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Crusty's Food for Thought: Revenants and Wraiths

Crusty

Crusty

Retired forever; don’t ask for games.
Hey guys,

Crusty Clown here, aka the guy who still plays IGAU to everyone's annoyance, and I would like to spark a discussion regarding Quan Chi's specters formed the fallen heroes of MK.

This isn't as much of a question as it is what is the difference between a wraith and a revenant in the MK Universe.

In the context of the real world, Google gives these definitions to describe wraith and revenant respectively.
  • a ghost or ghostlike image of someone, especially one seen shortly before or after their death.
  • a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.
We all know many of the heroes from MK9 are canonically dead and that they are, or at least were bound to Quan Chi via necromancy. Old Quan Cheesy has had a penchant for turning fallen warriors into his own slaves, but the manner in how the warrior return seems to differ, if not inconsistent.

Let's look at the following scenarios:

Quan Cheesy created Scorpion from Hanzo Hashashi's soul after he died, at least at according to him. Hanzo become a wraith able to control Hellfire. Shortly afterwards, towards the events of the first tournament, Hanzo, now Scorpion, murders Bi-Han (aka Older Sub-Zero) causing Bi-Han's soul to ascend to the fifth plane of the Netherrealm and transforming him into the wraith of shadow and darkness, Noob Saibot.

Towards the end of MK9, Sindel murders Kitana, Jade, Kabal, Stryker, Smoke and Cyber Sub only to be killed by Nightwolf whereas Kung Lao was murdered by Shao Kahn and Liu Kang was electrocuted by Raiden an died from his wounds in the process. All of these fallen warriors have returned as revenants controlled by Quan Cheese.

This is where the discussion starts. It is evident that Noob and Scorpion are different compared to the other fallen heroes who became revenants. They gained new abilities upon transforming into hellspawn while everyone else more or less remained the same. Needless to say, they all share a black filtered view of the events and people in their lives as and Subzero is de-cyberized during his time as a revenant in the MKX comics.

Why was everyone else resurrected as the undead different compared to those two? Why couldn't they get different abilities upon transitioning like Bi-Han and Hanzo? Better question would be why would Quan revive these warriors in different ways instead of being consistent?

This is more of a free interpretation of the motives of these decisions and nothing else (be they in universe or out). Feel free to hit me up on how you interpret the situation.
 
usedcarsalesmang

usedcarsalesmang

Warrior
It probably took years of Quan Chi's planning to turn Hanzo and Sub Zero into Scorpion and Noob.
All that twisted hate for each other was used to turn them into hellspawn.

The other characters killed in MK9 were probably killed to quickly to be twisted into something other than a revenant.
 
Crusty

Crusty

Retired forever; don’t ask for games.
16 Bit said:
Creating a wraith like Scorpion and Sub-Zero probably requires more complicated magic and presumably the ones chosen for it are more willing. I get the impression Hanzo and Bi Han gave in to darkness where as the other revenants are brainwashed.
Click to expand...
According to Raiden, because of Bi-Han's inner evil he went to the fifth plane of the Netherrealm where he was stripped of his pride,compassion and humanity, turning him into Noob Saibot. He is best described as pure evil in this sense. Scorpion made a deal with Quan Chito achieve vengeance, Bi-Han was shoved in the Netherrealm after his death. I do understand what you mean by them being more willing though, not in the same sense.

It seems that wraiths are worse than revenants in that sense. Whereas revenants seem blindly loyal, Noob and Scorpion have some free will. Noob wants to rule the Netherrealm and Scorpion has shown to disobey Quan multiple times.
 
Eddy Wang

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
Wraiths gain new abilities, free will, and are more powerful, revenants are just scrubs who were forced some obedience into them.
16bit pretty much hit the nail.

Quan Chi is a demon sorcerer, makes me wonder, what kind of powers other demons have.
 
ikonoklast

ikonoklast

I want your soul, I will eat your soul
GLoRToR said:
Being dead might be bad for hair growth.
Click to expand...
No you've got it all wrong. Kung Lao is obviously wearing a tuopee when he is alive. Quan refused to let him wear his wig when he controlled him. You see Quan was jealous because he lost his hair in his early twenties and was always angry about the earth realm fighters beautiful hair . This is the main reason he is always trying to kill the earth realm warriors. He just wants their hair. He will do anything to get it.
 
G

Goat-City-II

Banned
In the comics, before Hanzo died he prayed to the fire that it would melt the ice his family was encased in. When he died he went to the Netherrealm to be tortured, but the fire didn't burn him. On page 11 of issue 10, he says "I died, but my soul kept praying for fire." So we can assume that his ability to not burn in hellfire was a result of this in some way. Quan Chi would've had no interest in him had he not had this ability because he would not have been powerful enough to be worthy of being turned into a slave, so from this we know that Quan Chi was only able to grant Scorpion the ability of controlling hellfire under 2 conditions. 1. Scorpion had to already have the ability of not being burned by it, and 2. Scorpion had to willingly agree to getting the power under the promise that he would serve Quan. Otherwise, if Quan could've given him the power without leaving his free will in tact, he would've done so. If we know this, then Noob must've had the same conditions. He must've agreed to receive the power to control darkness willingly as long as he agreed to become Quan Chi's minion, and he must've achieved some affiliation for it before or when he died.

So the reason the revenants didn't also acquire special abilities after they died comes down to either them not willingly agreeing to serve Quan in exchange for the power, or they had not recieved any special gift when they died/they weren't corrupted by anger or evil before death, or both.
 
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Crusty

Crusty

Retired forever; don’t ask for games.
It is interesting to note that Scorpion kept his hellfire powers when he was brought back to life. Thoughts
 
Israfel

Israfel

Designer for BxA
16 Bit said:
Creating a wraith like Scorpion and Sub-Zero probably requires more complicated magic and presumably the ones chosen for it are more willing. I get the impression Hanzo and Bi Han gave in to darkness where as the other revenants are brainwashed.
Click to expand...
These were similar to my thoughts. Hanzo and Bi-Han likely had (more)darkness inside of them then the other "heroes" of MK9. Hanzo wanted revenge and murdered Bi-Han so his soul was possibly tainted. Bi-Han in answer to his violent murder became an angry/vengeful spirit. Hence why both of them came back with supernatural powers.

In contrast, the other heroes were fighting for there lives and for the well being of Earthrealm so instead of becoming vengeful spirits or having tainted souls they were just enslaved before their souls could move on.
 
Jaku2011

Jaku2011

Filled with determination
I want to give a smart ass answer and say Scorpion and Noob came before the idea of revenants were a thing. But it could be that all the characters that are revenants are good guys and giving them cool new powers with slight free will might be too risky, they may just rebel and go back to being good guys. From what I understand Sindel is a good guy as well but was corrupted when she was resurrected so maybe she would have been risky as well.
 
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