#sometimes i think i relate more to liu kang but i have one (1) thought about kung lao and its all downhill from there

[liukangofficial]

First of all I love everything you’ve written for the boys so far, bless, doing amazing, LOVE IT thank you for this nourishment of my soul

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

but tldr, liulao being each other’s shields in this fucked up world, but also being the only ones who can see each other past their OWN shields — and maybe not knowing yet atp how to get past them, but by god will they stand by each other and until the other lets them in