Scorpion VS Wolf

 "While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself."

-Douglas Horton


Scorpion, the revenge seeking revenant ninja from Mortal Kombat.


Wolf, the immortal protector of the Divine Heir also known as Sekiro.   


Death is normally the end for us, however for these two ninjas death was only the beginning along with their new immortal lives and a burning act of revenge. But if these undying ninjas were to be put into a fight to the death who will come out on top in a DEATH BATTLE?


 In case you were wondering…

For Scorpion we will be using all the mainline games in the Mortal Kombat series along with additional media like the comics and animated movies, which are largely based on the same story with respect to the source material. We will also be looking at both timelines for Scorpion to examine his full potential. Please do keep a note that any info Mortal Kombat 1 has provided will not be in this blog. That is because this blog was planned to be released before the game came out, but due to conflicting with real-life schedules, couldn’t make it. So take this blog as a final look at Mortal Kombat stats before any changes were brought about by Mortal Kombat 1. 


For Wolf he is very straight forward. We will be looking into all of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice including all its endings as they don’t really change Wolf physically in any way and still portray Wolf as the same person in each ending (Minus the Shura ending but you get the point). We will also be putting Wolf at his maximum in game level so he can be at his peak for the purpose of the debate. We will also be using the Sekiro manga and the official Art book for additional media when applicable. 


With that out of the way, let's get into the blog.

Background

Scorpion

“It is strong, yes, it is fast, but do you know why the Scorpion is feared? Its will.”


Before he became a revenge-seeking specter, Hanzo Hasashi was just an ordinary boy (as ordinary as the son of a ruthless ninja can be) living a relatively normal life. Hanzo’s father wanted what was best for him, and forbade him from ever joining the legendary clan of assassins known as the Shirai Ryu. As time went on however, Hanzo decided to stray away from the trappings of modern day life, eventually needing to find a way to support his wife and son. Hanzo became a powerful and skilled ninja known as Scorpion, but his desire to make quick money turned out to be his downfall. 


On a mission to steal the ancient Map of Elements, he encountered an assassin from the Shirai Ryu’s rival clan, the Lin Kuei. Scorpion faced off against the cryomancer known as Sub-Zero, and met his untimely demise when Bi-Han ripped his spine from his body, killing him. Simultaneously, the Lin Kuei Grandmaster had ordered the killing of Hanzo’s entire family and clan; executed by the deadly sorcerer Quan-Chi. When Hanzo woke up, he found himself the subject of endless torture in the Netherrealm. But Scorpion’s soul fought on, it was relentless. This is where we get the original timeline’s backstory for Scorpion. In it, he rose from the pits to seek his revenge against Sub-Zero, and succeeded in doing so. After losing in their encounter prior to the tournament, he confronted Bi-Han again, and murdered him, proceeding to escape by bursting into flames.


After this, Bi-Han’s younger brother Kuai Liang, took up the mantle of Sub-Zero to finish the mission his older brother was assigned. At this point, Scorpion realizes the cost of his actions, and devotes his life to protecting this younger version of the ice-wielding ninja. Scorpion would go on to be a kombatant with a neutral alignment, roaming the earth with no clear allegiance to any realm, even going so far as to turn down Shao Kahn’s offer to aid him in his invasion of earth in order to avoid having to fight Kuai Liang.


Later on, Scorpion is tracked down by Quan-Chi, and given an offer he couldn’t resist - to be brought back to life. While Hanzo goes along with this plan, he eventually finds out that Quan-Chi is actually the one responsible for the death of his clan, and attacks the sorcerer, resulting in both being transported to the Netherrealm. With both of them stranded there, Scorpion took advantage of his newfound revelation by thrashing Quan-Chi at any point he could. To circumvent this, Quan-Chi enlisted the aid of two Oni, Moloch and Drahmin, who would fend off Hanzo whenever he got too close to the sorcerer. Scorpion almost met his untimely demise a second time, but the Elder Gods gave him a second chance.


After escaping a Soulnado, they transformed Scorpion into a champion, to fight back against the Dragon King Onaga, and save the realms from complete destruction. Things didn’t turn out too well for yellow-clad ninja (again). The Elder Gods promised to bring Hanzo’s clan back to the land of the living, but instead brought them back as undead zombies. As such, he turns against the Elder Gods and seeks to stop them from preventing Armageddon. Scorpion took part in the final conflict of Armageddon, where all combatants faced off at the pyramid of Argus. A final clash between good and evil, heroes and villains, resulting in a devastating outcome; the end of all things.


…Buuuuuut this is where we hit a divide between the two timelines known respectively as the Midway and NRS timelines. Shao Kahn wins the battle of Armageddon, which results in Raiden resetting the timeline, giving us a new backstory for Scorpion. In this timeline, instead of being a demon operating independently, seeking out those who have wronged him, he ends up becoming a servant resurrected by Quan-Chi, who promised to give Scorpion the vengeance he desperately longed for. Scorpion continues to act on behalf of the evil necromancer and his Brotherhood of Shadow until Raiden and the heroes are able to free some of Quan-Chi’s revenants from imprisonment, of which Hanzo was included.


He was freed from his specter state, but still retained his hellish abilities through a “curse”. Hanzo at this point had felt remorse for all the lives he took under the service of the Netherrealm, and promised to devote his life to making amends. He reformed the Shirai Ryu, took up an apprentice in Takeda Takahashi, and helped Earthrealm in preventing Kronika, the Keeper of Time, from resetting the universe to achieve her new era. However, after cheating death multiple times, it finally caught up to him, at the hands of the Kytinn creature known as D’Vorah. Even in death however, Hanzo sought to make things right, ensuring that his past self would not go down the route he did, he entrusted him to take his place in his clan. Hanzo Hasashi lived a life of regret, but in the end, fully realized the meaning of dying a hero, and his clan will carry on in his legacy. 

Wolf



“That’s it…A one-armed Wolf. I like it! Which means Sekiro. This is what I shall name you”



The Sengoku period was a time where everyone in Japan was seeking one thing, Control. Wars were breaking out almost everywhere in Japan and eventually led them to the land of Ashina. A war broke out between the invaders and the people of Ashina, and with a final battle the lord of Ashina Isshin the sword saint gained victory and saved his land. After the battle one of his men, the Shinobi Owl, found something in the battlefield. It was a boy that seemed to have no family so Owl took him in. Owl would train and raise him as his own and gave him the name Wolf.


Wolf through his training gained him respect and honor and it was so great he was granted a task, the task was to protect the divine heir Kuro. Kuro was a boy from an ancient clan and was its only surviving member. Wolf would protect him till he was sent out on a mission only for him to come back in the Hirata District in flames and his father dead. Wolf would search for the Divine Heir and battle many foes responsible for the destruction of the area for Kuro safety, one including his old master Lady Butterfly. Once all was done Wolf was stabbed in the back and left to die. However Kuro would safe him, in an effort to save Wolf from death he made a pack with him giving Wolf the dragon blood. 


A period of time would pass with Wolf being taken into prison on account of Lady Butterfly death and Wolf lost his purpose to live. However, from a letter given to him he learned that the grandson of the Sword Saint Genichiro was attempting to capture Kuro. Wolf sprung back into action and attempted to flee the area, but was stopped by Genichiro himself and would defeat Wolf by slicing his arm and taking the Divine Heir. Wolf would be saved by a sculptor and be given a new arm and learn of Kuro's whereabouts and dash to rescue him. Eventually Wolf would find Kuro and defeat Genichiro this time and Genichiro would flee the scene.


After catching his breath Wolf would learn why Genichiro needed the Divine Heir, it was because Kuro is immortal. Kuro being the next person in the lineage of the Divine Dragon he was granted immortality. While there were other immortality types out there the Dragon Blood was the purest and Wolf would figure out he himself has the Dragon Blood because of the pack Kuro made with him that night. The reason why Genichiro wanted immortality was because the land of Ashina was being attacked again and the Ashina army was falling, so to help his family not be defeated Genichiro wanted him and possibly his army to be undying.


Now up to speed Kuro gives Wolf his new plan. Kuro wants to sever the ties of the Dragon Lineage and needs Wolf to help by getting items around the land of Ashina to end the cycle. Wolf would go and gain the items but similar to the night at the Hirata Estate it was attacked. Wolf would rush to save Kuro but would find a surprise. The person he called his father, Owl, was still alive and like everyone else wanted Kuro for his immortality. Wolf is given the choice to help his father following the Shinobi code, or disobey him and protect Kuro. The main choice is to disobey him and defeat Owl in battle. Now in a rush Wolf and Kuro run to try and complete the ritual to end their immortality. The final obstacle in their path is Genichiro again but this time armed with the Black Mortal Blade. Wolf and Genichiro would battle one last time with Genichiro sacrificing himself to revive a now dead Lord Isshin to do battle with Wolf. Wolf would win and would be given three choices. Either kill Kuro ending the dragon lineage for good, sacrifice himself also ending the dragon lineage while also giving Kuro a normal mortal life, or give Kuro to the divine child of rejuvenation and seal Kuro in them to end the lineage.


Skill and Experience

Scorpion


As a Shirai Ryu ninja, Hanzo has fought in many battles using various different forms and techniques. He was actually given the title Scorpion due to his blindingly fast and deadly skill, and has shown proficiency in many types of weaponry. Scorpion is also proficient in the ways of stealth, and has practiced several forms of Chinese martial arts:



Wolf

Saying Wolf is one of the most skilled Shinobi in his world is quite an understatement. Ever since he was young Wolf was trained by master shinobi Owl and the ninja Lady Butterfly, both who were skilled enough to aid in the war for the land of Ashina. Owl also has shown he is more than willing to play dirty, being shown to throw firecrackers, throw poison, etc, and Wolf was still capable of beating Owl and if anything taught him that you should do anything to win as you can do the very same techniques in game. 


Probably the most impressive feat of skill was Wolf being able to beat Lord Isshin both in his older and younger “prime” state. The reason this is impressive is because Isshin himself has mastered all the Ashina arts, and was the leader and the man to slay the general of the enemy leader which ended the war of Ashina. Let alone he was skilled enough to gain the title Sword Saint, which means a warrior of legendary skills in swordsmanship. And Wolf was capable of defeating both his older, probably wiser self, while also being able to beat his younger self from the war.


This is also not including the many many different monsters he encounters. The more notable ones being the Great Ape and the Divine Dragon himself. There is also the fact Wolf with his immortality is capable of learning and predicting enemies attacks and anytime the enemy kills Wolf he will just come back with a new plan and will expect anything his opponent will throw at him. 


Wolf has also learned and mastered many different skills and fighting styles like…


Shinobi Arts and Skills

Wolf is capable of learning the skills of a Shinobi. These skills are mostly used for stealth tactics and are meant to allow Wolf to stay in the shadows while sneaking behind enemies and finishing them in one blow. The notable skills Wolf can learn includes…

  • Whirlwind Slash: A attack that has Wolf do a spinning attack to do big damage to multiple enemies. 

  • Breath Of Life: Light: This attack gives Wolf some health back every time he lands a Death Blow on a foe.

  • Shadowrush: An attack that has Wolf use a long range thrust attack used to impale foes in quick succession. 

  • Mikiri Counter: Allows Wolf to counter those with long range weapons by stepping on those weapons making the enemies open for attack. 

  • Suppress Presence: A skill that allows Wolf to lower his presence making it hard to spot him. 

  • Suppress Sound: A skill that lowers the sound of Wolf in the moment which along with the last skill makes Wolf even harder to spot. 


Ashina Arts and Skills

The Ashina arts are skills that are meant to help those in swordplay, meant to help with direct encounters. The skills are meant for warriors to overwhelm the opponent in quick and powerful strikes and are mainly used by Lord Isshin. Wolf is able to learn these skills and along with his already skilled swordsmanship makes him an even deadlier ninja. The notable skills include…

  • Ichimonji: A simple technique that allows the user to make a single yet very powerful strike while also recovering Wolf posture.

  • Flowing Water: A skill that helps Wolf deflect opponents and reduce the damage he would gain while blocking. 

  • Ashina Cross: By far the most powerful skill of the Ashina Arts. It's a skill that makes Wolf hold a stance, once ready will deliver a swift strike that stated by Lord Isshin is so fast it could sever the arm of a Shura.  


Prosthetic Arts and Skills

These skills make Wolf prosthetic arm an even more useful tool with Wolf integrating in many different attacks and combos. The notable skills include…

  • Projected Force: A move where Wolf puts the force of the arm into the blade releasing a powerful strike. 

  • Living Force: While unclear Wolf can use the arm with the blade to release a powerful strike that sets the blade on fire which most likely came from the Demon Of Hatred. 

  • Nightjar Slash: A leaping attack that has Wolf closing the distance with his foe and can back out with a backdash if the foe is already doing an attack.


Temples Arts and Skills

During his quest Wolf would wander upon a temple which held power monks which Wolf would fight. He would then be able to learn the skills used by said monks which mixes martial arts with the sword. The notable skills Wolf can learn are…

  • Praying Strikes: An elbow attack which can be used as a counter attack which is also a way the monks pray. Wolf can use this attack as a combo which at the end has Wolf using his whole body causing a big attack. 

  • High Monk: A move which has Wolf leaping at his foe with kicks and slashes from his blad making for quick combos and little room for counterattacks. 


Mushin Arts and Skills

The Mushin Arts is a mix of all previous arts, the Mushin arts is supposed to be a better version of all skills previously learned granting him great effect. The notable skills include…

  • Shadowfall: A upgraded version of Shadowrush, it allows Wolf to leap in the air after a shadowrush and use a spinning attack as they fall. 

  • Spiral Cloud Passage: A sword skill that allows Wolf to make shockwaves which damage his foes.

  • Empowered Mortal Draw: By far the most powerful skill, Wolf focuses his mind and releases a long range slash with the Mortal Blade which can quickly kill his foes while also destroying their poster. 

Equipment

Scorpion


Kunai Spear

Scorpion’s traditional weapon; while it varies in appearance, (usually appearing in modern titles as a metallic chain-like weapon, or in older titles as a literal kunai on a rope), it’s consistently used as an effective long-range attack. Scorpion has shown incredible finesse with this weapon, able to use it to spear a pilot out of a moving chopper, and hang onto the chopper once he gets launched away. He can also use it as a short-ranged weapon to slice up his opponents or combine it with hellfire to strengthen his spear-related attacks. The following is a list of spear-related moves Scorpion can use:


  • Spear: Scorpion spears his opponent to pull them in for a follow-up attack. 

  • Double Spear: Scorpion amplifies his spear attack to launch two spears instead of one. This can further be amplified to unleash hellfire through the spears.

  • Burning Spear: Hanzo coats the tip of his spear with hellfire to increase its strength. This makes all of his spear-related moves and combo strings deal more damage.

  • Death Spin: Hanzo briefly whirls his spear around to damage the opponent. 


Roped Mace 

In the Malibu comics, Scorpion is shown wielding a weapon similar to his kunai spear, however it appears as a spiked ball on a rope instead of a kunai. It functions essentially the same way, being used to restrain or attack opponents from a distance.   



Swords

Scorpion wields a variety of swords at his disposal. They are usually depicted as twin katanas, which just like his spear, Hanzo can wreathe with hellfire to increase their potency. Hanzo shows great proficiency with these weapons, and has many moves he can perform with his swords.


  • Sin Blade: A move Scorpion can perform in the appear that bounces the opponent for a full combo.

  • Demon Slam: Scorpion grabs the opponent from above and slams them to the ground; then proceeds to stab them through their back.

  • Misery Blade: Scorpion takes a stance with his sword of which he can unleash several follow-up attacks: a sweeping low, a powerful overhead, or a swift poke. He can also cancel this attack, or amplify it to leave an afterimage which can trick the opponent. 


Axe



Scorpion uses a small battle axe as part of his combo strings during UMK3 and MK Trilogy. It’s useful for short-ranged attacks. It’s also predominantly featured in Cooking with Scorpion (a certified klassic). 



Poison Collection

Scorpion keeps a personal poison collection either on his person or within the Shirai Ryu temple. The contents of this poison collection remain mostly unknown, however one of the items used on-screen is a psychedelic that Forest Fox steals and uses on Hanzo himself to put him in a state of mental entropy. In this state the target relives their worst nightmares, which for Hanzo, was the assassination of his entire clan, including having to watch his wife and son die before him. While he eventually breaks free from this state, it leaves him incapacitated long enough for Fox to tie and restrain him to the ceiling. 


The Deathstone

An artifact created by Shao Kahn and wielded by Scorpion, the Deathstone is able to control a whole army of the undead. These undead beings wield spears, swords, shields, axes, and other forms of weaponry. Wielding the Deathstone requires a powerful mind, as it fills the user’s mind with voices, causing them to be overwhelmed and collapse. Scorpion can also use it to sense and control fused beings. 


Relics


Scorpion is able to use many types of relics, each with varying effects (usually resulting in increasing the combatant's base stats). While there are many more relics than the ones listed below that are available in MK Onslaught, these are the ones that Scorpion is able to equip specifically:


  • Scorpion’s Spear: Increases accuracy by 30%, increases chance of critical damage by 30%, increases critical damage dealt by 20% against those suffering from burn, and adds a 60% chance to burn the opponent with a critical hit on a melee attack. 

  • Bloodstone of Vaeternus: Increases chance of critical damage and critical damage itself by 12% and 15%. Also increases dot damage by 15% and heals the user for 50% of all dot damage inflicted. 

  • Crown of Jerrod: Increases chance of critical damage and total health by 12%. If the user’s primary target receives healing, the user is healed for 20% of that healing amount. 

  • Drahmin’s Mask: Increases tenacity (which makes resisting combat effects more likely) by 12%. Also gain 10% increases in attack and total health for every active Netherrealm ally (this effect is decreased per knocked-out Netherrealm ally). 

  • Kafallah Clarion: Increases health and defense by 12% and summons an Oni with 20% of the user’s stats when a teammate dies. 

  • Naknadan Satchel: Increases health by 8% and block by 10%. If the user is targeted by more than one opponent they also gain a 5% increase in dodge per foe. 

  • Datusha Kris: Attacks from the wielder bypass 10% of the target’s defense and their melee attacks also deal increased damage by 10%. 

  • Kirehashi Blade: After winning initiative (first attack in a round), the user gains a 5% increased chance for critical damage, which can stack up to 5 times. 

  • Wu Shi Beads: Increases mastery (which increases the likeliness of applying status effects) by 8%. This also increases critical damage by 12%.

  • Bone Scythe: Increases block and chance for critical damage by 8%.

  • Lin Kuei Kama: Increases tenacity by 8% and chance for critical damage by 12%.

  • Spiked Gauntlet: Increases chance of critical damage by 12% and accuracy by 8%.

  • Luck Charm: Increases mastery by 5%

  • Ancient Teachings: Increases mastery by 5%

  • AP Ammo: Increases critical damage by 10%

  • Bo Staff: Increases block by 5%

  • Bone Shield: Increases defense by 5%

  • Chakram: Increases chance of critical damage by 5%

  • Combat Boots: Increases initiative by 5%

  • Combat Helmet: Increases health by 5%

  • Hide Armor: Increases health by 5%

  • Hide Gloves: Increases defense by 5%

  • Iron Sword: Increases attack by 4%

  • Laser Sight: Increases chance of critical damage by 4%

  • Leather Armor: Increases dodge by 5%

  • Leather Boots: Increases initiative by 5%

  • Meditation Beads: Increases magical resistance by 5%

  • Naginata: Increases attack by 3%

  • Scope: Increases chance of critical damage by 4%

  • Spiked Shield: Increases block by 5%

  • Steel Bracers: Increases physical resistance by 5%

  • Steel Helmet: Increases health by 5%

  • Submachine Gun: Increases attack by 3%

  • Throwing Stars: Increases critical damage by 10%

  • War Fan: Increases dodge by 5%

  • Weapon Harness: Increases accuracy by 5%



      Konsumables

Scorpion is able to use a vast array of konsumables from MK11’s Towers of Time game mode. While these konsumables could be seen as non-canon, they are being included for completion sake. Some konsumables may be more applicable than others. They have a varying range of effects, such as draining the opponent’s life, healing oneself immediately or overtime, increasing fire damage, making the user more resistant to elemental attacks, etc. Unlike Relics, konsumables can be used by anyone, and are not specific to any particular kombatant.


A full list of usable konsumables can be found here.


                          Mobile Cards

 

Scorpion is able to draw from a multitude of support and equipment cards that grant him advantages in many ways. Support cards are able to increase Scorpion’s base attack, health, and recovery by a significant amount, while equipment cards offer miscellaneous effects and special abilities alongside the usual stat boosts. The following is a list of the status effects that can be induced via equipment cards:


  • Poison: Damages over time and nullifies healing 

  • Fire: Damages and drains the opponent’s power over time

  • Bleed: Damages the opponent over time

  • Regen: The user heals over time 

  • Power Drain: Drains the opponent’s power 

  • Power: Grants extra power generation

  • Stun: Immobilizes the opponent 

  • Slow: Slows down the opponent’s movement 

  • Speed: Speeds up the user’s movement 

  • Strength: Increases the user’s damage 

  • Weaken: Decreases the opponent’s damage 

  • Shield: Increases the user’s toughness 

  • Shield Break: Decreases the opponent’s toughness 

  • Luck: Increases the user’s critical attack chance 

  • Curse: Causes the opponent to take more damage from critical hits

  • Snare: Disables the opponent’s tag

  • Fear: Forces the opponent to tag out

  • Blind: Increases chance to miss basic attacks

  • Cripple: Disables the opponent’s special attacks

  • Dispel: Removes all negative effects from the user

  • Frostbite: Slowly drains the opponent’s power and decreases the opponent’s speed

  • Vampirism: Heals the user by the same damage dealt

  • Death Mark: Disables all forms of resurrection 

  • Soaked: Slows down the opponent and causes them to take more damage from lightning attacks.

  • Oblivion: Removes effects from special attacks, reduces their critical chance to zero, and downgrades them to level 1.

  • Incurability: Disables all forms of healing

  • Invulnerability: Allows the user to ignore any type of damage

  • Silence: Disables the user’s special attack 1 and reduces their power generation by 60%


Similarly to Konsumables, equipment cards can be applied to any character within MK Mobile, however the support cards are specific to Scorpion. Some equipment cards also grant effects specific only to him:


  • Wraith: Grants a 33% bonus to attack 

  • Clan: Shirai Ryu: Grants a 33% bonus to health 

  • Rival: Sub-Zero: Grants a 220% bonus to recovery 

  • Shirai Ryu Kunai: Grants a 25% critical hit chance boost, 50% damage boost against opponents affected by stun or slow, and a 30% unblockable chance for special attacks.

  • Specter’s Infernal Chains: Grants a 70% chance to drain 33% of the opponent’s power with a special attack, a 25% chance to avoid damage from the opponent’s special attack and applying the fire status effect, and the user is able to reflect 30% of their avoided damage to the opponent. 

  • Specter’s Burning Vengeance: Grants a fire status effect applied with any special attack, and applies a 40% chance to gain half of the user’s power bar when the opponent resists a debuff. 

  • Restless Ninja’s Figure: Grants a 15% chance to apply Curse on basic attacks, a 70% resistance to all debuffs while the opponent is affected by snare or curse, and a 10% chance to counter the opponent’s attack by stealing the opponent’s attack for himself. 


A full list of usable equipment cards can be found here.




Wolf


The Kusabimaru

The main weapon Wolf uses throughout his adventure. The blade is an heirloom of the Hintaro Family and was given to Wolf by the Divine Air. Its blade in general doesn’t have any special properties however Wolf still shows he is a master with the blade taking down all his foes with it. 


Prosthetic Arm

After Wolf first fought with Geneichiro either by losing or Genechiro being a sore loser Wolf lost one of his arms. The Sculptor who helped Wolf gave him a new arm. With the new arm Wolf was able to find upgrades during his quest and the Sculptor adds them to his arm and said items have upgrades for them. Wolf attachments for the arm include…


  • Grappling Hook: The universal feature the arm has is a Grappling Hook which Wolf can use to get to higher places. Wolf also has shown that if given the chance can use it on enemies to close the distance 

  • Loading Shuriken: The first tool the arm has is allowing Wolf to use some items to damage foes from a distance. Upgrades for the item include…

    • Phantom Kunai: This is the weapon Wolf's old teacher, Lady Butterfly, uses to wield. When thrown the Kunai will summon up to 6 butterflies that will all home and target the enemy doing damage to them. 

    • Lazulite Shuriken: What seems to be a normal Shuriken is much better because it allows Wolf to attack multiple enemies with it making for good crowd control 

  • Loaded Axe: An attachment that puts an axe on Wolf arm which he can use to break enemies defenses and shatter enemy shields leaving them open for attack. The upgrades for this tool include…

    • Spring-Loaded Axe: This simple upgrade works similar to the normal one however has the added benefit of allowing Wolf to spin with it allowing multiple attacks and landing one final overhead attack when finished. 

    • Sparkling Axe: This axe basically makes the Axe go on fire. It can be used to break enemies posters by setting them on fire and when landing an overhead attack causes a mini explosion that further damages enemies. 

    • Lazulite Axe: This axe normally acts as the normal axe however its special feature is that it destroys any illusion in Wolf area making fights easier. 

  • Flame Vent: The attachment that allows Wolf to throw out a wave of fire which has the added effect to make enemies have the burn effect. The upgraded attachments for this attachment includes…

    • Spring-Loaded Flame Vent: This one works similar to the normal Vent however this one has a bigger flame and does more damage with its flame.

    • Okinaga’s Flame Vent: This upgrade allows Wolf to make a continuous flame attack that keeps going as long as Wolf wants. 

    • Lazulite Sacred Flame Vent: This one works similar to the Okinaga’s Flame Vent however it uses blue flames which allows more damage to be dealt.

  • Shinobi Firecracker: A more simple tool that allows Wolf to throw firecrackers that a flash distracting enemies. The Upgrades for this tool include…

    • Spring-Loaded Firecrackers: A simple upgrade that allows Wolf to throw firecrackers in a 360% angle which can stun more enemies around him.

    • Long Spark: A upgrade that allows the firecrackers effect to stay longer.

    • Purple Fume: The upgrade that allows Wolf to throw a purple powder that shortly after thrown will flash like firecrackers catching enemies off guard. 

  • Loaded Spear: A tool that gives Wolf a long ranged weapon with a spear that has the added bonus of being able to drag enemies near him. The upgrades for this tool include…

    • Spear Thrust: A upgrade that allows Wolf to charge at the enemy which can make them lose their poster 

    • Spear Cleave: An upgrade that allows Wolf to make a spin attack with the spear attacking many enemies around him. 

    • Leaping Flame: Works similar to Spear Cleave but makes the spear go on fire making a fiery spinning attack.

  • Mist Raven: The tool that gives Wolf more mobility allowing him to teleport a small distance of his choosing to catch enemies off guard. The upgrade for this tool includes…

    • Great Father Mist Raven: Works the same way of the normal mist raven but when Wolf teleports he leaves a gist of fire which does burn damage to those hit by it.  

  • Loaded Umbrella: A defensive item that allows Wolf to pull out a nearly indestructible Umbrella. The upgrades for this tool include…

    • Magnet: Works like the normal tool but when the enemy attacks the umbrella their attacks will be reversed making them throw their attack the other direction. 

    • Phoenix Lilac: Allows Wolf to block attacks with the terror effect allowing him to avoid those attacks. 

    • Suzaku’s Lotus: Works the same as the Phoenix Lilac but instead blocks all fire attacks.

  • Sabimaru: A tool that holds a second blade in the arm which gives Wolf some quick attacks. It also has the added effect of giving the Poison effect if landed. The Upgrades for this tool include 

    • Piercing Sabimaru: Works the same as the normal one but it has more piercing damage allowing more damage even if someone is blocking. 

    • Lazulite Sabimaru: Also works like the normal version however every time Wolf swings the weapon a poison mist will be spread allowing him to affect the enemy without the need to hit him.  

  • Divine Abduction: A fan attachment that allows Wolf to make the enemies hit by it turn around allowing Wolf to stab them in the back. There aren't any notable upgrades for this tool however. 


Gourds

Wolf has on him Gourds which hold medicine that helps Wolf in different ways. He has four on hand which include..

  • Healing Gourd: A simple Gourd that heals Wolf from any damage he has taken

  • Withered Red Gourd: This Gourd allows Wolf to gain some resistance to burn status however can not be effective if Wolf already has said status

  • Green Mossy Gourd: This Gourd gives Wolf some resistance to any poison effects someone might throw at him

  • Mottled Purple Gourd: The last Gourd Wolf has given Wolf resistance over terror status effects.


Homeword Idol 

This buddha statue has one simple use: it allows Wolf to teleport to the nearest Sculptor idol which works similarly to Wolf respawns. With this idol as well he is able to teleport out of any dangerous areas, for example Wolf can use this item to leave the Halls Of Illusions which is impressive because the hall of Illusions is stated to be an area between life and death. 


Note: It's debatable if this item can also work through time. This item can be used in the Hirata Estate area of the game which is set in the past before the main game events. With the Idol you can teleport to a Sculptor idol in the present. The reason it is debatable is because the area in the game is very unclear if it's time travel or just Wolf seeing a memory.  


Status resistance items


Wolf has found items throughout the game that help reduce or take away any status effects Wolf may have. The items for this include..

  • Contact Medicine: A medicine Wolf can gain that inflicts himself with a small ounce of Poison to ward off other poisons. (Its very counterintuitive but whatever it works)

  • Ministry Dowsing Powder: Heals Wolf of any Burn effects he has gained while also giving him some resistance to them and reducing any damage he will gain from Burn attacks.

  • Eel Liver: Gives Wolf a resistance to shock damage by reducing the damage he would take.

  • Pacifying Agent: Reduces buildup to Terror attacks while giving Wolf a resistance to it over time.  

  • Divine Grass: While also healing Wolf to full health it also removes all status effects Wolf may be inflicted by.


Misc. Healing Items

Even though Wolf gourds can heal him he can run out. So to avoid this Wolf has other items on him that heal him during battle. They all do generally the same thing and that is heal Wolf overtime though the duration and amount depends on the item used.   


Misc. Items 

Wolf has also found items that have aided him in battle, however they just don’t really fit into a certain section. The other items include…

  • Bite Down: A medicine that is located in the mouth of Wolf, which allows Wolf to kill himself when he bites it. (Trust me this is way more useful in gameplay)

  • Nightjar Monocular: A tube that Wolf uses to see distant objects

  • Oil: It is just regular oil however paired with other items Wolf can set enemies to flames.

  • Snap Seed: An item that when used can shut down illusion techniques. 

  • Divine Confetti: This item sets Wolf blade in purple and will do more damage to spirit, apparitions and demon type enemies.


Mortal Blade

The Mortal Blade is most likely the most powerful weapon in Wolf assenal. As for anyone who draws the Mortal Blade is able to slay those who are undying such as Hanabi the Undying who before getting the Mortal Blade could not fully kill him because of his immortality, but with it Wolf was able to end his suffering. Though it is important to note that not everyone can wield the blade as for any mortal man who seeked the blade did not survive, reason being it seems to suck the life out of you in some way. However because Wolf is immortal with the dragon heritage he was able to wield the weapon and use its full power. 


The Mortal Blade effect is very notable. To start it was the only weapon to kill Hanbei the Undying, who before has shown could not be put down by Wolf no matter how many times Wolf tried. It's also noted that Hanbei could come back from having half his body being sliced and could just come back. Though with the Mortal Blade it killed Hanbei without issue. 


The best effect with it was shown that it was able to draw blood from the Dragon Bloodline. We see this in a few instances such as Kuro able to make a cut on himself to draw blood with the blade, Wolf with the Mortal Blade can cut the Divine Dragon allowing him to gain its tiers and finally in one of the endings Wolf can fully kill Kuro. So it lives up to its as a blade to end the undying’s life.  


Black Mortal Blade

Surprise! There is actually a second Mortal Blade however its effect is vastly different from the normal Red Mortal Blade. While the Red normal Mortal Blade effect is to kill those that are unable to die, the Black Mortal Blade makes it so it brings back those dead. This is done by opening a gate to the underworld, this is done by a sacrifice and will bring back a once dead person. This is mainly shown with Genichiro slicing his own neck and bringing back a then dead Lord Isshin at a younger state. Now while Wolf normally never used the blade in combat, he does obtain the blade in the Shura Ending and as we said we will be using all endings of Sekiro.

Abilities

Scorpion


Undead Physiology/Resurrection 

As an undead specter from the Netherrealm, Scorpion is able to survive circumstances that no regular humans would be able to withstand. He has quickly regenerated and recovered from being impaled in the chest and being drowned out by lava. Even after getting beaten into a bloody pulp by Havik, he’s able to stay conscious without much issue, proving his endurance to be quite high. 


More interestingly, Scorpion is able to resurrect himself after death if he’s able to balance out his demonic side. After getting completely brutalized and killed by Havik, Hanzo awoke to a “mirror match” with his alter ego, and after winning, teleported from the Netherrealm to kill Havik, and back to bring his head to the demons. Scorpion was able to escape the clutches of the Netherrealm’s forces and make his way out of hell, completely free of any injuries he sustained beforehand. However, this doesn’t make him unkillable, and it likely isn’t an instant way of continuing a fight (more on that in Verdicts). 



The Netherrealm 

The Netherrealm is one of the many realms that makes up the structure of MK’s cosmology. A separate plane of reality stated to be infinite in size, it’s essentially the representation of Hell, where all the deceased souls or entities travel to after their death; as long as their soul is tainted with evil. In the Original Timeline, it was consistently stated that existing within or traveling to the Netherrealm requires a corrupted or tainted heart, but the NRS Timeline seems to stray away from this idea, allowing essentially anyone to travel to and fight within the Netherrealm. 


The Netherrealm grants many benefits to Scorpion. While in the lower reaches of the Netherrealm, his strength gradually increases, whilst the powers of sorcerers such as Quan-Chi, fades. In Shaolin Monks, It’s stated that despite the Netherrealm’s size, Scorpion would be able to find Liu Kang and Kung Lao while they’re there, which is supported by Scorpion’s constant thrashing of Quan-Chi in Deadly Alliance. Even with Quan-Chi’s escape to Outworld, Scorpion is still able to somehow sense his presence. 


Lastly, in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, Jataaka suggests that mortals either cannot survive in the Netherrealm with their soul intact or inside their body, and characters such as Drahmin have had their entire body transformed into a vicious beast just from exposure to the realm’s torturous environment. This effect is inconsistent however, and may have been scrapped in later entries as the series started to shift its interpretation of the Netherrealm. Regardless, it’s important to note due to the usage of both timelines in this blog.


Teleportation

One of Scorpion’s signature moves, his ability to teleport is extremely versatile and can be used in many ways. Scorpion gained this ability after being brought back as a specter by Quan Chi. He uses teleportation to surprise his opponents, keep them constantly guessing, evade attacks, and freely travel both to and from the Netherrealm whenever he pleases. He’s even able to teleport others there too, as a way of giving a home-field advantage. 


Hellfire Manipulation 

Scorpion’s primary method of attack is via his traditional hellfire manipulation. As a specter of the Netherrealm, Scorpion wields hellfire as part of his curse, with it coursing through his body in a searing rage. He has shown many different applications of using hellfire: including shooting fireballs, summoning flames from the ground, surrounding his body in an aura of flame (which can deal damage overtime), creating whirlwinds of flame, engulfing his hands or legs with fire to increase the potency of his attacks, and much more. 


A unique attribute of Hellfire is its ability to burn souls. It’s suggested to be capable of normally burning the damned souls of the Netherrealm, as Quan-Chi asserts that his torturers report the Netherrealm’s flames as being unsuccessful in burning Hanzo’s soul. It’s debatable how effective this application of hellfire is, as there’s never any additional context provided on it. However, intro dialogues do suggest hellfire affecting souls to actually be legitimate, proving it to be capable of harming them. In any case, it’s likely much more deadly than regular fire, and one would need a strong enough soul to defend against such a technique. 


Portal Creation

Scorpion can create portals that seemingly lead to the Netherrealm, as shown in his MK9 fatality. This allows him to burn his opponents to a skeletal corpse. Additionally, he can create a portal while in the Netherrealm and just spear his opponents from the safety of the realm. He also combines this with his teleportation ability to gain the edge over his opponent. 


Summoning


Scorpion, through some way shape or form, is also able to create multiple copies of himself to ambush his opponent in the Netherrealm. He does this in his UMK3 clones attack the opponent before the camera fades to black. He can also summon hordes of undead Shirai Ryu members and giant flaming skulls to attack his opponent. Additionally, the ninja specter is able to draw upon the denizens of the Netherrealm to assist him in combat. He can summon demons to restrain his opponent from below, or to attack them from the side or above. 



Elemental Intangibility 


Scorpion is able to briefly turn his body to a state of pure fire to pass through an opponent and burn their body from behind. He’s also shown going from his fiery skeletal state to human form in certain intro and outro animations.  



Spirit Form/Possession

In the Malibu comics, Scorpion is shown to have the unique ability to exist as a “spirit”, which is able to roam freely after his physical body is shattered and destroyed by Sub-Zero. In this state, Scorpion can fly, possess and speak through others, and even reform his physical body after being reduced to this state over a brief period of time. 




X-Rays/Fatal Blows


Finishers 

Scorpion is no stranger to the series’ trademark finisher, the Fatality. Usually done when Scorpion wants to finish off his opponent with style, Scorpion has shown many fatalities over the years, however, he’s also able to perform Babalities, Brutalities, Animalities, Friendships, and much more. Given he’s been in almost every single Mortal Kombat entry, it’s no surprise that his finisher list would entail such wide variety:




Resistances


Wolf


Dragon Heritage


The Dragon Heritage is one of different ways of gaining immortal life. The other ways of this include drinking from the Rejuving Water/sediment and or being infected by a centipede that has drank from it. However the problem with both are their effects. The Rejuvenating Waters while giving immortal life they can still die by a fatal blow, though from the sediment they do gain the ability to survive blows that would normally become fatal to others, but the catch is a person's mind can be infected by it making them a new person. With the centipede it only works with a dead body as it will enter their body and make the body its host mainly shown with the Great Ape. With the Dragon Heritage however there is no catch of any kind and is meant to be the purest form of immortality. 


Wolf gained it by Kuro through accepting a pack between them. Because of this Wolf doesn’t seem to age and if he “dies” he will be brought back to life. In game Wolf can come back basically instantly up to 3 times, however if Wolf dies more then he will “Fully Die” and resurrect to the nearest Buddha Statue. There seems to be no limit to how many times Wolf can “Fully Die” meaning he can most likely come back as many times as he wants.


However this doesn’t come with a catch as while Wolf can come back as many times as he wants it comes at the price with others life. The reason being is Wolf has a limited pool of energy with the resurrection, if Wolf loses his energy, his blood will spread a sickness known as Dragonrot. Those who are infected will have the life force taken away from them in order for Wolf to come back. The only way to cure this sickness is with the Dragon’s Blood Droplet, an item that gives those infected by dragonrot their life force back. 


Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu 


This is one of three specific Ninjutsu skills Wolf can learn that don't fit into any other previous skill trees as they act as abilities more than moves Wolf can use. With Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu Wolf can sneak up on an unsuspecting foe and stab them, killing them, Wolf then uses their blood to make a smoke bomb which can allow Wolf to sneak away without being caught. 


Betsewole Ninjutsu 


The second Ninjutsu Wolf can learn is the Betsewole Ninjutsu. This Ninjutsu allows Wolf to cover his blade with the blood of his defeated foe and grants Wolf extended range of all his attacks. 


Puppeteer Ninjutsu 


The last and most likely the most impressive Ninjutsu Wolf can learn. With this when Wolf kills his foe he can make the corpse of the previous killed for his puppet for a little while. With this Wolf can make them do certain actions and can bring them into other fights to help Wolf or do all the dirty work themselves while Wolf watches at a distance. 


Spirit Falls 

While exploring, Wolf could find various unique enemies of which he can battle. Once victorious Wolf gains a spirit fall which works similarly to items called Sugars, though unlike Sugars Wolf can use these infinitely. The Spirit Falls Wolf can use include…

  • Gachiin: The spirit fall that allows Wolf to become almost invisible, silencing his footsteps and presence for a minute. 

  • Gokahn: The spirit fall that allows Wolf to regain posture during his fights for a short period of time making it harder for his enemies to overwhelm him. 

  • Ungo: The spirit fall that allows Wolf to reduce the damage he would gain in a fight for a short period of time. 

  • Yaskariku: The spirit fall that makes Wolf a glass cannon by reducing Wolf health by half but gives Wolf an extra boost in power. 


Non-physical interaction 


Wolf has shown the ability to interact with spirits and ghosts. This is shown in the Mist forest where he can interact with spirits. Another instance is when he fought and defeated the spirit of a samurai which he won. 


Resistances 


  • Fire Manipulation: Items can boost Wolf’s resistance to fire.

  • Poisons: Items can boost Wolf’s resistance to poison. 

  • Electrocution: Items can boost Wolf’s resistance to being shocked by Lightning.

  • Fear Manipulation: Has items that can boost Wolf’s resistance to terror effect and the umbrella negates Terror attacks all together.

  • BFR: Has items that can teleport through different dimensions and can kill himself to spawn back to the nearest Buddha statue. 

  • Death Manipulation: Wolf could come back to life after holding the Mortal Blade which takes the life of any who wield it.



Forms


Scorpion 


Inferno Scorpion

After Liu Kang and Kung Lao fought and defeated Scorpion, they tried drowning him in a pool of lava, only for him to miraculously leap back into action as…Inferno Scorpion! Which…isn’t actually all that different from regular Scorpion, but he presumably gains a boost in strength and fire-related attacks. 


Wolf


Shura 

(Gif made by DARTHMAX)

A shura is when someone kills with no purpose. By this it means when you don’t kill for honor, revenge or for your home, you kill for nothing. And Wolf in the Shura ending (convent) becomes one. While being a Shura Wolf can gain the form of a demon of hatred which makes Wolf turn into a giant monster that causes destruction in its path. The demon can also manipulate fire around it and can make giant waves of it for devastating attacks. There is little reason to doubt that all of Wolf's previous abilities would not be brought over with this form making Wolf an almost unkillable monster. 

Feats

Scorpion

Overall

  • Defeated Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Sektor and Cyrax, Bi-Han, Havik, Frost, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Quan-Chi, D’Vorah, Kuai Liang, Goro, Sheeva, Kitana, Skarlet, Jax, Kano, Erron Black, and Raiden.

  • Took down the Special Forces alongside his clan

  • Fought his mirror self and overcame his inner demons 

  • Survived multiple encounters with the Oni,  Moloch and Drahmin

  • Avenged his family and clan 

  • Reformed the Shirai Ryu after his restoration 

  • Trained and mentored Takeda, son of Kenshi

  • Briefly became the Elder Gods’ champion 

  • Fought in the battle of Armageddon 

  • Assisted in fighting off Kronika and the Netherrealm army 

  • Founded peace between the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei

  • Aided in taking down the Cyber Initiative 

Strength

Speed



Durability

Wolf

Overall

  • Become a strong shinobi 

  • Was able to protect Kuro for a long period of time

  • Was able to go to the Divine Realm and Hall Of Illusion 

  • Ended the cycle of the immortality by severing the Dragon Bloodline

  • Became the first person to wield the Mortal Blade 

  • Defeated Legendary Shinobi Owl, Lady Butterfly, Genichiro, The Corrupted Monk, and the legendary sword saint lord Isshin. 

Strength

Speed

Durability 


Weaknesses

Scorpion


Scorpion is a tenacious foe; but he has his fair share of weaknesses. Too much built-up anger can cloud his judgment, leading him to make irrational decisions based on his own personal motives. He has a history of being manipulated time and again, although specifically only while as a specter of the Netherrealm. Lastly, despite his undead state, he is not invincible; ailments such as poison have put him down for the count. 

Wolf


Wolf while a skilled Shibui still has his downsides. Firstly all of his items have a limit to how many Wolf can use meaning he can be left with nothing in a fight if it goes on for too long. The other more dangerous weakness is that if Wolf dies too many times he can become weaker or lose Sen meaning while Wolf can come back as many times as he needs, he still loses something in the process.

Summary 

Scorpion

Advantages:


  • Takes the edge in the stat trinity, which can be further widened by several stat-boosting equipment

  • Greater number of status effects to induce

  • Teleportation allows for greater aerial mobility

  • Multiple relics and equipment are able to hinder or disable Wolf’s resurrection

  • Older and more experienced 

  • Holds the numbers advantage with demon, zombie, and clone summons, which are more plentiful and reliable than Puppeteer Ninjutsu

  • Hellfire is more potent than fire attacks Wolf would normally encounter, due to its soul-searing effects

  • The Netherrealm would be able to fully incapacitate and kill Wolf due to its strenuous environment 

  • Multiple ways to self-heal 

  • Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (peak) 



Disadvantages:


  • Resurrection is less defined and not as consistent 

  • Fewer amount of melee weapons 

  • Less agile on foot 

  • Summons could potentially be controlled by Wolf 

  • Got killed by D'Vorah of all people 

Wolf


Advantages:


  • Resurrection is more reliable and consistent 

  • Wider array of superior melee weapons 

  • Superior agility and swiftness excluding teleportation 

  • Non-physical interaction allows him to interact with and fight Scorpion, even in his spirit form

  • Various items allow him to resist burn and poison 

  • Has ways out of the Netherrealm if Scorpion drags him there

  • Puppeteer ninjutsu could be used to control some of Scorpion’s summons…

  • Multiple ways to self-heal 

  • Got Game of the Year


Disadvantages:


  •  …But he needs to kill them first. 

  • Far inferior in the stat trinity  

  • Less agile when accounting for teleportation

  • Younger and less experienced 

  • Vastly outnumbered due to summons and clones 

  • Has no defense against soul-searing attacks or environments 

  • “I beat Sekiro’s final boss with cheats and I feel fine”


Before the verdicts


Higher Tier Mortal Kombat scaling


If you kept up with Mortal Kombat scaling and such you would know there is an argument for Scorpion and basically everyone on his level having the potential to scale to Shao Kahn’s realm merging and other feats on a similar level of power. However none of those feats are here, why is that? Well it’s mainly because we think it would be overkill in Hanzo's favor and make the debate less interesting. So we have come to the agreement to not use those feats and focus on lower levels of power. 


If you wanted to go the avenue of Scorpion scaling to cosmic levels of power in Mortal Kombat, there are ways to do so. He consistently fights and harms Raiden, and even defeated Blood Magik Raiden, who should logically be above his base self. Additionally, he’s canonically defeated Bi-Han multiple times, who killed the Four Elemental Gods in Mortal Kombat Sub Zero: Mythologies. Including the likes of Fujin, which would allow Scorpion to scale to feats such as Shao Kahn merging realms, Shinnok merging all realms to form the One Being, Cetrion growing to planet size, and much more. At the end of the day, while the scaling can be seen as having validity (and possibly even be completely fine), we didn’t want the verdict to come down to Scorpion winning because he’s planet to solar system level, or whatever.   

Verdicts


Hi Hi

Hey isn’t he that guy who watched por-        


Well well well it seems the blog is finally out. Before this verdict goes any further I just want to give a big shoutout to Momo. Man is a trooper for going through all of MKs media on his own and I completely understood having to go school at the same time while doing it. Also thanks to tmk for allowing me and Momo to even work on this originally super duper totally no one’s gonna find out bonus blog (if you’re catching on people found out about the blog like instantly lol). And it also worked out for me because I got to fully research Sekiro which I’ve been meaning to do for a while and now I had the excuse to do it. 


So while making this verdict this match has a lot of stuff to discuss so it was hard for me to actually decide where to start. So after careful consideration I’ve decided to start in the right place, LET ME GUSH ABOUT THIS MATCH AND BOTH SERIES AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


Ahem sorry about that. So yeah I fucking love this match and it’s my number 1 most wanted. Well there’s multiple reasons for that, firstly I love Soulsborne games. Fromsoft has made games that made me interested in its world, story, and most notably combat. Obviously that love would branch off to Sekiro which is probably my favorite soulsborne game and definitely up there as one of my favorite games in general. Granted everything I’ve praised of Soulsborne games just now is a lot more simple in Sekiro then say Dark Souls. Does that stop me from loving it? No, no it does not. 


As for Mortal Kombat, well it’s really the first Fighting Game I got into and it’s very personal to me because of that. Give all the crap you want of “oh it’s too easy and casual, you need a block button!” But I will always have a soft spot for the gory fighting game I love kicking my family's ass in. The characters and world has always been a good thing about the series as well as they just fit into the world and their stories are (for the most part) really interesting. And conveniently one of my favorite characters of the series Scorpion has probably one of my favorite stories in the series. 


So of course putting two characters from the series I love against each other yeah I’m gonna love the match. Bias aside though this is honestly a really good fight. The connections aren’t the deepest but it gets the point of why they’re getting compared with both being undying ninja looking for revenge. Simple yes, but it’s effective. The fight itself can also have some cool moments and get around the point these dudes are extremely hard to kill. Just give me fast paced action Damnit! Also yeah the music can also be really good, the sekiro ost in general is one of my favorites and you can not tell me Mortal Kombat has some banger songs that make you go 

So when you put these characters and franchises together you honestly get a kick ass match. The music can be so good having a mix of both giving both moments of calm parts for dialogue and the action like parts for the fighting. And man there’s so much animation potential. The fight would feel like such a Sekiro boss having fast action combat of both throwing basically everything they have at each other, and eventually Wolf does die and come back knowing what to come ahead again. There is just so much stuff you can do with this match personally and I would be very very happy if the match ever gets an episode.


ALSO GAHHH WE GOT CUCKED IN THE TOURNAMENT BECAUSE OF MAGICAL GIRLS AHHHHHH!!!!! (I’m joking btw lol)


I could go on and on about the match but I don’t want my whole verdict to be me gushing about this. However this is indeed a verdict for a blog that decides who wins in a fight so let’s do that.


So now let’s go over everything one by one which I normally wouldn’t do because there’s sadly parts of a match I don’t think are important to that match, but it’s my most wanted so fuck it. 


Firstly, skill. For Wolf he is by far the most skilled fighter in his world by the end of the game. He was trained all his life by very skilled fighters in his world like Owl and Lady Butterfly so he already has better skill then the average swordsman. This is further highlighted when he fights deadly fighters like Genichiro and both old and prime Isshin (who single handedly ended the war *place name because I forgot*). So it’s fair to say Wolf is a great swordsman and fighter….however Scorpion does have him beat. Now like Wolf, Hanzo has been training all his life so they’re matched in that, however Scorpion just has better training and fights way more skilled opponents compared to Wolf. Scorpion along with his ninja experience he has mastered many different martial arts compared to Wolf who...really learned none but that’s besides the point. Also Scorpion has just faced way more opponents that are also masters of martial arts. Let’s run down the list, fought two shaolin monks, one of which has fought Shao Kahn multiple times and won, check. Multiple members of the military who are also skilled in martial arts and also match the Shaolin monks, check. Fucking Elder gods who lived for 100s of years who are just as skilled as everyone else, also check. 


Now I’m not saying this makes Scorpion scale to the elder gods (that’s a whole can of worms no one wants to open) but what it does show is that Scorpion has faced way more skilled opponents that really no one in Sekiro can match. This also just ties into experience which yeah Scorpion also has. While Wolf has faced more than just swordsmen like a giant undead monkey, a giant snake, some ghosts etc. Scorpion has just faced a wider variety of foes like monks, soldiers, other ninja with supernatural abilities, sorcerers, and gods. So while not trying to distract Wolf skill, Scorpion just has a lot more leg room in this area. But that’s only one side of the whole debate. 


Probably the biggest part of this fight is the debate between Scorpion abilities Vs Wolf equipment and immortality. There’s a lot to go between the two so let’s take it one at a time. Firstly Scorpion poison is kinda useless against Wolf with the fact Wolf has items that make other poison attacks on him ineffective. A lot of Wolf status effects can help him as well like how he can reduce burn effects on himself...which is very useful against a ninja that uses fire. Granted it wouldn’t render Scorpion fire completely useless but it means Scorpion can’t completely rely on it. 


And even though Scorpion can call for backup with his army thanks to the amulet. However Wolf has options for crowd control like firecrackers, flame attacks of his own and it’s possible for Wolf to use Puppet Jutsu and kill one and gain an ally of his own for a time. So  scorpion's own equipment is kinda outclassed against Wolf, but what about Scorpion abilities? Well now that’s a whole other topic and gives Scorpion way more to do.


Firstly Scorpion teleportation can be a bitch to handle. Being able to constantly teleport can be a hassle and can grant Scorpion the mobility advantage. However Wolf can keep up granted he has fought people that throw new tricks out instantly like Lady Butterfly all of sudden throwing out illusions, Owl throw firecrackers of his own and poison, and Lord Isshin (in his prime) can pull out a gun and a spear out his ass (seriously where tf did he keep it all this time) so he can adjust properly. 


Especially when Wolf main ace in the hole that will forever be a bitch for Scorpion to handle, that being Wolf dragon blood. Like every soul's protagonist this man has stupidly good immortality, however unlike someone like Chosen Undead Wolf isn’t limited by his will so Scorpion can’t take a page out of Dovahkiin book and keep AP stomping his opponent till they Hollow. So really Wolf would just keep coming back after every death and learn more and more about how Scorpion fights and can adapt. So is there any way Scorpion can counter Wolf immortality? Well let’s run down the list of possibilities 


So firstly is it possible for Wolf to run out of lives? Well sorta. If you remember for when listing Wolf ability, the way Wolf immortality works is that if Wolf dies too much his blood stagnates and the Dragon Heritage will look for new sources of Life force, which is other people. So essentially the whole world's population is Wolf’s battery for his revives so Scorpion would need to make the human population go extinct so Wolf can not revive himself. So Scorpion can’t just kill over and over again so that possibility is out of the question. 


Now a little question some people have asked before is can’t Scorpion just take Wolf mortal blade and kill him that way? This along with another question later down in this verdict shows a neat thing about Vs. About if it’s in character for a combatant to do a certain thing like take someone’s weapon, destroy a whole world etc. While this is being a bit off topic it’s a neat side of debates that make you talk more about a character's personality and thought process and not just automatically assume one thing because they have or don’t have one ability. I really enjoy those types of debates. So let’s ask that question.


So before we actually give an answer it’s important to note that yes, the Mortal Blade can fully kill Wolf. 2 out of the 4 endings of the game have Wolf using the mortal blade on himself or on Kuro (who is also someone with the Dragon Blood similar to Wolf) which kills them ending the cycle of immortality. So yes the mortal blade can indeed work and end the fight. But would Scorpion actually do it?


Well no he wouldn’t. This stems from the fact that no matter how many times Scorpion kills Wolf he won’t know how his immortality works. There isn’t really anything hinting Scorpion on how to deal with it. There’s especially nothing telling Scorpion “hey grab that weapon, it stops Immortality” to Hanzo it’s literally just a red blade Wolf has. But let’s play it out that Hanzo somehow knows how the blade works and snags it from Wolf. Well then there’s still the problem of the blade just killing Scorpion if he holds it. 


Though now really since it’s on the topic. The mortal blade is kinda fucking pointless in this fight. The reason being is Hanzo isn’t a revenant anymore, he’s a human being and can die from normal stuff like poison. Now there is a possible argument thanks to the MKX comics for Scorpion to have revived himself given he “knows the exit to the Netherrealm” (even though the place is infinite but ok) however it’s not something that will matter in the end. There is one little problem with this argument and that is the timeframe. In the comic it’s shown there is a bit of time in between Scorpion dying and coming back, long enough to the point Takeda can pick up Hanzo body, dig a grave, put Hanzo body in it, burying said grave, and then Hanzo popping out from the Netherrealm. So really in the end the Mortal Blade which is meant to be Wolf's strongest weapon is kinda just another blade he can use. 


So that’s another way to possibly kill Wolf gone. Now comes Scorpion's final option for ending the fight, dragging Wolf down into the Netherrealm. So firstly yes this is really the only option Scorpion has that will indeed finish Wolf off. That’s thanks to how the Netherrealm twists the person's soul and stuff. Now if you are familiar with MK story you might be saying “hey wait a minute in MKX a bunch of normal ass soldiers were able to stay in the Netherrealm for a bit and nothing happened to them” which is a fair question to be asking. 


However it’s rather inconsistent with how other times its powers are portrayed. For example Drahmin's whole backstory involves the Netherrealm twisting his soul changing him. Also in Mythology Sub-Zero, Quan-Chi has to give Sub-Zero protection when he’s exploring the Netherrealm so it’s not like the effect isn’t there. However then comes the question of how long Wolf needs to be there for the realms power to take effect, which we don’t know. Yeah it’s never actually stated how long a person needs to be there to basically have their soul fucked. So now the question comes well, can Scorpion keep Wolf down there in the first place?


At first glance you might think Scorpion dragging Wolf is just a instain win, but that’s far from the truth. Mainly because of Wolf resurrection and idol. With both he can either A. Kill himself and respawn back to the Buddha statue that’s not in hell, or B. Use the idol to the Buddha statue, both options basically saving Wolf ass in this situation. Though a quick question might pop up, can Wolf do this between dimensions? Yes he can! In Sekiro we actually do some dimensional and time hopping (the latter of which being somewhat debatable). Like the Hall of Illusion which is an area that’s between life and death, the divine dragon in the divine realm, and debatably you can teleport to a Buddha statue forward in time when in the Hirata Estate which during the time we play in the area takes place before the game even starts, all areas in which Wolf can use the idol and or kill himself to reset himself to a Buddha statue. 


So to paint a picture, Scorpion will grab Wolf and send both of them into the Netherrealm, they would fight a bit and either Scorpion will kill Wolf then or Wolf will do one of the previous two options I said he has and leave the Netherrealm and be right where the fight started out of the Netherrealm. There’s also no limit to this, for all we know this shit can go on for ages. Scorpion tried taking the statue? Easy Wolf kills himself. Scorpion tries restraining Wolf with his chains? Not a problem Wolf has a item in his teeth that fucking kills him (it makes more sense in gameplay trust). 


So now you might be looking at this and think one or two things. You first might think “Man this guy is really riding Wolf dick and not giving Scorpion a chance” or “well this seems like a stalemate does it not?” And only one of those things is true…and I'm sad to say the former of which is not the false one. So really when reading this you might think Scorpion kinda just doesn’t have a way to end this constant cycle of Wolf just leaving. However we finally come back to the topic of “Would this character do this action”. And the question is would Scorpion realistically just try to…know out Wolf? I mean restraining him won’t do this so why not make it so he can’t do any action by putting him to sleep. Scorpion is definitely skilled enough as a ninja to know some techniques that can knock someone out or he can just punch Wolf really hard to render him unconscious but not hard enough so that he can kill him. Plus by this point Scorpion would have done basically everything else he could to keep Wolf down. What else is he gonna do? 


But now this question sparks on one major thing of the debate I've basically been avoiding as of now, that being stats. Yeah if you've been paying attention I've not talked about stats once so ever. Which might seem strange but it will make sense in a bit. 


So yeah what are stats looking like for both? Well let’s get the obvious out the way Scorpion has speed easily. Wolf can dodge arrows, bullets and most impressively lighting which would get him around MHS speed. However Scorpion has him beat as he can do all those things as well and being able to dodge stuff like Kotal Kahn sun beam attacks along with everyone in the cast. So yeah speed goes to Scorpion no surprise there. But power is a totally different story. 


With Scorpion first there's actually a bit to go through that gives him some good AP. There’s feats like Quan-Chi while being Sub-zero making ice bridges, Sub-Zero also making ice storms though the exact calc can be lower, and Tremor making earthquakes. All of these can get Scorpion to the hundred ton or megaton range. Not bad but what does Wolf have to offer? 


Well there’s actually some pretty good feats. There’s fears lile Genichiro making a storm, The Divine Dragon swing and Lord Isshin making a storm. And with all these feats Wolf can get into the similar ranges to Scorpio- wait what’s going on *mumble* are you serious? *mumble* they all have problems that either make them lower then they thought to be or are just not viable at all? *mumble* well shit. 


So uh yeah…well ain’t that a bitch. Well let’s just go through the feats one by one and explain why they have problems…yay. 


  1. Lord Isshin storm feat


So the first feat to knock down comes from Lord Isshin. In his younger boss fight when changing to a new phase suddenly a giant storm seems to appear around the boss arena and possibly even more as shown in the background. Now to show why it’s easy to think that Isshin did something like this, another feat from Genichiro does basically the same thing (more on that feat later). And both Isshin and Genichiro know the same sword techniques so why wouldn’t Isshin also be able to make a giant storm.


So the real kicker comes from small details that can be hard to miss (hell even I missed it). If you look closely there’s little bits of rain that’s already there indicating that a rain storm is already there before Genichiro resurrects Isshin meaning no Isshin did not make any thunderstorms. Though is it possible to calc Isshin amping the storm? Well we kinda came to an agreement we don’t know how the hell you’re supposed to calc that and it most likely wouldn’t add too much for Wolf AP anyways. So sadly the Genichiro feat is dead in the water.


  1. Divine Dragon feat


The next feat comes from the Divine Dragon feat. In his boss fight he has an attack that makes him swing a giant sword, and if he does it at the right time it seems he can do it at the same speed as the lighting coming down. So some thought you can use KE for the swing to get some good results…well sadly not. 


Firstly KE feats like this can be weird sometimes. Some think that any fast movement of the body can be used for KE. On the top of my head for an example there were some calcs for Cyberpunk Edgerunners that used David speed (which was faster than a bullet or something) and essentially calced how much it would be for David to ram into someone which is something he has never done. Granted I could be missing some key points to the calc but you understand the problem KE calcs can be. Personally if an attack or movement has shown to push people away or cause shockwaves purely because of someone’s speed then that’s fine by me. The best example I can think of a KE calc that’s fine to me is the Gun Devil calc from Chainsaw Man. The reason for this is because we see because of its pure speed it can throw people around and cause shockwaves and do damage. I hope I made my point clear on how KE calcs should and shouldn’t be used. So as you can tell, the Divine Dragon calc lands on the side of bad KE calcs.


  1. Genichiro Storm feat


Lastly there is the Genichiro storm feat. So in his second boss fight after beating his first phase, when entering his second phase he starts summoning a storm so he can use his lightning techniques. Now quickly to show he’s the reason for it, unlike Isshin storm, it was a sunny day before the boss fight and still is in his first phase, but the second he enters second phase a storm appears. This is further proven after beating his second phase as well given it just goes back to being a sunny day. So we know Genichiro is the reason for the storm.


So what’s the problem with it? Well surprisingly this feat in general is actually fine. Though some thought like other storm calcs it would get around city level. Though there is a problem with that, you are assuming the distance. A lot of storm feats seem to have that problem where it’s assuming the storm distance and how big it actually is. Genichiro feat is no exception. A major problem with getting a distance with its size is that the storm covers our view from outside the boss arena so we can’t see how big it is in its entirety. And storms aren’t always the same size, they can be smaller than normal or larger than others. So in general it's basically impossible to get an exact size of the storm. But from the size we do get (that being the boss arena) we can calc the storm at…52 Tons of tnt…yeah.


So with the feats out the way we can get Wolf final stats with that being…City Block and MHS. So in short yeah Scorpion just takes stats easily. 


So to put it short on how the debate goes. While Wolf literally has all the abilities needed to outlast or make it a stalemate in his favor due to his immortality it all kinda shits the bed when taking stats into account because that means he can just keep knocking out Wolf in the Netherrealm until his soul is fucked up which he can do thanks to being so much stronger then Wolf. 


Though one final thing I can cover is the possibility that Dragon Rot can come into effect. As explained previously, if Wolf blood stagnates because of him constantly dying, the dragon blood will search for new life force by taking it from other people which will make them sick and slowly die. So can Wolf affect Hanzo with Dragon Rot? Well nah not really. There’s two problems with this argument.


  1. The first and probably obvious reason is Wolf can’t target who specifically gets Dragon Rot. It’s entirely random with who the Dragon Blood decides to steal from. It’s essentially the same argument as Makima killing Gojo because of her contract.

  2. It’s not even an instant win. Dragon Rot is a very very slow death so even if the small chance Scorpion is hit with it, Scorpion can still incap Wolf in the Netherrealm and win that way before Dragon Rot kills him.


(Last minute edit)


This little bit of my verdict is very last minute, sorry. Thanks to Momo's final bit of research he found out that Scorpion has cards that have a 50% chance of…shutting off resurrection. So I’ll just put my quick thoughts on that given I didn’t really know where to put this in my verdict given I finished it without this detail in my head. Basically yeah Wolf doesn’t have a counter to it other than luck being on his side and the card doesn’t work. Sorry this is out of nowhere lol.


Conclusion 


Ultimately Scorpion wins because of his higher stats. Sure he has some nice abilities but Wolf immortality basically makes all of them useless as he will just keep coming back. Even dragging Wolf into the Netherrealm isn’t an instant win as he has ways of escaping it with no limit. Though because of his low stats, Scorpion will soon catch Wolf and knock him out and trap him for however long it takes for Wolf to die because of the Netherrealm effects. Guess Scorpion just finally caught his prey, and man was it toasty. 


Well now it’s the end of my verdict. Just wanna quickly say again thank you to tmk for allowing me to work on this blog, and thanks to Momo for being a good partner for this blog and it was nice working with him (even though his procrastination got the better of him). I will now say Goodbye Goodbye and see you at Spawn VS Demi-Fiend whenever that happens (or I’m already on it depending on if Kat VS Shiki releases before this blog).


MomoUra

Writing a Scorpion VS Wolf blog yet I choose a Sub-Zero image- 

Forgive me for taking a page straight out of ninja’s book…but we’re here! We have finally arrived at the finishing point of Scorpion VS Wolf. Admittedly, this blog shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, but from college and other personal issues that needed to be tended to, it’s finally here 7 months after its announcement! Hope the wait will have been worth it for you guys. 


So where to start with Scorpion VS Wolf? A great match up with two fantastic characters. I’ve always shown a deep appreciation of the Mortal Kombat series; given it’s one of the video games that made up my childhood, but have also come to appreciate Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as a wonderful work of art with great writing, storytelling and gameplay mechanics. The game was pretty difficult for me personally, but both these characters and franchises have so much to love about them respectively. But of course in a vs blog…only one can come out alive in the end. To start off this verdict, let’s get into the first thing most think of when it comes to a vs match: 


Stats:


Scorpion’s AP, Durability, and Speed


Starting off with stats, there’s a lot to cover here, so let’s start with Scorpion’s strength, speed, and durability. As a mid-tier combatant within the world of Mortal Kombat, Scorpion is relatively impressive with plenty of feats and decent showings against other combatants in his league. 


He’s able to evade gunfire, destroy stone tablets, slice up special forces members and Lin Kuei assassins like they’re butter (even using their own weapons against them), and he’s consistently able to damage large and powerful Oni such as Moloch and Drahmin. Hell, in Scorpion’s Revenge, proceeding his death he was stripped of all equipment and weaponry in the Netherrealm and still broke his tormentor’s knee with a single punch. Later on, after becoming Scorpion, Hanzo was able to rip out Goro’s skull with his spear.  Hanzo’s strength speaks for itself, as does his blistering speed and agility. 


But the thing with analyzing vs debates is that it takes more than just analyzing a character’s direct capabilities, as we can also look towards what other characters comparable to them are capable of pulling off. Scorpion has one of the better track records compared to the majority of the MK roster. 


He’s fought and harmed both Sub-Zeros on numerous occasions, with Subby being responsible for some of the better feats within the verse. He’s defeated and killed Quan-Chi across both timelines, as well as in the Onslaught and Legends continuities. He should scale to Jax given his victories over Sonya and Johnny.  Additionally, the black dragon member Tremor was ultimately defeated by Jax in MK Special Forces, giving Scorpion the proper leeway to scale to him as well. 


So why’s all this important? Kuai Liang is able to create large ice-storms that span across a metropolitan city, and corroborates this level of power by creating a second ice storm similar in size at the climax of Snow Blind. Quan-Chi is able to create a large mass of ice at the beginning of Scorpion’s Revenge. He’s also able to block Raiden’s lightning after he fires it. Jax can knock Kabal out of his sprint, with Kabal being able to dash in-tandem with Kotal Kahn’s light ray. Similarly, Sonya is able to move a mace in-tandem with Kano’s laser in Scorpion’s Revenge. Lastly, Tremor can create powerful earthquakes capable of bringing down the capital city of Outworld. 


Sub-Zero’s ice storm is calculated at 3.9 megatons of TNT, and Quan-Chi’s ice construct nets a result of 128.8 tons of TNT. Tremor’s quakes can be calculated to be anywhere from 81 kilotons to 2.5 megatons of TNT. Quan-Chi blocking Raiden’s lightning is calculated at Mach 291, and is corroborated by statements claiming that Raiden himself is capable of moving as fast as lightning. Kabal’s dash is around 73% SoL and Sonya’s movement is 48% SoL. Putting these numbers into perspective, we can say Scorpion’s low-ends should sit around MCB - Town and MHS, and his high ends should sit around Small City and Relativistic. So how does Wolf stack up to these stats? Unfortunately, not very well.


    Wolf’s AP, Durability, and Speed


Wolf’s showings, like Scorpion, speak for themselves. He’s taken down large bores and monsters akin to the ones Hanzo has encountered, can create shockwaves with his techniques, and can deflect bullets with his sword and dodge or react to lightning. 


Like Scorpion, we can look towards other powerful characters that Wolf is certainly comparable to, such as Isshin, Genichiro, the Great Serpent, and the Divine Dragon. You could argue Isshin being the cause for a violent storm during his boss fight, and similarly, Genichiro creates a storm across a mountaintop in his boss fight. The Great Serpent’s Kinetic Energy could be calculated at MCB, due to its large size and speed at which its head moves, and the Divine Dragon’s sword swing could be calculated at Town level due to once again, its high values for KE. 


This is where the problem arises however, as most of these feats have vague or incorrect measurements, or have a fundamental or mechanical flaw lowering their level of validity. Let’s start off with Isshin, which right out of the gate, isn’t actually a storm creation feat. Rain was present before the fight began, and the only thing you could really attribute towards Isshin at that point is the lightning generation that occurs throughout the fight. However, causing lightning to appear is not the same as creating a whole storm from scratch, making this not really even a feat to begin with, and when the fight is over, the only thing that dissipates is the lightning. When looking at the Great Serpent and Divine Dragon, it becomes clear that both of these feats come as a result of abusing Kinetic Energy to proportions that become slightly disingenuous with what the game is presenting. Remember a while back where folks would argue for Bo Rai Cho being relativistic because his foot just so happened to move within the same frame as Kano’s laser, despite the two having nothing to do with each other and the “feat” clearly being incidental? Well, this is pretty much the exact same case. The Divine Dragon slashing in-tandem with a natural lightning strike from the sky is not really a proper feat, and is not equivalent to say, Robin knocking a space probe out of the air and very clearly matching its Kinetic Energy. The Great Serpent calc is flat out using a scene where the serpent recoils its head for speed…but then applies that speed to the entire mass of the body for some reason. The serpent wasn't moving its entire body at subsonic speed, only its head, and thus can’t really be used as a viable indicator of Wolf’s strength or scaling. In any case, the Divine Dragon yields a result of 


Does this mean Wolf is completely hopeless in terms of decent feats? Not exactly, as Genichiro’s storm could still yield pretty impressive results, and we should know that Wolf should scale to Genichiro considering he defeated him. It should be noted that despite this storm feat being more definitive than the supposed Isshin feat, it's still a bit difficult to fully deduce the nature of said storm, considering we don’t know how far the storm really spans. Other calculations have proposed an abnormally high diameter and thickness for this storm, such as assuming its diameter ranges anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 meters. The storm is not the size of a mountain, and in-game it clearly only obscures the player’s view and prevents the background from being seen clearly. It would only be reasonable to assume the storm’s diameter covers the room Wolf and Genichiro are in, rather than inflate its size to unprecedented proportions. These estimates would yield mid kilotons to low megatons as their total output. A more conservative estimate of this storm should yield about 52 tons of TNT, which clocks in at city block level. Not bad, but significantly lower than Scorpion and the scale of his opponents. 


In terms of speed, Wolf is able to parry bullets and catch natural lightning, feats that should certainly be able to match the lightning timing provided by Raiden and Quan-Chi or the bullet timing from Kabal rapidly parrying gunfire in MK11. However, that’s about as far as Wolf’s showings go, which means he's put at a significant disadvantage when comparing their different ends of speed and strength. Speaking of which, let’s move onto the comparison 


Comparison 


When comparing strength and durability, we find that Tremor’s earthquakes and Sub-Zero’s storms are over 50,000x stronger than the Genichiro calculations, and while both these calculations have varying results due to different possible Magnitudes for Tremor’s quakes or different city estimates for Sub’s storm, even at their lower ends, they would still be far higher than Wolf’s output in comparison. Personally speaking, I actually don’t favor using the small city interpretation of the Snow Blind feat, but I do think that it's easy to see why it would be superior in every way to the Genichiro feat. It’s more established and corroborated, has a more concrete presentation, and inherently covers more distance than the rooftop Genichiro and Wolf were fighting in. If we wanted to highball the Genichiro feat, it only begins to approach the level of power Kuai Liang was outputting, and that rate you could quite as easily push his storm to be even higher than the low megaton results we would be looking at. Likewise, the idea of Tremor being able to produce large quakes that would bring down Z'Unkahrah is repeated not once, but twice. It's a consistent narrative threat to the environment and suggested to be fairly immediate. Even using Quan-Chi’s ice construct makes Scorpion over 2x stronger than Wolf, and that's using the lowest possible ends for Scorpion without accounting for his higher potential. Additionally, if we shift back to the KE arguments for Wolf via the serpent and divine dragon, Sonya performs a similar feat that could be calculated using relativistic KE in Scorpion’s Revenge, which is around 4.5 megatons of TNT. This is over 270x greater than the Divine Dragon swing, and both use essentially the exact same method of calculation, in that they’re using incidental movements to justify a higher output than what is otherwise portrayed. Of course, we did not find validity in either of these arguments, but if both were to be used, Scorpion would still hold an enormous advantage in overall strength. But what about speed? While it may seem that Wolf might have an easier time matching Scorpion’s speed and agility, he lacks the proper high ends to match him yet again. 


As previously mentioned, Wolf should match the lower end feats Scorpion should scale to, but when compared to Kotal Kahn’s light rays and Kabal’s reaction to it, Wolf is about 8,900x slower than Hanzo. There has been some contention held over the validity of Kotal Kahn’s light rays, but while there is room for proper scrutiny, there is far more room for it to be argued as a fairly straight-forward light-based attack.


For starters, in-lore (and as stated by devs), it's stated to be a literal beam of light brought down from the sun. Obviously natural light rays from the sun should be well, light speed, but it's possible that people will argue the attack isn’t fully natural due to Kotal being a magic user. That does however go into more hypotheticals about the attack’s inherent nature that aren’t really outright stated or supported. Alongside its inherent nature as a beam of light, it also takes the form of a straight line without any noticeable bending or curving. That alone should provide proper evidence for its legitimacy. While not exactly indicative of anything, the light beam also burns the opponent and has no evidence of showing concussive force or explosive properties. Some would point to the attack causing the opponent to flinch back, but this is due to the arduous and sudden pain that comes from an attack burning through one’s body. Any person would reasonably flinch and thrust backwards at such an injury. It would be a stretch to label such a minor point about the attack’s presentation as a genuine debunk to its more established lore and description. Not to mention, the attack itself is reflected off of Kotal’s disc, with reflection and refraction being a major point used in defense for feats relating to light beams. One final point that one could use against the Kotal Kahn feat is the fact that the attack seemingly changes in speed once it reflects off Kotal’s disc and hits the opponent. This is a stronger argument than any of the other ones, but fails to recognize the limitations that result in such an effect happening. The game mechanics of MK11 (and any fighting game by extension) necessitate Kotal Kahn’s light beam to move in several frames, since if it weren’t to move in multiple frames the move would essentially break the game and any semblance of balance within it. Once again, similarly to the point about the move potentially making characters flinch, its overanalyzing a small detail that by no means should hold precedence over the move’s apparent and established function within the character’s backstory. It's also worth noting that the feat is only found within gameplay, where any character is able to move in-tandem with it with different reaction-based attacks (such as Shao Kahn’s hammer lunge and Sub-Zero’s slide). This should be viable within the context of this fight, as it should be noted that Wolf’s best speed feats come from reactions in gameplay separate from story cinematics or cutscenes, including dodging and catching natural lightning. If we were to exclude those altogether, Scorpion would hold a tremendous advantage in all stats, more so than the one he already has. 


Essentially, Kotal Kahn’s light ray:


  1. Has an established, in-lore purpose as a natural beam of light from the natural sun, proving its validity at a fundamental level

  2. Moves in an unbroken path 

  3. Has clear attributes proving reflection 

  4. Has no major contradictions without analyzing inherent restrictions due to the game’s code and mechanics. 


It's worth noting that if we were to over analyze every light or laser based attack to find if it matches the accuracy of lasers in the real world, that any laser that would appear visible to the human eye would not be considered viable as a feat, and thus standards would irreparably shift the standards of the community in a way that hasn’t been considered for years. As such, within the confines of what is normally viewed as acceptable, Kotal’s light ray would be no exception. 


So that leaves us with Scorpion being potentially hundreds to tens of thousands of times stronger and faster than Wolf. Scorpion’s durability also clearly scales to his attack potency, given he fought his past self in MK11 and survived his attacks no problem. Scorpion has also endured multiple lightning attacks from Raiden, who should clearly scale above the aforementioned feats. 


But wait! What about Elder God scaling? Characters such as Cetrion and Shao Kahn are able to grow to planetary proportions and merge entire realms together, which are implied to be whole macrocosm consisting of stars, solar systems, and their own proper flow of time. Shouldn’t that alone seal the deal due to being a cosmic gap in stats? Well, not exactly…


You see while it is true that Scorpion has the means to scale to that level of power, especially given his victory over Bi-Han, who’s responsible for the defeats of the elemental gods (including Fujin, who blatantly scales to Cetrion), that level of power isn’t entirely consistent with Scorpion. He’s commonly portrayed as a mid-tier combatant in the world of Mortal Kombat rather than one of the god-tiers. That being said, this is the only argument that I’ll leave up to your interpretation, as there is plenty of evidence both for and against the argument for scaling Scorpion to god-tiers. We ultimately decided to focus on that league of strength in this fight, due to being a bit far removed from the usual scale of this fight, as well as being entirely unnecessary. 


So now that we’ve covered stats, let’s move on to the second most important part of a vs debate:


Arsenal, Skills, and Abilities:


Scorpion’s Arsenal, Skills, and Abilities 


So when it comes to arsenal and abilities we’ve got a lot to cover. For Scorpion, he wields three primary weapons: his twin katanas, kunai spear, and axe. He also wields multiple ninja swords; as well as a roped mace in the Malibu comics. In terms of more out-there equipment, Scorpion has a poison collection, with the contents of said collection being unknown. The only type of poison we’ve seen used is a psychedelic that mentally torments the target and puts them in a state of mental entropy. Along the lines of mentally deteriorating equipment, Scorpion also wields the Deathstone, an ancient artifact created by Shao Kahn that can summon an army of undead minions. It also enhances Scorpion’s sensory capabilities. In terms of his more obscure equipment, Scorpion is able to utilize a vast amount of relics found in MK Onslaught, which can increase the accuracy of his attacks, boost his resistance against magic or other combat effects, increase the likelihood of causing critical damage, etc. Additionally, MK Mobile is a mostly untouched form of MK media that houses a wide array of useful equipment cards for Scorpion to equip. These cards are capable of inflicting several potent effects, such as slowing down and immobilizing the opponent, poisoning them, or even disabling their means of resurrecting. Lastly, MK11’s Towers of Time game mode allows the character to equip konsumables, which like the relics and equipment cards, can apply debuffs on the opponent while also enhancing the user’s capabilities. It is worth noting however that konsumables have variants that allow the combatant to summon other characters from the roster to assist them in the fight. These wouldn’t be considered usable due to involving characters other than the primary one into the fight, by a means that is arguably very non-canon. The inclusion of konsumables in general could be argued as such, but they’re included here for completion sake, since they are similar enough in functions to the relics Scorpion can use from Onslaught. 


As for Scorpion’s abilities; he has the usual array of powers you would expect from an undead specter of the Netherrealm. Teleportation, portal creation, hellfire manipulation, summoning undead demons to aid him in combat, enhanced senses, stealth mastery, etc. He has some pretty obscure abilities as well, such as his spirit form, found in the Malibu comics. This form doesn’t appear in the games, but Malibu comics is being included as a secondary source in this analysis due to how it adapts the games into additional story threads that could be considered similar enough to the primary material. Scorpion’s spirit form allows him to turn completely intangible, and he is able to possess others through it as well. It's also the form he takes if his physical body is destroyed, allowing him to reform at a later point in time. Along those lines, Scorpion’s undead physiology seemingly allows him to resurrect by making his way out of the Netherrealm and returning to the world of the living, as this was how he was able to resurrect himself after getting killed by Havik in the MKX comics. 


Speaking of the Netherrealm, Scorpion’s favorite place to teleport people to is Mortal Kombat’s very representation of Hell, granting Scorpion all sorts of advantages. While in the Netherrealm, Scorpion’s strength increase, his foe becomes weaker, he’s able to sense his prey even if they’re nowhere near him, and the opponent has to hope they’re able to endure the soul-tearing effects of the Netherrealm and its ability to turn a normal human into a disfigured oni. Scorpion’s own hellfire is also able to scorch its victim’s soul, making it a pretty formidable weapon against those with little spiritual defense. 


Oh, and he also has Inferno Scorpion…kind of the only useless thing within his arsenal. Sure, it looks cool, and he presumably can do more fire stuff, but it mainly just exists. We might as well go over skill, experience, and intellect here as well. Scorpion is a very skilled individual, who has been trained in several forms of martial arts, successfully led his clan for decades, trained an apprentice, and much more. He’s gone up against basically any type of combatant found in the Mortal Kombat universe, from cyborgs, to special forces agents, to demons, sorcerers, even gods. He’s also pretty intelligent in the ways of combat, albeit is easily susceptible to blind rage. Overall, a formidable fighter with plenty of abilities and techniques. Now as for Wolf…


    Wolf’s Arsenal, Skills, and Abilities 


Wolf is no slouch in this department either. Wolf has multiple weapons at his disposal; more than Scorpion, actually. He wields the Kusabimaru, Prosthetic Arm, and Mortal Blade. The Kusabimaru is a fearsome weapon, but what Wolf is best known for is the deadly mortal blade, which can permanently kill a foe even if they’re immortal. The Prosthetic Arm is also pretty versatile, given its abundance of modifications and attachments. These attachments allow Wolf to utilize a grappling hook for mobility, many types of shuriken and kunai to use as long ranged projectiles, axes, flame vents, firecrackers, spears, smokescreens, sabimarus, fans, and even umbrellas that hold attack reflection properties. In particular, Phoenix Lilac allows Wolf to block attacks that induce massive amounts of fear, and Suzaku’s Lotus lets him block out any incoming fire attacks. Additionally, Wolf has gourds which can increase Wolf’s resistances against harmful ailments, and the Homeworld Idol allows Wolf to teleport out of dangerous situations. Wolf also has other miscellaneous items that allow him to shut down illusions, heal himself, or even deal damage to spiritual beings. 


As for abilities, Wolf is able to use Bloodsmoke, Betsewole, and Puppeteer ninjutsu, three forms of ninjutsu each with their own unique effects. Bloodsmoke lets Wolf stealthily kill a target and use their blood to form a smoke bomb to allow Wolf to sneak away undetected. Betsewole allows him to kill a target and use their blood to extend the range of his sword-based attacks. Finally, Puppeteer allows Wolf to kill an unsuspecting foe and then literally control their actions like a puppet, forming them into an ally to assist Wolf in combat. Wolf can also use esoteric abilities with the unique spirit falls. The Gachiin spirit fall lets him become invisible and completely silent, the Gokahn spirit fall allows Wolf to regain his posture, the Ungo spirit fall reduces the amount of damage Wolf can take, and the Yasariku spirit fall reduces Wolf’s health  by half but increases his power by a significant amount. 


Finally, like Scorpion, Wolf has a form by the name of Shura, which is when Wolf loses all purpose and kills without any code of honor. Wolf gains the ability to manipulate powerful fire attacks and transforms into a demonic beast, but similarly to Hellfire Scorpion, it won’t make a drastic impact on this fight. 


Comparison 



So how do Scorpion and Wolf’s power sets compare against each other? The results are actually pretty surprising, as Wolf comes with plenty of counters to some of Hanzo’s weirder options in this fight. To start off, his psychedelics should be a non-factor, as they are countered by various items and equipment allowing Wolf to resist the terror status effect, which induces large amounts of overwhelming fear into one’s head. With Scorpion’s many different types of relics and consumables, the burn and poison status effects in particular are countered by various items and equipment allowing Wolf to resist the effects of poison and fire attacks. Scorpion can’t necessarily BFR Wolf for good, as that's countered by Wolf using the Bite Down to inflict death upon himself and respawn at the nearest Buddha Statue, or by Wolf using the Homeworld Idol to escape the location. Lastly, while Scorpion’s spirit form and intangibility are fairly unique options in this fight, they are also countered by Wolf: either by using the Divine Confetti item or by simply using his own non-physical interaction capabilities. In terms of ways their equipment and powers cancel out, both are able to use stealth in efficient ways and both are able to heal themselves by using several types of healing items. 


While countering these options are fairly advantageous for Wolf, they unfortunately aren’t enough, as these options don’t cover Scorpion’s more primary and stronger options within this fight. Wolf has no counter to Scorpion’s use of hellfire, as while he’s able to survive and endure harsh fires, he’s never encountered fire potent enough to literally scorch his soul. Likewise, while escaping the Netherrealm should prove to be simple, Wolf would have to deal with its soul-searing and body-rending effects, which may immobilize him and prevent him from even escaping in the first place, given the Netherrealm removes the soul from one’s body, as suggested by Kia and Jataaka in Mythologies. If we assume Wolf is able to hold himself together due to having a tainted heart, with the whole shtick about how those with a tainted heart being allowed to pass in the Netherrealm, he would still have to deal with Scorpion gradually becoming stronger than him (which he already holds a sizable advantage in that field), and being able to at any point simply restrain Wolf with chains or spear him back into the Netherrealm should he choose to leave. Remember, Scorpion can create portals that connect realms together, allowing him to stay in the Netherrealm as his power is amped overtime, while still being able to bring Wolf right back into the fight. 


Scorpion’s teleportation also provides him with a far better mobility advantage in this fight. The Homeworld Idol isn’t as instantaneous as Scorpion’s natural teleportation, which can be done without the use of items, and can be done for short-range bursts or long-range evasion. Nothing is really stopping Hanzo from just spamming his teleport and simply not allowing the opponent a chance to react, especially with such a huge speed advantage. 


Now let’s talk about summons: Scorpion inherently has the advantage here. While Wolf can technically utilize summons with Puppeteer ninjutsu, and he can do so by just killing Scorpion’s summons and turning them to his side, that requires far too much effort and time wasted that could go into attacking Scorpion directly, Meanwhile, Scorpion is able to summon demonic hellspawns from the ground or from above to attack Wolf without any extra steps required. He can summon copies of himself and undead members of the Shirai Ryu with a simple hand gesture, and with the Deathstone he can control dozens of undead skeletons to attack Wolf on his behalf. Without a doubt, Scorpion holds the edge here.

Lastly, and perhaps most damningly, while Wolf’s resurrection provides him with a more reliable way from instantly recovering from damage sustained by Scorpion, it can be shut down by equipable mobile cards that inflict Death Mark, which disable all forms of resurrection for the opponent. While this effect isn’t guaranteed on hit, some cards induce the effect off of the user’s fatal blow, and with Scorpion’s superior speed, he’s bound to land the effect eventually, even if the task may prove to be quite arduous. Hell, Death Mark isn’t the only status effect Wolf has to worry about, such as Power Drain, Stun, Curse, Blind, Frostbite, and Silence. It's also worth noting that Scorpion has his own form of resurrection by making his way through Hell’s reinforcements, which could potentially even the odds yet again. 


Even if one wasn’t comfortable basing Scorpion’s counter to Wolf’s resurrection off of a mobile game, the hindering effects of the Netherrealm alone should be enough to bypass Wolf’s resurrection, as he’s always needed a stable soul to properly resurrect. There also would not be much leeway for Wolf to escape the Netherrealm if Scorpion were to restrain him fully, akin to his second fatality found in MK9.

In terms of skill and experience, Scorpion also holds the clear advantage here, given that he’s older and wiser than Wolf, and has gone up against a far crazier roster of characters compared to Wolf. There isn’t much Wolf has encountered that Scorpion hasn’t really seen before, and both are fairly intelligent and tactical when it comes to battle strategies.


Overall, it becomes fairly evident that Scorpion holds the advantage in arsenal and abilities, despite Wolf coming up with his own fair share of counters to Scorpion’s weaponry. The problem arises that Scorpion can afford to have some of his weirder items and powers countered by Wolf, while Wolf can’t really afford to have a lack of counters to Scorpion’s main bread and butter. 


Conclusion


I’ll keep this short so as to not repeat many well-established points, as I’m sure I’ve made you read plenty, but when it comes down to the main focus of this fight, the question becomes this: Do either of these combatants have a way to permanently incapacitate or kill the other?

Wolf is at a clear disadvantage in the stat trinity, making it difficult for any of his fatal attacks to land. He won’t be able to easily harm Scorpion, nor will he be able to tag him, especially with his teleportation and evasiveness. Scorpion is able to easily dispatch Wolf and any of his dangerous weaponry due to his insane edge in strength and speed. 


The clear physicality advantage isn’t the only factor here, however. The means to permanently put an end to the other combatant also favors Scorpion. If Wolf gets lucky and manages to kill Scorpion with a fatal blow, he still has to worry about Scorpion reforming his physical body or making his way through hell to come back and finish the job. Meanwhile, Scorpion would likely find out that he needs to resort to soul-searing hellfire or dispatch of Wolf in the Netherrealm fairly quickly after one or two deaths. Hellfire is Scorpion’s signature, so once he figures out that he needs to employ other tactics to kill Wolf, the rest should be history. At the end of the day, Scorpion is the one with the strength, speed, durability, soul-targeting abilities, mobility, and versatility to come out with the win. Looks like Scorpion was just too hot to handle (yes I didn’t have enough time to come up with an original pun, please try not to roast me for it…)


haha…get it…because fire…

Comments

  1. HansDai224March 17, 2024 at 8:12 AM

    I appreciate the decision to stick to the very low ends for Scorpion for this, even if the higher ends are completely fine as you said. Scorpion didn't need them anyway so that was good.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bill VS Discord

Image
  “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”   - Aristotle Bill Cipher, the Nightmare Realm’s Dream Demon from Gravity Falls . Discord, Equestria’s Lord of Chaos from My Little Pony. The laws of reality are something that we all must answer to. What we can do, how we do it, and what obstacles stand in the way of various accomplishments. But for beings like these two, there are no such laws dictating their deeds. Only their morals and the goals that they choose to follow. The Dream Demon and the Chaos Lord both laugh in the face of physics and reality, but for being so similar, there are few beings so different. Both seek to change their worlds in a new era of weirdness and chaos, but to what ends will they bring it about? And what will become of the world after their battle? Will Bill Cipher succeed in liberating the world and ushering in a new era of partying, or does Discord truly wield the most powerful magic of all in friendship? The fabric of worlds will rip an
Read more

Bendy VS Springtrap

Image
  "We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up." -Victor Frankenstein Bendy the Ink Demon, the greed and envy of Joey Drew ink-carnate. William Afton the Springtrap , the former co-owner of Fazbear Entertainment turned undead serial killer. Corporate greed and petty desires are never a good mix, as the creations they brew ultimately cause more harm than needed. Give an envious man the power to enact his bitter desires, and he shall do so in a way that defies humanity itself. Coat that toxic intuition in a thick layer of childhood nostalgia corrupted beyond belief, and you’ve got our two combatants. When it comes to these inner demons turned outward armageddons, who would win in a DEATH BATTLE? Before We Start We’re not gonna sugarcoat it. There are a lot of things that need to be established about this fight that other fights have the luxury of not having to worry about. First and foremost, we will be compositing the characters specifically known as the Ink Demon and Willi
Read more

Light Yagami VS Walter White

Image
  "He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one." -Alexander Pope Light Yagami , otherwise known as Kira, the wielder of the Death Note and God of a new world. Walter White , otherwise known as Heisenberg, legendary drug kingpin and the one who knocks. There are people among us that are extraordinarily gifted, intelligent individuals who are able to contribute greatly to society. However, their talents are not always used for the right causes, yet their vanity may convince them that their acts are only being done for the greater good. After all, they are at the top of the food chain. Who can tell them otherwise? And yet, after committing these heinous acts for so long, maybe they are no longer righteous. Maybe they've become heinous themselves. Or maybe they always were. When the legendary Kira and Heisenberg butt heads, God vs the Devil, who will come out on top? And who will face
Read more