Overthinking Mortal Kombat
Sep. 28th, 2023 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariThe new Mortal Kombat is about nature vs. nurture—which of the villains could have been redeemed in a better life? The next one could go in a lot of different directions, but I think power vs. freedom is promising.
Liu Kang wants a better world, and, well, he's Liu Kang. He can be trusted to make the right decisions, right? But he chose for Smoke's family to die so Smoke would protect the world, and he chose to rewrite Raiden's personality to make him less of a threat. He gave up his time powers for fear they would corrupt him, but now he has those powers again, and he needs to use them to stop people like Shang Tsung. What other decisions will he justify as necessary?
Bi-Han resents Liu Kang’s control. He wants the Lin Kuei (read: Bi-Han) to be free to pursue their own interests by conquering others with their superior power. At the same time, he’s looking into cybernetics as a way to control his followers and force them to obey him. And what of the remaining Lin Kuei, people who’ve remained devoted to him because of loyalty oaths, even as they distrust the direction he's taking them? Can they really be said to have freely chosen the path they're heading down?
Havik can't conceive of an authority that isn't corrupt. To him, even claiming power over nature is claiming something you shouldn't have, let alone power over other people. So he uses his power to enforce his idea of freedom, and he doesn't see the contradiction. In his ending, he sees a flooded city, the survivors freed from its cruel rulers, while Rain's ending shows the bodies floating in the water.
It looks like the next game will be Liu Kang vs. Havik, with Bi-Han as a lurking threat. Power vs. power vs. power, with the powerless caught in the middle.
Liu Kang wants a better world, and, well, he's Liu Kang. He can be trusted to make the right decisions, right? But he chose for Smoke's family to die so Smoke would protect the world, and he chose to rewrite Raiden's personality to make him less of a threat. He gave up his time powers for fear they would corrupt him, but now he has those powers again, and he needs to use them to stop people like Shang Tsung. What other decisions will he justify as necessary?
Bi-Han resents Liu Kang’s control. He wants the Lin Kuei (read: Bi-Han) to be free to pursue their own interests by conquering others with their superior power. At the same time, he’s looking into cybernetics as a way to control his followers and force them to obey him. And what of the remaining Lin Kuei, people who’ve remained devoted to him because of loyalty oaths, even as they distrust the direction he's taking them? Can they really be said to have freely chosen the path they're heading down?
Havik can't conceive of an authority that isn't corrupt. To him, even claiming power over nature is claiming something you shouldn't have, let alone power over other people. So he uses his power to enforce his idea of freedom, and he doesn't see the contradiction. In his ending, he sees a flooded city, the survivors freed from its cruel rulers, while Rain's ending shows the bodies floating in the water.
It looks like the next game will be Liu Kang vs. Havik, with Bi-Han as a lurking threat. Power vs. power vs. power, with the powerless caught in the middle.
