Lord Raiden

Raiden (雷電) is one of the few original characters in the first Mortal Kombat game, and in addition, is the one of the few characters to have appeared in every generation of Mortal Kombat games as a playable character.

About Lord Raiden
Raiden is the eternal God of Thunder, protector of Earthrealm, and arguably one of the most powerful characters in all of Mortal Kombat. After the second defeat of Shinnok, he ascended to the status of Elder God. Being a god, he possesses many supernatural abilities, such as the ability to teleport, control lightning and fly. As a god, he is used to thinking in terms of eternity rather than normal humanlifespans, and so he has a radically different outlook on life. This is not to say he is incapable of understanding human values and psyches.

Appearance
Although being formless and ethereal, Raiden often takes 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.

Bios

 * Mortal Kombat - "Raiden is the God of Thunder and Protector of Earthrealm. Ageless and wise beyond measure, he leads Earthrealm's mortals in the endless battle against the forces of darkness. When Shao Kahn, Emperor of Outworld, threatened to merge his realm with Earthrealm, an overwhelmed Raiden implored the Elder Gods to give Earthrealm a fighting chance. Thus the Mortal Kombat tournament was created. For millennia Shao Kahn has been kept at bay, but nine consecutive losses to Goro have eroded hope that Earthrealm can be saved. Determined to prevent Armageddon, Raiden tirelessly quests to find a champion worthy of Mortal Kombat."

Powers and Abilities
Raiden is the god of thunder and lightning, and as such, he is immensely powerful and has complete control over electricity. He usually keeps behind the scenes in the games and rarely fights, although one notable exception was in Deception, where he fought both Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, and was able to hold his own for most of the fight. Using the element of lightning, Raiden can fire torrents of lightning or concentrated blasts, in addition to being able to form fully fledged thunderstorms as depicted in Deadly Alliance. He also has the ability to fly, which he uses to fling himself at an opponent and shove them into a wall. In Mortal Kombat of the first game, it is shown that he can also use electricity to heal others. He also has the ability to teleport to another destination by transforming his body into an ethereal state. Despite his godly status, he is not indestructible and has limits. Raiden, like any other god, will have his powers taken away should he enter a domain not native to him, with Outworld being the most prominent example of this. His powers can return to him once he returns however. It is also because of his godly status that he is forbidden to directly participate in any Mortal Kombat tournaments unless he takes on a mortal form.

Signature Moves

 * Teleport: At will, Raiden vanishes and reappears behind his opponent. In MK, besides being able to reappear behind the opponent, he can also reappear in front of them, about a jump distance behind them and even fake the teleport, which will trigger the animation but keep him in place. However, doing any version of the teleport besides the classic one (which leaves him right behind the opponent) will slightly deplete the Super Meter.
 * Electricity: Raiden sends a bolt of lightning flying at his opponent.
 * Reverse Electricity: Raiden sends a bolt of lightning in the other direction hitting an opponent from behind. This appears partially as the enhanced version of Lightning.
 * Torpedo: Raiden flies at his opponent and pushes them against the wall.
 * Shocker: Raiden grabs his opponent and electrocutes them.

Secret Technique

 * Electric Slam: Raiden grabs the opponent, zaps them for a while, then flies up in the air with them. A couple seconds later, the opponent falls back down and lands headfirst in the ground.

Other Moves

 * Throw Forward: Raiden punches his opponent several times before electrocuting them. He then teleports behind them and knocks them to the ground with an electrical blast.
 * Throw Backward: Raiden grabs his opponent, applies two shockwaves to their chest followed by a third that sends the opponent flying away.

Fatalities

 * Electrocution I: Raiden grabs his opponent, holds them a few feet off the ground, and sends electricity into their body, which causes them to explode.
 * Explosive Uppercut: Raiden crouches down and sends a vicious electrically-charged uppercut to his opponent blowing them into pieces.

Battle Intro
Raiden teleports onto the stage and says, “Thunder take you!”, whilst shooting lightning blasts from both sides.

Victory Pose
Raiden flies up into the dark clouds, crosses his arms, and says “May the Elder Gods watch over you.”

Arcade
Lord Raiden/Arcade

Trivia

 * Raiden is one of the earliest instances of a playable god in a fighting game.
 * He is the protagonist of Mortal Kombat (2011), and co-protagonist of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.
 * Raiden's MK vs DC Universe ending implies that he has become like Ultraman, Earth-3's Superman, where his powers are inverted (e.g. Kryptonite fuels his powers, solar radiation from a yellow star weakens them).
 * Raiden's Fatality in the original MK was drastically altered in the Super NES version due to Nintendo's strict no-blood policy at the time. The decapitation was changed to the opponent's turning into a gray pile of dust.
 * Raiden's name is spelled Raiden in the arcade iterations of the Mortal Kombat games, and both Deadly Allianceand Deception. On the other home versions and in the Mortal Kombat films, comics. and TV series', his name is spelled Rayden. This was possibly because of copyright issues from a shoot 'em up named Raiden, or to avoid confusion with Raiden from the Fatal Fury series, a large wrestler. The console versions up until Mortal Kombat 4and the movies changed the name to Rayden. Ed Boon disliked the way that Acclaim changed Raiden's spelling. [1]
 * Raiden's name is written as 雷電 in both Traditional Chinese and Japanese and 雷电 in Simplified Chinese. It's pronounced as "raiden" (phonetically) in Japanese and "léidiàn" (Pinyin) in Mandarin Chinese. This is simply the Chinese word for "thunder and lightning" that was borrowed in Japanese together with the Chinese characters. The first character (雷) in this word means "thunder", the second one (電/电) now mostly means "electricity" (in ancient times it meant "lightning").
 * Raiden was modeled after the character "Lightning" from the 1986 John Carpenter movie Big Trouble in Little China.
 * Lightning was one of three storms from the movie. Fujin corresponds most with Thunder (they share a suicidal final attack theme), while the purple ninja Rain corresponds to the third storm (also named Rain).
 * In MK4, Raiden and Johnny Cage share the same fighting stance.
 * Originally, Raiden was not going to be in Deception, and the opening of Deception explained why Raiden would not be in the game. However, this changed after fan complaints, and Raiden remained in the game; the character who would have replaced him, Fujin, makes only a cameo appearance in the Prison stage, and in the Orderrealm during Konquest. Despite this, logically, Fujin is still the protector of Earthrealm, as appointed in MK4.
 * Raiden's alignment and personality change on the events of Mortal Kombat: Deception can be related not only to Onaga's presence, but also influenced by the Elder God's passivity. Since the supreme entities only interfere on Realm affairs when occurs a threat to their existence and power, after many times requesting help, Raiden adopted a machiavellian ideology of doing anything for the protection of Earthrealm, including allying himself to the Forces of Darkness. These steps didn't interfere on the Elder Gods affairs, so Raiden decided to do whatever was necessary to preserve Earthrealm, even not being its current protector at the time.
 * In MK3 and UMK3 for both the arcade and home versions, Nightwolf's Friendship had him transform into Raiden and an arcade machine of MKII drop down with two quotes, "Yes, But I Can Do a Raiden Transformation" or "I've Never Seen a Kano Transformation" (despite not actually turning into Kano). This Friendship was omitted in the Nintendo 64 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy, due to the fact that Raiden was in that game with the same MKIIsprite. Perhaps as a nod to this, Nightwolf becomes Raiden's second-in-command in the story mode of MK 2011.
 * Raiden was originally going to use his staff as a weapon in MKII, but Midway were forced to omit it due to memory constraints.
 * Of all the Kombat Kode symbols shown in MK3, Raiden's symbol was the eighth to appear if the player presses the right buttons seven times or in reverse by holding the joystick Up and press the right buttons three times.
 * In the Super Nintendo version of the first MK, by killing the final opponent in the third Endurance Match with Raiden using his Shock to the Head fatality will make Goro appear grey just like the ashes when he defeated the opponent.
 * Raiden's popularity as a "thunder god" and the way fans reacted to him when he made his debut ultimately led to the creation of other gods such as Fujin (the "wind god"). While they had their own uniqueness, Raiden was still considered to be the most popular of all the gods in the series.
 * He also appeared as a secret character in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, NFL Blitz and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, as well as a cameo appearance in a pinball machine, Bally's 1994 World Cup Championship, in a bonus round.
 * To unlock Raiden in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, the player had to complete all the challenges. Two of the challenges are called "Unreal Kombat". The challenges involved 3 people at once though rather than their traditional 2. Also all 3 people used staff weapons for their melee weapons.
 * The television show Mortal Kombat: Conquest is the only portrayal of Raiden as sort of "laid back" god, where he seems like a normal human (or guardian over Kung Lao) rather than an immortal being.
 * Raiden has been portrayed by Midway employee and martial artist Carlos Pesina in all his 2D games' appearances, except in MK Trilogy's versus screen, where he is portrayed by Sal Divita.
 * In Deception, Raiden's ending is the only ending to be narrated by himself.
 * In his profile from the Brady Games' Official MK4 Fighters Companion strategy guide, Raiden's favorite food is "nuclear buffalo wings". This guide also said that Kid Thunder is his favorite nephew.
 * Actors Clancy Brown and Christopher Lambert, both starring in the film Highlander, have both portrayed Raiden.
 * When Shao Kahn killed Raiden in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, his dragon Tattoo did not fly off when he died when all of the others with tattoos did. He explains this in the movie as Cyrax's, as well as Mileena's being temporary, as they are not in Raiden's bloodline.
 * During the development of Mortal Kombat Armageddon, early screenshots showed Raiden's pre-Dark Raiden portrait being used for the character select screen, implying Raiden had returned to his original self. When the game was ultimately released however, the portrait had been changed to his Dark Raiden version, and was left as such in the games unchanged from Mortal Kombat Deception.
 * In MK 2011, Nightwolf refers to Raiden as Haokah, the Lakota Indian thunder god.
 * In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, he was supposed to partake in an extensive fight scene with Sheeva (Marjean Holden). Despite being in the shooting script (and subsequent novel adaptation), it was cut from the film. Raiden instead fights a pair of Reptile clones, and Sheeva is crushed by a falling cage.
 * In MK 2011, if Raiden is using his "Dark Raiden" costume, his teleport will be red instead of white.
 * If certain X-Ray Moves are performed on Raiden, his hat will fall off. However, it will not fall off during Fatalities, similar to Kung Lao's Razor-Rimmed Hat.
 * Raiden's name and status as a god are taken directly from the Japanese thunder god Raijin.
 * He is the last playable fighter in Mortal Kombat (2011) 's story mode.
 * Raiden's alternate costume in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is his first official appearance hatless. Also, he has a katana on his waist, but he does not use it in battle.
 * In Mortal Kombat (2011), one of Raiden's fatalities is called "Just A Scratch". This is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which the Black Knight fights King Arthur and is dismembered, the Black Knight says "Tis but a scratch". Raiden also severs the opponent's limbs and leaves the head like in the film. Unlike the film however, where King Arthur decides to just leave the limbless Black Knight be and go, Raiden picks up the dismembered body and smashes the head in to kill them.
 * This is the second fatality to reference a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as Kung Lao's "Unfriendly Rabbit" fatality from Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is likely a reference to the Rabbit of Caerbannog from the film.
 * In the MK 2011 Arcade Ladder, Raiden appears in eight endings, including his own. This is more than any other character in the game.
 * Raiden's official theme is titled "Eternal Life".
 * If Reptile's Yummy! Fatality is performed on Raiden, Reptile will swallow his head, while his hat is still on.
 * In a Top 10 list hosted by Screwattack.com, Raiden's Godly Essence Fatality is listed at #5 for the Worst Fatality due to Raiden blowing himself up during the Fatality.