I get why Liu Kang was the protagonist in the first Mortal Kombat game because the whole thing was a riff on Big Trouble in little china with aspects of other martial arts films like Enter the Dragon and such...but now more than ever him being pushed as the defacto protagonist is just so goddamn head scratching. Why, in this martial arts freakshow of a violence fest is such a borring goody goody buddhist monk the main character? He didn't even have a fatality in the first game for gods sake?
Nobody outside of hardcore MK fans shows up for the fucking "chosen one's" story. They come out for Scorpion and SubZero! Those are by far the most iconic and interesting characters in this franchise and every MK property that has leaned into making them the center of the mythology has been infinitely better for it! Just look at the last fucking MK movie. It was mid at best, but show me the person who didn't get hype when Scorpion and Subzero where on screen tearing shit up!
Fuck the chosen one defender of the realm shit! Check out the animated mortal kombat legends movie starring scorpion. The whole Outworld/Earthrealm conflict is infinitely more interesting when the protagonists are a spirit of vengeance and a borderline antisocial ice ninja that barely give a shit outside of their personal beef with each other. The literal fate of the universe hangs in the balance, but they got bigger priorities. That's fucking cool!!!
In one of the MK games a black character, upon winning and getting his wish granted, goes back in time and stops slavery. G*mers melted down over it because how dare you.
I wanna say that was Jax's ending from 10 (MKX)? I remember it being frustratingly underwhelming, like he just punches a slaveowner or catches his wrist while he tries to whip a slave or something, doesn't even punch a hole in his chest or rip his arms off.
Perhaps the same could be said of all fighting game series.
I havent bothered getting into it but some fighting games like Guilty Gear have absolute wild lore.
The coolest versions of Liu Kang were the zombie version in Deception, and the evil version in MKX, otherwise he's a generic white-meat baby-face. Also they should make an action game with Sub-Zero and / or Scorpion, like a modernized Shaolin Monks or whatever the game was with Liu Kang and Kung Lao.
Dude, I swear I've thought the exact same thing! Imagine something kinda in the vein of god of war but with a bit more emphasis on crowd control and hyper mobility. Scorpion could use the spear kinda like the chaos blades and alternate between using it like a rope dart and skewering and spinning people around. He could go skull face flame thrower just as a unique special rather than a one time fatality. Sub zero: freeze and smash left and right. Why is this not a goddamn thing?!!?
