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I honestly miss the original timeline of Mortal Kombat....

U

Uzumaki Goku

Junior Member
I totally get why they rebooted... (well, kinda) but honestly, after following the original timeline for so long, to see it just gone was kinda... disappointing. Honestly, the new timeline just isn't as interesting as the original was, I really hate the whole good guys are now revenants, I much preferred Smoke becoming the cyborg instead of Sub-Zero. (It was a tragic reversal, Sub-Zero found humanity while Smoke has, switching the roles really did nothing but provide shock value)

It seems like what we got in MKX was a holdover plan of what was going to be MK8 before DC came in and demanded they make a crossover game... so as of now, who only knows what direction the series would've gone in if they hadn't had made MKvs.DCU. (Although it did lead to Warner Bros buying them so some good came out of that)

Maybe I'm just too nostalgic...
 
Storywise, I don't like the direction they went in with MKX, I did like what they did with the last one though.
 
I haven't played MKX but it seems to me it doesn't really matter if it rebooted or not. It's not like they had any sort of grand plan, being able to squeeze some intrigue out of "you thought things would happen this way, but now they don't!" is a decent strategy.
 
The old timeline had nowhere left to go. It was a literal Armageddon.

Rebooting was more of a necessity than an optional choice, we can just be thankful that they were actually creative and did it in a soft reboot so that all the old canon really happened it just doesn't matter anymore because it's been rewritten.

Besides the tones the same and the differences for the most part are just literal "if we made choice A here Instead of B" until it spirals out of control through butterfly effect.

I like what they did better than a hard reset, and they had to do something there was nowhere left to go in the original timeline.

I think that's the most both in amount and coherency of thought I have ever put into the Mortal Kombat story, so thanks for that I guess.
 
The original storyline was butt. It had its good parts, but literally everyone came back for no reason at all towards the end. Then you had dumb shit like the Dragon Egg, Blaze and co. and Tavern or something trying to be the new Liu Kang. Oh, and speaking of shock value, killing him off in the old timeline was worse than the new one.
 
As far as the Revenants go, Liu Kang had been an undead since Deception, and Armageddon hinted at the same "evil undead with desire for revenge!" direction they've gone with now.

I think the big mistake was just killing everyone at once with Sindel in MKIX, since it resulted in a bunch of generic revenant characters or arbitrary resurrections (see Sub-Zero) which easily could have been avoided.
 
The story was a nonsensical mess that was created strictly so the player would be forced to play as Jax at some point.
 
I only even care about the story of 1 through UMK3. After that, nothing counts to me.
 
NeonZ said:
As far as the Revenants go, Liu Kang had been an undead since Deception, and Armageddon hinted at the same "evil undead with desire for revenge!" direction they've gone with now.

I think the big mistake was just killing everyone at once with Sindel in MKIX, since it resulted in a bunch of generic revenant characters or arbitrary resurrections (see Sub-Zero) which easily could have been avoided.
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Pretty much. I'm guessing this was done on purpose because Ed is a huge troll and he left fans hanging on "omg all the characters are dead!" but then most of them reappeared in MKX with Ed being all "What you actually expected us to stick by that? lol"

Even then most of the new characters in MKX really did suck (I despise the kombat kids because they're all bland as hell) and it seems like they're purposely going as far as they possibly can with most of the OG cast but most of them really don't seem to be paying off (We're heading back into Edgy Raiden territory again)

I know it seems weird to care about the story in a fighting game but with how big story mode is as part of the MK experience now, they could at least do a little better with it and the characters.
 
To be honest I never really quite got what MK3s storyline was. It took til mk9 to really make sense of it. The cgi intros for the ps2 era games were useful.

MK was always willing to be experimental with its roster, whether or not there's an actual thematic reason for it or not (remember when they made an MK game without Scorpion in it?), so I'm used to things shuffling around.

As for the new timeline, I liked half of MKXs plot: the outfield politics and power vacuum left in the wake of shao khans death was interesting. Kotal khan and dvoora are cool character and mileena was an actual character for the first time as well. However, the kids, jinsei, johnny cages hidden powers: these are all really weak and lazy storytelling. The 'next generations' tournament was something that hAd been teased since after MK vs D.C., so it's nice to have it, but less weird stuff (kindly human kung Lao and Liu kang and the scorpion on the box not showing up in the story at all) from now on.
 
Of all MK's lore I only ever really dug the "Edenia" stuff; Sindel, Kitana going rogue, Jade going after her then teaming up, and Mileena always in pursuit.
 
fhqwhgads said:
Pretty much. I'm guessing this was done on purpose because Ed is a huge troll and he left fans hanging on "omg all the characters are dead!" but then most of them reappeared in MKX with Ed being all "What you actually expected us to stick by that? lol"

Even then most of the new characters in MKX really did suck (I despise the kombat kids because they're all bland as hell) and it seems like they're purposely going as far as they possibly can with most of the OG cast but most of them really don't seem to be paying off (We're heading back into Edgy Raiden territory again)

I know it seems weird to care about the story in a fighting game but with how big story mode is as part of the MK experience now, they could at least do a little better with it and the characters.
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Yeah Cyber Sub was just a shock value twist
 
I mean it looks like we're due for another reboot soon. Going by the timeline MKX was the same time period as MK4 but everything is worse . Raiden already messed up this timeline even more when he killed Liu Kang in MK9.

But now we have Evil Liu Kang and Kitana running Nettherealm. Unstable Dark Raiden in Earthrealm like Deception but it seem's like he's gonna be more cruel this time around. Almost certain that Shang Tsung is gonna try something since he's out of Ermac now (depending on what endings are canon but he's a staple character).

Onaga is still probably around too

I think we're heading toward a faster Armageddon. Maybe not in MK11 but MK12. Too much craziness is happening for Armageddon not to come.
 
fhqwhgads said:
Pretty much. I'm guessing this was done on purpose because Ed is a huge troll and he left fans hanging on "omg all the characters are dead!" but then most of them reappeared in MKX with Ed being all "What you actually expected us to stick by that? lol"
Click to expand...

He did stick by that, most of the characters that died in MK9 are still dead.
 
I didn't know what actually happend in MK after the first game, and they introduced so many random characters and plotlines that it was more convoluted than KH, rebooting the series was all they could do after Armageddon anyway when literally everyone died
 
DC didn't demanded anything. :p
There was a pitch, Midway needed the money and they went for it. It was a success and one of the reasons WB was interested (and bid and won) Mortal Kombat.

As for the new timeline, is a crazy way to continue things. Heck they can throw multiple timelines into the mix, and X already alluded to that.
 
NeonZ said:
I think the big mistake was just killing everyone at once with Sindel in MKIX, since it resulted in a bunch of generic revenant characters or arbitrary resurrections (see Sub-Zero) which easily could have been avoided.
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Agreed, though I do think that works within the story of MK9 itself. It's Raiden's story, so the plot thread of his realization still happens and the other characters are more expendable. The problem arises when you make a sequel to MK9, if it was self-contained it would be fine.

If anything, that actually puts more of the blame on MK10 for not succeeding with the subsequent plot. I kind of feel like the more natural move would have been to focus on more of the MK4 and later characters, but most of them were never particularly popular. Really makes you think about the conflict between picking the most popular characters versus staying true to your storytelling. KOF's got it right with Dream Matches.
 
I hate the Mileena retcon.

In the old timeline Mileena and Kitana grew up together.

In the new timeline Mileena was created during MK2.

It takes away from her character development.
 
I need to get caught up as I haven't followed the actual lore since the OG arcade games when I was a kid.

Any good wikis to summarize general storylines and when the actual reboot was?
 
Inuhanyou said:
I didn't know what actually happend in MK after the first game, and they introduced so many random characters and plotlines that it was more convoluted than KH, rebooting the series was all they could do after Armageddon anyway when literally everyone died
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That's not really true though. That ending only came from MKIX itself, alongside the reveal that Shao Khan had obtained the supreme power. In Armageddon's story mode, basically no playable character died throughout and Taven was the one to win the power in the end - although then he gave smaller versions of it to all other characters (which likely was originally meant to allow them to make any arcade endings they wanted canon for the next game, before they thought about rebooting).

RedBoot said:
Agreed, though I do think that works within the story of MK9 itself. It's Raiden's story, so the plot thread of his realization still happens and the other characters are more expendable. The problem arises when you make a sequel to MK9, if it was self-contained it would be fine.

If anything, that actually puts more of the blame on MK10 for not succeeding with the subsequent plot. I kind of feel like the more natural move would have been to focus on more of the MK4 and later characters, but most of them were never particularly popular. Really makes you think about the conflict between picking the most popular characters versus staying true to your storytelling. KOF's got it right with Dream Matches.
Click to expand...

The main issue is that it was always obvious they wouldn't throw away all those established characters in a sequel. Even KoF doesn't kill off so many core characters, in spite of dream matches. It's mostly newcomers tied to the current villains and the main villains themselves that get killed off.
 
I loved the rebooted trilogy in MK9. But I don't like where the story went in MKX. The Kombat Kids do nothing for me.
 
There's a lot I do miss from the original timeline. Kitana's arc was amazing, Sub-zero's growth from rogue ninja hunted by his clan to its future leader, Sareena's emancipation from Quan Chi, etc.

But there was a ton of garbage. Darrius, Kobra, Hotaru, Hsu Hoa... this stuff was going nowhere.

MKX has some stinkers too. I don't think we'll see Ferra-Torr return, and D'vorah was a far less interesting character than Mileena to fulfill the monster girl quota.

I do want to see some of the heroes redeemed instead of just revenants. Switch it up and have Sindel try and save her daughter for example, or Sub-zero trying to redeem Smoke.

I don't mind the Kombat Kids. They're fine, but perhaps a tad too Mary Sue'd. Cassie beating Shinnok due to magic green glow genes was straight up BS... still fun story mode though.
 
Vampfox said:
I hate the Mileena retcon.

In the old timeline Mileena and Kitana grew up together.

In the new timeline Mileena was created during MK2.

It takes away from her character development.
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Which never really made sense as Edenia was annexed by Outworld long before Shang Tsung joined Shao Kahn, and Shang Tsung was always the one who created Mileena.
 
MkX was the best game mechanically and visually but that story was swamp ass tier.

Still pissed that they didn't follow the comics which were great.
 
Vampfox said:
I hate the Mileena retcon.

In the old timeline Mileena and Kitana grew up together.

In the new timeline Mileena was created during MK2.

It takes away from her character development.
Click to expand...

There was very little actual character development in Mortal Kombat and Mileena was not one of the few characters that were actually developed.

Maybe you mean "backstory"? Because what happened before the games is, by definition, not "character development".
 
- Scorpion rebuilt the Shirai Ryu and has a semblance of a normal life

- Sub-Zero and Scorpion buried the hatchet for good (as opposed to the tense alliance of the old timeline)

- Johnny Cage is widely recognized as Earth's savior

- More focus on trans-dimensional politics.

This new timeline does a lot of things right, so I'm pretty okay with it.
 
I started following Mortal Kombat story around MK4, around then and with no access to internet, I was kinda finishing the game with different characters and trying to make up a universal story, I recall loving Scorpion ending, but Sub-Zero ending made more sense to me, years later with Deadly Alliance I found out that it was indeed part of the canon, and I redid with Deadly Alliance what I did with MK4, but the difference is, it had this Konquest mode which I found pretty fun but rough around the edges, the story didn't really do anything for me. Yet Deadly Alliance was one of my all time favorite MK titles.

Then came Deception with its amazing Konquest mode, I really loved the hell out of it, and the story made sense and connected alot of dots while focusing on different characters with different points of view, this was the best story mode done for an MK title. On the other hand I can't really say the same about Armageddon, I wasn't able to finish the Konquest mode nor was interested in the fighter endings, and I was glad to know of the reboot.

MK 2011 now has the best story for me, it involved all the characters, was a bit of a reset while showing many different characters, showcasing events and some time changing them. I had not trouble with it, I quite loved it to the core. Yet again MKX story was not as interesting, and despite being excited about it, I felt it was somehow a bit lacking.

So overall, I think I quite like the new direction, and I am happy with the reboot.
 
I feel like eventually the reboot timeline will end up just like the original timeline.

Raiden is corrupted again, Liu Kang is dead, first villain was Shao Kahn, then Shinnok.

And Blaze and Onaga were hinted already to appear in the near future.

I will be shocked if a new Armageddon doesn't occur in 2-3 games from now.
 
I really want an awesome kick ass gritty MK film.

Whatever happened to that web series from a few a years ago? I think I only watched 2/3 episodes. Was it not supposed to lead to a film in a similar vain?
 
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