Hmm, am I the only one here who actually liked Taven? I hope he will return in future MK games...

After Onaga carried him off, he shoulder charged right back in a straight line at lightning speed, right through a whole bunch of mountains and straight up the pyramid. You all know that move's unstoppable.

>_>

Nah, I liked that guy, too.

I liked Taven a lot. After the way Shujinko was so nice to everybody and always did what he was told, Taven's sarcastic dickishness was extremely refreshing.

I know she fought Smoke, but as to what side she was on... good?

Beating up helpless monks for spare change. Good times.

Nitara is considered neutral, as she only fought for her own (and her people's) benefit. She did not join sides, however, she is against Shao Kahn for what he had done to her people, but wasn't shy of using those against him, again for her own benefit, such as Kenshi and Cyrax.

Kenshi? I only remember her manipulating Reptile and Cyrax. Then again, I haven't played DA in years. so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details.

Oh right, sorry, I mixed some storylines together...

I meant which army does she run with in the MKA opening.

Oh... *facepalm*

Sorry. :P
She runs with the baddies, for some reason.

Well that's dumb.

I suppose it would be because Ashrah is on the good guys' side.

Even though technically Ashrah's in the wrong/being manipulated and Nitara ought to be considered the hero in that rivalry.

Completely agree. Unless Shao Kahn has offered her to free her people if she fights alongside him, there is absolutely no benefit for Nitara to be on his side.

Well that's the thing, her people were already free. She got her realm back in Deadly Alliance. According to her bio, the only reason she shows up for this thing is to acquire a power that can make Ashrah's sword go away because it's a cursed, mind controlling vampire-slayer weapon.

Although I didn't see Ashrah on the good side..putting her alongside the likes of Shinnok, Quan Chi, and Noob Saibot would be really weird. Nitara shouldn't be there either but still.

Raiden runs with the good guys though that's not right.

I realize the MKA opening is deemed cannon, but I strongly doubt the developers spent more than five minutes trying to decide which side Nitara was going to fight on. The fact that she's running with the villains yet fighting Smoke (who at the time was assisting the villains) is reason to believe the writers were either stumped or they didn't care.

You could argue that Smoke is a good character in essence and him fighting Nitara is consistent with her running with the villains, but there's nothing in the MKA story mode that communicates he was freed from Noob's control. Why would Smoke suddenly be helping the good guys at the final battle?

They had to be put somewhere.

Despite a lot of poor writing went into Armageddon, I hope they don't scratch this character off, as well as Daegon. I liked conquest mode in Armageddon, even though there were some goofy moments and such. But they shouldn't ditch these two characters because I did like them a lot. So, hopefully he's still sleeping or... something is going on with his character that'll make him more of a greater character than what he was back during Armageddon.

With Mileena now being born/made during MK2 rather than thousands of years prior, maybe something completely different happened to him. Like he has a new quest that doesn't involve getting stoned before it starts

Well one of Raiden's visions was of the part in MKA Konquest where Taven fights him.

So if Konquest was a true part of Future-Raiden's life, then he's probably still in the stone in Past-Raiden's time.

Well Smoke and Noob were KO'ed in the Lin Kuei temple. One of the endings, I think it's Noob's, says Sub kept them captured for rehabilitation but Noob managed to escape.
Any mention of Smoke escaping too is conspicuous by its absence. So I think it's safe to assume Sub did, in fact, restore his free will offscreen.

Wait, doesn't Noob's ending involve him fighting against his sub-zero side for gain of spiritual control over Bi-Han's body?

Well I did say "I think". I can't actually remember whose bio or ending its in but I know it's there somewhere.

I think Cyrax's ending mentioned a partnership with Sub-Zero reforming the cyborgs. It was one of the better endings in MKA, honestly (with Smoke's being one of the worst).



I would have to watch the Konquest mode again, but didn't Smoke escape after Taven mopped up Noob? If that's the case, my guess is Sub went after him and indeed brought him back to reality. If Smoke is fighting for good, then logically it follows such an event happened. Thing is, there's no official word on what nano-Smoke is. Lore peeps seem to agree he became some something demonic, but it's hard to imagine how Sub restored his will if that's the case.

On an unrelated note, I was watching the MKA intro again, and holy shit, Smoke's design looks good. Even for PS2 technology in 2006, the elemental effect really comes to life in the cinematic. Though I eventually learned to love the design, the in-game execution always looked weak to me. The smoke needed to be much more dense to look right. I'm glad it appears perfect in the MKA intro cause that may be the last time we ever see it.

*with lisp* Born....of DECEPTION!

Well there's stuff in the krypt that said Smoke was intended to have his own bio and ending separate from Noob's but they couldn't fit it in. The bio would have explained that the reason his "smoke monster" costume looks like it does is that when Noob took him to the Netherealm, the energy of the realm corrupted his nanobots and they changed his body into a "cyber-demon".

You can still see a hint of this happening in Ashrah's MKD ending where Smoke is unable to fight with Noob when she attacks him because they're in the Netherealm and he's suddenly started malfunctioning.

It could have been something even more meaningful if it happened in the MK9 timeline now that we know he's actually always been a smoke-demon in human form all along, and he just doesn't know it, like taking him back to his home realm released his true nature or the like...