Shujinko first meets Kenshi when he (Shujinko) is a teenager, and Kenshi is already a grown man who has wandered the realms, become a powerful warrior, and been tricked by Shang Tsung.
Shujinko next meets Kenshi when he is in his forties or fifties, just in time for the MK1 tournament. That should make Kenshi at least fifty years old during MK1, but we can see in MK9 and MKX that that is very clearly not the case.
I'm happy to dismiss it as just some shitty writing, but I'm also perfectly fine with MK:L using it to add depth to Kenshi.
You're focusing too much on your own expectations, and not giving any consideration to practical realities. Kevin Tancharoen can't just do whatever he wants. He has a limited budget with which to film his series. He has a limited number of episodes in which to tell his story. And he has to contend with the limitations of his actors - for example, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is getting on in years and he can still deliver the dramatic performances just fine, but he's probably not gonna be able to fight anyone.
Kenshi needs to have a fight. This fight needs to be dramatic. Look at the other fights: Kitana vs Mileena, Liu Kang vs Stryker/Johnny Cage/Kung Lao, Scorpion vs Sub-Zero, all these characters either have backstories that pit them against each other, or the circumstances on the show are very compelling. Who else but Shang Tsung is there? Kenshi's not the main character the way Johnny Cage/Liu Kang are, so there isn't time to do an elaborate 4 episode arc for him in a season that's less than 10 episodes long. His backstory had to efficiently tie in to his battle in the tournament. Ermac makes as much sense as anyone - he's ageless.
You might argue that the choices Kevin made aren't ideal - although I prefer his Kenshi to NRS's - but you should still be able to see why he felt compelled to make them.
If you wanna complain about something, how about Ermac's atrocious costume, and the fact that we saw the same fight in 5 different episodes, which is time that could have been spent developing the characters or the plot.
I can still complain about that and the lazy plots.
Serioulsy, if you wanna do something, do it complete.
Don't have budget to do a decent MK shortmovie/movie? Just don't do it.
I really don't care about these directors. They are feed by us. So, I'm focusing on expectations of the original story.
We have many idiocit plots today exactly because of that: the guy that knows nothing of something wants to improve something. And starts creating a lot of BS. MK Annihilation is no different, despite being far worse than MK:L (which was pretty interesting to watch).
I mean, they wanted to bring Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, right?
They know many of us love him, how iconic he is, that he is popular, would make many people watch, but they do know the sacrifice they had to do to have him. And they should deal with their choices.
Movie Shang tsung is there. Many views. Money from clicks. But what about a consistent story?
Instead of putting that pile of mud they called Ermac fighting Kenshi, they could easily use a young Shang Tsung (not dismissing Mr. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, for Elder Gods sake! :laugh: ), as they used on Season 1 (not necessarily the same, that guy was extremely young, but, he can morph into anyone, so who cares?), and make him fight.
Or, despite the fact that MK:L Kenshi was pretty cool (really looked like the original), was he really necessary?
Was his distorted plot really important? He didn't even need to fight Shang Tsung if the actor's age is the problem, just make the original plot and then put him fighting anyone there that would be a good match (even Ermac would be cool, if he wasn't...you know). Season 3 is there for it, they screwed up everything, Shang Tsung could wait.
Otherwise, once again, despite his cool role, it was unnecessary to kill the original plot to make some BS.
They put Stryker. Was he really necessary? On MK1? Doing nothing, except having his ass kicked just to be saved?
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Look at Sektor and Cyrax episode. IMO it was one of the best.
Fine plot, more faithful than anything, nice effects, nice fights.
Space for director creativity-BS? Yes. They killed Hydro (no one cares) and they put Kano (RIP) as involved. Not original, but still interesting.
They should fill holes but keep faithful to the main plot, that's what I think, if you ask. And that's the problem with MK:L, with MKX Comics...they just can't stand filling holes in a game that has MANY dead ends, lots of interesting things to address, but they wanna make their story, and they mess up everything, then people start confusing canon (hundreds of years old characters is as BS-fictional-fan made as MK: Annihilation), and everytime something must be affirmed, etc.
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About the Deception, the game didn't depict anyone with different skins.
Shujinko has that little issue on Chaosrealm about ages.
Travelling between the realms, on that game, implies time differences.
Raiden asks Shujinko for help to strike the Deadly Alliance, and our hero goes to Orderrealm (prision), and stays there for decades, but when he comes back, Raiden has just attacked the Deadly Alliance on Deception's intro events.
Time is relative, and the game got messed sometimes because of the time of the choices.
showed more than MK1.
