By them meaning... Jim Krueger, the guy they hired outside of Midway to write the script for Shaolin Monks? Far as I can tell, the guy writes Spiderman and some other comics and until he was brought on by Midway, had absolutely no involvement with Mortal Kombat at all.

Imagine if they had hired one of the jerks that were writing the old Malibu MK comics to come in and do this, because that's essentially what it boils down to. Some guy, not familiar with MK, and views the whole project as just a paycheck. I'm sure that Boon and co. just gave him a list of key notes to hit on and let him take it from there. Like for instance...

Ed- "Here. Make sure to mention that Noob Saibot is the older Sub-Zero, because we just had a big deal about that in Deception."

Jim- "Got it."

Ed- "And we have a boss fight with Goro coming up. Make sure to work in some dialogue somewhere about him."

Jim- "Got it."

Ed- "The younger Sub-Zero has a scar on his face.."

Jim- "Got it."

Ed- "I wasn't finished."

Jim- "Oh."

Ed- "Can you write something about how he gets the scar?"

Jim- "Got it."

Ed- "Any questions?"

Jim- "Got it."

Ed- "Great!"

Yes, Jim Krueger definitely got a guideline to work with. By getting only that and not familiarizing himself with at least the stories of MK1 and MK2, while taking in accounts of added story bits later on, we basically get the mangled mess that is Shaolin Monks' storyline. And to think that this guy was hired to check for continuity errors and make sure they weren't there.

you know what's a bitch? Midaway stopped releasing MKA Bios, so now there's a HUGE hole in the Mortal Kombat Canon. I'm pissed.

Yeah, the closure to MK's story for this era has pretty much been put to waste. It's a shame really. I actually liked most of the bios.

Just means less material for Xia to analyze. Much easier now!

I'm sure he's thrilled (roles eyes)

By them meaning everyone, the team as well.

And yes, it does suck (and to think the adventure is so much fun! Its awesome!)....though now you mention it, the MB comics were not bad, at least they had essential clues of MK and did it well despite some corny bits. I would had rather them in the project instead, after what we got, I cant picture the story any worse..



Yeah, and they promised the same stuff for MKA. Story check, closure, tying up loose ends, answering questions, etc etc etc....how sad.



I know, its utterly disgusting!

I enjoyed most of the bios, and its such a shame we won’t get to find out what officially happened to the others till MK8. It stinks because the “closure” we were promised sooooooooooo greatly for this game was practically thrown to the garbage. I was really looking forward to the forgotten classics bios like Strykers, Sektors, Kais, Shinnoks, etc., to the new guys and not so forgotten like Li Mei, Drahmin, Sindel, Hotaru, Havik, Hsu Hao, etc....and of course, the classic dominants...the originals.

Thank God I got most of my faves answered with awesome bios (Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Mileena and others like Rayden, Kenshi, Nitara, Ashrah, etc).

It sucks for the characters who didn’t get bios. Hopefully, we get bios in Mk8....they all better! ALL, even if they are not playable. After this, we really really need them.

Dont worry, not harsh at all.

And buddy, we know it for sure: The interviews practically confirmed this. Remember the vids? And remember the fight night chat interview with Boon, Vogel and the rest? Read that again and you will see what we are talking about.

The guys practically screamed that it was official when giving us the answers. I don’t have a link to it, but Im sure it’s somewhere around here.

Nope. I've never seen the interviews or the chats or any of it. I went looking one time on youtube, but there was just too much garbage to sift through and no payoff.

I remember those interviews and the impression I got is that they intended MK:SM to be canon but either...
a) were oblivious how badly it fucked up the story
...or....
b) severely underestimated how much fans cared about the story.

Like Ed Boon's "explanation" about the Amulet or the other guy (his name escapes me) saying "Hey, it's just a video game guys."
In other words: "We didn't put much thought into it."

I take that as permission to dismiss Shaolin Monks if I see fit.
And subsequent interviews and comments since that Fight Night chat have led me to believe even the MK team is no longer 100% behind MK:SM being canon because...obviously, unless they're blind and deaf...they know how much many fans absolutely loathed it.


Frankly though, I very much doubt we'll ever get a concrete response on the subject. We might get something here or there that suggests SM is canon...like Kung Lao's Armageddon ending....then get something that'll suggest it's bullshit...like those official myspace pages that back up Scorpion's vow to protect Sub-Zero.

I guarantee we'll never get a clear answer because they'll never simply say "No, it's non-canon." Especially not after they tried to justify it during Fight Night...because it makes them look stupid. They also won't want to alienate fans who (for whatever reason) actually liked the story or fans who don't understand the concept of a "non-canon game."
Meanwhile, they'll never say it's completely canon because they don't want to alienate or piss off the fans who flat-out rejected the game's story and want no part of it.

Shaolin Monks can be easily dismissed because...as will be pointed out when I finally get to analyzing it...it's a completely disposable game. Unlike Mythologies, which you couldn't disregard, we could pretend MK:SM never existed and it wouldn't change a thing. The ONLY thing even implying it really is canon is Kung Lao's Armageddon ending which can be simply be disregarded as mere "what-if" garbage along with the rest of the endings. No different than that nonsense about Quan Chi acutally being the Amulet.

Any further mention of the plot points brought about would be arbitrary. Do you really think had they released Sub-Zero's Armageddon bio he would've made some random comment about Kung Lao giving him his scar? Do you see it ever coming up in the supposed "new generation"? Doubt it.

So like I said, I've chosen to completely disregard Shaolin Monks as being canon. Aside from the Fight Night interview...the one where the MK team all but admitted they put almost zero thought into the story...the one where the even contradicted themselves on the subject...what's going to stop me?
BTW, just a little update....I hope to get the Deception analysis done soon. It's actually a pretty tricky and i think you'll see why when I finally post it.

Hey Xia. I think you're thinking of Shaun Himmerick. I don't blame you for taking Shaolin Monks' story as non-canon, as I don't like to either. However, in a way, I kind of see it as canon considering how they tried justifying its story, despite how badly they did it.

I do look forward to your analysis for Deception, and when you do post that, I'll be sure to jump in again to add to the discussion.

Right on! Can't wait to read your MKD analysis.

Y'know, I always figured Johnny and Kano had to fight at SOME point in the original MK tournament because of the MK1 comic by Tobias. The two of them get into a scuffle on the boat and Liu has to bail Johnny out. Yeah, it's just a throwaway scene to establish the feel of the tournament, friendships will be made, grudges will be formed, that sort of thing. But there's an old saying in writing, "don't put a gun on the wall in act 1 unless someone's going to shoot it in act 3" or something like that.
Johnny and Kano ought to have fought in the tournament, with Johnny winning (because Kano is a punk and I always pictured Johnny making it to the semi-finals and being the guy Liu beats right before Goro. Always bothers me how people assume every fight had to be a good guy vs. a bad guy or two bitter rivals setting it once and for all. Tournaments aren't scheduled to account for personal motivations. Of course the good guys had to fight each other some.)

And it really doesn't need to have anything to do with Sonya. (though I agree, it does make sense for her to lose to Kano in MK1, otherwise when she beats him in MK3, it's not a heroic moment, it's just repetition.)

Though now that you mention it, Kano getting himself disqualified strikes me as pretty appropriate. On the other hand, how do you get yourself disqualified when the rules themselves are crooked and corrupt? I guess all you have to do it piss off Shang the right way...

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Just out of curiousity, who do you picture making it to the semi-finals? I mean, based on how a tournament bracket is structured, if we continue to imagine that Kano beat Sonya and then fought Johnny, that's kinda the only way it CAN go.

I'd like to hear your opinion on who it SHOULD be though, regardless.
I mean, whoever Liu fights before Goro is officially "the guy who came in second", the silver medal winner. That makes them both the second best fighter in MK1 AND the guy who, in theory, WOULD be the main character if there was no Liu Kang.
I'm guessing you'll go with either Sub-Zero or Raiden...

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Interesting. I also pictured Raiden "testing" and being eliminated by Liu. I was also always bothered by the idea that Scorpion and Sub-Zero didn't fight until after the tournament...but I suppose what's canon is canon. Even without the comic, the story screens in the arcade game specifically state "Only seven warriors survived the battles." Seven, not six.

On the other hand...Sub-Zero really doesn't survive "the battles" at all, if you consider "the battles" to be any fight that happened on the island inside or outside the tournament. So that line could just be considered a misdirection to set up the later reveal that MK2 Sub-Zero isn't the same person as MK1 Sub-Zero.

But there's a part of me that thinks it's fitting Scorpion would get gypped out of his goal and have to betray his morals and challenge Sub-Zero later on, because it adds to the reason he feels the need to repent and make the vow of protection later. Why would Scorpion regret getting his revenge if he did it in an honorable way?

I don't really agree that Liu vs. Scorpion would be right dramatically, anyway. At least not as the semi-finals. I mean that makes Liu's opponent right before Goro either half-hearted or a forfeit, which is just anti-climactic.

Y'know, I could finish that bracket I drew, if only I could make up my mind on who ??? vs. ??? in the first round should be. My first instinct is to make it Raiden vs. Sub-Zero, because I think them meeting again and Raiden thinking "well...he could be the one...except he didn't listen to a damn word I said about changing his ways" would be interesting.

But on the other hand, the mysterious, no-name generic 8th guy has to be killed by whoever beats him. Since Liu is vehemently against killing his opponents at this point in the story and Johnny is a good-natured American fellow, then Kombatant #8 doesn't fit into either empty spot.

Unless of course Shang Tsung was picking off people who got eliminated just for the souls. Then it doesn't matter who fought Guy #8. But we have no proof of that. (Then again, something had to have killed the opponents Liu and the others spared...)

I can understand that....but I also kind of liked the idea of "what if" that would leave behind. "What if Scorpion had continued fighting?"

Course, this is the feeling back when Scorpion actually meant something as a character. Nowadays, it's kind of moot.

I choose to ignore both those who say the vow was retconned, AND the events of Armageddon for now, thank you very much.

*shameless bump*

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Hey there XiahouDun84. I'm glad you finally got around to finishing and posting your MK: Deception analysis. I noticed that you posted it last night, but I was too tired to read it and reply to it. So since my mind is fresher now, I'll give some feedback. Btw, the length is fucking crazy, but I'm not complaining.

About Konquest

Yeah, there are definitely canonicity problems in it. It's actually 20 years that pass before he's freed from the Seidan prison. I think about 10 years pass after his training with Nightwolf. So yeah, there are definitely time problems and stuff. I guess with the Lin Kuei training, Shujinko studied under an ancestor of Sub-Zero. I definitely count the early stuff of Konquest as canon (e.g. Bo' Rai Cho training, Ashrah/Ermac stuff in the Netherrealm).

I do like the sense of escalation in terms of the danger throughout the MK storyline, and I hope that they delve more into the One Being and the Elder Gods in the future MKs. I actually thought of a name for the One Being that could possibly fit it. One thing I found strange was Damashi's/Onaga's ability to give Shujinko the ability to emulate the powers and techniques of other fighters. I mean, how did he do that?

Overall, I agree that Shujinko's concept was good but was poorly done.

Intro

I have to pretty much agree with you on this. To add to how much Onaga's undead army were undermined, we even have the revelation that the Tarkata served the Deadly Alliance. That makes me dislike the Tarkata more than I already do and more reason why they should be wiped off the face of existence.

I think it might've been better if Onaga's return was at the end of MK: Deception as it would've shown just how worse things would've gotten with the Deadly Alliance's or just even Quan Chi's victory. If the 5 heroes could've stayed dead or at least keep some of them evil (most specifically Sonya), it could've had other heroes (e.g. Jade, Sindel, Nightwolf, Ermac) step up and get more focus as heroes against the main threat of Onaga.

Main Plot

I guess that perhaps I should give a bit of credit to Tanya for at least being important to the story in some ways. Even so, I still don't like her. About the information of the Kamidogu in Edenia, apparently, it has to do with knowledge that Shao Kahn left behind, which makes me wonder if and how much he knows of the Kamidogu.

I see what you're saying about the loyalty of Baraka and the Tarkatans as being greater to Onaga than the loyalty to previous evil powers. It still sucks that all of the Tarkata seem generic, redundant, and 1-dimensional. I think that it would've been a better opportunity to make more use of Onaga's undead army. However, that would involve changing the intro.

lol @ the Liu/Kitana stuff

I still hate that Liu Kang has to come back, even if he isn't alive. I do like the stuff with Ermac, Mileena, and Bo' Rai Cho. Although I don't really like Liu Kang, I sort of like how Liu Kang is the one that helps bring the heroes together to win against the evil threats. However, it would've been much more effective had Liu Kang's character been done better.

Going to the fallen heroes, I do like that Johnny Cage and Jax, the least well-developed of the five, finally get some developments. Even then however, I still don't care for them and still feel they shouldn't come back. Sonya's lack of character development and exploration is absolutely disappointing and a damn shame too.

With Kung Lao and Kitana, you make good points, and it seems that Kitana's MKU story doesn't explore her feelings all that much. Since they aren't going to have any more MKA bios, it begs to question as to what was going on with Kung Lao.

Speaking of Nightwolf, I really do like his MKD story despite the fact that I don't care for him all that much. It's too bad that we don't get more insight into his temperment and his overall personality. At least he has significance to the story.

It's an interesting observation that you make about MKD's main story being overshadowed by the various sub-plots, and I kind of see what you're saying. I think that Shujinko's more negative response added to him being overshadowed.

Now to get into the different characters and events specifically:

Scorpion

Yeah, I pretty much agree here. With pre-retcon Scorpion, it would've been something more meaningful though it would still require fleshing out of his previous stories. With post-retcon Scorpion, it's an absolute abomination and what's worse is that there are people who actually like this piece of shit of a character.

Edenia

The sub-plot with Mileena is definitely one of my favorites in MKD. It's nice to see her step up and grow as a character. Aside from her looks, there are issues of her voice and mannerisms when it comes to interacting with others who don't know her as Mileena. Then again, those have to be suspended in disbelief.

I like the little subtle touch to Mileena's backstory with her imprisonment after MK4, especially with it being unknown to most Edenians. There are also nice touches with the Edenian/Outworldian aligned victory over the Tarkatan forces. I wouldn't say that Li Mei is a brunette though maybe Onaga just doesn't care much for caucasian-looking women. Anyway, I'm glad that Mileena's MKA bio still has her wanting power.

Interesting bits on Jade, Sindel, and Tanya. It's too bad we don't get more insight on Jade as well as her rivalry with Tanya. It still feels like Sindel and Jade are both overshadowed by Kitana, and I kind of agree with you about Sindel not fighting Kitana to save her.

Sub-Zero

I do know what you mean about Sub-Zero's Deception story being strange. He wasn't involved in the main story, and he didn't do anything significant for it. He basically had his own side story, one that was interesting and did explore his heritage. I do hope that if he returns that they explore more of it and tie into a future story for him. Where did you get the idea that Sub-Zero went to the area that Shang's palace used to be?

His ending is strange, and it definitely seemed like it was considered canon even before Armageddon came out, namely due to Kenshi's MKD bio. I think that people who think that there's a connection between Sub-Zero's armor and Onaga due to Sub's MKD ending are really reading it too deep. There's also the whole problem of people thinking that he dies in his ending, a problem you brought up.

I really like the alliance between him and Kenshi, and it was something that I had wanted before MKD came out. However, the way it was done wasn't that exciting, because I would've liked the alliance to have formed as a means of taking down the Red Dragon. Basically, I'm going by Mavado's MKDA ending, in which it sets up for a rivalry between the Red Dragon and the Lin Kuei. One touch I do like in Sub-Zero's MKD story was how he still showed compassion towards Frost despite her betrayal.

Overall, his MKD story sets up potential for exploration in the future, especially when we take Noob Saibot into thought.

Special Forces and Dragon clans

It was cool to see Kabal back, and the anarchist stuff is interesting. However, I don't really like that he reformed the Black Dragon and took leadership of it as a means of spreading chaos and anarchy. Then there's the problem you mentioned of the Red Dragon story getting thrashed. I was looking forward to seeing buildup of the Red Dragon, especially as a means of seeing an upcoming rivalry between them and the Lin Kuei, which should've been explored, imo.

I think that a big reason why they had Mavado killed off or whatever is so that Kabal can have his Hookswords again. I agree that he didn't need to have a new Black Dragon and to just gain allies to bring chaos and anarchy. Then again, maybe he should've just continued his vigilante role and show him as an anti-hero.

Now onto Kabal's recruits:

Kira is far superior of the two, imo. I sort of know what you mean when it comes to her disguising herself as a man despite her figure (especially her breasts) though I guess that it could be plausible since she was in Afghanistan, a mainly Muslim country. So this means that she would have to cover herself up. What I found strange was how Kabal got to Afghanistan and why he went there in particular.

It is cool how Kira is very cunning and tactical, seemingly more like a Red Dragon. I would definitely love to see a nicely done rivalry between Sonya and Kira and really set each other up as their antitheses. In a way, had Kabal not reformed the Black Dragon, I think it would've been better to have Kira be a Red Dragon. This would've also built up the Red Dragon even more and give Sonya a more worth opponent than Kano.

Kobra's character concept is interesting, but the way he was done wasn't that great, hence why I don't like him. I agree that his story would work better in an MK tournament story. His look and moves were also kind of lame and uninspired, especially with his fireballs and stuff. lol @ the Cobra Kai slogan

Jax's hidden rage is interesting, and it's something that should've been explored earlier. The same thing applies to JC's nobility (save for the MK3 stuff). Apparently, John Vogel's idea for Jax's Armageddon bio involved Jax getting Sektor and the Tekunin to safety. In return, Sektor would strengthen Jax's cybernetics and he supposedly did. But unknown to Jax, Sektor planted a chip in Jax's brain to control him or keep track of him or something along those lines.

Again, it's good to see Jax and JC get developments, but it's a shame that Sonya didn't.

Netherrealm

Initially, it's quite odd that Noob Saibot, who has always previously been portrayed as that mysterious, shadowy, evil ninja assassin spy character, now wants to take power for himself and build an army of cyborg demons to rule the Netherrealm.

With Shinnok still having been alive and in the Netherrealm, I would think that Noob Saibot wouldn't have been able to gain his free will. However, according to MKD's site with the third person bio, it seems to link Noob Saibot's free will to Quan Chi's death, which is a bit strange.

I think that Noob Saibot's new group is actually the Shadow Stalkers as opposed to the Brotherhood of the Shadow. Then again, I might be wrong about that.

Anyway, not only do we have Noob Saibot step up as a character, we also have the revelation that he was once a human, namely the older Sub-Zero. That revelation adds more depth to him as well as reveal his overall backstory. In addition, it gives him potential for a rivalry with Sub-Zero and things like that. Noob Saibot's story was definitely one of my favorites in MKD, and he became a favorite of mine.

Noob Saibot has potential to become a mid-level villain and interact with many other characters aside from Sub-Zero. With Smoke, yeah, he's still a tragic character, but who knows what will happen in the future for him, if he even has one.

Ashrah is definitely an interesting newcomer, though underrated. Like Ermac, her story is one of redemption, and it's interesting that the two of them fought each other before. I think that her look is supposed to represent something very chaste and holy as opposed to something that looks slutty.

I do like Ashrah's apparently zealousness, and I'd like to see that explored. And given the revelations in Nitara's MKA bio, the dynamic with the Kriss will add more depth to Ashrah's story if done well.

Anyway, I'm just going to stop here for now and reply to the second part of your MKD analysis later. Once again, thanks for finally posting this. It was a very interesting read, and I agree with many of your points.
EDIT:

Ok, in response to the second part of your analysis:

Li Mei

I pretty much agree here. There wasn't all that much to her in MKDA, but she really stepped up in MKD in more than one way, improving quite a bit and having potential. She could easily be the main protagonist or antagonist in the future when it comes to the Outworld sub-plot.

Seido

I think the Order/Chaos sub-plot and some of its characters are highly underrated. I like the ambiguity of it and how it's very gray instead of black and white.



I see the points you make about the Dairou/Darrius stuff. Although I kind of like Darrius in a way, he does come off as the stereotypical black guy fighting against "The Man". I also understand the points you made about the sub-plot being thrown at us in one game like that. I do hope that Orderrealm and Chaosrealm will eventually have more relevance to the main plot.

Shao Kahn & the Shokan

As I'm sure you probably know, Shao Kahn is one of my favorite characters. I agree that this "mystical artifact" is a terrible deus ex machina. If they would've explained what this artifact was, where it came from, what the full extent of its abilities are, etc., Shao Kahn's return would've been better.

I do like the dynamic of him being weakened and trying to get his power back from a greater evil, especially one he once served. I would've liked a dynamic between him and Sindel to join forces in order to take Onaga down. That could've led to something interesting with both of them. I actually have a story idea for that, which would show Shao Kahn's cleverness. In a way, I think it would've been better if Kahn had not regained control of Outworld.

I agree about the Shokan stuff, and I too thought that Kintaro would have been a better choice, especially since he has had little screentime. Goro should just die at the hands of Kung Lao and maybe even Kitana.

Raiden

I definitely like the change Raiden had with MKD. I'm glad they did something good with his return instead of just having him do more of the same. I think with the way things are in the realms, Raiden's reformation was different and that the One Being had an influence. Some do speculate that Raiden's taint was due to Shang Tsung and Quan Chi after they were destroyed, but I'd hate that explanation.

It would've been nice to have seen a dynamic between Shao Kahn and Raiden by having them interact. It seems that with Armageddon, that was put to waste in a way. Sure, they made a "deal" with each other, and while I like Raiden's puppet master aspect, I would've liked an exploration between Raiden and Shao Kahn and have that antagonism between each other.

Armageddon

Again, I like the escalation of danger throughout the series, and it is fitting that Armageddon is imminent. I'm glad they made fairly good use of Blaze and finally explained his quest.

Ending

That sounds about right. In a way, Onaga was a short-lived villain, even though he returns in MKA. He just wasn't that developed of a character, but given the fact that he's been in two games, it's not surprising. It would've been nice to have learned how Outworld was during Onaga's rule.

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