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Let me start out with a little bit of background on this. For those of you who do not know, there was a website that used to allow fantasy match-ups between all sorts of fictional characters and real people and other forms of life. They did this through intelligent and witty debate. For example: Aquaman vs. Tarzan / Chewbacca vs. Worf / Waldo vs. Carmen Sandiego and many many more. Me and my buddy were fans of the site and decided to do our own Grudge-Match debate. We took on pseudonyms in order to make the voting process fair to us when our friends and family voted.
Here is the Website which is now archived:
http://www.grudge-match.com/History/index.html
(Keep in mind, I am writing as Kent)
The rice field is illuminated by nothing but the moon. A light breeze flows and carries with it a certain ominous feeling. Two figures approach each other from just beyond the shadows. Ryu Hoshi, a wandering warrior of the fist steps into view with a torn Gi and a tied, red bandana around his head. Liu Kang, defender of the Earth Realms rises to meet him, bare chested and stern. Which warrior will walk away and collect the bounty of the other?
Kent:It's a tough call but the battle-hardened Ryu is going to take this one. Ryu was raised by a Martial Arts master who taught him the art of Nin-Ansatsuken which is quite literally the art of assassination. He has access to some of the deadliest techniques ever created. Liu Kang has his Bicycle kick but he is affected by simple things like gravity while Ryu's Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku defies gravity all together. Liu Kang has a cute fireball that is probably just a gasoline soaked Tennis Ball while Ryu can focus the very energy of life, also known as 'Ki' into a powerful blast that knocks opponents off of their feet. Ryu has bested the best in the world. Sagat fell to him. M. Bison fell to him. Dhalsim, Akuma, Balrog and the list goes on. Liu Kang is just out-classed here but I do hope that he can still walk away from it.
Johnny: Rih, reee, raaah, raaaahhhhwhatever the heck this guys name is! It doesn't really matter, the fact is, hes nobody in comparison to Liu. OH BOY! Nin-somethingorother with access to lots of nasty things! Who cares? Liu has more than proven he is undefeatable. I mean, HE WON MORTAL COMBAT! Yes, it IS a silly name, but the tournament is quite literally death to all who can't cut it, especially in outworld....oh, you dont know what outworld is? Well, if course you wouldnt, only chosen fighters may enter to compete in the games, jumping between realms is highly forbidden. Also, after Liu defeated Goro in the tenth mortal combat, he took on Shang Tsung...who was...OH, right, the MOST POWERFUL SORCEROR IN THE LAND. That guy didnt eat costumes or faces or fucking anything else except SOULS. And Liu tossed him out like yesterday's garbage. It didnt stop there either, as much as you wanted it to...because even after all of that, after goro and the other contestants, and shang tsung and his minions...Liu decided to go JUST ONE MORE STEP FURTHER. He defeated the EMPORER, Shao Khan. How did he do it? you may be asking...well, let me tell you...with his ANIMALITY. Dont know what that is? Wierd...everyone has one...even Ryu, and he would use it if he realized its power....But, basically, its all in the name, you BECOME your inner animal. In Liu's case, its a DRAGON. And not just any little wimpy dragon either, i'm talking full on, flying, fire breathing, ass kicking dragon. I'd like to see a KI blast knock him off his feet when hes released his animality...because when it did, he would just fly over and burn Ryu before he could spin anyone's leg around.
Kent: Ok so my partner makes two valid points: One is that Liu Kang has defeated strong opponents and the other is that he can turn into a Dragon. Lets explore these a little deeper. Liu Kang defeated Goro due to Goro's extreme over confidence in the fight. Goro was reigning champion for nine years so he took it easy and Liu took advantage of it. Ryu, however does not have this problem. In fact, he has been known to excessively harm opponents without cause or need. This is due to his intense desire to prove himself. Ryu will not judge his opponent or assume anything about his skill. He will simply go all out until he kills Liu Kang. Liu also defeated Shang Tsung but what you must understand is: There is a timeline. This timeline was not fully revealed to you. Liu Kang defeats Shang Tsung. Shang Tsung is ressurected and breaks Liu Kang's neck and devours his soul only a few years later. We can make one assessment from these events: Liu Kang has not grown with age, he has weakened. He has turned into one of those guys that you hear talking about how badass they USED to be. "Ya, I saved Earth Realm from Shang Tsung. I even killed a bunch of evil guys. What happened later you say? Oh they came back and murdered me then sucked my soul. The only way I could get it back was to have Raiden save it."
With that poorly thought out point out of the way, I will move on to his Animality. Liu Kang's ability to turn into a Dragon showed it self in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. How did he do it? After getting his ass beat by an Indian then refusing to have sex with a hot, asian girl, he realizes his true potential....in theory. It is not until Shao Khan has him down that Liu Kang releases his rage. He was allowed to do this because Shao Khan taunted him / boasted / flexed / bullshitted until the poor Liu Kang finally decided to stand up for himself. After Liu transformed, Shao Khan simply transformed also only he did it out of practiced reflex. He simply saw that Liu Kang changed and he did as well. Imagine if he WOULD NOT have been overconfident and decided to just change into a multi-headed Dragon to begin with? Liu would have been crushed before he would have even had time to get desperate. All of Liu's opponents have allowed him ample time to pull some miracle out of him due to their over-confidence. First off, Liu's transformation took a good 5 min. of film time to complete itself. What do you suppose Ryu will be doing in this time? Sitting on his hands? No. He will simply beat him out of focus which will cancel the affect of the transformation...assuming it goes that far. Liu Kang has the rage factor but it is very dormant. A trained assasin like Ryu will have decided the outcome of the fight before Liu had time to even realize that he was in serious trouble and go into a temper tantrum.
So we have his PAST accomplishments wiped out by the SAME opponent beating him years later and we have his amazing transformation. Too bad the Dragon form takes a few minutes to actually complete and even longer to get him to even try it. Ryu will just end the fight without provoking Liu's strong emotions thus eliminating his Dragon form and taking away Liu's time to capitalize on any overconfidence. Ryu is an opponent like Liu has never faced. What will Liu Kang do when Ryu wastes no time like ALL others have? That's right...die.
Johnny: Ryu is a common, come back and win character...he tends to get his ass kicked if he doesnt win in the first 30 seconds, and wait until he can finally turn it around...the same can Almost be said about Mr kang, but the difference lies in his mortal kombat experience...being in the tournament taught him to take the fight from the beggining.
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Decent, but lacking...
Posted Jun 11, 2008
What I did enjoy about this article was the novelty of it. I've always been a huge fan of mash-ups, from music to artwork. The thought of legendary Ryu squaring off against one of my personal favorite characters from one of my favorite games puts a smile on my face. The debate style that it wa... (
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