For those who don’t keep up with the extensive and often confusing lore of the Mortal Kombat series, Sindel plays a very important role. Her story begins 10,000 years before the beginning of Mortal Kombat, where she sits as the queen of Edenia alongside her husband, King Jerrod, and daughter, Kitana. After losing 10 consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments, Shao Kahn and his forces invade Edenia, killing King Jerrod, enslaving her people, and forcibly adopting her daughter Kitana. As a result of witnessing this horror, Queen Sindel takes her own life, but that would not be enough to save her from the tragic fate she was destined to live out.

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Sindel is forcibly revived and controlled into doing countless evil acts throughout her course in the franchise, but she is always somehow forced to do these things. Though she has been a villain for some time, she never chose this life, either being subjected to mind control, brainwashing, coercion, or the like. Kitana, Sindel’s daughter, is even able to get through to her at times in past games, convincing her that what she is doing is wrong and empowering her, albeit temporarily, to do what she knows is right.

This version of Sindel is a stark contrast to who she is in her ending cinematic after conquering the Klassic Tower. Upon defeating Kronika and gaining access to the hourglass which allows her to reshape time itself, Sindel reveals to the player that the story about Shao Kahn invading Edenia and killing her husband was not entirely true. In reality, it was Sindel who betrayed Edenia and killed King Jerrod, choosing to marry Shao Kahn in an effort to use him to conquer and unite all realms under her rule. This is a goal she eventually achieves, as with the power of the hourglass, none (not even Shao Kahn) can defy the self-proclaimed Empress of Time.

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This brings to mind many questions about her role in previous games, though. If Sindel did all of this on purpose, why would she have killed herself? It is undeniable that she was used and controlled like a puppet by the likes of Quan Chi and Shinnok, as even by the time she claims the hourglass Sindel is still in the form of a revenant. This also implies that any time she opted to fight for good or listened to Kitana, she was trying to further her own motives of uniting and ruling all realms.

Sindel’s big reveal shocked many fans, especially long time ones of the series, as it does completely change not only how players view the character, but the big picture lore of the franchise itself. This major change to such an important character is unprecedented, but it certainly changes a lot and creates many new opportunities for the franchise moving forward. Sindel’s story may end up being the first of many that were not entirely as they seemed, and it would be interesting to see this topic further explored in the future.

Mortal Kombat 11 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One.

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