They are not nerly ad popular as the original trilogy charcters.

Outside of the Mk hardcore fans, nobody knows or care about Darrius and Hotaru.

Plus, their backstory suck. Aesthetically mediocre. Unappealing gameplay. Abysmal Fatalities.


There are few, if none, redeeming qualities for those characters.

The only decent ones are Kenshi, Quan Chi and Havik.
NRS is trying to save Shinnok only for story purposes.
Sareena deserves much more. But I would happily bid farewell to all the newcomers of Mk da, deception and Armageddon.

You just described half of the trilogy cast.

I specifically stayed with MK because they moved away from those characters in the 2000's.

I strongly and wholeheartly disagree.
Cage and Sonya are appealing, Sub-Zero 's spine rip or Kano's heart rip or Kung Lao's vertical hat silice are still considered top notch fatalities. Raiden and Shao Kahn's backstory are the "building pillars" of the plot.


You can't say the same for mk5,6 and 7 characters.

The hate for the characters stems from the fact that the 3D era for MK was the series' lowest point. MK4 was mediocre, Deadly Alliance was awful, Deception was decent, Armageddon was garbage. The story got convoluted, confusing and nonsensical. The new characters all sucked. Darrius was basically a GI Joe toy. Dairou was as boring as boring could possibly get. Hotaru had potential but had a bland, boring story. Mavado and Hsu Hao were just lame. Taven and Daven, or whatever their names were, wound up being contrived BS. Drahmin had the best concept, but the actual execution produced the worst character in Deadly Alliance, both in gameplay and story.

The characters are loathed for a reason.

But don't worry...all the sheeple will get their fix of crappy garbage characters with Tremor.

These things go in cycles but it seems eventually a wave of nostalgia happens for each fformer Era it's happened with mk4 and will happen for the 3d Era as well when fans who played that game and loved the story want it touched upon in the new games.

The major difference between the 2D and 3D era characters is that the 3D characters got shit on because they weren't nostalgic enough for people. They also got a game or two less development than the rest of the other characters.

I mean goddamn, I love Mortal Kombat and Sub-Zero is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, but it's not like he's insanely creative or anything. His most famous fatality is the Head-Rip. I'm not knocking it, but it's just something that's infamous now because it's looked back on. The older games had some bland shit, and so did the newer ones. Some risks paid off, some didn't.

I would say yeah if you pick at two at random, one from 2D and one from 3D you're likely to get a slightly better character from 2D but the difference ain't as big as some people make it seem.

The fans got too protective after MK2 (see bitching about Stryker even though he was sorta unique for MK and even had a great moveset/fatalities) and after MK3 the internet started to get decently big so they probably started hearing more shit talking for newer characters and put some on the backburner for a while due to criticism and some they just didn't want anything to do with or thought they couldn't salvage them in the eyes of the fans.

How was the story convoluted? Also it was pretty simple. If u did not understand it u did not pay any attention. Some characters are liked and some are bad and are still liked.

Most if not all of the 3D characters, are just filler when it came to their involvement in the series. Not to mention most of them were bland looking when compared to most classic era MK (MK1 - MK4). They just felt unimportant to what was happening. More so , all of the new characters in MK Deception. The characters that came from OrderRealm and ChaosRealm pretty much a NOTHING to do with Dragon King. They are in to fill the new character void needed.

Frost and Li Mei were just petty players, that didn't do much. Both involved cliche sub-plots. Bo Chi Cho you can't take seriously. Hsu Hao was just lame. Nitara just wanted to go home. Mavado was lame just like Hsu Hao.

Havik, Darruis, Hotaru, Kobra, Ashrah, Kira and Dairou are pointless in the story arch with Dragon King. Remove them you wouldn't miss anything. Hell, read their bios , they barely mention Dragon King. The subplots of these characters were typical and nothing worth mentioning when compared to the classic era of characters.

Havik is easily the most overrated character of the 3-D era. He has no goals other than to spread chaos, which is dumb.

Taven, Shujinko , and Daegon never had much going for them.


None of these characters didn't much in relation to their character. In other words, if character X won, they didn't have plans to change things. In the classic era for example of a character won, they would have a plan or use their victory to put forth a agenda that helps define their character. For example these character centered around the following.

Kano - Greed - corruption - Most of the time he would get in over his head and get himself killed or captured.
Jax and Sonya - Founded the OIA, Earth defense. Kill or capture black dragon members.
Kitana and Sindel - Stop Shao Khan.Restore their home land and bring peace for everyone.
Mileena - Take over Outworld with Baraka and rule.
Cage - Learns the importance of his fighting skills at the same time gets ideas for his movies. By the end of MK4 , he is a real hero.
Kabal - The guy with no past uses his powers to help others.

I could go on.

I've been a diehard MK fan probably longer than you've been alive, so no...it was not a matter of not paying attention. The MK storyline is one of the primary reasons why I love MK. It was convoluted and confusing, because they introduced 2 new pointless realms so haphazardly into the main storyline, and got so detached from the main established lore of MK. You can't introduce a handful of new characters and do nothing with them, yet build two whole new realms around them. It was all pointless. It was the lowest point of MK history.

Convoluted story my ass.


MK never had a complex or grand story, this is not a literary masterwork. Hell, MK9 did not so much overcomplicate and ignore canon stuff, but simply rearrqanged them.

MK3 killed any semblance of seriousness in the series, the 3D era games were trying to rectify it. MK4 was bland beyond the point of a joke, the characters were reskinned versions of pre-existing characters (Jarek-Kano, Tanya-Kitana, who is still in the code, Shinnok-poor man's Shang Tsung with an incredibly stupid look, Reiko-Noob Saibot's and Rain's lovechild who stole Shao Kahn's gauntlets)


Here is the deal, popularity does not equate to quality. There are people who started with MK1, yes, and went to this very day. I do not give a flying fuck about anything post MK1, up until MKDA.

I do not care about Sub-Zero or Kitana or basically the returnees in MKX, I do however care about the Seidans, Drahmin and fucking hell, the Red Dragon for example.

And there is not one single objective argument you can make against that, because anything you can throw out basically boils down to subjective opinion.

You forgot that Hotaru and his forces were helping Onaga's Tarkatan hordes do his dirty work because they thought it'd bring order to the universe. Bo Rai Cho and Li Mei went to fight the Deadly Alliance and Bo Rai Cho was trying to start mentoring people again. Ashrah was a former Quan Chi lackey, broke free of his grasp and started hunting down Netherrealm demons like Noob Saibot and vampires like Nitara. Dairou was a former Seidan gaurdsman and Darrius was setting them up to recruit them to his side. Kira and Kobra were Kabal's new trainees, etc.

There was a lot of character interaction going on, not everything had to directly relate to someone going directly after Onaga or working for him. It wasn't a tournament styled story any more.

Shujinko and Taven also intereacted with everyone but Shujinko pulled it off better by having a lot more of a game to work with and a story that wasn't rushed.

I'm sorry do u think I'm a kid or something????? Hahaha please mortal kombat 3 story was confusing with sindel but the other games are so simple.

Tanya and kitana are pretty differnt. Just cus one was used to replace the other does not make them the same. Also the lowest point in Mk history was jax spin off game

Hotaru was just a foot solider, that didn't want much. Baraka was a foot solider too, but at least he had plans when he beat Shao Kahn. Speaking for myself, I didn't care about Li Mei or Bo Chi Cho, as I explained above.

You just pointed out how pointless Ashrah was in the story. It isn't like Quan Chi was in the game and she had something to settle with him. Her ending didn't do anything for her. Her ending implies she NEVER left the Netherrealm. Her whole arch just involves her killing Noob and just floating away to do it again? How lame. She was just some random character put in the game.Ashrah should have had a better role other than just killing demons.

Again, Seidan and the other group, were pointless to the story of Dragon King. These characters had NO weight in the current story. Nor did their endings expand their roles in a larger story.
Kira and Kobra as Kabal's new trainees were so exciting..... NOT. Again lame characters, that never mattered. At least Frost and Li Mei looked better designed.

I don't get why people assume the team "hates" those characters. Drahmin was a pain in the ass for them to program because of his club, and they know they dropped the ball with Hsu Hao, but those are the only references I can think of. The rest of it is stories about how much they thought people would love certain characters that the audience ended up hating, like Ashrah. Ashrah had a unique design, compelling backstory, and an interesting "holy light" power set -- but a lot of people got hung up on her freaking hat being the same color and vague shape as Raiden's and gave her a ton of undeserved flak for being "female Raiden" so now we'll probably never see her again. Kira had a fantastic backstory, but was ruined by having copypasted moves -- yet you hardly ever heard people ask for her to come back with new moves. You mostly heard people say she was complete garbage, story and design and all, and not wanting her to ever come back.

I think in most cases you will find that it was the fanbase who rejected most of those characters, not the studio. Particularly once you consider they've brought characters like Tanya, Frost, Bo' Rai Cho, and Li Mei back for second appearances, and even made Sareena from Mythologies playable. Then went on to acknowledge Havik, Fujin, Bo' Rai Cho, Shinnok, Kira, Li Mei, Tanya, Reiko, Daegon, Sareena, Frost, and even Tremor in MK9 cameos.

The team cares. But the audience, as a general unit, is more about abusive complaining about things they don't like than giving things a chance. Which is why I find it really strange that nowadays it sounds like everybody actually loved those characters and it's really the creators who aren't giving them a chance. The creators despise their own creations, apparently, and they love nothing more than rubbing it in their fans' faces. Even though we have a comic going right now that was clearly intended to fill in the blanks the game didn't have room for. Nope, NRS just hates everyone and everything, and it's up to the fans to inspire them with some much-needed patience and understanding when it comes to the less-loved characters, right?

What's a good word for "idiotically ironic"? Idioronic? I'm going with idioronic.

A handful had decent characters

The other handful had crappy characters.

In between were decent characters that had potential but never had the chance

Ashrah's ending DID imply she left the Netherrealm. She even left it in Konquest and had you go back there to find her dagger. How did you think she got to Nitara's realm and then the Edenian crater. If you don't find it to be interesting then whatever but it did go places.

All I said was that there was more going on than you remembered or left out purposefully because it wasn't your thing. I don't think everything needed to be involved with the main threat somehow.

I dont think they hate them, they just pushing the suspence at the maximum to keep the "surprise".

MKX will cover mk mythologie SUb Zero, Mk4 and probably MK:DA. and Maybe MK special force.

Im sure we'll see Tanya, Fujin, Frost and Bo rai cho in the roster.

In dlc if we are lucky we could have Tremor, Li Mei, Daegon or Ashrah

The 3D era characters are easily some of the absolute worst. 4- Armageddon produced some truly awful characters such as: Kai, Drahmin, Moloch, Hsu Hao, Dairou, Darrius, Daegon, Taven, Kobra, Kira, Jarek and Hotaru.

With a list of characters like that, the 3D characters had some real duds. Bland or borrowed movesets and boring story didn't exactly help their cases.

But, some truly great or good characters with loads of potential (that may or may have not been explored yet) like Kenshi, Quan Chi, Shinnok, Li Mei, Frost, Nitara, Ashrah, Reiko, and Tanya.

To me though, the bad really overwhelmed the good and soured a lot of it, and some of the better characters never quite got the chance they deserved or have tons of room for improvement.

Amen to this. Testify! #Idioronic

Don't know why everybody else dislikes them but most of the characters introduced in MK4 onward were boring to me, some of their back stories were alright, im not too picky about that, but a lot of their designs were just extremely unappealing to me.

A lot of the new characters in MK4+ just looked so average or bland, characters such as Darrius, Hotaru, Dairou, Hsu Hao, Jarek, Kira, Kobra, and Mavado just looked so boring and regular to me.

Ashrah didn't do anything important to the plot of the Deception. She has NO connection to either the good guys nor the bad guys. She is just doing her own little thing to get out of Netherrealm. How can anyone root for this character if she has nothing to do with the overall story? Her own story of killing off demons isn't interesting in the grand theme of Mortal Kombat Deception. Killing random demons is small beans compared to dealing with Dragon King.

Bo Rai Cho is just an old guy who has done NOTHING in the past. He didn't even help the heroes fight in the battle to stop Tsung and Chi. He rescued Li Mei from the soul transfer .... ok, but that is hardly anything in terms of story. His only claim to fame is that he was written to have trained Liu Kang and Kung Lao a little bit. He is just a fat old guy that farts and burps. His role in the MK universe was NEVER clearly defined. He is just some fat old guy , who wants to feel important again. To me , that is not interesting. Which leads me into Li Mei.


Li Mei , a woman who won the Deadly Alliance tournament. Ok first off, we are never told was or who was in this tournament. I refuse to believe she beat Sonya, Kitana, Kung Lao, and or Sub-Zero. Again, what did she do in Deadly Alliance, other than fight for her village? The Deadly Alliance tricked her and almost transferred her soul. After she is rescued , how is she defined as character? What acts of heroism helped her become just another character, other than better than average design? Again, what role did she play other than just another generic "hero"? She wanted to screw Dragon King ... wow

What John Tobias did so well was define characters through their actions in the overall story of classic era characters. During the classic era, the character endings and bios helped defined them. Like I wrote above, during the "what if " endings of classic era, what the character did with victory and power in either cannon, non cannon, or semi cannon, reflected far more than the current 3-D characters.

The current team of writers, write the characters like each of their endings are pieces of a larger puzzle. When you have enough of the endings you can see the larger picture. The problem is that the larger picture was never interesting or gave way for character development. Also, in many cases the endings just pointed to the next installment of MK , instead of giving these characters resolution within each game.

Ashrah ending - Kills more demons goes to a higher level of Hell , until one day she will be free. How boring in relation to what was going on in Deception.

Darruis and Dairou two character that have NOTHING to do with either Dragon King or any of the events of Deception. Seriously, read their bios AND endings , they don't mention any of the main good guys or bad guys at all. As I said before, they have no big plans for Mortal Kombat. See my post above about Jax and Sonya, how they changed things regardless if they won MK3 or not. Heck, the concept of The Outworld Investigation Agency and The Special Forces are still today even after this lame reboot.

Darruis and Dairou, two of the most boring characters in the game. Pretty much a civil war between them and Hotaru. If you really want to get technical, the only reason that Hotaru alliance himself with Dragon King is to stop these two guys. Which leads me into the next character Hotaru.

As I mention above, Hotaru was just a foot solider. The only agenda was order at any cost. It is implied that he was happy just being a minion of Dragon King. Its so boring as a character. Baraka wanted more even as a foot solider.

Havik's character I want chaos to rule...... ah ah ah... ok. This adds nothing to the series. Also, it is silly that Havik helps the bad guys when they lose and then help the good guys when they lose. Seriously why is this character even in Mortal Kombat? Why is he remotely popular?

I don't even need to comment on Kira and Kobra. As you stated above just lackeys.


John Tobias did characters and story far better than the current writers. Lets take MK3 and Sub-Zero for example. In MK3 Sub-Zero had three things going for him. The invasion of Earth, the Cyber Ninjas , and Smoke. First, he joined a larger group of heroes, to fight against Kahn's invasion force. He was no longer just an assassin and thief. At this point he became a hero. Second he had to evade three cyber ninjas from a clan he was now marked for death from. Third, he was personal mission to save his friend. You see this is a character that anyone can get behind for an root for, far better than ANY of the 3-D era characters.

The is my point in terms of all the new characters, in the Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon era. None of them really had any break away uniqueness to them. I ask you , how important on a scale of one to ten of ANY of the 3-D characters were?

I am not bashing anyone including NRS for liking these characters. I am just saying that in my opinion, the 3-D characters never had much going for them and they were less important when compared to the classic era characters.

Kotal Kahn, D'Vorah, Ferra/Torr and Cassie Cage to me are better than any of the old 3-D game's new characters , not counting Mortal Kombat 4. When it comes to me, what they DO in relation to the story will define them as worthy additions to MK. More so in their endings.

Example: If in MKX, D'Vorah is just happy being Kotal Kahn's minster she will be lame, if she wins in her ending. What she does with power if she wins in a "what if" ending, will help me like her.

How is it that having 4 to 5 characters looking exactly the same except for the colour scheme isn't seen as boring and bland?

Some trilogy characters background stories were barely even there, just 5 lines describing some vague motive. Most of the sacred cows are liked because they have been developed through several games and became familiar. There's just no fair comparison.

Also, the 3D era gave trilogy characters development and personality. something to like besides the signature moves. I'm not even saying I find most of 3D era characters interesting or inspired, but seriously same goes for half the trilogy ones during that era.