Never mind.

^yeah, what he said about Sareena. But I would like to add that another direction for her would to be with Sub-Zero and have little cyromancer-human-demon hybrids running around, one of which could be a future character.

Ermac needs to come out of the shadows. He's always stayed kind of out of sight, but for MK9, he should really make himself noticed. One thing I always thought of is that if he is comprised of thousands of warrior souls, he should have those's individuals memories. With all those experinces combined, he could be an incredible leader or general.

Well all of them need better character build ups. But here are some that are away from the typical "omg Skopeean!"


1. Kai - We NEED to get away from this "token black guy" mentality midway. This character was built for the job. the tiger stripes are cool, the martial arts background and costumes are all good for taking him away from the ridiculous stereotypes, and letting us love the character.

When I think about Kai, and the elements that make the character up, I don't think about what color he is, I just like the character. It's time for that to come forward.

So, the inference to him maybe being an oracle is a good one. Run with his dreams and so on, directing "who he's supposed to be", "what his destiny is", and all that jazz.

He doesn't have much there for build-up, so this is a perfect opportunity.

Make him a "martial artist" with an in-depth past and future. Cool moves and unique fighting abilities....and what ever happened to Raiden giving him the staff?

2. Sareena - See XD84's post.

3. Drahmin - An odd choice, but his backstory is intriguing. Ex-warlord or something right? Well, what happened for him to get where he's at? And what was he like before?

I didn't like his moves or anything though so, I think those would have to get "worse"//more damning, if you see what I'm saying. The bugs and stuff was interesting, but it was something about the way he operates that turned me off about him.

Make him.....make him more "Warlord-like". 13-16th century or something. Go waaay back in time for him. Since he's got the oriental mask and everything, maybe something that is akin to the Samurai is in order. I think that's a Japanese mask anyway...

4. Havik - Cleric of Chaos needs to get more involved. We need to know more about his "un-organized" past.

He's another one that i didn't like his moves and stuff. I think he should never operate with a defined "style" like they had him. If anybody were the one to do it, he should probably be the "scrapper" on the roster. Really violent scrapper. Sporadic moves, jumpy baits, surprising attacks (not to be confused with "surprise attacks"), violent combos...that's Havik to me.

I also think that if they'd straighten out Scorpion, Havik would offer a nice opposite as a neutral character. Scorpion really sides with "the right thing to do" or, "the most beneficial to his plan thing to do". Havik doesn't doesn't really do that.

He should be crazy as hell. Like getting involved with a side, and then disappear, only to show up ridding in with the enemy to attack. Lol! wtf? right?


============================

Those are the top four that were intriguing, but really haven't gotten much attention at all to me. Other more conginenial ones are:


1. Rain - They made him into a "son of a god"?

2. Ermac - Possible ruler of some realm since he sided with good?

3. Noob Saibot - Needs to get cool-er. The brotherhood of the shadow hasn't really been explained well, and neither is where Noob Saibot stands on anything.

4. Dairou - I liked his story a little bit, and I liked his moves a little bit. Some of his moves felt forced, and restricted though. I liked his "smooth" and "flowing" stuff best. Makes him seem like a professional at what he's doing.

5. Fujin - Hasn't gotten enough attention to solidify him as a plausible replacement for Raiden as protector of Earth. We need to see his power. We need to see why he gets to replace Raiden.

6. Nitara - I'd like more detail on her as a character in her story stuff, a more realistic Vampire Folk Lore look on her, and some more volklore-esk based moves. Somebody on the MKTeam has to like, and know alot about Vampires right?

Get those wings off her, they look ridiculous. Make her look like she could have come out of that "Interview with a Vampire" movie. Or "Underworld" or the "Blade" movies...or anything else that makes her seem like a regular human with pale skin, yet she's more than that. It will totally direct her character if they do this. It will make her a darker character...even as a "good" aligned character. That lead actress in the Underworld movie// that lead female vampire in Blade 3 are two types of base-models for what I'm talking about.

=====================

Other than that I'd want more depth from the realms themselves. More "Life" // "Personality" from those parts of the game. Worlds, Animals, and even stagnant objects in the realms are their own character in a good movie, book, or cartoon.

We need more of this way of thinking if this will ever be a game with a great fantasy element in it again.

Considering they're using the UREngine3, I'm surprised to see that there isn't little creatures and shit skamping around during a match.

MK should be borderline terrifying by now.
===================================


That's all I got right now....more later maybe.

First of all... nice topic.

There's defenetly alot of un-completed characters. By this I mean they had a bad or sometime hardly any story, had a boring look, a small list of specials. Many things need to be improved with these characters. Yet still people need to stop hating them and understand that they have potential.

So here's my list...

1 - Havik - To me a great character... he had a great look, his moves were fun and useful in Kombat, his weapon did a good job at taking opponents down, and his unstable/derranged personality promises some sick fatalities. The only real problem I had with Havik is... He had no backstory. He was just there out of the blue. They could have really gone somewhere with the Chaos VS Order thing but no... they left it to die. Yet if Midway could somehow come up with a nice backstory fo Havik he could be a great character.

2 - Reptile - OK... here's the thing with Reptile. He started out as a GREAT character. I've got some problems with his position as of late however...
Reptile was perfect... until MK4 when his look first began to change. This also started a second problem aside from him looking like crap.

IN EVERY GAME HE ALWAYS HAS TO SERVE A DIFFERENT MASTER!!!

Why??? Why did Midway do this? I mean him serving Shang Tsung was fine... but then it was Shao Kahn which he KNEW was responsible for what happened to his realm. Then Shinnok, WTF was that all about anyway?? And then right before MKDA I guess he switched back to Kahn since he was sobbing over his "master's" death. This is rediculous because like I said he knew Kahn destroyed Reptile's race of Saurians/Raptors. And then if only for 5 minutes Nitara becomes his master... Now not only is he everyone's servant when he clearly deserves a higher status, but he also gets used, betrayed, kicked aside, and left! In like every game. They have to seriously stop this stupidity... Reptile needs to become his own person and forget this "Master" nonsense once and for all.

3 - Kira - Now Kira is one of those characters that needs a LOT of improvements. For one, she has no story, also she has no original or even interesting special moves. She's just Kano and Sonya mixed together. Nothing interesting about that. Yet I still feel she has potential.

Give her a decent look and story, some new ORIGINAL special moves, and at least a semi importiant role to play in the game and she's good to go.

4 - Mavado - Another one that needs quite a bit of work done on him. Now personally, I am a Mavado fan. He is in my top 10 favorite characters. And therefore I don't want to see his character go to waste. The first thing he needs is a backstory. And one that goes outside the Red Dragon at that. Then he needs a new weapon. I hate that he uses Kabal's hookswords. He needs something exclusive that more fits his character. I'll leave that one to Midway. He needs a better look as well. I don't really have anything against his current other than its a little bland. A guy in a trenchcoat isn't too interesting really. A few changes and he's done!

5 - Hotaru - Like Havik, Hotaru is pretty decent already. I love his armor, his weapon, his Samurai feel... But he also needs a better backstory. In fact the Orderrealm itself needs a story. The Chaosrealm as well.

6 - Meat - Another big one... Well so far one problem with pretty much all of these. They all lack backrounds/storylines. I love what they did with him in MKA anyways. He looked pretty sweet. But he had no purpose for being there unfortuantly...

I may add more later.

^^^ Agreed about Reptile

Reptile would also be one of my favorite characters, if he actually stood up for him self.

It's weird, he said "I serve no one!" in Shaolin Monks.

^Predator151

Ermac.... ruler of Outworld? HELL YEAH!

havik for sure. jade. she always seems to be kitana's friend, nothing more. stryker, reiko, there seems to be great potential with his shifty ways. onaga needs more love, and finally kai. that guy always seems to get the shaft.

I pretty much agree with everything you stated, he's definitely a character with loads of potential. The thing I'd like to know most about Havik, however, is how he became a "Cleric of Chaos". I want the whole Havik "giving into turmoil" twist further unwrapped.

I got a few ideas of some characters who could easily earn expansion in the storyline, guys.

Dairou, Ashrah, Kai, Taven, Daegon, Reiko, the Chameleons, Jade, Sareena, Havik, Hotaru, Drahmin, Moloch, and Meat.

Just some of the key candidates. There's tons of others who've been in the game for a LONG time and yet could use expanding in their storylines. :)

Bryon

I agree about the Fujin comments, he hasn't really "Show n Prove" yet. He's one of my favs. ALSO I know we know his background but Sub-Zero just needs a better storyline, he is becoming very irrelevant in the MK series and he is one of my favs, this disturbs me. He does nothing special in MK2, MK3 he helps out his buddy smoke, MK4 he does nothing, He does nothing in MK 5, MK 6 He does nothing....

I have one problem with characters like Kai: Where the fuck were they during MK3? To my understanding, the story of that game was that Shao Kahn invaded Earthrealm, and everyone worth a damn had their souls protected by Raiden, and the others got absorbed and these chosen warriors fought against Kahn, defeated him, and set the souls free to return to their mortal hosts?

If Kai was worth a damn, in the whole scheme of the MK story, he'd have been protected and fought against Kahn. I guess they can bust out some excuse like "he was in the jungle doing some soul searching," but they'd absolutely need to get on this, in my opinion. They set up Kai to be the main hero of Deadly Alliance, but again snatched that from him to give it to a revamped Kung Lao. They also bitched out Fujin for Raiden.

Part of me would like to see everything from Deadly Alliance remade, because a lot of the newer characters in those games were treated pretty poorly. A lot from that era could be revised.

Havik, in my opinion, should have been the main villain of MK: Armageddon. I mean, before you say he wasn't worthy, a guy in the background of MK2 ended up being the main boss of the saga. Onaga gets killed by Shujinko, making that character worth a damn, and then Raiden kills Shujinko, as the Forces of Light return to their ways. Havik comes in, snatches Onaga's heart, and resurrects all those that have died in Mortal Kombat, starting with Shao Kahn, who was the being responsible for Kabal being restricted to staying alive with his ventilator mask. This drives a wedge between the Black Dragon and Havik, gives the revived Shujinko the purpose of ending Raiden's corruption, and allows the Havik character to become much cooler.

As far as Reptile goes, the whole serving thing was really cool, in my opinion. Everyone thinks that just because Reptile is a cool green ninja/lizard man, he should be a bad-ass. Reptile needing to serve was a damn good flaw that made the character really sympathetic, in my opinion. They did jerk it around, though, and I think plans were to have the character retired after MK4. I mean, you explode in your own ending, chances aren't good for you. Then they decided to do something really cool with Reptile, and had the servant become the king. When Reptile's body became the vessel that allowed the return of The Dragon King, Reptile got the pay-off he needed.

Sareena was touched on perfectly by XiahouDun84, as expected from a poster of that genius, but the character has never really interested me too much. I see her potential, but she just does nothing for me. I've only seen her in one game, so what do I care? To elaborate on the Noob Saibot thing, though, I wouldn't have Noob Saibot try to convince, so much as having Sareena's demonic nature seduce herself. Sareena first saw good in the Sub-Zero who ventured into the Netherealm, and I believe that she currently thinks that Sub-Zero is the one leading the Lin Kuei. When she finds out that the Sub-Zero that stirred her feelings is Noob Saibot, what sort of mental damage would that unleash upon her? It gives her an excuse to allow herself to walk off the righteous path. She'd need to convince herself that she cares about this new Sub-Zero, and that she can become not only as good as humans, but better than humans she originally saw virtue in.

I'd just like to point out: We know next to nothing about Shao Kahn. We know what he's been up to since he's joined the games. We know he killed King Jerrod to take Edenia, and that he poisoned Onaga. But who exactly is Shao Kahn? Did he breast feed? We need some elaboration there.

Sh!t, you got that right. :)

Bryon

1. Kai - I like Kai and his powers, including his story after he wandered around in Earthrealm. I like ThePredator151 idea of Kai of being an Oracle. I agree... maybe a historian wouldn't hurt. Maybe in the next games... he can write down stories of every warrior in history from the past, present and future. I agree that Kai will be an Oracle

2. Rain - I'm sick of Rain being evil. I want him to join the side of good

3. Hotaru - Hotaru is good so far... there should be more new Seidan guards for the next game. As for Darrius... we need a new resisstance character for the next game. Fans hated Darrius anyway.

4. Taven - Taven's story was cool and dramatic. I think it'll be best that in the next MK game, fans should see more Taven.

5. Johnny Cage - Some people Johnny Cage even though he sucks... but he's cool. I think Johnny Cage should give up his movie star life and do something else... like join the Special Forces

6. Stryker - Stryker should be a Seidan guard. After all, when I play deception and learned Stryker would be in konquest... he should be part of Hotaru's troops and fight for justice.

Yes, Taven should appear in MK9.

But his appearance should be very different.

He should like, have much longer hair.

And his journey should be to undo what armageddon caused, or something like that.

We already have three characters from Seido; one of them is a Seidan Guardsmen and the other two are former ones. I think three Seido characters is enough. If anything, just expand upon their characters.

Furthermore, what's the point of adding another Seido character when we only have one Chaosrealmer. It would be better if one or two more Chaosrealmers were introduced to even out the odds with Seido.



I don't think Stryker, a Earthling by the way, would want to fight for some dude from a random realm that believes in a "hardcore", communist-like, government.

Well for Havik, thats the point. Theres got to be more warriors like him in the realm of Chaos. If there was another one... I named him Panik.

I actually thought up a character a while back that could play that role quite nicely.

Here he is:

Name: Kwah Dah

Origin: Chaosrealm

Allies: Noob Saibot

Enemies: Havik

Abilities: Superhuman abilities, Necromancy, Sorcery, Voodoo

Background: Kwah Dah was once the leader of a huge resistance in the realm of Chaos. Their goal was to eliminate chaos by conquering the realm. Kwah Dah and his followers came close to conquering the realm. But unfortunately for Kwah Dah, things didn't come together as he hoped. For one of his most trusted followers betrayed him. This traitor was the last of the rebellion along with Kwah Dah, himself.

The Traitor:
As Kwah Dah made his way into an ancient pyramid along with Havik, he soon found himself surrounded. In the blink of an eye Kwah Dah was knocked unconscious. He soon awoke in a secret chamber of the pyramid. To his surprise, his most trusted warrior was before him, Havik. Havik laughed as he explained how he had given into turmoil the night before. Havik soon cast an ancient spell on Kwah Dah which removed his consciousness from his body and sent it to the Netherealm.

Background:
Kwah Dah roamed the the realm aimlessly. Looking for someone who could help him be revived. Many years passed.

MK: Deception:
After centuries of searching, he finally encountered someone who could help. It was a wraith. He called himself Noob Saibot. He told Kwah Dah of how he was looking for a way to enter the Chaosrealm undetected. Kwah Dah, knowing many ways of entering his native realm, ceased the opportunity to make a deal. And so a deal was made: If Kwah Dah shows Noob a way to enter the Chaosrealm without detection, Noob will find Kwah Dah's body and with words of sorcery Kwah Dah has told him and necromancy, reunite his body with his consciousness. With the help of Kwah Dah, Noob Saibot was able to enter the Chaosrealm through a portal from the Netherealm. Following through with his promise, Noob reunites Kwah Dah body with its conscious. With his conscious and body as one again, he wanders the realm aimlessly. He is surprised at how much chaos the realm has accumulated, but not heart-broken.

Ancestors:
After days of wandering, he soon finds himself back at the ancient pyramids. As he approaches the pyramids, he feels a sudden surge of pain run through his chest. It knocks him unconscious. He awakes in a dark room. He quickly realizes that their are three men before him. They tell him he is from an ancient sect of necromancers that was eliminated centuries ago by a powerful deity. They then tell him of a powerful ancient artifact locked away inside one of the ancient pyramids in which he should recover. Kwah Dah collapses, awakening him from the dream. As he picks himself up he hears a voice instructing him to follow. As he raises his head he sees an owl in front of him. It takes off. Kwah Dah, realizing it's guiding him, follows the bird inside one of the pyramids. Kwah Dah immediately begins the search for the ancient artifact. After hours of searching he stumbles across a hidden room. As he approaches the center of the room the ground begin to shake. From the ground a pillar arises, above it is a mask. Kwah Dah quickly grabs it, knowing that it is the artifact the elders spoke of. He soon feels surges of power rushing through him, the power of his old ancestors, the Houan.

Armageddon Bio:
(Never wrote one)

Here is concept I had someone draw up:





That's about it.

He is interesting... i'm impressed. but does he have any special moves?

Kenshi
- Away from the typical heroes, Kenshi is a somewhat grim, brooding, independent man making his own path. But that doesn’t stop his interaction. He’s made allies of Sub-Zero and the OIA along the way. As well as having a past with Shang Tsung, Hotaru, Mavado, and possibly many more in his time with Sub-Zero (Noob Saibot/Smoke/Sareena).

Why he wasn’t an instant favorite for some was most likely because of his shared telekinetic ability with Ermac. To make him different, I’d like to see more moves with the sword or even more telekinetic moves with the sword. Something like have it spinning like a buzz saw and come flying at the opponent or something. Being the “sword saint”, it only makes sense to be a master with it.

Another thing that could be elaborated more in his story is the spiritual sight. Lol, what always comes to mind is actually an old beast wars episode. A bomb goes off leaving the characters blinded, yet they concentrate enough to have a second field of vision in their mind’s eye. I’d like to see it go into more of what he can do, his MKD ending showed extreme brightness wouldn’t effect him as well as darkness by fighting in the night. Perhaps a whole realm no one else can enter due to becoming blinded from these conditions. Or a character with a similar concept of Medusa could be an enemy, where a character couldn't look at her without turning to stone.

Reminds me alot of a voodoo doctor concept character I had. Beautifully dark character and befitting for the Chaos realm, and as a "black" character without all the ridiculous stereotypes. Great concept.

Reptile - I think Reptile's been a servant to every evil villain for too long. He should go solo... maybe in the next MK game, can he wield parts of Onaga's power? Or maybe he can change to good since he's finding a way to save his realm of Zaterra back from Kahn?

Reptile doesn't need to expand. He's been a fan favorite for such a long time, it's practically an insult to other characters who doesn't have such a huge role in this game, to expand Reptile's character.

To me, there are certain characters that need to expand big time. Hotaru, for instance, is a great villain in Mortal Kombat, due to the fact that he has the looks of a villain. His secondary costume makes him look very, very evil. The story behind him is pure classic, there's no need to ditch this character just because either: not too many people actually understood Hotaru, or just wasn't a fan favorite. He's got a lot of really cool moves as well. I don't think MK should give up on this character at all.

Frost needs to have something done to her. I never personally enjoyed the fact that Midway decided to make her a dumb character to end up frozen two times within her endings. I never liked that she turned somewhat "evil," and I don't get why she's evil. Her story in Deadly Alliance really showed a lot of people that she looked like she was a good guy, and fooled a lot of people in thinking that she was until her ending, but her endings just completely killed this character to what should have been the best thing for her. Frost has a lot of cool, deadly moves to use agains her opponents, and I don't see why many hate her just becuase she's a female rip-off of Sub-Zero. Newsflash, she was actually supposed to be in MK2, but Midway never had that happened, though this character was thought up of a long time ago, and I can see that they may not dispose her if they think she was good enough to be thought up of to be in MK2.

Sheeva, she too has a lot of history behind her, due to the fact that she was the first playable Shokan character as well as being the only female of that species in the game. So what if she doesn't have a huge fan base, but characters like Sheeva, who doesn't have a lot of fan support behind the character, are the characters that should have themselves expand if somehow Midway decides to keep majority of them for future games.

And that's what I have so far.

I'm glad you like it. It took a while for me to think up this character. But yeah, the original idea was to create a black dude that wasn't based off of typical American stereotypes, but instead of African tradition. And so after a while of researching African religions, tribes and whatnot, this is the design I came up with. So I had an artist draw it. As you can see, however, the artist never completed it.

I was actually going to enter him in that KAK tournament we had a while back, but I missed the deadline. Oh well.

BTW, his name is of southern African origin and it means, "night has fallen".

One last thing...

His alternate would probably look like this but with a bit of a MK touch.