The Now Underappreciated Lore Of The First Mortal Kombat Game

We have to consider the first Mortal Kombat game was not that popular. It's rightly underappreciated by today's standards such as only seven fighters, no combos, one fatality per character, not much diversion, and a greater lack of balance than the second game. In my case, I don't even play the classic MK games anymore except the reboot entry. Ironically, Goro still remains more popular than Kintaro for a reason even if the second game was more popular than the first. Now, it's time to revisit some stuff that could've been carried over during the reboot.

 Here are scans that you might notice in the comics. You may notice some characters referred to as relatives to some of the characters. Kano did get the interesting retcon treatment because of the late Trevor Goddard. Though I think some concepts here were interesting but were easily forgotten. I think nobody's interested in Johnny Cage's ex-wife in the original timeline since he did get together with Sonya, they separated, and they went back together. Johnny's maturity was probably the most fun thing to happen 25 years after the reboot and how he practically hit his younger self in MK11.

For Liu Kang, I guess writers back then had no idea that Chinese usually spell their surnames first so Liu Kang should be Kang Liu if Kang was his surname. However, the retcon seems to have made Liu the surname since Kung Lao's supposed cousin (now retconned as nephew, make up your mind) is called Kung Jin. Also, in China, women usually don't change their surnames. So maybe, if Liu Kang is a descendant of the original Kung Lao (how he had descendants is somewhat unexplained but may have left the Shaolin Order at some point, got married, and sired a few children before his death at the hands of Goro) then his mother's name must be Kung Lin prior to becoming a Liu. So Kung Lao would be Liu Kang's maternal cousin and given the retcon then the latter is Kung Jin's second-degree uncle (cousin of one's parent or a cousin once removed higher by a generation).

For Sonya Blade, I thought her never-seen deceased brother is never mentioned again. Her father was mentioned again in her non-canon ending in the reboot. However, I felt that her deceased twin brother Daniel Blade could've been raised up even if he will never be playable. My take? I think the reboot could've established that Kano killed him "ear to ear" (which would make some nice tribute to Goddard) and the non-canon Mortal Kombat film did mention Sonya wanted to kill Kano for her partner's murder. I think Daniel Blade could've been mentioned as an off-screen character and the reboot could've added her twin brother killed by Kano plot.

For Goro, I wonder why his seven Shokan wives are not mentioned again. In the reboot, Queen Mai is never seen either presumably because she died sometime before the events began. Also, Queen Mai never had an image which again she probably died before the games began so Goro no longer has a mother. Goro having seven wives and several children were probably not mentioned because it'd be too much extra space. If Goro were at least 2,000 years old then maybe he's merely 20 years old by Shokan standards. Probably, he hasn't taken a wife yet though I'd like to ship him with Sheeva. For me, I think adding seven more wives into the comics can be very hard insert seven more characters who wouldn't matter. Goro did have a twin brother he slew in battle but it was non-canon.

So far, the first game just ended up getting ignored and underappreciated. I just wonder how many people are still willing to replay the first game? I'm out!