Some people just miss Midway that's all...

Why Scorpion's motivation should depend on Bi-Han?
He already killed the guy (even if he was revived later) and besides Bi-Han is not even true killer of his family and clan.
I just don't see why Bi-han must be evil. There are so many possibilities to tell new stories, so no need to stuck with the old ideas.


It's not much, but it is a personality.
Badly written or not, it is "the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character". Smoke's character might be was not very distinctive in MK9, but it is more than he had before. And in his genericness he is definitely not alone in the series, whatever iteration you take.

I don't get the idea people have about how Bi-Han coming back as Sub-Zero would revive the Scorpion-Sub-zero rivalry. Why should it? Scorpion already killed Bi-Han, he got his revenge, and I don't really see Bi-Han chasing Scorpion and trying to kill him, the motivation there would have to be getting revenge on Scorpion's revenge, that's idiotic.

Scorpion will probably keep with his never-ending revenge storyline, but that is only because of how one-dimensional he is as a character, but there is no need to drag Bi-Han into that as well. If he ends up being the Sub-Zero of MKX, there are an incredible number of interesting paths his story could follow without the need of tying him to Scorpion.

IF I had my way to Bi Han, He would be still an Anti-hero, not a pure hero. And keep him bit different from his baby brother, Kuai, regardless if Bi Han is either Sub Zero or Noob Saibot.

Bi Han's essence is an anti hero.

I think Bi Han getting pulled up the soulnado in mk9 was for a reason. And that reason is so he can come back as Sub-Zero again. it looked as tho his Noob essence was getting pulled from him as he was flying around the soulnado. And the elder gods took advantage of this happening, pulled him from the soulnado, and are gonna use him for defeating Shinnok and Quan Chi when they become the threats.

I don't think there gonna make him a hero or anything, I just have a feeling he's gonna play a roll during the Shinnok and Quan Chi part of the story. The elder gods just might use him until its all over and then let Bi Han finally rest in peace, or so they think... But since his soul is still tainted with evil, he could still wind up as being Noob when his duty is done, because there won't be no Quan Chi or Shinnok to worry about, and the Netherrealm would be his to rule (Havik rules on his side to become new Quan Chi Shinnok combo).

So he won't necessarily be a good guy, he'll just be the same Sub-Zero he was in mkm: sub zero. And if all that happens, it gives room for either a new Sub-Zero or Kuai Liang to come back as Sub-Zero.

If he's returning, I'd want him to finish his job as Sub-Zero before truly passing it on to Tundra at the end. AND in hopes that someone will find a way to free him of the cybernetics.

Proactive Elder Gods! Really? It makes more sense for them to unleash Shao Kahn instead of chewing on him for eternity.

Since when have they demonstrated their care and oversight, by whisking warriors away to be heal at the last second. Why would did they single out saving Bi Han and not Kitana or Liu Kang? Is it because they saw him nearby and decided, why not?

It really irritates me that the soulnado is seen as a vacuum for the soul by "sucking out" all the evil from a person's body. If this theory is true, then let Raiden uppercut all the evil forces into the soulnado to clean their personalities, thereby averting Armageddon. I always thought Bi Han was a clog in the soulnado and nothing more.

Agreed. This fucking soulnado theory has taken off and honestly it shows just how shitty we want the story to be. Noob Saibot has been kinda like Ermac. He's been improving since Deception (popularity wise) and bi-Han is a reason for that. Now, if they pull this shit it is going to halt that by making him a venom or parallax sort of character. It was great to have Bi-Han revealed as Noob because Raiden TOLD him that shit was going to happen.

Now, people want to ruin that writing because they either want to see the damn Scorpion/Sub-Zero rivalry continue or they just want an "evil" sub-zero. Oh and that shouldn't happen either because if this soulnado shit ends up happening then Bi-han should be a SUPER good guy. After all his "evil" was ripped from him right?

I gotta agree with you on that one.

How convenient that Evil can be ripped from someone's soul.


That is not only pathologically stupid as evil is a consequence of our actions causing larger entropy in things than necessary... also, it is one of the most offensive thoughts that somehow some external thing can make your evil, and thus your responsibility go away. Fuck that, this is kindergarten level writing, We need to get away from the Ronald Reagan-era style cartoon simplicity.

Bi-Han was already evil, due to him respawning in the Netherrealm after his death. But Quan Chi further corrupted his soul with dark magic to turn him into Noob Saibot.

The corruption can be undone, and then Bi-Han would learn on his own that his past actions that lead him down the path of evil might not be the right path, as it would turn him into something like that. And thus he attempts to make up for it by walking another path.

Character development.

What was pretty pointless if they went with the original bio of him being an unrepentant murdere that killed for hobby. No need for extra magic, what is also a pretty lazy convenience. Then again, they are not writers or artists.

Though not related, I find the mind-control, hypnosis etc. devices to be fairly bullshit, and the concept of being inherently clean cut good, neutral or bad to be objectively false.

Alright, fair enough.

So before we start moving the goalposts around, let me ask you this - how exactly is Smoke’s personality established?

The same way it's done for any other fictional character - by having him react to the events that are happening to him, of course.

We, the audience, observe the character react to things that are happening to them as the narrative goes on. If the character changes in response to things that have happened to them, this is called "character development". If character development happens continuously until it reaches some kind of a logical conclusion, it’s called a "character arc".

So far, so good?

Back to Smoke.

The first time he’s first introduced into the story is during the events of MK2. We, the audience, do not get to observe how he got to that point. Instead, we’re simply told it through his bio and/or ending. The purpose of this is to establish a reference point for the character's personality as he's introduced to the audience, and any changes that he undergoes are looked at in the context of that reference point.

So I think it’s fair to say everything that has happened to Smoke up to the moment of his introduction should be classified as *backstory.*

With that in mind, let’s take a look at Smoke’s backstory:

OT Smoke:
>He's Sub-Zero's friend and ally. That's it.

NT Smoke:
>Sub-Zero's friend and ally.
>As his ending reveals, Smoke’s powers originate from the Enenra demon that he unwittingly became a vessel for when he was a child.

While potentially interesting from a story-telling perspective, it’s worth noting that this revelation tells us nothing about Smoke's personality. In addition to having no say in his kidnapping and sacrifice, he has no memory of these things ever happening, and it does not appear to affect him in any way.



So now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to *personality*.

As we've already established, after the character is introduced, the audience starts to follow the narrative in real time. Any changes that the character undergoes after this point are classified as character development. Any reactions that the character expresses, any actions that he takes in response to the current narrative are used to establish his personality.


So the question is – what is the time frame during which Smoke is actively involved in the narrative?

The answer – the events related to the Cyber Initiative and everything that happens in their wake.


With that in mind, let’s take a detailed look:

OT Smoke:

>Alongside Sub-Zero, discovers the truth behind the Cyber Initiative, realizes the implications of it and decides that he wants no part of it
>has to choose between loyalty to his clan and loyalty to his friend and/or self-preservation, but ultimately decides to defy the will of the clan
>Tries to escape, fails, gets captured by the Lin Kuei and forcibly transformed into a killer cyborg against his will
>Sent out with the orders to hunt down and eliminate his former friend and ally

The bolded parts are essential to this discussion.

These are the points during which Smoke makes crucial decisions that carry major consequences later on. Both of these decisions reveal to us what kind of character Smoke is.

They establish his personality.

It’s also important to note that Smoke bears full responsibility for these decisions. He was the one who discovered the Lin Kuei’s schemes and he was the one who made the conscious decision to defy them.

This is called “having agency”.

Tomas Vrbada had no agency when the cult kidnapped him, but adult Smoke has full agency when he chooses to betray his clan. He's the master of his own destiny and all that.

In fact, if you look at it in the context of agency, you can actually argue that Smoke's character kinda goes through a legit arc.

>faced with the prospect of turning into a mindless automaton (i.e. losing agency)
>decides that keeping his mind and soul (i.e. his agency) is more important than his loyalty to the clan
>makes a run for it, gets captured and forcefully stripped of his agency
>programmed to do something his former self would never do
>most importantly, has the potential to regain his agency, but this potential is never realized

It's an incomplete arc, to be sure, but at least it's something.


So that last point is kind of important. Let's talk about it.


Throughout MK3, it is repeatedly stated that despite the cyberization process, Smoke has somehow managed to retain his soul. If that's true (and we have no reason to believe otherwise), one can only imagine what he feels like after he's been programmed to track down and kill his friend and ally, but that's a discussion for another time. This point is once again reiterated in not one, but TWO different endings, where he regains his memories and joins the Earthrealm warriors. This is a big deal.

The true tragedy of Smoke's character, then, is that neither ending is canon. Despite having the definitively established capacity to regain his memories and free will, he is ultimately unable to do so and instead remains a robotic slave to his body and programming. Even in his arcade mode ending, which generally reveals the best outcome possible for any particular character, Smoke is ultimately unable to fully reverse the cyberization procedure, and his soul is forever trapped in his artificial body.


The inherent tragedy of his condition is key to Smoke’s character. I cannot stress this enough.


So with all of this in mind, let’s take a look at NT Smoke over the same time period:

>As soon as he’s introduced in story mode alongside Sub-Zero, Smoke makes it clear that their little off-the-books venture to Outworld will most certainly not be approved by the Lin Kuei. Despite that, he obviously still made the decision to tag along with Kuai.

Now, this doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know from his backstory, but it does a good job of illustrating the nature of the relationship that these two have. This is good. I like this.

>It’s worth noting that even though both Smoke and Sub-Zero have disrespected the clan’s wishes, they still refer to themselves as the Lin Kuei, they talk about their potential pursuers as “our fellow Lin Kuei” and they even quote the clan motto. They haven't gone renegade just yet.

Then, during the fight with Sektor, a few things are revealed:

>Smoke and Sub-Zero were apparently aware of the Cyber Initiative beforehand. The only reason Smoke is surprised is because he didn't expect Sektor to already go through with the procedure.

Now, the whole “discovery” aspect of the cyberization plotline is fairly important because right away, you get strong gut reactions from the characters involved.

In the OT, the reveal was done from the perspective of Smoke and Sub-Zero. We can only guess as how exactly it was supposed to have played out, but the only thing we know for sure is that at some point, they both decide that they want no part of it and conspire to escape together. This is a pivotal point for both characters.

In the reboot, however, the actual “discovery” stage was played out earlier in the story using Cyrax. Now that I think about it, the reason they did it this way is probably because it was a good opportunity to show different viewpoints on the issue. That’s why they had Sektor and Cyrax arguing back and forth on this until Raiden finally convinces Cyrax to defect for good. Which is fine, except not really.

I’ve said before that with the whole Cyber-Zero nonsense, the NRS essentially had the Lin Kuei play a game of musical chairs and shuffled their stories around.

This is the kind of stuff that I was referring to.

This could have been an opportunity to show how Smoke really feels on the issue, but instead, it's stolen from him and given to Cyrax instead. And hell, Cyrax is arguably the most beloved and well-developed of the three cyborgs. There was no need to have him steal the spotlight from anybody, much less from an underdeveloped character who needs all the screentime he can get.


>After he beats Sektor, he blurts out: “I will never submit!”

So this is it, I guess.

This is his big turn.

In a game where he’s finally supposed to get the spotlight.

Whereas before, the character had agency and was being proactive about his decision, it’s now an immediate reactionary response to being acted upon by another character.

Stupid meaniehead Sektor attacks him, so Smoke gets mad and says that he’s not gonna play with these jerks anymore.


This is literally a “Han shot first”. Oh yeah, I went there.


It’s the most flaccid, lazily written bullshit ever. Christ, even the couple of sentences we got in the OT were framed better than this.

>Immediately afterwards, Raiden shows up to save him from the Lin Kuei cyborgs and ropes him into his motley crew of Earthrealm defenders.

In the hypothetical non-canon situations where OT Smoke joined the forces of Earthrealm, it was kind of a big deal, because he had to overcome his programming and regain his memories in order to do so. In the reboot, he does it because Raiden asks him to. In doing so, Raiden strips him of the agency that he originally had.


NT Smoke is more helpless and less independent than he was in the original, which involved him becoming a literal mindless slave. Just think about that for a minute.


From this point on, Smoke’s character becomes completely static, and the extent of his character development bears repeating:

>punchy asshole who attacks first and asks questions never
>can't tell apart Kitana and Mileena, so either colorblind or slightly retarded, take your pick
>dies before accomplishing a single thing of importance


So if you've been following me so far, not only was OT Smoke actually more developed as a character, but what little we knew about him left plenty of grounds for speculation. For all of its fancy fully voiced cutscenes, the reboot takes most of that away and gives nothing in return. There is not even a semblance of an unrealized character arc that OT Smoke had.

We’ve been had.



If you’re gonna do something this half-assedly, you might as well have not even bothered.

I might change my opinion if the Enenra setup pays off in MKX, but as it stands, Smoke’s picture belongs under the fucking dictionary entry for “wasted opportunity”.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who took the understated character arc of the OT Smoke plot and also added "quick temper/punchy asshole/as you see it" to it.

I'll be the first to admit that MK9 did him little favors in terms of development, but I'll go down to my grave grateful for the blanks in his past the game filled in. My fingers are really, really crossed for that Enenra payoff.

MK9 does end with him stripped of control once more, as a thrall to Quan Chi. I'm not holding my breath expecting an MKX monologue from him on the horrors of slavery and his dread of being automated, but damn, it'd be nice.

Sektor is still out there. The Lin Kuei are still a threat, and too loose a plot thread to leave untied. Assuming resolution of that doesn't fall to Bi-Han somehow, and the dead get restored to life, there's still room for them to go back and clean house, maybe for Smoke to get his moment. We'll see.

The way I see it, Smoke and Scorpion (+muh waifu Sareena, NRS pls ;_;) are set up to be sleeper agents in the midst of Shinnok's forces, and once they inevitably turn, they will BTFO his entire plan from the inside.

Reminder:
With vague descriptions of events and dubious canonical status of some information, it's hard to have a properly finalyzed conclusion without going into wild speculations and headcanons. Just a reminder of things to come.

Yes, NRS shuffled stories of Lin Kuei warriors around, though it primarily goes for Smoke and Sub-Zero. Cyrax has received Smoke's story, but it kind of was already done before, in MK Gold. In MK9 NRS have decided to established Cyrax as not-being OK with Lin Kuei cyber-initiative program from the get go, which was left vague in OT. His Bio in MK3 tells nothing about his feelings about being converted to cyborg. This decision doesn't harm neither Cyrax nor Smoke in any way.

As for Smoke's actions in MK2 and MK3, it's a generic story. Yes, it tells us that Smoke is loyal friend who don't want to become soulless machine, but what else do we know about him besides that? Nothing. It tells us about his character, but not about his personality. And this is the only time in entire MK OT, when he makes a decision for himself (if you don't count his MK3 ending as canon, which I do, BTW).

Yes, it's a tragedy that he have been turned into robot, but anyone would feel bad in his situation (well, almost anyone). It tells quite little about his character. Or, more precisely it doesn't tell us anything new. We know that Smoke didn't want to become machine, hence he doesn't feel good when this happens. It's simple logic, really.

About Smoke ending: we don't know what exactly had happened at the end of MK3 / UMK3 / MKT, so Smoke's ending can be canon (save for "killed Shao Kahn" part, but that goes for every other character obviously). He could have been saved by Sub-Zero, fight Sektor and Cyrax alongside him, and later be captured by Shao Kahn. At least it makes his story more interesting and he has chance to make one last decision, which, once again, is not really groundbreaking sensation.

The rest of analyze goes into entirely wrong direction, misses the point and consists from enormous amounts of reaching. Meanwhile, I must apologize. I have confused what you have been confsuing all this time along. I thought you have confused "backstory" and "personality", but it seems you confuses two other terms: "personality" and "character", which are not the same. Though, at times you start to confuse "backstory" with all of the above.

Reminder:
"Personality" - the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.
"Character" - the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

You argue that Smoke's characters was portrayed worse in MK9, then in OT. However, in MK9 Smoke goes pretty much through all the same stuff he went in OT as far as our knowledge is concerned. And what's more, his character is pretty much the same. He is a loyal friend to Sub-Zero. He doesn't want to become machine. He defects from Lin Kuei, when they try to forcibly convert him into one. The only difference is that he is not converted into machine, but he is still becomes a slave with no say in the matter (more on that later).

All that doesn't change the fact, that we don't know what personality Smoke had in OT, which from the audience point of view, is equal to him not having any personality at all, since developers has never told us anything about it.

The major difference is that he wasn't turned into cyborg, which would have made his character tragic by definition, but would have added quite little to his personality, since we know that he is not OK with being soulless machine, hence he would've suffered as a soulless machine. Again, simple logic.

His death obviously adds nothing to his story, at least not yet, since it is MK where death is not really something permanent.

And once again, you are confusing two things - "personality" and "backstory". Smoke lost parts of his story (but gained others) and some people might dislike that. I respect those opinions, but I disagree with them.

In terms of personality Smoke was a blank state in OT. In terms of character Smoke MK9 is equal to his OT version. And he is still a tragic character, because (surprise!!) he has become slave, much like in OT. The nature of his enslavement is different, but functionally it is no different from him being a cyborg in OT.

And in perspective it is much more comfortable position to writers to return Smoke as an active character and not as some eternal cyborg-woobie slave. And it allows to explore his potential he has as Enenra.

And conlusion:
All your arguments are blatant speculations with little to no factual ground. Because of that I can safely conlude that the whole argument about Smoke's personality being worse in MK9 is FALSE.

And I can answer why:

The whole disappointment about his portrayal in MK9 stems from the fact, that some people have imagined him as that awesome tragic hero / noble knight in shining armor, when in the game he was a simple jerkass. And the most hilarious thing is that nothing in OT indicates that he is not like that. Basically, people have created that awesome Smoke personality in their minds based on very vague desriptions of his deeds (or lack of thereof) and now pissed off, because NRS didn't follow their headcanons, which MK-Team was not obliged to follow in the first place.

Long story short:
Smoke is not much worse in NT, people just once again were trapped into their own headcanons.


But of course, MK always have been extremely serious fantasy.
Well, maybe in your head it is, but in real world things are a bit different.


Then who are they?
Ah, yes, I forgot. They write story as they want, not how you want. Hence they can't be true writers and artists. Well, that was simple to figure out.


I hope you do understand that people in charge of MK do not obliged to follow your ideas or philosophy, right?
I am saying this because you always give impression of a being, who simply can't phathom that people can have different ideas from his own and everyone who do not share those are considered to be inferior.

Nice strawman there.

Said strawman over there.

Smoke felt strongly enough about it to try to escape.
Cyrax didn't.

That's all we need to know.


Of the three people who got cyberized, one volunteered, and one didn't seem to really care enough to do anything about it.

The only one who tried to escape was Smoke.

So no.


And you're saying that I'm the one who's confused?


Pick a character, any character.

Describe to me their personality and then their character.

Make sure to keep them distinct and separate from one another.


He doesn't? Because MK9 kinda did a shit job of establishing that.

Yeah, when he see what Sub-Zero was turned into, he gets upset and says it's an abomination (and so did I, but for different reasons), but again, it's another reaction to something another character did.

In the OT, it's something that he decided on his own, without having to see his friend get turned into a mindless killbot.


You may notice something is different.

The difference is the loss of agency.


Why, because we didn't get to see a cutscene where he acts like an assclown who can't tell the difference between Mileena and Kitana?

By that logic, nobody had any personality in the OT.


In the OT, he's the only slave.
It's what makes him unique.

In the reboot, he's just one of the many undead thralls. It was lame and shitty when Deception did it, and it's still lame and shitty now. Nothing makes him stand out from the rest. The emotional impact of his enslavement is gone.



>transformed into a killer cyborg against your will






>undead thrall



>he will stay dead (in which case, what was the point of having Sub-Zero get cyberized instead of Smoke?)

>he will get brought back to life somehow (in which case, why kill him in the first place if you're just going to undermine the impact of his death later?)


Pick one.


Like I said, I might change my mind if the Enenra thing pays off, but if we're just looking at the MK1-MK3 time frame, even getting deactivated and ending up as Kahn's trophy has better potential for future stories than either of these two options.


If you don't have a brain, sure.


>make it a point to stick to the established facts that the game literally fucking spells out on the screen

>patiently explain the most elementary storytelling concepts and break down Screenwriting 101 on the most basic level possible like I'm talking to a child


>speculation

Mindbending begins.


Typical headcanonical approach. Let's fill the gaps with imaginary conclusions. Why not?


Yeah, and that is why Cyrax has decided to become human again in OT. No biggie.


I can. Can you?


Oh, simple statement is not enough for you to make an obvious conclusion?

Gee...I guess, Smoke should have made a Shakespearean 10-minute monologue with tears and kneeling (and someone's skull in a hand), so you could figure out that he is not OK with being turned into soulless machine. Of course.


What about Smoke's statement to Sektor, that he won't submit?
The difference is minor at best, if any.
Oh, but if it's not a statement made in epic and dramatic fashion is doesn't count. I get it.


No, because he didn't do anything, which allowed to assign any kind of personality to him.
As for the others: their personalities have been established in canonical comic books and they had more significant roles in the games. Though some of them were almost zeroes in that regard.


What's so important about him being "unique" in being slave?
His character still goes through the same motions. This is what important.


Emotional impact?
I doubt it was big in the first place.

Smoke was a secret lame ninja-clone in the MK2. In MK3 he was either grey Scorpion or cyber-version of Scorpion, who really was not important to the story or heavily advertized. Besides, he has disappeared from the series for almost 10 years. Everyone would have forgotten him, if he was not a ninja (which in MK fanbase automatically adds +50 to popularity, no matter how lame the character is).


From those characters I know only RoboCop, but I got the idea.
And no, it won't added anything new, because MK doesn't belong to the genre of "existential drama / drama", no matter how much you like to imagine otherwise.


1. Because, both can be developed in different directions.
2. Because, MK-Team wanted to remove those characters from the story.
I'd go with any decision NRS makes. I am not overly demanding.


I don't see it.
Dead or deactivated - are pretty much the same thing in this context. Its MK - neither is permanent. And if anything, I would bet, that reviving dead character is easier there, than reactivating a cyborg.


Reaching is strong in this one. Go on, it's funny to read baseless specualtion. Twice as fan to debunk them.


Yes, speculation.
Because, so far you was making points by twisting established basic information to fit personal interpretation and filling gaps with imagination and reaching. Also, you was constantly confusing and juggling multiple concepts to fit whatever narative you wanted to build as you went along.
Well, I was wrong. It's not so much specualtion. More like extreme case of reaching and falsifying.
Nothing new, either way.

YELLOW MAN NO RUN AWAY
BECOME METAL MAN

GREY SMOKE MAN NO WANT TO BECOME METAL MAN
GREY SMOKE MAN RUN AWAY
EVIL MEN CATCH GREY SMOKE MAN
FORCE HIM TO BE METAL MAN

How much more simple can I possibly make it?

Do I need to act it out with sock puppets?

Were you born with this crippling inability to put two and two together?

It’s just endlessly fascinating to me.


>Cyrax in OT
>Cyrax in Original Trilogy
>trilogy


Why are you lying?


Surely, o wise one, you can see with your own eyes that I cannot, and it pains me so~ ;_;

So tell you what, mate - you show me how it's done, ok?

SUMAC'S LASER PRECISION HAIR-SPLITTING EXTRAVAGANZA

Don't go anywhere, I'll go grab myself some popcorn - dis gon b gud.


So when you make assumptions and reach for conclusions, it's “logical” and “obvious”, but when other people do the same thing, it's "looking for things that aren't there" and "headcanon".

Well... at least you're consistent.


OK, I'm going to list all the things he did now.

One by one, so that you can follow.

Are you ready?

Alright, here goes:

1) Learned about the Cyber Initiative and decided he doesn't like it
2) Tried to escape
3) Got caught and turned into a cyborg
4) Sent out to hunt and kill his friend

Now, I admit, it's not much to go on, especially compared to the reboot, where Smoke gets an entire chapter to himself.

It's even funnier, then, that the couple of sentences we get in the OT still paint a more interesting character than what we ended up getting in the NT.

Kinda reminds me of another character whose personality was established contextually, until all of a sudden they decided to give her spoken dialogue.

Worked out great, didn't it?

More is not always better.
Sometimes, less is actually more.

They still teach that in schools these days, don't they?


So you're telling me that the original characters have no personalities unless you read the comic books?

Because that's outrageous bullshit.


...Did you just fucking ask what’s so important about a character being unique?

Okay, you’re just trolling at this point. No one can say something this monumentally flippant and still expect to be taken seriously.


Yeah, that's why we're having this conversation.
Because the crux of Smoke's entire story and the turning point for Sub-Zero's character had no emotional impact. Any number of Smoke fans on these boards would agree.



I think I figured it out, though.

It's really starting to look like the main issue here is that you're fundamentally confused about what makes a good narrative.

It may be hard for you to believe, but there's actually kind of a science to storytelling. A trade, you could say. This is why screenwriting is taught in film schools. Because just like in music, the theory comes before the art.

I didn't make up agency - it's an actual concept. Just like character motivation, connection to the audience, establishing setups and story hooks that pay off later in the narrative, having stakes in the outcome, judicious application of familiar tropes and character roles - all of these are structural elements that make a story work.


That's why reducing a character's supposedly dramatic turn against the organization which he thinks of as his only family to a throwaway line of dialogue is not just offensive - it's just plain bad screenwriting.


But let me guess, your next line will be "B-BUT FANBOYS," correct?


No, I don’t think you do.

The idea was that one of these two tropes immediately evokes strong imagery and taps into a well of solid themes ripe for exploration.

The other one is the most boring, overdone, lazy cliché imaginable.

And apparently you can't figure out which is which.


>MK shouldn't try to take itself seriously because I said so

ok :/


I'm happy that NRS doesn’t listen to people like you, then, because they've apparently decided that there is a demand for an entire year-long run worth of comics dedicated to exploring and fleshing out the characters and the universe of MK.


Sometimes I keep forgetting that you're permanently stuck in the 90s and prefer your characters to be two-dimensional action movie props, but it's a good thing you're always here to remind me.

While you're in the past, say hi to these guys for me:



Because seriously, who could ever imagine these two clowns starring in anything remotely dramatic? Crazy talk, I tell you.



So what you've essentially just admitted is that:

a) You have no consistent standards when it comes to the story
b) In your eyes, NRS shouldn't be held to any standard of quality

As far as I'm concerned, saying this kinda stuff should pretty much disqualify you from ever being taken seriously again in any story-related discussion.


>flipping a switch or replacing a power cell
>harder than escaping from literal hell

I have no idea how you can spout absolute, utter bullshit with a straight face.


>rushes headstrong into battle
>talks shit to his opponents
>can't tell Mileena and Kitana apart

And now, true believers, here's a million dollar question:

What character would you expect to behave like that?



A. A trained Lin Kuei assassin
B. Johnny Cage
C. Shao Kahn
D. Mokap

It's okay to ask the audience for help.
I won't judge.

That doesn't follow. The 60's Batman, while campy and silly, was leagues better than the "serious" takes from the likes of Tim Burton or Christopher Nolan.

Not only that, Raiden asks him to compete in the second tournament but he's quickly eliminated from that offscreen.

Grime likes goofball humor. You get used to it.