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!!!