The reboot timeline has an absurd amount of inconsistent power levels, retconned backstories, and incoherent storytelling (ex. sometimes hurting the past self hurts the future self, sometimes it doesn't. Whatever is convenient for the plot).
Backstories are wishy-washy. MK11 has the Crown of Jerrod in the Krypt stating that Shao Kahn beheaded Jerrod, D'Vorah claims to have killed Jerrod in an intro dialogue with Kitana, and Sindel was retconned into being the one who killed Jerrod in the DLC. Kabal's backstory in MK9 where he gained his super speed as a result of being healed in Outworld after being burned as a cop was obliterated in MK11, as it shows that a young Kabal already had super speed as a Black Dragon goon. So the broad strokes of the comic storyline should still be valid.
The difference here is that Aftermath nullifies pretty much the entirety of the MKX comics' events by declaring Havik alive. The entire plot of the comics centers around his machinations which ultimately lead to his death, so him being alive is basically a giant "No" to all of that.
Plus, the writer of the MKX comic confirms that it is canon as of MK11.
You may have missed it, but I addressed this earlier.
MrKingOfNegativity (earlier on) said:
Cianciolo's statement is extremely recent, having come out within this exact month. Boon's statement is much older, and at the time of that statement, it was clear that they intended for the comics to be canon. (They were outright marketed as such back when they were still in production) These things can change over time. It's likely that they realized the comics introduce massive plot-holes when taken alongside the MKX and MK11 stories (though admittedly, those holes aren't that much worse than the ones Boon & Friends have introduced themselves) and decided they were better off just ignoring the comic series entirely.
And unfortunately, as much as I'd like to take Kittelsen's word, his statement is also much older (it's from last year), and his word has no real priority when compared to the lead story director for the studio.
Kittelsen's statement is from 2019. Cianciolo's statement is from this exact month, and comes after the above-mentioned change in which Havik is now alive. They've either changed their minds about the comics entirely, or they've chosen to damage-control the shit they've overwritten from that series. Either way, "Comics aren't canon" is our most recent statement on the matter by far.
I believe the best solution is to consider the high-end feats from gods and such to be environmental destruction that does not scale to their durability or physical strength.
Otherwise, we can try to make some vague and flawed tier list, and dismiss plenty of events/fights as outlier (such as Stryker, a NY cop who never heard of magic and other realms, beating up Kintaro who is more powerful than the undefeated Goro).
We already do the latter. (Or at least, we
should be doing it)
It's not a perfect solution for how messy the NetherRealm canon's Story Modes are, but we have to remain aware of the fact that many of the player-controlled Story Mode fights really are the definition of PIS. Characters frequently beat people they shouldn't when the player is controlling them, then lose to people they shouldn't whenever the player is controlling someone else. By contrast, the cutscenes are (usually...) much more consistent with how each character is portrayed, so that's what should serve as our primary basis when it comes to our ratings.
Mind you, this
is a case-by-case thing. Moments that are justified by the narrative (like Jax requiring the crown to fight Cetrion and Shang Tsung beating everyone other than Fire God Liu while wearing it) should be fine to use, as the story goes out of its way to explain why those moments happen the way they do.
I agree that arcade endings and intro dialogues are useless for power scaling, but they can reveal legit backstories and lore, such as Titans beside Kronika being teased.
This is also something I addressed before.
MrKingOfNegativity (earlier on) said:
Just to add to this though, lore information presented in endings should be fine to use. Things like Shinnok being sealed for millions of years, the gods warring with each other, the Zaterrans being wiped out, et cetera are well-documented, so I'm not suggesting we throw all of that out.
I
don't think we should toss out lore that is established in character endings, not unless it's contradicted elsewhere. My suggestion revolves around us not drawing feats and scaling from them, because
that is one of our current problems.
While some fatalities can be exaggerated as a joke or cool factor; case in point:
Smoke blowing up planet Earth with his bombs, almost all of the fatalities are reasonable. So I am not sure about categorically dismissing them.
Which is why I'm only suggesting that we dismiss the ones not reflected in the Story Modes. Though I wouldn't say that "almost all" of the Fatalities are reasonable; a very large number of them have the characters displaying powers or capabilities they never demonstrate elsewhere.
The elephant in the room would be Cetrion growing to the size of a planet:
Should this be dismissed or not?
Raiden is weaker inside Netherrealm since Earthrealm is where he belongs, and the Netherrealm is somewhere Cetrion shouldn't be in which might explain why she struggled with creating the bridge.
It doesn't work scaling-wise. Cetrion is beaten by either Jax or Jacqui (you get to choose which) while the latter is wearing Kronika's crown, which is something the plot explicitly spells out to us as being the only reason they had the power to do so. Fujin while wearing the crown was left drained after blasting open the gates to Kronika's Keep, a feat which (while impressive) is decidedly far below planetary.
Being weakened in the Netherrealm (which Fujin would be, under normal circumstances) wouldn't apply to someone fueled by the power of Kronika's crown, seeing as it's designed specifically to boost the wearer's might. Even if we assume Fujin was weakened beforehand, putting on the crown would make him at least as strong as Jax/Jacqui was while wearing it.
All of the above is on top of the fact that Cetrion never displays any planetary capabilities in the story itself, and the fact that Shinnok (who should be her equal) never does so either.
EDIT: I also don't recall a single instance of the story saying Cetrion is outright weaker in the Netherrealm. The latter being a place she "shouldn't be in" doesn't necessarily equate to that.
As far as fatalities are concerned, would Sub-Zero's spine ripping feat still be legit?
Yes, considering the Fatality itself is performed in-story at least once.
But anyway, I still think base Cassie and Sonya being 9-A via that steel breaking calc seems fine. Baraka and other fodder enemies can also just be 9-B perhaps.
- What steel-breaking calc do we have from the series that's 9-A? Last I recall, the only calculated 9-A feat from MK involved old-school Test Your Might allowing you to smash diamond.
- I would like to have someone calc the feats we see in the Story Modes before we go slapping new 9-B ratings onto everyone's profiles. I want to make sure we end up with something we can be positive on, and we're not going to get that by ballparking.
