Are Mortal Kombat 11 retcons good or bad for the narrative?

History Behind The Warrior discusses how Kabal, Skarlet and Sindel’s backstories have changed

Those they have followed Mortal Kombat’s narrative for years probably took notice of several retcons that happened in Mortal Kombat 11 and Aftermath. What’s particularly strange is how Mortal Kombat 11 applied retcons to backstories elaborated on during Mortal Kombat 9, the start of the Mortal Kombat reboot.

Being that Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11 are all part of the same timeline, it feels like certain elements of the narrative don’t add up well when playing the games back-to-back. History Behind The Warrior recently released a video that discusses the retcons for Kabal, Skarlet and Sindel.

At this point, Kabal now has three different stories. While he originally switched sides during the Outworld invasion, he was shown to already be a police officer in Mortal Kombat 9.

In both versions of Kabal’s story, Kabal had severed his ties with Black Dragon. However, he appeared to have no qualms about aiding Black Dragon in Mortal Kombat 11. It’s also kind of funny how he readily believed Kano’s story about Sonya torturing him in the future.

Mortal Kombat 11 retcons history

Mortal Kombat 9 told fans that Kabal’s lifesaving surgery is what gifted him with his superspeed. As Kabal was brought into the future before suffering intense burns, it was puzzling to see that Kabal still had his unique abilities.

Skarlet went from being an entity that was created by Shao Kahn using the blood of many warriors to an orphaned child taught the ways of blood magic. She also originally wore very revealing clothing as her powers would increase as she absorbed blood through her skin.

As revealed in an intro dialogue against Rain, Skarlet now apparently has an Edenian heritage. Unfortunately, this backstory feels too similar to that of Kitana, Jade and Tanya’s.

And finally, there’s Sindel’s retcon. Mortal Kombat 3 had it so that Sindel was under a spell that forced her to fight on the side of Outworld.

By reuniting with her daughter, Kitana, the spell would ultimately be undone. Of course, Sindel’s impact on the rest of the original Mortal Kombat timeline became very minuscule beyond this point.

The latest entry in the series has completely done away with Sindel’s good nature. Apparently it was actually Sindel that killed King Jerrod of Edenia, not Shao Kahn. When this was first revealed in Sindel’s arcade ending in Mortal Kombat 11, Sindel fans were left scratching their heads at this change.

Check out the video below and let us know in the comments section if you think these retcons are good or bad for Mortal Kombat’s narrative:

Source: Eventhubs.com
Written by: Justin ‘AdaptiveTrigger’ Gordon