Mortal Kombat/Headscratchers

Mortal Kombat

• What happened to Kintaro after Mortal Kombat 2? Was he killed, did he survive, is he in hiding, what?
  • Last I checked, Raiden vaporized him.
    • That was in the MK3 instruction manual, wasn't it? I thought that was apocryphal, same as Kintaro said to be leading Kahn's army in the Conquest mode of Deception, being dead and opposing Shinnok in the Netherealm in the Conquest mode of Armageddon, and being ripped apart by Liu Kang and Kung Lao in Shaolin Monks. Damn Midway for cutting the bios for Armageddon short, as now we'll never know what happened to him...
      • Shaolin Monks aside, these aren't mutually exclusive. Perhaps he led Kintaro's army until Raiden vaporized him, and then fell to the Netherrealm and opposed Shinnok?
        • Won't work; his appearance in MKA opposing Shinnok was actually an illusion by Shinnok to test Taven, so Kintaro's ultimate fate is still in question.
  • Also, why is he a cat?
    • Maybe it's carried over from some older MK lore. Goro was orignally stated to be half-human, half-dragon. Perhaps Kintaro was intended to be half-human or half-dragon, half-tiger?
    • It's actually a holdover of his original concept. There could also be a subtle reference to the Green Dragon White Tiger yin-yang symbolism.
    • According to Mortal Kombat 9's bio for Kintaro, he comes from a lesser lineage of the Shokan known as the Tigrar (Goro and Sheeva come from the more prestigious Draco lineage). This would mean that the Tigrar Shokan have a different ancestor than that of the Draco Shokan, as it's been confirmed that the Shokan are Onaga (the Dragon King)'s half-breed offspring.
• After Scorpion kills the original Sub Zero in MK 9, Sub Zero comes back as Noob under Quan Chi. Are Scorpion or Noob ok with eachother by now? I mean, each has a reason to hate eachother now, and Noob knows who he used to be.
  • Oh gods no. Scorpion hates Noob for being a servant of Quan Chi (the man who's responsible for the death of his clan), and although Noob hardly hates Scorpion for killing him anymore, he is still a demon now, and desires only to rule the Netherrealm and bring pain and death to all living Kombatants.
    • Actually, in the new continuity, Scorpion isn't yet aware that Quan Chi is responsible.
  • Do they even know that the other is working for Quan Chi? Does Scorpion even know that Bi-Han came back as Noob? Scorpion and Noob are pretty Quan Chi's Co-Dragons in this game (Scorpion because he's too blind with rage and upholding the memory of his family to see through Quan Chi being a conniving, manipulative dick; Noob voluntarily, but biding his time before he takes over).

• Did Scorpion's MK2 ending happen or not? Did he vow to protect the younger Sub-Zero?
  • Yes, the ending happened. Just look at his MK3 ending. It mentions the vow. Unfortunately, it was broken in MK4 due to Quan Chi tricking Scorpion into believing the younger Sub-Zero was involved in the massacre of his family and clan, even though the sorcerer did it himself. ...Though, really, any MK fan should know that already.
  • Similarly, did Johnny Cage actually die and revive twice during the time of Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat 4?
    • Yeah. This was parodied in MK: Deadly Alliance when Cage is cast in Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage, in which he is repeatedly killed and brought back to life.
      • I think that was a kneejerk decision by Vogel, and we all know that since Deadly Alliance, continuity gets thrown way out the window. Plus, every single Mortal Kombat movie Cage has made was based in part on his actual tournament experiences, so how do we know that "The Death of Johnny Cage" wasn't similarly seeded in real, in-game events? He could've talked about his actual deaths and revivals in MK3-MK4, and was so mocked by it as being too unbelievable that his crew decided to screw with him.

• Didn't any characters from Earthrealm (Jax, Sonya, Liu Kang) pick up a comic book in their life? I mean, Superman and Batman aren't exactly unknown. Didn't anyone think "Holy shit, I'm duking it out with Batman!"?
  • DC Comics probably didn't exist in that dimension. Similiar to why Spider-Man didn't go "Holy damn, it's Superman!" in the crossover comics.

• If Shao Kahn did create a spell that would nuke all who served him if he was killed, then who would be taken with him?
  • Like you said, all who served him. Possibly that might've been retconned just for the sake of bringing Kahn back in Deception, adding also the killed clone handwave. even though we see it when we beat MK 2 and MK3, Kahn didn't really die - he either teleported away or hauled ass when he saw he was cornered.

• Why hasn't someone gone up there and kicked the Elder Gods' asses, yet? First, when it's predicted that the Mortal Kombat tournament would cause such massive infighting from insanely powerful warriors that it would destroy all of existence, they force a lowly god to come up with a Xanatos Roulette to fix it, which fails miserably. Then, they sit idly by and let newly-appointed Earth Protector Raiden almost nuke an entire civilization fighting one of their own members for control of the realm. Then, they refuse to interfere not once but three times in preventing a mega-power from taking over Earth, and finally, when they hire Scorpion to be their champion against Onaga, they go back on their word, reviving his family and clan as zombies instead of restoring them to what they were before they died. Clearly, this Omniscient Council of Vagueness has firmly become Neglectful Precursors, with no care to what happened to their own creations, so why won't anyone do anything to stop them?
  • Hell, I'd pay 60 just to see Kratos do just that. He brought down Olympus, bringing down the Elder Gods would be a cinch for him.
  • Wasn't part of Shinnok's plan in MK4 to destroy them?
    • Yes, but Shinnok also tried to take over Earth for his own to become the supreme power of the multiverse, so we really can't say he's trying to kill the Elder Gods because of the atrocities they let happen.
    • I think the Elder Gods are just firmly following in the grand tradition of Jerkass Deities. Maybe that should be a trope...
    • It is.
  • Some people do it in their MKA endings. Except none of those ended up sticking.
  • This Troper is starting to suspect that it's not that the Elder Gods refuse to do anything so much as they can't do anything unless the rules are broken. Remember, the realms and the people in them are dreams of the One Being, not their own creations (which should also explain why they don't care about the people in them or individual realms, they're not actually real to the Elder Gods)so while they get to set the rules reality itself may be co0nfinign them soley to the letter of those rules.

• Regarding Mortal Kombat vs. DC: Okay, they've sufficiently explained how the mystic energy saturating the Kombat 'verse de-powers Superman to the point where Johnny Cage can successfully punch him in the nads. Well, as best as they could. Only problem is that this doesn't explain why Wonder Woman (no known weakness to magic) and Captain Marvel (powers come from a magical source), who have both gone toe-to-toe with Supes in the past, are similarly nerfed.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep
  • One should focus on the prospect of Batman duking it out with Scorpion and not think too much into it.
  • Perhaps the magic of Mortal Kombat behaves differently to that of the DC Universe, "neutralizing" (or at least weakening) each other when they clash.
  • This troper's theory is that Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel will be depowered since different gods hold sway in the M Kverse. This wouldn't be without precedent, since Raiden was unable to interfere in the events of MK3 because Earthrealm came under the influence of Outworld's gods.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep
    • During the game, it's revealed that it's more than just magic, and that it isn't depowering people as much as taking the power and giving it to others (for example, Shang Tsung becomes much more powerful over the course of the story). Even those immune to magic (Green Lanterns ring keeps messing up, and Captain Marvel is disturbed by the flux of magical power) feel the effects. There's even an arc where Joker gets a huge amount of power and goes on an ass kicking spree (it really shows that he's more powerful when he beats up Deathstroke and almost beats Batman) until Batman tasers him.
      • That might also explain how all characters are more or less supposed to be balanced in the series. For instance, Stryker was just a normal schmuck with some police weapons, but could fight against a sorcerer. Maybe MK universe magic toughened him up and gave his weapons unlimited ammo so he had a fighting chance, sorta like it runs on making things a fair(ish) fight. Would explain how other, more "normal" people, like Johnny Cage or Liu Kang had semi-magical powers (shadow kick, fireballs) for the purpose of fighting Outworld monsters with blades on their arms or who can fly.

• How come Raiden and Fujin seem to be the only gods that actually have tried to do anything? For that matter, why doesn't one of the Elder Gods step in against, say, Onaga? If they really want him dead you'd think they'd do whatever it took, including fighting directly.
  • As stated above, the Elder Gods are Jerkass deities that only step in personally when it comes to matters based around a direct threat from fellow gods or the One Being itself; Onaga was still technically mortal, and mortal affairs didn't concern them very much (and they probably figured it would be best for the mortals to handle their own affairs). They also seem to be the kind of deities to exploit easily-manipulated pawns to do the dirty work for them (why else would they have a lowly Edenian protector god come up with a contigency plan for The End of the World as We Know It?).
  • They're gods. God(s) job is to create the universe and then sit refusing to do anything about anything, even if allo of creation is threatened.
  • In Mortal Kombat 9, they finally step in to assist Raiden after Shao Kahn merged the realms, and not a second before. They're not concerned with preventing deaths or destruction like Raiden, a protector God is, their concern is just keeping the realms apart. Which sort of explains why they did nothing to stop Onaga directly; they only react to the merging, never act proactively (aside from appointing Scorpion their champion). Is it still stupid? Yes, but slightly less so.
  • Hierarchy. The Elder Gods' job is to observe every realm in existence and maintain the division of the One Being. A bunch of guys killing another bunch of guys is below their radar; events that are actively merging the realms and threatening the resurrection of the One Being is their focus. For the smaller-scale "people are suffering and dying" issues, that falls into the jurisdiction of Protector Gods like Raiden. Spirits and entities like Fujin before his promotion are focused on even smaller roles, like protecting the temple that housed Shinnok's Amulet. It isn't apathy, they just have more important things on their plate. Asking the Elder Gods to step in because Shao Kahn is killing people is like asking the CEO of a company to take customer service calls; until he becomes an actual threat to the separation of the One Being, they have bigger fish to fry.

• Also, how is Raiden in Deception, story-wise? He kinda blew himself up in the opening sequence...
  • That was actually covered in Fujin's Armageddon bio; apparently, when a god self-destructs themselves, their essence re-coalesces and they're reborn, but with none of their past memories or identity (in essence creating a new, "blank slate" version of that particular deity). Something happened to Raiden during that time, though, so he retained his original memories and personality afterwards, as well as turning dark.

• What's going through Raiden, Shang Tsung's and Quan Chi's heads in the Deception opening? Seriously, 'All three of us can't hold him off, so I'll just use all my power on my own.'
  • I'm assuming you're talking about Raiden self-destructing after they ganged up to try and stop Onaga. It was basically a desperation move; Raiden probably felt that, if nothing else will stop Onaga, a point-blank suicide bomber attack from a god using the whole of his divine essence to power said explosion was their last, best chance of doing any damage. It wasn't effective, naturally, and Quan Chi did call the Thunder God on it like he was insane for even trying it, but what else could they have done?
    • Maybe Tsung could try sucking Onaga's soul?
      • That only seems to work when the enemy is almost dead/defeated. Onaga had barely been scratched.

• Why is everyone in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe besides Lex Luthor and Batman holding the Idiot Ball like it was their best friend? I can understand the rage tends to make everyone homicidal at exactly the wrong moment, but what about the parts where someone could just explain the situation without overaggression (such as Batman & Raiden), or even look at the clues that their "enemies" were obviously suffering the same effects they were (nearly every other scene), I'm sure someone should've figured out that the destruction of both universes was bad for the people they think are causing it.
  • It's a crossover, it's par for the course.
    • Ugh. And part of this Fanfic writer's Self-Imposed Challenge is to explain all that so I can write a proper and plausible novelization... All I can really say is... much revising is planned.
  • Also, keep in mind who you're talking about. The characters involved tend to get into fights with each other with little real reason, act like dicks to each other and refuse to share information all the time norally anyway. Hell, Batman pulls horrible emotionally scarring tricks on his sidekicks as training and it's pretty much cannon he doesn't trust anyone with powers so even if he did start to catch on it's unlikely he'd tell anyone.

• In Mortal Kombat Armageddon, the main goal is to get to the top of the pyramid and fight this fire dude. Onaga has wings why didn't he just fly to the top of the pyramid instead of having to go through the levels like the other characters?
  • In regards to gameplay, well... In regards to the intro, just to throw it out there, This Troper wants to think that maybe Onaga's vendetta against Shao Kahn was big enough to distract him from Blaze. ...Meaning it's probably one hell of a grudge.
  • You think the fact that Onaga doesn't use his wings is bad? Raiden can teleport.
    • Shit, in Armageddon, 90% of the characters can teleport.
  • I get the feeling that the big fight around the pyramid was more symbolic than anything else.
  • It had better be. Otherwise, we're really left to ask why they stop fighting their archnemeses to play King Of The Hill without anyone knowing what's at the top.
    • In the Konquest mode of Armageddon, it's established that the kombatants know there is some great power involved. Once they see Blaze at the top, they know.
• Tanya's Hara-Kiri involves ripping out her own tibias and stabbing herself through the eyes with them. But...she's still standing up with no tibias?
  • This a series where Serial Escalation & You Fail Biology Forever is constantly at play here, you shouldn't try too hard to think about it.
  • Maybe it was her fibulae?

• In the first movie, what was the point for Shang-Tsung to drag Sonya into the Otherworld? Why couldn't he challenge her right there? Also, what's the deal with Liu Kang forcing Shang to fight him? The deal was that Cage gets to fight Goro ahead of his turn and Shang gets to challenge whomever he wants for the final battle.
  • He was trying to force her to accept his challenge. Cage made him agree to enter the tournament so he has to fight someone. He chose Sonya as the least threatening (considering Kang is the chosen one and Cage just killed Goro it's an acceptable assumption as she only killed Kano, whom he told to go easy on her). By isolating her he was trying to force her to think there was no other choice. As for Kang, he simply wanted to avenge his brother whom Tsung killed in the previous tournament.
    • As a clarifying point, unless Liu had amnesia (knowing the Kombat storyline that wouldn't be too surprising actually) his brother was probably just straight up murdered by Shang Tsung, because Liu didn't know about the tournament. As an added point it could also just be a case of poor casting but Chan also looked like he was younger than Liu, so it wouldn't make sense for him to be selected for the tournament and Liu to be sidelined.
    • Chan was the younger brother. Liu wasn't passed over, he left and deliberately kept himself out of the tournament. That's why he blames himself for it, if Liu hadn't left for America, he would've been there and fought instead of Chan.
  • Shang Tsung wanted to isolate Sonya both to get away from Raiden (who cannot enter Outworld) and to essentially cheat. Either Sonya accepts and he kicks her ass, or she refuses and he, with no witnesses, can pretend that he won and Shao Kahn is free to invade Earthrealm at will, something Kitana sees through and warns him is treason. The important aspect of his deal with Cage is not that he is allowed to challenge someone- as Raiden said, as an ex-Champion he could do so at any time- but that this chalenge would be "the final battle of the tournament", winner take all. The problem is, the rules state that while that is fine, the opponent has to accept, a rule that Sonya did no know which is one reason he picked her. The other, of course, is that Liu Kang is The Chosen One and Tsung just plain didn't want to fight him for that very reason, though he ultimately accepted Kang's challenge because e was backed into a corner and, frankly, by that point seemed a little pissed off. Finaly he was panicking- Goro had just been killed, Tsung was about to fail Shao Kahn again, and so faking Sonya's defeat was sort of a desperate gamble to avoid his Emperor's wrath.

• Why has there been no adressing of Mileena and Sindel's feelings towards one another? Mileena may be magically created but part of her is Kitana, there is a definite link there (one Mileena could try to exploit to her benefit) but they both just seem to want to pretend the other doesn't exist when adressing their stories. Take Mileena's Deception ending, Mileena replaces Kitana but Sindel has been freed and should be in contact with her. Technically, Sindel is in charge, not Kitana, so there should have been interaction of some kind.
  • Wasn't Sindel still dead when Mileena was created?
    • Yes, but that's part of why it bugs me. What are Sindel's feelings towards Mileena? Is she horrified her daughter was violated? Is she hopeful Mileena can be redeemed? Does she consider Mileena to be part of the family? Just a monster? Is she even aware Mileena exists? If not then why hasn't Mileena taken advantage of that? How come when Mileena actually manages to replace Kitana after Deadly Allinace there's no mention of Sindel or whether she's been killed off so Mileena can rule or tricked ino thinking Mileena really is Kitana?
    • It's very possible that Sindel knows all about Mileena since her Heel Face Turn, so she may not recognize her as family. Also, while Mileena was posing as Kitana, the real Kitana had been brainwashed by Onaga and assigned to guard Sindel's cell in the dungeons of the Edenian Palace - and she would've stayed there if Jade hadn't come around and beat some sense into Kitana.

• The fact that the creators simply cannot keep the story straight. I can forgive Shaolin Monks being out-of-continuity, despite how much cooler it would have been had it followed the established story. I can forgive Armageddon making no damned sense, because I understand the creators wanting to give every character from the franchise a slot in the game and there was no way to make that work story-wise. But now the trailers for MK 2011 are being released, providing the backstory to certain characters. One assumes that these trailers were written at the same time, by the same people, and yet they contradict each other. Sub-Zero's trailer states that the elder S-Z was "unjustly murdered" by Scorpion. Scorpion's trailer states that Scorpion, his family, and his clan, were all killed by Sub-Zero, which would seem to make Scorpion's revenge murder pretty damned just. Think with your brain words, game developers! Also, it is revealed in MK4 that it was Quan Chi, not Sub-Zero, who murdered Scorpion's family and wiped out his clan. I suppose these contradictions might be explained by each trailer giving us the subjective motivations of the featured characters, rather than the story's objective internal facts; this game is set before Scorpion learns the truth about his family, and the younger Sub-Zero truly believes that his brother's death was unjust. But given that the trailers feature a seemingly omniscient narrator this seems like a stretch. While some might argue that the new game is a continuity reboot, and my irritation is therefor unfounded, Ed Boon's statements so far seem to indicate that it is somewhat similar to Star Trek's reboot, with Raiden time traveling back to the past (MK 2-era or thereabouts) and thus changing events from his intervention forward; this means that the pre-MK 1 backstory should all remain the same. Nitpicky I know, but damn it it just bugs me.
  • I agree, but to be fair the people who play MK for the story are in the extreme minority. Most people play it for the full-body skeletonectomies.
  • It's almost as you said, seeing the characters' subjective motivations for their stories (just seeing it from their point of view, basically), so it might just be an issue with the narrator's voice and nothing more. Making it either an Unreliable Narrator or a very damn RELIABLE Narrator of someone else's stories, who happens to get be telling it from their point of view. Which makes sense, in a way: can you imagine Scorpion narrating his own story?
  • Retcons all the way is the idea of the new game. About the contradiction between Scorps and Subs, it may just be from each other's point of view. Maybe Kuai Liang didn't know Scorpion's motives in killing his bro, so he thought it was an unjust murder. Rather, he might have known about the Lin Kuei massacring the Shirai-ryuu, but not that his brother also killed Ms. Hasashi and her kid (except not). As for Scorpion, he might've been lied to by Quan Chi since then (remember that he only finds out the truth after MK4).
  • It seems Shinnok, and possibly Quan Chi, are also aware of the alternate Armageddon future. That would explain damn near everything including basic issues like why Quan Chi is in the first tournament in the first place, and why he is so heavily involved in the story despite not being introduced until afterwards. Sub Zero started to deny that he killed Scorpion's family before he died, so presumably Quan Chi still killed them, only this time just earlier so that he could have both Scorpion and Noob Saibot under his thrall, which he does, rather than Noob betraying him and Scorpion hell bent on destroying him. And his deal with Shao Kahn has left the Netherrealm with several strong undead fighters that they didn't have before. Most of the changes future Raiden couldn't have made are the ones that benefit the Netherealm, so its fair to assume that Shinnok has Took a Level in Badass and become the Magnificent Bastard he was supposed to be in the 4th game.
• What, exactly, is the deal with MK-verse dragons? Apparently, the Shokan are dragon-human hybrids, but they have no wings and four arms. So dragons should have 6+ limbs, right? But Onaga is the Dragon King, and he has only two arms, two legs, and two wings... but then apparently the Elder Gods look like Asian dragons, and so do Orin and Caro, who are servants to a mere Protector God of a Realm? They don't have more than four limbs, either, but they do get hybridized with humans, resulting in beings who look nothing like Shokan. And then Kano, from the same experiments turns into a proper dragon. umm... what?
  • Scroll up to the top of the page.
  • It's perfectly obvious why the half-dragon Shokan have four limbs: winged dragons are six-limbed vertrebates. Their wings translate to two extra arms in a humanoid body. And besides, Mortal Kombat simply mixes and matches countless of dragon-myths across the planet. The end result is that there are many kinds of dragons, and by extension, many different kinds of dragon-hybrids.

• Why did Shang Tsung not take Jax, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Kung Lao & Sonya's souls when he killed them in the end of Deadly Alliance?
  • Weren't they al killed by the Tarkata? And Tsung was a tad busy being attacked by Raiden when the opportunity would have preented itself.

Why aren't Scorpion, Noob Saibot, Sareena, Jataaka, and Kia zombies? Shouldn't Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang) be in human form and Smoke in Enenra form?

• Scorpion is undead (he isn't technically a rotting corpse, but if he were to take off his mask you would find only a skull instead of the normal face he usually has, I can only assume this is due to Magic). Noob is also undead, but due to Quan Chi's Magic, he ended up as a demon instead of a zombie. I'm not sure about the others.
  • Both Scorpion (a spectre) and Noob (a wraith) are undead, so I'm not sure if they'd end up as zombies in the conventional sense anyway. Unless you're going by the post-Armageddon timeline, Sareena is still alive out there, whereas Jataaka and Kia were revived sometime during/before Armageddon (alternatively, it's possible that their deaths affected them much Shinnok "killing" Sareena in that they simply were forced into reverting to their demon form). Not sure if those three would be zombies, since they're already demons in human guise. As for Sub-Zero and Smoke, it's most likely that they came to terms with who they were before they died and their souls in reflected that, hence Sub-Zero appearing as Cyber Sub-Zero (which would explain why Jax still has his arms or Kabal is disfigured and still wearing his respirator). Smoke only remembered his past upon defeating Shao Kahn in his Arcade Ladder ending, an event rendered noncanon by Story Mode.
• Why did the amulet crack after Liu Kang won the first tournament? Had Shang Tsung beaten him then, Kahn's win would have been legitimate, and the Elder Gods would not intervene. The same applies for the second tournament, but given it was forced upon Earthrealm and the rules were changed you could argue it wouldn't count.
  • It's possible that the amulet cracked after Kang's first victory because it wasn't a way to save the future that Future Raiden wanted. I'm going to take a guess here, but it seems that magic in Mortal Kombat also seems to be affected by the user's wants. It might be that the amulet cracked because Earthrealm was saved in a way that Future Raiden didn't want. He most likely wanted Earthrealm to be saved by having Shao Kahn destroyed for good, considering the state he was in when he sent the message.
    • Maybe the amulet was constantly cracking. Raiden just happened to notice it after Liu Kang's victory because he thought that Kang's victory was the event from the "he must win" message. So it's not really "oh no the amulet cracked AGAIN", it's more "oh no the amulet IS STILL cracking".
    • In other words, the cracking of Raiden's amulet indicates that events happened as his future self planned! At least before Earthrealm must let Kahn merge the realms without winning Mortal Kombat so the Elder Gods can punish him.

• It's established that Reptile will attach himself to any authority and his motivation is to restore his realm and race. If that's true, then why hasn't Raiden used that to give Reptile a Heel Face Turn? Raiden seems like he would actually try and help Reptile with this situation, as opposed to Shao Kahn, wo has no intentions of doing so.
  • Remember, when he made the offer to Scorpian, Scorpian hadn't done anything evil or harmful to Earthrealm yet, Reptile on the other hand has millenia of murder in the service of evil, not exactly something that would get either Raidon or the Elder Gods on his side. Plus, Reptile's species isn't actually extinct yet and there are other, lesser powers, that could restore his race, Raiden was trying to prevent the rise of Noob Saibot, a great and powerful force of evil.

• A minor gripe, but Mileena insisting that she's Kitana's "sister" doesn't seem right. Since she was basically cloned from Kitana's DNA, wouldn't that make it more appropriate to call her Kitana's "daughter" if anything?
  • Made even worse by the fact that Mileena was made from Kitana and Tarkata so she's not even an exact clone. At least with a full clone an argument could be made that she'd count as a twin.

• This one is less about the story and more about the gameplay. How the heck did players discover Fatality combos before cheatbooks and the Internet existed? They're pretty obscure combos, and without them being published in the manual or anywhere in the game it had to have been near impossible for people to pull them off.
  • There were cheat sections in gaming magazines, which listed them.