Mortal Kombat lore thread! MK experts, what was happening in the intro of MK9?

[Nikus]

I love Mortal Kombat but I don't know much about what happened between MK3 and 9, I didn't follow the series during that gap. I've been replaying MK9 these past few days and as I started the story mode (that I've played through twice since 2011), I was wondering: how did it get there? All the fighters dead and Raiden getting wrecked by Shao Kahn, what happened to lead to that point? Was it the bad ending of one of the previous games?

So basically, I really love MK9 and how it reboots the story, but at the same time I'm super curious about everything I've missed before that.
I know there are a lot of Youtube videos and wiki that cover all that, and I'll probably watch some vids, but I thought it would be fun to talk about the story and lore of the games, with fans more knowledgable than me. If you're the sort of person who'd take the mic at a party and go "I don't know how much you know about Outworld culture (I'm an expert)", then by all means share your knowledge! Like, which period of MK stories do you prefer? Are there some fun trivias about the lore that casual fans may not know?

PS: I love how Raiden is an absolute moron and the most useless god ever in MK9. I don't know if I should feel sorry for him. I haven't played MK11 yet, but I can't wait to see the craziness.

 

[Biteren]

Mk Armageddon for the ps2/xbox happened, the big end of the world monster Blaze showed up and every mk character at the time all fought to get his power. Looks like the cannon ending was only Shao Khan and Raiden are the last remaining. So Raiden send a message back in time to warn himself of the Armageddon. And thus mk9 begins.

 

[Sargerus]

MK9 beginning takes place after Armageddon where Shao Kahn defeated the elemental Blaze and obtained god-like power. Basically the pyramid was where Blaze was waiting for someone to defeat him and the forces of good vs evil battle each other in order to kill Blaze and obtain its powers. Shao Kahn is about to kill Raiden when he uses the last of his powers to send himself from the past a warning about the future post MK1.

 

[Stopdoor]

Just search for the intro cutscene to Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

It doesn't totally line up nicely because Shao Kahn gets carried off to be obviously destroyed by a dragon, but whatever, you have to take some liberties.

 

[Stopdoor]

Here you go:

 

[NeonZ]

I love Mortal Kombat but I don't know much about what happened between MK3 and 9, I didn't follow the series during that gap. I've been replaying MK9 these past few days and as I started the story mode (that I've played through twice since 2011), I was wondering: how did it get there? All the fighters dead and Raiden getting wrecked by Shao Kahn, what happened to lead to that point? Was it the bad ending of one of the previous games?

So basically, I really love MK9 and how it reboots the story, but at the same time I'm super curious about everything I've missed before that.
I know there are a lot of Youtube videos and wiki that cover all that, and I'll probably watch some vids, but I thought it would be fun to talk about the story and lore of the games, with fans more knowledgable than me. If you're the sort of person who'd take the mic at a party and go "I don't know how much you know about Outworld culture (I'm an expert)", then by all means share your knowledge! Like, which period of MK stories do you prefer? Are there some fun trivias about the lore that casual fans may not know?

PS: I love how Raiden is an absolute moron and the most useless god ever in MK9. I don't know if I should feel sorry for him. I haven't played MK11 yet, but I can't wait to see the craziness.

Click to shrink...

Watch the intro to Mortal Kombat Armageddon posted above. Basically, this mystical pyramid would appear and whoever beat the elemental monster at the top would gain the power of a god. Everyone goes there. But it was actually all a trap to kill everyone.

 

[Nikus]

Thanks guys! I'm watching it now, it's pretty cool to see that it starts the same way with similar shots.

 

[LilScooby77]

Shao Kahn fused with the one being after killing blaze and was about to waste Raiden after the events of armageddon. I think, its been a while since I've played it.

 

[Weiss]

Oh yeah and Raiden's wearing dark armour in the intro because he sacrificed himself in Deception and was reborn as Dark Raiden, basically still good but a massive asshole and only getting worse in his Armageddon ending.

That's where Dark Raiden at the end of MKX comes from.

 

[Vic20]

armageddon

 

[Graven]

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

It's not even hard to see how that's wrong, some collateral damage happened, but he did change things for the better.

 

[Weiss]

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

It's not even hard to see how that's wrong, some collateral damage happened, but he did change things for the better.

Click to shrink...

"Kung Lao go fight Shao Kahn I believe in you"

*Kung Lao wins, immediately gets his neck snapped, and Liu Kang has to fight and win anyway*

 

[Nikus]

Oh yeah and Raiden's wearing dark armour in the intro because he sacrificed himself in Deception and was reborn as Dark Raiden, basically still good but a massive asshole and only getting worse in his Armageddon ending.

That's where Dark Raiden at the end of MKX comes from.

Click to shrink...

Ooh nice!

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

It's not even hard to see how that's wrong, some collateral damage happened, but he did change things for the better.

Click to shrink...

The way he fucks up is somewhat understanble, because to me, the real dummy is future Raiden. He's the one who fucks up with his cryptic message. Well maybe I'll understand him better now that I'm watching Armageddon vids, but his message being only "He must win"... no wonder past Raiden is utterly confused

 

[Weiss]

Oh and another thing to keep in mind about MK lore is that while MK9 presents the reboot as a simple matter of traveling back down a linear timeline that gets muddled by diverging events, the games don't really line up that way and for all intents and purposes it's an outright new universe.

 

[NeonZ]

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

Click to shrink...

MK11 itself pushed that though by confirming the

Spoiler

future message was meant to confuse and manipulate him all along in order to turn him and Liu Kang against each other.

 

[TreIII]

"Kung Lao go fight Shao Kahn I believe in you"

*Kung Lao wins, immediately gets his neck snapped, and Liu Kang has to fight and win anyway*

Click to shrink...

Not to mention "let's just stand here and let Sub-Zero get carted away for the Tekunin initiative, instead of helping both him AND Smoke escape that fate".

Like, c'mon, even if you want to give Raiden the benefit of the doubt, there was no excusing stuff like this.

 

[MerluzaSamus]

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

It's not even hard to see how that's wrong, some collateral damage happened, but he did change things for the better.

Click to shrink...

He didn't, an Armageddon resulting on a new Timeline still happens, and the ones who have a solution are the Liu Kang and Raiden from the past.
Our dear Blunder God, instead, got deleted before he could get to do cool stuff.

I swear, I feel we skipped an entire game with MK11's story, it's prologue should have been the end of another game... Edge Lord Raiden deserves more!

 

[Graven]

"Kung Lao go fight Shao Kahn I believe in you"

*Kung Lao wins, immediately gets his neck snapped, and Liu Kang has to fight and win anyway*

Click to shrink...

He can't predict every outcome, he was trying to change some events to avoid Armaggedon.

Ooh nice!

The way he fucks up is somewhat understanble, because to me, the real dummy is future Raiden. He's the one who fucks up with his cryptic message. Well maybe I'll understand him better now that I'm watching Armageddon vids, but his message being only "He must win"... no wonder past Raiden is utterly confused

Click to shrink...

That i can agree with, future Raiden could've been a little bit more straight, but he was beaten and about to be finished, so it's somewhat understandable, but, present Raiden worked with what he had, and ultimately managed to avoid the worst possible outcome.

 

[nicoga3000]

I'd read a book about all the MK lore.

 

[timedesk]

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

It's not even hard to see how that's wrong, some collateral damage happened, but he did change things for the better.

Click to shrink...

It's definitely overstated by the fanbase. Though I can understand how the Revenents, who are already subtly twisted, would lash out against and blame him. The only thing I really judge Raiden for was willingly going to Quan Chi with the intention of selling his allies souls for Netherrealm's aid against Outworld. That was cold and would have been enough to drive Liu Kang to fight him. That was also Raiden at his most desperate, but no one in MK should ever ever trust Quan Chi.

 

[Graven]

He didn't, an Armageddon resulting on a new Timeline still happens, and the ones who have a solution are the Liu Kang and Raiden from the past.
Our dear Blunder God, instead, got deleted before he could get to make cool stuff.

I swear, I feel we skipped an entire game with MK11's story, it's prologue should have been the end of another game.

Click to shrink...

I assume you are refering MK11 story, which introduce a whole new layer to the plot previously non existent which was Kronika. Armageddon references the final battle that destroys everything, that was avoided and the timeline advanced to a point where the next generation was born.

Spoiler

MK11 kinda changes everything because it shows that Kronika was pulling the strings all along with multiple timelines being detroyed and recreated, still Raiden manages to stop her by sacrificing his godhood and fusing with Liu Kang

 

[Graven]

It's definitely overstated by the fanbase. Though I can understand how the Revenents, who are already subtly twisted, would lash out against and blame him. The only thing I really judge Raiden for was willingly going to Quan Chi with the intention of selling his allies souls for Netherrealm's aid against Outworld. That was cold and would have been enough to drive Liu Kang to fight him. That was also Raiden at his most desperate, but no one in MK should ever ever trust Quan Chi.

Click to shrink...

That's a good point, that was shades of Dark Raiden, he was desperate and would spare no means to accomplish his task.

But all things considered, the Thunder God ultimately managed to do what he had to do, despite the all the odds he had to deal with.

 

[Adamska]

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

Click to shrink...

Quoted for the truth.

 

[OmegaDL50]

I'd read a book about all the MK lore.

Click to shrink...

You might get what you want soon enough.

 

[Tuorom]

I think the games went something like

4 - something with Shinnok I actually don't know
Dark Alliance - Shang Tsung and Quan Chi team up and kill Liu Kang (which is why he's a zombie in Armageddon)
Deception - Someone manipulates Shujinko into gathering all these runes which release Onaga the dragon king
Armageddon - everybody fights to reach the power at the top of the pyramid (actually there was a whole thing with Taven but I forget what the story was, konquest mode is sweet when are they going to make another Shaolin Monks?!?)

 

[nicoga3000]

You might get what you want soon enough.

Click to shrink...

Holy wow. I need to keep my eyes peeled for the release of this!

 

[Nikus]

You might get what you want soon enough.

Click to shrink...

Damn, I'm gonna need this. They say they'll launch a Kickstarter soon, I'm gonna keep an eye on it.

I think the games went something like

4 - something with Shinnok I actually don't know
Dark Alliance - Shang Tsung and Quan Chi team up and kill Liu Kang (which is why he's a zombie in Armageddon)
Deception - Someone manipulates Shujinko into gathering all these runes which release Onaga the dragon king
Armageddon - everybody fights to reach the power at the top of the pyramid (actually there was a whole thing with Taven but I forget what the story was, konquest mode is sweet when are they going to make another Shaolin Monks?!?)

Click to shrink...

Ah so that's how Liu Kang died. It's really dark how they killed one of the main heroes, I wonder if they'll go that route in the next movies...
I was just watching the arcade endings of Armageddon and holy crap there are a lot of characters that I don't know. I need to read up on Tagen and Daegon. The story of Shujinko also seems interesting, I think I'll watch a Let's Play of Deception
And I've been wanting to play Shaolin Monks for a long time, it seems a lot of people are fond of it! I'll probably get to that once I'm done with MK9/10/11

 

[aisback]

Basically the end of the world as Kahn wins and gets the ultimate power

 

[ItIsOkBro]

As far as I'm concerned, this is canon and Raiden 'branched' a new timeline.

 

[Zetta]

You might get what you want soon enough.

Click to shrink...

Oh I'm going to need this.

 

[timedesk]

That's a good point, that was shades of Dark Raiden, he was desperate and would spare no means to accomplish his task.

But all things considered, the Thunder God ultimately managed to do what he had to do, despite the all the odds he had to deal with.

Click to shrink...

It was definitely a Dark Raiden move. Though he still had the sense of honor to include his soul as part of the bargain. One failure of both MK timelines is that we never really got to see much of Dark Raiden. Armageddon was a mess and he didn't really get much to do and MK11 kind of removes him from the story outside of a few flashes. Seeing Raiden try and fail so many times in the MK9 timeline makes his frustration and anger much more relatable. I would have really enjoyed seeing Dark Raiden interact with the Revanents more. To have him respond to their blame and hate with his own frustrations at being put in a difficult situation and that ultimately he did save Earthrealm.

MK9-11 Raiden is easily the most interesting the character has been in the history of the franchise for me.

 

[Fart Master]

Basically the intro from MK Armageddon which was the last non side game before MK9. I believe the intro in mk9 has several characters not in the game.

 

[OmegaDL50]

I have a good and fairly comprehensive understanding of the entire MK story, but I'll focus on just stuff not covered in the new timeline (MK9 and beyond)

Starting with MK4 which also involves a bit of Mythologies Sub-Zero. Basically thousands of years long before even MK1 ago the Elder Gods banished Shinnok to the Netherrealm. A sorcerer by the name of Quan Chi had found the means to acquire Shinnok's amulet which is one of the main sources of his power, so he uses Sub-Zero as a flunky to do his dirty work for him by entering into a temple to steal the artifact.

Ultimately Shinnok was freed but was defeated by the Earthrealm team, but Quan Chi still manages to escape in possession of the amulet.

Fast forward to MK5 / Deadly Alliance. At every turn Liu Kang has defeated Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and Shinnok, so Quan Chi devises a plan to remove the main obstacle outside of the rules of Mortal Kombat, so he decides to team up with Shang Tsung to take out a weakened Shao Kahn and do a sneak attack on Liu Kang and kill him off. This is the first time in MK timeline which the bad guys win.

Quan Chi finds out the Shinnok's Amulet is actually a key to tomb of the Dragon King Onaga, which they use souls stolen by Shang Tsung to raise and control Onaga's army for themselves, which sets up the events for Deception.

Moving on to Deception it goes over an unknown warrior by the name of Shujinko who travels the entire MK realms on a training voyage, who is basically suckered by false Elder God named Damashii who is in actuality the avatar for Onaga. Basically the keys for Onaga's prison were scattered to each of the 5 realms, Earthream, Orderrealm, Chaos Realm, Netherrealm, and Edenia. Basically Shujinko collects all the keys and releases Onaga.

Onaga now revived is a significant threat, the combined power of Quan Chi, Raiden, and Shang Tsung was not enough to stop him. In a last ditch effort Raiden does a massive explosion in an attempt to take out Onaga which ultimately kills Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi. Raiden being a God can't really die, he just reforms again because of all of the evil energy comprised of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung in the aftermath of the explosion, Raiden comes back but he's much more unhinged and has a more totalitarian method of protecting Earth Realm, with no tolerance for failure.

Armageddon everything comes to a head. A being called Blaze was created as a sort of contingency plan by the Elder Gods if battles of Mortal Kombat got out of control to the point putting all of the realms in danger. Defeating Blaze will basically grant the wish of any kombatant that defeats him.

Factoring some retcons with Onaga not beating Shao Kahn for example. In the final battle basically everyone is pretty much killed off, leaving Shao Kahn and Raiden. Shao Kahn having apparently defeated Blaze and gained even more power is just about to land the killing blow on Raiden. Raiden in a last ditch effort tries to send a vision of the future and a message to himself in the past to prevent Armageddon from happening and thus Reboot occurs.

 

[Osu 16 Bit]

You should definitely read up on Shujinko, Taven and Daegon if you're interested in the 3D era of games. They're the main characters of Deception and Armageddon and they come up from time to time in the current games.

One of my favorite random pieces of lore trivia is that Classic Sub-Zero from UMK3/Trilogy is NOT the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han. It's someone who's identity is unrevealed to us. In his ending he unmasks in front of the characters and they're shocked to discover who it is, but it goes unrevealed to the players. It's a plot thread that's never been brought up again.

 

[Alec]

As far as I'm concerned, this is canon and Raiden 'branched' a new timeline.

Click to shrink...

I'd love to see an MK set at the end of that timeline. All new characters except Shao Kahn, who is essentially immortal and outlived everyone.

 

[MerluzaSamus]

I assume you are refering MK11 story, which introduce a whole new layer to the plot previously non existent which was Kronika. Armageddon references the final battle that destroys everything, that was avoided and the timeline advanced to a point where the next generation was born.

Spoiler

MK11 kinda changes everything because it shows that Kronika was pulling the strings all along with multiple timelines being detroyed and recreated, still Raiden manages to stop her by sacrificing his godhood and fusing with Liu Kang

Click to shrink...

Yes and... no:
Armageddon was delayed, not fully stopped. The escalation of conflict between realms with increasingly powerful Kombatants, the very reason Blaze and his prophecy exist, was still happening, with Dark Raiden bent on waging war against anything that barely sneezes on Earthrealm's direction.

Not only that, both Onaga and Blaze are unadressed by MK11's time. While Shunjinko seems to have stopped his quest for the Kamidogu, it was never confirmed if Onaga's avatar, Damashi, was still around. And Blaze still seems to be walking around the realms, fighting anyone who dares to cross a bridge with him on it.

In other words, despite Raiden changing the timeline, things were still headed towards the same general direction the previous one was, only later.
Which, would be a really nice setup for Kronika's reveal as the End Boss, but instead, all of this was dropped and they went straight ahead to her story.

 

[OmegaDL50]

You should definitely read up on Shujinko, Taven and Daegon if you're interested in the 3D era of games. They're the main characters of Deception and Armageddon and they come up from time to time in the current games.

One of my favorite random pieces of lore trivia is that Classic Sub-Zero from UMK3/Trilogy is NOT the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han. It's someone who's identity is unrevealed to us. In his ending he unmasks in front of the characters and they're shocked to discover who it is, but it goes unrevealed to the players. It's a plot thread that's never been brought up again.

Click to shrink...

One of my other favorite pieces of lore that isn't elaborated much in the new timeline is that Sub-Zero and by extension Frost are apparently a near extinct race from Outworld called Cryomancers who have a natural affinity to control ice.

Interestingly enough Bo Rai Cho is also a denizen of Outworld and the reason why he can't participate in Mortal Kombat is because his victory wouldn't benefit Earthrealm but would count for an Outworld victory instead.

Although they never elaborate on how through history how the Cryomancers moved from Outworld to Earthrealm, although if the above for Bo Rai Cho is to be considered this implies that Bi Han and Kuai Liang were born in Earthrealm and thus as a participant of Mortal Kombat would represent Earthrealm as their place of birth. So it would be interesting if they touched upon the mystery Classic Sub-Zero from UMK3 / Trilogy if exists at all in the new timeline for that matter.

 

[RealCanadianBro]

Mk Armageddon for the ps2/xbox happened...

Click to shrink...

C'mon fam, don't do the Wii dirty like that

 

[Nikus]

I have a good and fairly comprehensive understanding of the entire MK story, but I'll focus on just stuff not covered in the new timeline (MK9 and beyond)

Starting with MK4 which also involves a bit of Mythologies Sub-Zero. Basically thousands of years long before even MK1 ago the Elder Gods banished Shinnok to the Netherrealm. A sorcerer by the name of Quan Chi had found the means to acquire Shinnok's amulet which is one of the main sources of his power, so he uses Sub-Zero as a flunky to do his dirty work for him by entering into a temple to steal the artifact.

Ultimately Shinnok was freed but was defeated by the Earthrealm team, but Quan Chi still manages to escape in possession of the amulet.

Fast forward to MK5 / Deadly Alliance. At every turn Liu Kang has defeated Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and Shinnok, so Quan Chi devises a plan to remove the main obstacle outside of the rules of Mortal Kombat, so he decides to team up with Shang Tsung to take out a weakened Shao Kahn and do a sneak attack on Liu Kang and kill him off. This is the first time in MK timeline which the bad guys win.

Quan Chi finds out the Shinnok's Amulet is actually a key to tomb of the Dragon King Onaga, which they use souls stolen by Shang Tsung to raise and control Onaga's army for themselves, which sets up the events for Deception.

Moving on to Deception it goes over an unknown warrior by the name of Shujinko who travels the entire MK realms on a training voyage, who is basically suckered by false Elder God named Damashii who is in actuality the avatar for Onaga. Basically the keys for Onaga's prison were scattered to each of the 5 realms, Earthream, Orderrealm, Chaos Realm, Netherrealm, and Edenia. Basically Shujinko collects all the keys and releases Onaga.

Onaga now revived is a significant threat, the combined power of Quan Chi, Raiden, and Shang Tsung was not enough to stop him. In a last ditch effort Raiden does a massive explosion in an attempt to take out Onaga which ultimately kills Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi. Raiden being a God can't really die, he just reforms again because of all of the evil energy comprised of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung in the aftermath of the explosion, Raiden comes back but he's much more unhinged and has a more totalitarian method of protecting Earth Realm, with no tolerance for failure.

Armageddon everything comes to a head. A being called Blaze was created as a sort of contingency plan by the Elder Gods if battles of Mortal Kombat got out of control to the point putting all of the realms in danger. Defeating Blaze will basically grant the wish of any kombatant that defeats him.

Factoring some retcons with Onaga not beating Shao Kahn for example. In the final battle basically everyone is pretty much killed off, leaving Shao Kahn and Raiden. Shao Kahn having apparently defeated Blaze and gained even more power is just about to land the killing blow on Raiden. Raiden in a last ditch effort tries to send a vision of the future and a message to himself in the past to prevent Armageddon from happening and thus Reboot occurs.

Click to shrink...

Thanks a lot for the write up! I was checking wikis and watching vids of Deception and Armageddon but it's hard to get all the context and it's a bit overwhelming. Your post helps a lot!

You should definitely read up on Shujinko, Taven and Daegon if you're interested in the 3D era of games. They're the main characters of Deception and Armageddon and they come up from time to time in the current games.

One of my favorite random pieces of lore trivia is that Classic Sub-Zero from UMK3/Trilogy is NOT the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han. It's someone who's identity is unrevealed to us. In his ending he unmasks in front of the characters and they're shocked to discover who it is, but it goes unrevealed to the players. It's a plot thread that's never been brought up again.

Click to shrink...

lol that's a great piece of trivia. Maybe it's Ed Boon
I'm gonna watch some longplays of Deception and the Konquest mode of Armageddon this week. I'm starting to get a better grasp of that era thanks to this thread

 

[Graven]

Yes and... no:
Armageddon was delayed, not fully stopped. The escalation of conflict between realms with increasingly powerful Kombatants, the very reason Blaze and his prophecy exist, was still happening, with Dark Raiden bent on waging war against anything that barely sneezes on Earthrealm's direction.

Not only that, both Onaga and Blaze are unadressed by MK11's time. While Shunjinko seems to have stopped his quest for the Kamidogu, it was never confirmed if Onaga's avatar, Damashi, was still around. And Blaze still seems to be walking around the realms, fighting anyone who dares to cross a bridge with him on it.

In other words, despite Raiden changing the timeline, things were still headed towards the same general direction the previous one was, only later.
Which, would be a really nice setup for Kronika's reveal as the End Boss, but instead, all of this was dropped and they went straight ahead to her story.

Click to shrink...

That's the thing, Kronika is all about balance, light or darkness cannot win, they must be even, If the scale tips too much to either side it's reset time.

My understanding regarding the ending of MKX and the beginning of eleven is that in this timeline light was winning. Shinnok was offed sooner, Shao Kahn was no more, Onaga never revived and Taven might as well still be sleeping, so the events leading to Armageddon would not happen in this timeline, all this prompted Kronika to act.

 

[Thorn]

As far as I'm concerned, this is canon and Raiden 'branched' a new timeline.

Click to shrink...

Shao Kahn doing a bunch of Shaolin Monk ass moves by himself has me in stitches for some reason.

 

[OmegaDL50]

That's the thing, Kronika is all about balance, light or darkness cannot win, they must be even, If the scale tips too much to either side it's reset time.

My understanding regarding the ending of MKX and the beginning of eleven is that in this timeline light was winning. Shinnok was offed sooner, Shao Kahn was no more, Onaga never revived and Taven might as well still be sleeping, so the events leading to Armageddon would not happen in this timeline, all this prompted Kronika to act.

Click to shrink...

The thing is Kronika had fully intended to make it so Raiden was completely erased from all future timelines if she got her way, which implies there would be no balance for the side of light.

She couldn't possibly claim her position was for the sake of balance if she were to make irrevocable changes to the timeline to make it so Earthrealm was doomed by removing Raiden as it's protector.

 

[Evilisk]

If you're the sort of person who'd take the mic at a party and go "I don't know how much you know about Outworld culture (I'm an expert)", then by all means share your knowledge!

Click to shrink...

There's actually a whole podcast where someone does this. It's called Mortal Podkast. The host usually has a guest (who has zero clue about Mortal Kombat) and he explains the lore and backstory of Mortal Kombat from the perspective of one character. It's pretty great. And since the podcast started before MK11 released, there's no MK11 spoilers for the earlier seasons.

"Dumb, useless, idiot Raiden" Is one of the most misguided narratives i see people insisting on multiple occasions.

It's not even hard to see how that's wrong, some collateral damage happened, but he did change things for the better.

Click to shrink...

Agreed. It feels like people don't understand the stakes in MK9. Yeah some characters died, but Raiden was avoiding a scenario where *everyone* was going to die.

Not to mention "let's just stand here and let Sub-Zero get carted away for the Tekunin initiative, instead of helping both him AND Smoke escape that fate".

Like, c'mon, even if you want to give Raiden the benefit of the doubt, there was no excusing stuff like this.

Click to shrink...

I've said this before, but this complaint misunderstands the point of MK9's narrative. It was not about Raiden getting the best timeline for the heroes. Just like how killing Motaro had the side effect of powering up Sindel, Raiden could never have saved Smoke without the consequence of Sub-Zero becoming a Cyber Ninja.

MK9's only mistake with this story decision was how it played out on screen. They really should have been split up and far, far away from each other to really convey the idea that "Raiden can only save one of them"

"Kung Lao go fight Shao Kahn I believe in you"

*Kung Lao wins, immediately gets his neck snapped, and Liu Kang has to fight and win anyway*

Click to shrink...

Despite defending MK9's story just now, I'll concede that this section of MK9 was weird.

Narratively, it makes sense. Kung Lao dying is a shocking twist that ups the stakes (showing not all of Raiden's decisions are going to have positive outcomes) and strains Raiden and Liu Kang's relationship

...Yet from an in-universe perspective, it's bizarre that the consequence of "letting Kung Lao fight Shao Kahn" is "Liu Kang still wins lol" and not "Earthrealm just straight up loses MK2". But I guess that messes with the story structure too much (Shao Kahn wouldn't illegally invade Earthrealm if he actually won)

He didn't, an Armageddon resulting on a new Timeline still happens, and the ones who have a solution are the Liu Kang and Raiden from the past.
Our dear Blunder God, instead, got deleted before he could get to do cool stuff.

I swear, I feel we skipped an entire game with MK11's story, it's prologue should have been the end of another game... Edge Lord Raiden deserves more!

Click to shrink...

MK9 Raiden definitely changed things for the better.

Spoiler: MK11 Spoilers

The new timeline got to have several extra decades over the original timeline and threats like Shinnok, Shao Kahn, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung were taken care of. The second point is huge. An Armageddon scenario without those four problems seems stacked in favor of the heroes.

With that said, I completely agree that MK11 seemed to have skipped a game. We absolutely got robbed of Dark Raiden shenanigans.

 

[Biteren]

C'mon fam, don't do the Wii dirty like that

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Oh damn, I had no idea it released on the Wii.

 

[Osu 16 Bit]

Oh damn, I had no idea it released on the Wii.

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It came out later and actually added Khameleon.

she's a kanon character that's only ever been on Nintendo konsoles lol

 

[Graven]

The thing is Kronika had fully intended to make it so Raiden was completely erased from all future timelines if she got her way, which implies there would be no balance for the side of light.

She couldn't possibly claim her position was for the sake of balance if she were to make irrevocable changes to the timeline to make it so Earthrealm was doomed by removing Raiden as it's protector.

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As far as the game explicitly tells you, Kronika's actions are about keeping both sides in check.
In the original timeline, darkness was winning, she pulled the strings to get the message to Raiden's past self and avoid that future, so It becomes clear that Kronika do not favor any side.

She wanting to delete Raiden, was likely due the fact that he would get in the way of her task once more. Maybe he would be replaced with another protector, who knows.

 

[RealCanadianBro]

It came out later and actually added Khameleon.

she's a kanon character that's only ever been on Nintendo konsoles lol

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Does that truly make her canon? Lol.

Also I think you mentioned Classic Sub in UMK3/Trilogy itt, was that ending just to josh players? Its never come up since and I wonder if Tobias had plans that got scrapped when he left.

 

[Osu 16 Bit]

Does that truly make her canon? Lol.

Also I think you mentioned Classic Sub in UMK3/Trilogy itt, was that ending just to josh players? Its never come up since and I wonder if Tobias had plans that got scrapped when he left.

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She is, she has been mentioned or referenced a few times since then, even in the latest games.

I'm guessing John wrote it vaguely on purpose, so he could go back to it if he had an idea or leave it hanging. He's always been pretty honest about the early lore being open and mysterious because he didn't have much room to go into detail and so players would fill in the blanks themselves.

 

[Nikus]

One of my other favorite pieces of lore that isn't elaborated much in the new timeline is that Sub-Zero and by extension Frost are apparently a near extinct race from Outworld called Cryomancers who have a natural affinity to control ice.

Interestingly enough Bo Rai Cho is also a denizen of Outworld and the reason why he can't participate in Mortal Kombat is because his victory wouldn't benefit Earthrealm but would count for an Outworld victory instead.

Although they never elaborate on how through history how the Cryomancers moved from Outworld to Earthrealm, although if the above for Bo Rai Cho is to be considered this implies that Bi Han and Kuai Liang were born in Earthrealm and thus as a participant of Mortal Kombat would represent Earthrealm as their place of birth. So it would be interesting if they touched upon the mystery Classic Sub-Zero from UMK3 / Trilogy if exists at all in the new timeline for that matter.

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That reminds me of something I read in the thread about the new movie: https://www.resetera.com/threads/mortal-kombat-2021-spoiler-thread.408687/page-31#post-63813999
The wiki says they were originally Edenian, and had to move to Outworld
I thought it was cool that the actor playing Bi Han knew that piece of lore :)

There's actually a whole podcast where someone does this. It's called Mortal Podkast. The host usually has a guest (who has zero clue about Mortal Kombat) and he explains the lore and backstory of Mortal Kombat from the perspective of one character. It's pretty great. And since the podcast started before MK11 released, there's no MK11 spoilers for the earlier seasons.

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Whoa thanks a lot for this recommendation! I had been listening to completely unrelated podcasts while playing these last few days, now I can listen to folks talking about MK lore while grinding for koins :D
I've listened to the first episode, the host is cool. It goes off rails a lot but it's fun. I see that John Tobias was even invited for one episode, I can't wait to listen to that one!

 

[OmegaDL50]

That reminds me of something I read in the thread about the new movie: https://www.resetera.com/threads/mortal-kombat-2021-spoiler-thread.408687/page-31#post-63813999
The wiki says they were originally Edenian, and had to move to Outworld
I thought it was cool that the actor playing Bi Han knew that piece of lore :)

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Yeah when Shao Kahn invaded Edenia and conquered that realm, he merged it with Outworld. Basically that would explain why former Edenians would become Outworld denizens instead.

This was also Shao Kahn's plan for Earthrealm, in fact during MK3 / UMK3, Shao Kahn was partially successful when he used a loophole to get around the rules of Mortal Kombat by reviving Sindel in Earthrealm and using this ploy to invade Earthrealm to get her back.

Look at some of the backgrounds in MK3/UMK3 and you see partial merged portions of Earth and Outworld.

This is explains why many of the backgrounds in MK3 / UMK3 are much more urban, such as the rooftop showing Shao Kahn's Tower in the background, a street, a waterfront, a bridge, A subway, a graveyard, etc.

It felt very aesthetically different as opposed to the more Asian inspired locales from MK1 and MK2 with it's more exotic locations that take place entirely in Outworld such as the Living Forest, The Wastelands, Shao Kahn's Arena, the Deadpool.

Basically what better way to signify and show to the player that Shao Kahn has invaded and has started to take over our world and merge it with his by showing parts of our world corrupted and twisted.