In your story, how do you keep a balance between fighting and dialogue? I've always found it interesting fro my experiences with watching action movies. If there's too much fighting like MK Annihilation, the story becomes unimportant and destroys the development of characters. On the other hand, if there's too much dialogue and not a lot of action like Shamalayan's Last Airbender, the entire movie becomes bland with annoying characters and emotionless explanations in the plot that no one cares about.

Well, when I wrote the first Outline, I decided that I wanted it to be able to function as either the script to a movie OR the script to a game's story mode with very little modification, so I'm aware of every scene that COULD have a fight in it...because if it were a video game, you'd want as many playable fights as possible, because audiences don't want to watch a game, they want to play it...but if it were a film, you don't want too much action filler, you want the meat and potatoes of the plot.

Although I sort of leaned towards "movie" and had less fights than I COULD have in the posted version.

If this were to be used for a game, I could easily add more in and I know where I'd put them. For example, a training fight between Liu and Bo' Rai Cho at the beginning where he proves he's ready for the tournament, Sonya vs. Kabal or something like that in the SF vs. Black Dragon warehouse raid, a flashback to the fight where Sub kills Scorpion in Mythologies, some of the montage could be playable...I didn't put them in because they'd be filler, but they would fit.

I never really worried about having "too many" fights though because I probably do have too many for a real 2 hour film, this outline would actually probably work best as an animated TV show season or miniseries.

The ones I did leave in all HAVE to happen in order to further the plot. The way I structure the story is heavily based on the fact that I didn't invent this plot, it's not up to me how it goes, I'm very strictly following a canon that was established in bios, endings, and comic books, and everything I put in is necessary for developing a character or the plot. Even the character I did sorta-invent, Nimbus, is only there to tell a piece of character development that's pretty much mandatory - how Johnny faces the stakes getting real.

I thought the length of the MK1 Outline was fine, just enough fights. Anymore would have made it bloated.

That said, how do you plan to go about the Deadly Alliance outline? There's so much story content for the all the characters in that game, so are you going to give narrative to the back-stories in that game (eg; Sub-Zero reclaiming the Lin Kuei, first meeting Frost, etc) or just start right when Liu's murdered? Is the story going to be linear or jump around?

Deadly Alliance isn't actually as long as it seems, but it will be difficult to pace. The Konquests were mostly backstory and setup, and I will be depicting that stuff (though I'll move some of it like Sub-Zero coming back to the Lin Kuei and fighting Sektor, and Mavado "killing" Kabal and stealing his hookswords, to the end of MK4).
In terms of movies having a "three act structure", Liu's death would probably happen in the second act. Once the plot gets to the point where the heroes arrive in Outworld...they don't do much except train with Bo' Rai Cho and go to the castle to fight the final battle.

Hopefully, cutting back and forth to Scorpion, Li Mei, Kenshi, and Nitara/Cyrax/Reptile's subplots will keep the action going.

I'm always curious about the different races and people in the MK world. Not just their locations, but also in cultural context such as social hierarchy, language, religion etc. I think that if you (for example) just tell the audience the Shokan have a underground temple for the God of the Earth, you don't really gain the audience's attention. But if you add more detail like what does the temple look like, how many Shokan are in attendance, what does the Earth God idol look like, what are the attendess wearing, the ritual objects used in their culture, the sacred hymns etc. then you build a complex image of the race resembling that of humans in the world rather than four-armed terrifying beasts that fight for the sake of honor. This could apply to the Chaosrealmers, Tarkartans, Edenians, Zaterrans, and especially the Moroi race. (and countless others). I can envision the latter speaking in a thick and harsh foreign language sounding like a combination of Romanian and Arabic. If the GOT producers can make the Dothraki language, why not the MK universe? I thought it could make the world of MK more interesting.

Well, I'm not a language professor like J.R.R. Tolkien or the guy who invented Klingon, so while I can appreciate the desire to have foreign languages be introduced to the setting, I'm not the guy to invent them.

And there's an argument to be made that most of the realms speak the same language or languages because of A) inter-dimensional migration (note how an ancient Edenian tongue only Sindel knows how to speak exists in Onaga's Outworld tomb for some mysterious reason...), B) Outworld is the ultimate melting pot and almost everyone lives there or on Earth (and all the Chinese/Japanese characters have good reasons to learn English), and C) The One Being imagined up all of this. It'd be a pretty confusing dream if no one could understand each other.

That said, I'll try when I can. For example, here's a little bit of trivia for ya: in the Razorverse, "Noob Saibot" is Nether-speak for "Grim Reaper." I also did that bit in the art with the "Outworld letters" on Kitana, Mileena, and Skarlet's kneepads.

I do have plans at different stages to better flesh out the Shokans, Centaurs, and Religion of Chaos. The others are a bit difficult since Reptile's culture is extinct, the Tarkatans are unintelligent nomads created thru eugenics, the Vampires never get involved in the plot, and Seido somewhat lacks freedom of expression, which is where art, music, philosophy, etc. come from.

Will Rain make a cameo in MK3?

I'd call it more than a cameo since he's an actual Trilogy character and Trilogy is the canon version of MK3.

In Edenian history in the MK canon, there seems to be a huge gap between Daegon's massacre of his parents and Shao Kahn's final invasion and subjugation of the realm.

Daegon woke up, founded the Red Dragon gang, started working with Shinnok, and "killed" his parents way after Edenia was conquered and merged. Like only a couple hundred years ago.
I assume the reason you thought it happened before Kahn won is because you're wondering where Argus was when Kahn invaded Edenia, why he didn't stop it?
Kahn won ten Mortal Kombat tournaments. He had the RIGHT to merge Edenia. It's sorta like in the original MK3 when Raiden says "I can't help, your realm is ruled by Outworld's gods now"...except Raiden decided to break the rules and help anyway in Trilogy. Argus and Delia must have decided to hide or help refugees escape instead.

Does Tanya first meet Reiko when she gets hired by Quan Chi to do the infamous "leading the refugees into Edenia" incident or did they actually meet earlier when General Reiko (under Shao Kahn) laid siege to Edenia after Outworld won the 10th tournament against the realm?

I can picture Tanya and Reiko having a love/hate relationship where Tanya and Reiko really do like each other's intelligent, thoughtful, and witty personalities (especially for an Outworld general under an insane emperor), but Reiko really knows BETTER than any minion not to trust Tanya given her reputation so I can picture he kind of pushes her sexual advances aside once in a while when he comes into the campaign for becoming Emperor post-Armageddon, thinking that it might ruin his reputation as a competent and effective ruler. I think they would still love each other in a way, but it's complicated

Well I'm intending to play Tanya fairly young for an Edenian, someone who grew up in Outworld as a member of the Edenian resistance.

And Reiko died at some mysterious point somewhere between Great Kung Lao's death and the 10th tournament, which is why Goro replaced him as General, because Goro was the darling at that time, the best warrior in Outworld, the guy who was going to help Kahn conquer it by winning ten tournaments.

So if Reiko and Tanya knew each other before MK4, it would have been as enemies. But I doubt a general would know/remember the name or face of someone who wasn't high ranking, her dad would have been big in the resistance since he's a politician close to Sindel when Edenia is free, but his daughter would probably not be anyone terribly important, just another rebel fighter.

There are two things that bother me about MK4

1) Goro appears and wants revenge on Liu Kang...so he couldn't have immediately entered the second tournament, join Kintaro, and smash the Shaolin Monk? What could have preoccupied him from MK2 until MK4 especially missing the Earthrealm invasion in MK3?

2) Reptile is tried in Edenia of all places and banished to the Netherrealm...they just open a portal below his feet at their will? And why is HE the only one being tried? How DID he get captured? Shouldn't his master Shang Tsung be caught by now and some other Outworld villains that didn't make it back to their home realm be tried alongside Reptile? And what genocide? Reptile was only FOLLOWING orders, not leading an army. They've killed people, but not entire races of which I can think of. Plus it's kind of ironic since HIS race has been wiped out. Isn't this kind of unfair to Reptile?

1) Goro was ashamed that he lost, he went into hiding out of embarrassment.

2) Reptile was tried in Edenia because in Tobias-canon, Outworld IS Edenia, corrupted by Kahn and given a scary new name, not the victim of a merger. Kahn was dead and Sindel had his throne. Deadly Alliance is the game that retconned them into two realms merged and unmerged.

In the Razorverse, I'll explain it by having Reptile have been trapped there when they were unmerged and go on a rampage out of confusion and anger. "Genocide" just means "He was trying to wipe out Edenians", which is technically true, although an unnecessarily exaggerated way of putting it. Simply "committing murder" would be a much more appropriate way to put it and warrants the same punishment.

Also, in my version he'll be executed instead of banished because that's a WAY fucking easier way to send people to Hell than a portal. "Banishment" is the pussy sort of thing you'd do in a kids cartoon when the censors won't let you show real violence.

Jesus Christ executed?! That's a little harsh for Reptile, but whatever floats your boat. At least we get to some green blood squirting out of his decapitated head for once :B But there's one problem with that: Wouldn't he be a specter/wraith like Scorpion or Noob if he goes to the Netherrealm? One can't just go down to the Netherealm and escape unscathed without some undead element. Like you know monochromatic eyes...

The death sentence is not what I would call too harsh a punishment for multiple counts of homicide. It's not like there wouldn't be a fair trial.

Reptile is a villain. He always has been. He has a sympathetic motivation, but that doesn't make him a good person.
Mileena and Baraka weren't transformed into a species of undead/demon when Quan and Shinnok resurrected them. They seem to save that for the pawns Quan wants to be special or extra powerful.
Mileena did get the white eyes, but the thing about that is, her eyes were human, they turn white because they're already mostly white, the pupils just go away. Not sure how I'd draw a cataracted version of a lizard's eyeball but I'll figure it out.

Speaking of MK4 and Reptile, what's going to happen with him that has him going back to Kahn? Is he going to abandon Shinnok's side when figures out they're losing or does he somehow figure out they'll dick him over and say "fuck that".

And I forget if you've said before but what would be the good guys' thoughts of Kahn's fate between Trilogy and MKDA? Do they know he didn't die against Liu or does he manage to make them believe he's dead for a few years to give himself time to recover?

Most of the Outworld villains in MK4 escape being sent back to Hell and find a way home when Shinnok is defeated. Going into any more detail than that would be difficult. All I can tell you for sure is that I've figured out, in terms of the original canon, Scorpion's ending comes true, which causes Tanya's ending to HALF come true.

What I mean by that is she's leading Liu into a trap where Shinnok will kill him...but since Quan Chi is dragged into Hell by Scorpion, and Quan has the amulet, the source of Shinnok's power, Shinnok is suddenly weakened and Liu can kick his ass.

What the REST of the fighters were all doing when Shinnok was defeated, though, there's no way of knowing. It's something I'll have to completely invent when I write it and I'm not there yet.
That's sort of the hard part about MK4.
We all know how MK1 goes, "everyone comes to tournament on a boat, there's a bracket, Liu wins, island earthquake."
We all know how MK2 goes, "Good guys are attacked and meet back up, everyone goes to Outworld for another tournament, Liu conspires with Kitana in between fights, Liu fights Kahn."
We all know how MK3 goes: "invasion starts, good guys all adventure to meet up at Nightwolf's reservation, march into city as a team, Kitana unbrainwashes Sindel, Liu and Kung make it into castle and fight Kahn."
Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon are also easy to piece together a chronological order of events from via the konquests and bios.
MK4 doesn't have that straightforwardness. We know everything that happens up to when Edenia is invaded, then Heaven is attacked and gods are killed...and we know what happens to Quan and Shinnok at the end...but there's a big gap in the middle of "What did everyone actually DO?", "Did they fight in Edenia or did Shinnok get as far as invading Earth?" Stuff like that, I'm on my own with.
As far as Kahn goes, everyone thinks he's dead during MK4 but they obviously find out otherwise before DA. Perhaps Kitana learns it from Goro when she comes to Kuatan for the peace treaty, which is why DA starts with the Edenian army attacking Outworld trying to finish him off.

Are there going to be any sex scenes in the narrative?

Not on-screen.

I'm thinking Liu and Kitana should consummate during MK3 but it'll be like "they start making out and it fades out to the next scene" or something that just tastefully implies what happens like that.

I definitely sympathise about MK4. A few years ago I tried writing a sequel to MK9 based around MK4 and even without having to stick to the original story it was hard as hell. The games stages don't help either, since you can't really tell where they are in relation to eachother unlike in MK3. I mean, that rainy stage. Is it ever said where or what that place is?

If I recall correctly, it's supposed to be part of Fujin's "Wind World" level from Mythologies. So it'd be in the Himalayan mountains on Earthrealm.

Does Sindel or Kitana ever figure out that Jerrod's soul is inside the revenant warrior Ermac?

Not before Armageddon. Afterward, can't say I've decided yet.

Personally I've never understood why some people thought Ermac should basically b Jerrod 'reborn' or whatever.

I'd think if Sindel and Kitana found out about Ermac's origin, that they'd be disgusted with him. He has countless souls trapped inside him that gives him strength. Wouldn't they want to destroy him to free those souls?

I think it'd be interesting to see Ermac as someone who wants to be good, but some of the other heroes can never truly accept him. Either because of his origin, or because he did help try to kill them all when he was under Kahn's control. He is a character to me, that even if he showed everyone that he can be a hero, there would be others on the forces of light that would like to see him destroyed and the souls inside him set free.