I've been realizing lately that I'm not exactly happy with where the narrative of MK went after Armageddon. We had a non-canon crossover, a new timeline, and a time jump. All of those are poor choices in my opinion. I think I like MK11's story because I'm biased towards Liu Kang, and more importantly, because it put the kibosh on the alternative timeline. Now the implication is a new timeline is starting, but instead of that, my ideal story next game would be to go back to the original timeline, and show what really happened after Armageddon.

To start, and in my opinion, the MK9 intro and MK Armageddon do not seem to take place in the same canon. While MK9 depicts Shao Kahn as the ultimate winner of Armageddon and everyone else dying, the Armageddon conquest mode clearly has Taven as the victor, although with the important note that his victory neither killed nor de-powered the fighters, leaving the original canon with a lot of unanswered questions and ideas ripe for exploration. Here are some very important character and plot points that have yet to be resolved:

-Taven: in MK Armageddon, Taven is the one to defeat Blaze and ascend to full godhood. Due to the corruption of his quest, the realms are left unstable and the MK fighters are left alive and powerful. There is room to explore his new mission in staving off Armageddon and figuring out what to do about his quest not going according to plan.

-Shinnok: The character bios of MK Armageddon set Shinnok up to be the evil puppet master behind most of the game's story, and perhaps the main villain of the next game in the series. Although his evil plan relied on Daegon winning instead of Taven, the fact that the quest was mostly inconsequential leaves things at more of a stalemate. There's still potential for Shinnok's evil plan to come to fruition.

-Johnny Cage and Kenshi: MK Armageddon set up Johnny Cage as the new ring leader for the good guys, and Kenshi as a reluctant guide leading them into battle. Johnny's development from a superficial side character to a competent leader is really interesting development over the series, and the dynamic between him and Kenshi sounds like it could be really fun.

-Fujn/Kung Lao/ Liu Kang/ Nightwolf: A big plotline in the Armageddon Bios is Fujin and Kung Lao's quest to reunite Liu Kang's spirit with his body and to figure out what caused Raiden's corruption. Nightwolf's role had also become a lot bigger and more important than one would have thought; he was the silent co-champion of MK Deception, and now serves as Liu Kang's spiritual anchor and the best chance at his revival. All of these characters have yet to find out that Raiden is the one who resurrected Liu Kang's body; a revelation that may solidify Raiden as a tyrannical villain in their eyes.

-Sonya/Jax/Sektor: Sonya's bio paints the picture of Sektor's new cybernetic clan becoming a rising threat. A big topic not fully explored was their capture of Jax. It seems like what they were going for was Jax becoming subject to cybernetic experimentation. I could see Sektor becoming a great side villain in future games, with Jax dealing with compromises from his subjugation to their experimentation, and Sonya working to free her partner and bring the operation down.

-Nitara/Ashra : These two representatives from Deadly Alliance and Deception respectively were some of my more liked 3D-era characters in my opinion. Armageddon spun up an interesting potential rivalry between the two that could have gone somewhere if the timeline was allowed to continue.

-Kitana/Sindel/Jade/Tanya:-Given that the battle of Armageddon occurred in these characters' home realm, it would be interesting to see a representation of how the battle affecting things over there.

-Shujinko: I the idea that Outworld adopted Shujinko as their champion, and his quest to redeem himself for his unwitting part in Deception would make him a cool character to see come back.

-The One Being: Probably the biggest missed potential. Starting with Mortal Kombat Deception, there were subtle hints at the one being, the amalgamation of all realms, acting as one conscious force. MK Deception explored the concept of the one being, and the plot of MK Armageddon revolves around the elder gods' fear that the MK kombatants are weakening the fabric of the realms with their constant fighting, merging, and unmerging of realms. The implication here is that if the barriers between realms fails (i.e. if they're all merged together) that the one being will reawaken. MK Armageddon leaves this plotline unresolved, and the new timelines seems to have pretty much forgotten about it as far as the canon is concerned.

With all of these loose ends, I would like to express that the next MK game should be a sequel to MK Armageddon, taking place in the original timeline and wrapping up these loose ends.