Nightmare Fuel / Mortal Kombat 1

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Welcome to the Flesh Pits.

It may be a New Era with the benevolent Liu Kang guiding the hands of creation in the hopes of forging peace and prosperity but some things remain constant such as how dangerous and violent the Mortal Kombat universe can be. After all, it's in our blood...

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Fatalities

• Ashrah's first Fatality shows her sprouting angelic wings, then loosing her razor-sharp feathers to pin her victim to the ground before unleashing a Sword Beam that incinerates the defeated foe, leaving behind only most of their crispy-fried upper torso, their eyes rolling back as they finally die.
• Baraka uses his arm blades to stab and hold up his victim, ala Mortal Kombat II, with one added detail: he further extends his blades, plucking out his victim's eyes, before tearing the front of their torso open!
  • In case you forgot Baraka and his fellow Tarkatans were flesh-eating monsters, sickness or no, his second fatality will serve as a grim reminder, wherein he creates a flame using sparks from his arm blades and suspends his victim by their entrails over it. Then he and three other Tarkatans proceed to tear off their toasty limbs and start munching on them like fried chicken, with Baraka himself enjoying some leg meat!
• Cyrax's Kameo fatality is a remake of his klassic planet exploding fatality, only this one is much more destructive thanks to modern gaming technology and graphics: we see Earth once the bombs turn red and explode… and quickly goes from nuke-sized to PLANET-BUSTING IN SECONDS. Overkill is putting it lightly!
• General Shao launches his victim into the air, then jumps after them and grabs them by the leg, spinning them around repeatedly and rapidly before slamming them into the ground. The "spinning" part goes on for long enough that by the time he finishes, the victim's flesh is stripped off by the centrifugal force, leaving only dry bones. It's basically a Bloodier and Gorier version of T.Hawk's Mexican Typhoon.
• Geras's first Fatality features him summoning a whirling sandstorm that surrounds him and his opponent and as he pushes them into the sandstorm, the mentioned sandstorm moves so fast that it erodes half their face and chest off, looking not dissimilar to Geras shoving his opponent into fast-moving sandpaper and grinding them down while also practically taking a few pages from Kabal's "Road Rash" Fatality in MK11. And for the coup de grace, he obliterates their upper body by smashing them into the ground.
  • For players who were disappointed that Geras never used his time powers in a fatality in 11, his second fatality delivers. It starts with Geras reaching through a portal behind him to rip off someone's head to smack the opponent in the jaw with it, de-jawing them in the process. He then hands the opponent what he whacked them with — with a horror sting playing with the reveal it was their own head. They have a moment to react before a portal opens up behind them with the past Geras to tear off their head to continue the cycle.
• Havik rips his own heart out and replaces his victim's heart with it. As the corrupting energy in his heart begins to necrose his victim's flesh, he crushes their heart, causing his own to explode like a grenade!
  • His second fatality consists of him repeatedly stabbing the poor bastard with his own broken bones, before slicing down through their torso until their intestines spill out. In a game with such over-the-top, gory fatalities, his stands out starkly from them just through sheer bluntness.
• Johnny Cage's first Fatality has him mugging for his stream viewers with his victim-to-be. Then he slams their head into a Hollywood Walk of Fame-esque plaque, leaving the front half of their skull where a celebrity's hand prints would usually go before pulling them back and taking a selfie with their victim, the back half of their skull visible and looking unsettlingly like an MRI scan of the brain.
• Kano's Kameo Fatality is his klassic Heart Rip.
• Kenshi's first Fatality has him psychically hold his victim in midair before spinning Sento like a drill, driving it down their throat, then flipping them upside down, with the victim's blended innards spilling out of their mouth, before his Fighting Spirit finishes the job by cleaving them down the middle of their body. The look of terror on his victim's face at the start really drives home the fear factor.
• Kitana's first Fatality has her weaponizing her fans, having them spin at high enough speeds that their winds suspend her victim in the air before bringing them together, shredding her hapless foe in the process.
  • Her second "Kiss of Death" fatality is a sickeningly re-imagined version of Sonya's Kiss of Death fatality from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance; it starts off with a kiss that causes the poor opponent's skin to start melting off, which causes them to vomit at full force, all while their flesh falls off until they're an unrecognizable skeletal mess.
• Kung Lao's first Fatality has him slice through his victim with his hat, before cutting through their knees, then decapitating them, and finally bisecting them. There Is No Kill Like Overkill!
  • His second Fatality doesn't skimp on the brutality: after tossing his hat into the air, he grabs his victim's arms, jumps over and behind them, and snaps their arms like twigs. Then the hat comes back down, painfully slicing his victim in twain with them screaming in agony the whole time before he rips them in half and slams the two halves together.
• Liu Kang's "Double Dragon" Fatality is both a mixture of awesome and terrifying. He summons two elemental dragons, one red and one blue, that lift his victim up into the air by savaging their arms as if they were two dogs engaged in tug of war over a bone with the realistic graphics giving a clear view of the victim struggling in agonized pain all the while, before leaping up and bifurcating them down the middle with his right hand. Liu Kang doesn't just simply karate chop his victim in half either, he splits them in half by placing his palm on top of their head and shoving their skull through their entire body. And their head still SCREAMS in the process!.
  • His second Fatality is a real doozy. While Cetrion's "Good and Evil" Fatality from the previous game showed the terrifying power of an Elder God, Liu Kang's goes way beyond it. He shoves the opponent through a portal into outer space, creates a black hole with a snap of his fingers, and then holds the enemy at its event horizon as it rips off their skin, then their muscles and organs, then even their bones crumble to dust and get sucked away. Not only is this a horrible way to die, since his opponent can be heard wheezing a desperate attempt to scream in the vacuum of space as they're slowly torn apart, it really puts the "god" in "Fire God Liu Kang" in the most terrifying way possible.
• Mileena's first Fatality has her eating her opponent's head, starting with their brain (sucking the victim's eyes out in the process). This is easily one of Mileena's most gruesome finishers since her face-eating fatality from MKX.
• Nitara's first Fatality isn't pretty. It starts with Nitara rushing at her opponent and clawing their guts open, followed by her dragging the intestine, the victim included, into the air and, for the finale, yanks on the intestine and kicks the opponent away, with the still-attached intestine's force causing their entire skeleton to fall out.
  • In her second Fatality, she summons a flock of bats that fly into her victim's mouth! As they cause the loser's belly to swell and undulate unsettlingly, she then rips open their gut and liberates the bats (taking off the front half of their skull in the process).
• Quan Chi's reveal trailer shows how absolutely brutal his first fatality is. He summons five glass panels grouped together from the air and brings them down on his victim, spitting them into six pieces. The opponent lets out one last pained gasp before Quan Chi separates the panels, allowing it to look like some fucked-up art piece before he lets the glass disappear, and the pieces of his opponent fall.
  • His second fatality isn't any better. Quan Chi first throws an Energy Ball into the victim's mouth. This is followed by their eyes glowing green for a moment before they begin clawing their eyes and lower jaw out at the same time. Then Quan Chi forces them to rotate their head 180 degrees before ripping it off entirely. Quan Chi then takes the opponent's skull from them as if it was an offering, laughing as he does so.
• Raiden's first Fatality has him blasting his victim into the air, then blowing a hole through his opponent's torso with lightning. He follows up by flying through the hole, ripping them in two, then slamming the two halves together, causing their body to fall apart.
• Rain's first Fatality has him trapping his victim in a swirling column of water that spins so quickly that it skins them, staining the water with their blood and pulling off a few extremities. He then finishes by splitting the water column, and his victim, in two.
• Upon release, Reiko gained infamy for just how brutal his Fatalities are. While still a little over the top, the sheer cold brutality he uses to effortlessly tear his opponents to shreds has given many pause. For example, his first Fatality uses his spear to slice off his victim's arms and legs and prop the torso up, then grabs his victim by the ribcage and pulls down, separating the head from its neck.
  • His second fatality…Jesus Christ, talk about overkill to the extreme! To wit: he snaps his victim's forearms in half, shoves the bones in their forearms up their neck, turns their torso 180 degrees and snaps their spine, folds them in half, then reaches into the newly-formed hole in their abdomen and rips out his victim's spine and skull! The kicker is that he doesn't take the flesh off with the skull, so you are treated to an absolutely lovely view of the flesh of the loser's head and face drooping and sagging unnaturally! Holy shit, indeed!
• Reptile's first Fatality has him using his Chameleon Camouflage to vanish. Then he bites down on his victim's torso and swallows them whole. If it ended there, it would be surprising enough, but then he regurgitates his victim, sans lower torso and still covered in digestive acids that are melting their flesh off before finally crushing their head!
  • His second fatality is a twist on his classic "head eating" fatality from the old games: when he lashes his tongue around his victim's neck, it produces acid that melts their hands when they try to pull it off. Once the head pops off, Reptile chomps down on it with a mighty "CRUNCH!"
• Scorpion's first Fatality has him launch his victim into the air, then launch two spears which pierce his victim's chest, then circle around and pierce their skull (taking out the eyes as well) before pulling the skull off and through the victim's body, shouting "COME HERE!" for good measure.
  • His second Fatality pays homage to one of his Mortal Kombat 3 Fatalities by having him summon clones to assist him. The victim gets a blade stabbed through their chest and out their back, an axe swung deep into their skull, is torched by fire breath, and finally has the entire upper half of their skeleton kicked out, weapons still lodged in the bones.
• Shang Tsung's first Fatality has him taking some pages from Alien by throwing his victim on a table, ripping open their torso with his new Wolverine Claws, then, with a frightening sadistic glee, pouring a boiling glowing green liquid into the wound. It appears to be a flesh-eating acid at first, but then a serpent emerges from the liquid! That serpent finishes the loser off by chowing down on their brain.
  • In his second Fatality, he stabs his victim in the neck before pouring a glowing yellow potion down their open mouth, then slashes their belly and spills the molten contents out into a puddle that melts his victim!
• Sindel's Fatality is royally brutal. First, her hair snaps the opponent's arms the wrong way, followed by ripping them out of their shoulder sockets and jamming said hair into the now-vacant sockets. Propping them up, she taunts them before reaching into their throat and ripping out their spinal cord, their skull still attached (all in true Sub-Zero fashion), before discarding the corpse as she walks off with her trophy and laughs maniacally. She may be back on the side of good in this timeline, but the message is clear: do not fuck with the Empress of Outworld.
  • Her second Fatality is also extremely bad, as she uses her super scream on the opponent as part of their skin is flayed off while blood comes from their ears, falling to their knees and eyes pop out, and finally she releases one final scream as the opponent is reduced to a skeleton.
• Smoke's first Fatality has him slicing off his victim's arms with his dagger before stabbing them in the throat and shoving a live smoke grenade down their mouth, which then blows their jaw off.
• Sub-Zero's first Fatality takes a page from Ninja Scroll by creating a massive icy boomerang that horizontally bisects his enemy, then roundhouses them so their upper torso turns 180 degrees in time for the returning boomerang to bury itself in the victim's skull. Whereupon, as the body slumps over, the viewer is treated to a lovely view of their face slackening as a brief clump of blood vomits from limp jaws before the upper body topples off entirely in a stream of entrails. The entire Fatality is made all the more disturbing by the lack of a campy or over the top finale: no cartoony firehose of High-Pressure Blood or still screaming decapitated head, the victim just goes slack and dies. And the audience gets a clear view of their life leaving their photorealistic eyes.
  • His second fatality is no slouch either. After conjuring up a wall of ice, Sub-Zero grabs the opponent by the head and starts bashing it against the wall. With the ice being transparent, viewers get a very good look at the flesh peeling off with each slam, until eventually, he slams hard enough to leave the brain splattered on his ice wall.
  • His Kameo self's Kameo Fatality is his iconic Spine Rip, this time starting with Subs freezing his opponent's neck before pulling off the skull and spine.
• Tanya's "Helping Hands" fatality involves her decapitating her opponent by shoving her staff down their throat, with her spectral hands helping pull out the staff, opponent's head and spinal column out of their neck.
• Tremor's Kameo fatality is both darkly humorous due to the massive size of the boulder he rolls at his victim, and still disturbing because of the grisly sight of flesh and viscera left over after they're Squashed Flat.
• Omni-Man's Official First Look teaser shows his Fatalities, which are pulled straight from Invincible. In one, he slowly crushes his opponent's skull between his hands until its gives way in a bloody explosion, similar to how he murdered Red Rush. In the other, he grabs his opponent and holds them in front of an oncoming subway train, pummeling them against hard steel and the bodies of countless innocent people as they're reduced to just their upper half, similar to how he tortured his own son, Mark, during their fight.
  • The full trailer for Omni-Man demonstrates just why his train fatality is bad news for whoever is on the receiving end: the only reason Mark survives it is because of his Viltrumite physiology. Take that away, and the end result is at least as deadly and grisly for the victim as it is the poor civilians on the train, and more drawn out!
  • The full version of his head crushing fatality is NOT a pretty sight. Omni-Man grabs onto their head and starts slowly crushing it (with an eyeball popping out) to the point where it turns purple before ripping it off, using it to slice the rest of the body down, and finally crushing it underfoot. Red Rush suffered a gruesome fate with the head crushing alone, but it wasn't THIS torturous!
  • Omni-Man's victory animation if he doesn't perform his fatality, as seen in his gameplay trailer, has him hold an enormous piece of the Earth. Remember what he did to the Flaxans? He even keeps holding it when the animation ends.
    Omni-Man: The realms are mine! (Chuckles evilly)
• Peacemaker's First Fatality reveals that his opponent is infected with a Butterfly. That means they're able to take over any member of the cast, up to and including Fire God Liu Kang or Omni-Man.
• Ermac's first fatality, where in a manner that can only be described as playful, has him suspend his opponent in the air, then he severs his victim's hands and feet while spinning them in a circle of their own blood, then severs their limbs at the base before settling on swapping their hands with their feet, then squashes them into a ball of meat with their new mismatched limbs and head sticking out, not unlike the meat cube created by Triborg's Death Machine fatality from MKX, as the victim splatters onto the ground with one final death rattle. "Bonus points" for the disturbing manner in which the victim-meatball deforms as it settles into a mound of flesh on the ground.
  • His second fatality isn't as brutal, but makes up for it by how disturbing it is. Ermac starts it off by pushing the opponent's soul out of their body, before ripping their soulless body in half. Ermac doesn't stop there, of course, as he walks up to the soul of the deceased opponent and begins to absorb them (with an incredibly disturbing face even). The opponent's soul has barely enough time to escape before they're ultimately part of The Collective.
• The seasonal Fatalities, which can be performed by anyone, can be this to some degree.
  • The Halloween Fatality serves as a Shout-Out to Halloween III: Season of the Witch. It has the character force a pumpkin onto the opponent's head... at which point, several bugs crawl out of the pumpkin while the opponent tries to wipe them off before falling to the ground. The character who performed the fatality then kicks the opponent's head, sending it flying into the front door of someone's house. All that's left is a stain of the opponent's blood on the door and their head inside the broken open pumpkin as bugs crawl around it.
  • The Thanksgiving Fatality involves the character performing the fatality preparing an entire feast for the opponent right before slamming their face into the rim of the table, unhinging their jawline. Then the character starts Force Feeding the opponent, starting with the green bean casserole before moving on to feeding them an entire pumpkin pie and turkey to the point that their stomach inflates. This is capped off with the character forcing the opponent onto the ground on their back and jumping on their stomach so hard that, not only does the opponent vomit excessively, but their eyes pop out and the top of their head bursts open.
  • The Christmas Fatality has the winner smashing the opponent to the ground with a candy cane before using the broken Improvised Weapon to nail them to ground - and then General Shao dressed as Krampus runs over the victim with his reindeer, before decapitating them on the blade of his sleigh and catching the head in the basket. We then see him flying off in the distance and our opponent's corpse laying on the ground.

Brutalities

• One of Shang Tsung's brutalities is so horrific it actually goes into new territory for finishing moves in this series. The sorcerer injects his opponent with a vial that quickly melts off all of their skin, which isn't anything too out of the ordinary initially… except the victim is still alive after this, and is in such horrific agony they snap their own neck to stop the pain. That's right; there's no Psychic-Assisted Suicide. For the first time in the series, the victim of a finisher is so badly mutilated, they actually directly kill themselves of their own free will rather than continue living in that state.

Gameplay

• The Quitality animation for this game. This time, there's no comical random head explosion like in X or one of Tremor's rock spikes suddenly appearing out of nowhere to impale the opponent through their rear like in 11. No, if the opponent quits this time, their character just straight-up does a Hara-Kiri, snapping their own neck as they choke to death and fall limply to the floor.
• Goro's portion of the Fatal Blow entails him dislocating his opponent's shoulders. The X-ray depiction of this dislocation makes it all the more painful to behold.
• Sindel's Fatal Blow has her use her prehensile hair to dislocate her victim's femurs from their hips by making them do a split. OUCH!
• Havik's still the same walking Body Horror that he was in Deception and Armageddon. He rips off his own arms so casually as part of his intro and his general moveset, breaks his own neck to fire a projectile at his opponent, and his approaching pummel has him tear himself in half as he lands blows on his opponent. It makes you wonder if a Fatality would actually do anything to him.
  • Havik's penchant for self-mutilation is accentuated with a gruesome Fatal Blow. He first rips off his arm to stun his opponent and after his Kameo partner is finished, he pounces on them and ferociously pummels their head with such force that he basically smashes his hands into bloody mush off the opponent's skull before stabbing them in the sides of their head with the protruding bones that remain on his arms.
• Remember when Omni-Man beat his son, Mark, within an inch of his life at the end of the first season of Invincible? This wonderful moment is lovingly recreated in MK1 as Omni-Man's Fatal Blow.

Intros

• The Mirror Match dialogues for Liu Kang reveal that one of them was tricked into killing his Kitana by an evil clown. That's right: The Joker is still at large in the realms and even restarting history from the very beginning - with a conscious effort to prevent the rise of the most dangerous villains from the old timelines at that—was not enough to be rid of him.
  • This is made worse after The Reveal in story mode: not only did time fracture enough for Joker to survive but there could now be Joker hybrids of kombatants not unlike the infected people seen in Batman: Arkham Knight. Anybody could be the Monster Clown now. Jokerized Ninja Mime, anyone?
  • It's even confirmed later through one of Peacemaker's dialogues with Liu Kang that The Joker has indeed marked his presence on this timeline (which begs the question whether it's the original or Leto's Joker this time), and he's still as bad as before.
• Mileena's defending intro has her removing her mask after succumbing to Tarkat… and a pretty sight it's NOT. It's easily Mileena at her scariest to date with a thin, needle-like tongue and her already frightening maw of teeth accompanied by mandibles not unlike that of the Predator or the Reapers from Blade II!
• Both of Havik's intro animations make good use of his ability to heal at an incredible rate. In the attacking intro he tears his arm off to knock the opponent away before casually tossing it to the side and growing a new one from the bleeding stump while in the defending intro his opponent manages to hit him hard enough to split his torso open, tearing his ribcage and causing his intestines to spill out... which he proceeds to nonchalantly shove back into the gaping wound.
• This is NOT how you want someone to address your credentials as a god:
  Liu Kang: You have destroyed worlds. I have erased whole timelines!
  Omni-Man: Finally, a worthy challenge!
• Omni-Man's post-banter animations are disturbingly subdued in comparison to most other kombatants. As shown in his trailers when he's the attacker he merely folds his arms and chuckles as if thinking to himself, "They think they can beat me? That's cute." Conversely, as shown in a Kombat Kast stream when he's the defender he grimaces at his opponent as if thinking to himself, "They think they can beat me? How dare they!"
• One instance of dialogue between Bi-Han and General Shao has the former mention a new subordinate of his to which the latter warns that she looks to surpass her teacher. Sounds like Frost.
• Kenshi mentions having found new allies in the war against his clan's masters the yakuza by metaphorically fighting fire with fire only to be warned about them. That's right: the Black Dragon led by none other than Kano! We can only presume Kabal and the others are still at his side in this timeline.
  • Dialogue between Kenshi and Liu Kang has the latter confirming them to be as villainous as ever.
  • An intro between Liu Kang and Li Mei expands on this by having the former state they've gained access to Outworld.
• In a clash with Reiko, Mileena mentions giving General Shao’s position to Kotal — as in Kotal Kahn, the Osh-Tekk leader prone to Fury-Fueled Foolishness! Hopefully Liu Kang doesn’t end up on the wrong side of his anger as Raiden once did…

Story Mode

• The game doesn't shy away from showing how some characters get their signature permanent injuries.
• Losing battles in the story will bring up textboxes explaining what happens shortly after the character you're playing as loses the fight. Some are mundane descriptions of your character succumbing to their wounds and dying shortly after while in other cases we get lovely scenarios.
• Prologue:
  • Shang Tsung returns. How in the Netherrealm was he able to do that?! He was erased from existence by Liu Kang, who had become a god that could remake the universe but he still manages to defy reality. Then the answer is provided: Shang Tsung was demoted to a lowly Snake Oil Salesman; however, he has an encounter with a mysterious hooded figure who bears an uncanny resemblance to another enemy from a past timeline… Kronika! After the hooded figure offers to "put the realms at [his] feet", the camera closes in on Shang Tsung giving a terrifying Slasher Smile, reminding us he's still a psychopath that should not have any sort of power.
• Chapter 2: Mr. A-Lister:
  • While it was eventually revealed to be all part of the show the sight of Illinois!Johnny's friend being thrown into toxic mercury with his screaming and the bones (actually props) appearing in place of flesh is sold disturbingly well.
• Chapter 4: Secrets and Lies:
  • As told by Baraka, those infected by Tarkat will slowly turn into grotesque cannibals. The only way out for the "Tarkatans" now is death.
  Baraka: We are victims of Tarkat. It disfigures, then debilitates. In time, it will turn us all into bloodthirsty monsters. Death is our only release.
  • If Kenshi loses against Mileena players are given a description of his corpse being stripped to the bone by her.
  • Kenshi having his eyes stabbed by Mileena's sais when her Tarkat affliction drives her into a frenzy (complete with Vic Chao giving a realistic, bloodcurdling scream of agony as this happens).
• Chapter 5: Weird Science:
  • Shang Tsung's true laboratory the Flesh Pits is one of the most disgusting places to ever exist across The Multiverse, being a dungeon full of gore and the victims of his experiments - many of whom are still alive and riddled with Body Horror.
  • If Baraka loses against Syzoth players get a description of the brutal experimentation he's subjected to at Shang Tsung's hands.
  Recaptured by Shang Tsung's minions, Baraka knew that his fate was sealed. He prayed for Argus's mercy as he was thrown into Shang Tsung's vivisection chamber.
• Chapter 6: Upward Climb:
  • The Soulnados. Quan Chi begins siphoning the souls of the Living Forest in order to test his soul stealers, creating one as a result. Said creations begin to take the life out of it, leading to the area becoming the Corrupted Forest. The first Soulnado seen is the one that creates Ermac.
  • Quan Chi's appearance changing to his current one due to a soul from a destroyed Soulnado attacking him.
• Chapter 7: Narrow Escape:
  • If Syzoth loses a fight he and the Earthrealmers are punished. The punishment depends on who defeats Syzoth:
• Vs. Li Mei: After his capture Syzoth's taken to the Lower Mines to spend the rest of his days in forced labor.
• Vs. Kitana or Tanya: The Earthrealmers and Syzoth are punished severely for their transgressions by being forced to live among the Tarkatans.
• Vs. General Shao''': Syzoth and the Earthrealmers are captured and thrown in prison to never be heard from again.
• Chapter 9: Civil War:
  • The chapter contains a Test Your Might minigame with two nightmarish outcomes:
    • If Scorpion wins (the intended outcome) Havik gets his face burned off from Scorpion dunking it into a pool of molten metal.
    • If Havik and Darrius win they sink Scorpion's face into the molten metal with Havik letting out a slight chuckle.
  • Scorpion's eye scar being caused by Sub-Zero at the end of the chapter.
• Chapter 11: For the Empire:
  • At the beginning of the chapter all the named characters at that point in Outworld^note Sindel, Li Mei, Kitana, Mileena, Tanya and Liu Kang (who was told by the surviving Earthrealmers and Outworlders at the end of Chapter 7 what the place looks like) get to know the Flesh Pits. Sindel's reaction is one of visible disgust and horror.
• Chapter 12: Queen's Gambit:
  • If Mileena loses against Ermac players are told that that her soul is absorbed by the construct, overwhelmed and finally driven insane.
  • The Reveal: "Kronika", who also used the familiar name Damashi was actually an alternate Shang Tsung... namely the version who actually won his 11 ending and rules as an all-powerful Physical God. Why is he messing with the New Era? No actual reason. He just learned there's a version of reality where the man who's been a thorn in his side no matter what beat him again. He intends to take over other timelines but wants Liu Kang's timeline to suffer specifically just because. Shang Tsung was somehow always a Complete Monster - but this version of him is borderline The Omnipotent and spiteful enough he'll commit beyond-universal genocide for the sake of revenge.
• Chapter 13: Deadly Alliance:
  • Shao Kahn, the Wrath Hammer-wielding Multiversal Conqueror is back! And at the orders of Shang Tsung! And how's he introduced? By reciting a portion of his 9 speech. How do we know it's Shao Kahn and not a twisted General Shao aside from his hammer? Because when you fight him as Shang Tsung/Quan Chi the interface outright mentions him by that specific name.
  Shao Kahn: Our venom spreads. It is the end of all things... ARMAGEDDON!
• Chapter 14: Time of Death:
  • The ultimate goal of Titan!Shang Tsung, AKA the Shang Tsung from the Downer Ending of 11: Aftermath happens to be Evil Is Petty taken to the Logical Extreme. Unable to accept a timeline where he doesn't win he pulls a Xanatos Gambit to recreate Armageddon and destroy the New Era.
• Chapter 15: Armageddon:
  • Losing any fight has the game describe how Shang Tsung forces all of reality to bend under his rule.
• Post-story:
  • The Stinger shows a Titan!Havik amongst other multiversal kombatants lamenting that the multiversal Armageddon is over and vowing to not only recreate it again but make sure the next one never ends.

Arcade Tower Endings

• Nitara's ending: After Quan Chi's plot fails, she knows her people will starve if they don't find new beings to feed them. Facing banishment by the Vaeternian Coven for advocating the alliance, Nitara realizes she doesn't need to conquer realms but instead capture enough beings to breed, allowing Vaeternus a limitless source of food. All she needs is a few thousand to start - a number so small compared to the billions occupying the collective realms that no one will notice them gone.
• Havik and Rain's endings share the same story: Rain allies with Havik for sanctuary in exchange for help in toppling Orderrealm's government. Rain uses his hydromancy to create a tidal wave so large and powerful it wipes out Seido and its capital, killing thousands in the process at minimum. While Havik revels in finally achieving his goal of tearing down the government he despised, Rain on the other hand is horrified by his actions. He then decides to turn himself in to Mileena in the hopes of one day being absolved.
  • Worse still one of Havik's pre-fight intros with Rain sees him ask And Then What? after Seido's destruction. Havik answers he's going to start over and rename it Chaosrealm.
• Sub-Zero's ending: Bi-Han realizes acquiring new territories will take more force than the Lin Kuei possesses. While considering the Dragon Army created by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, he knows doing so would draw Liu Kang's attention. Sektor suggests science as an alternative course of action. Bi-Han begins overseeing what can only be described as the return of the Cyber Lin Kuei in Fire God!Liu Kang's New Era.
• Shang Tsung's ending: After escaping Lei Chin Prison, Shang Tsung hopes to evade the pursing police by returning to the remote canton of his youth. To do this, he travels by sea. On the journey, his boat is destroyed by the vicious storm. Shang Tsung closes his eyes, preparing for the end to come. When he opens them, he instead finds himself on a deserted island. Exploring the ruins, he learns that powerful sorcerers once lived there and finds what can only be described as a Well of Souls. He makes this island his new base of operations, seeking to learn the power hidden on the island in hopes of becoming invincible.
• General Shao's ending states that after busting out of Lei Chin and evading recapture alongside Reiko and the other conspirators he found plenty who were left disgruntled by Outworld's "golden age" and are now even angrier at Mileena taking control rather than Kitana. It seems as though the royal family's going to have a Civil War full of insurgents and uprisings to deal with soon.
  • Despite this, Reiko's ending shows Shao's forces are too depleted and new recruits too inept at soldiering to face the royal family's forces head-on so they choose a new tactic: a Godzilla Threshold in the form of ONAGA! Reiko's mission is to travel to the mountain where the Dragon King was imprisoned by Shao's ancestors and attempt to take control of him. Although it seems impossible should Reiko succeed, the realms will be in great danger.
    • Pre-fight intros with Shao suggest Reiko has actually succeeded.
• Reptile's ending: In thanks for helping stop Shao's rebellion, Syzoth is made an emissary to the Zaterrans and welcomed back by his people. Sounds all well and good, right? In reality however, Zaterra was hiding a Dark Secret: Thanks to records he found it turns out the ability to shapeshift isn't as unique as he thought with it being something many Zaterrans are naturally born with. But the Zaterran government has a policy that ensures the ability wouldn't spread amongst their people by killing those who possessed it. Whoever made the policy as well as whoever's currently enforcing it are both unknown. Nevertheless Syzoth is rightfully horrified once he finds out.
  • A pre-fight intro with Sindel has her state she was genuinely unaware of this occurring, even swearing on the soul of her late husband Jerrod.
• Omni-Man's (thankfully non-canon) ending is this on multiple levels.
  • First he draws the Viltrumite Empire to Fire God!Liu Kang's timeline after killing Titan!Shang Tsung. No one and nothing can stand up to the sheer might of the Viltrumites - not even the Elder Gods or possibly the other Titans and the One Being. Omni-Man helps lead his people in a crusade across timelines, slaughtering and subjugating every Realm in their path.
  • But on the other hand he did this to try and make up for his failure in conquering the Earth of his timeline. Since Viltrumites have long memories, he knows it's only a matter of time before the Empire remembers and turns their sights back on his home reality, meaning he'll have to face his son Mark/Invincible once more. He dreads the idea of having to fight his son for real and can only pray he's ready when the time comes.
• Quan Chi's ending: Quan Chi laments how he's alone with no allies, benefactors or path back to power. He now craves power more than ever before, believing himself more worthy of the powers of the Keeper of Time than anyone else. As he begins his search for the Hourglass, he further masters the dark magic necessary in achieving his objective. Much like how Liu Kang took Raiden's mantle as Protector of Earthrealm in the New Era, Quan Chi is set to take Shinnok's as The Dark Lord.

Other

• Shang Tsung's displayed kills in the Announcement trailer don't skimp on the Gorn: he slashes Scorpion's throat before punching a hole through his skull, snaps Mileena's neck, crushes Sub-Zero's head underfoot, gouges out Kitana's eyes, and shrivels up Kung Lao's body while sucking out his soul, before smashing his skull against the ground.
  • The comeuppance Shang Tsung receives in form of Liu Kang's "Double Dragon" Fatality mentioned further above, as well as the latter's line before it, is goddamn awesome and pretty frightening. You do NOT want to fuck with the God of Fire.
  Liu Kang: You have chosen to defy peace... (eyes start glowing) Then you have chosen WAR with a GOD.
• The Kombat Pack trailer reveals not only the return of Quan Chi and Ermac, but now the Realms will have to Beware the Superman twice over with the arrival of Omni-Man, the brutal Viltrumite conqueror, and the only man in the sky, Homelander, the unhinged Psychopathic Manchild who can do - in his own words - "whatever the fuck he wants". Thought Regime Superman was bad? Meet the guy who doesn't even have that excuse!
• The opening cutscene for Season One: The Spectre in Invasion mode ain't a happy note to start on: not dissimilar to Hanzo Hasashi's ladder ending in MK11^note Scorpion's MK11 ending reveals that Kronika had conspired to have his family killed in every possible timeline, this Scorpion has gone timeline-hopping in the hopes of finding, saving and reuniting with his wife Harumi, only to arrive too late to save her from death every time. The good news: in Liu Kang's New Era, Harumi is still alive! The bad news: she's wed to the New Era's Scorpion, Kuai Liang! Upon discovering this, the other Scorpion snaps, vowing to burn this New Era to ash in revenge! Liu Kang's chilling tone as he narrates says it all:
  Liu Kang: If he cannot have Harumi... no one will...
• There is a limited edition skin for Scorpion that gives him his Deadly Alliance alternate costume, complete with the ever-burning head. However, the game designers made the burning head look horrifying: instead of a flaming skull, he has a horrifically burnt, charred and lipless head with blank white eyes, clearly visible among the flames.
• Season 2 of Invasion, titled Blood Moon, features a Nitara from a different timeline where Vampires rule descending upon the current timeline with a legion of Vaeternians from other realms, seeking to kill, feast and enslave upon all in their path.
  Liu Kang: If they are not vanquished, they will enslave all beings to Vaeternus...

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