Kotal, D'Vorah, Cassie, and Takeda are some of the best things to happen to modern MK. Them having notably unique fighting styles, cool characterization, and (aside from Cassie) filling some interesting niches make them shoe-ins for inclusion to me. Cassie is a great take on a modern generation earthrealmer and makes herself just different enough from her parents to stand out (though she could use more work in this regard). D'Vorah is a god tier design that should be leaned on for all future monster characters: super stylized, gross, unique, and honestly scary. Kotal is easily one of the top 10 coolest characters in the entire MK canon and should be upgraded to OG auto-include status going forward. He has gravitas both in fights and in the story (or at least the MKX comic), embodies a lot of powers previously unseen in the roster, and competes with Jax in the grappler space in a series with VERY little grappler representation. Takeda was a perfect mix of prior generation and modern styling while creating a fully standalone character. He's also just cool as hell with his animations and attacks. Him not being in MK11 is a travesty, especially when forgetfully mediocre Kollector is here taking the "long range chain weapon" slot.
All that to say the newcomers are more hits than misses. Jacqui leaves an awful taste in everyone's mouth, but we've gotten some awesome new characters in the last two installments.
Also, if you dont like D'Vorah, you've got no taste. Thems the rules.
