Kitana was never a villain. The game that introduced her is the same one that established she's secretly working with the good guys to take down Kahn.

Smoke and Kabal's first stories also established them as good guys.

But you probably don't care, do you? You don't care which Sub-Zero is which, after all.

Wow, the inaccuracies in this list.
Hotaru is neutral. All he cares about is preserving law and order to the point that he aligned himself with friggin' Onaga in attempt to accomplish this. That's hardly being a good guy.
Cyrax was never innately evil, either, rather a cyborg programmed as such who rediscovered his human side.
And, of course, completely disagree about Ermac. He went from being another one of Kahn's faceless lackeys to his own character after his Deception face turn. One of the best storytelling decisions NRS ever made.

Well, lets see...

- Bi-Han was never "evil" (I would say neutral... yes, he helped QC with the amulet but then ended up assisting Raiden, and he went to the 10th tournament to kill Shang Tsung). Neither was Kuai Liang.
- Kabal was originally good in MK3 (he was evil before, but we never saw it in a game) and then turned evil again in MKD.
- Smoke wasn't evil from the beginning (just for a small period of time during MKD).
- Goro was good only for a very small period of time in MKDA I believe. Then, he always was EVIL.
- Hotaru is tought to analyse... I believe he is "neutral in a somewhat evil way" (tyrant and strict order guy who seeks to control another realm's water, but in his realm he is considered a heroe).
- I wouldn't say Cyrax was entirely evil in MK3... I mean, just like Sektor, he was there for the sole purpose of killing Sub-Zero, he never helped Shao Kahn.
- Sindel, pretty much like Kabal, had a different alignment before MK1 (good), then evil in MK3 and returned to the good side in MKD.
- The only canon game in which Scorpion was evil was MK4 (until he found out the truth about QC).

Nothing to say about Kitana, Jade or Ermac.

I honestly do not care about villains changing sides.

However, Kabal returning to the side of evil has to happen sooner or later as Kano holds most of the technology that can sustain his body. Kano should care about Kabal and he has the means to realistically bring him back as a zombie or as a human.

Yeah I too think Ermac is better as a bad guy, I would be cool with him being neutral too.

Although I would like for him to not be an underling anymore, id like for him to be on his own team, not working under anybody.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'll pretend I didn't read the "zombie" part.

Anyway, Kabal is the Bret Hart of MK, he's switched between good and evil so many times that it'll have no impact either way.

Shang Tsung is joining the list next year.

Kabal turned evil again in MKD

I don't really agree. It's not really a slippery slope, I think all the characters who turned good had perfectly logical reasons to do so.

Kitana knew Shao Kahn wasn't her father, and that he had killed her parents and pretty much kidnapped her.

If you don't follow the whole which brother is which storyline then I guess you don't know that Kuai Liang, who has been Sub-Zero since MK2 has always been good at heart and quickly proved that once his brother died. Bi Han, the first Sub-Zero, was selfish and a pretty crappy person at heart, but he did fight for good in MK1 because it was his mission to kill Shang Tsung. Are you really in a place to say you don't like something if you don't know much about it?

Ermac is badass no matter what. I think the fact that he turned good made him even cooler. Ermac is a collection of souls fused together in one body and controlled by Shao Kahn. It was later revealed that the souls were actually from dead Edenian warriors that Shao Kahn himself killed. With that in mind, once they were freed of his control, it would make total sense that they would hate Shao Kahn and everyone like him.

Cyrax, I'll kind of give you that one. No one ever said he was evil before he became automated, but originally he did voluntarily go through it, and later on he decided he wanted his humanity back, and he got it. And he was good ever since then. Originally Smoke was the only one who was cyber-ized against his will. It was kind of a retcon to put Cyrax in that position too. But I like him better good still.

Sindel was originally a good person too. When she was resurrected, she was purposely corrupted. I don't know if the spell just vanished when Shao Kahn fell from power or what. Maybe it would have been better if she progressively found her old self again, but given that she sat out multiple games, it makes sense that years later she would have changed back to normal again. It would be pointless to have a character forever bound by a spell rather than exploring who they really are.

Scorpion is neither good nor bad. He is neutral He does both good and bad, whichever helps him achieve his goals.

Smoke and Kabat weren't really developed enough for me to know what side they were on before. But considering how against the automation smoke was and how he tried to save Sub-Zero, and how Kabal fought against Shao Kahn when he could have joined him instead, they actually seemed like good guys who later turned evil, not the other way around.

I LOVED what they did with Goro... see, Goro's not just some big stupid monster who follows whoever's bad. He's started out with a lot of pride and honor, and then he lost it when he lost in MK1. What better redemption could there be then to end a massive feud between two races and bring back peace?

Overall, I think these changes make characters gain appeal more often the it makes them lose appeal. Sadly, it kind of works the opposite way when they turn characters evil. Zombie Liu Kang? No thanks!

I agree with all the points that you have made. All the characters that were innately evil at first had switched sides because they had valid reasons to do so. I hope Reptile catches on and becomes a good guy soon, I feel like aligning himself with Raiden would help restore his race better than aligning himself with power hungry characters who will only use him as a lackey.

Ermac turning into a good guy was a refreshing factor for his character. It was interesting for him to align himself with the Earthrealm warriors and save them when they were at their most vulnerable in Deception.

I remember playing Mortal Kombat Gold at a friend's house after experiencing MK4 and when I saw Cyrax's ending and story I thought that was very cool. I favored Cyrax over all of the cyborgs after that point when I found out that he was working with Jax and Sonya as a member of special forces. I also enjoyed that he was further explored as a member of the special forces in Deception and was the only cyborg included in that game. I hope we can see more of that in future games.

The error is assuming there is a defined good and evil in the first place.

But you have one good point though: the amount of heroes who oppose certain Outworlder threats is vastly greater than their ranks.

And you don't get the antagonists played as sufficiently dangerous as they should be, perhaps except MKDA.

Very true, every bad guy in some shape or form believes he is doing a good thing. In our case though, a basic ethical believe is that a person is morally good if he or she endeavors for the well being of humanity, that being said we can initially see that the likes of Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi are the true baddies in Mortal Kombat but this leaves a while gang of characters in a gray area.

Baraka is a leader of his Tarkatan mutants, he may be violent and nomadic by nature but If push comes to shove his priority is to remain the leader of his people, serving Shao Kahn merely enforces that goal of his. Does that necessarily make him evil?

Mileena is a freak of design by being a clone of her sister Kitana. For thousands of years with an identity she was always treated as being inferior to her beautiful sister and was always second place only to find out the truth that she has no stake in anything because she was not born but created. The poor self esteem of this character can only reflect the huge and deep insecurities Mileena may have. Her hideous acts may be just out of finding a place in the world, although her twisted motives on finding a place in this world is to kill her sister and become her. OKAY Mileena is a pretty evil character, but she is not a character without sympathy.

Because good guy Kano is above using zombified slaves; it is a possibility in my book, nevertheless as many reside in the NetherRealm.

First of all I HATE people that hate evil characters, there is NOTHING as bland and boring as goodguys, really they want to save everything. WHATEVER, BORING. DIE!

And FIRST OF ALL, Ermac should NEVER EVER been turned good, ESPECIALLY (think again stupid good-guy lovers) that Kenshi (who shares powers a bit) is ALSO a freaking GOOD-guy. How boring can it be.

I want Kabal and Ermac to become badguys again, Jade is replaced by Tanya for that role, so I accept her as goodguy.

The only one I liked turning good was Goro.

IF they dare to turn Tanya into a goodguy, I boycot MK forever.

@Dvorah its worse with Mileena, she was evil and jealous and now she is just stupid.

Well, she still rips your head off, so that is pretty evil to me.

I also like neutral characters btw, just don't like the good bland ones that want to save everything, like Liu Kang and Sonya bland.

I could go for that, actually. Take the whole Dragonball route where the good guys team up with the current bad guy to take on the next badder guy. It's not like any harm would be done. Kahn's not been a credible threat since 1996 anyways.

Optimistic for the day when the side they are on becomes irrelevant. There are good and bad points to villains going good. the good is I'm sure that the only thing positive people in MK want is peace, notably Kitana. the bad is it takes realism out of the encounter. It depends who it is, and if they cross over in the right way. Exclude the term 'good' and 'evil' and MK gets deeply profound, from a neutral standpoint.

Shao Kahn is a megalomaniac on a power trip, plain and simple. Influenced somewhat by the one Being, but still, he is basically Stalin and Hitler in the body of Conan.

Shang Tsung is irredeemably scheming for his own devices, may it be rule, or whatever the hell he wants aside eternal life. He is somewhat justified, as the gods are FUCKING IDIOTS:

yeah, he took a soul, now lets curse him to do that to keep his youth and life, durrr, we are smrt. - It is like condemning a murderer to a life of a serial killer and he enjoys killing.

Quan Chi is basically a control freak and a megalomaniac, nobody matters, but me - true psychopathic behaviour. He is somewhat of a sadist.

Onaga: actually this guy aside being a tyrant could be a fairly ok dude. We do not know how did he rule, for all intent and purposes he might as well be Vlad Tepes or Matthias Corvinus. He actually might not possess malice towards his opponents, but ruthless pragmatism leads him to kill his opponents.

Hotaru: pragmatism made manifest. Fascism is a misnomer, as it does not contain the other obvious parts of fascism like supremacy and expansionalism. Orwellian perhaps.

Shinnok. god of eeeebil. Evil for the sake of being evil. Nothing really characterises this clown aside being evil for the sake of being so. Okay, vengeance, but that only makes him as pityful as the later Scorpion.

Blaze: not evil.

Baraka: feral, not evil. Does not know better. Does not care.

Mileena: original timeline: insecure childish bitch who had one good shot and actually managed to accomplish something. Now: womanchild, psychopathologic diregard for others. No insecurities, but feral. Female Baraka.

Havik: debatable, Havik isn't so much a representative of evil (or chaos), but complete unrestrictedness. Which is not chaos. MK misrepresents the concept of chaos, even the Moorcockian definition from fantasy.

Tanya: survivalist with a affinitiy to stupidly gloat *(MK4 ending, MKD Jade ending). Nothing terribly or irredeemably evil.

Reptile: tool. Scaly Baraka. His degeneration of mind is more insectine than reptilian.

Rain: vainglorious asshole on an ego-trip with an entitlement issue. The only part I liked about him is that he wasn't reduced to agood guy aka MKT.

Scarlett: doubtful if she possesses a will of her own aside executing orders from Kahn.

Kobra: sociopathic asshole who does it for the lulz. Kinda like this guy, he came late, best choice would have been in MK1 for him, he could have been a foil to Cage.

Kira, Kano: evil by choice of pragmatism. Possibly the most realistic evil in MK.

Yep, that's pretty much their motives in a nut shell.

By that logic, pretty much everyone in MK are evil.

People confuse lack of information with a fact. Smoke tried to scape, Sektor volunteered, but until mk9 we had no idea what Cyrax did because the games didn't say so. Adding information about an event we knew nothing about cannot be considered as a retcon, as it is not changing the established cannon.