Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, the show where we discuss the wasted potential
of our favourite plotlines.
With MK11 now being out, I thought it might be fun to revisit a few of the existing MK
episodes and see how those stories could have progressed into the new game. I need to do
this now before we move on to the Lin Kuei saga and attempts to fix MK11 itself. While
we're here, let's also go over how I feel the characters were handled and whether or
not they live up to their potential in MK11.
Mortal Kombat X
Well, the story of MKX was mostly ignored, aside from Shinnok's decapitation and Scorpion
and Sub-Zero burying the hatchet. Dark Raiden is erased in Chapter 2 and the revenants have
even less personality and act as generic minions of Kronika. Seriously, how is Kitana okay
working alongside Shao Kahn, even if she is corrupted? If she can't look at the big picture
enough to consider her and the others' deaths as a better outcome than Shao Kahn's victory
in Armageddon, then I doubt she could consider working alongside the man who murdered her
father and led her mother to suicide as for the best either. Wasted.
There'd be quite a few changes brought about by my MKX having happened, like the lack of
Kombat Kids and revenants. I suppose Dark Raiden still happens, allowing Liu Kang to
try to restore him to his old self, the way the thunder god did for him last time. Kronika
could probably pull revenant, wraith and cyberised versions of characters from various points,
giving her evil versions of most of the heroes as minions. This would allow us to keep the
heroic vs villainous clashes, but they'd all get mirror matches, instead of only like five.
Perhaps the Fire God Liu Kane concept could be a merger of the evil Raiden and Liu Kang
instead, serving as the final boss in place of Kronika, who I hear is not a very good
boss fight. Kronika is killed and Raiden either dies or becomes purified, warning that Armageddon
may yet come to pass...
Mileena
She's not in the game. She's mentioned occasionally by Kotal and D'Vorah, Shao Kahn is uncharacteristically
upset about her death, and Kitana has her weapons now for some reason. Wasted.
Naturally, Mileena and her followers are recruited into Kitana's forces. Kitana gets caught up
on Mileena's story and seeks her out, even if only to get help convincing Baraka to join
her. Mileena could even be happy to see both a living Baraka, and a not-undead Kitana.
She likely thinks it's a trick until Kitana defeats her (because some fights have to happen),
prompting her to join Kitana's cause. She's been advised by Ermac and Skarlet that Shao
Kahn is on the wrong side here and that, though she's loath to do so, she has to help defeat
him to unite Outworld against Kronika. Maybe she has a Harley Quinn-like addiction to Kahn,
finding herself conflicted about turning on him once she's actually in his presence. Either
way, at the arena, she fights her childish past self and we see how much more mature
and wise Mileena is now. This could lead to her becoming an adviser or bodyguard for Kitana
Kahn.
Alternatively, she could join up with the revenants and serve Kronika, becoming genuinely
close to Revenant Kitana through her service. This could lead to her betraying the revenants
once Past Kitana convinces her that Revenant Kitana is just using her. This results in
Past Kitana coming to accept Mileena, genuinely.
Sindel
Aside from one exchange between Past Kitana and Kahn, Sindel isn't even mentioned in the
story. There's no explanation for where her revenant is either, so there's no confrontation
between Past Kitana and her undead mother. Sindel is currently rumoured to be one of
the upcoming DLC fighters with allegedly leaked pre-fight dialogue suggesting several horrendous
retcons to her character and death. It could be bullshit, but would you really put it past
them? Wasted.
We ended her episode with three possible outcomes. We'll discuss each of those here, while also
noting that Kronika could have pulled MK3 Sindel in, or brought over her MKII remains,
which are then reanimated and mind-controlled by the revenants to bribe Shao Kahn with.
1
She saved Kitana from being a revenant and is working with Outworld's ruler to give the
Edenians protection. Shao Kahn's return throws a spanner into the works, and Sindel and Kitana
have to, depending on who won last time: either help Kotal overthrown Khan and Past Sindel,
or convince Mileena to turn against him through their much stronger relationship. They likely
need to get both to work together to topple Kahn's regime, either way. Kahn is killed
by Kitana and Sindel together, making his defeat a little less baffling.
2
She failed to get through to Kitana, who is now working for Kronika. Past Kitana joins
Present Sindel, while Past Sindel is often seen alongside Present Kitana. They have their
clash, resulting in Present Sindel taking a mortal blow for Past Kitana. The shock of
this snaps Past Sindel out of her trance, which could also lead to the redemption of
Present Kitana. Honouring Sindel's sacrifice, Kitana and whoever was restored by her death
lead the Outworld-Edenian army into battle in the climax.
3
Kitana's slave Sindel is joined by Past Sindel, with both serving the villains' side until
they're confronted by Kitana, who is able to free her Past mother, but may have to put
an end to her Present mother to free her.
Ermac
He just dies in the Krypt. He has a character model and even a new look, so I don't see
why they didn't include him in the scene where Kitana's forces confront Kahn in Chapter 7.
Present Erron Black makes his one appearance here, so I don't see why Ermac and Reptile
couldn't join in as well. Wasted.
As previously stated, Ermac would be one of Mileena's advisers and would join up with
Kitana alongside her. He fights his past self at the arena, perhaps freeing him from Kahn's
control, similar to how Kenshi did the same for him in the first timeline. Or, we could
also use the dual Ermacs idea, with Ermac Kahn trying to take the Ermac souls he's missing
from Past Ermac, which causes all kinds of problems, leading to a merger of all three
Ermacs into one massive collective. He could be the one to kill Kahn, before possibly joining
the final battle as an army of spirits, similar to his Armageddon ending. Though, I'm sure
Netherrealm would just have him get captured by Kronika and his soul siphoned into the
hourglass to power it. I did predict he'd have an unceremonious death, and that's no
more unceremonious a death than what he's actually given the the Krypt. Maybe I'm the
one with psychic powers...
Kung Lao
It's good to see him getting some love again. His rivalry with Liu Kang is pretty much ignored,
but he's oddly the character with the best quips?
Kotal Kahn: "[...]Kitana Kahn."
Kung Lao: "She's now, officially, out of your league."
Not Wasted?
Not much would really change for Kung Lao with my take, other than him being a bit less
prone to overt frustration. Maybe his revenant form is more pissy about his lot in life,
more in line with his Shaolin Monks persona, trying to taunt his younger self about it,
only to be rebuked as immature by his true self.
Kombat Kids
Jin and Takeda are absent. Takeda is planning to marry Jacqui, according to pre-fight dialogue,
but where he is is unclear. Jin now exists as a tool for Netherrealm to show how accepting
Lao is without having to actually write a scene about it. He's also been retconned into
Lao's cousin for some fucking reason. Jacqui and Cassie have slightly more-defined personalities
than last time, though Cassie is still a significantly more serious character in the story than in
pre-fight dialogue. 50% Wasted.
Well, Jin and Takeda would be in the fucking game, for one. Jin has some interesting interactions
with Liu Kang and Kung Lao, who are stunned to see young Jin as a mighty warrior now.
He joins Lao in Chapter 3 and the player chooses between Jin and Lao to fight Revenant Lao,
while the other fights Liu Kang. This then allows us to have True Kung Lao vs Corrupted
Kung Lao, as well as Kung Jin vs his fallen idol. It's shocking that we never got that
in either game. How did this happen? Takeda could help to turn Past Scorpion to the side
of good, and probably joins Jacqui and Jax on their journey to the island, having all
kinds of awkward banter with MKII Jax. And Jacqui and Past Jax get a fight with D'Vorah
as further payback for what she did to Present Jax last time. And they can probably kill
her instead of just letting her get away after murdering Scorpion. Fuck this character. Present
Jax himself is augmented by Kronika even further than in the real game, thanks to his previous
injuries. Maybe a bit more along the lines of Geras. And Cassie... well, I guess she'd
be pretty much the same, honestly.
Liu Kang
It's good that he's the hero again, and his relationship with Kitana gets a little more
focus than usual. But his revenant form has zero personality and the most paper-thin motivation
of all time now. You could replace him with any villain that hates Raiden and bugger all
would change. 50% Wasted.
Liu Kang, having not attempted to kill anyone yet, since Kung Lao's death was prevented,
finds himself conflicted about that here. He worries that this could lead him down the
same dark path that his future self has already gone down. This can go one of two ways:
1
His first kill is his own future self, ensuring an end point to his dark destiny if it cannot
be averted entirely. Kung Lao and Kitana then ask him to do the same to them, should the
opportunity arise, which he is notably more conflicted about.
2
If he doesn't kill his future self, then he is hesitant to kill Kronika, which could then
determine the ending. Instead of losing a round being the criteria that leads to the
not as good ending, failing to perform a Fatality input after the first fight is instead, as
it gives Kronika a chance to recover and get further along with her plan. As Raiden warns
before the fight, Liu Kang has to put aside his own morals and principles for the good
of the universe.
MK1 Raiden
He has some of his competence back, but again, Dark Raiden is wasted, despite being the default
version of him in the game and the marketing. And there's no reconciliation between Dark
Raiden and Revenant Liu Kang. Thew whole thing is just resolved with the past versions who
don't hate each other. The entire arc of the schism between the two characters goes fucking
nowhere! Wasted!
It's hard to say what ruinous consequences the initially darker Raiden might have caused
in his attempt to prevent Armageddon, so let's assume that events played out largely the
same as in the canon, and didn't diverse significantly until MKX. Having joined Shinnok last time,
this Raiden is now on Kronika's side, helping Cetrion to kill the Elder Gods. Naturally,
there's tension between him and his revenant allies, but this version of Raiden actually
has some backbone and tells the revenants straight-up that what he did during the fight
against Shao Kahn was for the greater good, and the realms would be in a much worse situation
if he hadn't done so. So, quite frankly, they are acceptable losses and they can get stuffed.
Kronika bringing MKII Raiden through time does not erase the present version, because
that's fucking stupid. Instead, we have two Raidens. Seeing his future once again changes
his viewpoint; this time with Past Raiden seeing his future as a minion of Shinnok and
Kronika, and vowing to put a stop to himself, because the one thing any version of Raiden
(other than the current one) can agree on, is that Shinnok is evil and has to be stopped.
Being quite pragmatic, he contemplates killing himself to erase his future self, but knowing
that he could have easily come back by then, chooses not to risk removing the good side's
Thunder God without being 100% sure it would do the same for the evil side's. The two Raidens
could merge in the end, becoming an Elder God-level MK1-ish Raiden who is powerful enough
to stop Cetrion and Kronika. He then uses the hourglass to erase all the gods, excluding
Fujin, who is left to watch over the mortals of Earth and keep them safe in a way Raiden
never could.
But one could argue that everyone got 100% wasted, thanks to everyone aside from Raiden,
Liu Kang, and Kitana being erased from existence at the end. And I hear that the game is actually
quite good, but when placed alongside a story this bad, all I can really say is... Mortal
Kombat itself - Fucking Wasted!
Ah, that was nice. I may do something like this again once MK12 comes out. But until
then, I've still got plenty of new topics to cover. Like the Lin Kuei in a six-part
series. And MK11 in a four-part series. And Shao Kahn. And Fujin. And half the rest of
the cast...
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