Yes, he is still alive but he is basically useless now. He can not even do anything even though he is still alive. That is what Raiden means when he says there are fates worse than death.

I imagine Shinnok will be a cameo in MK11 as something sorta like this...

I hope not. He can not even talk. Time for Liu Kang to exercise his rule without Shinnok or Quan Chi there. The Netherrealm has not had any other ruler in the games. Would be interesting. Would love to see Raiden finally snap as well.

I don't even get how this permanently incapacitates him when he exists in a universe with magic and has been placed back into a realm of the undead. I mean Raiden just plopped the devil back in the Netherrealm AKA the bee hive of shenanigans.

That place is ripe for magical bullshit to give Shinnok his body back and become an active participant in the war for the realms again.

Another plot hole is, the revenants are loyal to Shinnok...or they were, suddenly they have free will now and are power hungry evil creatures.
So taking what they should be into consideration...why the fuck would it be a good idea to plop their masters head at their feet and bid them a good day?

Ah fuck it I'm giving this way more thought than John Vogel ever will these days.

How are Liu Kang and Kitana, simple revenants rulers of the realm of hell though? Shinnok was because he was a god. He could reshape the realm as he saw fit and his power was unmatched by any other being within it.

Meanwhile Liu and Kitana have no power or authority so...how the hell does that even work? Why do the hell bound monstrosities of the realm abide by this? Oh sure Liu and Kitana can fight but...so what?

They are the rulers because that was implied at the end of the canon story mode. Why would Raiden threaten them and give them Shinnok's head if they were lackey's to someone else? Does not make sense. What other being could challenge Liu Kang for the rule of Netherrealm? I can not think of any.

LMAO I <3 Futurama

I think by showing severed head still alive implies we haven't seen the last of him. Beheaded but still alive. He will progress in the series, first as a severed head, maybe as comedic villain, to somehow regain or gain another body and become a evil villain again. Since we are using Futurama as a reference. Think of how Nixon was. Gain another body and became President of Earth.

Just like Shao Kahn. Not truly dead after MK9. We saw his broken helmet. Not his head and his body. Those were just taken by the Elder gods to I presume the Heavens so they can judge him. We will see Shao and Shinnok again.

KenshiMaster, I'm so proud of you.

No no I mean them being able to rule the Netherrealm makes no sense for the reasons I stated. Shinnok was a god. They are nothing other than souls trapped in the neatherrealm.

Also what else could challenge Liu and Kitana? Anything, they're powerful but not all powerful. They were having trouble with the likes of Jax, and the newer Special Forces team, a horde of demons would have them done in in no time.

The Cerberus is more valid as the new ruler of the Netherrealm.

Basically because the whole story was poorly thought out. If it sounded cool, they included it, even when it made no sense.

I bet you any money that Havik is going to eat Shinnok's head.

Remember that.

The story made very little sense, so there's no reason to rack your brains. They can change it as they see fit anyways..the whole revenant part with Quan Chi, the wars and finally Shinnok's part except for the amulet was confusing and just a statement of how little they cared to make a good coherent story. It's almost as if they went out of their way to make it incoherent so people thought it was deep and have people discuss it to death to keep it interesting. Certainly sounds like something Ed Boon would enjoy.

The revenants aren't mindless drones. They only had their mind and memory altered a little, so that they would be open to following Shinnok and Quan Chi. To them, Raiden is the bad guy. It's his fault they died. They still have their free will, because it makes them more useful. They can take initiative. They don't require precise instructions for every possible scenario, or even the presence of their 'masters'.

The revenants might not even be evil. Who says Liu Kang and Kitana plan on attacking other realms? Raiden was just warning them not to, just in case. That scene was only meant to tell us Raiden is Dark Raiden now, and Liu Kang and Kitana rule the Netherrealm. It's not like MK9's scene with Shinnok and Quan Chi, where they were stating they would attack Earthrealm and Outworld. Maybe a big evil emerges next game, that forces Earthrealm and Netherrealm to work together, and the revenants can become allies again even without being restored?

By the way, they are not 'evil' and still revenants by the look of their eyes which makes zero sense..i really hate this revenant plot they came up with. Should've stuck with the daggers, influence of blood magik or just mind control. Guess they will make up a story of how Shang Tsung or Shao Kahn was behind all this and they are not in control. So lame..I want Raiden to make a conscious choice to be 'dark'.

Jax, Sub-Zero and Scorpion have pretty much proven to us that the revenants are more than just souls having their minds and memories slightly altered. It’s full on corruption and puppetry that compels everyone who has fallen victim to Quan Chi’s necromancy to evil.

But..man, NRS somehow catastrophically fucked up the concept of the revenants. The whole thing is a confusing mess that constantly contradicts itself.

Why they felt the need to blanket every resurrected creature that Quan Chi had a hand in constructing as a revenant instead of leaving us with varying types from Specters to Wraiths and then Revenants...I just don’t know. What I do know though, is that it has caused some serious damage and weakened certain characters (Scorpion, Noob Saibot)

As for Liu Kang and Kitana's intentions now, look, NRS doesn't do shades of grey, if they are illogically ruling all of hell, they're evil and- I mean I would carry on but people are right lol it's not worth putting too much thought into because you know NRS won't either.

Quan Chi or Shinnok never harmed the revenants when they were alive. Shao Kahn was the enemy. Hanzo stated that Quan Chi misguided his vengeance, implying he still had his free will when he was working for Quan Chi. Liu Kang blames Raiden for his death. Why would Jax try to reason with Liu Kang and Kitana, if they were just mindless drones?

Not every resurrected being is a revenant. I think the difference is in their powers. A revenant's powers are unaltered. A spectre has gained additional powers, and a wraith has altered powers. Or a spectre has fire powers, and a wraith has shadow powers. But I agree that we should get more information on this.

There are plenty of examples of grey in MKX alone. By your logic, Kotal Kahn is evil because he is the emperor of Outworld and Outworld is evil. Yet he isn't. He isn't good either. He worked with Earthrealm and he has attacked Earthrealm. He is grey. Hanzo Hasashi is an ally of Kenshi. But he attacks the Special Forces camp to get to Quan Chi. He is grey. Dark Raiden decapitates Shinnok and threatens Liu Kang and Kitana, but he does it only to protect Earthrealm. He is grey. Sonya is an Earthrealm hero, yet the way she handles Johnny most of the time and she nearly killed Kano, that isn't really good is it? She is grey.You see a pattern here? Some are darker grey, some are lighter grey. But they're still grey.

Shinnok is not the original ruler of the Netherrealm. There is more than just souls in Netherrealm. There are demons and other oni. None of them can challange Liu Kang.

Cerberus is the guad dog. It is not intelligent enough to rule the Netherrealm. It is like a elephant ruling Earth. Not a chance.

@Barakall what is so confusing about the STORY. I'm not confused. The whining is the,plot of MK4 Shinnok is trying to rule the realms and get revenge on Raiden for defeating him centuries ago. Lius dead so this time Cages power source was able to hold him back till Raiden trapped Shinn OK in the Amulet. 25 years later he escapes to try again and bring hell on earth. And once,again the green energy of the Cage family, in this case Cassie defeats him, giving Dark Raiden the chance to behead Shinn OK and remove the threat

Yes and yet Shinnok was even more powerful than what ever Lucifer was. likely either another deity or extremely powerful demon of some kind.

And yes, a legion of Oni, demons, wraiths, other revenants ect could easily dethrone Liu and Kitana.

And I know Cerberus is just an animal. You are taking what I said a bit too literally. My point was that is a greater creature than Liu and Kitana in physicality alone.

Also when it comes to MK lore we don't even know if that thing has intelligence or not but I'm not even going there.

No they can not dethrone Liu Kang because in his arcade ending it states that Liu Kang's fighting skills are more than a match for Netherrealm's demons.

Physicality does not mean anything. A ruler needs to be more than physical. They have to have the necessaery intelligence to lead. The only ones that can stand up to Liu Kang are the other revanants but since all the revanants have the same aganda, they will not. Liu Kang is the defacto leader of the revanants as seen in the story mode when they meet Shinnok, even Kitana stands behind him, and he is the one that addresses Shinnok. Liu Kang even will question Quan Chi even though he serves Quan Chi.

IIRC, in Mythogies, and DA-A dialogues, Lucifer was tormenting Shinnok.
He was only dethroned with Quan Chi's help.

While being a fallen Elder God, he apparently has a physical body, he's not made of energy or whatever. Maybe the Elder Gods confined him to a physical body n limited his powers?

As for being a living head, maybe you need arms n shit to use/wield magic.
What with all the gesturing. You also need lungs to speak incantations.

If he's so powerful, why'd he need the amulet?
You can manipulate reality, but still need physical objects to do shit?

The Elder Gods aren't as all powerful as people think. Even look at god characters in other media franchise, they get bested in combat, captured, weakened or augmented with magic n talisman objects.



Ka-Tra