Scorpion DID kill Sub-Zero in the original Mortal Kombat, every version of Sub-Zero after MK1 was Sub's younger brother. The original Sub-Zero who was killed became the Netherrealm wraith Noob Saibot, as was revealed in MK: Deception. I'll agree that the MK story is hard to follow though.

I just noticed that I misread that post, I thought you were wondering why Sub-Zero was still in the tournament. Scorpion came back to the tournament because he found out that (the supposed original) Sub-Zero was still alive, he later realized it was Sub's younger brother.

Well aware of that, just saying that all the non canon endings need to go, and the complete story needs to be fleshed out.

agreed. A really well fleshed out story mode minus the non-canon endings would be great. Imagine if story modes graphics were as good as the intro where we see raiden fighting shao kahn. That would be amazing.

The thing about a tournament, at least the first one, is that Liu would've HAD to beat some of his own allies when advancing from bracket to bracket to get to the championship round and face Goro, because Goro was the only Outworlder there. (They only needed one, who would've guessed the guy with a 500 year winning streak could be beat?) Every single person who was actually at MK1 to compete was from Earthrealm.

You're right that none of people who are on the same side would kill each other, though.

Good point on the first tournament, but I was kind of thinking about the other parts of the story when the tournament gets thrown out the window.

IMO, Mortal Kombat storyline is not mess up, just a few concepts that need to be fix or clarify by the MK team.

First, it's obvious that Mortal Kombat is not really a Tournament but a War ie: Earthrealm vs. Outworld. So while the arcade mode is fun, we cannot really take all that went down . Good characters will never face each other, and evil characters will never face evil characters (until perhaps after evil win the War like post Deadly Alliance)

Second, ignoring the arcade mode where one defeat essentially all the characters on both side, I think since Mortal Kombat is not really a Tournament but a War, I think the MK team have us confuse about what it meant to be a Mortal Kombat Champion. To some a Champion, is someone who wins a competition, being the sole winner. Indeed this is what happen, in the arcade mode. But there is another definition of Champion. It can mean someone who advocate something; like a geneal or hero leading the way for battle. This is why Liu Kang was Mortal Kombat Champion, not because he won the tournament single handedly, but lead Earthrealm to fight Outworld and Netherworld, and essentially went head on with their "Champion"/Boss.

Third, so that being said, some of the endings in the arcade mode, ignoring minor details like the character winning the entire tournament, are plausable. Even if one side wins, some of the endings of the losing side came true too. This is why I like MK4 endings. First, of course because it's FMV. But many characters ending came true.

-Raiden became an elder god.
-Fujin became his succeed him as Earthrealm protector
-Liu Kang winning
-Sonya and Jax confronting Jarek.
-Johnny Cage probably did make another movie
-Scorpion confronting Sub-Zero, who reveal Quan Chi was Scorpion's clan and family murderer, leading to Deadly Alliance

So all and all, I think, the story lines so far is good, just a few tweak. We need realize that the Arcade Mode was just for our entertainment as we guide one character up the ladder to face the boss. Some of it does not reflect the actual story line, like one destroying all on both side. And ignoring some minor details in the ending, can have it come true..

I hope its not like MK vs DC storymode, it was convoluted and felt really forced. MKD had the best story mode w/ conquest, even if it was clunky the story flowed.