What's new

General/Other Sub-zero: The Man, the Myth, the Legend! (Story of Sub-zero)

DragonPick

I don't play Runescape
WARNING: This will have spoilers for the entire Mortal Kombat series. Please don't spoil yourself.
WARNING: tl;dr. Seriously.




I've not realized it before, but there are tons of people who don't know the storyline of one of the most interesting characters in Mortal Kombat: Sub-zero. No, I'm not talking about Kuai Liang or Bi Han, the younger and older brothers, respectively and two wielders of the name. I'm talking about the mask itself, the blue ninja Sub-zero. The cold assassin with the unknown identity.

Bi Han and Kuai Liang are not full human. They come from a line of cryokinetic warriors from Outworld, which allowed them to have their iconic ice abilities. Years ago, when Bi Han and Kuai Liang were children, they were kidnapped from their family by the Lin Kuei (林鬼) and trained to become assassins. Bi Han, being the older brother and being more powerful than his brother soon rose as the best theif and assassin in the Lin Kuei. Sub-zero's story started here, as Bi Han (璧漢).


Just before the events of the most important Mortal Kombat tournament in the history of Earthrealm, Bi Han was called upon by the Lin Kuei Grandmaster to steal a scroll in a Shaolin temple. Here is where he would meet with his eternal rival, Scorpion, and brutally kill him. Upon returning to the Lin Kuei, Sub-zero found that Scorpion had been hired by Quan Chi, who had also slain the entire Shirai Ryu clan (Scorpion's clan and the Lin Kuei's enemy) as payment for Sub-zero's scroll.

The scroll was a map into the Temple of Elementals, which contained an amulet of mystical powers. Quan Chi himself could not retrieve it, for he had upset the gods, but Bi Han had never done such a thing. With him being the most powerful member of the Lin Kuei, the mission was placed onto him. Sub-zero faced four elemental gods, the guardians of the Temple, and hundreds of traps and warrirors, defeating each until he accomplished his mission and retrieved the amulet.
I should mention that one of the guardians was the God of Wind, Fujin. Yes, Sub-zero (Bi Han) has killed a god before and not a god that has made himself mortal in order to fight int he Mortal Kombat tournament, a full powered god.

Upon releasing the seal that kept Quan Chi from taking the amulet, none other should appear but the bald headed demon himself. Quan Chi revealed that the amulet was actually an artifact that would replenish the ancient Elder God, Shinnok (who had been banished to the Netherrealm for treachery) to full power. Quan Chi teleported away and the elder god Raiden appeared in his place.



Sub-zero had endangered Earthrealm, maybe even all of the realms. Now Raiden was forcing him to fix it. Raiden does not have full power in the Netherrealm, so he sent Sub-zero down to stop Quan Chi. Quan Chi had expected this, though and had his guards to ambush Sub-zero and lock him in the Prison of Souls, where he would meet Scorpion once again. Scorpion was now a spectre, who blamed Sub-zero for the death of his clan and family (A Quan Chi did it). Sub-zero defeated him once again and escaped from the prison in hell.

He would run into Quan Chi's three woman team of warriors, Sareena, Kia, and Jataaka. Though he had killed her two partners, Sub-zero spared Sareena's life. Sub-zero made it to Quan Chi's fortress and confronted him, learning that the darkness in heart had kept him alive in the Netherrealm. Sub-zero defeated Quan Chi (with some unnecessary help from Sareena) and faced Shinnok. Shinnok killed Sareena and used the amulet to battle Sub-zero. Sub-zero stole the amulet from him and Shinnok transformed into a powerful demon. It's unknown if Sub-zero officially fought the demon, but... Well...


Sub-zero had saved Earthrealm, maybe even all of the realms. Raiden informed Sub-zero that the darkness in his heart was not one of Quan Chi's lies. If he continued on his path, upon death he would face a fate that even Raiden does not know of...
And thus, Sub-zero was he had received an invite into the Mortal Kombat tournament by Shang Tsung himself. Since the Lin Kuei had a contract on Shang Tsung's head, Sub-zero joined with the intention of claiming the bounty.

This is where Sub-zero would die, to his most powerful rival no less: Scorpion.






Kuai Liang (奎良) had learned of his older brother's death and failure to assassinate Shang Tsung. He dropped his old codename of Tundra and took up the mantle of his brother, becoming the new Sub-zero. He would then enter the tournament with intentions of murdering Shang Tsung and avenging his brother and was accompanied by his "friend" Tomas Vrbada a.k.a Smoke. (friendship is a taboo in the Lin Kuei, most trusted ally would be more suitable for their relationship, but...).

Scorpion would witness Sub-zero spare a life, and did not understand why he would. He would soon realize that this was not Bi Han, but Kuai Liang and swore not to harm him. In the end, Sub-zero and Smoke would not complete their objectives and returned to the Lin Kuei.


Meanwhile, Raiden's words had come true. Bi Han descended into hell and would become one of the creatures he had fought against in his battle against Shinnok and Quan Chi: A member of the Brotherhood of Shadow. He now answered to Shinnok as Noob Saibot. During the events of this Mortal Kombat tournament, Noob Saibot acted as a spy.
This would be the final Mortal Kombat tournament, ever.


A while after the tournament, the Lin Kuei started the infamous Cyber initiative. They would change their warriors into cyborgs, raising their effectiveness and abilities. The first four chosen for this experiment were Sub-zero, Smoke, Cyrax, and Sektor (who was the Grandmaster's son). Though Cyrax was against the initiative, he went through with it and Sektor happily signed for it. Sub-zero and Smoke, however, refused this and ran from the Lin Kuei, becoming renegades. This marked them for death and though Sub-zero was able to escape, Smoke was captured and became a robot.


The cyborgs were then sent on their first mission: To hunt Sub-zero down and kill him. Shao Khan would attack with his invasion from Outworld, which would change the realms forever. Thousands of souls were taken, but Sub-zero's was one of the few spared. His assassins were unaffected, since they did not have souls, so they still hunted him down. Sub-zero would meet Smoke and reprogram him in order to help him fight Sektor and Cyrax. Though Sektor was defeated and escaped, Cyrax was captured by Sub-zero as well and reprogrammed to fight Shao Khan with him an Smoke.
Yes, Sub-zero (Kuai Liang) took his own assassins and turned them into his own personal underlings.

Noob Saibot would fight alongside Shao Khan, because Shinnok told him to.

After the defeat of Shao Khan, Shinnok would rise again and attempt his take over of the realms. Sub-zero would fight along side Raiden's forces in order to stop him. Quan Chi would convince Scorpion that Kuai Liang had part in the death of the Shirai Ryu as well and Scorpion would attempt to kill him. They would fight and Scorpion would be the victor. Before the final strike, Quan Chi would appear and explain his lie, believing Sub-zero to die anyway. As he sent Scorpion to the Netherrealm, Scorpion would attack him and bring them both into a level of hell where Scorpion has more power than Quan Chi, who is practically powerless here. Scorpion would spend most of his time torturing and hunting Quan Chi here as Sub-zero finished assisting with the defeat of Shinnok.

During this attack, Noob Saibot would would fight alongside Shinnok, but after Shinnok's death, Noob pledged allegiance to Shao Khan for his own purposes...



Soon Quan Chi would escape from hell and work together with Shang Tsung to form the Deadly Alliance. Sub-zero would return to the Lin Kuei after learning that Sektor murdered the Grandmaster. Sub-zero fought his way to Sektor and defeated Sektor in a one on one duel, claiming the Dragon Medallion. Sektor would run off to Japan, but Sub-zero used the Dragon Medallion to power his abilities far past he could ever imagine. Sub-zero would change the Lin Kuei into a force for good.




Sub-zero would hold a tournament in order to find new recruits for the clan and the winner of the tournament would be a warrior would power over cold, similar to him. Enter Frost, Sub-zero's apprentice who was brash and arrogant, but would be a helpful ally nonetheless. After the death of Liu Kang, they would work together with Raiden's forces to fight the Deadly Alliance.

During the battles, Frost would attempt to steal Sub-zero's medallion ad wuld be consumed by her own freezing abilities. Sub-zero would blame himself for this and would keep her frozen body in the temple of the Lin Kuei until he found a way to help her.

Sub-zero was not around for the final battle because of this reason, and this may have spared his life. A hefty majority of the forces of good had been killed or imprisoned and Onaga had risen. Raiden was not able to stop him and the Dragon King became a serious threat.

After finding out about the death of Shao Khan, Noob Saibot would decide to stop being an underling. He didn't care about Onaga's rising, so he searched Khan's empty fortress for resources to start his own army and would find Smoke. After some reprogramming, a new villain was born. Noob would create an army of shadow-cyborgs.

After burying Frost, Sub-zero attempted to reunite with Raiden but was ambushed by tarkatans and his new enemy, Hotaru, a warrior of the Realm of Order. He was ordered by Onaga to kill Sub-zero. Sub-zero would end up finding and helping the injured samurai, Kenshi. After being blinded in a second assault by Hotaru, Kenshi would return the favor and save Sub-zero from death, working with him to defeat Hotaru.

Sub-zero then met and teamed up with Sareena later, in order to fight Noob Saibot and Smoke. They would escape, leaving Sub-zero confused.

When Sub-zero returned to the Lin Kuei, he found that Frost had returned and saw every human as Sub-zero, slaying many of his men. Sub-zero froze her in a block of ice, knowing that soon she would come to her senses and would pay for what she had now done.

Noob Saibot would launch one final attack on the Lin Kuei, but his attack was foiled, thanks to the help of Taven. Kuai Liang would atempt to purify his brother, but would fail,. Both would later die in the Battle of Armageddon. Kuai Liang would die by baraka's hand after killing his rival Scorpion. Bi Han would die from sword wounds.

Would this be the end of Sub-zero? Not at all... For then the events of Mortal Kombat 9 would occur! If you have not watched this (how?) then please do.



This would be where the story of Sub-zero ends... Maybe? With the two brothers dead, maybe there will be another to wear the mask of Sub-zero. Who? Who knows? Besides NRS, of course.

With the death of both brothers, Sub-zero becomes a legend of characters. Each incarnation of Sub-zero (and the brothers themselves) are extremely different, from their life beliefs (Bi Han is in it for the money, then later to becom a powerhouse and Kuai Liang wants to fight for good.) especially evident from their starts as extremely similar "evil assassins". They would become two of the most influential characters in the story of Mortal Kombat while wearing one mask.



Quite easy to see, the two brothers are extremely different from each other. As stated their first appearances, they appeared as simple assassins. They are perfect foils to each other in every way. They have one of the largest and most detailed and deep stories of any of the characters in the Mortal Kombat series belongs to him. Sub-zero.



tl;dr: The entire story of Sub-zero (Bi Han and Kuai Liang) until now and a comparison of the two brothers.
...
And why I like him so much :)
Thanks to anyone who read all of this, took a while.
 

DragonPick

I don't play Runescape
This was a great read, sir. Do you plan on writing out other deep backstories as well? Another one that comes to mind is the whole Sonya/Jax, kano/kabal history
Thanks for reading! I had actually planned on writing about the relationship between Liu and Kung Lao or Kitana/Jade/Mileena next, but those are two great ideas. In fact, the Special Forces and Black Dragon would be a great one altogether.
Either way, do expect another one soon.
 
Thanks for reading! I had actually planned on writing about the relationship between Liu and Kung Lao or Kitana/Jade/Mileena next, but those are two great ideas. In fact, the Special Forces and Black Dragon would be a great one altogether.
Either way, do expect another one soon.
Sweet. Yeah the black dragon is a history I could never get solid info for.