Nate Versus Nate | Mortal Kombat Trivia

You're about to listen to the first experimental season of our show, formerly called Nat One Presents the Podcast. For better audio quality and our current ongoing D D campaign, skip ahead to season two featuring the Daft Monks on this episode of Nat One Presents Triboard.

Okay, I know nothing about the character but the pure just based on the name Stinker. Absolute Stinker.

You're gonna [expletive] get some [expletive] and giggles for this name. Triboard. The combination of Cyrax, Sector, Smoke, and I [expletive] kid you not, Sub Zero, four robots into Triboard.

It doesn't [expletive] make sense. Number one, his name doesn't make sense.

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Hello and welcome to Nat One Presents the Podcast. Hey, holy [expletive], what year is it? I 20.

20-ish.

Yeah, there's uh some numbers in there. There's some twos.

Somewhere. Yeah, so we did that thing. You know, you got COVID, you didn't come for like a month and a half. Yeah. Then you came back. We were like, we're gonna record a bunch of episodes, get ahead. Sorrow Mortal Kombat went dark. Yeah. And mostly it was me. Honestly, this time it was me. I canceled a lot. I was just not feeling it.

These things happen, man. Like we're we're a bit of a lull here.

You know? Started a job, and now I have to like do things. I get that. It's boring. It's boring. But what's uh I hear you have a new job. Not really, but something you're focusing on take very seriously.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh I've kind of started to get pretty serious, you know, about playing Mortal Kombat. Oh God.

I'm gonna go pro, Nate. I'm going pro.

Like, is it gonna be 2023 and we're still gonna be talking about Mortal Kombat pro because that's when the next movie will come out, probably.

Exactly. And then I'll get right back on another Mortal Kombat kick, and then you guys at home are gonna have to deal with that. But as of right now, me at home, nonstop trying to play Mortal Kombat as much as I can. You mean trying to play? Well, between the kids and everything at work.

So Okay, but you're good at the game at least.

I'm okay. You know, I've played a WAP in like seven online matches because this is gonna sound terrible, but I get really nervous. Like, I'll play the computer and beat it on like very hard mode, super easy. But as soon as I get online with a real human being, all of a sudden my palms are sweaty, my knees weak, arms are heavy. Mom spaghetti, yeah. I got you. Yes, I got you. And I just I just break down. I'm like, oh my god, what am I doing? Then I'm spazzing out on the controller. It's terrible, but I am gonna sign up for Evo and try my best.

Evo, the like the fighting game tournament of the year, basically.

I uh I read online I'm gonna have to borrow somebody's PlayStation because Mortal Kombat is only gonna be played on PlayStation 4 or 5, and it's gonna be online only this year. Sadly, I would have loved to have gone there and got beat in person and then cried in front of all those people, but now I can just cry at home.

You like you go either way. You could have been like yelling at the person you were playing against, be like, You cheated! You [expletive] cheated. Do you see that? Or you could literally be like super like in your own head and be like, I'm sorry.

Right.

Like, I don't know, I don't know which way it would go with you. Yeah, me probably get depressed.

I'll be like, I [expletive] that up. You know, I just I knew I should have blocked right there. It's a seven-frame move, and I'm minus six on blocks.

Just get a text that you missed your flight on purpose and you're not coming home. Oh, yeah.

I'm like, I'm going out for a pack of smokes and not coming back, like just driving off a bridge.

I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you, step out of your comfort zone, playing online matches with scary strangers.

Ooh, it's a dangerous world out there. You know, yeah.

You know, I'm I'm uh I'm just about out of my comfort zone too. I'm uh I'm gonna get my first tattoo in about a week. Um excited. A little bit. I'm you know, I'm I'm a bit of a you've mentioned before, like something of a control freak. You know, so the idea of trusting another artist who put something permanently on my body, yeah, that's a big, big nice sign of trust, you know. So yeah, I've talked to one or two artists and then like gave it a posit and then pulled out. Whatever, right? We get nervous. Yeah. They suck. No, I'm just kidding. Um, I I I have this whole concept, right? I think I kind of told you, but for the people on air, I'm doing like Mayan Nintendo, Nintendo Mayan calendar. Yeah, right.

So it sounds weird, but like it kind of works. Like that whole like circle with like the guy in the middle, but it'll be like Yoshi with his tongue out because it's actually like a similar, some similar shapes, and then some like cool like Mario Zelda random imagery and stuff. So I like I did a sketch and everything, and so finally I found this guy here in in the city we're in that I don't want to name, so nobody finds us ever. And uh I like actually the first two times I was like doing like consultations through Instagram because it just seemed natural, like I was looking at their work and then I would message them. But I've actually learned that's a horrible way.

If you're trying to get a tattoo, go to a tattoo shop, talk to the artist, right? Um, and then like you know, show them your research and stuff. So it really didn't work out the first few times of using Instagram. That was my bad, honestly, for just not knowing much about the process.

Well, that's like the new trap to fall into because me and Megan have a ton of tattoos, but then she also fell into that Instagram trap. And come to find out, there are some weird people out there who claim to be tattoo artists, but like some of their prerequisites are like I only do stick figures in black ink on Thursdays. Like it's okay.

Well, it's tough because they all want, like, you know, most people want the business if you're not like unless they're like super famous, they're usually like, yeah, go, come on in. But yeah, then when you do, they're like, well, they're very specific to styles, or you know, some people are really good technically, but they can't draw, or vice versa. They can draw really well, but technically they're not great. So I like, you know, I have very specific things in my mind. So it's it's been a struggle for me to find someone that I trust, but I think I found a guy. We did. So if he's great, I'll totally share his info. And if he's terrible, I'm gonna blast him on the box. I'm gonna absolutely blast the guy. No, uh just kidding.

But wish me luck, yeah, next week. So by the time I'll put it up on social media, which we haven't touched for like 30 days plus.

So and if some of our uh patrons out there can get a couple friends, let's come up with the number, Nate. Like if we get 10 more people to subscribe to the Patreon, me and Nate will go get matching Nat 1% tattoos. Wow, right? You think 10's a good number? You want to bump it up?

10 at the more than a dollar at the more. But at the same time, like nobody listens to this show. So, so yeah, let's call it like let's call it 10 for I'm are we are we like putting this. I did not expect this. Yeah, let's do it. We kind of all right, yeah. 10. But is there a time limit like in three years when we finally get 10 years?

There should definitely be a time limit. Oh, Chris, what do you think for a time limit on a time frame window for this? Short two weeks after the episode comes out? Two weeks after this. Okay, that sounds fair. So if you guys can get 10, 10, 10 other people to follow or join the Patreon for at least the step above the $1 tier, then me and Nate will go get matching Nat 1 presents tattoos. I'm not even picky, honestly, maybe even the dollar accounts.

I don't know. Yeah, honestly. Because I'm thinking we get that a dollar, but you leave a comment on something, and it can be you suck. It can be stop doing what you're doing.

Be like, get that tattoo. You guys suck. All right. That's all we need. That's it. That's all I want in my life. That's it. We can go get that like Nat 1 logo thing.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah.

Did not pawn out all the stops. All right. Yeah. You just reminded me that we actually, I never followed through on a promotion I did. Uh, our newest patron, Zach, I actually owe a Pikachu Pokemon card because on my episode with Steph, uh, where we opened a bunch of collectible [expletive], uh, she called it out that the next patron would get that, and then like three weeks pass. But yeah, Zach, uh, if you're listening, I owe you uh a shiny holographic Pikachu.

Well, congratulations.

Congratulations. Wow. Okay, so what are we doing today, mate?

You're not gonna believe what I want to talk about.

I mean, we talk about this beforehand, but what?

Mortal Kombat still.

Yeah, so I'm all about it. I can't get over it. Listen, viewers, uh, you know, I've been trying to change the subject, but we're just so heated about it, you know, and I want to talk about it too. Like, that movie just got me thinking about like not just what I didn't like about the movie, but what I like about the series. And until I get what I want, then we're just gonna keep talking about what I did like and what I do want.

And the icing on the cake was we just watched that other the the anime, the Mortal Kombat anime. Me and they watched it around the same time, and that was the superior movie, even though it was a terrible made cartoon.

It was it was just meh, it was like a pretty just what standard Warner Brothers animated thing, right? Whatever, and there goes Warner Brothers from the list of never sponsors we'll ever have. Uh yeah, I don't know, it's whatever. I I I told you this before already, but obviously, like I just got mad watching the show because actually like the movie was okay, but I'm like, this is really all I wanted, like a very just simple, like, hey, there's three of us, what's going on? A tournament, okay. Sonia, Johnny, Cage, Liu Kang, let's do this and fight some bad guys, fight some bad guys, and then it goes, you know, a little bit of plot in the beginning.

It it almost the beginning almost like [expletive] verbatim is like the first more, like what we saw a month ago. But then it like didn't even try to explain anything after that, right? You know, which is what I thought they would do. So anyway, they've all heard, they don't want to hear our rank again. But you know, I just yeah, we're gonna keep drilling this home. We're gonna we're gonna keep talking about Mortal Kombat until we feel satisfied that maybe one day we'll get a good uh theatric submission.

Yeah, I like it. Or until we at least get burnt out on it. Either way, you're along for the ride. So I think we were in this uh first little setup. We're gonna do some facts.

Yeah, so I imagined uh we're gonna do a little like Nate versus Nate again, kind of revisit one of those old gems and uh just kind of like Mortal Kombat lore. I don't know how you approached it, so maybe like you can like quiz me on stuff you know. Mine are more like true or false, and I try to like get you with the details, a little gotcha. Uh so yeah, we'll do some of that, and then I think we also want to talk a little bit about like best and worst characters, some some of you know, some listical contact, you know, like if you were on Buzzfeed, type of [expletive] that people would actually click on, except it's our podcast, right? Which nobody actually is clicking on.

But it's a lot funnier.

Way funnier. We are no like who laughs at BuzzFeed, like okay, take a quiz to see which [expletive] Hogwarts [expletive] you are. Like, no, no one cares. No one cares. And you're Hufflepuff. You're the young fingers. Every time you're Hufflepuff. Every time.

No matter what you pick.

Every time.

Like, I'm gonna kill all the young links. Hufflepuff.

Hufflepuff Cedric would have done it. All right, all right.

All right, so you go first. Question question one.

All right. I and I threw you some softballs here, right? And I know you're the slightly bigger Mortal Kombat nerd. So I I threw you some easy ones I know you're gonna get, but it gets harder. Okay, all right, I'm ready. I'm I'm pumped. All right. So all of mine are basically kind of true or false, right? So Johnny Cage was modeled after a famous actor. True or false?

True. It was uh Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Boom, got it. Nail it. See? Threw you an easy one. Awesome.

Okay.

I wanted to I wanna lure you into a false sense of security. I'm like, oh, you're just gonna ask me who like Noob Sybot is.

Oh my god.

Is that your next question? That is my next question.

What character was named after the creators?

Oh, I didn't know that that was that was interesting.

Yeah, so if you look at the name Noob Cybot, it's uh John Tobias and Ed Boone. So it's just it's Mortal Kombat, so everything's super easy.

But I also thought it was like a glitch with like Scorpion in the first game. Like Noob Sybot wasn't, isn't he?

It was originally uh the noob cybot was just a reshaded thing. They always had an idea for him. Oh, okay.

So it wasn't like a total accident. Oh, okay. I thought he was an accident.

No, no, no. I was he was in, he was I think I was too, to be honest. Welcome to Nat One Presents Home of the Accidents.

That's what my siblings told me.

So my mom watches this, she knows.

Bit of a tangent there, yeah. Not an accident, uh totally intended.

Yeah, okay. You know, I'll go, I'll go again. Go again, yeah. Sorry, because I totally shat on your first one. No, it's fine. You guessed it right away. I mean, that was kind of a hard one. You didn't really technically know it, but whatever. Uh true or false. There was a TV series about the great Kung Lao.

Ooh, there was a TV series, but was it about the Great Kung Lao? I don't I'm gonna say true.

That is absolutely true. It was uh two seasons, I believe it was on TNT or something, but it followed the story of the Great Kung Lao, the one who originally defeated Shanks on back way back in the day. And let me tell you, I've been watching it because it's on HBO Max. I've been watching it. And it's [expletive] amazing. Is it? Yes, it's so terrible.

I'm oh oh, it's that kind of amazing. All right, all right.

There's uh action scenes, Nate, where I'm watching it and I'm like, what is that? And there's a giant blue pad on the ground, and then you see a guy flip into it. I'm like, oh, it was the action scene.

That's just like that movie that Megan ruined where [expletive] the guy, the chick has a mustache. Man, Robot Jock, she my wife ruined it. I need to watch that movie still.

You should.

It's like you built it up so much now, like I just.

What's it called? Mortal Kombat. I'm sure it has like a subtitle. I actually didn't even look that up. It has something. Just type in the book. You've been watching it and you don't even know the. No, I don't even know. I'm like six episodes deep right now. Like Sub Zero was introduced and [expletive]. Smoke was introduced, and yeah, I have no idea what the [expletive] name of it is. Okay. It's on HBO Max. Check it out.

Next question for you. Here we go. Okay, cool. Big Trouble and Little China characters were inspired by Mortal Kombat.

True Fox. No, it was the other way around. Mortal Kombat was inspired by uh Big Trouble and Little China. It was mostly Shang Song, I believe, that was really the first one. And Raiden.

So Raiden was one of those three like storm guys. And like literally verbatim, he looks like a few years. And then Shang Song, yeah, is based off of the like the Wizard of A. So did you have we ever talked about Big Trouble and Little China Nate? No, we haven't, but I'm a big [expletive] fan.

I love that. I love that movie.

Yes, I knew we were friends. Yes. I love that movie. It is so trash. And it is great. So alright, I got stories, alright. First of all, like this. This thing. That was the first thing of like just I do this all the time. Nobody gets it. But like, and you know, if you're not, if you can't watch us because you're too cheap to pay for the patriotism. It's just a doll. It's just a doll, but imagine the grand wizard, right? Like the two most powerful, like, like sorcerer, like east, like oriental. I'm not, I don't that's we keep using it as a joke because Nate asked if we could say that word. Um no, but so imagine like the two like grand sorcerers, right?

Uh doing a battle, and what they actually do in this battle is take your hand, make a fist, and then open your thumbs and your pinky, cross your pinkies, and then press your thumbs like you're pushing a controller. And yeah. Laser beam. And then a laser beam just shoots out of that and they just animate, and then they're like, the guys are doing like crazy faces, and it's like acting that?

Like being the actor, like, yeah!

Yeah, and like you know, they were like, This is [expletive] stupid. And one, oh, and oh, and one of the two sorcers is Mr. Miyagi from [expletive] whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it blows a mind. So, boom. Number one, like, I will never forget that scene and just like how terrible it is. Right. Number two, crazy racist that movie. Crazy racist. Now, unfortunately, Chris, Chris was there. There was this time where I had a friend come and visit, and I'm a horrible host. Like, especially back in the day. Like, now I've kind of like in my 30s, I'm like, okay, I have to like make you food if you come over. I should have a place for you to sleep.

But back in the day, it was like I would say, like, yeah, you can sleep at my place, thinking the person would just come, I would ignore them and they would just like sleep there and then leave, right? I just thought that's how it worked. So, anyway, I had this friend who like totally was excited to come hang out, and I kind of just thought he was visiting other friends, so he came and stayed. And he's a really cool guy, we're we're still friends, but um, basically, he's Asian, and I made him watch that movie because me and Chris, Chris was also visiting at that time, right?

So me and Chris just kept doing what we were doing, which was playing Kingdom Hearts on hard mode, and then while this is running in the panel, and then no, I said at different times, but we just were playing that game all weekend, and then we watched that movie, and I realized later that like that's a pretty [expletive] offensive movie, like to that culture, like not a great representation. And he even called it out because he even was like, I don't know what language they're speaking, like, or he said, like he said basically said they were speaking like fake gibberish, yeah. Like some of that [expletive], yeah. And then do you remember the like Yeah? Oh my god. So anyway.

That was their wave to each other, like, are you alright?

Like, yeah, it was it was crazy. That movie is a wild [expletive] ride. Uh, I also have a drinking game that I played of that, which I really love. Um, it's like every time they do this, uh oh my gosh, like so many, like just I I [expletive] love that movie. I love that movie. That is like my number one, like so bad it's good movie. And I I watch it like every year. I usually find some like person who doesn't know, and anyway, huge fan. So funny that it actually like inspired some of the mortal comments. They basically just ripped it off. So I loved it. Also, really love the line where Mr.

Miyagi, there's just a part where they're trying to escape as like the castle's collapsing or whatever, and then they just like they're too lazy, so they just like have Mr. Miyagi suddenly appear above them. Oh, yeah. And they ask in the movie, they're like, How'd you get up there? And he goes, It wasn't easy, and that's it. And I just I die every time. It's not even that funny of a part, but they were like, they were too lazy to even explain it. So they just make a joke out of it, and it just like it just bonkers. It is just two hours of nonsensical madness.

That one guy explodes, the muscle guys are so it's chunks of them go everywhere.

It's so weird. It's it's so weird, it's so gross. They keep talking about a sequel forever and ever and ever. Have you heard about it? No, it was gonna be The Rock at one point, it was gonna be uh no, I mean no one can replace Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell, yeah. Um rest in peace.

So we're dead, isn't he? No, he's dead! I just watched a movie with him. He's not dead, he's not dead, everybody. Just a hateful eight bone tomahouse. But he's getting old dead. But he's getting old. He's getting old. He's a great old bad boy now. He's not dead. Or is it your turn now? My turn now.

Um all right, off the top of your head, I got uh one, two, three, four, five, six uh that I have listed. But give me as many as you can. Gangs or clans within the lore of Mortal Kombat.

That's not gonna happen, dude. I don't remember these names. I can't even [expletive] pronounce like obviously, so what? The like here we go. So Sub Zero is the the the Yin Lin. Lin Lin Kwe. Yeah, yeah. Alright, and then from Scorpion, it's the uh uh Yeah. Shirai Rayu? Yep, yep, that's it.

And that's about Well, uh also Kano's. You remember what Kano's was from the movie?

He isn't they're like the shadow of the something or other. He's the black dragon. Black dragon, yes.

And then there's also uh another group with the red dragon, and then of course uh Who does the Red Dragon? The Red The Red Dragons was like a little subgroup that was like in what do you remember what game it was in, Chris? It was like where it broke off with that Movado guy, and they're like, We're not part of the black dragons. Oh, some of these stories in Mortal Kombat just get [expletive] bonkers at some point. I think it's like Armageddon or something, and they're like, We're not the black dragons, we're the red dragons, and Kano's like, Oh, that's real clever, blah blah blah blah blah. And then so it just goes off like that. And then there's also the white lotus, which uh I have heard of the white lotus.

Yes, okay, all right. And then I I think there's like two more in there. There's another one with Quan Chi and Noob Cybot, they're a part of something, but I didn't [expletive] bother. Some Nether Realm thing. Yeah, some nether realm thing. I didn't bother getting that.

I can give you worlds, I can give you main characters, and that is about it. Okay, you got me there. You got there. Thank God we're not actually keeping score. Um, but these get harder, right? Okay, I'm ready. All right. Decay in Mortal Kombat was in fact a typo. True or false?

Ooh. Okay. I can tell you the story behind it. Tell me the story behind it.

Okay, I'll accept that.

Now they were having a hard time coming up with name. Originally, they came up with all these other ones. Fatality is one of the names they thought about.

We use the same wiki. Go ahead.

This is just knowledge I got. Okay. Okay, okay. All right, I wasn't looking anything up. And then uh, I believe it was Ed Boone's friend was a pinball machine guy, and they had Mortal Kombat written up on the wall because they were thinking about using Mortal Kombat with a C, but there was some kind of legality issue of locking that name down. So then I believe he said, Why don't you just use a K? Or somebody already put a K up.

Okay, so we didn't read the same wiki. Okay. Here's the legend has it on my wiki that, all right, so they couldn't come up with a name, correct? Fatality was suggested, correct. But someone always, one of the four always hated one of the names pitched. Yes. So where my story deviates was that there was a drawing board with a bunch of names on it, and one of them was just the word combat, but it was actually misspelled with a K. It actually was a typo. And so this third party, some not the original four could be in the game, the pinball guy was like, whatever we call it, moral combat with the weird spell. That's that's what I read on the internet. So you know, if you're listening, uh facts. Uh well, I don't know.

Mine could be, I don't know now. Yours maybe I was thinking mine was truth, but maybe yours is truth. I don't know. I don't think it has to do with no I don't think there's any like legality with the combat thing. Maybe there was, but who knows at the time?

What was it, early 90s the game came out?

And there was back then you could just mail yourself something, and that was called a poor man's [expletive] uh copyright where you just like no, I got mail. Oh here, proof. Open up your own mailed, yeah, look at it. Dumb as [expletive]. But yeah, back then, so who knows?

But how many games were flying out, especially for consoles and everything, like Tanya's combat, Billy's Combat, like, it could have been a thing.

It could have been a thing.

Um, okay. I'm gonna give that one. I'm gonna give you the point for that. Okay, here's my question. Okay. Is Lucifer a canon in the Mortal Kombat universe?

That's a good one. Technically, yes, because [expletive]. Shinnok kicks his ass out.

Dang it!

Got him.

How'd you know that? I know I got some tricks up my seat.

I got some tricks up my seat.

Okay, no, that was good. You're right. You're absolutely right.

Damn it. I like where you're going though, because I my questions are the same [expletive] [expletive]. So let's do this, [expletive]. Alright. Since we're talking about Shinnok, we're gonna jump around. Ready? Okay. Shinnok is behind the plot to invade Earth Realm in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, the sequel to Mortal Kombat. True or false?

I'm gonna ooh, I don't know if they ever gave that guy the name Shinnok, but he is supposed to be Shinnok. He's the father. No, because he said father of Shao Kanba. I don't know if Shinnok is Yeah, the movie does kind of like definitely. Because I played the games, right? So what's your final? I'm gonna say yes, it's supposed to be. It's an elder god that turned because Shinnok is supposed to be the elder god of the dead. And it turned. But even the movie who was the god of fire. So you're right.

So they never verbally say his name, but the father. So in in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Raiden and Shao Kahn are brothers. That's the only time that happens. And then their dad is trying to help is helping Shao Kahn invade Earth Realm. In the credits, it actually says Shinnok is the name of the father. And I I don't know if you knew this, there was another scene recorded where at the end of the movie, Shinnok, their dad, and Quan Chi is in the nether realm, and they say, Together, Quan Chi, we will be unstoppable. And they cut it from the [expletive] movie.

What? Yes, I remember the whole city.

I read that on the wiki, and I'm like, Nate doesn't know that. I'm gonna [expletive] he's gonna love that. He's gonna love that. Alright, that was a good one.

That would have been [expletive] great.

But but I never knew that. I watched that movie a bunch of times and I didn't know the father's name because they don't say it. They never say it at all.

Right?

You know, and then it's a total abortion of the actual like of what's the actual lore there.

There was like some fire floating in the sky and some wind, which is supposed to be Fujin, but I guess like a lady's voice came out of it. It made no [expletive] sense.

It made no sense. And I said this in the last episode, but I just love that there's a part where they're like, but you're the gods, you control the rules, and they're like, meh, Mortal Kombat. Like that's literally like, alright, like, uh, you totally went against everything we said, so let's just do another tournament.

Yeah, let's just do what we were doing before.

We do. All right, older gods. Uh man. Okay, your turn, your turn.

Okay, well. This is fun. This is fun. I'll blow us out.

I hope they're having fun.

It's casual.

Hope you guys are having fun. Casual.

Casual Friday. Okay. It's Wednesday. Now. Sindel is terrible. True. That is correct. Now. Was there any trivia for that? No, no, no. There is, there is. Can this one gets a little bit wonky, so go with me here. Can you tell me her real backstory?

Ooh. Well, she is. Alright. The movie [expletive] is wrong.

Yes.

She is from remind me of the name of the realm that Katana Idenia. Is that Idenia?

Idenia. I'm pretty sure it's Adenia. Okay. There's only like uh uh like three other realms that we talk about within the universe, I believe.

Okay. All I know is she is from Adenia, but I don't think she's like a queen or anything.

No, she is queen.

She is queen. Okay. See, that's why I wasn't sure if they they messed that up in more cards. Okay, so I okay. I did kind of think she was maybe queen. Okay. And that's but that's all I know. Okay. I don't know slash think she's Katana's actual mother. That's what they did in the movie. Right. I don't think she's related to Katana.

I I believe that she is. Oh, I think through canon, she is related. Okay. But then the the whole thing they did kind of get right in the movie, actually, is that uh Katana was supposed to think that uh Sindel killed herself because Shao Kahn killed Jared, her husband. Yeah. Right. And then what was her husband's name? Jared.

So they're like Katana, Sindel, Jared. Jared. From Subway. Subway.

He had no idea. No, we hate that guy. He's a terrible human being. Terrible, you know. Sorry, anyway.

Or any kind of affiliation with that piece of [expletive]. So, anyways. One of our seven listeners.

Well then [expletive] you, Jared. You get on the I don't like what you did.

We can't be picky, but we can be a little picky.

Yeah, [expletive] you, Jared. [expletive] you. Now, anyways, Jared gets murdered by Shao Kahn. Sindel's upset and kills herself. That's not what really happens. What really happens is Sindel's like, wow, this Shao Kahn guy's a [expletive] man. Let's kill Jared. Give me a piece of that. Yeah. Let's kill Jared together. And then that's what they did. And then somehow or another, I think Shakesun or Quanchi accidentally killed Sindel somehow, and then blah blah blah blah blah. And then in order to get Katana under control, they gave her that story that she killed herself. So now that like Shao Kahn's the only one you got.

Interesting. And so a lot of that does actually kind of fall in line with the movie. I thought they really messed up a lot of that, but it's kind of close.

I give Annihilation points for hey, kinda. Hey. We kind of made a Mortal Kombat movie.

I read in one article, skipping back to Annihilation for a sec, that they literally didn't finish. Part of why it didn't do well is they didn't finish making the movie, and they literally just thought it was gonna sell. The first one was such like a big hit that they like just were like, meh, put it on and finish. Yeah, [expletive] it. They just literally like were so overcompetent that they didn't even finish the movie.

Like these people are dumb, they'll watch anything we put out there.

And if it was today, absolutely.

Oh, I still would. Absolutely. I'm ready to go and watch it again.

You did. He sent me like a clip. I think I've heard our last episode. He sent me a screenshot of the dribble wheel. Yeah, I love it. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, everyone knows. They love those gerbil wheels. Alright, alright. These are good, these are good. Um actually, some of these are better than mine. Okay. I'm gonna go. I know, because I know what you care about, Amy. Okay. Alright. You're gonna know the answer to this, though. But alright. Rico was created to replace Shao Kahn's character model. Yes. No, very, very wrong.

Oh. Because originally Raiko was in MK4. Correct.

Why was he in MK4?

Oh, why was he? Ooh, actually, MK4, he got a [expletive] ending, but in MK Gold, they gave him the good ending where he gets to become the new Shao Kahn afterwards. If he beats the game, that's his little substrate. Right, so you got all these fragments. I'm gonna piece it all together for you, right?

So it's been a while. Mortal Kombat 4, it's about to come out. Uh Noob Psybot's in the game. Love well, Mortal Kombat 3, they got a lot of feedback that there's a lot of ninjas that all kind of look the same. And also, Noob Cybot being like kind of the black dark color scheme, he was actually blending into a lot of the background. So they're like, let's replace him and put in Raiko. Raiko is the exact same skin as Noob Saibot, except different colors, and they changed the head. Oh, and then they put the like uh the what the black dragon crest or whatever on the back. They added that too.

But he is basically noob cybot, and some of the later games are the ports they add back in noob cybot, and it like it is the exact same model, basically. So he was a replacement for noob cybot. Now, where people get this like weird Shao Kahn thing is one, yes, he fights with a hammer, right? So there's that. And then so the original ending is he goes through a portal and it just ends. Yes. And literally the creators said it was kind of like a they thought it was like a funny like F U.

Right.

You know, like so. Then when they ported it over to like the PlayStation PC, they're like, let's expand on that ending. So like, ah [expletive] it, he'll just like go to the portal, put on Shao Kahn's helmet, and sit next to his throne or whatever. Yeah. So they give him that cool ending that you were talking about. That's when people lost their [expletive] minds, and because he used a hammer already and had a similar color scheme, right? They actually thought maybe this is like a younger Shao Kahn, or maybe there was this whole like debate like, is Raiko Shao Kahn? And no, definitively it's not, but that's why a lot of people get like confused, and that's what got you tripped up on this question.

It is what got me tripped up because I played it on Sega Dreamcast, and that was the ending I got on Sega Dreamcast was the the crown on the head. And I remember watching that for the very first time, and I'm like, what the [expletive]? And my mom came in and yelled at me, she's like, Don't you cuss? And I'm like, sorry, Ma.

What the [expletive]?

Um What the [expletive]? So let's just recap.

Uh, how is Ryko in uh the last movie we just saw? Absolutely [expletive] awful. [expletive] I believe he has two lines in the whole movie. One of them is ah, and the other is like the dumb, and then the face, like they like bulge and cross his eyes.

It's just very unfortunate.

Awful. And still a character.

And I knew nothing. Like you had to tell me who that character was, and then I went back and read the story. I'm like, wow, actually, like for somebody who's kind of like a quick swap in, kind of like a lot of these characters, and then they give this whole story to kind of lame that they made him super bugging stupid. So someone who's supposed to be a general about world, at least, you know.

Like if they do that.

And in at least one of those games, he does actually like succeed there.

And like, if they do that [expletive] with CodalCon, I'm gonna full it my [expletive] lid right there in the theater when we watch it, because that is not acceptable. No, not okay. Not okay. He almost made my list of favorite characters. Actually, he did make my list of favorite characters. Spoiler alert. Sorry.

It'll be fine. They're gonna give her the Sonya treatment for Kodalkon, and she'll just spend the whole movie not having a tattoo, but getting superpowers at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, I'm just upset about that.

I hate you, Sonya.

If you're out there. Alright, what do you got? What do you got from me?

Okay, the next one. Um, why Earth Realm? Why? That's not a question.

Why Earth Realm? We need more context for this.

Okay, uh it's up for debate of them going from realm to realm for Mortal Kombat, and Outworld is known to conquer realms. Why are they currently and Mortal Kombat has been going on for such a long period of time now because you need to win 10 in a row in order to conquer the water? Why is Earth Realm so desirable then? Yes, why do they want Earth Realm so bad? Because there's a point where like they won nine and then somebody always wins it. And then they won. You can't have, you know?

You think that's it? You want, you know, like the great and that whole like they're just bitter, you know, that the [expletive] great Kang Lao, right? Pissed. Pissed. They never healed from that. I don't know. I'm just talking out of my ass. That's my that's my what's the actual answer?

The actual answer is uh Earth Realm is actually a younger realm than all these others. So these other out uh realms, like so whenever they show outworld and things like that. Yeah, it's like the environment's like [expletive]. Yeah, burnt down, yeah. They used up all the resources, that's why they just moved from place to place. And Earth Realm's fairly new compared to these places, so they just want to come in and [expletive] take over.

Jokes on them. Come on down, head over to Los Angeles, you can see the smog in the air. It's basically outwalled already. Nasty.

And if you come over here and politically correct, you're gonna be [expletive] hitting the bricks.

Can you imagine being a Marvel Combat character like in real life, like United States or anything? Forget it. It ain't happening. Forget it.

You're gonna be outed so fast.

Like any of the female ninjas, too seductive. Like yep, you know.

You need to cover up.

Any of the male ones, like toxic masculinity. Yep. Yep. Disgusting. We want wimps like the last one. Oh my goodness, don't even get me started on that.

That's actually another point I'm gonna bring up later.

You can't wait, okay, okay. My turn, my turn, my turn. Okay. Um, some of these are more like gotcha moments, but um Did I say the one about Goro yet? I don't think so. Okay. Goro is based on Asian dragon mythology.

Ooh. I'm gonna say he does have like dragon blood. Because it's part of the racies.

Yeah, Shokan is like, yeah, they're supposed to be like half dragon. Yeah. Which I never really saw. I didn't get like four armed Leatherman.

Right.

They do a better job in the newer games of like Shao Kahn. You can see like he's got scales and [expletive], and like the slitty eyes and everything. And like Goro's on that same level, but I don't think so. I'm gonna say a burn victim that works out a lot.

Right, with four arms, extra arms, and [expletive]. I'm gonna say no. Um yeah, so you're right. It's uh he's actually more based on so he's a combination of uh when they made that character, it was Clash of the Titans who came out, and then like Jason the Argonauts, or it hadn't come out, sorry, but it was inspired by that, and then Jason the Argonauts, and then uh one of the Sinbad movies from Sinbad the Sailor. Not the comedian Sinbad, who I always confuse. Right, right. Um, but yeah, so it's really more like westernized kind of like Odyssey type stuff that like mythology that he was kind of but uh the the Sinbad the Sailor stuff is kind of like Middle Eastern like folklore stuff, so uh it's kind of like a so-so, but not really.

Right. That's actually really cool that they took inspiration from uh Clash of the Titans because the monsters in that movie were clay, and then Goro was the only clay character. Alright, look at you, look at you in that one.

Yeah, they actually use like real life like mocab models for pretty much everybody. Except one of the guys who does Johnny Cage in like most of the cast is like the older brother of I don't know if it's Ed Boone or it's like it's like one of their older brothers.

He got stuck doing like all the extras, like Reptile, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and then like one of like was it Johnny Cage? I think it was Johnny Cage, though, which I think that's a good one idea. Right? That's a best one.

Definitely wasn't Johnny Cage.

They couldn't get John Claude in a [expletive] film and Universal Soldier. Alright. What do you got for me? Facts. Um, let's see. This other one was just a statement that I wanted to do as a joke. Uh Kano made the Mortal Kombat movie, comma, not a joke. He did. I don't know why I put that in my notes, but I just wanted to.

People need to know, you know, right? And if they don't bring that [expletive] back, they're gonna I think they're gonna write him. Bring him back to life. They're gonna write him back in because they know that's the only thing that got me through an hour and a half to the last movie. Oh my god.

Especially the way he's burning Sonya. But I'll jump up to my number eight then. Okay. Um is there a cowboy in Mortal Kombat?

You know, Kong Lyle is kind of like the Asian cowboy, you know. Um, but I'm gonna say yes. Oh, there is. There he is. Yes. His name is Aaron Black. Oh, I've never heard of it. What game is he from?

Uh I think he first appeared in Mortal Kombat 10, I believe. Alright. Yep. Or was it it might have been nine? It was nine or ten. Okay. And yeah, it's a [expletive] cowboy, and he's got uh a revolver that he uses and then a long gun that he uses. I feel like he would not be great in Mortal Cowboys. I hate him. Some people are really good with him. I can't stand him. Yeah. Because he's got one move where he just pulls out the long gun and then he just stands there.

And the game just gets sweaty and you start for y'all.

Yeah, and then I'm just shooting away, you know, and the guy's [expletive] dodging him. I try to duck, the guy jumps, and then I just suck with him. He throws acid for some reason. I don't know. He's a [expletive] cowboy, he has cool outfits.

Do you think the game's getting to the point where now it's like the UN of like [expletive] up monsters, but they also have to like represent everything now? I think so. Is that where it's getting? Yeah, I think so.

There has to be a little bit of something for everybody. But I'm fine just using the classic characters, you know.

But there's gonna be a neck beard in the next game. There's gotta be like some like digital like loser guy that's just gonna like one of the top secret characters, MoCap. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like some [expletive] fighter, but he's in the mocap suit. They're gonna model after me now, too. Like the makers, like they're gonna like use like [expletive] what's that thing where like they like the face swap thing? Yeah, what is that called? Deepfake, they're gonna deep fake my face. I would be honored.

What if they do that for our review of Mortal Kombat? Like, it's just your face on there. It's like see what Sonia's.

I love Mortal Kombat. Well, Sonya deserves a prequel. She's the best character there.

I will quit my job and I will find them, and it'll be Liam Meeson all over their ass. Oh my god. Oh alright, alright. Alright, let's see. Okay. Um, so this isn't gonna be too far. Okay, Mortal Kombat launched on four systems. The Super Ness, the Game Boy, the Sega Genesis, and the Game Gear.

Why? I know for a fact it was Super Nintendo because they took out the blood and it was just as wet on their Sega Genesis, which was the closest to the arcade port that you could get because it did have a blood code. It had a cheat code, yep. Yep. A-B-A-A-B-B. Yep.

Um you know why it was A-C A B B?

Because uh it's on the Sega Genesis and it was one of the songs from the band Genesis, which is A B A C A B A B A C A B. Ooh, you're a little more A-B-A C A.

It's the name of a Phil Collins song on I think an album called Genesis, and then it was on the Sega.

Okay. All right. Sorry. And then, so I know those two. I want to say there was a third one, but I don't know what it is. I know there's only three.

Besides the Omnika arcade port. It actually did launch on four ports. Oh, didn't it? I mean, it started at an arcade, right? Yeah. But it launched on all four of those on the same day, which is kind of crazy.

What?

Now, this leads me into the better question. Okay. Uh they heavily this part's true. They heavily marketed an event that they launched it on.

Mm-hmm.

All right. And it was called Fatality Friday. True or false. So all the games launched on Fatality Friday, and they like marketed this event, and that's when they launched all four ports.

Oh my god.

You know, I'm just gonna say yes. True. So close, but they launched it on Mortal Monday, which I think is way lamer.

Why? Way lamer. Mortal Monday.

So I literally read the whole Mortal Monday thing, and then I'm like, I could come up with something better. Boom, fatal Friday. Like within like within like It was just fatal Friday. Within like yeah, fatal, fatality, like many things we got. Sindel Saturday, I don't know, but Immortal Monday. That's how I feel when I go to work. On Mondays. Yeah. It's just like, hey, I hope I die here. Yeah. God pay me, please. Dang it.

I love my job. That one got me. That got me. Yeah. That one just I knew I should have studied before. I knew it.

I love though that some of our, like clearly, we both well, you know a lot of stuff. I did some research, but some of it crossed over, so that's pretty cool. I only have, I think, one more for you.

Oh, okay. Well then uh I'll do uh two in a row then here. Okay. Um let me see. Okay, I'll just do nine and ten then because they are both sub-zero questions. Okay. True or false. In one of the story arcs, sub-zero gets turned into a robot.

Well, I don't have an annihilation, but um I'm gonna go with yes. That is absolutely correct. Yeah, which elaborate one is.

Uh I forget which one it is. I think it was uh the one before nine. Yeah, as a playable sub zero robot. And I think that's when [expletive] just started going off the rails. Yeah.

Because they introduced uh You were on board until the the ice ninja became a robot. Then it was kind of now I'm getting pissed out.

I was fine with the whole uh sector Cyrax. The code names were mustard and ketchup. Cyrax, that's the yellow guy.

Yep, I was talking with Chris earlier. I thought smoke and Cyrax were the same. No, and then they was a badass with Cyrax. And by badass, I mean I spam net and then I shot bombs out of my chest, and I thought I was God.

And like I was fine with them being robots, whatever. But then now you're turning [expletive] everybody into a robot.

You get a robot, you get a robot.

Yeah, that's pissing me off. Like, there's an Oprah robot.

Yeah, like Sindel just opens her mouth and like a sonic boom comes out.

Like it's it's enough. It's too much. Enough is enough. But you're absolutely right. And now, Sub Zero is the only playable character in all Mortal Kombat games except for one. True or false? Bonus points, if you can give me the name of the game. Wow. If there is such a game.

So I'm saying true, he's in all but one game, and then you want to know what the one game is? Yes.

If you you agree that he has been in all games except for one.

And he's the only one that's been in all games? Yes. So Scorpion hasn't been in all games? No. Alright, well, first off, I think it's true. Okay. Scorpion hasn't been in all the games?

No. Okay. Because originally he was not in Mortal Kombat 3, I believe, until they came out with MK3 Ultimate, and then he came in. That's [expletive] trash.

Okay.

Alright.

Um, what game was he not in? Let me think. Well, there was a game just about Scorpion, wasn't there?

Like, there was a game just about Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero Mythologies, I believe, was called, and that was when Fujin was first introduced. I don't know. What's the what's the game that Sub Zero was? Oh my god. It was some [expletive] I didn't even bother writing it down because that's how [expletive] it is. Yeah, they can [expletive] look it up. It was some Sonya and Jax prequel thing, like Earth Realm Warriors or some [expletive] like that. Like it shouldn't even be a mortal get Mortal Kombat off of there. It's the Sonia prequel movie that everyone's [expletive] clamoring for. Go buy this [expletive] PlayStation game then if you want to play that. [expletive] Outworld Soldiers or something.

I'm gonna, you know, so we we've done some like good like promise incentives to get more listeners. I'm gonna give one. I am never doing another episode of the show again if they do a Sonya prequel. Yeah, I'm canceling the podcast. It's over no more.

What kind of world am I living in where people love Sonya and then give her a [expletive] prequel movie? Give Kano a prequel movie.

Here's the thing we're uh people are probably thinking, like, you don't like Sonia. No, I think Sonia's a badass. I want the badass Sonia.

Like in the cartoon.

Like in the cartoon, yeah. Like in the cartoon, she kicks Johnny Cage in the balls. Like [expletive] like that. Like I don't like some. Yeah. The consent aside there. Um, yeah, no, I like I'm mad because I think that movie didn't make her a badass. Like, and then they chuck her up to be at the end, like, no, look, we did make her a badass. Like, no, you made fun of her for not having a marked the whole movie. You had her as a kind of crazy, like obsessive person in a trailer park with a garden note. Yeah. Yeah, you know, like you didn't do her justice. She's a she's a freaking even like the same thing.

In the in the anime we watched that Warner Brothers one, she like like jacks is like drill sergeant and she like blows all the tests out of the water. You know, it's just it's not the same. So, no, we don't dislike Sonia. We just didn't like the Sonia we got in that first movie, you know? Absolutely. I I thought she was whiny and like not, I don't know. Not the Sonia that I know. No, from the games, yeah, kills everybody. I mean, it's not like we like read one book and now we want to be like the book. Like, there are many games that pitch who these characters are, and that was not Sonya Blade, and really any of them, except that maybe that dumb whatever prequel game, Sonia and Jacks. Maybe that happy jacks.

Special Forces. Is that what it was called? MK Special Forces.

We're not moving on until you special forces. Special Forces.

MK Special Forces.

What is it on? We need more details. PlayStation. I can't read that. Original PlayStation. That's like a PlayStation. Original PlayStation.

Yes, one.

If we get 15 patrons ever, I'll play. Let's stream it. I'll stream the game.

You know it's [expletive], because Sub Zero didn't even bother showing up for this thing. And he did every [expletive].

We'll roleplay Sub Zero the entire time. We're like Sub Zero [expletive] on the whole game. Um yeah, so 15 patrons ever. Not including the ones you already have.

Right. And we get those matching tattoos.

I'm ready. That's crazy. How crazy would it be if it worked?

Oh, if it worked?

I'd do it. I'd brutally quit right away. And then they go.

People are out there making fake accounts.

If that happens, I'm stealing your credit card. Like I'm telling you right now, I'm stealing your credit card information. And yeah.

Alright. Alright. Rolling into the next thing, we're going to talk about our favorite or not so favorite characters in Mortal Kombat throughout the whole realm that is Mortal Kombat. I didn't use any bonus characters. I based mine off all the games. The movies I still watch and everything, but I based all mine off the games, and I didn't use any of the bonus characters like Predator, Alien, or [expletive] Robocop and [expletive]. I didn't use any.

Yeah, cool. They can be in the games, the DC characters, they can be in the games, but no, I think this for this conversation, let's talk about core, Mythos, Moral Combat characters. Love it. We're just gonna focus on your list. I I I've not played enough. I almost feel like for me to pretend right now to sit down and be like, well, maybe I've only played like three of the Moral Combat. Okay, okay. So uh uh but I do have opinions on them. So let's hear.

Uh number one on my list for my favorite of all time is Noob Cybot. Okay, why? Because of just his like history or because I have three of it. Like he's the original uh sub-Zero, and then he got murdered or whatever by Scorpion, and then he comes back as this like Spectre type character, but he's better than Scorpion at being a Spectre because he is creepy as [expletive]. In this new Mortal Kombat, I absolutely love it because he gets like this uh control of like a shadow clone kind of deal, like almost like a Naruto, but more it's darker like Peter Pan if the shadow is trying to wave you. And they do some [expletive] hilarious [expletive] for like how dark it is.

Like there's a point where like uh the shadow clone raises up Noob Cybot, like he's floating in air and he's like, but it's actually the shadow clone holding him up, you know? And then there's another one where like the shadow clone comes out and he's like trying to escape or something, and they like they embrace each other. Like it's really [expletive] weird. And then he like pushes them back into the city. I do that, yeah.

Oh, yeah. So good, yeah. I appreciate like sense of humor.

But it's still dark and everything, you know. He's like, I control the dead, and he has that kind of thing.

I I have uh he's he's because he is in a few of the games. I have played uh a couple of the Mortal Kombat. So Crisp was the one we played a lot in college. That's probably where I have like the most experience. Ten? So I think I think I played 10 a lot. Uh I I liked him because he's just a fun character. His movesets are all like really crazy magical all over teleportation, jumping in and out, up and down. So super into him, but I will say, pretty trolly. When you get certain people playing as him, uh either against you or online, it does reduce how much I like him sometimes because he is just a number one troll character.

Oh yeah, it brings you right back to uh like the original Mortal Kombat or Mortal Kombat 2 was notoriously bad. The people who just did the sweep move the entire [expletive] time just sweep. And they actually did a joke about that in the new movie, which was hilarious. And then Kano's like, I'm gonna get you, and like he jumped, and he's like, Oh, son of a [expletive].

And like they tried to make it hard for us to be mad at the movie, we still are, but they there was moments where like ah you got me, ah you you got me.

Yeah, okay, and uh tied from my number two spot, and they deserve each other. Uh Cassie Cage and Johnny Cage.

Okay, I know I know so little about Cassie Cage.

So Cassie Cage is the daughter of Sonia Blade and Johnny Cage, and just picture that mix. Like, Sonia was always like too military for me to main her, and I loved Johnny Cage, like his attitude and everything. Yeah, but Cassie Cage, I think, is the perfect mix of the military.

The competency of Sonia Blade, but still the like the bravado of Johnny Cage.

And like she's all about the flashy moves, and she's always chewing gum and popping gum and [expletive], and she's got like Starbucks that she's drinking, and it's hilarious. She's like the diva yeah, I'm just making it. No, she absolutely is, yeah. And like I love it. Like she's like zip lines upside down, and then so she blows a bubble, and then she's like, Sup. She's definitely got that new. My husband would love that character. She's always texting and [expletive]. Oh, I think in Mortal Kombat X.

I think Cassie Cage is my husband.

Right? Yeah. I think in uh Mortal Kombat X that was one of her fatalities. She kills you and then takes a selfie about it. Yeah, that's pretty cool. And then uh her friendship in Mortal Kombat 11 is just her taking a bunch of selfies.

I love her. Okay, yeah, that that's you know, for me, I've heard of Cassidy. I knew I didn't actually know Sonya was her mother at all, but I knew obviously daughter of Johnny Cage, and I kind of thought they were milking it maybe too much. So I I I've never played a game. I've never played as Cassidy, but I will take your word for it. Um, it sounds like a good combo for me.

Yeah, yeah. And this last Mortal Kombat, as far as the moves go, she's right up there. She's in my top five of characters that I love to use as far as her character. She's like a weird zone hybrid character.

It it captures the to me the essence though of like Mortal Kombat of like these these caricatures that really just like have fun with it and like aren't afraid to make fun of themselves. All right. When they try to make a super serious character in Mortal Kombat, [expletive] [expletive] [expletive], yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.

You either need to be like over the top a little bit or whatever.

Stop giving me good characters. We need to we need to deflate this for a second.

Give me a bad one. Bad character. Number one list on my bad character, Jarek. I don't even know who that is. Jarek was in Mortal Kombat 4.

Is he related to Jared?

No. He replaced Kano. But the thing was first problem, don't replace Kano. Right, ever. Ever. Because Kano is a weird spot already, like, not just in the movie, he was great in the movie, but he's a weird spot in Mortal Kombat where he's a bad guy, but he's also human bad guys. He's air throne. Yeah, he's air throne. So, like, what do you really do with him? Yeah. You know? But yeah, this [expletive], Jared, comes into Mortal Kombat 4 and is just like, I'm the new Kano. But then they gave him all the same moves, and even one of his fatalities was still double laser eyes now, and he doesn't even have the metal thing or anything.

He just has a regular face with a scruffy beard, and he makes weird noises, like, we look it up later, I'll show you. And then he does a weird double laser eye, and he's just got two laser eyes like that.

So now you're just like Superman, but I'll show you. Was he Australian? No. Get out of here.

Awful. Hated him.

Hated him.

Okay, uh all right, cleanse the palette.

Back to a good one.

Okay, back to a good one. Uh, tired for my number three, Shao Kahn Kotal Khan. Now, for different reasons. Okay. I like to play like the big bruiser character sometimes. You're kind of a bully. Right. And then so I'm I'm not talking about the game, but yeah. No, I know. In the game, I suck. People pulling me around probably 12-year-old girl out there crushing me right now. Easily. And here I am just sweating my [expletive] palms off.

You know, just doubts.

She's just like probably sitting back, like drinking a Red Bull with a super long twisty strumm.

Like, not even looking at the screen. Like, she's watching, like, uh yeah.

Just let me kick this guy's ass real fast.

27 Reasons Why or whatever.

He's playing Kano, what an idiot. Anyway. Yeah, so uh Xiao Kahn, I loved because he was the first main boss that I felt playing the video games that was super intimidating. And when you finally got to him, after all that [expletive], he would push your [expletive] in if you weren't ready for it. I'm like, this son of a [expletive], you know, and I hated him, but he was perfect at it. The whole ha ha ha.

Yeah, and him as a boss, like Goro was cheap.

Right.

Like he was just meant to be cheap. Shao Khan, like, was hard, but didn't to me still cheap, but like, but to me felt like more of like a fair. He was just to me like a hard boss. Whereas Goro, I was like, [expletive] this guy. Like, so yeah, I can see that.

Right? And then like I I fell in love with that. Like, he's this big guy, and he was a great boss, and I love that. And then like the whole half dragon blood thing and all that stuff. And in the the new game, he he does okay. But if uh if I'm gonna play another big bruiser type, it'll be Kotal Khan. And he has this nice like Aztec Mayan flair. I thought Kodal Khan was a girl. No, no, no, no. It's a big bruwnie dude. And uh he usually got like green paint all over him and [expletive].

And he's like, uh, they brought like some Aztec flare, like we were saying with the cowboy [expletive], like they were gonna be bringing in a little bit of something, but this actually works because like it's like a tangent of him in Outworld, you know, and like they still follow these beliefs and stuff, and he worships the sun god, so his sun ray comes down, gives him power. There's one move where he lifts you up in the air, cuts your stomach with one of those curved swords, and like starts drinking your blood and [expletive]. Okay, yeah, I get in that. I get in that.

But I know nothing about Kotil Khan. Uh why does he have the name Khan?

Uh, because he ends up becoming the Khan after Shao Khan.

Like uh he's like Is Khan a moniker?

Yes, yes. Khan is like the leader of Outworld. You're the Khan.

You're the near the Khan. Yeah. Okay. It's not a claim.

Like the Tsar or something like that. You're the Khan. So he's Kotil Khan. Khan.

So I'm just hearing like Donkey Khan. Kotal Khan. Then there's the Kow.

The Kow. But yeah, I like I like everything about him. I like that the style and the flair and everything. And I really like that character. Alright, I get in that. I get in that. Let's go to a bad one. Go to a bad one. Nightwolf.

Nightwolf's rough. Disagree and I'm gonna disagree. You think so? I'm gonna disagree. Okay, let's let's you you brought out that. I want to bring up my points.

Yeah. As a character with his moveset and everything, I think it's fine. But I think the character himself is such a stereotype of Native Americans that it hurts his character. His story is great. I love the story. Like his people have this mantle of Nightwolf, and it gets passed down from generation to generation, those who deserve it, and he gets this ancestral power. Love that. Hated that in Mortal Kombat, the when did he first show up? Mortal Kombat 2? Or no, was it three? I think it was Mortal Kombat 3. It's two or three. I don't remember. It's two or three. He first showed up. He's got the [expletive] bedazzled vest on and the [expletive] bejeweled headband. It was Mortal Kombat 3. And like the boots with the tassels.

I'm like, what the [expletive] is going on, man?

Alright, yeah. So on one hand, you're totally right, actually. Like, he is probably like the worst kind of just like stereotype of the character. So that's that's fair, but I'm gonna like put that aside for a sec. And as a younger kid where racism and all like the dark things in the world didn't exist, and I just could appreciate something for its creative value. A guy who like kind of just like materialized weapons, green, glowy weapons and different weapons, right? Pretty badass. Pretty badass. Didn't his eyes glow or something too? Like, uh, maybe that wasn't in the games. Maybe they they like put that in one of the movies or something.

But he just, I don't know, he was cool, like as like an aesthetic and not not not the Native American part, more like his like moveset was cool as hell. Like to me, felt like uh like a secret, you know.

I could appreciate that with a spectral bow and stuff like that.

I think too, like it kind of drives maybe maybe it's like a kind of very simple thing of like reptile. I thought was super cool back in the day. Right. So I think characters where you have to imagine or like it's not like all their moves, you know, like a guy with a hammer never excited me as a child. And I know for many people that probably did, but like for me, like those guys were less interesting than someone who did like a cool magic thing. So Nightwolf is a top one for me. Reptile would be a top one for me for sure.

Like reptile's a cool ball thing that he would make. That was always super cool.

Yeah, so uh I'm gonna I'm gonna I I'm gonna both agree with you, but also disagree too, right? We can we can we can we can do that. We can love the same character.

I mean Sonya Blade. If you guys have any comments, [expletive] write them. Let us know what you have to say with a comment. There's actually a thing you can do where you comment and let us know what you think. Just throwing that out there.

Nate's pissed. I'm pissed. Six months we've been doing this, Nate. Just like one comment. Oh, sorry. I just something other than I mean, we you know, we we get texts from friends, from fans, but like, yeah, why don't you use the [expletive] social media so that people actually realize that our show is good to you? Like here's the thing like I'm glad you guys listen to our show, but if you don't tell anybody about it, then they're gonna know. Then how are they gonna know? How are they gonna find it?

So we can blow up and forget about you guys.

And that way, you know, we don't want you guys to be listening in secret because you're embarrassed. You're like, I like the show. Are we embarrassing? Um, all right, yeah, we don't want to embarrass you. We want we want yeah, we want to make you mainstream. Like back when like goth wasn't cool. Now it's cool, right? You know, like that's what we want to be. But you know, whatever we are. Cool, cool, cool.

Alright, we got all right. Here we go. Uh, next on my list, I'm gonna go straight to uh back to hate. Uh Triborg. [expletive] hate Triborg.

Okay, I know nothing about the character but the pure, just based on the name. Stinker. Absolute stinker.

You're you're gonna [expletive] get some [expletive] and giggles for this name. Triborg. The combination of Cyrax, Sector, Smoke, and I [expletive] kid you not, Sub Zero, four robots in the Triborg.

It doesn't [expletive] make sense. Number one, his name doesn't make sense.

So, first of all, math. Like not making sense. Triborg was four ninjas. They didn't even try three unique things. They combined four ex get over here. I need that.

They recycled him four ninja robots in one character named Triborg. This is [expletive] ridiculous. He's looking at it right now.

And honestly, I wouldn't even be able to tell that. Like this picture shows the like where it's coming from. Oh, yeah, yeah. But otherwise, it's just like a great robot with like a [expletive] gem. Like it's like [expletive] Iron Man meets Black Panther, meets my Uranus.

Like, I don't know. [expletive] awful. And then you already know how I feel about the whole ninja robots, anyways. Like, it's a [expletive] robot. If there's an EMP, guess what? He's gonna die.

Like, I like pizza and I like spaghetti, but do I put spaghetti on pizza? Sometimes. Oh no, just kidding.

I mean, now I kind of want to try it.

No, but right, like that's the concept though, of like there are two cool things. You don't just [expletive] mix them together in a blender and call it a day.

Call it something that it's not even close to.

And if you do, call it like a double, a double quad board. Yeah, not try board.

Try is three, like a tricky.

I bet they're like quadborg sounds bad, and then someone's like, well, triborg works, and like, well, okay. Someone just literally, because try sounded like si, they're like, we're gonna make characters.

Oh, maybe that's what it was. What they should have just got rid of one of the [expletive] robots. But yeah, he is on my uh most hated.

That's that's well earned. That's well learned. What does he even play as? Like, so whose moveset does he use?

Does he use a little bit of everybody's?

Yeah. Wow, that's so original.

Like how uh Shang Sung kind of, but in a real [expletive] robot version. But that's probably what's next. Shang Sungborg is next. Sungborg. Yeah, Sungborg. He's gonna suck up your soul like a Hoover. Get close to my hose. I gotta suck up your soul.

God, it's so stupid. [expletive] hate it. Alright, what's next?

Um Megan's favorite since I asked her for. Megan has a favorite? Yeah, she did. And that was. I love when Megan has an opinion. Katana was her favorite. First introduced in Mortal Kombat 2. Uh, nice to have a new woman character in the show because obviously they gave Kano and Sonia the axe in Mortal Kombat 2 because they were the least played characters in Mortal Kombat 1. So that's why if you get to that one uh level with Shao Kahn in the back, you see Kano and Sonia tied up in the background. They were captured, but that was because nobody played them in the first one. But her favorite was Katana because everyone knows Katana was a little bit cooler than Melina at the time, the blue versus purple, I guess, debate. Yep.

But it was Katana was Megan's favorite. Yeah.

So yeah, Katana, like, I don't know. I I'm gonna again I have to go back to the movies. I think they make her as like super wise. Like and that's what I kind of like hundreds of years ago. Yeah, and I like they commu I that tended to communicate. Like, yeah, did they stick her in like a skimpy outfit? Sure, but they at least made her like a leader in most of the games and shows and the lore. So that's what I kind of like about her.

It's nice, like it's one thing to say someone's a badass like Sonya, but then it's another thing to be like, no, but like she's gonna be like like she in most games helps the earth people, mostly because her place got [expletive], but yeah, you know, whatever she does what she can.

She does what she can. What she's given, yeah.

I think I I try to empower her, we try to have one moment where we be serious, we build up a character. There's that. All right.

That's all she's got. Uh last one. I have a couple more. Uh there was Sue Howe and me on my uh hate list, but I don't everybody on your hate list, I don't even know.

So it's just like, so you don't like these obscure, made-up [expletive] characters that clearly were we want to have a new sloping.

Su Hau was in two games and people [expletive] hated him. The developers even hated him.

Who is so easy?

He was supposed to be like a black dragon kind of guy, and he was like supposed to be like Mongolian. So he had like the Mongolian mustache with like the dictator style cap. Pull up a picture, Chris. A H-S-U-H-A-O. And talk about they hated him because he was stereotyped. Like Nightwolf is bad. Su Hao was [expletive] god-awful. Like slanted, I'm pretty sure he had slanted eyes and [expletive]. He was awful. Like, how'd this even get through, you know? Oh wow. And so he was another black dragon guy where they copied more of Kano's moves because apparently, if you're in Black Dragon, you just copy whatever Kano does. So he has like this magnet thing over his heart and he does like a laser. Yeah, look at that [expletive]. Ooh.

But they put a baseball cap on him in that'll do it.

Hate that guy.

Terrible. He gets uh killed off eventually. Um yeah, I hope he stays that way. Yeah, and then actually, a little fun fact: Aaron Black, the cowboy guy, that's one of his uh opening scenes when he first walks out when you're like the reverses match. He throws a bag down and Suhao's head comes rolling out, which is I love it every time. I never play him.

Is that like some kind of like that the cowboys beat the Mongolian?

Is it [expletive] Mongolians?

Yeah. I'm not sure.

I don't know. Uh the last one I have for the hate list was Stryker. Don't know. Mortal Kombat 3 originally. Uh he came out, he was just a cop. He wasn't chosen Oh, yeah. I know he wasn't chosen to be in Mortal Kombat or anything.

It's kind of like Kung Lu from our Death Bell. Stryker right there. Yeah, I've seen Stryker.

He was just a cop.

He's very like streets of rage, I don't know, like they just grabbed some kind of third-party law enforcement guy and threw him in there. Yeah.

And that's it.

At least Jax has robot arms. Right. And Jax was like the first brawler type character in there, you know, like super muscular [expletive] gotcha. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. But Stryker, it was like, we need a cop.

Like, okay, let's throw in a cop. And and like, all right, Johnny Cage has sunglasses, and it's funny because in in some of the games, and it's funny because like he's a movie star and he's over the top. But when a police officer is wearing sunglasses in a game, like well, this is [expletive] stupid, right? Why? You know, it just makes nah.

And his moves were just like one of them was like he swung his leg and then was swinging his belly club around. Like, what year is this cop from? You know, like 1940s, like swear.

No.

I hated him.

Yeah, no, I I can see that. Okay. I that I do know who Stryker is. Never once have been even remotely interested in picking that character to play. Nope. Pass. Hate him. Hate him.

That's pretty much all I got. I did have uh Kung Jin in there for uh my best characters. Not really best, but I did like the idea of Kung Jin. Um is Kung Jin? Kung Jin is uh Kung Lao's uh nephew, I believe. I think it was originally cousin, but then they changed it to nephew. And it was nice, they tried to do something a little bit different with him, where they gave him a completely different moveset, but still related to a character. But they gave him like a bow and stuff, and I actually liked using him. I think he was in Mortal Kombat X uh when it first came out, Mortal Kombat 10. And I liked using him, but apparently a lot of other people didn't. Oh, here he is right here. Okay, yeah.

Right? Like I liked him, but I liked the idea of like a good outfit, probably gay. Oh, he totally is gay. That's actually uh see the call of it. Yeah, he's the first gay character in Mortal Kombat. Sure. Okay. Yeah, they had to bring it up for some reason. Who knows what's going on behind the scenes?

Like they add three sentences of flavor text behind these characters, and they choose to try to do some weird [expletive] like that.

You have a game filled with magical creatures, but then you're still like, oh, he's gay.

Like, do I want to know Goro's sexuality? Definitely not.

Probably gay.

Probably.

I mean What I'm thinking, you lift up that loincloth, that dude's got like two [expletive] and six balls down there. It's like, well, don't tease me with a good time. I mean, I don't know what you guys are into, but I'm sure Goro's got it.

It's just not like, dude, I'm all about we've talked about this before. Like, dude, I want representation, but I also want like authentic like if you're gonna do it, like, it's gotta like represent reason why. If you just literally put flavor text behind a character and like the [expletive] in the like the like the trading card in the extra mode, right, that is not like giving like you know a minority any kind of like exposure or not. So don't like don't bother. It's like I'm not offended if you don't make a character gay in a game. I am offended if you make a rando character, I don't know. Right.

Like to like appease the crowd.

If he doesn't start making out with a guy in Mortal Kombat, I don't want to watch it.

Ooh, I wonder if that was his ending. I don't think I ever beat it with him. But he's like, hey, you get over here. Like, get over here.

And then they just start kissing.

Uh that might be something. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Like you got a game with like bug creatures and [expletive] at this point. And people are fighting weird games.

Like, it's a game where people are trying to kill each other. I just it's not a good time for romance in general. You know, like you don't see Johnny Cage and like do you ever see Johnny Cage and Sonia making out in the game?

Uh no, they actually play really hard to get. Like in story mode, they're always like, hey, Sonia's like, I'm trying to work here, Johnny. And he's like, Oh, you love me. Like, that's as far as it goes.

Let's give her a round of applause for like 14 games, pretending to not be interested in. But obviously having a game. And for some of them actually not being interested in them.

Still somehow had a kid.

Still somehow had a kid.

There's a chance out there, guys. Just keep badgering that girl.

No.

No means no.

Let it go. No.

Let it go.

Well, this has been a lot of fun. It's been another Mortal Kombat session there. Yes. Yeah. So let me end on something not Mortal Kombat for once, right? A fourth season of a show just came out. Castlevania. Ooh, actually, yes. You guys have heard about it on our show. Hey, I mean, the whole D Hunters is basically we took Trevor Belmont. Hunting for D. Mixed him with Van Helsing of our own choosing. And uh we just we love that show so much. Well, I just watched the fourth season. Nobody else has in this room. For some reason unbeknownst to me. They're actually good reasons like parenthood or employment. But regardless, uh season four, guys, uh, if you're listening, watch Castle Four or watch watch all of Castlevania.

Um but with the intent to get through season four, because uh I will spoil it for you in that the show ends. It is the last season four is the last season of Castlevania, though they are promising us a spin-off in that universe. A few things D Hunters Hunting for D. Our contract's in the mail, I'm sure.

Thank you, WB.

So a few things. One, the writer of that show, who I want to give a handshake because the way that show ended was amazing. But he got a lot of allegations for the whole Me Too stuff. Seems like he has some of those moments too. So we're not sure. It all like Netflix's model, right, is always after a couple seasons. They they always make new shows because they're always trying to get new subscribers. Um, so they tend to so the show was never gonna go to like seven, eight, nine seasons anyway. But right around the time a lot of allegations came out, that's when. So anyway, but show ends season four, one of the best endings to an anime I've ever seen. So check it out.

Yep.

We are gonna get a Castlevania spin-off, they're promising, in that universe, but they're not telling us what. They want to tell another story, but it it sounds like it's gonna be some kind of original, maybe not characters from the game.

D Hunters! D Hunters!

Uh, and then the last bit is somewhere in the works is uh uh uh a Devil May Cry anime on Netflix, and that is said to be so in in season three, right? Because you guys have all seen season three. Okay, cool. I can at least talk about that. There's the infinite corridor discussed, and that is kind of like uh a pathway between different worlds. The Devil May Cry world apparently is a part of that world. They're not probably gonna do heavy crossover, but technically it's going to be part of that like Frankenstein universe. So some things to look forward to, Advil May. I I actually don't know a lot about Double May Cry. Uh, if we get 35 subscribers, we'll stream it.

I'm gonna have to go back and listen to this episode and see all the things you promise. I don't even remember any of the numbers beside. Um, but yeah, Devil May Cry, another Castlevania spinoff. I'm happy and honestly, I was just happy to get a show that really like wrote a fitting ending to the characters. That is nice. And as soon as you guys watch it, we're gonna have an episode. I'll get to do four episodes on a show that I want. Yeah, it's gonna be Castlevania.

That sounds like I'm gonna go home and finish it right now then. How many episodes total is it? Am I gonna be up all night?

It's nine or ten.

Because I got halfway through the first.

It takes five hours. Well, it takes less than five hours. Oh, because they're only like 25 minutes. What time is it? The whole series is 32 episodes or about 20 to 24 minutes. But the last the last season's nine or ten. So yeah.

I'm gonna go put a dent in it.

It's worth an eight. It's worth everybody, it's worth it. It changed my life. It's how I want all shows to end. So on that note, maybe we'll stop talking about Mortal Kombat. Doubt it. But if not, we'll also mix in some Castlevania. Remember our promises. Remember our promises because we won't. Uh, and we'll see you next week. Thank you. Bye.