Controversial, but for different reasons

In Part 2 of this 3D Video Game Lookback Series, I bring you to the Midway era of the Mortal Kombat franchise. For this post, I’m largely going to include the games I have played from this era being Deadly Alliance (2002), Deception (2004), and Armageddon (2006). For those seeing this lineup and wondering about the others, I will briefly touch up on MK4 (1997), bear in mind that my exposure to that game is limited as I’ve never been able to play it even emulated or remastered as the Midway library only ever mentions the three arcade games, most likely due to the little love it received for being a subpar transition to 3D from 2D, written well in this blog from February 2020 and explained by Ed Boon himself in this documentary video included in Deadly Alliance, most likely recorded prior to the game’s October 2002 release window:

Channel: Ro Sohryu

On YouTube, MK4 gets its spotlight about five minutes in.

Suffice it to say, MK4’s experiment with 3D showed the desire to follow a trend that would shape the future of the video game industry roughly indefinitely save for a few outliers calling for a simpler time.

Thinly-veiled marriage proposal to 2D platforming, I say.

With MK4 designed as an arcade game like its original predecessors, it doesn’t necessarily follow a canon ending, though some individual characters’ endings flow into Deadly Alliance. The only one so far that I know does this is Scorpion’s ending. After defeating Sub-Zero, the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei accepts responsibility for the destruction of the Shirai Ryu clan, but reveals that no Lin Kuei ever touched his family. Quan Chi reveals himself to be the mastermind behind Scorpion’s vengeance and attempts to trap him in the Netherrealm. Fruitless endeavor as Scorpion drags the sorcerer to hell with him for the torturing. This is consistent up until 2004 where Shujinko has a hand in helping to find Quan Chi in the Netherrealm while there for his own reasons, but we’re jumping forward a bit, let’s bring it back.

Deadly Alliance follows on from Scorpion’s MK4 ending, with Raiden as the narrator of Quan Chi’s escape through a portal. On the other side, he found a tomb housing the legendary undefeatable army of the long, deceased Dragon King, deciphered the ancient rune stone, and the one that disturbs Raiden the most, he’d formed an alliance (based on ignorance) with Shang Tsung of all people. Per this deal, Quan Chi will help Shang Tsung gather the souls necessary to revive the mummified army of budget samurai warriors.

Wonder if the inspiration came from the Chinese terracotta army design-wise…

Shang Tsung meanwhile will teach Quan Chi the soul transfer spells that achieve this mass revival. Evil as they are, you’d probably expect them to singlehandedly lay waste to some innocent village, and as either of the two that’d be my first suggestion… and one I’d personally shoot down considering the types of souls I’d like to inhabit these skeleton warriors. Any old soul would likely not make the cut–if I’m bringing an army back from the dead, I’d want the souls of trained fighters, warriors!

And going with that thought process, the sorcerers went to concoct a plan to lure them all into one place. Two great problems lie in the way however: Emperor Shao Kahn and Liu Kang. No, the Emperor of Outworld isn’t aligned with the Champion of Mortal Kombat. Just that the two know they’d face heavy resistance from these guys. Shao Kahn would want to take part in the tournament and Liu Kang won’t stop until all threats to Earthrealm are beaten fair and square, this last part biting him in the ass. Naturally, they feign loyalty to kill Shao Kahn and make a beeline for the Wu Shi Academy where the Mortal Kombat Champion trains extensively. Shang Tsung could still not hold a candle to Liu Kang, unassisted at least. Enter Quan Chi to put him in a vulnerable position allowing Shang Tsung to take the killing blow.

The body of Liu Kang is the first of several transported back to Shang Tsung’s palace (whose construction has an interesting story that unfolds in Deception’s Konquest mode). An undead soldier is voluntold to get the Shaolin monk’s soul, and the intro cinematic warns of impending doom should the Deadly Alliance succeed, bringing Raiden to his closing argument. He turned away from the realm of Elder Godhood to mount a resistance against the sorcerers.

Channel: merocch

Spoiler alert: it fails. And looking at how Deception starts, miserably. Raiden might as well have been feeding them soul after soul. Shang Tsung didn’t necessarily need them, but knowing his greed, there’s never enough souls. It’s never explained how many of the souls in the Soulnado in his palace are suitable for transplantation to the undead army, nor is it ever explained if there’s a purpose beyond prolonging death. The most we get out of his use of that Soulnado is to prop himself back up after a devastating blow from Raiden.

Deadly Alliance still suffers from the Arcade framework of all the other games before it, but its not like Midway couldn’t write a compelling story in the MK-Verse. Deception proves it with Shujinko’s narration of events that bring us up to speed on the results of Raiden’s impromptu militia. Needless to say, it got so bad, he had to face the Deadly Alliance himself. The final bastion against misery and terror.

Thunder god or not, the man couldn’t do much against the Deadly Alliance’s plans. And when they merged their own powers, they took him out of the fight for at least five minutes max. Naturally, treachery followed this short-lived victory. In either of their endings in Deadly Alliance, both have secret alliances with third parties: both used Kano in their respective endings, although Shang Tsung allied with the Oni that were about to feast on Quan Chi’s innards in the Netherrealm (which does happen in Drahmin’s ending); and Quan Chi with anyone who’s capable of putting the squeeze on Shang Tsung before he destroys the traitor he hired to carry out the initial betrayal. In the Deception intro, they simply betray each other for power, knowing that the command “Obey he who possesses the amulet,” depends on who he is. Quan Chi won out and kept the amulet on his belt.

In the distance, Quan Chi could hear a loud and approaching stomping, a crescendo of an even worse danger than even he or Shang Tsung could threaten to unleash on reality. The one-eyed man may be king in the land of the blind, but in this instance, the undead army would never bow to a pretender. They knelt in recognition of their one true ruler as he revealed himself to the lone sorcerer.

An ancient prophecy kept alive by the remaining holy men of the Dragon King, the last Dragon Egg had hatched, and had taken on a host in the form of the gradually devolving Reptile (further confirmed in his own ending). The true emperor of Outworld had returned to show everyone what a real monster is, stopped only by a duo of treacherous sorcerers and a thunder god in a desperate attempt to reverse course.

Even with their powers combined, Raiden realized it would take more to defeat Onaga, and so made a final sacrifice… that ultimately failed to even scratch Onaga. The blame falls largely on Shujinko for bringing this ungodly power to him. To take responsibility, he vows to right wrongs committed by his unknowing service to the Dragon King.

Channel: MKIceAndFire

To make sense of these dire straits, we go back forty years to Shujinko’s youth. A bright-eyed young man with a special place in his heart for the Great Kung Lao. Sadly, he lacks his idol’s martial arts’ skills and seeks to learn from one of his teachers, Bo’ Rai Cho, an Outworlder who has taught warriors for the last few Mortal Kombat tournaments to include the Shaolin Monks among others. Stuck in the confines of his village, Shujinko is essentially forbidden from venturing into the outside world until a strange entity called Damashi visits him in the street. With an offer of adventure and the chance to save reality from destruction, he gracefully accepts a quest that will take him throughout the Mortal Kombat universe (and expose players to some neat and interesting level design).

Over the years, he adopts the fighting styles of numerous warriors, is exposed to different rivalries between established characters of old and newer characters, and finds himself the star of several complicated overarching plots that resolve relatively quickly, to include one that involves a sorcerer and a ninja specter. Keep in mind, this is all for the sake of collecting six tools known as Kamidogu. Hiccups abound, but at the ripe old age of approximately 65, Shujinko concludes his quest in the Nexus.

…or so he thought. The last Kamidogu is in place, but not immediately taken to the Elder Gods. The final piece needed to achieve this is Shinnok’s amulet, attached to Quan Chi whom he found in the Netherrealm twenty years prior. The Kamidogu now sitting in Onaga’s palace, Shujinko’s ending suggests he uses the fighting abilities acquired over the decades to destroy Onaga. All’s well that ends–no, that’s not what happens either. He does redeem himself in his ending, but in Raiden’s ending, he’s tortured over this mistake. And this isn’t the same Raiden that narrated Deadly Alliance. Deception gives birth to Dark Raiden, ironically hellbent on protecting Earthrealm.

Channel: i’m playing it!

Unbeknownst to the rest of the cast, Raiden doesn’t die very easily. He came back heavily corrupted and negatively influenced by the doings of mortals. No longer content with playing defender, he’ll take a page from Shao Kahn and directly challenge his adversaries, and effectively press any fighter into defending Earthrealm to the death. This new thunder god was a force to be reckon with.

Channel: Kamidogu

Further explained in his Armageddon ending.

For Armageddon, it’s exactly as advertised. If you noticed over the course of this entry, numerous factors I mentioned specifically as well as those I couldn’t specify for brevity’s sake, have a grave impact on the health and future of the realms. The sorcerers were always a threat, though the original timeline shows that the Elder Gods’ hardline inaction was what would ultimately doom the realms.

Armageddon explains that their solution to this was to brainstorm ideas with the parents of Taven and Daegon, Argus the Protector God (read: Raiden) of Edenia, and his sorceress wife, Delia. Argus outright proposes extinction, but Delia, levelheadedly, asks to render them powerless in recognition of the heroes that sacrificed themselves to save the realms, even if it was only their own homes. Thus was given the Armageddon Konquest plot where it was passed off as a competition between the brothers to defeat the firespawn, Blaze. Taven and Daegon were told what their respective dragons, Orin and Caro, were told, in that the quest was intended to challenge the brothers to see who could succeed Argus as the Protector of Edenia. Defeating Blaze grants this as well as full godhood to the victor.

Over the course of the quest, however, Taven discovers numerous details that don’t add up. His parents have temples in Earthrealm, which I personally don’t find all that unheard of. It’d be the equivalent of a cult of Raiden in Outworld or Edenia, presumably in defiance of Shao Kahn or worse. MK lore does establish holy men responsible for the upkeep of these temples, and when they abandon it (or get killed), it inevitably falls into disrepair. So imagine how surprised Taven was to find that red-clad warriors bearing the mark of a Red Dragon occupying it.

It wouldn’t be the last time he finds the Red Dragon clan on his journey. They hide amongst the traps outside his mother’s temple, the same one commandeered by the Lin Kuei generations before, and the same one where Shujinko learns Lin Kuei martial arts at from Sub-Zero himself. After a confrontation with the same Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei and an impromptu offer of help when Noob and Smoke plan an infiltration on the grounds, Taven is led to the Red Dragon stronghold where he discovers a twist for the ages.

The founder of the Red Dragon clan was his own brother, Daegon.

Further exploring the Red Dragon stronghold, Taven is made aware of a sickening series of science experiments to physically alter the appearance of individual members into dragons themselves. Funny enough, Kano clues him in to all of this. He’s a Black Dragon member with no love for the Red Dragon and if spilling the secrets of a hated enemy means anything, who, besides Mavado, was gonna stop him?

Taven reunites with Daegon’s companion dragon, Caro, imprisoned and forced to scatter the Red Dragon clan throughout the realms. From Caro, Taven learns that the entire course of events that precede Armageddon relied on a mental connection to Blaze. However, he was kidnapped by Onaga’s holy men and enslaved to safeguard the last dragon egg. Since it hatched in Deception, his purpose there had concluded and a side quest in Deception resets his path to continue the quest.

Except the damage had been done. Daegon was awoken prematurely and pretty much singlehandedly set the course of events from Deadly Alliance onward. Blaze made cameos in earlier games, but didn’t come into prominence until Deadly Alliance as a secret playable character.

Caro had felt personally responsible for setting this course of events to occur, but Taven is right. The dragon was being too hard on himself. No victim plans their own kidnapping unless they’re in on it. As Daegon also knew the quest wasn’t all it was said to be, he sought the answers from the source and killed them where they stood. Taking responsibility for all of that, Caro sent Taven to follow Daegon and stop him while Caro stayed behind to destroy the Red Dragon Clan by himself.

Following Taven into the Netherrealm, he happens upon a weakened fallen Elder God, and here we learn how long Taven had been in slumber. The gap in his memory seems to begin with Mortal Kombat 3 and ends in this game. Oh, to fill him in on all the lore.

Shinnok offers to help Taven find and stop Daegon from corrupting the quest further, but he puts Taven through a series of trials first to reclaim his spire. When all is said and done, Taven had been delayed by an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Shinnok and Daegon to advance Daegon’s position as Protector and by extension, god. He also revealed the quest’s existence and prize to other combatants as a means to slow Taven down, from Sektor’s initial ambush at Argus’ temple in Earthrealm to Prince Rain challenging him outside Delia’s.

Taven goes back to Earthrealm where Orin was subject to fatal wounds by Quan Chi. In pursuit, he follows him to Outworld and fights his way through Shao Kahn’s fortress to learn that A. death is a bitch ass in the Mortal Kombat world since Shao Kahn’s fortress would’ve been reclaimed by Onaga and B. Onaga, Shao Kahn, and the former Deadly Alliance have all formed an alliance (still based on ignorance, they all betray each other in the intro cinematic) and fled to Edenia.

Dark Raiden rears his corrupted head once again, having struck an uneasy truce to stop Taven so long as Shao Kahn ignores Earthrealm. A desperate Raiden would definitely do this, but a smarter Raiden would incapacitate Shao Kahn and company. Finally in Edenia, Taven is ambushed by the last of Daegon’s impromptu agents, Scorpion himself. After his defeat in Edenia, Daegon shows up to finish the job but is interrupted by the firespawn himself. The quest didn’t have to and ultimately did not pan out how Argus and Delia foresaw, but by the Elder Gods, if Blaze had to make sure it ended a certain way than gods dammit he will!

Taven and Daegon were taken to the rim of the crater where Armageddon would begin. Finally able to confront Daegon over his corruption and evil, Daegon revealed that he would’ve been a potential victim of primogeniture. Taven earns a pyrrhic victory, and almost walks away from the quest being the sole survivor of his own family.

He finishes the quest after Blaze reveals the truth of the quest to him. If anything, Taven chose to do so because the role needed to be filled. As a result of the events of the other games, Armageddon’s stated mission purpose was to resolve the instability of the realms. It did nothing of the sort. The godlike power wound up empowering the rest of the combatants in Taven’s ending.

Channel: MKIceAndFire

If things went right, Argus and Delia would’ve annulled the combatants of their abilities and made Taven the successor. No Red Dragon, no atrocities, nothing.

Everything does connect in the long run, though. Dark Raiden shows what he’d do to save earth, Onaga shows himself the most treacherous and self-serving, and Blaze reappears to fulfill a greater role since 1993. But as I’ve said before in a prior post, if it wasn’t for the last-minute distractions, most of the plot would have more neat and tidy endings. Not that I’m asking for rewrites after twenty years since the HD Continuation is the rewrites, but more like there were a few areas of the 3D games that could’ve used some ironing out.

The hunt for lore and information is there, and it’s deliberately hidden so that the player can be challenged into finding it, but it’s an uphill battle of sorts when things don’t flow neatly from game to game. Some stuff is left too open to interpretation and while I maintain that Mortal Kombat is guilty of abandoning plot points, the ones they leave in place weren’t any better. Maybe this is a consequence of doing the same thing over the course of thirty years, the same story beats rhyme like an epic, but unfortunately Mortal Kombat ain’t no Beowulf. All in all, this all sounds like a job for The4thSnake on YouTube.

The 3D era of Mortal Kombat is, what I’d call, a conglomerate of rough gems. The beauty exists in the lore than in the visuals and I’m sick to death of this part of the franchise’s history being buried by many so-called fans.

Bring back Chess Kombat, and I’ll wear clothing too explicit, even for pornography.