I like Baraka and always have done. His appearance and character have always been a welcome addition in my eyes and I wouldn't mind him coming back.
I would however like to see a stroke of independence from him and his people. I do not agree that they should be on the verge of extinction as it draws too similar to Reptile in story there. I would prefer Baraka and his people to be more of a Shokan type. Having now had 4 failed masters might make Baraka want to lead his people to glory of their own. How they'd choose to go about that would be interestng to see.
Perhaps association with these fallen masters has discredited the Tarkata and Baraka seeks out to show the realms how strong his people are. Perhaps they may choose to align themselves with the good guys in a complete turn around upon realising that they ware fighting on the losing side. Perhaps they'll be neutral and make sure that their people are never used for the deeds of others again. Perhaps Baraka will choose to seek power of his own but I feel like Reptile, he is the type who prefers to serve than lead.
Also, there's the question of what Baraka wants to do with Mileena. They could join forces or start a bitter feud. There are probably a few ways that could go. They did already begin a brilliant story in MKD and it's a shame we never got to see the full end to that. Shao Kahn could also be a factor. If he's back and in power, the Tarkata may choose to rise against him as he may not hold them in favour any longer. What if he chose to have them all slaughtered or banished them from Outworld? What then for the Tarkata? What would they do and where would they go? These events could help strength the resolve for joining the good side, seeking power of their own, or just showing the realms that they are a people not to be messed with. Baraka would then be perfectly placed for something new.
I think Baraka has room for development. It'd be nice to see a new aspect to his character. Hopefully he'll get his chance.

You've obviously put a lot of thought and heart into that, but it's just something that I don't want to see. Baraka has been the leader of his people since MK2, and so far nothing good has come of it. We may as well bring all the Black Dragon back in their glory. While you do raise a point that Reptile also had the extinction storyline going; the difference would be that Reptile hid from facing his people's termination, whereas Baraka accepts his. It's the details that really set them worlds apart.

The Tarkata just do not interest me as a race. Orcs crossed with Wolverine -- the lot of them. They're rats that breed in Outworld, and they are pretty much characterless bad guys. There's no flavour there.

I still think that the best chance Baraka had for development was Deception. A story with Onaga refusing to align with the Tarkata, and actually seeing them as a plague on his realm, forcing Baraka to fight against The Dragon King for his people would have at least put Baraka on a different side of the fence for a change. As the protagonist of his own story, I may have cared a bit more about Baraka. As it stands, though, he was just a henchman again.

I have a bad feeling that Jax is going to be in this game. Seeing as how him and Sonya have almost never been without each others company, and it seems that Sonya is in this game, I have a bad feeling that Jax will be in as well.

Jax is just a very uninteresting character and your stereotypical black guy. He looked better in MKvsDC, but still, very bland and uninteresting. If they want him to be interesting at all, they need to make him leave the Special Forces and have some sort of feud with someone else.

As far as Baraka goes though, I don't mind if he is back. He looked really cool in MKvsDC, and like you said, he's a good way to show off graphics and what can be done. He does need a better story, but if he's back, I certainly won't hate it.

I have a bad feeling the sub-title to MK9 is going to be "Same ol' Shit"

There's probably a 50/50 chance for Baraka. I think the only reason we wouldn't see Baraka again is because of his numerous inclusions in the past games. He's been in so many of the recent games, and the developers might be willing to move him aside for this one.

Then again, that's also evidence that someone on staff really likes the freak boy, so who knows. Though you make a good point about his fatality. We already know this is suppose to be the most gore-driven MK yet, and Baraka fits unfortunately well in that equation.

So given all that, the cast so far, we're playing with the possibility of another definitive cast, and he is more definitive than many.

But that doesn't exempt him from being lame.

Agreed.

I have a bad feeling that somebodys about to have a bad feeling...

hahaha. I Love Baraka. He just keeps that ruthless 1st degree violence in close range. Amazing look for a character and by far looked the best in mkdc.

The base appearance looked good, but his should guards were obnoxious. Ranks right above Smoke's shoulder guards, which to me looked like roofing tile.

Please no more Baraka!... for a while.
I like him and everything but he's been in MKD, MKA and MK Vs DC.
He needs a break. IMO

Aesthetically, Baraka is an appealing character, because he's a vicious, bloodthirsty monster who has sharp blades coming out of his arms. I get that. I liked using him in the older MK games, but as a character, he's always been 1-dimensional and overused. When the story writers could have made use of Onaga's undead army, they instead had them destroyed, and the Tarkata served as Onaga's henchmen. I'm just not interested in Baraka or the Tarkatan race as a whole, and I feel they should be done away with.

Well, since we've all but confirmed Sub Zero, Scorpion, Sonya and Kitana, I also get the feeling that we'll hear about confirmations of Rayden, Baraka, Reptile, Liu Kang, Jax, Kano and Shang Tsung. Or the sacred cow convention, if you will.

I get the feeling that if Warner Brothers has any hand in this, or if the MK team wants to sell as much as possible without the DC name attached to MK, they'll each have alot of motivation for wanting to bring back the series' most popular characters.

On the surface, that makes perfect sense. There will be a lot more people recognizing names like Kitana or Sub Zero than people recognizing thos characters as well as characters like Drahmin or Hotaru.

Beneath the surface though, you've got a fanbase that likes alot of these characters, but are also hoping for something new. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to speak for everyone. I'm just saying that the general reaction to a lot of the sacred cows seems to be positive, but lukewarm.

Of the MKvsDC characters I listed up there, I'd bet money that we'll see at least 7 of those 10 characters in the next game. To me, that's too much of the old stuff, but oh well, what're ya gonna do?

I feel sorry for you, because I think Jax has an ever more certain chance than Baraka. He's one of the few characters that has actually seemingly got development going for the next saga, so it seems natural that this, coupled with him being one of Boon's favourite characters, will lead to a return.

Like you, I'm not the world's largest Jax fan, but I'm hoping that the hints we have gotten of "inner-rage," chips in brains and all that jazz will lead to a much darker Jax. Something that could really scare the little kiddies who pop in the game when they shouldn't.



I completely agree with you, Baraka. I've got a feeling that Baraka will be back. It just hit me when I was reading up on him yesterday and I realised just how much he had really been in. Since his debut, it's just MK3 and DA he has not been in, if you count Gold and don't count Trilogy. Now, even those stories were ammended to let us know that canonically, Baraka was floating around in there somewhere. His people are also heavily responsible for the deaths of some prominent characters in Deadly Alliance.

Group that with the Fatalities, his visual design, his popularity and the opinion that storyline does not matter in fighting games, and suddenly Baraka almost seems like a shoe-in. It's funny that my favourite games are MK3 and Deadly Alliance. Perhaps that is why I underestimate Baraka so much?

But yes, of the "sacred cows," I think we'll definitely see some back. The ones I suspect might be left out are Shang Tsung (as he can't be Mortal Kombat's villain forever) and Kano (just because it's about time the charatcer stopped escaping death everytime someone beats him up). Oh, and as Reptile is probably considered iconic, too, I doubt he will return. Like Shang Tsung, I just feel like his time has expired in the series.

Liu Kang, Raiden and Jax are the bets I feel are safest to join Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Sonya and Kitana. Followed closely by Baraka. I can understand why this annoys some people, but you do have to keep in mind the business approach, as you said. You have new owners, and you want your game to do well. Featuring nobodies like Drahmin and Dairou is not going to make copies of the game fly off shelves. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, Liu Kang, Kitana, etc. all have a much better job of doing that.

Yes, newer characters from the second trilogy of games should have been built-up so they could carry into this era; but the thing is, they weren't. Hopefully the MK Team has learned from their mistakes, and we can see a few pop-up in a few games, and we can get another mess on our hands, and have people start defending these returning characters who don't really have a place in the story at that time as "classics."

amazin character but reptile deserves the spot this time and goro to my two fav monsters of mk

I'd rather they left Goro dead and created a new Shokan if they wanted another four-armed guy in the games. As for Reptile -- I think Deception should have marked his end.

Baraka is cool!

There are loads of characters I don't care about, but I don't dislike any enough to want not to see them again. Even if I don't care for them, someone else probably does. One person's junk is another person's treasure etc.

Maybe, but there's only room for so much junk. There has to be a point where we say Character A > Character B.

This is exactly true. That's why I've made to deal with myself that I won't get upset if Baraka returns. He's at least got the stupid "cool" factor about him that people love. Does that make him junk? No, it truthfully doesn't. It makes him a superficial addition, sure; but there are room for a few of those for marketability's sake. Ideally, a character would be both marketable and have a place in the series' story that makes them worth investing in, but we really only have a few of those. Kitana, Sub-Zero, Raiden and Noob Saibot come to mind for me. There is no way a superficial character like Scorpion, Baraka, Kabal, Jade, Smoke or Reptile deserves a spot in the story over them -- but you're bound to get a few making it in. That is okay with me; just as long as the ratio is healthy.