Mortal Kombat doesn’t discriminate, it even lets patients from mental institutions throw down.
This is the story of a mental patient who calls himself Lord Raiden, claiming to be the protector of Earth and god of thunder. Is this story not ringing any Mortal Kombat bells? Surely you know who the “real” Lord Raiden is. If not, then you’re in for a real treat.
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When I saw who this next episode focused on I wasn’t terribly thrilled to watch it. I’m not the biggest Raiden fan out there. I don’t necessarily hate him, I just… kind of dislike him. He’s a pain in the ass to fight in the games with his telepathy and ability to fly across the screen at high speeds, screaming… whatever it is he screams as he slams you into a wall. I’m also terrible at using him — I’m more of a yellow ninja fan — so when I had to play with him in the latest game’s story mode I wasn’t pleased. There’s also the fact that for someone so powerful, every time he’s in the story or movie or whatnot he just… leaves it to the humans and spouts out advice of, “Have faith in yourselves,” and… that’s it.
So yeah, not a huge Raiden fan… until now.
How does this series keep making me like characters who I normal avoid? First Johnny Cage and now Raiden. Oddly enough, the episode starts with a message from the creator stating that this is a different take on the Mortal Kombat universe. At first I thought, “Isn’t this whole series a different take on the universe,” and then I realized… no, it really isn’t. Sonya, Jax, and Kano all had the same characteristics, Johnny Cage is still trying to prove himself as a martial artist, and Kitana’s home is still destroyed. So it has been pretty accurate… until Raiden showed up.
This episode feels like that awesome teaser trailer we got of Mortal Kombat in our time: psycho doctor Baraka, ex-convict Scorpion, and so on. Now I know a lot of fans complained because the original, outwordly lore wasn’t there, but I for one thought that the trailer was amazing. It was a fresh new take on a franchise that desperately needed something. The biggest game at the time was MK vs DC and the last movie was a disgrace. The fact that all of the characters in the trailer fit in our world — particularly Reptile, what the hell?! — I couldn’t help but feel anxious to see this different take on Mortal Kombat.
This particular “different take” does not disappoint.
We see Raiden in a straight jacket, being interviewed by a man who we can assume is a doctor. It turns out that the thunder god crash landed on Earth, only he landed at a mental institution. Seeing a strange man in all white who proceeds to beat up on the staff sets off all kinds of red alerts, so Raiden is sedated and locked away. Countless times he tries to explain that he needs to make it to the Mortal Kombat tournament, that he is the protector of Earth, and that he’s the god of thunder. Needless to say the doctors think he’s crazy and continue to sedate him… over and over again. When that doesn’t work they decide to lobotomize him to try and “cure” him, but nothing works, Raiden still insists that he’s the god of thunder.
Meanwhile, Raiden befriends one of the patients and convinces her to help him out. After attacking the guards — and watching the idiots try to use taser guns on him because electricity only makes Raiden happier — they finally manage to knock him out… but their keys are out and ready for the taking. The young woman sneaks into the room where Raiden is being kept after another lobotomy treatment. I’m not sure how this works, but she stabs him with something and he explodes into a burst of electricity and blue blood. Um… yay? He teleports to another location and after taking that trademark hat he has off of a man and putting it on his own head he sets off on his quest.
In Summary:
I really like the way this episode was done. This is the kind of stuff I expected from the Mortal Kombat web series. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the canon story of Mortal Kombat, but when I saw that first teaser trailer with the different style I wanted more of it. Yes, it was going in a different direction of the canon, but it was really cool. The war-torn Earthrealm, the desperation of the police force, I thought it was gritty and cool. The series so far hasn’t really been too different from the canon, but there would be small differences that were interesting: Kano losing his eye thanks to Jax, Johnny Cage falling from fame, these are the parts I really enjoyed because frankly… I know the canon story. I’ve been into Mortal Kombat since it first came out so I’ve been told the story. And yes, this is the most violent Mortal Kombat has been, but I needed something more than that.
This episode did it for me.
Now we all know that Raiden pretty much finds the Earthrealm warriors fairly quickly and the biggest problem he has is building their confidence. In this episode, Raiden had his own crap to deal with. In Mortal Kombat we’re told that Raiden is bad ass, he’s the god of thunder and that’s that. But why is he so bad ass? He uses lightning, it’s cool, but why are we supposed to hail him? Hell, if you’ve been playing the games for a while you see Nightwolf and Rain using lightning, so… why is Raiden the one we’re supposed to revere? Well this episode shows that Raiden is a force to be reckoned with. He kicks ass without using his powers (I’m guessing he didn’t want to kill any humans) and is a pretty rough character.
As for the whole mental institute story… I thought it fit perfectly. Think about it. If some guy crash landed in our world proclaiming to be some god… is anyone going to believe him? This isn’t like the comic books, movies, or video games. 9 times out of 10 in our day and age we’re not going to hail this guy like what happened with Superman and other heroes. People are skeptical, and people freak out over things they don’t understand. Honestly, the only thing missing from this episode was a news crew trying to discover the secrets behind the crazy man who thinks he can control lightning.
The only gripe I have about this episode is the blue blood. Well it is a better alternative than the on again, off again animation. The rating also dropped to TV-14, though if that’s the sacrifice that has to be made to produce such great episodes then I’m fine with it. More of this harsh, real Mortal Kombat please!
Grade: A