Headscratchers / Mortal Kombat 11

• Kronika has relatives? What a surprise. One of the recently introduced newcomers of Mortal Kombat universe - the Elder Goddess called Cetrion - is her daughter. Here is yet another curveball: Cetrion is also Shinnok's sister. Does this mean that Shinnok would actually be Kronika's (possibly disowned) son?
  • Yes, Shinnok's her son. Given her desire for balance, she may have also been helping him do as well as he did in the various timelines - so there'd be a suitable darkness to oppose light after Shao Kahn's defeat, considering the guy's a putz.
    • Alrighty then. But what if Kronika herself persuaded Shinnok to turn on his brothers and sisters? Maybe she's the one who gave him the obsession to conquer Earthrealm in the first place? She also could give Shinnok a subtle direction towards Netherrealm's throne while he was cast out for treason.

• At the end of Chapter 1, we see Sonya sacrifice herself in order to complete the mission - destroy Shinnok's Bone Temple in the Netherrealm. Immediately afterwards, Kronika appears before Revenant Liu Kang and Revenant Kitana and easily undoes the destruction. Which should mean that this should undo Sonya's death as well. Older Sonya is promptly treated as KIA, but forgotten by Liu Kang or Kitana, who should have taken her prisoner. Or Sonya should have attempted to escape the Netherrealm. Or they should have hinted at the fact that Kronika's Time Rewind doesn't affect dead people (which wouldn't make sense in general, but would fix the plot hole related to Older Sonya's death). It's a plot hole, and a big one.
  • Kronika can selectively alter the flow of time, she left her dead on purpose.
  • It's also possible that she only rewound the structure and not the people who died there.

• How does the One Being play into MK11 story mode and Kronika herself and her goals? Throughout the story, it's never made clear how exactly she plays into the rest of the lore and how the time stuff affect the one being, especially the ending.
  • It's not explicit in the story but Scorpion and Sonya's endings state that there's an even higher lair of gods than the Elder Gods (like the One Being and Kronika). So that means that it's probably a Hero of Another Story kind of deal.

• Is there any legitimate reason (other than Rule of Cool) to bring back Shao Kahn for Mortal Kombat 11? Even if there is one, then how the game will explain his comeback?
  • He's from the past (specifically MK 2 era), like Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Good Raiden, etc. Time Crash basically brought all of those characters back
  • There is also a character arc reason for his return.

• How was Liu Kang's future self/revenant counterpart able to absorb his soul without erasing himself from existence?
  • It's possible Liu Kang wasn't entirely dead from having his soul stolen, just in some kind of state of suspended being. It's also possible that since there was still a way to potentially bring Young Liu Kang back, that time hadn't recognized him as being erased, unlike Kano who had a hole where one's brain should be. It could also be that Kronika's keep exists outside of time, and events taking place in there are paradox-proof.
  • There's also the simple fact that Future/Revenant Liu Kang is already technically dead. Being dead in the past isn't going to make Future/Revenant Liu Kang any deader than he already was. Whereas, with Kano, he never had Quan Chi mucking about to bring him back in any sort of undead state.

• If Kronika needed souls to "power up", wouldn't she utilize the service of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi - and revive them for this timeline?
  • Maybe she's fully aware of how dangerous and cunning these two sorcerers are. They aren't called Deadly Alliance for nothing. After all, their combined intelligence would be sufficient enough to outsmart even her.
  • Why would she? She clearly states that she's already made use of Shang Tsung to provide the power she needs and Liu Kang as mastered his sorcery so if she needs more she's got him. Bringing either of those two back would just piss off Shao Kahn and the revenants. Plus they're both the type to try and steal her hourglass for themselves instead of just following the plan.
  • Explained by Cetrion in some match intros with Shang Tsung. Kronika recruited him in previous timelines, but he always betrayed her. With Quan Chi being even more treacherous, it's safe to assume the same thing happened.
  • This may be covered in Aftermath. Kronika revealed that Shang Tsung is very dangerous, yet wonders why the forces of good are siding with him.
  • This is explained in Aftermath. Full stop. Since the defeat of Kronika, Liu Kang agreed to send him back in time to retrieve the crown, and anticipated that Shang Tsung would betray everyone and be powerful enough to absorb Kronika's soul. As for Quan Chi, his whereabouts are unknown, though it can be hinted his involvement with Cetrion, Shinnok's sister.

• One more thing about Kronika. When you beat her in classic mode. Why does she crawl? I mean she can probably get up, run to the crown, repair the hourglass, then get back to ass-kicking ('Nam flashbacking to a 22 hit combo.).
  • That's the thing, you already kicked her ass. And knowing that sometimes adrenaline can cloud logical thoughts it's not too far-fetched that she'd crawl instead of run.
  • And some of the fighters in this game are strong enough to: create shockwaves, keep themselves supported when bicycle-kicking, heave a huge hammer, use frickin hair as a support, throw a gun hard enough to make a lot of blood come out your face, shoot f*cking heat out of their arms, nut punch hard enough for your head to pop off, pick someone up without extra support, flap two fans hard enough to propel their ass hard enough to crack someone's skull, pull someone with a chain-kunai and nothing else, lift someone on an axe, push hard enough to make a spike of blood go through someone's head, push hard enough with legs to dental nightmare someone, pull a spear out of a body easily, break a lot of ribcage's and beat the mad goddess of time.
  • She just got the living daylights beaten out of her and to top it off, she was punched with enough force to break the hourglass and land on the ground. Being such a powerful relic, it's very likely that breaking it isn't an easy task, so the force used to knock her into it had to be pretty hard. Taking all this into account, it's reasonable to believe she's still dazed an stunned from the impact, so she couldn't muster enough balance to stand up as she was.

• As the Mortal Kombat universe was established during its first years, we all knew that the Realms were created by the Elder Gods as a result of overpowering the One Being and shattering it into the pieces. Also, we knew that at the beginning of time, there were only Elder Gods and the One Being - the emphasis on the word only. Thus, there was nothing that could exist before the Elder Gods in general. And yet, we have Mortal Kombat 11. This title introduces a major contradiction - the Titans (of which Kronika is the only known member). The Titans are said to exist even earlier than the Elder Gods - which is evidenced by one of such gods, Cetrion, being Kronika's daughter. Did the developers forgot that no other race would exist at the dawn of the MK universe, before the Elder Gods and the One Being? What's the point of bringing up the Titans? Why change the lore so drastically?
  • It really isn't a drastic change at all; it's explicit the One Being fed on the Elder Gods, so they had to come from somewhere, being the spawn of older gods is hardly a large asterisk. Like Gaia, Khaos, or Cipactli, it could be that the One Being is a Titan or their parent, and being slain allowed the Elder Gods to remake it into the Realms.

• Past Raiden claims that his future self disappears because he's immortal - and when it comes to immortals, There Can Be Only One. But what about Scorpion, Liu Kang and Erron Black? They are immortal too, but aren't affected the same way as Raiden.
  • Think about the word "immortal" as in "deity" or "god". (Dark) Raiden certainly fits the description well. As for Scorpion, he's certainly immortal - but as an undead wraith resurrected to serve Quan Chi; he doesn't have godly powers. Liu Kang was brought back to life as a revenant, but that also doesn't make him immortal in the godly sense of the word. Why do you thought about Erron Black being immortal? His life was magically prolonged by Shang Tsung - and such operation doesn't render him immortal; he can simply live hundreds of years without breaking a sweat.
  • Scorpion has never been immortal. All that could happen to him is that he gets resurrected, but he has never been deemed an immortal. Besides, his future self is human again anyway.
  • Also, Dark Raiden simply wouldn't be included into Kronika's plans: she needed the original - unaltered - Raiden.
    • Needed for what? In fact, Raiden being present at all is what ultimately spoils her plans. She was only threatened by the combined power of Liu Kang and Raiden, taking either one off the board would solve the issue. Speaking of that, how was she able to bring Past Raiden to the future at all, if gods are immune to her time manipulation powers?
    • She simply opened the time portal and Raiden came through, it was a necessary move to bring the others to the present. Plus, a younger, uncorrupted Raiden is less aggressive and dangerous than the aggressive, proactive Dark Raiden. It also robs him of his current timeline knowledge, making him less aware of his own resources and wastes their time having to explain things.

• Why did Kronika's time manipulation also bring forward a bunch of good-aligned characters from the past, along with her recruiting the bad ones? It's not like she just cast a wide net and scooped up a bunch of innocent bystanders; they were very specifically important characters from MK's history who collectively became integral to stopping her plans. Was this just a weirdly-specific cosmic screw-up on Kronika's part?
  • What effects the past fighters also effects the present ones, if Kronika can turn the past versions of Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Jade and Kitana to turn on Raiden then that robs Raiden of allies and strengthens her position without her having to rewrite their destinies which makes her end goal easier to achieve. You'll notice Kronika has each of the past fighters fight their future selves and reveal what led to their deaths (aside from Kitana, but that's because Kitana was largely out of the action for most of the story playing diplomat).
  • Could be Kronika's obsession with symmetry and balance just being that extreme. In any case, having them all fight each other stopped the time-displaced good guys from beating her and stopped the time-displaced bad guys from putting two and two together and turning on her for clearly not intending to keep her promises.
  • Could also be that Past!Raiden saw Shao Kahn vanish in a ripple and decide to follow him to see what happens. I don't think we ever saw what happened from their perspective.
  • I'm pretty sure Kronika did "just cast a wide net and scooped up a bunch of innocent bystanders." Everyone who shows up from the past into the arena are people who were at the tournament with Shao Kahn and the others she was after. The only others that arrive in the future who weren't there are the cyborgs and Noob Saibot. Her control of time is not perfect (or she wouldn't need to keep redoing history over and over), I assumed bringing forward the heroes was a mistake.

• "But I re-read the file." When, Sonya? Did you seriously sit down and re-read the report after every screen turned red, alarms started blaring, and your future daughter screaming: "We're under attack, go to Condition Red!" over the loudspeaker? I know you were ordered by your future-daughter-CO to do so, but: 1) Did that really seem like the appropriate action at that particular moment, and 2) Could you really concentrate on that specific issue with all those (urgent) distractions going on?
  • Between killing Kano(s) and Geras' attack, there was plenty of time for her to take a break and re-read said report.
  • It was very likely Sonya lied. Cassie gave Sonya a very justified What the Hell, Hero? response for accusing her of leaving her own mother to die, especially since it just recently happened. Sonya had a Jerkass Realization and after Cassie stormed at Kano's hideout to rescue her and Johnny, Sonya admitted her mistake in her own way. It's not a perfect apology but it took a lot off of Cassie's guilt of being unable to save her Sonya.

• So in Scorpion's chapter, we see that Cetrion needs to raise a bridge to gather Kronika's army because Kharon won't help them with his boats, and that taxes Cetrion's powers. 2 Chapters later, Kronika's even bigger boat attacks Raiden's. So why not use Kronika's own super boat in the first place? Heck, her ship doesn't even rely on sails.
  • You need more than a boat to travel between realms, especially to Kronika's since her keep is between them.
    • Alternatively, her battleship wasn't large enough to transport the entire Cyber Lin Kuei/Netherrealm demon army. After all, Kharon has a small fleet of barges, not just the one boat.
  • Kharon's purpose is, in a cosmic sense, to ferry souls across the rivers of the Netherrealm. So it's not strange that his purpose is a source for as many ships as are needed to carry the heroes and their forces. Kronika is a time goddess, she cannot create an armada out of nothing unless she carefully manipulates the timeline to give one to her, which has proven a slow and delicate process.

• During the fight between present Johnny Cage and past Johnny Cage, how is present Johnny Cage not getting hurt when he beats up his younger self? The timeline rules explicity stated that past selves getting hurt affects the present selves.
  • Because Johnny isn't being significantly hurt, just a bit bruised in body and ego, stuff that will be gone soon enough and therefore not appear on a Johnny that's decades older. The injuries we see carry over are those that cause lasting damage and therefore would affect the older self. For example: young Johnny's face gets grazed by a bullet so older Johnny now has a scar but not the same open wound.

• As Raiden states multiple times, Immortals are immune from Kronika's manipulation of the timeline. Near the end of the story, Kronika reverses time to send Kharon's fleet back from their assault. So what happened to Kharon? Is he a "lesser" type of Immortal and thus affected, or was he just standing there pissed off while his ships sailed backwards against his will?
  • You must interpret "Immortals" as "Deities" or "Gods".
  • Nobody ever said Immortals are immune to her powers, just that they respond to them differently. For example Raiden can be yanked from his place in history just as easily as everyone else but doing so replaces his modern self rather than co-existing like the others. The big rewind is reversing time itself, Kharon included.

• At the end of the story, how Kronika gets crystallized? And, is it possible for her to recover from Literally Shattered Lives predicament?
  • Like all gods, she's made up of her element - in this case, the Sands of Time. When sand is super-heated, it becomes glass, and Liu Kang killed her.
• On that aforementioned note, let's address her fate in the Arcade Mode. How the shards from the Hourglass are able to slice Kronika's limbs off? She's an immortal goddess, for crying out loud!
  • Shinnok was an immortal god and that didn't keep him from being decapitated. It didn't kill him, but there's not a lot one can do as just a head. That was likely the same with Kronika, with her being bisected and sliced up not being anywhere near lethal for her; perhaps not even having her head split in half killed her. But, again, it doesn't matter if you're still alive, if you've been reduced to chunks.

• "Not even you can kill an Elder God." Immortality seems to be the Elder Gods' only real defining trait, given how repeatedly they're overpowered. Yet Kronika dispatches them all off-screen, destroys Cetrion, and is killed by Liu Kang. In what way they are immortal at all?
  • The Elder Gods cannot be killed by anything less than them - only an equal or greater power can kill them. Cetrion killed the other Elder Gods and then sacrificed herself to power up her mother for the fight against Liu Kang. Liu Kang couldn't have killed Cetrion on his own, even with Raiden's godhood. Kronika is a Titan and follows different rules.

• In Jax's arcade ending, wouldn't preventing slavery erase himself from existence? This was a big deal in Jacqui's ending, where she made a Heroic Sacrifice to save her father from becoming a revenant, thus preventing his PTSD, knowing it meant he would never meet her mother and she would never be born. Jax preventing slavery would prevent the circumstances under which his ancestors met, especially if he, like most African-Americans, have tiny bits of European and/or Native American blood as well. He says that it took him a couple tries to get it right, but wouldn't he have erased himself the first time he said "No slavery"? It would be in-character for him to willingly sacrifice himself to make such a change, but the whole point of his ending was that he got everything he wanted.
  • It's likely that having control over the hourglass also renders one outside of the usual cause-and-effect of their actions, until they actually let those actions "sink in" and released control over the hourglass. Jacqui disappeared because she accepted her disappearance from the timeline as being the only way to save her father. Jax's trauma was a fundamental keypoint to her being born. With eliminating slavery from the timeline, that's far enough back that Jax has more wiggle room. And for a being with infinite control over time, a "couple" of tries might as well be hundreds or thousands of tries.
  • The difference between the two scenarios is that Jacqui made no effort to maintain herself, she just crafted a timeline where her dad was happy and accepted it, Jax took time to sculpt a future that contained the changes he wanted and maintained the people he cared about as well.
    • Which is kind of dark, as it implies that Jacqui might have developed a bit of a death wish, worse still a death wish brought on by the trauma of seeing her dad undergo a Face–Heel Turn by joining Kronika just to, in his own mind, protect her. She basically thinks that her dad might have been happier had she never been born.
    • This is, sadly, a thing that really happens. Children whose existence is linked to some tragedy for their loved ones often blame themselves for their parents pain and think those same loved ones would be better of without them. Seeing her dad's mental breakdown after the death of her mom has made Jacqui hyper aware that she owes her life to her dad's pain.
  • I admit this is only speculation, but using the hourglass makes his control of time absolute, right? He could just fill in a new family history for himself and Jacqui and anyone else. Genetically they'd be different but not significantly so.

• In the Koliseum fight, Kotal gets saved when Liu Kang and Raiden gang up on Shao Kahn. When Kotal gets back from the lower level, Raiden is somewhere off-screen while Liu Kang is fighting a random guard on the opposite end of the Koliseum from Shao Kahn (who's just getting finished with kicking the shit out of Jade). So...why, exactly, did Raiden and Liu Kang stop fighting Shao Kahn? As far as they're aware, he's the biggest threat to the realms ever, and they just demonstrated that they're willing to team up to fight him. For that matter, as far as Shao Kahn is aware, his mortal enemy and greatest obstacle were both within arms reach; someone as overconfident as him would have seen that situation as being able to kill two birds with one stone. Considering the characters, Shao Kahn should have been in the middle of getting bailed out by D'Vorah by the time Kotal made it back to the surface.
  • It's impossible to say what took place in the battle that lead Liu Kang and Raiden to focus their efforts elsewhere. Perhaps they were separated from Shao Kahn or perhaps they broke off fighting him so that they could save someone else.
  • Remember, Baraka was also in that fight and this game treats him as a serious threat.

• It seems like Kronika's major hangup with our timeline is that the forces of good and evil aren't carrying on with their senseless, endless war. Okay, fine. But... why does she need to abort the timeline to fix that? Why can't Wraith Liu Kang serve Shinnok's role as Big Daddy Evil? Or, hell, Dark Raiden, for that matter? Either one looked like they were headed that way. And how does the original timeline emphasize Balance in any way? It ends with Shao Kahn taking over the world! That sounds like a decisive victory in Evil's favor. For that matter, how has Shinnok been contributing to Balance when he's been sealed away for millennia?
  • Here are some possible explanations. First, Kronika could sense that the "endless war" you're addressing is about to get FUBAR'ed if she doesn't "set the things right" in her favor. She clearly saw that the Balance shifted waaaaay too drastically for the side of Good, thus Evil gets a major disadvantage in that regard. Second, even though Liu Kang now exists as a Revenant and prefers to stay on the side of Evil, he couldn't assume the role of the so-called "Big Daddy Evil" in time - Kronika offered him a chance for a better life in exchange for servitude. As for the Dark Raiden, he's pragmatically Evil - not in the sense of the classic Evil, but for the vigilant, necessary Evil. And third, Shinnok could be contributing to the aforementioned Balance indirectly, through his minions. Even though Shinnok himself could be considered as the Evil (he practically outperforms Shao in that arena - just think of him as the equivalent of the Devil), it doesn't mean he would get his hands dirty way too often; he's a scheming, calculating villain who prefers to observe from the sidelines and get reports from his subordinates.
  • Liu Kang and Kitana were effectively dethroned at the end of the first chapter, with the loss of their base and Shinnok's head to use as a power source they were sitting ducks and they knew it. Only Kronika's interference kept them in play in so there's no way they could fill the role of a counter to good. And even without that loss their influence was still far more limited than Shinnok's, the revenants are treated as being more annoying than anything by the good aligned forces.
  • Keep in mind that Kronika wanted a very specific balance between good and evil — namely, a Forever War between her two children. Shinnok's beheading made that impossible.

• In Sonya's story mode chapter unburned Kabal from the past makes an appearance in Kano's Fight Klub, pushing Sonya back in a fight cage with his Nomad Dash. That makes no sense. First of all, Kronika clearly brought back characters from MK 2 era, right after Kung Lao has defeated Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. By that time Kabal was working in police with Stryker, so why did he became a Black Dragon member again? But if this Kabal is from even earlier point of timeline, he still shouldn't have his Nomad Dash, a move he gained only as "a result of the Outworld magic", after Kintaro burned him and Shang Tsung healed him.
  • You are correct and the only options I can offer are: 1) they forgot they established that since it's the only time it's been mentioned, or 2) they deliberately ignored it because it would have required giving younger Kabal an entirely new moveset that didn't use his speed at all.

• Let's address the moment when Kano fires at the heroes with a Minigun in Chapter 8. Cassie decides to peek out to get a clear shot at Kano, only to get injured (the key word here being injured). Shouldn't Cassie get her hand ripped clean off from such gunfire?
  • Kombatants have been established as being much tougher than ordinary people - and she only took a couple bullets to the arm.
    • "Couple" of bullets... Minigun is known for its absurdly high rate of fire - around 2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute. Cassie just couldn't get a couple of bullets; a burst of 10 or even 20 rounds sounds plausible enough. Kombatant or not, but Minigun should clearly pack a one helluva punch - even the people that are Made of Iron should think first about not getting in the line of fire.
    • Then assume that she got hit by a couple ricochets off the truck instead of taking direct hits. We see her get hit - and there's only a couple bursts of blood and no visible wound, so she definitely wasn't hit by 10-20 rounds.
    • About the ricochet part... This troper watched the scene carefully several times over - and didn't noticed any ricochets. Cassie was hit dead-on with the barrage of bullets, and that means that she was partially out in the open to be hit directly. Making ricochets with Minigun is a cruel implausibility: any object should be already torn apart by its tremendous power. Magic or not, but the truck which Cassie and Sonya were covering under should be already blown up in a matter of seconds.
    • Then the logical conclusion is that Cassie, and the truck, are made of tougher stuff than you're giving credit for. This isn't even the first time in this same game that a character walked off serious injuries as if they were nothing.
    • Maybe those supernatural powers that allowed Cassie to fight Shinnok kicked in again, this time without a warning glow.

• When did Liu Kang and Raiden fight in the original timeline? The snippet that was shown in the various flashbacks that implies it came from the original timeline is zombie Liu Kang and dark Raiden fighting at the Pyramid of Argus, but so was everyone so that’s hardly noteworthy (and even then zombie Liu Kang was there to fight Shang Tsung, not Raiden). Beyond that, Raiden reanimated Liu Kang’s body himself to serve as his harbinger, so they wouldn’t be fighting (Liu Kang’s spirit wasn’t happy but it wasn’t really in a position to do anything about it).
  • Its stated that Kronika has reset time many, many times over. We don't get an exact number. Any unfamiliar fight we saw in that montage is merely another previous timeline, one we aren't privy to the details of. Perhaps in that one instance, certain events that were similar to the original timeline resulted in a zombie Liu that WAS going after Raiden instead of Shang.
  • Technically in the original version of the first game Liu Kang and Raiden weren't allies. As Raiden said, Kronika has restarted the timeline countless times, his flashbacks only show four or five of them and there's no mention that the timeline we knew was one of the ones shown.
  • If we assume that was the original timeline, that's entirely possible. Zombie Liu Kang's body can be seen near the top of the pyramid in 9's intro, so they would have eventually had to fight each other, likely as a case of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, it being Dark Raiden and all... (now why he'd fight Zombie Liu Kang instead of teaming up against Shao Kahn and then fighting each other is anyone's guess... unless that's what actually happened in that flashback timeline).

• The entire concept of the Time Lord-sort of character in Mortal Kombat universe. It sounds, for the lack of the better term, ridiculous - at least for this troper. What's the point of it? And while we're at it, what are the possible "pros" and "cons" that could apply to this kind of character?
  • It gives an explanation for the state of the Mortal Kombat universe being what it is , it explains why making lasting progress was so hard and it explains why there were so many non-canon endings as different timelines. Kronika exists to provide an in-universe explanation for why the series acts like a video game.
  • Mortal Kombat has always been a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, happy to throw in ninjas, cyborgs, cyborg ninjas, humanoid dinosaur ninjas, demigods, soul-eating sorcerers, beings from other dimensions, magical Native Americans, a vampire... A being related to time travel doesn't seem like that huge of a departure. Especially since the reboot trilogy started on the premise of changing time.

• Another good question concerning Kronika: What stops her from reviving Shinnok? Why she doesn't think about making him one of her top enforcers along with Cetrion?
  • I assume by "revive" you mean "bring him back from a past point in time". My guess is that, because of the whole "gods exist outside of time" thing, if she brought his past self to the present, there's a chance he'd just wind up as a head.
  • Also, it's hinted that she can't bring people out of their native times without deleteriously affecting the flow of time. Raiden mentions that it disrupted "the natural momentum of time" or something. So bringing Shinnok from the past would have only temporarily solved her problem.
    • That sounds good, yeah... but by "reviving Shinnok" I meant "reattaching back his fucking head". Any follower of Kronika could be instructed to find his body, then locate his head, and then bring those parts to her - and *Boom!* - divine surgery operation is complete. Why Kronika can't think about doing just that?
    • That simply may not be within Kronika's or Cetrion's power.
    • We never saw what happened to Shinnok's body. Raiden could have charred it to a crisp, ripped it into tiny pieces, mutilated it beyond all use, or all of the above.
    • Kronika could easily get a cyborg body for Shinnok and make him similar to the Cyber Lin Kuei like Frost whose head is attached to her body. Having a Cyborg Elder God wouldn't be too out of place considering we have a new class of gods (Titans) coming out of nowhere...
  • Had Shinnok be revived in his past self (and eliminating his present self), ask yourself 2 questions: Can Shinnok and Cetrion even get along? Can Shinnok not betray his own mother? Shinnok's ending in Mortal Kombat X indicated that had he defeat his enemies (Raiden), he would bring back the One Being and destroy that reality for revenge which would fall under going too much on the Dark side imbalance. During the intro of Mortal Kombat 11, Shinnok mentioned something about The truth I was cast out for speaking, hinting a lie between the Elder Gods or Kronika herself. While Cetrion was the one who helped the Elder Gods and Raiden cast Shinnok to the Netherrealm and develop to become the big evil (replacing Lucifer), it is hinted that Shinnok was either unaware of Kronika's plans and Kronika doesn't want to reveal it to Shinnok OR Shinnok was sent to the Netherrealm for learning that truth.

• I guess I'm okay with only one Raiden existing at a time, but how exactly does the universe choose which Raiden gets to stay? Why does present Dark Raiden disintegrate while Past Raiden remains?
  • Past Raiden likely takes priority since future cannot exist without past.

• Finally, Shang Tsung is playable... and he's a badass. What's with the sudden homage to the almost-forgotten Chameleon in terms of his special moves?
  • It's not a reference to Chameleon, it's a reference to Shang Tsung's own shapeshifting abilities. More specifically how they worked in Trilogy where, in order to avoid serious loading time, the player would instead select a handful of characters for him to shift into, which included all the ninjas since they all shared the same character model. Plus it gives those characters a presence in the game that they otherwise wouldn't get.

• Kronika apparently rebooted the timeline many times, got Raiden to kill Liu Kang in these timelines and its implied without Liu Kang that Kronika won (Based on her confidence that Raiden winning is an impossibility, and her later telling Cetrion that victory is no longer certain after Liu Kang merges with Raiden) If that's true, why did she need to reboot the timeline again, and get Raiden to kill Liu Kang again, many times? She already won once
  • Kronika's plan seems to be creating a timeline where Raiden dies for good (likely at Liu Kang's hands) and at the same time prevent Armageddon from happening. So every time Armageddon happens (given she let Raiden send visions to his past self to prevent it), Raiden kills Liu Kang with no way to bring the latter back or Raiden and Liu Kang make amends means Kronika cannot execute her plan. And yes, she could reboot the timeline as many times as she wanted, but Fire God Liu Kang's existence created the possibility of her being stopped before rebooting the timeline again.
  • Because she desires more than just Raiden's death. She wants an eternal balance between Good and Evil and every time she restarts the timeline something eventually throws that balance off. She's only trying to erase Raiden entirely now because she's gone insane from trying so many times and is blaming him because she can't accept that her desired outcome is impossible.

• I get that suspension of disbelief is required in a story where all conflicts are settled via a series of one-on-one martial arts battles, but how is Liu Kang and Kitana's Netherrealm army in any way a threat to Earthrealm? It's composed of berserker mooks who are downed by common gunfire. Mortal Kombat 9 at least tried to handwave the technology gap between Earthrealm and Outworld by having Kano smuggle weapons to Shao Kahn, but 11 makes no attempt to explain how primitive monsters could threaten a modern Earth army.
  • 1) Most people in Earthrealm won't be armed or know how to fight 2) the benefits of an undead army is that if they get struck down you can raise them right back again 3) there's more to the Netherrealm army than just the cannon fodder soldiers, there're fliers, more powerful demons and the Revenants. Raiden only has so many champions and the army only has so much resources.
  • Presumably, the regular Netherrealm army can't resurrect, because Deadly Alliance treated that as something unique to Onaga's army. But also remember that there is WMD level magic in MK, such as the Soulnado from MK9 which could do a lot to bridge that gap, and the Netherrealm inhabitants likely know more of it that Earthrealm's.
    • The army could be reraised by anyone who knew the spell, Onaga's army was special because it raised on it's own (actually an affect by Onaga's heart and not something inherent to the army).

• This is minor, but in one intro dialogue Raiden says that Kano's "life of sin and licentiousness" means they can never be friends. This troper's a little puzzled by the thunder-god's choice of words: "Licentiousness" typically refers to self-indulgence of a sexual nature. Which Kano has obviously done of course, but considering all the evil that Kano's pulled (murders, genocides, treason, betraying Earthrealm to demonic aliens, and causing personal tragedies to many other Kombatants), it seems a little odd that "licentiousness" would be Raiden's main point of condemnation for Kano.
  • Kano asks him why they aren't mates, and this version of Raiden is good, and annoyed by young!Johnny Cage's antics, so he's effectively saying "We can't be allies because you're evil, and even if you weren't, you're a dick."
  • This is Kano we're talking about. By "licentiousness", Raiden probably meant "rape".

• Regarding the audience at the Koliseum, I've noticed that they have been cheering at inappropriate times. An example of this is when Kotal Kahn is about to be executed, despite him being a huge improvement compared to Shao Kahn and Mileena. I thought that nobody liked Shao Kahn? Is it a case of Outworld being Outworld? Or is it because they're too scared to boo Shao Kahn?
  • The entire area was affected by the time displacement so large portions of the audience were likely replaced by those from the MK2 tournament. Plus there's the people who just don't care who is in charge or just plain liked Shao Kahn better.
  • Outworld seems to go their own ways of liking or hating things, as long as there is a Kahn to rule.
  • Maybe they all have the attention span of gnats and will cheer at anything?

• So the Kollector in Aftermath can open pens full of dangerous beasts with the snap of his fingers. Is there any reason he couldn't do that with that stock-wheel-thing that Kotal had him trapped in?

• Shouldn't Fire God Liu Kang be called Fire and Thunder God Liu Kang, since he's seen shooting lightning in cutscenes?
  • Just take into account that Liu Kang primarily uses fire as his main element in all of MK games. Plus, "Fire God Liu Kang" sounds shorter and more convenient.
  • Liu Kang only had control of lightning when Raiden was fused to him.

• Shao Kahn has draconic features in this game. Is this a reference to Onaga or is Shao Kahn a half-dragon now?
  • Shao Kahn was always supposed to be non-human (originally he was supposed to be a Tarkatan but that was dropped). He might be part dragon, part demon, or just a race we haven't heard of before, his origins have always been vague.

• Aside from being a Creator's Pet, how did MK2-era Scorpion at all manage to defeat the current Sub-Zero, who not only thoroughly trounced him not a few days ago back in his point in the new timeline (and also managed to beat both Goro and Kintaro at the same time), but has also gained the Dragon Medallion and a decade or two of additional fighting experience? For that matter, how the hell did he beat Raiden, who not only thrashed him in the Netherrealm but also managed to defeat every revenant in rapid succession back in MK9?
  • Sub-Zero's discipline greatly held him back from killing Scorpion similar to his restraint against future Scorpion in X. It is likely there was some truth in Scorpion's words, but got impatient.
  • The temporal shift occurred before the invasion (MK3-ish phase), where Raiden successfully fended them off. Also, Raiden was showing a less control of himself due to the nature of the Amulet.
  • Scorpion has always had an advantage over Sub-Zero.

• When Sonya went to fight both Kano's why did Future Kano immediately feel pain from her hurting the past one? Future Johnny felt nothing from beating up his past self as well as Future Kano not feeling the pain when Cage hit his past self in the groin. Even more questionable is how Kano managed to get Johnny as his hostage against Sonia in the first place. Considering how he felt pain from Sonya beating up his past self, how did he find the time to overpower Cassie and grab him just in time?
  • Sonya was likely causing internal injuries on past Kano (she has no reason or desire to hold back when fighting him) which would then immediately appear on future Kano (even healed wounds would still be painful for someone who wasn't used to acomidating them).

• In the Aftermath chapters, Sindel sides with Shao Kahn and stated she killed King Jerrod because she felt her first husband was a weak leader and that Shao Kahn had mighty power. It also revealed that Sindel never committed suicide, but she was killed by Quan Chi as a cover-up. Shao Kahn states that he would have killed Quan Chi for killing Sindel. How are all these events possible? Why didn't Shao Kahn try finding Sindel with that kind of knowledge? Why didn't Shao Kahn invade the Netherrealm? In both the original and the second timelines, Sindel was revived during the MK3 alignment; the original being Shang Tsung plus the shadow priests and the other being Quan Chi. In both those specific timelines, the reason of resurrection was to remove the protection that prevented Shao Kahn from invading Earthrealm. In addition, both those timelines had Sindel unwilling evil upon Resurrection. In the original timeline, after Sindel was freed from mind control in MK3, she became of the forces of good since MK4. During Aftermath, Kitana questioned Sindel whether or not she is truly herself and not possessed by magic by stating the above. Or is it that this chapter has so many Blatant Lies as mentioned by Liu Kang? Nothing adds up.
  • It's a new timeline so nothing from the original matters, just like how Mileena was originally thousands of years old only to be newly created in the new timeline. The new timeline seems to suggest that Quan Chi killed Sindel, made it look like a suicide and erected the barrier over Earthrealm himself in order to manipulate Shao Kahn in the direction he and Shinnok wanted. It doesn't entirely hold up, since it's obviously a retcon created for this game, but that's what they're going with for now.
  • Shao Kahn was under the impression that Sindel killed herself. Sindel probably told him the true circumstances surrounding her death when they were reunited.
  • Blatant Lies taken up to eleven. The obvious being Shang Tsung. Even Fujin is lying as Fire God Liu Kang's agent to spy on Shang Tsung, knowing Shang Tsung's ulterior motives. Sindel is manipulated by Shang Tsung like the original timeline.
  • Here's a question, why would Quan Chi give a Tarkatan's ass about Sindel distracting Shao Khan. He works for Shinnok, not Shao Khan. Not to mention he was the one who revived and brainwashed her in 9. Why? Surely anything this game's Sindel could offer Shao Khan, a brainwashed version of her would offer even more of. Yuck.
• Okay, so all endings in both the base game and Aftermath end with the timeline getting reset, right? So what was the point of things like Kitana becoming Kahn, Sonya and Johnny's past selves making up, the Cages' horrific fates as well as Raiden and Fujin's in Aftermath, and so on? To build suspense? To keep up the facade? It all goes nowhere and the last two just come off as needlessly mean.

• In Aftermath, what is this Void place that Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, and Fujin mention of where they were cast away at?
  • In-Universe, it's probably the same place where the Nexus from MK Deception was, just without any portals leading back to the realms. Out-of-Universe, it's a convenient excuse for why these characters weren't at all present for the events of the base game storyline.

• Is the Kung Lao Liu Kang meets in the new timeline the present day Kung Lao or his ancestor, the Great Kung Lao?
  • The Great Kung Lao.

• Why does it seem that Scorpion basically got off Scot-free in MK11 despite the fact it's his direct fault that all of the revenants, many of whom who were close friends of most of the main cast, are forever trapped in their corrupted states? He doesn't get reprimanded, he's not punished in any way, and he frankly doesn't seem at all guilty about it. Shouldn't Sub-Zero, whom he seems to be best buddies with, be very annoyed with him since he basically ended any chance for Smoke and Bi-Han to be restored?
  • Knowing that MK11 happens immediately after MKX, there was no time for punishment, Raiden already transformed into Dark Raiden. More deaths occurred because of him. Kronika created the time temporal shift and Kronika's plans are in motion quickly. This includes the enhanced Cyber Lin Kuei's revival that poses a much bigger threat to both the Lin Kuei and the Shirai Ryu.
    • 11 does not take place immediately after X, there are several years in between the two games and many signs that it has been so. Cassie and Jaqui are noticably older, Vera died over a year ago when she was alive in X, Scorpion and Sub-Zero have had time to build up a genuine friendship and learn to work well together, Dark Raiden has had time to sour Earthrealm's relations with Outworld and for Earthrealm's champions to be well acquainted with his new outlook and Johnny and Sonya have rebuilt their relationship.
  • There was another way to revive the revenants into their old self, as evident in Aftermath when Shang Tsung explained this. Whether or not Raiden has that knowledge is unknown.

• What is the exact power level that Shang Tsung reaches at the end of Aftermath? Wearing the crown that contains many souls that he can control, absorbing souls of strongest kombatants like Shao Kahn, plus wearing Kronika's crown definitely makes him millions (if not billions) of times more powerful than he ever was... but he's still can be defeated by Liu Kang - whose godhood couldn't match sorcerer's tremendous strength at this point. Is this an intentional homage to the whole "Johnny Cage vs Shinnok"-scenario or what?
  • If we are talking about the level of "powers" someone has, let's not forget that being bound by the hourglass also shares its weaknesses as well. Shang Tsung having the hourglass and absorbing Kronika's soul means that Liu Kang can utilize Shang Tsung's bound weakness. During Shang Tsung's treacherous quest, Liu Kang lied to him likely to have given him time to absorb enough hourglass power but not too much to destroy it.
  • Power levels have always been vague in this series and how much of a power boost you get from a soul has never been consistent, especially since Shang Tsung seems to actually expend the energy of the souls he steals instead of just letting them stay whole and magnify his power. And Liu Kang has always been able to beat opponents far out of his weight class, remember he was the one who took out Shinnok in the original timeline and he didn't have the Cage ability to nullify his magic.

• Why did Shang Tsung need to wield the crown to fight Kronika? Since the crown makes Kronika stronger, one would suspect that taking it away would make her weaker. This would mean that even without Liu Kang using the crown, Kronika would still be easier to defeat. Also, no matter who won in their fight, Liu Kang would still have to fight someone who was wearing the crown (Either Kronika after she defeated Shang Tsung, or Shang Tsung after he defeated and absorbed Kronika's powers).
  • The fight at the Fire Garden was evident of how strong Kronika really is. Shang Tsung cannot defeat Kronika by himself. He needed Fujin wearing the crown to disable Kronika's defense, and the combined attacks of Shang Tsung, Dujin, and Raiden fend her off. Additionally, Shang Tsung also absorbed the essence of Raiden and Fujin upon betrayal, as well as absorbing the souls of Shao Kahn and Sindel.
    • But since Liu Kang defeated Kronika with the crown, it would presumably be easier to defeat her without the crown. Also, if Shang Tsung is the only person who could weild the crown against Kronina, why does it not mean that Liu Kang would be unable to use the crown to restore the timeline? If he can't use the crown against Kronika, then why can he use the crown at all?
    • Remember, Kronika wasn't using the crown as a power boost, she was using it as a source of temporal energy to fuel her timecraft. Fighting her without the crown was to protect it so they could use it and to prevent her from pulling any big time manipulations that might risk their victory.
• Why was Liu Kang fighting Shang Tsung while he was wearing the crown safer for the timeline than Liu Kang fighting Kronika wearing the crown? What I mean in the question is: It was suggested that Liu Kang go back in time and fight Kronika earlier for the crown and it was shot down for being too dangerous. Since Liu Kang ended up fighting someone wearing the crown, I am wondering what the difference between fighting Shang Tsung wearing the crown and fighting Kronika wearing the crown is.
  • Liu Kang knows Shang Tsung's strengths and weaknesses, both as himself and through whatever knowledge the merge with Raiden granted him. He is quite confident that even with numerous souls contained within the crown, he will prevail against the sorcerer, who does have a bit of a reputation as never quite making the cut, and always having to resort to dirty tricks. Kronika is someone he's much less familiar with, and the fact that he beat her was already astounding in the first place. Betting he can pull it off again so soon is pushing his luck, and a shaolin monk like him doesn't gamble with the fate of reality. Better let the eternal loser sorcerer do the dirty work instead.
  • Kronika having the crown means she can use it's power to remake time as she sees fit which not only risks changing the circumstances to something they can't win as well as using up the temporal energy they need to restart time. Shang Tsung using it to make himself stronger instead fo messing with time is the safer option.
• Why did Shao Kahn breaking Liu Kang's legs not affect Liu Kang? It affected his revenant, and after that, Shang Tsung took Raiden's soul so he was not going to merge their powers together to save him from being a revenant. That adds up to a ton of butterfly effects that should have affected Liu Kang in a big way.
  • Fire God Liu Kang controls the hourglass, therefore he can protect himself from the effects of the timeline changing. His entire plan was to use Shang Tsung to eliminate Kronika and then take the crown away from him so he would have known from the start his past self was going to be taken out in some way.

• "You can't kill me Sindel, not without killing my revenant!", so, uh, how is Kung Lao's revenant still around despite Sindel throwing his past self overboard into the Sea of Blood?
  • Perhaps he's still alive? Kung Lao can teleport and Fire God Liu Kang is still around to influence things.
  • The Sea of Blood doesn't always mean instant death.
  • For all we know, Kung grabbed onto the boat with whatever strength he had left. Or, if you are the more cynical, pessimistic type, the rest of the story took place in the brief time before Kung drowned.
  • Maybe the Shaolin Masters did teach him how to swim (heh). It's not established that falling into the Sea of Blood equals instant death (and since Geras mentions leviathans, the Sea of Blood isn't devoid of life. The only difference between it and a normal sea is that the So B is bottomless).
  • Kung Lao was no means injured like Liu Kang nor died in the Sea of Blood. Kung Lao survived long enough to not affect his revenant self.

• Where were Scorpion and Sub-Zero in Aftermath? You'd think Ed Boon's favorite character, the guy on the cover-art for this game, and the little brother of the guy who keeps jobbing to him would show up when half the army starts turning on each other, but no.

• Speaking of Shao Khan turning the Outworlders against their allies, did all the Outworlders on Kronika's island see him drop Kotal's head? Were only the closest able to see it and the rest were wondering why their allies were suddenly attacking the Earthrealmers?

• Sonya sees Kabal's Revenant and just says he was one of Kano's goons. Woman, you fought alongside this man to protect Earthrealm! He turned around and joined the police before dying and becoming a Revenant. Did Sonya forget this? Did the franchise as a whole forget that Kabal was trying to redeem himself? That'd explain a lot actually.
  • To be fair, Sonya only spent a couple hours alongside Kabal before he got killed and may not have known about his life as a cop.

• Why did no one try restoring the Revenants at any point between MKX and MK11? It's been shown that Quan Chi is obviously not needed for it, since Fujin doesn't mention him at all, and they have the means to do it. Hell, just ask Kotal to enlist Ermac's help if they need a soul magic practitioner.
  • There are a few factors in play here: 1) Dark Raiden didn't care enough to pursue such a difficult task as he's more about destroying future threats than restoring past allies (he barely pauses to acknowledge he got Sonya killed and shows no signs he cares about her loss and that's after decades of knowing her) 2)the method they used required them to use Earthrealm's jinsei which they are unlikely to tamper with as it's outright stated to be Earthrealm's lifeforce, we don't know what the potential consequences would be for using it, they didn't care in Aftermath since they were planning to reset the timeline anyway. 3) They may simply not have known anyone who knew the right spells, which was likely the whole reason they wanted Quan Chi alive so badly. Resurrections aren't common magic in the MK universe, aside from the Elder Gods, both current and former, only Shang Tsung, Quan Chi and Shao Kahn have been establishged as knowing how to do so. Even Raiden and Fujin have never suggested they were aware of or even capable of doing so (Fujin helped with Sindel's ressurection and Raiden raised Lui Kang as a zombie in the previous timeline but they've never shown the knowledge for doing so on their own).
• What the hell happened to Ash Williams?! Yes, I know that Bruce Campbell gave the explanation of "the rights owners couldn't come to an agreement", but that sounds more like he was under an NDA and couldn't get into specific details. Furthermore, Massive Multiplayer Crossover games usually have most if not all of the legal issues ironed out during preproduction so that the studio doesn't waste resources on something that would never see the light of day (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being a perfect example), so the fact that Ash could suddenly be cut after months of leaks and teases means that either Netherrealm went through a lot of effort just to be a Trolling Creator or someone's lawyer seriously screwed up.
  • Possibly, who could say? The legal nonsense surrounding rights to characters are complicated at best and such things falling through is hardly unheard of. It's unlikely anyone who has an answer is gonna post it here. I would note that the character he seems to have been replaced with, the Joker, is a safe pick legally speaking; DC and Mortal Kombat are both owned by Warner.

• Milquetoast compared to everything else, but why does Spawn call Batman an old friend? Their crossover had the two at each other's throats, and at the end, Spawn actually tried to offer a handshake, all he got was Batman slicing his face open with a batarang. An old friend indeed.
  • Compared to most of the people that Spawn knows, Bruce is probably one of the friendlier ones. That, or he actually met the "real" Batman off-screen instead of Crazy Steve.
  • It's also possible that he was being snarky about it.

• About Rambo's knife... or, specifically, one of his possible knife models (one of them is called Alamo). They have this little chain on the side of the blade. Does this kind of knife exist in real life and the chain has some purpose? Or is it just Rule of Cool?
  • Based on some brief research, this knife kinda exists. The closest thing to what's in the game is this thing, but not only is it a pocket knife and not a combat knife, but the "chain" is just molded into the blade to match the handle's aesthetic. However, Google also provided videos of people melting down their old bike chains to make into knife blades with some of the chain detail still visible. It's possible that the art department mixed these two ideas together.

• So Sheeva has been Sindel's bodguard for a long time, right? So why did she act so surprised to find out MK11 Sindel is a bitch who'd turn on her own daughter just to eat Shao Kahn's Jinsei? If she did know Sindel was like this, why didn't she warn anyone or keep an eye on her? What a wonderful teammate. Either Sindel is a better liar than even Shang Tsung or Sheeva is Too Dumb to Live.
  • Sindel established the lie that she was a genuinely good person and had married Shao Khan to save her people and daughter. This lie was well kept enough that even the gods didn't know better, so there's no reason Sheeva would know better, especially since Sindel seems to be genuinely fond of her and liekly treated her decently.

• So Preset!Jax is desperate for a better future. Okay? Let's put aside the obvious issue "Jacqui willingly signed up for Special Forces, she knows the risks" and focus more on the fact that Jax is allying up with the Revenants. All it gets out of him is an awkward joke about "pleasent company", but you'd think he'd question himself a lot more about this. He protects the crown alongside Noob Saibot, a servant of Quan Chi. You know, the guy who revived Jax as a Revenant? He's allying up with Quan Chi's cronies, and yet he has the gall to chew out Fujin for working with Shang Tsung? For that matter, does he know he was working on the same side as Shao Kahn too? Did Jax think any of this through?
  Present!Jax: I'm a damned fool.
  • No, he did not think it through. Kronika made her move while he was depressed, panicking and drunk and he was justifying it using Cetrion's pressance as a reason to believe in Kronika's good intentions. As soon as Raiden gets a chance to point out the obvious Jax realizes he's made a mistake. He likely justified the pressance of the revanents with the assumption that Kronika would avoid Sindel's massacre altogether so all of them would avoid that fate entirely. He likely didn't know about her deal with Shao Khan and probably assumed Noob Saibot would also have been looking to escape his fate as an evil undead servant of Quan Chi.

• So Fujin, Nightwolf, and Shang Tsung are released from the void when Kronika is killed and sent back in time. Does that mean that when they're in the past, there are just another Fujin, Nightwolf, and Shang Tsung watching themselves run around? This turns to Fridge Horror if this is true, because once Kronika dies in Aftermath, that would mean another Shang Tsung will be released, and would know not to fall for Liu Kang again.
  • The implication is tht Liu Kang erases Shang tsung from time entirely in his ending path so no version of him exists anymore.
    • And Shang is back in Mortal Kombat 1, so so much for that.

• So without Kronika to create them, are Shinnok, Cetrion, and Geras just gone for good? Is a long-standing God of Evil for the series and his potential Foil and sister just erased from the franchise, possibly leaving us with Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung as the big bad guys for the umpteenth time? Is the Kollector of all people the only new character from this game that can properly return in a later one without serious plot gymnastics? Geras might be immune to Liu Kang rewinding time, but that's a big might.
  • If Liu Kang is sculpting the timeline why would Shao Khan and Shang Tsung even exist? Either he's going to try and rebuild the timeline as to close to how it was as he can amanage or he's going to try and make it as better as he can, meaning either the new era will be the same with everyone we know involved or it will be entirely different. Tpp many characters are dependant on Shinnok and Shao Khan to do things half way.
    • The jury is still out on Shang Tsung, but as of Mortal Kombat 1, Shao is a general and seemingly Outworld's champion. Outworld has also been at peace for ages so it seems that he's just a dick as opposed to an evil conquering dick.

• Why is Kotal much more civil to everyone but Tarkatans here? He offers refuge to Shao Kahn of all people because it's his people's custom, and he says Outworld and Earthrealm united against Shinnok. Neither of these fit with him instantly giving up on Earthrealm, making no effort to evacuate or help protect it, and trying to bring Shinnok Jacqui and Takeda's heads. Because that would somehow appease him? And he hates Tarkatans because they opposed his rule. You know, because hating them because they eat people is just absurd. What is with Kotal in this game?
  • Kotal and his inner circle were also shown snacking on Tarkatans so it's not like they have any room to judge there, the Edenians seem to be the only group that hasn't been shown eatting other sapient beings in Outworld. He's clearly offering a more self serving version of events to Raiden than what actually happened. His grudge against the tarkatans is because they, as a whole, sided with Mileena against him. He hates Mileena and by extention all of her allies. he had Tanya killed, wants to do the same to Rain, fed Mileena to D'Vorah and wipoed out the Tarkatans. His philosophy is that when a threat presents itself you wipe it out rather than allowing it to grow over time and get worse. His extreme methods have actually alienated most of the races of Outworld by the time this one begins. The Tarkatans side against him for survival, the Shokan don't support him, the Edenians are angry he won't free their realm, the Naknada aren't well regarded unde rhis rule, he's an improvement on Shao Kahn but still not a great ruler.

• Shao Kahn says he killed Jerrod, Sindel says she killed Jerrod, D'Vorah says she killed Jerrod, is this all just alternate timeline stuff, or did they all just take turns stabbing Jerrod in the jugular?
  • With Sindel it's because they clearly came up with her evil all along plot twist after the main story was written. With Shao Khan he was the one who ordered Jerrod killed so no matter who did it he's still responsable. D'Vorah probably just lied to piss Kitana off, she's hardly a trustworthy character.

• What is the deal with timelines in this game? Can alternate timelines exist like many Mirror Match intros in this and Injustice 2 imply, or is it all connected in a single line that somehow means Revenant Liu Kang suddenly gets his legs broken once his past self gets knee-capped? Why can't two Raidens just face off in the story mode too? Wouldn't that make a better story? Putting that aside, how can Revenant Liu Kang steal his past self's soul without killing or hurting himself in the process? Did he leave a bit of himself alive in that chair? Is it his past soul keeping him from withering away? Because that is such a Timey-Wimey Ball Mind Screw, just typing it is frying this Troper's computer.
  • There was only one timeline until Liu Kang and Shang Tsung's battle tore time apart at the end of Aftermath.

• So Kotal can turn into a jaguar now? Okay, feels like that'd be useful when he's in a cutscene fighting someone like Shao Kahn. Hell, why didn't he go into kitty mode against Kano in that carriage back in X? Nowhere for Kano to run, and he'd be momentarily confused and open to an attack.

• Kronika can summon DLC fighters in her bossfight, even in story mode. First of all, why would some of these characters be fighting for her out of nowhere? Second, does that mean Spawn, Rambo, Robocop, Terminator, and the Joker are all just running around during story mode? Shouldn't the last two being free be cause for alarm? Unless this is serious Gameplay and Story Segregation, the Joker is running around the Mortal Kombat universe unimpeded! And does Robocop know Sonya beat him to Kano?

• This game just seems to make everyone look like they hate clones. Sure, there are good reasons for the heroes to not like Mileena, but a lot of their dialogue, Kitana included, just paints them as assholes who think her being a clone of Kitana is enough of a reason to condemn her existence. Really? She can eat people's faces and wants to follow in Shao Kahn's footsteps, but her being a double of Kitana whacked with the ugly stick is enough of a reason for people to condemn her? Skewed Priorities much?
  • Clones are often seen as unnatural and given how she was created it might be that clones in this setting can only be created through dark magic. If that is so then their attitudes make sense, Mileena is a perversion of the natural orde, or at least is seen as such.

• So Kronika made Geras, he is of her design. So...why does he have nipples? Did she add them? Why did she add them? Why does the time-golem have nipples? Why? Why? Also, if she wants an unstoppable army, why didn't she just make more Geras'? There, she already won. An army of unkillable golems.
  • That assumes that the elements used to create Geras exist in large enough quantities to create more and that those elements aren't being used for some other important function.

• Why is everyone acting like Shang Tsung is some scheming, backstabbing sorcerer here? It'd make sense in the past timeline, but in this one, his track-record is "I served Shao Kahn for ages, did some shady things in a tournament, got eaten by Sindel, and now I'm back." It'd make some sense if Raiden and Fujin understood this, and maybe Liu Kang with the Hourglass, but everyone else? I mean, they're fine working with Baraka and Sheeva, and one is a cannibal and the other hates Earthrealmers, and yet the old guy who Shao Kahn fed to his undead wife is some untrustable mastermind?
  • Because he's always been the way he is and considering Sindel recognized him that means he's been a backstabbing, scheming sorceror for over ten thousand years.
    • Just ask Kenshi.

• Why does Present Kano look so much younger than he did in MKX? In MKX, his hair was grey and balding and his face was slightly wrinkled, whereas here he looks almost identical to how he did 26 years ago in MK9. Meanwhile, Past Kano, who is meant to be from that point in the timeline, looks nothing like his MK9 design, instead looking more like his Klassic design.

• How exactly did Goro die? While it does seem like there was a huge siege on Shang Tsung's Island involving tons of Oni (as shown in the Krypt), it doesn't seem like any of them killed him - his decomposing corpse looks more like he starved to death while sitting on his throne.
  • It’s possible he was mortally wounded by either the Oni or Kenshi and chose to die sitting on his throne.
  • Assuming the prequel comics made for MKX are still canon, he had his arms ripped off by Kotal Kahn, robbing him of his strength and denying him the right to ever lead his people again. With nothing left to live for, maybe he just...gave up.
    • Goro is shown to have all four of his arms while deceased atop his throne which he clearly wouldn't be able to regrow while dead, so something else must have happened to the Shokan prince.
    • The Krypt likely isn't actually canon so nothing shown in it should be taken too seriously.
    • The state of the Krypt makes no sense in general; it seems undisturbed for decades (like in the Story campaign), but there are fresh bodies and fresh prisoners alongside all of the decayed ones that apparently died in whatever holocaust befell the island. Like Goro, the praying monks that occupy the island somehow died in the exact spot, and exact poses they typically occupied before. Whatever happened on the island could only have happened in an instant, but in a way that left a few survivors...that now probably wish they were dead.
    • We could probably just chalk it up to fuckery caused by Kronika.
• Why did "revenant" Kung Lao survive drowning of "past" Kung Lao in the Sea of Blood? Wasn't established earier that killing living Liu Kang would also kill his revenant and that's why Kronika refused to just snuff him in MK11? It looks like a huge plot hole.
  • Kung Lao can teleport. He may have just teleported out of the Sea of Blood before he could drown to death.
  • It's never actually said that you can't swim in the Sea of Blood. Kung Lao may have done so himself.
• So Fujin, Nightwolf, and Shang Tsung are released from the void when Kronika is killed and sent back in time. Does that mean that when they're in the past, there are just another Fujin, Nightwolf, and Shang Tsung watching themselves run around? This turns to Fridge Horror if this is true, because once Kronika dies in Aftermath, that would mean another Shang Tsung will be released, and would know not to fall for Liu Kang again.
  • Which is actually part of the plot for Mortal Kombat 1.