With the first Kombat Pack for Mortal Kombat 11 including Queen Sindel, fans of the older installments immediately went into euphoria after seeing another face from Mortal Kombat 3 appear. Sindel, known for her banshee screams and hair-whips, rose to prominence in the game during the '90s, mostly due to her emotional connection as the mother of Princess Kitana. It added drama to the Edenian realm that aways fell to invasion from Outworld.
However, Mortal Kombat 11 has made a massive retcon to Sindel, one that doesn't just do the character an injustice, but the entire franchise as a whole.
In the original story, Sindel ruled alongside King Jarod before Shao Kahn's invading forces took over in MK3. The king was killed and Sindel, an unwilling bride, committed suicide only for Kahn and Shang Tsung to resurrect her as a mindless revenant and consort. Sindel became a brainwashed villain. This event led to Kitana fighting to save her mother's soul. It wasn't just about her and her allies trying to free Edenia anymore, but it became about the basic human instinct of a daughter trying to free someone that mattered deeply to her in a time of unending war.
The 2011 reboot would tweak things slightly with Shinnok and Quan Chi resurrecting Sindel but now, MKX's latest retcon undoes the good of Sindel and takes away not just her potential arc of redemption and the overall heartbeat of the character, but the mission of rescue and salvation that drove Kitana when it came to the fallen queen. When the official description for the character dropped, in addition to how Nightwolf -- one of her biggest enemies in the early games -- banters with Sindel in her first gameplay trailer, it's clear she was always evil, nullifying any part of her soul worth saving.
"The former Queen of Edenia will stop at nothing to keep her place. When threatened with the loss of her throne when Shao Kahn conquered her realm, Sindel betrayed her husband, and her people, to keep her privileged position," the official description stated. "Now Shao Khan's wife and Queen of the Outerworld, she enjoys power and wealth beyond most people's imagination. Good luck to anyone who tries to take it from her."
Obviously, there's no bringing her back from the dark side, which was one of Kitana's most intriguing ambitions. She compromised the main objective at times and was even willing to put aside her duties as a princess just to save Sindel, which even dropped her into conflict with Raiden, Liu Kang and other key stakeholders who felt that they couldn't lose sight of the big goal. But by removing this factor, Sindel's just a soulless, run-of-the-mill thug who craves power and control. In other words, she's no different from Kahn, Quan Chi, Shinnok, Motaro or Goro, and becomes totally one-dimensional.
Again, that sliver of hope made her and Kitana's dynamic all the more rich, similar to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars Universe, creating an emotional turmoil that just couldn't be extracted from other characters. Sindel's salvation made Kitana better-rounded, and it also gave Jade a purpose as someone who wanted to honor her queen and the sinister Tanya purpose as someone who wanted to be the next Sindel on the throne. This move, though, doesn't inspire any of these femme fatales to greatness because there's just no nuance to a crooked wife who somehow ignores years of being a mother and wife just to be with a masked man with a big hammer. It's a flat retcon that takes interest away from the Game of Thrones-like story surrounding Edenia and doesn't stroke any fire of optimism for Kitana and her feud with mommy dearest. Fighting to bring Sindel back to the light felt more attractive than just beating down a traitor, so by downgrading Sindel, Ed Boon and Co. did the same for Kitana as well, which is sad because this inspired the princess to become one of the most iconic faces in the series.
Mortal Kombat 11 is developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive. It is currently available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.