Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, the show where we discuss the wasted potential
of our favourite plotlines.
I've already spoken at length about how bad the Mortal Kombat franchise, once my favourite
franchise in all media, has gotten since Warner Bros. purchased it back in 2009. "At length"
meaning hour-plus-long critiques of the 2011 reboot and its 2015 sequel, Mortal Kombat
X. In fact, this very episode was originally going to be a part of the latter critique
before I came up with the idea for this show. As such, I don't want to bore you guys by
retreading old ground, but understanding the storyline of the games is important for this
show, so I need to quickly summarise this twenty-five year plotline so we know where
we're up to. And watching those critiques will give a greater understanding of my mindset
going into this one.
Mortal Kombat was initially about a martial arts tournament that would determine the fate
of Earthrealm. If the forces of Outworld won ten straight tournaments, Emperor Shao Kahn
could legally invade. His forces are defeated by the Shaolin Monk, Liu Kang, who then bests
the emperor himself twice - once in a fake tournament and once when he invades via loophole.
The fallen Elder God. Shinnok. attempts to invade Earthrealm in MK4, but is also beaten
by Liu Kang. After the Deadly Alliance and the Dragon King Onaga, the next threat is
the end of all reality in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. To prevent reality from being destroyed, a
lesser god, Argus, sets up a contest for his sons where they must kill the elemental, Blaze,
to obtain ultimate power. Shao Kahn kills Blaze firstand obtains the prize.
This brings us to MK2011, where only Kahn and Earthrealm's protector god, Raiden, are
left standing. On the verge of death, Raiden sends visions and an unnecessarily cryptic
message back in time to his past self during MK1, in the hopes of preventing Kahn's victory
in the new timeline, even though that's not what Armageddon was even about. Raiden's attempts
to work out his future self's plan, ultimately gets most of the heroes killed in a single
scene set during the new version of Kahn's invasion. Raiden is able to work out that
he needs to let Kahn win so that the Elder Gods will intervene and kill him, which doesn't
go over well with Liu Kang, who is then accidentally killed by Raiden. Raiden's plan works and
Kahn is killed, preventing Armageddon from happening, but leaving Earthrealm in a much
weaker state than it was by this point originally. Most notably because Shinnok's enforcer, Quan
Chi has transformed all the dead heroes into his undead slaves, including top tier fighters
like Sub-Zero, Kung Lao and Liu Kang.
This is where MKX begins, retelling Shinnok's invasion, with Raiden and the two remaining
warriors, Sonya Blade and joke character Johnny Cage, bringing in Kenshi and Fujin and struggling
to fight back... for the first chapter before Shinnok is beaten when Johnny pulls previously
unknown power out of his arse, and the invasion is stopped in an afternoon by five people.
Then the story jumps forward twenty or twenty-five years and follows the next generation kids
of the old characters. Quan Chi is attempting to release Shinnok from his imprisonment,
while Outworld is in the middle of a civil war between Kotal Kahn and Mileena. The civil
war is ended thanks to the kids, Kotal Kahn turns out to be a massive prick, and new hero
Cassie Cage defeats Shinnok. The game ends ominously as Raiden is now a dark anti-hero,
and the undead heroes who weren't saved now can't be because Quan Chi is dead.
It's all horribly anti-climactic after four years of expecting the situation to be dire
for Earthrealm. Again, watch the critique for more detail on all the other ways in which
the game fails. But here, let's move on to the re-imagining.
My main issue with MKX's premise, in theory, is not the Tekken 3-style timeskip that ruined
SoulCalibur's storyline (hint, hint), but rather, that the previous game actually did
set up a fascinating starting point for its sequel that was utterly wasted. As horrendous
as it was for anyone with taste, when Sindel walked into the room and systematically slaughtered
all the heroes as they stupidly engaged her one-on-one in hand-to-hand, what it sets up
is the highest stakes the series has seen since Armageddon. Raiden's actions leave Earthrealm
in a seemingly unwinnable situation where MK4 still happens, but with most of Earthrealm's
side from the old timeline, as well as a bunch of characters who weren't involved in MK4
originally, now being on Shinnok's side, forcing Raiden to seek new allies where he can after
being left with two people. You have to admit, there's a lot of potential for a really thrilling
story here about Earthrealm desperately struggling to fight off an enemy whose forces grow larger
with every victory they claim thanks to their necromancy. But to properly explore this setup,
we need to drop the next generation premise entirely, and make MK4's events span the entire
story, rather than just a single chapter of four fights.
In the game, Shinnok waits two years before making his move, despite Earthrealm being
on the brink of ruin after Kahn's invasion. My version begins only a few months after
the last game. Earthrealm is still recovering from the last invasion when Shinnok begins
his, having been released earlier and stepped up his plans due to having significantly more
support than in the original timeline.
During this time, Raiden has been travelling Earthrealm to forge alliances, while Sonya
prepared the Special Forces and Johnny trained with the Shaolin under Master Bo' Rai Cho.
Through Raiden's remaining visions and their combined efforts, they pull in Earth's other
lesser gods and various Earth-born warriors, good or evil, such as Kenshi, Kai, Shujinko,
Frost, Kira, Kobra and even the Red Dragon clan, none of whom want to see Shinnok conquer
Earthrealm - though Red Dragon founder Daegon's allegiance is likely to change if things go
poorly. Earth's forces are ready to make a stand against Shinnok's forces as they enter
Earthrealm through a massive portal, featuring Shinnok, Quan Chi, Scorpion, Tanya, Reiko,
Moloch, Drahmin and the ten revenants.
Needless to say, even with their new allies, the Earthrealmers are outnumbered and the
fight doesn't go well. We see unpopular characters like Mavado and Hsu Hao given a second chance
to impress fans instead of being casually tossed aside in the comic, but also possibly
dying in service to their homeworld. Raiden is left with the realisation that Earthrealm
cannot do this alone. Fujin and Bo' Rai Cho convince Raiden to take his best fighters
and flee to other realms to forge further alliances while they remain with the rest
of Earth's armies to keep up the fight with Shinnok. Yes, this is sounding an awful lot
like Mass Effect 3, but that's really what they were setting up before doing the next
gen thing instead. Raiden takes Johnny, Sonya, Kenshi, Shujinko and Kai with him through
a portal and he lays out the plan: split into two groups led by himself and Sonya, to travel
to two other realms to form alliances. Sonya leads Johnny and Kai (mentored by Johnny here,
instead of Liu Kang) to Outworld, where the civil war is taking place; while Raiden takes
Kenshi and Shujinko to Orderrealm where similar events are playing out, as seen in MK Deception.
Kotal is willing to help, but there's nothing he can do while Outworld remains divided.
He promises that if Sonya's team assists him in defeating Mileena and claiming the throne,
he will personally lead his armies into battle with Shinnok. Sonya agrees to his terms and
their side of the story deals with battles against most of the established Outworld cast
who are on Mileena's side. The Black Dragon clan are also involved, secretly selling weapons
to both sides.
In Orderrealm, Raiden has to deal with both the civil war between the rebels and establishment,
as well as their longstanding rivalry with Chaosrealm, bringing Havik into the fray as
a wildcard. Raiden spends time assessing the conflict and judging who best to side with.
Through the return to the Order and Chaos realms, last properly seen in Deception, we're
able to reestablish this side of the MK Universe for newer fans, while providing fanservice
for older fans who liked those elements, and making a few adjustments to make them more
palatable for those who didn't. As it currently stands, these realms have been largely ignored
for a solid decade.
In each realm they travel to, revenants and other followers of Shinnok arrive to support
the other sides in each conflict to gain them as allies against Raiden, whom Shinnok views
as the greatest threat to his rule. In time, allies are gained, revenants are restored,
enemy factions are defeated and Raiden finally has a force large enough to go back to reclaim
Earthrealm.
The return is not a triumphant one, as Shinnok has conquered most of the realm, leaving only
a handful of notable warriors left with Bo' and Fujin. Those that have been killed by
Shinnok's forces are now also revenants, making things all the bleaker for Earthrealm. By
this point, most of the heroes from MK2011 have been restored or killed for good, but
Liu Kang is among those that remain, standing faithfully at Shinnok's side, fuelled by his
utter contempt for Raiden. The heroes assault Raiden's Sky Temple, which Shinnok has chosen
as the seat of his power in Earthrealm (but with none of those Jinsei retcons from MKX).
Raiden manages to defeat Shinnok and Liu Kang, and through some means, sacrifices himself
to restore the humanity of Liu Kang and the other remaining heroes, apologising to them
before he dies. Shinnok revives in his demon form for the final fight, which sees Liu Kang
restore his position as the hero of Earthrealm, and honour the sacrifice of his fallen mentor
by destroying Shinnok once and for all.
Throughout all this, we get to see events from the perspectives of other characters
and develop them some more, instead of just following two groups with less than half the
roster being playable. We follow Mileena as she attempts desperately to cling to the old
status quo since without Shao Kahn or Kitana in her life, she has no real sense of self
as her entire purpose in existing was to serve her emperor and eventually replace her genetic
template. Baraka is still loyal, naturally. Meanwhile, Ermac, Skarlet and Meat understand
her existential crisis, being creations of Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung themselves, joining
her willingly after Ermac's free will is restored by Kenshi, as in the old timeline. Mileena
survives the story and begins to forge her own identity, possibly eventually becoming
Kitana's ally. Trust me, I've got a lot more to say about this mishandled character...
And many others too...
We see the Orderrealm civil war from both sides, and Havik manipulating those involved
in order to perpetuate it.
We see a group of revenants defeating warriors in each realm they travel to to build bonds
with the other factions. As they start being freed, they turn their attention towards freeing
the others; most notably Sindel making things right by restoring her daughter, Kitana, and
Kitana's best friend, Jade.
The Elder Gods have pulled the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han, from the soulnado that seemingly killed
him last time and cleansed him of Quan Chi's control, leaving him somewhere between his
Noob Saibot and Sub-Zero forms in terms of ability, with a black ice power like he had
in some... other video series. He becomes the new champion of the Elder Gods, mirroring
his nemesis Scorpion's role in Deception. Bi-Han's primary concern is saving his brother
from Quan Chi's hold; making this the inverted reflection of the two brothers' roles in Deception
and Armageddon that I always wanted to see. To that end, he confronts his old nemesis,
revealing that it was Quan Chi, not Sub-Zero, that wiped out Scorpion's family and clan,
turning him into a temporary ally. Through their alliance, the two undead nemeses are
able to achieve redemption in freeing Smoke (creating an inverted parallel of Noob-Smoke)
and then the younger Sub-Zero, before killing Quan Chi. Kuai Liang remains a cyborg, leaving
us with no standard Sub-Zero, until a new cryomancer is introduced in the sequel, rather
than backpedalling and making Kuai Liang human again
During the epilogue, Bi-Han, Kuai Liang, Scorpion and Smoke unite to destroy the cyberised Lin
Kuei, killing Sektor, restoring Cyrax and creating a new clan to defend Earthrealm.
But unbeknowst to them, their actions have unleashed Sektor's ultimate backup weapon:
Triborg.
There are other setups for the sequel (maybe even the return of Onaga), but we ultimately
end on a brighter note with Liu Kang marrying Kitana, Sindel abdicating the throne of the
newly restored Edenia for the next generation to take over, and/or Liu Kang becoming the
new protector god of Earthrealm. Some other heroes get together, patch up old relationships,
find redemption and pay homage to Raiden's sacrifice. Maybe have a mid-credits scene
to set up Dark Raiden as a threat for the next game, done.
"In my realm, Liu Kang and Kitana rule Edenia."
"In mine, they govern the Netherrealm."
"Whose incompetence led to this folly?"
Now, I'd never say my alternate takes are ideal - I'm sure there's a lot that could
be improved - but this is a scenario that pays tribute to the franchise's history and
legacy (both largely absent in the actual game); gives some payoff to a whole bunch
of character storylines and takes advantage of the incredible potential they've been given
over the years; and has more variety in stages, playable characters, perspectives, and fight
setups than the limited locations, mostly unplayable cast, and pointless filler fights
that every Netherrealm story mode has been restrained by since 2008.
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