Bonus Day of Kombatmas: Timelines

Meat is this skinless character that escaped Shang Tsung's mad science labs, The Flesh Pits.

and with the recent edition of Ghost Face as a guest fighter in MK1, and the franchizes penchant for licensed horror icons, we COULD kill two birds with one stone here.

how do we make Meat an interesting character rather than a novelty? make him INTO the guest character.

fans are speculating Ghost Face is actually a set of fighters from MK's past 3D games based on shared movesets, which fits with a legacy villain thats ultimately just new people each time wearing the same costume.

with that in mind, i have a proposition. turn Meat into John Carpenter's The Thing.

realistically, The Thing would have to find and assimilate a random character anyway, as thats how it adapts and blends in. and it can imitate basically any organic species it infects.

if we make Meat into The Thing, we both bring back a beloved side character, AND mix up his moveset with all new attacks based on the many mutations The Thing does to attack and defend itself.

fatalities done to it would be relatively the same, as The Thing IS imitating its host inside and out, so if you had gory detail then the insides wouldnt need changing from the base most characters use, helped that Meat IS the skinless male character model made playable.

but also the fatalities it can PERFORM would be extremely unique, anything from eating you with a stomach mouth, slashing you up with vein wips-

or EVEN a fakeout fatality where the camera cuts to the opponent, who decapitates The Thing, and walks away thinking theyve won. only to react in horror as the head sprouts spider legs and attacks them!

now that brings up some questions:

1. if this is The Thing, fatalities wouldnt kill it in the first place, so how does it die?

well aside from fire based fatalities, you're right. but we still allow Gearas on the roster, and he's canonically a self reviving immortal.

2. The Thing really only works in the arctic setting of the movies, they establish it could take over any world very quickly if not for being trapped so far in icy lands.

thats true, but this is the Mortal Kombat universe. curses exist, and we COULD nerf its infecting abilities with some of Shang Tsung or Quan Chi's magic.

but even if we didnt nerf it, guest characters are dubiously canon at best, and MK doesnt shy away from using its non canon arcade endings to explore Bad Ends, so we can absolutely have The Thing take over Outworld and begin invading realms far more insidiously than Shao Khan.

3. why would The Thing even fight at all? it wants to stay hidden and spread itself covertly.

well we COULD say that assimilating a MK character with decent strength and combat prowess gave it the confidence to fight directly, though we can just as easily say it fights from necessity or only when its been found out.

4. Meat is the WORST candidate for assimilation! he doesn't even have skin, that stands out way more than The Thing would want.

assimilation from necessity is an option here, and remember, it copies infected hosts as identically as possible, save for the inorganic bits it cant replicate, such as when it spat out a hosts teeth fillings.

if Meat had no skin to begin with, logic stands that The Thing wouldnt grow any to remedy this.

as for "why Meat?" the simplest answer is that it keeps The Thing more distinct from the cast while still following its nature of imitation. and while we could volunteer any character for this job, the more tertiary the choice, the less likely fans are gonna be upset that their fave is basically dead now. Meat is loved enough to be appreciated, simple enough that we could essentially zombify him without much backlash. plenty of fans might even see it as a unique twist!

and really, all of this isnt much of a stretch when MKX had a Xenomorph born from a Tarkatan, which gave it wrist blades, as Xenomorphs also imitate the life forms it uses for reproduction.

and come on, lets admit, it makes waaaaay too much sense to have Johnny Cage riffing on The Thing by calling it a Sussy Baka. the Among Us jokes write themselves, that game was legit a kiddyfied version of The Thing.

Some time ago, Shang Tsung thought he could make use of another assistant to help him in his day to day work. While he already had the likes of Erron at his side, he was aware they were people with their own life and objectives outside of his work, and didn’t wish to take too much of their time. He decided to try an alternative by asking the Kreeyans who lived in Outworld to teach them their magic to create life. Since Shang Tsung was trusted by Shao Kahn himself, the Kreeyans decided to grant him his wish.

After learning from the Kreeyans, Shang Tsung tried to use his new abilities to create a new lifeform. He realized he had been too uncareful, however, since when the new lifeform was already created, it turned out he didn’t have enough mastery over his abilities to finish him completely. He was already a self-aware, intelligent being, but he lacked skin. Shang Tsung promised him he would complete him soon, and for the time being he made sure he could adapt to his particular nature.

Thanks to Shang Tsung, who kept practicing the magic to create life for the Kreeyans, the new creation, while still lacking skin, was able to stop bleeding anywhere around and was able to wear clothes without dirtying them. He was also offered the name ‘Meat’ by his creator, since he thought it described him well, and he accepted it.

While Shang Tsung kept studying to give him skin, Meat was given some education. While creating him Shang Tsung had made sure to program him with all the basic knowledge he would need to adapt to his new given life, but Shang Tsung knew there was more to life than technical knowledge. He put a special emphasis on Meat understanding what he was: a living being with his own right to choose his way. While Shang Tsung had created him with the objective of having someone to help him, he let it clear to Meat that it would have to be his choice, and that the sorcerer wouldn’t force him to perform any task.

Meat decided to try and perform the task he was created for first in order to decide. He accompanied Shang Tsung in some of his journeys, sometimes joining Erron too. He performed similar tasks to those of Erron, helping his creator in both searching knowledge through the realms and helping other people through the way. It allowed him to develop curiosity for all the different worlds in existence, as well as sympathy for all its lifeforms. He ultimately chose to stay at his creator’s side, which pleased the old Tsung.

During this time, Meat also ended up enjoying his skinless condition. Thanks to the magic methods of Shang Tsung to overcome the difficulties of not having skin, it was barely a problem. And Meat already saw it as part of his identity, something which made him unique. He decided to ask his creator not to give him any skin at the end, which the sorcerer respected.

When Shang Tsung joined the fight against the Edenian Regime, Meat decided to stay away from it, since he didn’t think he was ready for combat, nor wished to harm other lifeforms. This was yet another decision both Shang Tsung and friends of Meat, like Erron, have respected. He still assists them in other important activities, though, such as helping injured soldiers of Outworld. Time will say if Meat will have to reconsider his position for his own good…

MEAT!!!!!

Decided to do MK4 Fighters.

Blood warning!