So that is what Cassie is talking about when she has an intro with Raiden, with Sonya seemingly dying. A lot of the story trailer was just the first chapter of the story mode.

I have that impression too. At first I thought Raiden fighting all those minions would be kind of an "end-game" sort of thing, but appears to be the beginning.

I don't think Sonya will die, we see her shooting Kano in a place out of Netherrealm and I think this happens at a later point.

We will see

That's Young Sonya from the past if I recall correctly.

I presume Old Sonya dies and young Sonya is the primary Sonya featured for most of the story.

That said, since time travel BS is involved, it's entirely possible Old Sonya could end up restored/saved before all is said and done, so I'm not that worried about it.

SO ANYWAY... yeah... this is basically exactly how I thought the game would start after watching the story trailer.

But when Kronika repairs the nether realm castle wouldn’t it free or bring Sonya back to life?

I think Kronika is going to use Sonya as a trump card to stop Cassie beating her at the end, a last minute plot twist where everyone thinks Sonya dies in chapter 1 then boom she’s back alive at the end and either on Kronikas side or held captive by her

I was thinking something along these lines as well. I would imagine Kronika would present herself to Liu Kang and Kitana shortly after this chapter and reverse time on their castle. This could save Sonya and allow her to be rescued later in the game. I do think past Sonya will be the main Sonya for most of this story though.

So if Jade is a revenant guarding the NetherRealm castle at the beginning of MK11 story mode, where did she come from? She was mysteriously absent in MKX story mode. Are we ever going to get an explanation of where she was during MKX?

I really want Sonya to die and stay dead (along with a few other characters).
But, even more than that, I do NOT want her to be replaced with her past self. It would spit in the face of what little character development she has gotten in this series. All her development happened in MKX. Before that she was nothing more than a stripper in a slutty military-themed outfit.... sometimes she dressed as a yoga instructor.

Not to mention there are times in the trailer where I couldn't tell if I was looking at Cassie, a young Sonya, or current Sonya.

This is my biggest concern with the time-travel: Undermining story-arcs / character development, and revisiting story arcs that are done to death. I swear; if they bring back Quan Chi and Scorpion must have his revenge(!) yet again, I ain't buying it. Same with him fighting Sub Zero - that arc ended when Scorpion killed Bi Han in MK1. Move on already!

The NRS writers got more dumb than in MKX.

They literally now have SF military forces from Earth going to Hell and trying to bomb the Palace of the souls who reside there. THEY'RE SOULS! What are you trying to bomb?? Do they even care if they don't have that castle anymore??

Netherrealm was supposed to be this place with different physical laws in the old timeline, many illusions and souls feeding on other souls who couldn't die and and just hang around in the background with half their bodies, screaming in agony. You didn't know what was real and what wasn't when Liu Kang and Kung Lao walked through it in Shaolin Monks or when Shujinko and Taven walked around there in Deception and Armageddon. It was terryfying!

Transforming it into this place like a normal realm in which a bunch of GI Joes can get in and place plastic explosives is THE DUMBEST AND MOST STUPID IDEA EVER

Why woudln't Earthrealm armies around the world unite and send in 1 million soldiers if they're under threat from literal Hell? Better yet, why not just send a nuke??

Plastic explosives........God.
What would they do to demons who dies in Hell anyway? Won't they just....go to Hell again??

They should just bring back the good writers Vogel, Jon Greenberg and Alex Barrentine.

Dom Cianciolo has been doing a lousy job in the new timeline by himself

RE: The nature of the Netherrealm

I don't remember having the impression that Netherrealm was any less a physical realm in Deception & Armageddon's Konquest modes than I do right now. Though I admittedly played them over 10 years ago... I'm pretty sure I just strolled into those places as a living breathing human and screwed around with them however I pleased. I do recall I punched a lot of people. Folks like Jarek, Nitara & Cyrax seemed to be just hanging out there too.

RE: Why is Jade a revenant and where is the explanation for her absence from MKX?

I don't think any explanation is required. When last we saw Jade, she was a revenant working for the Netherrealm at the end of MK9. Now she's still a revenant working for the Netherrealm when we reconnect with her at the start of MK11. That's a fairly straight line connecting former status quo to current status quo. Now I agree, her absence from MKX seems somewhat conspicuous in hindsight, and maybe they'll give us some insight into what she was doing later, but I don't think it's necessarily a huge plot point that NEEDS to be addressed. We can assume Quan Chi has lots of minions, and she was elsewhere during the events of MKX doing other miniony shit. We have yet to see Sindel, Stryker, Nightwolf or Smoke in 11... they could presumably also be elsewhere doing other minony shit (or maybe they'll have cameos, who knows)

This is kind of like War Machine being absent from Avengers 1. Yes it was conspicuous, but the real reason is the cast was overcrowded and Marvel didn't feel he was needed for Avengers 1, just like NRS decided to sit on Jade for a game. They offered some throwaway explanations for why he wasn't at the Chitauri NY invasion later... but the real reason was just the writers didn't choose to use him, and he returned later in other sequels. As Jade is now doing. And we may only get as little as a similar throwaway explanation.

Netherrealm is a realm that contains hell (fifth plane of Netherrealm) Access is possible to all beings whose soul is tainted by evil (so, even good guys who did bad deeds).

Jade's absence will be explained by the story mode. I suspect that the lady in her ending is Cetrion, not Kronika. And Cetrion will play a role in turning all of the Revenants into humans again.

No, the Netherrealm is Hell. The fith plane of the Netherrealm is simply a layer of the Netherrealm where Scorpion would reside and ressurect from. It is likely a reference to the Fifth circle of Hell where the Wrathful would go.

But that ending literally can't be canon. She's alive (IE. Not a revenant) in that ending, and what's more she defeats Shao Kahn, and then the mystery woman possesses her body (and my all indications MK11 Jade seems unpossessed)

Even if they made a version of her MK9 ending Semi-Canon, it doesn't necessarily need to reflect on her wherabouts during MKX, nor do her wherabouts necessarily merit explanation. She starts MK11 in the same role & condition she was at the end of MK9 when we last saw her. There's certainly a time gap, but there's no logic gap that needs filling there. Plenty of characters have skipped a game in the past only to come back in a later sequel, without necessarily explaining the in-between.

All that said, I have heard rumors the "Jade's Ending Lady" might be Cetrion, and it indeed does look a hell of alot more like the 1 image we've seen of Cetrion than it does Kronika. So I could absolutely see them making a revised version of her ending semi-canon.

Just saying the existing MK9 version already isn't canon (for a multitude of other reasons)... and... the gap between her place in 9 and 11 doesn't necessarily need filling.

I just posted this on Reddit, in a thread about Shao Kahn coming to reclaim his throne. Figured I'd re-post it here as long as we're discussing story mode conjecture and breaking down what we see in the story trailer, as I think I did some good breaking down...

----------------------------------------------

I offer the following conjecture...

• 0:20 into the story trailer we see several characters from MK's present and past emerging from swirls of sand in Kahn's Arena (Erron Black. Skarlet, Baraka, Kano, Shao Kahn, Liu Kang, Jade, Kung Lao & a Non-Dark Raiden), First Villains and then heroes separately, it seems.
• Immediately after those scenes we see this shot: https://imgur.com/ofV0yzy in which presumably that same handful of characters appear to be surrounding Kotal Kahn, who is standing in front of the throne (you can tell it's Kotal, as he's holding his big red sword). The bad guys and good guys appear to be grouped separately. A bunch of NPCs holding spears also surround all characters. They appear to be the same native outworlders seen later in the story trailer.
• <Here I presume a fight breaks out>
• 1:45 into the trailer, we see Non-Dark Raiden shocking the ever loving crap out of Shao Kahn in Kahn's arena, putting the hurt on him.
• 0:45 into the trailer, we see the same Non-Dark Raiden calmly discussing with Kotal Kahn that they have common cause. Liu Kang also looks on. The scene behind them is littered with battered NPCs all over the ground, re-collecting themselves, indicating it's likely after a fight.

I posit that these events take place early in the story, in the order I've presented them. This is likely after the scenes we see where Kronika recruits Kahn and his minions. This is probably the first these characters are traveling to the present to announce themselves to Kotal Kahn, present day Ruler of Outworld, on (now) his throne, in (now) his arena. Kotal summons his guards. A fight erupts. The heroes ultimately win, many guards are killed, Shao Kahn gets his ass handed to him by Raiden, and the villains flee. At which point, after the dust settles, Raiden explains to Kotal that they have common cause.

We know Kronika recruits Outworld villains from the past. I'm not yet certain she recruits the heroes. The heroes and villains do not appear to be working together. The heroes may be chosen by Raiden after he communes with the Elder Gods (which we also see him doing in the trailer) as they appear to be working against the villains, and the Raiden leading them is not Dark (whether or not this is present day Raiden, who the hell knows, but he's obviously not Dark)

Point is (I'm guessing) the first thing Shao Kahn does after Kronika recruits him is announce himself, then get his ass handed to him by Raiden (with possible assist from Kotal) and get sent running from his own former stomping grounds.

That's all just my theory though.

At first I thought so too, but a dialog with a NPC in konquest mode says

"you can't access the fifth plane of Netherrealm because you have a physical body"

John Vogel was a better writer than the new ones.. and Kittelsen doesn't know the essence of the series.

The story trailer made it pretty clear to me that there are two Jades

Revenant under Liu and Kitana command and young/from past timeline at white Rain side, summoned with Kung Lao and Liu Kang from the sands of time

For all that matters, Cetrion could be in possession of past/young Jade (i know that edenians are long lived, but young gives the idea of what I mean)

However, in Kitana's ending "Raiden's victory is an outcome that must be rewritten", so I think that Cetrion at least in the beginning will abide Kronika's plan or the woman possessing Jade is Kronika.

The story and writing is downright embarrassing, I fail to see why NRS even still tries.

Just so embarrassing.

I'm pretty sure the real answer is early on in the life of MK, the Netherrealm and Hell were separate concepts, then later, circa MK4ish, they got merged into the same concept and things got left a bit messy in translation.

I know there are instances where this franchise references hell, despite the fact it also at times considers the Netherrealm a synonymous concept.

Wasn't there some backstory about Shinnok dethroning Lucifer and taking over after he was banished there too? (I swear I remember that being a thing, but it's been a while, and MK4 was my least favorite and least played of the main series, so my memory is fuzzy)

SO ANYWAY... it kinda is hell, and kinda isn't, and the canon details of that kinda-sorta relationship don't hold up to great scrutiny, like most other canon details in the franchise.

Netherrealm tells great stories in broad strokes, but they suck at details. They're constantly ignore/retconning/forgetting/contradicting details. I have no doubt you're both probably half-right.

I agree there are two Jades, but the young one is for all intents and purposes a new character, as we haven't been following her or been acquainted with her up to this point. So yes, they can freely write whatever backstory they want with her, but that would have nothing to do with filling in the events for present timeline Jade while she was missing in MKX. Present timeline Jade, who is the revenent, is the one who was missing for the events of MKX. Which is where this convo started a few posts back.

THAT said, whatever backstory they do cook up for the young one, I don't think she seems to be wrapped up in an intriguing subplot of her own involving Cetrion. See my previous post about the pieced together scenes in Kotal Kahns arena (in which she was involved). She seems to be just another random hero recruit.

There are also scenes in the trailer where young Jade appears to be on the run, and working with Kotal Kahn. I'm guessing these come after the arena scenes. The heroes likely split up and Jade goes off on some side-quest with Kotal, while Liu Kang & Kung Lao do their Shaolin Monk thing.

BUT HEY... all just speculation. all just guessing. I could be hitting the nail on the head, or I could be dead wrong.

They’re obviously making the story up as they go along. It’s full of pores and inconsistencies. They need to sit down and map out where exactly the story is going to lead for future instalments, but of course that will never happen. We’ll keep getting redundant shit like Raiden time travelling again and again, and some new big bad guy is revealed to be behind Kronika, who was behind Shinnok, who was behind Shao Kahn, who was behind Shang Tsung. And then there’s Onaga, and Kotal. And they will tell us it was planned all along lol.

God, this story is horrendous.

Yeah but it's still hell. It's a realm of the afterlife so death means nothing there to those that reside in it. What irks me more is that people are still just strolling into the Netherrealm. They established before you had to be tainted with evil blah blah who cares right? Streamlined lore now don't think about what came before, following preestablished rules are hard.

Sorry Gillbob316, that rant wasn't directed at you. Just venting about the current state of things.

This is your first intelligent post since...well ever.

I agree 100%.

They haven't put any effort in the story telling since Deception and even then I thought they were getting a little lazy but that was MILES better than the bullshit drivel they've been crapping out since Armageddon.

I almost wish they'd scrap story and just focus strictly on fighting. They know they want to. Story and lore means nothing in this franchise now.

It really does seem like they're trying every way possible to stay within the walls of MK1-3.

This is likely so they'll have a reason to continue bringing back the characters from those games. It pains me, really, 'cause they're not moving forward. They're deliberately remaining stagnant.