no offense to Tobias but I think he was a bit selfish for leaving the MK team,when they were making special forces,if he wanted to leave he should have left after completing the game first.
There were a number of interviews published before Special Forces came out where they said the reason he has metal arms in the game even though it's a prequel is because he's testing out prototypes, confirming that the arms were indeed always intended to be sleeves that come off in the old timeline. Also, Kabal does in fact appear in the game. They never point him out in cutscenes or anything, he just kinda randomly shows up as a mook in some level. He was going to be in at least one cutscene but it got cut just like Sonya did. You can still find footage of that scene here: th-cam.com/video/_27HeUAabIY/w-d-xo.html (Notice how Kano still has both his eyes here and there's a subplot about the BDs stealing a nuke) You're still spot-on about the game not working because Jax isn't supposed to know magic and portals exists before MK2 though.
@@The4thSnake Jax’s MK3 bio says that he put on “indestructible bionic implants”, so yeah. His superiors didn’t take his warnings seriously. I honestly prefer that then what MK9 did.
@@RyuEmatsu "Implant" implies literally being inserted into one's body, even if only partially. Maybe only SF's prototype "full metal jacket" was removable wholesale and the metal arm idea needed to become an implant to make full use of its power. Which could explain why Jax didn't have it in MKII: it may have been a permanent change that could screw with his body.
It is possible that only part of SF is canon. It's common for an ongoing series to be selective about what is canon, especially when it come's to unpopular installments. You may have to evoke "Word of God" on this one. Tasia comes back because fans like her and Tremor, and thus they survive to appear in newer installments.
You know I found out something about the original development. It turns out the section about Kano getting the "Eye of Chitian" was only a SECTION of the original story. They first part would've started out like this: The first part started out with SF hunting down the Black Dragon because they stole an experimental nuclear warhead. In this part Kano is shown WITHOUT his cybernetic eye implant. It's also supposed to be the first mission Sonya and Jax are assigned together. The first stage includes the Warehouse, which the Black Dragon uses for smuggling, and Sonya’s team engages with the bad guy. Sonya and some of the others are captured and Kano kills one or two. The next part is when Jax and his team show up to save Sonya, this is also the part where Kano loses his eye to Jax, and might have contained the Sewers , Garage and Black Dragon Office levels. Kano escapes, but the rest of the BD members were locked up in SF maximum prison. Kano then gets his cybernetic eye, and then it leads into the "Eye of Chitian" part. Kano breaks his fellow members out of prison and it basically becomes the finished game, with a few differences (like the inclusion of Sonya). The SF officers follow Kano to North West China, first to Kashgar, then to Sin Kiang. They then follow Kano into Outworld, where they arrest him (just him) and bring back both him and the Eye back to Earth Realm. Kano breaks out again, and this time travels to the Hong Kong docks and boards, Shang Tsung's boat. Sonya follows and boards the boat along with some of her unit. Sonya’s unit is captured by Shang Tsung’s forces and Sonya is forced to participate in the tournament, eventually facing Goro and Shang Tsung, and ultimately winning the tournament. This obviously contrasts to the actual cannon story of Liu Kang winning the Mortal Kombat tournament. When the tournament is finished, Kano and Sonya are taken to Outworld, while the other fighters return to Earth Realm. Jax uses the eye to travel to Outworld and to compete in the second Mortal Kombat, where he finally arrest Kano, and saves Sonya. Now keep in mind that's not EXACTLY how the game was going to go. Tobias himself said, there were going to be alternate paths, depending upon the choices made at any given interval. An alternative to the above plotline is that while Sonya goes off to pursue Kano to Shang Tsung’s island, Jax goes off to find the rest of the Black Dragon gang, who are trying to get the Eye in Kano’s absence. Now gameplay differences First off Jax and Sonya. It's not 100% sure if you could choose which character to play as between levels or not. But basically the idea is that both characters, aside from the obvious different moves, speed and strength, would have go through similar but different obstacles, obstacles where you would have to do something different depending on the character. An example of this is, there's a locked blast door, as Jax you can simply pry it open, as Sonya however she's two weak to pry it open but there's a vent that she can crawl through, that's too small for Jax to crawl through. Another thing is that basically they would have different outfits for certain levels (Maybe even ones where Jax doesn't have his metal arms). The were also going to be more bosses, of more members of the Black Dragon. I'm not gonna go into detail and say all of them. But I will mention a few. Kabal was originally going to be a boss. He would have appeared WITHOUT his mask and respirator, and after defeating him you would have gotten his hook swords (an idea they reused for Shaolin Monks). Also for the Mortal Kombat 1 segment aside from the aforementioned Shang Tsung and Goro, Raiden was also going to be a boss The were also going to be more levels: Including a Hospital level for the scene where Kano gets his eye implant. A Prison level for the scene where Kano breaks his Black Dragon members out. And others I don't really know where they fit are a Resort, a Nightclub and several more levels for Mortal Kombat 1 portion. Yet despite all of this the one problem still remained. They were going to still have Jax with his metal arms. Tobias said it was a tough decision. On on hand the metal arms have become a big part of Jax's character, but on the other hand, he didn't get those until after MK2. It was stated that their plan was that they were going to be prototypes, and not the same arms he uses from MK3 on wards
can you do one on shujinko's story and how some events contradict the events of the MK Timeline. example: Shang tsung looking young when Shujinko meets him when he's suppose to be an old man by the time Shujinko meets him,because this encounter is suppose to be set during the timeline of Mortal kombat 1.
Guys... this is BIG. You see, the 4thSnake after this video isn't the SAME 4thSnake! He's actually Snake's little brother taking up the same mantle. ...... Either that or some bald time-lady pulled him out of this timeline into a new one. My head hurts now
MKSF might had potential under Tobias, but as it was released - it was an empty husk of a game. I never considered it canon relative to any timeline, since there too much problems.
It's entirely possible that they released this game w/out realizing how big the MK franchise would get and thus didn't really care about continuity. Look at Mythologies, Quan Chi and Shinnok have been involved behind the scenes forever yet were never mentioned til MK 4(Until they were finally retconned into continuity with MK 9) Raiden was retconned into the benevolent protector of earth despite the fact that in MK 1 he initially entered the tournament because Shang Tsung challenged/invited him. One of the primary reasons for MK 9's time travel storyline was to trim the fat so to speak and create a single cohesive timeline. That is one of the reasons I agree with your assessment that SF simply doesn't exist with the changes Raiden made to the time line. Though in all honesty, like you said, it didn't really fit in anywhere anyway.
Quan Chi and Shinnok weren't retconned to be part of MK1-3 until 2011, way after they'd been introduced. Until then, the only stuff they'd been involved in prior to 4 were Mythologies and the coup, which were both ultimately irrelevant to the events of MK1-3 (aside from when shaolin Monks tried to ties them into MK2).
Actually Shinnok is first mentioned in console versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, in Noob Saibot's bio and Mileena's ending, saying that he's making those two work for Shao Kahn waiting the right moment to strike (Mileena died prior to the game and got reincarnated in the Netherrealm). So no: Shinnok was mentioned to be acting behind the scenes already in the third tournament, and if we consider Noob Saibot's bio to be retroactive, then it's UMK3 that retconed Shinnok into the second tournament. Mythologies properly introduced Shinnok and first introduced Quan Chi, but didn't retcon anything about them, it's MKvsDCU that first revealed Scorpion being resurrected by Quan Chi, something that got carried over to the canon games, and led into MK9 retconing Quan Chi as being present alongside him in the first tournament, and then alongside Noob in the next two.
That's what I thought too, but it turns out they were already altered in UMK3 on consoles. I've been doing research on MK character bios recently, and there are a lot of commonly assumed misconceptions. One of the weirdest is Noob Saibot's MK4 bio. Many fanmade MK sites include it, but I couldn't find it in any version of the games, and therefore am convinced it's fanmade and managed to fool the right people at the right time in early internet days. (the only semi-official source I've yet to check is the MKGold strategy guide; I'll buy it and check, since a scan doesn't exist online; either way if it's only there then it's not necessairly canon)
If you take a look at all the scrapped content, I think it could have been awesome! From all the informations I gathered, that game is basically just a demo of what it should have been, including half the levels, half the characters, half the bosses, and almost no cutscenes. It's easily the worst game in the series, but if you consider it a demo, well, it puts everything into perspective.
Oh, Jax knew about magic etc.. He only didn't believe Johnny at first because he thought Johnny was ploying to take Sonya and "sharpen the Blade", but bungled by claiming Sonya and Kano had to team up in a poor effort to get her discharged.
Inconsistencies between Special Forces and the rebooted timeline of MK9 (not MK2011, no one calls it that) are irrelevant. As you said, the timeline is already quite diverged by the time it gets to the events of MK1, so the safe assumption is that it's completely disconnected from the first seven and two side games. Also, let's not forget that canon breaking events happen all the time in the MK universe. Just look at Scorpion's story in MK4 compared to 2, 3, and mythologies.
I know in like 2 years lat but. I've always thought that the reason that they've stuck around for as long as they have is that they are literally the only other named members of the black dragon. Outside of Kano and Kabal, there are no real members of this supposedly global black market organization. Heck I think that's also why they created Kobra and Kira
I have a theory about MK 9 that during it's MK 2 chunk Tasia is actually present in Shao Kahn's Colosseum. The only real reason is because among the fighters (standing to the right of Motaro) there's a woman wearing a purple skirt (the only known female fighters in MK that have purple as their signature color are Li Mei and Tasia, and if Kano is supposedly working for Shao Kahn then it makes sense that the others were as well to some degree). Maybe she's the one that beat Smoke off screen? Though admittedly it would make much more sense if Skarlet or Motaro were the ones that did the deed. Also, tangentially related, Khameleon, Smoke, and Chameleon are both in the backgrounds of the MK 1 chunk (Chameleon is the light gray ninja, Smoke is the dark gray ninja, and Khameleon is the gray female ninja).
What scene is this? And the grey ninjas are clearly not meant to be Smoke and the others. Why would Smoke be on his own on the island and not with the other Lin Kuei?
At 1:16:46 (made it start a few seconds early so it's easier to look for), after it cuts to Liu Kang and cuts back to Shao Kahn and the rest of the fighters before zooming in to Kitana. She's standing to the left of Motaro and a light gray ninja, and to the right of Skarlet, a dark gray ninja, and a tarkatan. She has a ponytail, a purple skirt, and some possibly bronze ring thingies on her arms and legs. th-cam.com/video/URUJPTpZXnE/w-d-xo.htmlh16m35s Do I believe it's her? Not really, the design is very different and while her hair, skin tone (at least by MK standards), and signature color are all the same, she could just be a scrapped alternate costume for Kitana or Jade that they just decided to recolor and use as a generic NPC. Plus I doubt any of the devs even remembered she existed until the MKX comics. But it's a nice headcanon. And I see your point about Smoke (since thinking about it - he's actually playable so why would they have him use a generic NPC model in MK 1?). I still think that the female gray ninja was Khameleon (as I believe Shang Tsung's Island is the only time it's ever used), and at least 1 of the male gray ninjas is Chameleon as it lines up with his Armageddon ending which says, as you most likely already know; That the only thing we know about him is that he was supposedly present for every tournament, just lurking off screen waiting for a perfect opportunity.
It most likely is an unused design, yes. Kinda looks like Mileena's alt with Kitana's alt hair and some flats. I think Chameleon is canonically invisible with an ever-shifting outfit.
Another great video, man. I was always curious about the plot in SF, canon or not? John Vogel and John Tobias sometimes reply to canon questions on twitter. Tobias even answered an old time question about classic Sub-Zero in UMK3, since a lot of people still think that he was not Bi-Han. But his answer was meant to keep it a secret i guess.
Yeah, and Johnny Cage. But John Tobias just confirmed that classic Sub-Zero was not an entirely new character. He said they've thought to delay the possible reveal for latter games, but oh well). Ever since Tobias left the company, it seems that the classic Sub-Zero's reveal was forgotten. And i think that's for the better. Personally i always thought he was added in UMK3 because people wanted masked Sub-Zero.
As you said, MK:SF doesn't fit very well, but the actual answer is simple: it takes place a short time prior MK1, within the same year, as the character select screen implies. Let me elaborate: interviews prior to the game's release reveal the story was originally meant to take place in Hong Kong, leading directly into the events of the MK1 comic and then the game itself, even including Raiden, Goro and Shang Tsung as characters. It was going to show how Kano lost his eye, and possibly explain the origin of Jax's arms, saying that he was wearing prototypes there. All this was scrapped when the game's development halted, and rather than throwing everything out, the team decided to release those few levels they had finished. Basically the SF we have is a demo of an unreleased game. We can assume that those planned events happened in the timeline, but we didn't get to see them. So there is an explaination on why he has those arms, we just don't know it. Also while the final game doesn't include time references, the manual does say it tells the events of how Kano first came into contact with Shang Tsung. The only real contradiction is in Jax knowing about supernatural stuff, but the only thing that contradicts with is the MK2 comic, and to me that's not 100% canon. Unlike the MK1 comic, that was referenced in many later games, and the MK4 comic, referenced in MK Gold, the MK2 comic is almost entireely ignored. The only things that first appeared in that comic and returned in later games are the mention of the 10 consecutive victories, and Shao Kahn's unmasked appearance, but I believe those are actually just concepts meant for the games' storyline, that got carried over to both the MK2 comic as well as later games. (Gorbak also returned, but only in the MKX comic, never in the games, except maybe being mentioned somewhere, but he was first mentioned in the MK1 comic anyway) In actuality, if you think about it, Shao Kahn's look is bad thing, since they used an early design for the comic, rather than the final, masked look. Also that comic had a big contradiction with MK2 itself in Scorpion's storyline. I know it seems weird to consider that mess of a "game" as canon over the official MK2 tie-in comic, but again, that's because we're looking at a demo basically; if we consider the events of the true, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Special Forces, as it was meant to be, I think they are 100% canon, and to this day the creators keep them in the back of their minds when doing current games, while they ignore the MK2 comic, as clearly shown in MK9, where Jax even is on the island with Sonya. PS: Kabal IS in Special Forces. As clearly shown in an unreleased cutscene he was meant to be a character in the game, maybe a boss, but he was scrapped. ...except he's still there! In the sewer level you find him guarding a computer. That role was likely meant for a thug, and they just reused Kabal's model, but he's a unique enemy, the model is never reused anywhere else in the game, so we're free to consider him actually Kabal. Either way he's there during the events as originally intended.
I've heard about some of this stuff since releasing the video, and I've ntoiced the contradiction with Scorpion and Sub-Zero (Scorpion saved Sub-Zero from Reptile, or saw him spare an opponent in the tourney). Ultimately, all we can keep from the intended storyline is when it's set (I did the same with DMC4), while the events themselves have to reflect the final version. From this, yes, SF is right before MK1. I'm curious to see how they'd explain Jax being absent in the MK1 comic, unless that one black guy with Sonya is him.
Yeah, I assumed that was him as well, because A, he's black, and B... ok, actually that's kinda it. But idk the guy next to him also looks kinda like Agent Beran from the second comic so who knows.
I think what you said about inserting it after 2, but before 3 makes sense. I guess the official ranking is Special Forces, MK3, MK vs DC, MK4; ALL taking place in the ORIGINAL time-line; except in MK vs DC Raiden talks about receiving messages from the future; like in the NEW time-line, so at this point who even knows?!🙄 Also the OIA didn't have portal technology until MK3 so this DEFINITELY isn't before MK 1. Also it couldn't happen before Mythologies because even if Sonya is 26 in both games Sub-zero is 32. He died at 32 during the first MK, but was already older than Sonya and maybe Jax. Not sure but I feel like Jax was always older based off of his command and Sonya's rank. Sonya I believe was the youngest in her squad and according to the new time-line was manipulated by Kano, though we're never really told how. I would guess that maybe Kano pulled a Hsu Hao in his early days and posed as a Special Forces agent to get close to and ultimately manipulate a young and naive Sonya. Perhaps there was a bit of a sour romance there that would make Sonya the mother of Kano's son in the new time-line. Also this might explain why Kano taught Kira some of Sonya's moves much later in the series anyway. AND maybe Johnny cage found out about Kano and Sonya's minor fling that he became consumed with jealousy and decides to throw Sonya off of a pyramid in the first time-line and divorces her in the second time-line. 🤔 Have you no shame Sonya? 😅 Nah. J/k about that Las bit, but see NSR? You're not the only one who can ruin great characters in your series! 😆😅🤣
Fun fact: In Mortal Kombat Trilogy (an updated version of UMK3, which is an updated version of MK 3), he was actually supposed to be playable - but since all of the other bosses and hidden characters were playable they switched out Tremor (who hadn't appeared yet) with Rain (was a hidden boss in MK 3/UMK3). Due to time constraints they stitched Rain's special moves together by reusing animations from other characters (ninja's generic roundhouse kick, Rain's water bubble reuses Ermac's fireball pose, and Rain's lightning uses both Nightwolf's lightning effect along with Ermac's telekinetic slam pose). Rain's bio (and I'm pretty sure ending as well) were both originally Tremor's, hence why it mentions him being (paraphrased) "a member of the Black Dragon posing as a Lin Kuei assassin".
That's... 40% accurate. Rain was not a hidden boss, he was an easter egg character only appearing in attract mode of UMK3, teasing the players, and not in the actual game; he was added however in console versions of the game reusing animations as you correctly explained, but right away his storyline has always been that he's originally from Edenia and choses to side with Shao Kahn, but then in his ending he's convinced by Kitana to fight against him. In MKTrilogy they included all characters from previous games, so Rain returns, and his bio and ending are the same as in UMK3, only in the manual of the Nintendo 64 version they messed up: he's colored red, and has an original bio about him being a Lin Kuei that mysteriously disappeared to then appear fighting for Shao Kahn. The bio and ending are unaltered in the game itself as well as in the manual for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions of the game. Rain is not the only bio they messed up in that version, though, and another notable mistake is in Ermac's, since he's miscolored orange rather than red. The mistakes about Rain and Ermac combined led people into believing Rain's bio was meant to be for an orange ninja, possibly Tremor, who would debut 3 and a half years later in Special Forces. However that's just a rumor: I don't think there's any actual evidence about Tremor being created for any game prior MKSF, nor of any connection between the mistake in N64 Trilogy and Tremor, especially since there's no mention of the Black Dragon in Rain's bio, nor any mention of the Lin Kuei in any of Tremor's bios.
I noticed that during editing but didn't relaly have a place to bring it up, or much to say beyond there being a cut character. Looks kinda feminine to me. I've just been shown other beta footage with other characters who didn't make the cut, so there were liekly quite a few members before the change in direction.
That doesn't really look like the Kabal model. There's a really cool "cut-cutscene" of him and Kano arguing because Kabal seems to have reservations on being as evil as Kano wants him to be. A very cool character moment unfortunately cut out. His model from that cutscene is stil in the game as a generic enemy. I think we can safely assume Kabal had left the clan by then, since his apperance in MKSM implied that he was an ex-member rather than an active one, though my memory is fuzzy.
He talks about his clan in present tense in SM, saying they've been betrayed by one of their own. I'm not really sure what this was supposed to be alluding to, unless they mean Kano betrayed the clan.
The4thSnake oh wow. Huh. Maybe they interpreted Kano's abduction as a defection. Thanks for the reply m8, love your content. Consider making a video on Reiko's MK4 ending. People falsely think he sits on Kahn's throne even though the throne clearly has a Brotherhood of Shadow symbol on it, a distinctly Netherrealmian organization.
i think you should take on the challenge of explaining dragonball Super's Black Goku/zamasu arc and its time travel. I've been really trying to figure out that one
i got theory how special forces fits into MK timeline. Jax must have made the cyborg as gauntlets for like as a power boost to defeats the villains of the games you kind of like iron man and also the reason why jax dosen't believe johnny's story because it was a cover up made by special forces i mean after all the special forces were formed by the goverment and also quan chi must have resurrected the black dragon
Quan Chi has no connection at all to the Black Dragon. The SF couldn't have covered up something they didn't know was happening, and Jax would believe Johnny, even if that happened, because he's experienced magic stuff in SF.
@@The4thSnake maybe jax must have told the members of the special forces they him not to tell anyone about his experience with magic that's why jax didn't believed johnny cause he did so he had lie to him because he needed keep it secret and the reason kabal is absent is because kabal was probably on another mission and couldn't make it and also the undead kabal must found the black dragons souls and brought them back,he might be a better candidate to bring them back from dead than quan chi and so that how they were able to show up in the mortal kombat x comics
@@justinXLJL-eu8bl Jax wouldn't need to reveal anything about the previous incident to acknowledge that he believes Johnny. And how exactly would Kabal bring them back? Why would he, when he's subservient to Quan Chi?
If only John Tobias stayed & they did a Mythologies game on PS1 for every MK1 character including Reptile.
no offense to Tobias but I think he was a bit selfish for leaving the MK team,when they were making special forces,if he wanted to leave he should have left after completing the game first.
Even with him, this game would've still sucked.
@@Niwde8411 no take a look at out some of the beta footage for special forces,it's actually a lot better than the final version.
The Programmer of video games It's pretty funny to me, it took you a whole year to reply back to him.
@@GhostFan-ev4di I’m not here too much to get
The Jarek lying thing is now my personal headcanon 😂😂😂
He seems like enough of a nobody to actually do it.
YES
There were a number of interviews published before Special Forces came out where they said the reason he has metal arms in the game even though it's a prequel is because he's testing out prototypes, confirming that the arms were indeed always intended to be sleeves that come off in the old timeline.
Also, Kabal does in fact appear in the game. They never point him out in cutscenes or anything, he just kinda randomly shows up as a mook in some level. He was going to be in at least one cutscene but it got cut just like Sonya did. You can still find footage of that scene here: th-cam.com/video/_27HeUAabIY/w-d-xo.html (Notice how Kano still has both his eyes here and there's a subplot about the BDs stealing a nuke)
You're still spot-on about the game not working because Jax isn't supposed to know magic and portals exists before MK2 though.
Some interesting details here. Makes me more and more want to do a video addressing mistakes in the show so far.
@@The4thSnake Jax’s MK3 bio says that he put on “indestructible bionic implants”, so yeah. His superiors didn’t take his warnings seriously. I honestly prefer that then what MK9 did.
@@RyuEmatsu "Implant" implies literally being inserted into one's body, even if only partially. Maybe only SF's prototype "full metal jacket" was removable wholesale and the metal arm idea needed to become an implant to make full use of its power. Which could explain why Jax didn't have it in MKII: it may have been a permanent change that could screw with his body.
It is possible that only part of SF is canon. It's common for an ongoing series to be selective about what is canon, especially when it come's to unpopular installments. You may have to evoke "Word of God" on this one. Tasia comes back because fans like her and Tremor, and thus they survive to appear in newer installments.
Do you even know who you're talking to? I've used selective canon before a bunch of times. Guess that means you're not a true fan, huh? Heh, gottem?
I'll let you know I sir, I've owned 5 Santa hats before I even knew who you were
You take such bad care of your Santa hats that you've needed five? SMH
You know I found out something about the original development. It turns out the section about Kano getting the "Eye of Chitian" was only a SECTION of the original story. They first part would've started out like this:
The first part started out with SF hunting down the Black Dragon because they stole an experimental nuclear warhead. In this part Kano is shown WITHOUT his cybernetic eye implant. It's also supposed to be the first mission Sonya and Jax are assigned together. The first stage includes the
Warehouse, which the Black Dragon uses for smuggling, and Sonya’s team engages with the bad guy. Sonya and some of the others are captured and Kano kills one or two. The next part is when Jax and his team show up to save Sonya, this is also the part where Kano loses his eye to Jax, and might have contained the Sewers
, Garage and Black Dragon Office levels. Kano escapes, but the rest of the BD members were locked up in SF maximum prison.
Kano then gets his cybernetic eye, and then it leads into the "Eye of Chitian" part. Kano breaks his fellow members out of prison and it basically becomes the finished game, with a few differences (like the inclusion of Sonya). The SF officers follow Kano to
North West China, first to Kashgar, then to Sin Kiang. They then follow Kano into Outworld, where they arrest him (just him) and bring back both him and the Eye back to
Earth Realm.
Kano breaks out again, and this time travels to the Hong Kong docks and boards, Shang Tsung's boat. Sonya follows and boards the boat along with some of her unit. Sonya’s unit is captured by Shang Tsung’s forces and Sonya
is forced to participate in the tournament, eventually facing Goro and Shang Tsung, and ultimately winning the tournament. This obviously contrasts to the actual cannon story of Liu Kang winning the Mortal Kombat tournament. When the tournament is finished, Kano and Sonya are taken to Outworld,
while the other fighters return to Earth Realm.
Jax uses the eye to travel to Outworld and to compete in the second Mortal Kombat, where he finally arrest Kano, and saves Sonya.
Now keep in mind that's not EXACTLY how the game was going to go. Tobias himself said, there were going to be alternate paths, depending upon the choices made at any given interval. An alternative to the above plotline is that while Sonya goes off to pursue Kano to Shang Tsung’s island, Jax goes off to find the rest of the Black Dragon gang, who are trying to get the Eye in Kano’s absence.
Now gameplay differences
First off Jax and Sonya. It's not 100% sure if you could choose which character to play as between levels or not. But basically the idea is that both characters, aside from the obvious different moves, speed and strength, would have go through similar but different obstacles, obstacles where you would have to do something different depending on the character. An example of this is, there's a locked blast door, as Jax you can simply pry it open, as Sonya however she's two weak to pry it open but there's a vent that she can crawl through, that's too small for Jax to crawl through. Another thing is that basically they would have different outfits for certain levels (Maybe even ones where Jax doesn't have his metal arms).
The were also going to be more bosses, of more members of the Black Dragon. I'm not gonna go into detail and say all of them. But I will mention a few. Kabal was originally going to be a boss. He would have appeared WITHOUT his mask and respirator, and after defeating him you would have gotten his hook swords (an idea they reused for Shaolin Monks).
Also for the Mortal Kombat 1 segment aside from the aforementioned Shang Tsung and Goro, Raiden was also going to be a boss
The were also going to be more levels: Including a Hospital level for the scene where Kano gets his eye implant. A Prison level for the scene where Kano breaks his Black Dragon members out. And others I don't really know where they fit are a Resort, a Nightclub and several more levels for Mortal Kombat 1 portion.
Yet despite all of this the one problem still remained. They were going to still have Jax with his metal arms. Tobias said it was a tough decision. On on hand the metal arms have become a big part of Jax's character, but on the other hand, he didn't get those until after MK2. It was stated that their plan was that they were going to be prototypes, and not the same arms he uses from MK3 on wards
can you do one on shujinko's story and how some events contradict the events of the MK Timeline.
example: Shang tsung looking young when Shujinko meets him when he's suppose to be an old man by the time Shujinko meets him,because this encounter is suppose to be set during the timeline of Mortal kombat 1.
I'll definitely consider it. Could be an interesting video.
The Programmer of video games and meeting Mileena in Outworld, before MK2
OldTH-camIcon oh, my mistake.
Along with Bi-Han already being Noob Saibot.
@@JRPG1191 10 years in the joint-
You should have said “No Mokap-damn sense” in honor of our true god
Guys... this is BIG. You see, the 4thSnake after this video isn't the SAME 4thSnake! He's actually Snake's little brother taking up the same mantle. ...... Either that or some bald time-lady pulled him out of this timeline into a new one. My head hurts now
MKSF might had potential under Tobias, but as it was released - it was an empty husk of a game. I never considered it canon relative to any timeline, since there too much problems.
It's entirely possible that they released this game w/out realizing how big the MK franchise would get and thus didn't really care about continuity. Look at Mythologies, Quan Chi and Shinnok have been involved behind the scenes forever yet were never mentioned til MK 4(Until they were finally retconned into continuity with MK 9) Raiden was retconned into the benevolent protector of earth despite the fact that in MK 1 he initially entered the tournament because Shang Tsung challenged/invited him. One of the primary reasons for MK 9's time travel storyline was to trim the fat so to speak and create a single cohesive timeline. That is one of the reasons I agree with your assessment that SF simply doesn't exist with the changes Raiden made to the time line. Though in all honesty, like you said, it didn't really fit in anywhere anyway.
Quan Chi and Shinnok weren't retconned to be part of MK1-3 until 2011, way after they'd been introduced. Until then, the only stuff they'd been involved in prior to 4 were Mythologies and the coup, which were both ultimately irrelevant to the events of MK1-3 (aside from when shaolin Monks tried to ties them into MK2).
Actually Shinnok is first mentioned in console versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, in Noob Saibot's bio and Mileena's ending, saying that he's making those two work for Shao Kahn waiting the right moment to strike (Mileena died prior to the game and got reincarnated in the Netherrealm). So no: Shinnok was mentioned to be acting behind the scenes already in the third tournament, and if we consider Noob Saibot's bio to be retroactive, then it's UMK3 that retconed Shinnok into the second tournament. Mythologies properly introduced Shinnok and first introduced Quan Chi, but didn't retcon anything about them, it's MKvsDCU that first revealed Scorpion being resurrected by Quan Chi, something that got carried over to the canon games, and led into MK9 retconing Quan Chi as being present alongside him in the first tournament, and then alongside Noob in the next two.
Aren't those from the altered Trilogy endings?
That's what I thought too, but it turns out they were already altered in UMK3 on consoles. I've been doing research on MK character bios recently, and there are a lot of commonly assumed misconceptions. One of the weirdest is Noob Saibot's MK4 bio. Many fanmade MK sites include it, but I couldn't find it in any version of the games, and therefore am convinced it's fanmade and managed to fool the right people at the right time in early internet days. (the only semi-official source I've yet to check is the MKGold strategy guide; I'll buy it and check, since a scan doesn't exist online; either way if it's only there then it's not necessairly canon)
Jax mk3 bio states jax tried to warn the higher ups about outworld but they didnt believe Him so he got the cybernetics
The image at 6:57 had me rolling on the floor laughing.
There were a ton of those made for DA. They're great.
the game would have been a success if the original creator never left
If you take a look at all the scrapped content, I think it could have been awesome!
From all the informations I gathered, that game is basically just a demo of what it should have been, including half the levels, half the characters, half the bosses, and almost no cutscenes.
It's easily the worst game in the series, but if you consider it a demo, well, it puts everything into perspective.
Oh, Jax knew about magic etc.. He only didn't believe Johnny at first because he thought Johnny was ploying to take Sonya and "sharpen the Blade", but bungled by claiming Sonya and Kano had to team up in a poor effort to get her discharged.
Inconsistencies between Special Forces and the rebooted timeline of MK9 (not MK2011, no one calls it that) are irrelevant. As you said, the timeline is already quite diverged by the time it gets to the events of MK1, so the safe assumption is that it's completely disconnected from the first seven and two side games.
Also, let's not forget that canon breaking events happen all the time in the MK universe. Just look at Scorpion's story in MK4 compared to 2, 3, and mythologies.
I want a remake of this!
I know in like 2 years lat but. I've always thought that the reason that they've stuck around for as long as they have is that they are literally the only other named members of the black dragon. Outside of Kano and Kabal, there are no real members of this supposedly global black market organization. Heck I think that's also why they created Kobra and Kira
I actually like no face’s design lol
Maybe Jax's metal arms are just a design choice since they were probably iconic in 2000.
Explanation is simple: it's not canon as a game ended up being, but the unreleased beta version of plot is.
I have a theory about MK 9 that during it's MK 2 chunk Tasia is actually present in Shao Kahn's Colosseum. The only real reason is because among the fighters (standing to the right of Motaro) there's a woman wearing a purple skirt (the only known female fighters in MK that have purple as their signature color are Li Mei and Tasia, and if Kano is supposedly working for Shao Kahn then it makes sense that the others were as well to some degree).
Maybe she's the one that beat Smoke off screen? Though admittedly it would make much more sense if Skarlet or Motaro were the ones that did the deed.
Also, tangentially related, Khameleon, Smoke, and Chameleon are both in the backgrounds of the MK 1 chunk (Chameleon is the light gray ninja, Smoke is the dark gray ninja, and Khameleon is the gray female ninja).
What scene is this? And the grey ninjas are clearly not meant to be Smoke and the others. Why would Smoke be on his own on the island and not with the other Lin Kuei?
At 1:16:46 (made it start a few seconds early so it's easier to look for), after it cuts to Liu Kang and cuts back to Shao Kahn and the rest of the fighters before zooming in to Kitana. She's standing to the left of Motaro and a light gray ninja, and to the right of Skarlet, a dark gray ninja, and a tarkatan. She has a ponytail, a purple skirt, and some possibly bronze ring thingies on her arms and legs.
th-cam.com/video/URUJPTpZXnE/w-d-xo.htmlh16m35s
Do I believe it's her? Not really, the design is very different and while her hair, skin tone (at least by MK standards), and signature color are all the same, she could just be a scrapped alternate costume for Kitana or Jade that they just decided to recolor and use as a generic NPC. Plus I doubt any of the devs even remembered she existed until the MKX comics. But it's a nice headcanon.
And I see your point about Smoke (since thinking about it - he's actually playable so why would they have him use a generic NPC model in MK 1?). I still think that the female gray ninja was Khameleon (as I believe Shang Tsung's Island is the only time it's ever used), and at least 1 of the male gray ninjas is Chameleon as it lines up with his Armageddon ending which says, as you most likely already know; That the only thing we know about him is that he was supposedly present for every tournament, just lurking off screen waiting for a perfect opportunity.
It most likely is an unused design, yes. Kinda looks like Mileena's alt with Kitana's alt hair and some flats. I think Chameleon is canonically invisible with an ever-shifting outfit.
Why is it that when you say, "possibly through Outworld sorcery" you show the Kan-O's krypt picture from Deadly Alliance?
Another great video, man. I was always curious about the plot in SF, canon or not? John Vogel and John Tobias sometimes reply to canon questions on twitter. Tobias even answered an old time question about classic Sub-Zero in UMK3, since a lot of people still think that he was not Bi-Han. But his answer was meant to keep it a secret i guess.
I remember people theorising that Classic Sub-Zero was the Great Kung Lao.
Yeah, and Johnny Cage. But John Tobias just confirmed that classic Sub-Zero was not an entirely new character. He said they've thought to delay the possible reveal for latter games, but oh well). Ever since Tobias left the company, it seems that the classic Sub-Zero's reveal was forgotten. And i think that's for the better. Personally i always thought he was added in UMK3 because people wanted masked Sub-Zero.
As you said, MK:SF doesn't fit very well, but the actual answer is simple: it takes place a short time prior MK1, within the same year, as the character select screen implies.
Let me elaborate: interviews prior to the game's release reveal the story was originally meant to take place in Hong Kong, leading directly into the events of the MK1 comic and then the game itself, even including Raiden, Goro and Shang Tsung as characters. It was going to show how Kano lost his eye, and possibly explain the origin of Jax's arms, saying that he was wearing prototypes there. All this was scrapped when the game's development halted, and rather than throwing everything out, the team decided to release those few levels they had finished. Basically the SF we have is a demo of an unreleased game. We can assume that those planned events happened in the timeline, but we didn't get to see them. So there is an explaination on why he has those arms, we just don't know it. Also while the final game doesn't include time references, the manual does say it tells the events of how Kano first came into contact with Shang Tsung.
The only real contradiction is in Jax knowing about supernatural stuff, but the only thing that contradicts with is the MK2 comic, and to me that's not 100% canon. Unlike the MK1 comic, that was referenced in many later games, and the MK4 comic, referenced in MK Gold, the MK2 comic is almost entireely ignored. The only things that first appeared in that comic and returned in later games are the mention of the 10 consecutive victories, and Shao Kahn's unmasked appearance, but I believe those are actually just concepts meant for the games' storyline, that got carried over to both the MK2 comic as well as later games. (Gorbak also returned, but only in the MKX comic, never in the games, except maybe being mentioned somewhere, but he was first mentioned in the MK1 comic anyway) In actuality, if you think about it, Shao Kahn's look is bad thing, since they used an early design for the comic, rather than the final, masked look. Also that comic had a big contradiction with MK2 itself in Scorpion's storyline.
I know it seems weird to consider that mess of a "game" as canon over the official MK2 tie-in comic, but again, that's because we're looking at a demo basically; if we consider the events of the true, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Special Forces, as it was meant to be, I think they are 100% canon, and to this day the creators keep them in the back of their minds when doing current games, while they ignore the MK2 comic, as clearly shown in MK9, where Jax even is on the island with Sonya.
PS: Kabal IS in Special Forces. As clearly shown in an unreleased cutscene he was meant to be a character in the game, maybe a boss, but he was scrapped. ...except he's still there! In the sewer level you find him guarding a computer. That role was likely meant for a thug, and they just reused Kabal's model, but he's a unique enemy, the model is never reused anywhere else in the game, so we're free to consider him actually Kabal. Either way he's there during the events as originally intended.
I've heard about some of this stuff since releasing the video, and I've ntoiced the contradiction with Scorpion and Sub-Zero (Scorpion saved Sub-Zero from Reptile, or saw him spare an opponent in the tourney). Ultimately, all we can keep from the intended storyline is when it's set (I did the same with DMC4), while the events themselves have to reflect the final version. From this, yes, SF is right before MK1. I'm curious to see how they'd explain Jax being absent in the MK1 comic, unless that one black guy with Sonya is him.
Yeah, I assumed that was him as well, because A, he's black, and B... ok, actually that's kinda it.
But idk the guy next to him also looks kinda like Agent Beran from the second comic so who knows.
I think what you said about inserting it after 2, but before 3 makes sense. I guess the official ranking is Special Forces, MK3, MK vs DC, MK4; ALL taking place in the ORIGINAL time-line; except in MK vs DC Raiden talks about receiving messages from the future; like in the NEW time-line, so at this point who even knows?!🙄
Also the OIA didn't have portal technology until MK3 so this DEFINITELY isn't before MK 1. Also it couldn't happen before Mythologies because even if Sonya is 26 in both games Sub-zero is 32. He died at 32 during the first MK, but was already older than Sonya and maybe Jax. Not sure but I feel like Jax was always older based off of his command and Sonya's rank. Sonya I believe was the youngest in her squad and according to the new time-line was manipulated by Kano, though we're never really told how. I would guess that maybe Kano pulled a Hsu Hao in his early days and posed as a Special Forces agent to get close to and ultimately manipulate a young and naive Sonya. Perhaps there was a bit of a sour romance there that would make Sonya the mother of Kano's son in the new time-line. Also this might explain why Kano taught Kira some of Sonya's moves much later in the series anyway. AND maybe Johnny cage found out about Kano and Sonya's minor fling that he became consumed with jealousy and decides to throw Sonya off of a pyramid in the first time-line and divorces her in the second time-line. 🤔 Have you no shame Sonya? 😅
Nah. J/k about that Las bit, but see NSR? You're not the only one who can ruin great characters in your series! 😆😅🤣
I know everyone is gonna give me shit I like special forces
Can you do a line through time episode about Fire Emblem?A lot of the games are seemingly disconnected from eachother but they do connect.
It's on the list, yes.
THE EARTH GUY IS A MEMER OF THE FORCES!?!?
He's from the Black Dragon.
Fun fact: In Mortal Kombat Trilogy (an updated version of UMK3, which is an updated version of MK 3), he was actually supposed to be playable - but since all of the other bosses and hidden characters were playable they switched out Tremor (who hadn't appeared yet) with Rain (was a hidden boss in MK 3/UMK3).
Due to time constraints they stitched Rain's special moves together by reusing animations from other characters (ninja's generic roundhouse kick, Rain's water bubble reuses Ermac's fireball pose, and Rain's lightning uses both Nightwolf's lightning effect along with Ermac's telekinetic slam pose). Rain's bio (and I'm pretty sure ending as well) were both originally Tremor's, hence why it mentions him being (paraphrased) "a member of the Black Dragon posing as a Lin Kuei assassin".
That's... 40% accurate.
Rain was not a hidden boss, he was an easter egg character only appearing in attract mode of UMK3, teasing the players, and not in the actual game; he was added however in console versions of the game reusing animations as you correctly explained, but right away his storyline has always been that he's originally from Edenia and choses to side with Shao Kahn, but then in his ending he's convinced by Kitana to fight against him.
In MKTrilogy they included all characters from previous games, so Rain returns, and his bio and ending are the same as in UMK3, only in the manual of the Nintendo 64 version they messed up: he's colored red, and has an original bio about him being a Lin Kuei that mysteriously disappeared to then appear fighting for Shao Kahn. The bio and ending are unaltered in the game itself as well as in the manual for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions of the game.
Rain is not the only bio they messed up in that version, though, and another notable mistake is in Ermac's, since he's miscolored orange rather than red.
The mistakes about Rain and Ermac combined led people into believing Rain's bio was meant to be for an orange ninja, possibly Tremor, who would debut 3 and a half years later in Special Forces.
However that's just a rumor: I don't think there's any actual evidence about Tremor being created for any game prior MKSF, nor of any connection between the mistake in N64 Trilogy and Tremor, especially since there's no mention of the Black Dragon in Rain's bio, nor any mention of the Lin Kuei in any of Tremor's bios.
in the beta version kabal I believe is the guy behind kano at 4:18 but next to tremor
I noticed that during editing but didn't relaly have a place to bring it up, or much to say beyond there being a cut character. Looks kinda feminine to me. I've just been shown other beta footage with other characters who didn't make the cut, so there were liekly quite a few members before the change in direction.
That doesn't really look like the Kabal model. There's a really cool "cut-cutscene" of him and Kano arguing because Kabal seems to have reservations on being as evil as Kano wants him to be. A very cool character moment unfortunately cut out. His model from that cutscene is stil in the game as a generic enemy. I think we can safely assume Kabal had left the clan by then, since his apperance in MKSM implied that he was an ex-member rather than an active one, though my memory is fuzzy.
He talks about his clan in present tense in SM, saying they've been betrayed by one of their own. I'm not really sure what this was supposed to be alluding to, unless they mean Kano betrayed the clan.
The4thSnake oh wow. Huh. Maybe they interpreted Kano's abduction as a defection. Thanks for the reply m8, love your content. Consider making a video on Reiko's MK4 ending. People falsely think he sits on Kahn's throne even though the throne clearly has a Brotherhood of Shadow symbol on it, a distinctly Netherrealmian organization.
Well, the prevailing theory, pre-Deception, was that Reiko was supposed to be Shao Kahn.
God this timeline is so fucked.
MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!
i think you should take on the challenge of explaining dragonball Super's Black Goku/zamasu arc and its time travel. I've been really trying to figure out that one
I wish Plague of Gripes' video on that was still up. I think it was right?
Although this game is bad, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is canon to the Mortal Kombat series.
I... know it is...
Hmm, that's 2 things that don't work
What two things?
So what's next?
Call of Duty.
WORST MK GAME EVER MADE!
Is it fair to say MK11 usurped that Title?
i got theory how special forces fits into MK timeline. Jax must have made the cyborg as gauntlets for like as a power boost to defeats the villains of the games you kind of like iron man
and also the reason why jax dosen't believe johnny's story because it was a cover up made by special forces i mean after all the special forces were formed by the goverment and also quan chi must have resurrected the black dragon
Quan Chi has no connection at all to the Black Dragon. The SF couldn't have covered up something they didn't know was happening, and Jax would believe Johnny, even if that happened, because he's experienced magic stuff in SF.
@@The4thSnake maybe jax must have told the members of the special forces they him not to tell anyone about his experience with magic that's why jax didn't believed johnny cause he did so he had lie to him because he needed keep it secret and the reason kabal is absent is because kabal was probably on another mission and couldn't make it and also the undead kabal must found the black dragons souls and brought them back,he might be a better candidate to bring them back from dead than quan chi and so that how they were able to show up in the mortal kombat x comics
@@justinXLJL-eu8bl Jax wouldn't need to reveal anything about the previous incident to acknowledge that he believes Johnny. And how exactly would Kabal bring them back? Why would he, when he's subservient to Quan Chi?
@@The4thSnake the same that quan chi brought him back the reason because their his allies (friends) and he must have got permission from quan chi
Huh. You know, I don't think the producers of these games care about what's cannon or even telling a coherent story.
I've found, in making my other Mortal Kombat videos, that this is absolutely true.
It's like that was the joke all along! … Maybe?