@@darthmisogyny3828 Those people have probably never played a Mortal Kombat game before MK9. Or they played the original three and completely skipped MK 4 and the 3-D era.
>Hanzo begs for mercy >rips his head off lmao >gets duped by Quan Chi, puts all of Earthrealm in jeopardy >has to get browbeaten into doing the right thing and fix his own screwup >morals What morals? Where? :v
I always had the head canon that after Bi-Han’s death in MK1, Shinnok personally tortured him in the Netherrealm as revenge for how the Lin Kuei inconvenienced him, burning away pieces of his soul until all that was left was a literal shadow. Then Noob was born as an exaggeration of all Bi-Han’s worst traits, while retaining all of his skill.
Looking back at that Games it hinted Bi-han did get annoyed that his brother was copying him as he said you always mimic me showing He knew he was trying to live up to being like him it also hinted Sektor might've used it and made him feel he could get whatever he wanted as don't forget not everyone starts off awful untill Someone like Sketor comes into the picture
The main point of Scorpion's story was about how quan chi's lie made scorpion kill an innocent man. Making bi han evil would contradict a lot of what makes scorpion a tragic character
To be fair, Bi-han did kill Scorpion so there was some vengeance to be had. But it was purely professional because they had conflicting goals. Quan Chi tried to make it an eternal hate by tricking scorpion that Bi Han also killed his clan. MK9 actually shows a good way of this that the two clearly have a history but Quan Chi was very much manipulating Scorpion. Especially before he kills Bi Han. "That was not me!"
His conflict was minimally-based on killing an innocent man. His conflict arose from being manipulated by his family’s killer, who was Quan-Chi. But Scorpion could give quite few f**** about smoking Bi-Han because Bi-Han was an opp
I mean, I'm just glad they are doing something different with their stories, I don't think it would be cool if they just did the same thing, if you're gonna reboot, then do it properly. I just hope they don't just make a silly villan arc for him in the future.
@@andrepersan i 1000% agree with you. The one thing i liked about that modern mk live action movie was making a actual evil bi han. It's so freaking cool seeing not just a new perspective on him but also getting to see a evil sub zero.
Bi-han fit the anti-hero alignment but a much darker version. Motivated by self-preservation, though was capable of heroic deeds. Combined with his abrasive and a few redeeming personality traits as well.
I always viewed bi-han as pretty stoic, but not outright evil. I really hope they don't fuck him up and just make him an asshole in the new game because this is the first time we've really gotten to play as bi-han in a while
Yea i completely agree. I’m giving nether realm the benefit of the doubt on this but their writers do not have a good track record. They don’t know how to make complex characters. They just throw everyone into the plain old “good” and “evil” categories.
@@camerondalton1495I’m not so sure tbh. Just going off his bio, he just wants what’s best for his clan which may put him in conflict with liu kang. That isn’t necessarily evil but we’ll se how it plays out
@@shawklan27 Yeah literally any attempt to garner more sympathy for Scorpion by Ed Goon. Remember how Scorpion damned so many people to undead eternity in MKX and how not one person gave him shit for it across two games? Sub Zero is just done dirty so often, it may as well be a running gag by now
@@The_GK1well making him a dick should be done in a better way as him expressing his opinions as an earthrealmer and from his intro dialogues he does have good reasonings over his actions like seeing baraka as a threat cuz of his tarkat disease which could affect earthrealmers or being distrustful towards outworld sindels rule due to their naivety or claiming liu kang being soft, hes not like shang tsung or the others who enjoy harming others for fun (hell he felt remorse towards sindels death or being unaware of shang tsungs experiments) or conquering stuff like hes just loyal towards lin kuei like a self preservationist and is against anyone who threatens it or controls them and will choose sides if it means liu kuei is all safe, i get the feeling they will make him into a separate faction taking sides whenever they choose like it whether good or bad but i guess a better moral one unlike the black dragon who are the opposite i guess and do whatever tf they want
@@shawklan27i mean they already did that tbh but really now scorpions being made into sub zeros role and honestly his story would be now relegated to hunting and reforming the lin kuei, its all sector vs sub zero again
In one of Bi Han's MK1 lines with Liu Kang, he also shows remorse for apparently trusting Shang Tsung. He didn't know about Shang Tsung's experiments, and shows remorese for going along with them. He might actually be more complex than just a pure bad guy. This is especially because in the story footage we can see he doesn't hate his brother, and even tries to convince Kuai and Smoke that leading Earthrealm is a greater purpose than protecting it. He clearly has distrust for Liu Kang, but trusts his comrades (even if he doesn't show it as much as his brother).
@@juliankanzuki2013 Totally overly ambitious for sure. Bi-Han was never really a nice guy or good guy in the original times, but he veered more on the dark side of neutrally gray while having some set of standards that kept him from jumping into the side of true villainy or evil. All of that was lost when he died. EDIT: Just corrected a spelling typo, lol
I would honestly like the idea of Bi-Han beginning a dark path for what he sees as the best for his clan and especially his brother but for his allies to help him realize the error of his ways. Or that he has some sort of big moment of realization and begins to correct his wrongdoings.
All nuance is disregarded the moment he killed his dad, so its pointless to try to bring depth unless the dad actually did something objectively bad, rather than simply disagreeing with how the clan should be run. Bi-Han doesn't bow to Liu like he did Raiden in Mythologies, while Scorpion does. Scorpion's bio suggests he's gonna have to kill his brother.
I'm glad you made this. In Mythologies, he literally rejected the Brotherhood of Shadow. It'd be weird if he all of a sudden chose to willingly serve it.
In my view, I've always thought of Bi-Han as a tough brother, the kind that very clearly loved and cared for him, but was tough on him to make sure he could endure the life they were being brought into. As a longtime fan of the Sub-Zero brothers, I've always wished and desired to see Bi-Han acting like the brother we should believe he was. He was never a bad brother, just probably a stern one.
@@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475 They fumbled it way too hard. I thought the betrayal was a fakeout so he could help Scorpion and Smoke get away but no, he just turned on a dime. Then bro is like "hurr durr I let our father die". Like, what??? Bi-Han is all about the Lin Kuei, why would he not help the Grandmaster? They turned him into Sektor and it sucks.
@fairlywren3664 It's funny that they claim it's "A New Era" when all they've basically done is pallete swap and appropriate previous character backstories to returning ones. Glad I gave up on MK after X cause I knew they'd never make it better. I'll still check in now and again to see if maybe they can restore any goodwill but nope. It'll be like 20 years before another reboot happens.
Bi-Han didn't seem like an evil character, maybe a relatively cut throat character but not evil. Even in MK9 while he was still alive he was a hired killer but objected to being accused of killing innocent families. Partly because he didn't do it but also it's probably not something he would proudly do. Cyrax, Kuai Liang, and Smoke were willing to make moral stances putting them odds with their clan and leading to their heroic alignment, we just don't get a chance to see how Bi-Han felt or would've reacted in these cases because he's dead and under mind control throughout the vast majority of the series.
>objected to being accused of killing innocent families lmao, did we play the same game? Scorpion goes "you'll pay for killing my family and clan," and Bi-Han literally goes "bitch, FUCK your clan!" It's only after Hanzo beats his ass, and now it's Bi-Han who's begging for mercy that he goes "ohnonononono p-please I actually had nothing to do with killing your family, scout's honor".
@@NucleaRaptor that still doesn't state it. Not compassionate thing to state but I'm willing to call it more rude dismissal and outrage than a clear implication.
@@NucleaRaptor why tf would he apologize for something he didn't do, as well as a a literal beneficial event of his main rivals being wiped out? He's not evil, but he's not a good person either. A level of nuance that neither NRS nor some of their critics seem to grasp
@@midoriyaweed5508 The point is that Bi-Han is a fucking asshole, and any argument to the contrary is blatant revisionism. At best you can argue that maybe he's not an irredeemable asshole, but other than sparing Sareena for no adequately explained reason, there's no evidence that he actually took Raiden's words to heart and tried to course-correct. This whole "ACKSHUALLY BI-HAN DINDU NUFFIN" thing that's been going around ever since Legacy is really starting to get on my nerves.
@@NucleaRaptor When he gets accused in Mythologies on the other hand, he sounds confused about the accusation and tells Scorpion Quan Chi did it. He didn't mock their deaths in the slightest.
I've always felt like Bi-han had to be a good brother for Kuai Liang considering the young Sub-Zero went through the trouble of avenging him in both continuities. My headcanon is that Bi-han wanted to kill Shang Tsung in MK1 so that he would get that bounty and run off with Kuai Liang and provide him a peaceful life through the money and reputation he has made for himself
Finally someone who actually understands Bi-Han’s character and his relationship with his brother. Bi-Han is my favorite character, and to see him get constantly slandered by everyone is frustrating. Really hope he’s not getting corrupted again. Great video.
He gets slander because new players that were 1st introduced to the game with MK9 thought Noob Saibot was the true Bi-Han & Scorpion was innocent one because that's how Ed Boon had it written SubZero(s) = Bad Scorpion = Good.
A lot of people forget that Netherrealm isn't exactly the same as hell. It's implied that dying sends you there regardless of if you were good or evil, as characters like Stryker, Jax, Nightwolf and others were sent there while being on the good side. They just assume that going to the netherrealm means going to hell = bad
It is Hell though. its been stated multiple times to be hell and Quan Chi only had those souls due to Shao Kahn giving them to him (Which should be beyond his power as he doesn't own Earth but whatever)
You’d think people would already assume that Bi-Han isn’t really a bad guy after knowing that it was Quan-Chi who killed Hanzo’s family. But for some reason, the fandom and Nether Realm treats Bi-Han as if doesn’t make a difference if he did kill Hanzo’s family or not.
I get that it was probably retconned in Mythologies with Bi-Han sparing Sareena, but wasn’t Kuai Liang’s willingness to spare his opponents the reason Scorpion figured out that the two brothers aren’t the same back in MK2?
In MK2 itself, yes. The comic gives him a different way to reach that conclusion. Not a bad point, though. This could be one of the contributing factors for his reputation.
Can we really trust scorpion on the personality of the man who killed him I mean when you get killed by the man you're not really going to think highly of the the guy who you perceive as a monster
@@The4thSnakewe could make the assumption that since Sareena and Sub-Zero's interaction suggested that he got some kind of compassion,maybe Scorpion had got the idea that if he himself could get an family while being an assassin,so could Bi-Han,and didn't take their interaction in consideration
Miss how Bi Han used to be this multi-dimensional character, he used to have so much mystery as to exactly what his character was and so much untapped potential for who he could have been if he had not become Noob Saibot, and there was so much potential for a Kuai Liang seeking to save his brother from his horrible fate. But then the writers just kept ignoring him and only dragged him into games cause fans love him.
@@The4thSnake I remember my dad watched that movie and began thinking of Bi-Han as this absolute despicable villian with no good traits at all due to the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie, i had to explain the actual MK lore to my dad because that movie highly missinforms the facts about the characters.
Was saying pretty much this to Fantim on our recent Tarkatan Bitesized episode, albeit in much lesser detail! People assume Bi-Han was always evil but just that scene alone in Mythologies of him being concerned when hearing he had evil in his soul demonstrates the exact opposite for me. He is corrupted upon death and resurrecting in the Netherrealm as the tainted Noob Saibot, not prior!
Yeah but remember when in mk9 Shang Tsung tells Johnny cage to kill baraka in the first chapter Johnny cage looks at Bi-han and he nodds NO...that shows that he still had good in him not taking a life.
Literally, sareena is the living proof that bi-han had some type of morality and Kuai-liang pursuit of honor for his brother redemption in the Original timeline.
@@_insomniac_423 well her character didnt matter but bi hans actions towards her did especially when u spare her and even if u account the ending where he kills her he still saves earthrealm indicating he does give a shit about his realm instead of being evil and risking his realm for the dragon army
I suppose that the darkness in her own soul was not as bad as Bi-Han's at the time (until they stupidly shoehorned in the villainous evil retcon in MK11 Aftermath's story).
@@BlueSunStudios1 remember sindel was originally not evil, they just retconned her to be evil in mk11. She was reborn as evil in mk9 so that shao khan can invade earth
I actually have A LOT to think about Bi-Han's potential in the MK universe so bear with me for a moment. One thing that I always found it fascinating about Noob Saibot was his Arcade Ending in MK9 I always liked the implication where he betrays both Shinnok and Quan-Chi to rule the Netherrealm himself because it works with the idea that Noob is just the worst emotions of Bi-Han taking form. He now hates his brother, relishes on killing, wants more power than ever, serves people that are clearly evil with genocidal and not just mercenaries that kill some people for money, but most importantly, his hatred got stronger, and what are the people he hated the most when he was alive? The Shirai Ryu, Quan Chi and Shinnok. Which is why he ended up betraying them and taking control of the Netherealm (He says in the trailers that they could lead Earthrealm meaning he possibly feels a bit like he could genuinely makes things better and now as Noob he is distorted to believe he can do that by force, which is why he took over Netherealm as opposed to just leave it there after defeating Shinnok and Quan Chi.) This can also apply to his corruption still not fully erasing his old self but just realizing what Bi-Han wanted in the wrong way, now that he conquers the Netherrealm and it's friends with Havik maybe he can revive Sareena, maybe he can also turn his brother into a Wraith so he can be with him again, the Netherealm are the source of Scorpion's power, maybe now he can make Scorpion weaker and kill him definitely, and he may even be able to finally stop killing after all his conquest is done. Another way this could be interpreted is that the Wraith transformation is flawed because it keeps corrupting the revived corpse making him more and more evil which is why Noob betrayed Quan Chi despite being a supposedly more loyal servant than Scorpion, which could also explain why Quan Chi kept changing ressurection methods until he finally hit it gold with the Revenants who couldn't be lead astray by sympathetic moments like Specters and wouldn't get so evil they would plan to betray him like Wraiths. Bi-Han's current positon could also make for some pretty interesting relationships with characters like Ahsrah and Sareena, Ahsrah could start the story hating Bi-Han and deciding to terminate him but later learning about what happened to him and end up feeling sympathetic for him since he was basically forced to be a demon like creature like her once was and maybe she could try to help him get better, there is also Sareena who was spared by Bi-Han once and almost got saved by him so now she can save him to finally thank him properly, hell there is dialogue in MKX that hints that she may even love Bi-Han so this makes the whole thing more interesting. Both Ahsrah and Sareena can even team-up for a while (which could result in other great interactions on it's own but we will talk about that other time) Overall Noob Saibot corruption has so much potential and I hope M 1 K can capitalize on that because it's genuinely fascinating.
😂 this just proof, the most of the fans have at least better ideas for the plot but keep in mind i really think as franchise as big like MK games and movies doesn't exploit the real potential of the story because there is so much to cover. NRS they're trying their best but my God they come with bad takes.
Midway: Bi-Han is a complex character Player: How So? Midway: He's got (backstory 1) and (backstory 2)... not to mention he (Shujinko ending 1) and (shujinko ending 2). He also has a troll hammer -20 years of retcons later NRS: Bi-Han hates his brother Player: How so? NRS: Because I said so. We write the canon Player: Based on what? NRS: Our shitty Shao Kahn Armageddon ending x Funny Kronika fanfiction
I’m glad someone finally mentioned that weird mention of Sektor in Kuai’s MK11 ending. The best I can get from that is that Bi-Han approved of the Cyber Initiative and Sektor planning to become a cyborg before he fought Scorpion, because the Cyber Initiative was planned weeks to months in advance, and Cyrax was only finding out about it right when the first tournament started. Not sure if Bi-Han would’ve approved of being a cyborg though.
@@naos8116 I was going to say that it could be another way he changed when he was transformed, but the hourglass appears to be showing him and Sektor, both human, standing over a cyborg. I think the only explanation left to us is that MattSayYay's timeline is right and comic Kuai Liang is just totally wrong for some reason about his brother not liking technology.
I think a great way to better address this in MK9 would’ve been to have Bi-Han defeat Sonya. Raiden then intervenes, preventing her death, and scolds Bi-Han, reminding him of his potential fate, to which he would reply that he is earning Tsung’s trust in order to betray and assassinate him for his last mission, thus earning his retirement. It would tie into his MK1 ending, give reason for the Lin Kuei fighting on Outworld’s side in the first tournament, and it would be a development of Raiden and Bi-Han’s interactions in Mythologies. It would show the grey area, where he is willing to commit cold-blooded killing in the name of his mission but also knowing he has to eventually change in order to save his soul; his death after this would be all the more in line with the tragic downfall. And, it would rectify the stupidity of having Sonya defeat him at all. The chapter system was stupid but that was one of the more egregious examples.
Really good plot. That would have shown how complex Bi Han actually is rather than a one dimensional "villain" character, which he never was in the first place. Truly, Bi Han deserves way more presence in the game and be one of main characters
Sub-zero is my favorite MK character. I love his powers and backstory and the fact that there were two of them. Mythologies was one of the stories where I saw him as a conflicted good guy.
In all fairness they had to do it to give us back the rivalry that MK always advertised. And I guess they wanted to make it seem stronger by making Sub-Zero and Scorpion actual brothers and originate from the same clan
Funny how the current MK fanbase seems to love reducing awesome characters to 1 dimensional black and white jobbers e.g 'evil' Bi Han, 'evil' Sindel. I dunno, personally I like my fan favorite characters to have some level of depth to them when they can
I don't think this Bi-Han is evil his intro "it is better now that we serve ourselves" suggest that he cares about his clan he wants them to be self reliant and strong of couse it also suggests that he wants more power enough power to stand above the rest but obviously cares about his people
Well even then he has an intro in MK1 where he is shown to be horrified by Shang Tsung’s experiments so he’s not unforgivably evil, just heading down a dark path!
Thank you for this video, it’s actually staggering how many people think Bi Han is evil. In case you forgot about it Noob’s Armageddon ending is actually a really good example of Bi Han & Noob being different as the two fight for control but they end up being merged together creating something in between (implying Bi Han is good or at least not evil)
I always found Bi-Han more so as an anti-hero who is willing to gets his hands dirty for his benefit or the greater good. It would make sense since he comes from the Lin Kuei, a clan that decided cyborg themselves because of their leader and abandon their humanity. But the new timeline seems to merge his Sub Zero and Noob Saibot personas into one.
@@avaragehomuraakemienjoyer Which is gonna suck for the people who wants to see a living or alive Bi-Han being his own person regardless of moral alignment; make him morally good or neutral or evil in a way that is supposed to compliment his pre-existing earlier Khrarakterization BUT knowing NRS with their Black & White mentality (which still seems to continue), keeping our expectations low is all the more wiser
Imagine they pull Twindel all over again but with Bi-Han, saying "he looks evil so he is evil and caring about brother is not what evil person would do"
Noob Saibot: Arrogance will be your death. Rain: Speaking from experience, Bi-Han? Noob Saibot: Yes. Noob Saibot: Still trading on my name? Sub-Zero: A name you forsook long ago. Noob Saibot: Not willingly. That dialogues shows Bi-Han didn't want such fate, he also told Raiden that he was killed unjustly.
Bi-han was a ruthless assassin and probably cared more for for the future of the Lin Kuei than for the good of Earthrealm. However, I find it hard to believe he would be needlessly cruel to his brother, his expected heir. Hard, certainly, but he would want him to excel, to showcase the best of their clan's strength. I can see them arguing over the future of the clan, Bi-han worrying over his brother's morality making him weak, but not him actively hating him from the start.
the typical older brotherly rivals was a good way to put it. but Bi-Han was definitely born anew as Noob. his mk deception ending was my taking point. especially with him killing his old "self" and his brother who was his last connection to that.
And they even kinda tied it back to his showing his compassion in Mythologies. Sareena arrives and saves Sub-Zero from getting killed there canonically. Because of Bi Han's compassion (which was stripped from him), he saved his brother down the line. Obviously, not intended, but when you think about it, it's really cool.
THANK YOU. Bi-Han pre Noob was neutral more than anything and he was a dickhead not an edgelord cartoon villain. I fear they are going to make Bi-Han into a one note villain who only craves power (yawn) in this new timeline though which is only going to further people’s misconception of this character… If I was the writer I would find a way to make him oppose the main group, but isn’t necessarily evil. I don’t mind a Sub-Zero that chooses his own path but isn’t objectively evil. Would probably make for a more interesting plot.
Yup, and he being worried by the fact he has a dark soul indicates the guy isn't just a bad guy, just a ninja who kills for a living and feels desensitized killing ppl, yet have morals and want to do good for his ppl.
In MK Mythologies, Bi-Han went into the NetherRealm on Raiden's command to steal back Shinnok's amulet, and that's what he does. If he was always meant to be an evil bastard, why did he turn down Quan Chi's offer to join the Brotherhood of Shadow and serve Shinnok in that game? Bottom line, Bi-Han only starts being evil AFTER he is transformed into Noob Saibot. Quan Chi simply told him the evil deep down is what allowed him to enter the NetherRealm, but as you said, he's an assassin, a trained killer; of course he has some evil in him!
Its why i dislike it when people say they want Bi-Han full evil in this timeline. If NRS makes him a completely unredeemable prick, whats the point of noob?
Kuai Liang did a lot of good - reforming the Lin Kuei, aiding Earthrealms other champions against threats. However, I always found it tragic that he wasn't able to save his brother or Frost.
never viewed him as evil but just a ruthless assassin. his brother is more human while he is just on the job. he has his own code of honor which is the lin kuei above himself while his brother put family above the clan.
While this is obviously just a headcanon, I think it could be interesting if Quan Chi turned Bi-Han into Noob Saibot as a form of revenge for foiling his plan in Mythologies, deliberately stripping him of his identity and literally making him a shadow of his former self. I'm also suspicious that part of Bi-Han's flanderization is due to the need for the MK writers to make Scorpion a protagonist in the story to match his popularity, and therefore requiring the man who killed him to be painted as the "bad guy", when having the two be nuanced characters both equally in the right and wrong (perhaps by making it clear that both clans have blood on their hands, rather than making the Shirai Ryu seem like the better of the two). Perhaps even establishing that Hanzo would have killed Bi-Han had the roles been reversed in Mythologies would go far in clarifying that not only is Hanzo also an assassin with blood on his hands, but also that Bi-Han was somewhat justified in killing him, since they're mortal enemies.
Quan Chi was so salty because he was owned by Bi Han that he got Scorpion to try to kill his brother years down the line in MK4. So I wouldn't be surprised.
My only problem with the story of Bi Han is they turn him into a different character and don't expand on it at all. They make him into another henchmen for the bigger villains, but it's obvious that his has motivations of his own. He's not like the others. He's always been seen as a very powerful and mysterious character but nothing ever happened. If the writers won't make Noob follow through with his goals and just make him a background character even though he has so much potential to be bigger, than at least follow through with Kuai Liangs story to cure Bi Han to get his brother back. In his mk11 dialogue, he talks about the circumstances that made him into Noob. Let him pursue his goals: Getting revenge on Scorpion for killing him, getting revenge of Quan chi for framing him. There is so much potential for development to make a great story for Bi Han and it pains me to see this character go to waste.
have him be a neutral character for ffs and not just a gatekeeper to get washed by our good guys for the 1000th time, dude got humilated as noob in the past timeline by jacqui of all people who herself lost to goofballs like ferra torr smh
I really hope Bi-Han’s relationship with his brother is represented well in MK1. I’m a sucker for a good brother story and I’d love to see a good one between two brothers and an adopted brother because of how close to home it hits.
This aged well. Mk1 Bi Han is not only evil, but really dumb, douchy and naive to believe deadly alliance and betray his brothers in a span of like 10 minutes. This, ladies and gentlemen, is on par with Sindel mk11 retcon
Well really if they wanted this rivalry between sub zero and scorpion they could have had bi Han betray all of them the deadly alliance and Shao and the heroes to use the dragon army to protect and keep Lin Kuei away from Liu Kang and Shang Tsung being a neutral faction instead of just siding with the deadly alliance and according to the dialogues for the future mk13 game freeing general Shao giving him a full heel turn, like they got to give him the noob saibot treatment again smh
@@thedarkroom6416what does it serve really other than Kuai Liang getting all the wins especially when he has Liu Kang and Outworld by his side to support him while bi Han is getting betrayed by General Shao after freeing him btw, if anything its a one sided rivalry which we will see Bi Han become a jobber like in the previous games again
And this is why you're one of the few MK content creators i watch & trust. Informative & concrete; which is something majority of MK content creators lack & instead are filled with ignorance.
I've always thought this, story wise it's so much more tragic to see an innocent man brutally slaughtered for a crime he didn't commit, i also find it strange that Kuai Liang doesn't realize his brother is brainwashed, and hates him now and sides with the guy who was blind with vengeance and murdered his innocent brother ? To me the ultimate wasted plotline is Kuai Liang and a reformed scorpion trying to restore bi han. Scorpion should have died at the hands of noob saibot, but is okay with it because he's THE ONE WHO MURDERED BI HAN FOR NO REASON. absolute waste of 3 characters who had such potential for a tragic/heartfelt storyline.
If i was tricked into reviving the devil by an occult wizard and then got burned and decapitated by a vengeful spirit for a crime i didnt commit i would also be kinda angry ngl
Alive Bi Han was an assassin for hire. It was simply his living. Had Raiden hired him, he would’ve done his job. The only people who think he’s always been evil are the popular shills who probably weren’t around for the early midway games.
I've said this for years. People really judge morality black and white. Morality has shades of grey as well. As my favorite character I relate with him. As a bit of a tortured soul. I get his personality 100%.
While joe taslim did a great job portraying him in the new movie, I hate how they basically made him a pawn for Shang Tsung, and completely evil. He’s a conflicted man who at the end of mythologies questions his actions, but like you said it’s too late by the time he can really change
Thank you for saying this. I’ve been getting sick of people thinking he was always evil. It’s way more interesting anyway for him to go from good to bad than for him to go from bad to worse.
The closest I can find to Bi-Han being villainous comes from Scorpion's ending in MKII, where what makes Scorpion realize that the Sub-Zero in the tournament isn't Bi-Han is the fact this Sub-Zero is willing to spare an opponent's life, but considering how pissed off Scorpion was at Bi-Han and how things have been retconned over the years, I'm not sure we're able to take this as 100% canon.
My personal headcanon who Bi Han is as a person is what most people wanted Kuai Liang's arc to be, but with him almost refusing to fully change. Basically, he's a person that keeps the Lin Kuei first and foremost, even if others try to reach out to him and thaw his frozen heart He clearly has compassion for Sareena and concern of things being too late to save his soul. He seems like the type of person that understands where he is in the world and is mostly content with it. Granted, Sareena and the compassion he felt for her may have made him rethink that position, suggesting a thawing heart, but he purposefully keeps his true emotions locked up
Fuckin thank you! Him being evil to the point of cliche in MK1 was really annoying. I was really hoping to see him be more of an actual character and see his relationship with his brother but, fuck me I guess.
I think Bi Han hated how the Lin Kuei defends Earthrealm but never receives any recognition or respect in return by the rest of Earthrealm aside from Liu Kang and his allies.
Honestly I agree with you Bi-han always gets labeled as the evil one without going deep into the research. I personally became a fan because of how bi-han was before his death. Hyped that we get him in m1k but I'm worried netherrealm may fumble the ball. And just make him evil...Though kuai as the new scorpion gives me some hope that bi-han won't be a villain as time goes on. He's yet to become noob and from what it seems he doesn't have something that makes him consider his actions yet so he'll have that taint... So it may make sense why he would be so cold on this game Hopefully by the next MK we'll be given something that shows his good side as he will go from possible villain to anti hero. Maybe sareena will have something to do with it or maybe we'll have a version of Noob that'll be that bi-han's literal evil clone so in that case he does not have to die and gives him the chance to reform... who knows we just gotta cross our fingers and hope on this one
Having Kuai Liang as Scorpion gives me some hope they aren't just going to instantly kill him off in the first game he comes back. It would be strange to have a game without a Sub Zero.
I think people say that because it is easier thinking everything was always the same than accepting that the character changed, like how everyone will always default that Sub Zero and Scorpion will want to kill each other unless specified otherwise Maybe they think Noob was always the same so there are no need to restore his past self Who needs two characters with ice powers when you can have one with ice and other with shadow powers?
I think Kuai Liang also rejecting his brother in MK 11 and labeling him as a lost cause also contributed to the unfair judgement of Bi-Han's character. But that's just bad writing in MK 11's story
It's funny, both in the story and in his dialogues with Noob, Kuai Liang rejects his brother and says that he is a lost cause, but in his dialogues with Fujin he says that he wants to save Bi-Han. How bipolar was MK11's Kuai Liang .-.
@@Zaire_39bruh boon gotta retire fr like why tf he even had his name and tobias's name around the character noob saibot if he only made him to take ls against newbies like jacqui briggs and not a single clean w, might well as make him a local jobber
I think he's essentially Neutral, but that neutrality may be construed as being on the darker side due to the setting he's in. I mean, in a world where it's normal to kill someone in a fight, Liu Kang is seen as a paragon while still having a body count
Developers only made Bi-Han (prior to becoming Noob) evil just so Scorpion would come across as “the good guy”. Which is total BS considering Scorpion was actually a villain who would cause problems for the protagonists. Ed Boon is a big Scorpion fan, so that’s why Hanzo is all of a sudden a hero.
I don't really see Bi-Han as evil in the new timeline, so I don't know why everyone thinks he is based off the few dialogue we get from pre-fights in 1. If anything, what Bi-Han is doing in 1 is what he feels is best for the Lin Kuei even if others disagree with him. In every timeline, it's all what he did before his soul was corrupted into Noob Saibot after death. It seems like it's a case of the community making Bi-Han out to be a villain because they want to see the villains already
Bi-Han arguing that the Lin Kuei settling for being defenders rather then leaders of Earth realm is what based for the Clan? Plus the pre-dialogue is important enough to let us know Bi-Han is clearly being a lot more ruthless with his actions costing lives as Liu Kang says, plus he him wanting what is inside the Temple of Elements doesn’t give off any type of good intentions. It’s obvious where NRS is going with Bi-Han.
@@thesilentsociety3252 There's a stark difference between ruthless and evil. Bi-Han has always had a ruthless streak in the games he has appeared as Sub-Zero by the very nature of the Lin Kuei being a clan of assassins. The dialogue with Johnny Cage implied that he was on less than good terms with his father, almost as if thinking about his him brought him pain. We won't know where he would fall until the game releases, but this iteration of Bi-Han strikes me more as troubled and wanting to free himself from generational trauma by any means necessary than being evil
I also think the biggest hint was after Scorpion was shown the false past of Sub-Zero killing his family and clan, Bi-Han tried to plead with him that he didn't do that at all. If Bi-Han was indeed a total irredeemable person, why would he even try to deny something that he had supposedly had caused? It would go against of pretty much everything of what he had done prior during his life as an assassin, and he would know directly what he has caused and the people he has killed since he is an assassin.
I hope the next game re-rails Bi-Han's characterization to be closer to how he was in the older timelines; still a prick but a prick with standards If Jin Kazama from Tekken can be redeemed, the same can be done for Bi-Han
I've been thinking about this topic recently. It was confusing to me for a while about why people think that bi-han was always evil. I always thought that it must be because of how he is depicted in recent media, like the 2021 film and of course, the things he says as noob saibot. I have looked into stuff like mythologies subzero and thought well there's just no evidence to suggest that bi-han is evil. He was simply corrupted. Thank you for making this video. Hopefully it will help people understand the true lore about bi-han.
Even in the original film, it was explicitly stated that him and Scorpion were under mind control. They never worked really worked for the villains like they do in the NRS games.
Yeah but you would think that Dominic the guy who is supposedly more knowledgeable of MK than Ed Boon (Boon’s words by the way) would know about Mythologies but nope he continues to prove he knows nothing. MK11 was big proof of that.
Unfortunately Ed Boon with his bias reasons made Bi-Han's new MK 1 variation more into Sektor instead of the Bi-Han from the last 2 timelines. Once again he stripes everything that made the Zero brothers stand out & awesome in their own way & gaved it all to Scorpion in this variation. People don't understand Bi-Han wasn't evil to begin with from the last 2 timelines he had morals but with him being an assassin there's always going to be impurity from that line of work. Bi-Han when he was transformed into Noob was stripped from any emotions & brainwashed by Quan Chi which destroyed any little amount of good & compassion within him. People really need to do their homework because non of these ninjas were by any means innocent since majority of em were assassins especially Scorpion isn't so innocent as well. Too bad the writing in MK has gone down ever since John Tobias is hardly involved with game lore because Boon & his writers clearly can't stay consistent but only with certain characters Scorpion being one smh.
Gotta agree. It seemed like MK9, X, and 11 couldn't quite make Bi-Han evil because the events of Mythologies still existed as well as Kuai Liang's desires to save him as the second Sub-Zero. MK9, he was a dick but is killed because of something he actually hasn't done to Hanzo. MKX, Sareena aids Earthrealm due to Bi-Han's actions while Kuai Liang finally absolved Bi-Han of the accusations Hanzo believed him to have done. MK11, even after all that, Kuai Liang still wants to save Bi-Han's soul even if it's the most questionable act he'll commit to do so. ...So MK1 completely wipes that part of Bi-Han clean and let his darkness grew so he can be hated proper. Even then, I bet they'll eventually write Kuai Liang as wanting to save Bi-Han again despite all he did because of course, he's the "good" Sub-Zero at heart. Not too disappointed but yeah.
@DevilPogoStick Thank God you get the character. I ain't giving Ed Boon the benefit of the doubt anymore honestly. Now since Hanzo is back as a child in smokes ending I would suspect he's going to recycle Bi-Han becoming Noob Saibot again but this time him dying by his brothers hand using kid Hanzo as a means to kill him. One thing to notice he writes Scorpion better since the reboot in MK9 & until now I'm not holding my breath. Only time will tell if they decide to add an add on story like they did with MK 11 by adding Aftermath.
I sort of like how MK1 is turning Bi-Han into an asshole but not evil. Bi-Han may be self serving but I dont imagine he will betray his family and clan
I am so happy that someone made this video Bi-Han cared about his brother and was never a villain MK1 has shown me just how many mortal kombat fans are uneducated when it comes to the topic of Bi-han being a Villain or bad person. He is definitely the most misunderstood character in Mortal Kombat history
My head canon is that Liu Kang saw how Noob behaved and thought this was how Bi Han Really felt. Since let's not forget this is MK9 Tournament Liu. That's why he asked Raiden to help him as long as his lifespan allowed him to. So it's very possible this happened.
I thought this was obvious. In Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero it was kinda clear Bi Han had morals
You'd be surprised how many people tell me I'm wrong about bi han being a Dick but never fully evil
No one played mythologies, and for a good reason. If they could eventually adapt it into a comic or something, it could be more mainstream.
@@Eduardesuper Or make a remaster. I think it definitely had potential. The comics are somewhat more niche I feel.
@@darthmisogyny3828 Those people have probably never played a Mortal Kombat game before MK9. Or they played the original three and completely skipped MK 4 and the 3-D era.
>Hanzo begs for mercy
>rips his head off lmao
>gets duped by Quan Chi, puts all of Earthrealm in jeopardy
>has to get browbeaten into doing the right thing and fix his own screwup
>morals
What morals? Where? :v
I always had the head canon that after Bi-Han’s death in MK1, Shinnok personally tortured him in the Netherrealm as revenge for how the Lin Kuei inconvenienced him, burning away pieces of his soul until all that was left was a literal shadow. Then Noob was born as an exaggeration of all Bi-Han’s worst traits, while retaining all of his skill.
Looking back at that Games it hinted Bi-han did get annoyed that his brother was copying him as he said you always mimic me showing He knew he was trying to live up to being like him it also hinted Sektor might've used it and made him feel he could get whatever he wanted as don't forget not everyone starts off awful untill Someone like Sketor comes into the picture
damn thats dark :(
@@TheNightsideChronicles thank you.
Sub zero even alludes to something like this happening during their pre fight convos
The skill did not remain, lol
The main point of Scorpion's story was about how quan chi's lie made scorpion kill an innocent man.
Making bi han evil would contradict a lot of what makes scorpion a tragic character
To be fair, Bi-han did kill Scorpion so there was some vengeance to be had. But it was purely professional because they had conflicting goals. Quan Chi tried to make it an eternal hate by tricking scorpion that Bi Han also killed his clan.
MK9 actually shows a good way of this that the two clearly have a history but Quan Chi was very much manipulating Scorpion. Especially before he kills Bi Han. "That was not me!"
His conflict was minimally-based on killing an innocent man. His conflict arose from being manipulated by his family’s killer, who was Quan-Chi. But Scorpion could give quite few f**** about smoking Bi-Han because Bi-Han was an opp
I mean, I'm just glad they are doing something different with their stories, I don't think it would be cool if they just did the same thing, if you're gonna reboot, then do it properly. I just hope they don't just make a silly villan arc for him in the future.
@@andrepersan i 1000% agree with you. The one thing i liked about that modern mk live action movie was making a actual evil bi han.
It's so freaking cool seeing not just a new perspective on him but also getting to see a evil sub zero.
@@melbiamil5144 I swear to god Sub Zero and Scorpion are the only savable things from that movie
Can my man Bi-Han not get slandered by the devs every time as this evil cruel bastard?
About as much as Stryker can actually not get jobber status I'm afraid
Pov kung Lao fans: it HAS BEGUN
It’s the same with rain man he was an anti hero in the original timeline then they made him a villain
@@arezlopez6021i think it's weird how Kung Lao barely talked shit about others in story mode but everyone treats as shit
@@wholesome_masochist4113I'm sorry, but who is this "Stryker" person you speak of? /s
I don't think people realize that both Sub-Zero's were effectively groomed to become an assassins and forced to pledge loyalty to the clan
Bi-han fit the anti-hero alignment but a much darker version. Motivated by self-preservation, though was capable of heroic deeds. Combined with his abrasive and a few redeeming personality traits as well.
Yep Bi-Han is the perfect character for an anti-hero archetype. Specifically the ‘does the right thing for the wrong reason’ kind of character.
I always viewed bi-han as pretty stoic, but not outright evil. I really hope they don't fuck him up and just make him an asshole in the new game because this is the first time we've really gotten to play as bi-han in a while
Yea i completely agree. I’m giving nether realm the benefit of the doubt on this but their writers do not have a good track record. They don’t know how to make complex characters. They just throw everyone into the plain old “good” and “evil” categories.
You might wind up disappointed.
@@camerondalton1495 maybe we’ll see.
@@camerondalton1495I’m not so sure tbh. Just going off his bio, he just wants what’s best for his clan which may put him in conflict with liu kang. That isn’t necessarily evil but we’ll se how it plays out
From what I've seen, in MK1 he's not evil he's just ambitious and dosen't share the vision his father had for the clan.
It's actually comical how evil and how much of a dick he is in story mode.
I don't mind him being a dick since that's what makes him Bi Han but holy shit it was a poor decision making him straight up evil
@edwardsallow9350 word wish with this new timeline. They could make scorpion the bad guy, but I guess you can't do that to the franchise poster boy.
@@shawklan27 Yeah literally any attempt to garner more sympathy for Scorpion by Ed Goon. Remember how Scorpion damned so many people to undead eternity in MKX and how not one person gave him shit for it across two games?
Sub Zero is just done dirty so often, it may as well be a running gag by now
@@The_GK1well making him a dick should be done in a better way as him expressing his opinions as an earthrealmer and from his intro dialogues he does have good reasonings over his actions like seeing baraka as a threat cuz of his tarkat disease which could affect earthrealmers or being distrustful towards outworld sindels rule due to their naivety or claiming liu kang being soft, hes not like shang tsung or the others who enjoy harming others for fun (hell he felt remorse towards sindels death or being unaware of shang tsungs experiments) or conquering stuff like hes just loyal towards lin kuei like a self preservationist and is against anyone who threatens it or controls them and will choose sides if it means liu kuei is all safe, i get the feeling they will make him into a separate faction taking sides whenever they choose like it whether good or bad but i guess a better moral one unlike the black dragon who are the opposite i guess and do whatever tf they want
@@shawklan27i mean they already did that tbh but really now scorpions being made into sub zeros role and honestly his story would be now relegated to hunting and reforming the lin kuei, its all sector vs sub zero again
In one of Bi Han's MK1 lines with Liu Kang, he also shows remorse for apparently trusting Shang Tsung. He didn't know about Shang Tsung's experiments, and shows remorese for going along with them.
He might actually be more complex than just a pure bad guy. This is especially because in the story footage we can see he doesn't hate his brother, and even tries to convince Kuai and Smoke that leading Earthrealm is a greater purpose than protecting it. He clearly has distrust for Liu Kang, but trusts his comrades (even if he doesn't show it as much as his brother).
I don't think he's evil in MK1, I just think he's overly ambitious.
@@juliankanzuki2013 Totally overly ambitious for sure. Bi-Han was never really a nice guy or good guy in the original times, but he veered more on the dark side of neutrally gray while having some set of standards that kept him from jumping into the side of true villainy or evil. All of that was lost when he died.
EDIT: Just corrected a spelling typo, lol
@@juliankanzuki2013 Spot on.
Maybe even to the point, where he might make potential choices that he'll probably regret.
I would honestly like the idea of Bi-Han beginning a dark path for what he sees as the best for his clan and especially his brother but for his allies to help him realize the error of his ways. Or that he has some sort of big moment of realization and begins to correct his wrongdoings.
All nuance is disregarded the moment he killed his dad, so its pointless to try to bring depth unless the dad actually did something objectively bad, rather than simply disagreeing with how the clan should be run. Bi-Han doesn't bow to Liu like he did Raiden in Mythologies, while Scorpion does. Scorpion's bio suggests he's gonna have to kill his brother.
Bi Han deserves better, he's more than just "Evil Edgelord"
Yeah but I do get massive Morally Ambiguous Edgelord from M1K though. Having him be Ambitious is a nice touch too
@@mettatonneoex i doubt he'll be with liu kang until the end but I'm really hoping the impossible that he will do the right thing on mk1
too late
@@jmgonzales7701he's scorpion now
i know, im just saying kuai liang was always the superior sub zero@@diamonshade7484
Bi-Han never hated his brother, Noob Saibot did.
I'm glad you made this. In Mythologies, he literally rejected the Brotherhood of Shadow. It'd be weird if he all of a sudden chose to willingly serve it.
In my view, I've always thought of Bi-Han as a tough brother, the kind that very clearly loved and cared for him, but was tough on him to make sure he could endure the life they were being brought into. As a longtime fan of the Sub-Zero brothers, I've always wished and desired to see Bi-Han acting like the brother we should believe he was. He was never a bad brother, just probably a stern one.
What I'm really excited for is to see them talking to each other so we can nip it in the bud. That is if NRS doesn't fumble it, of course.
I've felt the same.
@@fairlywren3664They did.
@@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475 They fumbled it way too hard. I thought the betrayal was a fakeout so he could help Scorpion and Smoke get away but no, he just turned on a dime. Then bro is like "hurr durr I let our father die". Like, what??? Bi-Han is all about the Lin Kuei, why would he not help the Grandmaster? They turned him into Sektor and it sucks.
@fairlywren3664 It's funny that they claim it's "A New Era" when all they've basically done is pallete swap and appropriate previous character backstories to returning ones. Glad I gave up on MK after X cause I knew they'd never make it better. I'll still check in now and again to see if maybe they can restore any goodwill but nope. It'll be like 20 years before another reboot happens.
Bi-Han didn't seem like an evil character, maybe a relatively cut throat character but not evil. Even in MK9 while he was still alive he was a hired killer but objected to being accused of killing innocent families. Partly because he didn't do it but also it's probably not something he would proudly do. Cyrax, Kuai Liang, and Smoke were willing to make moral stances putting them odds with their clan and leading to their heroic alignment, we just don't get a chance to see how Bi-Han felt or would've reacted in these cases because he's dead and under mind control throughout the vast majority of the series.
>objected to being accused of killing innocent families
lmao, did we play the same game?
Scorpion goes "you'll pay for killing my family and clan," and Bi-Han literally goes "bitch, FUCK your clan!" It's only after Hanzo beats his ass, and now it's Bi-Han who's begging for mercy that he goes "ohnonononono p-please I actually had nothing to do with killing your family, scout's honor".
@@NucleaRaptor that still doesn't state it. Not compassionate thing to state but I'm willing to call it more rude dismissal and outrage than a clear implication.
@@NucleaRaptor why tf would he apologize for something he didn't do, as well as a a literal beneficial event of his main rivals being wiped out? He's not evil, but he's not a good person either. A level of nuance that neither NRS nor some of their critics seem to grasp
@@midoriyaweed5508 The point is that Bi-Han is a fucking asshole, and any argument to the contrary is blatant revisionism. At best you can argue that maybe he's not an irredeemable asshole, but other than sparing Sareena for no adequately explained reason, there's no evidence that he actually took Raiden's words to heart and tried to course-correct. This whole "ACKSHUALLY BI-HAN DINDU NUFFIN" thing that's been going around ever since Legacy is really starting to get on my nerves.
@@NucleaRaptor When he gets accused in Mythologies on the other hand, he sounds confused about the accusation and tells Scorpion Quan Chi did it. He didn't mock their deaths in the slightest.
I've always felt like Bi-han had to be a good brother for Kuai Liang considering the young Sub-Zero went through the trouble of avenging him in both continuities.
My headcanon is that Bi-han wanted to kill Shang Tsung in MK1 so that he would get that bounty and run off with Kuai Liang and provide him a peaceful life through the money and reputation he has made for himself
Finally someone who actually understands Bi-Han’s character and his relationship with his brother. Bi-Han is my favorite character, and to see him get constantly slandered by everyone is frustrating. Really hope he’s not getting corrupted again. Great video.
He gets slander because new players that were 1st introduced to the game with MK9 thought Noob Saibot was the true Bi-Han & Scorpion was innocent one because that's how Ed Boon had it written SubZero(s) = Bad Scorpion = Good.
I miss Bi han as a good guy.
Ed Boon ruined him again
@@dragonk4833 I wouldn't say that, this is an another alternate universe, remember.
@@aidenparker5955 This did not age well
A lot of people forget that Netherrealm isn't exactly the same as hell. It's implied that dying sends you there regardless of if you were good or evil, as characters like Stryker, Jax, Nightwolf and others were sent there while being on the good side.
They just assume that going to the netherrealm means going to hell = bad
It basically is hell though, it's canon that satan ruled it before Shinnok and Quan Chi took over
It is Hell though. its been stated multiple times to be hell and Quan Chi only had those souls due to Shao Kahn giving them to him (Which should be beyond his power as he doesn't own Earth but whatever)
You’d think people would already assume that Bi-Han isn’t really a bad guy after knowing that it was Quan-Chi who killed Hanzo’s family. But for some reason, the fandom and Nether Realm treats Bi-Han as if doesn’t make a difference if he did kill Hanzo’s family or not.
You gotta feel bad for Bi-Han dying in both time-lines
Also that Noob Saibot was clearly a lot stronger in the Original timeline, as opposed to the NRS timeline. Wherein he never wins a fight.
@@pious83because original timeline had an better writer .
@@Kira22558 Facts.
@@Kira22558
Bruh.
@@Kira22558Couldn’t NetherRealm just hire that writer or did he/she die?
I get that it was probably retconned in Mythologies with Bi-Han sparing Sareena, but wasn’t Kuai Liang’s willingness to spare his opponents the reason Scorpion figured out that the two brothers aren’t the same back in MK2?
In MK2 itself, yes. The comic gives him a different way to reach that conclusion. Not a bad point, though. This could be one of the contributing factors for his reputation.
To be fair, you can't expect Scorpion to know that, since he wasn't there to see Bi-Han spare Sareena last I checked.
Can we really trust scorpion on the personality of the man who killed him I mean when you get killed by the man you're not really going to think highly of the the guy who you perceive as a monster
@@The4thSnakewe could make the assumption that since Sareena and Sub-Zero's interaction suggested that he got some kind of compassion,maybe Scorpion had got the idea that if he himself could get an family while being an assassin,so could Bi-Han,and didn't take their interaction in consideration
And not the totally different face, outfit and later voice.
Different people are different.
Noon is misunderstood
everyone: oh bi-han was always evil
bi-han: i have never heard so many wrong things, one after another, consecutively, IN A ROW
At the very least, I now have an appreciation for Bi-Han as a complicated guy who really needs a redemption arc
Scorpion: "You took everything from me!"
Bi-Han: "I don't even know you?"
Miss how Bi Han used to be this multi-dimensional character, he used to have so much mystery as to exactly what his character was and so much untapped potential for who he could have been if he had not become Noob Saibot, and there was so much potential for a Kuai Liang seeking to save his brother from his horrible fate.
But then the writers just kept ignoring him and only dragged him into games cause fans love him.
Let's hope for a redemption arc for bi-han in a dlc or something, but only if ed bum don't go full anti sub-zero and destroy his character ever more
Human Bi-Han was always intended to be a morally grey character even in the original MK from 1992.
Unbelievable Snake. Obviously everyone is talking about the live action evil version of Bi-Han smh XD
Nah, that's me, soon, in my new Kombat Theory short.
@@The4thSnake I remember my dad watched that movie and began thinking of Bi-Han as this absolute despicable villian with no good traits at all due to the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie, i had to explain the actual MK lore to my dad because that movie highly missinforms the facts about the characters.
That movie was fan service to Ed Boon cause the director knew he couldn't get enough of his Boyfriend Scorpion.
Now it's on game too, cool
Was saying pretty much this to Fantim on our recent Tarkatan Bitesized episode, albeit in much lesser detail! People assume Bi-Han was always evil but just that scene alone in Mythologies of him being concerned when hearing he had evil in his soul demonstrates the exact opposite for me.
He is corrupted upon death and resurrecting in the Netherrealm as the tainted Noob Saibot, not prior!
Yeah but remember when in mk9 Shang Tsung tells Johnny cage to kill baraka in the first chapter Johnny cage looks at Bi-han and he nodds NO...that shows that he still had good in him not taking a life.
Hard to ever forget Bi-Han's morality if you're familiar with Sareena
Literally, sareena is the living proof that bi-han had some type of morality and Kuai-liang pursuit of honor for his brother redemption in the Original timeline.
Then there’s the fact that the man tried to leave the clan so he could cleanse his soul but was killed before he could.
How could I if she only ever mattered in Mythologies? She only made two playable appearances and one of them was for a GBA port.
@@_insomniac_423 well her character didnt matter but bi hans actions towards her did especially when u spare her and even if u account the ending where he kills her he still saves earthrealm indicating he does give a shit about his realm instead of being evil and risking his realm for the dragon army
Also note, sindel, who was more powerful than bi han, did not get the same corruption. She was left as a revenant
I suppose that the darkness in her own soul was not as bad as Bi-Han's at the time (until they stupidly shoehorned in the villainous evil retcon in MK11 Aftermath's story).
It's just that corrupted Bi-Han is his own separate playable character and corrupted Sindel isn't
@@BlueSunStudios1 remember sindel was originally not evil, they just retconned her to be evil in mk11. She was reborn as evil in mk9 so that shao khan can invade earth
Idk if Sindel is more powerful than him because bro beat multiple elemental gods and beat scorpion twice
Sindel was the worst thing that NRS could do (storywise)
I actually have A LOT to think about Bi-Han's potential in the MK universe so bear with me for a moment.
One thing that I always found it fascinating about Noob Saibot was his Arcade Ending in MK9
I always liked the implication where he betrays both Shinnok and Quan-Chi to rule the Netherrealm himself because it works with the idea that Noob is just the worst emotions of Bi-Han taking form. He now hates his brother, relishes on killing, wants more power than ever, serves people that are clearly evil with genocidal and not just mercenaries that kill some people for money, but most importantly, his hatred got stronger, and what are the people he hated the most when he was alive? The Shirai Ryu, Quan Chi and Shinnok. Which is why he ended up betraying them and taking control of the Netherealm (He says in the trailers that they could lead Earthrealm meaning he possibly feels a bit like he could genuinely makes things better and now as Noob he is distorted to believe he can do that by force, which is why he took over Netherealm as opposed to just leave it there after defeating Shinnok and Quan Chi.)
This can also apply to his corruption still not fully erasing his old self but just realizing what Bi-Han wanted in the wrong way, now that he conquers the Netherrealm and it's friends with Havik maybe he can revive Sareena, maybe he can also turn his brother into a Wraith so he can be with him again, the Netherealm are the source of Scorpion's power, maybe now he can make Scorpion weaker and kill him definitely, and he may even be able to finally stop killing after all his conquest is done.
Another way this could be interpreted is that the Wraith transformation is flawed because it keeps corrupting the revived corpse making him more and more evil which is why Noob betrayed Quan Chi despite being a supposedly more loyal servant than Scorpion, which could also explain why Quan Chi kept changing ressurection methods until he finally hit it gold with the Revenants who couldn't be lead astray by sympathetic moments like Specters and wouldn't get so evil they would plan to betray him like Wraiths.
Bi-Han's current positon could also make for some pretty interesting relationships with characters like Ahsrah and Sareena, Ahsrah could start the story hating Bi-Han and deciding to terminate him but later learning about what happened to him and end up feeling sympathetic for him since he was basically forced to be a demon like creature like her once was and maybe she could try to help him get better, there is also Sareena who was spared by Bi-Han once and almost got saved by him so now she can save him to finally thank him properly, hell there is dialogue in MKX that hints that she may even love Bi-Han so this makes the whole thing more interesting. Both Ahsrah and Sareena can even team-up for a while (which could result in other great interactions on it's own but we will talk about that other time)
Overall Noob Saibot corruption has so much potential and I hope M 1 K can capitalize on that because it's genuinely fascinating.
😂 this just proof, the most of the fans have at least better ideas for the plot but keep in mind i really think as franchise as big like MK games and movies doesn't exploit the real potential of the story because there is so much to cover. NRS they're trying their best but my God they come with bad takes.
Midway: Bi-Han is a complex character
Player: How So?
Midway: He's got (backstory 1) and (backstory 2)... not to mention he (Shujinko ending 1) and (shujinko ending 2). He also has a troll hammer
-20 years of retcons later
NRS: Bi-Han hates his brother
Player: How so?
NRS: Because I said so. We write the canon
Player: Based on what?
NRS: Our shitty Shao Kahn Armageddon ending x Funny Kronika fanfiction
A perfect way to describe to the whole video context
This comment is gold.
I’m glad someone finally mentioned that weird mention of Sektor in Kuai’s MK11 ending. The best I can get from that is that Bi-Han approved of the Cyber Initiative and Sektor planning to become a cyborg before he fought Scorpion, because the Cyber Initiative was planned weeks to months in advance, and Cyrax was only finding out about it right when the first tournament started. Not sure if Bi-Han would’ve approved of being a cyborg though.
In the MK2 prequel comic, Kuai Liang talks about how Bi Han rejected a lot of modern tech. This is contrasted with Liang arriving in a jet.
He seens like he is almost blindly loyal to the Lin Kuei and it's decisions. but he also reject tecnology. so it can go either way i think.
@@naos8116 I was going to say that it could be another way he changed when he was transformed, but the hourglass appears to be showing him and Sektor, both human, standing over a cyborg. I think the only explanation left to us is that MattSayYay's timeline is right and comic Kuai Liang is just totally wrong for some reason about his brother not liking technology.
@@Xick Perhaps the new timeline Bi-Han is less distrusting of modern technology as seen with his somewhat darker personality overall.
@@BlueSunStudios1To me it seems more like one more of the 10 million retcons in the NRS era.
So basically, some people take corrupted Bi-Han's words as his true feelings.
Yes because some people are very stupid.
I mean, how do you get Bi-Han's personality in MK1?
I think a great way to better address this in MK9 would’ve been to have Bi-Han defeat Sonya. Raiden then intervenes, preventing her death, and scolds Bi-Han, reminding him of his potential fate, to which he would reply that he is earning Tsung’s trust in order to betray and assassinate him for his last mission, thus earning his retirement.
It would tie into his MK1 ending, give reason for the Lin Kuei fighting on Outworld’s side in the first tournament, and it would be a development of Raiden and Bi-Han’s interactions in Mythologies. It would show the grey area, where he is willing to commit cold-blooded killing in the name of his mission but also knowing he has to eventually change in order to save his soul; his death after this would be all the more in line with the tragic downfall.
And, it would rectify the stupidity of having Sonya defeat him at all. The chapter system was stupid but that was one of the more egregious examples.
This is really good. It’s a shame that this wasn’t thought of
This is fire
Really good plot. That would have shown how complex Bi Han actually is rather than a one dimensional "villain" character, which he never was in the first place. Truly, Bi Han deserves way more presence in the game and be one of main characters
In that case Ermac definitely should not have lost to anyone in 1v1 fights unless they all ganged up on him.
@@RazuX5 You’re right, he shouldn’t have. Ermac shouldn’t have been losing to Sub-Zero twice, Stryker, Takeda & Jacqui.
Sub-zero is my favorite MK character. I love his powers and backstory and the fact that there were two of them. Mythologies was one of the stories where I saw him as a conflicted good guy.
So disappointed they made Bi Han evil again in MK1 😵💫
His not fully evil. His against Shang tsung experiments and killing children
In all fairness they had to do it to give us back the rivalry that MK always advertised. And I guess they wanted to make it seem stronger by making Sub-Zero and Scorpion actual brothers and originate from the same clan
Well…that’s his character so….
Bi han has always been a dick tbh
@@bn-tc2tkdid you not watch the video?
Im gonna wait for the inevitable "Bi han wasted potential video "
Someone hire this guy as a story editor
..why?
@@mystictj9626 Because he knows what he's talking about?
@@lukescrew1981Hell no. Some of his rewrites are so bad. It’s crazy anyone thinks he’s right. Even himself.
@@hydrocritical2268 Yeah I'm sure you could do so much better. Yes he knows what he's talking about stop coping
@@hydrocritical2268You're lack of evidence... is disturbing.
Funny how the current MK fanbase seems to love reducing awesome characters to 1 dimensional black and white jobbers e.g 'evil' Bi Han, 'evil' Sindel. I dunno, personally I like my fan favorite characters to have some level of depth to them when they can
For real, there are people who prefer horny power hungry Sindel over the one with redemption story.
because ‘story doesn’t matter in fighting games!!!!’ yeah no lol
@@Tenerens1s story and characters are what keep me interested in fighting games so fuck all those people who say they don,t care about story.
What you said… Sadly became reality with MK1.2 😢 😡 where NRS has Twindeled Round 2 to Bi-Han
I don't think this Bi-Han is evil his intro "it is better now that we serve ourselves" suggest that he cares about his clan he wants them to be self reliant and strong of couse it also suggests that he wants more power enough power to stand above the rest but obviously cares about his people
Yes. He’s just a leader who wants his clan to stop being second fiddle, that’s all.
Well even then he has an intro in MK1 where he is shown to be horrified by Shang Tsung’s experiments so he’s not unforgivably evil, just heading down a dark path!
I do think his ambition it's definitely way higher than most other timelines. He wants to become a Titan
Thank you for this video, it’s actually staggering how many people think Bi Han is evil.
In case you forgot about it Noob’s Armageddon ending is actually a really good example of Bi Han & Noob being different as the two fight for control but they end up being merged together creating something in between (implying Bi Han is good or at least not evil)
I always found Bi-Han more so as an anti-hero who is willing to gets his hands dirty for his benefit or the greater good.
It would make sense since he comes from the Lin Kuei, a clan that decided cyborg themselves because of their leader and abandon their humanity.
But the new timeline seems to merge his Sub Zero and Noob Saibot personas into one.
I think Bi-Han's new personality is actually taken mostly from Sektor.
@@avaragehomuraakemienjoyer
Which is gonna suck for the people who wants to see a living or alive Bi-Han being his own person regardless of moral alignment; make him morally good or neutral or evil in a way that is supposed to compliment his pre-existing earlier Khrarakterization BUT knowing NRS with their Black & White mentality (which still seems to continue), keeping our expectations low is all the more wiser
Imagine they pull Twindel all over again but with Bi-Han, saying "he looks evil so he is evil and caring about brother is not what evil person would do"
What you said… Sadly became reality with MK1.2 😢 😡 where NRS has Twindeled Round 2 to Bi-Han
MK Mythologies Sub-Zero continues as underappreciated I see
Noob Saibot: Arrogance will be your death.
Rain: Speaking from experience, Bi-Han?
Noob Saibot: Yes.
Noob Saibot: Still trading on my name?
Sub-Zero: A name you forsook long ago.
Noob Saibot: Not willingly.
That dialogues shows Bi-Han didn't want such fate, he also told Raiden that he was killed unjustly.
Bi-han was a ruthless assassin and probably cared more for for the future of the Lin Kuei than for the good of Earthrealm. However, I find it hard to believe he would be needlessly cruel to his brother, his expected heir. Hard, certainly, but he would want him to excel, to showcase the best of their clan's strength. I can see them arguing over the future of the clan, Bi-han worrying over his brother's morality making him weak, but not him actively hating him from the start.
FINALLY! Someone with common sense! I’ve already subscribed, and I’m glad I did.
Welcome aboard.
I'd forgotten how much better Noob's default MK9 look was over that of MK11.
And his voice was much less cringe. Just a normal deep distorted voice; much better than the wannabe inspector gadget villain bullshit we got in mk11
Fucking Bi Han is now more like Shao then Shao Is in 1
the typical older brotherly rivals was a good way to put it. but Bi-Han was definitely born anew as Noob. his mk deception ending was my taking point. especially with him killing his old "self" and his brother who was his last connection to that.
And they even kinda tied it back to his showing his compassion in Mythologies. Sareena arrives and saves Sub-Zero from getting killed there canonically. Because of Bi Han's compassion (which was stripped from him), he saved his brother down the line. Obviously, not intended, but when you think about it, it's really cool.
I'm glad you're committed to calling the game "Mortal One Kombat"
I mean, that's what it says on the box.
@The4thSnake Technically, MK11 did as well, but it makes sense to distinguish this new game as such in order to differentiate it from the first game.
In my mind these games are: "Mortal Jeden Kombat" (MK1) and "Mortal Jedenaście Kombat" (MK11). I'm Polish.
THANK YOU.
Bi-Han pre Noob was neutral more than anything and he was a dickhead not an edgelord cartoon villain.
I fear they are going to make Bi-Han into a one note villain who only craves power (yawn) in this new timeline though which is only going to further people’s misconception of this character…
If I was the writer I would find a way to make him oppose the main group, but isn’t necessarily evil. I don’t mind a Sub-Zero that chooses his own path but isn’t objectively evil. Would probably make for a more interesting plot.
morally grey/anti hero bi-han!
Bro if they turn Bi-Han into a Sektor rippoff i'm gonna get pretty upset.
@@avaragehomuraakemienjoyer💀
@@doomslayer9138você tá até aqui?
@@lemuel1589 sim
In Mythologies isn't he a sort of anti hero not a 100% villain?
He's a loyal assassin within his clan (of assassins). Not really a villain or anti-hero. Just a salaryman.
@@pious83 Gotta pay zee bills
@@seasonembrace3624 Exactly!
@@pious83 He honestly seems relatable minus the killing of course😅
Yup, and he being worried by the fact he has a dark soul indicates the guy isn't just a bad guy, just a ninja who kills for a living and feels desensitized killing ppl, yet have morals and want to do good for his ppl.
In MK Mythologies, Bi-Han went into the NetherRealm on Raiden's command to steal back Shinnok's amulet, and that's what he does. If he was always meant to be an evil bastard, why did he turn down Quan Chi's offer to join the Brotherhood of Shadow and serve Shinnok in that game?
Bottom line, Bi-Han only starts being evil AFTER he is transformed into Noob Saibot. Quan Chi simply told him the evil deep down is what allowed him to enter the NetherRealm, but as you said, he's an assassin, a trained killer; of course he has some evil in him!
Its why i dislike it when people say they want Bi-Han full evil in this timeline. If NRS makes him a completely unredeemable prick, whats the point of noob?
Kuai Liang did a lot of good - reforming the Lin Kuei, aiding Earthrealms other champions against threats.
However, I always found it tragic that he wasn't able to save his brother or Frost.
never viewed him as evil but just a ruthless assassin. his brother is more human while he is just on the job. he has his own code of honor which is the lin kuei above himself while his brother put family above the clan.
While this is obviously just a headcanon, I think it could be interesting if Quan Chi turned Bi-Han into Noob Saibot as a form of revenge for foiling his plan in Mythologies, deliberately stripping him of his identity and literally making him a shadow of his former self.
I'm also suspicious that part of Bi-Han's flanderization is due to the need for the MK writers to make Scorpion a protagonist in the story to match his popularity, and therefore requiring the man who killed him to be painted as the "bad guy", when having the two be nuanced characters both equally in the right and wrong (perhaps by making it clear that both clans have blood on their hands, rather than making the Shirai Ryu seem like the better of the two). Perhaps even establishing that Hanzo would have killed Bi-Han had the roles been reversed in Mythologies would go far in clarifying that not only is Hanzo also an assassin with blood on his hands, but also that Bi-Han was somewhat justified in killing him, since they're mortal enemies.
Isn’t sub zero also their poster boy albeit on a lesser level
@@Deathmare235yea but scorpion is ed boons favorite , so theirs favortism 😂😂
I’m tired of the scorpion stuff, he is overhyped and the only reason he remains so popular is because he is Ed’s favorite bastard child.
Quan Chi was so salty because he was owned by Bi Han that he got Scorpion to try to kill his brother years down the line in MK4. So I wouldn't be surprised.
@@griley823 but there was barely any scorpion in mk9
My only problem with the story of Bi Han is they turn him into a different character and don't expand on it at all. They make him into another henchmen for the bigger villains, but it's obvious that his has motivations of his own. He's not like the others. He's always been seen as a very powerful and mysterious character but nothing ever happened. If the writers won't make Noob follow through with his goals and just make him a background character even though he has so much potential to be bigger, than at least follow through with Kuai Liangs story to cure Bi Han to get his brother back. In his mk11 dialogue, he talks about the circumstances that made him into Noob. Let him pursue his goals: Getting revenge on Scorpion for killing him, getting revenge of Quan chi for framing him. There is so much potential for development to make a great story for Bi Han and it pains me to see this character go to waste.
have him be a neutral character for ffs and not just a gatekeeper to get washed by our good guys for the 1000th time, dude got humilated as noob in the past timeline by jacqui of all people who herself lost to goofballs like ferra torr smh
So, as someone who watched the story... you're gonna be dissapointed about Bi-Han, Snake, just so you know.
Oh I know I was devastated
@@Zaire_39same 😔
Their writing for Bi Han was an utter tragedy 😞
@@pt7930 how Bi-Han can never get redemption but hanzo can despite Hanzo being objectively worse than Bi-Han will always astound me
What you said… Sadly became reality with MK1.2 😢 😡 where NRS has Twindeled Round 2 to Bi-Han
I love your passion for this franchise.Respect to you my dude ❤
I really hope Bi-Han’s relationship with his brother is represented well in MK1. I’m a sucker for a good brother story and I’d love to see a good one between two brothers and an adopted brother because of how close to home it hits.
This aged well. Mk1 Bi Han is not only evil, but really dumb, douchy and naive to believe deadly alliance and betray his brothers in a span of like 10 minutes. This, ladies and gentlemen, is on par with Sindel mk11 retcon
Well really if they wanted this rivalry between sub zero and scorpion they could have had bi Han betray all of them the deadly alliance and Shao and the heroes to use the dragon army to protect and keep Lin Kuei away from Liu Kang and Shang Tsung being a neutral faction instead of just siding with the deadly alliance and according to the dialogues for the future mk13 game freeing general Shao giving him a full heel turn, like they got to give him the noob saibot treatment again smh
Its worst, because atleast in sindel case, her good side is said in bios, but we have a entire game showing that sub zero is not just a asshole
@@shawerful5209I think this is not too bad as it serves a puroose
I think this is far better as it serves a purpose to the story to serve. A new rivalry
@@thedarkroom6416what does it serve really other than Kuai Liang getting all the wins especially when he has Liu Kang and Outworld by his side to support him while bi Han is getting betrayed by General Shao after freeing him btw, if anything its a one sided rivalry which we will see Bi Han become a jobber like in the previous games again
And this is why you're one of the few MK content creators i watch & trust. Informative & concrete; which is something majority of MK content creators lack & instead are filled with ignorance.
And MK fans' indifference..
I've always thought this, story wise it's so much more tragic to see an innocent man brutally slaughtered for a crime he didn't commit, i also find it strange that Kuai Liang doesn't realize his brother is brainwashed, and hates him now and sides with the guy who was blind with vengeance and murdered his innocent brother ? To me the ultimate wasted plotline is Kuai Liang and a reformed scorpion trying to restore bi han. Scorpion should have died at the hands of noob saibot, but is okay with it because he's THE ONE WHO MURDERED BI HAN FOR NO REASON. absolute waste of 3 characters who had such potential for a tragic/heartfelt storyline.
If i was tricked into reviving the devil by an occult wizard and then got burned and decapitated by a vengeful spirit for a crime i didnt commit i would also be kinda angry ngl
Alive Bi Han was an assassin for hire. It was simply his living. Had Raiden hired him, he would’ve done his job. The only people who think he’s always been evil are the popular shills who probably weren’t around for the early midway games.
I've said this for years. People really judge morality black and white. Morality has shades of grey as well. As my favorite character I relate with him. As a bit of a tortured soul. I get his personality 100%.
While joe taslim did a great job portraying him in the new movie, I hate how they basically made him a pawn for Shang Tsung, and completely evil. He’s a conflicted man who at the end of mythologies questions his actions, but like you said it’s too late by the time he can really change
Sure is hell is evil now unfortunately. Boon has to get his scorpion style eternal revenge on bi-han
Thank you for saying this. I’ve been getting sick of people thinking he was always evil. It’s way more interesting anyway for him to go from good to bad than for him to go from bad to worse.
The closest I can find to Bi-Han being villainous comes from Scorpion's ending in MKII, where what makes Scorpion realize that the Sub-Zero in the tournament isn't Bi-Han is the fact this Sub-Zero is willing to spare an opponent's life, but considering how pissed off Scorpion was at Bi-Han and how things have been retconned over the years, I'm not sure we're able to take this as 100% canon.
My personal headcanon who Bi Han is as a person is what most people wanted Kuai Liang's arc to be, but with him almost refusing to fully change. Basically, he's a person that keeps the Lin Kuei first and foremost, even if others try to reach out to him and thaw his frozen heart
He clearly has compassion for Sareena and concern of things being too late to save his soul. He seems like the type of person that understands where he is in the world and is mostly content with it. Granted, Sareena and the compassion he felt for her may have made him rethink that position, suggesting a thawing heart, but he purposefully keeps his true emotions locked up
Fuckin thank you! Him being evil to the point of cliche in MK1 was really annoying. I was really hoping to see him be more of an actual character and see his relationship with his brother but, fuck me I guess.
I think Bi Han hated how the Lin Kuei defends Earthrealm but never receives any recognition or respect in return by the rest of Earthrealm aside from Liu Kang and his allies.
Honestly I agree with you
Bi-han always gets labeled as the evil one without going deep into the research.
I personally became a fan because of how bi-han was before his death. Hyped that we get him in m1k but I'm worried netherrealm may fumble the ball. And just make him evil...Though kuai as the new scorpion gives me some hope that bi-han won't be a villain as time goes on. He's yet to become noob and from what it seems he doesn't have something that makes him consider his actions yet so he'll have that taint... So it may make sense why he would be so cold on this game
Hopefully by the next MK we'll be given something that shows his good side as he will go from possible villain to anti hero. Maybe sareena will have something to do with it or maybe we'll have a version of Noob that'll be that bi-han's literal evil clone so in that case he does not have to die and gives him the chance to reform... who knows we just gotta cross our fingers and hope on this one
To be fair even Shujinko had a Taint on him as well mentioned by Nightwolf.
Having Kuai Liang as Scorpion gives me some hope they aren't just going to instantly kill him off in the first game he comes back. It would be strange to have a game without a Sub Zero.
What you said… Sadly became reality with MK1.2 😢 😡 where NRS has Twindeled Round 2 to Bi-Han
I think people say that because it is easier thinking everything was always the same than accepting that the character changed, like how everyone will always default that Sub Zero and Scorpion will want to kill each other unless specified otherwise
Maybe they think Noob was always the same so there are no need to restore his past self
Who needs two characters with ice powers when you can have one with ice and other with shadow powers?
I think Kuai Liang also rejecting his brother in MK 11 and labeling him as a lost cause also contributed to the unfair judgement of Bi-Han's character. But that's just bad writing in MK 11's story
Or it was just the…years and years of Noob trying to kill him and rejecting him as well lmaooo
It's funny, both in the story and in his dialogues with Noob, Kuai Liang rejects his brother and says that he is a lost cause, but in his dialogues with Fujin he says that he wants to save Bi-Han. How bipolar was MK11's Kuai Liang .-.
Its wrong how quan chi is more used in the story, but the original sub zero is tossed aside.
well its a shame but i guess ed boon hates bi han now
@@Layd36ed boon hasnt gotten over bi-han killing his favourite character twice
@@Zaire_39bruh boon gotta retire fr like why tf he even had his name and tobias's name around the character noob saibot if he only made him to take ls against newbies like jacqui briggs and not a single clean w, might well as make him a local jobber
it always made me sad that ever no one saved bi-han/noob but saved scorpion
BI- Han is not completely evil but he is more valent then his brother who was more likely to pair people
I think he's essentially Neutral, but that neutrality may be construed as being on the darker side due to the setting he's in. I mean, in a world where it's normal to kill someone in a fight, Liu Kang is seen as a paragon while still having a body count
As a big fan of subzero (both) I hate how people keep stereotyping him
Developers only made Bi-Han (prior to becoming Noob) evil just so Scorpion would come across as “the good guy”. Which is total BS considering Scorpion was actually a villain who would cause problems for the protagonists. Ed Boon is a big Scorpion fan, so that’s why Hanzo is all of a sudden a hero.
The lady who played Serena back then is so damn fine
😄
I don't really see Bi-Han as evil in the new timeline, so I don't know why everyone thinks he is based off the few dialogue we get from pre-fights in 1. If anything, what Bi-Han is doing in 1 is what he feels is best for the Lin Kuei even if others disagree with him. In every timeline, it's all what he did before his soul was corrupted into Noob Saibot after death. It seems like it's a case of the community making Bi-Han out to be a villain because they want to see the villains already
Bi-Han arguing that the Lin Kuei settling for being defenders rather then leaders of Earth realm is what based for the Clan? Plus the pre-dialogue is important enough to let us know Bi-Han is clearly being a lot more ruthless with his actions costing lives as Liu Kang says, plus he him wanting what is inside the Temple of Elements doesn’t give off any type of good intentions. It’s obvious where NRS is going with Bi-Han.
@@thesilentsociety3252
There's a stark difference between ruthless and evil. Bi-Han has always had a ruthless streak in the games he has appeared as Sub-Zero by the very nature of the Lin Kuei being a clan of assassins. The dialogue with Johnny Cage implied that he was on less than good terms with his father, almost as if thinking about his him brought him pain. We won't know where he would fall until the game releases, but this iteration of Bi-Han strikes me more as troubled and wanting to free himself from generational trauma by any means necessary than being evil
Man I needed this video, also in mk 9 even raiden couldn’t make it more obvious about bi han morals and why he didn’t want hanzo to kill him
I also think the biggest hint was after Scorpion was shown the false past of Sub-Zero killing his family and clan, Bi-Han tried to plead with him that he didn't do that at all. If Bi-Han was indeed a total irredeemable person, why would he even try to deny something that he had supposedly had caused? It would go against of pretty much everything of what he had done prior during his life as an assassin, and he would know directly what he has caused and the people he has killed since he is an assassin.
I hope the next game re-rails Bi-Han's characterization to be closer to how he was in the older timelines; still a prick but a prick with standards
If Jin Kazama from Tekken can be redeemed, the same can be done for Bi-Han
That would mean putting effort in which they won’t. Also, why is that Bi-Han can’t get redemption but Hanzo can despite doing far worse than Bi-Han?
I always saw Bi Han as an asshole, not evil. I do hope this is all a set up for a redemption story.
How was he an asshole?
@@shamarbarrett9958lol😂 what kind of question is that?
I've been thinking about this topic recently. It was confusing to me for a while about why people think that bi-han was always evil. I always thought that it must be because of how he is depicted in recent media, like the 2021 film and of course, the things he says as noob saibot. I have looked into stuff like mythologies subzero and thought well there's just no evidence to suggest that bi-han is evil. He was simply corrupted. Thank you for making this video. Hopefully it will help people understand the true lore about bi-han.
Even in the original film, it was explicitly stated that him and Scorpion were under mind control. They never worked really worked for the villains like they do in the NRS games.
I don’t blame people making this misconception when most of Bi-Han’s development occurred in a universally panned game from the late 90s.
Yeah but you would think that Dominic the guy who is supposedly more knowledgeable of MK than Ed Boon (Boon’s words by the way) would know about Mythologies but nope he continues to prove he knows nothing. MK11 was big proof of that.
Unfortunately Ed Boon with his bias reasons made Bi-Han's new MK 1 variation more into Sektor instead of the Bi-Han from the last 2 timelines. Once again he stripes everything that made the Zero brothers stand out & awesome in their own way & gaved it all to Scorpion in this variation. People don't understand Bi-Han wasn't evil to begin with from the last 2 timelines he had morals but with him being an assassin there's always going to be impurity from that line of work. Bi-Han when he was transformed into Noob was stripped from any emotions & brainwashed by Quan Chi which destroyed any little amount of good & compassion within him. People really need to do their homework because non of these ninjas were by any means innocent since majority of em were assassins especially Scorpion isn't so innocent as well. Too bad the writing in MK has gone down ever since John Tobias is hardly involved with game lore because Boon & his writers clearly can't stay consistent but only with certain characters Scorpion being one smh.
Gotta agree. It seemed like MK9, X, and 11 couldn't quite make Bi-Han evil because the events of Mythologies still existed as well as Kuai Liang's desires to save him as the second Sub-Zero. MK9, he was a dick but is killed because of something he actually hasn't done to Hanzo. MKX, Sareena aids Earthrealm due to Bi-Han's actions while Kuai Liang finally absolved Bi-Han of the accusations Hanzo believed him to have done. MK11, even after all that, Kuai Liang still wants to save Bi-Han's soul even if it's the most questionable act he'll commit to do so.
...So MK1 completely wipes that part of Bi-Han clean and let his darkness grew so he can be hated proper. Even then, I bet they'll eventually write Kuai Liang as wanting to save Bi-Han again despite all he did because of course, he's the "good" Sub-Zero at heart. Not too disappointed but yeah.
@DevilPogoStick Thank God you get the character. I ain't giving Ed Boon the benefit of the doubt anymore honestly. Now since Hanzo is back as a child in smokes ending I would suspect he's going to recycle Bi-Han becoming Noob Saibot again but this time him dying by his brothers hand using kid Hanzo as a means to kill him. One thing to notice he writes Scorpion better since the reboot in MK9 & until now I'm not holding my breath. Only time will tell if they decide to add an add on story like they did with MK 11 by adding Aftermath.
Well spoken my friend, very troubling that Ed gives to much to scorpion lore and keeps taking from Sub-Zero his bias is ruining the franchise.
What you said… Sadly became reality with MK1.2 😢 😡 where NRS has Twindeled Round 2 to Bi-Han
I sort of like how MK1 is turning Bi-Han into an asshole but not evil. Bi-Han may be self serving but I dont imagine he will betray his family and clan
They did him dirty like they did Sindel.
What you said… Sadly became reality with MK1.2 😢 😡 where NRS has Twindeled Round 2 to Bi-Han
Khaos Reigns dropped and they only doubled down on him even when they gave him his own playable chapter as Noob 😔
Of course that idiot Dumbinic doubled down.
This is undeniable the most accurate way to interpret this discourse… idk how some fans noob at face value
I am so happy that someone made this video Bi-Han cared about his brother and was never a villain MK1 has shown me just how many mortal kombat fans are uneducated when it comes to the topic of Bi-han being a
Villain or bad person. He is definitely the most misunderstood character in Mortal Kombat history
My head canon is that Liu Kang saw how Noob behaved and thought this was how Bi Han Really felt. Since let's not forget this is MK9 Tournament Liu. That's why he asked Raiden to help him as long as his lifespan allowed him to. So it's very possible this happened.