Mortal Kombat 11 is the newest in a long line of MK fighting games, going back all the way to 1992. While many now-familiar characters have been woven into the fabric of the story from its early years, none has suffered under the hands of the writers and fate quite like Sindel. She is an incredible character with a loaded backstory that has had Mortal Kombat 11 fans interested for years.
Sindel didn't appear in MK11 originally, which was not a surprise to many fans since she was supposed to be dead. But it seems that she will now retake her place as Queen of Outworld in the newest expansion, set to release in January 2020. Loads of people have been speculating about her "ghost" that has shown up in the screenshots of her posted by devs, with many wondering what it means for the future of Sindel's character.
Who is Sindel?
Sindel made her debut in Mortal Kombat 3 all the way back in 1995. She was Princess Kitana's mother and the unwilling wife of Shao Kahn after her realm lost 10 Kombat tournaments. In the previous story line, she was technically a good guy. She has been resurrected and enslaved so many times, many long-time fans have lost count. The once proud and capable Queen of Edenia brought low by the loss of her home, her husband, and then even the use of her own mind. But Sindel was retconned for the newest timeline to make sure she was pure evil from the beginning.
In the newest story line, Sindel didn't marry Shao Kahn unwillingly, instead betraying her husband voluntarily to keep her place as Queen and rule Outworld as well. This newer, more evil, and more sassy version of her seems to be who has come to greet MK fans in the trailer of the expansion pack. After the tease of her amazing new outfit in a previous screenshot, NetherRealm Studios released this teaser video:
Is the "Ghost" Remnants of Previous Stories?
While the new Kombat Pack and expansion includes other characters, like the Terminator from the Terminator movies, Sindel has been getting the most attention for her mysterious new powers. The screenshots, which were shared on Twitter, show Sindel in the throws of an attack animation, a transparent, purple "ghost" figure pulled from her body.
The "ghost" is in the deep purple that should be familiar to those who remember her from previous games; her powers that could pull the souls out of other fighter's bodies a la Shang Tsung was that same deep purple back in Mortal Kombat 9.
Although she was killed in the ending scenes of MK9, then resurrected as a NPC zombie in Mortal Kombat X (though she was playable with some cool mods), that doesn't mean she didn't keep her stolen souls and stolen powers. Could this be an actual ghost? It's possible that her ghosts are souls that she stole being used as weapons against her enemies.
She does look a little undead in the trailer, making fans wonder if she's been resurrected and is being controlled again along with Shang Tsung's old powers and souls like in MK9. However, this could just be Sindel wearing the "Gothic Horror Skin Pack" look, a theme that will be available with the Kombat Pack in 2020, but it's also likely that this is her default Revenant form.
The Banshee Theory
Another idea that's been floating around that seems even more likely is that the purple being floating close by is not actually a ghost at all.
While a soul of another person would look like a person, the purple "ghost" in her attack cycle doesn't look much like a human at all; it looks more like something from someone's darkest nightmares. It's face is full of rage and looks like a banshee.
A banshee is an Irish folktale; it's always a female, ghost-like creature that howls into the night, foretelling a coming death. In artwork, banshees are portrayed as female forms with gaping mouths, too big for their faces. Sindel's classic move has always been her banshee-like screams, both as a stun move and her classic fatalities. If the banshee scream took physical form, it would look an awful lot like the haunting figure that is floating above Sindel's head in that screenshot that has been making the social media rounds.
The Two-Headed Theory
With a character that started out so good, then was resurrected and made evil, then retconned into being even more evil, Sindel's character has seen a lot of changes. She's technically dead in every timeline she's ever been in, both as a good guy and as a bad one. One of the most interesting of all the theories going around that make a little too much sense is that Sindel has split into two people. One of the Sindel's on the screen is her good side, and the other is her evil twin.
With so much history of switching sides in her background, this kind of push and pull back and forth between good and evil that manifests in a physical way makes for an incredibly interesting set of possibilities. If the physical version of Sindel (modeled to remind us of her good-girl daughter Princess Kitana) is actually good, that would make the floating spirit the bad half that has split off. She's being pulled in both directions by her two story lines, her body a battlefield for good and evil. It could make for some interesting moves and even more interesting story gameplay in the upcoming weeks.
The Sindel Trailer
Lucky for fans, they won't have to wait for an answer to what that ghost is for very long; the trailer could be dropping as early as today, November 14th, 2019, according to a tweet by Ed Boon, an MK co-creator. Sindel will be available for early birds who have already purchased the Kombat Pack on the 26th of November, and will be available for purchase as a separate character December 3rd to everyone else.
Mortal Kombat 11 is available for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.