The Complete MORTAL KOMBAT Timeline Explained!

the Mortal Kombat franchise features one of the most dense and elaborate timelines in video game history the Epic fighting game series unfurls its melodramatic narrative across 13 games with a timeline that reboots itself not once but twice so how exactly does it all tie together well as it's quite a mad audacious timeline it's quite messy hence why I'm going to use this handy chalkboard to map it out and with Mortal Kombat 1 further expanding or resetting the timeline what better time to dive back into the Carnage that's with a K of course of this iconic fighting game franchise hey my name's Adam and this is the complete Mortal Kombat timeline fully explained [Music] all right okay so the Mortal Kombat timeline kicks off with well centuries worth of crucial backstory you see the fictional Universe of MK is made up of several Realms that are created and overseen by a group of celestial beings known as the Elder Gods while we'll visit plenty of these Realms across this timeline the majority of the chronology are set across earth realm which is basically akin to our good Blue Planet outworld a wart on place lorded over by the villainous Emperor Shao Khan the netherrealm which is basically the MK rendition of Hell the Realms of Chaos in order which sort of speak for themselves and finally adania which is a land of beauty and prosperity anyway as this is a fighting game these Realms are constantly at war with each other and as a result the Elder gods have decreed that any realm which wants to conquer another can do so via a long complex and elaborate series of 10 consecutive tournaments and this Divine red tape is known as the titular Mortal Kombat all of which brings me around to introducing a few of the franchise's key players Whose actions effectively kick-start the events of the original time line first there's Shinnok a former elder god who sets his sights on conquering Earth realm and for his troubles comes up against its anointed protector the God of Thunder Raiden Raiden beats seven sheets of hell out of the one-time God and strips him of his power before exiling him to the hellscapes of the netherrealm naturally Shinnok doesn't just sit around licking his wounds he builds his team for Revenge taking control of the realm with the help of his Lieutenant Quan Chi but with one bad egg out of the picture another seeks to take his place and this terrible lad is known as Shao Khan Shao Khan picks up where shinok left off and is far more successful in his invasion of earthrealm to the point where he and his Warriors have successfully knocked off nine out of the ten tournaments required for power and with the 10th tournament imminently taking place Earth Realms protector Raiden assembles a team of Warriors to make a Last Stand for the planet all of which leads us right into the very first game in the franchise but it's likely not what you'd expect [Music] Yep this timeline kicks off in Earnest with perhaps one of the worst games in the entire franchise yep the turgid spin-off Special Forces I'll keep this one mercifully brief as aside from being the first chronological appearance of U.S Army Major Jax Briggs the story is you could say quite slight in a nutshell Special Forces finds Jax hunting down a bad lad by the name of Kano who happens to be the crime lord of the black dragon Empire Kano Slaughters a whole load of Special Forces troops during a prison raid before escaping to the realm of outworld with Jack's hot in Pursuit Kano discovers a mythical McGovern that can transport the user between Realms but Jax beats him to the punch and nabs the artifact for himself which allows him to transport them both back to Earth realm where he dumps Kano in a nice cozy jail cell thank you but wait there is another spin-off that we need to get through before we can get to the prospect of that mouth-watering 10th mortal combat tournament and sadly this is another that could contend for the worst game in the franchise Mortal Combat mythologies Sub-Zero like Special Forces side steps away from the fighting genre into action adventure and gives some meaningful backstory to two of the franchise's most iconic Fighters one obviously is Sub-Zero and the other is his rival scorpion the pair first come face to face when the former is hired by shinok's old mate Kwan Chi to steal an old map guarded from a Shaolin Temple only unbeknownst to Sub-Zero scorpion has also been hired to recover the map and the pair fight to the death to get it resulting in Sub-Zero offing scorpion naturally a map leads to treasure and that's exactly where Subzero Heads next X does Mark the Spot and Sub-Zero discovers a power granting amulet that supposedly belonged to the disgraced God Shinnok Quan Chi swoops in at the last second though and takes the amulet for himself before bouncing back to his home in the netherrealm enter Earth's protector Raiden who's pretty pissed at Sub-Zero for handing something so powerful to a certified Roman and sends him on a mission to retrieve the amulet long story short Sub-Zero travels to the nether realm encounters and defeats his freshly deceased rival scorpion who's now an undead shadow of his former self and tracks The Amulet to Quan Chi's hellish Fortress there he defeats Quan Chi before encountering the big bad lad that is Shinnok who he escapes from in order to deliver the amulet back to Raiden all of this eventually leads to that 10th and final Mortal Kombat tournament though a tournament that Sub-Zero is quarterly invited to okay we're finally at the very first Mortal Kombat and the tournament to decide the fate of Earth realm but first and a little more backstory you see it turns out that there are a few more Romans knocking about the feed into Shao Khan's attempts to conquer Earth realm firstly there's Xiao Khan's right hand man the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung who's actually hosting the tournament and stacking the odds firmly in the favor of an outworld Victory and secondly there's his prized fighter Goro who's a forearmed warrior Behemoth that is reign supreme is the champion of the previous nine Mortal Kombat tournaments dating back for the last 500 years so you can sort of see the uphill battle faced by Raiden and his team of Earth realm Fighters Chief among Raiden's team is the Shaolin monk Liu Kang but the roster also includes narcissistic movie star Johnny Cage Special Forces agent Sonya Blade criminal mastermind Kano and of course Sub-Zero and the undead scorpion while you can choose any of the fighters to take Garo and Shang Tsung down a peg canonically it's Liu Kang who wins the tournament and is crown of the new Mortal Kombat grand champion and with an earth realm success in the final tournament outworld's takeover threat is extinguished which feels a little unfair seeing as they won the first nine tournaments but who am I to argue with the Elder gods [Music] right after a particularly chastening defeat in the 10th Mortal Kombat tourney on Earth realm Shang Tsung heads back to his home in outworld with his tail between his legs his master the emperor Shao Khan is naturally not too happy and is pretty much ready to execute his lackluster Lackey but shangsung manages to convince him to spare his life by suggesting that they organize another tournament on outworld which will give them a distinct home field advantage either way Raiden and his band of Earth realm Warriors agreed to the rematch and make their way to the home of Shao Khan again the tournament can be played with anyone of a roster of 12 playable characters which all lead to non-canonical endings as the one true ending of Mortal Kombat 2 is once again the victory of Earth realm poster boy Liu Kang but Mortal Kombat 2's story is notable for a couple more reasons as well firstly it gives us canonical confirmation that the original Sub-Zero whose real name is by Han was killed by the undead assassin scorpion in the previous Mortal Kombat tournament while this initially provides some mysterious the house Sub-Zero is still knocking about in more combat 2. this is answered by the fact that by hand's younger brother Qui Liang has assumed his siblings Alter Ego are Sub-Zero the original Sub-Zero descends into The Nether realm where he stripped of his humanity and eventually becomes the shadow wraith Noob Saibot but I'm getting way ahead of myself there anyway secondly it introduces Liu Kang's best mate Kung Lao into the franchise for the first time a character that gets a good deal more time in the Limelight in our next game on the timeline yep we're back in spin-off territory again for the events of Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks which is a rerun of sorts of the events of Mortal Kombat 2 but from the perspective of the titular Shaolin Monks lukang and Kung Lao like Special Forces and mythologies Sub-Zero before it Shaolin Monks takes a side step into the action adventure genre repurposing the ending of MK1 and the central Narrative of MK2 into a more traditional beat em up and seeing as I've just regaled the story of both of those games we'll leave it at that foreign enact a loophole in the whole Mortal Kombat red tape tournament rubbish and invade Earth realm through different means seeking to put an end to his losing streak Shao Khan instead opts to Kickstart a plan supposedly 10 000 years in the making this plan is to reincarnate his former Young Love Queen cindel within the boundaries of Earth realm which will allow him to cross between the dimensions to reclaim his Queen and Conquer Earth around via a sneaky loophole he does exactly that and as soon as he takes over his Queen and his new realm billions of Earth realm people all suddenly lose their souls luckily Raiden is able to protect a few Earth realm Warriors otherwise MK3 would be a pretty sure game and there would be no one to kick the living crap out of each other naturally there are a whole load of stories all happening at once depending on which fighter you choose to tackle the main campaign with but there are three key story beats for my money firstly we catch back up with Liu Kang who is naturally a main target for Shao Khan once he realizes that a hand full of Earth realm Warriors are still alive Liu Kang joins forces with Kung Lao and apparently the Rebellion against the invading forces which eventually leads to Kung lao's supposed death when he succumbs to his battle injuries Kung lao's fate fuels Liu Kang's Fury at Xiao Khan who he eventually defeats before shacking up with the adanian royal princess katana who herself has a long and complex family history with the Khan long story short she's the daughter of sindel who shot Korra it turns out is not Shao Khan's former Queen but the wife of a lad named Jared anyway then there's the clan of Assassins known as the Lin Quay who have actually been around since the beginning and claimed Sub-Zero in their ranks and they take on a much more prominent role in MK3 sick of having to deal with actual humans the Lin Quay decide to turn four of their Prime assassins into soulless robots and The Unlucky four are Cyrax sector smoke and our old mate Sub-Zero smoke and Sub-Zero opt out you know for obvious reasons the smoke is hunted down and turned into a robot but regardless Sub-Zero is also hounded but he's able to evade his former Clan and as a result he joins the Rebellion against Shao Khan lastly there's the Special Forces Duo of Jax and Sonia who in the wake of shao Khan's defeat set up the outer World investigation agency or oia which becomes an organization dedicated to thwarting potential invasions from other Realms naturally there are a handful of other subplots knocking about an MK3 but those are the key ones to the overarching timeline right on to pastures new [Music] okay step aside Shao Khan It's time for the big bad elder god named Shinnok to return to the fore as the primary antagonist in the MK Universe a feat which he achieves with the help of Quan Chi during the events of Mortal Kombat 4. last seen in the Sub-Zero spin-off game Shinnok Returns the wage war on the Elder Gods who banished him including Earth realm savior Raiden he's aided in this vengeful Quest by a nadanian traitor known as Tanya who helps him invade her Homeworld before for supporting Shinnok on his Warpath against the Elder Gods once again Raiden enlist a whole host of Warriors old and new to take the battle to Shinnok you have exactly one guess as to who eventually defeats China yep it's perennial Good Egg Liu Kang once again meanwhile to continue some of the other subplots that we've been tracking Sub-Zero is also in on the action tricked by Quan Chi into believing scorpion killed his whole family he tracks down and fights his Nemesis once again while Sonia continues on the Special Forces long Vendetta against the black dragon crime syndicate and she tracks down another of its members a lad named jarek who's basically Kano 2.0 before she's nearly killed by the criminal fortunately her teammate Jax is able to step in and drop jarrick off a cliff to his supposed death yeah there are a lot of supposed deaths in these fighting games because these characters just keep coming back anyway Upon returning home Jackson Sonia discover Lin Quay cyborg assassin Cyrax malfunctioning in a desert they revived the Mad robot restore his lost humanity and recruit him into the oia oh and surprise Kung Lao isn't dead he merely faked his death to live a life that was respectful to his ancestors but this turns to disrespect when he decides to rejoin the fight and take up arms against shinon and finally in the wake of shinnok's defeat Raiden is granted full elder god status and as a result he retires from his position as the protector of Earth realm handing over the role to his brother the god of wind fujin but don't you worry this is not the last we'll see of the God of Thunder oh no oh next up on the timeline we are venturing away from numbered sequels for the tag team event of the season the Deadly Alliance the titular Deadly Alliance is made up of the evil sorcerer's Quan Chi and Shang Tsung both of whom have played second fiddle to the respective big bads of Shinnok and Shao Khan sick of being second best they decide to team up when Quan Chi discovers an ancient tomb containing the mummified remains of the first emperor of outworld the Dragon King and his massive Army but before they can take over the known universe they set out to dispose of the two people that might stand in their way Shao Khan and Liu Kang after faking allegiance to the former the pair murder him in Cold Blood before traveling to earthrealm to drop in on Liu Kang and Shang Tsung finally gets his revenge on Mortal kombat's Mainstay when he kills the franchise's core good guy once and for all yeah we are five main line games in and the ever-present Liu Kang is dead and gone he's not even playable in the game which is a really ballsy move by the developers if you ask me anyway the sorcerers Dino and lukang saw hole and hightail it back to outworld to kick-start their plan to resurrect The Dragon King and his army Quan Chi uses the Amulet of Shinnok remember that from all the way back in mythology Sub-Zero to open up a portal to the heavens known as the soul Nado which brings in souls for the dragon King's Army by the bucket load meanwhile earthrealms Warriors are once again being marshaled by Raiden even if he can't himself intervene due to his status as an elder god they travel to outworld on mass but canonically speaking as is later confirmed in the intro sequence of the next game they all fail in their attempts to stop The Deadly Alliance and Jax Sonia Kung Lao and Katana are all killed in the fight this all leads to Raiden telling the other Elder Gods to hold his beer as he renounces his status as a God and rejoins the fight to take out the Deadly Alliance himself which leads straight into the intro of okay so we're right back into the thick of the action at the beginning of Mortal Kombat deception Raiden versus The Deadly Alliance and I'm afraid it's not good news for Raiden the Thunder God is finally defeated and battled by the sorcerers but while he's out for the count the Deadly Alliance turn on themselves in a bid to claim the power of controlling the dragon King's Army Quan Chi eventually emerges Victorious but blinded by the heat of the battle he doesn't realize that the Dragon King himself Onaga the ancient ruler of outworld has been resurrected alongside his army with the help of the revived Duo of Raiden and Shang Tsung Quan Chi attempts to fight off the Dragon King but Onaga is totally out of their league on the battlefield in a last-ditch effort to stop Onaga Raiden releases his Godly Essence which basically amounts to a small nuclear bomb which blows everything up killing Quan Chi and Shang Zhang in the process but leaving Neri a scratch on the dragon king that's certainly not the end of Raiden though his Godly Essence re-gathers on Earth realm and the god of Thunder effectively returns as a vengeful pissed off God his mood is not helped by the introduction of deception's lead protagonist a lad called shujinko a Next Generation Liu Kang of sorts of Creator Ed Boone's words are anything to go by you see shujinko is something of a gullible fool and is onaga's deception of him that provides the context for the game's title Onaga disguised as an emissary for The Elder Gods named dimashi or does shujinku to search high and low for six mystical kamidogu or God tools to help him further cement his power his ultimate end game nothing sure of the destruction of all the Realms in the known universe when shujinko finds out about this deception he's naturally pretty pissed and he swears revenge on the Dragon King luckily for shujinku anaga has taught him the power to mimic other fighting styles a misguided move that ultimately leads to his downfall but back to Raiden who's so angry about shujinku's foolish behavior that he digs up Liu Kang's half rotten corpse and revives him as well a zombified husk of a monk and so Liu Kang re-enters The Fray sort of and goes on something of a murderous Rampage totally unbefitting of a Shaolin monk anyway the rest of Mortal Kombat deception is a big old battle for Supremacy between the surviving fighters from Deadly Alliance and Onaga and his band of supporters anaga has also drafted the realm of adania into his ranks as well with the help of adanian Princess Molina who's also in on the deception game as she's running about pretending to be princess Katana oh and on top of all of this Onaga uses his power to resurrect the dead to revive all of the previously deceased combatants to fight his Undead Warriors for him so Q zombie versions of Sonia Kung Lao Katana and Jax etc etc anyway back to Liu Kang and not the zombie version that I mentioned earlier you see Liu Kang Seoul has lived on and has latched itself to a fighter known as Ermac who's basically a human conduit for Souls anyway and this unlikely Duo helped to free the imprisoned Souls of onaga's Undead Army long story short though this All Leads inevitably to an Argus defeat at the hands of all people shujinku which are supposed brings his story full circle sujinko uses his aforementioned ability to mimic other Fighters powers to take revenge on anaga and he finally defeats the Dragon King in battle [Music] foreign tic ending of the original Mortal Kombat timeline strap yourself in as this is the beginning of things getting very confusing right so Armageddon kicks off centuries in the past when the adanian Sorceress Delia foretells the apocalyptic end of all the Realms she has the foresight to see that the cumulative power of all of the Realms various Fighters will eventually destabilize it leading to its ultimate demise the circumstances of this actually happening though are complicated you see Delia's husband King Argus who's also an elder god by the way constructs a giant pyramid where the final battle royale for power will eventually take place this battle royale will be against the elemental man on fire blaze who is being created solely for the purpose of killing the various fighters from across the realms but if anyone but argus's Sons Taven or Dagon are to defeat blaze it would trigger the apocalypse you see complicated anyway Argus puts his two sons on Ice in the hopes that they'll be victorious against Blaze and put a stop to Armageddon long story short and it is a long story Taven and Dagon are awakened in the future and are instructed to fight Blaze by Argus in a bid to replace him as an elder god the pyramid pops back up and intrigues the entire population of Mortal Kombat especially when the top bursts into flames presenting the new Challenger of Blaze and so kicks off the final battle to determine the fate of the Realms and the ultimate champion of Mortal Kombat of course there are multiple endings with the original ending seen in MK Armageddon now being considered non-canon in that ending Taven is Victorious against Blaze and takes up his position as an elder god a position that he swears to use as a means to prevent the Armageddon but as we all know this is not what ultimately takes place as is revealed in the next canonical entry in the franchise the 2011 reboot of Mortal Kombat Armageddon ends with only two fighters Left Alive Shao Khan and Raiden but before we delve into the Fallout of that epic conclusion it's time for something completely different foreign to leave you on a cliffhanger like that I promise to keep this section really brief yep before we before we get into the meat of armageddon's canonical ending scene during the intro of 2011's Mortal Kombat I thought I should explain why the eighth game in the franchise is technically AWOL in the Canon long story short the fusion of the Mortal Kombat and DC universes takes place in a timeline bubble all on its own and has no bearing on the story going forwards it does however take cues from some of the preceding narrative from previous MK games taking place in a world where Shao Khan has been defeated his defeat takes place simultaneously with that of DC villain Darkseid and as a result the pair fuse into the monstrosity known as Dark Khan this mad act triggers everyone and everything across the two colliding universes to absolutely lose their minds in a bloody Battle Royale until only Raiden and Superman are Left Alive ultimately these two do-gooders team up to defeat Dark Khan and bring an end to all this madness anyway as I said MK vs DC Universe exists all the way out there on its own in its own little bubble and will have no more bearing on this timeline going forward but I thought it would be weird not to include it right back to the main attraction [Music] okay so Mortal Kombat 9 or more simply just Mortal Kombat see Shao Khan emerge Victorious against Blaze and as a result he's granted Godlike Powers these all-powerful new abilities effectively help him overcome the last living combatant Raiden in a fight to the death but just as Shao Khan is about to deliver the final blow killing the God of Thunder Raiden uses his own elder god amulet to send a message back in time to his past self a message simply stating he must win and with this simple message a whole new branch of the timeline is created you see Mortal Kombat 2011 is a soft reboot of the franchise of sorts which retells the events of the original Three Mortal Kombat games but keeps everything within the same continuity let me explain okay so the action immediately rewinds back to the event so the very first Mortal Kombat game to a younger Raiden who suddenly has a premonition of the future along with his future self's message he zaps back into Consciousness and realizes that his amulet has been damaged as a result of the Visions he's just seen and so the 2011 reboot largely follows Raiden's journey to discover who exactly the he is of the message he's just received for starters he doesn't think much of it and simply assumes that the message refers to his top Earth realm lab Liu Kang so by and large the events of MK1 play out much as they did before the original Sub-Zero is murdered by his rival Scorpion and Liu Kang defeats Garo and Shang Tsung but as the tourney comes to a close Raiden notices that his amulet has taken on more damage which leads him to believe that he hasn't averted the apocalypse more timeline changes come about in the retelling of the events of the second game though firstly raid and rescue smoke from becoming a linquay cyborg at the expense of the younger Sub-Zero and secondly Raiden Subs in Liu Kang's best mate Kung Lao to take the prime spot in the outworld tourney for Earth realm Kung Lao is ultimately Victorious over Shang Tsung and Quan Ji but he's killed Moments Later by a surprise neck snap courtesy of Shao Khan Liu Kang flies into a fit of rage and beats the hell out of the Emperor who has to be nursed back to help by the sorcery of Quan Chi anyway the upshot of all of this is Raiden's amulet becomes even more damaged that Armageddon is still on the cards Lads with Shao Khan and Quan Chi forming an alliance Shao Khan is able to Fast Track the Revival of his former Queen sindel and this opens the door for a full-scale invasion of Earth realm as a result of this Raiden and Liu Kang lodger complaint with the Elder Gods who duly informed them that there's nothing wrong with The Invasion unless they try to merge Earth realm without world without taking the proper action I.E a big bloody Mortal Kombat tournament to the death anyways while all of this is happening Queen cindel basically Slaughters most of the cast of Heroes including Jack Sub-Zero 2.0 smoke and eventually Katana and then Raiden finally realizes that the he of the cryptic messages must refer to Shao Khan because if he attempts to invade Earth realm without winning via Mortal Kombat the Elder Gods will punish him Liu Kang doesn't see eye to eye on this notion though and makes a move to attack the Khan and while trying to stop him Raiden accidentally kills him whoops and this mad tiny whiny narrative comes to a close when a guilt-racked Raiden surrenders to Shao Khan only for The Elder Gods to finally intervene granting Raiden Godly superpowers which he then uses to destroy the Khan for not invading through the requisite bureaucratic means of Mortal Kombat and so by the end of the 2011 Mortal Kombat most of the heroes are pretty much dead and Raiden is left a rebuild with Sonia blade and Johnny Cage but there's one last twist in the tale as Quan Chi is revealed to be working with Shinnok Alan Mortal Kombat 4 and that the destruction of Shao Khan and the devastation of Earth realm has all been a part of their grand plan foreign time to move into Uncharted Territory for the alternate timeline with Mortal Kombat X which takes place a few years after the climatic events of the previous game Shinnok has launched a full-scale invasion of Earth realm with his army of the undead many of whom are deceased fighters from the last game seeing as there are only a handful of quote-unquote good guys left in the series it's left largely up to Sonia blade and Johnny Cage to save the day and they open up a portal to Raiden's Chambers to help the gods of wind and thunder defeat shinox forces out of almost nowhere Johnny Cage awakens hitherto unseen superpowers that allows him to protect Sonia and hold back shinnok's advances long enough for Raiden to Nick his amulet and imprison the gods inside it they track his partner in crime Quan Chi back to the netherrealm where they restore a handful of Fighters to human form including Scorpion Sub-Zero and Jax and eventually overpower the evil Sorcerer And so for the first time in like forever a shaky piece finally descends across the realm now the Shao Khan Shinnok and Quan Chi are all taken care of 20 odd years passed in which time a lot happens Johnny and Sonia hook up have a kid named Cassie and get divorced Sub-Zero kills sector and reclaims his place as the head of the lingue and Scorpion and Sub-Zero reconcile their never-ending rivalry after Sub-Zero discovers the treachery behind the death of Scorpion's family anyway it's 20 years later and the [ __ ] inevitably hits the fan again when a new generation of Fighters including many of The Offspring of franchise Mainstays including Cassie cage Jax's daughter Jackie and Kung lao's nephew Kung Jin get embroiled in a civil war on outworld there they discover treachery at the hands of its new ruler a lad named kotal Khan and is second in command the insectoid warrior devorah the latter of which is actually a double agent working for Quan Chi in all the ensuing chaos devorah manages to get her hands on shinnok's amulet and so the plot becomes all about our good Hero's attempts to stop Quan Chi and devorah from resurrecting Shinnok a feat that despite Quan Chi's grisly death they ultimately fail at shinook then launches another invasion of Earth realm albeit one that's actually successful and he makes his way into the ginseng chamber the core of Earth realm's life force and corrupts it which turns him into a great hulking demon god thing long story sure it's Cassie that ultimately saves the day when she triggers similar superhuman powers to those her father showcased earlier in the game she uses these Newfound abilities to defeat Shinnok which paves the way for Raiden to purify earthram's ginsay life force and strip the demon of all his power the upshot of this is that the netherrealm has new people in charge the undead revenants of Liu Kang and katano and so Mortal Kombat X comes to a close with a corrupted Raiden in possession of shinnok's amulet visiting the netherrealm to give a warning to the new rulers they will face Fate's worse than death if they ever invade Earth Realm [Music] now have you thought any of the previous timeline altering narratives were confusing get ready for your head to explode with the next entry in the chronology Mortal Kombat 11. okay with a corrupted dark raid and hell bent on protecting Earth realm at all costs he enacts a plan to destroy all of its Rivals and he kick-starts this ungodly plan by decapitating Shinnok this act of violence naturally does not go down well with shinnok's Dear Mother a last named cronica who is literally the keeper of all time and she vows to take Revenge by a raising Raiden from all timelines and so begins a mad game which basically reveals multiple timelines within the Mortal Kombat universe which basically makes this chalkboard useless chronica start term machinations by forming an alliance with the undead revenants of Liu Kang and katano before opening up a timestorm to bring pretty much everything I've mentioned up to this point into disarray for starters this time storm brings with it younger versions of several key players from throughout the franchise including Raiden Lucan Katana Johnny Cage Jax Scorpion and Kung Lao while also raising dark Raiden from the current timeline and so starts all the brain warping time Antics as characters both past and present versions come into contact with one another in various ways Liu Kang Kung Lao and Raiden broke her a shaky truce with kotal Khan's outworld before Raiden visits the Elder Gods to see if there's anything they can do to intervene in cronica's Timeline destroying Antics the short answer is no as the time storm is draining their reserves of power the longer answer is that shinnok's never before seen twin sister cetrion has the answer to how to defeat her mother cronica a MacGuffin known as the crown of souls but unsurprisingly that answer is tinged with betrayal ascentreon Slaughters the Elder gods and escapes to search for the crown herself Raiden anticipates this and sends out a squad of Fighters to retrieve the crown first and they run into cetrion at Shang Tsung's abandoned Island base where she eventually escapes with the crown naturally this all leads to an inevitable big climactic battle cronica kidnaps the younger version of Liu Kang and assimilates him with his present Undead Revenant version but this evil plan is all in vain as Raiden follows in Pursuit and eventually merges himself with lukang to become the all-powerful fire god Liu Kang the combined Heroes of outworld and Earth realm take the fight to cronica and the newly minted God Liu Kang defeats cetrion but as cronica is literally in control of time she rewinds events and absorbs her daughter cetrion's power which gives her enough time Essence to rewind all the way back to the literal beginning of the entire universe which basically erases everything from this timeline video thus far yet due to his new Godly status Liu Kang is immune to these time traveling Antics and so he enters the end game of Mortal Kombat 11 unscathed naturally there are several possible outcomes to the ending all all of which I guess can technically be considered Canon as this game introduces multiple timelines firstly if kronica wins she murders Liu Kang which sets up a whole new separate timeline secondly if Liu Kang wins outright he creates a new timeline alongside Katana but the canonical ending though is Liu Kang's Victory albeit with the god losing one round of the fight to cronica this eventually leads to him meeting with a mortal version of Raiden who becomes his advisor and this sets the stage for the next chapter in the MK Universe the DLC story expansion aftermath right here we are the final swan song for the alternate timeline created at the beginning of Mortal Kombat 2011 and you can bet your clocks things are going to get even more complicated okay I'm already frazzled with this timeline but I'll try my best with this one so following the near apocalyptic ending in Mortal Kombat 11 aftermark kicks off right away with Raiden and the fire god Liu Kang attempting to fix history but unbeknownst to them Shang Tsung fujin and the Earth realm Shaman Nightwolf are also still alive having been trapped in some sort of time immune prison or something to that effect Shang Tsung the scheming bastard convinces Liu Kang to send the trio back into the timestorm to steal the crown of souls before cronica gets her hands on it allowed the events of mk11 Raiden is suspicious but Lucan goes through with this mad idea and off the lads go into the time warp inevitably Shang Tsung has nefarious intentions mainly involving resurrecting a fully powered up cindel to use against the might of cetrion in order to reclaim the Crown long story short the scheming sorcerer gets his mitts on the crown and is able to harness the time powers of cronica on Route he Hoovers up Souls left right and center before defeating the keeper of time herself and erasing her from existence and in his last moment of Glory as he reaches The Hourglass of time fire god Liu Kang comes unlocking it turns out that Liu Kang has been aware of Shang Tsung's intentions all along and has actually allowed him to gain the crown as he believed the sorcerer to be the only one capable of eliminating cronica and so the final final fight of Mortal Kombat kicks off in Earnest Liu Kang vs Shang Tsung just like the original final Jewel all the way back in the very first game there are two outcomes one of which is canonical and which leads to Mortal Kombat 1. simply put if Shang Tsung wins he Slaughters Liu Kang and uses The Hourglass to conquer all the known Realms whereas in the canonical ending Liu Kang wins and erases Shang Tsung from existence with the power of the crown and The Hourglass Liu Kang effectively starts over with his own new timeline that stubbed the new era and he kicks this new timeline off by visiting his good pal Kung lao's ancient ancestor to become his new champion in an upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament speaking of which [Music] okay [Music] yep all of this leads to the upcoming Mortal Kombat one which basically reboots the franchise again as Liu Kang's primary goal is to establish a more peaceful timeline many of the key players from across the franchise get new rebooted roles for example Sub-Zero and Scorpion are now Brothers both fighting within the linquay clan of assassin Warriors naturally there is still some tension between the pair but now it's born out of their position and Status within their Clan speaking of siblings Katana and Molina are now biological sisters albeit with Molina still infected with the tarkat disease that gives her that iconic snarling mouth and then there's Raiden and krung Lao who are now living humble lives as Farmers albeit Farmers that could beat the living [ __ ] out of you if you look at their flockron interestingly Raiden is no longer the god of thunder so it appears that the power Dynamic has shifted between Raiden and Liu Kang with the latter taking on the mantle of The Godly Mentor aside from all these rebooted roles and peaceful pretences there's still plenty of Carnage in this new iteration of MK not least from Shang Tsung who appears to arrive through a portal potentially from some other timeline or Dimension who knows and then there are whisperings of a mysterious new enemy that Liu Kang States never could have been anticipated so we'll have to wait and see just who that is when the game finally launches and there you have it the Mortal Kombat timeline explained to the best of my ability this one nearly melted me as much as Metal Gear Solid so I hope you enjoyed this breakdown and if you enjoy these kinds of gaming timelines make sure to subscribe to Gamespot as we've got plenty more on the channel thanks a lot for watching guys I'll see you next time

Channel: GameSpot

Views: 521,485

Keywords: mortal kombat, mortal kombat timeline, mortal kombat chronology, mortal kombat timeline explained, mortal kombat explained, liu kang, kung lao, shao khan, shang tsung, scorpion, sub-zero, shinnok, johnny cage, raiden, sonya blade, mortal kombat 1, mortal kombat 11, mortal kombat x, netherrealm, mortal kombat lore, mortal kombat history, history of mortal kombat, mortal kombat 2023, mk1

Id: 9_Dcfs6rC5Q

Length: 36min 48sec (2208 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2023