Kitana shouldn't even BE their "delicate flower" which is why they should just kill her off. She never was before (except for the god awful movies and TV shows)...why the fuck did they decide she should be now?

Fucking embarrassing.

I really like your proposal, Xia. It's a shame someone with your understanding of characterization and storytelling and obvious passion for these characters is languishing here on a message board while folks with a fraction of the talent are out there making Deception's Konquest mode like adolescents playing make-believe with a pile of action figures.

I don't like the concept of bringing back Jerrod at all. Kitana has had hundreds of years to get used to the idea that she was the true monarch of Edenia, and was probably specifically preparing herself to take over the moment her realm was free from Shao Kahn's grasp. Pining for daddy to come back and take over seems like something she should have gotten over a LONG time ago, for the good of her people.

Sindel I can maybe see being more attached, since she died not long after Jerrod did and has only been (a) alive and (b) free from Shao Kahn's influence for a very short period of time. She's also apparently the type who'd rather kill herself than look out for the good of her people and her own daughter in their greatest time of need, so, yeah, not the most reliable leader, even if she seems to be trying to make amends in recent games. So I can MAYBE see her wanting to bring her husband back, but by no means for noble or necessary reasons. Kitana seems just as capable and revered a leader as Jerrod ever was.

In light of Sindel's elevation of her own dignity (and love for her husband, perhaps) above responsibility, there really ought to be a lot more bad blood between her and Kitana than has been shown to us so far, unless Edenian culture attaches some kind of special honor to suicide in the face of humiliation. I don't buy that, though, or Kitana would have been pressured to follow mom right to the grave rather than being praised as the savior of Edenia.

Ok, so Sindel and Kitana are back in power and Edenia is free from Outworld. Where do they go from here? It seems pretty clear to me that handing the reins of power back to Sindel was a shitty mistake, and I can see her running Edenia into the ground with her capriciousness and enormously misplaced priorities. Maybe Kitana would pretty much HAVE to confront her to keep the place from imploding on itself and being overrun by it's numerous enemies, since if anyone's less reliable than Sindel, it's Argus and clan, the watchmen asleep at the gate. Even Raiden's sold out every other realm to Shao Kahn for the assurances of Earthrealm's protection, so Kitana's about the ONLY one around to keep her house of cards from falling down.

So, yeah, despite appearances, all is not well in the garden of Edenia. Sindel and Kitana have stories left in them yet.

Hey, that's a decent idea. It's true, I mean, if Sindel was a good leader, Edenia would not be walked all over. So Kitana confronting her about this could lead to some interesting twists. I like that.

About Sindel's suicide, yes it shows her weakness, but it also shows a layer of psychological depth and abuse that no other kombatant has ever had to bear. I mean Kahn literally turned everything she knew and loved upside down... was that not a realistic and unique approach as opposed to the typical "hero of strength and courage"? Perhaps now that she's alive, this emotional weakness is something she might want to work on and overcome.

In Deception, she again faced psychological torment: trapped in her own prison, guarded by her own daughter while her land was invaded, and her sensitivity again got the best of her. I think that might have been done on purpose for the "nostalgic" feel MKD was suppose to deliver. You know, that sense of helplessness while facing a mind-bending reality.

Anyway, my point is, I think this adds personality to her, something many kombatants don't really have. So I don't think it's a "bad thing" that justifies her elimination as you seem to believe. To me, it's a good thing that adds character. Its something that should be toyed with and she should evolve from, imo. She could shed herself off into a hardened leader, go completely crazy, or I don't know, something else.

Though I don't think this element should be the focal point of her future stories, I'm just saying it could add a touch of flavor and depth. She does seem a bit traumatized and mentally abused after all. Very rare in MK.

Hrm, sorry if that last post came across as kind of douchey. I only gave a cursory glance to the rest of this thread before I wrote it and definitely got the wrong impression of a lot of peoples' arguments. Apologies. I actually agree with a lot of the points made so far.

Let's try this again:

The Jerrod resurrection angle has merit to me, not in that I want to see it carried out, but because, as you can tell, I feel that while Sindel may have good intentions, she is not leadership material. If anyone was likely to show their "human" faults it would be Sindel before Kitana.

I did a little reading on the story analysis thread and was surprised to see the angle about Kitana formerly being an assassin for Shao Kahn because she didn't know her own history. I guess that happened in Shaolin Monks, which I haven't played yet (sounds like I really need to). If that was mentioned in MK II, then I'd completely forgotten about it. So she finds out about Edenia's history and former glory around that time? That sounds....unlikely for someone as old as she is, but I'll roll with it. She's had far less time to prepare herself for Queenship than I'd previously thought. This makes her successes even more remarkable to me, actually, and only serves to cement her proven leadership skills. I can see where the strain-of-the-burden argument can be made, but the fact is, throughout Kitana's history she's always been shown to be insanely loyal to whatever realm she's serving, based on the information available to her. And this is for thousands of years. She's a machine. Cold perhaps, but not disloyal to her realm without a damn good reason.

For this Kitana to give up on Edenia after seizing some almost unthinkable reversals in its fortunes seems...off to me. A big reason is because, like I said, I can't see her leaving the realm she worked so hard for in the hands of the woman who abandoned her to be raised and brainwashed by frickin' Shao Kahn of all people. Sindel had been the one flickering flame of hope left to Edenia, and she extinguished it with her own two hands. Even if that's not seen as the ultimate betrayal by all Edenians, even those who forgive her would probably have a hard time throwing their trust into someone so fatalistic. I can see Sindel easily being swayed by those around her who want a stake in the throne, and for Kitana to be (willfully?) blind to this as she gallivants off to play in Earthrealm makes her look just as bad. I think she would need a far more compelling reason to leave than thinking "Shit! This leadership stuff is HARD." Even (and ESPECIALLY) if Edenia had eventually be mostly burnt to cinders, because she's shown that even in the darkest of times, she's willing to risk everything for her realm.

This of course doesn't allow for much advancement for Kitana's character, though. A blast from the past from her pre-MK II life could accomplish that, even if it was just Rain or Taven. It would be interesting to see an MK: Mythologies episode based on Edenia around that period. It could definitely use some exploring and it would be nice to see a story with Shao Kahn as top dog again.

Some very good points, here. I don't want to see Sindel eliminated at all, actually, and my arguments for her being a bad leader isn't to say she didn't have a compelling reason for it. I can definitely see her people not having faith in her, though, or outright blaming her for their misfortunes, including Kitana. This could lead up to a powerful character arc for Sindel, as you say, of her coming to grips with her traumas and the weight of a responsibility she's not prepared to bear.

Don't look to Shaolin Monks for story references. It butchers the storyline and its canonicity if highly questionable.

They never specified when and how exactly Kitana learned the truth about Edenia and her past, but MK2 states this was stuff she discovered through her years working as an assassin for Kahn. I think logically, these secrets would be something she learned relatively recently (personally, I would guess no more than a hundred years).
By the time of MK2, she was only feigning loyalty to him and waiting for the right time to turn against him openly.



My feeling of Kitana abandoning Edenia comes not so much from her feeling being a leader is too hard for her...but rather she's sick of fighting and basically being sick of her life constantly getting shat on.

Consider Kitana spent a large majority of her long life under the belief that she was Shao Kahn's daughter and her place was to serve him. That life went down the shitter when she discovered he was not her real father, he had killed her parents, conquered her realm, and Mileena was actually a clone originally intended to replace her in spite of years of loyal service. Finding out you're adopted is one thing...Kitana's situation is a little more twisted.
That's, at the very least, a very rude awakening.

But somehow, she recovers from these shattering revelations and manages to pick up the pieces of her life and rebuild a new one for herself. She rebels against Kahn and against all odds, frees her realm from him, gets her mother back, and builds herself into Edenia's heroic Princess.

BUT...no matter how hard she tries, she just can't seem to keep Edenia safe. After Kahn, Shinnok invades. After Shinnok is taken care of, she learns Kahn is still alive and she leads her armies to take him out before he regains his power. And at first things seem to be going very well, but then Goro "died." And her boyfriend died. SHE died. Then she was brought back as Onaga's slave & attacked her mother & best friend. Meanwhile, Goro isn't dead and has betrayed her, Kahn is regaining his power, Mileena is usurping her identity, and on top of everything else, fucking Armageddon is happening right in her backyard.

I think Kitana's stress and frustration is justified.

But of course, this is why I emphasize Edenia being completely wiped out. Not just singed a bit and Kitana decides "You know what, I don't think I want to be a leader after all...I'm going to go hang out on Earth."
More like, she has nothing left and goes numb. Almost like shell-shock. Being Shao Kahn's daughter didn't work. Being Edenia's Princess didn't work. What else is there for her?

And this is the stage I would want to see set for her next story-arc. Kitana's perseverance has always been one of her defining attributes, and as you said, she's already rebound and endured some extremely dark and turbulant times. Would she have it in her to pick herself up again after having the rug pulled out from under her a second time?


Also, because discussion has been going on about Sindel's suicide and abandonment, it made me think of the potential friction that could occur between her and Kitana if Kitana were to abandon Edenia.
Imagine a scene shortly after Armageddon; with Edenia in ruins and Kitana leaving, saying she wants nothing to do with it anymore, and Sindel's there trying to convince her not to give up. Then Kitana simply replies:
"I learned from you."


Oh, snap.

And here I just ordered SM on eBay. Haha, oh well, it should be entertaining at least. Thanks for the clarification about the story.

I can buy that rationale for Kitana, if she really didn't know anything about Edenia, or maybe even the fact that she's Edenian at all until shortly before MKII. I suppose that would mean she was fighting tooth and nail for people she didn't know until quite recently, who would of course be judging her against the impossibly high standards that her true father seemed to set, or at least the rosy nostalgia they had of him from a time when they lived in a utopia. That could certainly wear her down eventually, but as you said, I don't think she would give up on Edenia unless there was just no more Edenia left.

Or, y'know, her stress could cause her to start making huge mistakes and the people could get outright fed up and toss her out of power. No world destruction necessary, and you KNOW she'd feel the sting of that after remembering what it was like to fight in such a rebellion herself against Shao Kahn. After something like that, I can only imagine what previously simmering tensions between her and Sindel would finally boil over.

As for the abandonment exchange, ouch! Oh snap, indeed.

I'm sorry, but I still feel the next logical step is for Kitana to lose her mother and probably her best friend. She's lost so many other things, and yet all these characters are floating around her with the same goal as her: "protect Edenia!" Cool. This is why MK is so cluttered. I do admire and appreciate all the great ideas to give Sindel and Kitana different paths, but Kitana would seem like a moody teenager rebelling against Sindel. It also feels (to me, anyway) like Kitana vs. Sindel has been done to death in MK3 alone (with different emotions attached, sure).

I like the idea Cyan suggested, with Kitana perhaps confronting Sindel about her leadership abilities. I'm not sure if that's so much an in-game thing, though, as a "since the last MK" detail.

What about those who's goal is to "protect earthrealm"? So Raiden, Sonya, Johnny, Sub-Zero, Nightwolf, etc. should all be killed off because they share the same goal as Liu Kang?

Same goal but they bring different things to the table. Besides, no one protects a realm entirely on their own, so the "leave it all to Kitana" idea is just stupid and will never happen.

In fact, that'll kill her character completely. That's exactly why she's currently stale as hell and you're saying that the best idea is to make that her 24/7 job?

I'm all for Kitana suffering some major loss, but to my mind, the loss of Edenia as a whole is the best option. In the interest of giving Kitana a new story direction and making her an individual again, the destruction of Edenia would be sufficient in and of itself.

You could toss Sindel into the fire too, but it only contributes to the same theoretical result. Kill Sindel without nuking Edenia and all you've got is Kitana becoming a moody Queen...which I seriously doubt will be significantly different or more entertaining than her current position as the moody Princess.

Personally, at this point, I favor offing Sindel more for the sake of streamlining than belief it would provide Kitana some new developments. Mortal Kombat is overcrowded and they really should trim some excess baggage from the roster. I say that from not just a story perspective, but from a gameplay one as well...since the MK team has shown repeatedly that the larger the cast, the worse the gameplay gets.

Whether Sindel is worthy of surviving such a purge is debatable, but in regard to Kitana...Edenia itself is the greater issue in my mind.



I never said Kitana's issue with Sindel should be the primary focus or that it should develop into some sort of feud between them. I only suggested the friction between them could add some in-between-the-lines drama. Wouldn't necessarily have to be a factor in either characters' story...simply a little extra depth to add flavor.

That's pretty much where I stand as well. Sindel (and Jade as well) is redundant. Surplus to requirements. Plus I was like the first guy around to say "Why don't we just blow up Edenia altogether? Nothing good ever happens there."
Anyway, "Kahn has a wife" was a cool plot twist 15 years ago, but once MK3 ended, so did my interest in Elvira McBanshee.

I personally luv BOTH Kitana & Sindel! Kitanas too much of a fan fav to not return but i think they should probably use Sindel sparingly. In the event that they decide to bring in King Jerrod as a playable character then by all means bring back Sindel. I'll be torn if they do that because i already feel like they shouldnt feature certain characters w/out the other so if Jerrod is playable then im probably gonna think Sindel should be there as well. I cant picture Kitana w/out Mileena or Jade either...but then again JADE is my fav mk character so i cant see any game w/out her.

Though I can see the arguments for Kitana's character development, I feel like Edenia is too important to the mythology of Mortal Kombat to be lost to wholesale destruction. Sure, it's not as compelling as Earth and Outworld, but I think that's a failure of world-building more than anything. Deception completely dropped the ball on that count, with its Konquest utopian Edenia that doesn't ring true at ALL, considering the realm's people have been fighting for scraps to survive for thousands of years. Countries don't suddenly revert to their pre-colonial state a few years after occupation by tyrants--even the few competent and legitimate rulers who emerge from the ashes would have to make some unpopular and downright cruel decisions just to get society ON THE PATH to running again.

The Edenia we SHOULD have seen should have represented post-revolution South America more than some Greek ideal. Sure you'd have the old pyramids and worn-down statues to remind people of the great civilizations of hundreds and thousands of years ago, but the people themselves who hadn't been wiped out (who likely would have been the most strong-willed and educated, by the way) would have been forced to renounce that culture and the right to rule themselves until, after a few generations, the only things they remember how to organize are riots if life gets too unbearable. If Edenia had been shown to be a glorious post-colonial mess of abject poverty, black markets, and petty political in-fighting all set to the backdrop of the broken tombs of kings, I doubt as many people would be clamoring for it to be blown to bits.

Dude, the realm is named after the Garden of Eden. It's ALWAYS been depicted as a lush green place with a Camelot-esque medieval Northwestern European fairy tale society, going as far back as the very first time it was ever shown, in a Malibu comic about Kitana's origin story released in the MK2 days.

Of course, that's the point. It USED to be perfect and harmonious, and now it's not anymore. And being a lush paradise in no way precludes a state from having a completely dysfunctional society (for a variety of reasons). Just look at the Congo for chrissakes. Or Cambodia, North Korea, Peru, half of Central America, etc. Edenia can be beautiful and still be a total f*ing mess. That's the tragedy of it. It makes it compelling.

I mean, if you want a fantasy Avalon that is immune to historical consequence, that's fine, but don't be surprised if people say they want to blow it up because it's boring.

Your interpretation of the canon is somewhat inaccurate if you think Edenia would be a damaged place. See, here's the thing: Edenia was never under an occupation. It was MERGED, which means for a period of time, it just didn't exist at ALL. A spell was done and then undone ten thousand years later. There wouldn't be broken buildings or pitted and charred warzones because that's not how magic rolls. When a merger is broken, the world goes back to the way it looked beforehand. And the proof is Earth at the end of MK3. There was no cleanup or repairs, Earthrealm just went back to normal as if the clock was turned back and nothing had ever happened.

Sure, any people who were physically beaten to death are still dead, like Johnny Cage, but the ones who just had their souls stolen by Kahn, they all came back to life.

And sure there'll be some refugees who lived in Outworld post-merger, but the vast majority of the Edenian population will be of the "soul was instantly stolen" variety, so...who's to say that when you're a soul outside of your body, you even remember what's going on? They'll have to get used to the idea that it's ten millennia in the future, the king is dead, the queen looks like the Bride of Frankenstein now and the Princess is a grown adult all of a sudden, but other than that, life goes on.

After that, okay, Shinnok invaded in MK4, but that was incredibly brief and only affected the royal family. The Army of Darkness was only using Edenia as a midway point to escape the Netherealm, then attack Heaven. No war for the common people. And Deception's Konquest was canonically inaccurate. There aren't actually supposed to be any Outworld soldiers invading Edenia. Kitana took her army TO OUTWORLD to align with Goro and fight Kahn ON HIS OWN TURF, that's where the war should've been during that time period, not the other way around.
And the problem with Edenia being "boring" isn't because of its society. Nobody CARES what Edenia's society is like, and Mortal Kombat already has many, many worlds that are crappy and full of downtrodden, depressing, wartorn people, so changing it to yet another one isn't gonna help. The problem with Edenia is it's USELESS TO THE PLOT. There's only two reasons to care about a realm: We care about Earth because it's where WE are from, and we care about Outworld or the Netherealm because it's where the VILLAINS are from. Edenia isn't where the villains are from, and it's not where we are from, so it doesn't fucking matter to the audience and unless you invent an Edenian end boss, it never will. Same with Seido and Chaosrealm. They're not relevant because nobody important to the MAIN plot lives there, just a bunch of side characters.
And that's the problem for Kitana. Instead of Edenia being important because Kitana's a main character and it's where she lives, Edenia is instead dragging her down and making her not a main character anymore. A character that fights for Edenia doesn't fight for Earth, and thus no longer matters to the MAIN plot of each game, which is always "We have to save Earth from the badguys".
And then you have the ONE exception: Armageddon. In that one, the end boss was Edenian, the final battle was fought in Edenia, and the stakes were the whole universe, not just Earth. And even then they couldn't be bothered to give Kitana a spotlight! Being princess of her own realm has clearly never done her character any favors. She'd probably be more interesting if she was no longer a princess.
I hate to say this because it's not even canon, but I think the best storyline Kitana's had since the MK2/3 "fugitive assassin with evil stepdad" days was her MK vs DCU ending, where, inspired by Wonder Woman and the Amazons, she and the last remaining Edenian refugees decide to move from Outworld to Earth and take over Shang's Island. Take out the Wonder Woman part and you'd have a story that would actually work very well in the canon MK universe because it would tie her to Earthrealm, and thus make her a central protagonist and not just a side character. Also, vastly reducing the number of people she leads, and especially killing Jade, would explain why she risks her life personally participating in life or death battles even though she's important royalty: her numbers are so few that she literally can't afford to just sit on a throne and delegate the responsibility of fighting to her soldiers.

I think CyanFan makes a valid point in that maybe Edenia wouldn't be so boring if we had gotten some sense of upheaval or ramifications as a result of the centuries under Kahn's rule...however, the fact of the matter is, it's basically returned to normal with little fuss.
(Although, while that all could be potentially interesting story stuff, I have trouble imagining how much of that political intrigue would be an actual factor in a fighting game)

But anyway, because of that, Edenia is now little more than a bland and redundant McGuffin for villains to invade and heroes to defend. And as such, it's not doing the characters stuck in this cycling routine any real favors.

Sooo........

I don't know or care about storylines really. The MK team can work a decent story around whatever characters they decide to put into the game.

They should make Kitana use her fans all the time instead of just for specials, and bring back one or both of her outfits from the PS2 era games that actually looked good.

It would be cool if Sindel levitated for a fighting stance, like Algol from Soul Calibur or Uranus from Bloody Roar.

Razor, it seems I might have touched a nerve, and if I did, then I apologize. Of course, naturally all of my suggestions for making the realms of MK more interesting were hypotheticals because what we got out of the games is what we got. My point was that what we got could have been far more sophisticated and engaging than it was. The argument that "nobody cares about Edenian society" is irrelevant, because the game makers clearly want to keep going back there specifically in the Konquest modes. I just want the Edenia we see to be more interesting.

I appreciate the effort for clarification, though, and it's interesting that you bring up the exact process of the mergers between realms, because I think there's some room for debate there. This is the first I've ever heard the notion of a realm ceasing to exist in its entirety during the merger process, and perhaps I'm confusing the games with film, but it always seemed to me that what happens is that you simply can no longer tell the difference between where the merged realm ends and Outworld begins (with a healthy bit of mix and match going on). Under this scenario, I think there's bound to be a very big difference between a merger that was done and undone in a short space of time (Earth) and one that took place over millenia, and it would make more sense that any damage done to bodies and buildings under Outworld rule (including age and weathering) would remain following the de-merger (notice I never actually said anything about Edenia being a broken war zone. Don't know where that came from, but that'd be fun to see, too). Of course, magic fixes everything, trees come back to life, Simba has twins, blah blah blah, yeah that's one result we might have gotten, but that deprives us of great side-stories and visuals and seems like a lot of pointless extra heaving lifting on magic's end.

No, Edenia's usually not necessary to the main plot, no more than Outworld has been since MK3 (a shame). But it is a part of the MK universe now, and there are actually still a LOT of questions about it that I don't think have been explored. Like: just HOW MANY Edenians kept their souls during the original merger, who were they and why? How many Edenians knew about Mortal Kombat and were preparing themselves for a possible final loss? What did Shao Kahn killing Jerrod have to do with Mortal Kombat, if anything at all? (perhaps I'm mixing my media again, did Edenia in the game get merged because of Mortal Kombat, or did Kahn merge the realms just because he could? In that case, there almost certainly WAS a prior invasion, judging by the murder of the King). Armageddon was something of a missed opportunity in this regard.

Coming back to the topic of this thread, if for no other reason, developing a richer Edenian history and society in turn enriches our knowledge about who Kitana, Sindel, and the other Edenians are, how they think, and what drives them--particularly Sindel, who only ever lived in Edenia for the most part. In the interests of streamlining, this all could be dropped, of course, but in the likely chance that we do see a reboot in the future (game or other media), these might in fact be very important things to consider, pre-emptively.

I wouldn't say you touched a nerve. I just usually use caps lock a lot to emphasize the important parts of sentences because it's easier than typing bold or italics tags. I do try to refrain from it when long phrases or whole sentences are what I'm emphasizing because caps is pretty annoying to read.

Anyway, since the only merger we've ever seen was MK3, we HAVE to assume they always take place at the same speed and Earth's wasn't somehow different than the way Kahn merged Outworld with any other realm, until we're told otherwise.

As regards the connection between losing Mortal Kombat and Kahn killing Jerrod: the way the tournament works is, winning doesn't automatically give Kahn the deed to a realm, it just gives him permission to travel to that realm and launch an invasion.

So yes, he did have to march his troops into Edenia, have a war with Jerrod, and cut him down on the battlefield. But again, we've seen what an Outworld invasion looks like in MK3 and we're given no reason to believe that one was conducted abnormally, except for the "he cheated by skipping winning the tournament" part. Edenia would've become a warzone while the merger portals were open, which means, again, all that property damage would be magically reversed when the merger is broken.

And once again, I have to insist that depicting Edenia as a wartorn land would make it even MORE boring because then it would be just like Outworld, Chaosrealm, and the Netherealm. At least by making it the land of beautiful meadows, waterfalls and rainbows, it's something UNIQUE in the MK universe.

And if your whole "they should make Edenia more elaborate" perspective is based on the belief that there will be more exploratory Konquest modes, well, I do not share that hope. I don't think turning MK's story modes into a game with only one main character did anyone any favors. Shujinko and Taven were not popular for a reason: people would rather PICK their character from the WHOLE ROSTER and have that character be the thing that gets the development and information in story mode.
Deadly Alliance did Konquest best and second place would go to MKvsDCU's story mode, because they're character driven.

Ah, understood. I was wondering if this forum had alternate text formatting options. Time to brush up on my HTML, I guess.

Again, thanks for the clarifications, and I definitely see where you're coming from, although I'm still not so sure the games state one way or another that the merger process is neat and tidy. If it is, I vehemently roll my eyes at it, but I'll accept it for what it is.

Also, my interest in a post-merger Edenia being a dysfunctional nutbar of a society doesn't have to do with visuals so much as character interaction, so Edenia can keep its waterfalls and rainbows if it must. In fact, that would probably make it all the more disturbingly awesome. Shantytowns propped up against the white palace walls while citizens hunt unicorn for the next week's meals? YES.

I think we'll be seeing more Konquest modes whether we like it or not, really. It would be nice to see something similar to Tekken 6's Scenario Campaign where you can, in fact, change out your character and get different interactions depending who you play as, even if the overall trajectory is the same every time you play. Something like that, but with more character interaction, more explorability, and less mindless brawling would be a nice fit for MK. I dunno, was that what Shaolin Monks was supposed to be?

I don't know if I have much more to say about Sindel and Kitana. I liked the Liu Kang/Kitana relationship a lot, so I'm kind of sad that our only options for him are zombie or dead. It also pretty much severs any direct connections Kitana has to the main plot, which is irritating. Maybe she could confront Raiden directly about his decision to cut a deal with Shao Kahn/Shinnok to keep Earth invasion-free at the expense of the other realms? I'm half expecting Raiden to be the boss of the next non-reboot MK, if we ever get one, anyway, so that'd be a natural course of action for her. A little boring, maybe, but natural enough. It'd also give us some great Kitana vs. ZombieLiu action.

I do have an alternative to blowing Edenia up that I'm rather fond of. As I said, only the realms central to the plot actually matter, so the key is to make Edenia the place where either your main heroes or main villains come from. Now check this out:

So Raiden is probably the new "under influence to merge all the realms into one and wake the One Being up" bad guy, like Onaga and Shao Kahn were before him, right? Well...the One Being's influence is a subconscious one, each of these villains thinks that the reason they want to merge all the realms is something perfectly rational for them. So what would Raiden's motive be? Clearly, his primary concern is the protection of Earthrealm, like it was before he went Dark, it's just that now he's a ruthless asshole about it. So what if his new character motivation were "if I merge all the realms with Earth, then there won't be any other realms left to threaten Earth and my realm will be safe at last!"

Well, which realm would be first on his list? Didn't Edenia's gods just nearly destroy all reality with their stupid pyramid and fire elemental? Seems like a pretty solid place to start.

So basically what I'd like to see is Raiden challenge Edenia to Mortal Kombat. Bring back the tournament, only this time, Earthrealm is on the offense. And because Raiden's a shady guy now, he could probably even get away with tricking the allies who don't know he's a bad guy yet (I'm pretty sure Fujin and Kung Lao are the only ones in the know) that Earth's the ones being attacked, play both sides against the middle.

My names CyanFan, and I heartily approve of this hypothetical. If this isn't the next game idea, it would probably make for the best fan fic ever.

I could see Dark Raiden not even caring about tricking his teammates though. Knowing that magnificent asshole, he'd probably fix the tournament in such a way that if the Earth heroes didn't defeat Edenia, their own realm or something else they cared deeply about would be in peril.

I like.

I think that's too much for Raiden. Besides, not every realm is a threat to the earth, so why would he wanna merge with all of them?

Anyway, I do think that Edenia should be devastated, and that doesn't mean it'll be exactly like Outworld, Chaosrealm, and the Netherrealm.

The difference is that those realms have been dark from the beginning. Edenia, on the other hand, would go from beauty to darkness, and that transition could be just the catalyst certain characters need to progress. What happens when one's home is destroyed, after all? ...Everything changes for them.

Is that not what Sindel and Kitana could use? I mean, even Jade isn't as stale as they are since she's got unfinished business with Tanya, and she's less prominent than they are.

The problem with them is Edenia and having to constantly protect it... Boring after the millionth time it's done... So take Edenia away and their primary objectives will have to shift. They'll loose their restrains, get off their leash, off their death bed... however you wanna look at it, they'll be free to evolve.

As queen and princess, they're already at the final stage of their development. How can they go any higher than that? Yes, Sindel can become a goddess and Kitana can become the queen, but they'll still end up defending Edenia, so that novelty will wear out quickly, and nothing about them will truly change other than the angle they approach their problem with.

So I'm all for Edenia going down. If not Edenia as a whole, then the throne itself has to be eradicated. It drops such a load on them that they can't move about and do other things.

The only way to keep them interesting as queen and princess would be for them to face enemy after enemy, like comic book superheroes: Spoil this villain's scheme, okay now the next one and the next one. That could work, but will never happen in MK cuz it's the earthrealm villains that are the emphasis. They're not gonna elaborate on Edenia's villains unless it becomes a popular character like Mileena maybe. And either way, that comic book superhero solution won't work for Kitana cuz she's more affiliated with Earth.

So either the throne goes, or Edenia goes.

I really don't know what is going to happen to Kitana and Sindel, but I don't want Edenia to be destroyed. I know everybody prefers that, but Edenia's relevance is the one thing I liked about Armageddon: a plan created by an Edenian god and an Edenian sorceress for a battle to fight in Edenia between and Edenian hero and an Edenian monster. And for once it was for the sake of the entire reality, not always fucking "Earth, Earth, Earth" to be protected. I think the protection of Earth alone was a good thing at the beginning, but now the universe has grown into at least six major realms (two good realms, two bad realms and two neutral ones), not to mention Vaeternus and Zaterra: we had the invasions of Edenia, the fight for the throne of Outworld, the turmoil in the Netherealm and glimpses of much more stuff. At this point I think Earth should be just another realm, not the main focus of the story, and protagonists should come possibly from every realm, or we have to lose a lot of potential fantasy elements to keep what? Fucking Earth? The least imaginative possible realm? Come on, it's fantasy after all, I don't feel any particular emotional attachment to MK Earth, it's not our true world, it's only fiction. While I like Edenian characters in general, I don't absolutely give a damn about most of Earth fighters; in fact I only care about the Lin Kuei. If they have to keep Earth as the only focus, does it mean I have to root for crap like Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax and Cage? Does it mean I have to give a damn about the dragon clans? I'd rather be sodomized by a dog. If Edenia goes down, I can't help but ask: what was the point all along? Why did I care about Kitana's efforts if everything was in vain? When did Kitana become Sonya? It's Sonya the loser, not Kitana.
Well, at the end it's only my opinion, but as much as I like Kitana (I'm neutral about Sindel), I'd rather lose her before I lose Edenia.