Abandonment Issues and the Trap of Perfection: A Psychological Portrait of Sektor
Initially, I intended this breakdown to show how Bi-Han x Sektor is an extremely coherent ship, perhaps one of the most intelligent things Boon, Cianciolo and their teams have done in this game. I say this as a Bireena shipper before the Lord (Liu Kang): Sekhan doesn't come out of nowhere, and is perfectly justified in terms of the lore, psychological and narrative development of Bi-Han and Sektor. There's indeed a story, a context to this pairing that began long before the events of Khaos Reigns. These two probably grew up together, insofar as Longwei, Sektor's father, was the clan's master armorer, having therefore worked closely with Bi-Han's late father. So I wanted to focus on both their respective and shared experiences over the years, to show how they forged (almost) identical personalities obsessed with the idea of perfection as a delusive attempt to mend deep-seated emotional rifts and recreate their shattered family units. However, given the length of Sektor's psychological portrait, I've decided to forego Bi-Han's and the joint synthesis of their two analyses, which may come later. That said, my post below is still focused on showing that, although well-founded and based on a shared past and life events as well as on genuine feelings, their ship remains, according to me, essentially toxic and self-destructive.
Of course, bear in mind that all that follows is mere speculation on my part.
Thanks to MK1's story mode, we know that Madam Bo trained Raiden and Kung Lao from an early age:
Madam Bo: Since your first words, Kung Lao, you've mouthed nothing but excuses. If you fail to prepare...
Liu Kang: Madam Bo has been preparing you for this moment since you were boys. Today you have proven worthy of joining my champions.
Both boys look to be between 20 and 25 years old. Madam Bo, about 85. This means she was around 60-65 when she arrived in Fengjian, which in many countries is the average age range for retirement. Sektor must then have been between 15 and 20, considering that she seems to be between 35 and 40 in Khaos Reigns (to me, she looks older than Bi-Han). To sum up: Madam Bo, a powerful and respected elite warrior in her clan, and the wife of its master armorer, abandons her family to become a cook in a remote Chinese village, and turn two future cabbage planters still peeing their pants into martial arts champions destined to shine in an interdimensional tournament in lieu of the Lin Kuei members themselves.
How could young Sektor, who admired her mother and hoped to live up to her example and honor her legacy, not feel neglected? How could she not feel that her mother considered her unworthy of her, prefering two unknown little peasants to her, and of whom Madam Bo would later say they are "like the sons [she] never had"? How could young Sektor, whose parents were prominent figures in the clan, not have experienced this as a humiliation for her family? By the way, didn't this lead to the couple's divorce?
Indeed, Bi-Han speaks of Sektor's siblings, i.e. her brothers and sisters, but let's recall Madam Bo's sentence above-quoted: she never had sons.
Sub-Zero: Your siblings must do more.
Sektor: They will honor their commitments, Bi-Han. I swear it.
What's more, Bi-Han had never used the term "siblings" before, opting instead for "brother" or "sister" whenever appropriate:
Sub-Zero: Living in your sister's shadow wastes your potential.
Kitana: It is my duty and privilege to serve her.
Noob Saibot: That you are my brother's second-in-command—
Smoke: Shows he understands me more than you ever did.
Noob Saibot: You and my brother will be brought to heel.
Smoke: Not today, not tomorrow, not ever!
From this, we can surmise that perhaps Longwei (Sektor's father) remarried and had other children. And certainly, Bo's departure for Fengjian and her attachment to other children too (Raiden and Kung Lao) must have been unbearable for Sektor, whose father was also likely to start a new life with a new wife and a second offspring. This must have created all kinds of anxieties in her, some of which were presumably linked to abandonment issues; as well as guilt and feelings of inadequacy, frustration and anger, and an inferiority complex that she filled with a frantic, fanatical, illusory and destructive quest for perfection—a perfection that, according to me, she failed to embody in her mother's eyes:
Therefore, her desire to turn all the Lin Kuei warriors, and quite possibly herself, into deadly machines makes perfect sense for several reasons:
1) by artificially enhancing her physical and cognitive capacities, she will be able to become (or so she believes) the perfect warrior she's always wanted to be, only to no avail, in her mother's eyes. And to repair, perhaps, the guilt-ridden belief that Madam Bo left her because she wasn't good enough. This will be also her way of reclaiming the legacy she feels her mother has deprived her of. Since her mother has refused to pass it on to her daughter, she will take it by force and reaffirm its full potential, which Madam Bo herself has squandered and devalued by choosing a path deemed inferior by Sektor and the most reactionary and conservative members of the Lin Kuei (going from warrior to cook, from a clan chosen by a god to a godforsaken village lost in the mountains, training two hillbillies instead of devoting herself to the clan's prodigies, for instance).
2) not only this, but she will also be able to put an end to the negative emotions that have not ceased to haunt her (abandonment, anger, frustration, self-doubt, guilt, feelings of inferiority, humiliation, jealousy...) and that she has come to regard as weaknesses. In this respect, this intro dialogue is very significant, as it shows Sektor's desire to cut herself off from her emotions, to try and convince herself that she feels nothing:
Kung Lao: Madam Bo tries hiding it, but she cries when she thinks of you.
Sektor: I am unmoved by her tears.
3) moreover, by turning the entire clan into cyborgs, she will ensure that no one leaves the Lin Kuei anymore after her mother, Kuai Liang, Tomáš and Cyrax defected. Besides, doesn't she tell Cyrax that she promised her family she wouldn't send her back home until she had made her "the perfect Lin Kuei"? But Cyrax left the clan to join the enemy, leaving Sektor to justify this desertion to the younger woman's parents. She must therefore have experienced this not only as (needless to say) a betrayal, but also as a defeat and a humiliation, fearing perhaps that the Zaki subclan would judge her incompetent and consequently withdraw its trust and allegiance to Bi-Han.
As I wrote above, Sektor seems to me, for this reason linked to Madam Bo's departure about 20 years prior to the events of Khaos Reigns, to be suffering from abandonment issues. And these fears must have resurfaced even more strongly after her brothers-in-law and Cyrax' deserted and Bi-Han was taken to the Temple of the Elements by Liu Kang.
[I'll digress for a moment, but to tell the truth, there are two intro dialogues that shed a little more light on the conflicted relationship between Madam Bo and Sektor, and which tend to show that for her part, the old lady seems to have written her daughter off a long time ago:
Raiden: When Kung Lao and I were tested, you were absent.
Sektor: Ask my mother why I wasn't there.
Raiden: Why did Madam Bo never tell us about Sektor?
Cyrax: It's never easy between mothers and daughters.
Which makes me wonder if, in fact, Longwei's sons aren't also Madam Bo's, whom she might also have disowned, hence her assertion that she never had sons? It would be interesting to dig into this, but far too long. In any case, it suggests that the break-up between Madam Bo and her family, and the causes that led to it, were in fact much more brutal than we might at first think.]
In the story mode of Khaos Reigns, Sektor repeatedly acknowledges that Bi-Han "is not himself", that he has been corrupted, turned by Havik into an "odious" being—and that he must therefore be cured:
Sektor: What did Havik do to you??
Sektor: He's gone! Where is Bi-Han?
Tanya: You know him? From your timeline?
Sektor: Yes, but he has been corrupted. I must restore him. Bring him back.
Sektor: Bi-Han is there. Defending Havik.
Scorpion: Defending him?! Is there no low he won't sink to?!
Sektor: He is not himself! His mind has been broken.
Sektor: We have to bring him back. So we can undo the evil that's been done to him.
Scorpion: Only if it won't jeopardize the mission.
Sektor: You would leave him to die?! Have you no respect?!
Sektor: Havik has made him odious. This must be undone. The Lin Kuei's Elder Arcanist—
Scorpion: Knows nothing of Havik's magic. Liu Kang is your only hope. You should not have plotted against him.
Liu Kang: Go. Return to the Lin Kuei.
Sektor: And Bi-Han?
Liu Kang: He will remain with me until he has been restored.
Sektor: I will be kept apprised of his progress?
Liu Kang: As I see fit.
In this regard, Liu Kang explains to Kuai Liang that keeping Bi-Han in his glass prison, at the Temple of the Elements, is a way of protecting his brother and the rest of the world from his own dangerousness, until he finds a way to restore him:
Scorpion: Can Havik’s magic truly be undone?
Liu Kang: Yes. Though comprehending its intricacies may take years. For now, Bi-Han will reside at the Temple of the Elements. It is safer for all that way.
To Sektor, he says much the same thing:
Liu Kang: Havik’s magic is unlike anything I have encountered. It will not be easily mastered.
Sektor: I expect Bi-Han to make a full recovery.
Liu Kang: Given the complexity of Havik's magic, I can make no promises.
However, on discovering Bi-Han "imprisoned and forgotten" in the Temple of the Elements, Sektor believes Liu Kang has abandoned her man (ah, the fear of abandonment all over again...) and subsequently betrayed his commitment to (try to) heal him, thus motivating her to free him and take him back with her to the Lin Kuei compound. She even specifies that she seeks revenge on Liu Kang for this, because she sees his (absence of) deeds as an affront ("That he is a god will not stop me from seeking vengeance."). But vengeance is not the same as justice, and while justice is the result of a long examination based on the exercise of reason and self-control, vengeance is guided by impulsivity, the abdication of all reason and the unleashing of emotional dysregulation until it becomes blind fury. It's precisely here, in my opinion, that she shows the full extent of her abandonment issues, destructive passion and emotional dependency on Bi-Han. And this goes up to the point where, finally, she seems ready to accept that Bi-Han remains cursed, as he demands, giving up on all attempts to persuade him to seek treatment, and therefore enabling his madness and agony:
"Sektor was obsessed with finding the means to purge my soul of Titan Havik's corruption. She was shocked when I told her she should do no such thing."
Sektor: Is it best for you to remain this way? Noob Saibot: It is best for the Lin Kuei.
But it is possible to explain her apparent change of mind. She was abandoned by Madam Bo. Later, by Kuai Liang, Tomáš and Cyrax. Unwittingly, Bi-Han abandoned her by jumping into the portal and becoming Titan Havik's puppet. A little later, she thought Liu Kang had abandoned her and Bi-Han too. Finally, she found herself alone to manage the clan without the man she loved, and the only person who had ever understood her as her "kindred spirit". The loneliness of her condition must have made this woman lose her footing. That's why I think she'd rather have Bi-Han by her side, sick and corrupt to the core, than not at all. Moreover, she might fear losing him for good if she opposed his desire to remain in this state. He could, for instance, try to eliminate her... After all, as he himself states in his ending, chaos magic has made him unpredictable.
And so Sektor finds herself even more affectively prisoner of a man who is no longer really the man she knew and loved, but whom she is forced to accept as such if she wants their relationship to endure. Of course, this must also benefit her, as Bi-Han's new powers make him more dangerous than ever, which can only help them in their quest for conquest and revenge.
But no one is fooled. Geras and Cyrax, for instance, understand that Sektor's behavior is not helping Bi-Han:
Geras: If you love Bi-Han, return him to Liu Kang.
Sektor: It's because I do that I cannot.
Cyrax: Love for Bi-Han has made you blind. Sektor: It is you who can't see the Lin Kuei's future.
Besides, as far as Bi-Han is concerned, we know from the intro dialogues between his two versions that Sub-Zero would never have agreed to become the monster he is now, had he had the choice:
Sub-Zero: I want no part of what you are.
Noob Saibot: Are you as blind to opportunities as our brother?
Sub-Zero: What you are is abominable.
Noob Saibot: I thought so too, at first.
Noob Saibot: The perfection chaos offers— Sub-Zero: Is a delusion in your mind.
Noob Saibot: Your intransigence is—
Sub-Zero: Unexpected? I thought you were me.
Noob Saibot: Chaos is coming. You must be prepared.
Sub-Zero: By someone claiming to be me? I will pass.
Noob Saibot: I had hoped we would see eye to eye.
Sub-Zero: It pleases me to disappoint you.
This can only mean one thing: that when Liu Kang said in the story mode that "only his mind is mended", it was only temporarily, the time for him to recover the information Bi-Han had gathered on Titan Havik, and to enlist Bi in the final battle against the latter. Or why else would Liu decide afterwards to lock Bi-Han away in a coffin in the Temple of the Elements? Remember, he says that "it is safer for all that way". So the spirit of Bi-Han/Noob Saibot remains partially bewitched, and one of the symptoms of this enchantment is denial of his condition. His ending and intro dialogues with Sub-Zero prove it: he's lucid enough to have thrown off the yoke of Titan Havik, but not enough to reject the corrupting power of chaos entirely. This ID with Liu Kang also emphasizes this point:
Liu Kang: The Chaos within is destroying your soul.
Noob Saibot: Is that what you would have me believe?
That's why Sektor's decision not to hand him over to Liu Kang, and to finally enable his evil, remains no less toxic, under the guise of a sincere love, that's for sure, but whose passionate nature does lead the two lovers to self-destruction.
On this point, I completely agree with @glikeriya-narkevich excellent analysis, which I recommend you read, and I'd like to paraphrase Glikeriya's very pertinent words: if Sektor's love for Bi-Han was healthy, she wouldn't have interpreted Liu Kang's detainment of her man as malicious, even though Liu was doing it to protect both Bi-Han and the Realms from his corruption, and was buying time until he could figure out how to restore him. What's more, she would have returned Bi-Han to him, and would have opposed her lover's refusal of treatment head-on. Because, when someone you love is in hospital or in prison, you wait, for their sake, for the time it takes for them to recover or for their sentence to be served. If we release them before then, we're not helping them, and in the latter case, we're acting all the more selfishly because we're also likely to put society at risk. But that's not all: by preventing Bi-Han from accessing a life-saving cure, Sektor keeps him from possible redemption, and condemns him to the Netherrealm a little more each day. See for yourself:
Liu Kang: Your future darkens by the day, Bi-Han.
Noob Saibot: Clearly you are not omniscient.
Liu Kang: Continue, Bi-Han, and it will not end well for you.
Noob Saibot: I have beaten one god. I can beat another.
Because, in terms of redemption, needless to say that Liu Kang would have not only sought to break the seal of Bi's curse, but also to convince him, using the Socratic method (or "maieutics"), to become once again the defender of Earthrealm that he should never have ceased to be. We caught a glimpse of this in the story mode:
Liu Kang: This is what you are meant to do. Defend Earthrealm.
Noob Saibot: I am not allowed to desire a different future?
Liu Kang: Your desires are not at issue. It is your methods for achieving them.
Of course, Bi-Han, in his delusion, is also responsible for this state of affairs. But let's not forget that he's ill and therefore doesn't know what's best for him. Obviously, I am well aware that you cannot force a sick person to take care of themself, and that's why we can't blame Sektor entirely for this either, but the fact remains that she has her share of responsibility for the whole situation.
There's a lot more to say, but I think the main point has been made. I would just like to add, without elaborating further, that I think Bi-Han and Sektor are pulling each other down. They are a bad influence on each other, not just Sektor on Bi-Han. The fact that their love seems sincere (I'm not at all convinced by arguments that Bi-Han is only using her as a tool) and that they have a great deal in common in what they went through doesn't prevent this couple from being destined to hurt each other. They know how to love, yes, but not in a healthy way. Bi-Han's possessive brotherly love for Kuai Liang proves it: "If you're not with me, then you're against me, and because I won't tolerate you leaving when you were free to do so, I'll make sure no one else can leave the Lin Kuei in the future. The Lin Kuei, my Lin Kuei, or death, that's how I define my love for my family, for my clan." Or this attempt to coerce Tomáš:
Smoke: Are we to be enemies for life?
Sub-Zero: Unless you submit, Tomas.
Sektor and Bi-Han have deep narcissistic wounds, born, among other things, of a lack of recognition by their elders, and emotional deprivations that have not been identified, validated and remedied. We can be touched by this, but I don't think we should condone the twisted desires and acts that stem from their repressed suffering, which, until properly addressed, will continue to generate woes for them and for everyone around them.
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
