Is Mortal Kombat’s Liu Kang a God & Why Is He the Chosen One?

The announcement of the upcoming Mortal Kombat video game reboot surprised many fans due to how it made people see the next phase of the Mortal Kombat franchise, especially after 11 straight mainline games. At the center of this reboot was Liu Kang, who used his godly powers to reboot the entire universe and hopefully change the flow of the game’s events. So, is Lui Kang a god, and why was he the chosen one?

Fire God Liu Kang resulted from Raiden fusing his body with Revenant Liu Kang and the deceased younger Liu Kang. The soul of the younger Liu Kang took control of this body and defeated Kronika, but not before she reset the timeline. Raiden split from Liu Kang, who retained his status as a god.

Raiden, the god that watched over Earthrealm, ceded his role to Fire God Liu Kang, who is now responsible for protecting Earthrealm and ensuring it is peaceful. Of course, we don’t know what’s in store for Liu Kang and the Earthrealm heroes in this new and upcoming timeline reset. Not. Let’s look at how and why Liu Kang is a god.

Why Is Liu Kang the Chosen One?

When the storyline of Mortal Kombat started, one of the things that we saw was that Liu Kang was quickly introduced as the main hero of the storyline as he and the other Earthrealm warriors were chosen to represent Earthrealm in a tournament that had the fate of the entire world at stake. As such, Liu Kang’s training as a Shaolin monk came in handy when he entered the Mortal Kombat tournament to save Earthrealm by becoming the champion.

That was when Raiden, the Thunder God and the protector of Earthrealm, quickly saw that Liu Kang had the power and strength to become the champion of the Mortal Kombat tournament. As such, he saw that Liu Kang could be the chosen one to help keep Earthrealm safe from villains like Shao Kahn.

Of course, Liu Kang did indeed become the champion of the Mortal Kombat tournament. But many things happened between his victory in the tournament and the events of the latest game, Mortal Kombat 11. And it was during the events of MK11 that we saw something bigger in store for Liu Kang’s future as he became a god.

How Did Liu Kang Become the Fire God?

As mentioned, Liu Kang went on a journey that eventually transformed him into a god. But the most important thing to remember is that he was never a god. Instead, he was born a regular human being with the powers and skills of a champion martial artist. And it was the convergence of several timelines that allowed him to become a god.

The main Mortal Kombat storyline has two main timelines. It was in the second timeline that Liu Kang became a god. In both timelines, Liu Kang was a follower of Raiden, who trusted the Thunder God to protect Earthrealm. And Raiden’s status as a god eventually allowed us to see Liu also transforming into a god.

Kronika, one of the new characters in the Mortal Kombat storyline, was a goddess that could mess with entire timelines because she could travel through time. She messed with the timeline to create a perfect world as Kronika approached Liu Kang so that she could use him for her plans. Revenant Liu Kang, who belonged to the dark timeline of Mortal Kombat, was interested in Kronika’s ideal world, and it was a world that didn’t have Raiden in it.

After Revenant Liu Kang agreed to partner with Kronika, the goddess merged both timelines. That means the younger Liu Kang and Revenant Liu Kang both existed simultaneously in the same world. Eventually, the younger Liu Kang was about to fight Raiden until the memories of their fights from the future returned to Raiden. As such, Raiden learned of his fate in the alternate timeline before the merging happened, as he ended up teaming with the younger Liu Kang in this merged timeline that Kronika created.

Liu now trusted that Raiden would do what was right for Earthrealm. However, Liu Kang was captured by Kronika, who allowed the younger character to meet Revenant Liu Kang. The evil Revenant Liu Kang absorbed the soul of his younger self to kill him. As such, Liu Kang was no more because his soul now belonged to his evil version.

Now more powerful than ever, Revenant Liu Kang went on to fight Raiden, as he believed that Raiden had betrayed and doomed Earthrealm with his decisions. However, Raiden was able to defeat Revenant Liu Kang. But instead of killing him, he decided to do what he thought was best for everyone, knowing he couldn’t defeat Kronika alone.

He absorbed Revenant Liu Kang and the younger Liu Kang to fuse their bodies into one. This led to the creation of the Fire God Liu Kang. And the best part was that the younger Liu Kang’s soul was in control of this body and was now the defender of Earth Realm in place of Raiden.

Fire God Liu Kang fought and defeated Kronika, but not before the goddess used her powers to turn time back and bring them to the dawn of time. After returning to the Dawn of Time, Raiden separated from the body of Fire God Liu Kang but lost his godly powers. Fire God Liu Kang retained the godly powers of Raiden, who was now a mortal. Nevertheless, Raiden entrusted the new future to Fire God Liu Kang.

That means that the new and rebooted timeline of Mortal Kombat now features Fire God Liu Kang as the man defending Earthrealm in place of Raiden. Because the former Thunder God trusted Liu Kang to ensure Earthrealm was peaceful, the Fire God protected his realm for countless years before the entire world went to hell again. And we will see in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 reboot how Fire God Liu Kang would deal with the threats involving his realm and how he will use his godly powers to ensure that Earthrealm doesn’t become as messed up as the timeline he originally came from.