#kuai liang you'll always be famous..

[cryomancers-orb]

I feel like Kuai in the previous timeline was accidentally given the perfect chance to be a solid protagonist. Not only for a good spinoff, but for a main game as well.

I mean, you start off with a pretty sheltered protagonist, having been raised in a remote temple. This already puts him closer to the player in terms of his knowledge about the world, while simultaneously giving him an interesting background that still gives him intrigue.

Story mode would begin with Kuai observing Bi-Han execute a new move on the mats, before he's pulled away into a friendly spar with Tomas as the first battle. Then, I imagine Bi-Han suiting up in their room and briefly telling Kuai about a mission he's going on. They exchange brief, kind of impersonal goodbyes.. but Kuai can't keep it up and ends up embracing Bi-Han, and maybe tells him he's got a bad feeling about this. Bi-Han sighs and indulges him in the hug before telling him not to worry and taking his leave.

With that relationship established, the chapter ends and cuts to Liu Kang. The events of the first tournament happen. Back to Kuai, he receives the news of Bi-Han's passing.

Back to more conceptual thoughts, I feel like Kuai became a very sympathetic character by the end of MKX, but he's kind of always been. I mean, he was set up as a contrast to Bi-Han whose only personality trait for a long time was being, well, cold. Kuai, in contrast, is shown to be kind and caring as early as Defenders of the Realm. He's also implied to be sp during the 3D era, with his friendship to Hanzo carried over and his acceptance of Sareena (no matter how it ends lol), but especially The Tea Scene solidified it for people I think. And it was carried over nicely to Legends.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling tangent but what I mean here is that he's quite likable, and also.. very sympathetic. As Tumblr people, we all know that the more a character suffers, the more we tend to like them. And Kuai has an absolute well of suffering to pull from. The losses of Bi-Han, Tomas, Cyrax, and later even Hanzo, tje Cyber Initiative, his time as a revenant, his time possessed by the dagger, Frost's betrayal... it goes on and on.

I think the potential game would only have room to make it to the Cyber Initiative, but that's still a lot considering his horrific upbringing in the Lin Kuei and the fact that he's basically the last of his kind.

Back to the game's plot, I feel like modern MK really suffers from not pulling on its subplots for story. You can only have an all-hands-on-deck We Have To Kill God story so many times before it gets boring. What Scorpion's Revenge gets right and Battle of the Realms doesn't is exactly this: one is a solid story about a character that happens to take them to the high-stakes fight in the end, the other is a sloppy mess of half-baked ideas.

So. We don't need to follow ten angles of the same story, but we can see the main story progress from the eyes of Kuai in his quest to get his revenge. The player will see the important things happening in the background, but Kuai will be more focused on his task. Liu Kang's pov can fill in some of the blanks but he must also have his own story.

Though whatever happens, I feel like Kuai should get the opportunity to kill Scorpion but choose not to, leaving it at defeating him.

TL;DR: I think it's a great idea! Honestly I could write a whole script but this was kinda spontaneous so I'm leaving it here kfvkdk

What do you think about Kuai Liang (as either Sub-Zero or Scorpion) being the main protagonist, or at least A protagonist, in a version of the Mortal Kombat tournament?

Liu Kang would still play a huge role, and he is still the one who becomes the Mortal Kombat champion (by beating either Goro or General Shao), but I did think of taking a page from Scorpion's Revenge by having Kuai Liang's primary feud with Hanzo Hasashi or Bi Han (depending on which mantle Kuai has) be a huge part of the story.

The thinking behind this idea is that Mortal Kombat is a fighting game with a huge ensemble, and I did think about giving some characters their share of the spotlight, though most of my take would focus on both Kuai Liang AND Liu Kang.

But hey, don't take my word for it...what do you think of this idea? Feel free to comment.