I'm So Sick Of Kung Lao Getting 2nd Place Every Time. It's Gotten So Old. Imagine Being Destined To Always

I am not happy about Sektor and Cyrax's change from Cyborgs to power suits.

I am very excited for Khaos Reigns.

But I am not a fan of the redesign of Sektor and Cyrax.

I could care less that they changed their genders. But.... Jade, Sareena, Jataaka, Kia, Skarlet, Cassie & Jacqui and Khameleon were all right there.

I'm all for new interpretations of the characters, especially since this game is all about the multiverse, but MK1 has been building up to Countess Jade and Sareena has this great redesign that's wasted as a cameo.

Also? We have the perfect design from MK11 that they refused to let us play as and the new designs feel like a downgrade

And honestly MK9 did this better. Cyrax resisting automation while Sektor was fully prepared to lose his humanity to be a more efficient assassin. Cyrax gets his redemption in MK11(pointlessly killed because Ed didn't want us to play as him 🙃)

But we're doing this AGAIN for the sake of multiverse bullshit that I'm already tired of.

Also, if this is Sektor

Who the HELL is this from Sub-Zero's ending?

But what really bothers me is the change in design and going from Cyborgs to Iron Man Suits.

They took away all the depth and tragedy that came with the cyber initiative program and just made it....people in bodysuits...

So much for "gore is an important part of MK"…… Cyber Initiative was one of the biggest body horror elements of MK

It was such a traumatic event that left people scarred for life. The process of having no say in it then getting dismembered and replacing your body with machine was pure horror. Now it's just Iron Man army.

The main elephant in the room, the gender swapping, doesn’t really bother me. But taking away that fact that they’re cyborgs is mind boggling. That’s the main thing Sektor and Cyrax are known for!

It was such a terrifying and important moment in Lin Kuei history and really spoke to the lengths that Kuai Liang went to reform the Lin Kuei. It was one of the most scary and gruesome aspects of Mk, which is what mk is all about. I'm tried of these sterile and watered down versions of these characters.

If I'm being honest, storywise. The "new era" sucks in almost every way. There are good things like redeeming Sindel, Mileena being good and having a proper sisterly relationship with Kitana, Li Mei, Reptile and Ashrah. But everything else? No. Making Kuai Liang Scorpion was bafflingly stupid. Like why couldn't they just have the Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu be at peace? Liu Kang's new era amounted to changing but the same shit happens anyway.

It just tells the same beats over and over again. It would've been really cool if they actually told a new and different Mortal Kombat with actually different versions of the characters or entirely new characters altogether. But in every way it's just the old story but with at best slight, insignificant alterations and at worst alterations that fail to account for what made the old stuff actually cool and interesting. It should have actually did something with Liu Kang making The Great Kung Lao his champion and that should have resulted with a new story in an early era. But they refused to take risks.

fanart Liu Kang

I think it suits them

I love the fact that, even though Liu Kang changed a bit of everyone, either in personality or story or whatever, he DID leave Kung Lao as he was in his timeline. Because, that’s his best friend right there. His best man.

How can he bring himself to change something about Kung Lao? How can he bring himself to change his bestie? Kung Lao may not remember him, but Liu Kang does. He remembers. And leaving his friend as he remembers him, might be Liu Kang’s own way of grieving with the fact that the people he used to know, no longer exist.

Sure, there are other timelines where his friends are still alive. But as the Time Keeper, the God of Fire and the guardian of the Earthrealm, he can’t exactly go and visit them. The ones in his universe are the only ones he gets to see daily.

Yet only Geras and him remember.

just a baby girl at his core 💔

Ash/Rep

NEED to talk about the new Invincible episode and it being a heartbreaking display of how the manifestation of trauma can hold you back from accepting newfound happiness.

First off, such an interesting subversion to build Rex and Rae’s relationship around healing and trying to remedy their past trauma only for it to lead to them not actually starting a new path together because Rex is literally not ready to heal yet. I think because of how the season was going and Rex falling into the comic relief role I was expecting a more linear path to finding happiness, so him deliberately refusing to leave and start new because he’s resigned himself to a life of unhappiness is a much more tragic direction to take his character that I wasn’t expecting. Despite the fact that he’s grown a lot, he still isn’t someone that views a happier life as something attainable to him, and as long as he believes that he can’t actually heal with Rae.

And the fact that it’s literally that resignation that parallels Powerplex’s story. One of the first lines is his sister telling him “It’s the childhood we never got” while they’re watching her daughter play. Powerplex and his wife– they had a child but we see them resigning themselves to lives of revenge so much so that their own baby was robbed of the chance to ever have a childhood at all. In the end Powerplex was his own worst enemy even when the opportunities to focus on potential healing presented themselves.

Rae and Rex’s clashing resolves were due to the childhoods they never got to have. Rae’s speech about finally wanting to take a risk for herself and make her own decision to seek a better, happier life is a heartbreaking contrast to characters like Rex and the Duvall family.

Definitely one of my favorite episodes of this show

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

the hand is williams ❤️ click for full res