Special Forces: the new White Lotus

p.W

p.W

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There are between 6 and 8 confirmed Special Forces characters in MKX (depending on Takeda and Kung Jin). If Liu Kang goes bad, Kung Lao goes into exile, and Kung Jin joins SF, there will be only one White Lotus character in the game. This is basically unprecedented. There were always at least as many White Lotus as SF in MK, possibly excepting MK:DA which had low numbers for both.

It's clear that, at least for MKX, Special Forces has become the de facto good guy faction of the game.

Personally, I think this was absolutely inevitable. It reminds me of the situation with Batman's clothes. Back in the 60s and 70s, and even as late as TAS, you'd see him running all over the place dressed in tights. And then Frank Miller came along, and Chris Nolan came along, and they said "well, what if the bad guys aren't complete morons and they have weapons? And they don't always miss?"

batman_adam.jpg


And now Batman has armor plating in his suit. Because you can't tell a story like TDK with Batman wearing tights. Perhaps it's not so surprising that MKX, which is trying so much harder to look gritty and real, does the same for Mortal Kombat.

There is no tournament anymore. It's not enough for the White Lotus to train a couple of uber powerful warriors who can solo bumrush a tournament and claim the victory for Earthrealm even if everyone else dies (see: Great Kung Lao, Liu Kang). There's all out war - Netherrealm vs Earthrealm, Outworld civil war, and god only knows what else - and in war you need soldiers, you need gear, you need transportation, you need a coordinated, organized plan. You need a military. Those aren't things that a shaolin temple will ever be able to provide, so the transition we're seeing to a lot of characters being on the Special Forces doesn't strike me as a temporary one. I think we're looking at the new status quo moving forward.

It marks a pretty huge atmospheric shift in the MK franchise, but I think a welcome one.

What do you think? Was this inevitable? Does it make sense? Are there pitfalls that NRS needs to watch out for with their new gameplan?
 
MK was always about that Tournament. Its a huge change for the series indeed, but this already
started with MK9 or even earlier, imo. The announcements like "Finish Him!" and so on kind of
lose their meaning in a way, but for the sake of progress, logic and even atmosphere it was
inevitable. I liked the fact that most mortals had no idea whats happening, and just some
selected humans were chosen to fight in Mortal Kombat. I'm really looking forward to how the people
of Earthrealm react to whats going on in MKX.
 
Well said. I don't mind the transition. It's not as if we are dealing with a bunch of generic army guys, it's more like the Outworld Investigation Agency from DA. Employing Kenshi and potentially Cyrax, and any other warrior who desires to protect Earthrealm. Having the majority of good aligned characters unite under a single banner is not any different than having them all fall under Raiden's guidance imo.

Other factions such as the Lin Kuei, White Lotus, and Shira Ryu will always be around to keep it from becoming too black and white. I'm loving the direction and positively salivating at the thought of sinking my teeth into storymode.
 
I completely agree...
The tournament was just a springboard into the story and was only relevant in the first game. MK2 wasn't the real tournament and MK3 was about the invasion of Earthrealm. The story evolved, and the White Lotus society became obsolete.Since MK3, it's been about war. And of course that means the military guys will be all into that.

HOWEVER! Why would Earthrealm soldiers get all into a war that has nothing to do with Earthrealm at all? So far, MKX is about the civil war in Outworld, Kotal VS Mileena. Yes, we can see how they get involved in the comic, but that doesn't explain the bits of story we've seen from the game. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how they get interconnected.
 
theincubuslord said:
HOWEVER! Why would Earthrealm soldiers get all into a war that has nothing to do with Earthrealm at all? So far, MKX is about the civil war in Outworld, Kotal VS Mileena. Yes, we can see how they get involved in the comic, but that doesn't explain the bits of story we've seen from the game. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how they get interconnected.
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I can only imagine that Raiden and co. are rightfully terrified of what will happen once Shinnok escapes (presumably even worse things than the time they were able to lock him away). Kotal probably has no clue about the amulet at all, and Mileena probably wouldn't stop using it even if somebody told her. Maybe she'd break it on purpose just to see if Shinnok would help her get back in power.

So it makes sense to get Cassie's crew involved in an attempt to steal the amulet or something of that nature. Complications ensue, are not entirely overcome, and Johnny/Sonya/Jax/Kenshi/Kung Lao have to step in to help the youngins avert total unmitigated disaster.

Just speculation on my part, of course!
 
They threw the concept of the tournament out the window the moment they made MK2 or at least MK2 was an extension of the last tournament because Shao is a sore loser.

But I like the tournaments. I like the game more when the earthrealm fighters just think it's some exclusive best of the best martial arts tournament only to discover that it's the most important thing happening on earth. I kinda wish that it could have stayed that way.

This is also good too though. I mean, it's just a very minor complaint.
 
GloriousDK said:
They threw the concept of the tournament out the window the moment they made MK2 or at least MK2 was an extension of the last tournament because Shao is a sore loser.

But I like the tournaments. I like the game more when the earthrealm fighters just think it's some exclusive best of the best martial arts tournament only to discover that it's the most important thing happening on earth. I kinda wish that it could have stayed that way.

This is also good too though. I mean, it's just a very minor complaint.
Click to expand...

I get what you mean, there's a certain kind of mystique about tournaments that makes them very cool. There's a natural drama to the way they unfold, because some must lose for others to win. But I can understand why NRS moved away from that - how many different tournament stories can you tell, really? You can only do the "Johnny Cage and Sonya realize that the fate of the world is at stake" bit once, after that they know what's up, and the audience knows, so you have to come up with something new.
 
Given how the last game ended it was somewhat inevitable, for the most part. But I don't really mind. And I don't know why some people see it as a problem. I don't look at characters and throw them into one bag just cause they're from faction X and Y. I look at them individually. The way they should be looked at. Everyone is different and unique even if in the same faction.

Could members of other factions have gotten more space? Sure, absolutely. But would it have been possible while maintaining some continuity and sense? I kinda doubt it.

Maybe next game someone else, perhaps the Lotus dudes, will be the heroes.
 
Que* Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm theme song * :thrasher: every Earthrealm warrior needs a dragon jet and wristcom lol

I liked the traditional tournament idea , but if the story actually followed Liu Kang training for 500 years straight til the next tournament that would be very boring(plus everyone would be old as hell) . Let's thank Shao Kahn for being such a crybaby,the constant invasion of Earth is whats driving the story forward ,so the change is needed

I just wish everyone wasnt special forces. I preferred when the heroes were just Chosen warriors from all over (some monks,some magical, some human)
 
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Takeda is Shirai Ryu (no way he will deny his origins), Kung Jin is White Lotus, and I bet they are just working together.

It's funny because that's natural.

Special Forces was something turned exactly for this purpose, going out of it's true origins.

That's why the Outer World Investigation Agency came to life, they seem to forget that idea.

Anyway, that's what they should have done since MKII. You can't be just a guy who travels realms and searches for Sektor and s***.

And White Lotus, it has to join other Earthrrealm protection forces, because they were used to stick to the tournament, now, if they keep the same line of thought, they will be as idiots as the Elder Gods.

If we think, besides Special Forces, who else fought for Earthrrealm? Only White Lotus, they just joined forces because it would be extremely dumb to keep working like they didn't have a common goal.

The "Forces of Light" were too much talk, little action. It was like Raiden's buddies, but within them, no exact connection.
 
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