Fridge / Mortal Kombat X

Fridge pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed and all examples folderized. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned

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Fridge Brilliance

• Erron Black:
  • His bounty hunter attire completely changes his hairstyle. He goes from having medium-length, flowing hair (on his other two attires) to almost no hair at all, and no other character has such a drastic change in hairstyle across their different attires. It's possible that Erron doesn't keep his hair the same consistently because, as a badass normal assassin for hire who simply follows money, he has to make sure he's not immediately recognizable (which is also presumably why he never shows his face).
  • He's possibly the snarkiest, most sarcastic character in the entire history of Mortal Kombat with a sense of humor that is dry as a bone. He's probably Seen It All, being over 150 years old, so there's most likely very little that actually phases him enough to warrant any reaction beyond "Meh." Other characters (Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Kotal Kahn, Raiden, etc.) are also at least nearly ageless, but one rule that seems to exist in Mortal Kombat is that there's a direct correlation between a character's divinity and his hamminess. Erron, being human, isn't prone to the hamminess that comes with the territory of being a god. It also explains his extreme baritone, as the human voice usually gets lower-pitched over time during a normal human lifespan, much less a lifespan as long as Erron's. Additionally, it's theorized that people with aged vocal cords speak from their chest more than usual out of necessity, which results in a deeper voice.
  • One of his one-liners towards Johnny Cage is "Sonya married this?", obviously implying that he can't believe the two were a couple. Don't forget, however, that Erron is very much attracted to Sonya— he says this at least partially out of jealousy that someone like Johnny Cage was able to win Sonya's heart.
  • His Outlaw variation gives him a sword that's actually the dismembered blade of a Tarkatan (with the arm still attached). If you look closely, it appears that the still-attached arm in question is a left arm. In the original Mortal Kombat continuity, as seen in 9, Baraka, a Tarkatan, lost his left arm.
  • His intro, when he speaks in second place, features him loading his revolver to prepare for the impending fight. One might assume that his guns should already be loaded. Maybe they should, but as seen in his X-Ray, he has custom-made bullets for every given opponent. He waits until he sees who he's going to fight, then loads the corresponding rounds into the chamber.
  • In pre-match dialogue with Kenshi, Erron Black expresses some outdated views on women. This seems to come out of nowhere at first, until his klassic tower ending reveals that he's over 150 years old, making this a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance. Kenshi quipping "What century are you from?" may have been serious rather than simply making light of his sexism.
  • His X-Ray has him firing a magic bullet with the opponent's name. While it's discussed for him in the Fridge Logic part below, what name is applied to Corrupted Shinnok? Shinnok. Why? Because despite Shinnok corrupting the Earth's life and becoming Corrupted Shinnok, he's still Shinnok.
• Kung Jin:
  • He's, to put it simply, kind of a jerkass. He mocks Jacqui on the subject of Jax's status as a revenant, and also makes light of what happened to Scorpion's family. This becomes a lot more understandable when you realize not only is he constantly forced to live up to the legacy of guys like the Great Kung Lao and Liu Kang, but that he is also a gay man in a clan where this is generally not accepted — coming from a culture in which homosexuality is so frowned upon, he may have been ridiculed badly by his peers. As a result, he lashes out at the world by antagonizing people for no real reason.
  • He suggests that he's been rejected for his sexuality in the past and is somewhat sensitive about it. With this in mind his jerkish behaviour makes much more sense, by behaving this way he forces people to reject him for reasons he's okay with instead of the reason that would actually hurt him. It's his defense mechanism.
  • Why does he give Cassie such a hard time? First one could very easily make the argument that Cassie's in charge because of her parents and not because she actually deserves it (it's not true, but to someone who doesn't know them so well, it's not a difficult conclusion to come to) and second, Johnny is very clearly a loving and supportive father to Cassie, Jin on the other hand has been treated badly by his family due to his sexuality, he's jealous and lashing out at her.
• Johnny Cage:
  • Even though he's a very seasoned Kombatant and the current champion of Earthrealm (after Liu Kang's unfortunate fate), he's constantly underestimated by everyone, even his own friends. But that's the entire point. While Johnny is powerful, he's not a career soldier like Sonya and Jax, a trained warrior from childhood like Liu Kang, Kung Lao or Kuai Liang, or a god like Shinnok or Raiden. Johnny is an actor, first and foremost, and he's fighting way outside his weight class. His acting background is all about making the audience (in this case, an opponent) see what the actor wants them to see. And he wants them to see a loud-mouthed idiot so that they don't take his fighting abilities seriously. His Shadow Kick and other powers mostly rely on misdirection and confusion while his taunting is designed to get under opponent's skin and goad them into making a mistake. The guy weaponized Obfuscating Stupidity, he's a first-rate Guile Hero and the MK universe's answer to Harry Dresden.
  • He appears to have a lot of somewhat generic lines directed towards him during fights (such as "Scurry away, Cage!" or "Die, Cage!"), which is most likely because damn near everybody hates him. As a result, they're more vocal towards him than other characters. He's also a professional troll, which only exacerbates the matter.
  • He sometimes asks Mileena, during a fight, "You dress that way for work?", even though the Mortal Kombat series is known for scantily-dressed women (and no one else makes comments about the other female kombatants' attire). Mileena, however, is different— she's the empress of Outworld; Cage is implying that she should dress the part.
  • He claims, towards Erron Black, that "Guns don't impress [him]," but refrains from using the "guns make you a coward" logic that a few other characters use towards Erron, perhaps because his daughter and one of his best (and probably only) friends use firearms. His default skin also has a gun on his hip.
  • Raiden and Shinnok both know of Jason, to where Shinnok calls Jason by his name with caution. However, Johnny Cage knows Jason as well - nodding to the fact that Friday the 13th is a famous series and of Johnny's Hollywood status. In his quotes against him, Johnny is unsure if he should snark (A non-snarky Ohh... Freak and a snarky Here you go, lucky boy), under the belief that it could be the true Jason and not some knockoff. It also makes sense when you consider Johnny's reactions to Jason's intros. In the intro where Jason pulls a knife out of his neck, Johnny gets snarky before the knife is pulled out. In the intro where he's dragging a dead teenage girl across the ground? That's when Johnny doesn't get snarky.
  • He seems to show some uncharacteristic scorn towards Triborg, specifically going, "Oh look, a robot." However, this does have some merit behind it - Mortal Kombat 3 was considered to be the series' Franchise Original Sin, one of the main criticisms being the introduction of robot ninjas. Also consider that it was also the first game in the series to virtually Un-person Johnny Cage as well (due to the circumstances of his actor Dan Pesina's firing,) and from a Meta-standpoint, it makes perfect sense why Johnny Cage is portrayed as more pissed off than usual at Triborg.
    • On a side note, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance confirmed that Cyrax loathes Johnny Cage's movies, and was even sent to outright kill him in Mortal Kombat (2011). With him being one quarter of Triborg's psyche, it seems that the feelings are indeed mutual.
• While the battle damage generally seems more conservative since last time, of particular note is how the damage to Scorpion's mask only chips away the paint to turn it white, rather than breaking off entirely to reveal white bone. D'Vorah's fatality reduces the head to a bloody skull with at least a single eyeball remaining - to show raw bone one moment and then gory remains the next would be awkward, so only alluding to his undead nature keeps things consistent.
• One intro for Quan Chi has him carrying Moloch's decapitated head. But when you remember that Moloch and Drahmin were two of Quan Chi's enemies in the original timeline, and tormented him in the Netherrealm, it could be more then just a Take That, Scrappy!. It could be a sign of Quan Chi's greater power in this timeline, that even in the Netherrealm he's untouchable.
  • Even better, Mortal Kombat is a series with very loose rules on resurrection. It seems that Moloch's head is still alive, probably by Chi's dark magic. As long as it is, his soul won't return to the Netherrealm, ready to reshape him! A very practical solution.
  • This is also seen in Cassie's "Selfie" Fatality, where the dead victim can reply just like the other kombatants.
• Some people find the new Quitalities rather limp and not as spectacular as they would have hoped. With that said, not having an especially climactic end also means that people playing online won't deliberately disconnect to go out in a blaze of glory on their own terms.
• You might think it odd for Havik and Reiko to be allies, but there are two factors which blend into this: One, Havik's main mission is that of spreading chaos, something which the Outworld Civil War is doing a good job of by keeping it going. And Two, both of these characters were originally concepts for another Mortal Kombat character: Noob Saibot.
• Kano's Commando Variation gives him more grappling moves. In Deadly Alliance, he used Aikido, a martial art that revolves around reversing the opponent's momentum through throwing and grappling techniques.
• Scorpion's Inferno variation and Quan Chi's Summoner variation both uses Netherrealm creatures. While Quan Chi tapped into more dark magic, Scorpion tapped into his hellish powers as a force of good.
• With Shao Kahn gone, Reptile had to choose between either Kotal Kahn or Mileena. Regarding he puts trust and the hopes of his race returning above his Undying Loyalty, Reptile went to Kotal due to his powers and kindness, instead of Mileena, who lacks both. The fact that Kotal is the Last of His Kind helps out with Reptile since he too his the last of his race.
• Scorpion murdering Quan Chi could look like an idiotic move that dooms other heroes to be revenants forever thanks to his selfishness. With the history of Scorpion being abused and tricked by Quan Chi aside, however, this means the forces of evil just lost one of the greatest masterminds that is responsible for many bad things in original and altered timeline if left alive, in which in the original timeline, Quan Chi always have his way to cheat death or cheat other people. What if Quan Chi was baiting Raiden all the time with false hopes that with him, the heroes could be restored? Time will tell if Scorpion's paranoia bears fruit or not.
  • While a very callous move, Scorpion executing Quan Chi may have been the right call...if he'd only been a bit quicker about it. If Scorpion had ended Quan Chi even ten seconds earlier, Shinnok wouldn't have been freed. Yes, it would still have doomed the other fallen characters to remain as revenants, but there are probably some characters that would have stepped aside and let Hanzo end Quan Chi, given the choice.
  • It's worth remembering that Quan Chi's exact plan was to be captured and free Shinnok in Earthrealm. He'd let himself be captured, D'Vorah would show up in the refugee camp unexpectedly, subdue the special forces, free Quan Chi and let him unseal Shinnok. Remember that D'Vorah, who's already a very dangerous kombattant by herself, was armed with Shinnok's amulet at the time, which according to Li Mei had the power to wipe out entire battalions in an instant when Mileena used it. She probably would have been able to free Quan Chi before Sonya's troops even knew what hit them and the outcome would have been that Cassie and her team would have been forced to confront Shinnok, D'Vorah and the revenants as in the game, but their enemies would also have had a fully empowered Quan Chi on their side. So yeah, Scorpion's vengefulness probably ended up saving the day in a very roundabout way.
• Regarding Cassie Cage's tower/arcade ending: Remember those flashbacks Raiden had at the start of Mortal Kombat 9? One of them was most likely Shujinko causing the return of Onaga, the Dragon King. With that said, him sending Cassie to kill him was specifically to prevent this from ever happening!
• Quan Chi's revenants may come off as cannon fodder in story mode, but then again, so does Quan Chi. If his power loss from Shinnok's absence carries over to his thralls, it may explain why all of the revenants are so easily beaten, particularly towards the end of the game.
• In Kano's ending, he brutally beats down his son's weakness and teaches him of the Black Dragon ways. Despite this, he calls Kenshi a "Deadbeat Dad" for him abandoning his son. If one looked up the definition of Deadbeat Dad, they'll find that Kano stood by his son, despite the Training from Hell he brought forth, and chews Kenshi out big time for abandoning Takahashi Takeda and not acting like a true father.
  • Let's get into some of the other fathers. Johnny Cage has a good relationship with Sonya and Cassie, Jax worries about his daughter and Hanzo's wife and child were murdered by Quan Chi. Add with Kano trying to teach his son of the world by beating all weakness from him, and Takeda not being on good terms with Kenshi, and it's rather clear and easy why Kano calls Kenshi a deadbeat dad.
  • On the other hand, there's Kenshi's reply of "Even for you, that was low." Even though Kenshi did realize he didn't do his son any favors by being a Disappeared Dad, he would've probably felt worse if he was a "good father" by Kano's standards.
  • To futher stand on Kano's case, Takeda's mother was killed by the Red Dragon clan, a clan the Black Dragon (of which Kano is a part of) wants destroyed. In other words, Kano feels for Takeda, the mother of whom being killed by the very clan Kano wants dead. However, this being Kano, it's the only form of respect he's giving.
• In some pre-fight interactions between Kotal Kahn and Raiden, Raiden seems to be taking Mileena's side in the Outworld civil war. At first this makes absolutely no sense, seeing as how Mileena is much more insane and a threat to almost everything around her, but it makes sense when one realizes Raiden truly supports neither claimant of Outworld's throne, and is only concerned about Earthrealm. He supports her so that Outworld will continue remaining weakened in its civil war, diminishing its potential threat to Earthrealm. In the off-chance she does win, it could be assumed she'd make a poorer leader than Kotal Kahn and lead Outworld to its own destruction, also to Earthrealm's benefit.
  • Oddly enough, this is somewhat undermined by Kotal Kahn's own screw-ups over the course of the game. Though he comes across as a Reasonable Authority Figure, he proves patently terrible in the realm of diplomacy, attacking Cassie Cage's group and then almost letting himself get killed when he's honorably defeated. And despite his claims that he will be the one to unite Outworld where Mileena failed, the Tarkatans, the Shokan, and Edenia are all likely still vying to, at least, breakaway. A case can also be made, that by usurping Mileena, a precedent is set that anyone with the power to overthrow the current emperor/empress is a valid successor, practically ensuring other contenders for the throne. If Raiden's goal is an unstable Outworld, Kotal Kahn serves that purpose rather well.
  • On the other hand, pre-match dialogue with Mileena has Raiden supporting Kotal Kahn over her, or at least refusing to support her rebellion. Basically, he wants NEITHER in charge, and wants the Enemy Civil War to go on for as long as possible - if either Kotal Kahn or Mileena falls, the other would face no organized resistance in Outworld, and would charge into Earthrealm (as Kotal Kahn did after Mileena was executed by D'Vorah)
• Mileena has grown from Perky Female Minion to From Nobody to Nightmare within the span of two games. Despite this, she isn't much able to do anything. It's because, despite thinking maturely, she is a teen at this point. Teens (like with Mileena) teen to have low trust values and have their hormones spike. This turns her into a Lovable Sex Maniac, but leads to her being Killed Off for Real.
  • Further proof is of whenever near most male characters, she's either flirting or enraged, the clear notes being Liu Kang, where Mileena goes into a Yandere state, and Erron Black, who she despises. Towards Raiden, she doesn't exactly get what he is saying, and goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when seeing either Quan Chi and/or Shinnok, whom were responsible for her "Father"'s death.
• In one of Quan Chi's mirror match dialogues, one of the Quan Chi's tries to appeal to his counterpart not to fight. When the other rejects him, the first Quan Chi muses "You were my only friend..." It can seem rather confusing at first, until it becomes wholly obvious Quan Chi's only friend is himself.
• D'Vorah's alliance with Shinnok makes a lot more sense when you remember that one of the identities associated with the devil is Lord of the Flies (insects). With Shinnok acting as her superior, this literally makes him just that!
• In the mobile game, there are generic Saurians as enemies/allies. Also, one of Reptile's support kards is Khameleon, titled 'Broodmate'. Connect the dots.
  • Another explanation for the near-extinct Saurians showing up: Reptile finds a big colony of them hiding out in Earthrealm during his Arcade ending.
• While Jason is a Implacable Man to a fault, he does indeed react towards two fatalities. What are those fatalities? Kano's Head Case and Predator's Certain Death. The brilliance sets in that Jason was incapacitated the most in Jason X, a movie set in the future.
• You might think it odd that Ermac, out of all people, would turn on Shao Kahn's chosen heir, Mileena in favour of Kotal Kahn, until you sit down and really think about it (keeping in mind that Shao Kahn is now a soul occupying him). First of all, if you have been following the comics, Kotal Kahn was loyal to Shao Kahn, to the point where he specifically did not defy his Emperor's orders even as the latter "marched to his death," out of "respect." Secondly, given that Mileena's own rule was causing dissatisfaction and turmoil in Outworld, it's highly likely that Shao Kahn would see as an unworthy heir, and, after seeing potential in Kotal Kahn as a stronger leader, influenced Ermac to side with him instead. And thirdly, given Mileena's origins as a grotesque clone of Kitana, it seems highly unlikely that King Jerrod (the latter's father whose soul also occupies Ermac) would approve of her at all, thus making Ermac turning on her make even more sense!
  • Oddly, Ermac will slip up his Royal "We" style and speak normaly. This is in fact, Shao Kahn talking. And while Sub-Zero, Erron Black, and Tremor know this, Shao Kahn only shows himself to Tremor, not seeing him as big a threat as he has seen the others.
• It seems odd that Tanya did not side with Shinnok at all in story mode but think about it for a second, unlike the old timeline when she had a degree of power as an ambassador to Edenia, she is merely a rebel in the new timeline. Shinnok and Quan Chi have no need to recruit her as a mole, instead, if the theory of Shinnok also sending a message back in time is anything to believe, he influenced D'Vorah since she does have influence in Outworld's court.
• It's odd to note Scorpion's influence with both Kenshi and Takeda, the former being a Hellfire Ninja within a Psychic family of a Handicapped Badass Father and his I Hate You, Vampire Dad styled son. And even then, no connections of any in-game info helps Hanzo... unless you turn and look at the game Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. In that game, Scorpion appears as a bonus skin, hence his influence.
  • Alternatively, it's mentioned that Takeda lacks the skill that Kenshi has, and that Kenshi shows little effort of being a father whereas Hanzo himself is a widowing father, making as much sense for Takeda's case as it does Scorpion's case.
• Fatalities are a way of disrespecting your opponent, and no Kombatant takes this closer to heart than the Predator. If you choose to end the fight normally, he tears out the skull and puts it in his trophy room, showing an appreciation for a hard-earned kill, but if you end the fight with a Fatality, he destroys the skull, showing little respect for the fighter he just beat.
  • This is also demonstrated in a way besides destroying the head in Predator's second fatality, in which he fires two quick nonlethal shoulder-cannon shots before finally taking his time to aim for the head, during which his opponent is screaming. Considering the exceptional accuracy of that shoulder cannon even at long ranges, much less at stationary targets, it's not as if he would be accidentally missing his opponent's head during the first two shots, unless they were careless snapshots. He actually seems frustrated by his opponent's weakness.
• Jade's complete disappearance from the storyline makes a lot more sense if you put the pieces together and assume that her Mortal Kombat 9 ending is (semi)canon. In said ending, Jade is possessed by a spiritual being after beating Shao Kahn. It can be safely assumed that this spirit has had her eyes on Jade for quite some time, and since Jade dies in Mortal Kombat 9, it would make it a lot easier for said spirit to take command of her body, or at least purify her when Quan Chi brings her back to un-life, thus removing her from Kitana's side and out of the Netherealm War. What re-inforces this theory? Kitana's ending in Mortal Kombat X, which shows Jade's ghostly spirit reaching out to Kitana, but unable to contact her!
• At first it seems odd that a Predator would be willing to fling Blanche at the opponent, killing her, when Yautja culture forbids them from harming the defenseless. But, as shown in a certain stage fatality, Blanche is far from helpless, which makes her fair game as far as he's concerned.
• One may think it a bit weird that characters would spout one-liners like "Walk it off!" and "I will crush you!" after killing their opponents with Brutalities (since, you know....they're already dead). However, watch what the characters do after performing it. They're facing the screen, which means that their trash talk isn't directed at the dead opponent... it's directed at you, the player!
  • This also explain Kung Lao's "Learn from this!" Brutality quote. He wants the other player to learn from this defeat!
• It may strike some as unusual that Reptile, of all kombatants, is one of the most civil towards Bo Rai Cho, despite his fierce loyalty towards Outworld and his occassionally Ax-Crazy behaviour. However, it makes sense - Bo Rai Cho's philosophy has always been "No one deserves subjugation," something Reptile can sympathize with since he has been a subject his entire life. This is hinted at in Bo Rai Cho's ending, where he is seen personally training Reptile.
• Kenshi's mirror match dialogue is more or less generic, with neither realizing they're clones, which is believable given both are still blind men who can't see their faces.
• Sonya is healed from her injuries at the end of the opening chapter of story mode by exposure to the Jinsei chamber. 20 years later, in the next few chapters, she's the only returning character who doesn't seem to have visibly aged.
• Tremor's quotes to Kitana "To those who have one last princess", Mileena "In the Dream Realm, you are reborn...", Jacqui "I admire your Gauntlets", Shinnok "You're wise without measure", Liu Kang "Yet your approach continues...", and all of his quotes to Bo Rai Cho show that he is very smart, although that's mainly due to the Dream Realm within his ending, where the Psyche-Bomb was needed there. His high intelligence and power came from exposure from the realm and confirmed Mileena's ending. It's what he got for being left to die by Kano.
• At times, the mirror matches or normal battles use events from the Armageddon timeline. While it's clearly seen in Shinnok's Mirror Match having him fight against his clone turned Elder God in his ending, Liu Kang and Mileena have one as well, via Mileena saying "You'll remember your love for me!"... Mileena wouldn't say that, but rather an insane Kitana trapped in Mileena's body after the latter's ending.
• Kotal Kahn is seen bargaining with Kano in Chapter 2, when in the comics he kept some distance from the Black Dragon (with Erron Black as the only nexus between the BD and KK) and he ordered their incarceration after the Shokan onslaught for the kidnapping of Cassie and Jacqui. It's possible he didn't want to repeat that mistake, and Kano indeed had important information regarding the rebels (Mileena's location, extracted from him after Chapter 5), despite the posterior betrayal in Chapter 2.
• Cassie Cage being the most foul mouthed character of the game might had to do with Johnny's and Sonya's almost full-time involvements in the Special Forces to the point of not being able to really take care about her education (also, there's the chance that Johnny might not really mind about cuss words). Before the events of MK1/MK9, everyone might had a degree of education at that point. As for the others, Jacqui may have received strong education from Jax and Vera once he came back from the dead. Takeda might not have known how to speak in english, and Hanzo, being a harsh master and all, may have taught him about the badness of cussing. As for Jin, he comes from the Shaolin Monks, which may have some standards about cuss words as well.
• Let's talk about Takeda's name. He has a last name for a first name (or vice versa in Japanese), and everyone pronounces it wrong. But remember that while his dad is Japanese, his mom isn't, and she raised him alone in a village in her native Thailand. This would probably give her few opportunities to practice speaking Japanese, so we can assume she isn't very fluent by the time she was raising Takeda. Perhaps she wanted to give her son a Japanese name in honor of his father, but is ignorant of Japanese naming conventions and/or pronunciation. Thus, her son now has a surname as a first name, and his mother's inability to pronounce it properly resulted in him growing up thinking that his name is Ta-kee-da.
• Kitana's Mournful variation has her using Jade's Staff. This could be a callback to Jade's original appearance as a non-playable opponent in Mortal Kombat II, she used Kitana's fans.
• At first the gangs' complete failure against Sub-Zero makes them seem like they're completely out of their league, which is at odds with the rest of the story where they defeat the likes of Kotal Kahn, the revenants and even Shinnok, so why such a bad performance against Sub-Zero? Think about their fighting styles and who their mentors were: Johnny, Sonya, Jax, the Shaolin and Scorpion! Sub-Zero knows them and their fighting styles, and fought with and against all of them for decades now. They're fighting an opponent who knows all their moves and can read exactly what they're going to do before they do it!
• Orange is something of a Color Motif for Takeda. He has an orange Martial Arts Headband, his suit has orange streaks along the arms and legs and his whips glow orange in his "lasher" variation. Now take a look at Scorpion and Kenshi, the two characters whose abilities and weapons influenced Takeda. Their outfits contain yellow and red respectively, and what do you get when you mix those colors together? Orange.
• When Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda, and Kung Jin end up captured by Kotal Kahn, they try to use the Reiko Accords as a means to stop him, to which Kotal Kahn replies that "the Accords no longer concern me". He says this in a manner that's outright dismissive of them, which may seem odd at first until one realizes the fact that he has just legally become Emperor by disposing of Mileena and winning the Outworld civil war. This means, as the abolute ruler of Outworld, he can now abolish the Reiko Accords if he so chooses, so that's exactly what he does for his first act as Emperor, using Kung Jin's Rules Lawyer ploy from earlier in the story against him. This also makes sense considering that Reiko was his enemy and a former ally of Shao Kahn.
• Why would Shao Kahn make Mileena his successor as opposed to any of his followers that have experience leading? Because not only does her being the closest living kin of Kitana allow the appearance of continuity in Shao Kahn’s dynasty, but her being part Tarkatan and part Edenian gives her the automatic support of both races, which would be important in a multinational empire like Outworld.
• The entirety of this game could be read as a deconstruction of Mortal Kombat 9 and Franchise\Mortal Kombat as a whole:
  • Jax's trauma around being a revenant can be contrasted with the comparative lack of trauma He has around losing his arms.
  • The final shot of fatalities in this game, which takes place during a series of wars, focus on the opponents remains as if to focus on the fact the opponent is dead, as opposed to the previous game, taking place primarily during tournaments, focusing on the victor as though the death is a grand triumph over the defeated.
  • Most of the Earthrealm characters are out of commission during the time skip, with Scorpion and Sub Zero tending to their respective clans, Johnny continuing his career and raising Cassie, and Jax retiring from the Special Forces, with only Sonya, whose career involves the defense of the realms, and Kenshi, who had a personal vendetta, still being active. This emphasizes the fact that no one can keep up a position of constantly defending the realms for an extended period of time, and contrasts with the previous timeline that had the cast constantly fighting for 10 years.

Fridge Horror

• In Jason's pre-fight intro, when he's shown first, he drags the corpse of a young woman into the scene. We can assume that she's human, so she was probably killed in Earthrealm. Some of the fights take place in Outworld or the Netherrealm, so who knows how long Jason's been lugging that body around?
• Kano is able to remain alive without his new cybernetic heart when we we're shown in Deadly Alliance that Hsu Hao died by not having his own cyber-heart in him. This pretty much means that he still has his actual heart, and something else is keeping him alive.
• With the announcement of characters like Johnny Cage, Sonya, Kenshi, and Jax, there's a potential for parents and their child to kill each other.
• As pointed out and shown by Dark Raiden at the end of story mode, the Elder Gods cannot die... and fallen though he be, Shinnok is still an Elder God. Whatever crap you put him through, he ultimately lives through that... and all the consequences that implies. Cut out his heart and drink its blood? Lives. Make a head-sized hole in his chest, possibly with his head? Lives! Chop off his face and reduce the rest to Ludicrous Gibs? LIVES! "There are fates worse than death", indeed...
• D'Vorah is described as having loyalty and insightfulness, which are traits unusual to the Kytinn (her species), which could most likely indicate that the Kytinn as a whole are far worse beings. This is coupled with the fact that her allegiance to Shinnok alludes to the Lord of the Flies (insects), one of the identities associated with the devil, and considering that Shinnok acts as her superior.
• Raiden said that Liu Kang was like a son to him, yet he threatens him with a Fate Worse than Death in The Stinger in case he decides to attack Earthrealm. Even if Kang is the Emperor of Netherrealm, this is an exceptionally ruthless act, considering it was Raiden's actions that helped put him in that position. He even said Kang was right to be angry at him for his Accidental Murder, and yet here he is, holding the possibility of something worse over his head. Does Dark Raiden have any shame left, or has he committed himself fully to preemptively defending Earthrealm, regardless of what happened in the past?
  • If you know Dark Raiden, you should have known that such things are not even above Dark Raiden. After all, in the past timeline, he was the one who brought Liu Kang back as a zombie to serve as his enforcer even if Liu's spirit was still good. When it comes to Dark Raiden, he's throwing away any notions of morality, decency and goodness, his character becomes "Protect Earthrealm at all costs, even if I have to be an utter jackass about it. And I have no regrets!". The kind of 'Good goal, but anything goes for method (mostly ruthless)' character.
• In Ferra and Torr's flashback in the comics telling how they first met Kotal Kahn, both got caught by Tarkatans and Kotal freed them. Then, afterwards, they eat said Tarkatans. Clearly, there has to be something that would make them edible...
• If you look at Quan Chi's Fortress, you'll see Shao Kahn's battle armor, as well as his War Hammer as an interactable weapon. During the fight, as players take damage, a large Shao Kahn-sized humanoid emerges from the blood pool, which was established during Story Mode as the place where Quan Chi revives dead warriors to serve as revenants. Apparently, Quan Chi was trying to resurrect Shao Kahn behind the scenes.
• Quan Chi's Revenant resurrection process doesn't work on Cyborgs so Sub-Zero is brought back as human. But Revenant Jax still has mechanical arms. The implication being Quan Chi brought back Jax and then had his arms removed (again) to make him stronger. And Jax remembers his time as a Revenant so not only did he have no free will and do horrible things, but he was possibly forced to relive losing his arms to evil.
• Tremor's ladder ending explained that he went to the Dream Realm to recover a psych bomb that would help Kano in stealing Shinnok's amulet. Of course, while he gained a power-up out of the trip, pre-fight dialogue hinted that Kano left him to die there. Yep, the same Dream Realm used to justify Freddy Krueger's appeareance.
• The ability to summon Facehuggers makes the Konjurer Alien one of the deadliest kombatants around. Sure, you might only see a Chestburster pop out with a Brutality or default Alien victory animation, but if even a single Facehugger grabs hold of you during the match... the embryo is laid. Enjoy your Pyrrhic Victory, for You Are Already Dead.
• In pre-match dialogue, Erron Black casually mentions to Kano that he killed Kobra. There are two ways of looking at this - one, Kobra, being from a criminal gang, would have a bounty on his head and Erron was just collecting on it. The other? Consider that (and disregarding the fact that the concept for Erron didn't exist as yet back then), in Mortal Kombat: Deception, Kobra is not only very much alive, but there's no sign of Erron. It is likely that the original timeline is one where Kobra winds up killing Erron instead.

Fridge Logic

Entries that require an answer are found in the Headscratchers page.

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