Mortal Kombat Desperation / Tropes S to U

Tropes for Mortal Kombat: Desperation, S-U

• Sadistic Choice/You Have No Chance to Survive: Raiden gives Kotal Kahn and his allies the chance to surrender or face war.
• Sadist: Raiden tortures, torments, and destroys because he enjoys the suffering, pain, and despair of others (whether mass-zapping the Lin Kuei or Team S-F out of amusement, ordering the destruction of Li Mei's village, attacking the Edenian resistance or torturing Cassie and Kevin), and the sheer display of sadism he shows is far much worse than what Shao Kahn or Shinnok did. Kung Jin and Cassie even call him out for his barbarity streak.
  • Tasia is also this, lampshaded by her Evil Feels Good speech to Kira.
  • D'Vorah, Hotaru, Mileena, and Kano also count as this.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Raiden has lost his grip on sanity after he Came Back Wrong.
  • After Cassie is kidnapped, Sonya is on the verge of losing her sanity and could go Mama Bear any time soon. Fortunately, Johnny is there to keep her sane and things calm down somewhat with Cassie and Kevin back safe in S-F hands.
  • Ferra was on the verge of this after seeing her Gentle Giant companion Torr in a comatose state, but thankfully recovers from this once Torr awakens from his coma.
• Sarcastic Clapping: Raiden does this in Chapter 44, as he overheard Delia/Jade and Taven's conversation with Daegon. Delia was trying to convince her son to pull a Heel–Face Turn, but fails as Raiden managed to trick Daegon.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! and I Make The Rules: Raiden, whose actions alienate his former allies.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: Kotal Kahn and his allies' response to Raiden's You Have No Chance to Survive threat.
  Kotal: Go.
  Fujin: To.
  Liu: Hell.
• Self-Made Orphan: Daegon and Kira.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Chapter 55 is a Girl on Girl Is Hot scene where Mileena and Tanya are caressing each other, as they have been known to exchange such flirty banter in Mortal Kombat X, and are revealed to be Psycho Lesbians and Depraved Bisexuals.
• Shadow Archetype: Raiden serves as the Evil Counterpart to Fujin and Kotal Kahn.
  • Raiden serves as this to Fujin. Both are Physical Gods of Earthrealm, but have differing goals on protecting it. Raiden is willing to use outright violence and brute force to protect Earthrealm, even if it meant betraying and killing his own allies in the process while Fujin becomes desperate to stop the thunder god from merging all the realms to instigate Armageddon and gain more power.
  • The thunder god also serves as this to Kotal Kahn. Kotal is willing to protect his realm and deeply cares for his allies, while Raiden is willing to betray his allies and henchmen at the drop of a hat and seeks to merge all realms to gain even more power.
• Shame If Something Happened/Implied Death Threat: Raiden promises to torture and kill Takeda and Jacqui (and possibly, let Kano and his Black Dragon thugs rape Jacqui before killing her off), and reiterates it again in Chapter 63 and 72. Jax, Scorpion and Kenshi go Papa Wolf on Raiden's thinly-veiled threats to their children.
• Sharing a Body: Delia, who shares Jade's body with its host. Same goes for Jerrod, who's now sharing Ermac's body with its host. As it turns out, Shao Kahn is also in Ermac's body. Although Shang Tsung ends up stealing Shao Kahn's soul for himself later on.
• Ship Tease: Cassie and Kevin are clearly developing feelings for each other.
  • This seems to be the case between Li Mei and Erron Black, to the point that one reader gave them a ship name which the author approved of: Li Black.
• Shout-Out: In chapter 18, Cassie Cage's quote about Raiden going rogue is taken from Harvey Dent. Bonus points for her as she even says it, word for word. Unsurprisingly, Raiden does not take this lightly and zaps her. Also counts as a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  Cassie Cage: I remember watching this movie a few years back and hearing this one phrase that I never forgot. 'You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.' I always thought it was stupid, but after seeing the shit you caused, I'm starting to reconsider that.
  • Kung Jin later recites the same quote in chapter 54.
• Shut Up, Raiden!: When Raiden is about to torture Cassie again in chapter 22, she chastises the thunder god for the savagery he's done so far. This goes too far, where he tortures Kevin and threatens Scorpion of what could happen to his protege Takeda if he dares to defect.
  Cassie Cage: You fucking monster! You cold-blooded, bat-shit crazy, worthless piece of shit! I thought Shinnok was bad, but you're way worse! You make the Joker look like a nice guy! Go ahead. Zap me again. I don't care! I've been blasted by Kano's eye laser, stabbed, slapped, kicked and thrown around like a ragdoll, and electrocuted by you twice already. And even after all that, I'm still alive and cursing you out without a qualm! Face it, Raiden; you can't break me!
  • Fujin also gives one in chapter 24. See the Kirk Summation trope above.
  • Kira takes a more physical approach in response to Tasia's Evil Feels Good speech by chopping both her hands off.
  • Even though both are part of Ermac, Jerrod gives one to Shao Kahn in chapter 37.
  • Delia/Jade try this on Raiden, but he just ignores it and tricks Daegon into serving him.
  • Raiden's ex-allies call him out several times in chapters 54, 63, 72 and 73 for his cruelty streak.
• Slasher Smile/Psychotic Smirk: The creepy and blood-chilling smirk on Raiden when he mass-electrocutes Team S-F and the Lin Kuei, combined with an Evil Laugh. Also gives this look when he's torturing Cassie Cage and Kevin, and when he's manipulating Daegon. You could tell that he's clearly an Ax-Crazy Mad God whom you don't want to cross.
  • Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Whether he mass-electrocutes Team S-F and the Lin Kuei or tortures Kevin and Cassie, it's combined with a blood-chilling cackle and a Slasher Smile.
  • Psycho Electro: Raiden uses electricity to torture and silence his enemies with a sickly grin, and gleefully cackles when mass-zapping them. He ups the ante when enraged enough, especially when Cassie calls him out twice.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Since Raiden is an Omnicidal Maniac, he's a Multiversal Threat if he does merge the realms - and this would result in a Class X-5 or Class Z Apocalypse How.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: The story does a good job taking a step-by-step approach to emphasizing Raiden's increasing comfort with violence and extremist methods to protect Earthrealm. The thunder god genuinely claims to be heroic, but his conscience and kindness get hardened. He slowly drifts from goodness, alienates his own former allies and his reactions towards protecting Earthrealm become more brutal, until there's nothing left but a deranged and rage-fueled sociopath.
• Smug Snake: Raiden speaks in a rude, condescending and snobbish manner towards his ex-allies.
• The Sociopath: Manipulative, cold-blooded, sadistic, remorseless, ruthless, selfish, pompous, arrogant, evil, rude, and unable to realize the collateral damage caused by his actions... yes, Raiden is clearly one to a T.
  • Tasia's Evil Feels Good speech confirms her status as a sociopath.
  • Kano doesn't show any remorse torturing his son, and finds it funny seeing Cassie get tortured by him and Raiden.
  • Dairou tells Shujinko that Hotaru used to be a good man before his obsession with order and killing Darrius turned him into a brutal dictator who will destroy anybody who disagreed with him.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Raiden, when he's in his Faux Affably Evil mode.
• Sorcerous Overlord: Raiden, as he's a Physical God and an Evil Overlord.
• Start of Darkness/The Paragon Always Rebels: What drove Raiden to a path of villainy? After his Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Mortal Kombat X, Raiden Came Back Wrong as an Evil Overlord with a mix of the Omnicidal Maniac and He Who Fights Monsters personalities, and will not stop at creating an Utopia Justifies the Means empire (by merging Outworld and the Netherrealm) in order to "protect" Earthrealm, no matter who may die in the ensuing violence.
• Straw Hypocrite: Raiden claims to "protect" Earthrealm at all costs, yet many of his allies point out that he's lusting for power like Shao Kahn or Shinnok. Lampshaded by Kung Jin in chapter 54.
  Kung Jin: Oh, shut up already! Why don't you just admit it? You don't care about protecting Earthrealm. All you care about is power. You like torturing and killing other people because it makes you feel good. You don't give a damn for anybody who suffers or dies at your hands because you enjoy putting them through that agony! That's exactly how Shao Kahn would act!
• Stress Vomit: Sonya experiences this in Chapter 17 after Cassie was kidnapped.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Raiden berates and beats up several of his henchmen for fighting like children. This includes Havik, Hotaru, Mavado, Reiko, Mileena, Baraka, D'Vorah, etc.
• Survivor Guilt: Pretty much the ex-revenants are this, as they still are horrified of what they did as revenants under Quan Chi's control.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Many of his former allies (especially Fujin and Kung Jin) share this sentiment, considering that Raiden's now a self-centered, taunting and rage-fueled Mad God after he Came Back Wrong.
• Teamwork Seduction: Mileena and Tanya are to be Depraved Bisexuals and Psycho Lesbians.
• The Dog Bites Back: Scorpion defects to Fujin's side after being threatened by Raiden, and after witnessing Cassie's torture too many times.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: The gist of Kitana's chapter, after Quan Chi killed Jade.
• This Cannot Be!: Raiden, after seeing that Shao Kahn was not only revived, but also Reforged into a Minion by Shang Tsung.
• Those Two Guys: Scorpion and Kano, who are Co-Dragons to Raiden, though Scorpion is more of a Noble Top Enforcer...until he switches sides. Scorpion is later replaced by Hotaru while Kano is demoted to Evil Genius and replaced by Shang Tsung.
• Token Evil Teammate: Rain, Darrius and Dairou count as this on Kotal Kahn's side.
• Token Good Teammate: Scorpion, who objects to Cassie's and Kevin's torture by Raiden and Kano, and pulls off a Heel–Face Turn when he realizes that Raiden was using him as a tool and when the thunder god threatens to do the same thing to Takeda as he did to Cassie and Kevin.
  • Nitara begins to have feelings of this, as she was strong-armed by Raiden in order to serve him.
  • Daegon has feelings about this, but this is ultimately subverted when the thunder god manipulates him.
• Took a Level in Cynic/The Cynic: Dairou after his family was murdered.
• Took a Level in Jerkass and Super Dickery: Raiden becomes a selfish and sociopathic Jerkass God with Omnicidal Maniac tendencies after his corruption.
• Torture Technician: Kano, with Cassie and Kevin on the receiving end of it. Raiden also gets in on the action.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: Raiden has no qualms about invading other realms following his Face–Heel Turn, and using the same tactics to silence his enemies.
• Tragic Keepsake: Jade's staff, as Quan Chi allows Kitana to keep it as a reminder of what would happen if she crossed him. She later returns the staff to Jade after their reunion.
• Tragic Villain: After his Heroic Sacrifice at the end of X, Raiden Came Back Wrong as a corrupted version of himself with Omnicidal Maniac tendencies, and after torpedoing through the Moral Event Horizon, he becomes a downright insane, selfish and deranged Mad God who takes sadistic glee in torturing his enemies.
• Tranquil Fury: When you don't piss Raiden off, he'll gleefully torture you by zapping; this all goes away when Cassie pisses him off enough.
• The Unapologetic: Raiden shows no remorse about what he's done so far, whether it's invading Outworld, kidnapping and torturing Cassie, allowing Kano to torture his own son Kevin, psychologically and physically abusing his ex-allies, mass-zapping the Lin Kuei or Team S-F, attacking the Edenian Resistance, threatening to torture Takeda or Jacqui, berating his own minions, tricking and strong-arming Scorpion, Daegon and Nitara into serving him, ordering the destruction of Li Mei's village, or threatening to torture Takeda and Jacqui.
• The Unfavorite/Parental Favoritism: Argus clearly favored Taven over Daegon.
• The Unfettered: Raiden has no concern for the direct or collateral damage that results from his actions, being unable to understand or care why anyone should worry. After he Came Back Wrong, he uses the My Way or the Highway approach to "protecting" Earthrealm by using brutal methods to conquer other realms, not caring who gets killed or maimed in the ensuing violence, and alienating many of his ex-allies (Sonya, Jax, Fujin, Kenshi, Team S-F, the Lin Kuei, etc.) to the point that they're now his Arch-Enemies now.
  • Hotaru doesn't flinch even when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon by destroying Li Mei's village.
• Unholy Matrimony: Liu Kang and Kitana, as the rulers of the Netherrealm, were this prior to being restored back to life.
• The Unintelligible: Torr does not speak any earth language and relies on Ferra to translate for him. The catch is that Ferra isn't very good at communicating with Earthrealmers, or anyone else for that matter either.
• Unwitting Pawn: Scorpion realizes that Raiden has manipulated him into becoming his Dragon, and atones for this by defecting to Fujin's side in chapter 24 after Raiden threatens to torture Takeda and Jacqui if Scorpion dared to defect.
  Scorpion: I would prefer to work with the undead, brainwashed sorcerer than a Mad God lusting for power.
  • Raiden later does the same thing to Daegon, as he's now playing on the latter's emotions about being The Unfavorite son of Argus.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Daegon.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: What Raiden plans to do after merging Outworld and Netherrealm, though Sheeva (in chapter 7) thinks that the thunder god would actually create a Dystopia Justifies the Means empire, after explaining to Ferra what could happen if Kotal Kahn loses the Mortal Kombat tournament.
  • Hotaru also belives in this, as he'll ally with anybody who's willing to keep order at all costs, even if it meant outright genocide.