Aside from characters and lore, the brutal and goofy finishers are one my favorite parts of the Mortal Kombat series.
Today, let’s talk about Friendships.
(Note: this was written before Friendships were added into MK11, so I’ll be doing a separate post with my favorite ones from that game.)
According to the Mortal Kombat fandom wiki, “a Friendship is a finishing move introduced in Mortal Kombat 2 in response to the public controversy surrounding the Fatality in the original Mortal Kombat. Friendships allowed players to perform various (and highly unlikely) acts of kindness and goodwill towards their helpless opponent instead of killing them after winning the match.”
Developers described the inclusion of Friendships as “a counter to all the blood and gore,” saying they wanted a different aspect to the game. In MK2, Shao Kahn would announce “Friendship… Friendship?”, while in MK3 and MK Trilogy he would say “Friendship… Friendship, Again?”
A recent allusion to Friendships occurs in a Mortal Kombat 11 pre-fight interaction between Kung Lao and Johnny Cage. Kung Lao requests that Johnny Cage stop trying to get his hat, with Johnny asking if rabbits are inside of it or not; Kung Lao responds that “only [his] friends know for sure,” referencing his Friendship from MK2.
I think all of the Friendships are pretty funny and mostly clever, even if some are still wtf-worthy.
A few of the ones that don’t really make sense to me include Baraka giving a birthday gift to his opponent; Cyrax dancing the Charleston; Kano blowing a bubble with gum and it popping on his face. In MK2, Liu Kang breaks out into a disco dance; however, in MK3, Ultimate MK3 and MK Trilogy, he makes a shadow puppet of the MK dragon symbol, which makes marginally more sense, in my opinion.
Another weird one is Sindel’s, wherein she kicks a football and states “that was fun!” What in the world.
Mileena’s Friendship in MK2 and Sonya’s in Ultimate MK3 and MK Trilogy are fairly similar, with both having flowers grow on the ground near their feet.
Two that make perfect sense are Nightwolf juggling tomahawks in the Nintendo 64 version of MK Trilogy and Sheeva spinning plates on sticks held with each of her hands.
Some of my favorites include:
Sub-Zero covering himself up in a snowman (MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Stryker blowing his whistle and pulling out a school crossing stop sign as Kung Lao’s dog pulling a small red wagon passes through holding baby version of Unmasked Sub-Zero, Sindel and Jax (MKT 64)
Sektor hitting a strength testing pole with a mallet, causing the bell to ring (MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Shang Tsung making a rainbow with his hands (MK2)
Kabal using one of his hookswords to roast a marshmellow (MK3, UMK3, MKT)
ready for some slapstick? 