So this is going to be a bit of a strange topic to discuss but I want to share with everyone a really bizarre dream I had not just because it was bizarre but also because I actually have some strong feeling related to it that I wanted to share.

So it's no surprise at this point that I am a huge fan of the Shantae series. I have been with this series since Pirates Curse and it has managed to become one of my Top 10 favourite gaming franchises and I'd be lying if I said my reason for buying the game Runbow and wanting to get Blaster Master Zero isn't because of how Shantae is a guest character in those games. However another series that I also enjoy is Mortal Kombat. For what it is I honestly get a lot of enjoyment from the series. Less because of the violent and full on finishing moves but more because of how fun they are. And given how I brought up those two franchises I think you can guess what my dream was about. Shantae guest staring in Mortal Kombat. Let me repeat that, Shantae... In Mortal Kombat. Shantae, a happy, cute and colourful half genie belly dancer in Mortal Kombat, a franchise where most of the cast consists of a literal ghost from hell, a special forces agent who is way to focused on her job, a shape shifting sorcerer that steals peoples souls, a blood thirsty monster with sharp teeth and blades coming out of his arms, an actual insect girl that can release flesh eating insects into people all the while heads are literally being ripped off and bodies being dismembered!

TL;DR, this wasn't a dream I was two happy to have had because the idea is so bad even both Matt Bozan and Ed Boon would be collectively going "WHAT?!?!" together. Long answer for people who actually want to know what my full thoughts on this is...

So I'm all for unexpected guest characters in games. I mean the last Mortal Kombat game gave us an actual Xenomorthp from the Alien franchise, a guest character I did not expect at all! And the dream I had of Shantae suddenly showing up to a Mortal Kombat fight was very unexpected. But not in a way that I liked. How my dream played out was more like the DLC Character Trailers for Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 where it starts with the character introduction then the rest of the video consists of showing off there move set. That was pretty much all my dream was though. I don't remember who Shantae faced or even see a Fatality which I am honestly glad for since I don't think I could take the mental image of Shantae tearing off someone's flesh. When I woke up that morning from that dream I tried to think of several reasons why I didn't like that dream but then I remembered "Oh yeah, I was dreaming about Shantae in Mortal Kombat." And yeah this is coming from a guy who enjoy's playing as Bayonetta in Smash Bro's and was kind of hoping Jeanne got added in Ultimate as an Echo Fighter. I can't really excuse that.

But back onto the "Shantae in Mortal Kombat doesn't work" thing that's the whole point of me making this journal. Like I said it just doesn't work for me and the fact that I had such an active dream about it makes me feel un easy. To put it simply I do not like putting cute or colourful characters in gruesome or messed up scenarios. And given what kind of game Mortal Kombat is you can understand why I felt so guilty about having this dream. This is why I have never liked Creepy Pastas that turn character such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Pinkie Pie from Friendship is Magic into murderess psychopaths because even if they are just fan created stories it's hard for me to buy them doing something as fucked up as they do in Sonic.exe or Cupcakes when I know those characters so well. Stuff like Ben Drowned I'm actually fine with since it doesn't turn any of the characters in the Zelda Universe into psycho's since it's more of an actual horror story than just "Look, here's an otherwise harmless and lovable character doing messed up and sicking stuff." It's the same reason I never enjoy fan games like Mario and the Music Box which as you can guess is a horror game staring Mario and Luigi and if you actually play the game you will know what I mean when I say "Out of place." Apparently there's even a Shantae Creepy Pasta simply called Lamp.exe but honestly given my bad experience with creepy pastas in the past, especially the .exe one's, I don't really think it would be something that I would enjoy.

You might be reading this and thinking to yourself that I'm a squeamish person and while I won't act like there isn't stuff that doesn't disturb me even at the age of 22 it would have to be something truly messed up to be able to do that. When I was a kid my parents let me play a lot of games that had blood in them like the classic Devil May Cry and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City so any sort of violence that happens in video games I'm use to, even in the aforementioned Mortal Kombat since it is a game that does have a reputation for it's Fatalities. But here's the thing, with Mortal Kombat and many other violent games out there the setting and charterers don't contradict each other in any way. You can have Mellinea dressed in the most revealing outfit she has face of agents Johney Cage while he's in a Tuxedo on a Stage that is set in an underground subway with a somewhat dark and gritty art style and it would still feel like it works. In contrast having a character like Shantae in a setting like this all the while no one else is questioning why a bright and happy girl like her is partaking in a fight to the death just doesn't gel well with me. To give you a compassion I want to take a look at another fighting game that does guest characters, Soul Caliber. While not every guest that has appeared in this series fits that well, hello Yoda and Darth Vader, characters like Ezio from Assassin's Creed in SC V and Link in the Gamecube version of SC 2 actually do fit in those game. They don't feel out of place in these games and they could even be genuine characters in those games if they were not guests. Link is mainly a sword fighter and comes from a fantasy setting not to different from SC. Ezio's a bit harder to justify since Assassin's Creed is somewhat based in reality but it's more his design that I think works with the setting. And while in Mortal Kombat there are characters like Jade and Kitana who dress in similar sort of outfits to Shantae I'm not someone who see's Shantae as being fit for an overly violent game like this. And yeah some of the ways Shantae can die in her games involve some pretty brutal stuff when you think about it like falling into Lava or spikes, getting shot, crushed, drown in quicksand, shot with arrows, drown in water before Risky Revenge allowed her to swim, digested by slime and get eaten by a giant worm who's only slightly smaller than the World Serpent from God of War but in none of those scenarios do you ever see her screaming in pain as her flesh is burnt or gasping for air as she drowns or is covered in blood or crying for help as she slowly dies while Risky Boots plunges her sword though her. I'm actually terrified to look up if art like that actually exists because knowing the internet it probably does.

I hope this at least gives people an understanding about my thoughts on this kind of subject and why I feel so strongly about it. I'm not saying that it's not an idea that couldn't work but it would be pretty fucking difficult to do so. As a random side not to end this on kind of ironic that I had this dream a day before the Shang Tsung trailer for MK11 was revealed.