7 Huge Video Game Story Details Revealed In Spin-Offs

7. Why Sub-Zero & Scorpion Hate Each Other - Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero

Mortal Kombat's iconic showdown between two palette-swapped ninjas has spanned over 25 years of mythology, to the point where it's just accepted that Sub-Zero killed Scorpion's family, sorcerer Quan Chi was involved somehow, Scorpion then killed the original Sub-Zero, and that was that.

Well, in the shockingly bad Mortal Kombat Mythologies - a godawful action platformer where you play as Sub-Zero in between some of the best/worst live action cutscenes ever - we actually spend time fleshing out this specific feud.

Now, the whole thing was a retcon, put in place to prep audiences for Mortal Kombat 4 that was arriving one year later on home console, but regardless, at least there was some sense of clarity to what went before.

Turned out, Sub-Zero was hired in secret by Quan Chi to retrieve a map that would lead to powerful sorcerer Shinnok's amulet. Quan Chi ALSO hired Scorpion for the exact same mission, then wiped out his clan while he was away, trading the bones for payment to Sub-Zero's master. As Sub-Zero killed Scorpion on the mission and the pair met back up in Netherrealm i.e. Hell, Scorpion wrongly thinks that Sub-Zero also killed his clan, that Quan Chi is his master, and proceeds to fight Sub-Zero for decades to come.

Mortal Kombat 4's horrifically voiced and acted arcade endings follow on from this, but completely lack the key information setting up Scorpion and Sub-Zero's history. It wouldn't be until 2015's Mortal Kombat X and 2019's Mortal Kombat 11, that the wider MK fandom would be brought up to speed.