Let's just say every single match ever outside of story mode was against Shang Tsung

Characters: let’s do some sparring Characters again: *VIOLENTLY KILLS OTHER CHARACTER*

"This is not a Mortal Kombat channel. Fellow weebs, this is the last video about MK, I promise" -A.B.I., 2 days ago

Bring back friendships. Ed Boon during the build for MKX said that family fatalities would have cool special interactions but that didnt materialize

I know MKvsDC is trash, but frankly, I think it has the solution to this problem: Have Fatalities be the result of a spontaneous and overpowering burst of rage, like some kind of spirit or deity or force or whatever is temporarily taking control and forcing the character to perform the Fatality. That was, you can keep the relationships all the same, but still allow the various deadly endings to matches by basically having it be out of the characters' hands. You wouldn't even have to do much extra; just include a brief animation if the character expressing the sudden rage and add a basic fiery glow effect to their eyes.

Best part is when Johnny will post a reply on the picture of his daughter holding up his lifeless body. Truly consistent story telling. Ps. As far as I'm concerned anything goes outside of story mode

*looking at the poster* This isn't a brutality THIS IS A FATALITY

The closest thing to remorseful killing in MKX gameplay: Johnny Cage: *does a Brutality on Sonya/Cassie* Also Johnny Cage: *sarcastically* "Oh no, I didn't. 😎"

Tf2 is best in that regard since everyone is caapable of working with each other but don't hesitate to kill each other, and it's all in character.

For Johnny Cage, we can say that it's all part of a movie!

4th Snake does some excellent analysis of story modes and "wasted potential". I don't think there's a person alive who knows more Mortal Kombat lore than he. Not even at NetherRealm themselves.

It always shocks me to remember that someone at Sugarpunch knows who I am. Interesting subject, as usual. You could have ended the video on Majikura getting mad about YET ANOTHER MK video and doing a quick fatality on you. It would make some kind of point, I think.

You get two characters who when they're introduced they all like " hey friend do you want to train? Yeah sure!" By the end of the match one if then rips fhe head off the other

In my head canon these kind of fights take place in a simulation. That’s why the characters are so chill about murder. This is backed up by the training stage being a big simulation room,and characters appearing in endings even if you brutally murdered them on the way to that ending. It’s basically the characters showing “this is what could happen to you in a real fight.” It helps that all of the characters this is an issue for hang more on the good side and are aligned with Earthrealm’s forces. Quran Chi killing Shinok or Tanya killing Mileena can’t really explained.

in previous Mortal Kombat games they had this thing called friendships where you wouldn't have to kill the opponent you could just humiliate them in some way it would be nice if they brought those back I guess.

Easy solution? Bring back Friendships for MK.

While I can see your point, I feel your argument is rendered moot simply because of the existence of the game's story mode, in which characters routinely fight each other as part of the narrative; however nobody dies because fatalities during the story are disabled, and the only time when they do die is when it is explicitly seen as to move the story along. Hell, in the beginning of Mortal Kombat 9's story, after Johnny Cage fights and beats Barraca(sic?), Shang Tsun commands Johnny twice to finish him off, and Johnny's like, "What? I'm not gonna kill him..." The only thing I can say here is you need to separate the "what-ifs" of Arcade Mode with what's canon in the series' Story Mode.

Yes. MK is supposed to be disturbing. Gameplay and story segregation is good in this case. There's a reason you can't do fatalities in Story mode, where the narrative matters most.

Oh hey! And now it turns out, putting these fatalities together is LITERALLY TRAUMATIZING THE DEV TEAM! How about that!

I’m well aware that it’s too late, but they’re adding friendships back.

Jojo taught me one important life lesson. Don't think about it

I don't think ABI's argument about the previous fight interactions holds up in light of the fact that not all, if any of them are canon. For example, in one of Takeda's interactions with Scorpion, Hanzo states that he's rejoined Quan Chi, yet this never happens in the actual storyline.

A.B.I.: "What began in MK9..." Mortal Kombat Deception Konquest mode: "Am I a joke to you?"

Nice Danganronpa music Monokuma for MK11 DLC

I see that as a MAJOR NITPICK, since normal battles in MK are non-cannon (,Even Ed Boon on his latest interview said that no playable MK11 character would survive a bullet through their head except for Raiden). The interactions before battle are just a cutsie thing to reference something that wouldn't fit to the story mode or SOMETIMES to hype you up before fighting. That's why there is no option to do a Fatality in story mode unless it's going to be cannon.

I don't think necessarly that you all wrong, at the same time you're not really forced to use fatalities they are optional, you can go and finish the match with simple knock out, it doesn't have to end in death, While it's completely understandable that having an option to kill fighter thats related to you does come off wierd it is afterall video game and like you stated *"Limiting character fatalities for specific opponents won't be good for the players"* Granted your suggestions might actually help like extra dialogues, but as always it's still great to see many content creators actually care about narrative or stories in fighting games and having thoughtful disscutions

I love story telling in fighting games, ever since I’ve played them. I wish they would be expanded on even more. I think soul calibur 6 is a step in the right direction

You don’t have to do the fatality though, it’s an option for rubbing it in their face that you won, it’s not technically “canon” just like certain dialog with certain characters isn’t always canon

I see what you mean, and I'm not saying I don't agree, but fatalities and the "Sadism" you mentionned are part of MK's identity, I don't see how you can fix that problem without, as you said, limiting the player's freedom, can you imagine playing online as a character, but because they're related to the character the other player chooses, you can't use fatalities? That'd kinda suck Anyway... Despite that, I'm 100% behind you, story and characters are the best part of fighting games

One way it could be solved would be to make non-lethal finishers for certain characters like Liu Kang whose code prohibits him from killing or non-lethal finishers for friends/family members on the good guys' side (or maybe even few on the bad guys' side). Like, let's say, have Johnny say before a fatal "Sorry babe" to Sonya and do the uppercut that makes her land on the table (or some other WWE crap) to absorb the impact. Or have Cassie's baton finisher be simply a hit that breaks her dad's jaw and end at that (he can write in comments he want a rematch or something). But one question remains - is NRS committed enough to make additional finishers? I think the ultra grotesque fatalities were a mistake. Even if they don't make you cringe, they end up redundant after first hit and take so goddamn long, it makes me say "YES, GET ON WITH IT!".

Let's just ignore how SvC Chaos and KoF XIII did the unique prefight over a decade and almost a decade respectively

they could change the fatality to a friendship when characters with a relationship fight

I definitely care about story in fighting games, hence why MK appeals so much to me. The world and mythos of MK is massive in comparison to other fighting games, could easily fill up several full-length RPGs. Fatalities and the gore of the franchise is just a gimmick though. Got absolutely nothing to do with the canon story, unless it's actually shown as part of the story, like with Sub-Zero killing Scorpion in MK Mythologies, and D'vorah killing off Baraka in MKX. There's nothing to fix.

My headcanon theory: Outside of canon deaths in story mode, none of the fatalities are "real". To simply a very complex concept, the fights in story mode are actual fights while the ones in PvP, online or local,are about as real as a movie set or like WWE, meaning all brutalities, fatalities, anything that kills the enemy after is just VFX to give the theorical audience some thrill. Its why brutalities and fatalities can make no sense (another example is Jax doing the big boot step kill, how tf does he do it? Of course its not logical but with this theory in mind it's actually kinda reasonable, because it would be fake) and it also explains why characters are so ok with doing brutal things to characters they would canonically care about (for example Johnny can just fucking MURDER Cassie but in canon he'd never do that, you know, because that's his kid and he loves and cares for her.) So the reason it happens sometimes in the PVP mode is because, for them, its not real murder, its VFX or something like that, and the excess violence is just for the audience. Again, a weird theory of mine but I felt like it fits to share.

I always separate fatalities from story i felt like that's what you're supposed to do. It's like MK is very aware that it's a video game and also that you can choose to do the fatality or not. I think we're just supposed to keep em separate from story context and i think that's okay

While I agree it absolutely breaks the character, when you see them mutilate and murder their loved ones, one thing you've got to remember is that Fatalities are optional. I think it tells more about a player who, without being forced, chooses to do a Fatality on his character's spouse/child/friend :D

I get how it could be off-putting and nonsensical to see characters perform fatalities on their loved ones. But ultimately it's a nonissue for me because I don't view finishers as canon, just as I don't view the moment to moment brutality during matches as canon. Otherwise, it would bother me that characters aren't limping when they get their leg broken or that the match doesn't abruptly end after a character's x-ray/fatal-blow. Mortal Kombat is all about over the top, gratuitous, cartoony violence. It's not meant to be taken too seriously but in jest. The only time a character's death affects me is when it happens during the story. But even then, there are a myriad of ways that characters can be resurrected so nothing's ever too final in the world of MK.

1:52 “All of it comes crumbling down once you hear those two words.”

Ehh, they're fine afterwards, sure Jax just turned his daughter into a gory ash tray for his cigar but it's all water under the bridge after that

MK in the past had the option of performing "Friendship" and "Babalities" (turn the opponent into a baby). I guess they won't be featured for this new one, though. They were alternatives for those who thought Fatalities were too much and other critics.

And that’s why they probably will get back the Friendships

I think your overanalyzing Mk, fighting games will always contradict their own narrative example Dan is one of the weakest fighter in Street Fighter lore yet outside of it he can take on Bison ,Akuma,Oni .Akuma is supposed to be the dark side hado evil incarnate and whose only desire is to fight powerful opponents yet hes taking selfies with Elena in her ending. In Tekken Devil Kazuya is supposed to be one of the most powerful beings in Tekken lore yet outside of it he can get beat by fucking Lucky Chloe .You have to separate lore from game.

I swear only 2 days ago you were saying you WERENT a Mortal Kombat channel.

You should talk about fatalities in Samurai Shoown series especially Samurai Shodown V

Fatalities are non canon. You dont perform fatalities during story (unless the two characters are enimes) Now you're just nitpicking.

There's a term referring how certain interactions in a media are completely uncanon and detached from the story/lore of the universe and that is extradiegetic and that's what Fatalities are, extradiegetic. You explained it yourself, the concept of Fatalities is to just outright satisfy sadistic envies in the game but acting as if every fight is canon in its little bubble is a bit preposterous. At the end of the day, a fighting game core appeal is its mechanics, characters and competetivity. SF2 was a massive hit not because of its amazing storyline but because of its gameplay. Yes, we're in 2019, fighting games shouldn't just be simply fighting and have interesting content such as a story and character interactions but that doesn't mean a random fight in VS Mode has to be perfectly linked to the story/lore of the game, be it self-contained or not. There's multiple characters in SF or Tekken that would outright kill an opponent and be in character but you don't see it happen because those fights aren't supposed to be canon. I don't see why we can't just remember that a game about glorifying violence is just a game about glorifying violence that also has a story mode if you're interested in the universe. Also, on the notes of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue finishers not being "outright murder", I don't think we've played the same games. There's plenty of exemples of IK or Astral Finishes where a character that is not morally evil or crazy outright kill someone that can be their friends. I can give a dozen exemples : Johnny turning you into a card and slicing in half and making their enemy disappear, Testament sacrificing the opponent on a bed to his Succubus, Bang skewering them with a giant nail, Valkenhein tears them into shreds, Justice blowing them up, Faust NUKING THEM. I know in both games, some of them looks like joke finishers rather than actual ultimate moves (Faust's again, Bridget's IK, Makoto punching you to the moon) but that doesn't change that a bunch of those characters that are supposedly good guys still can do it on them. For fuck's sake, Slayer punches you to the other side of the Universe, how is that not as sadistically overkill as any Fatalities ? If you don't want to separate gameplay features and story for the sake of justifying why a mechanic in a video game exists, that's fine by me but at least be fair with the comparaisons cause I can try as much to explain how Dizzy preventing Necro to nuke Ky or Johnny killing May with one of her Instant Kill is as jarring MK's fatalities on friends/families. And no, I won't take the "it's just anime characters taking an anime beating" as an argument when shit like Bridget's IK, A.B.A.'s IK, Tager's AF and Arakune's AF exist.

I always saw all matches as small "alternate universe" outcomes similar to the differebt endings depending on who wins the tournaments, so things like friends and family doing fatals to each other as just a thing that happen in that timeline. The official story mode is the canon.

Considering the fact that MKX brought back a ton of Kharacters back to life (Not only as revenants, but also as fully reformed humans) after their canon deaths in MK9, I guess... death is meaningless in MK. Also, there is now time travel involved, so now death is both meaningless and inconsequential, since Baraka can rip off Shao Khann's face and then hop back in time to be his faithfull servant again. Now that death is no longer has meaning nor consequences it's just a spectacle I guess. Those are my two cents tho, as someone who will must likely play a Johnny in MK11 and refuses to murder my wife and child.

I understand your point but... In the end Fatalities are MK's most important feature, limiting them in any way will be worse than preserving whatever lore they try to enstablish. Best you can do is pretend everything you see after the announcer says "FIGHT" didn't happen.

The actual narrative of the games include little to no actual fatalities because it would make the characters seem like absolute psychopaths. As far as regular 1v1 goes, does it really matter?

They don't let you perform fatalities in story mode so that kinda solves it

Wow dude, discovered your channel while getting hyped for MK11 and I love it! Really insightful stuff that I had never considered.

The way I see it, as soon as the announcer says FIGHT the match isn’t Character A vs Character B anymore. Its Player 1 vs Player 2. Fatalities exist as a means to rub your victory into your opponent’s face. The only “solution” I see is removing pre-fight dialogue but that would be lame. I put solution in quotation marks because solution would imply this is a actual problem and not just a weird video game thing.

i vaguely remember an easter egg on Samsho, i dont remember if it was V or IV, but i remember that if you do either Rimururu or Nakoruru's fatal blow to each other, you get a special interaction to show their grief and shock on how they could do such thing.

Thanks for leaving the audio on that ending clip intact. I needed Jarek screaming like an idiot in my life today.

Finally someone made a video about this! Fatalities never sat well with me outside of pure morbid curiosity but this aspect to them always made me so uncomfortable and I'm glad I'm not the only one

I actually thought about this subject with my friend. We always talk about why MK vs SF is never a thing, and one of the common subject I bring up is Fatalities. While the franchise(SF) has characters with motives to kill, a good majority aren't. A good number are even against the thought of it. So how do you go about this with someone with that characteristic? You have characters with relationships with others, how do you justify killing them in such a barbaric way? I'm sure the versus mode is considered non-canon in MK, but the cast still interacts with one another at personal levels. And that's kinda messed up when you think about it.

Technically the fatalities (and by extension brutalities) are something the player has to actively input, it's just as easy to punch your opponent in the face, knock them out & finish the match that way. Otherwise I always just go with the story & gameplay separation line of reasoning & call it a day otherwise I overthink what I just did which then leads to me having an existential crisis about my morality.

I love the fact that you thought about this. You took the thoughts I had about this and made the most comprehensive video essay. I'm glad I found this channel. Ironically, I found it when you were complaining about Mortal Kombat's animations.

Wow. I just subscribed based on just watching the last video 2 days ago and you have this posted now. Nice schedule/videos

They were never canon. You can’t take Fatalities as being canon.

Any match outside of story mode is disposable in MK's narrative, i don't think they care about what happens in those.

I love how you mentioned the intro dialogue scenes in MKX. I remember burning hours on KZfaq looking up unique interactions for recent Netherealm games because they provided great snippets of character and story. Adding an extra line of dialogue in interactions pretty much forces each one to be unique. Even in cases like Injustice 2 DLC characters, you can still get something interesting with reused dialogue (like having Scarecrow reveal Darkseid's deepest fear being the destruction of his empire). I always thought that for all of its blood and gore, death didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things in Mortal Kombat, much like DBZ. MK9 had a whole story reboot that brought everyone who died in Armageddon back to life, 10 had everyone who died in 9 become a Revenant and even that is being reversed with MK11 introducing timeline merges so that all people get to play pre Face-Heel turn Liu Kang. So my comedic proposal for the fix is to keep the Fatalities, but have the loved one revived immediately via magic. Maybe have a funny line with the revived *Johnny, after Cassie's selfie Fatality* "Man, my jaw-line's on point" Admittedly, this idea came to me after watching Yahtzee's review of MKX

I have an idea. In the options menu, you can choose to have fatalities but no pre-fight dialogue, or pre-fight dialogue and limited fatalities. Let me explain. If you choose the latter option and do a fight with Johnny Cage and Goro, one character can preform a fatality on the other, since those characters canonicly don't like each other. However, if Johnny Cage were to instead fight Sonya Blade while in this optional mode, neither character can perform a fatality, because their's no way these two will try to kill each other willingly.

While I can see the points being made by ABI, I have to respectfully disagree with this one. Granted, I am a pretty big Mortal Kombat fan, so take what I say with a grain of salt. In old fighting games, there usually wasn't a lot of story, if there was any at all. As characters began to develop more, most of the story we got was through character interactions before matches, which helped establish character relationships, as is explained in the video. However, with more recent fighting games, while there still are character interactions and relationships shown before matches, I think that outside of the established story mode, which most fighting games nowadays have, it's reasonable to assume fights are non-canon. Before, when character interactions was all there was, those moments had to be canon for the sake of establishing any at all, but now that we have established story modes that are separate from online and ranked modes, it's unreasonable to say every fight must be canonical. This is why in MK9 and MKX, you can't do any Fatalities or Brutalities in story mode. For example, think about when both players pick the same character in MKX. With two Kitanas, they can interact saying they're sisters that both are trying to sleep with Liu Kang. This is blatantly a joke, and definitely not something that was ever supposed to be canonical. In addition, when I play MK and get Fatalitied, I don't see it as one character killing another character, I see it as the other player killing me since he beat me fair and square. Fatalities are a reward that the winner receives in player matches, not a plot device for the story. Okay, rant over. Love your vids SugarPunch, just wanted to get my thoughts on the subject out 😋

.... for people who say "just don't use fatals", ... x-rays exist and have the same problems. Heck, brutal do as well. At least brutalities are short and punchy, so you don't have to wonder why it got lethal... and why characters didn't stop as soon as the other character is dead.

"What began in MK9 as a full blown story cinematic experience" Clarification: MK vs. DCU

Legitimately great video

Fatalities are important to the MK series, it'll become a basic button masher and loses its identity if they are gone.

Usually you CHOOSE to do the fatality to mock your opponent. In competitive games everything is about the experience, not the storytelling, it would be odd not to be able to do a fatality just because the characters are related. Just an opinion.

While I disagree with your point, I will say this: If you're interested in seeing a fighting game that integrates Fatalities into its narrative, then I strongly recommend checking out _The Last Blade 2,_ and playing through the Story Mode of one Hibiki Takane.

Hey, thanks for this video! I've been thinking about this for a while. I'd be VERY interested to hear your impressions of the animation in the upcoming MK11. The sequence of events for fatal blows and fatalities seems to make much more sense to me, but I'd really like your take on it. ❤ Edit: you already did! I just had notifications turned off I guess 😑

well thats a really cold take tbqh. I understand what you mean, but theres a reason for Gameplay and Story segregation. For me, I always assumed the fights were all what ifs or not even real to begin with. We have a VR level, what's to say this isn't all happening in some kind of VR simulations to see how each fighter would do against each other?

I don’t really get this. The fatalities have been in the game since the start. They aren’t going to just remove that for the sake of story. I know you don’t like MK to start (for fair reasons) but jesus this sounds nitpicky.

Okay, here's a 2-part idea that may or may not be feasible as a solution: 1. Give most, if not all, of the characters a "Humiliation" finisher, where they use their abilities to non-lethally finish off their opponent. 2. Add in a "lore friendly" toggle for players. If it's on, any Fatality that wouldn't make sense is replaced with a Humiliation from their PoV. The opponent will still see the Fatality if they didn't toggle it on.

The background music fills me with despair

Mortal Kombat 11 kinda found a solution to this actually. The characters come from different timelines where their alignments with each other might not be the same. They even bring this up in pre-battle discussions where they say stuff like "in my timeline you are a murdering revenant" It doesn't completely fix the problem, but I guess that's as much of a solution as you could get for such an issue. Although to be fair, I don't think this necessarily needs a solution, because in the end it's the player who decides to pull the trigger. Canon-wise the characters might just knock each other down when the "Finish him" comes up.

.... I would love, so much, to have, like, a roundtable fighting game story discussion with like, you, Matt and Max. This is a weird, beautiful time where fighting games have a story that is actually discernable.

Well in story mode you can't do a fatality. Exepct baraka tho. Well if you say to remove fatalities that's stupid cuz gore is the main thing about MK. Also interatcions are made so you can understand there story. How to fix it: don't do a fatality. Da-daaa

THIS! THANK YOU!

This entire video falls apart when you realize that fatalities are optional and in-game fights aren’t canon to the narrative.

With how MK11's story is about time travel, they could just explain every fatality as an alternative timeline, though intros still contradict the sadism. Inb4 NRS will take notes again and make characters say "sorry" after fatalities in MK12.

This is literally something that has kept me up at night.

this is my favorite mortal kombat channel

I think this is just a case where the narrative is separate from the gameplay. Just like in OW how Widow and Tracer will never work together, but the player has the right to throw on any character they choose. Jokes aside IMO fatalities come down to more of player v player than character v character. In story mode, you can't perform fatalities unless the game makes you in order to progress the story. So I don't think fatalities kill MK's narrative.

You are not the only ones. I like blazblue way to tell the story the most aside the classic arcade talks.

Ironically, the thing that put MK on the map (fatalities) is the thing that they do poorly more often than not, and they often don't stand the test of time. I get that there limited things to do so it becomes harder to come up with new and good ones. With xrays, brutalities, etc the fatals have also become almost a separate showcase for ridiculously over the top stuff. I get that.

I always thought it was messed up that family members would do fatalities on one another.

While I certainly understand your view about this, I personally don't mind fatalities because of one simple thing. Canonicity. While it's true that MK or any fighting game can acknowledge the story, character relationships, or developments within the lore, these occurrences do not truly matter in the long run because they do not occur in story mode. It's like saying Ryu getting a Perfect on Ken is totally what would happen in Story Mode or that the Predator would always rip an opponent's skull out after a battle, which is simply untrue given their characters and their abilities. Basically, way I see it, anything out of story mode may be neat little references or bits, but the only parts that matter happen in story mode. More than that, you don't have to end the match with a fatality each and every time a game is finished. After all, it's all up to the player to actually do it.

I understand where you're coming from, and I love me some good fighting game narrative, but fatalities are there specifically for players in versus mode. It's a way to style on your friends first and a story mechanic second.

Johnny Cage's fatality from MK11 seems to establish that the multiplayer matches are all just one big action movie or something

Honestly, I 100% agree with you. Every time I see a relationship fatality, it makes me wonder what goes through their head

How you disrespect something a game known for?

Wait I fixed it. The dialogue is the character, the gameplay is you. If you know that the characters love each other you can decide to not kill them. Also, 99% of people understand that it’s just a fighting game and that this non cannon fight means nothing. I mean sophitia kicking Cassandra into a pit of lava is pretty final.

MK11: Because alternate timelines exist now, and we’re gonna make friendships even more goofy as hell now than ever before by making them act like children. Boom, done. Narrative completely fixed. The4thSnake: *Oh for fu-*

can't wait for the video on M1K in like a month

I think that they had to add a story mode/pre-battle banter for the exact opposite reason you mentioned. The banter shows off aspects of a character but then the fatality goes to show that the fight wasn't canon to begin with. That way you get character development and brutal finishers, best of both worlds! 'Sides, this is Mortal Kombat, nobody stays dead for longer than two games. Still, excellent video!

I'm surprised that no one has brought up one reason what this video's idea is flawed: By this logic, Mortal Kombat's gameplay as a whole breaks the narrative. I feel people forget that with this being a fighting game, we have to remember that many things in the multiplayer don't actually happen in canon, but in Mortal Kombat especially, as this can affect even canon fights in story mode. Using MKX for example: Why would Sonya use grenades against Johnny, Cassie, or Cassie's team? They're human, and that would cause massive damage to them, if not kill them. Why would Johnny use his grab on Sonya or Cassie, or Jax use his Gotcha Grab on Jackie? Johnny'd be breaking their arms and legs, which would look bad on him and would most likely put them out of commision for some time, maybe even causing permanent damage, same for Jax, who's metal arms would likely inflict plenty of head trauma on the daughter that he apparently cares for so much. Why would Jackie use her gauntlets on her dad? He's not a revenant, and aside from his arms, he's a perfectly normal human, and those things can clearly do some crazy damage on things that AREN'T normal humans if her x-ray and fatality are anything to go off of. Why would Takeda use his whips on his teammates? Those things can go through limbs like butter, why even risk harming your friends like that? Why would Cassie pull a gun on just about anyone who's an ally to her? More of the cast than you think can be dealt with by a single, well placed bullet, and to that extent, why is Erron Black even a playable character? If he's as good with that gun as the gameplay makes him look, matches realistically shouldn't take as long as they do since a head shot would canonically put many of the characters down for good. People argue narrative, but then according to this video, Mortal Kombat's narrative is already broken from the basic gameplay. Removing Fatalities, Brutalities, or even X-Rays would do nothing since this would still be the game where Cassie can unload a handgun into her dad, Jax can beat his daughters brains in, and Johnny can break his families limbs. All of which is done through the basic moves in the game and is shown with little to no issue from the characters committing the deeds. The only way to "fix this problem" would be to change MK entirely, but then it wouldn't be MK, would it? As many have said, this is overthinking something that never needed to have this much thought.

Yeah. Fatalities just feel like an obligatory holdover from the older games. They honestly don't even need to be there anymore, but because it's Mortal Kombat, the expectation is there that they will be.

Hey, I'm one of those guys that cares about story ,character interactions and overall narrative in fighting games too!