Is Liu Kang A Mascot For Mortal Kombat?

Although Ed Boon's favoritism for Scorpion is as obvious as my favoritism for Liu Kang - I could really not help but notice how the latter still does have a spot for Mortal Kombat as an important character. After they supposedly "killed him off" during Deadly Alliance, he was returned during Mortal Kombat Deception. Now I'd like to talk on how he was developed in both the original incarnation of Mortal Kombat and the series' reincarnation. So what really happened? During the first game, he was practically just another character. But in later series, he really does play the important part as one of the main protagonists. But aside from that, one can really notice the following changes in the character as the series went by. He was having the use of dragons in some of his moves. For instance, his trademark move is the Flying Dragon Kick taken from the late Bruce Lee. But later, even when he became a Chinese version of Street Fighter's Ryu, dragons just kept ...