I really hated Shujinko and Taven. Mortal Kombat has always been about defending earthrealm from outworld through the tournament. I dont think we necessarily need one hero but if we did i think it should be Kung Loa

I'd personally like to see a tease come out of the "hero or no hero" question for MK9.

I like the idea of the game's base premise being structured around the monks trying to find a new hero. The story can be told any which way then, how they actually get one, or how they actually don't. But definitely to start this next round of MK games, MK9 should capitalize on the fact that there is no "the one" there at the moment.

A personal idea I have is to have the monks hold a contest to try and find a new champ in the midst of rebuilding since MKA. During this process, some kind of earth-threatening problem happens (maybe a massive earth consuming plague or something. but it should start out simple. Like some people just getting terminally sick and dieing). So, nobody really has a grasp on what, or who is causing the sickness.

The sense of urgency is presented in trying to find "the one" before the threat is fully realized, and before the "who dun it" becomes apparent (I'm thinkin Quan Chi or definitely Shinnok could do this sort of thing though.).

If I had control of who the winner would be, I'd pick Kai, and piss Scorpion off ....again (lol). So he'd win the contest that the monks hold. Thing is, he refuses it, or is taken away from the role of "the one".

Why? For a greater calling, and a better resolution to the plague. After he is taken away from the role of "the one", he figures out his history and finds that he actually IS "a chosen one", but not in the traditional fashion of MK. He is an avatar for the element gods that died in MK SZ: Mythologies....particularly, the Earth God.

What happens is, he finds out that his culture, by some form of divine natural selection, chooses a leader at birth. Meaning, it's not a formal ceremony or whatever. As the child grows up, they have to figure out what their true purpose is, learn of the power they posses, and decide to use that power for good or evil, or selfish means.

We discover that this is the reason Kai is always soul-searching, and having his dreams. Well, the dreams are the dead element gods calling him to duty, and the soul-searching is his own way of finding out about his lineage.

So anyway, Kai eventually manages to realize that with his increasing power because of his association with the dead element gods, he should use his power in an objective, and indifferent way. By the end of his sub-plot Kia resurrects the dead element gods, and restores balance to the world. Which would be his true purpose as "a chosen one" and as an avatar.

===

Since this idea is a sub-plot, someone else gets to take out Shinnok or Quan Chi, or whoever is threatening the earth with the epidemic. Kia is merely an important aspect in the process of restoring balance amongst the gods.

- Kai helps the gods
- someone else kills the big bad guy
- someone else is deemed "the chosen one"
- meanwhile, other characters are off doing their own thing to either contribute to helping, or hurting earths chances at securing a MK champ, or Shinnoks takeover of earth, or the plague that's also happening.

ect ect...It's collective instead of singular in the role of defeating a great evil. Kai would be the tease in this idea though, because he wins the contest, but doesn't accept the role. The obvious role anyway.

i'd like to see a hero done similar to spawn or the punisher as an example. here's what i mean. a hero is a savior of some sort. even if they break the laws or kill the crime in the city. they are upholding what is good even if it's not very pleasant. if they have to torture, kill, cause harm, play dirty it is what needs to be done to keep balence.

this is why i liked havok so much. he was going to create chaos in order to keep the balence. like havok dariou wants to keep order that is another reason why i liked these two characters. you have to have good in order to have evil. it is the way of life.

scorpion is constantly going evil to neutral all the time so if there is a hero i'd like to see scorpion as the main hero. plus his mkd said he was saved by the eldar gods in order to stop the dragon king. he was the champion. his vengeance for his family is what keeps him from the brink of insanity. which he fights his demons within him all the time. he is not good but not evil.

if raiden has gone evil maybe have scorpion try and save raiden by saying you sparred my life and i now know that it is not what makes a hero but it is the choices we make along the way. have scorpion show raiden even though your finest earthrealm warrior has died there are things to make you want to change and grow as a person but not as a god.

this could work if raiden retuns in mk9 but if there is a hero i'd like to see scorpion as the hero teaching the new fighters that enter mk9. hope you like it.

It's an interesting idea. I personally (note that word) feel like there isn't a main character in the original Mortal Kombat. It was a tournament, every man for himself, some stories intertwined. I'd personally like to see a tournament style like Mortal Kombat or Mortal Kombat II.

I still like to think of this next game as Mortal Kombat 8 since MK vs. DC is a non-canon game.

As for having a main hero, I'm not necessarily opposed to having one. It's just that the MK team took a bad approach in MKD and MKA with Shujinko and Taven. They practically force-fed those characters as "main heroes" down our throats.

So with that said, if there's going to be a main hero, he/she should develop into that role instead of being introduced as the main hero. Also, if there is going to be a character that will be developed into the main hero role, I'd like to see a sense of ambiguity in that there could be more than one character who has the potential to become the main hero.

Glad to see I'm not the only one. I'd like to see something where there's no clear winner or hero like the first Mortal Kombat. I want this storyline to make me think and not just hand the story to me in a dialogue.

I think that while there can still be a team of heroes that assemble to fight the forces of evil, perhaps it would be better to have Mortal Kombat's story work as an ensemble. We should also see character studies, getting deep insights into various characters. It'd be a shame to simply have, the heroes for example, be dumbed down into mere stereotypes or to have simple labels attached to them.

It would also be nice to see things like moral ambiguity and conflicts of views amongst the heroes. Realistically, it wouldn't make sense for the heroes to agree with each other on everything in regards to defending Earth (or whatever it is they're defending).

I was looking through some of the MK4/MKG endings today, and I looked at Jax's ending in which he tosses Jarek off of the cliff. We see there that Jax has a dark side in which he's tempted to cross the line by killing criminals if driven hard enough to do so. Perhaps part of that has to do with the U.S. government not taking him and Sonya seriously when they warned them about the incoming threat of Shao Kahn.

Getting to another character, I'd like to talk a bit about Liu Kang. One of the big issues was that they didn't really go into his character after he won the Mortal Kombat tournament. With the death of many of his fellow Shaolin and the escalation of danger, there should be a sense of pressure on Liu Kang, pressure that would naturally increase as he has more and tougher battles ahead. Having insights like that would have given him a richness that could have made him at least a bit interesting.

It would have also been nice to see what (if anything) makes him have that leadership quality that draws the heroes together. I wouldn't want the reasoning to be that he's the Champion of Mortal Kombat and the main hero, so therefore, he'd naturally be the leader of the heroes. Obviously, it should be something that he develops into.

Looking back, perhaps it would have been nice to see Kai, a character I'm not really a fan of, be the sort of next-gen Liu Kang. This isn't to say that Kai should necessarily have been "the next-gen main hero", but there could have been a sense of "passing the torch" from Liu Kang to Kai. But hey, I'm just tossing up ideas here and there.

I'm sick of anti-heros and characters filling out their own agendas.
I want at least one traditional hero.

Altruistic?


Liu Kang is the same as Shao Kahn, same self-righteous indignation and moral preposturing. What you said cannot be achieved. Every single character acts out on an agenda.

There are no heroes and non-heroes anywhere, not just in Mortal kombat. There only are characters who are paid more attention to (because plot/sex appeal/ secret authors' intention/ the specifically spectacular design... requires it) and those who are paid less. Liu Kang and Rain are both equally significant heroes in their own right, it's just the plot is such that Liu Kang is more popular (read: significant). I would even say Shang Tsung was one of the truest and most active heroes in the game, more of a hero with his own tragic lifestory, in which he desperately fights for a grain of success, than a mere villanous thug they take him for, actually.

Point conceded. And if what I read on wikipedia is correct, your spot-on about me being altruistic. I geuss I do just want a "good guy" that is molded around my own moral doctrine; moral obligation to help others, self sacrifice, and so on.

...that actually sounds really shallow and self serving upon proofreading.

Each game needs good guys and bad guys, otherwise it would be bad guys betraying each other to become supreme. I prefer it when good fights evil. If you kill off the heroes like Lui Kang, J. Cage, Kung Lao, etc. the story might be good for a game but after that it will be crap because eventually they will add good guys who will be crappy in comparison with the heroes we have now. I like MK's villains too but to just see them in a game would suck IMO.

mk9? last i checked we was on mk8

Just because a character is older (series wise) does not make him/her better. Likewise, just because a character is newer does not make him/her a crappy character. In fact, I'd say that characters like Havik and Drahmin are better than the likes of some of the characters from the MK1-MK3 era.

I know that a lot of people are fond of the nostalgic times in MK, but considering the fact that Mortal Kombat has an actual storyline, even though it can be argued that it's flawed in various aspects. So with that said, there has to be a time in which various characters have their stories wrapped up.

Johnny Cage had mostly been a waste in terms of his role as a hero. It wasn't until MK: Armageddon that something interesting and different happened for him. Even then, I don't think that's enough to make him worthy of returning in the next-gen games, because he's had his run. He's been in the series since MK1, and he's just not that significant as a character, even if he is a fan favorite to many.

The same can be said about Liu Kang. His death in MKDA was one of the best story elements, imo. The fact that he was brought back (kind of) messed things up. It's as if there's some kind of mentality that there is a real sense of dependency on him.

As for the villains, if you're referring more specifically to the major villains, they have even less of a life span (usage-wise), because there are only so many times in which they can be kept fresh. When the next-generation story comes along, you're going to have to expect to see new villains, both major and minor. It's inevitable and natural, otherwise, the villains can easily become stale unless they are really well done.



Correct. However, out some false notion, many are referring to the next MK fighting game as "Mortal Kombat 9". It's not as if MK vs. DCU is a main fighting game in the MK series.

If any character had to return to refill the shoes of Liu Kang, it would be Kai. He has the most potential of a hero to be the "main character" of the game... But yet, they ditched him right after the 4th game...

Yeah, you're right. Granted, I'm not really a fan of Kai, but given his return in MKA, I wouldn't mind seeing him come back if he was properly developed into an interesting character. If he becomes the new main hero, it shouldn't happen right away. We should see him slowly develop into that role throughout the course of the next-gen story.

Hello.

As I have read this thread, I have viewed many viewpoints and valid arguments to whether or not MK9 (and any future games for that matter) should have some sort of central character, namely a "hero".

I liked how in the early games Mortal Kombat was just a tournament to either defend or control the Earth(Realm). I also liked the fact that the creator gave us a central character to focus on through the progression of the series.

While reading, I came across a good idea: the idea of how the role of main hero should be passed on from the main one now ( Liu Kang supposedly) to a newer character (most of you are saying Kai for some reason (Im not a real big fan of him.)) . But lets take a trip back through series history.

MK I - Just a tournament
MK II - Still a tournament/better graphics/other
MK III - New Charcters/New fatalities/New Finishers(Brutality e.g.)
(UMK III - Even more characters/ Playable Bosses/ other)
(MKT - All characters so far/ all moves so far/ A big Free-for-all tournament/ focuses on characters more)

MK 4 - New Graphics Engine/ Smaller selection of Char/ Weapons/ Focuses more on Good vs Evil than who wins the tournament
(MK Gold - Extension on MK 4)

( I will put an * on Info i think important)

MKDA - Liu Kang winner of *last four Major tournaments dies/ every character has *3 different styles of fighting/ Blaze comes in / New chars that are seemingly unimportant

MKD - Decreased fighting styles/ *MK Konquest (Shujinko)/ *Scorpion revealed to be the "Hero" (Elder God's Champion)

MKSM - Adventure-Mode-in-3D-style of MKII feat. Liu Kang and Kung Lao

MKA - Basically a revamped version of MKT / Kreate-a-Fatality (Good concept , but there should also be the traditional fatalities for characters too)/ Motor Kombat (pretty fun)

MK vs DCU - * Actually believed to take place during the MKII tournament or something around that time (I think just a filler)

SO, in reality, the role of hero was passed on to Scorpion for a while, and now the position is empty. I would like to say that there should be no central character, but an intertwining of their fates since all these combatants have been in battle for so long.

Thats all that I would like to point out.

I like how you've stated that we should see him slowly develop into the hero role... That would be the better thing to do if they are in need of a hero for the next game or any in the near future.

I think there shouldnt be a hero either

what i think should possibly happen is that
if whoever defeated blaze
i would want it to be either shang tsung, shao kahn, onaga, shinnok, or quan chi
some one who absolutley evil and wants to conquer realms
just so Groups of warriors could battle and stop him/them

instead of a hero
there groups that the warriors are under should battle forthemselves

like the white lotus society
-Liu Kang (if he magically returns)
-Kung lao (who i know is in another group but i forgot what its called)
-Raiden
-Kai
and whoever is else under the name of good monks

then other groups like the brotherhood of shadow,
the new lin kuei, Forces of shao kahn, and whoever im sure you get the point

i think it would just be cool if the warriors were fighting teams but if the one person wins they do have a different ending

but they were would be a problem since a few warriors like scorpion is neutral