A Friendship is a finishing move introduced in Mortal Kombat II in order to soften the violence and the controversy that surrounded the Fatality in the original Mortal Kombat. Friendships allowed players to perform an act of friendship and goodwill towards their opponent rather than kill them after winning the match. This included giving a present, blowing bubbles, and turning into a snowman. To perform a Friendship, when the opponent is defeated, the player must perform a special button combination for their character and have won that round using only High or Low Kick. In Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the player had to win the round without using the Block button.
Whenever a Friendship was performed in MKII, the announcer (the voice of Shao Kahn) was heard incredulously muttering, "Friendship. Friendship?" while large, multicolored balloon letters would wiggle on the screen stating the name of the finishing move, sounding like Shao Kahn was reading it out of a script. When Friendships returned in MK3 and its updates, the announcer responded, "Friendship. Friendship, again?" in disbelief that such a thing would reappear in another game.
Friendship's letters in MK3
It is generally accepted that the introduction of Friendships to the Mortal Kombat series was intended to mock the parental outcry that the game was too violent, similar to Babalities. However, they were dropped from later games as the series returned to its dark roots, from Mortal Kombat 4 onward. They appeared in Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
They make a quasi-cameo in Mortal Kombat: Deception's Puzzle Kombat, where the characters sometimes hand their foe an exploding gift. This partially mimics Baraka's Friendship in the regular Mortal Kombat games, with the exception that the "gifts" are offered during the fight, instead of after the fight is decided, and they explode. You can even see Nightwolf do his Mortal Kombat Trilogy:N64 Friendship as he juggles his tomahawks. Also, in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, one of Kung Lao's Fatalities refers to his MKII Friendship; after he pulls the rabbit out of his hat, the opponent makes a gesture as if not wanting it. Kung Lao then proceeds to smack the opponent to bits with the rabbit itself. He also has a hidden variation of this Fatality not displayed in the ingame Fatality list where he tosses the rabbit to the opponent, which then proceeds to savagely assault them, Monty Python style.
Via Twitter, Ed Boon has hinted at the inclusion of Friendships in Mortal Kombat (2011), however they have not been found in gameplay.