Yikes......

Anyways, any validity on that Goro/Kung Jin intro? I'd test it out, but I don't have Goro yet, and I don't feel like resetting the premier tower over and over just to fight Kung Jin, lol.

Don't see what it really matters? Half the fan base is gay anyway.

Halleloo!

Because outrage culture is a thing, and is clearly evidenced in this topic by people jumping to conclusions, I really applaud the approach they took with Kung Jin. I find it so hard to believe that people are reaching so hard to misunderstand T-Rex's posts that they'll take one bit of it and run. But lurking on this site, it's what you guys do. Never disappoint MKO.

Here's the thing, Kung Jin is a cool, snarky archer who happens to be gay. This aspect of his character isn't shoved in your face because the dude has other issues going on than just the eternal struggle of liking men. He feels as though Raiden stood idly by while Kung Lao was killed, he also feels as though he can never live up to Lao's legacy. Outside of that, yes, we have his sexuality which he feels will be used to judge him and reject him from the Shaolin. If you reread that last sentence, Kung Jin is worried that the Shaolin will reject him based on sexual preference alone. Meaning that despite his merits and strengths, he's afraid of being dumbed down to "dude who likes dudes".

Which I absolutely love because it seems online these days, people just want to be boiled down to their sexuality or their gender. Raiden's assurance that "it matters not who your heart yearns for" is telling Jin that he's more than just his aforementioned sexuality. Reading T-Rex's posts, this is the point he's trying to make (correct me if I'm wrong).

But you guys are so insistent on latching onto one or two sentences and getting mad and posting a reaction gif that you're failing to see the point. I don't really care who you like. But what I do care about is characters being portrayed as people rather than one-dimensional cardboard cutouts with literally one personality trait. If your sexuality defines you and that's literally all you bring to the table, you're probably not a very engaging or interesting person. I'm glad Kung Jin was portrayed as a human being who happens to like guys, rather than some sort've walking stereotype based on what the world perceives being gay like.

I really wanted to continue on about being "represented" and the current world's obscure need to have a character who is literally just themselves placed in the game world, but I think that's veering off-topic.

No, it's a joke. I'm pretty sure they only have one exchange which goes:

Kung Jin: Goro...
Goro: The house of Kung will fall!
Kung Jin: Right on your friggin' head!

This one too

Goro: Kung Jin...
Kung Jin: That's me, loincloth.
Goro: There is no honor in you!

The thing is his argument could be taken more seriously and understood if he left those one of two sentences out. Let's be real here trying to make some analogy or comparison with being gay and pedophelia will always invalidate your argument. Regarding stereotypes I don't believe that a character who fits into a stereotype can't be a good well rounded character or just one dimensional. Hell just look at Cookie from Empire. Cookie Lyon is basically a stereotype of the "angry black strong woman" but the the way she's written and depth that's she's given makes her well rounded character. She's far more than one dimensional and has so much to her.

The problem with this though, is that it would pretty much be letting his sexuality define him, more than anything else.
I mean, hypothetically, let's say Sub-Zero was gay. He very well could be. I've never seen him flirt with or take interest in women. As far as I could think of it, I don't think there's been anything in any MK media that would lead us to believe that Kuai Liang is gay or straight, so you could easily assume either way.
My point is that by going out of one's way to address a character's sexuality, it starts to define the character more than anything else. Is it possible that Kung Jin is gay? Sure it is. And maybe he is. But to make that a focus of his backstory would be the same as making the focus of Jax's backstory be that he's black. Jax isn't there to fulfill some kind of anti-racism agenda, so Kung Jin shouldn't be that guy either. Another example is, Sonya isn't there to appease to feminists either. It's not like everyone thinks she's weak because she's a girl, but then she goes and kicks some ass just to prove that girls can do anything boys can. She's just always been a capable fighter, and nobody cares at all what gender she (or any other fighter) is. I just don't think Mortal Kombat should be the franchise to address those kinds of things.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think addressing sexuality in games, and making well written, believable gay characters in video games (like The Last Of Us or Dragon Age, for example) is a step in the right direction, and something that needs to happen for this medium to be taken more seriously. But is Mortal Kombat really the franchise to do that? Honestly, even though I like that they're getting more mature with their writing, and making deeper, more interesting narratives and characters, personally, I still want it to be just good ol' fashioned, fun entertainment, not something that pushes a certain political agenda, or humans rights message, or equality or acceptance, not even allegorically.

There's no "maybe" here, it's been confirmed true by NRS.

Oh, okay, I see now. Sorry, I don't use Twitter.

I thought it funny that after that eloquent post, that was the one thing the first response chose to focus on.

Because I don't agree with his post. I gave him info he was missing though. I'm helpful like that.

You don't agree? I don't see how my posts contradicts this in any way?

Nobody 'happens to be' gay. It's something that affects your whole life. I hate the idea that 'gay but not TOO gay' is something we should strive for. Masculine gay men exist. Feminine gay men exist. All deserve to be represented in fiction.

I think Kung Jin is great and I was delighted by that scene. I also think it would be nice to go into it more in a sequel -- how HAS it affected his relationship with the Shaolin, if at all? Acknowledging his sexuality and having him talk about it isn't making him 'all about' his sexuality any more than having Kitana and Liu Kang get together is making them 'all about' theirs.

You're cool.

I like you.


The point was that taking established characters and changing them for the sake of making some ham-fisted political statement, with the only justification being "why not?", is fucking awful, not just because it's a character assassination, but because it effectively invalidates the political statement it was intended to make.

I've brought this up here before, but lately (and if you're into comic books, you should have taken notice of this by now), there's been a definite trend of writers turning straight male characters female/black/gay/whatever instead of creating unique minority characters.

See, I have issues with this simply because it's so goddamn weird to me that, instead of inventing new and original ideas to empower women or dismantle the patriarchy or whatever the fuck their endgame is, they take existing, established characters with decades of backstory and development behind them and transmogrify them into something else to fill the minority quota. So at the end of the day, you're not actually creating something new - you're changing or taking away something that already existed.


So -allow me to be presumptuous for a second here- wouldn't minorities prefer, y'know... their own original characters? Someone like Static or Midnighter?

Wouldn't turning a straight male character into whatever flavor on the minority spectrum that's being pandered to this week be one of those evil tropes everyone complains so much about? It feels like they're saying "Hey look, we care, but not enough to make an unique character. But don't worry, we took this already established one and slapped a pair of tits/blacked him up a bit on it, aren't we so progressive?"

If you are a minority, wouldn't you feel insulted?

I dunno, would you?


The thing is, when MikeyRu and I first had this conversation about a month ago or so, I recall us actually coming to an agreement on this point. Hell, we even shot the shit about Erron afterwards and what would happen if he turned out to be gay (seeing as he's an actual brand new character with no established backstory to be burdened by), with both of us ultimately concluding that he's so badass that it wouldn't even fucking matter.

So when I see him throw out "HURR ONE OF THE NINJA TURTLES SHOULD BE GAY I MEAN Y NOT!?", all I can do is amplify the ridiculousness further, because he's either obviously trolling at this point or he did a complete 180 on his earlier opinion.


But good job going out of your way to project LITERAL HITLER into my post. Stay classy, MKO. :^)

It's something taken from another board. I'm a little surprised this reached over to MKO.

I wish I could remember the ones about Reptile and Baraka.

>Reads through the whole thread



Liu is a homophobic asshole

And that is why he rules the Netherrealm now. XD

T-Rex and Mike have the right idea.

Here's a problem I have. Why does it bother you so much that character becomes gay years after their creation? If anything it mirrors the real world as that does happen. There are plenty of men and women who come out as gay later in life even after being married and having families.

I doubt that has anything to do with his sexuality and more to do with him being a thief.

"Proclivities" is a pretty common code word for sexuality.

He's obviously referring to the fact that Jin is a thief, you shitlord. :^)

Some lady on the Nightly Show addressed this in a way (btw im going to paraphrase a bit here since it was a while ago) she said (she is a comic book writer) that not all of the people that get upset about gender/skin/sexual preference changes to established characters necessarily have a problem with any of those things (Some obviously do) but that people (especially hardcore fans) don't like change, they don't like people "playing with their toys" and by doing that, they feel like somebody is "playing with their toys" lol its a change thing for some people, not a bigot thing. So its not that all of these people have a problem with a gay people, women, or people of different ethnicities (Some obviously do) they just like the character how they are and don't want people messing with them. Hell I have even seen this recently, I know a person (who is certainly not a racist) who after seeing the new Annie movie said "That's not Annie" "Or at least that's not MY Annie" and I know this person, she isn't racist, not one bit (She's Latino btw) but the fact that this new Annie was vastly different than the one she grew up with and loved, its not "her Annie" lol Don't get me wrong, im sure a lot of these people are in fact legitimate bigots, but I don't think all of them are, some just have problems with change, especially when its to something that is special to them.

Holy shit im sorry for that awful ass wall of text, I spaced it and everything but it turned out like that for some reason?