i hate scorpions story and i really hope they can fix it because he used to have a really cool one.

That's one of the main reasons I was dissapointed with MKA. I loved his MKD story and I really hoped he had something to do with Onaga's defeat. But no. The Old guy does it...with the help of Nightwolf which was pretty cool, I'll admit.

yeah i didnt like his armageddon ending, but he still needs to get his hands on quan chi before he can stop being the revenge guy. i dont really mind him being that guy, cuz i just envision him as the badass wildcard who listens to no-one. so as long as they dont mess him up im good.

Scorp is so beat; there's no saving him.

Have the guy find his revenge or whatever the hell he's after anymore, and kill him.

I believe that Scorpion can be salvaged, and it's something that Paragon and I are trying to do in our next-gen MK stories. However, not only do I think that salvaging Scorpion's story is something that probably won't happen, I also think that it's pretty much not worth it, because he's essentially hit rock bottom. Then again, Scorpion is a fan favorite and is Ed Boon's favorite character. He is someone that we will keep seeing (in one form or another), so if we have to keep seeing Scorpion in MK games to come, then his story (and character) should be salvaged.

Oh wow. So much to think about for a character who is popular for his "Get Over Here!!!!". -_-
Come up off the books and bios, and play the game.

Seriously, who cares about his story line? No matter what the company does to him he's always gonna be the most overused and over advertised character since they put most of their focus on his move list.

Simple answer: Sure.

Yeah, I think he can be salvaged. To be fair, Scorpion has had a pretty crappy storyline since MKII. Him hunting down Sub-Zero was cool. Him returning and seemingly being baffled by the new Sub-Zero was also okay. After that, it went downhill. After swearing protection to Sub-Zero, he...fights for Shao Kahn? Okay. I don't even know what his story was in MK4. Deadly Alliance was a bit of a step up, with Scorpion wanting to kill Quan Chi, but then he died in his own ending. I personally do not like the Elder God storyline at all. Oh yeah, by the way, Scorpion is now our Champion...just because.

Here are some storyline ideas for Scorpion in the near MK future:

vs. Noob Saibot
The original feud of Mortal Kombat, further down the track, with both men as undead ninjas. That is just awesome. Noob Saibot is partially the creation of Scorpion's vengeance, so Scorps may not be able to move on to The Heavens until he slays Saibot. That's fair enough. But what if, say, Sub-Zero gets there first? Scorpion can never lay to rest. That eternal damnation could be a trigger in Scorpion's story which spikes him out of things.

Some people may be sick of Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero, but that is always going to be an associated rivalry with Mortal Kombat. It also works with Scorpion having a just reason to be angry at Sub-Zero, and Sub-Zero's sense of justice and sensibility betray him.

vs. Raiden
This is the one I am probably most leaning to right now. Let's just take Scorpion's Armageddon story as canon (ew). So Scorpion is the Elder Gods' Champion. He has been juiced up, and has their energies running through him, or whatever. He is pissed at the Gods, and Raiden is being a nutcase. Maybe Scorpion could be the only being with the power to stop Raiden?

Scorpion vs. The Gods just sounds like it could be its own action game. Sort of like "God of War" or something of the like. The story has got potential, and it ties two MK Originals together in a fresh storyline.

vs. Kitana
This one is a bit weird, but I think it would be interesting. I remember a lot of people speculating that Kitana would kill Quan Chi in Deadly Alliance? That didn't come to pass, but oh well. What if she kills Chi during Armageddon, though. Scorpion never really gets his revenge, and he might be pissed off at Kitana for that. Transference, if you will. The idea of a pissed off undead ninja spectre being Kitana's next threat is...an interesting visual.

One thing I am sort of over, is Scorpion as a "hero." I know they classify him as "neutral" and "anti-hero," but honestly, what has been "anti" about the guy, recently? He's been chasing Quan Chi, who is one of the greatest threats to innocent life. So Scorpion's a "bad-ass." He seems like he has had nothing but pure intentions besides slaughtering Quan Chi. Give him a reason to go after a character with a good soul, or give him a quest that should be impossible, and have him achieve it.

Scorpion can be salvaged. The more appropriate question would be should he salvaged. And since he's going to come back no matter what, I guess the answer to that would be "yes."

Fixing him is relatively easy. Leave his family & clan dead and make him grow the fuck up.

I do. However, I just don't care about it as much anymore. It would be much simpler to just wipe him out, but that's not going to happen.



Yeah, pretty much. However, that seems to be too difficult for the storywriters to do for some reason. Go figure...

To You-Know-Who: Quan Chi offered Scorpion refuge from the Netherrealm in exchange for his services to him and Shinnok against the heroes and the Elder Gods and such. Scorpion accepts but does so under the ulterior motive of going after Sub-Zero, whom he still believes killed his family and clan, even though he believed the older brother to be the culprit back in MKM: SZ.

Thanks, 7. I've been reading up on the Official Story Analysis thread which has gotten me well versed in the mess that is Hanzo Hasashi's MK4 story as it relates to his vow to protect the young Sub.

I was just thinking earlier today, if the Mortal Kombat franchise wants to expand outwards and explore other genres a bit, between Armageddon and the new generation, Scorpion could star in his own sort of God of War meets Ninja Gaiden game. The pissed off Champion of the Elder Gods goes off on a quest to challenge the Elder Gods for resurrecting his clan in his image.

Yeah, it might not be brilliant, but it's what the MK Team have left us with for Scorpion right now. You can use it to introduce a new array of bad-ass characters, and maybe slip some classic MK faces in there (as long as they make sense). But sadly, the MK Team isn't most focused on story, so they'd likely just cause more of a mess of Scorpion's story.

Even though I do still care for the characters and stories, I would rather that MK focuses on making solid, balanced fighting games.

Considering the changes that have been made to Scorpion's character, I think that having him star in his own action/adventure game would add even more of a sense of overratedness to him. Granted, many consider Sub-Zero to also be overrated, but at least he has something good going for him.

Instead of having him star in his own game, perhaps it would be much better if the future Konquest modes had a greater sense of exploration into each character's story. So for example, if you play as Scorpion, you could go through his current story, which expands on the story bits given in his bio.

A much tidier idea, I will admit. While I would love MK to be a balanced fighter, their story and sense of imagination is what sets them apart from other fighters out there. They will probably never have a fighting system as deep as Virtua Fighter, for example, but that is not what they need to deliver.

Balanced would be lovely, though.

I have Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, which is a very interesting fighting game. To me, Mortal Kombat doesn't have to have as deep of a fighting system as Virtua Fighter's. I believe that they should go for a Tekken/Soul Calibur approach in the sense that it feels like a type of fighting game that casual players can fairly easily get into and have fun with but also have the depth that could appeal to competitive players.

I was thinking that Konquest should be in a separate disc of its own as part of a two-disc game. That way, all of the memory can be used specifically for that mode and could (hopefully) have an expansive story to explore.

Going back to Scorpion, Vogel and the other story writers need to assess his story and character. Look at where he is now and where he can go. At this point in his story, the most likely path for him is probably having him as the new leader of the Shirai Ryu and go after the Elder Gods themselves. This kind of story path would seem to indicate that he has more or less become a villain, hitting rock bottom and being consumed by anger and hatred.

I personally wouldn't like this story direction, because for one thing, I feel that we already have enough factions in Mortal Kombat. It seems to me that they only had Scorpion become the new leader of the Shirai Ryu since he's the only character in MK from that clan. What happened to the grandmaster that got killed by Quan Chi? I would think that he would still be the one leading the Shirai Ryu, and considering the way Scorpion is, I don't think that he would be seen as worthy of having leadership.

Even with the ninja stereotype, Scorpion doesn't seem to fit that either. I'm or less fed up with him. To really salvage Scorpion, I feel that he needs to return to his ninja roots and become the ninja that he's supposed to be. However, such a development can't come right away. It needs to have a sense of progression. So to me, he needs real story and character development to actually make him interesting again.

You've hit the nail on the head regarding Scorpion's future direction. They can't just suddenly reverse the decisions they have made with Scorpion, as questionable as they have been (complete bitch in Deadly Alliance; Champion of the Elder Gods in Deception; leader of zombie ninjas in Armaegddon). They need to ease back into where his storyline should go.

Right now, I believe that a good immediate step to take with Scorpion is to get rid of the Shirai Ryu. Not pretend they were never resurrected -- but definitely killed off. Maybe Scorpion could kill Takeda himself; and even kill his wife and child, allowing their spirits to rest; giving him a poignant moment where he decides to move forward, and not dwell in the past?

Otherwise, you could have Ashrah kill some of them on her purifying quest, and perhaps even have them fall in the general chaos of Armageddon.

If I remember correctly, getting rid of the Shirai Ryu is essentially what Paragon and I did for our MK: Resurrection story. Speaking of which, we are trying to finish the damn thing and bring back our thread here at MKO. Anyway, I would probably just have the Shirai Ryu be in the Netherrealm or something. Our story for Scorpion is that despite him killing Quan Chi, he has not found peace and therefore, he goes to search for it. He hears of Abaddon's tournament and takes part in it, hoping to win the prize.

One of the important factors in salvaging Scorpion's story and character is to have him truly move forward instead of constantly being stuck in the past. His wife and son are gone, so either his soul rests or he finds a new purpose for his existence.

As for Scorpion killing Takeda, the thing is, Takeda existed centuries before Scorpion and died of poisoning. I don't see a point in trying to have that kind of story element.

You have an interesting idea about Ashrah though I'm sure they would likely focus her story on slaying vampires and demons.

I would probably classify an undead ninja spectre clan as "demons" in Ashrah's eyes (I mean, if Ermac fits the bill, why not?). But I hope you do finish that story. Some of the personal visions for the future of Mortal Kombat are why are come to this place. Reading them is truly a pleasure.

Actually, Ermac doesn't really fit the bill. Ashrah mistakenly thought that Ermac was a demon, and he corrected her by saying that he isn't. However, if Scorpion's story is going to go in the direction of him leading the Shirai Ryu (shudders in disgust at the thought of it), I'm sure that somewhere down the line, Ashrah's zeal for destroying evil will probably lead her to deal with people like them.

Paragon and I are going to do what we can to finish MK: Resurrection. We really want to finish this installment and do more. It's just that being very busy in our personal lives makes it difficult to get it done sooner. Also, we have had several stumbling blocks when doing the story modes for some of the characters. We can only hope that the future installments will be easier to do since we've done some thinking ahead on various story and character ideas.

That is essentially what I meant about Ermac. Ashrah's zeal often blinds her to reality. Even if the resurrected Shirai Ryu aren't technically "demons," I doubt it would really matter to Ash.

I look forward to reading Resurrection.

Yes, Scorpion can be salvaged after all he didn't have that good of a storyline in either Deception or Armageddon, with meeting the Elder Gods and being their hero to kill Onaga and go after Taven for a pension for his unhappiness of the revival of his people. Scorpion is very simple a revenge filled guy that tries to hold respect when killing a lot of people that doesn't hold a good reputation in no others games except broken in D, and doesn't dance around when he's on a mission broken in A, as MK3 had Scorpion go straight after Shao Khan after finding our he wanted Sub-Zero killed and focused on killing Quan Chi form the end of 4 and into DA that Quan Chi had to hire Oni demons to protect him.

Anybody can be salvaged its MK were talking about here.

Perhaps you're right. However, is it really worth salvaging Scorpion? If so, why?

I remember 1995. I remember people being pissed that there would be no "get over here"s and we were stuck with copycat robots instead.

And don't get me wrong, I actually like Cyrax and Smoke. But they aren't Scorpion. UMK3 came out for one reason only. That game is an unwritten apology from Midway to the fanbase that said "Sorry we left out our most popular character, it won't happen again. Oh, and here's Kitana and some palette swaps too."

So since there will always be a Scorpion, he might as well have a good story that shows effort was put into it, don't you think?

Now personally, I believe that Deception was the best thing that ever happened to Scorpion, storyline-wise. The revenge thing had gone on too long and gotten stale and besides, Quan Chi was believed dead. So finding him a new purpose, and making it a heroic, central-to-the-story one, was a good goddamn idea. So all they need to do to fix him is retcon what he did in Armageddon, or have him realize it was wrong and want to repent. He's always been about wanting to earn redemption so he can rest in peace, anyway. Working for the Elder Gods is probably a pretty good way to balance one's karma and get into Heaven.