Heres the deal, one of the sub-zeros is the classic MK1 subzero, and the other is the MK2/MK3 sub-zero in his MK3 costume.

MK1 subzero is the fifth younger brother of the subzero siblings, while the MK2/MK3 is the sixth :D

Can we get some confirmation on that?

1) MK 1 Sub-Zero was killed in the first tournament by Scorpion.

2) MK 2 Sub-Zero is his younger brother later sent by the Lin Kuei to finish the job the original Sub-Zero started (assassination of Shang Tsung).

3) Then, the original MK 1 Sub-Zero's soul is transformed into the being known as Noob Saibot and is becomes of servant of Shinnok, the fallen Elder God.

4) My theory for the Classic Sub-Zero we see in Ultimate MK 3 and Trilogy is this:

Shinnok sent Noob Sabiot (the original Sub-Zero) to spy on the events taking place in Outworld during the second MK. Then, in MK 3, Shinnok instructed Noob Saibot to take on his original form in order to help Earthrealm's warriors to defeat Shao Kahn. This would later leave Earthrealm open to Shinnok's attempted conquest during the events of Mortal Kombat 4.

Everything make sense now?

Nice, I had read that but I couldnt put it together, thanks.

Nice theory, but "Classic" Sub Zero's UMK3/MKT ending disproves this. In it, we are told that he removes his mask to reveal... that he is NOT the older Sub Zero who fought in MK1, but someone else entirely. We are not told exactly who he is, and I don't think we will ever know.

Whoever he is, this is almost certainly non canon. Just done to whore out the male ninja sprite another time, and appease people who didn't like younger Sub Zero's new look.

Well I can't give you a really good explaination why but this is what I know about the game reason. MK3 sub-zero can only turn in to the polar bear & the original Sub-Zero can't & he does a fatality no one sees. Speaking of fatalities what does Sub-Zero do when he grabs the person face & the screen goes black?

I wouldn't look too deep in to "Classic" SubZero being in MK T/UMK3. As someone already stated I think it was an attempt to use the male ninja sprites as much as possible and the novelty of SubZero "Classic" Came about. I always looked at Classic Sub in UMK 3 as a novelty. Something fun for the fans and nothing more.

Not only do I believe Classic Sub-Zero is canon in Trilogy but I do believe he was Noob Saibot.

Look at the facts:

1) His ending says when he removes his mask the Earthrealm warriors are shocked at his true identity

2) His ending says he's a warrior that will return in the next Mortal Kombat

All these clues can point to Noob Sabiot since at that time the Earthrealm warriors had no reason to think he was really the original Sub-Zero. That's only something that Smoke and his younger brother find out in MK: Deception.

Sub-Zero already believed Noob Saibot was his brother but wasn't sure during MK2. But I agree with pretty much everything you said though J8son. When he took off his mask, Boom, it was Noob Saibot!

But that would be taking the events of Shaolin Monks into the canon storyline and at this point it has raped the MK 2 continuity so badly that I'm not sure what we can really consider canon at this point.

why bother, MKT is just a celebration of past and present, at that time, Mks...but yeah, it's always good to have 2 subbys....time paradox indeed!

Yeah seriously. It's like Human Smoke's storyline that said his human form was just a dream.

Honestly, I commend them for trying. It could have easily ended up like the versus games.

But were talking about Classic Sub-Zero who appeared in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 first and that IS canon.

People like Goro and Kintaro in Trilogy were there just for the fun of it.

Well if you consider mkt to be the trilogy of events the story line talks about, rather than just the last of the 3 events, then classic subzero is cannon (though not his ending), just the subzero from mk1. Likewise, kintaro and goro are cannon for their part of the trilogy (parts 2 and 1). The fact that you can have cross part fights can be throught of as a what-if thing.

The wording of his ending makes it clear it is not the original Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot. It says it is thought to be however upon removing his mask...blah blah blah. The word "however" means it must be someone else. If it was the older Sub then it would mean this......

"Thought to have been killed in MK1 the older Sub-Zero seems to have returned to win MK3. However when he takes off his mask everyone is shocked to discover that it's the older Sub-Zero".

That makes no sense. It seemed that he had come back to life that's why everyone was shocked when it turned out to be someone else. If it had just been him nobody would be shocked at his identity because they already suspected it was him.

We also know it's someone both the Outworld and Earth warriors know and that he's from a previous tournament. Who could it be? Who knows. I would bet even John Tobias had no idea and just wrote it and planned to explain it away later and just never got around to it. Like it's been said, the whole thing was just a way to use the sprite again. I doubt they put much thought into it.


That said this whole "non canon" thing is really being overused in the MK community. Why would it be non canon? It's part of the story and nothing in any later game contradicts it. They haven't followed up on it but that doesn't mean it should just be ripped from the story. It did happen(well he didnt win, but he is there), even if it's stupid. There are tons of examples of things being dropped only to return later. Nightwolf was not mentioned in 4 and DA and returned in Deception but nobody was going around trying to say Nightwolf was non canon before that. There's nothing stopping Midway from going in depth with this story in MK7. They probably won't but it's there if they choose to. Too many people throw around the phrase "non canon!!!" to explain plotholes, inconsistencies and dropped plot points in the MK story. "Non canon" is the official explination for anything wrong with the MK story. That's not how it works. Classic Sub-Zero is lazy writing to explain away taking advantage of palatte swapping. It's not non canon it's just bad writing.

The reason I support the Noob theory is because no one knows that Noob Sabiot is the original Sub-Zero. There fore, if Sub-Zero takes his mask off people would be like "Oh shit, it's Noob!"

The story specifcly states he's someone from the past and someone that is going to take part in Mortal Kombat 4.

All signs point to Noob.

But then how do you explain the fact that Noob himself is there, as Noob? The only possible way they could be the same person is if one of them ("Classic" Sub Zero) is completely non canon, like how both cyber and human Smoke are in MKT, but the human version is non canon. And this would make the theory untrue by default, as the character has no existence in the story anyway.

I still beleive that he is somebody completely different, who isn't part of the MK timeline, and we will never find out the truth.

It says he takes off his mask and everyone recognizes him. Why would the Earth and Outworld warriors know what Noob looked like without his mask?

Keep in mind were talking about Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Noob was not a playable character until Trilogy. However, it's still fesable that Noob fought against Earthrealms warriors until Shinnock gave the order to help them defeat Shao Kahn. That's when he donned the Classic Sub-Zero persona (they obviously wouldn't trust Noob but would trust the older brother of one of the chosen Earthrealm warriors).

And when it says that he takes off his mask it doesn't mean Noob takes off his mask. Noob is wearing his old Lin Kuei uniform and then takes off his mask to reveal himself as Noob Saibot.

Noob is playable in the 16 bit UMK3s and Wavenet UMK3. Besides what difference does it make, he's still fightable even in regular MK3 so he is there.

If they know Noob is old Sub then it makes no sense because it says it's thought to be however when he takes off the mask it's someone else. If they don't know then it makes no sense because Noob wasn't missing. It doesn't work either way.

They didn't even have Noob be the old Sub when they wrote that. You're just streching here, trying to explain something that can't be explained. Sometimes the MK story is sloppy and underveloped. We don't need to force a square peg into a round hole to try to make sense of it.

I too have been thinking about the possibility that Noob donned his Sub-Zero form somehow. I think that he would've had to get Shinnok to help him with that, possibly giving Noob a different body. I think that Tobias may have been planning on having Noob be the older Sub-Zero since strangely enough, Noob wasn't in MKM: SZ and you'd think that Shinnok and Quan Chi would send such a powerful and loyal servant such as Noob to deal with Sub-Zero.

One thing I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned here about Classic Sub-Zero's UMK3/MKT ending was that it mentions that it was someone who was missing from a previous tournament. Now, yes, Noob Saibot was in MK2, but did he really take part in the tournament itself? It doesn't really seem that way to me. I think that whole "taking off his mask and revealing it" to the Earthrealm warriors part probably involved Sub-Zero recognizing what his brother looks like and him telling that to his allies. Then again, this would be contradictory to what is mentioned in Noob-Smoke's ending in MKD.

I guess that more so, John Tobias wanted the older Sub-Zero to return, but never seemed to have executed it. Then again, with him not having Noob in MKM: SZ to take down Sub-Zero, it kind of makes you wonder, don't you think?

Even so, I guess that with Noob Saibot being Sub-Zero and it being so that Noob hadn't seen Sub-Zero since before he became a wraith, Classic Sub-Zero in UMK3 and MKT should be considered non-canon and was just there as being originally meant to return in UMK3 while in MKT was there so that we'd have all of the MK characters.

They did not plan for Noob to be Sub-Zero until the development of MKD. It wasn't even Midway's idea, they got it from a fan after MKDA was out. Noob being old Sub wasn't some brilliant master plan they had been building to for years, it was just a coincidence that it happened to work out so they went with it.

If they had meant for it to be Sub or Noob why not just say so? What is the point of the vague wording if they were just saying it was him? I honestly don't see how anyone could read the ending and not understand that it's not Sub-Zero.

The reason Noob isn't in MKM is simple. His story about working for Shinnok wasn't added until MKT and the 16 bit versions of UMK3. By the time those came out MKM's development was already well under way.

Also it saying he will return for MK4 is nothing. The same thing is said in Ermac's UMK3 ending.

and again, why would this be non canon? It's not like Human Smoke where his own story says he isn't really there or Kintaro and Goro who have no stories at all. Classic Sub-Zero has an ending that actually refers to him as participating in the events. There's no reason he wouldn't be canon. Just because it's stupid doesn't mean it isn't part of the story.

I think they were shocked when the warrior removed his mask, cuz it was actually a woman...yeah im talking about FROST.I dont know wtf the connection could be.

I don't see it as a stretch at all. No one knows Noob is really the original Sub-Zero so when he takes off his Lin Kuei mask the Earth realm warriors would have assumed it was just Noob in disguise. Only later would the younger brother learn that Noob was really his brother (and I'm not taking Shaolin Monks storyline into consideration because of how f*cked up the storyline is in that game). Also, Shinnok would need someone on the inside to foil Shao Kahn's plans in order to advance is own plans for conquest.

And I have to agree that there was no way they were planning the Noob = Sub thing until the development of Deception.