JAX!?

Because it's iconic to the character. Sure he didn't have them in his first appearance, but they made him a lot more interesting than just some buff black dude who swooped in to save Sonya's ass. They're important for his character.

You don't see people saying Scorpion should lose his spear or Kung Lao should lose his hat.

No but Mokap should lose his virginity. Just saying, it's about time.

All in all... Jax is nothing without his metal arms. It is what makes him a unique character. As said, without them, he would just be another black dude. The fact that he is in the military does nothing for him. There's a lack of strong powerhouse characters in Mortal Kombat, and I that is without counting in the boss characters such as Goro, Kintaro and Moloch. With a game full of fast ninja-characters and sorcerers, a man with metal arms whose strength lies in his physical power is what balances out the character roster. The only other character I can think of in Mortal Kombat who acts like a powerhouse is Drahmin with his iron club arm attachment.

What makes Jax special is his cybernetic arms. Without them, he is just a male Sonya.

Hate to bring him up, but Hsu Hao is also a physical powerhouse character, and a grappler like Jax.

In fact, the whole reason Hsu Hao was created was to give Jax an evil opposite, like Superman/Bizarro or Spider-Man/Venom.

The metal arms certainly aren't necessary. I don't think they add anything to his character outside of being a visual hint to who you're looking at.

Shame on me for forgetting Hsu Hao.

... Oh, the shame....

Everything is making sense now. Jax is a cool character so naturally his evil opposite would be a shitty character.

Hsu Hao was horrible.
I hope Jax has his bionics.. Actually of the fan arts had him with jet black bionics and those just looked fucking sick.. If anything changes about him it needs to be the color of his bionics.

gold and jewel encrusted.

When he started in da ghetto, alls they had was old stove pipes to build into bling.

Check out these pipes, yo... chronic bionic, sippin' dat tonic



Ka-Tra

I wonder what Sonya and Kano would have been like in MK2.

I want the Gi and Muay Thai gear to appear as his alternates in this game.

I'm black. And I wasn't raised in the burbs somewhere either. I'm fully aware of a stereotype when I see one.



No, not specifically metal arms. The notion that "all black guys are huge, and super strong" however, is. Metal arms are simply a visual representation of the stereotype of the early 90's.



See my reply to StatueofLiberty, just above^^



The stereotype that is represented through Jax's design is older than you and me both. Which brightens my days to notice modern society rejects it a lot better now-days. However, it is still present in every facet of our media. Movies, games, music...ect

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not all up-tight about it. I just know it when I see it and, well... this one has been in this game for almost 20yrs. It's nothing new really, it's just...there.

----

Mortal Kombat is a cesspool for stereotypes. I don't see why it'd be hard to imagine that the origin of the design behind why Jax has metal arms came from such a thing. At it's face value, yea, it's ugly to imagine that this sort of core psychology allowed them to run with the design choice. But that's also why Mortal Kombat gets away with it (not to mention the blatant rip off of Terminator 2's T1000).

MK pokes fun at virtually everyone. From the chauvinistic, cocky white-guy, to the mentor with a god complex, and the "every asian knows some form of martial arts complex", to the big dumb jock with a battle hammer. Not to mention all women are sexy bathing suit wearers, and have big boobs.

Surprise! MK has stereotypes in it. There's one in there for me, and you, and him, and her, and them, and them, and them.....

haha!

Except you know what's not a stereotype? The big burly black guy being the franchise's genius scientist.

Jax invented his arms. And he's the only guy who ever made portals using science instead of magic. And he undid some of Cyrax's automation.

I still don't understand why Pred is saying that the cyborg arms specifically are based on some sort of black stereotype. I'm not being a smartass either I'm really curious because I still fail to see it. Could you be more specific Pred?

Well...never said there wasn't any hope left for the guy. Simply answering the thread title. Him being very skilled and intelligent presents a good argument to the contrary of the stereotype itself. But...that doesn't make the stereotype less....stereotype-ee. heh

Fighting games in particular rely on visual cues to communicate the nature of the character, though. In a series where the military rarely wear uniform, and fighting styles are almost non-existant, metal arms are a reasonable addition to give the character a visual hook, one that describes at least one key aspect of his individual gimmick.

The metal arms elevate him from the slightly generic 'big guy' he was in MKII, to an instantly recognisable trademark of the series. Metal arms are a shorthand that instantly communicates the sense he's stronger than normal, and can compete in a world of demons, godlings, and monsters.

MKDA finally peppered him with military tropes, and MKvsDC gave us a pretty worthy shot at an MKSF uniform, but that's just giving it a stronger foundation now. The arms are part of the visual canon for the character, and have been for fifteen years. MKII is the odd-design-out [as it should be, eighteen years later], by now, and there's no reason to ditch the trademark this late in the game.

Sure. "John Henry" is where alot of the stereotype comes from because he's one of the only examples of a strong black male in folklore.

There had to be something "incredible" about John in order for him to be memorable. And so, all I suggest is that MK ran with that theme for Jax(whether or not they realized that's what they were doing with this character is another story entirely. the thought process was probably really simple. i.e. "it just made the character look cool"), just like alot of other media out there does when it comes to the words "strong", "black", and "power", in the same sentence. Y'just, think of a big black guy.

Mortal Kombat however, takes that theme a step further by emphasizing a symbol of strength on a man in general.... his arms. The complex that makes it a particular "black guy" stereotype though, is when they suggest in Mortal Kombat that Jax felt inferior to some degree. So he built himself something to boost his confidence.... Metal arms.

Like I was alluding to when I replied to Razor, the contrary argument here, is that Jax is also very smart. Which negates another part of that stereotype that originates from crap like slavery, and the mind-state that slave owners had about black people in general. And that is, that black people (men in particular for this example) may be strong, but they are also stupid// mindless // inferior when it comes to mental capacity, and as such, they are less than humans for that reason.

Jax embodies the stereotype, and challenges it at the same time. All I'm saying though, is as far as the metal arms go, it's a stereotype, it's also a rip-off of Terminator 2, and yes Mick, it is his gimmick.

I'm confused by the Terminator 2 part. What about his arms makes you think of a T-1000? 'Cause I've never thought that at all.
I mean...T-1000 was a shapeshifter. He was liquid metal. Even at their most form-fitting, Jax's arms have never made me think of Robert Patrick taking bullets and having silver splatters all over his chest. They looked more like Colossus of the X-Men in MK3 and 4, with all the segmented lines.
Edit: Oh wait, I just realized. The fatality where he turns his hands into blades.
Yeah...I don't think he can actually canonically do that since he's got real fleshy arms inside the metal ones. That was just yet another example of how the fatalities in MK3 were really, really stupid.

Well...Jax's MK3 Fatality and...T1000. That's just a figurine obviously, but there was a whole terrifying sequence in the movie dedicated to that look. Another rip off that can be included here is Marvel character Colossus.

EDIT: Yea, that's exactly what I was getting at. Just saw your edit.

So Jax can be argued as being a perpetuation of the John Henry "incredible strength" black stereotype with his metal arms being a visual symbolic extension of said stereotype. Interesting, I've never looked at it like that. Thanks for expanding on that. I'm curious now to find out who had a hand in Jax's initial concept.

psst....



Had to know that was comin'...

I think John Tobias might be latino, actually.

With all due respect ThePredator151, you might be tugging at short threads and trying to turn them into a sweater.

Sure, there's a strongman archetype long associated with "black" characters, but metal arms aren't a part of that.
They're removed by degrees of separation to a whole other silly pop culture fad, which was prevelant in the nineties. I would be very surprised if John Tobias (or Ed Boon) were remotely cogniscent of the John Henry fable when creating Jax, who was supposedly stripped of his Jim Kelly archetypal references at the last minute to 'show off' John Parrish's large physique -- which itself implies strength.

Blaxploitation stereotypes, (which overlap with all the other Hong Kong references of the early games), are obviously there, but I'd wonder if two rubes from Chicago would even know who John Henry is to reference him! I'm personally only aware of him through the Steel comics character, but I'm not American, and I guess it's not an idea high on the export list. Seems like more of a Southern thing to me, though.

Interesting conceptual genealogy, but I don't think it's directly relevant to MK.