Some Bat Living In The Sewer🦇

Capturing likeness is so hard😭😭

There’s a few interesting fight intros that I think indicate Johnny’s views about masculinity and also maybe hint at how he grew up.

One is with Onmiman where he tells him “You look like the dad I never had”

and he tells Bi-Han “and I thought I had daddy issues,”

This definitely indicates a complicated relationship with his father.

He tells Kuai Liang “my big brother was an asshole too.

You could say that this is just your basic “sibling roasting his sibling”, but the fact that he’s comparing his brother to Bi-han of all people as a way to relate to Kuai Liang, kind of makes it seem like it’s bigger than that. Like he really does not get a long with his brother

He also has a couple interesting lines that I think show how he views masculinity itself

He calls General Shao “if toxic and masculinity had a meet-cute” and he asks Geras what his pronouns are not as a joke, but to genuinely understand him

I think from these lines that it seems like Johnny has an issue with male authority figures, particularly ones that broadcast toxic masculinity (he calls General Shao out on this directly and I think it is implied with what he says about his father and brother). I also think that’s part of why he ultimately respects Liu Kang and eventually Kenshi. They both are masculine and show strength, but not as a way to show off how strong they are or to dominate.

Johnny sees masculinity as something expressive rather than something rigid he has to prove. He also is not afraid to show off a feminine side (see his alt costume of th fur lined jacket and star shaped sunglasses)

Do given all this my headcanon for Johnny’s childhood:

I have already briefly shared my opinion about the film on Twitter. In short: I liked it, although I see all the flaws that were there.

I would really love the creators of MK to work out their world as it was done in the Hobbit movie (as an example). The scale of the MK universe does not fit into an hour and forty minutes of the film's running time. I want more. Better. Do it! And people will continue to love you