Arguably Noob Saibot stopped to be his own character, when it was revealed that he is Bi-Han.

I wouldn't call that a loss though. It took another henchman whose spiel was to be sneaky and switch sides and began moving down a road that made a long-dead character into a potential power player.

Completely agree.
It was one of the best decisions from MK-Team in post-MK3 era.

It made generic evil henchman into one of the most interesting characters in the series, simultaeously ressurecting another interesting warrior.

Exactly why it's bad making Noob a nobody again. He will be the equivalent of a reptile or baraka. Revealing Noob Saibot as Bi-Han was one of THE best reveals in MK. It is going to hurt his character.

I would want only Bi-Han to be Noob.
There could be other Noob-like wraith characters, but none of them should be "the next Noob". As Razor said, I wouldn't want Noob Saibot to be like the Sub-Zero name, something to pass along to others like some title.

Agreed, IF they are going with Bi-Han as Sub-Zero then they should just kill Noob.

Even if you like Cyber Sub-Zero it has to be admitted that this hurt the story more than helped. Kuai Liang lost not only his story, but Smoke lost the only story element he really had and now Noob Saibot is possibly going to suffer as well.
That's why I'm still hoping against hope that this Sub-Zero is BRAND NEW or Kuai Liang. Bi-Han is backtracking just as much as anything else and the only benefit of bringing Bi-Han back as Sub-Zero is keeping that damn rivalry between him and Scorpion alive. It can be argued that's not a benefit either.

Well, I had hoped for Cyber Subbie and Noob to be in the game with no human Subbie, other than maybe an alternate skin. Bringing in a third Subbie is just plain unnecessary, especially when there's still Frost to be used (though I have no love for her at all).

I don't find Kuai Liang turning cyborg in MK9 as hurtful to any storyplot for any of the characters. I have seen alot of arguements against it, that with Kuai Liang a cyborg, this and that won't be possible.

He's a fictional character. If NRS wants it to be possible, it will be possible. They can bend and break every rule they so see fit - which MK9 is proof of, like it or not.

Anyways, we got a human Subbie in MKX. Who it is has yet to be seen. I just find it a waste if NRS are just going to trash the story they build up in MK9, instead of building on it further.

Noob as a character regardless if he is Bi Han or not, is workable and I do see him has more potential than Reptile or Baraka.

That's how bad writing and plotholes happen though.

Depends how NRS will handle Noob as separate entity. Which could be rather tough task, since Bi-Han story was the only thing that made him interesting plot-wise.

MK9 hasn't runied anything, when it comes to Smoke. He was woobie without personality in the old timeline. In new timeline he is a zombie, but with established personality. You win something, you lose something.

The same goes for Kuai Liang. As it was said many-many-many times before, being cyborg doesn't stop him from accomplishing tasks from the OT. Though, it kind of kills the whole point of the reboot. And since MKX most likely won't revisit events of MK4-MKA (at least not how they had happened), he wouldn't be able to do all that, either way. So, cybrog or not, he wouldn't go through the same path as in MKDA-MKA, which kind of kills the whole point of complaints about him being cyborg.

>MK9 Smoke

>punchy asshole who attacks first and asks questions never
>can't tell apart Kitana and Mileena, so either colorblind or slightly retarded, take your pick
>dies before accomplishing a single thing of importance
>personality


hmmm

Slightly retarded. But that's just my opinion.

Holy shit.

I just noticed Bi Han has been in all the main MK games 0_0
MK1(Sub Zero), MK2, MK3(Unplayable), UMK3(Playable in SNES and Genesis), MK4/MKG, MK DA(GBA Version), MKD, MKA, MK9.

Damn

Still, it's more personality, than eternal woobie and Noob's slave.

Yeah, Smoke was pretty much being a schmuck, except when it came to Kuai Liang... and I think that is what his fans caught onto the most.

He was being a hothead and acted before thinking, but he cared so much about his best friend. Overall, he was a very emotional character. It's personality. Some might not like it, but some do. That's the funny thing about opinions...

Not to mention his fab hair and the fact he is a demon incarnate...

The original Smoke was a tragic character. The fact that he rejects the Cyber Initiative and goes AWOL with his friend speaks more about him than anything he's ever done in the reboot.

In the NT, he learns about the plans that the clan has in store for him when a bunch of Lin Kuei cyborgs spawn next to him and zap his ass. He doesn't even get to make the choice to defy the clan on his own, because Cyrax is the one who has that story now. Raiden makes that choice for him, essentially removing what little agency he had in the original.



Every single thing that used to define him as a character is gone. So I'm honestly confused when I hear "MK9 Smoke" and "personality."



And for the record, I like the enenra thing. I think it's cool, and it will be even cooler if they follow up on it in MKX, but throughout the entirety of MK9's story mode, it doesn't come up once.

Backstory =\= personality.

In the original timeline, he was a mindless slave character. So yes, Smoke was truly a tragic character in the past games...

See: All of Edenia after Mileena took over


Oh my god people don't make me come in here

True that.

This.

Smoke in MK9 was robed of his story (well, he was robbed from his story by reboot, not his death), but was given personality.

To make things more clear:
Backstory - "a history or background created for a fictional character", Smoke had it, but nothing else in the OT.
Personality - "the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character", Smoke didn't had it in OT.
You are immensely confusing those two things.

You can dislike Smoke's personality in MK9 all your want, but he had it.

My view is that Bi Han is a great character as long as he stays evil. If he is good again what would drive Scorpion's motivation to redeem himself after MK2011?

I think it would be a shame for both of the characters and the story to overdo the Sub Zero title. I do not want Scorpion to be killing his rival indefinitely, doing away with a SZ only to find out that the title has been passed to another.

I still don't agree that Smoke being a "punchy asshole" was deliberate characterization that can be considered a personality.

Everybody acts that way in MKvsDCU even though it's completely out of character for, say, Superman to act that way. It's just bad writing to make fights happen, it's not--

Oh god wait what am I doing.