by Dark Raiden and Kotal Khan (or even a Dark Lord Kotal Khan). An epic premise for MK11.

I was always annoyed with how just about everybody saw the darker themed costume and assumed Raiden had turned into an 'axe murderer.' Although, if he was a little bit more like an axe murderer in the choices he made over the years, that might have made the Dark Raiden premise a lot more interesting. It would have made this current redemption arc far more clear too. - They didn't use the whole "Raiden practiced Dark Arts to resurrect Liu Kang...but ended up with Zombie Liu Kang" plot very well either. Because they gave that slam dunk to Quan Chi for all of the revenant stuff. Dark Raiden should have been in clear violation of a lot more of his 'normal' boundaries as the protector or EarthRealm than we actually got. Just imagine if everyone who died, he used them like Quan Chi did, but instead there's all these Zombies running around 'protecting' Earth. Yea... "Wasted Potential" is a fact.

Maybe someday we'll get a Dark Raiden with a compelling story and plot relevance, I just feel it won't be any time soon.

I remember that the Mugen community made another Dark Raiden named "The Avenger" wich is Raiden with shadow powers and the Hammer of shao. Really cool

Plotential?

Needed this video !

Dark Raiden threating revenant team to destroy them if they attack Earthrealm to after that just go "fck that, I don't care" and attack them instead is such a boss move. No wonder even Shao is worried. DR just him with even less sugarcoating.

Dark Raiden in the MK9 timeline was incredible. They teased him in MKX, and in the very next game he basically is just erased from existence. Absolutely sensational.

They could learn from darkwargreymon the digimon and have him be this surprisingly rather deep character

can't wait for Dark Liu Kang.

They could've had an epic moment in MK11 with Dark Raiden trying to convince Past Raiden to kill Shao Kahn and prevent the deaths of Liu Kang and Kung Lao. We already had Johnny, Jax, and Sonya reacting to their future selves, so why not have Raiden react to how cold and merciless his future self became thanks to Shinnok's corruption? Maybe "the lie" that Shinnok mentioned in the MK11 opening is that the gods should guide and work through mortals instead of taking matters into their own hands... so Dark Raiden shatters the Amulet from MK9 (instead of having it "disappear during the time merger") and convinces Past Raiden to break the rules of Mortal Kombat and MURDER Shao Kahn. After all, the Elder Gods are perfectly willing to let Shao Kahn massacre millions of Earthrealmers until he merges Earthrealm and ignore the threats of Shinnok and Kronika... isn't self-sacrifice preferable to letting evil win even a partial victory?

I really hoped that dark Raiden was the final boss in mk11.

It's a terrible shame how pivotal Raiden has always been to the series... and yet no one has ever given him the time of day. Doubly so for him becoming a more violent, tainted version of himself. Even retouching it in the new timeline has made it have even less worth and even less impact because the answer is "he just is ok".

Something that bother me about Dark Raiden is how his corruption always seems to come from outside forces instead of coming from the character decisions and development. After everything he went through in both timelines, it would be very understanble Raiden becoming more darker and obsess in wanting to protect Earthrealm at all cost.

Dark Raiden's tease at the end of mk10 and then immediately getting Dusted in MK11 is one of the biggest Mistakes of the Netherrealm era. Their overuse of Timetravel has really limited any emphasis on being invested in the Plottings of whatever happens in this timeline because someone can just go and reset it again. Especially when MK9 had a powerful moment that they could've built off of with Raiden killing Liu Kang and that leading to either Raiden using Liu Kangs Body as a weapon or have Liu Kang come back for vengeance.

NRS Writer #1: “Should we finally do something with this Dark Raiden storyline?” NRS Writer #2: “I don’t know, there’s all of this build up and anticipation for that plot…oh, what if we just make Mileena a good guy?!” NRS Writer #1: “That makes no sense, let’s go with that instead! Multiverse powers….ACTIVATE!”

Just imagine that: Raiden defeats Kotal and the later sets Mortal Kombat tournament Special Forces refuses to join Raiden and he collects warriors for his army Kotal, Bo Rai Cho, Shang Tsung and Lui Kang form an alliance to find an artifact, which can kill even an Elder God. Special Forces also tries to find it only to fight Raiden’s subordinates and Deadly Alliance. Fujin tells them about the lost crystal, which can turn god into a mortal, and Forces finds it in hands of Raptors Reptile found in his MKX ending. This race results a global fight for the artefact, but someone steals it. Final Battle against furious Raiden with all his divine might awaits. That will be WAY more better than MK11…

Hell, they could have at least USED him in the MK11 plot to be the reason Kronika has to come out of the shadows, rather than just having her make all these stupid decisions like doubling her opposition or announcing her plot to the heroes unprompted. Have raiden constantly being plagued by visions of Armageddon: We already know that Raiden's response to failing to prevent armageddon is to send a message back to his past self, (The sore loser). Have Raiden go to Kronika to seek help with his time-related issues, only for her to try to turn him away. Raiden refuses to take no for an answer and tries to seize control of the hourglass for himself, so Kronika and Raiden fight. The hourglass is cracked during the fight, causing the merger of the two timelines as demanded by plot, and Kronika in her rage erases present timeline raiden from existence (Rather than making his elimination a side-effect of the merger). This inciting incident does two things for us: It gives Kronika a reason to become an active villain other than "She's mad that Shinnok lost so much weight" as now she needs to repair the hourglass (Which will likely require a macguffin from the world), and it gives the heroes a reason to suspect something is up: Present Raiden's disappearance is *strange and concerning* to the heroes rather than just "A thing that happens when timelines merge", so now they have a reason to investigate what could have happened... Now our heroes can actually *figure out the plot for themselves* rather than having Kronika inexplicably drop by to explain it all while twirling her mustache.

Cold you do a video on Aqua? I'm still confused if he was ever fake or an unused character.

Bro just needs a kapacitor , then his plotential won't be wasted

Oh. This was really good.

Tell me if I'm wrong but dark raiden shouldn't be a possible timeline in mk 1. This is because the multiple timelines were created at the final fighting 11 but Raiden technically wasn't living and couldn't fight as he was in liu kang.

Been waiting for this one. I've been saying for so long that NRS isn't hitting the mark with Dark Raiden at all. They genuinely should have kept him as the big bad for MK11

I will never forgive NRS for botching the hype created by the MKX ending. Getting rid of Dark Raiden in MK11 was the beginning of the end of my MK fandom.

I really hope they don't put multiverse in the next game

11:23 perfectly said as always ❤💯

Oh my god, they might actually pull off a GOOD Dark Raiden Story in the following story set-up for Mortal Kombat 2. Just imagine Raiden not believing in himself, wanting to protect Kitana and so on is what causes him to becoming Dark Raiden. No Jinsei Corruption, not Shinnok's Medallion and no destructive death needed, just a lack of belief in himself and lull to darker powers for the greater good. Like the Dark Raiden that we only HEARD OF in-between the events of MKX and MK11 (though we did see a little bit of him in MK11).

Dark Raiden is just less threatening because of mk11😢 otherwise he would be my fav character

Couldn't you argue that Raiden making Liu Kang protector of Earthrealm is a culmination of all the Dark Raiden stuff?

It's my headcanon that Raiden's "Deception" ending canonicity would have depended on fan reception of Shujinko. Basically, if he's received well it's not canon. If he isn't - than it is. It's crazy to think that, even though I like "Armageddon", I now kinda wish that it never happened and series instead continued with ideas from "Deadly Alliance" and "Deception". So much wasted potential.

Finally, some quality content 😂

Dark Raiden need not even have been the antagonist. Most of the series hes been the defender of earthrealm and constantly consulting elder gods that range from apathetic. When he said to the other realms fuck around and find out. That should have been the raiden moving forward. Offensive. Ruthless but primarily conserned with earthrealms safety

I'm sorry, don't take this the wrong way, but when you started talking about your ideas for MK11 Dark Raiden and beyond, my brain almost tapped out. There's just so much info to remember, holy crap.

As always, it astounds me how a dude on RU-vid is coming up with superior concepts and ideas than the so-called “professionals” at NRS.

Hope theres a conquest mode for each character or another Shaolin Monks type deal for the next MK🙏🔥🍿

Kid Thunder also helped in defeating Dark Raiden just thought I’d add that since he’s there in the cut scene

I wonder if Netherrealms was forced to change the story because of WB

The thing is dark raiden doesn’t even have to be evil

One thing that sucked about the original timeline raiden when he went dark was that his lightning was still blue which didn’t work should have been red

Random but I'd love to see him team up with the Crime Syndicate