Happy Holidays to all you fearsome fighters of our freedom against the shackles of darkness from across the realms of realities. I'm here with yet another entry into these hallowed halls of reverence and retrospection.

We are now through Sheeva, Nightwolf, Mileena, Smoke, Shang Tsung, Stryker, Reptile, Sonya's boobs, Sonya Blade, Sektor, Johnny Cage, Baraka, Kabal, Rain, Cyrax, and Quan Chi.

Admin Edit: Please be encouraged to direct new replies to this thread.

Next on board? Well, none other than the greatest character to emerge from the tepid line-up that composed the post-MK3 roster.

That's right... we're going into blind badass territory here. Prepare yourself. We're about to tackle this blind, kung-fu knowing Keanu Reeves-lookalike head on!

(Deadly Alliance came before Revolutions, you unoriginal Wachowski hacks!)

WHO IS KENSHI?
Kenshi is a blind swordsman with telekinetic powers. I could go on, but, well, really stop and think about it. I mean really. That's one of the most badass things anyone could imagine or say in the human language. The dude is so awesome, he doesn't even need to see you to slice you into itty-bitty pieces... AND he can crush your body... with his MIND. Few things are as badass as a telekinetic blind swordsman.

(Dino Riders was one of those things)

For a more accurate analogy, I bring your attention to the chart below:


Kenshi is a warrior of good, though he doesn't like to get involved in other people's conflicts. He's dedicated his life to hunting Shang Tsung, but missed the boat to the MK1 tournament...

("Where's the boat? I was told it was going to be RIGHT HERE!")

It's actually strange to think that Kenshi is one of the few handicapped people in video games in general. That's surprisingly progressive, especially considering blind people in movies tend to be so much more interesting and awesome than everyone else around them.
(Sorry, Chris O'Donnel, but you just can't compete with a ballsy blind Al Pacino)

For the sake of a proper KOTW, I'll indulge your incessant need to hear me espouse more on this unique fighter.

WHY IS KENSHI IN THE SERIES?
Kenshi was one of a large roster of fresh faces added to the overhauled Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. While a few classic faces were around, a large portion of the cast was composed of brand new fighters intended to introduce a lot of new blood in the series.

Despite Deadly Alliance's strong sales and reception, however, only a few of the new faces were actually liked by fans to any sizable degree.

(basically just these two...)

Of these (two), Kenshi emerged as the far-away best new face in the series. His story was cool, his moves were great, his look was awesome... really, he had just a lot going for him, which is why he endured when so many of the new faces disappeared in the sequel.

(Some losses were not mourned)

Kenshi only got better and cooler when Deception rolled around, and the fans loved him just as much, if not more, than before. It was settled; while the vast majority of the new MK cast was a bust, Kenshi got the fans' full seal of approval.

(Kenshi earned this)

This victory is lessened somewhat when the sobering fact remains that, alongside Kenshi, Bo Rai'Cho was in all the Deadly Alliance-Armageddon games too...

(Just remember, there was a time when someone was paid to put this in Mortal Kombat.... and that was considered a better use of time and money than putting in Sheeva, Sareena, Rain, Sektor, or Stryker...)

Still, Kenshi's inclusion, and his positive reception, shouldn't surprise anybody. After all, tales of a blind swordsman making us with two good eyes feel inferior has been in so many movies and anime that it's actually a wonder it took MK so long to get our own token handicapped head-slicer.

(The highlight of Ninja Scroll... no word on whether the guy with the bee nest in his back is planned for MK10...)

KENSHI'S STORY-
Kenshi's story began before MK1 when he was a reckless, boastful youth that was so bland and boring that his only claim to fame was having the exact same motivation as the king of generic, Ryu, which meant he fought to "be the strongest" or something just as broad, bland, and forgettable.

(To say Ryu has the personality of a house plant is a disservice to the plant, because the plant at least DEVELOPS if you water it)

Kenshi was saved from a generic life of generic kung-fu when he had a fateful encounter with Shang Tsung, disguised as a strange man named Song (though... why? Did Kenshi know who Shang Tsung was, or even what he looked like?).

(See, changing your identity was necessary for The Nutty Professor because people knew who Jerry Lewis was... does that mean Shang Tsung is the Jerry Lewis of Mortal Kombat?)

Anyway, Shang Tsung needed some soul sucking done and, rather than become a therapist on a suicide prevention hotline number, he found a cave full of souls that apparently only Kenshi could open, so he led Kenshi to the cave to find a sword he had heard of that granted people lots of power to those worthy of wielding it. Gullible Kenshi went along with him, never suspecting the terrible truth.


Kenshi unsealed the cave's legion of souls, who turned out to be Kenshi's ancestors. They blinded Kenshi (kind of a dick thing to do, especially since he was family) and Shang Tsung absorbed them and left Kenshi for dead. But Kenshi wasn't doomed to die... no, far from it. The sword of legend, the Sento sword, was true, and it called out to him.

("Either the sword just talked to me, or I'm trippin' balls over here...")

Kenshi found the sword, which led him out of the cave and inspired him to get revenge on the sorcerer who had wronged them. Thankfully, unlike real life, Kenshi's blindness didn't hinder him much... actually, like a certain superhero, it probably made him even stronger than before.

(I always wanted to know... how did DareDevil know he was wearing a red outfit instead of something pink with yellow polka dots?)

Kenshi then trained for over a decade until his skills were stronger than ever, and when he encountered the Special Forces they offered him the chance to get revenge on the man responsible for his blindness in their battle against the Deadly Alliance. You know what that meant? That meant Kenshi was about to open up a can of BLIND FURY on their asses!

(I really should stop my KOTW here because nothing is going to be as awesome as this movie poster. It's all downhill from here, people...)

Actually, though, Kenshi didn't do squat. He managed to, somehow, free Ermac of his brainwashing and Ermac in turn taught him some telekinetic moves. Then he got beat up by Mavado and left for dead (again) before Sub-Zero sort of stumbled upon him and nursed him back to health. The two became friends and, on their journey to defeat the Deadly Alliance, Onaga did the work for them and Kenshi sensed his decades-long quest to redeem himself was over... in the most anticlimactic way possible, I might add.

(It would be like half-way through Link's journey, in the Water Temple most likely, he found out Ganondorf was killed before he even got inside his castle)

Kenshi then sort of wandered around with Sub-Zero until Onaga also got defeated, and then sort of got called back into action for Armageddon, where he made a Shokan Shish Kabbob out of Sheeva before Quan Chi beat him to the ground and, ironically, Shang Tsung appeared out of nowhere just to finish him off (I think we can safely say Kenshi's quest for revenge was a colossal failure...)

But then it was reboot time and the timeline was restarted with Raiden sticking his finger in every light socket he could to see if things would get better this time (spoiler: they didn't), and this somehow paved the way for Kenshi to wind up mucking around in the MK1-MK3 era.... as DLC, though.


(To be fair, MK handles DLC reasonably well compared to other companies... *cough* Capcom *cough* on-disc *cough* pay for difficulty *cough* and cheat codes *cough* and online multiplayer versus modes *cough* rip-offs *cough cough cough*)

(I was going to post something witty about me having a coughing fit... until I noticed the name of this picture was filed under "fun games for kids"... wtf?)

Anyway, back on topic, Kenshi's goal in the new game... is just the same as it was in the old games. Only this time, his quest for revenge, his epic battle against the man that damned his ancestors and stole his sight, is resolved before he's even made available as DLC in MK's story mode where Kahn kills Shang Tsung... So, despite the fact Kenshi is a cool character, his primary motivation for even being in the game is non-existent before he even can get a proper debut.


Okay... so, with Shang Tsung dead before he's even aware Kenshi was after his head, where does Kenshi go next?

KENSHI'S FUTURE-
Kenshi, despite having a story that has gone absolutely nowhere in over four games, remains a favorite of many fans from the Deadly Alliance era... and, well, that's for good reason.

Despite his lack of growth, Kenshi just oozes style and class, giving MK fans a fun, fast, original character that works in ways few other characters can. He's fun to look at, looks great in motion, and is fun to play with... his story at this point doesn't even matter.

(Something else that meets all that criteria... though you should probably at least pretend her interest in obscure sea plankton interests you...)

Kenshi was a much needed boost of originality around the Deadly Alliance chapter, but I will still say that, though he stuck around in every major game since, he's less developed than even characters like Reptile, Sheeva, or other DLC characters like Rain or even Skarlet (I went there.) The fact his DLC didn't even come with any voice work leaves him horribly drained of a personality worth investing in, and compared to the emotive, expressive, personality-filled characters of the main roster, Kenshi almost comes across as a blank-faced mime by comparison.

(The dude already can't see... did they have to make sure he can't TALK too? That just seems cruel...)

Still, given Kenshi's popularity and appeal amongst both the hardcore MK fans as well as the casuals, I would strongly suspect that he'll return in future games, hopefully with more to say and do than wandering around aimlessly in the dark trying to find the one guy who did him wrong who already left the building before he even arrived at the tournament party.

Besides, how bad would it be to say, "we have this badass blind swordsman with a magic sword and telekinetic powers... we can't come up with a single idea for him"? I mean, I know the MK team isn't exactly the most original group of people on planet earth, but surely they can think of something.

(though, if they did in the first place, we wouldn't have to go back in time to reboot the whole universe back to square one...)

Anyway, sound off! Are you part of the Kenshi-camp, or do you insist that every character after MK3 was a dud? Would you like to see him in more games, or give his spot to someone else? Do you think there are MKDA-MKA characters more deserving of attention, or is his popularity more than justified? What do you think of his play style and movies? Let me know! And let me know who I should cover next!

Okay folks. Have a Happy New Year. I'll be back soon with another KOTW in 2012 (provided the earth doesn't end)!