1. Malice- both had superb art work and went in unique directions, I enjoyed Oksana's plot twists and Malice's specials and presentation were top notch.

2. Erzhara


3. Merrick


Best of luck to all contestants

Match 1: Malice
Match 2: Shoulen
Match 3: Merrick

1-Oksana
2-Shoulen
3-Merrick

Malice
Shoulen
Merrik

Malice
Shoulen
Merrick

malice

shaoln

merrick

Finally a character worth voting for!

Malice. Decent story and awesome design. Soul caliber level detail.

The competition is definitely heating up.

I'm so nervous my balls are twitching! lol

As much as I want to, I won't vote for my own character. I'll let everyone else decide whether or not she's worth advancing.

Oksana V Malice - May the Best Woman Win!

1. No vote
2. Shoulen
3. Merrick

And here's why:

I really can't vote in the first pairing.

I feel as though Oksana and Malice both have strong concepts, but the execution is a little lacking. I can't pick a side here.

Oksana: Lacks a central theme or direction, but I like that she is a mother, and the twist with her son.... I just don't like who it is. He is showing up much too often in these characters.

Malice: I have a lot to say about Malice.

I do not like that Shao Kahn abandoning her totally destroys her...Is continually referred to as both 'he' and 'her', then the ending mentions this "Matthius" that hasn't been mentioned before in the description, but doesn't treat it as some sort of reveal, more like an oversight. Was Matthius the original name of the character that was left in the ending on accident, or is it the name that Malice's alternate personality has taken? ... Another unfortunate story quirk is the 'serving Quan Chi' portion... Seems like there are so many characters who use this exact same device. To me, this suggests the idea is just an easy one, that little thought was put into it.

I must sound like a Negative Nancy, but I do have positive input as well, I'm getting to that... But first, the gothic theme. It doesn't mesh to me. This is supposed to be a deeply disturbed woman, her mind shot, yet she has decided to take the appearence of a person who so very much wishes they were disturbed... It is extremely unbelievable to me. I think if all the belts, eye liner tears, fancy straight jackets, and long painted finger nails were removed, she'd actually be conceptually stronger. Her story lends itself to what could be a truly amazing look, a deeply disturbed woman who is both insane and heartbroken. Messy/sexy hair, dirty clothes that appear to have been quite nice at one time, etc... The gothic thing just doesn't work, in my opinion. She would enter the arena and have her opponent sigh saying "those Outworld kids...", as opposed to truly affecting them with her insanity.

That said, the artwork is beautiful, some of the best in this competition.

On to the positive...

I am quite fond of her special moves, especially Night Terror, because I love characters who can influence their opponent through illusions/dream-like things... Like Mesmers from Guild Wars, hehehe... And her "weapons" are very unique, definitely a good thing. The victory pose is both funny and unsettling, which is nice.

I know it may seem like I'm ripping Malice quite a bit, and I don't want to come off so negative, it's simply that I love the concept of this character. Woman scorned+insanity+kombat=wonderful, but I think her execution either needs a critical eye and an editor, or some more elaboration as to why things are the way they are.

I picked Merrick because...
Hana is out of place. Simply put. Frankly, I think the MK characters would murder her, though fortunately for her, she has absolutely no story related connection to MK, so she gets to live.

Merrick is pretty good. The healer is a little bit of an abandoned role in MK, for the obvious reason, but one that can still fit in.

I like that Shoulen calls himself Shoulen in honor of his race. It's a nice touch. The battle style is passable, though a little bland... I feel like he's MK's Kirby. The ending is good, not great, but good. I like that he didn't actually kill Shao Kahn, since so many of these endings begin with "...Shao Kahn....death..."

I fixed your images, as requested. I fixed a few other Akari-instances, I'll upload the corrections shortly.

---
The people's voices were heard loudly in this set of results; the council was unable to decide a winner twice.

The Coliseum:

Eternus: 15
Snake: 26

Black Widow: 16
Krustacean: 26

Greyia: 6
Sapheera: 36


The Council:

Eternus: 0
Snake: 4

Black Widow: 2
Krustacean: 2

Greyia: 2
Sapheera: 2


Final Results:

Eternus: 0
Snake: 5

Black Widow: 2
Krustacean: 3

Greyia: 2
Sapheera: 3

My votes are:

Oksana (although i want to say i really like Malice)

Ezahra (Shoulen is a great charachter, but there is something about him i don't like. I'm not sure what it is yet)

Merrik

1: Malice

Toughest choice yet. Oksana had a great story and ending that actually had the balls to really try to tie into the MK universe in a big way, rather than just another side story.

However, games are visual and its hard to ignore how good malice looks from a design standpoint, plus an equally good story, so I had to go with Malice.

2: Shoulen

Equally good imo, but Shoulen wins out by a nose.

3: Merrick

Im not sure if Hanna had ANYTHING to do with MK ..... So Merrick wins.

Malice
Shoulen
Merrick

I'll start posting why I chose who I chose after we get further into the tournament.

Unfortunate, I don't like coasting by and it also means no analysis really has to go into Merrick. It's just a vote by default.

Malice, Shoulen, Merrick

I voted for Merrick because I found him more interesting than Hana, and like others have stated, a healer in Mortal Kombat is very fresh and interesting.

Malice

Shoulen

Merrick

First all I want to point out to all those confused by the gender mix ups and the Matthius at the end , long and short of it is I just made some mistakes when I changed her from a male to female character and forget to or didnt notice I hadn't changed them. I had infact mentiond this mentiond this a while ago though.

Thanks for the input and I'm taking onbord what you have said.
The first thing about Malice was that her design had to represent restraint which is why belts are featured heavily in both her design. The idea behind her head brace/crown was that its embedded into her brain controlling her uncontrollable violent personality but they sometimes release causing her tortured mind persona to break free.
Her first costume was supposed to reflect her once high position within the Edenian Royale family while at the same time it having the appearance of a victorian straight jacket, I also wanted it to look old, faded and tatterd to show that shes been imprisoned for a long time.
The idea of Iron lances and her gothic nature was supposed to be rather symbolic, they are supposed be extension to her insanity and violence as well as her own torment
lastly it isn't just Shao Khans betrayle that sent Malice insane but the thousands of years of solitude aswell, Shao Kahn would have turned into her main obsession as she had to have something to aim and focus on.
To say that Shao kahn's abandoning her doesnt really makes sense to her going insane is a little unfire after all just ask Glenn Close ;) but more seriously, love is a powerfull thing it does make people to crazy things, many people have killed for it.
Again thanks for your honest opinion.

Bracket 1: Malice

Very tough call. Both are engaging, refreshing ideas for characters and they fit pretty well in the MK universe, but a lot of little things are off. Oksana has so many mysteries about her background that I don't really know who she *is*. Malice looks too attractive and "well-dressed" to have been locked up in a dungeon long enough to go insane, and I'm not sure how she can fight effectively with those belts on, especially the one wrapping her legs together. Oksana's moveset seems to be based on what kind of alcohol she's had, with no indication of how the player knows what she's had. Does she randomly switch, or does she switch with a special move, or what? It doesn't specify, so I have no idea how to play as her. In Malice's ending, who the heck is Matthius and why is he lurking in her and Kahn's bedroom? Oksana's Level 3 Teleport (Level 3 how?) has a neat idea in the switching of the life meters, but that might be a very unwise thing to put under the player's control. Also, from a game development standpoint, her Paradox Sphere would be terribly impractical to make; not only would it have to be made a different way for every character in the game, but new DLC characters will also have to come with their own Paradox Sphere expansion. That's a whole lot of extra attention to give to one character.

My vote eventually went to Malice because it's easier to tell what the character's theme is, and she seems to have a stronger place in the MK mythology.


* * * * * * * * * *

Bracket 2: Shoulen

It may be the grammar issues making things confusing, but I'm not sure at all what's going on in Erzhara's story. The parts I can understand are pretty interesting, though. Aside from that, this character didn't leave a very strong impression on me; I'm surprised that I can't think of much more to say, positive or negative....

And then there's Shoulen, the Ewok of Mortal Kombat -- or perhaps the Eloi, depending on how nerdy a comparison you're prepared to swallow. It's hard not to root for the little guy, even though he's not exactly little. He's got a believable story that fits into the MK canon without breaking it, a degree of personality, and a decent set of moves, His Fatalities seem fairly standard; the second one is basically the same kind of gouging and head ripping we're used to seeing from the MK regulars, but it's been a while since there's been a good crushing Fatality.

* * * * * * * * * *

Bracket 3: Merrick

Hana seems to have nothing to do with Mortal Kombat. Less than Mokap, even -- at least Johnny Cage is briefly alluded to in his story. Hana has nothing.... Her entry pose is non-sequitastic. Apparently she's killing everybody because they all look like "Hector!"

Merrick, on the other hand, is very original and refreshing. He has the personality of a badass everyman, kind of like the MK9 Stryker, very likable and convincing. He proves that there's a place for a healer in Mortal Kombat, which is a very daring move that the creator pulled off quite well. His reliance on buff/debuff magic gives him a unique play style, and the moves are well thought-out and fitting for the character. The Fatalities, too, are extremely brutal while still being appropriate for a doctor who has simply had enough of this shit. My only complaint is that he seems to have no ties with any of the existing cast, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (my character is sort of a lonely outsider too) but it seems unlikely that this guy could have gone for so many thousand years having no history with anyone -- especially since in MK, much like Heroes, all the special people are constantly bumping into one another like they're magnetized or something.

Merrick would totally be played by Lawrence Fishburne.

Malice
Erzhara
Merrick

Malice

Shoulen

Merrick

Malice (best entry in the whole competition so far)
Shoulen
Merrick (by default; Hana had no descriptions for her specials and a weird ending format)

Malice- hardest vote in this tourney. I usually go story over gameplay but her gameplay won me over. Oksana could beat 75% of the characters on here and I did love the twist ending.

Shoulen

Merrick(I seriously hope Hana is not someones true story)

Whoa. I got slaughtered! Eternus was better than that, in my opinion.

unfortunately, in everybody else's opinion, he wasnt.
no offence or anything, but when you entered orange scorpion what did you really expect?