Aftermath DLC Story Mode spoiler discussion

[ZeroBG82]

Aftermath ends up being an interesting mirror and echo to the main MK11 story. Both feature heroes allied to someone they aren't sure they can trust to beat Kronika (Raiden in the main game, Shang here). Both see classic, uber powerful characters reunited with allies they have been long divided from (Liu Kang and Raiden, now Shao and Sindel) and then sees the resulting duos utterly stomp everything in their way. And both end with a Mortal Kombat champion gaining supreme power and trying to lay claim to the hourglass.

Also, as much as MK11's story was giving off last chapter vibes, with as many character relationships as it closed out and payed off (Cassie/Sonya, Scorp/Hanzo, Raiden/Liu, Sonya/Kano, Kotal/Shao, Kitana/Shao, Sub/Hanzo, Jax/his trauma etc) and a good ending that is almost the perfect happy ending for the heroic characters, Aftermath leans even harder into that vibe in one major way, bringing us around all the way full circle, back to the very beginning. Liu Kang vs Shang Tsung for the fate of the realms.

Fujin not knowing Shang was disguised as his brother but Baraka knowing earlier in the game was very silly.

I think, given Fire God Liu Kang's response to Shang later in the Hourglass chamber, that we're supposed to believe that Fujin DID recognize Shang in his disguise, but was only pretending not to because he was in on FG Liu Kang's plan. Recall the opening scene of Aftermath, where Liu pulls Fujin aside and tells him something, which Fujin says won't be easy, and which Liu says to keep it secret from Nightwolf? Fujin KNOWS that Shang Tsung has to beat Kronika. FG Liu Kang has revealed that Fujin is going on a sacrifice play, to make sure that Shang Tsung gets the crown and gets to Kronika, no matter what other cost must be paid. Because Liu intends to take the crown back and simply rewrite over whatever goes wrong when he recreates time.

Essentially, Fujin let the bad guys win, because Liu Kang told him it was necessary. Which is almost an odd nod to MK9, when Liu Kang couldn't go along with Raiden's crazy plan to let Shao Khan win, even though doing so ultimately proved to be the correct play.

 

[AnakinKazama7]

Also.. It kinda irks me in a way that the crown thing was made up as a cop out for the storyline expansion.

Rather than saying "How can we move the story forward?" its feels like they asked "Whats the easiest way to squeeze out another 3 hours and charge $40 bucks for it".

"Oh yeah the crown, lets just add in the fact that they'll need it to fix time"

At no point in the original story was this mentioned or even hinted at. Nobody was asking "but what about the crown" after the base game. The "good ending" in AM could have easily been a base story post credit scene and literally nothing would have changed.

The entire crown issue was just a vehicle to get an expansion out without having to put any real creative thought into where the franchise goes from here.

Not only that, let's not forget, the crown was designed by Shang Tsung. That means Kronika, Titan of Time, who's existed since the beginning of time, didn't start playing with time until the birth of Shang Tsung.

 

[Lt. Boxy Angelman]

Kronika is so powerful yet somehow gets battered when she could just...stop everything.

And THAT is the Crux of the whole problem.

Spoiler: Game Of Thrones Comparison Spoiler:

It's like the episode after the Battle Of Winterfell, when you watch the ENTIRE DOTHRAKI HORDE be snuffed out and assimilated in one giant swoop, and the Unsullied as the human shield wall are not only handily overrun, but risen back up and killed AGAIN when the Night King raises his hands...but somehow in the next episode, an entire half of both factions are still miraculously alive and ready for battle. It makes absolutely no fucking sense.

I concede to earlier posts about how MK has done things in the past with the story that were pretty goofy, but almost all of them can be kinda explained. Not here. Kronika is supposed to be a Titan with ultimate control over the literal physical sands of time and access to every conceivable timeline that's ever been or will ever be, and daughter Cetrion is an actual Elder God with dominion over life itself. Yet,
they both might be the most weakly portrayed bosses I've ever seen, in spite of both of them having all of this power.
There's letting some things go because you shouldn't take it too seriously, which is perfectly fine...and then there's shitty writing, which is not.

Is all of it shitty? Absolutely 100% not. I actually enjoyed Aftermath WAY more than the base story, and thought that, in spite of it's flaws, it did a really good job tying things together. It makes me wish that they'd ended Story Mode on the cliffhanger of Shang and the boys coming through the portal like in MK9 when Quan Chi talks to Shinnok, because it would've felt a lot better than "history is erased, Liu Kang is God, nothing that's ever happened matters," and left us looking forward to what was next. But the base it's all based on, Kronika and the Hourglass and going all the way in with the time travel retconning that you left alone in MKX, is an impossible flaw to look past.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Yeah that's one thing I don't get about Kronika. What's the whole deal with her absorbing Cetrion? Like what does that even do for her?

And honestly, as much as I adore Liu Kang being the main protagonist of Mortal Kombat, his victory over Shang might be an even bigger upset than Cassie vs Shinnok. Liu Kang has Raiden's powers, right? Shang has the souls of Raiden, Fujin, Shao Kahn, Sindel, Cetrion and the Titan Kronika WITH the ultra boosted power of the Crown. Yet Liu is able to beat him like this was MK1 lmao

 

[Pizza]

It gets worst when, like someone pointed a few pages ago, we learn that Kronika was always pulling the strings behind every MK story. So we have to assume that she made the Deadly Alliance happen or things like that. And she kept rebooting the timeline because she didn't like something. It's very stupid, and the worst kind of retcon. Basically nullifies free will within the narrative.

 

[ZeroBG82]

Basically nullifies free will within the narrative.

That's explicitly the point of Kronika, yes. That the characters are confronted with the fact that nothing in their lives has been their own true choice, per se, and rather has been the product of Kronika's tinkering trying to create her perfectly "balanced" universe. It's why the choices that ultimately beat her are the ones she can't foresee: Raiden giving up godhood to boost Liu Kang, and Liu Kang being willing to let Shang Tsung "win," if only temporarily. These choices are made freely, and boldly. They defy Kronika's expectations and thwart her control.

But I would argue that the game also makes the argument that while Kronika constrains their free will, it doesn't completely negate it. See again, those choices she couldn't see coming.

Part of the story revolves around the fact that Kronika talks big, but can't necessarily back it up. She plays at being all powerful, but even her flailing about with the hourglass is basically trial and error. Attempt something, see what it does, then go back and try something else if you didn't like it. The hourglass and the ability it gives her to undo her own mistakes and errors of judgement are her only real power. She has deluded herself, over time, into believing that she can manipulate fate and destiny completely. But all she can really do is tip over different dominoes and see what each one does. It's the very reason she HAS TO reboot the universe in the first place. She can't actually force people to make choices she wants. All she can do is try to create scenarios that encourage them to make the choice she prefers. And if they don't, she kills the entire universe and does it over differently. She's less all powerful, and more just a really effective extortionist.

Why else bring in all the heavy hitting villains to aid her when she goes for her reboot? If she didn't bother, none of the heroes would have ever known she was up to anything and they would have made no effort to stop her. If there is no timequake, no time merger, nobody ever realizes something is about to happen. Universe rebooted, problem solved. But Kronika needs pawns to serve her ends INSIDE the timeline. Like Shinnock and Cetrion, players to carry out her moves in the gamespace while she watches over it from outside. She wants Shao Khan and everybody else to feel like they OWE her, so they'll do what she wants in the new universe. Because she can't make any real changes otherwise.

 

[Pizza]

I hope they erase her forever.

 

[Ilthuain]

For those who feel the Aftermath story didn't add anything, it totally did. An explicit sequel hook.

My wife and I have been discussing who should be in Mortal Kombat Zero all day.

 

[EarlyReflections]

Terrible writing. Exposition in nearly every line, always explaining who is who, when did what, etc.

Also the way they overcheese heavy one-liners from the past, is the dumbest kind of fan service (if you must die, then so be it/ fates worse than death/ it has began).

Sheeva seems the only reasonable person in the whole story. Raiden is useless as usual, Fujin even more as it seems, Nightwolf can't say other words than "the great spirit". If you are a Sindel fan, ggs.

Cary/Shang carried and saved the whole thing, he is very good.

 

[ZeroBG82]

Cary/Shang carried and saved the whole thing, he is very good.

I'm not about to argue with this. About the only reasons any of Aftermath works are the best Shang Tsung ever and watching Shao Khan chew scenery. Whoever at NRS thought to use Cary for the face/voice of Shang and then to center the story expansion on him deserves a raise. Brilliant.

 

[chud_munson]

I've been thinking on the story a bit over the past few days, and I think I've centered on what I don't love about the MK11 story. MK11 is really good for a fighting game story, and I still really enjoyed it for what it is. But if you remove that veneer and treat it as just a story, the reasons it's hard to say it's an unqualified great story become clearer:

There are a lot of devices that only come into play when it's convenient. Time travel is possible when it's convenient to retcon things, and same goes for power. Characters become powerful when its convenient to make them powerful, and then they're dispatched easily when it's another character's time to shine. If there's a place the writers want to go, no problem, problematic plot points didn't happen because Kronika didn't want them to happen. If they want to undo something that would have been beneficial for Kronika, no problem, someone gets some secret god power and steals her crown.

Characters' motivations are not layered or conflicted in any way. Everything is just a power-grab for good or evil, and the only depth characters really have is when they flip a switch in their mind and are all-in on the other side. I don't care that Sindel ended up being evil, but she still has a daughter, so it would have been nice to see that inner conflict manifest in a way that affects the plot somehow. Using her daughter as nothing more than a chess-piece is so moustache-twirling evil that it's hokey.

The fact that characters don't have nuance beyond being good/evil and weak/powerful makes it difficult to tell interesting stories about them. People often talk about "jobbers" in this game, and the root of that criticism is the fact that most characters have little value beyond being an obstacle for the current hero/villain you're playing. When a character's worth boils down to how good/evil they are and how difficult it should be to kick their ass in context of the current power spectrum, every character at some point is going to feel like a jobber. Kronika became a jobber in Aftermath. It's not because her backstory changed, it's because she fell down on the arbitrary power spectrum, and she doesn't have interesting enough motivations to make us still care about her.

MK is pretty well ahead of fighting game contemporaries when it comes to storytelling, but that's a double-edged sword because now it's being compared against better told stories. Even if you just limit it to the medium (video games), there are games that tell more interesting stories about their characters so that you care about the characters themselves, not just whether they're a good/bad person, or whether they live or die (Last of Us, Metal Gear, Dark Souls, Mass Effect, Uncharted, etc.). Mortal Kombat is good enough at this point that it should start holding itself to loftier standards.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

The green statue at the end that the great Kung Lao has is the same one that Kung Jin tried to steal from Raiden in MKX.

The story wasn't too terrible, for what it is. RIP Kotal Kahn. Weird that Scorpion, Sub, and Baraka were absent from the final battle, but I'm glad they weren't there to get murdered. I wish they intervened in time to save old Scorpion, he was the best character in the MK11 base game story mode, him dying and being held by young Scorpion was probably the best scene in the game despite him going out in a shitty way. I mean obviously Liu Kang will bring everyone back and it's unlikely he will let Hanzo's family die in the first place, or Bi Han be turned into Noob Saibot for that matter.

Would definitely be down for a MK reboot in the past. Fire God Liu could bring back any character from the future too to fight in the tournament, so any character is still on the table.

 

[ScreamQueen]

Still digesting all this for DEEP THOUGHTS later, but for now here's two Pro-Tips:

1. If you make a time altering crown for a Fire God, a Wind God, a badass army dude, yourself, and a Titan woman with amazing eye makeup, make sure you all have the same size head.

2. When you are your friends are all standing less than a foot away from Shang Tsung as he reveals he tricked you, says "you should be more vigilant, Fujin... Now behold, as the powers of time and all the realms bow unto me etc" then slowly raises a crown on puts it on his head... maybe just smack him in the face?

 

[Lt. Boxy Angelman]

The biggest problem with the Sindel heel turn isn't just the heel turn itself... it's that it creates a paradox so big that even all the time travelling retconning can't fill in an answer for.

It's the point @Pizza made earlier: Sindel's suicide pact is the ENTIRE FUCKING REASON THERE HAD TO BE MORTAL KOMBAT TO BEGIN WITH.
The tournaments began as a compromise with the Elder Gods because Shao Kahn couldn't freely invade Earthrealm.
And Shao Kahn couldn't freely invade Earthrealm because Sindel's ward prevented him from doing so.

Soooooo...if Quan Chi murdered Sindel, and Sindel's ward was never cast to protect Earthrealm from Shao Kahn, which led to the advent of the Mortal Kombat tournament...then how did Mortal Kombat even start?

But hey, that's the great thing about time travel retcons: you can write an entire franchise into an inescapable paradox that takes all of the value out of every story the franchise has ever told, and chalk it off to "it's a multiverse, ANYTHING can happen ," and smile while they tell you how great the adventure is going to be when they know the foundation is about as strong as watered down beer. It has the name Mortal Kombat on it, which means it's still going to sell no matter how little they care about having a story with any sort of integrity, so why not? We live in the age of DLC, season passes, Time Crystal cash shop based Ranked modes, and being able to release a lackluster as all fuck title in Year One just to turn around and sell it to everyone again with tweaks and bells and whistles in Year Two...which is exactly what I said they were going to do last year before launch, when they didn't say a single word from the Launch Day party in January to the end of the Beta in March about there being no custom builds anywhere except casual play even though TONS of people were asking questions to clarify and avoid getting their hopes up, and I got dragged for it. Yet here we are.

 

[ZeroBG82]

Soooooo...if Quan Chi murdered Sindel, and Sindel's ward was never cast to protect Earthrealm from Shao Kahn, which led to the advent of the Mortal Kombat tournament...then how did Mortal Kombat even start?

Why are you assuming the ward was never cast? The only difference is the caster. Quan Chi doing it instead of Sindel to cover her murder, or even using her murder to fuel the casting works in exactly the same way. Only the intention changes.

Again, I feel dirty defending the evil Sindel thing, but this is absolutely not a problem. It becomes another case of "Quan Chi Did It," which is so cliche in the franchise at this point that I would prefer we didn't, but everything in the set up for the original tournament carries on just fine.

The bigger problem is trying to justify the heel turn in light of her previous behavior in MK3 and Deception, where she is unquestionably a goody goody. There's no way this Sindel and that Sindel coexist. So something fishy happened there. I mean, if I was really inclined, I'm sure I could use Kronika to justify it in some way, but I don't care to. And I'm not sure NRS cares either, this is the version of the character they are using for MK11 and that's that.

 

[LeoMK29]

The story was not good just like the first part. I still hate that the original revenants never got closure or anything.

Also we never see what happens with this 1000th new timeline. With Liu Kang having his legs broken, Kitana, Raiden, Fujin, etc. too many loose ends and inconsistencies. 5/10 lmao

 

[scarsunseen]

I like how Johnny Cage quotes 1989 Batman

Spoiler: Batman

 

[Pizza]

Why are you assuming the ward was never cast? The only difference is the caster. Quan Chi doing it instead of Sindel to cover her murder, or even using her murder to fuel the casting works in exactly the same way. Only the intention changes.

But then we step into the realm of speculation.

We can start discussing if Quan Chi did it or not, but it's never addressed or hinted in the story itself. Why would Quan Chi do it? We can speculate he was doing it for the "balance" (another vague topic), so in the end he was doing it for Kronika. Or if he was doing it for Shinnok (which wouldn't make sense), that means he was working for Kronika too if we assume Shinnok was working for Kronika all along.

It gets messy. And it's not properly addressed in the story, so it's purely in the air.

 

[Law Hero]

Why are you assuming the ward was never cast? The only difference is the caster. Quan Chi doing it instead of Sindel to cover her murder, or even using her murder to fuel the casting works in exactly the same way. Only the intention changes.

Again, I feel dirty defending the evil Sindel thing, but this is absolutely not a problem. It becomes another case of "Quan Chi Did It," which is so cliche in the franchise at this point that I would prefer we didn't, but everything in the set up for the original tournament carries on just fine.

The bigger problem is trying to justify the heel turn in light of her previous behavior in MK3 and Deception, where she is unquestionably a goody goody. There's no way this Sindel and that Sindel coexist. So something fishy happened there. I mean, if I was really inclined, I'm sure I could use Kronika to justify it in some way, but I don't care to. And I'm not sure NRS cares either, this is the version of the character they are using for MK11 and that's that.

I know you're playing Devil's Advocate, but it really doesn't make sense. Quan Chi killing her because she "distracted Shao Kahn" is dumb and nonsensical. Also Quan Chi is a Necromancer so since when can he use Sindel's powers to erect portals that protect realms, and how does this even cover her murder? It just makes no sense. Also, I'm not too keen on the history, but was Quan Chi even around (outside of the Netherrealm) when Shao Kahn invaded Edenia and killed Jerrod? And like others have said, Sindel's appearances in games like Deception just make no sense since she's a benevolent ruler there.

What's worse is we all know the reason for the retcon, and it's incredibly shallow and pointless which makes it all the more infuriating. It was an immature, surface-level, Hollywood attempt to give her "agency" and empower her. They did it the same way Hollywood always does it: by making her cruel and violent as if those qualities are tantamount to strength and character. Can't have a heroic yet tragic character, better make her bloodthirsty and sinister instead because that'll improve her. I just don't think there's any defending this change at all.

 

[AnakinKazama7]

Why are you assuming the ward was never cast? The only difference is the caster. Quan Chi doing it instead of Sindel to cover her murder, or even using her murder to fuel the casting works in exactly the same way. Only the intention changes.

Why are you assuming Quan Chi did it? What exactly are his intentions?

 

[Warbro666]

The Sindel heel turn is honestly the best thing to happen to her character. Yes, they portrayed it in a corny fashion (you'll note, almost everything in MK is corny) and it could have been handled with more subtlety but her original story was honestly kind of fucking gross.

This woman has her husband murdered, her land and people conquered, she's forced to wed the man who did it and she kills herself out of grief? Why are people clamouring for that again? Give female characters more agency.

Remember folks, MK is a Saturday morning cartoon and female characters don't need rapey storylines for "depth".

 

[Kiss the Missile]

This woman has her husband murdered, her land and people conquered, she's forced to wed the man who did it and she kills herself out of grief? Why are people clamouring for that again? Give female characters more agency.

Remember folks, MK is a Saturday morning cartoon and female characters don't need rapey storylines for "depth".

Because Mortal Kombat has enough power hungry villains who are quick to betray. That's why MKX's comics had such a great story. Kotal, Torr, Reptile and D'Vorrah didn't side with Earthrealm, but they weren't villains either. They actually seemed like they cared for eachother and the people of Outworld. Then the game's story comes out and Kotal is a power hungry douche who betrays Cassie for the amulet, D'Vorrah is a power hungry douche who betrays Kotal for Shinnok. It's beyond cliche at this point. So for another character to cross over into this territory, no shit people are upset.

 

[Warbro666]

Because Mortal Kombat has enough power hungry villains who are quick to betray. That's why MKX's comics had such a great story. Kotal, Torr, Reptile and D'Vorrah didn't side with Earthrealm, but they weren't villains either. They actually seemed like they cared for eachother and the people of Outworld. Then the game's story comes out and Kotal is a power hungry douche who betrays Cassie for the amulet, D'Vorrah is a power hungry douche who betrays Kotal for Shinnok. It's beyond cliche at this point. So for another character to cross over into this territory, no shit people are upset.

Of course, the writing is bad and I'm not excusing the weird lie that the comic book was linked to the story. And as Law Hero pointed out, it's basically a Hollywood trope to make a strong female character evil, I'd argue it's just as tropey to have a female character overcome a horrifically traumatic and abusive situation to show "strength". They're both shallow story telling techniques, this version is just less exploitative.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Of course, the writing is bad and I'm not excusing the weird lie that the comic book was linked to the story. And as Law Hero pointed out, it's basically a Hollywood trope to make a strong female character evil, I'd argue it's just as tropey to have a female character overcome a horrifically traumatic and abusive situation to show "strength". They're both shallow story telling techniques, this version is just less exploitative.

If we're talking about her origin she didn't overcome anything. She succumbed to it and left her daughter to be raised by an abusive monster. She got brought back against her will and tried to mend the relationship. I really don't think that story was explotative at all.

 

[AnakinKazama7]

The Sindel heel turn is honestly the best thing to happen to her character. Yes, they portrayed it in a corny fashion (you'll note, almost everything in MK is corny) and it could have been handled with more subtlety but her original story was honestly kind of fucking gross.

This woman has her husband murdered, her land and people conquered, she's forced to wed the man who did it and she kills herself out of grief? Why are people clamouring for that again? Give female characters more agency.

Remember folks, MK is a Saturday morning cartoon and female characters don't need rapey storylines for "depth".

"Why are people clamoring for that again?"

People like coherent stories. Sindel killing herself led to the protection of earthrealm by stopping Shao Khan from being able to invade at will. Her suicide had a sacrificial element to it. It's what led to the MK tournament to begin with.

"Give female characters more agency."

Stories don't serve characters, characters serve stories. Tragedy is apart of stories. Both fans and writers need to understand that every character doesn't need to have "a moment." That was an issue not only with Aftermath but the base story as well. It led to characters defeating people they had no business defeating, because they needed to have their "moment." See Kitana defeating Shao Khan as an example. Changing Sindel's character so she can have her "moments" becomes a problem when it contradicts the lore. Some characters are going to get the short end of the stick. That's part of storytelling.

"female characters don't need rapey storylines for "depth""

Making them female clones of their husbands that force breeds people to make slaves isn't needed for depth either.