I really enjoy Kabal as a good guy. Him being a mole in the Black Dragon is such a good idea, and if the writers didn’t entirely invert his character, he could’ve had some great interactions with other characters like Robocop and Jax and Sonia
I have always said from a writing perspective he is just better jarek he only joined the good guys in 3 for revenge for the attack from the extermination squad he never fully turned good just like jarek the only difference is he came back and did something after his initial appearance
Honestly I don't think there's really a contest there outside of _maybe_ Skarlet, who is/was nowhere as well liked as actual Sindel but whose retcon manages to be stupider and stranger than Twindel even if less damage was done.
The Erron Black alteration you made was just beautiful, Snake. I'm a sucker for cowboys, so I always loved Black's original backstory of a cowboy given eternal life by Shang Tsung's magic.
Its a shame that Black Syndicate couldn't be named something more old western-y akin to the Pinkertons, but I guess "The Blacks" or "The Black Boys/Gang" aren't exactly the most politically acceptable names. lol
Something about a person from the distant past existing in a foreign future, especially with the whole cowboy idea is just insanely interesting to see how they would adapt.
Kabal was basically like NRS’s version of classic Sindel. A good guy who looks like a bad guy but is in fact A GOOD GUY. But now in 11 he’s just a bad guy bc he looks like one.
I loved Erron in MKX. The whole idea of Kotal's Krew was so sick. I've always imagined Erron as some sort of a cold-blooded mercenary that, as the time passes, becomes more friendly towards his colleagues. For example, Erron and Syzoth could actually be friends. Reptile finding not one but a couple of real friends could develop his character. Erron teaching him how to use guns, Kotal thinking of him as an equal. Damn, even Ferra and Torr could be developed. Kotal is like a father figure for them, so why not develop this? Make Ferra and Torr actual children that are trying to survive in Outworld, but end up finding some sort of a family in Kotal's Krew.
@@monsus8153 the funny thing is im pretty sure, all but dvorra, everyone had a genuinely positive opinion of the Kotal Krew, its honestly dissapointing every single one of their plot points will most likely never comr to any meaningful conclusion until maybe mk13 when Empress Mileena may possibly return.
@trontosaurusrex9532 exactly, and I would've enjoyed having the earth realmers actually feel like a team of random warriors having to band together to stop the invasion.
Honestly same but the revenant stuff kinda put a choke hold on the possibility to develop those characters. Woulda loved to see Stryker and Kabal continue that story but I just would have liked Stryker to be involved/playable in general.
It's a totally different timeline, supposed to be and explained by the lore why it's a new timeline. This is not a retcon, retcon is supposed to be something in the likes of "a story that was made but was reaimagined without justifying anything".
Another interesting thing that could be done with Erron to give him a bit more character could be having him be knowledgeable on outworld wildlife and cultures, not enough to be an expert or anything, but enough to show he's been around. He does seem like the wanderer type.
@@aidanfedorochko3728 not neccesarily FULLY lean into it and change his profession. It seems like he handles human/humanoid targets more often, but the idea of him also taking the occasional beast/hunting bounty isn't too far-fetched
@@TCNDRGA Even then, being knowledgeable of that kind of stuff would be kinda necessary in a place as dangerous and culturally mixed up as Outworld if you don't want to get killed
@@rainofkhandaq6678With all the random stuff these character talk about in the intros, might as well bring that out to bring erron some other character quirks here and there.
Aftermath seriously would've been more enjoyable of they just went with 'Sindel's brainwashing was unaffected when they restored her'. Playing her segments in the story just felt unsatisfactory because of that
Nightwolf being a mantle is far worse. The character was special and mysterious. He was a badass. Now it's stupid. Also what they did with Shao Kahn is worse.
5:17 - The fact that you actually half heartedly complimented the Sindel retcon in some form when talking about Skarlet’s honestly really scares me in any context
I mean, retcon sindel isn't a bad character per say, it isn't sindel and they're trying to tell us that she has always been that way (which doesn't even make sense other than being disrespectful). Like he proposed, she could have been a new shao khan's queen who resents edenia and sindel for being in her way to realms domination, and i would totally be down for a new character that is essentially sindel's milena with femdom mommy vibes. They kinda going in that femdom direction with milena made her my fav female mk character, so going the milf step would totally be right on my alley, while staying true to the rest of the lore and even spicing things a bit with the whole rivalry between ex mindcontrolled evil queen vs willingly evil queen.
I’m surprised he didn’t even mention the fact that how much of a forced plot convenience in aftermath and how much stupid character changes needed to be done in order to make her work when aftermath could literally be done without her If you were even basically having mk11 sindel as the acc debut for her in mk series, her character is still fucking inconsistent with herself and is a retarded villain in aftermath, when aftermath basically made her the “d’vorah” of that story mode, getting wins she should not have and being portrayed as some mastermind when her character makes her plan look dumb. Shao Kahn would have still broken out of the prison cell without any assistance if the writers fully respected his capabilities of brawn and brain. Fujin, Shang and nightwolf would have been more than enough to handle cetrion given if fujin’s intro is canon (which most likely is, considering he got sent to the void), the fact that cetrion needed help from frost to beat fujin to try and get him put down, not to mention his original war of him nearly destroying whole of reality against shinnok in the first war is still canon with feats having him able to replicate the energy of the Big Bang. Sheeva, in this timeline, would have not even cared for sindel at that point considering she barely gave a rat’s ass about her in mk9, held her daughter in captivity in mk9 to and has no feelings or remorse about it and she doesn’t even make any comment at all in the comics. She has never got an acc connection at all with sindel this timeline, yet all of a sudden now she cares? Even if sindel was to break out shao Kahn, it would still be a shao Kahn chapter considering if writers had respected his character, shao would betray her before she betrays him as her ending depicts her as completely selfish to herself where she even has shao Kahn as her slave and this could have happened in aftermath, if Shang did not fuck them over in time. Even in dlc leaks before the entire thing was deconfirmed, they had sindel ditch shao Kahn for daegon. She is only in the plot bcoz the other characters are nerfed massively intelligence, powerscaling and have inconsistencies in relationships with each other. Tldr: Sindel in mk11 is a terrible villain, who is quite literally the “d’vorah” of aftermath who has to benefit of other characters getting shitted on and plot points not adding up to even have her be usable
The only Sindel that character resembles is the 1997 mortal combat movie. Which given they brought back the original actor for Tsung to represent? They probably brought her character arc, or lack of it, directly from it's sequel. Minus mind control.
While I disagree about Erron being uninteresting, I genuinely think your idea is great and it even creates a parallel to another fighter: Nightwolf. How come the Native American and the Cowboy never really interacted together, I have no idea, but with your pitch we could create a long-standing rivalry or partnership between Nightwolf's clan and the Black Lineage.
They probably don’t interact because A. Nobody in the writing staff thought to add and dynamics between side characters because they barely matter besides dvorah Or B. The real world archetypes Erron and nightwolf are based on do not have a good history between them and drawing inspiration from that history for interesting character dynamics and good writing at the cost of adding unsavory traits to previously established characters like being racist is a headache netherealm isn’t interested in dealing with should fans or the general public no take kindly to it
Oh, you know exactly why the cowboy and the Native American don't interact with each other. Don't lie, you know exactly why. The same reason why all the women in this game are now dressed as nuns. All of these things have the same root of the problem.
Kabal's retcon is still baffling to me. Netherealm did such a good job making Kabal likable, making his relationships with Stryker and Kano more important than they ever were in Midway, and showing a clear reason as to why he is a good guy in said game. So what does Netherealm decides to do next with him? Retcon his whole story, the story that they specifically made for him.
Out of all the retcons backstories introduced in MK11, the most atrocious is Scarlet and Kabals by far. Scarlet went from a creation of Shao Kahn’s blood pit into a generic “I was poor but then I was discovered by a influential guy now I’m not poor!”. Kabal’s new backstory introduced in 9 actually gave him something that he severely lacked in Midway, a backstory and more pronounced character………which was immediately thrown out the window in 11 where instead of a former Black Dragoon he’s now a crooked cop who works with the BD because “mUh cops are bastards”.
Yeah honestly I hate how they treated Kabal in mk11, he’s easily one of my favorite mk characters and it sucks how he was barely in the game even after they retconned him.
And they did Kabal's the right way. It wasn't a contradictory retcon. He was already a good guy in MK3. And his ending had him become a crime fighting vigilante, the same as Stryker's Armaggedon ending, so you could argue they had some minor (probably coincidental) connections already. So if anything, they were just adding additional details to what already existed, them actually making use of the cinematic story mode. If they wanted past Kabal to fight for Kronika, there are easier ways. But he already very much opposed Kano when he asked him to come back, so it's weird so little before his defection, he's a loyal lapdog. And as far as MK11 is concerned, he was never a good guy to begin with. No one mentions it, not even in intro dialogues. In the story, Cassie just calls him a burn victim.
@@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099With how little he's in the game, why bring him back at all? All it did was ruin the only netherealm story addition I liked, and that's all they accomplished,.his ruination.
@@benjaminmapperson1940 yeah honestly, it sucks too since mk11 is what really got me to notice Kabal, since that game is what led me to seeing how they did him in mk9 which is by far the best version of him. It’s a shame seeing such a unique and underrated character get trashed on and not used when he could have easily had the best character development and moments in mk11 if they just used him. Imagine a chapter where past Kabal finally realizes that he wants to be good and has a redemption arc throughout that chapter and that story. Honestly he had so much potential and it’s a shame to see all of that squandered
Tbh I think that the Skarlet retconn was fine. We have a bunch of created warriors already (Ermac, Mileena, fucking Meat), having someone who is genuinely loyal to Shao Kahn out of her own volition is interesting, it fleshes out Outworld by showing Shao as someone who does more than just waving the hammer around. That said it's true that they then went on to do nothing with the retconn and that the other retconns are pretty bad.
npopular opinion I think but I actually prefer Scarlet story in MK 11. Rather than just being like a creation in the flesh pits which is too similar to Mileena's story being adopted off the streets by Shao Kahn and taught blood magic has the potential to be a super interesting story. She's the only baddie who has a good reason to serve Shao Kahn other than fear because he was the one who literally gave her everything. Giving her a genuinely good reason to obey him and do evil. Unfortunately I don't really think the writers at netherrealm have the inclination to flesh this out or anything and changing it in the first place weirde decision but Will I still think her story has a lot of promise and that's why I like her so much. I do like your version as well and it would have gone a long way to explain the the change in back story.
You could add that maybe Shao Khan knew Skarlet's Father as an Outstanding Edenian Warrior during Edenian's Invasion (as Rain mentioned Skarlet has Edenian's Blood) So Shao Khan already knew her hereditated potential You could also add the Ritual Creation but more of as Symbolic and The Blood Magic was embedded in her body and not that she was literally created from it You can even add the mentioning of Shao Khan being desperate when she was ''created'' causing Shao Khan to put pressure on the ritual and it being hastened resulting in her being Incomplete and her seeking Havik's Teachings is to Complete herself This would also explain both her referring to herself as a byproduct of Magic (as Symbolic) and at the same time her mocking Mileena for being Artificial in the Comics
The only problem would be those 2 Twindel's Interactions but in this Parallel Universe of an Ideal Mortal Kombat Twindel doesn't exist and so neither these 2 interactions
the problem is that there was no fucking explanation for the change at all. And the fact that the MKX comics which is canon just further boggles down the storyline. Even if you do like it, there are still fucking plotholes and absolutely zero consistency
Love how you handed the Skarlet situation; even I was so confused by the retcon that I tried my hand at it. My version had Ruby as the orphan, being a prodigy at blood magic, taken in by Shao Kahn and further made stronger with his help. Then Ruby & Shao combine their magic to create a homunculus who they name Skarlet, as a sort of counter to (at least my version of) Shao & Shang Tsung making Ermac together Ruby dies somewhere in the trilogy and Skarlet continues her legacy, even seeking Blood Magic in the MKX comics
The idea didn't go far but I hated that Skarlet and Rain intro hinting at her being Edenian because most of the female ninjas are already Edenian. To add on that Skarlet told Jade that she wasn't Edenian and the fact that she's shown to dislike Edenians in intros as well. Having Skarlet hate Edenians but then eventually making her Edenian later is a strange decision.
I think the intro you're referring to is Skarlet claiming Jade disliked her because she wasn't Edenian. Which indicates there was a social/class divide between Skarlet & the Edenian characters. This is reinforced with the way Rain(& Kitana) regards her in all their other intros. I don't think she's anti-Edenian in general.
@@misssammy123 i can kinda see it since the og backstory for her was being made from blood of shoa khan enemies which is edenia. i still hate the retcon tho
I’m convinced the whole “corrupt cop” story for Kabal isn’t canon to the game. Several intros (namely “I thought about being a cop once” to Robocop) and Kabals very design (short hair and short ponytail compared to mk9s longer ponytail and hair) contradict the official websites backstory and back the sentiment that it’s just Kabal from the Black Dragon before MK9. The only ingame backing for the website backstory is some gear called “Crooked Cop” or something from what i can find. Still 0 explanation for his superspeed.
Sindels retcon literally turns my stomach, and they had the perfect out too. That damn Banshee spirit thats just left totally unexplained. We could say that the Banshee spirit is the soul of Shao Kahn's ORIGINAL wife that he had placed inside of Sindel to keep the edenians in line, the Banshee however despises Kitana for not being her and Shao's proper heir and attempts to *finish her* as a baby, Sindel wrestling control over her body at the last minute and being left no option decides the only way to protect her daughter from her own hands is to commit Hara Kiri (Atleast its better than attributing her murder to QUAN CHI of all people.) There you can have a genuine villain power couple with proper justification, without tarnishing a legacy hero character. This crap is why I dont want characters like Havik back in the games, because Netherealm will just smooth out ALL the nuance in favor of simple black and white good and bad guys for the sake of appealing to the lowest common denominator.
I think you can have Quan Chi involved too by having him helping Sindel commit suicide So that he can user her Death like he did in the OG Retcon Revenant Sindel would actually be The Banshee Spirit fully taking over Sindel (kinda like how it happened to Smoke) but with her faking to be a Sindel (claiming that her/Sindel has always been Evil) So Banshee saying that Quan Chi killed her would still be correct
@@DoctorMantisTob0ggan On the one hand, I kind of agree with you, on the other hand, I feel that M1K Havik is a little more forgivable than MKX Havik, especially after Noob's MK9 ending implied a very good understanding of the character only for the comic to throw it away. Giving Havik an origin story and hyping him up as a future final boss are not decisions I vibe with, but at least they give the implication of fleshing out Havik's character in future stories (this can be said for many other parts of M1K's story, but most of them are less excusable since they had more time to be developed than Havik and just didn't). M1K feels like it tries (without much success thus far) to do something new with the character, whereas the MKX comic pretends that it's the same character, yet misses his entire point completely.
The Kabal retcon annoyed me soo much, it was pointless and dumb to have two Kabals as antagonists in the story while changing his origin to be a corrupt cop that was bought off 😒
As I try to reconcile all retcons together my explanation for Scarlet is the following: Shao Kahn met Scarlet and taught her blood magic like told in MK11; she took part to the second Mortal Kombat tournament and that's where she's extracted from in the game; however in the unaltered timeline she simply died during the tournament, so Kahn instructed Shang Tsung to create a new Scarlet using the original as a template, and that's how MK9 Skarlet was born. I think it works, but it's sad that we have to retcon the retcons all the time, and either way this makes for a convoluted story (partly because it's not what the writers intended) while it would have been so simple to just keep her MK9 story unaltered and maybe explore her relation to Ermac. I mean he's made of the souls of many victims and she's made of the bodies of those same victims!
Really enjoyed both Erran's and Kabal's backstories you gave them. Black Syndicate and double agent Kabal sound really cool and would help give both characters a lot of much needed development. Sindel has already been talked to death, resurrected, and talked to death again. So pretty much any backstory would be much better than the one they gave her in MK11.
Here's a thing I would add to the Jade and Kotal Kahn being exs idea. So from past Jades pov they should've broken up about a year or 2 ago. That way for us it's still fresh scars but for Kotal old marks. maybe he's more willing to try again since he only looks at the good but Jade remembers why they broke up more than he does.
Another thing they could have done with the Exes angle would be to have past Jade taken from before they broke up. Since present Kotal still remembers why their relationship fell apart, he tries to better himself, and work on the flaws that caused the breakup in the first place. This would fix the issue in MK11 where they try to present Kotal as a noble leader while also ignoring the literal genocide he was trying to accomplish, and why he was so reluctant to help Earthrealm in X, but willing in 11, because he now has someone he wants to protect after failing the first time.
Agreed. I didn’t see the purpose of it other than being added there just to “spice things up”. Unpopular opinion/hot take here….. but I’d rather see Jade and Smoke paired together… they’re both kind of like confidants to Kitana and Sub-Zero. Almost like a right hand man/woman. Maybe even a friendly rivalry dynamic between two confidants…… but that is just wishful thinking on my end…..
It’s weird that the Erron Black retcon doesn’t account for the fact that he probably would’ve been alive when the Black Dragon split from the Red which I think happened sometime during the early 1900’s. Maybe Erron was a member of the Red Dragon, before splitting with the original founders of the Black Dragon. While a Retcon it would be interesting to hear what a founding member of the Black Dragon would have to say about what the group has become in the modern day.
Personally the Kabal retcon has always been more painful for me than sindel I am biased because he’s one of my top 5 mk characters but there are other reasons the fact that he was on the main roster and main story meaning more people were exposed to the evil scumbag version of Kabal than sindel and the fact that he already had a good retcon that worked really well there was so much potential with him being a redeemed black dragon who now had to live with being burnt alive and given super speed could’ve done something with him and strykers friendship which was one of my favourite parts of mk 9 but no instead we get a mavado rip off who is literally just a kano goon istg they seem to be fixing a lot of character issues for mk 1 they better fix Kabal
Lets us pray to the Elder Gods that they do not still see the Titans being above The One Being as a thing for future MK games, when I saw that tweet from Dominic I lost all hope for the future.
Speaking of those guys, i wonder what happens to One Being, Titans, elder Gods etc. Are they aware of time travel changes or Liu Kang just see and know fuckin everything? Can he erase Titans or Elder Gods from existence? Or maybe some things are bound to happen anyway? Will we again see battles against already known foes?
Me, seeing Erron Black and Skarlet in the thumbnail: IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE! TURN IT UP! Post watching those parts: vast improvements, we love Erron being so immediately done with his descendant's shenanigans with the black dragon, then being like "goddammit he had a point-" a little later is so funny to me personally. And Skarlet entering her Flemeth arc is also big fun, but i also have a lil place of love for Flemeth as a character concept in general so im a tad biased. They are part of the better version on the netherrealm games timeline that exists rent free in my mind now, I don't make the rules. ... that was a lot- Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
I didn't mind the Jade and Kotal relationship mostly cause the voice actors had a lot of chemistry together. But I agree that there should have at least been some previous mention of it. There could have been a moment in MKX where someone tells Kotal that he needs to find himself an Empress to rule Outworld with, this prompts him to reminisce of a lost love and would have been a motivation for him to ally with Earthrealm to try to save Jade from the Netherrealm. It would have at least given us more depth into their background before their reunion in MK11.
Mk11 is the first my me and my sister played so we assumed that their loves story was a fan favorite thing with a lot of history. Its so funny watching this video now a few weeks after finishing the campaign
I hate how they just straight up ditched everything set up by MK9 and MKX in favor of wiping the slate clean and retconning the shit out of everything. Sure, MK9 and MKX weren't perfect, but they had a ton of potential and felt like a good balance between new and old. I still think MK9 is one of the best and most creative reboots ever made, but NetherRealm completely erased all the cool directions that storyline could have gone in, and instead just decided to start over from the beginning AGAIN. I'm not exaggerating when I say that MK11 completely destroyed any and all investment I had in this series, and I am not excited for MK1.
I really enjoy playing MK9/10 but it was horrible watching moments like Ermac jobbing to Jacqui even though he was shown in 9 to easily manhandle Jax. He picks up a tree for a pointless reveal instead of using his powers to just kill her and Takeda…because plot. They lose me with all of the plot induced stupidity they give to the evil side when they’re facing clearly inferior opponents.
I think I know the REAL reason why Skarlet got retconned. It was to justify her less skimpy attire. For as much as it could, which isn’t a lot, as shown by this video.
The funny thing is, Skarlet didn't need that retcon. Considering how much MK11 tries to suck up to strong fenale character stereotypes, Skarlet could just have survived the events of the comic unbeknownst to everyone and either with a power boost from Kronika or through personal training for years she is now strong enough to not need to leave her skin exposed. That way, not only NRS can get a less skimpy design, vut now the redesign serves an actual purpose instead of erasing the previous designs from canon.
Erron had the potential to become a staple character, mean he became a fan favourite off of his design alone. Imagine if he had some character. First step to making black actually cool behind just design would be to not treat him like a jobber
Yay Kabal! Edit: Just had to say loved this video, your ideas are amazing and it would be very nice to see in the games. If only NRS had this amount of creativity… 😔
The ONLY thing I liked about MK11 Erron Black was that Johnny mentions to his younger self that the one in the current time is a good guy, working with Kotal and the Earthrealmers. It would’ve made for a great conflict in the story, having an evil past character able to kill their good future self.
His backstory, along with everything about him being a ninja cowboy with centuries of experience under his belt, would make him the most deadliest human in Mortal Kombat.
They didn't exactly change it, they never said he's NOT an immortal cowbly, infact 'young' Erron and 'old' erron seem to be the exact same age which hits that yes, he is still immortal. And working for the black Dragon makes perfect sense, he fits with them perfectly, he's a profit focused mercinary who's allegiance is for hire. And if Erron was black Dragon all along, that means the Black Dragon were playing both sides of the outworld war to make profit, which is such a black dragon thing to do.
@@juliankanzuki2013 Okay I can kinda agree with you except for the fact that in MKX, Erron states numerous times that he can't stand the Black Dragon and will never join them. That's a retcon and a half
@@Quick_footy1 Or Erron generally can't stand them, but still works with them for profit, dosen't mean you like the people you work with. Also that could be an inside joke.
Salazar is actually on a mkx poster i have i knew “salazar” was connected to erron black somehow but i didnt know it was his old concept. Cool fact snake!!!
It always annoyed me how aside from Raiden hinting Kabal's heroric side in one intro "In some timelines you were a hero." NO ONE ELSE who knew Kabal back when he was alive ever tries to persuade him! I mean aren't all the MK Kontestants from the past taken during MK9 before they died? Why are they NOT trying to persuade Kabal to ditch the Black Dragon?! Like do they seriously hold NO attatchment to the guy?! It feels like the writers didn't know anything about Kabal and was only told "Oh this is past Kabal, he's a Black Dragon thug." and that is it, wasn't told he would become a good guy by MK9's sotry. But I think the most annoying thing regarding lack of character relationships. What I mean is how NO ONE is holding Scorpion responcible for leaving the others trapped as revenants, Scorpion never admits "I let my vengeance consume me, by the time I realized what I have done it was too late..." and no one else calls him out for it! No one goes "Oh thanks to you, my friends are trapped as evil mindless revenants!" they just act all buddy buddy to him like as if he didn't do anything wrong! WHERE ARE THE CONSQEUENCES?! That should have burned bridges between them! Heck when Raiden calls out on past Scorpion for "Hey in the past I tried to warn you to spare Bi-Han but failed!" I expected him to be like "Meanwhile your future self left Liu Kang and the others as revenants because of the same reason, your vengeance blinded you!" but nope, that didn't happen.
MK has a insane amount of wasted potential, i get amazed of how all of the great ideas for the MK history are wasted due to NRS' garbage writing with each wasted plotential vid.
Personally I loved old Erron, if he wasn't a jobber at least. Cool voice, design and he was loyal. I like his backstory too. He has a Boba mystique where we get little but what we do get is cool. Also cool Dragon Age reference! Slight difference, Flemeth doesn't force control on her daughters, at least she claims not to but in the circumstances, why lie? I love that scene because it's a surprisingly tender moment for a ruthless character.
The "Erron Black" being an inherited title passed from father to son reminds me of the old pulp/comic hero The Phantom. I'm with you; the retcon with Skarlet doesn't make sense the instant Shao is her means of learning blood magic. If he'd seen Skarlet doing blood magic without having any training; him taking her in would make more sense given that she could become an asset to him that way. Doing it out of a random whim doesn't fit with Shao's nature shown thus far.
I do like the Netherealm plot in general, but there are some stuff that bugs me For once, Shujinko is one of my favorite characters. His story on Deception is amazing, and he proves to be one of the strongerst worriors ever!.... until the only Cameo he has on netherealm era is on Cassie Cage Ending where she beats the crap outta him and killls him because she mistook him for Shang Tsung. Shujinko, the guy who spend an ENTIRE LIFETIME training and defeating the strongest warriors, including Onaga... defeated by a teenager brat. I know that these events didn't happen on the new timeline, but still, it's so frustrating to see such an amazing character to be treated like that..
Honestly, considering that his story happens way before the first MK1 game, that still gives Shujinko a good amount of time to get skilled and absorb a lot of powers. That, and its shown in the Konquest mode that he can also absorb abilities and skills in an actual fight when he 'trains' with Havik so with all the abilities he'd logically have at that point, with the fact that he'd slowly start absorbing Cassie's skills, there is no way she should be able to kill him unless she sniped him because he should be a way better fighter, and start to absorb her fighting skills during the fight.
That Erron black route is a really good idea. I always hated the Jade and Kotal romance since it comes out of fucking no where and makes no sense. It also doesn't help that Kotal is a unlikable dick through the games. Its insane how inconsistent NRS is. Even If you just count 9,10 and 11 it shows they can barely remember things.
Another good way to salvage Scarlet's retcon is that she is still the same Scarlet from MK9 being a secret weapon made in the Flesh Pitts. However her great power worried Shao Kahn so, he came up with the whole MK11 background as fake memories given to her by Shang Tsung. Dialogue would still be the only issue. Also to salvage the Jade/Kotal relationship, they could have been secret lovers. They lived under the rule of Shao Kahn who if discovered would have viewed their love as weakness and killed them both for it. As for why Kotal never mentions it, he probably had to put aside his grief and bottle up his emotions a the new ruler of Outworld eventually getting passed it and viewing the revenant Jade as a lost cause. I also have a decent way Sindel's retcon could fit within two words, Shang Tsung. He suggested to resurrect Sindel, using Soul Chamber, and used his magic to resurrect her. I know she said in game she was not being mind controlled. But you'd think that if your memories (backstory) was rewritten by a deceptive sorcerer.
Or why he had shorter hair than when he was a policeman in MK9 :) ? Or why he is with Sareena in his ending? I was quite hyped about Kabal return and then i was like "look how they massacred my boy"...
They should have brought Bi Han back from the past as Sub-Zero. Then you have him interact with his future self Noob (have him be horrified or pleased with his fate), a reformed Hanzo and Hanzo's partnership with his younger brother.
I’m honestly pretty sus about how they’re gonna handle the story in the new game. I know MK has never been Shakespearian level of storytelling lol but this constant retconning and rewriting of the characters and their stories hasn’t exactly inspired much confidence in me.
The Erron and Kabal retcons pissed me off so much Your ideas are so much better, and I hope to God if either of them appear as main roster in MK1(2) that they're retconned back to something similar to their respective MK10 and MK9 backstory
I can't help but also notice another potential issue with those retconned backstories: all the things that change in the story just to make them work or not draw attention on the fact that they changed the original backstory. Erron: Erron is no longer an immortal cowboy, so his past and present self don't interract, his present self is just a cameo in the main story, his past self is non-existent in the Aftermath expansion and Present Erron has nothing to say when being face-to-face with his former employer and a native American. In fact, I don't think it's too unreasonable to assume that Kotal's squad being absent was done so that the retcon wouldn't be too obvious. Kotal and Jade: Because apparently NRS felt Kotal needed to be directly linked with a pre-established character in order to be liked by the fans, they decided that him and pre-established character Jade are an item, despite Kotal already having already a pre-established relationship with the pre-established, and arguably more popular than Jade, character Reptile, but I guess bringing back Kotal's pre-established best friend would make his newly-established lover stick out like a sore thumb even harder. Also, bringing back Kotal's squad would also make the "plot twist" of "Oh, No, KoTaL iSn'T aS nObLe As We ThOuGhT" more obvious, despite the fact that we already knew that by the end of MKX. This game sometimes really feels like it was made more witg the casuals in-mibd rather than the fans. AND IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE END OF A TRIIIIIILOGY!!! As in, multiple installments that would probably require you ti be a fan in order to get what is going on right now! Sindel: Ermac, who's MK9 ending shows him being happily married to Sindel as king Jerrod, is now absent in the game where Sindel is "revealed" to have always been a bad guy. Let's be real, if Ermac was around when this happened, his mere association with his MK9 ending would make it impossible for most likely anyone to buy the Twindel twist. Also, Shao Kahn is being characterized as this "loyal family man" in order for it to make sense as to why Sindel wouldn't commit suicide and perhaps to explain this line in MK9: "Have you ever wondering why your wife ended her own life and created a protective field around Earthrealm?" "I thought of it for millenia, but her motives escape me." Also, Sindel has literally nothing to say to any of the other Revenants who she spent 27 years working with. Kabal: How convinient for past Kabal that his future partner wasn't in the game and that the Sonya he fights is the one from the past who couldn't possibly know that he left the Black Dragon and died a hero, otherwise the contradictions in his backstory would severely confuse him. Also the retcon thay dialog exchange between Sonya and Cassie: "Kabal? Isn't he just one of Kano's goons?" "Watch out. He is fast on his feet." This dialog exchange implies that the only thing Sonya cared about was that Kabal was a former Black Dragon (which I'm not sure how she found out to begin with) and she and Cassie straight up told the audience that nothing else about Kabal matters, so NRS basically said to everyone who liked the MK9 Kabal retcon that was made by NRS to go and screw themselves, because MK needs to be as black and white as it can possibly be! You see, NRS needs to appeal to casuals and newcomers in the third installment of the newest trilogy right before a second in-universe reboot. Their tactic makes sooooo much sense, you see. And also, Kabal's treatment is very similar to the rest of the Revebants being treated as lost causes or inferior versions to the "super cool and awesome" MK2 versions of those characters (oh, they are from MK9, but from the MK2 portion of MK9, and some of the designs are even meant to resemble MK2 and the original trilogy more than MK9) who beat them and mock them in every fight and the Revenants receive no sympathy from anyone aside from Fire God Liu Kang and Raiden, which btw only applies to Revenant Liu Kang and Kitana and all the rest can just go and screw themselves I guess, and they talk with the most generically evil and/or contradictory statements ever, so as no one will feel sympathy for them in or out-of-universe. And Kabal's intros and ending aren't any better, because at no point does Kabal talk about Stryker or Sub-Zero talks to Kabal about BEING SAVED BY HIM BACK IN MK9, all the while one of his intros with Jade (an intro that btw presents him as a scumbag on Kano's level) tries to make it work with MK9 (which, come to think of it, Sonya telling Kabal "Don't believe everything you hear." and not elaborating on that seems to try to do the same thing) by saying that he is no longer working for the NYPD and considering how this perfectly healthy Kabal is meant to be from THIS timeline's past and had no time to fully recover from his wounds and leave the good guys in the spam of several hours from him gettimg burnt to him dying. And his ending depicrs him having killed Kano, Kintaro and Sonya and supposedly he found out who truly burnt and seems to have no regrets for killing Sonya for no reason and that ending seems to imply that him receiving his burns happened exactly how we remember it in MK9, yet Sonya being dead seems to imply that his MK11 backstory is still valid. Also, the ending doesn't make it clear if it is past or future Kabal, probably so as it to make it easier to accept the newer backstory by hinting that it somehow applies to the first version. In the replies there will eventually be a continuation that describes another issue with those retcons.
And here is another issue with those retcons; they limit the world-building and scope of the MK universe. Erron: In MKX, Kotal's squad was comprised by a bunch of vastly different individials, equal amounts of old and new, all with their own quirks and specialties and each one offering a different part of the world, a different motivation, a different playstyle and a different aesthetic. We have a red ninja mummy long-range flying fighter who only wishes for the better of Outworld, a melee lizard-man, the last of his race, who serves out of loyalty and devotion to his friend, a two-fighters-in-one grappler who both serve oit of gratitude for being saved and an immortal zoner cowboy who has seen a lot and serves just for the money, all following an Aztec god who wishes the best for Outworld through any means deemed necessary. It's wacky, it's colourful and it feels full of potential for great storytelling or even just cool sequences. Each member has their story behind them to tell and each member adds something to the setting. Ermac is the result of Shao Kahn's multiple conquests, Reptile is the remnants of an ancient civilization doomed by all the constant battles in the MK world, Ferra/Torr are the result of Kotal's rise to power and Erron Black is the result of Outworld's centuries-long endeavours against Earthrealm. In Erron's design you can see both his Earthrealm heritage, but also how much he changed after all his time in Outworld, and through his introduction and intro dialogs he comes across as a man who follows whoever he wishes and has his own agenda and rules on how things get done. Then comes MK11 and now Erron is just a Kano goon with no allegiance or rules of his own and no skills or experience to stand out from any other Earthrealm fighter, so I guess the Wild West and the impact Outworld had on Earthrealm outside of the Mortal Kombat tournaments and before the Outworld invasion is just gone. Shang Tsung also loses another magic and manipulation feat of his. Hilariously enough, the Erron retcon doesn't serve any actual purpose in the narrative as well, because past Erron was employed by Shang Tsung, this by Shao Kahn as well, so he was already working for the bad guys, but the team decided to retcon him in order to be more closely connected to a classic character, despite already being linked to two classic and much more iconic characters. Nightwolf: Surprisingly enough, this one has quite some positives. It makes Nightwolf's overall involvements in the series make more sense and feel less contrived and just for the sake of the plot, since it now feels much more fitting for Raiden to be aware of an entire lineage of Nightwolves and have more of a reason to ask for Nightwolf's involvement in MK3 and MK9, since after multiple generations of Nightwolves he now knows what they are capable of. It also opens more world-building potential for exploration of the Matoka pride and it's history and adds to Nightwolf's implied mystique backstory and lore, plus, the implication of Nightwolves being aware of Mortal Kombat brings to the table some of the impact the Mortal Kombat tournaments had on Earthrealm and even somewhat explains the Matoka's more traditional and old-fashioned way of life, since they still hold on to traditions like the Nightwolf mantle. It even allows more influence of actual traditions of real-life Native American tribes to be acknowledged and used in future installments going forward in creative ways, which has always been in MK's heart, representing muktiple cultures and multiple groups of people at the same time. It even allows more chances for unique characterizations in present and future and even past Nightwolves. It even adds more depth to Nightwolf's confrontation with Scorpion in MK9 and some more tragedy to his death and corruption. There is also Kano's involvement, which on the one hand, adds to Kano's cunning and the Black Dragon's reach and influence and allows more unique character pairings, but on the other hand, really? Kano is linked to that too? What is it with this guy being involved with storylines he was never involved with before? And using skills he never had before? And being turned into a mastermind? A mastermind that is defeated because of his own hubris? And by Sonya? In MKX? And ke killed people a character in MK1 all the way back in 1992 cared about? With plans to kill Shang Tsung? And being bald? With the similar samey designs? The same designs that get progressively more revealing by the next game? And he is played by Richard Divizio? And he was taken out with a single suckerpunch from Jax that one time? And Jax only showed up for like that one part of the story? And was a main threat in a spin-off game around MK4's time that against a character he isn't that associated with nowadays? Snake, Quan Chi and Kano parallel plots when? Skarlet: Now that Skarlet is a product of the Flesh Pits no more, I guess the Flesh Pits now only have the imperfect clone and the incomplete meatbag to show for themselves, both of whom are not only less impressive and less successful than the blood-bending blood-sucking assassin, but both are also way less disturbing by design, meaning that the Flesh Pits have lost even more of the presense in the story and creepy factor. Also Shao Kahn now lost one of his better big brain moves in MK9, that being having Skarlet as his ace in the hole to uncover any alterior motives Quan Chi had, as well as one of his most impressive skill feats, since he now is no longer the one who created her. To be fair, him adopting Skarlet does give us a bit of an idea of the poverty in Outworld during Kahn's rule and enforces a bit of an idea of a more sympathetic, for a lack of a better word, side to Shao, that somewhat existed since Shao's earlier days or a big brain strategic move on his part, according to one of his intros with Skarlet, which could imply another manipulation feat from Kahn, as well as giving Kahn the ability of blood magic (and the plot hole of why he never used it before), so it's not all bad. Sindel: In terms of somewhat positives, this retcon kinda reenforces tgat aforementioned more sympathetic part of Shao Kahn, whether ecploring that aspect of Shao Kahn was for the better or the worse is a subject for another day, but it undoubtedly exploration of a pre-established hinted world-building idea. Also, tge idea of Edenia having a corrupted gold-digging government is actually not a bad world-building idea. Now for the negatives, Shao Kahn's feat of killing Jerrod is now gone, so as a part of his evil impact on Edenia and the realms, since apparently his most iconic conquest was against a realm with an already evil queen and that queen didn't commit suicide because of Shao Kahn being a horrible abusive monster, so now Shao Kahn feels less evil and destructive in his path and his impact in MK is lessened. I mean, this used to be the guy who was so evil and with such an OP army that the Elder Gods created the Mortal Kombat tournament just so the other realms would stand a chance. Not only that, but now Quan Chi was apparently doing whatever the hell he wanted with Shao Kahn for millenia! Oh, and Shao Kahn loses even more of his strategic thinking and evil factor, sonce now he didn't hold Sindel's souls for millenia to exploit for a future plan of his and this also means that Shang Tsung also doesn't have his connections with Quan Chi, because apparently Quan Chi was bargaining with Shao Kahn before Shang Tsung was even born. And finally, this also limits the character development potential for the cast, since now apparently characters can only be as good or evil as their appearances say they are and I guess characters aren't allowed to make mistakes and try to do better from them and I also guess that we are now allegic to character progression and/or regression, which is pretty rich coming from the series with assassin ninjas who actually try to be good and compassionate people. Then again, it is pretty consistent with how Johnny, Scorpion, Kabal (as we'll soon see), Noob Saibot, Raiden, the Revenants, Cyrax, Sonya, Kotal, Liu Kang, Kitana, Frost, Cetrion, Kronika, the Outworld population, Sub-Zero, Kung Jin, Kung Lao, Mileena, Sektor and Cassie in this game. Oh, yeah, also Sindel now doesn't know or need to know any magic, unlike in the original timeline where she learned how to use magic and in MK9 where she was a master of sorcery, so I guess now that the "sTrOnGeR bEtTeR" Twindel not only doesn't have one of the skills and abilities of the previous incarnations of Sindel, but she also has less ways to stand out from all the other weapon-yielding female fighters with one or two special abilities (Don't you agree Kitana, Jade, Mileena, Sareena, Kia, Jateeka, Tanya, Kira, Skarlet and Tasia?) or from every other schemy manipulator in the series (and not just the evil ones) (What do you think about it, Shang Tsung, Kano, Shao Kahn, Kung Lao, Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Noob Saibot, Sektor, Rain, Shinnok, Quan Chi, Tanya, Reiko, Frost, Kenshi, Nitara, Hsu Hao (and Mavado by approximation), Onaga, Havik, One Being, Deagon, Cyber Sub-Zero (if he counts), Erron Black, D' Vorah, Kronika, Cetrion, Fire God Liu Kang and 2021 Kabal?) Kabal: Basically a repeat of the "no character development or character of their own allegiance for the sake of black and white or for the sake of trying to recapture some original trilogy simplicity", "character who's forced to be associated with a classic character even if it is really random", "Kano is at the center of the universe", "less sympathy for the more sympathetoc and redeemable bad guys" and "part of the MK world (in this case, the NYPD and Stryker) is fucking irrelevant" arguments I presented before.
It baffles me why MK 11 didn’t just go with this for Kabal. Just have Kano pull Kabal from his black dragon days and his speed is a Kronica augment. Like he doesn’t have to be from MK 2 given we didn’t see how he got to the present. Just have Kano make the request Kronika sees the benefit of 2 speedsters and grant it. Like I genuinely believed this was the case since NRS writing is so inconsistent I don’t even trust what the Bios say especially since it’s only mention in the story was Cassie calling Kabal one of Kanos goons.
Well, unless the mess up Fire God Liu Kang, we'll have to wait until Mortal 2 Kombat 2 Fatality for "retcons that retcon this second rebooted timeline"
Sindel’s retcon is even worse when you consider the fact that the entire plot could have literally been done without her but so many characters literally have to get nerfed and have them be dumb logically (e.g. nightwolf, fujin). On top of that, they make characters who never before had any attraction to sindel, relationship-wise in this timeline(e.g. shao Kahn especially and Sheeva) into all of a sudden caring for her even in the story, if they acc followed it properly, would have shao Kahn betraying sindel for his own plans of conquest and preventing his downfall (Since mk11 sindel even has intros that basically confirms shao is an attack dog for her own personal scheme and has an ending where shao Kahn is her slave, which is not what shao Kahn wants) and Sheeva would barely have that much feelings for her as she never interacted with the sindel at all in this timeline. It makes it even worse in aftermath, shao has to share a chapter which basically means his win record improving is basically on chance on what the writers of who won the fights you get to pick between sindel and shao Kahn (basically picking between a villain who already has wins and a villain who doesn’t, apart from liu - but that involved powerscaling being turned to the max, in terms of how shit it is). Not only does Shao’s character become massively inconsistent, he’s also massively incompetent considering that they basically made the point that without sindel, he would be dead when realistically he could have broken out of his cell anyway and not give a shit about sindel at all. There’s so many things I can criticise about chapter 16 in aftermath and why it’s so terrible (despite having a good concept of villains winning but terrible execution). Sindel is literally just forced plot convenience the more you look at it
Honestly i they should've kept Erron Black's backstoy Ambiguously mysterious like they kind of did an X, I just think the intrigue and left to the imagination type Cowboy could've worked Also, The thing I hate most about the Sindel retcon is that With how bad it is, people won't stop beating that dead horse into the fucking ground 🙄🤦🏾
Yeah, as abominable as basically *everything* surrounding the Twindel retcon unfortunately is, somehow Skarlet's is even stranger and more unnecessary, making *zero* sense even just in _MK11_ itself. At least Twindel was cynically remade as a superficially "empowering" thirst trap, so that part unfortunately makes sense. Even with possible costume censorship issues, Skarlet's new background in _MK11_ is completely nonsensical and still internally inconsistent on multiple levels. Even Kabal's "corrupt cop" inversion isn't as bad somehow. Also, lol, speaking of "thirst traps", I honestly hadn't even noticed Erron Black's minimal background getting changed. I guess I was too distracted by the fact Kano being gay enough for himself in half of the scenes that Erron was also in that it bordered on self-cest.
Sindel’s pretty much just forced plot convenience that basically involves nerfing other characters or not making sense in logical plan, makes other characters care for her when in this timeline, not give a shit about sindel (e.g. shao Kahn, Sheeva). We are just not gonna act like shao Kahn could’ve easily broken out and made a plan himself to get more power in aftermath if they acc kept his consistent with his personality. Also, they try and hype it up as sindel as all powerful when nightwolf has abilities that basically makes his sacrifice fucking pointless (hell his revenant that caused the most risk to the plan of the dlc trio in aftermath failing). Fujin from what it looks like may have the intro of cetrion and frost jumping as canon, he even fucked up noob, who is stated multiple times be more powerful than his human self- in which he beated multiple gods - and none of this is questioned about how fucking stupid plan of reviving sindel is based on the powerscaling and abilities of the characters. Honestly, even if sindel in mk11 would basically be her first appearance (if you get what I mean), it still makes no fucking sense at all.
@@nabilahmed579 Very little about the NRS era is consistent unfortunately, even within itself, much less well-writen. The only consistent things are basically "villains always ultimately lose", "Kotal always loses" (but I repeat myself), "D'vorah always wins", "Scorpion will remain one of the main major characters despite never directly contributing to putting down the big bad", and "most of the characters will be written as stupidly as possible to give us the most dramatic wiggle room even if those dramatics make little to no sense". Twindel just stands out because she was a focal point of _Aftermath_ in like all the wrong ways and, being basically a new character masquerading as an old one, was thus easy to use as deus ex machina by not being part of the Shang, Fujin, and Nightwolf group. (Which makes the fact that she and Shao get curbstomped by Crown-wearing Shang at the end in the most predictable betrayal even more morbidly hilarious than it already was.)
Honestly all of these sound really good, especially the Kabal one. That retcon irked me the most because Kabal is a cool character with a lot of potential but the changes made him yet another generic jobber for the villains. I mean come on, he's a speedster with damaged lungs so he has to have a breathing aparatus on, like a Flash with Asthma, that's unique enough on its own but then he's trying to redeem himself while having the potential to be further corrupted like we see in the 3D Era, cool. But nah, instead he's just a crooker cop and toady for Kano. And the change doesn't make sense because if he was on the BD's side then he'd never get burned by Kintaro, nor would Sindel kill him so how did he die with this new story? It really is frustrating, I can't tell if the writers are incompetent or just lazy, hoping for the latter because then it means they simply aren't doing a good job, not that they're shit at their job.
Sometimes i imagine that NRS writers sit in one room with guys responsible for MK2021 movie and they all wonder " hey which cool character we could turn into jobber:?
@@scottchaison1001 I agree, I wish they kept that because turning him into a villain not only mage him generic, it made him a jobber because villains rarely win unless they are the main villain or one that the writers are trying to hype up.
Why can’t this infernal series be consist for 2 games, either have anthologies or tell one complete story, you can’t do both Mk. Here’s hope that mk 12: ah sit here we go again, is better
The Jade/Kotal retcon is especially bad because neither character can never shut up about each other now. Surely there's a way to write a romance that doesn't ruin both participants.
One (other) thing that disappointed me about MK11's story is that Sub Zero never interacted with Revenant Kabal. Remember, in MK9, it was Kabal who defeated Cyber Sub Zero and he was the one who urged for him to be saved (alongside Smoke). You would think that super honourable Sub Zero would want to return favour by rescuing his saviour from different kind of corruption. But, then again, NRS's Sub Zero forgot that his best friend exists, so why would he remember that? Man, MK11 is a dumpster fire.
Smoke is mentioned by Sub Zero in pre fight dialogue once on MKX and once in MK11. Aside from that he literally doesn't give a shit which is just pure heresy compared to the original timeline
I really enjoy Kabal as a good guy. Him being a mole in the Black Dragon is such a good idea, and if the writers didn’t entirely invert his character, he could’ve had some great interactions with other characters like Robocop and Jax and Sonia
I think he was supposed to be a mole on the Black Dragon in MK: Special Forces, either that or a traitor.
I have always said from a writing perspective he is just better jarek he only joined the good guys in 3 for revenge for the attack from the extermination squad he never fully turned good just like jarek the only difference is he came back and did something after his initial appearance
W
Sindel suffered the worst retcon out of everyone.
Agreed
The main thing I hate about that recton is that given How bad it is people won't stop beating it into the ground 🙄
What they did to her is the definition of character assassination
It is the reason 4th snake made so many videos about it.
Honestly I don't think there's really a contest there outside of _maybe_ Skarlet, who is/was nowhere as well liked as actual Sindel but whose retcon manages to be stupider and stranger than Twindel even if less damage was done.
The Erron Black alteration you made was just beautiful, Snake. I'm a sucker for cowboys, so I always loved Black's original backstory of a cowboy given eternal life by Shang Tsung's magic.
Same here. I think its cool
Yeah that was so unique. Unfortunately they retconned him into Black Dragon thug #48
Its a shame that Black Syndicate couldn't be named something more old western-y akin to the Pinkertons, but I guess "The Blacks" or "The Black Boys/Gang" aren't exactly the most politically acceptable names. lol
Something about a person from the distant past existing in a foreign future, especially with the whole cowboy idea is just insanely interesting to see how they would adapt.
The thing I miss the most from mkX erron black were his old guns, leather mask and the eye make up. It made him look so old and yet meanacing!!
Kabal was basically like NRS’s version of classic Sindel.
A good guy who looks like a bad guy but is in fact A GOOD GUY. But now in 11 he’s just a bad guy bc he looks like one.
Like sindel
I loved Erron in MKX. The whole idea of Kotal's Krew was so sick. I've always imagined Erron as some sort of a cold-blooded mercenary that, as the time passes, becomes more friendly towards his colleagues. For example, Erron and Syzoth could actually be friends. Reptile finding not one but a couple of real friends could develop his character. Erron teaching him how to use guns, Kotal thinking of him as an equal. Damn, even Ferra and Torr could be developed. Kotal is like a father figure for them, so why not develop this? Make Ferra and Torr actual children that are trying to survive in Outworld, but end up finding some sort of a family in Kotal's Krew.
MKX teased Reptile, Ermac, Erron, Ferra and Torr as Kotal's champions for a new tournament. It's a shame MK11 chose to go with a shitty time thing.
@@monsus8153 the funny thing is im pretty sure, all but dvorra, everyone had a genuinely positive opinion of the Kotal Krew, its honestly dissapointing every single one of their plot points will most likely never comr to any meaningful conclusion until maybe mk13 when Empress Mileena may possibly return.
I loved the dynamic of Kabal and Stryker in MK9. I wish they would've both been able to build on their story from 9.
I was hoping for more of that as well. They could have had a buddy cop set of chapters.
@trontosaurusrex9532 exactly, and I would've enjoyed having the earth realmers actually feel like a team of random warriors having to band together to stop the invasion.
Fr its so annoying that they cant write stuff like this
Honestly same but the revenant stuff kinda put a choke hold on the possibility to develop those characters. Woulda loved to see Stryker and Kabal continue that story but I just would have liked Stryker to be involved/playable in general.
mk11 retconned retcons and mk1 is now retconning the retcons that were retconned, 😩
Retconception
Still, not enough retcons.
As far as we know, MK1 will have changes intentionally caused by Liu Kang, therefore not retcons, but we'll see once the game comes out.
It's a totally different timeline, supposed to be and explained by the lore why it's a new timeline. This is not a retcon, retcon is supposed to be something in the likes of "a story that was made but was reaimagined without justifying anything".
Another interesting thing that could be done with Erron to give him a bit more character could be having him be knowledgeable on outworld wildlife and cultures, not enough to be an expert or anything, but enough to show he's been around. He does seem like the wanderer type.
Like a beast Hunter? Lean into his trapper and Hunter stuff
@@aidanfedorochko3728 not neccesarily FULLY lean into it and change his profession. It seems like he handles human/humanoid targets more often, but the idea of him also taking the occasional beast/hunting bounty isn't too far-fetched
@@TCNDRGA Even then, being knowledgeable of that kind of stuff would be kinda necessary in a place as dangerous and culturally mixed up as Outworld if you don't want to get killed
"Wildlife and cultures"
Wtf are you talking about and why would that ever be brought up?
@@rainofkhandaq6678With all the random stuff these character talk about in the intros, might as well bring that out to bring erron some other character quirks here and there.
Sindel retcon is arguably the most tragic and horrible retcon in video games history.
Aftermath seriously would've been more enjoyable of they just went with 'Sindel's brainwashing was unaffected when they restored her'. Playing her segments in the story just felt unsatisfactory because of that
Nightwolf being a mantle is far worse. The character was special and mysterious. He was a badass. Now it's stupid. Also what they did with Shao Kahn is worse.
5:17 - The fact that you actually half heartedly complimented the Sindel retcon in some form when talking about Skarlet’s honestly really scares me in any context
I mean, retcon sindel isn't a bad character per say, it isn't sindel and they're trying to tell us that she has always been that way (which doesn't even make sense other than being disrespectful). Like he proposed, she could have been a new shao khan's queen who resents edenia and sindel for being in her way to realms domination, and i would totally be down for a new character that is essentially sindel's milena with femdom mommy vibes. They kinda going in that femdom direction with milena made her my fav female mk character, so going the milf step would totally be right on my alley, while staying true to the rest of the lore and even spicing things a bit with the whole rivalry between ex mindcontrolled evil queen vs willingly evil queen.
I’m surprised he didn’t even mention the fact that how much of a forced plot convenience in aftermath and how much stupid character changes needed to be done in order to make her work when aftermath could literally be done without her
If you were even basically having mk11 sindel as the acc debut for her in mk series, her character is still fucking inconsistent with herself and is a retarded villain in aftermath, when aftermath basically made her the “d’vorah” of that story mode, getting wins she should not have and being portrayed as some mastermind when her character makes her plan look dumb.
Shao Kahn would have still broken out of the prison cell without any assistance if the writers fully respected his capabilities of brawn and brain. Fujin, Shang and nightwolf would have been more than enough to handle cetrion given if fujin’s intro is canon (which most likely is, considering he got sent to the void), the fact that cetrion needed help from frost to beat fujin to try and get him put down, not to mention his original war of him nearly destroying whole of reality against shinnok in the first war is still canon with feats having him able to replicate the energy of the Big Bang.
Sheeva, in this timeline, would have not even cared for sindel at that point considering she barely gave a rat’s ass about her in mk9, held her daughter in captivity in mk9 to and has no feelings or remorse about it and she doesn’t even make any comment at all in the comics. She has never got an acc connection at all with sindel this timeline, yet all of a sudden now she cares?
Even if sindel was to break out shao Kahn, it would still be a shao Kahn chapter considering if writers had respected his character, shao would betray her before she betrays him as her ending depicts her as completely selfish to herself where she even has shao Kahn as her slave and this could have happened in aftermath, if Shang did not fuck them over in time. Even in dlc leaks before the entire thing was deconfirmed, they had sindel ditch shao Kahn for daegon.
She is only in the plot bcoz the other characters are nerfed massively intelligence, powerscaling and have inconsistencies in relationships with each other.
Tldr: Sindel in mk11 is a terrible villain, who is quite literally the “d’vorah” of aftermath who has to benefit of other characters getting shitted on and plot points not adding up to even have her be usable
@@Canalbiruta Bichy gold digger queen vs selfless heroic heroine ? The answer should be obvious but these idiots who actually simp for the former 🤮
The only Sindel that character resembles is the 1997 mortal combat movie. Which given they brought back the original actor for Tsung to represent? They probably brought her character arc, or lack of it, directly from it's sequel. Minus mind control.
While I disagree about Erron being uninteresting, I genuinely think your idea is great and it even creates a parallel to another fighter: Nightwolf.
How come the Native American and the Cowboy never really interacted together, I have no idea, but with your pitch we could create a long-standing rivalry or partnership between Nightwolf's clan and the Black Lineage.
Nightwolf and Erron Black even have an intro dialogue based on that, too, which makes it even more egregious, imo.
@@TheChues91 The intro dialogues are frustrating because they go from interesting/wasted potential, to nonsensical/contradictory garbage.
I'd pay to see a cowboy vs Indian match
They probably don’t interact because
A. Nobody in the writing staff thought to add and dynamics between side characters because they barely matter besides dvorah
Or B. The real world archetypes Erron and nightwolf are based on do not have a good history between them and drawing inspiration from that history for interesting character dynamics and good writing at the cost of adding unsavory traits to previously established characters like being racist is a headache netherealm isn’t interested in dealing with should fans or the general public no take kindly to it
Oh, you know exactly why the cowboy and the Native American don't interact with each other. Don't lie, you know exactly why. The same reason why all the women in this game are now dressed as nuns. All of these things have the same root of the problem.
Kabal's retcon is still baffling to me. Netherealm did such a good job making Kabal likable, making his relationships with Stryker and Kano more important than they ever were in Midway, and showing a clear reason as to why he is a good guy in said game. So what does Netherealm decides to do next with him? Retcon his whole story, the story that they specifically made for him.
The person who wrote MK11 is the same idiot who wrote the Injustice games so it’s no surprise he doesn’t care about good writing.
Out of all the retcons backstories introduced in MK11, the most atrocious is Scarlet and Kabals by far. Scarlet went from a creation of Shao Kahn’s blood pit into a generic “I was poor but then I was discovered by a influential guy now I’m not poor!”. Kabal’s new backstory introduced in 9 actually gave him something that he severely lacked in Midway, a backstory and more pronounced character………which was immediately thrown out the window in 11 where instead of a former Black Dragoon he’s now a crooked cop who works with the BD because “mUh cops are bastards”.
Yeah honestly I hate how they treated Kabal in mk11, he’s easily one of my favorite mk characters and it sucks how he was barely in the game even after they retconned him.
And they did Kabal's the right way. It wasn't a contradictory retcon. He was already a good guy in MK3. And his ending had him become a crime fighting vigilante, the same as Stryker's Armaggedon ending, so you could argue they had some minor (probably coincidental) connections already.
So if anything, they were just adding additional details to what already existed, them actually making use of the cinematic story mode.
If they wanted past Kabal to fight for Kronika, there are easier ways. But he already very much opposed Kano when he asked him to come back, so it's weird so little before his defection, he's a loyal lapdog.
And as far as MK11 is concerned, he was never a good guy to begin with. No one mentions it, not even in intro dialogues. In the story, Cassie just calls him a burn victim.
@@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099With how little he's in the game, why bring him back at all? All it did was ruin the only netherealm story addition I liked, and that's all they accomplished,.his ruination.
@@benjaminmapperson1940 yeah honestly, it sucks too since mk11 is what really got me to notice Kabal, since that game is what led me to seeing how they did him in mk9 which is by far the best version of him. It’s a shame seeing such a unique and underrated character get trashed on and not used when he could have easily had the best character development and moments in mk11 if they just used him. Imagine a chapter where past Kabal finally realizes that he wants to be good and has a redemption arc throughout that chapter and that story. Honestly he had so much potential and it’s a shame to see all of that squandered
Tbh I think that the Skarlet retconn was fine. We have a bunch of created warriors already (Ermac, Mileena, fucking Meat), having someone who is genuinely loyal to Shao Kahn out of her own volition is interesting, it fleshes out Outworld by showing Shao as someone who does more than just waving the hammer around.
That said it's true that they then went on to do nothing with the retconn and that the other retconns are pretty bad.
npopular opinion I think but I actually prefer Scarlet story in MK 11. Rather than just being like a creation in the flesh pits which is too similar to Mileena's story being adopted off the streets by Shao Kahn and taught blood magic has the potential to be a super interesting story. She's the only baddie who has a good reason to serve Shao Kahn other than fear because he was the one who literally gave her everything. Giving her a genuinely good reason to obey him and do evil. Unfortunately I don't really think the writers at netherrealm have the inclination to flesh this out or anything and changing it in the first place weirde decision but Will I still think her story has a lot of promise and that's why I like her so much.
I do like your version as well and it would have gone a long way to explain the the change in back story.
Shame that NRS' writing is total garbage
You could add that maybe Shao Khan knew Skarlet's Father as an Outstanding Edenian Warrior during Edenian's Invasion (as Rain mentioned Skarlet has Edenian's Blood)
So Shao Khan already knew her hereditated potential
You could also add the Ritual Creation but more of as Symbolic and The Blood Magic was embedded in her body and not that she was literally created from it
You can even add the mentioning of Shao Khan being desperate when she was ''created'' causing Shao Khan to put pressure on the ritual and it being hastened resulting in her being Incomplete and her seeking Havik's Teachings is to Complete herself
This would also explain both her referring to herself as a byproduct of Magic (as Symbolic) and at the same time her mocking Mileena for being Artificial in the Comics
The only problem would be those 2 Twindel's Interactions but in this Parallel Universe of an Ideal Mortal Kombat
Twindel doesn't exist and so neither these 2 interactions
the problem is that there was no fucking explanation for the change at all. And the fact that the MKX comics which is canon just further boggles down the storyline. Even if you do like it, there are still fucking plotholes and absolutely zero consistency
@@lapplandkun9273 what do you think of my reply?
I always love you don't just go into how the writing is messed up, but give an example of how you would have written the character.
Love how you handed the Skarlet situation; even I was so confused by the retcon that I tried my hand at it.
My version had Ruby as the orphan, being a prodigy at blood magic, taken in by Shao Kahn and further made stronger with his help.
Then Ruby & Shao combine their magic to create a homunculus who they name Skarlet, as a sort of counter to (at least my version of) Shao & Shang Tsung making Ermac together
Ruby dies somewhere in the trilogy and Skarlet continues her legacy, even seeking Blood Magic in the MKX comics
Oh interesting.
The idea didn't go far but I hated that Skarlet and Rain intro hinting at her being Edenian because most of the female ninjas are already Edenian. To add on that Skarlet told Jade that she wasn't Edenian and the fact that she's shown to dislike Edenians in intros as well.
Having Skarlet hate Edenians but then eventually making her Edenian later is a strange decision.
I think the intro you're referring to is Skarlet claiming Jade disliked her because she wasn't Edenian. Which indicates there was a social/class divide between Skarlet & the Edenian characters. This is reinforced with the way Rain(& Kitana) regards her in all their other intros. I don't think she's anti-Edenian in general.
@@misssammy123 it's more of a jealously than just outright hating Edenians
@@misssammy123 i can kinda see it since the og backstory for her was being made from blood of shoa khan enemies which is edenia. i still hate the retcon tho
Sindel's retcon is equivalent of spending dollars in order to earn cents - once the reveal of her being evil happens you realize you got scammed.
Congratulations Snake I actually love what you did with Erron Black that I’m making this my head cannon now. Really great stuff
6:21 Can we all take a moment to appreciate how clean this edit with the mask is? That was awesome.
I’m convinced the whole “corrupt cop” story for Kabal isn’t canon to the game. Several intros (namely “I thought about being a cop once” to Robocop) and Kabals very design (short hair and short ponytail compared to mk9s longer ponytail and hair) contradict the official websites backstory and back the sentiment that it’s just Kabal from the Black Dragon before MK9. The only ingame backing for the website backstory is some gear called “Crooked Cop” or something from what i can find. Still 0 explanation for his superspeed.
My reasoning on why Kabal is a corrupt cop is the same reason why Stryker hasn't made a playable appearance since mk 9
@@Saltedroastedcaramelcause Stryker sucks..
@@dree35 No.
@@Saltedroastedcaramel because they knew adding Stryker would conflict with their retcon of Kabal and they did it anyway because......... Netherealm
That erron black descendent idea is so good, makes erron interesting AND gives us another interesting character at the same time. Kudos.
Sindels retcon literally turns my stomach, and they had the perfect out too. That damn Banshee spirit thats just left totally unexplained.
We could say that the Banshee spirit is the soul of Shao Kahn's ORIGINAL wife that he had placed inside of Sindel to keep the edenians in line, the Banshee however despises Kitana for not being her and Shao's proper heir and attempts to *finish her* as a baby, Sindel wrestling control over her body at the last minute and being left no option decides the only way to protect her daughter from her own hands is to commit Hara Kiri (Atleast its better than attributing her murder to QUAN CHI of all people.)
There you can have a genuine villain power couple with proper justification, without tarnishing a legacy hero character.
This crap is why I dont want characters like Havik back in the games, because Netherealm will just smooth out ALL the nuance in favor of simple black and white good and bad guys for the sake of appealing to the lowest common denominator.
I think you can have Quan Chi involved too by having him helping Sindel commit suicide
So that he can user her Death like he did in the OG Retcon
Revenant Sindel would actually be The Banshee Spirit fully taking over Sindel (kinda like how it happened to Smoke) but with her faking to be a Sindel (claiming that her/Sindel has always been Evil)
So Banshee saying that Quan Chi killed her would still be correct
What I will say will sadden you, but Havik was a main character in the MKX comic.
He was just as black and white as you fear he would be.
@@vaggos2003 better than what M1K did to him
@@DoctorMantisTob0ggan On the one hand, I kind of agree with you, on the other hand, I feel that M1K Havik is a little more forgivable than MKX Havik, especially after Noob's MK9 ending implied a very good understanding of the character only for the comic to throw it away. Giving Havik an origin story and hyping him up as a future final boss are not decisions I vibe with, but at least they give the implication of fleshing out Havik's character in future stories (this can be said for many other parts of M1K's story, but most of them are less excusable since they had more time to be developed than Havik and just didn't). M1K feels like it tries (without much success thus far) to do something new with the character, whereas the MKX comic pretends that it's the same character, yet misses his entire point completely.
Goddamn I love the story you gave to Erron and his descendants
Also The Black Syndicate is a very cool name
The Ruby/Skarlet story is probably the best story about Skarlet I've ever heard
That story with Skarlet and Ruby was really interesting.
The Kabal retcon annoyed me soo much, it was pointless and dumb to have two Kabals as antagonists in the story while changing his origin to be a corrupt cop that was bought off 😒
As I try to reconcile all retcons together my explanation for Scarlet is the following: Shao Kahn met Scarlet and taught her blood magic like told in MK11; she took part to the second Mortal Kombat tournament and that's where she's extracted from in the game; however in the unaltered timeline she simply died during the tournament, so Kahn instructed Shang Tsung to create a new Scarlet using the original as a template, and that's how MK9 Skarlet was born.
I think it works, but it's sad that we have to retcon the retcons all the time, and either way this makes for a convoluted story (partly because it's not what the writers intended) while it would have been so simple to just keep her MK9 story unaltered and maybe explore her relation to Ermac. I mean he's made of the souls of many victims and she's made of the bodies of those same victims!
Really enjoyed both Erran's and Kabal's backstories you gave them. Black Syndicate and double agent Kabal sound really cool and would help give both characters a lot of much needed development.
Sindel has already been talked to death, resurrected, and talked to death again. So pretty much any backstory would be much better than the one they gave her in MK11.
Here's a thing I would add to the Jade and Kotal Kahn being exs idea. So from past Jades pov they should've broken up about a year or 2 ago. That way for us it's still fresh scars but for Kotal old marks. maybe he's more willing to try again since he only looks at the good but Jade remembers why they broke up more than he does.
Another thing they could have done with the Exes angle would be to have past Jade taken from before they broke up. Since present Kotal still remembers why their relationship fell apart, he tries to better himself, and work on the flaws that caused the breakup in the first place.
This would fix the issue in MK11 where they try to present Kotal as a noble leader while also ignoring the literal genocide he was trying to accomplish, and why he was so reluctant to help Earthrealm in X, but willing in 11, because he now has someone he wants to protect after failing the first time.
Personally I just don’t like the couple at all😂 there was nothing there and didn’t have to be
Agreed. I didn’t see the purpose of it other than being added there just to “spice things up”.
Unpopular opinion/hot take here….. but I’d rather see Jade and Smoke paired together… they’re both kind of like confidants to Kitana and Sub-Zero. Almost like a right hand man/woman.
Maybe even a friendly rivalry dynamic between two confidants…… but that is just wishful thinking on my end…..
It’s weird that the Erron Black retcon doesn’t account for the fact that he probably would’ve been alive when the Black Dragon split from the Red which I think happened sometime during the early 1900’s.
Maybe Erron was a member of the Red Dragon, before splitting with the original founders of the Black Dragon.
While a Retcon it would be interesting to hear what a founding member of the Black Dragon would have to say about what the group has become in the modern day.
Especially with how everything gets retcon with each DLC.
Personally the Kabal retcon has always been more painful for me than sindel I am biased because he’s one of my top 5 mk characters but there are other reasons the fact that he was on the main roster and main story meaning more people were exposed to the evil scumbag version of Kabal than sindel and the fact that he already had a good retcon that worked really well there was so much potential with him being a redeemed black dragon who now had to live with being burnt alive and given super speed could’ve done something with him and strykers friendship which was one of my favourite parts of mk 9 but no instead we get a mavado rip off who is literally just a kano goon istg they seem to be fixing a lot of character issues for mk 1 they better fix Kabal
Lets us pray to the Elder Gods that they do not still see the Titans being above The One Being as a thing for future MK games, when I saw that tweet from Dominic I lost all hope for the future.
Speaking of those guys, i wonder what happens to One Being, Titans, elder Gods etc. Are they aware of time travel changes or Liu Kang just see and know fuckin everything? Can he erase Titans or Elder Gods from existence? Or maybe some things are bound to happen anyway? Will we again see battles against already known foes?
@@Endru85xnah the one being/titans are still around same goes for lesser God's
I really hope he got immense backlash for saying that. I'm genuinely not kidding
Me, seeing Erron Black and Skarlet in the thumbnail: IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE! TURN IT UP!
Post watching those parts: vast improvements, we love Erron being so immediately done with his descendant's shenanigans with the black dragon, then being like "goddammit he had a point-" a little later is so funny to me personally. And Skarlet entering her Flemeth arc is also big fun, but i also have a lil place of love for Flemeth as a character concept in general so im a tad biased. They are part of the better version on the netherrealm games timeline that exists rent free in my mind now, I don't make the rules.
... that was a lot- Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
I'm thoroughly convinced none of the writers of MK11 played the previous games for the story lol
That new Erron Black ending is actually baller as all get out
I didn't mind the Jade and Kotal relationship mostly cause the voice actors had a lot of chemistry together. But I agree that there should have at least been some previous mention of it. There could have been a moment in MKX where someone tells Kotal that he needs to find himself an Empress to rule Outworld with, this prompts him to reminisce of a lost love and would have been a motivation for him to ally with Earthrealm to try to save Jade from the Netherrealm. It would have at least given us more depth into their background before their reunion in MK11.
Mk11 is the first my me and my sister played so we assumed that their loves story was a fan favorite thing with a lot of history. Its so funny watching this video now a few weeks after finishing the campaign
Sindel's retcon makes absolutely no sense what so ever and other retcons in the Nether Realm Era. I miss the Midway Era storyline saga.
Lets be objective here, the story had always been fucky. Mk9 i think created a good path and then they fucked it up w x and 11
I always enjoy seeing some love being shown to nightwolf
the last 10 seconds omg lmao
I hate how they just straight up ditched everything set up by MK9 and MKX in favor of wiping the slate clean and retconning the shit out of everything. Sure, MK9 and MKX weren't perfect, but they had a ton of potential and felt like a good balance between new and old. I still think MK9 is one of the best and most creative reboots ever made, but NetherRealm completely erased all the cool directions that storyline could have gone in, and instead just decided to start over from the beginning AGAIN. I'm not exaggerating when I say that MK11 completely destroyed any and all investment I had in this series, and I am not excited for MK1.
I really enjoy playing MK9/10 but it was horrible watching moments like Ermac jobbing to Jacqui even though he was shown in 9 to easily manhandle Jax. He picks up a tree for a pointless reveal instead of using his powers to just kill her and Takeda…because plot. They lose me with all of the plot induced stupidity they give to the evil side when they’re facing clearly inferior opponents.
I was waiting for this one. MK11's retcons deserve a total roast. I'm surprised that people actually got paid for a writing of that quality.
I like your Erron and Skarlet stories you could really go somewhere cool with them
Shout out to the man, the myth, the Legend, The4thSnake for giving my vid a shoutout.
It's a good vid. Everyone should watch it.
Just this video alone sounds so much more cooler than anything Netherealm will dish out and their new project hasn’t even been released yet.
I think I know the REAL reason why Skarlet got retconned. It was to justify her less skimpy attire. For as much as it could, which isn’t a lot, as shown by this video.
I've already come to prefer her new outfit, as well as the one in the comic but I still believe her previous backstory was superior.
The funny thing is, Skarlet didn't need that retcon. Considering how much MK11 tries to suck up to strong fenale character stereotypes, Skarlet could just have survived the events of the comic unbeknownst to everyone and either with a power boost from Kronika or through personal training for years she is now strong enough to not need to leave her skin exposed. That way, not only NRS can get a less skimpy design, vut now the redesign serves an actual purpose instead of erasing the previous designs from canon.
I think she clearly was still designed to be sultry and attractive since one of her intros shows off her legs.
Kabal being a double agent would be sick
15:44 Always looking forward to Wasted Plotential episodes, those are so good!
The new idea for Erron Black is giving me Sly Cooper vibes
Erron had the potential to become a staple character, mean he became a fan favourite off of his design alone. Imagine if he had some character. First step to making black actually cool behind just design would be to not treat him like a jobber
Yay Kabal!
Edit: Just had to say loved this video, your ideas are amazing and it would be very nice to see in the games. If only NRS had this amount of creativity… 😔
As a fan of Kabal this retcon finally got me to hate Netherrealm stories(I came in with MK9)
Wow the Erron Black idea is amazing.
The ONLY thing I liked about MK11 Erron Black was that Johnny mentions to his younger self that the one in the current time is a good guy, working with Kotal and the Earthrealmers. It would’ve made for a great conflict in the story, having an evil past character able to kill their good future self.
A western standoff between both Blacks would have been legendary. I kept waiting for it on my first play through but unfortunately it never happened
Rip Sindel hopefully they fix her in MK1
Agree.
Why did they change Erron’s past? The others I guess I get but Errons past was actually interesting.
His backstory, along with everything about him being a ninja cowboy with centuries of experience under his belt, would make him the most deadliest human in Mortal Kombat.
They didn't exactly change it, they never said he's NOT an immortal cowbly, infact 'young' Erron and 'old' erron seem to be the exact same age which hits that yes, he is still immortal. And working for the black Dragon makes perfect sense, he fits with them perfectly, he's a profit focused mercinary who's allegiance is for hire. And if Erron was black Dragon all along, that means the Black Dragon were playing both sides of the outworld war to make profit, which is such a black dragon thing to do.
@@juliankanzuki2013 Okay I can kinda agree with you except for the fact that in MKX, Erron states numerous times that he can't stand the Black Dragon and will never join them. That's a retcon and a half
@@Quick_footy1 Or Erron generally can't stand them, but still works with them for profit, dosen't mean you like the people you work with. Also that could be an inside joke.
Salazar is actually on a mkx poster i have i knew “salazar” was connected to erron black somehow but i didnt know it was his old concept. Cool fact snake!!!
It always annoyed me how aside from Raiden hinting Kabal's heroric side in one intro "In some timelines you were a hero." NO ONE ELSE who knew Kabal back when he was alive ever tries to persuade him! I mean aren't all the MK Kontestants from the past taken during MK9 before they died? Why are they NOT trying to persuade Kabal to ditch the Black Dragon?! Like do they seriously hold NO attatchment to the guy?! It feels like the writers didn't know anything about Kabal and was only told "Oh this is past Kabal, he's a Black Dragon thug." and that is it, wasn't told he would become a good guy by MK9's sotry.
But I think the most annoying thing regarding lack of character relationships. What I mean is how NO ONE is holding Scorpion responcible for leaving the others trapped as revenants, Scorpion never admits "I let my vengeance consume me, by the time I realized what I have done it was too late..." and no one else calls him out for it! No one goes "Oh thanks to you, my friends are trapped as evil mindless revenants!" they just act all buddy buddy to him like as if he didn't do anything wrong! WHERE ARE THE CONSQEUENCES?! That should have burned bridges between them!
Heck when Raiden calls out on past Scorpion for "Hey in the past I tried to warn you to spare Bi-Han but failed!" I expected him to be like "Meanwhile your future self left Liu Kang and the others as revenants because of the same reason, your vengeance blinded you!" but nope, that didn't happen.
MK has a insane amount of wasted potential, i get amazed of how all of the great ideas for the MK history are wasted due to NRS' garbage writing with each wasted plotential vid.
Personally I loved old Erron, if he wasn't a jobber at least. Cool voice, design and he was loyal. I like his backstory too. He has a Boba mystique where we get little but what we do get is cool. Also cool Dragon Age reference! Slight difference, Flemeth doesn't force control on her daughters, at least she claims not to but in the circumstances, why lie? I love that scene because it's a surprisingly tender moment for a ruthless character.
“Such wasted potential.”
- Sub-Zero
I love the backstory for Erreon Black. Now I wana hear tales about The Black Syndecate.
The "Erron Black" being an inherited title passed from father to son reminds me of the old pulp/comic hero The Phantom.
I'm with you; the retcon with Skarlet doesn't make sense the instant Shao is her means of learning blood magic. If he'd seen Skarlet doing blood magic without having any training; him taking her in would make more sense given that she could become an asset to him that way. Doing it out of a random whim doesn't fit with Shao's nature shown thus far.
I do like the Netherealm plot in general, but there are some stuff that bugs me
For once, Shujinko is one of my favorite characters. His story on Deception is amazing, and he proves to be one of the strongerst worriors ever!.... until the only Cameo he has on netherealm era is on Cassie Cage Ending where she beats the crap outta him and killls him because she mistook him for Shang Tsung.
Shujinko, the guy who spend an ENTIRE LIFETIME training and defeating the strongest warriors, including Onaga... defeated by a teenager brat.
I know that these events didn't happen on the new timeline, but still, it's so frustrating to see such an amazing character to be treated like that..
Honestly, considering that his story happens way before the first MK1 game, that still gives Shujinko a good amount of time to get skilled and absorb a lot of powers. That, and its shown in the Konquest mode that he can also absorb abilities and skills in an actual fight when he 'trains' with Havik so with all the abilities he'd logically have at that point, with the fact that he'd slowly start absorbing Cassie's skills, there is no way she should be able to kill him unless she sniped him because he should be a way better fighter, and start to absorb her fighting skills during the fight.
I love these ideas, great video Snake!
That Erron black route is a really good idea. I always hated the Jade and Kotal romance since it comes out of fucking no where and makes no sense. It also doesn't help that Kotal is a unlikable dick through the games. Its insane how inconsistent NRS is. Even If you just count 9,10 and 11 it shows they can barely remember things.
Jade and Kotal. Mileena and Tanya. Jacqui and Takeda. None of these invoke the image of romantic interest, it comes off like filler lore.
Another good way to salvage Scarlet's retcon is that she is still the same Scarlet from MK9 being a secret weapon made in the Flesh Pitts. However her great power worried Shao Kahn so, he came up with the whole MK11 background as fake memories given to her by Shang Tsung. Dialogue would still be the only issue.
Also to salvage the Jade/Kotal relationship, they could have been secret lovers. They lived under the rule of Shao Kahn who if discovered would have viewed their love as weakness and killed them both for it. As for why Kotal never mentions it, he probably had to put aside his grief and bottle up his emotions a the new ruler of Outworld eventually getting passed it and viewing the revenant Jade as a lost cause.
I also have a decent way Sindel's retcon could fit within two words, Shang Tsung. He suggested to resurrect Sindel, using Soul Chamber, and used his magic to resurrect her. I know she said in game she was not being mind controlled. But you'd think that if your memories (backstory) was rewritten by a deceptive sorcerer.
They also never explained why pre-toasty Kabal has his super speed.
Or why he had shorter hair than when he was a policeman in MK9 :) ? Or why he is with Sareena in his ending? I was quite hyped about Kabal return and then i was like "look how they massacred my boy"...
I really like the skarlet portion
They should have brought Bi Han back from the past as Sub-Zero. Then you have him interact with his future self Noob (have him be horrified or pleased with his fate), a reformed Hanzo and Hanzo's partnership with his younger brother.
I’m honestly pretty sus about how they’re gonna handle the story in the new game. I know MK has never been Shakespearian level of storytelling lol but this constant retconning and rewriting of the characters and their stories hasn’t exactly inspired much confidence in me.
The Erron and Kabal retcons pissed me off so much
Your ideas are so much better, and I hope to God if either of them appear as main roster in MK1(2) that they're retconned back to something similar to their respective MK10 and MK9 backstory
I honestly wish ashrah had returned and been kind of morally grey. Where shes just doing her own thing, maybe hunting one of the characters
I can't help but also notice another potential issue with those retconned backstories: all the things that change in the story just to make them work or not draw attention on the fact that they changed the original backstory.
Erron: Erron is no longer an immortal cowboy, so his past and present self don't interract, his present self is just a cameo in the main story, his past self is non-existent in the Aftermath expansion and Present Erron has nothing to say when being face-to-face with his former employer and a native American. In fact, I don't think it's too unreasonable to assume that Kotal's squad being absent was done so that the retcon wouldn't be too obvious.
Kotal and Jade: Because apparently NRS felt Kotal needed to be directly linked with a pre-established character in order to be liked by the fans, they decided that him and pre-established character Jade are an item, despite Kotal already having already a pre-established relationship with the pre-established, and arguably more popular than Jade, character Reptile, but I guess bringing back Kotal's pre-established best friend would make his newly-established lover stick out like a sore thumb even harder. Also, bringing back Kotal's squad would also make the "plot twist" of "Oh, No, KoTaL iSn'T aS nObLe As We ThOuGhT" more obvious, despite the fact that we already knew that by the end of MKX. This game sometimes really feels like it was made more witg the casuals in-mibd rather than the fans. AND IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE END OF A TRIIIIIILOGY!!! As in, multiple installments that would probably require you ti be a fan in order to get what is going on right now!
Sindel: Ermac, who's MK9 ending shows him being happily married to Sindel as king Jerrod, is now absent in the game where Sindel is "revealed" to have always been a bad guy. Let's be real, if Ermac was around when this happened, his mere association with his MK9 ending would make it impossible for most likely anyone to buy the Twindel twist. Also, Shao Kahn is being characterized as this "loyal family man" in order for it to make sense as to why Sindel wouldn't commit suicide and perhaps to explain this line in MK9:
"Have you ever wondering why your wife ended her own life and created a protective field around Earthrealm?"
"I thought of it for millenia, but her motives escape me."
Also, Sindel has literally nothing to say to any of the other Revenants who she spent 27 years working with.
Kabal: How convinient for past Kabal that his future partner wasn't in the game and that the Sonya he fights is the one from the past who couldn't possibly know that he left the Black Dragon and died a hero, otherwise the contradictions in his backstory would severely confuse him.
Also the retcon thay dialog exchange between Sonya and Cassie:
"Kabal? Isn't he just one of Kano's goons?"
"Watch out. He is fast on his feet."
This dialog exchange implies that the only thing Sonya cared about was that Kabal was a former Black Dragon (which I'm not sure how she found out to begin with) and she and Cassie straight up told the audience that nothing else about Kabal matters, so NRS basically said to everyone who liked the MK9 Kabal retcon that was made by NRS to go and screw themselves, because MK needs to be as black and white as it can possibly be! You see, NRS needs to appeal to casuals and newcomers in the third installment of the newest trilogy right before a second in-universe reboot. Their tactic makes sooooo much sense, you see.
And also, Kabal's treatment is very similar to the rest of the Revebants being treated as lost causes or inferior versions to the "super cool and awesome" MK2 versions of those characters (oh, they are from MK9, but from the MK2 portion of MK9, and some of the designs are even meant to resemble MK2 and the original trilogy more than MK9) who beat them and mock them in every fight and the Revenants receive no sympathy from anyone aside from Fire God Liu Kang and Raiden, which btw only applies to Revenant Liu Kang and Kitana and all the rest can just go and screw themselves I guess, and they talk with the most generically evil and/or contradictory statements ever, so as no one will feel sympathy for them in or out-of-universe.
And Kabal's intros and ending aren't any better, because at no point does Kabal talk about Stryker or Sub-Zero talks to Kabal about BEING SAVED BY HIM BACK IN MK9, all the while one of his intros with Jade (an intro that btw presents him as a scumbag on Kano's level) tries to make it work with MK9 (which, come to think of it, Sonya telling Kabal "Don't believe everything you hear." and not elaborating on that seems to try to do the same thing) by saying that he is no longer working for the NYPD and considering how this perfectly healthy Kabal is meant to be from THIS timeline's past and had no time to fully recover from his wounds and leave the good guys in the spam of several hours from him gettimg burnt to him dying. And his ending depicrs him having killed Kano, Kintaro and Sonya and supposedly he found out who truly burnt and seems to have no regrets for killing Sonya for no reason and that ending seems to imply that him receiving his burns happened exactly how we remember it in MK9, yet Sonya being dead seems to imply that his MK11 backstory is still valid. Also, the ending doesn't make it clear if it is past or future Kabal, probably so as it to make it easier to accept the newer backstory by hinting that it somehow applies to the first version.
In the replies there will eventually be a continuation that describes another issue with those retcons.
And here is another issue with those retcons; they limit the world-building and scope of the MK universe.
Erron: In MKX, Kotal's squad was comprised by a bunch of vastly different individials, equal amounts of old and new, all with their own quirks and specialties and each one offering a different part of the world, a different motivation, a different playstyle and a different aesthetic. We have a red ninja mummy long-range flying fighter who only wishes for the better of Outworld, a melee lizard-man, the last of his race, who serves out of loyalty and devotion to his friend, a two-fighters-in-one grappler who both serve oit of gratitude for being saved and an immortal zoner cowboy who has seen a lot and serves just for the money, all following an Aztec god who wishes the best for Outworld through any means deemed necessary. It's wacky, it's colourful and it feels full of potential for great storytelling or even just cool sequences. Each member has their story behind them to tell and each member adds something to the setting. Ermac is the result of Shao Kahn's multiple conquests, Reptile is the remnants of an ancient civilization doomed by all the constant battles in the MK world, Ferra/Torr are the result of Kotal's rise to power and Erron Black is the result of Outworld's centuries-long endeavours against Earthrealm.
In Erron's design you can see both his Earthrealm heritage, but also how much he changed after all his time in Outworld, and through his introduction and intro dialogs he comes across as a man who follows whoever he wishes and has his own agenda and rules on how things get done.
Then comes MK11 and now Erron is just a Kano goon with no allegiance or rules of his own and no skills or experience to stand out from any other Earthrealm fighter, so I guess the Wild West and the impact Outworld had on Earthrealm outside of the Mortal Kombat tournaments and before the Outworld invasion is just gone. Shang Tsung also loses another magic and manipulation feat of his.
Hilariously enough, the Erron retcon doesn't serve any actual purpose in the narrative as well, because past Erron was employed by Shang Tsung, this by Shao Kahn as well, so he was already working for the bad guys, but the team decided to retcon him in order to be more closely connected to a classic character, despite already being linked to two classic and much more iconic characters.
Nightwolf: Surprisingly enough, this one has quite some positives. It makes Nightwolf's overall involvements in the series make more sense and feel less contrived and just for the sake of the plot, since it now feels much more fitting for Raiden to be aware of an entire lineage of Nightwolves and have more of a reason to ask for Nightwolf's involvement in MK3 and MK9, since after multiple generations of Nightwolves he now knows what they are capable of. It also opens more world-building potential for exploration of the Matoka pride and it's history and adds to Nightwolf's implied mystique backstory and lore, plus, the implication of Nightwolves being aware of Mortal Kombat brings to the table some of the impact the Mortal Kombat tournaments had on Earthrealm and even somewhat explains the Matoka's more traditional and old-fashioned way of life, since they still hold on to traditions like the Nightwolf mantle. It even allows more influence of actual traditions of real-life Native American tribes to be acknowledged and used in future installments going forward in creative ways, which has always been in MK's heart, representing muktiple cultures and multiple groups of people at the same time. It even allows more chances for unique characterizations in present and future and even past Nightwolves. It even adds more depth to Nightwolf's confrontation with Scorpion in MK9 and some more tragedy to his death and corruption.
There is also Kano's involvement, which on the one hand, adds to Kano's cunning and the Black Dragon's reach and influence and allows more unique character pairings, but on the other hand, really? Kano is linked to that too? What is it with this guy being involved with storylines he was never involved with before? And using skills he never had before? And being turned into a mastermind? A mastermind that is defeated because of his own hubris? And by Sonya? In MKX? And ke killed people a character in MK1 all the way back in 1992 cared about? With plans to kill Shang Tsung? And being bald? With the similar samey designs? The same designs that get progressively more revealing by the next game? And he is played by Richard Divizio? And he was taken out with a single suckerpunch from Jax that one time? And Jax only showed up for like that one part of the story? And was a main threat in a spin-off game around MK4's time that against a character he isn't that associated with nowadays?
Snake, Quan Chi and Kano parallel plots when?
Skarlet: Now that Skarlet is a product of the Flesh Pits no more, I guess the Flesh Pits now only have the imperfect clone and the incomplete meatbag to show for themselves, both of whom are not only less impressive and less successful than the blood-bending blood-sucking assassin, but both are also way less disturbing by design, meaning that the Flesh Pits have lost even more of the presense in the story and creepy factor. Also Shao Kahn now lost one of his better big brain moves in MK9, that being having Skarlet as his ace in the hole to uncover any alterior motives Quan Chi had, as well as one of his most impressive skill feats, since he now is no longer the one who created her. To be fair, him adopting Skarlet does give us a bit of an idea of the poverty in Outworld during Kahn's rule and enforces a bit of an idea of a more sympathetic, for a lack of a better word, side to Shao, that somewhat existed since Shao's earlier days or a big brain strategic move on his part, according to one of his intros with Skarlet, which could imply another manipulation feat from Kahn, as well as giving Kahn the ability of blood magic (and the plot hole of why he never used it before), so it's not all bad.
Sindel: In terms of somewhat positives, this retcon kinda reenforces tgat aforementioned more sympathetic part of Shao Kahn, whether ecploring that aspect of Shao Kahn was for the better or the worse is a subject for another day, but it undoubtedly exploration of a pre-established hinted world-building idea. Also, tge idea of Edenia having a corrupted gold-digging government is actually not a bad world-building idea.
Now for the negatives, Shao Kahn's feat of killing Jerrod is now gone, so as a part of his evil impact on Edenia and the realms, since apparently his most iconic conquest was against a realm with an already evil queen and that queen didn't commit suicide because of Shao Kahn being a horrible abusive monster, so now Shao Kahn feels less evil and destructive in his path and his impact in MK is lessened. I mean, this used to be the guy who was so evil and with such an OP army that the Elder Gods created the Mortal Kombat tournament just so the other realms would stand a chance. Not only that, but now Quan Chi was apparently doing whatever the hell he wanted with Shao Kahn for millenia! Oh, and Shao Kahn loses even more of his strategic thinking and evil factor, sonce now he didn't hold Sindel's souls for millenia to exploit for a future plan of his and this also means that Shang Tsung also doesn't have his connections with Quan Chi, because apparently Quan Chi was bargaining with Shao Kahn before Shang Tsung was even born. And finally, this also limits the character development potential for the cast, since now apparently characters can only be as good or evil as their appearances say they are and I guess characters aren't allowed to make mistakes and try to do better from them and I also guess that we are now allegic to character progression and/or regression, which is pretty rich coming from the series with assassin ninjas who actually try to be good and compassionate people. Then again, it is pretty consistent with how Johnny, Scorpion, Kabal (as we'll soon see), Noob Saibot, Raiden, the Revenants, Cyrax, Sonya, Kotal, Liu Kang, Kitana, Frost, Cetrion, Kronika, the Outworld population, Sub-Zero, Kung Jin, Kung Lao, Mileena, Sektor and Cassie in this game.
Oh, yeah, also Sindel now doesn't know or need to know any magic, unlike in the original timeline where she learned how to use magic and in MK9 where she was a master of sorcery, so I guess now that the "sTrOnGeR bEtTeR" Twindel not only doesn't have one of the skills and abilities of the previous incarnations of Sindel, but she also has less ways to stand out from all the other weapon-yielding female fighters with one or two special abilities (Don't you agree Kitana, Jade, Mileena, Sareena, Kia, Jateeka, Tanya, Kira, Skarlet and Tasia?) or from every other schemy manipulator in the series (and not just the evil ones) (What do you think about it, Shang Tsung, Kano, Shao Kahn, Kung Lao, Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Noob Saibot, Sektor, Rain, Shinnok, Quan Chi, Tanya, Reiko, Frost, Kenshi, Nitara, Hsu Hao (and Mavado by approximation), Onaga, Havik, One Being, Deagon, Cyber Sub-Zero (if he counts), Erron Black, D' Vorah, Kronika, Cetrion, Fire God Liu Kang and 2021 Kabal?)
Kabal: Basically a repeat of the "no character development or character of their own allegiance for the sake of black and white or for the sake of trying to recapture some original trilogy simplicity", "character who's forced to be associated with a classic character even if it is really random", "Kano is at the center of the universe", "less sympathy for the more sympathetoc and redeemable bad guys" and "part of the MK world (in this case, the NYPD and Stryker) is fucking irrelevant" arguments I presented before.
It baffles me why MK 11 didn’t just go with this for Kabal. Just have Kano pull Kabal from his black dragon days and his speed is a Kronica augment.
Like he doesn’t have to be from MK 2 given we didn’t see how he got to the present. Just have Kano make the request Kronika sees the benefit of 2 speedsters and grant it.
Like I genuinely believed this was the case since NRS writing is so inconsistent I don’t even trust what the Bios say especially since it’s only mention in the story was Cassie calling Kabal one of Kanos goons.
Sindel Retcoon was the worse, it is the most obvious of every other retcon and even those who don't play MK like myself knows about it
Sindel had the worst retcon
that erron black retcon aversion is brilliant and would be a great take
Well, unless the mess up Fire God Liu Kang, we'll have to wait until Mortal 2 Kombat 2 Fatality for "retcons that retcon this second rebooted timeline"
Sindel’s retcon is even worse when you consider the fact that the entire plot could have literally been done without her but so many characters literally have to get nerfed and have them be dumb logically (e.g. nightwolf, fujin).
On top of that, they make characters who never before had any attraction to sindel, relationship-wise in this timeline(e.g. shao Kahn especially and Sheeva) into all of a sudden caring for her even in the story, if they acc followed it properly, would have shao Kahn betraying sindel for his own plans of conquest and preventing his downfall (Since mk11 sindel even has intros that basically confirms shao is an attack dog for her own personal scheme and has an ending where shao Kahn is her slave, which is not what shao Kahn wants) and Sheeva would barely have that much feelings for her as she never interacted with the sindel at all in this timeline.
It makes it even worse in aftermath, shao has to share a chapter which basically means his win record improving is basically on chance on what the writers of who won the fights you get to pick between sindel and shao Kahn (basically picking between a villain who already has wins and a villain who doesn’t, apart from liu - but that involved powerscaling being turned to the max, in terms of how shit it is). Not only does Shao’s character become massively inconsistent, he’s also massively incompetent considering that they basically made the point that without sindel, he would be dead when realistically he could have broken out of his cell anyway and not give a shit about sindel at all.
There’s so many things I can criticise about chapter 16 in aftermath and why it’s so terrible (despite having a good concept of villains winning but terrible execution).
Sindel is literally just forced plot convenience the more you look at it
tbh evil power couple Sindel and Shao Kahn is my guilty pleasure
Wait, are we all gonna move past that clean ass cut when Snake was talking about Scarlett possessing Ruby around 6:23?
That Erron Black part was pretty good
Honestly i they should've kept Erron Black's backstoy Ambiguously mysterious like they kind of did an X, I just think the intrigue and left to the imagination type Cowboy could've worked
Also, The thing I hate most about the Sindel retcon is that With how bad it is, people won't stop beating that dead horse into the fucking ground 🙄🤦🏾
I like Sindel as a villain more than a hero
I like to think that the changes to scarlet and Sindel were Shao Kahn implanting different memories in them.
I would just like to compliment how smoothly the costume switch at 6:24 was edited.
Thank you.
At this point mk has 300 writers it’s so inconsistent.
Yeah, as abominable as basically *everything* surrounding the Twindel retcon unfortunately is, somehow Skarlet's is even stranger and more unnecessary, making *zero* sense even just in _MK11_ itself. At least Twindel was cynically remade as a superficially "empowering" thirst trap, so that part unfortunately makes sense. Even with possible costume censorship issues, Skarlet's new background in _MK11_ is completely nonsensical and still internally inconsistent on multiple levels. Even Kabal's "corrupt cop" inversion isn't as bad somehow.
Also, lol, speaking of "thirst traps", I honestly hadn't even noticed Erron Black's minimal background getting changed. I guess I was too distracted by the fact Kano being gay enough for himself in half of the scenes that Erron was also in that it bordered on self-cest.
Sindel’s pretty much just forced plot convenience that basically involves nerfing other characters or not making sense in logical plan, makes other characters care for her when in this timeline, not give a shit about sindel (e.g. shao Kahn, Sheeva).
We are just not gonna act like shao Kahn could’ve easily broken out and made a plan himself to get more power in aftermath if they acc kept his consistent with his personality.
Also, they try and hype it up as sindel as all powerful when nightwolf has abilities that basically makes his sacrifice fucking pointless (hell his revenant that caused the most risk to the plan of the dlc trio in aftermath failing). Fujin from what it looks like may have the intro of cetrion and frost jumping as canon, he even fucked up noob, who is stated multiple times be more powerful than his human self- in which he beated multiple gods - and none of this is questioned about how fucking stupid plan of reviving sindel is based on the powerscaling and abilities of the characters.
Honestly, even if sindel in mk11 would basically be her first appearance (if you get what I mean), it still makes no fucking sense at all.
@@nabilahmed579 Very little about the NRS era is consistent unfortunately, even within itself, much less well-writen. The only consistent things are basically "villains always ultimately lose", "Kotal always loses" (but I repeat myself), "D'vorah always wins", "Scorpion will remain one of the main major characters despite never directly contributing to putting down the big bad", and "most of the characters will be written as stupidly as possible to give us the most dramatic wiggle room even if those dramatics make little to no sense".
Twindel just stands out because she was a focal point of _Aftermath_ in like all the wrong ways and, being basically a new character masquerading as an old one, was thus easy to use as deus ex machina by not being part of the Shang, Fujin, and Nightwolf group. (Which makes the fact that she and Shao get curbstomped by Crown-wearing Shang at the end in the most predictable betrayal even more morbidly hilarious than it already was.)
Honestly all of these sound really good, especially the Kabal one. That retcon irked me the most because Kabal is a cool character with a lot of potential but the changes made him yet another generic jobber for the villains. I mean come on, he's a speedster with damaged lungs so he has to have a breathing aparatus on, like a Flash with Asthma, that's unique enough on its own but then he's trying to redeem himself while having the potential to be further corrupted like we see in the 3D Era, cool. But nah, instead he's just a crooker cop and toady for Kano. And the change doesn't make sense because if he was on the BD's side then he'd never get burned by Kintaro, nor would Sindel kill him so how did he die with this new story? It really is frustrating, I can't tell if the writers are incompetent or just lazy, hoping for the latter because then it means they simply aren't doing a good job, not that they're shit at their job.
Sometimes i imagine that NRS writers sit in one room with guys responsible for MK2021 movie and they all wonder " hey which cool character we could turn into jobber:?
@@scottchaison1001 I agree, I wish they kept that because turning him into a villain not only mage him generic, it made him a jobber because villains rarely win unless they are the main villain or one that the writers are trying to hype up.
Making erron black a generic goon made me so mad, they made him into cassidy from overwatch. Some guy who likes cowboys way too much
Why can’t this infernal series be consist for 2 games, either have anthologies or tell one complete story, you can’t do both Mk. Here’s hope that mk 12: ah sit here we go again, is better
Maybe they knew they effed up so they're doing a fresh start on everything in MK1 lol
Once again, NRS should hire you for real.
The Jade/Kotal retcon is especially bad because neither character can never shut up about each other now. Surely there's a way to write a romance that doesn't ruin both participants.
Learning about all the oriignal lore makes me realize MK needs a lore master. Snake, if you were older would you take that posistion?
I love that Scarlet backstory and the visuals yu put for it dood!!! Sigh unfortunately well probably never see her again
Skarlet got a whole new backstory and a whole new design just for NRS to throw it away. That what bothers me
One (other) thing that disappointed me about MK11's story is that Sub Zero never interacted with Revenant Kabal.
Remember, in MK9, it was Kabal who defeated Cyber Sub Zero and he was the one who urged for him to be saved (alongside Smoke). You would think that super honourable Sub Zero would want to return favour by rescuing his saviour from different kind of corruption. But, then again, NRS's Sub Zero forgot that his best friend exists, so why would he remember that?
Man, MK11 is a dumpster fire.
Shouldn't that have happened in MKX?
@@aleanddragonITA My point was mainly that it should've happened, no matter where or when.
Smoke is mentioned by Sub Zero in pre fight dialogue once on MKX and once in MK11. Aside from that he literally doesn't give a shit which is just pure heresy compared to the original timeline