Board Thread:Mortal Kombat X/@comment-25033529-20150505005712/@comment-3303402-20160229085613

I think it might just be a case of "immortal spirit, mortal body" - that the god in question can be physically wrecked but can't be eliminated permanently without certain circumstances, like binding them to a kamidogu or having them eaten by the restored One Being.

I've noticed that every time we see the Elder Gods, they are portrayed as larger-than-life ethereal beings - powerful yet bodiless. Even at the end of MK9, when the Elder Gods finally intervene, they come as magical dragon spirits and don't actually accomplish anything until they possess the decidedly physical body of Raiden. Only after Phys!Raiden beats Phys!Shao Kahn up do the Spirit!Elder Gods harm Spirit!Shao Kahn. Back in Deadly Alliance, Raiden said that he had forsaken his status as Elder God in order to fight alongside the heroes - this implies, to me, that Raiden just returned to his physical body instead of staying what is essentially a big floaty bureaucrat.

Overall, I think only physical forms are able to actually "do stuff" on a physical level. The few things the Elder Gods do or are implied to do are specifically on a spiritual or metaphysical level, like establishing the rules of Mortal Kombat or, in the case of Quan Chi's MKX ending, "burning free will from one's mind". But what about handling stuff like kamidogu, something on both a physical and spiritual plane? They don't do jack beyond sending a lackey who DOES have a physical body to handle it for them.

Shinnok probably "fell" from the Elder Gods in the sense that, to pursue his own agendas counter to the rest of the Elder Gods, he acquired a physical form in order to personally enact his will.

Y'know, as I'm writing this, I remember the ending to MK9, where Quan Chi communicates with the not-quite-freed Shinnok about their future plans. And how does the fallen Elder God appear? Big floaty spirit, just like the Elder Gods. His "imprisonment" probably involved seperating Shinnok from his physical body and locking both away in different locations, which could explain why he didn't act immediately after the events of MK9 - that he didn't have his body back yet.

This is all speculation on my part, of course, but I'm firm in my belief that "only a physical form can interact with the physical world" and that the gods haven't figured out how to make a body that's indestructable.