The Mortal Kombat games are loved by its fans for a number of reasons, but some of its unique qualities that have always been regular talking points for players are its numerous, creative, and gruesome fatalities and brutalities. These are the match-ending combos that a player can perform to earn their victory. Once initiated, the character that won the match will execute their opponent in a bloody and graphic manner.
In each game, every character has a number of fatalities they can perform. Raiden, the guardian of Earthrealm, is no exception. He's been a powerful and iconic entity in the franchise since the beginning, so it makes sense that he would have many finishing combos that have stood out over the years.
10 Electric Decapitation
Electric Decapitation is Raiden's original and classic fatality and his earliest demonstration of why he's called the God of Thunder. Once his enemy is dazed, Raiden charges as much electricity as possible before positioning his palm close to his opponent's head and discharging the full current.
Once Raiden lets the charge go, the energy flows through the victim's entire body, causing them to shake and glow. The current continues to grow and overload them until their body cannot contain the pressure and their head explodes into dozens of pieces.
9 Transplant
One of Raiden's more creative fatalities from 2011's Mortal Kombat, Transplant kills the opponent in a three-step process. First, Raiden uses his bare hands to rip the opponent's heart and brain out of their body. He then charges the removed body parts before shoving them back into his enemy. Finally, Raiden uses his powers to activate the powerful electrical charges he placed in both organs.
Having full control over the electricity now in the person's body, Raiden basically turns the heart and brain into grenades. After charging them from the outside for a few seconds, both organs explode and leave the victim with no head and a massive hole in their chest.
8 Explosive Uppercut
Possibly taking inspiration from Ryu of Street Fighter fame, Raiden delivers a powerful uppercut to defeat his opponent. There are, however, some key differences between Raiden's move and Ryu's classic Shoryuken. Primarily, Ryu's attack involves more movement and agility, and it also does not instantly kill the other fighter.
After defeating the opponent and leaving them vulnerable, Raiden stands next to them and charges his fist with his electrical power. Once he has charged it enough, Raiden unleashes a single, powerful uppercut. The shock of the uppercut is actually enough to make the victim's body explode into multiple pieces.
7 Staff Shock
Staff Shock from Mortal Kombat 4 was Raiden's first fatality to implement the use of a weapon other than his electric powers. Once Raiden has defeated his enemy, he summons his staff to him and stabs it into the fighter. Raiden then sends his electricity through the staff and into the victim.
Once the electricity reaches the opponent, Raiden uses the staff to lift them into the air. He then holds them up in the air while continuing to pump electricity into their body. After a few seconds, the electricity does its job and kills the opponent, and Raiden drops their body to the ground.
6 Pushing Through
Pushing Through is a fast and devasting brutality that makes short work of Raiden's adversaries. After meeting the requirements to complete the brutality, Raiden unleashes a series of combo attacks that position the opponent at the perfect distance. Once they are in place, Raiden uses his electricity to pick up and move a large blade through the other fighter's body.
The death is instant, but the victim still stands in place for a moment. But before long though, they slowly fall to the ground in two pieces, having been sliced in half vertically.
5 Bug Eyes
Continuing Raiden's tendency to go for the head to end his opponents, Bug Eyes is a flashy technique that forces the victim to endure a lot of pain before they are finally put down. After dropping the opponent to their knees, Raiden grabs them by the face and administers a massive surge of electricity to their skull. Eventually, the power surging through their skull causes their eyes to pop out.
Once the damage is done to their eyes, the attack actually causes the person's head to burst off of their body and up into the air. At this point, Raiden shoots bolts of lightning at the head from his hands to destroy it completely.
4 Zap Zap
As the games have progressed and the characters' attacks have become more intricate, Raiden has learned how to perform many new finishers that are visually striking. Zap Zap is possibly his most eye-catching. Taking the opponent by surprise, Raiden performs one of his usual throws, but instead of finishing it the normal way by kicking them, he instead grabs them and begins to overflow their body with electricity.
The attack is enough to make their entire body glow, revealing their skeleton. After they have taken enough current, the opponent's body violently explodes.
3 Inside You
Taking cues from what-if scenarios often considered for science-fiction stories, Raiden's Inside You brutality answers the question of what would happen if someone teleported into the exact same place where someone else was standing. Using a different ending to one of his signature attacks, Raiden shocks the opponent to trap them where they stand. While they are trapped, Raiden uses his teleportation ability to move to the same spot as them.
Once he is in the same place, Raiden emerges from the electricity. This causes the opponent to explode in a manner similar to how they do when Raiden uses Zap Zap or Electric Uppercut.
2 Conducting Rod
Raiden makes more use of his staff for his aptly named Conducting Rod fatality. Raiden first uses his powers to destroy the lower half of the opponent's legs, which causes them to drop to the ground. Once they are defenseless, Raiden summons his staff and stabs the weapon through their body, pinning them to the ground in the process.
Once they are pinned, Raiden summons lightning from the sky to hit the staff and electrocute the fighter. Their skeleton glows as Raiden continues, and the devastating attack comes to an end once their entire body is burned.
1 Direct Current
Direct Current is a fatality that answers the question of how lightsabers from Star Wars might be used in an R-rated film. While his opponent is stunned, Raiden uses his powers to generate two electric blades on each of his arms. Without hesitation, the thunder god slashes at his opponent's midsection, severing their arms and cutting them in half.
While they are still alive, Raiden teleports behind the fighter, grabs them by the head, and begins to levitate, taking the top half of their body with them. Once he has them in the air, Raiden uses his electricity to break their head into two pieces.