If the story is a linear string, then no. I suppose it is not, but if it were this could not work. Why?

Raiden sends a message back to his younger self, who makes changes to the events that lead into MKA. If the prerequisites of MKA cannot play out, then MKA cannot exist, so Raiden has no incentive to send a message back, because the why? how? when? whom? are not the same as originally.

Otherwise known as the Grandfather-paradox (you cannot travel back time and kill your grandfather before he has one of your parents, since then you would not exist in the first place to travel back in time and kill him).

MK9 is going to be an alternate plot, what replaces the original. I kinda growing to see that as a feasible solution to throw the convoluted and disjointed mess of MK4-MKA and wipe the state clean. Though I am going to miss somewhere Deadly Alliance....

As I've said: Disapointment has evolved to cautious optimism.

I see this as open permission to not care about the story anymore. The story is officially dead.

As for the possibilities of this alternate timeline....I'm expecting disaster of Shaolin Monks proportions.

That isn't true because this is not actual time travel. Raiden doesn't send himself back in time. He sends a message to his past self. There's a major difference there, so it's more like him receiving a premonition.

There's no granddaddy paradox applicable here.

I could see some of these happening;

-- Either Raiden or Kung Lao winning the first tournament (why not now say Kung Lao was there with the Earth Realm warriors for the first tournament since things are different now anyways).
-- Smoke never becomes a cyborg, or undergoes the process yet comes out as some sort of failed attempt, quarter cybernetic/three-quarters human (of half-and-half, but I think he'd look better with only a portion robotic).
-- Sindel will either be resurrected and stay evil by Kahn's forces, or resurrected by Raiden's forces and stays good.

For the message to be sent, Armageddon has to happen.

If Raiden successfully prevents Armageddon, he never had a reason to send the message. So he never sends one this time.

So Past Raiden never received one and thus never tried to prevent Armageddon.

So Armageddon happens and dying Raiden sends his past self a message to prevent it.
See the loop of "did happen, didn't happen, did happen, didn't happen"? That's what a paradox is.

But paradoxes can only happen in stories where there's only one timeline. In more logical stories, changing the past creates an alternate universe.

I see what you're saying, but for all intents and purposes, it DID happen at least once and that's how and why the message was sent back in time.

Clearly this would require alternate timelines to exist in the MK Universe, and it is a fantasy universe afterall so it makes perfect sense to me.

You can't compare this to Shaolin Monks. Shaolin Monks was a game that was supposed to be set between MK2 and MK3. Pretty much a prequel.

This is completely different. It takes place AFTER Armageddon but involves Raiden able to go back to the very beginning and change events and elements that will possibly lead to an entirely new & different future that will be developed in further sequels.

It's both a sequel/reboot. It's like coming to a place with two paths in front of you, you walk down one path(MK1-MKA) and then return to where you originally started and then go down the second path(MK '11-Future).

It is irrelelvant wether Raiden, or the message travels back in time.

And yes, this has to be branched into an alternate continuity.

....um...is this comment supposed to make me feel better about this game's story? Because all you really did was sum up why I think it's fucking stupid.

Yeah the original story still happened....it just doesn't matter anymore. Because Raiden's going back to beginning and changing things. It's the same, only different. It's different, but still the same.

It's a waste of my fucking time.

I'm surprised you're not interested in seeing what changes will come to Kitana's story.

This might deliver some fun twists, considering she had interesting relationships with many characters, namely Kahn, Liu, Sindel, and Jade.

16 years of the story was effectively thrown in the garbage. Everything that happened in the original story doesn't mean squat if Raiden can send a message to himself and redo the storyline. Even though they were trying to tell us that the previous story is still relevant, it is still for all intents and purposes still a reboot, and I wish they would have not tied it to MK Armageddon and at least give the previous time line a proper closure instead of doing some lame changing the past story. I could deal with a downer ending of Shao Kahn wins and then start fresh in a new MK universe, even if what I really wanted was a revisit of the MK1-3 story, instead of an alt universe MK1-3.

I shudder to even think. As you may recall, they already tried to recreate MK2/MK3 era Kitana....twice.
Shaolin (It's supposed to be MK2) Monks and MK (This is circa MK3) DC.

Neither effort turned out so hot.


But it doesn't matter anymore. Now I effectively have no right to complain about what they do with Kitana...because this won't be the real Kitana. It'll be alternate/Ultimate/rebooted Kitana.

So what's the point?

I like the idea of retelling Mortal Kombat Trilogy but the whole time travel angle is a little silly. But as others have said this is a convenient way to reboot the whole series without calling it a "reboot".

Not necessarily, but I see a grave point you brought up.


If Raiden can indeed send messages back to himself so easily, why hasn't he resorted to this under less dramatic circumstances? I mean, a "warn Liu Kang that Kung Lao should not be allowed near him during exercises" could have been enough to avert the Deadly Alliances success. With Liu Kang ready and not cheapshot out of the picture (love you Shang) they couldn't have succeeded at all.


IF this message cannot be sent under normal circumstances, or bears some dramatic backlash or prize (requires Raiden's death at MKA, or the whole being in the eye of the storm necessitates and makes this possible) then yes, it is cheap and just throws the current events out the window.



...Which is a good thing I might add. The convolutedness can be disregarded. We all know who these people are, but the choices will be different from now on. Either way, the original timeline gets erased starting from MK9.

Question is, is it simply going down the drain, or actually serves as the backdrop of the new story? If the latter, then I call this a genius move (compared to Netherrealm Studios that is, time travel has been only done expertly in the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver series in video games).

Just to let you guys know ........ I kind of called this like last year, only it would have been a completely alternate universe where characters actually looked and behaved different, I.E. Scorpion was more human looking ( ala rebirth, which I kind of called that one too ), ,Shao Khan wore metal bone armor, Cyrax was completely human, and Kitanna and Liu Kang had a daughter that shared their moves.

The whole point was a way to erase MK4 and on, with out retconning everything.

Ed Boon totally reads these threads.

I suggested in another topic the only reason he could do it may be because of the power boost all the characters got from Blaze/Taven's malfunctioning armor, and it's not a power he normally has.

I wasn't trying to make you feel better about a damn thing. So NO, it wasn't meant to make you feel better. It was meant to show you the difference between Shaolin Monks and Mortal Kombat '11 and why comparing them is completely moronic.

Seems sound.



Also, if Dark Raiden was the one who sent the message: how would that influence his MK9 incarnation? What did he send? "Man up, bitch! Shit's getting real, can the Kahn!"

Ah, I see. My Shaolin Monks analogy simply went over your head.

It's okay. Most idiotic analogies go over my head.

Unfortunately steel tipped arrows too... :\

Couldn't resist.

Thinking the same thing....same sort of thought process I had with when he sacrificed himself too, actually.

The requirement of a series of extreme acts. First, disobey the Heavens, then turn mortal again to fight the DA,loose that fight, sacrifice himself, do uncharacteristic things with a corpse (black magic), mingle with the bad guys, and loose a final boss battle.

You'd think Earth was destined to submit, really. And where the hell is Fujin during all this loosing Raidens been going through? He's the lead God at the time of most of this, isn't he?



I just hope they don't cop it out with maneuvers through the story that are too simplistic during the explanation of the thing. It's a bold move with possible devastating results. I hope they put their foot in it like they're saying they have.

lol, Raiden sending a message back to himself

Anything to get the MK2/3 theme again