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Shujinko MKX Theory and the reasoning behind 8/8

Black Shroud

Formless Like Water
At first I was going to simply wrap my mind around possible 8 MK9 and 8 3D era characters, but then gave a try to guess who of the remaining characters could be a boss, which resulted in a surprising theory. Of course this is pure speculation:

MK9 8 SLOTS
-Scorpion (Confirmed)
-Sub-Zero (Confirmed. Also his undead eyes and black mask may signify the absence of Noob Saibot in the game)
-Quan Chi (Boon's favourite, and is basically a given due to his role in story)
-Raiden (Boon slipped about him far too many times. Rorschach silhouette could be a hint for hat-wearing character)
-Cage (Boon slipped about Cassie doing fatalities on family members, and having Sonya/Cassie in roster would be far more redundant than a 50-years old Van Damme)
-Cyrax (Needs at least one cyborg so that roster's diversity won't go down, and Cassie has Sektor's Up/Homing rocket already. Terminator silhouette could be a hint for cyborg character. Also was a premiere cyborg for 3D MK era. Last but not least there is unspoken rule of including at least some african-american characters, Jax is dead, Darrius was unimaginative and Kai is Nepalese)
-Ermac (a fan favourite, Boon said Scorp/Sub aren't only ninjas in game, a fanbase backlash after getting teased with that concept art only to have no Ermac at all)
I'm on the fence about last slot but should be one of these two:
-Mileena/Baraka (Needs at least one tarkatan so that roster's diversity won't go down (and I doubt a brand new tarkatan character would bring something new to the table). Barack Obama silhouette could be a hint for Baraka. Mileena is actively pushed for sex symbol of MK, and technically was sole heir to Shao Kahn's throne after MK9, however her having mind of an infant (after MK9's retcon) and absence of Kitana could limit her role to a story mode cameo instead of playable character. Hell, Kotal Kahn could just ram her with that large spear of his and become the next emperor)

MK4-DA-D-A 8 SLOTS
-Tanya (Boon's favourite aka "female scorpion" (had white eyes and fire element powers in latter installments, and yellow/black costume even before), semi-confirmed via "leak")
-Kai (White Lotus needs a representative and Kai is the first thing that comes to mind with Liu Kang/Kung Lao crossed out, plus MK team's long-time desire to give him a proper capoeira fighting style)
-Fujin (Has unique powers and MK4 portion of story obviously needs to pit Shinnok versus multiple gods, not just a single god that is Raiden, plus Fujin is possibly new Earthrealm protector after Raiden failed. Had cameo in MK9 endings)
-Reiko (Again, MK4 portion of story needs Shinnok to have a general, no reason to leave a character with established role out of it. Post-MK4 portion of story still opens for him a path to try and replace Shao Kahn. Gameplay-wise if Noob Saibot and Shao Kahn are out, that is a huge pointer to inclusion of derivation character of both of them, that is Reiko.)
-Kenshi (a huge fan favourite with appealing and unique design and powers, and was included in MK9 due to being considered BEST 3D ERA CHARACTER by MK team. He may even have more chances to be included than Ermac due to his powers being not only limited to telekinesis but also to swordsmanship and astral clones. With that in mind, he is prone to having more diverse Variations)
-Bo' Rai Cho (Boon's favourite, had cameo in MK9 endings, was always considered a very important character to storyline and heavily involved in storyline of 3D era. Again, unique powers)
-Havik (another huge fan favourite, endless storyline possibilities, unique design and unique powers, had cameo in MK9 endings, plus a sole playable representative of Chaosrealm)
-Hotaru (a counterpart to Havik, again unique design (a samurai knight in insectoid armor), personality (no one else in MK can be considered an example of Knight Templar trope) and powers (lava, his special was given to Kintaro for MK9 now he can have it back), and best out of three playable representatives of Orderrealm)

NEWCOMERS
-D'Vorah (Confirmed)
-Ferra/Torr (Confirmed)
-Kotal Kahn (Confirmed)
-Cassie Cage (Confirmed)
-Tremor (was included in Vita and maybe this time fans bugged Boon enough for him to be included)
-new Saurian (mentioned in leak)
-a representative of Onaga's Holy Men
-logically thinking, game should have a representative of Outworld's six-limbed "sub-boss" races.
-more representatives of underdeveloped realms which are Chaosrealm/Orderrealm
-more descendants of known characters (Confirmed)

Honourable mentions:
-Liu Kang (the evil/anti-hero Liu Kang variation is likely for multiple reasons, but I feel that having him selectable right off the bat would be too easy... could be a boss or hidden character)
-Rain (Edenian story advancement due to Kitana/Jade/Sindel being dead, Boon said Scorp/Sub aren't only ninjas in game, and his power is less redundant than Ermac's - which is shared with Kenshi)
-Kano (purely due to Terminator silhouette being a possible hint to him as well, however in old storyline he was Shao Kahn/Deadly Alliance lackey at that point, so I don't see much going for him)
-Sareena (I feel like roster needs more females plus time period revolves around Netherealm invasion and all, and she is most classic/relevant out of female Brotherhood of Shadow members)

Relevance lost due to their story arc being most likely dropped:
-Armageddon/Red Dragon story arc: Mavado, Hsu Hao, Daegon, Taven, Blaze
-Deadly Alliance story arc: Li Mei, Moloch, Drahmin (even Boon confirmed that Drahmin is out)
-Black Dragon Reformed story arc: Kira, Kobra

UNPLAYABLE BOSSES
-Shinnok (A given in first part of storymode)
-Evil Raiden/Evil Liu Kang (possible BUT this is not a "surprise returning character that becomes a boss, and no one of MK fans would see it coming" that Boon was talking about - since we already had Dark Raiden/Zombie Kang in past)
-Shujinko with sub-boss Onaga (this fits the aforementioned criteria. Follow my train of thought below)

SHUJINKO THEORY
-Most people do not take this character seriously, so no one would see him as final boss
-Raiden's timeline change stuff did not cancel Shujinko's quest for Kamidogu's, and Damashi/Onaga is not influenced by that either (Deadly Alliance happening or not is not related)
-Shujinko's quest can be postponed due to new events making it harder for him to obtain Kamidogus
-If pointless "Chaosrealm aging bath" stuff is retconned, Shujinko will complete his quest and age completely later than in MKD - at the end of 25 years gap
-This is big because since Shujinko is given more time to roam around and absorb powers and abilities of EVERYONE, by the time 25 years gap ends he will become unstable due to absorbed powers, which links to his MKA ending.
-Should Onaga try and revive at that time, Shujinko will be far more powerful and thus able to one-hit kill him like Raiden killed Motaro in MK9.
-With this they can still have Onaga as MK's classic bestial sub-boss, whom Shujinko finishes in cutscene once he is defeated (much like Akuma's killing Bison to take his spot as final boss)
-The end result is, as shown in MKA ending, "went mad with power and is about to challenge the Elder Gods for control of the realms". If that's not a definition of finall boss, I don't know what is.
-A twist of having what seemed like a fundamentally good Shaolin monk-style protagonist but ended up a menace to everything, achieved.
-A nod to MK1 by having a whitebeard old master as final boss, achieved.
-A boss able to mix abilities of playable characters together and create interesting derivations, achieved. This is a simultaneous nod to MK1 final boss fight (Shang's morphs), MK4 final boss fight (Shinnok's impersonations) and SF4 boss fight (Seth)
 
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shig

kool guy
Yeah, but no one would care about it without the story of Konquest mode being shown. That's the number one reason why I don't think he'll show up, but it's definitely not impossible.
 

SZSR

Champion
I've always liked the Hotaru and Havik juxtaposition.

Hotaru fanatically seeks to create order, to the extent that he allies with the Dragon King who simply wants to destroy the realms (even going after Kenshi and Sub-Zero in Deception's story mode to stop them from interfering with Onaga). Hotaru basically becomes a villain himself to try to protect the realms.

Havik on the other hand simply seeks Chaos and even encourages people to create it themselves (he compliments Shujinko in the story mode for hitting him), inadvertently, he wants to preserve what people need the most in free will, acting as a hero of sorts.

I just want to see this come about again in MKX.
 

Black Shroud

Formless Like Water
Talking about Cyrax, does it seem plausible enough?
If going for updated Cyrax concept, perphaps glowing elements of his armor (such as eyes) could change their color, as for variations:
Green Glow variation: Adds Pulseblade and Energy Net, upgrades Reverse Kick to Funky Spin Kicks
Blue Glow variation: Adds Cloak Field and Buzzsaw, upgrades Bombs to Cryo Bombs
Red Glow variation: Adds Flamethrower and Missile, upgrades Blast Teleport to Teleport Uppercut
The concept of one cyborg downloading styles of past cyborgs from Tekunin network or whatever, but without making him a brand-new character I mean. Also Cybersub was BASED on Cyrax moveset, so they should have some reverse compatibility. Why I'm thinking Cyrax is a better fit is because Sektor now has more redundant powers (Cassie has missiles, and flamethrower is kind of thing you could give to any char like Scorpion, Liu Kang, any fire magic used character). Sektor can remain some kind of Tekunin grandmaster cutscene-only or he can dive into cyberspace to become a new Neo and rule from there, I don't care. I always thought of Cyrax as more interesting char out of two, the last cool feature about Sektor were Double Pulseblades in MKA, but NRS decided to ignore that.
 

Saint Op Omen

Savagely beating his super-ego with his id...
Boon has said he wanted to have playable bosses...he said people have always asked for that and in a lot of the older games the charators were desined as bosses and would not be fun to play as...so he wanted to make them full characters this time..
 

Saint Op Omen

Savagely beating his super-ego with his id...
Sorry, off topic question.
Why people think Raiden failed? He saved da fuckin'earth.
I think because at this point in the first timeline things were much better....more heroes alive and such...the DA is still putting its plan in motion ...
but on the bright side...Shao is dead and that is something...also inadvertently there are a lot less high level fighters left so the whole reason for the pyramid and blaze may be averted...
 
I think because at this point in the first timeline things were much better....more heroes alive and such...the DA is still putting its plan in motion ...
but on the bright side...Shao is dead and that is something...also inadvertently there are a lot less high level fighters left so the whole reason for the pyramid and blaze may be averted...

Doesn't matter what's happening at this point because in the end of the original timeline, EVERYONE DIES, and Shao Kahn conquers all.
 

Saint Op Omen

Savagely beating his super-ego with his id...
Doesn't matter what's happening at this point because in the end of the original timeline, EVERYONE DIES, and Shao Kahn conquers all.
It always matters whats happening at this point...because well eventually everyone dies anyway...but yeah I don't think he failed he did the best he could with random flashes and a poor message...I was just saying what I heard people say about it...it mostly comes down to dead heroes...
 

Pterodactyl

Plus on block.
I think because at this point in the first timeline things were much better....more heroes alive and such...the DA is still putting its plan in motion ...
but on the bright side...Shao is dead and that is something...also inadvertently there are a lot less high level fighters left so the whole reason for the pyramid and blaze may be averted...
Shang Tsung, despite being one of my favorite MK characters, is dead as fuck right now.

He was absorbed into Sindel, who was then disintegrated by a light of holy wrath.

Until proven otherwise, the Deadly Alliance isn't going to happen.

Which saddens me because that was one of the most badass villain team-ups ever, and I loved using them in MK9's tag mode.

---

Despite me not remembering anything about Shujinko's konquest besides him getting old as fuck and learning other character's moves, I think he has one of the coolest stories in MK.

I want him back, wether he's a boss or not.

I really want Raiden's retcon to really fuck some shit up and cause character to completely change roles or mess with their story. I'd even be open to his time travel sending back ripples that change things even before MK1.

Things like the Chaos-Order realm war happening earlier, or Taven and Daegon coming into play now that Armageddon has been avoided.
 
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CCVengeance

The one guy hoping for Kai
It only makes perfect sense.
Hping for Reiko, Havik and Bo Rai Cho. I have no idea who they are but I like their character designs.
 

Eji1700

Kombatant
At first I was going to simply wrap my mind around possible 8 MK9 and 8 3D era characters, but then gave a try to guess who of the remaining characters could be a boss, which resulted in a surprising theory. Of course this is pure speculation:

MK9 8 SLOTS
-Scorpion (Confirmed)
-Sub-Zero (Confirmed. Also his undead eyes and black mask may signify the absence of Noob Saibot in the game)
-Quan Chi (Boon's favourite, and is basically a given due to his role in story)
-Raiden (Boon slipped about him far too many times. Rorschach silhouette could be a hint for hat-wearing character)
-Cage (Boon slipped about Cassie doing fatalities on family members, and having Sonya/Cassie in roster would be far more redundant than a 50-years old Van Damme)
-Cyrax (Needs at least one cyborg so that roster's diversity won't go down, and Cassie has Sektor's Up/Homing rocket already. Terminator silhouette could be a hint for cyborg character. Also was a premiere cyborg for 3D MK era. Last but not least there is unspoken rule of including at least some african-american characters, Jax is dead, Darrius was unimaginative and Kai is Nepalese)
-Ermac (a fan favourite, Boon said Scorp/Sub aren't only ninjas in game, a fanbase backlash after getting teased with that concept art only to have no Ermac at all)
I'm on the fence about last slot but should be one of these two:
-Mileena/Baraka (Needs at least one tarkatan so that roster's diversity won't go down (and I doubt a brand new tarkatan character would bring something new to the table). Barack Obama silhouette could be a hint for Baraka. Mileena is actively pushed for sex symbol of MK, and technically was sole heir to Shao Kahn's throne after MK9, however her having mind of an infant (after MK9's retcon) and absence of Kitana could limit her role to a story mode cameo instead of playable character. Hell, Kotal Kahn could just ram her with that large spear of his and become the next emperor)

MK4-DA-D-A 8 SLOTS
-Tanya (Boon's favourite aka "female scorpion" (had white eyes and fire element powers in latter installments, and yellow/black costume even before), semi-confirmed via "leak")
-Kai (White Lotus needs a representative and Kai is the first thing that comes to mind with Liu Kang/Kung Lao crossed out, plus MK team's long-time desire to give him a proper capoeira fighting style)
-Fujin (Has unique powers and MK4 portion of story obviously needs to pit Shinnok versus multiple gods, not just a single god that is Raiden, plus Fujin is possibly new Earthrealm protector after Raiden failed. Had cameo in MK9 endings)
-Reiko (Again, MK4 portion of story needs Shinnok to have a general, no reason to leave a character with established role out of it. Post-MK4 portion of story still opens for him a path to try and replace Shao Kahn. Gameplay-wise if Noob Saibot and Shao Kahn are out, that is a huge pointer to inclusion of derivation character of both of them, that is Reiko.)
-Kenshi (a huge fan favourite with appealing and unique design and powers, and was included in MK9 due to being considered BEST 3D ERA CHARACTER by MK team. He may even have more chances to be included than Ermac due to his powers being not only limited to telekinesis but also to swordsmanship and astral clones. With that in mind, he is prone to having more diverse Variations)
-Bo' Rai Cho (Boon's favourite, had cameo in MK9 endings, was always considered a very important character to storyline and heavily involved in storyline of 3D era. Again, unique powers)
-Havik (another huge fan favourite, endless storyline possibilities, unique design and unique powers, had cameo in MK9 endings, plus a sole playable representative of Chaosrealm)
-Hotaru (a counterpart to Havik, again unique design (a samurai knight in insectoid armor), personality (no one else in MK can be considered an example of Knight Templar trope) and powers (lava, his special was given to Kintaro for MK9 now he can have it back), and best out of three playable representatives of Orderrealm)

NEWCOMERS
-D'Vorah (Confirmed)
-Ferra/Torr (Confirmed)
-Kotal Kahn (Confirmed)
-Cassie Cage (Confirmed)
-Tremor (was included in Vita and maybe this time fans bugged Boon enough for him to be included)
-new Saurian (mentioned in leak)
-a representative of Onaga's Holy Men
-logically thinking, game should have a representative of Outworld's six-limbed "sub-boss" races.
-more representatives of underdeveloped realms which are Chaosrealm/Orderrealm
-more descendants of known characters (Confirmed)

Honourable mentions:
-Liu Kang (the evil/anti-hero Liu Kang variation is likely for multiple reasons, but I feel that having him selectable right off the bat would be too easy... could be a boss or hidden character)
-Rain (Edenian story advancement due to Kitana/Jade/Sindel being dead, Boon said Scorp/Sub aren't only ninjas in game, and his power is less redundant than Ermac's - which is shared with Kenshi)
-Kano (purely due to Terminator silhouette being a possible hint to him as well, however in old storyline he was Shao Kahn/Deadly Alliance lackey at that point, so I don't see much going for him)
-Sareena (I feel like roster needs more females plus time period revolves around Netherealm invasion and all, and she is most classic/relevant out of female Brotherhood of Shadow members)

Relevance lost due to their story arc being most likely dropped:
-Armageddon/Red Dragon story arc: Mavado, Hsu Hao, Daegon, Taven, Blaze
-Deadly Alliance story arc: Li Mei, Moloch, Drahmin (even Boon confirmed that Drahmin is out)
-Black Dragon Reformed story arc: Kira, Kobra

UNPLAYABLE BOSSES
-Shinnok (A given in first part of storymode)
-Evil Raiden/Evil Liu Kang (possible BUT this is not a "surprise returning character that becomes a boss, and no one of MK fans would see it coming" that Boon was talking about - since we already had Dark Raiden/Zombie Kang in past)
-Shujinko with sub-boss Onaga (this fits the aforementioned criteria. Follow my train of thought below)

SHUJINKO THEORY
-Most people do not take this character seriously, so no one would see him as final boss
-Raiden's timeline change stuff did not cancel Shujinko's quest for Kamidogu's, and Damashi/Onaga is not influenced by that either (Deadly Alliance happening or not is not related)
-Shujinko's quest can be postponed due to new events making it harder for him to obtain Kamidogus
-If pointless "Chaosrealm aging bath" stuff is retconned, Shujinko will complete his quest and age completely later than in MKD - at the end of 25 years gap
-This is big because since Shujinko is given more time to roam around and absorb powers and abilities of EVERYONE, by the time 25 years gap ends he will become unstable due to absorbed powers, which links to his MKA ending.
-Should Onaga try and revive at that time, Shujinko will be far more powerful and thus able to one-hit kill him like Raiden killed Motaro in MK9.
-With this they can still have Onaga as MK's classic bestial sub-boss, whom Shujinko finishes in cutscene once he is defeated (much like Akuma's killing Bison to take his spot as final boss)
-The end result is, as shown in MKA ending, "went mad with power and is about to challenge the Elder Gods for control of the realms". If that's not a definition of finall boss, I don't know what is.
-A twist of having what seemed like a fundamentally good Shaolin monk-style protagonist but ended up a menace to everything, achieved.
-A nod to MK1 by having a whitebeard old master as final boss, achieved.
-A boss able to mix abilities of playable characters together and create interesting derivations, achieved. This is a simultaneous nod to MK1 final boss fight (Shang's morphs), MK4 final boss fight (Shinnok's impersonations) and SF4 boss fight (Seth)
This will likely be long, but since you put the effort in, some thoughts-

MK9-
I think all of this is pretty sound. I'd say barraka is low on my list, but then again the obama thing is an interesting point. Cyrax is also unlikely in my eyes given the issues they had with him last game, but I think a new cyborg might be possible. Also did we ever resolve the "is that smoke getting slammed in Khans animation?" thing?

4/3d-
Good arguments, although i'm not sure about Tanya, Reiko, or the 3D combatants. More on that later. I will say that hotaru especially seems unlikely, simply because while "unique" he was VERY cliche. I would like to see him done right, but dear god he was boring and predictable.
Oh and I'll just rail on Bo' here. I hate him. I hate him i hate him I hate HIM. I've never been a fan of body humor characters, and I'm putting this up front so my bias is obvious. All that in mind, this new MK seems darker than usual. MK9 was quite a bit more serious than its predecessors, and X seems to have already one upped it. Body humor fatalities doesn't really mesh well with the vibe i'm seeing right now. It's still very much possible i'm sure, but it's my one fragment of hope that I don't need to put up with this moron again.

Newcomers-
Tremor- I'll be honest in that grappling ninja might be interesting, however I still really don't think he's got a chance. Maybe the first DLC.
6 limbed- I doubt it. They might have a 6 limb sub boss, but I don't think they'll have a playable one.
"realms"- More on this later.
Descendants- this is interesting given the idea of "who is left who can actually procreate?" I wonder if this means actual biological descendants or "playstyle" descendants. If the latter, then i'd say a Kung Lao wannabe is high on the list.

Honorable mentions-
Rain- just no. If anything this should be Reptile, who's got a hell of a lot more plot relevance right now than Rain would. I'd like to see him, but I don't think this is likely going to be a thing.
Kano- I think he's got more motivation than you see. Cassie needs motivation, and "save the world" is nice, but what if Kano killed sonya/cage?
Sareena- I think we're much more likely to see new females than her.
Smoke- Again I don't recall the resolution to this

Relevance lost-
Yeup.

Unplayable-
Shinnok- I disagree. He was a boss in MK4 and totally playable, and has been playable in almost every game he appears in. I'd bet on him being in the cast in some form or another.
Shunjinko- maybe?

Shunjinko theory-
Uh...maybe...although I don't think it'll be the way you describe.

Here's my thing. If you sit down, and explain the plot of the original mk's to a layman, they'll look at you funny. It's, at best, fanservicy trash. MK9 took that, and managed to make it "mediocre comic book" levels of good, which is a significant improvement. The good stuff is kept, the bad stuff is just dropped, and the rest is ironed out and presented in a much more sane and well organized manner. I expect they plan to continue this trend.

With that in mind, while I don't think it's impossible for someone like havoc to show up, I think they very much want to avoid the complete clusterfuck the "multiple realms" plotline can become. Yes it's a MK thing, and they'll probably touch on it, but you've already got one confirmed threat in Shinnok/Quan. It's an MK story, so god knows there will be more, but I really don't think introducing the realms of order and chaos are the likely routes here. I have been looking at the levels shown, and they don't seem to be places we've seen before, and one thing i've been thinking is that it's because it's earth after Shinnok's success, and the 25 years later is under his rule sort of thing(levels certainly don't look like order/chaos lands, but if that was a surprise they'd obviously be saving those so meh). If this is correct(blind theory I know) you really don't have room to start throwing in plotlines linked to other realms. Especially when we've got a bunch of new characters they need to introduce and start building up(and again, none of them scream order or chaos realm to me).

Shunjinko could play a role in this, but if he does, I would be SHOCKED if it revolves around Onaga, all the realms, and the Kamidogo, and isn't instead streamlined in some way to make things more coherent, and to mix it with the shinnok/quan attack and maybe the power void left by Khan, and the Edenian succession+whatever new stuff they bring.
 

Living Corpse

Champion
I've said it before in other topics but Smoke's body is still (mostly) intact after Super Sindel killed him. The body could easily be turned into a Cyber-Smoke.
 

TaffyMeat

Infinite Meter Kombos
There is a Saurian character in one of the krypts called Tiamat I think. It's concept art for an unused character. Perhaps in mkx?