The Cages are the first family of awesome in Mortal Kombat. They're like the Apples.

Ugh, God, no. You're lucky I've got to leave in five minutes elsewise you'd be hit with a rebuttal so hard your buddy Kimura Masahiko would feel it.

(it's a complicated issue with many factors to consider)

Now you're going to have to rate the cyborgs and Cabal. You also have the most redundant kombatant of all, Noob Saibot. They already had 50 pallet swapped ninjas, but they couldn't even give Noob a different color than Smoke.

Every game between 4 and the reboot were utter turds, but the series has never recovered from the tailspin that 3 put it in with the introduction of canned combos.

Sorry, kanned kombos.

First Ky marries Dizzy (of all people) and has a son, and now Johnny Cage and Sonya have a daughter? What's next, a BloodStorm sequel with the secret lovechild of Tempest and Razor?

Because that would be GREAT.

Well, I'm holding out for the daughter of Al and Erel from Evil Zone. You just know she's going to be one of those zany moe characters who becomes insanely aggressive when angered.

I love bad fighting games.

Mortal Kombat is so shit compared to Battle Monsters

OK, Cena, I'll have to split this into multiple posts. I will deal with your claims one at a time. The section I will deal with first is this:

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"The Cages are the first family of awesome"
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This statement is highly problematic for the following reasons: The Cages are not the oldest family in the Mortal Kombat series, in fact, they are only recently-landed upstarts, a nouveau famille that has only appeared in one game out of the twenty created so far. The Cages are hardly even a family, either, as Johnny and Sonya were already divorced by the start of their first game together, and Johnny, Sonya, and Cassie now spend all their time decapitating each other. Talk about dysfunctional! And even if they were a "real" family, instead of a loose collection of career-minded sociopaths, there's A LOT of competition for the title of First Family. Just in MKX alone, the series introduced no fewer than FOUR new families! Even the best of families would face some tough kompetition in the MOrtal Kombat world.

So at this point you may be asking, EH, if the Cages are NOT the First Family of Awesome in Mortal Kombat, then who IS? Well, I'm glad you asked, but that's a tough question, and there is no easy answer. Let's look at some of the more prominent families below.

Mortal Kombat's oldest family, the one that appeared first in the original game and has had the longest pedigree throughout the series' lifespan, is Scorpion's family - the Hasashi's. His wife and child were already dead by the start of the first game, but their murder provided the first truly compelling story in the Mortal Kombat universe, as well as being the basis for the legendary rivalry between MK's two most iconic gladiators: the fire ninja Scorpion, and the ice ninja Sub-Zero. If we consider ALL members of the Shirai Ryu to be part of Scorpion's "family" (it is unclear whether the original Shirai Ryu was blood-related, adoptive, or composed of multiple lineages of ninja), then Scorpion's family grows even more important, as then it would include both Takeda and, by extension, Kenshi. (more on them in a few minutes)

Next there's the Sub-Zero family. This one is arguably even more important than the Hasashi's, as instead of just one playable character, there are two (three if you include all iterations) - Bi-Han, Bi-Han "Noob", and Kuai Liang (Sub-Zero from MK2 onwards). Frost, as a sort of adoptive daughter to Kuai Liang, might also be included here! Now besides being responsible for one-half of the aforementioned Scorpion-SubZero rivalry, the actions of the Sub-Zero family have been central to almost every major core game plotline in the series; most prominently, Bi-Han's theft of the Amulet of Shinnok, which as we all know, set into motion the events of MK4 onwards, and had a profound effect not only on the course of three original tournaments, but on the entire secret war between the Elder Gods. As with Scorpion's family, we could even extend the Sub-Zero family to encapsulate his entire ninja clan. With *the Lin Kuei* considered as a single family unit, things start to get absurd; at this point, you have not only Bi-Han, Noob, Sub-Zero, and Frost, but also Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke, Sareena, Shujinko (briefly), and literally dozens of others. With the Lin Kuei kicking everyone's ass in the MKX Online Faction Wars (seriously, they've got twice as many points as the second place faction, they're totally OP and need to be nerfed), I think a pretty solid case could be made for them being the First Family of Mortal Kombat.

Then there are the Kungs. The Kung family is the oldest and most illustrious family of martial artists in Earthrealm history; its members include The Great Kung Lao (alluded to in the first game, the first mortal to ever defeat Goro), Kung Lao the Younger (second most powerful hero of the White Lotus monks), Kung Jin, and even a little guy named LIU KANG. You know, the official Champion of the first two tournaments, as well as the "winner" of the third? While perhaps not as beloved by casual fans as the Hasashi/Shirai Ryu or the Subbie/Lin Kuei, the Kung family is without a doubt the most canonically successful family in the Mortal Kombat universe. They are the "heroes" of the franchise, MK's Bruce-Lee-inspired "Gracie family" who saved Earth on many occasions. You might think the Cages are more awesome than the Kungs, but there is no way they are more important.

MK has a number of smaller families, too, each one capable of holding their own against the Cages. Reptile, for example, was part of the last remaining brood of Zaterrans. He and Khameleon (possibly also Chameleon, although his status was never officially konfirmed via in-game canon) are a small but plucky part of the MK world, and are socially quite progressive, being the resident poster-children for endangered species and the ecological conservation movement.

Kenshi's family, alluded to but never seen in previous games, is now quite active in Mortal Kombat X. With Kenshi's son, Takeda, being trained as the next generation of Shirai Ryu by his adoptive god-father, the legendary Scorpion himself, the Takahashi's are certainly building a name for themselves in the world of MartialArts-Entertainment.

The Briggs, Jax and Jacqui, play straight-men to the Cage's dysfunctional juggalo circus, but they are nonetheless quite interesting in their own rights! Jacqui is pretty hardcore Army, which is, of course, AWESOME, and she wears ACU pants with her alt costume, which is, of course, also AWESOME. True, Cassie is Army too, following in her mother's bootsteps, but Cassie takes after her dad. She's a jokester and a fuckup. Jacqui takes after Jax; they're both business, both tough and no bullshit.

Even Kano's got a family now, too! While his son has yet to d�but in-game, he appears briefly in Kano's MKX ending.

And then there's the House of Argus. The House of Argus, like the Kungs and the Sub-Zeros, played a very important role in Mortal Kombat's central plot. I don't think anyone would go so far as to say that the House of Argus is the FIRST Family of Mortal Kombat, since so much of their story proved to be unpopular with the fan kommunity, and they didn't really start to factor in to things until right at the very end of the Original Timeline (a dark time for the fandom in which interest in the Mortal Kombat franchise hit an all-time low). But Argus, Delia, Taven, Daegon, and even Rain (although Rain was a bastard and estranged from his half-brothers) were still a Family, and they brought about Armageddon, the End of the World. That's nothing to scoff at.

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So all of these families are interesting. All of them bring something to the table. But is it enough? Do any of these families truly deserve the title of First Family of Awesome? Well, I've been saving the best for last:

The House of Edenia; and by extension, The House of Outworld. I mean, just look at how many kharacters are in this family! With the original House of Edenia, you had King Jerrod, Queen Sindel, and Princess Kitana. After Outworld's triumph and saho Khan's forceable rape/abduction/brainwashing, you had Shao Khan, Sindel, Kitana, and Mileena. Shao Khan was, of course, the head villain of Mortal Kombat; only Shinnok, Dark God of the Netherrealm, could ever match the wickedness and ambition of Shao Khan, yet not even that blackhearted Netherrealm spider could hope to match the power of the mighty Khan. Sindel is MK's reigning Royal Rumble champion, having killed pretty much everyone back in Mortal Kombat 9 in a single (obviously worked) free-for-all squash match. Mileena, one-time Empress of Outworld, was romantically linked to Baraka, chief of the Tarkatan Hordes, and franken-daughter to everyone's favorite bad-guy, Shang Tsung, further expanding the family line in not one but two directions. Kitana, the rightful ruler of Edenia and later the supreme commander of all resistance against Shao Khan and the forces of evil, was romantically linked to Liu Kang, whom as we've discussed, is World Champion of the Mortal Kombat Tournament. KILLtana is also, hoofs down, the best/ coolest/ most Rainbow Dashiest fighter to appear in any Mortal Kombat game - I am a bit biased here, being a series-long Kitana-main, but it's true. Oh yes, it's true.

So, taken altogether, the unified House of Outworld looks like this: Shao Khan, Sindel, King Jerrod, Princess Kitana, Lui Kang, Mileena, Baraka, and of course, their household retainers: Jade, Rain, Tanya, Reptile, Kotal, Kintaro, Motaro, fucking Shang Tsung, and fucking GORO.



There's no contest. NO. CONTEST. AT ALL. Don't get me wrong, I love the Cages; Sonya and JC are both in my series-wide Top Fives and Cassie is Number One on my list of rookie carders/ new talent. I'd love to see her get a title shot. But the Royal Family, they're like the McMahons and the Harts all wrapped into one.

Or, crushed into one. By a pair of blood-hungry Shokans.

Very well then. I had no idea the MK Universe was so detailed. Take whatever you think the best family in MK is and that's the Apples.

Huh? The House of Outworld is an ancient aristocratic family that for the past 10,000 years has been locked in an ever-shifting civil war between evil and good factions within the family itself. It's ruled by a brutal tyrant and is responsible for laying waste to all corners of the multiverse.

How is that like the Apples...?!?

The Apples are an ancient family that is locked in an evershifting war against caterpillars, vampire bats, the weather, and the Equestria Royal Family to produce the greatest apples in all of Equestria.

Damn, sorry, I know I told you I'd respond to the rest later, but I got caught up in that discussion with Bort about why Batman is better dark and how Superman is a fascist.

Just real quick, I've spent a lot of time thinking about various ways to combine ponies and Mortal Kombat. As before, it's a complicated issue, but skipping ahead to the end, the Apples would be the Briggs. AJ actually has a lot of features that woukd "fit" with various kharacters in the Mortal Kombat universe (not surprising, since she's a very physical pony), but I think Jax has the right combination of toughness, dedication, and being underutilized/boring, to be AJ's spiritual Kombikin.

Again, without showing my work here (because time), the other ponies would be as follows:

My own "ideal" Pony Kombat lineup (that is, strictly head-canon, for personal consumption manely) would be: Rainbow Dash -- Kitana, Fluttershy -- Sonya Blade, Pinkie Pie -- Mileena, AJ -- Tanya, Rarity -- Jade, Twilight Sparkle -- Sindel, AB -- Kira, SwB -- Sareena, Scootaloo -- Frost (note: this list has not been updated since the release of MKX) However, I think the "best fit" Pony Kombat lineup (as of MKX) would be: Rainbow Dash -- Cassie Cage, Fluttershy -- Jade, Pinkie Pie -- Mileena, AJ -- Jax, Rarity -- Kitana, Twilight Sparkle -- Raiden, AB -- Jacqui, and after that I don't know, I'm still trying to work it out.

Of course, the DeviantArt community is full of pony-MK krossovers, and has been for some time. There are plenty of fans working tirelessly on Ponies kosplaying as Kombatants, Ponified Kombatants, and Humanized Ponies kosplaying as Kombatants (there aren't really any works of the Kombatants kosplaying as Ponies type, sadly). It's a contentious issue, and there is no obvious, single correct answer.

Johnny Cage is
NINJA MIME

I'm glad they brought back references to NINJA MIME. There's also a special NINJA MIME costume that you can unlock in the game.

I'm really excited to play MKX because it brings back the fun of even the shitty ones. MK9 was cool because for once it was anatomically correct: turns out when you explode someone, they don't have 10 times more bones than the human body! Who knew!? But in a way it got more serious. It's kind of like how I enjoyed Soldier of Fortune so much because you could spend a minute or so fucking with a terrorist, blowing off a leg, then an arm, etc. vs. Doom where you were just making guys explode. But overall, Doom was the better game.

In other words, this looks fun like the later Final Destination movies, vs. the early ones. I wonder if they have some of the same FX guys?