In 29 years of history,
Mortal Kombat has built in-depth lore, full of parallel worlds, gods, monsters, heroes, and villains. And with so much time in the business, it is natural that not all characters are memorable. There are those whose charisma is so null that they have fallen into the limbo of oblivion.
In this list, we'll look back at some characters who are loved by virtually no one but who were still part of the fighting franchise's history!
Kobra
Long before Cobra Kai was a sensation on Netflix, Mortal Kombat had a Johnny Lawrence clone to call its own. This is
Kobra. AÂ professional wrestler turned criminal who enters the tournament simply to satiate his desire to kill people.
The character was introduced in
Mortal Kombat: Deception, and after that only appeared in the next game,
Armageddon, and never again. Shallow as a saucer and without an ounce of charisma, he was rightly forgotten.
Kira
Throughout its history, Mortal Kombat has introduced several strong female characters who have caught the public's interest and inspired generations of girls. Unfortunately,
Kira is not one of them.
An arms dealer in Afghanistan,
Kira had to disguise herself as a man to survive until she met the
Black Dragon criminal organization. She was also responsible for recruiting Kabal to the group. Her story is kind of cool, making her a kind of "anti-Sonya," but even so, she never returned.
Moloch
A demon of the underworld,
Moloch lived only to torture the souls that dwelled there until he was approached by
Quan-Chi, who asked him to protect him from Scorpion's vengeance. In return, the demon promised him freedom.
To no one's surprise,
Moloch is betrayed and abandoned in the Underworld until he is summoned by another sorcerer,
Shang Tsung, meeting his death shortly after that. And that's it.
Moloch and his partner
Drahmin are never heard from again, and perhaps it's just as well.
Kai
Introduced in
Mortal Kombat 4,
Kai was a member of the White Lotus Society, making him a sidekick of
Liu Kang and
Kung Lao. But unlike the two Shaolin monks, Kai had nothing special in absolutely no way, which caused him to be ignored by most of the audience.
He resurfaced in
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, much more because the game promised to deliver every fighter ever created for the franchise up to that point than for any other reason.
Shujinko
Shujinko in Japanese means "protagonist," which is what they tried to do with this character in
Mortal Kombat: Deception. The game's Konquest mode featured him as the main hero, showing his adventures from childhood to adulthood as he traveled through various kingdoms while growing stronger.
All Shujinko did at the behest of the mysterious spirit
Damashi was free the dragon king
Onaga, former emperor of Exoterra, which automatically turned him into a naive and idiotic character. The public response was very negative, and Shujinko was never seen again in a game after
Armageddon.
Ashrah
Let's face it,
Ashrah's look and story are kind of cool. Although she looks like a beautiful woman, she is actually a demon of the Underworld, who hunts her own kind to purify her own soul and free herself from that hellish world.
Like almost all of the original characters featured in
Mortal Kombat: Deception,
Ashrah was forgotten by Netherrealm Studios, but to be fair, she was not well explored even in her original game. It seems rather unlikely that we will see her again one day.
Hsu Hao
When looking at
Hsu Hao, the first thing a Mortal Kombat fan would think is that this is a generic
Kano, and they wouldn't be wrong. Everything about this character is uninteresting.
A member of the Red Dragon organization, the Black Dragon's rivals in the criminal world,
Hsu Hao has a mechanical heart, and... that's it. Not even the game creators like him, as animator
John Vogel has said in several interviews.
Mavado
Another member of the Red Dragon that has been forgotten by both the fans and the creators of Mortal Kombat is
Mavado, one of the organization's leaders, second only to
Daegon. Disciplined, cruel, and vicious, his goal is to exterminate the Black Dragon and nothing else.
His fighting style is bizarre:
Mavado has no power, relying entirely on his hooks to attack his enemies and move around. If this sounds silly to you, that's because it is.
Taven
Son of the protective god of Edenia,
Argus, the demigod
Taven was the main character in
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, whose Konquest mode chronicled his adventures. He is also the half-brother of
Prince Rain, the "purple rain ninja" of the franchise.
In the game, he travels through the various realms of the franchise's lore, searching for his evil brother
Daegon to stop him from executing an evil plan that could wipe out all the realms. He has powers associated with fire, as does
Liu Kang, but even this could not make him an interesting character, and he never again appeared in any game.
Jarek
Jarek is another "generic Kano" from Mortal Kombat, but without the same charisma as the famous villain. His lack of originality was one of the most criticized things when
Mortal Kombat 4 was released, which is not a good sign at all.
Second in command in Black Dragon and former apprentice to Kano,
Jarek has no interesting story or motivation beyond that and is best remembered by the public for starring in
Sonya and
Jax's Mortal Kombat 4 embarrassing endings. He is not missed at all.
