The problem is always that they subvert without having anything worthwhile. There are ways they could have explained her evil without rewriting the character and creating some massive nonsensical plotholes that should have been obvious to anybody that understood the lore. For example: MK11 could make the case that Sindel was indeed an opportunist that bargained with Shao Kahn to keep Edenia from being destroyed and secure her place of power as Empress of Outworld. Shao Kahn is still the one who kills Jerrod. However, Shao Kahn did not trust Sindel and had her bewitched by Shang Tsung to behave like the kindhearted mother figure she pretended to be. This would explain why Kitana and Sheeva remember her this way, because the true Sindel wouldn't have raised Kitana to be weak or shown so much warmth to Sheeva had her kindness been an act put on for the commoners. Sindel being killed and resurrected twice would have removed this curse upon her soul and revealed her true nature. That she had to perish and resurrect twice to dispel this would explain why she was pure and good in the originals. The woman Kitana remembers and whom Sheeva protected never truly existed. Oh, Sindel would also readily betray Shao Kahn after his humiliating defeats and never be dumb enough to trust Shang Tsung. This is obviously far from perfect and still amounts to pointless changes, but dammit if I didn't put more thought into it than "Hurr! Hurr! Let's just make Sheeva an evil MILF!"
If it was revealed that Shang Tsung was controlling Sindel the entire time and all of what Sindel said to kitana was Tsung trolling her, I would’ve been fine with the chapter
Oh of course when the character is a lifeless puppet the character is fine but when a character show’s life shows choices intentions thoughts and opinions that character is trash ?
@@nayxf0393 Lol I'm sorry what? She's more of a lifeless puppet in Aftermath than she ever was before that. Before she was actually nuanced and interesting, now she's just a generic evil mom character. And NRS' entire motivation behind having this nonsensical face-heel turn is because she LOOKS evil, even though the entire point of her character is that she looks evil but is actually a good character morally.
@@nebula5371 I don't think she did if she was told to she would have said no I will not say that and if you fire me I'll say to all the fans what you tried to force me to do. I think stephanie WAS a person who cared for her fans and if she did now she would have said something like that but not follow their orders I mean she has the highest role
The only thing I'll give to NRS Sindel is the voice. I love Mara Junot, she was Christa in Telltale Games' TWD and I still wonder what happened to Christa to this day ):
The writers really don’t know how to be consistent at all even with small things like Jax’s death in mk9, king Jerrod’s death, Sindel’s personality, Kung Lao and Jin being uncle and nephew not cousins also Kabal being evil and having powers in his normal form when the time merger happened even though he was a good guy in mk9
Ronaldmcnugs 2.0 it’s literally explained that outworld magic and atmosphere gave kabal the super speed powers due to him being burned by kintaro and the guy literally said “jin and lao are uncle and nephew and not cousins”
Sindel was the most best looking character in the game face and design everything but her being evil just ruins everything I can't believe NetherRealm thought it was fine to change what suppose to be a tragic character story arc.
Sindel is supposed to be THE MK mother before the new timeline made Sonya a mom, no mother in _any_ story should ever _desire_ to kill or enslave their daughter. How is NetherRealm not getting major backlash for that?
Yo what is up with this negative portrayal of mothers in this game. Either they are cruel, selfish hacks (Sindel, Kronika) or dead (Sonya, Vera). Are there any moms that aren't portray this way?
I hated that the game was poking at Sindel's true story saying she was bewitched and will turn back to being a hero with all the mind controlling gone her scene with Kitana was somewhat touching only to have that moment swept under the rug her evil intentions she wanted privilege but she seem to be a conquer if she's just killing and beating people up.
I feel genuinely offended that Netherrealm's decision of making Sindel evil in MK 11, which in itself is already a huge problem, since they clearly did not have a clue on what to do with her character, is the fact that they did so based on her _appearance._ Wasn't that the whole point behind Sindel? Don't judge a book by its cover? But that's what NR ended up doing, by choosing the easy route. No way in hell would most fans dislike good Sindel in MK11 compared to evil Sindel. It stopped her from having actual character development, and that's what's really sad about her.
@@porhengkheam745 Well just because a person is evil doent mean they would bend to you will but, in the case of Sindel she was already on their side so it was pointless to brainwash her.
I mean I feel you on that I do enjoy her character both old and new. But, I dont think an evil version of her character is all bad. its just her "evil" self was poorly retconned, and written and has very generic motivations. I believe an evil version of her character can work just not the way she is written now. I have a few Ideas that could make her work.
@@joshuawilliams2318 Yeah, her being evil is not the problem; it's how she was handled. If NR hadn't given us so much lore regarding her backstory and how she came to be who she is, perhaps evil Sindel could sit well with me. But it doesn't, because she was clearly meant to be a good guy from the start. It's canon. They plucked and fucked Sindel's lore and didn't even give two shits regarding her character. It enfuriates me even more that they didn't know what the hell to do with her. _They_ said it; it's not speculation. They went out of their way to delete her entire personality in order to create someone entirely different. Sindel is dead, and it sucks.
NetherRealm seen the backlash and they still went through with evil Sindel the aftermath story was probably done simultaneously with the main story pitiful NetherRealm.
NRS has some of the stupidest fans who will defend NRS to the ends of the earth, you aren't alone Snake as I've argued with a ton of NRS fanboys who can't accept that NRS isn't perfect. Sindel deserved far better and NRS really needs writers who care about the characters, not these idiots who have every woman treated as an object, regardless of the fact every fighter before has been treated equally regardless of gender.
No one said NRS is perfect and I fucking hate the Sindel Retcon. My problem with him is that he thinks fighting game stories should be Oscar level in storytelling and character development. He takes it way too seriously and doesn’t take these story modes for what they are. DUMB FUN
Brian C 4thSnake’s idea isn’t oscar level tho. It’s literally just basic competent story telling. If you consider this Oscar worthy.... its no wonder people put up with shit. Or why anything could get an Oscar these days.
I find it hypocritical they covered up the women so they wouldn’t show skin yet for most of the men they practically show them shirtless or with Baraka he has his far past skin where he is practically almost naked!
I agree. Saying the new Sindel is wasted potential would imply the retcon had potential to begin with. It didn't. A female Shao Khan is an interesting concept but not in the way the canon is established. I can imagine Sindek becoming "evil" as the queen of Edenia in the sense that she starts merging realms with Edenia and starts butchering Outworlders. And her relationship with Kitana could sour by Sindel becoming overprotective because she doesn't wanna lose her beloved daughter again. These are possible extremes of the good Sindel character that also allow potential for redemption if the fans don't like the evil Sindel. The loyal wife of Shao Khan isn't a take Sindel could ever fit.
@@snakeslife-uroborodjinn790 or they can make her “racist” as what kollector said in an intro. Her only caring about edenians (which isn’t a problem for me cause duh those are her people, you wouldn’t see Queen Elizabeth 2 care about Americans. If her country was conquered, she’d mostly care about her people and family.) If they want something political like how they did to shao, they can make sindel like queen Elizabeth
@@nabilahmed579 or even making her like realize nobody trusts her so she gives up on redemption and becomes evil or she turns evil because while she uses dark magic by mistake which corrupts her
@@Truly_Sithari I wonder what motives would she even have for the first option u suggested? I think the second option makes sense for her as she’ll probs try to use dark magic to better her family and realm
They really could've told the story of Sindel seeking redemption after Edenia was conquered by Shao Khan & how she left Kitana but instead we got Sindel as a one dimensional villain all because she looked evil but she actually wasn't
What annoys me is that, Netherrealm is fully capable of writing a character with good development (Sheeva) so I question as to why the didn't do the same for Sindel
I don't believe Sheeva had good development though either, she was just a jobber servant bad guy in MK9, wasn't present in 10, acts like an idiot in Aftermath and that's it. They finally gave her some dignity by giving her clothes to wear but that's not a compliment for them when these are the same people who designed the original outfits.
I just realized that in the story mode shao said that he kept kitana only to appease sindel why the fuck does sindel hate kitana so much now this story mode is so directionless
Am I the only one that likes the idea that, like Kitana, Shou Kahn has an evil clone of Sindel? Eh? Then we get fun evil couple, and actually still good Sindel.
It fits his character but not the canon. The whole point of her suicide is that she stripped Shao Khan of the chance to have her forever. Her protective ward on Earth realm was mostly out of spite. If he had a clone lying around then none of this would matter.
@@sic6664 .... Robin Shou Kahn?? Right! Send that to Ed Boon, he's going to greenlight that Liu Kang is secretly Shao Kahn's alter ego, whatever bullcrap reasoning that could happen!
@@SP-ez4vz yes same thing with shang tsung and fujin, they're no longer jobbers but when sindel was calling shao khan "husband " it may be cute for mk 11 sindel fans but as for me my ears were bleeding
Yeah even Ermac in the original timeline was treated much better and became a badass hero thanks to Kenshi while NRS screwed up that relationship alongside ruining Sindel, Kabal and Smoke etc.
@@RazuX5 Ermac: Turned heroic, one of the strongest characters capable of fighting off multiple Earthrealm heroes at once. New game he's just a generic minion most likely killed off by Shang-Tsung and also just dies a stupid death in the crypt. Kabal: A man who attempts to redeem himself, fails and ends up making a new, more dangerous Black Dragon Clan. In MK 9 he even joins the police force and dies a hero. In MKX he's just a generic minion and in 11 he's an idiot who will believe Kano, give up godlike powers because he gets 'no time off' and like Sindel, has his story completely reversed. Smoke: Sub-Zero's friend who is turned into a cyborg, is constantly fighting his program, there is hope for him. In MK9 he never becomes a cyborg, a chance to do more with him since he has free will, instead he is killed off. Has an interesting retcon where he's a smoke demon and his Revenant seems to have taken this idea happily but he doesn't do anything in MKX and is just a generic minion. Sindel: A queen who selfishly kills herself to get away from Shao-Kahn, doesn't succeed as he keeps her soul. Is revived as a tool but is freed and works to redeem herself, joining the side of good, justly ruling her realm and trying to save her daughter when she is under mind control herself. In MK9 her suicide is given a more heroic twist where she was trying to protect Earthrealm though she never breaks free of any mind control. While stupid, they at least give a reason why she's super power suddenly as she has all of Shang-Tsung's souls. In MK11 she's just a generic villain, sells out everyone for Shao-Kahn just so she can live a life of luxury and privilege and along with Kahn, is dumb enough to trust Shang-Tsung who is already planning to betray people but she somehow doesn't think he will betray her? All in all, a lot of characters suffer under NRS' control. They either become generic fodder villains, get ignored completely or they get an interesting retcon only for that retcon to be ignored so its just wasted potential. In terms of improving characters, I think only Nightwolf really got a vast improvement with a cool and interesting new origin and the Nightwolf mantle being passed down which sounds really freaking cool. Otherwise every other character has no substantial change or gets worse treatment.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins So! Let's then introduce the new kast of kharakters by NRS starting with MKX. It certainly felt like "Hey, we make cooler, relevant stuffs now! The old ones sucks! You're gonna like'em!" How do they fare up then?
@@darkemperortheobscureone694 Don't get me started on how Kronika is, plotwise, one of the shittiest bosses in video game history. My understanding is that she's also a pushover in terms of fighting as well. Her existence is tantamount to "A wizard did it.", except they already had a fucking wizard who was in the series from day 1!
@@jamierose9095 Couldn't agree more. There's even an idiot who said that she's a better villain than freaking Shao Kahn and they also said that she sculpted her plans carefully which is a total bullshit.
@@nebula5371 they honestly could’ve made cetrion the final boss and make her a good villain, I’m down for a female boss but at least make her look sick
@@nebula5371 i think they could’ve used her arcade ending to some extent as a starting point to make her a awesome villain, I mean, justifying being a heartless and irredeemable bitch, to try and save the realms seems like a cool concept and we got more character from her in her ending. Hell, if we had the original sindel, they’d be completely in contrast with each other and that’d be nice to explore, some characters such as the edenians, fujin trying to get cetrion to do less harmful bitchy things and do good deeds to save the realms but the way that mortal behaves just justifes her to carry out her fucked up methods to get people to “join the light” or like u said could stop her from doing being evil and make sure u take her out properly such as powerful allies such as sindel, fujin, Johnny cage, liu, raiden and do a joint attack or something like that to make it feel as if the powerscaling is somewhat fixed, not one or two characters doing 80% of the work and others don’t do anything like In aftermath when thotdel and nightwolf were basically taking on Cetrion
Hopefully in Lui Kangs altered timeline he will repair the mistakes NRS has made, after all since Lui Kang repairs the timeline it gives NRS a chance to rebuild from their mistakes, but it’s not like they can make it any worse... right?
Ever since the Last Jedi came out the "muh subversion" argument has been battered into paste, what people seem to miss is that a subversion means nothing if what you replace the expected with is much worse. If I'm putting my hand up for a high five then suddenly slap you, saying I "subverted expectations" isn't gonna not justify you beating the sh 1 t out of me in return.
I feel like, in an alternate world where Netherrealm has to throw one character under the bus to fulfill their evil lady and Shao Kahn duo combo, and hear me out here: Why not Skarlet? Think about it. She was one of the first revealed characters for the game, and has developed into a fan favorite, several of her intros show her as a loyalist and even borderline obsessor to Shao Kahn and she does next to nil in the actual story. Have Sindel play out the same in Aftermath, with Shang sending her to save Kahn, but, instead of having her mean the things she says and fight Sheeva as a consequence, have it played as her tugging on Kahn's ego so she can manipulate him into, say, sparing Kitana. Then, you can have a subplot of Skarlet slowly uncovering the truth about Sindel's good side and eventually attempt to kill her and take her place at Shao Kahn's side, who reluctantly agrees on account of her undying loyalty, and unless Liu Kang or somebody else saves Sindel, have her share a touching moment with Kitana or maybe even her Revenant form to show characters in this game have fucking emotions. I know this is a radically out-there idea, but, as i said, this is all in a scenario in which Dom has to shred another character's pre-existing dignity for the sake of the story.
When I think about it, what happened to Sindel reminds me of the character overhaul Maleficent went through between Sleeping Beauty and the live action Maleficent movie. In the original Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent wore evil like a business card and would curse a baby over not being invited to a party. Then the live action movie turned her into a dark mother figure on a revenge quest. I feel that the reverse happened to Sindel. Sindel used to be a mother on a revenge quest that just happened to like the Elvira look, but now she's just a lady who wears evil like a business card who will gleefully sell out her realm if it meant keeping her shallow cushy lifestyle
Speaking of Jax's ending, in Fujin's ending Jax makes his appearance in his "african" costume, while the other characters are wearing their defaults. So not only are they sticking to his ending, but they managed to cram it where it doesn't exactly belong.
I love the reference to DeeMuhC: DMC. Especially considering the same people who had the flimsy arguments for Donte being better than Dante were utterly incensed when DMCV became a best seller, Dante was back to being a pizza loving hero with a tragic backstory, and Nero overtook Donte as the superior edge boy.
I like your Version 2. Here's my take on your idea- I think an interesting twist would be if she actually killed Kitana, and she breaks down as she finally realizes, much too late, that her Lust has cost her her child. Maybe she never loved Jerrod, Kahn, or her people, but she ALWAYS loved Kitana, and wanted her daughter by her side. Seeing her daughter's broken, bloodied body in her arms (Kitana dies telling her that despite everything she still loves her) drives Sindel to the brink of insanity and despair (think Demona in Gargoyles when she says "What have I, what have THEY done!?"). In a rage that could only be fueled by a Mother's Love, Sindel kills Shao Khan, Shang and Khronica. When Fire God Liu Kang arrives, Sindel tells him that the hourglass is his, and asks him to restart time and to do for Kitana what Sindel herself could not do- protect her and give her Love and Happiness. She finally relents and gives Liu her blessing to marry her daughter. Sindel asks Liu to tell Kitana that Mommy loves her and is sorry for everything, and that she has to break her heart one last time. Before Liu can stop her, Sindel takes her own life (by breaking her neck) as atonement for murdering her daughter. When Liu restarts time and gets Kitana back, he tells her that Sindel saved them all, and gave her blessing for their union, without revealing her mother's treachery to her. He tells Kitana that Sindel always loved her. (think when Solid Snake tells Naomi about Grey Fox's death). When Kitana suggest resurrecting her, Liu stops her, saying that her mother is peace now. Liu and Kitana go on to be the Keepers of Time. The End.
Something tells me the writing staff were doing a Rian Jonstone on Sindel. Doing a take on the character they do not know trying to subvert expectations and laugh and lash out at true fans
Easy retcon: she’s her evil body double empowered by the soulnado & hypnotized in order to trick everyone. Edenians are descendants of the gods, so an edenian empowered by a collective of souls defeating an elder god makes sense.
Or this Sindel can just be an evil clone with fabricated memories since Shang's existence have an impact to the Royal Edenian Family: Shang originally participated in killing King Jerrod by blind siding him, and in the reboot he take Jerrod's soul and place it in the body of Ermac. Shang was the one that resurrected Sindel in the original timeline, and in the new timeline Sindel had his soul to defeat the good guys (so his influence can still fester inside her even after death). Shang cloned a more ferocious daughter for Shao Kahn because Kitana was too merciful like her father to be of any use to him.
@@insanemakaioshin u do know that elder gods have souls u know. Shang Tsung even stated it in one of his intros through cetrion. Plus u can have them roaming around the realms in their ghost form and have one of them hear of Shang Tsung’s plan, the elder gods that are now ghost thanks to cetrion have a motive to kill cetrion as she betrayed all the elder gods. They use sindel as a vessel and that explains why she is so powerful now and evil and they are possessing her through disguise as a banshee spirit
Kronika is a complete joke compared to Shao Kahn and Onaga. Stronger than The One Being? Congrats those writers are not clowns but they're the entire circus.
They don't care. They're attacking fans now. MK is dead. And no amount of lost money or speaking out will change that you poor soul. They've won. Mortal Kombat belongs to them now.
Aftermath was good but this evil Sindel shit was ruining the moments for me she so weird with Shao Kahn it's not her character to be evil her being evil hurt the MK lore itself.
I bought Aftermath yesterday and finished the story in a day. I have such buyer remorse with it. I don't think the "expansion" and the 3 DLC characters was worth that $40...oh well.
On the subject of Sindel's banshee spirit... It's amazing how many cosmetic and moveset elements aren't used in story or at least explained for. Like Cassie's drone (that she uses in intros and outros) and Sonya's mobile-turret for example.
I had an idea that uses Skarlet in place of sindel since one of Skalets intros implies that she wants to be Khans bride so think of it as a wasted plotential for Skarlet and Sindel. Skarlet is freed by Shang Tsung then goes on her way to break khan out coming face to face with Sheeva then Jade once khan is free She and Khan manipulate a small portion of Kitanas forces to their side Khan is impressed at how Skarlet pulled all that off and treates her as his wife leading in to the next chapter “A mother’s duty”, Khans forces reach Kitanas ship and attack leading into Sindel fighting Skarlet as a way for Skarlet to prove herself worthy to Khan while Liu kang and Kitana defend themselves against Khan, Sindel takes Skarlet down then Goes to help fight off Khan, She and kitana kill him then arrive at Kronika’s keep, Sindel is seen fighting nether realm demons, then is confronted by Kitanas revenant who has a grudge against Sindel for killing and abandoning her, Sindel tries to apologize but Kitana isn’t having any of it, she defeats Kitana but doesn’t kill her she then stays close with past Kitana in order to keep her safe, She tries to save past Kitana from Tsung but they are both killed. If Fire god Liu kang wins Sindel is seen as an advisor for the new rulers of Edenia Liu kang and Kitana if Shang tsung wins She is a mind controlled slave of tsung carrying out his will
I just want to remind everyone who thought the Jax ending was good He basically committed genocide on a universal scale multiple times just because he didn't feel like racism was ending fast enough. He continued to wipe peoples minds, murder people who would never be able to exist in the next timeline, and repeated the process until he found his vision of what is a good world. Note that he mostlikly passed up a racist free world just because him and his wife didn't get together (also potentially resetting if jackie wasnt born) . Jax is no better then Kronica.
I notice that some characters were left out of Aftermath, some for better or worse. Good Exclusions:- - D'vorah - Kano (had an excuse as he's dead) Bad Exclusions:- - Skarlet - Kabal - Erron Black
At least she died a painful death like Hydra cap unfortunately the hacks at Neatherealm are going with the idea that this was totally the real Sindel all along while Hydra Cap wasn’t the original Cap.
Netherrealm studios: I had a reason REAL Fans: Huh Netherrealm studios: I had a reason Real fans: What was the reason? What was the reason?! What was the reason bitch?! Netherrealm studios: I don't need to explain myself to you---- Real fans: WHAT WAS THE REASON?!?
Ngl, i love the idea of Sindel being fake evil to trick Shao Kahn and kill him. If NRS wanted to dabble in Evil Sindel, they should've done that instead of retconing the fuck out of her
Once I saw that chapter Sindel & Shao Kahn appear I knew it was going to be a dumpster fire. This Sindel was a huge slap in the face. I really miss the Midway Era.
Usually I don't have problem with new takes on character, as long as he keep the elements that made him so appealing or the new elements add by the new take are interesting. THIS IS NOT THE CASE FOR SINDEL. While I'm not a gamer or a 100% expert in mortal kombat , I know about the stories of some characters (some I even learn watching the channel), and Sidel original story was amazing and this new take failed to represent it. This new version of her lacks all the elements that made her such a great MK character and all the new elements added didn't improve her, it just made her boring generic villain. Definitely one of NRS biggest failures involving the MK franchise.
Sindels banshee confuses me just as much as scarlet covering 98% of her body. Both are things that could be used for some interesting story telling, but in the end just don't.
How Netherealm could simply fix sindel without much effort: *One:* Have her show genuine Care for Kitana, reveal some things to her that’ll make her regret and seek forgiveness for what she’s done when possessed *Two:* Don’t have her mention any stupid bullshit hinting to her being truly evil *Three:* in her chapter, make her get possessed again by Shang Tsuang, have her get beat, then when things get really bad, have her show up and Kill Shao Kahn with Kitana *Four:* Fully come to terms with what she did and move on, like Present Ajax did. That’s it. If you feel that there should be more added, comment down below Ik this may be rushed, but wouldn’t you rather have this..over Netherrealm’s version?
People really dont get it. I have mained liu kang since mk1 and when they killed him off in MK:DA I was shooken. Then they brought him back as a zombie and I was disgusted. Then they rebooted him back and killed him off again only to bring him back as an EVIL ZOMBIE basically. I was SO upset that they ruined one of the only pure characters in the lore but I used him regardless. Unhappily. I imagine thats how a lot of people felt when their favorite characters took a left turn lorewise. I'm with you, dude. Keep speaking your opinions.
There's gonna be a day where MK becomes so much of a mess, Ed Boon decides "alright we need this Snake dude cuz he seems to know what he's talking about"
I still don't understand what NRS were thinking with this game, they tell us all that they are giving the women less revealing outfits because they felt it was immature to have every women be wearing such revealing outfits; though characters like Scarlet, where it made sense she based on her power set, not wearing revealing clothing was never explained. Then the base game released and we find out they included all these lines about the evil male characters wanting to rape Cassie Cage or want her to be raped, as if this isn't immature and doesn't just play into rape fantasies just because the bad guy said it. Then they turn a previous character who you could argue was or was doomed to be raped by Khan into a women who was into it the whole time and didn't really give a fulfilling explanation for why she killed herself and casted a protection spell over Earth Realm if she like ruling a massive empire with Khan at her side. Then they continue to include more lines Khan seeing the women in the story as sex objects just to made the bad guys out to be objectively bad in every way, which robs him of previous characterization as brilliant schemers and turns him into a massive dickhead who can't be taken seriously, which comes out right when the current expansion tells us he should be a serious threat.
It just doesn’t click. The reason the revenants were formed was due to the fact that Shao Kahn gave the souls of Earthrealm Defenders to Quan Chi. So if Sindel is meant to be evil from the start, she’d have never been a revenant; this is why characters like Mileena did not become revenants. SHE SHOULD BE ON THE GOOD SIDE.
Why do some fans think making a heroic character evil is somehow cool? I saw this same thing with some people who found Liu Kang to be dull as a hero and felt he was cooler as a Revenant. I have no idea why they think this since becoming a Revenant caused Liu Kang to go from a badass to a jobber henchman who loses every fight he takes part in while having no personality beyond "generic badguy." I also don't get the idea as to how making Sindel evil is supposed to be "empowering." Villains are terrible symbols of empowerment, this thinking feels along the lines of people who see characters like Light Yagami as a power fantasy. There is nothing to really make Sindel stand out among the other heartless monsters of the franchise. Even the abusive parent angle was already done with fucking Kronika.
I just don't get it why those people see heroes = boring while villains = interesting. It doesn't matter which allignment the character in but if their story is shit just like this new Sindel here then they're shit/boring character end of the story.
Simple really those fans haven't outgrown their edgy teenage phase where everything dark is cool and being good or morally sound person is boring, lame, etc. Heck there is a guy called ShadowRaiden00 on gamefaqs who is a shining example of it.
Lady Macbeth also killed herself out of guilt. If they'd had the reason for her suicide be guilt over her hand in Jerrod's death, their use of Lady Macbeth as an influence may have been more justified, but instead they just proved they misunderstand both Sindel and Lady Macbeth.
I honestly feel like the simple inclusion of Shang Tsung placing a different soul in her would have literally been SUCH AN EASY WAY OUT. And not even that hard to pull off and keep the Aftermath the same. For Christ's sake, Shang had a freaking shit eating grin on his face the entire sequence (and game). I'm actually shocked his role in her resurrection didn't turn to be a factor in her heel turn. Souls are the midiclorians/nanomachines of the MK universe. It doesn't even NEED to be that complicated. Sure it would have been disappointing still. But it would have MADE SENSE
If they wanted to showcase a female villain with Mileena gone, they could have used the grossly underdeveloped Skarlet, but nope, they had to ravage the tragic heroine.
Holy crap that 3rd version would actually make sense! Now only if the writers realised how they could explain/excuse Kronika's motives, but let's face it they don't have the skill or brains to think like that. As usual, well thought out Snake.
The Sindel/Shao Khan section of Aftermath was an honest to god pain to get through not because it was hard or anything but the character assassination done to her. I've seen people say she was always like this we just didn't know to which I would point out that no it IS a retcon and ruins a well-written character. I hated every second of that section to the point when Shang sucked out her soul I can't say I felt bad about it happening because that wasn't Sindel and certainly not the one I knew. As you pointed out there ARE ways to do the "Sindel being evil" thing WITHOUT destroying the reason why so many people liked the character. It's lazy storytelling at best and disrespectful at worst.
Well, until Ed Boon and NRS has been reported to be treating their employees like complete crap, blacklisting them if they ever quit the company.... well they ain't reaching Konami levels of evil yet. Nope, not even Blizzard either.
If they wanted her to be evil they could have done it like when Shang Tsung brought her back he used his powers to fill her with new memories that were not hers that would have been perfect if they wanted to go that direction and then maybe for her ending they could have showed her finding out the truth or something
6:20 Not going to lie the new Ermac designs is so cool I wish he was playable but then again I don't have the game and I doubt they will put in the game but no sadly.
When I sat through Aftermath's Sindel/Kahn's chapter I kept thinking "The4thSnake's gonna have a field day outta this", but I was wrong, you had a field week, maybe month! Great content as always, I really wish you were the actual writer for MK in general
Worst part, for new comers like me who respect original lore, its very hard to get the "generic tyrannical queen " that sindel is potrayed as in 11. Shes basicaly azshara from Warcraft.
What’s strange is this “Sindel” isn’t even that horrific looking: the original Sindel may have looked bad but she really wasn’t that was the entire point of her character, a “don’t judge a book by its cover” type of deal and yet this version looks like a normal human woman, so not only do the morons at Neatherealm fall into a superficial line of thinking (apparently they thought since she looked evil she must be evil) but they are so mind numbingly incompetent they can’t even show the version they thought was worth all of this stupid shit and even more so how she originally looked in their OWN GAMES!
Cyrax just got a rehash of what he did in the comics when it could have been so much better if he was a permanent ally fighting for both his freedom and humanity
Sindel and Frost are probably the two characters that I feel Netherrealm has shafted the most. Frost was probably one of the characters I was super hyped for when MK 11 was announced simply because I was really hoping to see what direction they would take her in, only to be shocked and confused when they revealed her to be a cyborg. It feels like it came outta nowhere and was only implemented just so the designers didn't need to worry about her wearing anything revealing. I'm genuinely disappointed in the direction they took her character seeing how she could've been super interesting, perhaps having a similar personality to Damian Wayne where she wants to do the right thing but believes killing is the best answer simply due to her troubled upbringing and maybe we could've seen a genuine bond between Frost and Sub-Zero which would make her eventual downfall all the more tragic and heart breaking. As for Sindel I just don't get what was going through their minds when they basically decided to assassinate her entire character. Like it was so easy, all you had to do was bring her back as a revenant and have her say some mean things that we know she didn't mean, but instead everyone at NRS decided to turn her into your generic Power Rangers villain and double down on it by tricking the fans into thinking we'll be getting og Sindel back only for that bullshit "twist" to happen. It's frustrating to see such interesting characters basically get no real development but instead are given blatant roles just to progress the plot..its seriously unfortunate.
I agree with Frost for sure, I could probably imagine something better for her than what NRS coughed up. For example, having the killswitch to the entire Cyber Initiative embedded within Frost was just asking for it to be used. Seriously? They're not a hivemind!
@@HESHRocketWarhead Don't get me even started on that man 😂 Honestly I just hope that if we do get an MK 12 in the future that hopefully Frost will get more love like Sheeva did.
That idea of Kronika twisting events to make Sindel and Kabal evil is genius. Kabal has been my favorite character ever since I can remember, and he's been done dirtier than the rot on Shao Kahn's brain.
1:55 "A new side of Shao Kahn" huh Dominic? You mean him going from cunning and biding his time as Onaga's adviser and poisoning him and taking over as Emperor of Outworld when the time was right, holding Sindel's soul hostage so he'd have an excuse to invade Earthrealm, adopting Kitana and pretending he was her dad so he'd have a powerful enforcer and creating Mileena as a backup in case she found out the truth and all that. Going from that to brainless henchman of Kronika isn't a new side.
Also adding up. You showed some good links , especially from ComradeKittyKat, and now it gave me an understanding why the story of 11 was a clusterfuck: John Vogel left. Yes, he might not be as prolific as Ed Boon and John Tobias, but it's as if his departure sounds the death knell of the franchise's hope for having good stories, if the 11 story is what we go by.
They definitely ruined a lot of the characters but Sindel’s is top number 1 of ruining. I’m still in disbelief that we’ve never had a good classic Sindel since 2006. Such wasted potential 😞
"A subversion of a subversion is playing it straight"
SAY IT AGAIN FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK PLEASE!
For those who still don't understand, read about it here: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoubleSubversion
🤣🤣🤣
Mk11 reeks of modern game’s culture of untalented devs “subverting your expectations “ and taking away what’s fans loved about franchises
Untalented writers not untalented devs
The problem is always that they subvert without having anything worthwhile. There are ways they could have explained her evil without rewriting the character and creating some massive nonsensical plotholes that should have been obvious to anybody that understood the lore.
For example: MK11 could make the case that Sindel was indeed an opportunist that bargained with Shao Kahn to keep Edenia from being destroyed and secure her place of power as Empress of Outworld. Shao Kahn is still the one who kills Jerrod. However, Shao Kahn did not trust Sindel and had her bewitched by Shang Tsung to behave like the kindhearted mother figure she pretended to be. This would explain why Kitana and Sheeva remember her this way, because the true Sindel wouldn't have raised Kitana to be weak or shown so much warmth to Sheeva had her kindness been an act put on for the commoners. Sindel being killed and resurrected twice would have removed this curse upon her soul and revealed her true nature. That she had to perish and resurrect twice to dispel this would explain why she was pure and good in the originals. The woman Kitana remembers and whom Sheeva protected never truly existed. Oh, Sindel would also readily betray Shao Kahn after his humiliating defeats and never be dumb enough to trust Shang Tsung.
This is obviously far from perfect and still amounts to pointless changes, but dammit if I didn't put more thought into it than "Hurr! Hurr! Let's just make Sheeva an evil MILF!"
So they Rian Johnson'd her?
NetherRealm is what happens when game devs get high on their own farts from all the constant praise lavished onto them by brain-dead shills.
I agree on your modern game's culture point, but the programmers did a fine job. It's a good polished game. It's the writing that sucks.
This is one of the worst things NRS has done and thats saying something
It's implied through intro dialogues that Bi-Han may of been directly involved in wiping out the shirai ryu. If that's true it is a close second
Sindel and MK11 got Rian Johnsoned.
You say that so much it's lost all meaning :p
@@visualkeifan2003 Didn't he kill them by asking quan shi to kill them?
its one of the worst thing along with D'vora killing Hanzo and Mileena
If it was revealed that Shang Tsung was controlling Sindel the entire time and all of what Sindel said to kitana was Tsung trolling her, I would’ve been fine with the chapter
Or even easier..Shang Tsung turns into Sindel. He turns into someone else like once.
It’s possible sindel could of been being control he brought her back to life, so with her being bound to Shang Sung in terms of necromancy 😭
Oh of course when the character is a lifeless puppet the character is fine but when a character show’s life shows choices intentions thoughts and opinions that character is trash ?
Nayxf 0 no, her choices and intentions is what made sindel trash. All the things she done up to this point don’t make sense and doesn’t fit her
@@nayxf0393 Lol I'm sorry what? She's more of a lifeless puppet in Aftermath than she ever was before that. Before she was actually nuanced and interesting, now she's just a generic evil mom character.
And NRS' entire motivation behind having this nonsensical face-heel turn is because she LOOKS evil, even though the entire point of her character is that she looks evil but is actually a good character morally.
NRS: She looked evil so we made her evil.
Also NRS: She doesn't look evil but she is still evil.
Flawless logic.
Yeah when I heard Stephanie say that on the kombatkast I was like are you fucking kidding me 🤦🏽
Scorpion, Sareena, Kabal, and Ashrah: are we jokes to you?
@@darkemperortheobscureone694Don’t forget Kota Kahn, Sheeva, Baraka, and Erron Black. They were villains who they changed into good guys.
@@nebula5371 I don't think she did if she was told to she would have said no I will not say that and if you fire me I'll say to all the fans what you tried to force me to do. I think stephanie WAS a person who cared for her fans and if she did now she would have said something like that but not follow their orders I mean she has the highest role
NRS Wins!
Flawless Stupidity.
OG Sindel > NRS Sindel
*Better story
*Better character
*Better design
*Better booty
*Better everything
Better tities
Yes YES YESSSSSSSSS
@@SupportGamin2024 I think thats what he means by better character
That booty was indeed godly
The only thing I'll give to NRS Sindel is the voice. I love Mara Junot, she was Christa in Telltale Games' TWD and I still wonder what happened to Christa to this day ):
The writers really don’t know how to be consistent at all even with small things like Jax’s death in mk9, king Jerrod’s death, Sindel’s personality, Kung Lao and Jin being uncle and nephew not cousins also Kabal being evil and having powers in his normal form when the time merger happened even though he was a good guy in mk9
Oh those um writers have no credentials in anything they are 2 talentless SJWS!
Ronaldmcnugs 2.0 it’s literally explained that outworld magic and atmosphere gave kabal the super speed powers due to him being burned by kintaro and the guy literally said “jin and lao are uncle and nephew and not cousins”
Ronaldmcnugs 2.0 so no kano could not have in no way shape or form give kabal his speed powers
omar in mkx Jin and Lao were cousins but then in mk11 they’re all of a sudden uncle and nephew
Ronaldmcnugs 2.0 but how is kabal evil when I’m the events of mk9 he was a cop and wasn’t working at all with Kano
Sindel was the most best looking character in the game face and design everything but her being evil just ruins everything I can't believe NetherRealm thought it was fine to change what suppose to be a tragic character story arc.
@Alain Smith does he have any social media, I need to rant!
Most best? YGS, man.
@Alain Smith .... I gotta ask. Does this guy like to push progressive ideas like the current SJW thing? Something like a certain journalist...?
I prefer kronika’s looks
Sindel is supposed to be THE MK mother before the new timeline made Sonya a mom, no mother in _any_ story should ever _desire_ to kill or enslave their daughter.
How is NetherRealm not getting major backlash for that?
because Wokeness hates Motherhood.
You seem to forgot Kronika,she let her own daughter Cetrion sacrificed her own soul to give her mother power to defeat Shang Tsung.
Yo what is up with this negative portrayal of mothers in this game. Either they are cruel, selfish hacks (Sindel, Kronika) or dead (Sonya, Vera). Are there any moms that aren't portray this way?
Jean Gentry odd because I thought wokeness only hated fathers instead of mothers.
I wish we got MK Deception Sindel. Her more HEROIC self as Shang Tsung said.
I hated that the game was poking at Sindel's true story saying she was bewitched and will turn back to being a hero with all the mind controlling gone her scene with Kitana was somewhat touching only to have that moment swept under the rug her evil intentions she wanted privilege but she seem to be a conquer if she's just killing and beating people up.
That was such a low ball move from Netherrealm
Yeah that was basically their "Fuck people who want the Snyder cut!" moment.
Just hire this guy to write the next timeline allready for elder gods's sake
Noo not if the Takehashi's and Rain, Jax and Jacqui were all gone watch his roster video
@@christianx5513 nrs picks the characters as a team and he can look over the characters and design a new story for then
Young Pharaoh considering 3 out of 4 of those characters suck there’s nothing to argue lol
You're not supposed to put another "s" after gods'.
@@christianx5513 literally only rain is cool lol
I feel genuinely offended that Netherrealm's decision of making Sindel evil in MK 11, which in itself is already a huge problem, since they clearly did not have a clue on what to do with her character, is the fact that they did so based on her _appearance._ Wasn't that the whole point behind Sindel? Don't judge a book by its cover? But that's what NR ended up doing, by choosing the easy route. No way in hell would most fans dislike good Sindel in MK11 compared to evil Sindel. It stopped her from having actual character development, and that's what's really sad about her.
Well said
@@porhengkheam745 Well just because a person is evil doent mean they would bend to you will but, in the case of Sindel she was already on their side so it was pointless to brainwash her.
I mean I feel you on that I do enjoy her character both old and new. But, I dont think an evil version of her character is all bad. its just her "evil" self was poorly retconned, and written and has very generic motivations. I believe an evil version of her character can work just not the way she is written now. I have a few Ideas that could make her work.
@@joshuawilliams2318 Yeah, her being evil is not the problem; it's how she was handled. If NR hadn't given us so much lore regarding her backstory and how she came to be who she is, perhaps evil Sindel could sit well with me. But it doesn't, because she was clearly meant to be a good guy from the start. It's canon.
They plucked and fucked Sindel's lore and didn't even give two shits regarding her character.
It enfuriates me even more that they didn't know what the hell to do with her. _They_ said it; it's not speculation. They went out of their way to delete her entire personality in order to create someone entirely different. Sindel is dead, and it sucks.
@@HeartOfClod ikr!!!. I wish she was her mk Deception self as a hero
NetherRealm seen the backlash and they still went through with evil Sindel the aftermath story was probably done simultaneously with the main story pitiful NetherRealm.
So they pretty much used the Disney's tactic
@@darkroninmarvel warner, disney, marvel, dc. What's the difference nowadays?
Yeah the entire chapter is so meta. You could have a drinking game of all the times NRS tried to retcon/fix the story from the backlash.
@@Ganjamuffins DC's Comics are actually incredible. Can't say the same about the others
It was probably too late for them to change the sindel retcon anyway
NRS has some of the stupidest fans who will defend NRS to the ends of the earth, you aren't alone Snake as I've argued with a ton of NRS fanboys who can't accept that NRS isn't perfect. Sindel deserved far better and NRS really needs writers who care about the characters, not these idiots who have every woman treated as an object, regardless of the fact every fighter before has been treated equally regardless of gender.
No one said NRS is perfect and I fucking hate the Sindel Retcon. My problem with him is that he thinks fighting game stories should be Oscar level in storytelling and character development. He takes it way too seriously and doesn’t take these story modes for what they are. DUMB FUN
@@brianc6748 But that's not an excuse to butcher stories of established characters
Brian C
4thSnake’s idea isn’t oscar level tho. It’s literally just basic competent story telling. If you consider this Oscar worthy.... its no wonder people put up with shit. Or why anything could get an Oscar these days.
I find it hypocritical they covered up the women so they wouldn’t show skin yet for most of the men they practically show them shirtless or with Baraka he has his far past skin where he is practically almost naked!
@@brianc6748 You call this Oscar worthy story? You can qualify for Netherrealm's writing staff with that attitude.
They didn’t really waste any potential since there wasn’t any, they just straight up ruined her.
I agree. Saying the new Sindel is wasted potential would imply the retcon had potential to begin with. It didn't. A female Shao Khan is an interesting concept but not in the way the canon is established.
I can imagine Sindek becoming "evil" as the queen of Edenia in the sense that she starts merging realms with Edenia and starts butchering Outworlders.
And her relationship with Kitana could sour by Sindel becoming overprotective because she doesn't wanna lose her beloved daughter again.
These are possible extremes of the good Sindel character that also allow potential for redemption if the fans don't like the evil Sindel.
The loyal wife of Shao Khan isn't a take Sindel could ever fit.
@@snakeslife-uroborodjinn790 or they can make her “racist” as what kollector said in an intro. Her only caring about edenians (which isn’t a problem for me cause duh those are her people, you wouldn’t see Queen Elizabeth 2 care about Americans. If her country was conquered, she’d mostly care about her people and family.)
If they want something political like how they did to shao, they can make sindel like queen Elizabeth
@@Truly_Sithari or making her a “dark raiden” type villian
@@nabilahmed579 or even making her like realize nobody trusts her so she gives up on redemption and becomes evil or she turns evil because while she uses dark magic by mistake which corrupts her
@@Truly_Sithari I wonder what motives would she even have for the first option u suggested? I think the second option makes sense for her as she’ll probs try to use dark magic to better her family and realm
I'm glad that we could atleast play as Shao Kahn in the chapter
I only played as Shao Kahn in this chapter
@@magikplissken3158 I really think that he has fun gameplay and he is the real villain not Sindel.
I'm not, Fuck Shao Kahn
Matt Underwood yea shao kahn fucking sucks
@@Matt_Underwood .........I like Shao............... He's cool.....
They really could've told the story of Sindel seeking redemption after Edenia was conquered by Shao Khan & how she left Kitana but instead we got Sindel as a one dimensional villain all because she looked evil but she actually wasn't
At least Shao Kahn had a better showing than he did in the vanilla story.
LG XD true
what's the "vanilla" story?
Kassia Finch “Vanilla” is a term used for base-game stuff, like without any DLC or mods, just the normal game
True, but shao beating Liu Kang was so bullshit...
@@damiangallo4185 along with geras as well. For liu kang, just say he absorbed a ridiculous amount of souls to buff him which can explain his win
I don’t mind the idea of Shao Khan having a power couple wife with another character but did it have to be Sindel?
It could of been with Skarlet and Sindel could or actually been her MK Deception self and joined Kitana and the others
It would've been better if he cloned Sindel since the real one hated and didn't love him at all to the point she'd rather die than being with him.
@@darkemperortheobscureone694 exactly. He already did it to Kitana, so why not Sindel. It would have been so much better
@@zacharyshaul Or D'Vorah.
Honestly Blood construct Skarlet as his new wife makes enough sense to me.
What annoys me is that, Netherrealm is fully capable of writing a character with good development (Sheeva) so I question as to why the didn't do the same for Sindel
I don't believe Sheeva had good development though either, she was just a jobber servant bad guy in MK9, wasn't present in 10, acts like an idiot in Aftermath and that's it. They finally gave her some dignity by giving her clothes to wear but that's not a compliment for them when these are the same people who designed the original outfits.
Here we go. Had a feeling that you would make another Wasted Plotential for Sindel. EDIT: THANK YOU FOR THE LIKES AND SPELLING ERROR 🤣
*another
@@p.a.r.c1694 right
I expected nothing less.
This is literally part 2 though😂😂
@@joshuaottley7902 I got that reference.
I just realized that in the story mode shao said that he kept kitana only to appease sindel why the fuck does sindel hate kitana so much now this story mode is so directionless
Am I the only one that likes the idea that, like Kitana, Shou Kahn has an evil clone of Sindel? Eh? Then we get fun evil couple, and actually still good Sindel.
Scorpio McClymont yeah that would make sense. Seems like something Shao Kahn would do.
It fits his character but not the canon. The whole point of her suicide is that she stripped Shao Khan of the chance to have her forever. Her protective ward on Earth realm was mostly out of spite.
If he had a clone lying around then none of this would matter.
Shou Kahn? Shao Kahn's lesser known brother?
@@sic6664 .... Robin Shou Kahn?? Right! Send that to Ed Boon, he's going to greenlight that Liu Kang is secretly Shao Kahn's alter ego, whatever bullcrap reasoning that could happen!
NRS Sindel best moment was her dying by God Shang Tsung.
There are 2 Things I like about nrs sindel:
1- Her daughter's clone
2- Her killer in aftermath
End
Ya mean keeper of time shang tsung
I hate Sindel & Shao Kahn chapter so much. The original timeline Sindel had a much better story & character.
Yes. I absolutely despise it.
Felt like that one scene in MK9 all over again. So agree with you
The Real JKP they made two of my favorite characters (Kung Lao and Jonny cage) look like idiots I completely agree with you
The only good thing about their chapter is shao Kahn redeeming himself
@@SP-ez4vz yes same thing with shang tsung and fujin, they're no longer jobbers but when sindel was calling shao khan "husband " it may be cute for mk 11 sindel fans but as for me my ears were bleeding
Midway did it better. Not saying they were perfect but that’s the real MK timeline to me.
Yeah even Ermac in the original timeline was treated much better and became a badass hero thanks to Kenshi while NRS screwed up that relationship alongside ruining Sindel, Kabal and Smoke etc.
@@RazuX5 Ermac: Turned heroic, one of the strongest characters capable of fighting off multiple Earthrealm heroes at once. New game he's just a generic minion most likely killed off by Shang-Tsung and also just dies a stupid death in the crypt.
Kabal: A man who attempts to redeem himself, fails and ends up making a new, more dangerous Black Dragon Clan. In MK 9 he even joins the police force and dies a hero. In MKX he's just a generic minion and in 11 he's an idiot who will believe Kano, give up godlike powers because he gets 'no time off' and like Sindel, has his story completely reversed.
Smoke: Sub-Zero's friend who is turned into a cyborg, is constantly fighting his program, there is hope for him. In MK9 he never becomes a cyborg, a chance to do more with him since he has free will, instead he is killed off. Has an interesting retcon where he's a smoke demon and his Revenant seems to have taken this idea happily but he doesn't do anything in MKX and is just a generic minion.
Sindel: A queen who selfishly kills herself to get away from Shao-Kahn, doesn't succeed as he keeps her soul. Is revived as a tool but is freed and works to redeem herself, joining the side of good, justly ruling her realm and trying to save her daughter when she is under mind control herself. In MK9 her suicide is given a more heroic twist where she was trying to protect Earthrealm though she never breaks free of any mind control. While stupid, they at least give a reason why she's super power suddenly as she has all of Shang-Tsung's souls. In MK11 she's just a generic villain, sells out everyone for Shao-Kahn just so she can live a life of luxury and privilege and along with Kahn, is dumb enough to trust Shang-Tsung who is already planning to betray people but she somehow doesn't think he will betray her?
All in all, a lot of characters suffer under NRS' control. They either become generic fodder villains, get ignored completely or they get an interesting retcon only for that retcon to be ignored so its just wasted potential. In terms of improving characters, I think only Nightwolf really got a vast improvement with a cool and interesting new origin and the Nightwolf mantle being passed down which sounds really freaking cool. Otherwise every other character has no substantial change or gets worse treatment.
MysteriousTomJenkins Ermac’s whereabouts in the main story are unknown since the krypt is non canon.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins So! Let's then introduce the new kast of kharakters by NRS starting with MKX. It certainly felt like "Hey, we make cooler, relevant stuffs now! The old ones sucks! You're gonna like'em!" How do they fare up then?
I still like to believe that Armageddon was never won by Shao Kahn but rather by Taven. That way, there could *still* be something of worth after.
Sindel was really annoying the entire time of her chapter and I knew from the start that she was still a horrible retcon
This new Twindel has to be the most pathetic thing NRS has ever thought would have been a good idea....
Yep pathetic indeed just like how pathetic Kronika is.
@@darkemperortheobscureone694 Don't get me started on how Kronika is, plotwise, one of the shittiest bosses in video game history. My understanding is that she's also a pushover in terms of fighting as well. Her existence is tantamount to "A wizard did it.", except they already had a fucking wizard who was in the series from day 1!
@@jamierose9095 Couldn't agree more. There's even an idiot who said that she's a better villain than freaking Shao Kahn and they also said that she sculpted her plans carefully which is a total bullshit.
@@nebula5371 they honestly could’ve made cetrion the final boss and make her a good villain, I’m down for a female boss but at least make her look sick
@@nebula5371 i think they could’ve used her arcade ending to some extent as a starting point to make her a awesome villain, I mean, justifying being a heartless and irredeemable bitch, to try and save the realms seems like a cool concept and we got more character from her in her ending.
Hell, if we had the original sindel, they’d be completely in contrast with each other and that’d be nice to explore, some characters such as the edenians, fujin trying to get cetrion to do less harmful bitchy things and do good deeds to save the realms but the way that mortal behaves just justifes her to carry out her fucked up methods to get people to “join the light” or like u said could stop her from doing being evil and make sure u take her out properly such as powerful allies such as sindel, fujin, Johnny cage, liu, raiden and do a joint attack or something like that to make it feel as if the powerscaling is somewhat fixed, not one or two characters doing 80% of the work and others don’t do anything like In aftermath when thotdel and nightwolf were basically taking on Cetrion
Hopefully in Lui Kangs altered timeline he will repair the mistakes NRS has made, after all since Lui Kang repairs the timeline it gives NRS a chance to rebuild from their mistakes, but it’s not like they can make it any worse... right?
Dom: I love where this is going
Dom was found dead in the alley next to him was text saying finish him mortal kombat fans
It's LIU
Wishful thinking since I doubt NRS will fix their issues regarding the story and established lore.
Gabriel Tejada still there is some hope for a change, and hopefully for the better.
You haven't seen a half of it...
That moment when NRS can’t even use the most convenient plot device (time travel) to fix their BS
Ever since the Last Jedi came out the "muh subversion" argument has been battered into paste, what people seem to miss is that a subversion means nothing if what you replace the expected with is much worse. If I'm putting my hand up for a high five then suddenly slap you, saying I "subverted expectations" isn't gonna not justify you beating the sh 1 t out of me in return.
Rian Johnson and his subversion fanboys really be using mental gymnastics to justify their shitty atrocious writing
I feel like, in an alternate world where Netherrealm has to throw one character under the bus to fulfill their evil lady and Shao Kahn duo combo, and hear me out here:
Why not Skarlet?
Think about it. She was one of the first revealed characters for the game, and has developed into a fan favorite, several of her intros show her as a loyalist and even borderline obsessor to Shao Kahn and she does next to nil in the actual story.
Have Sindel play out the same in Aftermath, with Shang sending her to save Kahn, but, instead of having her mean the things she says and fight Sheeva as a consequence, have it played as her tugging on Kahn's ego so she can manipulate him into, say, sparing Kitana. Then, you can have a subplot of Skarlet slowly uncovering the truth about Sindel's good side and eventually attempt to kill her and take her place at Shao Kahn's side, who reluctantly agrees on account of her undying loyalty, and unless Liu Kang or somebody else saves Sindel, have her share a touching moment with Kitana or maybe even her Revenant form to show characters in this game have fucking emotions.
I know this is a radically out-there idea, but, as i said, this is all in a scenario in which Dom has to shred another character's pre-existing dignity for the sake of the story.
The Titans are more powerful than the One Being....
Chalmers and Skinner: Hahahahahahaha!!!
When I think about it, what happened to Sindel reminds me of the character overhaul Maleficent went through between Sleeping Beauty and the live action Maleficent movie.
In the original Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent wore evil like a business card and would curse a baby over not being invited to a party. Then the live action movie turned her into a dark mother figure on a revenge quest.
I feel that the reverse happened to Sindel. Sindel used to be a mother on a revenge quest that just happened to like the Elvira look, but now she's just a lady who wears evil like a business card who will gleefully sell out her realm if it meant keeping her shallow cushy lifestyle
Speaking of Jax's ending, in Fujin's ending Jax makes his appearance in his "african" costume, while the other characters are wearing their defaults. So not only are they sticking to his ending, but they managed to cram it where it doesn't exactly belong.
I'm actually writing a fan fiction called Mortal Kombat: Elementals about the new timeline
I wanna read it
Why not. Link when you’re done?
I'd love to hear it. Keep us updated. I'm doing one on the fall of Edenia.
I need to start looking into fanfics
I was planning a similar thing.
I love the reference to DeeMuhC: DMC. Especially considering the same people who had the flimsy arguments for Donte being better than Dante were utterly incensed when DMCV became a best seller, Dante was back to being a pizza loving hero with a tragic backstory, and Nero overtook Donte as the superior edge boy.
I like your Version 2. Here's my take on your idea-
I think an interesting twist would be if she actually killed Kitana, and she breaks down as she finally realizes, much too late, that her Lust has cost her her child. Maybe she never loved Jerrod, Kahn, or her people, but she ALWAYS loved Kitana, and wanted her daughter by her side. Seeing her daughter's broken, bloodied body in her arms (Kitana dies telling her that despite everything she still loves her) drives Sindel to the brink of insanity and despair (think Demona in Gargoyles when she says "What have I, what have THEY done!?"). In a rage that could only be fueled by a Mother's Love, Sindel kills Shao Khan, Shang and Khronica. When Fire God Liu Kang arrives, Sindel tells him that the hourglass is his, and asks him to restart time and to do for Kitana what Sindel herself could not do- protect her and give her Love and Happiness. She finally relents and gives Liu her blessing to marry her daughter. Sindel asks Liu to tell Kitana that Mommy loves her and is sorry for everything, and that she has to break her heart one last time. Before Liu can stop her, Sindel takes her own life (by breaking her neck) as atonement for murdering her daughter.
When Liu restarts time and gets Kitana back, he tells her that Sindel saved them all, and gave her blessing for their union, without revealing her mother's treachery to her. He tells Kitana that Sindel always loved her. (think when Solid Snake tells Naomi about Grey Fox's death). When Kitana suggest resurrecting her, Liu stops her, saying that her mother is peace now.
Liu and Kitana go on to be the Keepers of Time.
The End.
Jean Gentry beatiful!
@@Ivanuz-mx1ik thank you! 😁
Wow, amazing.
@@DominicScott15 thank you! :-)
I think liu would restart time by stopping kahn from invading earthrealm aka sindel and kitana would be together forever
Something tells me the writing staff were doing a Rian Jonstone on Sindel. Doing a take on the character they do not know trying to subvert expectations and laugh and lash out at true fans
Easy retcon: she’s her evil body double empowered by the soulnado & hypnotized in order to trick everyone. Edenians are descendants of the gods, so an edenian empowered by a collective of souls defeating an elder god makes sense.
Or this Sindel can just be an evil clone with fabricated memories since Shang's existence have an impact to the Royal Edenian Family:
Shang originally participated in killing King Jerrod by blind siding him, and in the reboot he take Jerrod's soul and place it in the body of Ermac. Shang was the one that resurrected Sindel in the original timeline, and in the new timeline Sindel had his soul to defeat the good guys (so his influence can still fester inside her even after death). Shang cloned a more ferocious daughter for Shao Kahn because Kitana was too merciful like her father to be of any use to him.
Or she could be brainwashed by an evil elder god that cetrion killed and the elder god is possessing her through soul chamber
@@nabilahmed579 how would an elder god even get into the soul chamber?
@@insanemakaioshin u do know that elder gods have souls u know. Shang Tsung even stated it in one of his intros through cetrion. Plus u can have them roaming around the realms in their ghost form and have one of them hear of Shang Tsung’s plan, the elder gods that are now ghost thanks to cetrion have a motive to kill cetrion as she betrayed all the elder gods. They use sindel as a vessel and that explains why she is so powerful now and evil and they are possessing her through disguise as a banshee spirit
@@nabilahmed579 yeah, but all the souls in their are the ones Shao took from edenia!
I had to actually look up that tweet. That made me nauseous. Dear god. All sense of depth is gone.
Its so dumb how is a titan stronger than entire universe when it took elder gods combined strength to just split it bullshit
Kronika is a complete joke compared to Shao Kahn and Onaga. Stronger than The One Being? Congrats those writers are not clowns but they're the entire circus.
Like Themysteriousmrenter said "You cannot subvert something if there's nothing to subvert"
They don't care. They're attacking fans now. MK is dead. And no amount of lost money or speaking out will change that you poor soul. They've won. Mortal Kombat belongs to them now.
Well put.
Good, because its better than ever now.
@@nebula5371 I disagree.
LordDemitel There’s better graphics and that’s all.
@@LordDemitel nah it’s gross
Aftermath was good but this evil Sindel shit was ruining the moments for me she so weird with Shao Kahn it's not her character to be evil her being evil hurt the MK lore itself.
Fire God Liu Kang - then I will fix it in the new timeline
I bought Aftermath yesterday and finished the story in a day. I have such buyer remorse with it. I don't think the "expansion" and the 3 DLC characters was worth that $40...oh well.
I was excited to play it and was enjoying the story until Sindel was evil it ruined my enjoyment
Mk Annihilation:Turns Jade into an evil traitor
Mk11:Turns Sindel into an evil traitor
Tanya:Am I a joke to you?
On the subject of Sindel's banshee spirit... It's amazing how many cosmetic and moveset elements aren't used in story or at least explained for.
Like Cassie's drone (that she uses in intros and outros) and Sonya's mobile-turret for example.
I had an idea that uses Skarlet in place of sindel since one of Skalets intros implies that she wants to be Khans bride so think of it as a wasted plotential for Skarlet and Sindel. Skarlet is freed by Shang Tsung then goes on her way to break khan out coming face to face with Sheeva then Jade once khan is free She and Khan manipulate a small portion of Kitanas forces to their side Khan is impressed at how Skarlet pulled all that off and treates her as his wife leading in to the next chapter “A mother’s duty”, Khans forces reach Kitanas ship and attack leading into Sindel fighting Skarlet as a way for Skarlet to prove herself worthy to Khan while Liu kang and Kitana defend themselves against Khan, Sindel takes Skarlet down then Goes to help fight off Khan, She and kitana kill him then arrive at Kronika’s keep, Sindel is seen fighting nether realm demons, then is confronted by Kitanas revenant who has a grudge against Sindel for killing and abandoning her, Sindel tries to apologize but Kitana isn’t having any of it, she defeats Kitana but doesn’t kill her she then stays close with past Kitana in order to keep her safe, She tries to save past Kitana from Tsung but they are both killed. If Fire god Liu kang wins Sindel is seen as an advisor for the new rulers of Edenia Liu kang and Kitana if Shang tsung wins She is a mind controlled slave of tsung carrying out his will
I wish that was in the game skarlet was barely in the game
gamerofwar I wanted to flesh her out more since she is the most underutilized female ninja
@@tidebringer4517 you did a way better job than NRS
A problem with modern writers they think they can do everything better , and dont care about what came before
Sindel’s entire charm was being a “don’t judge a book by its cover” character and they ruined that.
This dude waste no time when it comes to this stuff
Passion on a subject you know about does that to you!
I like the part where Shao Kahn is completely fine with Quan Chi being around in MK9 knowing that he was the one that killed his wife.
Shang Tsung went out like a bitch in MK9. He got revenge by making Shao Kahn and Sindel go out like a bitch in Aftermath
I just want to remind everyone who thought the Jax ending was good
He basically committed genocide on a universal scale multiple times just because he didn't feel like racism was ending fast enough. He continued to wipe peoples minds, murder people who would never be able to exist in the next timeline, and repeated the process until he found his vision of what is a good world. Note that he mostlikly passed up a racist free world just because him and his wife didn't get together (also potentially resetting if jackie wasnt born) .
Jax is no better then Kronica.
He got away from making himself not exist via screwing up his ancestry, but for some reason Jacque doesn’t get that privilege.
Which violates his upstanding character and what he stands for. There is no justification for that ending at all.
"Woke" Jax even appeared in Fujin's ending.
But was it racist?
@@IANGEL101I And Fujin didnt have to genocide everyone.
The Sindel arc is my favorite arc of the 4th snake anime so far
NOT!
MY!
EMPRESS!!
This turn of her character is such a disgrace!
I notice that some characters were left out of Aftermath, some for better or worse.
Good Exclusions:-
- D'vorah
- Kano (had an excuse as he's dead)
Bad Exclusions:-
- Skarlet
- Kabal
- Erron Black
Skarlet is just another of shao's daughters she is not important to the plot, just a small side character.
Erron black was in the aftermath
The chapter they arrived in, kano wasnt dead then. Kabal appeared in aftermath too
@@nachi6808 oh yeah
@@nachi6808 btw I think he ment past kabal
Sindel is now the MK version of hydra cap.
At least she died a painful death like Hydra cap unfortunately the hacks at Neatherealm are going with the idea that this was totally the real Sindel all along while Hydra Cap wasn’t the original Cap.
Netherrealm studios: I had a reason
REAL Fans: Huh
Netherrealm studios: I had a reason
Real fans: What was the reason? What was the reason?! What was the reason bitch?!
Netherrealm studios: I don't need to explain myself to you----
Real fans: WHAT WAS THE REASON?!?
Ngl, i love the idea of Sindel being fake evil to trick Shao Kahn and kill him. If NRS wanted to dabble in Evil Sindel, they should've done that instead of retconing the fuck out of her
All these takes are infinitely better than what we got.
Once I saw that chapter Sindel & Shao Kahn appear I knew it was going to be a dumpster fire. This Sindel was a huge slap in the face. I really miss the Midway Era.
Sindel actually killing Jerrod voluntarily also contradicts her supposed retconned death in MK9.
Usually I don't have problem with new takes on character, as long as he keep the elements that made him so appealing or the new elements add by the new take are interesting. THIS IS NOT THE CASE FOR SINDEL. While I'm not a gamer or a 100% expert in mortal kombat , I know about the stories of some characters (some I even learn watching the channel), and Sidel original story was amazing and this new take failed to represent it. This new version of her lacks all the elements that made her such a great MK character and all the new elements added didn't improve her, it just made her boring generic villain. Definitely one of NRS biggest failures involving the MK franchise.
Let's hope she didn't turn out into the next Hsu Hao...
Sindels banshee confuses me just as much as scarlet covering 98% of her body. Both are things that could be used for some interesting story telling, but in the end just don't.
Subversion can work if the end result is actually better than expectations you're subverting.
This version of Sindel? This character is NOT that.
Also, a combination of all three options you presented would be kinda of nice to see. The best traits of all three combined.
How Netherealm could simply fix sindel without much effort:
*One:* Have her show genuine Care for Kitana, reveal some things to her that’ll make her regret and seek forgiveness for what she’s done when possessed
*Two:* Don’t have her mention any stupid bullshit hinting to her being truly evil
*Three:* in her chapter, make her get possessed again by Shang Tsuang, have her get beat, then when things get really bad, have her show up and Kill Shao Kahn with Kitana
*Four:* Fully come to terms with what she did and move on, like Present Ajax did.
That’s it. If you feel that there should be more added, comment down below
Ik this may be rushed, but wouldn’t you rather have this..over Netherrealm’s version?
This girl reminds me of that girl I chased down who was killing fellers with her seduction skills.
You didn’t really chase her down she came to you lol
poison Ivy?
People really dont get it. I have mained liu kang since mk1 and when they killed him off in MK:DA I was shooken. Then they brought him back as a zombie and I was disgusted. Then they rebooted him back and killed him off again only to bring him back as an EVIL ZOMBIE basically. I was SO upset that they ruined one of the only pure characters in the lore but I used him regardless. Unhappily. I imagine thats how a lot of people felt when their favorite characters took a left turn lorewise. I'm with you, dude. Keep speaking your opinions.
“I do not dress for you, Shao Kahn”
*THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG*
There's gonna be a day where MK becomes so much of a mess, Ed Boon decides "alright we need this Snake dude cuz he seems to know what he's talking about"
i honestly was hoping it be a double twist, that Sindel was bullshiting Khan and just using him to get to the hour glass to bring back Jared
That would have been cool. 😁
NRS has one of the most contradicted writers.
I still don't understand what NRS were thinking with this game, they tell us all that they are giving the women less revealing outfits because they felt it was immature to have every women be wearing such revealing outfits; though characters like Scarlet, where it made sense she based on her power set, not wearing revealing clothing was never explained. Then the base game released and we find out they included all these lines about the evil male characters wanting to rape Cassie Cage or want her to be raped, as if this isn't immature and doesn't just play into rape fantasies just because the bad guy said it. Then they turn a previous character who you could argue was or was doomed to be raped by Khan into a women who was into it the whole time and didn't really give a fulfilling explanation for why she killed herself and casted a protection spell over Earth Realm if she like ruling a massive empire with Khan at her side. Then they continue to include more lines Khan seeing the women in the story as sex objects just to made the bad guys out to be objectively bad in every way, which robs him of previous characterization as brilliant schemers and turns him into a massive dickhead who can't be taken seriously, which comes out right when the current expansion tells us he should be a serious threat.
I won’t be surprised if the banshee spirit is actually sindel’s grandma and sindel killed her for her power
It just doesn’t click. The reason the revenants were formed was due to the fact that Shao Kahn gave the souls of Earthrealm Defenders to Quan Chi. So if Sindel is meant to be evil from the start, she’d have never been a revenant; this is why characters like Mileena did not become revenants. SHE SHOULD BE ON THE GOOD SIDE.
The shove Sindel gave Shang Tsung right after he resurrection gave me hope but it didn't last long...
Why do some fans think making a heroic character evil is somehow cool? I saw this same thing with some people who found Liu Kang to be dull as a hero and felt he was cooler as a Revenant. I have no idea why they think this since becoming a Revenant caused Liu Kang to go from a badass to a jobber henchman who loses every fight he takes part in while having no personality beyond "generic badguy."
I also don't get the idea as to how making Sindel evil is supposed to be "empowering." Villains are terrible symbols of empowerment, this thinking feels along the lines of people who see characters like Light Yagami as a power fantasy. There is nothing to really make Sindel stand out among the other heartless monsters of the franchise. Even the abusive parent angle was already done with fucking Kronika.
I just don't get it why those people see heroes = boring while villains = interesting. It doesn't matter which allignment the character in but if their story is shit just like this new Sindel here then they're shit/boring character end of the story.
Simple really those fans haven't outgrown their edgy teenage phase where everything dark is cool and being good or morally sound person is boring, lame, etc. Heck there is a guy called ShadowRaiden00 on gamefaqs who is a shining example of it.
@@zerofudou5689 I have not outgrow my edge phase but I can when quality of dark stuff cool or lame and edgy.
Well, at least if there's one thing MK11 did right, they realized that they did Liu Kang dirty, so they give him a better writer this time around.
Lady Macbeth also killed herself out of guilt. If they'd had the reason for her suicide be guilt over her hand in Jerrod's death, their use of Lady Macbeth as an influence may have been more justified, but instead they just proved they misunderstand both Sindel and Lady Macbeth.
True. It also would've made more since of her even bothering to lie about being brainwashed.
I honestly feel like the simple inclusion of Shang Tsung placing a different soul in her would have literally been SUCH AN EASY WAY OUT. And not even that hard to pull off and keep the Aftermath the same.
For Christ's sake, Shang had a freaking shit eating grin on his face the entire sequence (and game). I'm actually shocked his role in her resurrection didn't turn to be a factor in her heel turn.
Souls are the midiclorians/nanomachines of the MK universe. It doesn't even NEED to be that complicated.
Sure it would have been disappointing still. But it would have MADE SENSE
It’s bull crap that they kept evil Sindel, cause I grew up with her being a good woman. Now that made her into a banshee witch. Shame...
So, Sindel and Sylvanas Windrunner walk into a bar and then...
OMG your versions are so cool. Can you imagine if all of them are possible and shaped only by the the decisions you make during the game play :)
0:56 The "New Sindel is better" crowd really mean "I think evil Sindel's hot." It's obvious. They don't actually find her an interesting character.
If they wanted to showcase a female villain with Mileena gone, they could have used the grossly underdeveloped Skarlet, but nope, they had to ravage the tragic heroine.
or Tanya, she's an evil Edenian.
Holy crap that 3rd version would actually make sense! Now only if the writers realised how they could explain/excuse Kronika's motives, but let's face it they don't have the skill or brains to think like that. As usual, well thought out Snake.
The Sindel/Shao Khan section of Aftermath was an honest to god pain to get through not because it was hard or anything but the character assassination done to her. I've seen people say she was always like this we just didn't know to which I would point out that no it IS a retcon and ruins a well-written character. I hated every second of that section to the point when Shang sucked out her soul I can't say I felt bad about it happening because that wasn't Sindel and certainly not the one I knew.
As you pointed out there ARE ways to do the "Sindel being evil" thing WITHOUT destroying the reason why so many people liked the character. It's lazy storytelling at best and disrespectful at worst.
Sindel over their Swinedel anyday.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if NetherRealm Studios ends up blacklisting you, like Konami did with Jim Sterling.
Well, until Ed Boon and NRS has been reported to be treating their employees like complete crap, blacklisting them if they ever quit the company.... well they ain't reaching Konami levels of evil yet. Nope, not even Blizzard either.
If they wanted her to be evil they could have done it like when Shang Tsung brought her back he used his powers to fill her with new memories that were not hers that would have been perfect if they wanted to go that direction and then maybe for her ending they could have showed her finding out the truth or something
6:20 Not going to lie the new Ermac designs is so cool I wish he was playable but then again I don't have the game and I doubt they will put in the game but no sadly.
When I sat through Aftermath's Sindel/Kahn's chapter I kept thinking "The4thSnake's gonna have a field day outta this", but I was wrong, you had a field week, maybe month! Great content as always, I really wish you were the actual writer for MK in general
Worst part, for new comers like me who respect original lore, its very hard to get the "generic tyrannical queen " that sindel is potrayed as in 11.
Shes basicaly azshara from Warcraft.
What’s strange is this “Sindel” isn’t even that horrific looking: the original Sindel may have looked bad but she really wasn’t that was the entire point of her character, a “don’t judge a book by its cover” type of deal and yet this version looks like a normal human woman, so not only do the morons at Neatherealm fall into a superficial line of thinking (apparently they thought since she looked evil she must be evil) but they are so mind numbingly incompetent they can’t even show the version they thought was worth all of this stupid shit and even more so how she originally looked in their OWN GAMES!
Cyrax just got a rehash of what he did in the comics when it could have been so much better if he was a permanent ally fighting for both his freedom and humanity
Sindel and Frost are probably the two characters that I feel Netherrealm has shafted the most. Frost was probably one of the characters I was super hyped for when MK 11 was announced simply because I was really hoping to see what direction they would take her in, only to be shocked and confused when they revealed her to be a cyborg. It feels like it came outta nowhere and was only implemented just so the designers didn't need to worry about her wearing anything revealing. I'm genuinely disappointed in the direction they took her character seeing how she could've been super interesting, perhaps having a similar personality to Damian Wayne where she wants to do the right thing but believes killing is the best answer simply due to her troubled upbringing and maybe we could've seen a genuine bond between Frost and Sub-Zero which would make her eventual downfall all the more tragic and heart breaking. As for Sindel I just don't get what was going through their minds when they basically decided to assassinate her entire character. Like it was so easy, all you had to do was bring her back as a revenant and have her say some mean things that we know she didn't mean, but instead everyone at NRS decided to turn her into your generic Power Rangers villain and double down on it by tricking the fans into thinking we'll be getting og Sindel back only for that bullshit "twist" to happen. It's frustrating to see such interesting characters basically get no real development but instead are given blatant roles just to progress the plot..its seriously unfortunate.
I agree with Frost for sure, I could probably imagine something better for her than what NRS coughed up. For example, having the killswitch to the entire Cyber Initiative embedded within Frost was just asking for it to be used. Seriously? They're not a hivemind!
@@HESHRocketWarhead Don't get me even started on that man 😂 Honestly I just hope that if we do get an MK 12 in the future that hopefully Frost will get more love like Sheeva did.
@@nightynight1479 Kotal Kahn was wasted as fuck
I love seeing fans give shout outs to each other's work.
Thanks for all these videos as they reminded me of what I used to love in the MK series.
That idea of Kronika twisting events to make Sindel and Kabal evil is genius. Kabal has been my favorite character ever since I can remember, and he's been done dirtier than the rot on Shao Kahn's brain.
1:55 "A new side of Shao Kahn" huh Dominic? You mean him going from cunning and biding his time as Onaga's adviser and poisoning him and taking over as Emperor of Outworld when the time was right, holding Sindel's soul hostage so he'd have an excuse to invade Earthrealm, adopting Kitana and pretending he was her dad so he'd have a powerful enforcer and creating Mileena as a backup in case she found out the truth and all that. Going from that to brainless henchman of Kronika isn't a new side.
Neatherealm Kahn has all the mental capacity of a brick shit house.
Sindel needs justice
Also adding up. You showed some good links , especially from ComradeKittyKat, and now it gave me an understanding why the story of 11 was a clusterfuck: John Vogel left. Yes, he might not be as prolific as Ed Boon and John Tobias, but it's as if his departure sounds the death knell of the franchise's hope for having good stories, if the 11 story is what we go by.
They definitely ruined a lot of the characters but Sindel’s is top number 1 of ruining. I’m still in disbelief that we’ve never had a good classic Sindel since 2006. Such wasted potential 😞
All of these are so much better than what we got.
Proving that the fans can make a better story than the actual creators.