He was going to be the Red Dragon LEADER. Steve Beran- "The original intention was to make Darrius the new leader of the Red Dragon." Also, when you unlock his concept art it confirms this.

He still had the nunchaku in Armageddon. EDIT: Oh, I guess you're talking about the intro.

The Liu Kang thing is entirely due to his alternate costume. The human Liu Kang didn't have them, so they couldn't give him the chains as his weapons. It would have been pretty cool to see them used as weapons though, like in Armageddon's intro.

As for Stryker being a chosen warrior.....I honestly have no clue. Maybe Raiden had one spot left for the lineup of chosen ones, and randomly picked Stryker out of all the possible candidates.

I cannot tell you how badly I would love to get my hands on those old strategy guides and magazines from the MK2, 3, and 4 days. There's so much stuff I feel like I knew for sure as a kid that I can't prove anymore because I no longer possess the source the info came from.



Touché, but the alternative is that they wanted us to think he's one of the three characters missing from UMK3: Johnny Cage, Baraka, or Raiden.

And that just doesn't make sense. Plus then Trilogy came out and eliminated those three possibilities.

So I'm going with either "they confused the wording with that 'however' line and did mean he's the older brother" or "they deliberately wrote something that makes no sense because the character was never meant to be canon" as an explanation.

Liu Kang's chains is a simple one: Giving him chain weapons would've required them to mocap a whole fighting style. They already had nunchuck data from Johnny Cage in MKDA, though, and Bruce Lee's trademark weapon was the nunchucks. So instead of being creative, they gave the pre-existing nunchuck style to Liu.

And how Stryker qualified as a chosen one: I think we can assume that MK3 Stryker was always meant to be as badass as MK9 Stryker now is, on par with Sonya and Jax as modern, urban characters who are also worthy defenders of Earthrealm, it just didn't come across at the time. So one might as well go with the MK9 version of his bio which establishes that long before the Outworld stuff, he was already a renowned hero-cop whose true life experiences are based on Bruce Willis in Die Hard and Keanu Reeves in Speed, lol.

In short. just because he doesn't throw fireballs doesn't mean he isn't as talented at fighting and able to defeat Outworlders in battle as the other Earth warriors are.

*huggles*

So glad you've decided to stay as our MK lorekeeper rather than becoming Xiahoudun the Second. ^^ I loved reading your informative post.

As for Sub-Zero's scar, I've always assumed (and I believe I read it somewhere once as well) that the one giving him the scar was Sektor, as he was hunting down Subbie and gave him that scar in battle before Subbie could escape the Lin Kuei. It would make sense...

The reason he doesn't get the scar in MK9 would be...


That's simply my theory though.

It's not just the word "however". The whole thing is saying it was thought to be him, then everyone is shocked when it wasn't.

You're saying the ending is this:
"Thought dead, the original Sub-Zero somehow seems to have returned to win the 3rd tournament. After removing his mask both the Outworld and Earth warriors are shocked to discover it was the original Sub-Zero".

That makes no sense. That's him turning out to be who it seemed to be all along.

It's shocking and the use of "true identity" implies somebody posing as him.


I offer a 3rd possibility. John Tobias wrote the ending in 10 minutes on a napkin. He had no answer and figured he'd come up with some kind of backstory in MK4 if he decided to go in that direction. It was then dropped and we'll never know.

I realize it makes no sense, but it ALSO makes no sense the other way. No matter HOW you look at it makes no god damned sense. Classic Sub-Zero was stupid from all possible angles.



I agree.

God I've seen alot of posts with spoiler tags in them and it's eating me up not trying to look, but I must stay strong because so far I'm spoiler free............must resist must resist. D:

lol, I'm right there with you, I want to stay spoiler free but seeing the spoiler tags is killing me, I want to read so badly.

Also on the Classic Subzero ending. I would say that the ending was just thrown together to cause a stir and maybe possibly pick up on it later on in MK4 but they decided to drop it.

The less you know, the happier you'll be. Remember that and let it give you strength.

A lot of endings from the past games are non-canon, but many had things in them that could have been quite interesting to use to a degree but never got followed up upon.

I dunno, I feel like completely spoiling myself turned out to be a great idea, that way I have a month to prepare mentally for the crushing disappointment and ridiculous character-assassinations.

I wanna know whether the lin keui assasins all had special powers eg Cyrax and Sektor

Oh trust me I will, but your statement just scared the hell out of me, sounds like a good thing or a bad thing.

Well for Cyrax

and for Sektor

So with all that Plus both Sub-Zeros, Smoke, Frost, Tremor, Hydro, I'm going to say yes they have all had powers

The thing with Cyrax and Sektor, is that their powers must be intrinsically linked to the soul and such so once they become cybernetic they lose those abilities and supplement them with the new powers the tech affords them

Ignorance is a bliss... that's basically what you are saying.

I disagree though. Some might find joy in the surprise, but I prefer knowing beforehand. It doesn't kill my thrill for the game, on a contrary. I am more excited than ever for this game!

The other Earthrealm gods are most likely still alive because I just remembered an easter in Deception that said, 'The gods do not truly die; their enegeries merely dissapate until they can be reformed.'

That one about Argus have a mixed child is just a joke...

Not related to the topic, but:
They should have a female Red Dragon member like the ones in MKSM. Those were BA.

I've heard that developers have some ideas about Classic Sub-Zero and wanted develop him into something. But later they just throw this idea away.

Probably just an unfounded rumor, as pretty much all "I heard the developers planned _____" stories that predate MK4 are. Generally, if it's not from some Krypt concept art or a magazine interview or a strategy guide, someone just plain made it up. And not the "Ermac, Skarlett, Animalities" sort of made-up, more like the "I've never heard that before" sort.

I brought this up in the past mks forum with a few responses. Looks like it'll fit here too. The part about this classic sub zero shocking everyone with his true identity, missing in the past tournaments, and returning in mk4, led me to go with Quan Chi.
Someone brought up him not having ice powers, but he is a sorcerer.
He has a past with Sub (mythologies).
He was keeping a close and quiet watch on things to set up he and Shinnok's rise in mk4.
He was simply disguised as Sub-Zero. Those who were shocked were those who knew of him back when.

I know it's something not everyone will agree on and a bit of a stretch, but that's my take on it. Being a Sub fan, I had to have some kind of answer!
p.s.- thought it was johnny cage before I came up with Quan Chi

I too advocate the napkin theory for UMK3 Classic Sub. In my darker moments, I imagined it to be Noob Saibot trolling Kuai Liang by wearing the clothes he threw away and using "ice power" magic scrolls he stole from Shang Tsung, or some shit.

Either way, I just tend to forget he's there usually.

The "napkin theory" seems the most plausible. Also for all of Armageddon's endings.

Here's a few more mysteries that could use some clarification:

Shang Tsung's origins - I've heard different things about Shang. Someone said he was a human monk from Earthrealm that sold his soul to netherrealm demons for the powers of immortality and aligned himself with Outworld. Others say's an actual demon sorcerer in human flesh. Others said he was a denizen of Outworld who was taught the powers of soul-stealing by Shao Kahn and used as his emissary to win tournaments for Outworld. Who is Shang Tsung really and what's the true story on where he came from?

Sub-Zero's mother and sister - It stands to reason that at the very least, Sub-Zero's unseen sister has the same cryomancer blood in her veins, something that's sure to cause attention. Many speculated that Frost might have been Sub's sister, but I seem to recall the devs confirmed she's not. So, if Sub's sis is still alive and well, and no doubt wondering why her first kiss put a guy in the hospital with frost-bite, what's happened with her? Sub-Zero obviously knows she exists, but does he follow up on her, even from a distance? Of all people, Sub-Zero and Scorpion are the ones most driven and shaped by their family, and his mother and sister remain anomalies.

Sonya's brother - Just like her supposed partner, Sonya's brother died under mysterious circumstances. Maybe he was killed in a car wreck or took too much LSD at a rave party. Or maybe it was something more serious and relevant to her job as a soldier. Her family was military, and Sonya is now saddled with, in one story or another, a dead partner, a dead brother, and a missing father. I'd like answers on what happened with at least ONE of them.

Goro's wives - Goro's a bit of a ladies man. Eight wives. And he's supposedly a rather good husband (two for each hand, I guess). And yet we never see them. It's never shown any of them reacting to his death. It's implied Goro even became king, so who was the "queen" of the Shokan? Of course, there's also that running theory that Sheeva was one of his wives... but we know that's ridiculous. She OBVIOUSLY has the hots for Johnny Cage.

Woah,I just realized what I wrote..let me rephrase that: How long was Shao Kahn, Havik's advisor? Though, I doubt that could be answered.



Okay, take Nightwolf, he had a vision during MK 3 that there's going to be invasion on Earthrealm; is not theoretically plausible that other characters with similar abilities could detect that something was going with this kid? The only answer I could think of is that they were all to busy fighting off Shao Kan, among other evils.



God, I would of enjoyed their original storylines so much better.

I have a few more questions:

- Are Baraka and Mileena lovers or not? Because if they are, they have one dysfunctional relationship..

- Was Kabal ever truly good? If a simple push from Havik all it took for him to rejoin his former clan, than I'm not convinced that he's good or was ever good.

Garlador:
Shang's origin is he is about a thousand years old and it is canon that he was born on Earthrealm, but defected to Outworld in order to learn soul stealing from Shao Kahn. In pledging his loyalty to Kahn, he also unknowingly sold Shao Kahn his own soul. Presumably, this is the reason he counts as a citizen of Outworld when he competes in Mortal Kombat tournaments.

Anyway, the gods cursed him with rapid aging and now stealing souls is the only way he can stay young.

He fought in the Mortal Kombat tournament for Outworld and won (presumably 9 times, otherwise where's the danger?) until The Great Kung Lao defeated him.

At the next tournament 50 years later, he came back an old man and secretly killed one of the Shaolin grandmasters of the tournament in order to take his seat (it was offered to him as a place of honor for a former champion). He entered Goro into the tournament that year and Goro killed Great Kung Lao to become the champion.

After that, everybody knows the rest. Took over the tournament, moved it to his island, Goro won for 500 years, et cetera.

As for your other three questions, there's really no answer. All we know is Sub-Zero's sister is NOT Frost.



You keep typing Havik...but I bet you mean Onaga, don't you?

Yeah...no idea how long Kahn advised the Dragon King. All we know is that Kahn turning evil happened long before Shinnok turning evil did. Hell, Shinnok didn't turn evil until about the time Edenia was conquered.



Well...Nightwolf had a vision of the Dragon King's coming, that's why he did the whole sin-eater, travel to the Netherealm to trap his soul thing. But no, nobody sensed there was anything wrong with Shujinko because there was nothing to sense.

Almost no characters have the ability to see the future, and If you were to read Shujinko's mind, for instance, all you'd see is his own thoughts that he's working for the Elder Gods and they send a messenger named Damashi to talk to him. They'd have no way of knowing Damashi's a fake 'cause none of them ever met Damashi.



Umm...in the old canon, I think so? It's never outright mentioned except for that one MK2 ending that isn't canon, but there SEEMS to be a relationship or partnership of some kind hinted between the two of them in Deception, before Mileena turns on and tries to kill him in her ending, anyway.

In the reboot universe though, it would seem not. Disappointing for me personally, I think it added a layer of depth to Baraka who otherwise has NOTHING going for him. 'Course, in the new canon, Mileena was, like, born yesterday. So maybe give it time and in the sequel the two will hook up?



I would LIKE to think Kabal was good. It's canon that for the almost ten years between MK3 and Deception, Kabal was working as a vigilante, keeping the streets clean. But I don't think Havik gave him a "simple push" so much as preached him towards a complete religious awakening to the point where Kabal became a true believer in Chaos.

One has to note that Kabal DOES have a good reason to lose his goddamn mind, though, the poor guy.

-Who took down Smoke during MK3?

Was it a specific Outworld fighter? A horde of Tarkatans? Kahn himself? Either way, I have a hard time believing Sub-Zero would let his friend get carted off to a dungeon; I've imagined for a while now that either Smoke took off after Cyrax and Sektor were taken care of to try and mount an assault solo - or, more likely IMO - he was part of a general offensive against Kahn's forces by the Earthrealm warriors, or just with Sub-Zero. In any case, I imagine he was overwhelmed during a tremendous fray.