Shinnok, Raiden and Fujin for the character meme!
already did fujin so... shinnok:
What I like about them
pretty much everything about him - his intro dialogues give a glimpse into his personality and attitude (which i appreciate because story mode sort of doesn’t) and i really like it tbh. he’s entertaining and his design is fantastic
What I dislike about them
all those parts where he kept trying to kill everyone
Favourite moment
hard to choose so here’s several-the dialogue with kitana that’s like “mine is the hand of death!” “it hasn’t the strength to wave goodbye” “that is exactly what it shall do” it cracks me tf up-literally everything about the impostor shinnok gameplay strategy-when he grabs raiden with that skeletal hand...
Least favourite moment
the arcade ending where it reveals the one being has corrupted him is just fucking depressing tbh, but i think it explains a lot about how he is right now
A situation with this character that I want to see explored more
i REALLY want to see more of de-corrupted shinnok who’s free from the influence of the one being (which i personally suspect is the corruption source - that single-minded devotion that it induces in people is very, very similar to how the one being forces shinnok to be single-mindedly devoted to reviving it, in his ending). that’s why i went with that as the premise of my fic, and i love de-corrupted shinnok so much honestly, when his core personality gets to shine a lot more
An interesting AU for this character
so many. so, so many. but i’ll just go with everything about my fic timeline where he reconciles w/ raiden and gets dragged into 17 different plot adventures
A crossover
Shinnok Vs. Greek Mythology
OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)
raiden... ugh i love this ship so damn much (once they’ve fixed things up between themselves) because i am such a sucker for cathartic reconciliation, and since they’re both gods with such incredibly long lifespans and frames of reference, they sort of deserve to have someone to share that kind of experience with, who genuinely knows what it’s like. besides, i just love old-married-couple rival romance type ships where they’re constantly snarking at each other but truly do care for each other deeply.
plus it sort of seems like shinnok has a thing for raiden tbh.... “it, and you, are now mine” “first you, then your realm” would you care to explain the subtext of that, shinnok. and the thing where he grabs and squeezes him in the skelehand. i really have to say there’s got to be some subtext in that
Other ships?
honestly haven’t really been able to come up with anything good for him, although he seems like he’s flirting with a few of the guys in his intro dialogues so i guess go for it shinnok live your gay dreams
BROTP
frost! he ended up good pals with frost in the fic and their prickly sarcastic personalities really fit well together as weird friends. he’s also friends (to some extent) with cassie and takeda, which is equally entertaining
NOTP
any woman (shinnok just reads to me as very gay); d’vorah obviously, that’s a big nope in every respect; i’m also not super into shinnok/quan chi bc quan chi seems to be manipulating him as a power source and i don’t like that
An assortment of headcanons!
oh boy i have so many
-shinnok can shapeshift at will, but his demon version is due to the corruption, that’s not inherent to him; he can, however, supposedly transform into some alternate infinitely poweful godly form. nobody is really sure what it is though and he’s never deigned to show anyone. unclear whether he actually has a full god-form or has just been bullshitting everyone this whole time.
-he enjoys horror media for the sole purpose of criticizing it and pointing out that it isn’t even slightly frightening. he is insufferable to watch movies with, if you’re attempting to at all enjoy it
-ever since being de-corrupted he’s been attempting to write some sort of sacred text, the tome of shinnok or some such. he has not managed at all. instead he just writes sarcastic notes on all the misadventures he’s gotten himself into. somebody gets hold of it and publishes it as fiction eventually and it’s a big hit
ok and now raiden;
What I like about them
i love raiden!!! he’s such a sweetheart and he’s trying so hard but he fucks up so badly and honestly flawed gods are just my absolute favorite trope ever. he’s just adorable though. i want to hug raiden
What I dislike about them
injustice 2 design. bad. where are his lips. future raiden is also bad
Favourite moment
i have two, one serious, one not; -the moment with kung jin where he says “the shaolin care about what is in your heart, not who your heart desires.” that genuinely caught me right in the emotions when i was playing story mode. i love u raiden-in mk9 when he’s like “my abilities are weaker in outworld but i should still be able to teleport us close to sonya” and then it’s a jump cut to him standing disappointedly in the middle of hell
Least favourite moment
please reattach shinnok’s head immediately!!!
A situation with this character that I want to see explored more
reconciliation with shinnok. this is extremely important. also, de-corrupting raiden! dark raiden is a cool goth look but it doesn’t suit him. beyond that, just... basically everything in raiden’s life, honestly. i want to see him working with the SF team, the kombat kids, with outworld, pretty much everything possible. NRS could release a game with no kombat whatsoever that’s just a series of quick time events to try to get raiden through catastrophic situations that are half his own fault, and i would play the fuck out of that
An interesting AU for this character
at some point i will likely write a fic about raiden trying to revive all the other protector gods of the worlds and then having to deal with the resulting shitshow. it’s just such an extremely entertaining concept
A crossover
Raiden Vs. Greek Mythology
OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)
shinnok for the reasons outlined above, and also because raiden hand-sculpted the jinsei chamber mural of his battle against shinnok (canon) and made shinnok way more muscular than he actually is and i ALWAYS think of the nemesis comic
Other ships?
honestly i really do not have any
BROTP
fujin!!
NOTP
pretty much any of the mortals, i just feel like raiden wouldn’t go for it (same applies for the immortals who still look like they’re 20); the power dynamic and imbalance and all is just... meh. uncomfortable
An assortment of headcanons!
-the sky temple weather directly corresponds to raiden’s moods which is why it’s always raining when we see it in game, since he’s sad/upset at the time. sometimes he makes it rain indoors without realizing
-raiden, in the public imagination, is somewhere between “minor celebrity” and “beloved cryptid”. it’s unclear where he falls in the mythological canon and how much he resembles known deities, and he’s not really interested in clarifying; he’s a god due to power and immortality, not worship
-even though he’s immortal and time works very differently for him he always manages to remember the birthdays of all of his mortal friends and get them something nice and thoughtful
