Can't wait for MK2 soon.

THIS is what the story mode of Mortal Kombat 9 should have been like. THIS is what the new Mortal Kombat movie should be like. Thank you for writing what is pretty much the perfect Mortal Kombat storyline. I would love to see this used for something, or written as a novel.

A teaser? *GASP!* What does it mean?!

I don't want to get people's hopes up too much, I'm not promising a release date or anything at this point.

I just wanted to let people know that I haven't forgotten or given up, I've finally resumed work after, like, two years of nothing, and figured out one of the big hurdles that was holding me back from making progress on the MK2 script. So...there's that.

Looks nice so far!

No Smoke? =/

I'm a little confused as to why Kintaro would have ended up fighting a guy on his own team (Kintaro). Plus, how does Raiden even end up fighting Kintaro if he lost to Raiden? A side-bar confrontation not part of the tournament bracket?

BTW, who are these unnamed NPCs? Guest stars from the comics?

Looking forward to it man!

Smoke, Noob, and Skarlet will have fights outside the tournament.

In keeping with the old rumors, Raiden interferes in the Jax/Kintaro match to save Jax's life. (Which gets him thrown in the dungeon, in case you were wondering how he gets away with blatant cheating. He doesn't.)

Kintaro WOULD have ended up fighting a guy on his own team because it's a tournament and brackets work how brackets work, no exceptions. Also because this particular configuration is the only way I can guarantee Jade, Shang, Kintaro, and Shao Kahn are in the last four fights in the game like they are on the original arcade ladder (albeit, they're a little out of order)

The NPCs will be based on a couple Malibu characters and Tobias's unused concepts like the kickboxer chick and the bald guy in red and yellow with hookswords who eventually became Baraka.

Holy shit, for real? I thought I had always "imaged" this actually happening. Now to hear it was an actual rumor. Nice! Is this why he gets his cybernetic enhancements too, or was that part of my own fantasy world? (Judging by his MK3 bio, I am mistaken)



Sounds SA-WEET!!!

Well Jax doesn't lose his real arms. In the old canon, they're like gloves that can come off, like in the cartoon and Annihilation.

But losing to Kintaro does shake his confidence and is ultimately the reason he decides to get the arms. MK2 calls Jax "the strongest man in the world". If the strongest man in Earthrealm isn't strong enough to compete with monsters from Outworld, and he knows there's a war with Outworld coming, he's gotta find a way to get even stronger.

With MK: Legacy II not really thrilling me and MK's in-recent-games story frustrating me, plus all the Injustice stuff, I got curious about this...

So I printed out the script, read it today and I gotta say I really enjoyed it.

Loved all the descriptions, especially introduction to characters with various neat cameos included (Jarek with a cowboy hat was a bit funny, especially given his lasso move from MKA. Cowboy Jarek hehe..) and all the stuff outside the tournament once the tournament began.

To my surprise, one of the highlights for me was Reptile. This is a character I generally don't care about, but I really enjoyed his parts in your script. The mysterious introduction to the character was done perfectly and it's even sweater considering he was a hidden character in the first game. Him beating Sub-Zero surprised me a bit, although it's understandable considering Sub-Zero just fought Raiden, plus it was nice to see Reptile score a good win after the way he was treated as a punching bag in MK(2011). On the other side, poor Sub-Zero only recorded losses (if we don't count the NPCs in those brief cutscenes where all but the 7 remaining fighters were eliminated from the tourney). Kinda tough for such a "big" character, but oh well, he had his glory moments in MKM:SZ.

Moving on... Loved the description of Hanzo's transformation into Scorpion in the Netherrealm and mysterious appearances by Quan Chi and Shinnok.

Liked the idea of Kung Lao disguised as a Masked Guard appearing as an easter egg here and there. It worked out well with him jumping in to help Liu fight off Ermac. At first I was surprised to see Ermac brought in and wasn't sure about it, but it worked out well in the end (much better than in MK2011, especially with the arena setting you chose- nice reminder of the Shaolin Monks hidden fight). Nicely set-up "connection" with Liu there.

Johnny was fine, no complaints. It was nice to see him reach the final. Raiden was fine too, liked the way he was "analyzing" Earth characters.

Shang Tsung deciding not to consume Kano's soul as he felt it wasn't good enough for him was funny and a nice way to keep Kano alive after he had been beaten. Brief description of Shang's past and why his wins count for Outworld even though he's from Earth was very nice too.

No complaints on Liu either (except one, see below*). His journey through the Goro's Lair was very enjoyable, especially the mirror match. The whole story about the red headband and how it ended up in Liu's possession was one of the neatest and most enjoyable little details.

A very enjoyable read overall. I like how you set things up for future events and point out important thoughts/parts of dialogues. The whole thing has a nice flow to it.

*The only thing I didn't like was Liu finishing his tournament qualifying fight versus Kung Lao with a Flying Kick. I thought it was a bit out of character for Liu to end the fight in such a cruel way against basically an ally. Plus, saving the Flying Kick for Tsung in the final battle would have been better. This was kind of too early and too cruel (considering who he was fighting).

Other than that, since you touched upon the origins of how Sonya got her special moves, I was wondering if you'd do the same for Kano and his cannonballs. There's still time though, he's alive.

Looking forward to part II, especially since I like MK2 much more than MK1 anyway.

EDIT: Btw, I'm trying to avoid spoilers for the upcoming parts!

I guess I don't see it as cruel, the Dragon Kick's main advantage is its speed, he goes so fast from standing still to suddenly being across the screen kicking you that it's almost impossible to see it coming and block in time. Otherwise, it just knocks the wind out of you pretty good. I could see it breaking some ribs maybe, but you could always say Liu held back since he was fighting a friend.

But I felt like, narratively, he kinda HAD to do it, like it was important that Liu SHOW Kung Lao in their qualifying match "This is the advantage Bo' Rai Cho's training gave me, that you don't have. This is why I can win."

Also, if a dude has a secret ultimate weapon that can defeat the big bad, you gotta tell the audience it exists well before he does it. You telegraph the big moment so they know to get hyped and expect it later. Like...if you'd never seen a Stone Cold Steve Austin match before, how would you know to cheer when he does the Stunner? Someone's gotta tell you "That's his finishing move, no one ever kicks out of that, he just won the match."



The thing with Kano is, his bios tend to hint that his eye isn't the only cybernetic enhancement he has, it's just the most important one/the only one we can see. I figure he's got some bionic muscle-enhancements under the skin that boost his strength and agility, which is what the fancy tech on his bandolier is meant to power or monitor, not to mention those wires he has on his gloves for no reason in MK9.

Also, since the Cannonball in the games is such a goofy looking move, I've always preferred to imagine that, if it were re-animated like Liu's Bike Kick was in MK9, or if there was a live action version of it filmed, what he's really doing is just doing a couple flips into a pro-wrestling-style Dropkick or Senton Splash. Not impossible for someone whose superhuman-ness is around, oh...Captain America-level?

Alright, that works. Thanks for explaining.

Very pleased to see this, even if it's just a teaser. I read your MK1 script way back last summer, and what I really liked were the logical explanations given (i.e. why we couldn't see the MK2 cast, how Liu got his headband, Kung Lao tagging along, etc) and how you gave depth to characters like Liu, Raiden, even Bi Han and Cage. You seem very detail-oriented, which is handy because MK can get rather complex with the whole cast of characters doing different things in different realms at different times.

So, based on this new tourney bracket, does the whole MKII tournament span only two days? Also, this may sound a bit weird, but is it just me or is the font color in Sub-Zero's name lighter in this bracket when comparing it to the font color in "Sub-Zero" on the MK1 bracket?

Nah, the tournament's probably gonna come out to be 4 days long, maybe 5. The day 1 and day 2 notes only apply to that first round, to explain why it's spaced out so weird and uneven. And the fact that Kitana and Mileena have two fights in the same round but no one else does is because the bracket only lists the fights that will actually be shown, you're meant to assume that for the most part, the empty spaces also contain fights but they'll happen off-screen or part of another montage.



It is indeed, because usually, Kuai Liang wears light blue and Bi-Han wears dark blue. I'm finicky about the littlest details like that.

RazorsEdge701 Wrote:
Nah, the tournament's probably gonna come out to be 4 days long, maybe 5.

All right, that makes more sense. Though I've always wondered if time passes differently in the MK realms (ex: time in Netherrealm may go slower than time on Earthrealm) so I could actually buy the tourney only being two Earthrealm days while five Outworld days or whatever.

RazorsEdge701 Wrote:
...usually, Kuai Liang wears light blue and Bi-Han wears dark blue.

The font was a pretty subtle detail (which I'm surprised I actually noticed, lol) but it's clever when thinking about it.

Curious, will you be touching upon any Kuai Liang/Scorpion rivalry? Well, I guess rivalry isn’t really a good word, since I don’t think they ever had a true rivalry in original storyline. But I’ve always been interested in the whole MKII story between the two (as it shed a new light on Sub-Zero, and gave depth to Scorpion). Then they retconned things in MK4, and that’s where my question plays in, is if you’ll have any conflict planned with Quan Chi giving Scorpion the false information about Sub-Zero killing his family, or if you’ll be ignoring that altogether and not have Sub-Zero in the picture.

Generally...my rule is that time passes normally when you're in a realm. 24 hours here and 24 hours in Outworld or Seido or Edenia are the same amount of time.

There are, however, occasional exceptions. Space and time might bend and warp while you're inside a portal, or when you're in a place like Shang's Island because it's stuck halfway between two realms. This loophole will allow me to explain certain things like how Johnny Cage has time to make a whole movie based on his experiences between tournaments while Liu Kang only has time to come home, find the place in ruins, and immediately set off for the next tourney.

Chaosrealm also has pockets where the laws of nature don't work right because everything there is chaotic. Like that scene in Deception Konquest where Shujinko ages while he's there. And I'm sure that while time technically passes at the same rate in the Netherealm, it might FEEL different, to enhance the torture and suffering of the souls imprisoned there.



Absolutely. I will remain totally true to Scorpion's endings in MK2 and 3 where he comes to the tournament because he thinks Bi-Han somehow came back, then he learns it's a different guy and this guy's okay because he doesn't kill people, so he vows to watch Kuai's back, and fulfills that vow in MK3, switching sides to fight with Sub-Zero against Kahn.



I have never agreed with anyone who says the Scorpion/Sub-Zero stuff in MK4 was a retcon.

What happened in MK2 and 3 where Scorp and Kuai made friends totally still happened, and Quan Chi waited until 4 to tell Scorpion "Oh, the second Sub-Zero? He was also involved in your clan's death, you should kill him too" because Kuai wasn't a threat to Quan Chi until then.

When Armageddon came out, Midway did this thing where they gave Scorpion and Sub-Zero their own Myspace pages, where they posted each game's bio rewritten in the character's own words as if they were writing a blog post, and it confirmed that my interpretation of "there was never a retcon" is right: Scorp talks about allying with Sub in 2 and 3, then thinks he needs to kill him in 4 until he finds out Quan Chi is tricking him.
If I change anything at all, it'll be that Noob Saibot will be a lot more involved in Scorp and Sub's MK4 story.

I can't believe I didn't comment on your outline years ago. I thought I had read it all, but after going through it, I didn't. I have to say that you did an excellent job. If only Netherrealm Studios' story writers had actually taken the time into looking at the established elements of the story and properly fleshed them out, MK9's story could have been much better done. I can't wait for your MK2 script.

RE Noob being more involved in Scorp and Sub's story, would that include one or both of them finding out he was Bi Han? Kuai Liang discovering what his brother had become was one of the few things I enjoyed about MK9's story, what Scorpion's reaction would be is something I would love to see.

Yeah, I'm thinking MK4 is the best time for Kuai to find out Noob is his brother.

I'm also figuring Noob will be the one who tells Scorpion "Quan Chi killed the Shirai Ryu", since in the game, Quan himself admitting to it for no reason before he's even finished Scorpion or Sub-Zero off was pretty dumb.

Awesome.

And yeah, for being such a sneaky manipulative bastard, Quan Chi doing that does seem weird. Then again, NRS' story writers aren't exactly Bill Shakespeare, lol.

I think Sareena should be involved in this triangle too,since you were going to include her in MK4. Maybe somehow free from her torture since MKMSZ,she meets Scorpion and reveals him the truth,since she hates Quan Chi and would love Scorpion on his ass,plus she was Quan's slave when he was slaughtering Shirai Ryu,so she might know something. But maybe some other plans you have for her in MK4?

I love your ideas regarding Noob,Sub-Zero and Scorpion anyways.

Those are really good ideas. Having Kuai Liang find out about Noob Saibot's true identity during MK4's timeline really puts their stories into perspective since Bi-Han told his brother about the events during MK: Mythologies. Having Noob Saibot inform Scorpion about the true killer of the Shirai-ryu also leads up to Noob's ascension to mid-level villain status. MK4's story could use more fleshing out.

I forgot to mention some things when responding to your outline.

Although I wasn't a fan of MK: Shaolin Monks' version of Kung Lao, I actually think that you made good use of his character in your story and had him eventually give Liu Kang that support near the end of the story. This is very much in contrast to the idiot plot of MK: Shaolin Monks' story.

I still think that characters like Kenshi fit very well into MK1's story, but I understand you want to stick to the canon as much as possible. How do you plan to go about Raiden's abilities in Outworld?

My thinking is that he's pretty much limited to the same powers he had on Shang's Island during MK1. His mortal form is obviously limited compared to what a "god" should be, because for one thing, obviously it can be killed...but that doesn't mean he's powerless like Stryker or a civilian. He clearly still has some electricity powers and can fly a bit and teleport and stuff.

Raiden's "true power", the full godly scope of his abilities, I think we never really get to see because he's ALWAYS taking a mortal form in every game. He has different reasons for taking that form, but it's always the same form with the same abilities.

In MK1, he takes it because he has to or he wouldn't be allowed to compete in the tournament. In MK2, he takes it because he has no authority as a God in Outworld. In MK3, it's pretty much the same as in 2, Earth is becoming Outworld so he's lost his authority and wouldn't be allowed to interfere unless he became a mortal. MK4 mostly takes place in Edenia and the Netherealm where again, he has no authority. (I think we might get to see him at full power during the War in Heaven scenes though).

The only exception might be Deadly Alliance thru Armageddon. Raiden is no longer the Protector of Earthrealm, he gave that role to Fujin and became an Elder God, but then stepped back down to being a regular god. The thing is, if he's not an Earthrealm authority anymore, then he should be able to use his godly powers in any realm, not just Earth. Which is sort of my excuse for why he can fight Shang-with-Soulnado and Quan Chi-with-Amulet two-on-one and nearly win in MKDA, but in MK2 he's going to lose in the tournament.

I also wonder, if he had died in his mortal form in MK1 thru 4, would his "godly essence" still reform and reincarnate like he does when he dies in DA/Deception? They always made him taking Mortal Form sound like a dangerous sacrifice, like he had to be careful not to die because it became something that could actually happen to him, as opposed to his immortal god form.

---

There's also something important about Raiden's abilities that I want to point out because it'll play into the plot of MK2 a bit:

in MK9, Raiden teleports the heroes around a lot. They pretty much never have to walk anywhere while they're in Outworld, they just zap here and there with no problem. That REALLY bothered me. See, Raiden can teleport himself because he's essentially made out of lightning. Johnny Cage is not made of lightning. Smoke is not made out of lightning. Raiden should NOT be able to take passengers with him when he teleports.

So he can't teleport other people in my writing.

That's much better.

How are you planning on giving Kuai Liang his eye scar?

During the Lin Kuei escape in MK3. Not sure if it'll be Sektor or Cyrax, considering Cyrax is the one who has a sawblade, but Sektor's more appropriate as the main villain of the cyborgs...

Well the cyber ninjas did end up with light sabers as their weapon styles, so unless you wanna go that route...Still, I'd go with Sektor, especially considering the fact Kuai kicks his metal ass to claim the Dragon Medallion later on.