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starrypeeps-headcanons · 1 year

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Headcanon assortment (pt. 2)

Long hcs edition

-Kirby basically threatened Daroach to get him to join the Star Allies, is the only Star Ally that he has had to beg him to join; not even DMK or Marx gave him that much hassle.

-Dark Mind created Dark Taranza as a sort of replacement for Taranza once he managed to bring Sectonia into his world. But now that Sectonia is burning in hell™ he's stuck with an annoying and mean version of Taranza.

-There's a running gag on Commander Doo's army in which all the Dees and some of the Doos just seem to be getting younger and younger to the point there's literal babies being trained to serve and protect the king.

-When the animal friends separated, Gooey blamed himself for the longest time. He thought that if he endured more of Chuchu's verbal abuse none of it would've happened. Eventually accepting it wasn't his fault and the Chuchu needed to change.

-Meta Knight didn't like Dedede up until Mass Attack. He considered DDD to be a huge fool not apt for ruling. MK even tried to overthrow him once (hence the events of Revenge of Meta Knight). They eventually made ammends and now they have a good friendship.

-Sword, Blade and MK didn't work for Dedede until the end of the anime. They just hanged around the castle because nobody cared enough to stop them. One day, Escargoon snapped and hired them in a fit of anger under the premise of "If they are going to be fucking around they better be useful".

-The reason why Dedede and Meta Knight knew about Dark Nebula being enclosed in the chest is because many, many years ago, even BEFORE Dedede was born, Dark Nebula attempted an invasion towards the kingdom, but was promptly stopped by the then King and Queen and enclosed in a chest that had an extra magic seal. The King and the Queen told Dedede, DDD told Meta Knight about what the chest contained and the rest is history...

-During their conquer on Ripple Star. Miracle Matter and Zero Two alike, tortured and eliminated a lot of fairies and other inhabitants, specially Miracle Matter since Zero Two was busy building Dark Star. The number of fairies gone due to them is largely unknown, not even Miracle Matter and Zero Two are sure of the numbers.

-Regarding the last sentence, Zero Two is even more unsure than Miracle Matter in matters of figures, since he wasn't there all the time, but he's sure that they wiped quite a bunch of fairies, at least 1/8th of the population but as both of them are not sure, they leave it at an open question.

-Usually the three mage sisters are pretty close to each other. After the whole ordeal with Hyness and Void; Zan, Fran and Flame were given a third chance to live, Fran and Flame had been wanting to re-do their lives away from the cult. Zan on the other hand, is more reluctant to leave, and this has caused friction among them. So while the other two still love Zan, they had to take distance if they want to actually get to their freedom.

-Dark Matter (the element) has always been there ever since the creation of the known universe, but didn't have anyone who can personify it for billions of years. Zero basically created himself by sheer force of will, and boy did it take him a while... Considering how big he is and that basically he created himself by himself is no surprise how in spite of Dark Matter's long-living presence he is not as old as his own element.

-After their respective game events, Taranza and Susie went to live in Dreamland to reconsider some stuff and begin a new life. Both were deeply depressed. Taranza was the first one in approaching Susie and so they eventually took solace in each other's presences until they got better.

-Puffballs (or Puffs as in human form) come in several types of them: Puffballs with copy abilities (no horns nor wings), Puffballs with copy abilities (horns but no wings and viceversa), Puffaballs with copy abilities (Wings and horns), Puffballs without copy abilities (horns but no wings and viceversa), Puffballs without copy abilities (with horns and wings) and lastly, Puffballs with absolutely nothing "special" on them (no copy abilities, no horns nor wings).

-Regarding the last hc, all of these puffs have varying degress of rarity: Puffs with copy abilities (no horns nor wings): VERY COMMON. Puffs with copy abilities (horns but no wings and viceversa): UNCOMMON (horns no wings) COMMON (wings no horns). Puffs with copy abilities (horns and wings): RARE. Puffs without copy abilities (horns but no wings and viceversa): UNCOMMON (horns but no wings) VERY COMMON (wings but no horns) Puffs without copy abilities (with horns and wings): COMMON. Puffs with absolutely nothing (no copy abilities, no horns nor wings): RARE.

-When Kirby presented Gooey to his other friends, he met Adeleine and crushed on her since day one. Gooey confessed his feelings without much hopes, as feared, Adeleine didn't return the feelings. Gooey felt pretty awkward afterwards but never hoarded any hard feeling towards Adeleine (same with her).

-Almost all of the Star Allies have beef with someone: Marx has beef with Kine. Adeleine and Ribbon have beef with Zan. Meta Knight has beef with Magolor and Susie. Francisca has beef with DMK (actually DMK has beef with nearly everyone). Zan and Fran have beef with Susie. They just keep their act together because (most of) them like and have connections with Kirby in common.

-When in contact with light-based weapons (rainbow sword, star rod, crystal shard weapon, etc.) Dark Matters often suffer from an allergy sort of reaction to these objects including: Burning sensation, blisters, sores and even burn marks (when the weapon is used against them). Some Dark Matters seem more affected by the contact of these weapons than others. (Think of a vampire when exposed to a cross)

-No re-incarnation form of Void Termina is 100% pure of certain energy (positive or negative) the dark is tainted with light and viceversa. (Energy cross contamination is very common) Only Void is capable of being pure, untainted energy. With that being said:

-Currently, the purest you can get with negative energy is at a 95%, with Zero being the closest to pure negative energy. Then, the other two leaders: Zero Two (90%) and Miracle Matter (93%) and rest of the drones (65% or more). Gooey and Blob (55% and 60% in that order) being the only ones with significantly less than required to be a Dark Matter, so they are an hybrid.

-Now Kirby, he is about 97% pure positive energy, thefore he's the closest to Void. The vast majority of the other population (60% or more) follow an average of 70% of positive energy. Reaching more than 88% in positive energy is a rare occurrence and such people are destined to be Star Warriors (for some reason, this seems very biased towards the puff race).

-Talking about Void, Void takes whatever shape of the energy he's given at the moment. This means, during the Star Allies events with the whole Hyness and the Three Sisters mess, given with the purpose which Hyness was praying for (Destruction of worlds). Void was filled and influenced with Negative energy (and four human sacrifices) and took the shape of a World Terminator because of Hyness' nihilist wishes.

-On the other hand, now that Kirby managed to modify and break through Void's initial negative construction, Void was given positive energy strong enough to make sure he wasn't gonna be broken through people like Hyness again. Leaving that aside, Void is an extremely powerful, pure elemental form (basically a big bang-like personification) and therefore pretty unstable. So he's zealously kept under strict vigilance by Morpho Knight and Star Dream ("wish" granter).

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invertedfate · 4 years

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Here's the thing: The only after-effect of Asriel committing a true reset is that he also switched the six souls, establishing that every change made from UT to IF has to rely on the swaps and their wants of a nail. It's a take.

No. If Inverted Fate is a “take” on anything, it’s just the role swap genre, which again, exists independently of Underswap.To make another example:My KH fic series, Antipode, takes a common what-if of Riku being the protagonist. It is NOT the first fic to explore this concept. That does not make it a “take” on other fics with that premise- because I deliberately avoided reading those fics so that I could do my own thing and develop my own ideas without being influenced by what came before. If it’s a take on anything, it’s a take on the general idea of the Keybearer Riku what-if.IF shares a small portion of Underswap’s placements... but they aren’t even placements that Underswap invented or has sole ownership to. When UT was new, I saw tons of fanworks swapping Sans and Papyrus, and sometimes Undyne and Alphys and Toriel and Asgore. And that’s just it- the most blatant pair dynamics in a fandom are always gonna be ripe for the picking. For instance: Lillie and Gladion swap AUs, Sonic and Shadow swapping, Aang and Zuko, Seven and Garnet/Amethyst/Pearl with Connie and Jasper/Peridot/Lapis. I’ve seen multiple interpretations of these ideas independent from each other.But Underswap is a swap of as many characters as possible. Temmie and Flowey, Grillby and Muffet, BP and Nice Cream, and MTT and Blook are all front and center in the official art for the AU. Frisk and Chara, Asriel and MK, and Bratty and Catty are still known and popular swaps, too. All of which are iconic to Underswap and present in nearly every Underswap take. Some of which are super bizarre, like Tem and Flowey, and thus unique to that AU and deliberately absent from IF- because I didn’t want it to be Underswap. I started work on IF because I thought it’d be fun to have a mad scientist Undyne bounce off of Mettaton and have Papyrus as her lab assistant, while simultaneously helping Frisk and the conflict that would entail. Then the idea developed from there, with me wanting to include the failed pacifist elements SUPER early on into the AU’s development as well as the Frisk and Papyrus friendship. Having six “swaps” was deliberate due to that- six swaps, six Lost Souls. I was aware of Underswap’s existence, but I specifically wanted to avoid doing what Uswap did because I felt it was antithetical to building a story-based AU that has swaps in it. Because the more pieces you move around, the more you have to justify and explain as well as take into account the effects of that character being there. For a story-driven fanwork, you can get away with even a single swap and have everything else change as a result. Storyshift had ten. I went with six. And the lack of personality swapping was due to my dislike of personality swaps in role swapping even before UT- like, when I started planning Antipode in 2007, I specifically wanted to keep Riku true to his KH1 personality.And the thing is, IF owes way more to Storyshift and my previous work on Antipode than it does Underswap. Storyshift was what inspired me to take the sprite comic format it started and give it my own spin. I started developing IF as a concept in October 2015, but other than some story ideas and character sketches, I wasn’t sure how I was gonna tell that story until I saw Storyshift’s approach.

There were a handful of other sprite comics starting up then- but one thing I noticed is that a lot of the maps were unchanged, things like the long hallway and training dummy were basically unchanged. A lot of this was due to it being a fledgling form of storytelling in the comic as well as the amount of work it takes to make those kinda changes, but I wanted to have fun with it, which is why I made changes like all the map edits in the Ruins, the comic pages, Frisk talking, a party member... These were all me just doing things I wanted to do that would make the comic fun and help put my own personal stamp on this type of AU.So when people declare that my work is a take and disregard the months of planning and care that went into the project, it’s extremely disrespectful. Doubly so when they drag my friends and their project through the mud. And this has been a recurring problem with Team Switched, ever since the freakin’ #NotMySwapSans drama years ago.It’s toxic. It’s rude. It does not show support of either project. Never mind that it becomes a pretty slippery slope when you look at other projects.I have seen other AUs that have a few character positions in common with other AUs- for instance, Undermyth and Jumbletale both had Papyrus in the “Sans” role. Undermyth and Sudden changes both had Asriel in the “Toriel” role. I know of at least two AUs with Muffet as Toriel and two with Alphys as Toriel. Taleshift had Asgore and Toriel as Papyrus and Sans, as do Altered Destiny and Altertale.That does not make these AUs “takes” of each other. Roleswap is just a broad genre you can do a lot with. In my fifteen years of being in fandoms, it has always been one of THE most popular genres. By that logic, Underswap is a “take” on the droves of Bloodswap AUs in the Homestuck fandom... when I highly doubt that was the direct inspiration.Anyway, to my followers- sorry about this rant. This has been going on for a VERY long time, with multiple people hounding myself and TS about our works.Any further asks like this will just get deleted- I just wanted to go into more detail on the thought processes that went into planning the AU and my own experiences in fandom leading up to it.

#asks #inverted fate #ts underswap #undertale au #rant #behind the scenes #Anonymous

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matt-eldritch · 4 years

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Mortal Kombat Akademy

In between my work on the 31 Days of Original Characters challenge, I've begun to revisit my plans for the big Mortal Kombat story I'd wanted to do for awhile; Mortal Kombat Akademy. I've done a lot of character busts with backstory info and I did a sort of "season one" plots but this is something I'm not really satisfied with anymore. I'm gonna spend the new year trying to readjust and rework the overall story and characters to something more workable. Here's a few odds and ends of what I've planned so far;

Story Outline

Shaolin Monks, Lui Kang and Kung Lao, are recruited into the Mortal Kombat Akademy, the secret fighting school located on the island paradise of international crimelord, Shang Tsung. But those who step foot on the island are subjected to terrors beyond comprehension once they learn the true purpose of the school; a training ground for the soldiers of an interdimensional tyrant who conquers by use of a fighting tournaments ordained by the gods themselves. But one of the gods, Raiden, is willing to give Earth a fighting chance by training as many chosen Earthlings as he can so they may finally defeat the forces of evil in the Mortal Kombat tournament.

Kinda bare bones but for plot synopsis go, it helps me sort of make a launching pad for the ideas. Like my original idea, the story is still primarily about Lui Kang and Kung Lao going to the school and meeting/befriending the typical heroes of the Mortal Kombat world, Raiden being their mentor and Shang Tsung being the big bad to overcome.

But the story ideas I had just don’t really cut it for me now. I feel as though I was sort of putting the cart before the horse by putting so much time making elaborate details instead of snowballing one idea to make a big bright idea. I’ve made some titles for them;

Start the Semester!

Tour the Akademy!

Prepare for the First Exams!

Bond Like Your Lives Depend On It!

Learn the Fatalities!

Wills and Testaments!

Survive the Detetionrealm!

Survive the First Round of Exams!

Survive the Second Round of Exams!

Survive the Last Round of Exams!

Party Your Asses Off!

Mortal Kombat Akademy V. The DC Universe: Dawn of Pain!

To give some context to them, I had a storyarc planned; Early on, Raiden would want the Earthrealm class (the class would have Kang, Lao, Johnny, Sonya, Jax, Stryker and Nightwolf) to be friends and allies in order to survive the matches and save the world. Easier said than done when so many personalities were clashing together. And once they learn about fatalities, the class goes through some mental anguish over having to kill or be killed, Kang being the only one vowing to never kill anyone, to the disbelief of everyone else. Things start looking up once the class starts to trust and respect one another and become stronger fighters.

But Kano, on the behalf of Goro’s Class (Mileena, Kitana, Jade, Baraka, Sheeva, Skarlet, Reptile, Tanya and Kano himself) frames Sonya and Johnny for a crime, leading to Professor Quan Chi to exile them to the “Detention Realm” where his goons, Drahmin and Moloch, deal out the punishments. My idea for them that they’d be bumbling and dim so Johnny and Sonya could escape them, bonding while trying to make it to the final exams. Everyone but Kang and Lao have been defeated and since Sonya and Johnny were late, it’d all be up to them to beat Goro. Once Goro beast Lao half to death, Kang faces his fears and manages to defeat Goro without killing him, but not without making him suffer for all the pain he’s caused.

The class’ reward for passing the exams is an-all expense paid vacation to Edenia, which is basically a hellhole built to Shao Kahn’s pleasure. Here, Kang and Kitana get some alone time to romantically connect to one another during the celebratory feast hosted by Kitana and Mileena’s parents, Shao Kahn and Sindel. But really, the feast is for the Kahns to asses the threat that Raiden’s students hold to their long term plans. And finally, the DCU story is just a fun breather where I have the mid-1990s versions of their heroes (Superman with a mullet, Batman Forever styled Batman and the two Wonder Women, Artemis and Diana, for example).

And after rereading what I had for plots, I noticed how little the Lin Keui featured into the stories since I designed a lot of them for the series. Should try to fix that somehow.

Overall Art Style

As I stated in previous MKA concept art, I based the art style on the look of Steven Universe. I still intend for the project to be written fanfiction, but I do wish to have some elements of it to be drawn by myself. Not a full adaptation but maybe a full page illustration of each chapter, along with the general character/environment sketches, or like the ending credits of The Mandalorian series.

But back to the art style, I wish to change it. I can’t really go further on the style of Steven Universe if this story is going to be about such heavy violence and gore. It wouldn’t really look right, might cross over into unintentional hilarity or into the uncanny valley. I’m looking at something like the artist One, the man behind One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 whose style is really unique, fast, sketchy and frenetic, all attributes I think will work well. I also love the anime aesthetic of the 1990s so that’s definitely a goal to achieve since I’m setting the story in 1995.

Story Ideas To Keep

* Koins: My idea for an in-canon reason for the koins you win in matches (at least in Mks 9-11, IDK how far back they go) to unlock Krypt stuff will be used as a way for the students to buy things like food, clothing and resurrections due to being killed by another student’s fatalities since its primarily a learning facility instead of a battlefield. Though if you’re broke, you’re not gonna be saved. Koins, like in the games, will be given for performing a fatality and a moral choice comes up when you think “do I do good and be paid less, or do something terrible but get more chances of being resurrected if I die?”

*Profiles: I’ve got to do some rewrites for the characters. Nothing too too major since I do like a lot of what I wrote, but its more to streamline it to fit in the new direction I’m doing. Like, having Sonya, Jax and Stryker being Hall Monitors, I don’t think something like that is gonna be part of my story since I’m trying to take it a tad more seriously. The idea of Detention Realm and having Dharmin and Moloch as lovable henchmen is still canon, as far as I’m concerned. Think the two mice henchmen from the film “Flushed Away”. And on a final note, the newly retconned origin for Sindel...that shit isn’t gonna be part of my story.

Overall, whatever backstories that’ll be changed will likely be on a case by case basis. No telling who or what will be changed right now, but I’ve now thought of some parts to start with.

Diversity and Inclusion

This one is probably gonna be one of the hardest to accomplish since I really want to make the series really diverse with body types, genders and sexuality, race, neurodiversity, that type of subject matter. Inclusion is really important to me, and I’m scared how I might screw it up like how Disney, JK Rowling, SNL, Simpsons, Big Mouth, Voltron so many more screw it all up since they all serve the needs of the capitalist, neoliberal status quo over the voices of the marginalised.

And with that, brings up some more challenges. Will I make so many diverse original characters that they take time away from the canon characters? Should I make more canon MK characters differently diverse?

I'm also planning on having the characters display prejudices and bigotries but I'm scared I'll go in too much of "Bright" territory, if you know what I mean.

Tackling Mature Content

I mean, it goes without saying that the series is going to be full of violence and gore since that’s basically in the DNA of Mortal Kombat in the first place. But there’s much more serious topics I want to try to write. Like the effects of abuse, queer rights, the above themes about diversity and inclusion, the seemingly never ending war and the ideas of the long defeat. Of course, my chapters will be marked with as clear as possible content warnings, those are important.

A Shared Universe

A month ago, I watched a video about Midway trying to recreate the success of Mortal Kombat into other fighting games. The video, “Remember when Midway tried to copy Mortal Kombat?” talked about three would-be franchises of Midway fighting games; Mace: The Dark Age, War Gods and Bio FREAKS. After watching the video and reading about the games, I think it’d be good for lore if they were integrated into my story. Mace and War Gods could be used as part of the backstory of the series. Like the idea of the Earthrealm Kombatants being the descendants of the characters of Mace and War Gods, maybe Raiden was involved with the later, I’m not sure. Bio FREAKS could be latter used if I go into a time travel story. Maybe a mix of the game and the story/characters of Mortal Kombat X. As for Midway’s other successful but overlooked franchise, Killer Instinct, that is probably going to be the most recurring element in the shared universe. UltraTech, the main villains of the series would be the people behind such things as Kano’s cyborg eye, the Lin Keui’s Cyber Initiative and being the rulers of Neo-Amerika in the Bio FREAKS timeline. I also wrote in the profiles of Nightwolf and Sub-Zero that the Killer Instinct universe is linked to my story (one of his divorced parents is dating one of the parents of KI’s Black Eagle and Thunder while Glacius was an alien that helped give Cryomancers their powers).

And on a side note, there is another Midway MK clone called Primal Rage, which I swear I had one of the toys based on it and saw a parody of it on an episode of Dexter’s Laboratory. Its pretty gruesome, its a bunch of savage Kaiju in a post-apocalyptic earth that resembles the stone age. Probably an alternate timeline/dimension if I use it in my series. Who knows, maybe elements of the worlds of Street Fighter and or God of War could make an appearance...

Writing the Damned Thing

Probably the absolute hardest part of this entire thing. I struggle with actually keeping attention to writing since I’m primarily a visual artist and it feels terrible to not even follow through on any idea I have and it just kinda sits and collects dust in my brain. If its sketching and rendering, I can do it. If its writing shit down, I just have executive dysfunction when it comes to it. I never know where to start writing it, how to continue writing it, how to finish it or how to put it all together cohesively.

I can’t do this without at least writing the complete first season, if I do it on a semi-regular basis, nothing is going to be done. Even like, less than a week of non-recurring writing is like a poison to me. I don’t know how, but if I make room for an hour or two of writing a day every day might help me get more prepared for longer writing.

In Conclusion

When will the first chapter be done? I don’t know. When will I start writing? Hopefully as soon as I can. I can try to post updates or work in progresses, but that’s still a pipe dream, in my honest opinion. But I want to make progress in 2020, I need to make a difference and to actually make this coming year worthwhile.

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cienie-isengardu · 5 years

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What is up with Shirai Ryu?

Or, is Hanzo a hypocrite?

While looking through various MK11 intros, I’m kind of tired about the whole “honor” stuff that Hanzo and Kuai Liang and so many other characters like to talk. Mainly, because honor is very unspecified term whose meaning (thus the line between acting honorable and dishonorable) will change from one person to another. And as much I love cultural clashes between characters of different clans / fraction or realms, Hanzo’s talks about Shirai Ryu make me wonder what the hell is going on with his clan right now?

Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu were rival clans for ages, but the japanese ninjas - and the whole ninjutsu created by them - has its roots in Lin Kuei teaching. Bi-Han called himself thief and assassin and we know that ninjas played similar roles through the ages. Stealing, killing, doing all dirty job someone paid for, it was what Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu did for years. The two fractions of course vary in clan traditions and family matters, but I think we can all agree that morally wise, assassins and master thieves aren’t the common image of honorable men, right?

Of course, both Hanzo and Kuai Liang decided to reform their respective clans, pledged to serve Earthrealm as the protectors rather than working for anyone who can afford their service. Thus both grandmasters reject job offers from gods & Outworlders alike; reject offers that would pose a danger to their home realm. What is nice and all, but clan has its own needs; there are people who must be feed, clothed, sheltered, medically equipped, armed with the right equipment and trained. This of course cost a lot money and maybe the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei do have the right funds accumulated over the centuries. But as far as MK11 intros are concerned, Sub-Zero most likely did not change completely Lin Kuei. Of course, Kuai Liang’s clan is meant to be protectors of Earthrealm, but there is still (rogue) Frost who is proud to be an assassin. And since she joined the clan between MK9 and X, the fact she is so aware of the clan history, the feud with Shirai Ryu and assassins traditions may imply that at least to some degree Lin Kuei is/was still involved in “old bussiness”. Whatever the case - Lin Kuei still training assassins who just don’t work anymore for “outsiders” or Frost (with Noob) being a rogue " remains of ancient glory”, both versions are representing the better and the darker sides of Sub-Zero’s fraction.

Hanzo on another hand, as solely representation of Shirai Ryu in MK11 game, seems at times as, well, deluded person. Especially when intros aren’t clear if that was supposed to be P.O.V of current or past Hanzo.

First, let me quote little backstory provided by MK: Mythologies Sub-Zero:

Scorpion is the code name for a modern day member of the Shirai Ryu named Hanzo Hasashi [...] He learned this technique from his own father, a ninja himself who forbade his son to become a member of this ancient group of assassins and wanted him to accept the trappings of modern day life. But the lure of quick money and his own wish to afford his wife and child the finest in life force him to join the Shirai Ryu.

His latest mission leads him into the heart of China, home of the rival Lin Kuei and location of the Shaolin temple where his mission is to steal the sacred Map of Elements.

So, Shirai Ryu are ancient group of assassins, the last mission of Scorpion was to steal the sacred Map of Elements from Shaolin Temple and Hanzo wasn’t forced to join the clan, he did it mainly for money to afford his family in finest way.

After coming back to life, Hanzo made great effort to redeem his clan and became ally to other heroes. At the same time, he himself says Shirai Ryu are not bound to Special Forces (U.S.)’s laws what results in fact Sonya Blade keeps eye on Hanzo and his clan. Probably attacking SF’s base and killing captured Quan Chi is/was still fresh in her mind. Anyway, the real question is, what Shirai Ryu does? What kind of jobs the clan takes, from where Hanzo get money to cover needs of his ninjas and funds to rebuild destroyed years ago home? What Shirai Ryu ninjas do between crisises threatening safety of Earthrealm?

The reason why I wonder such things is tied up with Hanzo’s character banters, particularly with other merceneries.

Scorpion: Why seek out my clan?

Kano: You're a clan of assassins, ain't you?

Scorpion: You refer to the Lin Kuei.

It is hard to tell, if Scorpion here is the younger or current version thus if he talks about old Lin Kuei (a true statement about clan of assassins then) or refer to Kuai Liang’s one clan that was supposed to change for better. Whatever the case, if clan of assassins is what refers to Lin Kuei, I’m sorry, what Shirai Ryu is or was then? Because it was assassin clan too not so long ago and Hanzo himself joined and worked for such group.

Kabal: The Shirai Ryu hiring, Scorpion? Scorpion: We're family, not mercenaries.

Not mercenaries, said a man who was once hired to steal sacred Map and did it solely for money (or maybe even satisfation/chance to kill Lin Kuei). Even if Hanzo is speaking only about current situation of clan, it still does not answer are his ninjas involved in illegal jobs or are they just train in case of emergency?

This statement (and other intros with Jacqui anc Jax) makes it clear to join Shirai Ryu means became part of the clan for good. But frankly, that still does not mean that family unit like ninja clan can’t (couldn’t) be mercenaries. I mean, mercenary is person primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics and you know, taking jobs like assassination or theft is, well, dark side of mercenary profession. Soo, did Hanzo’s statement “not mercenaries“ was purely about joining the clan (not hiring unknown people) or as a whole, no more doing illegal stuff by his clan to gain money?

Erron: I thought Shirai Ryu were mercs. Scorpion: You understand little, Black. Erron: I've killed people for being less rude.

This one is similar to the previous intro but I feel this time the focus is more on the past of Shirai Ryu, since Erron (as hired gun by Shang Tsung / Shao Kahn) lives for one or two hundred years so he may be familiar with old!Shirai Ryu ninjas reputation.

Of course, Hanzo may be right, Black (and us, for that matter) as outsider, does not have insight into internal clan traditions, ethics or internal matters thus the lack of understanding may lead him (and me) to incorrect conclusion. Maybe Shirai Ryu for ages served Japan in a way Special Forces serves now USA? Maybe they worked always for their homeland’s well being? We don’t know. But then if Shirai Ryu aren’t/weren’t mercs, how else one should think about ninja clan that send his own warrior to Shaolin Temple in foreign (hostile) territory to steal sacred artifact while being paid by some weirdo (Quan Chi)? Like, how that was more honorable than, let’s say, Erron working for Kotal?

Scorp: There will be no deal, Kano. Kano: Gotta make a buck, mate. Scorp: The Shirai Ryu are not criminals.

Hanzo says his clan members aren’t criminals. I sorry, aren’t attacking Special Forces, the supposed allies, isn’t sort of crime? Even if two years passed since then, Shirai Ryu ninjas went to foreign country and attacked its army (who were at times helping refuges from Outworld). Of course, they weren’t motivated by greed or bad will, they were following their grandmaster. But Hanzo literally put his own need for revenge above needs of other heroes, including dead ones. Oh, and let’s no forget that past!Hanzo attacked Shaolin monks and killed who knows how many of them. Indeed, no criminals, ha!

Scorpion: The Shirai Ryu do not respect thieves. Kollector: I collect only what is due Shao Kahn. Scorpion: It is robbery, nothing more.

Sorry, what was your last mission again? Stealing from Shaolin Monks some precious map for some dude Quan Chi? I’m sure Shirai Ryu would never respect thieves! Riiiight.

Hanzo of course may talk about reformed Shirai Ryu, but that would look, once again, like he keep silent about past sins. Unless he really believe his clan never did anything dishonorable.

It’s hard not to wonder how exactly Hanzo reformed Shirai Ryu is he alone seems to ignore his own deeds. Mercs are looked down, so are thieves or in general, people working for money. As much as I can agree than Black Dragons - especially Kano - are the worst kind of scum, it would be actually nice to learn more about Shirai Ryu ethics or how ninja define honor. We know that for Hanzo, his “clan's honor is priceless” but he himself did a lot questionable stuff through the course of all games.

My biggest problem with Scorpion and his talk about honor (or in some causes, how pretty quick he is to accuse others of lack of thereof) is the contrast with Kuai Liang. Sub-Zero is the one willing to admit faults of his clan while Hanzo rarely acknowledges such in Shirai Ryu. Sub-Zero is the one trying hard to estabilish Lin Kuei as protectors of Earthrealm AND ally to other heroes, while Scorpion for a long time freely(?) keep himself and his clan isolated. Of course, both grandmasters treat Earthrealm’s best interest as priority, but between them two, it’s Kuai who is seen actively protecting Earth while Hanzo often was the source of problems, like killing capuring Quan Chi. Mind you, I don’t think Hanzo was wrong to assume as long as evil sorcerer will live, Earth is in danger (though, since Quan Chi is demon(?) shouldn’t he reborn in Netherrealm at some point?). But attacking your supposed allies and destroying the one chance to save fallen and enslaved comrades because Hanzo knows better does not strike me as the most honorable thing.

Once again, what is honor in Mortal Kombat? How Hanzo or Kuai Liang or Raiden or anyone define such matter?

I keep wonder about that, because Hanzo talks a lot about how Shirai Ryu are honorable while other merceneries are just thugs and all. What sounds a bit like hypocrisy when one look at Scorpion’s own history. Especially when younger!Hanzo is involved, because he is still the prime example of Shirai Ryu ninja working not-so-long-ago as assassin and thief.

But yeah, sure, everyone is greedy bastard and thug, even if said person is doing the same stuff like (old) Shirai Ryu did.

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat 11 #shirai ryu #hanzo hasashi #my analysis #erron black #kano #kabal #i'm the only one tired with the talk about honor non stop #while there is little how characters define honor?#what ninja makes more honorable than erron working for kotal for what? decade or two?#mind you i don't think hanzo is bad character #quite opposing i like this little hipocrisy of his #it makes him flawed #human characters #i only wish mk games would stop over using so much honor in intros #because after so many of character banters the honor sounds bombastic like hell

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