Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, the show where we discuss the wasted potential
of our favourite plotlines.
The return of Frost to the playable roster was inarguably one of the most shocking developments
in MK11. It's always nice to see some proper 3D Era representation outside of MK4 characters
and Kenshi in an era that seems to despise them. But, despite having a full story mode
and pre-fight exchanges to flesh her out, she's no more interesting than she used to
be.
To recap: Frost debuted in Deadly Alliance. She was one of Sub-Zero's recruits in the
new Lin Kuei and she had the same ice powers as him, but not nearly as refined. She joined
him in travelling to Outworld to battle the titular duo, where she took an instant disliking
to Sonya Blade, though I don't think any reason was ever given. Later, while separated from
the others, Frost betrayed Sub-Zero and attempt to seize his Dragon Medallion, the symbol
of the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. The power of the medallion was too much and Frost became
frozen and presumed dead.
Sub-Zero buried her in a tomb dedicated to the cryomancers, an ancient race from Outworld
that both of them are descended from. To my knowledge, this heritage has never once come
up in the current timeline. Unbeknownst to Sub-Zero, however, Frost survived her freezing
and returned to the Lin Kuei temple in MK Unchained. She slaughtered a number of her
former comrades before being frozen again by Sub-Zero until he could figure out what
to do with her. In Armageddon, Taven bungled his way into the temple and freed Frost from
her prison. After a brief skirmish, the disorientated Frost fled and joined the Forces of Darkness
for the final battle.
She made her second timeline debut in the MKX Comic, where she was taking part in underground
cage fights, looking a bit younger than she was ten years prior in the old timeline. She
fought Sonya's daughter Cassie (how clever) and lost. She then showed up at the end of
the series as part of a group hoping to join the Lin Kuei. Shortly thereafter, in a flashback
in MKX, Frost would attempt to disrupt the peace talks between Sub-Zero and Scorpion,
only to be frozen by Sub-Zero. Five years later in the present day, she was nowhere
to be seen.
MK11 reveals that she was excommunicated from the clan for opposing peace with a rival clan
she despises, despite having not been around when the two clans were enemies, and having
had zero interactions with said rival clan herself. What is her problem with the Shirai-Ryu,
exactly? She has no connection to the Shirai-Ryu or the old Lin Kuei, yet she acts like some
sort of conservative extremist. This is what happens when a character is boiled down to
their faction and loses all sense of individuality. She joins up with Kronika and the past Cyber
Lin Kuei under Sektor in order to acquire power so she can... prove herself to Sub-Zero?
She says that Sub-Zero held her back, like she was Anakin Bloody Skywalker, and he or
Scorpion kicks her arse.
She doesn't even go with the rest of the Cyber Lin Kuei to attack the SF base, instead remaining
absent until seven chapters later, where she attacks Raiden, because she desperately wants
his attention, despite her only interaction with him being when he told her about the
Lin Kuei? ...Why? Why does she suddenly want his attention? Raiden fries her brain or something
to take out the Cyber Lin Kuei for good. Her final defeat doesn't come at the hand of Sub-Zero,
her former mentor, because he's already had his chapter.
Frost is just so... petty and pathetic. Originally, she wanted power for its own sake, which combined
with her spiky hair and blue costume really just made her a gender-swapped Vergil without
the backstory to make her interesting.
Frost: "I need more power."
Now, she's desperate to prove herself to others, is vehemently against ending a rivalry she
has zero stake in and is suddenly all about cyberisation. What the hell even is this character?
It's like they wrote this role for Sektor or Triborg, who would try to reclaim the clan
from Sub-Zero and maintain its "purity", but then decided they wanted to bring back Frost
and didn't want to cut such a valuable character as The Kollector to free up space, so they
removed the cyborg and gave his role to Frost instead.
And considering how into the cyberisation she is, it's baffling that she's not nearly
as automated as the male cyber ninjas, looking notably more human. I get that she's undergone
Kronika augmentation instead, but it comes off like those fantasy races that have ugly,
inhuman males, but the females are just attractive women with very few inhuman features. That,
or some anime-inspired Rule 63 Cyber Sub-Zero from deviantArt.
Sub-Zero: "Such wasted potential."
I think you missed out an "L" there, mate.
Frost went from a power-hungry traitorous protégé, to this weird chimera of random
Lin Kuei plot points with no real focus other than being evil. Frost has the potential to
be a really sympathetic character with a really relatable motive, if we give her an ounce
for character beyond "is a dick." So, let's do exactly that.
Go back to her debut as Sub-Zero's apprentice. Maybe she heard about Sub-Zero and sought
him out. Maybe, like in 2011, she was in the Lin Kuei database as a person of interest
during the invasion, and Sub-Zero goes through these files to find candidates for his revival
of the clan. Either way, she joins the Lin Kuei and is given the name Frost.
In gameplay, Frost originally sent ice blasts along the ground, suggesting her powers are
weaker than Sub-Zero's or that she simply cannot control it enough to send a blast through
the air yet. The latter is the case for our story, possibly being unable to cryogenically
freeze people, only freeze them to death. She has the potential to be as powerful as
Sub-Zero, but she has a long way to go to get there. He does his best to train her,
while also training the rest of his initiates, but it's not enough.
She lacks confidence, you see. Every time she sees Sub-Zero perform some incredible
feat with his powers, she feels more and more inadequate. All that really separates the
two is that he has had decades of training and an older brother to learn from to hone
his skills and master his abilities. Frost has had none of that, so she looks utterly
pathetic by comparison. And the gap is only widened by the Dragon Medallion, which enhances
his abilities significantly.
Her rivalry with Sonya comes as a result of her frustration at feeling and being treated
like a rookie. Sonya means nothing by it, of course - Frost is a newbie alongside warriors
with a decade of experience fighting Outworlders - but it sets her off. This, then, is why
Sub-Zero and Frost travel separately from the others; to give Frost time to cool off
and to keep her from jeopardising this important mission. This does nothing for her confidence.
This is what drives her into desperation. She is so desperate to control her abilities
and be seen by her mentor and these legendary heroes of Earthrealm as more than an inexperienced
burden, that she steals Sub-Zero's Dragon Medallion as he sleeps. The Medallion is too
much for her to handle and she is consumed by her own freezing ability.
Sub-Zero is then impacted by Frost's supposed death more than not at all. He failed to adequately
train her, which led to her downfall. Like Obi-Wan with Anakin. He blames himself and
vows to never allow himself to fail another of his students. But Frost lives, awakening
alone in a tomb in Outworld, feeling abandoned by Sub-Zero. Either due to the delirium she
is said to have experienced in her Unchained ending, or simply from being left alone with
her own thoughts as she makes her way back home, her mind slowly turns against Sub-Zero,
blaming him for her lack of progress and vowing to kill him and take his place as a more competent
Grandmaster.
She is offered greater control over her powers by the villains to explain her joining them.
Maybe it's Noob Saibot, the original Sub-Zero, who offers her this control during his assault
on the Lin Kuei. Regardless, she never acquires this control, instead dying in the battle
in Edenia. Using the power of Blaze to restore his brother and help Frost through her numerous
issues would have been a far better ending for Sub-Zero in Armageddon than "becomes an
Ice God that the Elder Gods want to destroy."
In the second timeline, as Frost found the Lin Kuei through Raiden, one can infer that
he had a vision of Frost and sought her out to send her Sub-Zero's way. I mean, when else
would the two have crossed paths? So, let's use that. Raiden sees a vision of Frost's
betrayal and understands its cause. He warns Sub-Zero, who then uses this information to
give Frost the training she so desperately needs. Thanks to this, she can now control
her powers and has the discipline required to serve as Sub-Zero's loyal second-in-command.
If Kuai Liang remains a cyborg upon his resurrection, then Frost can become the new human Sub-Zero.
Regardless, she then shows up alongside her mentor when he comes to aid the Kombat Kids
at the end of MKX. Maybe he sends her along with her fellow successors, having some fun
banter with her Shirai-Ryu counterpart, or she stays to command the Lin Kuei while Sub-Zero
goes with the kids to make their miraculous victory over such foes as Liu Kang a little
less bullshit.
As for MK11, well, Present Frost would be the one to accompany Sub-Zero to the Lin Kuei
factory. Since her MKII-era self would probably be too young, her counterpart would have to
come from the time of the comic, with Kronika offering her control of her powers before
Sub-Zero can. This leads to a clash of the two Frosts, with a twist on the standard dynamic,
where the villain can kill the hero with no negative repercussions, but not vice-versa,
which only Scorpion otherwise has. Maybe Present Frost is captured and cyberised into the new
Cyber Sub-Zero, horrifying Past Frost into defection and helping Sub-Zero to destroy
her future self to spare her from her cruel fate. She is then officially inducted into
the Lin Kuei and receives her future self's old uniform to wear in the final battle against
Kronika to avenge herself.
It really does seem like Netherrealm settled on bringing Frost back for MK11 before they
had any idea what they were even going to do with her. Frost is one of the better-liked
3D Era characters, enough so that she got a couple of cameos and a playable appearance
in the new series, instead of being killed off in some distasteful joke like many of
her contemporaries. But, despite that, she was just given Sektor's motives, a bratty
attitude and a decidedly un-Frost-like new design. As one of the original protégé characters,
she really should have been treated along the same lines as Cassie and friends, instead
of becoming this baffling mess of a character.
And if you need more incentive to make her a good guy in the next go around, I recall
that early on, the two Sub-Zeroes had a sister that was left behind in America with their
mother when their father took the brothers to the Lin Kuei. A lot of fans in the mid-00's
theorised that Frost was that sister. If that idea was followed up on, Kuai Liang's relationship
with his sister could make for a nice contrast to his relationship with his corrupted brother.
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.