I’m not even big into MK but I’m annoyed that they turned a sympathetic, caring mother into a gold digging thot.

So they turned a character who was a literal subversion of the phrase "Don't judge a book by it's cover", a caring mother and wife, benevolent ruler, and loyal ally to the forces of light into a gold-digging woman who killed her husband because Shao Khan offered more to her. Thanks, I hate it.

12:44 Fans: "SINDEL IS LITERALLY CRYING TEARS OF HAPPINESS FOR BEING WITH HER DAUGHTER." Writers: "Nah that's just the rain".

They literally could have said ''she is brainwashed for so long time, she cant even remember her original persona, thus she makes up stories about her killing jared just to appease her evil side''. Just this line in the game could have fixed her entire lore

Sindel: *has one of the best redemption arcs in the series* NRS: “it’s retcon time”

To all the people that say “Her personality matches her look.” *”Appearances can be deceiving.”*

What I hate most is when people say this is fine just because she looked evil before, just because someone looks like a villain, doesn’t mean that character is

People really to stop giving these half baked arguments defending the Sindel change. "Her old story was generic and boring" And now she's a generic evil dominatrix that killed her husband for power throwing herself at Shao Kahn like a high school Stacy for a Chad. Yeah nothing generic about that.

As Sub-Zero once said: “Such wasted potential.”

"This is the real lore." Seconds later "This is a brand new interpretation of her personality."

Without John Tobais, the lore of MK has slowly crumbled into shit.

Liu Kang is about the only character that finally got the respect he deserved, as MK's true champion/hero.

Honestly, they switched Tanya and Sindel’s personalities. Originally, Tanya was the evil one while Sindel was the sympathetic one. Now, if you take Tanya’s MKX ending into consideration, Tanya is the one who cares for Edenia while Sindel is the one who does not.

NW: We made Sindel evil because we needed a female villain. Tanya: Am I a joke to you?

How dare they ruin a good character's backstory.

It's official. Sindels personality and story retcon is now cemented and she is completely ruined. Thanks Aftermath DLC.....

her retcon was just a way to satisfy the writers kinks.

Damn. Even in the god awful MK Annihilation movie, they kept Sindel's character true to the core? LOL

“Her personality matches her look.” Action Shounen anime characters: "Are we a joke to you?!"

Pity theres no mirror match between the original and whatever timeline this current Sindel is from. Honestly a bit bothered they didn't even do that. Deception Sindel: You handed Edenia to Shao Khan!? MK 11 Sindel: Jerrod was weak. Deception Sindel: Onaga is dead and you're next. MK 11 Sindel: You're a pathetic reflection of true power. Deception Sindel: You're a pathetic excuse for a mother. MK 11 Sindel: I will have your tongue for that!

Mileena’s dead, sindel is ruined and the storyline ended with the entire universe basically being deleted and then restarting all over again WHAT ELSE COULD GO WRONG?

I just don't understand how Ed Boon can just stand by and let NRS ruin soo many characters he helped create. Seriously what's his role over at NRS? Cause it's pretty obvious it's not lore master.

Honestly, I'd have been okay with her heel turn IF she'd turned on Shao Kahn after they killed Kronika; you could have a great scene of her talking about the pain and suffering she's endured watching her realm being consumed by Outworld, the genocide of her people, the misery of her life as Shao Kahn's unwilling bride, the torment of her fate following her suicide and resurrection by Quan Chi, all as she whips the flesh from his bones with her hair. Then she turns round and faces Shang Tsung, and that's how you decide the fates of the realms: Sindel vs. Shang Tsung, the Edenian Queen vs. the Outworld Sorcerer, both previously servile to Shao Kahn against their wills, now both free of his bondage, fighting for the fates of countless billions of souls. After the fight, desperate to atone for the actions she had to take in order to keep Shao Kahn convinced she was on his side, Sindel kneels to Liu Kang as he steps through the portal, his faith in her being truly good being rewarded despite the risks Fujin had earlier worried about, and he sculpts a prosperous Edenia for her to rule over with grace and benevolence in the New Era in gratitude. But nah, she's just evil, innit? Fucking hate NRS sometimes.

Not gonna lie, kinda wish MK ended with Armageddon...

Midway Games: Sindel is a benevolent ruler who loved her husband. Netherrealm Studios: Lies, Midway! You are a slave, and Kronika is your master!

That moment when you miss Midway making MK games

I admit I didn't know much about Sindel when I played Mortal Kombat 11...but I did play MK9, and I remembered MK9. So even me, someone who got into this franchise via the NRS games, was still confused by this Sindel twist. Before the twist that she was evil all along, I had just assumed Shang Tsung brought back the mind-controlled version of her or put her under mind control of his own...but the twist came and I was very confused. Mainly from one BIG question. "If Sindel was always evil here...then why did Quan-Chi need to mind control her into being evil in MK9?" Not following plot points from the original timeline is one thing...but how sad is it that NRS apparently couldn't even remember THEIR OWN plot points?

Midway Sindel: Kills herself because she can't bear the thought of being with Shao Kahn, revived as a brainwashed witch for a single game, gets brought to her senses, rules Edenia as a benevolent queen alongside her beloved daughter, steps back into battle when said daughter gets brainwashed herself in order to bring her back and then fights at the side of good alongside her in the battle of Armageddon. NRS Sindel: Kills her husband (or was D'Vorah the one that killed him?) so she could be with Shao Kahn because he has a bigger dick and a love for konquest, gets killed by Quan Chi (or was it D'Vorah the one that killed her?) while putting a spell to ward Earthrealm from Shao Kahn... for... some... reason, then gets revived and ambiguously brainwashed by Quan Chi, kills most of the Earthrealm heroes along with her daughter (or was it D'Vorah the one that killed them?), becomes a revenant serving Quan Chi (so... nothing really changed there), spends the next game as a revenant, then gets brought back and reveals herself to be an evil gold digging thot who never loved her daughter anyway and ends up ganked by Shang Tsung alongside Shao Kahn (or was D'Vorah the one that killed them?). And then they wonder why are the fans upset. Hey, Ed, would you by chance be upset if it was revealed that Scorpion was a child molester all along? No? Why? He looks pretty evil with the skull motif and all, there's gotta be something vile about him.

Ed Boon tries so hard to destroy everything John Tobias created. This whole retcon situation is a disaster.

I miss John Tobias. I wished he never left. He was the mold to hold the stories together.

Devs: There's a disconnection between the character's looks and lore, so we will make her an actual villain. So...you would make Batman a villain? There are even stories of heroes that try to defy society's appearance bias and prove they're good guys. Also, if they wanted to destroy this disconnection, why not change her outfit to be more royal or friendly?

"I had the power to control the very fabric of time at my hands. There was no limit to what I could do. I could being back Jerrod, freeing him from eternal hell as a part of that red-clad monster. I could bring back Edenia, saving both my daughter and myself. I just didn't know where to start. I started off small, with the revival of Jerrod and granting myself the gift of being able to raise my daughter to maturity. Then, I rebuilt Edenia, freeing it from Shao Kahn's grasp. And then... I killed Shao Kahn. Left him for the scraps, and offering refuge to the Outworlders. Now, I finally live in peace. I govern Edenia once more, free of Shao Kahn's iron-fisted rule. I look after my sweet, little princess like the mother I could never be. It is my time to be the best queen that I can." Ya see, Netherrealm? THAT'S how you write Sindel! I even threw in a little Ermac reference for all the fans of him! When will you learn?!

Look how they massacred my queen.

Midway made a tangled mess in the span of 8 games. After becoming Netherealm Studios, they decided the best plan was to untangle the mess. In the span of 3 games, they tangled it even more than before. How do you pull that off?

NRS: I'm going to change sindel. Fans: For the better, right? NRS: Fans: *For the better, right?*

"She looks evil so she must he evil." Such a awful argument.

REAL Sindel: was mind-controlled to fight against her people to help Shao Kahn rule over all of the realms. Retconned Sindel: well...Shao Kahn’s strong...so I’ll betray my people to be the queen of a strong ruler. NRS calls this ‘progressive’ Edit: I would’ve accepted this if she was only playing Shao Kahn to save Edenia, or if she sacrificed he husband and her freedom to be Shao Kahn’s queen because it was the only way to keep Edenia/her family safe. Wow...I just retconned Sindels’ story better than the shitty writers at NRS.

Y'know, something's always bothered me about the Revenant characters in MK11. Why are Revenant characters (and by association, Evil Raiden) given their Revenant forms as their default look when *none* of their dialogue was designed for Revenants at all? Kotal will still speak romantically with Revenant Jade, Liu Kang and Kitana will still speak romantically if one of them is a Revenant, Revenant Kabal still associates with the Black Dragon, Evil Raiden will ask Cassie *forgiveness* for Sonya's fate when he was literally stone-faced about it in Story Mode. Why is the portrayal of these characters so conflicted and contradictory??? Allow me to frame how ridiculous this can get: the moment I pick up the game, I go into a Tower with Kitana in her default Revenant skin and get into a fight against Noob Saibot. Noob then tells Revenant Kitana that Revenant Kitana is looking for her. Revenant Kitana responds by telling Noob that she has no more use for her Revenant. Noob retorts that Revenant Kitana wants Revenant Kitana’s soul. Imagine if I WASN'T already aware of these characters and their 20+ year history, and how stupid this interaction must be. I don't see how this managed to slip by the designers when MKX had separate dialogues for Revenant characteers, and IJ2 even had separate dialogues for Premium Skin characters like Power Girl or Reverse Flash.

"You can't tell NetherRealm what to do with _their_ characters." That's like defending a restaurant that intentionally puts poison in their food from the government by saying *_"yOu cAn't tElL ThEm wHaT To pUt iN ThEiR FoOd."_*

I think out of all the characters NRS has fucked up the most, Sindel's has made me the most angry :/ The idea that her "personality didn't fit her look" is so generally insulting to a large group of people in real life that are depicted as being mean or evil in various media for virtually no other reason than wearing black/dark colours. That combined with literally everything you said in this video. It's just ridiculous. Also the plug at the end for SC's Hilde though! Love her and the Soul series! Underrated fighting game series in my opinion! (sad that SCV almost killed it)

From QWEEN to HOE.

I was literally one of those new people who had no understanding of the old games’ story but watching your videos has really opened my eyes to the quite frankly awesome story of the old games and the awful story of the new ones.

So being changed from a caring mother and abuse victim that fought their way back from death and slavery to save the world and her daughter, into a gold digging murder-thot that propositions every man she meets is somehow considered _good writing_ by these hacks? Who did these people learn to write from? A 10 year old with ADHD? If it was an actual class, they need to demand their money back because it obviously wasn't worth the money they spent.

Kitana is my favorite Mortal Kombat character, and to already see her go from Combo Queen to complete garbage. That was really off-putting, despite how much I loved her new design and overall personality, I stuck around, even though my other main, Kabal, had a weird continuity error in his storyline. And then Sindel came around! Oh awesome! Kitana's mother and my best friend's favorite! Her backstory is completely retconned. I never played MK prior to MK 2011, but even I knew this retcon was complete bullshit. I bought her as DLC, and then I realized... I shouldn't be paying for this. I shouldn't have to pay full price for a game upon release only for me to purchase extra content for the game to feel complete... And that's when I realized I was overall disappointed with MK11. The cast has no reason to be as small as it is. And there was no reason to pretend a lot of iconic characters like Mileena, Smoke, Ermac, and Reptile don't exist. It's complete bullshit. It's the same shit from MKX. Jade, Sindel, Smoke and Kabal were just randomly gone when they had no reason to be. It's honestly the same bullshit Soul Cal V pulled where they said that Astaroth killed the entire cast out of nowhere. I absolutely loathe that game. If I can't play Seong Mina, you can bet I'll be pissed. And then SC6 came out... But for some reason, I didn't find myself continuing the game... And I think it was the same reasons I mentioned above. Most of the cast was gone and I think I knew deep down this game felt empty. And that's why I stopped playing that game too. Fighting games have become complete blatant cash grabs and it upsets me. We shouldn't have to pay for games to feel complete. It's completely unfair. Overwatch releases characters every few months and nobody has to pay a single cent. Anyway, great video. I completely agree with everything you've said. I hope NRS will finally get their crap together and fix-No, completely OVERHAUL this disappointment.

They messed up lots of characters like Kabal turning him into a mindless greedy criminal henchman/bad ex cop

It’s officially over Snake, she’s gone...

So if Sindel was murdered, then who placed the spell on Earthrealm to save it from Shao Kahn? Quan Chi? Why would he do that? Is she was always evil, I don’t see why she wouldn’t help Shao Kahn conquer the other worlds. If the ward was a lie, then how does that even work? Shao Kahn just went along with the lie of the spell preventing him from conquering earthrealm?

I've never been much of a fan of Sindel's design/gameplay but still liked her story and sympathized with her, but as someone that writes a lot of stories for comics, I think it's absolutely asinine what they did to Sindel. This is an old saying but: DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN, she was well good enough as she was before, we don't need an evil mamacita bearing her name and likeness

"There was always a disconnect between how she looked .... and acted and gameplay". They don't get it. They can't be that dumb. WHY NOT JUST MAKE A NEW CHARACTER?! Create a kingdom. Make a golddigging queen who kills her husband and have Khan take her as his new/second wife and push Sindel to the side but still keep her brainwashed. There, you have the evil power couple you wanted, keep Sindels character, and further establish Khan's obsessive greed. Then you could also do a evil step mother bit or explore the duality between Sindel who sacrificed everything and the new character who threw it all away (giving Sindel a ideological enemy)

I’m so shocked, dude. Not only they ruined and changed her backstory. Not only they turned her to a forgettable cliche villain. Not only they turned her to a darn gold digger. But, they ruined and massacred her character. I’m not impressed. 😡

NeitherRealm Game of Thronesed her Character. They "Kinda Forgot" how character development works

Yeah, I really miss the characterisation from the original timeline and particularly around Deception. I really miss the freed and honourable Ermac, the benevolent Sindel and the more than just a a far left propaganda token black man Jax, just to name a few

This is what happens when bad writers don't understand deep and complex characters, and decide to do no fact checking before writing for one anyway.

That's not Sindel, that's a Fanfiction writers idea of Sindel in a story........one that doesn't realize how characters work

Sindel: "You betrayed Mileena, D'vorah." D'vorah: "Why care for that disgusting clone?" Sindel: "She was as much my daughter as Kitana." See, like...I do enjoy the idea of Sindel taking pity on Mileena and seeing her as her daughter in spite of her hatred of Shao Kahn, but this Sindel is openly shown to not care at ALL for Kitana, so like...DOES she see Mileena as her daughter? Does she care about her at all? It's either contradictory to all her other characterization or completely unimportant to bring up since it'd mean she didn't actually care for her. Tearing down a beloved character's previous portrayals for a simple, boring portrayal completely contradictory to her previous lore and then claiming it was the truth all along is monstrously disrespectful, but not even being able to keep consistency in that boring portrayal in the very same game it debuts in is just sad.

Having Queen Sindel's evil actions not be a product of mind control is probably the worst decision they've ever made. It disregards the entire character of a self-righteous queen just trying to do what's right for her daughter and people. Not a uncaring queen who submits marriage to the man who INVADED her homeworld of Edenia and killed her freaking husband. and yes, I still refuse to take the retcon as canon of her killing Jarrod for Shao Kahn. 😑 Who seriously looked at this and thought this was Sindel #NotMySindel

Ok 4thSnake, when are we getting our “MK11 ruined Sindel” t-shirt?

I've noticed a theme with the new characters and writing of the classic characters. Almost none of the characters are compelling. Take a look at Kollector for example. Who is he? What does he do? Why is he here? Is he important to the story? He's just a multilimbed thing that collects gold and has a weird accent. How compelling eh? Literally could've replaced him with reptile. As for a classic character, take Shao Kahn. He was a patient, intelligent and powerful ruler of Outworld that was almost always on top of things. Now he's just some incompetent big brute who bursts into a tantrum every 5 minutes. See what I mean??

I Think We Can Agree That MK11 Ruined A Lot Of Characters

4:09 That's the same excuse the crazier Harry Potter fanboys and fangirls use to justify Rowling's stupid retcons. They go "It's her story. She can do what she wants" even though good writers put things in their series that make sense to the story, characters and world. Bad writers retcon in things and people that were never mentioned, referenced or hinted at and claim they were there all along so obsessed fans thinking "It's so and so's story" is an excuse for bad writing are idiots.

sindel did not deserve this. she is a benevolent queen and loving mother and this is what i will tell people when they ask me who sindel is. and also for a character who has gone through abuse both mental and probably physical....she would be extremely relatable just like harley quinn before they made her annoying as fuck...

“It’s the real lore. It’s pretty big for Sindel.” Sure it is. Not the interesting story and arcs she had in the older games. Fuck that. “Bad old lady” is the best we got

MK11 sindel is just Cersei Lannister with a dom kink.

oh, you're gonna be mad as hell at Aftermath....

"this is the real lore" i was watching that kombatkast,and i turned off right there do not tell people who have followed these games form the arcade games that this is the "real lore" now

It didn’t quite occur to me u til you said it just now. It’s actually pretty disgusting to have a character who sacrificed herself to protect a realm from a megalomaniac, then turn them into a power couple. And for Stephanie or whoever the hell that is sitting there spouting that bullshit was just...beyond words.

Wtf was the point of mind controlling her to be evil if she WAS ALREADY EVIL

Okay, I totally thought I was crazy for thinking this. I kept saying “but... isn’t she not really evil?” It was killing me listening to her dialogue.

how many people have canonically killed jerrod lmao

What surprises me is the reasoning. There's a disconnect between her looks (i.e. gothic aesthetic) and personality as per Stephanie's lore minute? Implying looks = personality is a bad avenue for the retcon, it's also problematic that NRS thinks a victim cannot gain agency after a tragedy and decided to remove her plight from her story instead.

I don't understand how people say shit like "this gives her more agency as a character" turning her into a power hungry golddigger who kills her husband out of spite and only goes with Shao because he's a conquering dick is what makes her better?? Yeah okay lmao. Not only do I feel the newer games play a lot shittier than the 3d ones, the nrs stories completely betray their characters too. I think the only characters that were really handled okay in the new timeline was just the special forces, Liu Kang (when he's not being an irrelevant fucking revenant), and Raiden (who they severely wasted as dark Raiden yet again)

I sympathize with you! As a Star Wars fan, I understand the frustration of seeing new writers come in and fuck shit up just because they can!

It truly doesn't seem fair to the people that have been here this long

What about Kabal? they ruin him as well, now he 's just a bunch of "speed jokes" instead of what he used to be

I personally liked how they did older Johnny I liked how he just grew up from being just the comic relief

Just wait till you see her in the Aftermath story

And I thought Wonder Woman was the most poorly handled and characterized immortal, yet beautiful badass warrior monarch in a Netherrealm game...

In other news: Dumbledore is gay.

Who’s here after she is good again in MK1?

I didn't expect that bump for Hilde in SC VI at the end, but it (did) put a smile on my face because Hilde is my favorite Soul Calibur female of all time. ❤️ Also yes, NRS ruined Sindel. Her Deception ending happens to be my favorite one in the game and that image of her tearfully hugging Kitana is very iconic/nostalgic to me. That image from Deception of her knighting Shujinko is very iconic/nostalgic to me also.

You even got kids out here saying Sindel was always evil ugh 😩

You know the writing is terrible when Sindel claims to love Mileena more than Kitana but in her arcade ending there’s no Mileena cameo. Why wouldn’t Sindel bring her more favored daughter back? They can’t even be consistent.

Maybe during the next game they will be like "suprise, that was Quan Chi possessing Sindel to fool everyone"

They ruined her they should of brought her back as the loving and caring mother too Kitana

People say that we overreact over fictitious characters, that it is wasted passion, but I find there is nothing wrong with believing in something that you care about, and Sindel is no exception. As a major pillar of the forces of light corrupted and claimed by tragedy, sindel was a victim that everyone who believed and adored her character wanted to save. Now that she is this....doppelganger, this warped and distorted Jezebel that is completely unrecognizable to me, I cannot abide what NRS have done. They have betrayed those whose trust matters most, and they have condemned her to a fate worse than any punishment real or fantastical. She was important to us, she was real to us.

At this point, I don't want those two touching any more female MK characters. I can already imagine they'd just make Sareena into a crazy evil goth chick and miss the point of her concept.

6 months later, netherealm doesn't give a f* about our concerns.. Anyone who has watched the Aftermath knows what I am talking about 😒

They took a character who's big thing was not judging a book by its cover and then remade her character based entirely on her appearance. How do you mess up that badly?

My coworker and I was talking about this at work... he goes "so they just turned her into an MK Cersi Lanister!?" Me:.... Basically

I'm still confused as to why they made kitana look Asian when neither of her parents are Asian.

5:15 I entirely agree. Seeing her overcome her trauma and become a family with Kitana again would have been super character development.

For fucks sake! I just finished playing MK 11 Aftermath, and I had hope they would get Sindel right this time, BU THEY DID IT AGAIN! She pretended to care for Kitana when she was resurrected by Fujin and Shang Tsung, said that Shao Khan killed her and Quan-Chi bewitched her. But then she straight up tells us that she was NEVER bewitched. Fucking Netherrealm Studios ruining Sindel again. @The4thSnake rant about this shit again please!

Neatherrealm loves screwing over classic characters.

TFW SFV is more respectful and accurate to it's long standing characters

Clearly, Netherrealm are intent on making their characters less interesting than their original counterparts.

Sindel was one of my favorite characters and they completely botched her. I was angry at what they did with her in MK11. What they did with her death in 9, I could get behind. If anything it made me think a bit more of her like she doesn't want another realm to go through with what she went with. I can respect that. But to retcon it as "quan chi killed her because shao khan reasons" is just infuriating and disappointing. X didn't do much aside from having her as a glorified cameo and nerfed her and the revenants because "this character needs to kick ass/has plot armor." it's embarrassing seeing them fight. Netherrealm why

It's also kinda funny how they could have done her WELL and made it feminist by having her be an advisor to her daughter Kitana as the latter rules Outworld. Kind of like how in Game of Thrones Tywin was shaping up to be that for Tommen, or how Yoda was to Luke in Star Wars EPV. Good Sindel could have helped Kitana be a great queen, but they had to botch that for "agency" and making her a villain again. What a joke.

Vergil: Having you back like this... has no meaning

WB: How do we make fans happier? NRS: no

NRS: “we’re becoming progressive” Also NRS: employs prejudice with Sindel, judging her by her looks, becoming regressive.