Raiden generally serves as a mentor figure to the franchise's heroes, although he sometimes assumes a darker role in the story, which sees him become more ruthless in his protection of the realm.

However, the PC and console ports released until Mortal Kombat Trilogy, along with both movies and the TV series, changed the name to "Rayden", fearing the original spelling would lead to trademark issues from Seibu Kaihatsu's shoot 'em up game Raiden.

[8] According to the Konquest mode in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Raiden has mastered all of more than 750 documented varieties of jujutsu, which is his secondary fighting style.

Raiden's Fatality in the original game, in which he obliterated his opponent's head with a lightning strike, was drastically altered in the Super NES version due to Nintendo's strict no-blood policy at the time.

[citation needed] In the original Mortal Kombat, Raiden is invited to compete in the titular tournament by its grandmaster sorcerer Shang Tsung.

He warns the surviving members of the original tournament, Liu Kang and Kung Lao, of Shao Kahn's threat before venturing to Outworld.

Initially unable to participate due to the merger of Outworld and Earthrealm, Raiden sacrifices his immortality in order to help his chances against the Kahn after the Elder Gods refuse to assist him in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

In Mortal Kombat 4, following Outworld's failed invasion, Shinnok, with the aid of Quan Chi, again sought to rise from the Netherealm and conquer the other realms.

Exhuming Liu Kang's corpse, he takes it to an underground temple that belonged to the Houan, an ancient sect of necromancers whom he had destroyed centuries earlier, and revives his former ally.

Despite clashes with members of the Justice League, Raiden works with Superman to defeat Dark Kahn and undo the fusions; later imprisoning Darkseid in the Netherrealm.

After Cassie Cage defeats the Elder God, she helps Raiden purify the Jinsei by drawing Shinnok's energy into him, though he becomes corrupted in the process.

Following this, Raiden confronts the Netherrealm's new rulers, Liu Kang, and Kitana, and presents them with Shinnok's severed head to prove he will show no mercy to those who threaten Earthrealm.

[13] In Mortal Kombat 11, having used Shinnok's amulet to become Dark Raiden once more, he leads an assault on the Netherrealm with the Special Forces to destroy their cathedral and succeed.

[18] In the DLC story expansion, Aftermath, the mortal Raiden attempts to stop Shang Tsung after he approaches them and claims they cannot use Kronika's Hourglass without her Crown of Souls, though Liu Kang allows the sorcerer to go back in time to retrieve a past version of it.

This version of Raiden grew up as a field worker in the village of Fengjian alongside Kung Lao trained in martial arts by Madame Bo.

[22] Raiden also appears as a secret character in NBA Jam Tournament Edition,[23] NFL Blitz,[24] and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.

He and Shang Tsung were often portrayed as bitter enemies, and he was forbidden from intervening in the mortals' affairs, as shown when Johnny Cage was to answer one of the questions in the Tao Te Zhan.

In this miniseries, it is stated that, while his fellow gods stay out of mortal affairs, Raiden never remains silent, and always tries to give the good side an advantage in the eternal struggle.

Raiden saved Kano's life and attempted to give him a sword called "Ebbonrule", which drew strength from an evil man who turned to the side of good.

In the first Mortal Kombat movie, Raiden, who is played by Christopher Lambert,[26] is disallowed from participating in the tournament, but remains the guiding god of thunder, bent on doing all within his power to help Earth's chosen warriors gain victory.

According to the 'Making of Mortal Kombat' published by New Line Cinema, Raiden's role was "to protect the Earth Warriors and make sure Shang Tsung's forces don't cheat to win".

On the ship taking all tournament contestants to Tsung's island, Raiden informed the Earth warriors that he had looked into all their souls, and one of three would decide the outcome: Liu Kang, Johnny Cage or Sonya Blade.

By consulting the Elder Gods, he sacrifices his immortality to reunite with Queen Sindel, closing Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm and violating the rules of Mortal Kombat.

He was Kung Lao's mentor since childhood, and constantly reminds the young warrior of his duty to find new fighters to protect Earthrealm and to prepare for the next Mortal Kombat tournament.

With the villains defeating the heroes for the first time in Deadly Alliance, the story becomes "messy" leading Raiden "hit the reset button" and redo everything with Neatherealm's first reboot of the series.

Instead of saving the world, IGN noticed Raiden continued making failures to the point he kills Liu Kang when realizing the last words of his future persona before dying.

While Kronika was foreshadowed as the antagonist the heroes must face in Mortal Kombat 11, Shack News felt that Raiden wearing Shinnok's magic amulet might have a major impact in the narrative to the point he might turn into the actual villain.

[39] Christopher Lambert as Lord Rayden has also received positive coverage with JoBlo.com commenting that he "lent the production maturity and star power"[40] while CBR mentioned that he "steals every scene he appears, delivering ridiculous lines like, 'The fate of billions depends upon you,' before laughing and apologizing".

They stated that while the martial arts took a backseat, the drama of Raiden's "Christlike" story was well-executed, giving audiences a reason to identify with his character in a way the franchise has never been able to do.