Mortal Kombat/WMG

The Chaosrealm in MK 9 Online is an impostor realm.
The false Chaosrealm was created by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi to trap naive gamers much like they trapped Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat: Konquest.
 * This trap realm lures players in as evidenced by how often it has the highest population and is an evil plot concocted by the Unholy Alliance to ensnaring players in Mortal Kombat as part of a grand scheme to make MK9 the most popular fighting game of the year.
 * .siht ekil gniklat eb dluow enoyreve mlaersoahC laer eht saw siht fI

Kira and Skarlet are two identities of the same secretive character.
Skarlet and Kira are both one and the same character. The lack of background history on either alias due to her covert nature make this possible in addition to everything her two forms have in common.


 * Skarlet has always been highly shrouded in secrecy; her existence never even being confirmed until recently. Kira is a highly covert killer as well who relies on camoflaging herself and her identity. (she even managed to pass for a man while selling arms in Afghanistan until discovered)


 * They both happen to be highly skilled combatants capable of engaging many of the best fighters in the world of Mortal Kombat.


 * She always has red hair and chooses to tie it in a tail, choosing one as Skarlet and two as Kira.


 * In an earlier patch, Kira held Skarlet's place chained up in one of the backgrounds. This has been amended in a more recent patch proving the developers went out of their way to make sure Kira couldn't coexist at the same time as when a player chose her as their character in the guise of Skarlet.
 * Then what happens if both players pick her?
 * That is a separate issue so as to not inhibit playability and has been handled by fighting games by making sure we all know that for virtually every highly skilled fighter there is always a perfect look-a-like impostor who happens to fight move and talk exactly the same.


 * They can both fight in high heels.
 * To be fair this applies to virtually any female Mortal Kombat character willing to cover enough skin to wear shoes.


 * They're both evil.


 * Both drench themselves in red with black trim.


 * If willing to come out of hiding only one identity is displayed in a game at a time. (reinforced by the aforementioned patch)


 * Both choose to wield knives.


 * Both have moves in which they deliberately stab themselves.

Mileena is Obfuscating Stupidity in 9.
And she plays the role beautifully. While it's true the events of the game benefit Quan Chi and Shinnok they also benefit Mileena a great deal. Remember when the Emperor was believed dead and Baraka asserted Mileena was next in line? That brief moment passed over quickly but it shows that the Emperor had enough faith in her abilities to hold that position. Notice how he doesn't deny Mileena's claim to the throne when he reveals himself seconds later? Also, notice how it's Baraka that makes the claim? She's already forged her alliance with him and likely the Tarkata in general despite only gaining life very recently, and is subtle enough to have Baraka push for her leadership, showing how she already has support without personally making an enemy of anyone. Notice how the only real rebuttal to her claim came from Shang Tsung? Now, what happened to him soon after? And who got beaten to death soon after that? Notice how it's her that brings Motaro back? How she just waltzes into the Emperor's chamber while even Kitana had to apologise for interupting? The Emperor clearly holds Mileena in much higher esteem and seems to trust her with authority, authority someone with a child's mind and obvious insanity should not be trusted with. The Emperor is not that stupid; he must know she's playing games with others and approves. Now with the Emperor and her primary competition gone, guess who's likely to be on the throne next game? One other thing, remember Mileena's storyline from the original timeline during three? Yeah.
 * She, um, was enslaved by Shinnok? And gained the ability to read Kitana's mind? Neither one screams "schemer"...
 * Are you suggesting one can only be a schemer if they are invulnerable to anything anyone else tries to do to them? Also, how do you profess mind reading would make her any less cunning?
 * Exactly, she was working for Shinnok. Now, consider that Mileena is a recent creation in the new timeline and that Quan Chi has been messing with things Shang Tsung had been involved in originally. Mileena may be a double agent working for Shinnok the whole time. Or mayeb Shinnok just thinks she's working for him, even in the original timeline she was never loyal to him, obeying him only out of fear and ditched him at the first opportunity.

Quan Chi and Kratos are brothers.
It is also possible they are parallel existences
 * They are both pale.
 * They both have thick line markings on their bodies.
 * They hate shirts.
 * Both are bald.
 * They both crave power and aspire to usurping godhood.
 * Both spend a lot of time in their respective netherrealms while still living.

Smoke is Kakashi from Naruto and Chipp from Guilty Gear.
He travels between Earthrealm, Guiltyrealm and Narutoria as realm crossing is a real part of Mortal Kombat. Alternatively all three worlds exist on the same timeline as Guilty Gear takes place a little over 100 years from the Mortal Kombat time likely based on our present. Naruto world can easily exist in the past or future. Many episodes from the original series after Sasuke went away start grabbing at old legends from the past in dire need of story material. If in the future, Guilty Gear technology is outlawed and magic plays an increasingly large role so the Naruto universe may well be the logical next step in civilization. Japan was destroyed in Guilty gear and Chipp was obsessed with becoming President. Perhaps upon achieving his ambition his goal was to turn the world into the next Japan which explains the dominant Japanese culture in Naruto. This too would justify Chipp as being a true Japanese as he would have redefined Japan in his image on a global scale.
 * He puts on a mask covering his face to hide his identity in Naruto as well as Mortal Kombat, but the spiky gray hair still shows.
 * His ninja training and identity are a permanent part of his character.
 * All three are capable of teleportation.
 * He is capable of turning invisible.
 * He recognizes his Thousand Years of Death attack when Faust uses it againt him as evidenced by his reply.
 * He can create shadow clones and taught the technique to his partner Noob.
 * He has also been witnessed performing this technique when he was maskless and thought he was alone in Guiltyrealm.
 * In Narutoria he is more than familiar with handseals and tends to favor the exact same handseal which he uses both while parrying projectiles in Mortal Kombat as well as while teleporting and Instant Killing in Guilty Gear.

Liu Kang will become a Villain Protagonist in a future game.
Of the Knight Templar variety

If ressurected Shang Tsung will become a Type V Anti hero.
related to the above theory about Shang Tsung's arcade ladder ending being used in MK 10

If Mortal Kombat vs DC universe does get a sequel......
1.It will be no holds barred about killing the DC characters

2. Anytime a character swears, it will be censored with a Toasty, just to mock how tame the first one was

Shinnok is the One Being.
Isn't it obvious? First of course there is the fact that Shinnok actively has the same set of goals (unify the realms) that the One Being needs to return despite being among the most ancient of gods and knowing full-well what will happen if he succeeds. Sure, so do Shao Khan and Onaga and the Deadly Alliance and, hell, probably Zombie Liu Kang can lay claim to the same, but they're all controlled by the One Being. We already know Shinnok can't be-- which doesn't seem to extend to his fellow gods, as evidenced by Raiden. Beyond that, what are the chances that his personal MacGuffin just-so-happens to be the last piece needed to unify the Shinedogu and bring back the One Being?
 * Jossed by the fact that Shinnok is an Elder God, and it's expressly stated that not only did the Elder Gods exist alongside the One Being, but they used the Kamidogu to break up the One Being and form the realms; it makes sense that the Elder Gods would keep the key to unifying the realms on their possession at all times. Also, Shinnok's goal is not to unify the realms, but to gain power; specifically, to destroy the Elder Gods, conquer a realm (Earth, ideally), and take over the pantheon. He has no intention of unifying the realms, probably because - as an Elder God - he already knows what would happen if they were, and doesn't want to become food for an all-powerful entity.

Alternatively Shinnok was manipulated by the One Being into trying to take Earthrealm.

 * Shinnok actually just wanted to destroy the Elder Gods and then absorb all of existence's energy into himself. It was never clarified whether or not he wanted to merge the realms, but it's unlikely seeing as Shinnok was probably one of the Elder Gods who dealt with the One Being in the first place and thus knew of the threat he was up against. It's actually implied that Shao Kahn and Onaga were being influenced by the One Being, with hints coming from Ermac's ending in Deception, as well as Onaga's planned ending from Deception.

The Centaurs were cursed by Havik, not the Shokan.
Think about it: during the time the Centaurs were cursed in Armageddon, they and the Shokan had an uneasy but stable peace treaty, and the Shokan were already heavily entrenched in a war between Edenia and Shao Kahn's forces (the former of which the Shokan were siding with); not only would the Shokan not have the kind of time or resources to commit to such a retaliation strike, but it would also be incredibly stupid of them, turning both the Centaurs and the Edenians against them for a pathetic attempt at petty revenge. However, such an outcome would be beneficial to Havik; his goal is to cause and sustain chaos wherever he can, and the peace treaty between the Shokan and Centaurs ceases the chaos that their blood feud created. Cursing the Centaurs and putting the blame on the Shokan would be exactly the thing to destabilize things and respark the chaos between them.

Alternatively, Goro cursed the Centaurs on orders from Shao Kahn.
The Centaurs' curse would not only force them to strike back against the Shokan and break the treaty, but would also put suspicion on the Shokan by Edenia, which could also end things between them, as well. This, in turn, would force the Shokan to team back up with Shao Kahn, exactly what the Emperor promised Goro when he saved his life.

The Houan necromancers that Raiden killed are the species that Quan Chi belongs to.
Very little is known about the Houan, except that they were a race of considerably powerful Necromancers, and that they were killed a considerable time ago by Raiden. Quan Chi himself is a fairly powerful necromancer, and while it makes sense that the art would be widely taught in the Netherealm, there's little evidence to support that. Also, all of the sorcerers in the Netherealm are forced to live in specialized metropolises to keep from having their powers drained, and to our knowledge, most if not all of the sorcerers there are still human souls and not Oni. Quan Chi, likewise, loses his magic the longer he stays in the unprotected wastes of the realm, hinting that either Magic itself is incompatible with the Netherealm (unlikely, especially considering Quan helped Shinnok take over, which he most likely would have to be in the unprotected wastes to do), or only human sorcerers are affected, which shouldn't affect Quan if he was always an Oni. Finally, it's been shown that a human soul can become an oni if they're corrupt enough and spent enough time in the Netherealm, so it's very possible that Quan was once a Houan that became an Oni long ago.

Raiden was corrupted by the One Being, after his failed suicide attempt against Onaga.
We're told that the gods are immune from the One Being's influence due to not having a piece of it inside them. We're also told very explicitly that Onaga is being manipulated by the One Being to bring his body back together, so once Raiden blew himself up trying to stop him, it's possible he became "contaminated" with some of the One Being in the process, which stuck after he reformed. This explains why he went crazy after his resurrection, and why he didn't revert to a neutral, amnesiac thunder god, like Fujin explained should have happened. It also explains why he's so obsessed with killing Shujinko for releasing Onaga; the One Being knew that giving Shujinko the power to absorb the abilities and fighting techniques of others could backfire on him, and required the power of a god to kill him after he did his task, before he came to regret it and tried to reverse his mistake. Too bad things didn't go the way he planned...
 * This makes so much sense, I had assumed it was canon...

In the film, Raiden is really Connor McLeod, after receiving the Prize.
After receiving the wisdom and powers of all the immortals, Connor could practically be a god, and the lightning motif comes from the Quickenings. Like he was as an Immortal, he remains a warrior against evil, but he can't participate in the tournament because he's not a mortal. Of course, for this to work you have to ignore the epilogue of the first Highlander movie.
 * So... Shao Kahn is The Kurgan resurrected by Shinnok?

The "Armageddon" in Mortal Kombat Armageddon is actually the return of the One Being.
Think about it: the gods foresaw the Mortal Kombat tournament and its participants causing the end of the realms as we know it. The tournament was used to determine who among warring realms would get to conquer the other, with each tournament weakening the boundaries between realms and the "upsetting the furies". Combine that with the fact that the main driving force behind the tournaments was Outworld (whose emperor, Shao Kahn, has already been established as being manipulated by the One Being to merge the realms himself), and the recent revival of Onaga (who was similarly manipulated by the One Being) and the destruction of the Kamidogu (the one set of weapons that could take out the One Being), it stands to reason that it was inevitable that the One Being would return, and was using everything at his disposal - including the tournament - to instigate his resurrection.

Liu Kang is the person shouting "MORTAL KOMBAT!" in the movie theme song.
Come on, just read his MK vs. DC arcade mode ending. That also makes retcon it into a Theme Music Power Up.

The whole story is really a set of movies being directed by Johnny Cage, who is growing increasingly complacent and arrogant with their successes.
If one looks at it, it makes a lot of sense, since Cage gets a good few happy endings in his games as well as being generally useful to use. MK3 wasn't that good because of Cage putting less effort into it, what with the growing funds he had accumulated, and the fact that the locations seemed Darker and Edgier...well, as Darker and Edgier as MK could get. By MK4, Cage got arrogant and decided not to bother trying anymore, with his ending being a bit of failed Self Deprecation. He was obviously horror-struck and humbled by critics' negative response to MK4 and, thinking he had finally gone too far, decided to put a little bit more love and effort into MK5, Deadly Alliance. After the lackluster of MK4, Deadly Alliance is DAMN good. The arrogance crept in again after MK6 Deception suceeded, which explains the lack of coherent and sensible story in MK7 Armageddon, the fact that a minor character suddenly become an important element in the story, why the Elder Gods suddenly grab the Idiot Ball and rely on Argus to fix the Armageddon problem rather than shutting down MK pronto. This also explains why the endings are silly. Kung Lao suddenly having a rivalry with Liu Kang, something which fans didn't like? Cage didn't think highly of him. Sonya having the power to kill Kano just by glaring at him? She's his favourite character. The games are clearly a sign of Cage's growing incompetence and complacency.
 * So where the heck does Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe come in?
 * Johnny Cage made a deal with the DC Universe comic makers to make a movie with his and their characters. People love DC would watch the movie and people who like Mortal Kombat would watch too. It is a win/win situation.
 * So in that case, Johnny deliberately decides to turn Scorpion into the resident Ensemble Darkhorse...for what purpose?
 * The best part is that this would mean Cage made a movie about a world in which he plays Johnny Cage the movie star, who made movies about his real-life exploits. That's Curb Your Enthusiasm levels of meta, right there.
 * MK9 fits in perfectly with this. He misses the nostalgia of his first successes and revisits them. And
 * Wow, this theory is so plausible it's not even funny.

Asian culture was once foreign to Earthrealm.
Given the pervasiveness of Asian culture beyond Earthrealm, the truth of Asian mythology in the MKverse, and the longevity of races not native to Earthrealm, it seems somewhat likely that Asian culture was brought to Earthrealm from elsewhere. Perhaps Asian humans are in fact descended from colonists hailing from another realm.
 * This would turn the pervasive Japanese/Chinese confusion that is present in all MK games into Fridge Brilliance. The original culture encompassed aspects of both cultures; when it came to the Earthrealm, different populations acquired different aspects of it and evolved it to the actual Japanese and Chinese cultures.
 * Specifically, Asian Culture could have been introduced by Seido (Orderrealm), which has both the highest percentage of "normal human-looking" humanoids of any Realm we've seen and one of the most traditionally "Asian" cultures. In China and Japan (Seido always makes two parallel plans - it's tradition), they sought to create an empire that could unify the world, and would have succeeded, if not for Chaosrealm throwing Ghengis Khan into the works.
 * Also, ths would explain why Liu Kang can throw fireballs and bicycle kick in the air for impossible lengths of time/distances. Oh, and why he can turn into a dragon. It's possible that he gained more of the traits of his ancestors through the years than other descendants.

Smoke is now the physical avatar of an Eldritch Abomination.
Think it over carefully. After Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, when his human soul was finally released from his robot programming, the series simply forgets him until Deception, when he teams up with Noob Saibot. He suddenly has a new appearance: from the basic Lin Kuei robot to some sort of masked thing made of grey matter. We aren't told anything about how this radical makeover came about, neither are we told what he did before he met Noob. While the game tries to Hand Wave it as Nanomachines, there could be a whole creepier reason for it...
 * His robot appearance was the canon one for most of Deception, and his "grey matter" outfit was the alternative. In his cut ending for the game, it's shown his nanomachines went crazy after he entered the Netherrealm, triggering a transformation into his "grey matter" self. And before Noob found him, he was deactivated, having shut himself off after being captured by Kahn's mooks.
 * Or so he wanted Noob to think.
 * Seems to be true in MK9. In his arcade ending, it's revealed that a cult sacrificed little Tomas Vrbada to a demon, causing him to become a being of smoke and vapour called an "enenra"; he then proceeded to kill the cultists before reforming into his human form, having no memory of his life beforehand. Might even be on a Tomato in The Mirror level; for all we know, the enenra was intentionally summoned by the cultists and was disgusted enough by their actions that he took vengeance and adopted the boy's form afterwards, the original Tomas being completely dead.

Raiden will get better, morality wise...
But Fujin will get worse.

Haruhi Suzumiya is the One Being. Mortal Kombat really is a dream -- hers.
...Straightforward, really.
 * ...

The Shokan weren't originally named "Shokan".
It's stated that the Shokan are hybrids of humans and dragons. It's also stated that Onaga, former ruler of Outworld, was called the Dragon King, and that Shao Kahn deposed him. It's possible that the Shokan were originally named for the dragon-ruler of Outworld, who may have been a founder of the race after an encounter with a human woman, and that when Shao Kahn took over he erased all traces of Onaga's rule, naming the people Shokan (which sounds too suspiciously like Shao Kahn to ignore) to erase their loyalty to the past ruler and bring them under his flag.

Everyone is alive in Armageddon because they were brought back from the Netherrealm.
Pretty much Self Explanatory. In the MKverse, everyone who dies goes to the Netherrealm. After the events of Deadly Alliance and the resurrection of Onaga, he revives everyone who had died in the past games from the Netherrealm in order to make them to work with him. After Ermac breaks the brainwashing, everyone goes back to normal. And finally, Onaga himself, who was defeated by Shujinko, finds a way out of the Netherrealm, bringing with him every other Mortal Kombatant who was in the past games.
 * This is canon, atleast for the five heroes who got killed assaulting the Deadly Alliance.
 * If this is canon for them, is canon for everyone else as well, which also explains the plenty of resurrections pre-Armageddon. (i.e. Johnny Cage, supposedly dead in III but brought back in IV)

Sareena, Quan Chi, and Shinnok will be appearing in the new Mortal Kombat game.
The story so far states that Raiden sends a message back in time to Mortal Kombat 1 Raiden in order to change the events of Mortal Kombat. The only game left intact from this would then be Sub Zero: Mythologies, since that chronicles the first Sub-Zero's adventures, just before the first game. All characters who appeared in Mythologies are free game.
 * Strictly speaking, so are most of the other characters. Fujin, Onaga, etc. are all alive by then, too.
 * Canon for Quan Chi, as he's one of the confirmed characters.

The whole story is a fantasy of Liu Kang, made up during a coma.
On a boat headed for a mysterious underground fighting tournament, and shaken by the ravings of an old bum who conned monks out of food by pretending to be the god of thunder, Liu Kang was knocked overboard by the ruthless criminal Kano. When he hit the freezing water, his mind succumbed to shock, imagining that he had gone below decks and met a man who generated ice (he also imagined one with a hand that vaguely resembled a penetrated vagina, because Freud Was Right), as well as seeing the "thunder god" again. Nobody on the boat saved him, so he slipped further into shock and his hallucinations went ever further afield, which explains all the cyborgs, centuars, people's faces and voices changing, 4-armed creatures, zombiedom, and so on.

Aside from DLC, Liu Kang may not be present in Mortal Kombat 9.
Remember, the plot already clarifies that Raiden sent a telepathic message of all that was yet to come to his MK1 self. This is every event up to Shao Kahn about to kill Raiden post-Armageddon, including Liu Kang's death. In the original trilogy, Raiden had a close Mentors-like relationship with Liu Kang, so perhaps he doesn't want Liu Kang to win Mortal Kombat and set the chain of events into motion again in order to protect him (and sent Kung Lao in his steed; an exact reversal of the original games). Thus, Liu Kang won't be in this game for storyline purposes (but he'll be in a playable character; Internet Backdraft would ensue if he wasn't), but he'll probably have greater importance in the inevitable sequel.

However, he could possibly just be one of the last reveals; if so, he still might not have as much prominence in this game (i.e. one the other heroes will probably win Mortal Kombat instead; my money is on Sub-Zero, or--as a Mythology Gag to the movie--Johnny Cage).
 * Well, the whole Liu Kang being excluded thing has been Jossed. Only time will tell how his story turns out.
 * In fact...

The rebooted Tournament will be won by:

 * Liu Kang again - sticking with the classics while tweaking more minor points of continuity... for now.
 * Kung Lao, having gone in Kang's place for the reasons in the above WMG.
 * Sub-Zero, because he's by far the most popular hero.
 * Scorpion, because he's by far the most popular anything.
 * Goro, or another champion of Shao Kahn, continuing to set up future games in the Darker and Edgier tradition of Deadly Alliance and Deception.
 * Noob Saibot, not working for Shao Kahn or Earthrealm - he'll exploit his Netherrealm contacts to find a loophole in the rules to enter and win the tournament as a wildcard... placing Earthrealm under his dominion and setting him up as the new series Big Bad.

Beating arcade mode with Kratos in Mortal Kombat 9 will reveal what happened to him after God of War 3.
That game ended  This game will show what really happened that fateful day on Olympus.

The true canonical ending in Armageddon is
Consider this: 's ending is the only one that relies on Blaze (the final boss) being fought by somebody else, and
 * Jossed by the latest installment.

Shao Kahn is the Guardian of Outworld.
In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks when we see Shao Kahn get his helmet knocked off he has some of the physical features of a tarkatan, yet we know he is a god and not a tarkatan. Maybe he was originally the guardian of Outworld, just like Raiden is guardian of Earth. If the guardian of a realm appears as a member of that realm's dominant species that would explain why Shao Kahn looks like a tarkatan, the original species of Outworld.
 * When was it established that Shao Kahn is a god outside the movies? And why do you think the Tarkata were the original species? Tarkata are Outworlder/Demon hybrids, in order fo them t exist there had to be native Outworlders. Then there's the Shokan and the Centaurs, neither of whom has been stated to be from anouther realm, as for as this Troper knows. Though the Shokan are most likely another hybrid race as they were often reffered to as half-human dragons early on.
 * Not necessarily for the reasons above, but this theory has merit. A disguised Onaga in Deception tells Shujinko that Shao Kahn "was once like Raiden is on Earthrealm - an advisor," and Shao Kahn does seem to have a magical power on par with mighty sorcerers, without ever explicitly being called a sorcerer. His ability to host a tournament also indicates some ability to petition the Elder Gods, and having a bride "born" in a given Realm apparently empowers him to make it part of his own. All in all, very much the kind of thing one would expect from an MK god.
 * Also, he and Raiden used to use identical hammers.
 * Er, the Shokan WERE stated to come from another realm. It's explained in the movies, the comics, the games, in fact all canons, that Goro came from the realm of Kuatan, that was one of the realms permanently fused with Outworld during Shao Kahn's conquests, just like Reptile's Zaterra world, and Nitara's vampire realm. Some mediums state the entire Shokan race as coming from Kuatan as well, before the merge. Kuatan remains in Outworld described as a 'province', and has never been separated.
 * Where was Kuatan even mentioned, besides the non-canon movie expansion The Journey Begins? (Incidentally, that source called it merely a city.)

Alternately, Onaga is the Protector God of Outworld.
If you kill him but let the essence escape, he will reform. He cannot be killed permanently except in/by the Netherrealm. He has vast martial and magical powers that do things even sorcerers cannot, goes back a loooong way into the timeline, and (based on the Nexus) has extensive knowledge of portals. Those are all traits ascribed to Raiden. Further, who but a god would know enough about The One Being to attempt its revival?

Fujin is Raiden's son.
They have the same silver hair, Storms and Wind certainly seem like they should be related (get it?) concepts, and Fujin inherits Raiden's title as "Protector" when Raiden is promoted. Also, it's unclear how much gods of different Realms interact in general, but we know that Raiden was a friend to Argus (presumably, they worked against Shao Kahn together), and Fujin knew Taven by sight 10,000+ years after last seeing him. Lastly, when Raiden goes bad, Fujin takes it very personally as an imperative to find and redeem the other God.
 * Considering that the two are friends and appear to have lived for about the same period of time, it'd be more likely that the two are brothers, doubly so if you're going by the myths the characters are based off of. IIRC, the official strategy guide for 4 stated that they're siblings, but whether or not this is true has been neither verified nor debunked in canon.

Reiko really is Shao Kahn.
Yes, I know that theory was explained away years ago, and they've been seen in the same place at once and Reiko has an actual bio. I say nonsense! Shao Kahn is (some say) a greater master of sorcery than Shang Tsung (the infamous shapeshifter). Of course he could arrange body doubles for his identities. Shao Kahn finds in incredibly useful to have a high-ranking officer in his armies that the observant will see is only waiting for the chance to betray him - they will enlist the aid of Reiko, and "Reiko" will await the proper moment before putting on his helmet (or, rather, letting the illusion that he ever took it off lapse, as it partially does during his charge in MK:A) and crushing them all.
 * This could possibly (in some form) happen in the new canon, especially since it was originally implied in the original timeline that Shao Kahn was somehow using Reiko to cheat death after 3.

The true Big Bad of Mortal Kombat is the Elder Gods.
They've gone from typical Precursors to Neglectful Precursors to Abusive Precursors, and seem to be swinging even deeper into cruelty. Let's examine their crimes: Based upon this evidence, it seems most likely that the Elder Gods are not just callous, but monstrous and incredibly sadistic. One can even theorize that God is not evil, and the Elder Gods are some kind of analog to the Devil, who rebelled against The One Being and won, then spent the rest of eternity taking out their sadistic desires on all of creation, totally unopposed. Certainly, someone else thinks their rule is illegitimate: Onaga opposed The Elder Gods, and Seido supported him.
 * They defeated The One Being and promptly fragmented the Realms, setting up every war of multiversal conquest (and there have been at least six: Chaos vs Order, Outworld taking over Vaeturnus, Outworld taking over Zaterra, Outworld taking over Edenia, Outworld trying to take over Earthrealm, and Shinnok trying to drag other Realms into the Netherrealm) that would follow, just to preserve their own lives.
 * When asked for help protecting Realms from Shao Kahn, they implemented a system where people would fight in sadistic single kombat, then didn't enforce it. That's right: later events prove that the whole idea of a "Mortal Kombat Tournament" was just a lie that made people spend generations ripping each other's hearts out for no reason.
 * MK 9 tempers this a little: the Elder Gods will enforce the tournament rules if, and only if, they are broken to the extent of merging worlds. Large-scale invasions draw no reaction so long as the worlds remain separate. This re-affirms they want to keep reality divided (most likely due to the threat of the One Being), but still shows their deceptive and sadistic nature.
 * When they realized that, more than 10,000 years in the future, there would be a threat to all the Realms, they promptly appointed a lone protector god who was in the middle of a defensive war to think of a solution, wth the caveat that they would kill everyone if his methods failed. Sure, Argus' plan was a staggeringly foolish one, but can you blame him? He had a lot on his mind, and was under a lot of stress... while the Elder Gods are near omnipotent, and did nothing - not even save said Protector God's Realm in exchange for him taking on the "save the cosmos" mission for them.
 * When one of their own number committed unknown crimes against them (and we know they only act when their own existence is threatened, so Shinnok's crime must have been on the scale of destroying Realms), they gave him dominion over the souls of the dead. Sure, Shinnok's bad, but if not for his "uncorrupted" brethren, he wouldn't be a threat to anyone, let alone the entire cosmos, anymore.
 * If memory serves, when they banished him to the Netherrealm, he wasn't in charge; he was tormented for centuries before he managed to overthrow the original ruler of the Netherrealm.
 * They can, and do, bring people back from the dead. But when they actually agreed to bring back the Shirai Ryu if Scorpion served them, and he did so successfully, they instead brought back his clan as shambling zombies for no apparent reason other than cruelty.

The Myth Arc of both Armageddon and MK 2011 is all The Plan to bring the Elder Gods down.
Working from the above: who was in a better position to see the Elder Gods' evils that Argus, a protector god close enough to them that they even noted the outcomes of his children's games? When they did no more to prevent the end of all Realms than inform him of it, he began making a plan. Why did Blaze's power pouring into Taven's armor do nothing? Because the quest, as explained by the obelisks, was a lie - a bluff to fool the Elder Gods. It was never meant to stop the Kombatants. Instead, it enhanced all of their powers, warping time and space. The Elder Gods would have soon ended the threat by destroying everyone themselves, but before they could, Shao Kahn fought free of Onaga, and was about to kill Raiden for failing to stop Taven when Raiden sensed the breakdown of reality and used it to send a message for his past self... as well as the secrets he had learned during his brief time among the Elder Gods. Raiden, as a fellow protector god, had known Argus' plan from the start, and been a part of it. Armed with knowledge of the Elder Gods' weaknesses, he will now lead the heroes of many worlds in a secret war to end the Elder Gods' evils once and for all.

In MK9, Mileena will have Tarkatan blades.
Pause her trailer around 30 seconds in, and you can clearly see pointy things coming from the backs of her silhouette's hands.
 * She isn't shown using them in-game but that doesn't mean she doesn't have them. the above video is proof and we can only conlcude she chooses not to use them, whatever her reasons.
 * Perhaps she saves them as a last resort weapon of surprise.
 * Posing as an Edenian for so long she may also have gotten used to concealing them and learned to fight without relying on them.

Mortal Kombat is actually a sort of shared Battle in The Center of The Mind.
The Kombatants feel pain, but your mind does not make it real. This is how they manage to tear each other's heads off, but keep on coming back for sequels. Actual deaths start happening around Deadly Alliance because that's when people start breaking the rules - Shao Kahn was ambushed in his own throne room, Liu Kang killed during training, and so on. So long as people issue a formal challenge, however, they're sure to survive - though it might hurt like hell.
 * The name, one may suppose, comes from the fact that this is a form of fighting devised by the Elder Gods for mortals to resolve disputes rather than from actual mortality resulting from said Kombat.
 * This has become even more of a possibility, considering that Freddy Krueger is to be the final DLC character for the MK9 roster.

Shokan are Mystics, while Onaga is a Skexis.
The Shokan have four arms and only three fingers per hand, while Onaga has the taste for decadence and melodrama, as well as monstrous minions. Clearly in the MK continuity, Jen and Kira failed to restore the Crystal, and so the corruption of the world continued, until even the noble Mystics were reduced to Proud Warrior Race Guys.

Shinnok was never one of the Elder Gods.
The only crimes that would move the Elder Gods to action are those that coul kill one or more of their number. If they themselves could do this, they would have killed Shinnok, rather than setting him loose where he could threaten their existence again. So the claim that Shinnok used to be one of them is clearly a lie - it must have been some attempt at manipulating others into taking him more seriously once he did become a threat.
 * Note that this contradicts Taven recognizing him in Armageddon's Konquest mode, but Armageddon contradicted lots of things.
 * Never mind the fact that neutral canon sources have claimed Shinnok to be an Elder God, not just Shinnok's own words.

All gods in Mortal Kombat are gods of some aspect of weather.
Raiden is self-explanatory. The only other gods we know for sure are:
 * Fujin, God of Wind.
 * Argus, who we never see in action. But his sons Taven and Daegon both have abilities involving fire and earthquakes, and his son Rain has control of water and lightning. Also, in one of Taven's Obelisk Challenges, a simulacrum of Argus shoots lightning bolts.
 * Mythologies: Sub-Zero featured unnamed gods of Earth, Fire, and Water.
 * Kochal was the God of Chaosrealm (possibly its protector), who reshaped that world by unleashing "The Tempest".
 * At the end of Armageddon, though every character gets "Godlike power" from defeating Blaze, very few actually become gods. Most notably, Sub-Zero becomes God of Ice (Shiva and Kira as Goddesses of Destruction and Death, respectively, seem to fit less neatly, but maybe if we'd seen more of their works, this would have become clear - besides which, though there are one-off references to them being "gods," only the weather-themed Sub-Zero has his God-dom reacted to by the Elder Gods.)

Outword has always been a pawn of The One Being.
The One Being wishes to unify all the Realms. Whether under Onaga or Shao Kahn, Outworld has always sought that goal (it was spectacularly successful: we don't know how many there were, but when the series opens, there appears to be only Chaosrealm, Seido, Netherealm, and Earthrealm left for Outworld to assimilate, with at least three other Realms having already fallen) - clearly The One Being guided Onaga, and when he was deposed, switched to maniupulating Kahn. It sensed Kahn's downfall at the hands of the Dealy Alliance, and so manipulated Shujinko and Reptile to unleash Onaga once again, who promptly began trying to unleash The One Being directly. Perhaps that theory that The One Being was going to break out in Armageddon was close to the truth...

Cyborg Speculation:
"You might see a character become cybernetic who wasn't before, and so you see a different version [of events]," said Ed Boon. What might that imply:

In the new Mortal Kombat Game, Smoke will be human, and Sub-Zero II will be a Cyborg.
It has been confirmed that MK 9 will be a retcon where some things are different due to Raiden getting a message from the future, Ed Boon said "So everything you've seen happen before – Liu Kang winning, the guys turning into cybernetic ninjas, are changed around, so you might see a character become cybernetic who wasn't before, and so you see a different version [of events]." So it's not improbably for the roles of Sub-Zero II and Smoke to get switched around, Smoke and Sub-Zero II escaped the Lin Kuei because they didn't want to be Cyborgs, but Smoke got captured. So all things considered, the roles of Smoke and Sub-Zero II may be switched around in MK 9
 * Jossed. So far, Sub-Zero II is still human, with no news on Smoke yet.
 * Although recently, the Achievement list for Mortal Kombat 9 was revealed. One "Secret" achievement was labeled "Cold Fusion - Unlock Cyber Sub-Zero 20 Gamerscore", but this could be speculation.
 * Not only that, but Smoke has been confirmed to be human in Mortal Kombat 9.
 * And there's a Cyber Sub-Zero, indeed. Though there's also Noob Saibot and Cyber-Smoke, IICR.
 * Confirmed. Human Smoke remains human for the remainder of the history, while Kuai Liang is turned into Cyber Sub-Zero. You got an I Knew It happy moment.

In MK9, at least one major character will be in the game as both a human and a cyborg.
With the dev team pushing the "someone might become a cyborg this time who wasn't before" angle, but most of the major characters already shown as human, it stands to reason. Possibilities:
 * Liu Kang: Similar to the shock factor of making him a zombie in the old timeline, the designers might decide that he's too important to ignore, but too boring unless they throw some sort of twist with him.
 * Kung Lao: Same great Shaolin Ninja flavor, half the main charactericity! Plus, he'd get to throw his razor-sharp head at people.
 * Jax: He's part way there with his arms already, and OIA has a history of employing cyborgs.
 * Shujinko: For maximum Take That Scrappy points.
 * Sonja: Everyone likes robot girls, and if Kano managed to cut her up a bit, it might be a sort of Emergency Transformation.
 * Kano: Who said only good guys could become cyborgs in this timeline? The writers have seemed unsure what to do with Kano's character for a while now, this might give him the hook they need.
 * The winner was Sub-Zero.

Sektor's human form will be playable in Mortal Kombat 9
A while back, when the Mortal Kombat 9 website went live, there were a number of audio files hidden on the site, among them: Kabal, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Smoke (A HUMAN sounding Smoke), and many others. But one such file was labeled "Human Sektor". Also, recently the achievements/trophies for MK 9 were revealed, one was "Beat arcade mode with robot Sektor and Cyrax" So, it is entirely possible that Human Sektor will be playable. Story-wise? Perhaps he got turned back into a human instead of Cyrax.
 * Well, since the game is a retelling of the first three MK games, there's also the chance of knowing how Sektor became robot. Though Midway would have to put special attention on differentiating him from Ermac, if they go for the Ninja route.
 * Ermac has telekinesis and is a non-human mass of souls? Differentiating from his fellow Lin-Kuei member Sub-Zero might be harder, depending on whether Cryomancy is common amongst the Lin-Kuei (sources differ).
 * Indeed, some sources revealed that both Cyrax and Sektor had human forms. They might be converted into cyborgs.
 * Confirmed. Story Mode shows all of the Lin Kuei prior to automation, Cyrax, Sektor, and Smoke included. In fact, Human Cyrax has his own chapter in the story. And not only that, but both Human!Cyrax and Human!Sektor are alternate forms of Robot!Cyrax and Robot!Sektor.

There will be a seventh Sub-Zero in the future.
Due to Bi-Han and Kuai Liang, both former carriers of the Sub-Zero codename can't appear in their classic forms. Unless they want to drop entirely the Mortal Kombat series, Netherrealm Studios already got the memo about what happens when you take an Ensemble Darkhorse out of the cast, and Boon said that Mortal Kombat wouldn't be MortalKombat without Scorpion and Sub-Zero. The next game may also cover what happened to the 3D games since the Timey Wimey Ball, from 4 onwards. So, in order to get a new Sub-Zero for the next installment, they're going to possibly introduce a new member to the Lin Kuei. Who will he be? Could he be a she?
 * Possibly Jossed, seeing as We'll see.
 * Not so much. Remember how Noob Saibot was retconned in the first 3D games? Also, not everyone else was killed by Sindel, just the good guys not named Raiden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao and Sonya Blade. The next-to-last time we saw Sektor and Cyrax together (when ) they said to Shao Kahn that their clan was serving Shao Kahn in exchange for him. And with the history behind the Lin Kuei in the past games having traitors among them, well... unless thay have a rule forbidding the Sub-Zero name from being used, it's not a chance to rule out entirely.
 * Well, for one, the codename of Sub-Zero is a generational thing. According to pre-existing canon, ESZ and YSZ are numbers five and six, meaning that their great-great-grandfather was the original Sub-Zero. The younger brother was originally Tundra and only took on his brother's codename out of respect and for undercover purposes. There's no real decree specifying that the title is off-limits to the rest of the Lin Kuei clan, but I don't think that they would touch it (for one, most codenames seem to have something to do with their abilities or talents, e.g. Smoke and Sub-Zero; the Sub-Zero bros. and Frost were the only cyrokinetic users of the entire group) unless it was a successor hand-picked by the family. Plus, this is Mortal Kombat, where Death Is Cheap in abundance. Most fans probably wouldn't accept another Sub-Zero (remember the Internet Backdraft for Frost before Deadly Alliance was released?), especially when there's a good possibility that the real one could come Back From the Dead.
 * Also, Liu seems to be dead, too.

Predictions for Mortal Kombat 10.
Shinnok and Quan Chi will use the souls of the fallen heroes to form a brainwashed army to conquer the realms. As with the original timeline, Kenshi will turn Ermac good; Ermac, in turn, will once again help to free the souls of the fallen heroes and return them to normal. However, instead of Liu Kang's ghost helping him (or perhaps in addition to him), Ermac will be assisted by Havik, who doesn't want the tyrannical order of Shinnok to reign supreme. Cyb-Zero will encounter Frost and train her to be the third incarnation of Sub-Zero, together fighting against Sektor's new Lin Kuei regime. Raiden tries to rally the heroes against Shinnok's forces, but they are distrustful of him for his actions in MK9. Fujin leads Earthrealm in his stead while Raiden, still is troubled by visions of the future, seeks out a deceived youth who works to revive the Dragon King...
 * Also, Tanya and Rain will side with Shinnok and Quan Chi at first, but, at some point, they'll do Heel Face Turns, unlike in the 4-DA-D-A timeline.
 * Alternatively, any surviving Outworlder Warriors will be forced into an Enemy Mine situation with Raiden to prevent Shinnok from conquering their realm as well, adding to the mistrust between the "Good" guys. Sareena, if she appears, will seek to free Noob and/or Cyb-Zero from Shinnok's control.
 * Outworld's situation is unclear. If Baraka's word rings true, then Mileena is going to be in command; her rule would likely be very wildcard, either siding with Shinnok for more power or opposing him for her own selfish reasons... assuming her subjects even consider her stable enough to rule. Ermac is another wildcard; according to his arcade ending,.
 * Reading the Fridge section for the series... it's mentioned in Shang Tsung's bio in Armageddon that all of Kahn's servants are bound to his life; if he dies, they die too. I suppose it's possible that they retconned that out or the Elder Gods are simply trapping Kahn in a Phantom Zone type deal or something, but if they did kill him... suddenly the Outworld situation becomes a lot clearer.
 * Scorpion will almost certainly learn the truth about who REALLY killed his family, and will turn against Quan Chi at a critical moment.

Reptile will perform a Heel Face Turn in the rebooted timeline.
Think about it, Shao Kahn is gone and Reptile for once didn't get his chain yanked. As Raiden is armed with the future knowledge that Reptile will be a vessel of Onaga, he'll probably try to prevent Onaga's return by making good graces with Reptile, giving him actual promise to restore his clan and thoroughly treat him well, and making him more stable. And Reptile will latch himself as Raiden's Yes Man and becomes a Force of Good.
 * Though given Raiden's track record with acting on his future knowledge, it may end up making things worse...
 * Hey, if they could (arguably) de-Woobiefy Smoke and Kitana, Reptile (the Woobie of the franchise) getting his due for a change would be a good change of pace.
 * Smoke, maybe. Kitana, de-woobified? . On a more on-topic, Raiden should've learnt his lesson on acting on unclear messages, so in the next times, he might've gotten a better handling of how to act on the knowledge.
 * Er... compared to the crap she had to put up with in the original timeline, it's not much of an improvement, I'll give you that, but it's still an improvement. Granted, she probably still is a Woobie, but less so.

Noob Saibot will return, but not under Quan Chi or Shinnok's command.
In story mode, the last we see of Noob Saibot is him getting kicked into a Soulnado, which causes him to apparently perish as the soulnado disappates. In Deadly Alliance, the oni use the same method to try to kill off Scorpion. However, in Deception, it's revealed that Scorpion managed to escape the Soulnado and ended up in the presence of the Elder Gods, who make him their Champion. I'm guessing a similar fate might've befallen Noob Saibot. That said, the Elder Gods aren't exactly prone to action... but if they are motivated to stop Shinnok's invasion, they may similarly enlist Noob's aid, either resurrecting him as Sub-Zero, or sending him back down as Noob. While the original Sub-Zero was evil, it would suit him to aid the gods in exchange for power or something. Since Scorpion came back from the Soulnado and became the Elder Gods' champion,
 * Good idea, especially if it keeps the Sub-Zero/Scorpion rivalry alive. The Elder Gods, remembering Bi-Han's work in Mythologies, revive him as Sub-Zero for "services rendered" and name him their new champion. His first task: stop that imposter champion from gathering the Kamidogu. Things don't go as well for Shujinko this time. With Onaga's revival stopped, Sub-Zero then heads to the Netherealm to fight against Shinnok once again, only to encounter an old friend...
 * Not necessarily: Scorpion remained as a wraith when he was made the Elder Gods' champion.
 * Sorry for the nitpick, but if I remember correctly, Scorpion is consistently described as a "Spectre", while Noob is described as a "Wraith". I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but note that Scorpion seems to still care about his family and has most of his human personality intact, while his endings in MKD and MKA suggest that Noob Saibot lost any redeeming qualities when he came back.

Bi-Han will return as Human Sub-Zero in the new timeline, while Kuai Liang remains a cyborg and Smoke becomes the new Noob Saibot.
As stated above, Noob Saibot could have been separated into Bi-Han and the entity Saibot after Nightwolf Sparta-kicked him into the Soulnado. As such, the Elder Gods could make Bi-Han their champion in the new timeline just like what they did to Scorpion in the original timeline.
 * Kuai Liang can undergo Character Development by realizing he can still live like a full human despite having a cyborg body. With this, he could still beat Sektor and become Lin Kuei Grandmaster and steer it as a force of good like what he did in the original timeline. When done right, Kuai Liang can end up Rescued From the Scrappy Heap by being more badass as a cyborg than as a full human.
 * Now back to Noob, the entity Saibot could also have escaped from the Soulnado, and somehow found its way through the resurrected human/enenra Smoke. If the new timeline ends up with Bi-Han coming back and Kuai Liang remaining a cyborg, this could be the only plausible route should NRS want to do this plus a new Noob-Smoke alliance, hitting two birds with one stone.

Sheeva's MK9 ending will have a spin-off.
The Shokan, having left their enemies in Outworld and now in control of Australia, must deal with their greatest challenge yet... MORTAL WOMBAT!

Future MK series will eventually have a showdown between Raiden and Dark Raiden.
It could be that the message from Dark Raiden in the future wasn't mean for the continuation of life in the universe, but solely Earthrealm's safety. The new timeline Raiden will probably also learn what Dark Raiden have been doing and be repulsed from his brutality. Then at one point, he may get a chance to meet his future self, and both Raidens argue which one was the better option (Normal Raiden argues that there is good in humanity and worth protecting, Dark Raiden thinks Humans Are Bastards), and then both Raidens duke it out to ensure which one will be the true God of Thunder.

Cyber Sub-Zero survives his Kold Fusion fatality.
The Kold Fusion fatality involves Cyb-Zero arming himself for a Saibaman-esque grapple, freezing both himself and his opponent before seemingly self-destructing. Unlike the old self-destruct fatality of his companion Cyrax, this attack has believable reasons for Cyb-Zero to live on and continue operations (like, say, continuing on Ladder mode). Among the moves added to his post-cybernetic moveset was the ability to teleport, the animation for such seeming to break his cyborg body apart before reforming elsewhere. Cyb-Zero's pre-charge preparations might not have been a direct self-destruct code so much as a delayed freeze/teleportation combo, freezing over with his Ice Parry move (thus incapacitating and freezing his opponent) before using Teleport to abruptly move away, the energy from the teleportation causing the opponent to shatter. Meanwhile, Cyb-Zero survives off-screen and proceeds to fight another day.

Future DLC Character predictions.
Netherrealm Studios has basically said there will be quite a few DLC characters in the future, some pushing for the possibility of characters we've never seen before, such as Skarlett, or ones we've seen before, like Kenshi. But who else will be added?
 * Tremor: The ninja who used the power of Earth from the ill-fated Special Forces game. Ed Boon once tweeted that it could be time for Tremor to finally make his fighting game debut; however, another NR Dev said "No" to that, but for all we know, that could be them joking around.
 * It's very well possible. Tremor is this minor darkhorse in the fandom simply because he's the only "ninja" to not be playable in the games proper (Rain took his place in Trilogy IIRC). Not to mention that with his fireballs, petrification abilities, and (more specifically) his his pseudo-Earth-based powers,
 * Note, in particular, that four DLCs have been announced for this season: Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and Freddy Krueger. Tremor is probably the most popular MK character who has never been in a fighting game. (With the possible exception of Hornbuckle, see below.)
 * Bo 'Rai Cho: Was mentioned in-story to be Liu Kang's teacher a few times, and Ed Boon tweeted a few times about him, again, highly possible to be a joke, but who knows?
 * He also cameos in Shang Tsung's ending, so he has a better chance than most.
 * Hotaru: Was briefly seen in the intro of MK9, slumped over. Couple that with the fact Havik appears in Noob Saibot's ending, and both of them may be playable later.
 * Hornbuckle: Another rumor character that never came to fruitition, was a "holy man" who captured Blaze and had him guard the dragon egg, so that may have something to do with the story to prevent Onaga from returning.
 * Onaga, or Shinnok at least as Bonus Bosses for the Arcade mode. They were relevant to the MK story in the past (Onaga is the reason of why the MK symbol is that of a Dragon, he's the Dragon King; and Shinnok... well... those who played the story mode know about that)
 * Minor quibble: the MK logo refers to the appearance of the Elder Gods. Onaga is a dragon, but not a dragon who looks at all like the logo. Liu Kang's dragon form, however...
 * Sareena, because she's one of the few Ensemble Darkhorses outside of 1-2-3.
 * Hsu Hao, in a new, less crappy design, and with a different backstory, thanks to what Raiden changed. With Stryker already being Rescued From the Scrappy Heap, there's a big chance that NR will redesign and improve a lot of characters from the 3D games. He can be one.
 * Minor quibble; Stryker was fairly well liked by the staff, even though fans disliked him for years. Hsu Hao seems almost universally hated.
 * There's been rumors of Mavado being DLC, which would at least guarantee a cameo by Hsu Hao, but nobody seems to like him, fans and creators alike, so putting him in as a character might not be a good idea for the dev team.
 * Same Troper as directly above. I may have been seeing double, but Hsu Hao might have actually cameoed in the beginning (right by Johnny's decaptitated head; the gloves, green pants, and kneepads made me think it was him). Seeing as the two were seen tumbling off of Argus' Pyramid when all hell broke loose during the Battle of Armageddon, it's not implausible. However, the disdain the likes of Ed Boon and John Vogel themselves have for Hsu Hao makes me think that we won't be seeing him any time soon.
 * Rain, to keep the ninja count at 1/4 of the roster, minimum.
 * Confirmed at the end of this trailer.
 * Cyber version of additional characters.
 * As a Running Gag, Cyber versions of every character that started as a Palette Swap of Sub-Zero. So Cyber-Scorpion, Cyber-Reptile, Cyber-Ermac, et cetera.
 * There's actually a Cyber Reptile in one of the Challenge Tower missions; sadly, he's just a Palette Swap of Cyb-Zero with Reptile's moves.
 * Zombie Liu Kang (or, really, Zombie Kung Lao, Zombie Jax, Zombie... almost anyone).
 * Makes sense, considering the events of the Story Mode.
 * Yes, that was the whole point.
 * If you wanna be technical, it'd be more like their enslaved spirits than their actual bodies reanimated.
 * As exclusive character for X360, Grayson Hunt or Marcus Fenix, to go toe to toe with Kratos in the PS3.
 * Netherrealm Studios actually wanted an exclusive for the 360, but were shot down. Blame Microsoft for the lack of a guest character. Rumor has it that the leading candidate was the Master Chief.
 * Blaze: If the point was to set right what once went wrong; the capture of Blaze by the Dragon King's holy men could definitely be seen as an example of this.
 * Khameleon/Chameleon: with the heavy amount of ninjas on the roster, it would make sense for one or both of the color-shifting ninjas to show up. Hell, maybe have a cyborg with an alternate spelling as well (Quameleon?).
 * Khameleon would probably make the most sense as she ties into Reptile's story (y'know, repopulation of their race and all that jazz?), not to mention that she's an Ensemble Darkhorse in her own right (as the demand to get her into the Wii version of Armageddon can attest to). With, her chance of enthralling Reptile to her side (perhaps convincing him to do a Heel Face Turn) have increased tremendously, unless Shinnok comes into the picture.
 * In the case of 9 getting a Wii U version, it wouldn't be strange if she was a Nintendo-exclusive character, seeing as she only appeared in the Nintendo64 and Nintendo Gamecube versions of Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat Armageddon respectively.
 * Aside from the very likely inclusions of Cyber Smoke, Tanya, and Shinnok (all mentioned on Ed Boon's Twitter in a poll for who fans wanted to see as DLC first), as well as a leak of an unfinished Fujin, other rumored characters are Frost and Mavado. Nitara is also a possibility, as Boon has said before that he wanted to expand upon the Vampire race. If none of these guys make the roster, This Troper expects most of 'em to be in the next game.
 * Motaro: according to the wiki, the developers have stated that, while they had to cut corners in Armageddon, they may be able to implement a four-legged Motaro in later games. Since the shift to a new timeline rules out him regaining his legs, since he never lost them in the first place, and he dies in Story Mode, the only way this'd happen save for a resurrection (which, admittedly, could happen) would to have him as DLC.
 * The Unreal Engine should be able to allow 4-legs Motaro again, although it depends on how the fighter-related code was handled.
 * If this troper can throw his hat into the ring, I'd like to add Belokk, if only because I know the MK series loves making Urban Legend of Zelda canon.
 * For all we know, the likes of conceptual characters such as Zebron could make it in. The sky's the limit.
 * Although Ed himself said in a twit that there were no plans for a PC version, he later said in another twit that a final decision wasn't made, which implies that in a future a PC port/version may happen. Additional rumours said that the game could be distributed via Steam, and, more importantly, that the PC version would obtain it's own exclusive character. In this remote case, who might be the exclusive character? Duke Nukem? Lara Croft? Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan? Arthas?
 * With the fact Freddy Krueger is a DLC character, there is the distinct possibility Jason Voorhees will join later as well. For obvious reasons. That is, if there's gonna be anymore DLC characters, but who knows?
 * If there's a third season, we could get Jason in the second and Ash in the third, for obvious reasons again. And it would be awesome.
 * Darth Vader. Don't deny it, it'd be effing awesome.
 * Dr. McNinja. I can't be the only one who wants it.
 * While we're at it, the Xenomorph and the Predator. Just picture the 'FATALITIES...''

The next game will prominently feature Raiden and his allies freeing the souls of their allies from the Netherrealm.
MK 9 killed a HUGE number of karacters (more than half the kast). How kan a fighting series continue without its klassic karacters? It cannot. However MK 9 established that Quan Chi very specifically kaptured the souls of all the slain kombatants, and ended with the revelation that he and Shinnok will be the next Big Bads. When the Netherrealm moves against the rest of the cosmos, Raiden will enter it and free the other heroes' souls by force. This might also allow Sub-Zero to return to human form (though, obviously, Jax and Kabal need to stay cybernetic somehow).

Sindel is merely bidding her time for a bigger Heel Face Turn.
Let's look at it, right now, she was put in the equal status with her daughter Kitana, and probably under Quan Chi's control. If she ever found out this situation was because she killed nearly all of the heroes, her Heel Realization would be of epic proportions of My God What Have I Done and propels her to eventually do better to redeem herself... provided that someone gets her out of Quan Chi's control. In other words, she's set up to be a huge Atoner.
 * That's somehow assuming that

MK 10 will be a 3-way battle between Raiden's forces, Shinnok's forces and...
Liu Kang's forces. He died at the end of MK 9 but since he was killed by Raiden, his soul wasn't corrupted by Quan Chi, allowing him to save some of the souls that was enslaved by Quan Chi. However, he's still angry at Raiden, and so are the dead heroes that were enslaved by Quan Chi, therefore, Liu Kang forms up his own force to battle Shinnok as he no longer trusts Raiden can do his job, which would lead the two Forces of Good to clash at times, and it would probably take the efforts of Johnny Cage and Sonya to set Liu Kang straight again.
 * While Liu Kang was still alive when we saw the souls that Quan Chi claimed, that doesn't mean that he didn't claim Liu Kang's soul after he died. Raiden did, after all, offer the souls of fallen Earthrealm warriors who died in the conflict, himself included. He never went back on this offer after learning that Quan Chi already took the initiative, and given how Shinnok was mildly upset that Raiden didn't die (hence keeping Quan Chi from claiming his soul), the offer still seems valid. Hence, since Liu Kang died, Quan Chi technically has the right to Liu Kang's soul.
 * Additionally, even if Quan Chi didn't claim Liu Kang's soul for some reason, how is Liu Kang to rally his own faction? As an angry ghost, like some inverted version of his Deception status? Also not sure who he'd recruit, if anybody; Bo'Rai Cho in particular doesn't seem as the type to side with him over Raiden,.
 * And Raiden didn't go through it nor did Quan Chi made some sort of 'Agreed!' statement. He just shows the souls of the dead warriors thus far and declared that Raiden is too late, Shao Kahn got to Quan Chi first, thus Raiden's offer ended up null and unaccepted. Also, all Liu Kang would gather are just the souls of the dead warriors, the ones living (Bo 'Rai Cho included) will probably side with Raiden. These souls also harbored dislike to Raiden so it would've make sense that they side with someone who's dealing with the same feelings.

Friendships and Animalities will be DLC.
Netherrealm Studios already said that stages, characters, and fatalities could be DLC, so what would stopp them from making friendships and animalities? They already have Babalities, and Liu Kang's "The Beast Within" is technically an animality, and the term "animality" was used in Nightwolf's Ending, so... who knows?
 * And Hara-Kiris too.

Quan Chi is from the original Timeline and will be the boss of MK10.
He was dead in the intro but he's shown to be able to resurrect in seconds in Baraka's MKG ending. Look at him he already has Onaga's tatoos. He manipulated everything in Mortal Kombat 9 to his own end. He tricked Scorpion into killing Sub Zero ensuring the creation of Noob Saibot. Liu Kang's fire fist is a fatality and might have actually killed Shao Kahn so Quan Chi might have resurrected him for his own agenda. He made sure he was the one to resurrect Sindel with a much more powerful spell that Kitana couldn't break stopping her heel face turn. He used Sindel to collect the souls of earth's forces. Now Shinnok's Invasion is about to begin and Quan Chi has the souls of most of the people that stopped him last time and can easily take down Shinnok with the elder god's own amulet.
 * It's possible. Alternatively, Shinnok himself (being one of the four survivors of Armageddon alongside Shao Kahn, Taven, and Liu Kang's spirit; the Shinnok seen ingame was a clone) himself followed Raiden's example and sent a message to his past self. If Shinnok was running counter to Raiden (both with knowledge of the future), it could possibly explain why the timestream was liable to such drastic changes this time around.
 * ... if Liu Kang's spirit counts as a survivor, didn't almost everyone "survive"? You know, by dying and becoming spirits themselves?
 * Hey, that's the verdict from the developers themselves. However, Liu Kang had his soul sucked up by Shang Tsung. When Shang was killed in Raiden's kamikaze blast, all of the souls were released. Liu could've returned to Heaven, but chose to stay so that he could assist his friends. It's similar to how Cage was killed in 3, yet was able to return to Earthrealm and fight alongside Raiden's other chosen warriors due to crazy stuff like the Soulnado impeding the traffic of souls (after Shinnok was defeated, Cage just decided to stay in Earthrealm instead of returning to the afterlife for reasons unknown). It's implied that these are exceptions to the natural cycle of life and death and that the casualties from the Battle of Armageddon could only be undone if someone was going to cast a spell to bring them Back From the Dead (like what was done for Shang Tsung, Onaga, etc.), which probably won't happen now that Shao Kahn controls all of the realms in the original timeline.
 * I always figured that the QC that Baraka killed was some sort of doombot or something; since he's never shown that ability outside that particular ending (he teleported away in MKD, leaving his amulet behind for Onaga to use). But assuming that Quan Chi somehow messaged himself or traveled back in time, that would solve the continuity issues regarding his tattoos. Also, it's worth noting that his Armageddon ending involved time travel.

Outworld's inhabitants survived Shao Kahn's death in MK9.
Let's put aside the obvious reason of the game's creators not wanting to kill off the villainous cast, think about this: Shao kahn, unlike the other games, was not killed in Outworld or in the merged Earthrealm-Outworld of MK3, this time he died in Earthrealm, and by the Elder Gods'/Raiden's hand. It is quite possible that, having been killed outside the realm where he reigns supreme, his Taking You With Me spell did not take effect, and the villainous cast is still alive and relatively well. You also have to consider that Mileena is next in line for the throne and that would not be possible if she were to be nuked amongst the other servants or warriors.

Liu Kang will come back as a wraith, ala Scorpion, but NOT under Quan Chi's control.
It's been proven time and again that the mystic forces of the MK universe work on a Literal Genie-like Letter Of The Word principle. Magic spells, for instance, can be subverted with loopholes on how they were cast. The Mortal Kombat is won by Liu Kang and Shao Kahn can't merge the realms? Create a new tournament within Outworld with higher stakes, which when accepted by the Elder Gods overrides the previous one. Shao Kahn lost that tournament? Invade instead, since the contract is against merging the realms, not invading them. Can't invade because of a ward caused by Sindel's death? Bring Sindel back from the dead, ward gone. Etcetera, etcetera. Now Quan Chi has control of the Earthrealm warriors that died because of fighting Outworld's invasion of Earthrealm, right? Well, funny how that works, because Liu Kang did not die fighting Outworld's invasion of Earthrealm. He died fighting Raiden, and thus by extension defying the Elder Gods. As such, because of the wording of Shao Kahn's contract with Quan Chi, Liu Kang's soul cannot actually be possessed by Quan Chi. Liu Kang could enter the Netherrealm and become a wraith, but good luck trying to control or manipulate him. And fighting him is out of the question: if a completely human Liu Kang could defeat any and every warrior thrown at him (including friggin' Shao Kahn), a super-powered wraith Liu Kang would be a million times worse. As such, I see Liu Kang being the x-factor in the Netherrealm's invasion of the other realms, as he could destroy Quan Chi's plans from within the Netherrealm itself and maybe even rescuing his fellow champions. Now whether he'd be able to see that Raiden's plans actually did stave off Armageddon, or whether he'll be blinded by hatred towards him remains to be seen. After all, as Scorpion and Noob Saibot have proven, wraiths have a notoriously one-tracked mind towards what motivates them..

Shang Tsung will return in MK10.
In his Armageddon Bio, Shang's employment contract so to speak with Shao Kahn was so strong, that being disintegrated by Raiden (and combating the God's soul in the afterlife) wasn't enough to void it. Similarly, we don't see him as one of Quan Chi's minions; if we assume that the literal genie esque wording of Kahn's contract would prevent him from collecting Liu's soul, the same could apply to Shang Tsung, who wasn't killed fighting Earthrealm, but sacrificed to empower Sindel. After Sindel took a magical Kill Sat to the face, Tsung's soul returned to Kahn; presumably he'll possess a new host and return to his default form.
 * But that same contract notes that when Kahn goes, Shang Tsung dies with him. I can't see Shang coming back with the Elder Gods
 * Also, Tsung.
 * Alternatively, Shang Tsung may come back to life as . Hell, this can even be applied to Shao Kahn himself.
 * Or, they might combine elements from both 4 (what with Shinnok being present) and DA (both Quan Chi and Shang Tsung) and QC and ST might plot to kill Shinnok instead of and take every realm for them, after which... backstabbing will ensue. (See: Deception's intro)

In some form or another, Raiden's Arcade Ladder ending will happen in MK10.
The situation described in Raiden's ending (merger between Earthrealm and Outworld, Shao Kahn's defeat, remnants of the invasion force most likely still roaming throughout the lands) matches up the most with the actual ending of Story Mode. Not to mention that
 * Then, guesses on who the other guys might be... Perhaps Kai and Li Mei?
 * Kai is possible. Li Mei? Not so much, considering that Raiden is the protector god of Earthrealm and she's from a town in Outworld called Sun Do (a very Chinese-influenced locale, but a part of Outworld nonetheless). For all we know, the other two could be new fighters to be introduced in the next game.

Rain trained under Chuck Norris.
In Trilogy, one of his moves is a roundhouse kick so powerful, the victim gets knocked around to the other side of the stage. Need we say more? The reason he's not Chuck Norris himself is because if he was, you wouldn't be able to win a match against him.
 * No, just no.

In MK10, Earthrealm and Outworld will have to engage in an Enemy Mine situation.
Due to the fact that many warriors from both realms are dead and under Quan Chi's (and possibly Shinnok's) control, the forces of both realms will have to form an united front to stand against and defeat the Netherrealm forces, even if they dislike the idea. Bear in mind that this happened at least once. (Yes, it's non-canon, but it happened.)
 * That's actually not a bad idea. If Onaga's return in Deception was enough to get Raiden to briefly team up with Shang Tsung and Quan Chi for all of 30 seconds, then a potential onslaught from Shinnok's forces from the Netherrealm (if they can manage to make the guy as imposing one would think a fallen Elder God should be) could very well unite the other realms (this would probably include Seido/Orderrealm and Chaosrealm, seeing as Johnny goes to Seido to train and control his powers in his ending and Havik strikes up a deal with Noob in Noob's ending).

If resurrected, Kabal will become the leader of the Black Dragon and guide it to the good side.
Assuming that Kabal and the other good guys who were killed will get better, Kabal will become the leader of a new Black Dragon like in the original timeline but this time he will use it as a force for good, rather than doing it the way Havik does.
 * This could be possible, especially since the younger Sub-Zero had reformed the Lin Kuei into a force for good in the original timeline.

Raiden is Thor, Zeus, and every other god of Thunder. Simultaneously, Nightwolf views Raiden differently.
Nightwolf calls Raiden "Haokah", the Lakota spirit of thunder and lightning. Therefore it can be assumed that Raiden is also Haokah and by extension, every other god of thunder. Also, his name can alternately be spelled as Raijin as known to the Japanese. Since the only Japanese characters we know of are either undead or retconed into being Australian, we would have Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Shang Tsung (the only Asian Earthrealmers we know of) Raiden appears as he does.
 * Alternatively, Raiden is just Raiden, but as the protector god of Earthrealm, he simply appeared at different points in time to different civilizations, all of whom christened him with their own titles, extrapolated on his deeds, and worshipped him as the thunder god in their pantheon. Thus, All Myths Are True. However, your theory would explain why Raiden's garb resembles that of a Taoist thunder god shown in Chinese temples instead of the oni from Japanese folkore and myths. Presumably, this would also apply to Fujin, as well as the (currently) nameless earth, water, and fire gods from Mythologies.

9 being banned in Australia was a Batman Gambit on the part of the creators.
The goal in creating the game was to bring back the feel of the classic games, and what was one thing that made old-school Mortal Kombat so noteworthy? The controversy over its violent content, of course! In order to bring back every aspect of 1 - 3, the developers deliberately made the game as offensive as possible so that, at the very least, there'd be some outcry from the Moral Guardians somewhere. They succeeded.
 * You, good sir, are deserving of a Double Flawless for that stroke of genius.

Johnny Cage is Duke Nukem's younger brother.
First of all, Johnny and Duke look a hell of a lot a like, down to the Sung's and everything. Johnny will even remark "DAMN, I'M GOOD" after fights. Now, story wise, Johnny claims to enter the tournament to prove he's legit. However, he's really entering the tournament because he wants to show everyone he's just awesome as his brother, who is the manliest hero in the world. Johnny changes his last name to avoid being compared to his hot shot big brother. Johnny also only got into movies thanks to his brother's Hollywood / L.A connections, his brother's got quite a bit of swing in Earthrealm.

All throughout the stories of the various games, Johnny always hits on Sonya, but usually to no avail .He tries hard to be like his bro, but he just doesn't have his swagger!
 * If a PC version of MK is done someday (there were rumours about it being done and released through Steam in the future) then Duke being there as a PC-exclusive character wouldn't be strange.

Freddy Krueger's inclusion is Foreshadowing.
... Foreshadowing to an official fighting game involving Horror Icons.
 * If this is true, that would be unbelievably awesome. Although it would be a nightmare due to how many copyrights there are for a number of horror movie icons.

Mortal Kombat takes place in the same universe as Happy Tree Friends.
This could explain how a character can be viciously torn apart by a Fatality and be fine the next round of combat.

Chameleon will show up in Mortal Kombat 10 as a Wild Card.
He will attack heroes and villains alike in his quest to become the champion of Mortal Kombat, and will end up playing a big role. Which role is uncertain: maybe he'll be the ultimate Big Damn Hero, saving the day by defeating the main villain. Maybe he'll still fight the main villain, only to be defeated and leave the defeat of the now-weakened antagonist to somebody else. Or maybe he'll pull a  and kill a whole bunch of people.

Mortal Kombat 10 will include all the DLC characters, unused characters from the timeline, and Art Lean from the film.
Why? Other than fanservice, the only hero characters that managed to get out of 9 were Johnny, Sonya, and Raiden, leaving Earthrealm in need of some heroes. Cue the above characters  being recruited by Raiden.
 * The only problem: Many fans are begging for Cyber Smoke. If this happens, then fans will rage and the whole plot of  will be pointless. But Cyber Smoke probably won't make the cut unless he's an alt costume.
 * Also, Rain and Skarlet both work for Shao Kahn. Unless something happens that lets them pull Heel Face Turns, the only DLC character I can see Raiden recruiting is Kenshi.
 * Also, Rain and Skarlet both work for Shao Kahn. Unless something happens that lets them pull Heel Face Turns, the only DLC character I can see Raiden recruiting is Kenshi.

The Black Dragon clan is the modern-day Mann Co.
And Kano is the latest of the Hale family. Both Kano and Saxton Hale are Australian arms dealers whose wares include rocket launchers. Yet both are deadly kombatants with just a bladed weapon or two. Both can screw gravity (Kano with his cannonball, Saxton with his mega jump) and shrug off ridiculous amounts of bullets and explosives.

Ghost Rider will become DLC for MK 9.
Not official, but it would be Badass for Scorpion trying to do his spear move only for Ghost Rider to use his chain to wrap around it before dragging him with his cycle or something. Also just imagine his babaility.
 * Skullhead duel, huh? Sounds awesome!
 * He's particularly effective against Shang Tsung as well- "A thousand souls to burn. Look into my eyes!"
 * Isn't that more of a description of Ermac?

Raiden was holding the Idiot Ball through the campaign, but not in the way many think.
When Raiden got the warning from his future self, he also inherited his future self's ruthlessness. Future Raiden seemed very willing to kill anybody he decided that posed a threat to Earthrealm, whether a direct threat or being a fool and indirectly causing danger ( see Shujinko ).
 * Given Raiden's gut-wrenching reactions, I'm inclined to say no. Unless the God of Thunder is a very talented thespian, it's highly unlikely that
 * Alternate theory, Dark Raiden left hsi visions purposely vague so his past self would have enough information to fix the serious problems but misinterpret enough to eliminate the excess warriors who will bring about Armeggedon which destroys Earthrealm (and we all know how Dark Raiden deals with thinsg that threaten Earthrealm).

Rain will play a huge role in the next game.
Assuming he managed to survive MK 9 Rain will discover his true origin and seperate Edenia from Outworld and rule it himself, what with both Kitana and Sindel dead. While he may have been working for Shao Kahn it was merely for power, power the new ruler of Outworld, most likely Mileena, is unlikely to grant him so the opportunity to rule his own realm and be hailed as a hero by Edenians would be very appealing. This will give Tanya a chance to either betray him and invite Shinok's forces in or give her a chance to be heroic. It might also give them a chance to explore Taven and Daegon more as they're both still in Earthrealm and Armeggedon has been more or less averted. There's a lot of potential to work with here.
 * Also, if he attained plot relevance, Rain would have no more reason to be a villain.

Johnny Cage is related to Jade.
She might even be a direct ancestor, given her age and ability to freely travel to Earthrealm, demonstrated in MK9. They both share the Shadow Kick ability (Jade even using the same name for the move), and they both have a green glow when using their special powers. It's also stated that Johnny is descended from a group of warriors bred for the gods, and Edenians are a people that bred with their gods, so there may be a connection there. Sure, Jade is somewhat darker-skinned than Cage but a few generations of breeding with the right kind of humans would be enough of an explanation for that.
 * Plausible, seeing as Edenia and Earthrealm are two of the few realms on good terms with one another. For some reason, I'm now envisioning Cage trying to pull the moves on Jade without realizing he's pimping his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great... great-grandmother. Sure, that would be one foxy grandma, but still.

Shinnok will propose his own tournament.
If the forces of the Netherrealm win they gain legitimate control over Earthrealm but if Earthrealm wins they will release the souls of the dead warriors to Raiden. This will give Shinnok the ability to achive his goals without the Elder Gods interfering. For his part Raiden will call in Kai, Fujin and Shujinko and perhaps even Taven. They will gain allies in Sareena and Ashrah who will betray the Netherealm.
 * Hm... this could work, especially if they want to keep the titular tournament from becoming The Artifact.

Mortal Kombat 10 will be Wii U-only.
In order to make up for Mortal Kombat 9 not being released on the Wii.
 * It could just be multi-platform, though, Wii U included. However, if so, Khameleon could be a Nintendo Bonus, as was the case in Trilogy and Armageddon.
 * Khameleon was in the ps2 version...
 * No, Chamelion was. The male one, not the female. Yes, the One Mario Limit is there for a reason...

Potential M Kv SF plot
A potential crossover game, if set in the new continuity, would involve raiden summoning up the SF fighters to help defend earthrealm. in the old continuity, Shao kahn would instead brainwash them for his use
 * Capcom has thumbed down on that one.

Jax is the Old Spice Guy or can turn into him as a brutali-fatality.
Since everyone knows the Old Spice Guy is far more impressive than a 50ft venison of himself

Kano was once a surgeon.
He turned to a life of crime when he figured out the only parts of the job he liked were using sharp objects and tearing things out of people. So he quit his job and joined a little organization called the Black Dragon.
 * This dovetails amusingly with the Rebirth version of Baraka.

Motaro's death in MK9 was just a cop-out by the developers.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Motaro had two legs instead of four because the physics engine of that game could not manage a character with four legs. Then, Ed Boon said that "the next time we see Motaro, he would have four legs again". Note how he did not say anything about playing as Motaro, or even fighting against Motaro, and that's because the physics engine of MK9 still cannot manage a character with four legs. The only solution was to only show Motaro in cutscenes and make sure that another character Dropped a Bridge On Him.
 * Makes sense though, they're not going to redesign the entire system for the sake of one character who is not even playable. We likely won't see a return for Motaro unless other Centaur characters become relevant to the story.

Pious Augustus will be a Guest Fighter in a Wii U Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat Wii U has been brought up by the devs and the list of Nintendo characters that would ever fit is limited to... him. His fatality would be to make the opponent go insane, and what they imagine would be shown via uPad.
 * Now, now. It could be anyone from Mad World or No More Heroes, too.

Johnny Cage’s Nut Punch is a tribute to his career in ballet.
Back when he was still known as John Carlton, he had the title role in a production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Nowadays, Johnny Cage will deny his days as a ballerina to keep up his image, but in his mind he knows his ballet training helped with his martial arts training. (I know all about how Cage was literally supposed to be Jean Claude Van Damme. But the real JCVD had 5 years of ballet training.)

Liu Kang and Kung Lao are decendants of the elemental gods.
In Mythologies Elder Sub Zero steals the map to the temple of elements from a shaolin temple, and inside the temple itself he finds several shaolin monks guarding it, making it pretty obvious that the shaolin have a very close relationship with the elemental gods, so in order to create more powerful warriors monks that will stand a chance in Mortal Kombat, the shaolin temple convince the unnamed Fire God and the Wind God Fujin to breed with two mortal women, whom were themselves decendants of the Great Kung Lao, once the both crossbreed babies were born they were taken to the shaolin temple to start training them from early childhood, their heritage given them their respective special powers, Liu Kang can handle fire like his daddy the Fire God, while Kung Lao can do a wind propelled dive kick and spin fast enough to create a tornado, both of witch moves are used by Fujin himself in MK 4, further supporting this theory.

Had Kratos and Scorpion met under different circumstances, they would have become staunch allies.
There's a lot of base for a potential friendship between them: both are morally reprehensible warriors out to avenge the deaths of their comrades and families, and do not care how many people they have to kill in order to achieve that goal. There's also the matter of their chained weapons: Scorpion's kunai, and Kratos' Blades of Chaos.

A few guesses for potential guest characters

 * Heihachi Mishima: He's a ruthless villain, so he'd fit right in
 * Vegeta: He loves fighting, and has a built in fatality
 * Any Killer Instinct character: as a Wii U exclusive
 * Sarah Kerrigan: PC exclusive, with her moveset and fatalities coming mostly from Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
 * Mephiles The Dark: as a Nintendo exclusive. His fatalities could include the opponent being impaled.
 * Isaac Clarke: He's no stranger to evisceration, whether he's the aggressor or the victim.
 * Akuma. What, Capcom will cross over Street Fighter with anything.

The Cyborg frame used for Smoke in Mortal Kombat 3 was actually intended for Sub-Zero.
A theory states that the Lin Kuei made three prototype frames, two of them were used for Cyrax (yellow) and Sektor (red). The frame used for Cyber Smoke in 3 is colored grey with a bluish tint on it. John Vogel stated that it is possible that Cyber Smoke from 3 and Cyber Sub-Zero from 9 used the same cyborg frame. When you think about it, however, you might ask, "What if the Lin Kuei succeeded in capturing BOTH Smoke and Sub-Zero?" Then if the frame used for Smoke in 3 was actually intended for Sub-Zero, then Smoke must have been given a fourth prototype frame (this time, a full grey one) or the same cyborg frame used by the regular Lin Kuei robot mooks.
 * A counter-argument would be that in Raiden's vision, Cyber Smoke is a Palette Swap of Sektor, not of Cyber Sub-Zero. Whether this could have been a mistake or not remains to be seen.
 * Why are we assuming there are premade frames at all?

Johnny Cage really did go to hell in the first film, and hasn't actually left since.
Maybe he never did get out of hell after Scorpion sent him there, and the rest of the movie (and sequel) were parts of Cage's subconscious punishing him? Two things damaging to his ego: Cage got reduced to supporting role with someone else (Liu Kang) getting the frontline spotlight over him, and even as a supporting cast he gets REPLACED by someone else (Jax). Not only was this Cage's egotistical idea of a nightmare, but he was forced to sit and watch it.
 * But he got to kill Goro, which directly led to Earth being saved, and rescue Sonya, which got him the girl. Bad things don't really start until the sequel.

Noob will become Sub-Zero in later games but...
Saibot will go off to form into the new Noob Saibot, and will try to murder Bi-Han for their seperation, but Cyber Sub-Zero will help his brother fight Noob, while Bi-Han goes out to convince Scorpion, that he did not kill his clan and family, but Quan Chi did.

The reason fatalities work the way they do.
A lot of fatalities in the Mortal Kombat universe end up making you think to yourself "Hang on - why couldn't they have just done that at the start of the round and got it over with?" - stuff like slicing or ripping your opponent's head/limbs off, super-powerful projectiles etc. However, after some thought, there is an explanation for why this is the case.

The amount of punishment a character's body takes in a typical round of Mortal Kombat is downright brutal. They can be stabbed in various vital organs multiple times, suffer multiple broken bones, stabbed in the eyes, had their neck broken etc. and, shrugging off their injuries. It's clear that everyone in Mortal Kombat has a very high pain threshold and their body is highly resistant.

But in the end, even their bodies have limits - after two or three rounds of brutal beatings, they simply can't take any more, hence leading to their 'dizzied' state and the infamous "Finish Him/Her!" cry. Ultimately, the intense period of fighting means that their body's defense mechanisms give out for a short period of time. It's during this period whereby it's possible to kill them. So for example, whilst beforehand Mileena's sais simply mean losing a few health points, during a Fatality they cause permanent damage and leave them further incapacitated.

Being the Official Ruler/Defender of a Realm grants that person great power within that Realm.
But ONLY within that Realm. This would explain several things.

First, it would explain why Raiden appears to be stronger than Fujin, despite Fujin being a god of one of the four elements, as well as why he's so weakened when entering Outworld.

This would also explain the Emperor's motivations for why he not only conquers Realms but forces them to merge with Outworld. It also explains why merging Realms with Outworld supposedly makes him stronger and freeing Realms makes him weaker. It would also explain how Lui Kang was able to beat him despite even Raiden and Shang Tsung being unable to defeat him, as he'd have to give up much of his power to compete in a tournament, as we saw with Raiden in the early games, or he was in Earthrealm before it's merging.

This may also explain why Sindel is so much more powerful than every other Edenian except the half-gods. She's Edenia's official ruler/protector so she gets a power boost.

I also suspect that whomever's in charge of the Realm can decide if someone from anouther Realm gets to keep their extra power, which is why Raiden and Sindel can keep their full powers within Earthrealm and Edenia as their Realms are allied with each other.
 * Certainly, entering another's Realm weakens a god, but a Realm without gods (I.E., The Netherrealm) seems to be "neutral ground," given that Raiden was strong enough to face Shang Tsung and Quan Chi there at the same time.

Mileena's story was changed mid production in 9.
This is why Jade has no dialogue during the first tournament, it was originally supposed to be Mileena with Kitana until they decided that having Kitana discover the newly created Mileena would serve their purposes better. Also, in Kitana's arcade ending it says she discovered the truth about Mileena and killed the Emperor for his betrayal, but that doesn't really sync up with what we see during the story mode, there was no truth about Mileena for her to discover as the Emperor told her flat out what was up once he learns Mileena is alive. This would also explain why Mileena is the Emperor's second in command despite being newly created and so mentally childlike, it was a holdover from when she retained her old origin.

Shang Tsung was once the champion of Mortal Kombat... representing Earthrealm.
Information on Shang Tsung is always dodgy, but it generally agrees that he's from Earthrealm in some way. Also, we know that Edenia fell to Outworld around 1000 years ago, and Earthrealm has been losing Mortal Kombat tournaments since The Great Kung Lao was killed by Goro 500 years ago. But there is no mention of another Realm during the ten-tournament cycle in between. What happened? Clearly, Shao Kahn set his sights on Earthrealm, but his champions were eventually defeated by a heroic sorcerer, and protegee of Raiden - Shang Tsung. Without warriors strong enough to kill this new challenger, Shao Kahn instead offered him wealth, comfort, power, and eternal life, corrupting the hero. This is why nobody talks about Shang's past (neither he nor Raiden likes to think about it), why Shang is so offended by Liu Kang and the Great Kung Lao (both exceeded him in moral, as well as physical, strength), and why he and Raiden always seem so oddly casual when speaking to each other (they were friends for a long time).

Time flows differently in other Realms.
We know this is the case some of the time - namely, that in Chaosrealm, time flows differently between one place and another. However, it makes sense in general, too - for example, Edenia fell to Outworld 10,000 years ago, but apparently no adult warriors exist who were born between then and now. This would work out a lot more neatly if time passed ten, one hundred, or even one thousand times faster there. This would also explain why someone like Reptile, who's known nothing but battle for literally millions of years, would be even remotely beatable by someone like Johnny Cage (in the story - obviously, in gameplay, anyone can beat anyone however much/little sense it makes), who doesn't even understand his abilities.

As an aside, this might imply that Bi Han (the first Sub-Zero) spent some time in other Realms after killing off the Shirai Ryu, since that appears to have happened back when horses were still a major mode of transportation, while in the modern day, Lin Kuei operatives have jetpacks.