Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, where we
discuss the wasted potential of our favourite plotlines.
Mortal 1 Kombat's Invasions mode inspired the idea for this episode. That mode contains spoilers for
the game's campaign, so be sure you finish that before you play Invasions or watch this video.
The premise of Invasions is that, after the events of the main story,
the existence of infinite concurrent timelines is now known, and denizens of those other timelines
are invading the main one. The first of these is a version of Hanzo who is trying to find a
reality where Harumi lives, bringing his minions with him, all decked out in fire-themed colours.
This got me thinking about MK11's Kombat League skins,
which were also recolours made to fit a theme, only for four characters instead
of the whole cast. What I'm going to do here is apply a story to each of them,
operating under a hypothetical mode where each is given story context as a prior timeline that Fire
God Liu Kang is observing as he educates himself on the past, in preparation for his own timeline.
First came the Season of Blood, bringing blood-themed palettes for Skarlet, Scorpion,
Erron Black and Kitana. For this one, I'm picturing an alternate version of the MKX
comic plot. Rather than Reiko, Havik opts to make Skarlet into the Blood God. Due to her nature as
a blood golem thing, she successfully becomes a Blood God without melting,
and kills Havik before he can betray her. She then uses the Kamidogu daggers
to enslave various fighters, with Scorpion, Erron and Kitana being her primary enforcers.
The player must then defeat them to get to her and put a stop to her conquest.
Season 2's theme is Time, featuring Raiden, Jacqui Briggs, Erron and Kollector. A truly baffling
selection of characters. I'm thinking this is a timeline where Kronika recruits these guys as her
enforcers. She gets Jacqui the same way she gets Jax in the story. Raiden is just naturally her
enforcer in this timeline, or joins her in return for Earth's protection, a la Armageddon. She's the
one who gives Erron his longevity, in return for his role as her assassin. And Kollector is used
to gather the crown, or something. It's like an alternate version of the main plot, with some
roles switched and reimagined. Unfortunately, Kronika wins this version, deciding to rework
the histories of the key resistance leaders, one of which is Sindel, to better suit her schemes.
Season 3 is Revenants Reborn, putting Liu Kang, Kitana, Kung Lao and Jade in their
revenant outfits. I'm imagining this as a timeline where Hanzo didn't kill Quan Chi,
allowing the revenants to be restored. The player fights them in their normal
revenant forms and helps to restore them. The ending then depicts these
four defeating the other revenants and restoring them to life as well.
Season 4 is where we start to see a trend, with Chaos. We have Sub-Zero,
Frost, Cassie Cage and Noob Saibot with glowing orange eyes, implying some form of
brainwashing. I'm going to try to avoid using that trope as much as possible,
given how often that seems to come up in these skins, but there are times like
this where I really can't think of any alternative to make sense of the skins.
This one follows Noob's MK9 ending, where he forms an alliance with Havik. Since then, he has killed
Havik and become the supreme ruler of Chaosrealm, ascending to the rank of God of Chaos. He can now
infect people with chaos essence, turning them into crazed anarchists who are driven by their
basest desires, kinda like Quan Chi's debut in Conquest. First came Kuai Liang and his
apprentice, who went to war with the Shirai Ryu. Then Noob turned Cassie, who killed the other
Kombat Kids. The player must defeat those three to end their rampages, before destroying Noob.
Season 5 is Sorcery, which features Quan Chi-themed skins for Baraka,
Kano, Kabal and Cetrion. Again, how else does this work, aside from mind control? If not for Cetrion,
it would just be the tarkatans and Black Dragon in a cult that worships Quan Chi,
but an Elder God forces it to be mind control.
This is a sequel to Quan Chi's MK4 ending. After he killed Shinnok,
which was possible in that timeline, Kronika commanded Cetrion to hunt Quan Chi down,
only for him to use his supreme power to corrupt her into his agent. He then
turned the Black Dragon and the tarkatans into his legions with which to conquer the
realms. We must now fight through those armies to depose Cetrion, who is purified by whatever
gods survived the war with Shinnok, and she leads the final battle to destroy the sorcerer.
Konquest is a strange one. The banner depicts Shao Kahn and D'Vorah fighting Kitana and Kotal,
only for Kitana and Kahn to be left out, the skins going to Geras and Kollector instead.
And the theme is so unclear here. The logo is the Outworld Kamidogu,
but they just look like they've been rolling in dirt.
My best idea is Outworld defeating the Earthrealm aggressors in the tournament
following MKX, and Kotal becoming an extremist to protect Outworld,
like Raiden has become for Earth. He recruits Kollector and D'Vorah to join his forces and
conduct raids on other realms. Geras is here because he's the one manipulating Kotal on
Kronika's behalf. Both are defeated by the end, exposing Kronika and prompting a reset.
Season 7 is Death, giving us revenant versions of Johnny, Cassie, Sonya and Jax. I see this as
a failure state for the Netherrealm War fought between MKX and 11. Jacqui now commands the SF
against the new revenant recruits to put their souls to rest. In the end, we help her put them
down, and then continue the war against the main revenants, maybe leading into Season 3's events?
Season 8 is Naknadan Greed, the gold theme, sporting skins for Shao Kahn,
Noob Saibot, Sub-Zero and Jade. Not the actual Naknadan, weirdly enough. I'm picturing this as
a sequel to Armageddon, if Kollector managed to deliver the finishing blow on Blaze. He becomes
a God of Greed, infesting the realms with intense avarice. These four are his most loyal followers,
their greed driving them to do his bidding for grand rewards. The opposing force is led by Kung
Lao, who has his worldly desires under control. He leads the likes of Shujinko and Kai, those
who have reached enlightenment, as they fight to end Kollector's influence over the realms.
Season 9 is Souls, giving us skins for Kung Lao, Raiden, Cetrion and Kitana. I see this
as a collapse of the heavens or the Netherrealm, forcing the souls of the dead into the realms of
the living. Cetrion, as a goddess of light and life, makes herself into a receptacle of souls,
recruiting Dark Raiden to assist in this. They purge Edenia of life to use the realm as the
new afterlife. Kitana's body is inhabited by the dead of Edenia, turning her into a last hope for
Edenia's people. Meanwhile, the Great Kung Lao's soul comes to inhabit the body of his descendant,
and he vows to help Kitana restore Edenia's dead, after they defeat the two gods.
Season 10 is Shadows, a Noob Saibot theme with skins for Scorpion, Skarlet,
Frost and Liu Kang. My best idea here is that, as Fire God Liu Kang narrates these stories,
he observes that, as M1K reveals, the battles with Kronika and Shang Tsung have led to numerous
other outcomes being possible, which are MK11's arcade endings. This one follows Noob's victory,
where he takes control of the other fighters in his new era. Here, Bi-Han has made these notable
fighters into his enforcers as he wages war with the realms. The player helps the resistance,
probably led by Kuai Liang, to defeat them. Kuai Liang ends up restoring his brother, and acting
as an advisor as Bi-Han forges a new timeline to rid their reality of Noob's influence for good.
Season 11 is Order, featuring Orderrealm skins for Jax, Jacqui, Baraka and D'Vorah. The obvious
one would be Orderrealm brainwashing. Another is a tie-in to Season 4, where Jacqui survived the
fight with Cassie and now joins the counterattack. Like with mind control, I just don't want too many
plots where Bi-Han is the villain. The only other option is Orderrealm being the aggressive invader,
having long since conquered Earthrealm, the Arnyek Isles and Outworld, leading to these
four being their champions. We join the tournament on Chaosrealm's behalf in the name of freedom.
Orderrealm's government falls, and Darrius and Dairou will establish a new government.
Season 12 is The Osh-Tekk Army, featuring Osh-Tekk skins with actual effort put in for Jade,
Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Kano. This is a timeline where Kotal overthrew Shao Kahn millennia ago,
and he became the mad conqueror. Earthrealm has already fallen to his and Empress Jade's forces,
and now three of Earth's best fighters take part in the tournament between Outworld and
Kotal's current subject of conquest, on Outworld's side. The player must defeat
Kotal's best fighters before taking the fight to the emperor himself in Outworld.
Season 13 is The Fallen Kingdom, an Edenia-themed set for Kitana, Shao Kahn,
Sub-Zero and Geras. During the invasion of Edenia, Twindel defeated Shao Kahn and forced him to
submit as her concubine. After merging Outworld with Edenia to prevent a future retaliation,
she gained a taste for conquest and began invading other realms herself,
leaving command of her troops to Princess Kitana and General Shao. The cryomancers are
never banished in this timeline, meaning there is a Sub-Zero serving the Edenian throne. And
Geras is here, either because he has grown tired of Kronika's madness and has allied with Twindel,
and so he will end up reset by Kronika when she resets the timeline; or because he is
the one making Edenia the aggressor from the shadows, either for Kronika's vision,
or as an act of rebellion. We're here to fight off the Edenian invaders and protect Earthrealm.
Season 14, The Hive, is another one with effort put in, with Kytinn skins for Kotal, Skarlet,
Kabal and Baraka. D'Vorah is either infecting people with something to turn them into Kytinn,
possibly via Shang Tsung as a nod to the hive on his island,
or she is birthing children from within the warriors and that's what these skins
represent. The Hive is trying to amass an army to spread across all of Outworld,
and we have to stop them, burning the hive and wiping the Kytinn out for good.
Season 15 is The Saurian Rebirth, coming with Saurian skins for Scorpion, Kung Lao, Jade and
Noob. In this one, desperate to revive his race, Reptile searches Shang Tsung's texts and begins
experimenting on various warriors to turn them into Saurians. Basically, he's become The Lizard
from Spider-Man. We have to stop him, ending with him either learning the true fate of the Saurians,
a la MKX, or being killed and ironically leading his race to extinction via his actions.
And finally, Season of Lawlessness, coming with brainwashed Black Dragon skins for Johnny,
Cassie, Sub-Zero and Sindel. Kano wants to really hurt Sonya,
so he converts her husband and daughter into loyal gang members. The tech he uses to do
this comes from the Cyber Lin Kuei, leading to a conflict between the Black Dragon and Lin Kuei,
resulting in the latter being converted into the former. And Sindel is here because...
maybe MK3's events occur decades later in this timeline, and Kano is entrusted with Sindel,
but he betrays Kahn by brainwashing Sindel into his own enforcer. Sonya leads the charge
to end Kano and save her family and allies, possibly having to ally with Outworld to do so.
And those are the sixteen stories I've concocted for the Kombat League skin
themes. Despite my concerns about MK delving into multiverse stuff,
the Hanzo story is somewhat interesting, if a tad basic. Hopefully, we'll get something more
out-there in future seasons. I can definitely see revenants after Quan Chi drops or even Saurians,
given some of the foes we can fight in the climax of Story Mode.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and support me on Patreon like these fine people
here? If not, then make sure to share it with your enemies so they can suffer along with you.
Today's recommended video is The timeline of Scorpion's spear, and how MK 11 is the
worst version by Smokey Beef. That's the REAL reason he's so mad in the Invasions story.