I'm going to throw out a solid "NAY!" for Baraka. Never liked him, but I especially can't stand him as of recently.

Storywise, his contribution is minimal. He's been in more than four MK games, and has little to show for it. I know other users have already mentioned this point, but it's the silver bullet for his case. Let's not forget that he did virtually nothing in MKvsDC other than drool in the background looking like an idiot.

You know, it's a shame they ruined Kabal's character with the "Chaos Priest" Storyline when it would have suited Baraka so much better and would have given him the new vitality he needed. And you know, I actually kind of liked the plot point about him being disfigured by Kung Lao. I wish they hadn't pulled the plug on that.

Though his character concept may be interesting, I just can't stand his design. It's just ugly, and I hate looking at it. The same may have been true of Drahmin, but at least Drahmin had a mask and a diaper. Granted, I did like Baraka's costume in MKD; one of the best in the lot, to be honest. Also, I have to give him credit that even though he did little in MKD, at least he was relevant.

Anyway, enough rambling. I've had enough of Baraka for the past three games. He can go back in his box for a while.

i'd like to see ashrah return only if the mk team gives her a new look and updates her story. i'd say keep her vodoo fatality but also give her moves associated with the dark arts.

here's a new move she could have. she draws a pentagram on the floor with her own blood and the opponet gets sucked into the ground by demons getting beaten up, then thrown back onto the stage. it be like a 5 hit move.



i'd like to see baraka return only if he gets an updated look and story. maybe add few more moves to his move list.

here's an idea for a new special move. his blades extend and decrease in size and length to slash his victum instead of cutting the opponet. also bring back his mk2 slice as a special move.

Am I wrong in assuming that the only real reason Baraka is popular is because of the blades? If so, I do not see why they don't create a fresh character who uses blades as weapons.

One character I have often envisioned, is an armoured "stalker" like character, in that they have sociopathic qualities, and tends to shroud itself in mystery rather than just being a mindless animal. Give them some sleek armour, a mask, and perhaps suggest that the blades are a built-in aspect to their attire, and you have a fairly interesting character right there. Perhaps they can use the blades because they feel a "connection" to the animalistic nature of the Tarkata.

Perhaps make them a violent criminal on the loose, or something. Give them a "loose cannon" feel. That way you can have the combat aspects of Baraka return, but in a new character that doesn't feel like "Baraka II."

To me, if they give his story a bit individuality and power, I would like to see him stay. For me, it's good to see a very evil character without him being a god-like, super power being.

Yeah, I agree. Baraka's just a good old fashioned psycho. That's why it's so annoying that he gets tacked on to whatever the big evil is for the game that he's in. That's kinda what Kano got pigeonholed in to after a while. This whole "general in the arms of..." sort of deal.

I'm not a fan.

Still, I think that Baraka could have potential. I'd like to see him in the "bad guy that now kicks ass for the side of good" role. Sure, he's out for his own vengence and maybe he can't be trusted, but I think that it would be a cool dynamic to see him with Reptile (who could fit a similar role, only one of them would double cross everyone) and then a few of the more static good guys like Kung Lao etc.

I think that Baraka has potential in that sense, but the game developers need to actually capitalize on it instead of making him "evil henchmen #4" or whatever. If they're going to go that route again, I'd say don't bother. Let him go.

Geez, I seem to be disagreeing with 90% of the people on here for both Ashrah and Baraka. Let's see if that trend continues!

I liked Baraka and was excited for him to be in Deception.
Then he was in MK Armageddon then MK Vs DC.
So I'm now sick of him.

There are other more interesting characters that could take his place IMO.

I don't think he should be gone forever, just shelved for the next few MK games.

No, she is not.

She's a clone of an Edenian with a LITTLE Tarkatan DNA mixed in. If there were enough in her to grow the blades, she'd have done so well before we met her.
Anyway, I'm with the majority on Baraka. Never liked him, thought he should've died for good several games ago.

I don't hate Baraka, but I don't necessarily like him either. Baraka should go.

I think he's one of the coolest characters design-wise. That's makes him fun to play as, except in MKDC.

Anyway, he should stay. Coolness helps the franchise.

poor baraka ): i really dont think he should go i know his story needs ALOT of work but thats basicllay it. what else about baraka needs work? his moves and fatalities are good his look is not perfect but ok its just his purpose of being there. personally i think he should go on his own as in be his own army. being a henchmen puts him at stake of many people wanting to kill him. imagine if he left all his leaders and killed someone say bo rai cho thats puts him on a thin line.

so overall i think he should stay BUT not for at least the next 3 or 4 games.



now ashrah
very interesting girl i like her but what happens after she does loosesthe sword.........anything........no...............i didnt think so.
her armageddon bio tho jump starts her AND another females bio
so she has potenial the mk team can do alot with her. costume wise shes excellent

i vote she stays

The problem with saying "Baraka should be on his own" or "Baraka needs to do something different for once" is he doesn't have the intelligence to be a leader. Like Reptile, the whole REASON he's spent his entire life from game to game as nothing but a henchman is he's literally dumb. He ain't got the brains to support a compelling storyline. And if he suddenly got smart, it wouldn't be very believable.

They've been telling us for over 15 years he's a berserker and his whole race is bloodthirsty savages whose fighting style is just to swing wildly and hope for the best, they're not going to be able to suddenly do a 180 and convince us he's a brilliant military strategist.
No, the character has COMPLETELY outlived his usefulness. He's a one note joke and killing him and never bringing him back would positively benefit the Mortal Kombat series.
Now, you wanna keep the Tarkatans as a race around? Mileena's smart enough to take them over AND she's always wanted to be the princess/queen of something. Or you could always create a new character, one who was born different or is some kind of outcast and as a result, he's actually intelligent. That would be interesting to see.
It'd also be interesting to see the Tarkatans as an endangered species fighting to survive rather than running roughshod over Outworld. In Deception, they lost a major war to the Edenians and then Sub-Zero slaughtered an entire camp of the survivors. If you think about it, there can't be many left.

ok to start off thank you
looking back at it it does make baraka look dumb but i wouldnt take it as dumb. i would see it as too crazy cought up in his violence he can never really maintain himself to have an army do most of his work. as you said hes a beserker he doesnt have the patience for that.

what i disargee with you tho is that how his whole character is DONE. you basically gave him a new story.wen you said that his race lost a major war and theres really only a few left HE could do something with that as in revenge.hes not that stupid.

and if we do kill him off forever in the series. let him ATLEAST finish his story. in deception i dont know which endings was true his or mileenas? i hope it wasent ethiers i love baraka but id rather keep mileena but if hers was true so be it but if not let him stay for mk9 armageddon and dc were more of a "what if" game.


ethier way you gave your opoion and i gave mine i vot he stays

Armageddon wasn't a what-if. It's canon. Mileena and Baraka never had that meeting where one kills the other because instead, Shao Kahn returned to his palace after the Edenians seized it and Mileena surrendered to him and returned to working for him, so she never had the chance to be all "I want to keep impersonating Kitana...but Baraka knows who I really am, so I have to get him out of the way."
And yes, he really IS "that stupid". Drooling barbarians deserve to go extinct. That's why I suggested putting Mileena in charge, because she's 90% Edenian, and thus not a complete idiot, or creating a NEW Tarkatan to lead them who specifically was not raised in the tribe or is mutated in some way, that way he'd have an in-story reason to be smarter than Tarkatans usually are, and thus, capable of being more than a henchman.

dawm it you got me there................

well then what the hell happend to him? you know what you dont have to answer that ill find out sooner or later..................

but all im saying is that this "drooling barbarian" can you people give him ONE more chance? hes had so many trys but try him out just ONE more time. and if he fails to impress you for the 4th time so be it baraka you have to go :/

Maybe if Baraka was cybernetically enhanced/bio engineered he would be more interesting? like make him a science experiment for Sektor or something...something like that would change his character and possibly even change his personality. i already made my choice for Baraka to stay but just be shelved but i don't want to kill his character forever. Razor you seem quite hostile to get rid of Baraka though lol. Just because he lacks inteligence doesnt mean he is not smart enough to survive the series. i dunno,if barbarians still existed now i would find that as a racist remark and be offended lol...like "its so easy a caveman can do it" offended. you have logical points yes but its an ever changing story and its fantasy so things don't have to be logical. like what you said about Mileena having blades...what if Kahn ordered a mage or whatever to magically awaken her tarkatan blood and she metamorphs to a full blood...the possibilities are endless to what can happen...the magic could go wrong and she could end up only having a blade on one side even. i am just being creative and fresh...you want what you want though i know.

ok why do i keep being the only person to reply to other peoples comments?

Just because he lacks inteligence doesnt mean he is not smart enough to survive the series.

you are my hero..............

...the possibilities are endless to what can happen

again you make another wonderful piont

as you razor make your pionts about why Baraka is useless ill keep saying that he CAN be changed and not just him ethier ALL of the mk characters ca be changed and be believeable at the same time

Verdict: GONE......................for now ................................

Baraka's been in five seperate games. That's five opportunities to be interesting. So it wouldn't be a second chance, it'd be a sixth chance, and no one real or fictional deserves six chances. he had his shot, he made the best of it and now it's time to lay the past to rest and do something new.

And I don't believe technology/cybernetics belongs on an Outworld character like Baraka, nor would it make him more interesting. It would just make him a different one-dimensional cliche, he'd become a ripoff of Frankenstein instead of Wolverine.
On the subject of both trying to improve Baraka artificially, and giving Mileena blades for no good reason, I'm going to be a bit harsh, but this is the truth: In writing, you can not, in fact, just do anything you imagine. Some ideas are inherently bad. Writing is a rare talent and I'm sorry, but most people suck at it. It requires a lot of study, practice, and sophistication before you know what makes a story good or bad and how to have ideas that don't suck and develop them in ways that are both logical and entertaining.

I feel like because Bo's elderly, parts of his character are toilet humor, which has a VERY short shelf-life, and the fact that he's already got such a wide array of both great accomplishments and major failures, it's like "what else can he do? He's already seen and done it all."

Plus it's inherent to teacher characters that one day, their students will surpass them and become teachers themselves.

So I'd like to see Bo Rai' Cho retire and Kung Lao become the sensei character of Mortal Kombat.

I don't really see a future in exploring his tutelage of Li Mei because I don't see a future for Li Mei. I'm pretty sure she's dead.

Though I wouldn't sacrifice a personal favorite to keep him in the roster, I do hope to see Bo Rai Cho in the next game. He has a humorous element, but he also has a very relevant story that could take many different routes.

I would also like to see Li Mei back, though I'll admit, my motivations for that are more driven by gameplay than story. She's one of my best characters, so obviously I'm hoping for her reprise. Nonetheless, I think there's a lot of room for her story to evolve, and a further Tie-in with Bo Rai Cho would formulate well.

Another reason for Bo Rai Cho to maintain a presence is to keep humor in the MK franchise. I know I've been preaching this gospel a lot lately, but humor is one of the cornerstones of MK, and I hope that never changes. That said, I hope his humorous side gets A LITTLE more sophisticated. There are more alcoholism jokes than just bodily functions.

But I don't want to over-emphasize the humor, because I do like the darker side of his character. I have to admit, I was actually kind of touched when I saw his MKD ending. Watching him kneeling and broken down before the Liu Kang's apparition... I don't know, seeing the teacher ask the student for guidance just seemed sorrowful and poetic to me.

On top of that, him adopting Li Mei gives him a unique edge. Among the good in the MK universe, we see a lot of nobility, but we don't see a lot of warmth and compassion. It's kind of refreshing when compared to the G.I. Joe morality of the other characters.

I was tempted to write Bo' Rai Cho off straight away based on the toilet humor alone, but you make a mean argument in his favor, frostbaby.

What I think the MK games really need is NOT to get rid of the humor altogether, but to make it far more sophisticated. The first MK movie and Conquest proved how a witty script can really breathe life into this franchise, and I think that should be incorporated into the games somehow. Bo' Rai Cho is a perfect medium for this. Since the in-game Raiden is always so stone-cold serious (a shame, really, though I'm digging the Dark Raiden concept), Bo' Rai Cho can pick up the slack as the witty mentor with a heart of gold. Storyline-wise, he remains valuable because he puts a human face on the denizens of Outworld and his unique familiarity with the realm can make him a key source of information for the Earthrealm heroes. Onaga's lure of Li Mei could create an interesting father-daughter-style struggle between her and Bo' Rai Cho, and I can definitely see that thread being further explored. However, it's certainly not key to the primary plot, and I can see Li Mei being left on the cutting room floor. Bo' Rai Cho I don't think is so easily dispensable, though. At the very least, he needs to stay as an NPC.

Without the farting and puking, Bo Rai Cho's got a pretty decent moveset; his sumo/drunken boxing are welcome additions to the series and wouldn't be served well by a character with any other physical build, really. On that note, he brings some body type diversity to a series whose new characters are often pallette swaps of one another, which is nice. To mature the character, perhaps his signature vomit move could be replaced with him spitting/pouring out his drink instead? The farting can be scrapped altogether without changing too much.

So, yeah, I'm with icebaby: show him some Mercy, but clean him up a little first.

Well said, TUN. Beat me to it, and more eloquently to boot.

Razor...the truth is its not about the writing or the story.regardless of what you think anyone can write whatever they want and im sure whatever is written some one in this world will like it. its about the creativity and fun in imagination. you my friend forgot what it is to be young and ambitious or something...maybe Baraka's character is just fine the way he is and your the one needing to be made the robot.

you and so many others dissect every little thing and it makes it not fun anymore. it saddens me really,your logic and depth of reality ruin a game clearly set for fantasy and you also ruin other peoples creativity instead of embracing it and using your own imagination to picture what they see.

writing is not as hard as you make it...its how you read what is written and how it is taken. you take it as a rip off cliche...i take it as an upgrade or twist in the character design. people like you look at the past history as a map to a future...i look to my imagination and creativity to build one. just because to you it sucks does not mean it does to everyone else. i think that you get so tied up in the research/logic of it all...that it grows on you and the facts make what you research seem that much more real. it becomes your obsession.instead of criticizing such ideas why not look at them in a different perspective and make your own take on it rather than knock it down and say it sucks.
so in a nutshell i am trying to say kindly...you can keep your sophistication and study. if you want a real story read a news paper and if you want history go to a museum. this is a video game. i would rather waste my life an take a hit of acid and watch super jail than play a game made to your standards lol. that is what is harsh. so yeah...your so called truth on writing is not fact or fiction...its opinion.


As for Bo...his story makes him a serious being but he is portrayed poorly i think. i say sober him up and give him a new move set and change his look a bit and keep him. he interests me to a point and i would like to see where his story goes. even if he is just a NPC he could play an entertaining role in story alone.

You and I are done having this conversation. You can believe what you want about writing and imagination, but I have nothing nice to say to people who don't believe video games should have good storylines.