Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, the show where we discuss the wasted potential
of our favourite plotlines.
Sareena is a character with an interesting history. Originating as a boss in a spin-off
game, she then made her way into the core fighting series in the second part of the
GBA port of Deadly Alliance, which then qualified her for a spot on Armageddon's roster, even
making it in ahead of Motaro and the two Chameleons. Clearly, the fans liked her for all this to
happen, but she's been shockingly underutilised, despite being one of the characters with the
most obvious story roles in the series.
In MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero, Sareena is one of Quan Chi's three assassins from the Brotherhood
of Shadows, that try to kill Sub-Zero in the Netherrealm. Like with Scorpion, Sub-Zero
has the option to kill her after defeating her. Refusing to do so results in her helping
in the fight with Quan Chi later; after which, she is seemingly killed by Shinnok.
She made a surprise return in Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition, the second half of Deadly
Alliance's GBA port, which had room for Sareena, Noob and Sektor on the roster. Evidently,
there was some kind of Lin Kuei agenda going on. That's disgusting, giving some characters
preferential treatment because of their ties to the Lin Kuei. Who even does that? We learn
in her ending that she encountered the younger Sub-Zero in Outworld during the game. Even
though that's clearly the exterior of the Lin Kuei Temple. In Earthrealm. She tells
him who she is, and since he's heard about her from his brother, he feels indebted to
her for helping Bi-Han, and offers her asylum with the Lin Kuei. It's suggested that this
may come back to bite him, but it never does.
With Deception revealing that Sub-Zero didn't return home after Deadly Alliance, we can
assume Sareena joined him after the former instead. Armageddon takes place soon after,
and Sareena is absent from Noob and Smoke's attack on the Lin Kuei. Instead, she shows
up in the Red Dragon base, serving Quan Chi alongside Kia and Jataaka again. It's as if
whoever wrote the Konquest story didn't know about the Tournament Edition stuff and was
just given a list of characters they could use, and upon seeing Sareena's name, they
just shrugged and put her in alongside the other two. That, or this was a taste of things
to come in the Netherrealm Era, as they just wanted a fight against all three and didn't
care if it made sense with the canon.
She was one of the very few characters to receive an online bio, because I guess the
team actually cared about filling in plot holes and fixing continuity issues back then.
It turns out that she and Sub-Zero were attacked by Noob and Smoke, she was reverted to her
true demon form, Sub-Zero didn't recognise her and chased her off, and she was found
by Quan Chi and brainwashed back into his service. Presumably the fight with Taven knocks
some sense into her, as both her bio kard video and her ending depict her as a good
guy.
In the second timeline, Sareena first appears in MKX, helping the Special Forces to lay
an ambush for Quan Chi. After being beaten by Kitana and saved by Jax, she stays behind
while Jax goes after Quan Chi. And then, they had her show up in Kabal's MK11 ending, where
the two get together, despite having never met before. Not even Bi-Han's; Kabal's. ...Pardon
me, but, the fuck?
Clearly, she's been severely underutilised in both timelines because they have no idea
what to even do with her. So, people who think I see the Midway Era as perfect can shut up
now, because this episode will be mostly focused there, while also addressing the Netherrealm
Era's missed opportunities.
Luke: "Are you happy?"
Obi Wan: "I've never been happy."
Sareena didn't die in Mythologies; merely lost her human form and reverted to her true
demonic form, according to her Tournament Edition bio. She was stuck in a lower plane
of the Netherrealm until she found a portal out and then regained her human form thanks
to Outworld magics. Soon after, she just randomly stumbled upon the younger brother of the man
who spared her, by completely chance. Considering her connections to both Bi-Han and the Brotherhood,
and how her meeting with Kuai Liang must have been moved to after Deception, the game that
established Noob Saibot as Bi-Han indoctrinated into the Brotherhood, you'd think these plot
threads would have been tied together somehow.
We never did learn when and how Kuai Liang discovered the truth about Noob. We learned
about it via Noob-Smoke's ending, which is non-canon, as the two murder Kuai Liang. He
just randomly knows in Armageddon's Konquest mode and it's not like it's suggested that
Bi-Han told him right before Taven walked in the door. Presumably, we're supposed to
accept the semi-canonical Shaolin Monks' claim that he found out during MKII, but that's
stupid and dumb, so I refuse.
Imagine if Sareena stayed in the Netherrealm as long as she did, partly to learn what became
of Bi-Han's soul after his death in the tournament. Once she knows the truth and has regained
her human form, she heads to Earthrealm specifically to inform Kuai Liang, hoping he can help.
After her skimpy attire nearly gets her killed in the Arctik weather, thereby justifying
MK11's design ethos, she is saved by Kuai Liang, who takes her to the temple to recover.
She explains who she is and what fate has befallen Bi-Han.
She feels indebted to Bi-Han for sparing her and showing her that there was a way to escape
Quan Chi's service, while Kuai Liang feels that he is indebted to her for helping his
brother to defeat Quan Chi. He takes her in and she joins the Lin Kuei, getting a snazzy
new outfit in the process.
Here, I need to go on a little tangent, because this has bugged me for so long: Why does Sareena
still have the Brotherhood symbol on her costume? Even the new one she got in Tournament Edition
still has it. The tattoo I get, though having her burn it off would be a cool moment to
show her conviction. But by the time she meets Kuai Liang, she has been officially exiled
from the group for twelve years. And by MKX, it's been twenty-four or twenty-nine. Why
is it still there? Her outfit should have:
A. A pale remnant of the stitching she's taken out.
B. Frayed remains of the torn-off flap.
Or C. A new symbol, like the Lin Kuei's.
And while I'm here, I also want to ask: why does Sareena's hair keep changing? She has
this distinctive grey streak on the left side in Mythologies. Then, it moves to the right
in Tournament Edition. It stays that way in Armageddon, regardless of costume. And then,
it jumps back to the left in MKX and 11. It's like the constant unexplained eye colour changes
in... fucking everyone.
God, this is dumb.
Anyway, I'd actually move her meeting with Kuai Liang to before Deadly Alliance, with
him wanting to lead his clan to fight the Brotherhood and save his brother, only for
the titular alliance to come along and force him to postpone his plans in order to go to
Outworld instead. Duty must come before family, after all, as I'll discuss in a later episode.
Sareena stays behind to recover.
After Deception, he comes back, deals with Frost and soon finds the clan under attack
from Noob and Smoke. Sareena is defeated by Bi-Han while trying to get through to him,
possibly ending up briefly corrupted to fight Taven and Kuai Liang. Either way, she is part
of Kuai Liang's attempts to restore Bi-Han to his old self. Considering that Kuai Liang's
brother and best friend were paired up in their corrupted forms, you'd think they'd
have Sareena, who also has an interest in Bi-Han's former self, likewise join Kuai Liang
as a duo. At the very least, it would be a much better concept for her ending than turning
her into a cryomancer. With that timeline concluding, she could die in Armageddon by
Noob's hand, as a dark parallel to their original encounter.
Then, in MKX, I see the same setup playing out, aside from her telling Kuai Liang about
Bi-Han, since he learns that himself during the invasion. Instead, with Bi-Han supposedly
dead and the whereabouts of his soul unknown, she tries to repay him by saving his brother
from his similar fate. She approaches the Special Forces and gives them valuable intel
on Quan Chi's strongholds. This only needs a line or two of acknowledgement, like if
Sonya opens the flashback in her chapter by saying that it looks like Sareena's intel
was good, rather than the weirdly out-of-place banter she and Johnny have there.
Having somewhat succeeded in this timeline, she joins Kuai Liang's new Lin Kuei, appearing
with him in Chapter 3. She then helps the SF in the Netherrealm, with a line saying
that Sub-Zero sent her to aid them. She is then seen with the Lin Kuei forces that show
up to fight off the Outworlders. She can also appear in MK11, joining Kuai Liang at the
Cyber Lin Kuei factory in place of Scorpion, possibly alongside Frost. She has a unique
conversation with Noob and, assuming we're keeping the character chapter system that
prevented Sub-Zero from making any progress in his battles with Noob, Frost and Sektor,
she and Kuai Liang later face off with Noob in a cutscene on the ship, where he is finally
defeated. Hell, since it's Raiden's chapter, he could even fight Noob himself, feeling
responsible for Bi-Han's corruption because he sent him to the Netherrealm back in Mythologies,
and then failed to adequately motivate Scorpion to not kill him. Raiden then promises them
that he will try to give Bi-Han a better fate through the hourglass.
Even removed from the Brotherhood and Sub-Zero story, though, there's a potential story dynamic
with Ashrah - a demon seeking to escape the Netherrealm by purifying herself through the
slaying of demons, such as Noob. Maybe this could lead her into conflict with Sareena,
who intervenes to save Bi-Han, but comes to sympathise with Ashrah's plight. She convinces
her that killing a corrupted human won't do much for her quest, and then mentors her in
finding her own escape from Hell by slaying key demons of the Brotherhood, killing two
birds with one Kriss. But, sadly, Netherrealm is not interested in exploring interesting
parallels, beyond having a cool logo for MK11.
Sareena was a relatively minor character that fans latched onto. But unlike meme characters
like Meat, Hornbuckle or Hsu Hao, fans actually like this character and her story: a demon
who was shown her own goodness by a man who then found himself corrupted by the same dark
forces she once served. And then, she finds herself aided by that same man's younger brother.
It's such a great premise that it's shocking neither Midway nor Netherrealm ever did anything
with it. Seeing her again in MKX was a nice treat, but could we not do more with her story
than an unexplained cameo that progresses a plot she barely seems connect to? Maybe
it's time, once again, for a hero to save her from the dark clutches of the Netherrealm,
if you know what I'm saying.
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She feels indebted to Bi-Han for sp- Fucking hell. Spar- It says "Sparing", and I almost
said "Spanking" cos that's what it looked like to me. Thi-This-This heat, I'm telling
ya. It's getting to me.
Today's recommended video is "Mortal Kombat X Possible Sareena Variations" by Legend X
Ronin. I can always appreciate people being creative with MK, since we've not had that
since 2006, and trying to craft a unique moveset for a character from the style-focused 3D
era is an interesting idea. He's done more of these, including a recent one for MK11
Spawn, so go show this guy some love.