What's new

Aftermath DLC Story Mode spoiler discussion

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.
We have very different definitions of exploitative.

And she did overcome the situation. After she's revived, Kitana is able to reverse the brainwashing, she manages to get Edenia back, etc etc. Either way, "succumbing" and comitting suicide out of grief isn't a super fun storyline that is, at it's core, supposed to be fun.
 
Making them female clones of their husbands that force breeds people to make slaves isn't needed for depth either.
That's precisely my point. I'm trying to argue that you guys are looking for Shakespeare in a cartoon. It's not supposed to be deep. It never was, not even in the old games. It's a vehicle for cool kung fu characters and campy villains with a pro wrestling schtick.

You're free to desire a deeper, more cohesive story, especially from something you spent money on. But you're just not going to find it in MK. And now that NRS is more progressive, you're certainly not going to find the older, slightly more problematic storylines of the past.
 
The fact Sonya didn't even speak is just ridiculous. I know some fans don't care for Ronda's voiceover skills, but Sonya Blade is THE grand dame of the franchise. Imagine Street Fighter did the same with Chun Li? No, they wouldn't.
Tea.

However, and I say this as a Sonya main since MK1, she’s better seen and not heard in MK11. Ronda’s voice performance is literally that bad but I actually thought her fight sequence was well done in Aftermath. We see her using everything in her arsenal — her using two guns was a nice touch, her garrote wire, and energy rings were all put to good use — and being the total badass fighter that we know. Until a kick from Sindel took her out.
 

Lt. Boxy Angelman

I WILL EAT THIS GAME
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.
This got me thinking. A lot.

Follow me here, because I think I figured out a way to make this make almost sense.

Now...thinking about WHY Quan Chi could possibly want to cast the Ward, or ways it could still happen with Evil Sindel that would make us all happy, made me insane for a bit...but I have a theory.

It dawned on me that he could easily have something to gain from Earthrealm staying in one piece. Example: maybe he needed Shao Kahn to NOT conquer Earthrealm, because of something to do with the Kamidogu and resurrecting the Dragon King's Army, and it can't be done if Kahn assimilates Earthrealm into Outworld. Something like that.
It would make sense if it didn't lose its legs completely in a world where Sindel was evil the whole time, so I tried to MK logic my way around it.

With Good Sindel, it could have easily gone that Quan Chi picked up on Sindel's fear and dread and so on and put the idea in her head. The act itself maintains all nobility, no one suspects him, Sindel's character is preserved. But with Evil Sindel...I don't see how Quan Chi kills Sindel and makes the ward without Kahn bashing his head in, if there's even canonically a ward anymore at all.

The ONLY thing I can think of that could run this back and rationalize it...taking into account that this IS Mortal Kombat and while one is encouraged to bend reality, things won't always make perfect sense...is if Quan Chi had been in with Kronika, who can pull people through the sands of time from who knows where, from the very beginning as well.
If he had been shown his whole timeline, he would have been able to arrange everything as close to perfectly as possible. Hence the forever frustrating "Quan Chi Did It" answer for everything; maybe, he really did do EVERYTHING, to get his ultimate result, but in an even more convoluted way than Liu and Fujin.
It could very well be that this Sindel may not be the original Good Sindel at all.
Perhaps, in exchange for what he's seen, Quan Chi led Kronika, who has already been proven to be insanely powerful but not omnipotent, to strike a deal with Havik in Chaosrealm, to use the power of the Tempest to find a version of Sindel (and maybe also Shao Kahn) from a different reality where she WAS evil, and that THAT Sindel is one he reanimated into the Revenant to set the trap for later down the line, and the original Sindel is being held prisoner by Havik for some insane purpose, in that giant fucking prison in Chaosrealm that you couldn't get into until after you beat Konquest, where Kira is wandering around trying to regain her memory. Quan wants his army, Kronika wants her New Era, and Havik wants chaos everywhere. They could all win.

That convoluted mess of words is the only way I can rationalize Evil Sindel.

The part about this game that has had me absolutely spun since they introduced the time travel...is that if you hold it up against the original games, and the things that happened that made no sense back then - the characters you'd run into traveling between realms, people being in places and times they had no place being, and almost most importantly: The Pit Of Goo, where you find the Chaosrealm Kamidogu and suddenly Shujinko loses years of his life in a matter of moments, which was the first appearance of a timewarp in the MK timeline and things definitely seemed a bit out of order after that...if you take these two seperately illogical stories, and tie some of the knots together, it can almost add up. But not a whole hell of a lot of current players have played the 3D games, and are not aware of a lot of the stuff that's already in the books, so I can see how it wouldn't come up often.
But it could be done.
 
Last edited:

Pizza

Thrill Kill
It would've been easier to explain with a multiverse excuse. Characters like Kano and Shao Kahn look completely different from MK9. Like, really different. Kano is bald, Shao Kahn has dragon arms. In fact, this is what I thought back before the game's release.

But instead this is supposed to be the same timeline. There is only one timeline that keeps getting rebooted all the time by Kronika.

If there were multiple universes, one where Shao Kahn fused with a dragon or something, and Sindel was evil all along, it would be one thing. Also, Kano would be bald and Kabal would still be evil. It's like they really made it to fit as another universe!
Even the montage with different fights between Raiden and Liu Kang gave me the same vibe. But it's explained that it's only the same event repeating over and over again, under different contexts but on the same linear timeline.
 

Pizza

Thrill Kill
This got me thinking. A lot.

Follow me here, because I think I figured out a way to make this make almost sense.

Now...thinking about WHY Quan Chi could possibly want to cast the Ward, or ways it could still happen with Evil Sindel that would make us all happy, made me insane for a bit...but I have a theory.

It dawned on me that he could easily have something to gain from Earthrealm staying in one piece. Example: maybe he needed Shao Kahn to NOT conquer Earthrealm, because of something to do with the Kamidogu and resurrecting the Dragon King's Army, and it can't be done if Kahn assimilates Earthrealm into Outworld. Something like that.
It would make sense if it didn't lose its legs completely in a world where Sindel was evil the whole time, so I tried to MK logic my way around it.

With Good Sindel, it could have easily gone that Quan Chi picked up on Sindel's fear and dread and so on and put the idea in her head. The act itself maintains all nobility, no one suspects him, Sindel's character is preserved. But with Evil Sindel...I don't see how Quan Chi kills Sindel and makes the ward without Kahn bashing his head in, if there's even canonically a ward anymore at all.

The ONLY thing I can think of that could run this back and rationalize it...taking into account that this IS Mortal Kombat and while one is encouraged to bend reality, things won't always make perfect sense...is if Quan Chi had been in with Kronika, who can pull people through the sands of time from who knows where, from the very beginning as well.
If he had been shown his whole timeline, he would have been able to arrange everything as close to perfectly as possible. Hence the forever frustrating "Quan Chi Did It" answer for everything; maybe, he really did do EVERYTHING, to get his ultimate result, but in an even more convoluted way than Liu and Fujin.
It could very well be that this Sindel may not be the original Good Sindel at all.
Perhaps, in exchange for what he's seen, Quan Chi led Kronika, who has already been proven to be insanely powerful but not omnipotent, to strike a deal with Havik in Chaosrealm, to use the power of the Tempest to find a version of Sindel (and maybe also Shao Kahn) from a different reality where she WAS evil, and that THAT Sindel is one he reanimated into the Revenant to set the trap for later down the line, and the original Sindel is being held prisoner by Havik for some insane purpose, in that giant fucking prison in Chaosrealm that you couldn't get into until after you beat Konquest, where Kira is wandering around trying to regain her memory. Quan wants his army, Kronika wants her New Era, and Havik wants chaos everywhere. They could all win.

That convoluted mess of words is the only way I can rationalize Evil Sindel.

The part about this game that has had me absolutely spun since they introduced the time travel...is that if you hold it up against the original games, and the things that happened that made no sense back then - the characters you'd run into traveling between realms, people being in places and times they had no place being, and almost most importantly: The Pit Of Goo, where you find the Chaosrealm Kamidogu and suddenly Shujinko loses years of his life in a matter of moments. First appearance of a timewarp in the MK timeline, and things definitely seemed a bit out of order after that.

If you take these two seperately illogical stories, and tie some of the knots together...it can add up. But not a whole hell of a lot of current players have played the 3D games, and are not aware of a lot of the stuff that's already in the books, so I can see how it wouldn't come up often.
But it could be done.
This is the most plausible explanation. If the multiple realities angle is expanded, then it opens the possibility to have vastly different versions of the characters.

I mean, they work with Warner/DC. Multiverses should be the first choice before getting into time travel lol
 

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
I utterly adored this story expansion. I don't typically like the good characters, but playing as Nightwolf and Fujin was super fun.

Playing as Shao Kahn and Sindel though? The single most fun I've had in any part of any story in any MK game. Delightfully evil, powerful AND I got to whoop on all the awfully dull good guy characters I've been forced to follow for the last few games?! MORE OF THIS PLZ NRS

I genuinely don't understand the complaints about retcons or whatever as if it's something new that NRS/Midway has never done before.

Remember when the Deadly Alliance killed Shao Kahn? PSYCH it was a body double.

Remember when Johnny Cage was killed off screen in MK2 and then by MK4 they were like ehhhhh he's alive again for... some reason.

The power level complaints are silly too because they've also been all over the place. Liu Kang defeated Goro, Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn TWICE only to be hit with a one single fireball to the back and was unable to resist having his neck snapped. Like wut? He should have taken them to school.

Nobody here seems to scrutinize all the old, crappy inconsistencies because it wasn't all presented in an easily digestible cinematic form and because rose tinted glasses. Nobody wants to admit they're fans of a franchise that has always been silly, poorly written and stitched together.

It's supposed to be campy, 80's, kung fu movie inspired fun. Just have fun.
Stop making sense.
 
Just realised something.
Why the hell didn't Raiden make Liu Kang a god immediately? He needs to save the Revenant? He really doesn't, the dude would just disappear after Liu got godhood. He could avoid it all really.
 

Lt. Boxy Angelman

I WILL EAT THIS GAME
This is the most plausible explanation. If the multiple realities angle is expanded, then it opens the possibility to have vastly different versions of the characters.

I mean, they work with Warner/DC. Multiverses should be the first choice before getting into time travel lol
Exactly. It's already their wheelhouse, and they've already gone full Rick and Morty shattering the timeline like Raiden's amulet, so if it can make ANY of this make sense, why not? And it would also be a perfect segue to Injustice 3, where multiverses and time travel are a welcome normalcy.
 

NickDaGreek1983

Oh, my days !
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
A little geeky reminder here :
Firegod Liu Kang is supposed to be consisted of two Liu Kangs (revenant and human), Raiden and Kronika.
Plus, supposedly in the mk lore, Liu is above shang in the "power food chain".
The fact that shang steals souls AND their victims' powers existed since the beginning of mk and he still lost so soul adding is a lesser factor than the actual crown.
 

Kiss the Missile

Red Messiah
A little geeky reminder here :
Firegod Liu Kang is supposed to be consisted of two Liu Kangs (revenant and human), Raiden and Kronika.
Plus, supposedly in the mk lore, Liu is above shang in the "power food chain".
The fact that shang steals souls AND their victims' powers existed since the beginning of mk and he still lost so soul adding is a lesser factor than the actual crown.
I forgot about the double Liu part, but it still doesn't change Shang stealing souls of this caliber. No doubt he's stolen souls over thousands of years, but they went out of their way to show him stealing very important souls right before his fight with Liu.

It's like in MK9 where Shao Kahn gives Sindel Shang's soul, and with that power she uses it to kill half of the cast. But in MK11 souls don't seem to mean shit.
 

Sonzai

Noob
The one thing that really stood out to me in this story is that outworlders switch sides faster then Erron Blacks coin after he flips it in the air

They went to seeing Kotal as their ruler, to Shao, to Kitana and then back to Shoa in a matter of days
 
It's obvious that power levels in mk were always bullshit.

Don't read too much into it. In the end, you get to control a character beating another character, and the story has to revolve around that mechanic.
It's all over the place now though. Useless gods, useless elder gods, super powerful simpletons, coward Kotal, Non buffed Sindel destroying everyone. Unreasobable characters everywhere, also dumb to trust Shang Tsung, the lore's n.1 snake.
MK's story became a bad copy of super hero comic movies.
 

Nickolaidas

Agent of Chaosrealm
The one thing that really stood out to me in this story is that outworlders switch sides faster then Erron Blacks coin after he flips it in the air

They went to seeing Kotal as their ruler, to Shao, to Kitana and then back to Shoa in a matter of days
Outworld was always ruled by power. Every race except the Edenians have the temperament of an orc. They only respect the power of the victor.
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
Just finished the story. I liked it up until the Sindel/Shao Kahn teammate part. Overall I really enjoyed it, although time travel stories are almost always dumb due to never having any real stakes, and the story was kinda dumb.
 

xKMMx

Banned
Just finished the story. I liked it up until the Sindel/Shao Kahn teammate part. Overall I really enjoyed it, although time travel stories are almost always dumb due to never having any real stakes, and the story was kinda dumb.
That's been my biggest sticking point on these story modes. I can forgive some of the voice acting especially when its side by side with a performance like Cary's, cause this isn't a Hollywood production or anything. But it's all so anti climactic because you can just shrug off any death because time travel means they can just resurrect them in anyway. Revenants always get a chance to not be revenants and anyone that dies they can and will come back and say that happened before this or that so it was fixed by the ending.
 

mattteo

Noob
This is the most plausible explanation. If the multiple realities angle is expanded, then it opens the possibility to have vastly different versions of the characters.

I mean, they work with Warner/DC. Multiverses should be the first choice before getting into time travel lol

No multiple realities please.

This is not Avengers or DC kiddie shit going back in time and sprouting an entire Universe with billions of stars and galaxies and infinite matter with a snap of the fingers.

Why would Kronika even bother with this reality if there are infinite ones in which she can do her plan?

One timeline, one single Universe. This is for the better story
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
But it's all so anti climactic because you can just shrug off any death because time travel means they can just resurrect them in anyway. Revenants always get a chance to not be revenants and anyone that dies they can and will come back and say that happened before this or that so it was fixed by the ending.
It just felt a little exploitive to me. Basically a chance to show all the hero characters getting their stuffing knocked out, and then be like "oh it didn't actually matter". It just came off more like a fan power fantasy than good storytelling.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
No multiple realities please.

This is not Avengers or DC kiddie shit going back in time and sprouting an entire Universe with billions of stars and galaxies and infinite matter with a snap of the fingers.

Why would Kronika even bother with this reality if there are infinite ones in which she can do her plan?

One timeline, one single Universe. This is for the better story
MK is way more silly and stupid than DC lol
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Seeing Kotal's severed head getting tossed in the center of the frame when Shao and Sindel spared ALL of Johnny, Cassie, Liu, Kitana, and possibly Jade on the ship, them not even bringing Sub and Scorpion to the final battle this time to keep them safe. Baraka and Sheeva as well. It seriously seems like they hate Kotal, just leave him dead and spare the poor guy. Why only kill Kotal if Fire God Liu Kang will save everyone regardless?