What's new

Who is the worst villain ever?

Vote for the worst

  • Shang Tsung

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Shao Kahn

    Votes: 5 4.4%
  • Shinnok

    Votes: 6 5.3%
  • Quan Chi

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Onaga

    Votes: 8 7.0%
  • Daegon

    Votes: 25 21.9%
  • Blaze

    Votes: 42 36.8%
  • Kronika

    Votes: 26 22.8%

  • Total voters
    114

Bliss

Noob
I like Shang Tsung but he was the worst boss. My favorite boss was Onaga. Second favorite: Shao Kahn.

Let me add, I also like Blaze. Yeah, he was generic as hell; but, you have to give him some respect for being the only character to make Shao Kahn and Onaga sub-bosses!
 
Last edited:

zerosebaz

What's the point of a random Krypt?
Kronika is... eh. She lacked a defined goal IMO. In the end it looked like everything she did was out of pure butthurt that someone (Raiden) lived a life she hadn't envisioned for them.
It would probably have been better if they just presented her as a control freak who wanted everyone to live the life she planned for them. It would also have been have been better for the "Chose your destiny" theme that only seemed to be glanced upon.

That thing about her wanting to keep the balance between dark and light, and then restarting history when said balance goes out of the window, and it all being Raiden's and Liu Kang’s fault... Lets just say it's weak.
 
Last edited:

LawAbidingCitizen

Bomb Setups & Ball Rolls(Mileena/Cyrax)
Daegon was my pick. I honestly don't know the story in the 3D era since I only played MK1-UMK3, MK9-MK11. But after looking up daegon he looks shitty AF and kinda half assed.
As for Blaze I've always liked the pit with blaze vs Rain.
I don't think Khronika was the worst by far and have no clue how anyone could vote Shang Tsung as worst. I remember him from the older games and he was always a cool character.
 

CallMeTetris

draxx them sklounst
Shoutouts to Dark Kahn.

I gotta go with Blaze, tho. I appreciate that they at least kinda sowed the seeds for his boss role before it happened, but like.....really? The dude looks like ass, has no memorable moves or personality, and granted I've erased most of Armageddon from my memory, but I don't think he even really factored into story mode? He's just Big Pyramid Dude and it sucks.

Kronika....I don't think she was presented well in the story, but she's still a cool design and the fight against her is pretty memorable imo, even if it's nothing too special in terms of actual gameplay.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
Kronika is the worst boss ever in a Mortal Kombat Game, MKF30 already explained mostly why.

Her Hourgrass is way more powerful than her. Reason why keep climbing that latter of power towards creation isn't really a good thing for writting.
 

Lord Snotty

Lord of the Bletherrealm.
On a purely aesthetic level, I think Kronika is wonderful. Eerie, weird, and spiteful. The speech she makes when you confront her in the Klassic Tower is brilliant. My personal favourites are Shang and Shinnok.
 

Jynks

some heroes are born, some made, some wondrous
what do you mean by worst... as in worst, most evil bad ass coolest villian.. or worst as in lamest?
 

DragonofDadashov24

Let’s see whose fire burns hotter
Oh, story thread. Love it. Now get ready.
Shang Tsung— pure evil, he wanted power and kill everyone to get it, he was great 10/10
Shao Kahn— the best villain in the ENTIRE series. He’s even more evil than Tsung, the most powerful Emperor, ruthless, scary and just OP af. 12/10 before MK11, turned to shit after MK3 and even more so in MK11.
Shinnok— underwhelming villain with nothing interesting in the background, weak, was depending on Quan Chi in ALL games he was in. I liked him in Armageddon, at least there he had some role.
Quan Chi/ Shang Tsung— a step back after Shao Kahn but these two killed everyone including,shit, Liu Kang. They took down Raiden so they are very powerful when teamed up (until MK9 says fuck you to them and KL takes them down alone).
Onaga- .... who is this guy? The entire Deception conquest was cool and it’s ending was great, they should have made a sequel where he gets his body back and then fights everyone else (like Thanos lol), but he gets ass fucked by Shujinko and then comes back only to disappear in Armageddon. His fight itself was shitty. Kamidogu in the stage? Really? That battle is heaven for casuals.
Blaze— another wasted opportunity.
Kronika— the worst boss in the series. Why? Cause she was stupid. The stronger character is the dumber they portrait him. Kronika could have killed everyone in a second. She didn’t even need to bring ALL past characters to the game. Her fight is braindead. Basically as Liu Kang you just press 123bf3 6-7 times in a row and she dies.
Boss battles went downhill after MK3 and go even lower. Mk9 was GREAT but Shao Kahn had a pattern that you could exploit and even perform a babality on him.
 

Lord Snotty

Lord of the Bletherrealm.
Quan Chi relied on Shinnok and his amulet, it seems. Once Shinnok was in the amulet, Quan Chi seemed to weaken quite severely.


I suspect Shinnok and Cetrion may be the new Deadly Alliance.
 

Wrath0594

Steam profile: 76561198102032134
The correct answer is Kronika. Wish I could say this on reddit without getting downvoted to oblivion, but I'll say it here... Until we get a downvote button...

MK9 Story was a 10/10, I think we can all agree on this. It was a rollercoaster, no one knew what would happen on their first play, references and fanservice throughout, fantastic flow, you cared about almost everyone, fantastic cliffhanger ending. Great for long time fans and newcomers alike.

MKX I would call an 8/10. Solid. Chapter 1 is everything you wanted coming out of MK9, but it was sort of downhill from there. Not to say it was bad, it's fun to watch from start to finish. I think the writing was fine, but the direction they chose to go in was weaker. By the end, we had plenty of interesting lasting impacts. We saw Johnny all but replace Liu Kang as earthrealm's protector, Scorp and Sub Zero patched things up in a believable way. Most importantly, Raiden's frustration finally got the best of him, character development with roots in MK9. And the Revenants had supposedly gained a semblance of free will, so we were set to see the culmination of Liu Kang's anger at Raiden from MK9, something that has never been properly dealt with.

MK11 is a 1/10, from start to finish, and it is jarring. The writing is clunky and hamfisted all around. We're immediately thrust into more conflict, with an apparent time-skip in between. No one's in character. Most importantly, they never follow the rules of "show don't tell." They tell us Kronika is important, but we never see why. We're told Raiden is an ass, we never see this. The list goes on. Worst of all, they undo threads we've been waiting years to see wrapped up, namely with Dark Raiden and Liu Kang. Hard to characterize Revenants when their motives boil down to "evil because undead voodoo magic." I say these things out of love and disappointment for MK's story.

/rant over
 

Lord Snotty

Lord of the Bletherrealm.
Who wrote the dialogue for MKX? It is far better than MK11. The story is more interesting too. Bring that writer back. Is he still there?
 

Samsara

Resident Cynic
Kronika was a bad call and anyone with any knowledge of film/writing can tell you that it's a bad idea to introduce a villain in a long running story who "was there all along behind the scenes" WITHOUT building them up first.

It always feels contrived and its almost never satisfying. She shows up LITERALLLY out of nowhere, with a vague goal and an unclear plan.

She also never interacts with the heroes personally until the end of the story. If you want your villain to have impact, they need to have a goal and a worldview that conflicts with the heroes'. When they clash, you should be able to see what drives them and how their world view is being confronted by the opposing side.

Kronika and the time travel element was not used well. Time travel was just there to make a convenient spectacle and provide fanservice while basically retconning every bold writing decision they've made since MK9.

It was shallow. All the good story beats (Scorpion, Raiden, and Liu Kang) came at the very end of the story. Nothing else was as impactful.

Everything about MK11 is too little too late. Emphasis on spectacle and fanservice over more grounded character moments. Weak, uninteresting villain who lacked impact. Annoying marvel tier antics and dialogue

NRS refuses to take their own story seriously. They will never commit to deepening their own world. Everytime they do they retconn everything or pretend it doesnt exist (all your favorites are dead cuz we dont know how to integrate them lol sorry).
 

xenogorgeous

.... they mostly come at night. Mostly.
Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung are the best ..... Kronika is the worst, pretty disapointing indeed .... was watiing for something epic coming from her, and she ends being so plain dumb stupid pointless and weak .... hope to never see her again in the franchise !
 

Samsara

Resident Cynic
There are two ways to approach a writing an interesting villain in these kinds of action-fantasy stories imo. You can make an empathetic villain who directly/indirectly clashes with the hero in both a physical and psychological way (the Killmonger or Joker approach)



The best example for this in MK11 would be to ground the (A) story as a conflict between Raiden and Liu Kang. Liu Kang resents his former idol for leading to his own demise. Raiden wants to protect earthrealm at any cost but risks becoming corrupted in the process.

Cut the time travel nonsense. Ditch Kronika. Keep it centered on the characters on a deeper level.

The (B) story line could center on Sub-Zero goal to redeem the Lin Kuei. Immediate conflict with Frost, who feels resentment towards Sub Zero for overlooking her potential. She brings with her ghosts from Sub's past (Sektor, Bi-Han) that he must confront to make himself whole again.

You could draw this parallel between Sonya and Kano as well. Maybe SHOW us why she dislikes Kano so much. The past two games they've treated it like its self explanatory. The thing is, if you're going to keep rehashing an old conflict, you need to justify it. Have a flashback of Sonya getting set-up by Kano, show Kano being a vile dirtbag to her and ppl she cares about. Make it matter.

Now if you say "they did this in MK11 lol we already saw it." Was it actually done well? Did the characters actually have anything meaningful to say to each other? Or were a couple lines of dialogue before and after a fight pretty much all the development it got?

Panther spent an entire film building up Boseman's and Jordan's confrontation. MK11 can never be bothered to actually spend more than a chapter on a character.

Another approach to writing a good villain is to simply revel in how powerful and evil they are. These villains are strong and have a clear purpose. Shang Tsung is the best example of this. Hes just a straight up evil dude with a simple goal and plan:

"Your soul is MINE!"

You pack a simple goal like that behind buckets of charisma and you have a great an effective villain (thanos in the mcu comes to mind). Shang was in direct contact with the heroes the whole time. He's not empathetic, but he is entertaining and a legitimate threat to the heroes.

Kronika never had a chance.
 
Last edited:

Wrath0594

Steam profile: 76561198102032134
The best example for this in MK11 would be to ground the (A) story as a conflict between Raiden and Liu Kang. Liu Kang resents his former idol for leading to his own demise. Raiden wants to protect earthrealm at any cost but risks becoming corrupted in the process.
Nah, they decided the Revenants can't have personalities. They're literally only evil because of Quan Chi's magic. We have proof of this, because they say things we know contradict their characters' actual beliefs. We can all buy that revenant Liu Kang might have a real motive, right? But then revenant Kung Lao tries to convince human KL that Raiden murdered them? There's no way revenant KL actually believes this. Revenant Jade hates Kitana, but she works for her? The list goes on. So they're all being controlled by something.

This takes away all of the agency from the revenants. They were never characters in this game, they were plot devices. When I saw Liu Kang's MKX look- the old man skin, I was under the impression they would change everybody back, but that some people would follow LK's lead and walk away from Raiden's team of their own accord. Only returning post time skip to challenge Raiden for the title of Earthrealm's protector. But nah, we got evil voodoo magic instead of personality.
 

Samsara

Resident Cynic
Nah, they decided the Revenants can't have personalities. They're literally only evil because of Quan Chi's magic. We have proof of this, because they literally say things that we know for a fact those characters don't believe. We can all buy that revenant Liu Kang might have a real motive, right? But then revenant Kung Lao tries to convince human KL that Raiden murdered them? There's no way revenant KL actually believes this. Same with all the others- Jade, Kitana, etc. They say things that blatantly contradict their characters, so its obvious they're under some kind of evil influence.

This takes away all of the agency from the revenants. They were never characters in this game, they were plot devices. When I saw Liu Kang's MKX look- the old man skin, I was under the impression they would change everybody back, but that some people would follow LK's lead and walk away from Raiden's team of their own accord, only returning to challenge him. But nah, evil voodoo magic.
I understand why the revanents cant think for themselves. I just think it would be better if they treated them as actual characters.

All this time travel and sorcerer magic gets in the way of telling an interesting story. MK11 should have been a legitimate sequel that moved us forward instead it was another reset where nothing anyone did mattered.
 

NothingPersonal

Are you not entertained!?
The villain I voted for doesn't look threatening, doesn't feel threatening and has no real master villanous purpose except some personal unfounded and unclear quarrel. Take a guess.
 

NothingPersonal

Are you not entertained!?
I understand why the revanents cant think for themselves. I just think it would be better if they treated them as actual characters.

All this time travel and sorcerer magic gets in the way of telling an interesting story. MK11 should have been a legitimate sequel that moved us forward instead it was another reset where nothing anyone did mattered.
But it did. At last Raiden took the best and unexpected choice and redeemed himself, let Liu take his rightful place and the story can move on and not rotate in an endless circle of reboots.
 

Samsara

Resident Cynic
But it did. At last Raiden took the best and unexpected choice and redeemed himself, let Liu take his rightful place and the story can move on and not rotate in an endless circle of reboots.
This story was literally a reboot though. One piece on the board moved. That's it. Raiden as we know him is gone. If that was always the endgame they should have spent more time with it.

You could say that Kronika was the one who forced Raiden to make a difficult choice and attacked his greatest weakness as no one else could.

The problem was this is undermined by the fact that she was an all controlling time wizard who had specifically engineered Raiden's behavior in multiple timelines since forever. This doesnt feel convincing, and makes Raiden's arc less compelling.

Any villain powerful enough could force Raiden to realize he could make an ally out of Liu Kang. You dont need Kronika and time loops to do it.

Kronika is effective, sure. But the best possible villain for Raiden? Not at all. Raiden had a better conflict with Liu Kang than with Kronika. Theres more at stake in a conflict with Liu than with her. Thats why its a miss imo.
 

Lord Snotty

Lord of the Bletherrealm.
The conflict between Liu and Raiden playing out in every timeline was surprising to me, because it only happened in MK9/MKX. That came from nowhere too.
 

Lord Snotty

Lord of the Bletherrealm.
Shao Kahn was a brilliant villain in MK2. His voice was legitimately evil, hinting atva foreboding and powerful antagonist. He sucks in the new era. A meathead tyrant with a hammer. No wonder Shinnok easily outmanouvered him.