Yeah, I like Rain exactly as he is: Pompous backstabbing douchebag with daddy issues and severe delusions of grandeur...And given how appropriate it is that Batman's on right now, a party man who can party like nobody can.

No Daegon!

This, mainly. I say not only do i HOPE he'll be in the next game, but that it's largely FEASABLE and PROBABLE. Why? He's one of the characters in the Pit stage background of MK9. It's like NRS is teasing that he's not forgotten, is around and kicking (literally), and could well appear as full playable char.

So it's a yes from me. But without Taven (since he's supposed to be still asleep.)

While Daegon certainly has a reason to appear in the next game, I say no.

I don't like Daegon. At all.

They can make Rain be like Taven and Daegon. One half of Rain's story be like Taven then the next half be like Daegon. So there doesn;t need to be Taven or Daegon in next MK>

Uh........One's an evil douchebag who killed (seemingly) his parents and became the leader of a criminal clan, and the other is a goody two shoes who has been sleeping in a rock for thousands of years and is on a quest to save the realms from Armageddon. Plus they both use fire powers while he uses water and lightning powers........Can't really combine their stories/etc. together into one character.

Then no brothers for Rain. The only brothers we need are Noob and Sub-zero.

It's too late for that, They already exist. Besides, giving Rain family does nothing but strengthen his story, which isn't much to begin with.

Taven is hardly a "goody two shoes". He might be a "good guy", per se, but he's kind of a dick.

Fair enough.

That's what I liked best about Taven, he was a sarcastic asshole to the annoying NPCs giving him quests and the other characters who he'd be forced to fight for no good reason. He had a "Oh come on, I'm a demigod, I'm on a mission here, I'm better than this, I just want to stick to the main plot and get it over with" attitude, which is exactly how I've always felt about pointless fetch-quests and sidetracks in RPGs, but he had a sense of humor about it too, making amusing little remarks here and there, which kept him from being just mean and unlikeable.

It was pretty refreshing after all that "Yes Damashi, I will do as you ask" blind obedience, even when being told to do stuff that's totally suspicious or blatantly immoral, in the previous game.
But I digress, we can talk more on Shujinko and Taven when we get there.

I'll change the vote tomorrow, just let this continue on for the remainder of the night.

He has family-Argus. If there is a Daegon then there has to be a Taven or will Rain be their equal?

You don't even realize the error in admitting Argus exists but pretending his other two sons don't, when Armageddon can't happen without them, and the only reason MK9 happened was BECAUSE of Armageddon. Do you?

Look, sonny. The ONLY reason Blaze or the pyramid, or the Prize were EVER created was so TAVEN and DAEGON could fight each other for it.

And you do remember the very first cutscene in MK9, don't you? The one where, at the top of Blaze's pyramid, Shao Kahn - who is glowing yellow because he's got the power of the Prize, kills Raiden? Which is why Raiden sends a message to his past self?

If Blaze and the Pyramid never existed, because Taven and Daegon never existed, then that scene never could have happened. Which means MK9 could never have happened.

But MK9 did happen. So Taven, Daegon, and Blaze do exist.

Also, Taven APPEARS in one of Raiden's vision flashes.

He exists.

It's too late to change that.

He exists but he doesn't need to be playable. He can be a NPC. Or maybe if he has a samurai look, he can be playable.

All right, times up for Daegon. It's a 5-4 with Yes. Heh.

Next character up for debate is Dairou:

Out of all of the debuts after the fourth, I must say, his wasn't my favoirte. I always thought of him as a dull character and despite that he has ties with one of my favorite, I still just never found anything interesting with this character... at all. His story circles around Orderrealm, and well, I kinda don't see that realm existing in the next story. He, and several other characters that are from that realm I don't see returning for the next game. It's a no from me.

It's unlikely that he would be in the next game, and if the Netherrealm story was the large focus of it, I think it would be better if he were to be saved for another game. However, considering that he is a mercenary/assassin for hire, his character could technically go different places. He doesn't have to be bound to the Order/Chaos story.

I think that with certain touches, he could be a great character. Imo, it would be better if they went back to the original samurai aspect to his design and give him the dual-wielding katana. But yeah, even though I kind of like the potential of his character, he should be saved for another game.

For the next game, No to Dairou. For future games, yes, but only if they go back to the samurai concept.

I can wait to see Dairou or any other Seidan again, so I'll have to say no.

I'd say YES to Dairou!

He deserves a second chance.

Dairou is literally my least favorite character in the entire franchise.

His costume design looks like a patchwork-y mess of garbage. Kai and Jarek in Armageddon had the same problem that he does, with ugly leather chest armor that doesn't look like anything or make sense. Also, dude's baggy clothes and squatting fighting stance made him look fat.

His story is irrelevant to anyone else because it's tied up in Seido, Hotaru and Darrius are the only characters he had interaction with so why should we care about him? And also I don't know how many people have noticed but it's a complete copy of Scorpion's except with going to jail instead of going to Hell and Darrius is his Quan Chi figure.

And his moves don't have a theme, he fights like a Kreate-a-Kharacter, like his special moves were picked randomly from a generic pile.

All that said...I have said in the past that I actually really, really liked the unused concept version of Dairou from the MKDA Krypt, and that's still true. I think THAT Dairou, the one whose design places more emphasis on being a sort of Ronin and dual-weilding katanas, who was designed to be an archenemy for Kenshi because he was hired by Shang to be his bodyguard...THAT Dairou, I would love to actually see. And he could still be all that without losing any of his canon story about being a former Seidan Guard who went rogue and killed a criminal who killed his family. He'd just have a lot more to do with the actual Mortal Kombat universe by being tied to Shang and Kenshi instead of only being involved with Seido.

Of course, the problem with doing any of that now is...how the hell is Kenshi ever going to be an important character while Shang Tsung is dead? And Shang isn't just normal dead, he's SUPER-dead because we have no idea what the fuck happened to him and all of his stolen souls (like Kenshi's ancestors) when Sindel died. Were they set free? Are they all still part of her even though she's dead, like those souls are merged with hers somehow?

So...since I can't quite picture either Kenshi and Shang Tsung or the realm of Seido being important to the plot of Shinnok's invasion (outside of...what, Johnny Cage training to become the new Liu Kang there? I'm not entirely sure I even like that idea...), I have to vote no to Dairou coming back in MK10. Perhaps for MK11.

A tentative yes from me.

this...

but this.

With a legitimate amout of re-envisioning the character without destroying everything previously established, i think it could be done. Dairou = the next Stryker?

Actually, while Scorpion is constantly going on revenge rampages, Dairou merely became a mercenary.

The only similarity between the two is that both their families were murdered. To be honest, the scenario behind Dairou's predicament is much more tasteful storywise than Scorpion's.

Dairou was pretty bland. No from me.

That's an exaggeration. The only reason Dairou hasn't been out for revenge as often as Scorpion has (besides the fact that he's had way more appearances than Dairou has) is because Scorpion found out Quan Chi tricked him. If Dairou knew about Darrius, he'd be trying to kill him too.

Before that, they have the same number of revenge rampages under their belt: Scorpion killed Bi-Han and Dairou killed the guy who killed his family.