Headscratchers / Mortal Kombat 1

• Why didn't Liu Kang try to reform Shang Tsung and Quan Chi? I mean, he gave Shao of all people a second chance and he was just as evil as they were in previous timelines.
  • Shao can be treacherous as evidenced by his poisoning of Onaga given he couldn't take him in a straight fight, but generally he's up front with his villainy. As everyone except Kronika knows, you can't trust either Quan Chi or Shang Tsung to give you the time of day. He likely looked through other timelines, and saw how many, if any were actually either heroic, or at least not traitorous swine and probably got a very bad indication of what would happen if he tried.
  • It's possible that Liu Kang did give Shan Tsung the chance to reform by starting him off with nothing in order to teach him the humility that comes with powerlessness and having to start out by doing hard work. It's just that Shang Tsung's nature got in his own way, and he tried to take short cuts by lying, cheating and using people to get ahead as he always does.
  • He didn't give Shao a second chance. It's mentioned in story mode that Shao was a sickly child who wasn't fit for military service, but he was whipped and tortured into becoming the Shao we see in-game over many years by his father. There was never any hint of that previously in his backstory, so Shao's childhood sickness was likely Liu Kang's method of attempting to neutralize Shao in the new timeline.
  • Liu Kang gave all of them a second chance, he just tried to keep the more dangerous among them away from the power they abused in previous timelines. Liu Kang even states directly in storymode that Shao becoming a general was his plan for him, overcoming the sickness was likely there to temper his pride and teach him empathy. He did a similar change to Rain, stripping him of godhood but allowing him to keep his magical power, only this time he had to work for it.
• What's the significance of Liu Kang's red and blue fire? Like, is the red fire normal and the blue fire divine/cosmic?
  • Probably. Given he no longer seems to wield lightning the blue flame might be an lasting influence from his Raiden.
  • No, it was like that in the previous games intros as well. It's just a thing they did that looked cool so they kept it.
• Why was Mileena already being groomed for succession when Sindel could have likely gone on for a few more eons?
  • Better to have a plan and start on it early. If Mileena had any struggles or issues, they could be spotted and accounted for. While Sindel could still live for a long time, Jerrod's death likely had her spooked.
  • Sindel may not actually want to rule forever. She did her job, provided and trainer her heir and is now free to live her own life. Mileena will also have the chance to retire one day.
• Why does the Final Warrior have to be a variant? It would've been more satisfying and have made more sense narratively for it to be someone from Liu Kang's universe.
  • It's not particularly explicit, but it appears that the only actual playable variants in the finale are characters who'd otherwise have no business being on Liu Kang's side, i.e. Shao, Havik, Shang, Rain.
  • Pretty sure they mention the final battle is supposed to be made up of good and evil Titans from throughout the multiverse. So that's why you don't get to use the normal cast, they're outclassed.
• What exactly did that ghost do to Quan Chi to make his skin turn chalk white?
  • Partial soul absorption, or damage perhaps?
• Is Hellfire Scorpion Past!Scorpion from MK11 or the Scorpion of Titan Shang Tsung's universe?
  • If you mean the guy you fought in the first season of Invasions, probably neither. The Invasions bosses all seem to be new guys from timelines we've never seen before.
• Exactly how does Havik powers work? Cause he clearly can rip off his own body parts even his OWN HEAD and regrow them just fine with no problems but he gets his face dunked in molten lava and he’s permanently disfigured? Wouldn’t it just regenerate like the rest of his body?
  • One of his intros reveal he chooses not to regenerate that damage as it makes him more fearsome.
• Did Havik get his absurd healing factor from Quan Chi or Shang Tsung's sorcery, or do ALL of Seido's people just have that?
• Why did the royal court conspire against Mileena's succession?
  • Because Mileena is hot-headed and impulsive and they want someone more stable on the throne.
• Why is curing Tarkat beyond Liu Kang's power?
  • What in his established portfolio of abilities suggests he has the ability to cure a visibly supernatural disease?
  • "God" doesn't necessarily equal "can do literally anything". Some deities are not omnipotent, and given his humility, Liu Kang wouldn't give himself the ability to be even if he could.
• Why is Tarkat a virus in the first place? What caused the Tarkatans to be changed to their own race on Outworld to a deadly and disfiguring disease? And if Liu Kang did it, why? It's slightly understandable for Liu Kang change something with the Tarkatan race, considering they were rather violent in the past timelines, but it's hard to see how this is better for anyone.
  • Tarkat may have been introduced from anouther timeline, most likely by Titan Shang Tsung. It sabotages Liu Kang's New Era and provides a group of ready made, exploitable minions.
  • Or it sprung up via the universe itself attempting to adhere to how older timelines worked. Tarkatans needed to exist, so it created a means to ensure they did.
• Did Liu Kang intentionally orchestrate the murder of Smoke's birth family?
  • No, it just seemingly occurred. He likely intended for Tomas to meet the group anyway, but existence intervened.
• Why didn't Geras volunteer to claim Liu Kang's titanhood for himself? Did he not trust himself to use the power responsibly?
  • That, and he saw how it drove his old boss mad. Y'know, the one that had him die endlessly? Why would he take on the job if he didn't have to?
• Why does Kung Lao wear a different chakram-hat during the mission to capture Shang Tsung?
  • Because they're trying not to be recognized.
• Why didn't Liu Kang recruit Sonya and Jax?
  • We don't know what kind of life they lead in this timeline, they may have been busy with more important work or rejected the offer or might not be kombat ready in their current life.
• Why doesn't Johnny have his powers?
  • There's some implications that his bloodline were blessed by the gods as a way to counter Shinnok if he ever escaped (hence why his powers protect him completely from Shinnok's power). As Shinnok isn't a problem in this timeline there was no reason to take precautions against him so Cage's bloodline never received the blessing it did previously.
• Why would a group of ninjas want to govern a country?
  • Sub-Zero is motivated by his massive ego and a lust for power, while the Lin Kuei are more or less conditioned to blindly obey their Grandmaster.
• Are the realms (excluding Netherrealm, of course) alien planets? Liu Kang seemed to imply as much when explaining them to Raiden and Kung Lao.
  • No. All the planets in space are part of Earthrealm. It's just that all the realms together make up the universe.
• How did Syzoth not piece together himself that Shang Tsung had already killed his family? What lie could Tsung have possibly told him to not make him question where they are and why he couldn't visit them, or even find them if he snuck off on his own?
  • All he had to do is keep him away from his family the entire time, the threat was just as effective as the actual hostages. If Syzoth was allowed access to his family he would have tried to free them.
• Why are certain characters in Shang Tsung’s timeline changed in the same way as in Liu Kang’s timeline? For example, Dark Tanya and Dark Rain use a staff and scepter even though in the previous timeline they had different weapons and, in Tanya’s case, different abilities; it’s strange that Shang Tsung and Liu Kang would change the same people in the same ways.
  • The real answer is because they didn't want to do extra work including alternate fighting styles/powers so used the same ones with different skins. In universe it may be that Lui Kang and Shang Tsung just had similar ideas on how to change the characters for their New Eras it's just Liu Kang was trying to give them a better life while Shang Tsung was changing them to make them more compliant to his will.
• Was the final battle fought by Titans exclusively, or were they joined by their Mortal allies/variants?
• Scorpion's new fatality which is a Shout-Out to his past fatality of summoning a bunch of Scorpions after dragging his victim to Hell: Considering that Scorpion here is a very human and pretty much alive Kuai Liang... who are these Scorpion extras?? Fellow Lin Kuei/Shirai Ryu members? And how did one of them emulate hellspawn Hanzo Hasashi by having a skeleton for head? (That is one hell of a cosplay if that's true) Or Scorpion is just using hallucinations?
  • 1) Fatalities aren't canon and don't have to make sense, for example: Jax growing huge to stomp on his opponents. 2) it's possible he's calling in Scorpions from different timelines to assist him.
  • 1) seems possible. 2) I'm not sure if Kuai Liang has the power to summon people of different timelines since that's reserved for a godlike being like Liu Kang.
• Why does Edenia not exist anymore? what were both the developers AND Liu Kang thinking?
  • Everything indicates that Edenia is now the central region of Outworld. Liu Kang likely decided that placing Jerrod and an uncorrupted Sindel in charge of Outworld would grant the realm rulers that are strong, just, and willing to work with all of its races. This change also effectively makes the Edenians Outworld's core native populace, and its counterpart to Earthrealm's Humans, albeit they appear to have much longer lifespans and are much stronger physically on average. And finally, placing Edenia in the heart of Outworld has the knock-on effect of overwriting Outland's barren wastelands with Edenia's fertile, Ghibli Hills-esque geography, changing the realm from a Mordor into an Arcadia and removing the need for it to conquer other realms for resources, since its peoples can now sustain themselves via agriculture and animal husbandry. In a sense, Liu appears to have agreed with Shao that Edenia was good for Outworld - just not with how the merger originally occurred.
• Geras mentioned a second timeline during his interaction with God Liu Kang. Is it possible that the Hourglass also happens to be a portal to other timelines?
• What exactly is a Titan? In 11 it was established that they were a race of beings (of which Kronika was part of) implied to be more ancient and powerful than the Elder Gods themselves. However, 1 treats "Titan" as a title belonging to the kombatants that became Keepers of Time by defeating Kronika and seizing the Hourglass for themselves in their own timelines (Such as Titan Shang Tsung, Titan Kitana and Titan Havik). Did Liu Kang erase the previous game's Titans while creating this new timeline?
  • They didn't just take the hourglass, they also took Kronika's power and her place and become Titans themselves.
• Why was Baraka completely unaffected by the gas Shang Tsung used to try to kill him and the Earthrealmers? Is it a result of Tarkat affecting his body in some way?
  • He's not completely unaffected, if you fail to break the door down he dies like the rest. As a Tarkatan he has some healing powers and that bought him some more time, that's it.