Bah, before Shang Tsung Bang Bang fatality being revealed, I was really thinking that this game was supposed to be "free" from any kind of previous "crazy weird out of place nonsense" stuff, but, after seeing that NRS opted to put Joker homage as Fatality for Shang Tsung, instead of classic soul steal, at the first moment, I was angry, sayin "F-you Nrs and Ed Boon ..... why couldn't you resist to do such prankster stuff this time, hum ?"
But, later, I was not worrying anymore, and accepted that as "Ed Boon's moment of fun" inside the game ..... and get used with that stuff, despite still does not fit MK ....... hehe. I did not allow that to hurt my experience with the game.
Same stuff with Johnny Cage Oscar Winning fatality : it's a waste of opportunity to have that instead of a better fatality, but, you can get used and just accept that ........ more or less as "OK, Ed, you did the game 90% fan service and pretty good, I forgive your childish desires floating around in the others 10%, so, I'm OK with your inside jokes put in this game ....."
When Babalities were revealed first time, I was not even worried about anymore, hehe .....
So, who survived that, can deal pretty OK with Freddy Krueger in this game. Sometimes we take this game too much serious, so, a guest character , for stress relief time and play for fun, it's a necessary evil, and, it's not enough to make you , all of sudden, hate the game that you once learned to enjoy, hehe XD
