it is so refreshing to have these happy and comforting or even neutral endings for mileena, baraka, smoke and even rain. I am so happy they got the ending they all deserve atleast.
@@videogamer678 It was actually a relief that he wasn't an outcast to his people but just a black sheep. Knowing his talents were just a forgotten thing due to his government's banning of the ability to shapeshift, at least he can restore it, that they can choose to be different.
I'm just happy that characters who were jobbers in previous games finally got their own chapters. It took 12 years for Baraka, Reptile, and Mileena to finally get their own chapters.
I agree. Having the fact he and his people came about by a disease was both a curse and a blessing, gave a more human element to them that we managed to get a bit of in MK11's story with Kitana wanting to help them as well, but also made you feel bad for them as well cause of how it made them look like monsters.❤
It makes me wonder what they'll do with Baraka in the future. He'll eventually succumb to tarkat and have to be killed, and postponing the inevitability would make for bad writing. But on the other hand NRS can't just cure baraka either cus then he wouldn't be the clawed kombatant we know
The fact that Rain actually felt guilt for genocide and willingly turned himself in is a head turner for me. This is a guy who is known through the series as being an egomaniac because he's Edenian and the son of Argus, an Elder God, and wants the world to owe him.
Maybe Liu Kang making him mortal in this timeline made him who he is now. Course he did terrible things, it would later bring a quest for redemption, and i dig it.
@@emastermet609rain is still in a high position of power, instead of being a demi god he’s the strongest mage though I’m guessing it’s cause he doesn’t have a tragic childhood anymore
I’m glad that means Hanzo is a young warrior in this timeline trained by Kuai Liang and Smoke instead of having to suffer like his other counterparts or being erased completely
I’m glad Geras came back tbh I thought he was still going to be a villain still serving kronika trying to bring her back or something like that. Only every time he restores himself he struggles to keep himself together due to kronikas influence dissipating. With makeshift body parts. But this is better
@@JoeyBoy377 According to his bio, he's not the same Geras: he was reconstructed by Liu Kang at the dawn of his New Era. "Geras remains eternal and unkillable. He retains the memories of all the innumerable timelines he has watch pass and fade. In this New Era, Geras monitors events to make sure that they are faithful to Liu Kang's vision."
I love how Shujinko, who been fooled through the entirety of deception and was forgotten in the rest installation of mk games. It only made me drop off my chair in surprise and shock to see that they brought him back fresh and new, hope he becomes a playable character in future installations.
I like how they wrote everyone to not be purely evil except the usual suspects. Even Baraka, who used to be a guy driven only by violent revenge and hunger, now is entirely devoted to helping his people live a better life, and is smart enough to figure out how to use connections with another minority group to get his people the attention they need. It's amazing how just a few shifts with the world order made everything much less grimdark and more hopeful, like having Milena actually become Empress like it was originally meant to be, giving Raiden the opportunity to learn humility and self control, and even having Smoke no longer be another villain, but a friend to Scorpion now. Really great work on the world building for this.
Even then, some of the villains are written with some positive attributes- take for instance Shao, who went from “conquering barbarian who’s people serve him” to “deluded general thinking he’s genuinely serving his people.” Still evil, but there’s now some attributes that could set up for interesting personal conflict later
I like the fact that not only does it seem like all these endings coexist with each other compared to what we've previously seen from MK and Injustice, but almost all of them involve a happy ending (not only for them but for all of people around them) or at least a redemption arc through which the character aims to achieve their happy ending. Not just some tragedy or "the fight still goes on" stuff.
Yeah, it's like, when you're a kid, you think all the violence is cool and neat. And it is, but it is so nice that these characters get to be happy. And the thing is, so many of them help each other to be happy. It's nice to see these characters as, like, actual friends
I’m confused by this comment because I’m 8 minutes in and I literally haven’t seen a single ending that doesn’t keep the fighting going in some way🤣 but I’m not even halfway through yet so I’m sure I’ll see your point in just a moment
@@surelyashley5726 ummm Ik that that’s Kari wahlgren but I’m saying that she speaks and sounds as a deadly assassin should Kari wahlgren can do both in mileena and kitanas voice and it works to her advantage in her tarkatan form
Liu Kang's era created so much wholesomeness. And finally, after all that suffering, Harumi lives, even if its without Hanzo. At least he wont live with the grief he had. The same goes for Mileena, I'm glad she finally has the family, love and respect she wanted all along.
Its still wrong that Harumi doesnt get to be happy with Hanzo but it had to be Kuai Liang. Couldnt they have just made it like Smoke and Kuai Liang Scorpion retreat to Japan to seek an old acquaintance, who is revealed to be the original Takeda (not Takahashi Takeda) in this new timeline where he raises his daughter Harumi Shirai and forms the Shirai Ryu clan. Then they find Hanzo as a young orphan and he and Harumi become the clan's first and most excellent students.
@@memecliparchives2254in MK11, Scorpion's arcade ending states that there's no timeline where he and Harumi are happy together. Making Kuai Liang marry Harumi instead might be what Liu Kang thought would fix that problem, in a way.
@@fahrilian Honestly a lot better, considering the death of his wife and child are the reason for his suffering. Liu Kang might’ve changed his history in order to avoid that life and live his currently life content with his clan and mentors.
@@fahrilianHanzo's suffering has always stemmed from Harumi and Satoshi's death. Without them being there, Hanzo can live a better life, even though it sucks that he will never have a family again
@@Sir_Gwan Both got screwed over by an aspect they couldn't control. Both of them are affected by a higher power... politics do make for strange bedfellows, but I'm all for it.
@@demochris1786if you listen to Johnny cages voice lines he wants to call him reptile over a battle I'd say don't care but the voicelines are actually Canon to the story he also mentioned hanzo to smoke So they're very connected It'll be some time till someone pieces all those lines together to reveal the story after what happened
@@hetoverseo3887 That would hurt sales. Shao has had his time as the main villain for as long as the franchise has existed. Its time for new stories to be told where he's not Khan.
Doesn't help that Geras is voiced by Phil Lamar in this game because I swear, it felt like I was watching those cutscenes from Marvel's Ultimate Alliance.
@@hetoverseo3887 Right? The only difference is that this Shirai Ryu was born in the modern age. Both were still created from Lin Kuei defactors, though.
I honestly enjoy these endings just because they stay with a consistent ending. As great as previous games' endings were, they were all over the place.
I think a big part of that is that the plot of this game lends itself to such an approach. The characters aren't fighting for some goal or object that only one can possess, so it's easier to make a bunch of endings that can co-exist in canon.
I like it to because it feels like they’ll matter. The older endings set up cool ideas, but they’d never be brought up again due to them just being what ifs.
Well it helps that these endings are Canon, ever since mk armageddon the endings have just been "what ifs". Before that it used to be some endings would be Canon and some wouldn't, but now they made life easy and just wrote all the endings to be Canon.
All these endings connect with each other very well and make them all believable as canon. Huge improvement from past games where you die in your own ending
Geras went from being Kronika's almost mindless buffy servant to trustworthy to become the Keeper of Time is probably the best character development in the history of NRS's writting.
It’s because Liu Kang treated him like a friend, unlike Kronika and her exploitation and enslavement of him. Geras is even more loyal to Liu Kang than he was previously for Kronika.
After all these years it brings my heart to tears to finally see happy endings to everyone especially mileena she deserved this the most bc of her tragic story i love this game
I love how all the endings seem to be connected. It's refreshing! Though I can't help but feel sad seeing Hanzo as a kid, it means that he won't get to have his happy ending with Harumi.
He won't go through the pain of losing his wife and child to murder and becoming a vengeful spectre, but he lost still lost his family. Now his wife (and potential children) will be Kuai Liang's.
The saddest would be Liu Kang.. he will die and he wont see his Kitana. But most importantly, he will never be seen again protecting his timeline from pending threats. If he will die. RIP Liu Kang. Thank u for everything ❤
I love the idea of this cause everyone was questioning where was Hanzo when it was revealed that Kuai Liang was scorpion, but now we know where he is in this scene. I would probably guess that Hanzo would be a new ninja with his fire powers or a new elemento power in the shirai ryu.
I'm a little bit mixed on the decision with these 2 endings. Like I feel like there could've been a better way in having Kuai Liang take the role of Scorpion without it having it feel like he stole everything about him, minus the vengence. How about instead of having him reunite Harumi, marrying her, and starting the Shirai Ryu, he reunites with Harumi, finds out she's already married to Hanzo Hisashi, and they have already started the Shirai Ryu, albiet as a small and inexperienced ninja clan. With Scorpions and Smokes' help, they provide more efficient training and disciplines to the Shirai Ryu, which gradually allowed them to gain more recruit and grow large enough to rival to the Lin Kuei. By doing this, it gives Hanzo the happiness he deserves while also making Kuai Liang fit the role as Scorpion.
@@deadpoolrockz6410I suppose but now Harumi is like Hanzo's adoptive mother and he will be happy in another way so it is technically another happy ending, I am also curious to know the past of this child Hanzo
Honestly I wasn't the biggest fan of MK and it's story but my god is MK1 such a breath of fresh air. So much better and the characters feel so much dynamic and powerful.
To think Johnny Cage is the man behind the whole mortal Kombat series as a means to get everyone to understand that this whole universe exists is such an incredible way to put in the story Making us think that this is actually happening
Love the new endings - not only they are quite possibly coexist, but they are very wholesome, and actually can be considered individual epilogues. Awesome!
@@milesr4609My man, things getting better before they get worse & spending a game to work on getting you genuinely emotionally invested & wanting these characters to succeed before any die is not a bad thing. I can easily see Baraka dying next game, but it's really not hard to imagine it being meaningful or emotional, for you to actually care that Baraka died here. I think we all agree we don't want a mortal kombat nine where the entire cast gets massacred so quickly that it feels almost comical rather then horrifying.
So instead of the character endings all being non-canon like in past MK games it seems that they are all canon in the new MK1 have to say that seems interesting hope they continue this, it would definitely make MK 2, interesting.
Agreed, It sets up many potential things in the next game (perhaps Onaga escapes and kills Reiko), but it also teases who might or might not be in the next main roster (Reiko possibly, Shang Tsung would be on his island slowly gaining strength)
Actually when you think about mk11 arcade endings are kinda canon aswell Since lui kang said there are multiple timelines and that all of the characters are time keepers like him, hell he even said kano was one
@@blucaliburnthe multiverse didn't exist until Liu kang and shang tsung's fight happened near the end of aftermath,before that none of the arcade endings were canon
This is nothing new lmfao new fans are funny Most MK Deception arcade endings are canon and work the same way as here, they complement each other instead of all being non canon
For such a brutal game I'm glad that most of these characters were a happy ending. Is about time that Milena, Baraka, Reptile, Tanya and even Rain get to coexist. Even Jarod becoming Ermac Scorpion forming his own clan with his potentially playable wife is a welcome edition
@@johngona5929 Yeah, it's so cute! I mean, when you're a kid, all that violence and horror is fun. But when you're an adult, I don't know, there's something about just a bunch of friends hanging out
I really hope all of these endings lead into the next game considering that they don’t all seem to be non canon and actually lead off into different directions for the characters.
@@boltz95I'm not really sure I count this as character development. This Baraka seems like he was always a good, kind person. It's just sort of a different look at Baraka.
Gotta say every ending are mostly good endings and gives a feeling of wholeness 😊 Jonny's ending is almost fourth wall breaker 😅 it likely represents what he have seen of MKs story through comics, movies and games
i love hanzo's entrance. everybody is out if placed but their roles still the same. like seeing all your old friends later in life. this whole story was just a pleasure to watch and also share w all the world's MK fans 💯🙏🏾
I think Kuai Liang can still be Sub-Zero, through probably losing his fire magic and Bi-Han dying to become Noob Saibot. Hanzo takes up Scorpion. Also, invasions happened, too. Therefore, the narrative in which Liu Kang made actually made sense.
@hetoverseo3887 how about this onaga(if he becomes a main villian for once)shows up on the next game takes over outworld kills mileena,and General Shao joins his side in order to take it from him in the end
@@hetoverseo3887 the REAL Shao Kahn needs to return, General Shao its just the new jobber taking the place of Baraka. Since the story revolves around timelines, it would be cool to take the original Shao Khan, the one wich won Armaggedon to teach this happy go lucky timeline why he was so feared before...
@@thammathatsappasiri5948god imagine if that takeda IS the takeda from the old timeline that got removed and isolated by kronika like she did with Shang tsung, Fujin, and Night wolf. That would be a heartbreaker to see
The guy was made to collect a bunch of Mcguffins for the bad guy of his own game & it ended with an off-screen fight. Shujinko is used to being done dirty.
Except the most vile stinkers of the last timeline Probably why Kano wasn’t apart of this. He might just be forced to being drunk and eating “ *me sausage* “
@@venomj8179All he ever did was make a dude collect never-before seen Mcguffins & his story ends in an off-screen fight he looses. He is the biggest jobber out of MK bad guys, by far.
Been playing fighting games, especially MK, my whole life, and this new game and story is one giant love letter to the fans and I love it, every character, from klassic, to 3D, to new era, are all perfect. It's a great year for fighting game fans. Thank you devs
So we got Onaga teased twice, as well in two endings. It might be possible he could come into the game. Now while it was brand new and impossible to make him playable, we never know what Ed Boon is capable of.
@@ZeNoTemperrrI think that stone army Shang Tsung posseded were originally Onaga's army. You can see it in MK Deception trailer, where deadly alliance is fighting with Raiden, then Onaga comes and those stone warriors bow to him
@@ZeNoTemperrrHowever I must've missed the second tease. I literaly thought that he'll appear at the tower of Armageddon. I would've shit my pants I it would happen xD
@@rosesweetcharlotte Havik is a chaotic character by nature, unlike in the old timeline however, now he has a reason to hate the realm of order, of course his methods aren't going to be ones that minimize damages and loss of life.
@@TheSpawnfan I mean, it's just in such contrast to a lot of the other characters. Mileena, Baraka, and Reptile's endings are all about helping other people
@@rosesweetcharlotte Havik is a villain, justified reason or not, he's not going to change, specially because he was born in the realm of order and was oppressed there, he ended up thinking chaos was better and of course would choose the most destructive and chaotic methods for his revolution, and of course, from his point of view, after years of oppression, up to and including being imprisoned for years for a minor offense (a nod to what happened to Shujinko in Deception Konquest mode, he would have died of old age if not for Darius), everything he does would be justified from his perspective, the regime falls, no matter how many lives he takes in the process.
I actually really respect Reiko, he has an unbreakable loyalty to shao, and while that isn't great, considering shao is a warlord who wants to conquer the realms, I respect a man who's loyal to the only person he could really call family.
I'm so happy Rain is actually a human now and not some unsufferable goober, I've always loved his physical design but now his character is so much better
@@wetsocks5055 It still depends. Bioware for example has had 6-7 years of development for some games but more than half of it was spent on changing and finalizing concepts. In regards to MK1, we know however that they didnt start development on MK1 until around 2019 when they ceased development for MK11. At best you could argue that concept arts were already began being worked on around 2018-2019. Nonetheless, its still not impossible for them to start trying to ensure Mileena is done as right as possible even if she was planned way before the harassment reached its loudest. Not to mention, this game coincidentally included almost everything mileena fans happened to want including the rewrite of her tanya romance that was only previously hinted (though it was implied toxicity from Tanya) back in MKX
@@khalduras784 Her and tanyas romance wasn’t a rewrite it was already confirmed years before. Almost every character in this game got a complete rewrite of how they usually are idk how it’s so weird for mileena
Wholesome Rain? Unexpected, but I love that this shows that Rain is not evil. Even in the previous timeline he wasn't evil, just a broken man who lost everything when Argus abandoned him and murdered his mother (kind of). He only had his ambitions left, but here he shows his compassionate side, despite being tempted by his ambitions again, and now he wants to atone for it. These are honestly the best endings in any MK game imo. They are interesting and more grounded than the other endings where most characters would become omnipotent after defeating the boss of the game. It'd be interesting if the next game focused on Shujinko
Finally, endings that connect to eachother and can be viewed as canon instead of "what if"s that can be totally disregarded in the next game... I really want all of those to be canon and we can see this being explored in the next game.
@@laprincessa9787 We're talking about a guy whose kombat tactics include headbutting people hard enough for his own head to pop like a water balloon; even considering it grows back, I took him being insane as a given.
@@AtrumSilva You know, you make an excellent point. When I was younger I wouldn't pick him because he literally scared me. 😳 Have a good day/ evening my good fellow earthrealmer.👋🙏😌
Rain is so chaotic, he assisted a failed coup of one realm, had hands in an attempted massacre of another, and then to evade capture, he f-ing overthrew the regime of YET ANOTHER realm.... And in the end he was like "Man, I didn't really want any of this..." Dude should stick doing Weathering With You stuff.
I like some of the endings are connected for character I adore Sindel's ending with her lover, Both Princesses's duty for the realms and It's citizens. Raiden SET HIMSELF ON FIRE TO BRING OUT HOS RAGE?! Hardcore! Rain's humbleness after whayhe done, The endings are good
@@zeryuouros4411they aren't talking about TEKEDA(kenshi's son) they're talking about TEKEDA the original shirai ryu founder(which is now kuai liang in this new timeline)
I hope they find a way to reverse it. Either by Geras giving Lui Kang back his immortality. And finding a way for Lui Kang and Kitana to be together again
Kinda random but I liked Megan Fox narration on Nitara´s ending. Her job during the story mode wasn´t "bad" but didn´t fit too much the mood, but here it was pretty neat
Dude these artworks are beautiful. And the consistent quality between each of them compared to the ones that clearly weren't given enough time and budget in MK11 is great as well
With Sareena being saved and on the side of good she'll be the one who redeems Bi-Han. Even Ashra with a sword that senses evil believes that Bi-Han can be redeemed. With Sub Zero wanting to go into the temple of the elements it seems like they'll be recreating the mk mythologies for Bi-Han's story.
@@FoxyNinja777yes but that all depends on if they go that route with how they've handled bi-han so far they're gungho for making him an irredeemable bad guy again
@mistersandman5811 I make this assumption cause he does have a layer complexity to him. He says his father lacks vision and essentially sees him as a weakling but hopes his mother is proud of the decisions he makes as grandmaster. He condemns Kuai Liang but shows remorse for the death of Sindel. They're basically making him into an anti-hero.
Ed boon needs to be fired the ending is one of the worst ending in a mk game it’s literally you going up against a bunch of dlc skins while you climb up a tower like Armageddon
what is really interesting of these endings is that unlike before where they were all separated, many can flow together like a story. like rain and reiko (I think)
What i like about this is that rain isn't as egotistic, nor as full of himself unlike the rain we know from previous games. Atleast now he sees the bad he does and actually tries to make amends
