Someone beats Kronika 6 ways from Sunday

I see this like any other major time-travelling comicbook crossover event - it will merge both times and try to keep the "best of both worlds". However, what NRS think is the best and should be kept might be vastly different to what the fans think.

This is how I think they will resolve the revenant arc; those characters will die and their younger, alive selves will take over. Which is fine. That arc was horrible.

However, I think they'll keep most of the old-timeline characters.... which I think would be a mistake. MKX was the first time some of these characters got any meaningful development - like Sonya, Johnny, Jax, etc. To replace them with their younger selves would be to completely undermine that and be a hard reset on the character. It will also make for weird and potentially creepy family dynamics with Cassie and FemJax.

No doubt Shao Kahn will stick around after this too. Which I would only accept if he was never to become the main villain ever again. That way they can flesh him out more without shoving him in our faces all the time.

I really hope they don't keep the old-skool Scorpion and Sub Zero. IT's great that Scorp got to end his revenge arc by killing Bi Han and Quan Chi, and is able to move on and rebuild his clan. Kuei Liang I don't really care about but I do really enjoy him becoming allies with Scorp. (Although one of the intro dialogues from the beta hints at this alliance not working out).

In the end this whole time-travel thing and having two versions of characters is a huge cop-out and lazy writing. Instead of getting interesting development and character arcs.... Like Raiden becoming good again - He's most likely just going to be replaced with past self. The only cop-out I will happily accept is them ditching the revenants.

Hopefully with the protaganists finding Kronika's keep and restoring time with the old-skool characters going back to the timeline they came from. I really hope that happens. I really do not want to see two versions of each character continuing.

From a selfish point of view, I do not want old-skool to replace Hanzo. It was so good to see Scorpion get his revenge and we can get some meaningful development with his character. It would be so, so dissapointing going back to old-skool Scorpion. We had that arc for over 20 years, I really feel we do not revisit it. Cassie even remarks in one of their intros that "I knew you would say some shit like that", just underscores how one-dimensional Scorpion was before. Hanzo just seems more chill and level headed. His intros with Jade are interesting in that they are extremely friendly towards each other. Jade seems to temper Hanzo excitable qualities while Hanzo encourages her for revenge against Shao Kahn.

I have no idea because I have been staying away from the story of this game as much as possible because I know it will just boil my blood.

But I'm willing to bet it's going to end stupidly. Just like the last two games; or if we go further back, the last four games.

Seeing sonya Will die in chapter one. I just hope that time will reset itself after the defeat of kronika and sonya Will be alive again. Cause I dont want an mk game without the original 3. Liu Kang, Sonya and Johnny Cage. Those 3 are essential for me to feel like an mortal kombat game.

Sonya, Johnny, Liu, Raiden, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion are never going anywhere- at least not for long. MKX and MK11 have solidified that.

And that's why there's two versions. Kill one... keep the other.

Sad part is they're going to kill the more interesting one.

Call me nostalgic but I hope MK11 paves the way for Onaga's kickass return to the franchise.

A truly underrated villain.

I know right ?

I really loved her development in mkx and the comics. Finally some kharakter development for Sonya, Johnny etc. Look wise I really digg her new look with the jacket and the bandana looking head piece. But I also like her general look. Thankfully we can make more variations so I will be having both of them.

Just cant help feeling worried they will kill her off and no Sonya Blade in the next game. I love cassie but she aint no sonya.

& Jax apparently.

& Kitana.

And Kung Lao.

And Kano.

Anyone else hear the name callouts from the Mortal Kombat song while reading the last two posts?

Anyway. In the last trailer we saw Little Johnny get a bullet streak across his cheek while Old Man Cage has an old scar in the same place. So a young version of a character dying can kill the old version as well, and it's sure to be a consequence that gets invoked at least once.

Wild speculation time:

What if Young Kano sees an advantage in taking over for Old Kano, and seizes the opportunity? Perhaps even doing the deed of murdering his own future self, so that Old Kano gets his comeuppance for always being such a nasty bastard?

Judging by intros in the beta, I'm guessing that Jade aligns with Kotal at first but betrays him to help Kitana become Kahn. Perhaps this is the "Greater Empire" that Kronika promises when she recruits Shao Kahn, but she withholds that detail just to sucker him into helping. It's been suggested that Kitana was originally meant to overthrow him following Armageddon, after all. Kotal, being more honorable than most other Outworlders, may admit defeat and take his place at the side of the new Empress... unless he is so burned by Jade's betrayal that he takes a turn and vows their destruction. Grab a popcorn.

Past Raiden laments the lives lost as a result of his decisions. Despite the victories won, he can't abide the darkness that drives his future self. Strong odds in favor of him fighting himself, Injustice style, probably in an attempt to remove Shinnok's tainted influence. But what if Past Raiden cannot win, and his only hope to set things right is to destroy himself and take Dark Raiden down with him? (Post-credits scene: Raiden is reborn on Earth as a brand new god, with no memories of what has transpired in either timeline. He stands aloof and ready for action, his motivations unknowable and his new purpose a mystery....)

Old Man Cage sacrifices himself for the greater good, inspiring Little Johnny to be a better man much sooner than he did the last time around. But because the younger version still lives to return to his own time, a new version of Old Man Cage appears on the scene as a direct continuation of Johnny's life after all the time bending madness. Maybe a new Sonya is there too -- a version who isn't so averse to showing her softer side. They meet up with Cassie, who thought she'd lost them both, and things get sentimental.

Liu Kang and Kung Lao confront their future selves, emerge victorious, and return to their own time all the wiser for the experience. If anyone can and should get away with a simple, direct, and conventional arc in this story, it's those two.