#mk blaze

Okay so just in case you haven't noticed, I'm very very into shipping. Whether it's platonic or romantic, really, I'm just a sucker for relationships of all kinds... 😅 Though most of the time, the word "shipping" is taken in the romantic sense.

I know we both love SubSmoke and we've discussed Kuai/Taven a bit too!

I also know you ship your version of Rebecca Carlton with an OC, if I'm not mistaken.

And if I remember correctly, you ship Delia/Argus/Amara as a poly ship, at least in your mirror verse.

So basically, I'm just curious about your favorite relationships in MK and which are the ones you're the most interested to develop in your AU (I'm mostly thinking your standard AU but feel free to bring in your mirror verse too if you so desire). It can be canon characters or your OCs if you want! It can be canon ships or rare pairs or pure crack! Go wild.

And it can be platonic too. I know you have Reiko and Carmilla but if you have other relationships such as theirs you wish to bring up, go ahead!

So yeah, I invite you to go crazy about all kinds of MK ships, fanon or canon, platonic or romantic. I'm all ears!!

Hey, Rasta!

Thank you, thank you so much for this opportunity! I will love yapping about my MK ships, yay! 😊

But first, I must tag my friend @odie1441. Because, other than I am sure she will like reading me yapping 😉 I am also going to keep mentioning her through the post. She makes art of some of this ships and I must give her publicity with this post! 🫡 Please, any reader, check her blog if you like her art! 🙏

And now, we can start! 🔥 I'll say, it's going to be LONG lol.

I think the best approach will be diving this in three sections. I'll be mostly talking about the versions from the character from my AU (which can and will be different from canon), but I'll mention canon when it's necessary. They will be, therefore, either ships I like writing the most or the ones I am most excited to start writing in the future.

Romantic ships

The favourite hobby of 90% of this website and most of us fanfiction writers, when characters decide to spend their entire life together as partners ❤️🫶

Let's see some of my favourites and that will definitely be in my AU(s)!

Nitara x Skarlet / Nitarlet / Skartara

First wholesome drawing I am sharing from Odie. Again, gotta promote my friend!

I had to start with my favourite MK ship of all time! 🖤❤️

I imagine one could think it's just kind of a fun joke: blood girls who are said to have dated Erron in the MK11 intros together. And hey, I'm all for ships done just for fun, so I could see them being shipped for that. But nope, it's not my case, they would be far from my favourite ship if so. I hope I will be able to explain my feelings towards them here.

First of all, I would be lying if I said part of it isn't their aesthetic. Both Nitara and Skarlet are among my favourite MK characters in terms of design, abilities, and basically everything visual surrounding them. That's part of what makes them together appealing to me, I won't lie. Sometimes for me to start liking a ship I just need a simple 'They look cool together' lmao.

But of course, there is more to it! Something that some of my friends (Odie included) have been developed in their works, so we can all thank them I like this ship so much ❤️❤️

Nitara is a freedom fighter. One with her nuance, questionable aspects and unorthodox methods (although I much prefer not to make her full evil like her New Era self), but someone trying to earn her people freedom from Shao Kahn's Empire at the end of the day. And one that proves to be quite self-sufficient, to the point of freeing her realm by herself in Deadly Alliance. All in all, Nitara is someone who screams independent and free spirit to me, despite how much loyalty she has to Vaeternus and her people.

She must have also been trying to free her realm for a long time, centuries if not millennia, and seems to prefer working alone (at least there's no one working with her besides Reptile and Cyrax). I and my friends have liked to interpret this as her being someone perhaps too comfortable in putting her life at risk for her own good, even if it's for understandable reasons. One can just wonder how worried any loved of Nitara would be if there was any left due to this fact.

And then we have Skarlet, someone who, whether her origin is being a Flesh Pits creation (my AU's case) or an Outworld orphan, has been under Shao Kahn's influence for a long time. She has been guided in the wrong path and is being used by someone who only sees her as a tool. Not that I would treat her as someone not responsible for her own actions and the people she's wronged (is something I wouldn't have to do with any character), but I do believe she has the potential to start an arc of realizing this and becoming an independent and generally better person. It's the kind of arc I am interested to see for her character, so it's what will happen in my AU.

But for the full independence she lacks, she has earned other thing: survival skills. She has learned to take care of herself through years of trying to survive. While this has also caused her to develop more than one selfish tendency, it's still a good skill to have if well measured.

And from here on, I hope the appeal is clear. The dynamic I see in this ship is that: one learning to be more free and the other learning to put more value in her own life even if she continues her fight to free her realm. Both will learn from each other, connect with each other and eventually 🫶 I have others details planned (the story of how they meet in my AU, for example), but I think this post is going to be incredibly long already, so for every ship I'll just try to explain it conceptually like this and leave most specifics for another day lmao.

Now, they are far from the only characters which can have this dynamic as a ship, but between the mentioned fact that I love them aesthetically and that I have enjoyed writing about them with my friends, I have just ended up liking them that much, and I hope I'll be able to make them justice once I write them. 🫡

And speaking about the fact that they aren't the only characters with that dynamic...

Reptile x Khameleon

Also from Odie lmao 💚🤍

If I remember correctly, Rasta, you weren't a fan of this ship because you felt it only happened for... well, reproduction, and reduced Khameleon's character to the 'the female one'. I will say, I totally understand and respect that perspective (and you know I'm interested in the idea of Khameleon x Nitara you've come up with too 👀). I hope I'll still be able to make my different thoughts on them interesting, though 😄

First of all, I'll let clear that in my AU nothing about their relationship would be for reproduction. It wouldn't even be necessary, really, I plan for there to still be hundreds if not thousands of Saurians hidden in Outworld (they still count as an endangered species, because imagine if there were only a few thousand humans on Earth lol, but allows me to have more room for Saurian characters). They would be together due to the only reason I would ever get two characters together: they love each other.

Their dynamic will be similar to what I plan with Nitara and Skarlet as I mentioned (especially because there's no one in need of escaping influence from awful people than Syzoth, omg 😭), with the difference that they will have something else connecting them: how the lost of their home realm affected them and, while they reacted very differently and took completely opposite path, it ultimately allows them to see that they can work together to bring them home back, form a bond and, well, 💏

It will certainly require a lot of drama to get to that point given that they are in opposite sites lmao, but due to how much I have liked speaking about them with friends, I really want to try and do it as well as I can 😊 But for now, I will have to skip to the next ship instead of elaborating more in order not to make this too long again 😅🤣

Liu Kang x Kitana / Liutana

I am confident my friends are going to be surprised with this when they read it lmao. There was a time (after Battle of the Realms, to be precise) in which I was a bit mean to these two. I had the perception that they were just a checklist of 'Ship that must happen in every continuity'. I am so glad I changed my perspective once I started thinking about how to write them for my AU 😌

In Liu Kang and Kitana I see two people who feel they must carry the world in their shoulders: one by being a prominent defender of his realm and the other by being an essential political figure of hers once it's unmerged (as I want it to be). They carry so much responsibility, their lives are a constant stress. It's great to think that they can find a relief in having one another (as well as their respective friends and family).

And that's where I think the ship is held back by the nature of MK stories. They are action stories, therefore all we can usually see of them are 'big, epic moments'. They fight together, they go on super dangerous missions, etc. Not saying that those moments can't be good, but I don't think that's were Liu Kang and Kitana have the capability of shining together.

I want to see little moments for them. Liu Kang taking her on a simple date or an amusement park in Earthrealm. Kitana guiding him through Edenia, discovering more about her home realm history alongside him. In general, just them allowing themselves to have a happy normal life when they are together and at peace. I genuinely think that they would be great if they could have this kind of moments, allowing us to see the contrast between the hard lives they have and what they can do together. I think it would transmits us why them being together matters so much to one another.

I will definitely allow them to have moments like those in my AU, so I hope I can share them sooner than later.

Geras x Blaze

And now, you have invited me to go full crack ship, so I couldn't dissapoint lmao. This one I will definitely need to explain well.

Blaze in canon is someone completely loyal to the mission he was created for, what would (supposedly) prevent Armageddon. Despite being aware it will cost him his life, he doesn't even doubt about it. And in my version, it won't be just for the fact that it was the reason he was created for.

Blaze was sent to travel through the realms before he got captured by the Lava Shrine Priests. I want Delia to be the one who asked him not to just look at the realms, but also at their people. I think she, who is shown to see a great value in lives (not wanting everyone to die in the Armageddon Battle if possible), wouldn't just want a living being she created to give his life without understanding the reason, why it's so important to save the realms. And so, she would have asked him to have that journey to understand it.

Blaze would have seen all kind of people across the realms. He would have seen the flaws and dark side of life, but also the beautiful parts. Families living together, children playing and growing, friends' bonding. He would have grown to love the realms thanks to it, and it's knowing that it could all disappear if he doesn't fulfill his role in the upcoming Armageddon Battle (whose details of how it'll be in my version I am still thinking, by the way) what would make him choose to do it, not out of obligation (Delia most likely let it clear that she or anyone couldn't force him if he decided not to do it), but because he genuinely wanted to do it even if it would take his own existence.

The story of Geras in my AU will be somewhat similar. He was created by Kronika (Elder Goddess of Time in my AU, a classic of us fanfic writers who don't like the concept of Titans lol), and was meant to be a neutral force, someone who would monitor the realms to give her information about it (I'll give more info on why she wanted that another day). But as I mentioned in the backstory of my OC Eriisi, that neutrality won't stay forever, and for similar reasons to Blaze, he will want to help the people in the realms.

Is the similar journey they go through that makes me interested in what it could be if they found love in each other 🤍🧡 They could easily have met at any point (before or after Blaze's time being captured, though probably the former), since both wandered the realms in my AU. They would spend time together, connecting as fellow wanderers in process of discovering what's there to be valued in the lives across the realms, and giving each other company in the process. Perhaps they didn't know what they started feeling for one another at first, but they eventually would realize.

Of course, given what's going to be Blaze's fate, the ending of this ship wouldn't be a happy one 😭 But in part that also makes it even more important to me: the fact that that love was there would be something Blaze would have treasured experiencing until his final moment, and it will give him someone who will never forget him in the form of Geras.

Definitely one of those ships I will be the most satisfied when I properly develop. I hope these unordered thoughts are still interesting.

Rebecca 'Becky' Carlton x Victoria 'Vicky' Manzano

And since you mentioned them, here there are too. My normal couple, who will eventually have to face the difficult parts of the MK world lmao.

I have linked their bios above in case more information is needed to understand what I am going to say about them, but as a summary: Rebecca is a firefighter in New York, and Victoria is a police officer, who happens to be a friend of Stryker and the joke character Pedro (I am giving Stryker some friends at his job apart from Kabal lmao).

A thing I must confess here is that Rebecca is my favourite child. I feel I was able to make her simple, but with a strong concept and potential for character dynamics that my friends have loved so far 😄 And I like to use her to make the point that a non-combatant can still be an heroic individual, even in the crazy MK world (she's even going to be someone Johnny admires and looks up to in some ways).

Following on that philosophy of keeping things mostly simple/normal with Rebecca, her relationship with Victoria is that, a normal relationship. They are just two people who met at University, fell in love and decided to start a family together. It's meant to be simple and cute, and I like to write about it. Here for example I enjoyed giving them some details.

Also, I must point out that the existence of Rebecca and her children will be key when it comes to differenciating Victoria and Stryker (outside from different personalities, of course). One has a family, while the other (in my AU) doesn't, and that will affect her when she gets involved in the MK world once Shao Kahn's invasion happens, similarly to Stryker and Kabal. The fear of such a dangerous situation must carry another kind of stress when you have a family to lose, after all. I will like to expand on that when the time comes.

Li Mei x Jade / LiJade

When I said I was giving Odie's art publicity, i meant it

Now, for the last romantic one (because I have more but I don't want to make this tooo long), another one my friends sold me lmao 💜💚 And possibly the one here who counts as a rarepair, because I have actually seen art of it but I don't think is super common.

This is one I feel is kinda intuitive. These two are some of the most loyal people one can find and they will fight to the end, one in the name of Sun Do and its people as well of a free Outworld, and the other in the name of her loved ones and Edenia. I would like them to meet and become friends eventually even if I didn't ship them romantically.

Now, apart from their similarities and the respect/admiration I feel they would develop from each other eventually, the reason why they are going to be a romantic couple in my AU is a simple one: I find them very adorable lol. Sometimes I am really simple when it comes to liking ships, you can see (although, of course, I will make sure to work on the specifics through time).

Platonic ships

Friendship! My favourite thing! 🥳

Here are some of the platonic relationships of many kinds that will be present in my AU, and that I will be glad to write about:

Delia and Sindel - The Lady of Flame and her Pupil

We start with a mentor-student relationship I have come up with for my AU. The idea came from a friend (one who doesn't have Tumblr) who had the idea that part of Sindel's magic was taught by Delia. They probably just meant that they sometimes exchanged knowledge as collegues, but honestly the idea of Sindel's being Delia's pupil just made a lot of sense in my head.

First of all, the timeframe seemed perfect for it. Taven looks around as old as Kitana his aging having been stopped for more than 10,000 years, so I think it makes sense for Delia to be a generation older than Sindel. I have decided that she's the Edenian equivalent of 12 years older, enough to be an adult while Sindel is a teenager.

And then there's the fact that Sindel is a way too powerful character, and while I don't really mind the explanation being that she just is (and that she must have had a good training to be the queen of her realm), I also thought I could use this connection with Delia to explain it further. It made sense that during her years as a princess being prepared to become the queen she would be given the best possible mentor in magic, and who would be better than Delia?

Now, I have come with a bit more of concept than just it making sense for my lore, else I wouldn't be mentioning it here. My idea is that, for Edenians, the fact that their queen was mentored by Delia is another reason to show her respect (I want 'Pupil Of Delia' to be a title Edenians gave to Sindel. Gotta hype Delia up a bit 🔥), they focus on how powerful Sindel must have become due to her teachings. For Sindel, in contrast, that was the least important part.

Similar to Kitana later, Sindel had a life full of responsibilities from day one, and must have had a very busy, perhaps even sometimes lonely first years while being prepared to be queen, performing stressful duty after duty. Delia, due to her compassionate personality, would have noticed it and made sure to give her care and company between lessons. She would have also guided her in excursions to make sure Sindel could learn about Edenia and its citizens outside of the walls of her family's palace. Basically, she allowed Sindel to have a normal life while acting as kind of a big sis to her, and that's what Sindel will treasure about her time as her pupil. She surely didn't take the news of her death well... 😭

It's just one of those relationships I have come up with I will be looking foward to expanding, hope it'll be an interesting idea for other people too!

The Deadly Alliance

This is just a very fun one to me.

It's obviously not 'good', right? They are Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, they will betray each other inevitably, a la Deception intro. But I like to think that at the same time they have this weird respect for each other that turns them into the most similar thing to a real friend they could ever have lmao.

I think in this case their similarities will be both what earns each other's respect as well as what makes them turn against one another: they know they are similar, they know what to expect from each other, and so, they could never be disappointed from the other. And also they'll have fun killing their enemies together, ask Liu Kang in the Deadly Alliance intro 🤩

I suppose I just like to write messy relationships between villains sometimes, so there has to be a toxic platonic one, and here are they to fill the bill lol.

Rebecca Carlton and Daniel Blade - Sibling-In-Law team! 🥳

I came with ideas for a friendship between them that aren't related to the fact that they are siblings-in-law, more to do with their own characters, although you can be sure they'll be happy for Johnny and Sonya!

First some basics of Daniel's character in my AU (more detailed in the bio): he's someone who tried to force himself to part of the military like his sister, but ended up traumatized due to what he lived through and retired. He currently has a happier life as a social worker.

As I have said, Rebecca is meant to be a simple character, but I still think I owe her this important bit of depth: being a firefighter is not an easy job, it implies seeing death and being capable of overcoming the feeling of guilt which can appear when one is unable to rescue someone. While she has been genuinely able to deal with it and continue with her job, she may have hidden part of it to her family (Johnny and Victoria included), not wanting them to worry. There's where Daniel comes in.

I plan for them both to act as part of a civilian rescue team that will be formed (with the help of Raiden, their siblings and the other heroes' resources) during Shao Kahn's invasion (before the Soulnado happens and lets our main heroes alone). There they will safe a good amount of people, but they will also see many die in this horrible event. The latter will cause Rebecca to feel wrong deep down no matter how much she tries to hide it, and Daniel, who was in a similar situation before leaving the Special Forces, would easily notice. He would offer her support and someone to talk sincerely with. There is where they would become genuine friends, which would help them keep their efforts to rescue people during the invasion.

As any ship here, it's still in development, but I am excited to write more about it and so I had to mention it here.

Reiko and Hideyoshi - The Kahn Guard Duo

Another friendship I came up with.

Apart from the fact that I thought they would make a cool evil duo (because look at them 🔥), I also wanted Reiko to have someone he had bonded with during his training in the Kahn Guard. I thought it could help transmit that he formed a new life there, as much as that new life led him in the wrong path. And I thought it would be an interesting way of giving some depth to Hideyoshi, who due to his brief appearance in DOTR, was basically a character I could expand in any way I wanted.

It's not the most developed one for now, but it's another one I will be glad to develop in the future, and that I wanted to share here! 😊

Shujinko, Tojira and Kenshi - The Deceived Trio

Summary on Tojira (more details in her bio): She's an OC I created to give at least some insight to Onaga's reign. She's an Outworlder who was taken from her family to be part of the Dragon King's army (the non-undead part of it, at least). Then Shao Kahn decieved her and many others, promising a free Outworld if they assisted him in overthrowing Onaga, only to be forced to serve him after it was done. She has felt guilty since then and has eventually started to help Resistance movements against him as a way to redeem herself.

What will unite these three in my AU when they meet is what they have gone through: deception, the guilt they feel about it, and the need they have to redeem themselves no matter what it takes.

I have already explained that in Tojira's case, she will be helping Resistance movements against Shao Kahn, trying to sabotage from the inside and fighting for a free Outworld (maybe she'll meet Li Mei 👀). Kenshi searches restlessly for Shang Tsung to release the souls from his ancestors, taken by the sorcerer when he deceived him. And Shujinko is literally the protagonist of Mortal Kombat: Deception lmao, and one of my favourite character traits of him is how much he regretful he is, to the point of feeling undeserved of being seen as a hero:

An example of Shujinko's guilt in his Armageddon Bio

As other ships mentioned here, the specifics of how each of these three will meet will be for another day, although I can mention some details: Shujinko and Kenshi meeting in a similar way they do in Konquest, and Tojira meeting with them when it's time to fight Onaga. When they learn about the other's experiences, they'll find people they can relate too, people they can support in their different paths to find redemption and that will in return understand and support them back.

Yet another relationship I will like to come up with more details eventually, because I think it has a strong concept I'll be glad to define more!

Scorpion and Dairou - Revenge and Consequences

This one's a bit tricky, tbh. I don't know if what will form between them in my AU will be a 'friendship', but there will definitely be something there, because I am just a fan of the potential I see in it! And there'll be chances for them to cross paths (in canon they could have met during Deception, for example).

The main theme of Scorpion's character is revenge, trying to find satisfaction for the pain he feels over the lost of his family and his clan. His character arc is always how that journey, while having understandable motivation, is consuming him. Dairou can be seen as what is in the end of that journey (with his differences).

Dairou also lost his family, and he already got his revenge. What has been left after it is just a broken, cynical man. Partly because the government he had served failed him afterwards, but I also want to believe is because he realized that the revenge just couldn't satisfy him. Nothing ever could, except having his family back.

I just want to see what I can come up with by having these two meet and learn about each other's stories. Dairou will definitely see in Hanzo what he once was, and maybe he'll try to warn him that if he doesn't have something to live for after obtaining his revenge, he'll find himself as lost and alone as he's know. Perhaps that'll be one of the factors that will make Hanzo reconsider things.

Still on a conceptual level like many here, but it's the potential for what I can come up with that gives it a mention!

Enmities and rivalries

Maybe I am cheating a bit here, but hey, 'ship' comes from 'relationship', and two characters hating each other's guts to no end is a relationship ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And definitely a kind of relationship I'll be glad to write and yap about! 😈

Kitana vs Shao Kahn

I am so glad this one is having more focus nowadays in canon. It was an important conflict in MK11, it will be in the next live action movie and it will definitely be in my fanfic.

Not much to say about here, really. Of all the countless people Shao Kahn has wronged and members of the main casts he has conflict with, Kitana is the major character who may have the most personal conflict with him and deserves to play a key role in his defeat.

It's my personal favourite beef for both, above the likes of Kitana vs Mileena, Sindel vs Shao Kahn (although that one is important to), Raiden vs Shao Kahn (the guy with a hate crush on Raidude is Shinnok, Shao) or Liu Kang vs Shao Kahn (you can't steal Shang Tsung's beef, Shao lmao). And it can be a powerful story, my friends (Odie included) find it inspiring as the story of someone rising up against her abusive father, and so I want to make it justice.

Nitara vs Carmilla

Yup, even more Odie's art 😁

This one was just meant to happen from the moment Carmilla became a character. It's the Vampire trying to free her realm and the Vampire working for those who conquered her realm, of course they would fight each other. And I think two Vampire girls throwing hands with each other will be really cool if I do it correctly lmao, but there's a little more that.

Nitara is obviously not going to like Carmilla. I don't think there are many things which could make her more angry that someone from her own people fighting under the Kahn Guard's flag and saying shit like 'Vaeternus was a weak realm which deserved what happened to it' or 'Our people would be better if we willingly become agents of a powerful Empire'. But at the same time, I am going to make her feel, if not pity, at least disturbed by discovering what led Carmilla to that path and what it represents.

Carmilla before being taken into the Kahn Guard wasn't anyone special, not even meant to be a warrior in the future, just a civilian. Nitara would come to understand that who she's facing in Carmilla is not an special case, almost anyone among her people could become like that if they were taken and indoctrinated into the Kahn Guard. She's basically the terrifying future she feels she must save her people from.

There will be more conflicts involving my Kahn Guard OCs (Baraka after going through similar arcs to the one he has of recent media could fight Arranad because I think that'd be a good fight for example), but I think this dynamic could be the most interesting of them all if I play with it correctly! 🔥

Shujinko vs Onaga

Possibly one of my favourite conflicts in all this franchise.

I just love how personal it is. Onaga deceived Shujinko not just for one occasion, but for almost his entire life. He took advantage of the naive kid he once was to gather an agent who could collect the Kamidogu for him.

For Onaga it must have been insignificant. He has lived for thousands and thousands of years, the forty something years of Shujinko's quest must have been a blink. For Shujinko, it was everything, an entire life wasted fighting for a lie.

Now that he has discovered the truth, all Shujinko can do is trying to redeem himself by fixing his mistake. And he'll do it. Despite being seen as insignificant for Onaga, it is the very power Onaga gave him alongside everything he has learned from others in his quest what allows Shujinko to defeat him and save the realms from being absorbed by him! 🥳

It's another one I think has a lot of potential I will be glad to try and exploit when it's time to write about it.

Taven vs Daegon

Another of my favourites! And my personal favourite MK sibling rivalry! 🔥🔥

I am just excited to explore these two more. I want to show them having a genuine bond and love for each other in their past, despite everything, in contrast to how all went to Hell in the present.

Their story is one of a family broken due to wrong decisions and bad circumstances, and I think there's no better way to showcase that that framing this conflict, not as the epic tale of the good brother beating the evil brother, but as a tragic tale of two brothers who shouldn't be fighting but are.

I will be really glad when I come up with more ideas for them in the future.

Hotaru's beefs

And, to finish this babbling about beefs, I just have to mention Hotaru. He's like a superhero with his own rogue gallery, except he's a villain and his enemies are mostly eh... other very morally questionable people too.

There's just a lot of variety there:

Hotaru vs Havik. A conflict I see as mostly impersonal, but still important. Two important cogs of their respective sides of Order and Chaos colliding because it's what they must do, and will continue that conflict until the very end.

Hotaru vs Darrius. A conflict I see as more personal, because Darrius represents that not everyone in Seido is a machine that will follow what their government dictates with no question. He shows that Seido's system has flaws, and that's something that Hotaru must hate with all his being.

Hotaru vs Dairou. Possibly the most personal one. Dairou is a character which also shows the wrongs of Seido's government: a former enforcer of the system who was eventually left behind by it after breaking the rules to avenge his family, and thus turned into a desillusioned person who didn't believe in 'Order' anymore. Not to mention that, unlike Darrius or Havik, Dairou was a former fellow Seidan Guard of Hotaru (and a personal friend, I am going to establish). There's just material for a good conflict here, and I am all for it!

This is without mentioning otther conflicts I can establish with Hotaru: expanding more on his conflict with Shujinko, establishing one with Li Mei (because I have mentioned I think that could be cool) or even giving him one with Reiko (I would like to play with the similarities I find in this two, and I have an excuse if I say Reiko ever tried to claim Lei Chen back and fought Hotaru in the process). Overall, I just think this obsessed zealot of Order has a lottt of potential for conflicts with other characters, and I love it, and I will love writing about it.

And well. Honestly, while writing this I may have realized I may have mentioned too many and maybe it would have been better to mention less but explaining more about them lmao. It's a flaw of mine, I'll admit: I have to practice my yapping skills. 🤔 I still hope this has been an interesting answer despite that, Rasta. And feel free to ask me anything about any of these ships if you are interested, I'll try to expand my thoughts eventually 🫡

BLAZE AND THE DRAGON EGG

While Argus and Delia were crafting their plan to prevent Armageddon through their Quest and Battle, they realized there was a key element missing. A power so great it would attract both the followers of the Edenian Regime and its opposition, and that would be enough to deal with said opposition once the correct person achieved it. Delia eventually found the answer to what that power could be, or rather who could be.

Delia traveled through all the realms with the intention of recollecting a fraction of all their Jinsei, their life force, which she managed to do without being noticed thanks to her many magic abilities. With all that energy, Delia used her own version of the Kreeyan magic to create life, which she had developed through their years of study, to create the firespawn Blaze, who wielded one of the greatest if not the greatest power across all realms besides that of the Elder Gods.

From the moment of his creation, Blaze had been given an objective by his creator, to sacrifice himself when the time of Armageddon came, all in the name of a better future for all realms. After being taught everything he needed to know from Argus and Delia’s point of view, especially their ideals and the importance of his mission, he was sent to monitor the realms until the moment to give the signal to start the Battle of Armageddon came. Blaze’s journey would eventually lead him to the Netherrealm, where his existence would be changed forever.

Blaze was coincidentally found and attacked by a group of aggressive demons, Followers of Lucifer who recognized him as a non-dead being and wanted him dead or out of their realm. Grave mistake. Blaze destroyed them very easily when he had no choice but to defend himself, his power being witnessed by members of the recently created Brotherhood who had just arrived in search of the Followers of Lucifer of the zone, including Shinnok himself. Intrigued by his power and strange presence, Shinnok decided to question Blaze. While the firespawn initially refused, having been told to keep everything related to Armageddon secret, the fallen Elder God was able to discover from him who his creators were.

Shinnok had once been a friend of Argus and his family, close to them for a lot of time, until his disagreement with the ways of the Edenian Regime and their absolute loyalty towards it tore them apart. Despite this, he was still aware of the family’s situation, and had learned that Taven and Daegon had just disappeared out of nowhere. That and the creation of Blaze were already enough signs for him to know something important was going on, and he needed to learn it. He decided to trick them, something he preferred not to do but was good at, pretending that he had come to respect the ways of the Edenian Regime and wished to be close again.

Delia and especially Argus respected Shinnok as a former Elder God, so it was easy to win their trust back. When he felt it was the right moment, he finally told them about his meeting with Blaze, and that he wished to know more about it. He was then told everything about Armageddon, and, although he pretended to go along with it, he was actually horrified that both of them would rather risk the existence of all realms than stop the obsessive Edenian quest to ‘pacificate’ all realms, not to mention that even if their alternative worked it would require the sacrifice of countless living beings, Blaze included. He decided to stop that madness, starting for Blaze.

Shinnok started to visit Blaze regularly, this time being able to speak with him with more confidence, since the firespawn considered him an ally. He told him that he could teach him how important life was, supposedly to give him more motivation to complete his mission. He took them to all places across the realms, especially those in which the best of life could be seen: families living happily, cultures developing for the future, children playing with no concerns, etc. Understanding how important positive experiences were for beings in the realms and their emotion started to make Blaze feel appreciation towards them, which was when Shinnok decided to take a step further in his objectives.

He told Blaze the truth, that he still didn’t agree with what Argus and Delia were doing, and that he wished to make him see why, although he also let it clear to Blaze that he would respect if he decided to reject him, wanting the firespawn to act in his free will as any other living being. Wanting to know why a noble person who had helped him understand had problems with those he trusted the most, Blaze accepted.

Shinnok showed Blaze the worst part of the Edenian Regime: families ruined by the pettiest possible opposition to the government, cultures which have been twisted or destroyed during the ‘pacification’, indoctrinated children considering their lives Blaze considered so precious worthless in comparison to assisting the Regime in its mission of ‘peace’, etc. Now Blaze had enough understanding to see how horrible it all was. He asked Shinnok how his creators, those he considered noble, could support something like that. The fallen Elder God told him the truth, it was their ideals, what they believed necessary to maintain ‘peace’ alongside the rest of the Edenian Regime. He also told Blaze that it was something he couldn’t help but oppose, but that he still wished for Blaze to take his own decision based on the deeper understanding he now had, knowing the consequences of both deciding to keep following his creators’ plans or abandoning it. Blaze, despite his confliction, decided to go with the former, also telling Shinnok that he wished to follow him instead, since he trusted him the most now. The fallen Elder God received him with open arms. He also told Blaze that he considered his life as precious as any other, which was why he would try to find a way to prevent Armageddon without his sacrifice.

After that was done, Shinnok remembered that Taven and Daegon had been put in a sleep state due to Argus and Delia’s plan, and wished to help the young ones too. He asked Blaze to cut his connection with the dragons Orin and Caro in the hopes both would interpret it as the signal to start Armageddon, and thus release the sons of Argus wherever they were. This decision would lead to the deaths of Argus and Delia, as well as the creations of the Red and Golden dragon clans in Earthrealm.

Blaze has been an important part of the Red Dragon clan from the start, and Daegon has bowed to protect him. They are brothers, not just for sharing the same mother in Delia, but also for how they have connected as such over the years. Blaze loves his brother and the rest of his new family in the Red Dragon deeply, and they are yet another reason why he finds motivation to keep fighting for their ideals.

Sometimes Blaze still thinks what he would do if his sacrifice would actually be needed to prevent Armageddon, even if it wasn’t in the exact same way his creator thought. Deep down, he is still willing to sacrifice himself to save the life he holds in great value. Daegon knows this, and it motivates him even more to keep looking for another way, since for him and anyone close to Blaze, his life is just as valuable as any other.

I have a theory/idea that Rain was a god but was cast down by his parents and became a mortal. Because I hoped for demigod Rain to be explored in this timeline, I don’t like the idea of Rain being a sorcerer. It’s not the worst decision since Rain can still be a well-written character, though I was still disappointed. 

This idea came to me randomly so it’ll most likely be disjointed which I apologize for. I was inspired by Greek mythology. There is a story of Zeus stripping his children, specifically Apollo, of their powers and making them mortals so they learn a lesson. 

Here is my theory/idea:

Born the youngest son of the gods Argus and Delia, Rain was a powerful god of water. He had a happy life with his parents and brothers- Taven and Daegon, but grew to be arrogant and believing mortals were lesser than him. This attitude led to his downfall. Alongside his brothers, Rain threatened to harm a country due to them not worshiping his family to his satisfaction. Disgusted by their children’s behavior, Argus and Delia stopped their children and planned to punish their children accordingly. With the help of Liu Kang, Argus and Delia decided to strip their sons’ godhood and have them reborn in the mortal realm- Outworld- so they learn to appreciate and care for mortals. Rain- regressed to a baby- would be raised as Zeffeero by a woman called Amara. He would grow to be kinder and ambitious, leading him to learn sorcery and become the kingdom’s high mage; I headcanon that Rain used his water magic to heal people as well. He’d live his life on the right path until Shang Tsung manipulated him and unleashed his darker impulses. His actions in the game would still be the same, including his sort of redemption in his tower ending. 

In a future game, the Taven/Daegon plot could return though, instead of their quest is to prevent Armageddon, Rain, Taven, and Daegon would race to their family’s original temple (through memories and clues left by their parents) for the chance to regain their godhood as long as they are deemed worthy. Other characters can be involved by the villains learning this and trying to achieve godhood while the heroes try to stop them. This gives NRS the opportunity to bring back Taven, Daegon, Argus, Delia, and Blaze into the New Era. Rain’s story could end either with him being a god again but with a better understanding and care for mortals or he decides to stay mortal. 

I don’t think this will happen in the game since I think the canon reason why Rain is not a god/demigod is because Liu Kang didn’t want to risk him becoming the arrogant, power-hungry person he was in previous timelines. Also, the Armageddon tower was already referenced in MK1 so it'll most likely not come back.