Eh, I rather would just like to see them be resurrected as themselves. Someone made a suggestion having Smoke still stay in the Netherrealm since his arcade ending showed is he's a demon.

An interesting twist.

I still doubt Smoke is a literal demon. There really isn't any evidence to suggest that the demon worshiped by the cult was also the enenra that ended up being Tomas. If my research was on point, then enenras tend have a neutral moral nature, but it's hard to say what an enenra is in the context of the MK universe.

Yeah either way is cool with me, I just wanna see Kuai Liang back to his human form. I'd like to see what you said as well because they both are some of my favorite MK characters.

I think seeing Smoke as an enenra would be killer.

God no. This is a terrible idea. Smoke is a Human now. Let him stay that way and let him developed as a character that doesn't revolve around just being S-Z 2's bff.

Pretty much this.

For plot purposes I'm in favor of Smoke staying human and being developed on. I'd rather not go through the same motions again now that we've had the big switch for shock value.

For Sub-Zero, well...it already looks like he'll be back to himself (I'm thinking due to Shinnok). If they're gonna backpedal, let's just go halfway. Was never a fan of CSZ anyways.

That's what you said would happen in MK9.

But instead of having a new story that developed him, keeping him human resulted in him having no story at all and being more stuck in the background than ever.

This.

Agreed! I've discussed this already, but Smoke has no story at all now. Even if he does return he will be on the same track he was on in deception. He will be an enenra. I stand by the fact that being cyber benefitted Smoke, but since I now know how it feels to have your favorite character as a cyborg I wouldn't wish that on you guys. I personally love cyber smoke, but I know Smoke fans don't. So leave him human.

Smoke has been my favorite character since Mortal Kombat 2.. I waited more than a decade for him to become human again... If they turned him back into a cyborg right away it would be a huge slap in the face and brutality to the nuts..

Just...just.. no...

And you thought 9 would be an exact reenactment of 1-3. So what's your point? We both expected certain things from 9 and we were off the mark.

Yes they dropped the ball with Smoke [again] after sparing him from the automation but he wouldn't have been better off as a Cyborg. If you can tell with a straight face you could have seen him as a Cyborg beating the same people C-SZ did then you are on some serious drugs.

Smoke, being a demon, may just reform, like Scorpion, Noob Saibot, and Raiden. Technically making them immortal(can't kill the dead, they're already dead/where'd they go?) Shang may even reform, after Sindel was purified.

I've wondered if it was the Lin Kuei sacrificing Tomas. The Grandmaster, and elders may secretly worship Shinnok.


What if Noob Saibot returned to being Sub-Zero after seeing the technological abomination they made his brother. What little remained of his Humanity may've been shaken awake.

The comment about different versions of characters may mean Human/Cyber alts return.
Unless they go Dragonball, making Early/Mid/Late (MK, MKII, MK3)Sub-Zero, with moves limited to ther game era. ie MK1 Subby can't Ice Shower like MK3. MKMSZ moveset aside.



Ka-Tra

I think they're gonna say Kuai Liang is dead and this is the third brother we never knew about b/c Kuai Liang never died in the original storyline. Smoke will stay human or dead no robot

They gave him a name, a background, a bitching new moveset, and a wee bit of a fiery personality.

Really, I feel MK9 did Smoke great on the whole. We learned more about him than we ever knew before. Sure, his story was summed up as "Travelled with Raiden, lost Sub-Zero, regained him as a robot briefly and then got offed by Sindel," but it's not like he did much of his own in MK3 anyway. You could sum that up as "Got captured, got converted, got sent after Sub, at some point got nabbed by Kahn's goons and was left shut down in a dungeon".

I'll take what I can get.

My point is that you didn't learn anything from the last time and are setting yourself up for a second disappointment.

He wouldn't have had a story anyway since they gave all of his Cyborg story arc to Cyrax [ie. The Cyborg that wanted to regain his humanity in 4 and wanted nothing to do with the CI, ran, got captured and forcefully automated] they couldn't give him anything as a Cyborg that would have been meaningful.

I thought they should have just left Cyrax and Sektor as the Cyborgs this time around.

That's not true, the most important part of the Cyber-Smoke story isn't that he wanted out of the program, it's how he and Sub-Zero interacted.

Sub spends MK3 fighting against and trying to save Smoke. Nobody ever does that for Cyrax.

And nobody does that for anybody in MK9, because Smoke isn't being hunted and never fights Cyber-Sub. The only person who does is Kabal, who has nothing to do with him. And he just knocks him out and the good guys reprogram him while he's sleeping, so there's never a scene of like one dude going to the other "Snap out of it, I know you're still in there!" or "I don't want to fight you, I'm your friend!" like there would have been if they'd told the MK3 version.
Granted, trying to resist automation IS important...but even with them using Cyrax to tell that story, MK9 fucked it up by having his capture and everybody's gruesome operating table moments happen off-screen so we never see ANYTHING that would make for a dramatic or emotional story.

It is true. Cyber Smoke was a dead end. Sub-Zero wasn't even looking for him in 4-5. He just happened to run into him in 6.

Then why not change THAT part of the story?

That's WAY simpler than fucking ruining the both of them.
You only see Cyber-Smoke as a dead-end because you're choosing NOT to imagine places it could have gone.

I can easily say the same thing to you about Human Smoke. You prefer the Cyborg version, I prefer the Human version. Let's just agree to disagree and move on.

We could do that but that wasn't really the conversation we were having when we started.

See, my argument right now isn't actually that he has no potential. The Enenra thing has undeniable potential.

My argument is don't get your hopes up that NRS will USE that potential, because last time we put faith in them, they let us down. Don't get burned again, man.

If you go in EXPECTING disappointment, then if the game's story mode turns out to not suck, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Cyber Smoke may be a key part in the dethroned Netherrealm Demons that Shinnok overthrew. Reconciling with the Deception/Armageddon living smoke nanites gave me an epiphany.

The Demons could've secretly been trying to ressurect their lord in Earthrealm, after Quan Chi deserted them to manipulate Shinnok..
Using Smoke's body as a host for the Lord of Flies.

Cyber Demon Nano Swarm, Beelzebub 2.0

Unlimited regenerating/self-replicating nanites making him nearly invincible, like Cell+T1000+MKMSZ Water Temple Boss combined. Always reforming. Maybe growing/consuming everything like in that episoe of Gargoyles, where Goliath & Dingo entered the Dreamtime to reason with it's artificial conciousness.

The perfect soulless machine, destroying/consuming all creation.
Forgot about the Replicators in Stargate, though they don't really come in aerosol form. I don't think they melt/dissolve into your head either. IMO it's a fractal nano needles, like jellyfish tendrils, maintaining their structural integrity.



Ka-Tra

Form preference. The real motivator behind all Smoke discussion.

I sometimes wonder just how much development people expect from him in either form, and over how many games. For a side character, I don't think he's done too bad.

We complain about how much potential is wasted for any of his various forms, and he's still probably been given more time and attention than the likes of Sheeva or Baraka, who have little choice but to play the exact same role in every single goddamned game they show up in.

Hell, you could almost say that about Reptile. All the potential in the world, yet relegated to "Yessss, massster" for two straight decades until something decides to set itself into his body and start kicking ass. His greatest moment, and the poor bastard wasn't even in control.

Not in 9. Even with a mere two scenes where she stands around guarding people tied to things in Not-Dungeons, she showed more personality than Smoke did and HE got a chapter!

Hell, I'd argue the scene where Baraka scolds another Tarkatan for goofing off with a shotgun gave him more personality than any scene gave Smoke, because in that scene we learned that Baraka has the brains of a normal fucking person and isn't retarded like the entire rest of his species, and that's why he gets to be the leader.

I can tell you that MK9 Sheeva strongly believes in honor, the samurai kind where to get it back when you disgrace yourself, you have to die. She even has distinctive speech habits/repeated catchphrases.

I can't tell you anything Smoke believes in, I can't tell you what he thinks or feels about anything except that, y'know, he's Kuai Liang's friend and he doesn't like people being turned into robots. Which MOST people don't. So yeah, what a unique individual...

I guess the fact that he styles his hair like a female might say something about him...