Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Ruins Sindel By Retconning Her Story

Sindel returns in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath, but her new mentality completely ruins her character and directly contradicts her previous arc.

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[Warning: Spoilers for Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath below.]

Sindel is the victim of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath’s most egregious retcon, completely betraying the character and the arc that defined her for the past 25 years. The new DLC expansion for Mortal Kombat 11, Aftermath, features a brand new story set right after the original game’s ending. The new chapters focus around characters who didn’t make their debut until Mortal Kombat 11’s post-launch DLC, and Sindel is one such character.

Introduced in 1995’s Mortal Kombat 3, Queen Sindel of Edenia stands out, even among Mortal Kombat’s timeless roster of iconic fighters. Her peaceful realm of Edenia was invaded by Shao Khan and his Outworld armies. The conqueror murdered Sindel’s husband, King Jerrod, and forced the widowed queen to be his new bride. Consumed by grief over her circumstances, she killed herself. Ten thousand years later, Shao Khan used Shang Tsung’s dark magic to bring his fallen queen back to life on Earthrealm, thus allowing him to invade the realm even after losing two Mortal Kombat tournaments.

In Mortal Kombat 3, Sindel is brainwashed, with no memories of her time as a just and noble queen. In her MK3 ending, Sindel breaks free from Shao Khan’s control and becomes a hero. Likewise, Kitana’s ending from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 also features Sindel returning to the side of good. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, Sindel rules the realm of Edenia with a fair and righteous hand. Her home is a peaceful place and ally to Earthrealm.

MK11: Aftermath Turns Sindel Into A Generic Evil Queen

Beginning with 2011’s Mortal Kombat (also called Mortal Kombat 9), the timeline was partially reset. That game features Raiden sending a message to his past self in a last-ditch attempt to avert the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which sees Shao Khan take control of the ultimate power within the Pyramid of Argus. Unfortunately, the message sent across time is muddled, and the Raiden of the past ends up making mistakes which drastically change the timeline, leading to the deaths of heroes like Kung Lao, Kitana, and Liu Kang.

Canonically, Sindel’s origins should not have been changed by Raiden’s interference with timeline, since the Thunder God only sent his message back 20 years or so, and Sindel’s backstory occurred over 10,000 years in the past. Regardless, Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath retcons Sindel’s entire backstory and motivations, effectively making her a completely different person from the fallen monarch fans have known for the past 25 years.

The big revelation regarding Sindel’s character in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath completely betrays everything fans have come to know about the Queen of Edenia. As shown in Aftermath, Sindel was never brainwashed by magic. She was an evil queen all along, conspiring behind King Jerrod’s back with Shao Khan. It’s not a shocking twist; it’s a nonsensical one, especially to anyone who knows Sindel’s backstory. This version of Sindel is entirely incompatible with the character from the old timeline, and there’s no canonical explanation for this change. It even contradicts Sindel’s Mortal Kombat 9 ending, which follows her traditional backstory.

Both Mortal Kombat 9 and Mortal Kombat 11 are time travel stories. For the most part, they handle the material well, with much of the excitement coming from how time travel impacts characters that audiences are already familiar with. Even though the Cyber Sub-Zero twist from MK9 was unceremoniously undone in the MKX comic book tie-in, it was still a memorable moment that played on Mortal Kombat fans’ understanding of the Lin Kuei ninja clan and their Cyber Initiative. With Sindel, they completely derail her character for the sake of a plot twist, and it spoils an otherwise fun DLC adventure. Worst of all, they could have avoided this whole mess by having Sindel secretly remain bound by Quan Chi’s magic, which caused her brainwashing in the current timeline.

Mortal Kombat has always changed the way their characters have been interpreted over time, but never before have they made a misstep like the one in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath, which completely ruins Sindel.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mortal-kombat-mk11-aftermath-sindel-backstory-changes-plot/