CHOSEN ONE,

yo i missed it too until my last rewatch and i was like….what the hell! what the hell. and now my feeble memory is failing me AGAIN and i can’t remember if he tells anyone else, but i think he only said it to raiden?

But this is an A+++ au and one of y'all should definitely write it 👀👀👀

Liu Kang’s arcana didn’t settle quite as smoothly as he implied.

yo i missed it too until my last rewatch and i was like….what the hell! what the hell. and now my feeble memory is failing me AGAIN and i can’t remember if he tells anyone else, but i think he only said it to raiden?

But I really love how you write Kung Lao as like, a -little bit- of a fuckboy, and how Liu Kang is patiently adoring of him, so cute.

(Like in that interview, where they said that Kung Lao sort of became Liu Kang’s shield, I can so easily imagine that socially where Kung Lao uses his naturally outgoing personality to deflect attention away from Liu Kang, ugg god I just love the relationship dynamic so much)

WAH thank YOU for consuming my content and being here to share liulao thoughts while we are in this draught sobs

im hollering that my kung lao came across as a fuckboy JQKKSKWK but no yes thats exactly my thoughts on mk2021!kung lao….. i really vibe with the earlier versions of him who actually didn’t care about becoming champion and just wanted to mind his business, AND NOW WE HAVE A VERSION OF HIM WHO’S CHAMPION FROM THE START ?! oml the duty complex that i imagine that boy has.

i loved writing him leaning into his bravado + the weight of his title and really wanted to explore how a lot of that is just a front, courtesy of #just“i’ve had this duty for so long i can remember that my identity ended up growing around it and now i don’t know how to extract myself from it without falling apart”things, and how my liu kang understands very deeply what it’s like to have something define such a core part of you so young, hence him “suffering” kung lao’s projected cockiness with that fondly exasperated love. he Knows that it’s a defense mechanism for kung lao, but he doesn’t have it all figured out yet either and doesn’t know yet how to completely help kung lao past that (BC HE BELIEVES WITH HIS ENTIRE BEING THAT KUNG LAO HAS NOTHING TO PROVE TO ANYONE DAMMIT [slams head into concrete]). i think that awareness goes both ways for my versions of them, but neither of them really know how to cope with it yet bc they’re still young and have yet to fight in their first tournament, so they kind of “default” into this dynamic because it’s easy for them if that makes sense. would u believe me if i said thats originally what i started writing Coda to explore for, until my brain decided to switch gears to pwp 😭😭😭😭

ok and i also want to talk about this “kung lao is liu kang’s shield” business bc I LOVE IT SO MUCH U DON’T UNDERSTAND…….. my kung lao def thinks of liu kang the same way max thinks of him as kind of “innocent,” except liu kang is ?? not ?? but it’s this whole thing in my head where kung lao wants to shield him out of this desire to protect liu kang from what he knows is an unkind world, but not realizing that liu kang already knows and has SEEN an even unkinder version of it already — and liu kang doing his own quiet kind of shielding by letting kung lao be protective because he knows it’s just a defense thing, but also by finding ways to remind kung lao that he can exist (and is worthy to exist) without the “destiny” thats been thrust on him. like a silent game of “who’s protecting who” but both of them believing they’re the one doing the protecting and not realizing they need the other’s protection too and YES those two things can coexist and . SOBS listen. Listen theres so much of them to write about i want to scream

GOD KUNG LAO COMING BACK HAVING TO DEAL WITH not only having “failed” his duty but also bis best friend having had to take up the mantle AND having something irrerversibly changed between them.....not just the failure of his duty but also that shattering of the illusion that anything is within their control,,, that even their pact to die together isn’t guaranteed GAHHH. if we have a fix it via the mk11 hourglass, i could see that as just . A Last Straw, bc holy shit nothing about their destinies may really be up to them at all. theres just someone up there playing with time and reality as they speak. (but also maybe an opportunity for them to be sexy and defy the gods’ will and carve their own destinies together chef kiss)

ngl i have Thoughts about how liu kang is the more typically composed of the two of them and how he has more patience and how when he does submit, he does it Consciously and in a way where he still has some control (bc he Chooses when and how to submit, to what extent, etc), but it would be very fun for kung lao to kind of study/observe that over time and then figure out the best way to dismantle him completely

edit // @avi17 replied: Big agree and I also have several nsfw ideas about that sort of 'conscious submission' >.>