History Headscratchers / MortalKombat9

** Johnny Cage was beaten by Cyrax, no idea about Sonya, she may have forfeited somehow without realising it. As for why not all matches are two on one in some cases multiple opponents would be an advantage as they'd get in each other's way.

* This Troper's theory is that Quan Chi brainwashed him when he brought him back from the dead, same way he did with Sindel.

* How does the first tournament even work? Liu Kang is presented at the only Earthrealm warrior to "reach this level" on his match against Ermac. Yet, neither Johnny Cage nor Sonya have lost a match - Kung Lao can be excused by the fact that he's not supposed to be here. Similarly, how can Ermac be at this level when he's just been introduced as a new kombatant and has therefore not fought anyone? How do the brackets for this tournaments even work? How are 2 vs 1 matches legal for Mortal Kombat (Such as Liu Kang Vs. Scorpion and Quan Chi)? Why doesn't Shang Tsung make ALL matches 2 vs 1 to stack his odds? He's got more warriors anyway (Kitana, Jade, Cyrax, Sektor, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Quan Chi, Baraka, Ermac, Goro and Himself) Vs Earthrealm's 5 (Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Sonya, Nightwolf and Johnny - Raiden doesn't take part in the tournament).

* How does the first tournament even work? Liu Kang is presented at the only Earthrealm warrior to "reach this level" on his match against Ermac. Yet, neither Johnny Cage nor Sonya have lost a match - Kung Lao can be excused by the fact that he's not supposed to be here. Similarly, how can Ermac be at this level when he's just been introduced as a new kombatant and has therefore not fought anyone? How do the brackets for this tournaments even work? How are 2 vs 1 matches legal for Mortal Kombat (Such as Liu Kang Vs. Scorpion and Quan Chi)? Why doesn't Shang Tsung make ALL matches 2 vs 1 to stack his odds? He's got more warriors anyway (Kitana, Jade, Cyrax, Sektor, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Quan Chi, Baraka, Ermac, Goro and Himself) Vs Earthrealm's 4 (Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Sonya and Johnny).

* How does the first tournament even work? Liu Kang is presented at the only earthrealm warrior to "reach this level" on his match against Ermac. Yet, neither Johnny Cage nor Sonya have lost a match. Similarly, how can Ermac be at this level when he's just been introduced as a new kombatant and has therefore not fought anyone? How do the brackets for this tournaments even work? How are 2 vs 1 matches legal for Mortal Kombat? Why doesn't Shang Tsung make ALL matches 2 vs 1 to stack his odds? He's got more warriors anyway (Kitana, Jade, Cyrax, Sektor, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Quan Chi, Baraka, Ermac, Goro and Himself) Vs Earthrealm's 4 (Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Sonya and Johnny).

* Why couldn't the original Sub-Zero beat Scorpion during Shang Tsung's tournament? He had already beaten him in the Netherrealm while he was a spectre/revenant, so even with the power-up of being undead he was still no match for him. What, did Scorpion just get a few lucky rolls on his critical hits?

** Is it really, though? The setup now is "''Mortal Kombat 4'' but no one's alive to do anything about it". If you imagine a reality where whatever Shinnok tried to do in ''[=MK4=]'' goes off without any challengers then that could still be a bad situation. Although ultimately this is probably moot since ''X'' may just skip over any of the ''4''-''Deception'' details that could still persist in the new timeline (such as Shujinko's quest).

** Time travel is a tricky thing, you never know if the changes you make will make things better or worse. We have the advantage of knowing the details of both timelines and weighing which outcome was better. Contrary to appearances, the new timeline is pretty well off, if only by having the Emperor permanently dead, along with Shang Tsung. And with so many apparantly permanent casualties Armeggedon becomes much less likely to happen.

* Is there any particular reason why [[spoiler: post-[=MK9=] Raiden can't send another message to his pre-[=MK1=] self to explain what exactly he needs to do? Post-Armageddon Raiden didn't have much time to send anything more than "He must win," which caused [=MK9=] Raiden to do some rather dumb things in response to that very ambiguous message. Post-[=MK9=] Raiden, however, has some free time on his hands, which means he could send another, far more understandable message to his [=MK1=] self (e.g. personally make sure Scorpion doesn't kill Sub-Zero by making him promise to keep the battle where he can see it, don't let the Lin Kuei capture Smoke or the other Sub-Zero, warn Kung Lao to keep his distance from Kahn when he wins the Outworld tournament, don't let your warriors die en masse, and let Shao Kahn come to Earthrealm and then have the Elder Gods take care of him). There doesn't seem to be a reason why he can't try that, and it would certainly screw over Shinnok and Quan Chi's plans if he did (even though he wouldn't know that they've been interfering so much, he could at least ensure that Quan Chi didn't claim the souls of the dead Earthrealm warriors by making sure that they don't die).]]

** Raiden seems to choose Earthrealms champions and he seems to have already talked Cage up to Lui Kang by the time the tournament starts to it's likely Raiden chose who he wanted there and Shang Tsung made sure they got there. As for having skeptesism while being able to shoot energy blasts keep in mind that the only character in the series established not to have some kind of power is Stryker so energy powers are likely common in this world.

** [[spoiler: Because Raiden isn't the only one who has been changing the past. Shinnok's scene at the end of the game and Quan Chi's presence is a good indication that both of them had information they shouldn't have had at the time, with Shinnok confirmed to have survived the Armageddon fight and in a better position to follow Raiden's lead and send messages to his past self. All of the changes can be chalked up to Quan Chi manipulating events to wind up more favourable to Netherrealm (such as telling Raiden exactly how to defeat Shao Kahn for good).]]

* What is the deal with all the [[{{Retcon}} Retcons]] that Raiden's changing the past shouldn't affect? How is it that [[spoiler: Mileena being raised along with Kitana]] is suddenly changed to [[spoiler: her ''just'' finished being created and Kitana ''just'' finding out about her]]?

** The

**** According to who? Contradicting one or more games isn't enough to make Shaolin Monks not canon seeing how many times the games have contradicted themselves.

*** And isn't anyone perplexed by what the [[spoiler:dead and brainwashed Earthrealm and Edenian warriors are wearing? I mean, in the cutscene, Kung Lao and Stryker are in their alternate costumes and they switch to their primary costumes when fighting Raiden (though the former wore it prior to the Tarkartans attacking the Wu Shi Academy. Also, why does Kuai Liang stay a cyborg, shouldn't he be a zombie human too?]]

*** And isn't anyone perplexed by what the [[spoiler:dead and brainwashed Earthrealm and Edenian warriors are wearing? I mean, in the cutscene, Kung Lao and Stryker are in their alternate costumes and they switch to their primary costumes when fighting Raiden (though the former wore it prior to the Tarkartans attacking the Wu Shi Academy? Also, why does Kuai Liang stay a cyborg, shouldn't he be a zombie human too?]]

*** And isn't anyone perplexed by what the [[spoiler:dead and brainwashed Earthrealm and Edenian warriors are wearing? I mean, in the cutscene, Kung Lao and Stryker are in their alternate costumes and they switch to their primary costumes (though the former wore it prior to the Tarkartans attacking the Wu Shi Academy? Also, why does Kuai Liang stay a cyborg, shouldn't he be a zombie human too?]]

*** And isn't perplexed by what the [[spoiler:dead and brainwashed Earthrealm and Edenian warriors are wearing? I mean, in the cutscene, Kung Lao and Stryker are in their alternate costumes and they switch to their primary costumes (though the former wore it prior to the Tarkartans attacking the Wu Shi Academy? Also, why does Kuai Liang stay a cyborg, shouldn't he be a zombie human too?]]

* What is the deal with all the [[{{Retcon}} Retcons]] that Raiden's changing the past shouldn't affect? How is it that [[spoiler: Mileena being raised along with Kitana]] is suddenly changed to [[spoiler: her ''just'' finished being created]]?

* What was the point of the storyline, exactly? The characters are basically just as bad off as when the game started.

*** In regards to Quan Chi's tattoos. It should be noted that in Shaolin Monks [spoiler: Quan Chi appears after Shao Kahn is defeated with the red tatoos he has.]] As such, it's possible that the tatoos Quan Chi has may not actually be the Dragon King's tattoos.