Group A: Rik'Ki, Glacier is a bit bland
Group B: Alloy, though Dead Soul is pretty kool. The name is a bit iffy though...
Group C: Kwan Dah, though I don't think Havik would imprison anyone. Seems anti-chaotic, which I guess in a way is chaotic. Man Havik is weird though =P
Group D: No comment

Woot for another victory. Thanks to all who voted for me.

Now my votes are:

Group A: Rik'Ki
Group B: Alloy
Group C: Kwah Dah
Group D: Kira Sherry Motoaki

Group A: Rik'Ki
Group B: Alloy
Group C: Kwah Dah
Group D: Kira Sherry Motoaki

Group A: Rik'Ki
Group B: Alloy
Group C: Kwah Dah
Group D: --

Group A: Rik'Ki (really like the overall vision of this character)
Group B: Abstaining
Group C: Kwah Dah (I like the journey he goes on throughout the games)
Group D: Kira Sherry Motoaki (I like the whole pH change aspect, it's unique)

JackSquatJB: I chose the name Dead Soul for the character because it made sense to me in terms of his story. Since he was Shang Tsung's first attempt at finding a successor to defeat the Great Kung Lao and take over the tournment (pre-Goro obviously), his loss, in Shang Tsung's eyes, was so frustrating and so shameful that his defeated soul was not worthy of Shang Tsung's consumption, therefore it was "dead" to him.

Yes, that would be very hypocritical of Shang Tsung, since he also lost to the Great Kung Lao, but to me, that really fit with Shang Tsung's personality, and the frustration at his apprentice losing would far outweigh any sympathy he'd feel for having been in the same situation.

Obviously you're free to feel how you like about the name, no problem at all, I just thought that for background of the character, it made sense to me at the time when I was creating him.

Group A: Rik'Ki
Group B: Dead Soul
Group C: Kwah Dah
Group D: Kira

Rik ki
Alloy
Saphira
Gragtek

Group A: Rik'Ki

Group B: Dead Soul

Group C: Kwah Dah

Group D: Kira Sherry "Dead Pool" Motoaki [aka; Dissolutia]

Group 1: Rik'Ki
Group 2: Dead Soul
Group 3: Kwah Dah
Group 4: Kira



Grab a Popsicle, it's time for another chilling Full-Kontact Character Beatdown!


BLIZZARD

Name: "From the studio that brought you Sub-Zero, another Sub-Zero, Frost, and Cyber Sub-Zero comes a new and original breed of cryomancer. This winter, strap on your parkas and break out the tire chains -- it's time to prepare yourself for... BLIZZARD."

Appearance: It's a pretty basic ninja uniform. In an age of MK development when the classic ninja uniform has gotten so much fan hate that none of the characters actually wear it anymore except as a joke Retro Alternate... Blizzard strives to bring the ninja back. Snowflake motifs alone are not enough to mask his ninjatude, any more than the clouds on MK2 Smoke covered up the fact that he was obviously a palette swap. Fortunately Blizzard's primary costume does look pretty slick (ice pun!) and does a better job of adding some characteristic twists to the old theme, hinting slightly at Sub-Zero's "Dragon King Armor" phase in MKD.

The snowflake blades do give Blizzard a different style than the other three cryomancers. But as the character write-up already knows, they do look an awful lot like Kitana's steel fans. And you know who usually uses Kitana's steel fans? A woman. A princess, no less. Combine the delicate and gentle snow motif with the elegant whirling motions of the Steel Fan/Sun-Moon fighting style, and Blizzard starts to seem a little bit effeminate. Now there's nothing wrong with that if the character is trying not to be super-masculine like every other male character. But here it seems like an accident, and for the sake of ice puns it's not the best way to break the ice. As we've seen with the rampant fan jabbing at MK9 Smoke, with his emotional nature and hair straight out of a L'oreal commercial and the hand in his versus screen pose, an unintentionally effeminate character makes an easy target for ridicule. Now we don't mean to give Blizzard the cold shoulder here, but that particular ice pun has to go in this review somewhere so there it is.

Story: At first, Blizzard appears to be nothing more than an uninspired Sub-Zero clone. But a closer look at his bio reveals that he's really a... clone... of the original Sub-Zero... like, for really. Huh. We almost wonder if this is some kind of in-joke like the whole Purple Rain thing. But all joking aside, if we're going to have an obvious knockoff of Sub-Zero in the roster, this is probably one of the few good ways to do it.

In this story, the Lin Kuei Grandmaster foresees that his top assassin, Bi-Han, is about to be iced by a vengeful rival. The ice pun is bad enough, but the Grandmaster's handling of this problem is even worse. Instead of training Kuai Liang to take up the job (or maybe warning Bi-Han of his impending fate) he has a backup copy of Sub-Zero cloned in advance and prepares that one to take his place. It's kind of a weird plan, and we're not sure how exactly this plan fits together with the Cyber Initiative, considering no effort is ever made to automate Blizzard. But really, this kind of spaghetti logic is pretty believable for the Grandmaster. His decisions throughout the series are so idiotic that even Raiden, Earthrealm's patron god of bad decision making, totally calls him out on it.

When Blizzard emerges from secrecy to fight the Lin Kuei's enemies, the real impact that he has on the game is twofold. First and foremost, it takes the Bi-Han/Kuai Liang Sub-Zero dual identity plot and turns it into a full-on identity crisis. Bi-Han now competes for his legacy with both his brother and his clone, which is more than any one man should have to deal with. Even though Sub-Zero is just built for ice puns, it's hard to believe he'd be quite so chill about his secret clone coming out of nowhere and stealing his life.

But on the plus side -- and this is Blizzard's second effect on the game -- he actually does fill in a vacant spot in the MK lineup. Bi-Han is now a shadow wraith, and Kuai Liang has been cyborged, so somebody new has to show up so you can actually play some good old-fashioned classic Sub-Zero. And in Blizzard's ending, the three of them banding together to organize the new Lin Kuei actually sounds like a kick-ice team. Ice. Pun.

Gameplay: So Blizzard is the Sub-Zero that you can play now that both of the previous ones are forever changed. Sure, we can go with that. The thing about that is, he doesn't play anything like our old familiar cold-hearted assassin, to use another ice pun. Sub-Zero's tactics haven't changed much in the span of nine fighting games and two adventure spinoffs, but despite being Bi-Han's exact genetic double created for the express purpose of replacing Sub-Zero, Blizzard is truly a whole new person with a unique set of freezing skills.

His snow-based specials look pretty cool, ice pun. They're different than what we're used to seeing with Sub-Zero, which could be good or bad. We remember when Jarek first stepped into the arena in MK4, he was just a Kano Transformation with a new name and absolutely zero (ice pun intended) explanation for how he had eye lasers, and fans hated him because why not just bring Kano back?

Well with Blizzard, Sub-Zero is actually back, and he makes the equal and opposite mistake as Jarek. Sub's trademark long-range freeze ball, ice clone, and slide kick are all gone; instead he has Kitana's fan toss and fan stabs for some reason, and these huge Avalanche attacks that seem exceedingly difficult to avoid. We can see that Blizzard is trying to reinvent Sub-Zero by having his clone learn different moves, which makes sense based on his story and is good for his standing in this contest. But bringing this character into an actual game is kind of walking on thin ice with the fans, because this review really needs some more ice puns.

Personality: Blizzard demonstrates dedication to the clan and his Grandmaster that absolutely no other Lin Kuei member has shown since Bi-Han's death. This may be because the Grandmaster gave him special treatment and spared him the cyborgs' fate. But aside from that we don't get much of a personal feel from him like we do from everyone else. Besides fighting for the clan he doesn't seem to have any real motivations, goals, or feelings of his own. Even when he freeze his brothers from their enslavement with another ice pun, we get no brotherly vibe between them -- it just sort of happened while he was doing his job.

Conclusion: As far as fan-made cryomancers go, Blizzard is certainly above average. As it is with the Zaterrans, every time a new one pops up it makes the existing ones seem less rare and special in the MK universe, but Blizzard neatly skirts around this problem and gives us something reasonably compelling and unique. It's great for a fan character, but unfortunately from a real-life game standpoint the idea has many weaknesses. If NRS decided to clone Sub-Zero, they'd be accused of pulling an excuse out of their asses to bring him back, and they'd be buried in an avalanche of fan hate.

Yeah, you saw what happened there.


Beatdown Lineup: Eastwind, Ekimaru, Gragtek

Group 1: Rik'Ki
Group 2: Dead Soul
Group 3: Kwah Dah
Group 4: Kira

Also, umbra, makes me think you are responsible for all of the Mr. Freeze dialog in Batman and Robin.

I'll admit, when I started running out of ideas I turned to Mr. Freeze for inspiration. That stuff is golden cheesy goodness.

LOL
Best stuff since Louis C.K. last night. XD

Group A: Rik'Ki
Group B: Dead Soul
Group C: Kwah Dah
Group D: Kira

Looking at how things are progressing, is Kira gonna be D1 and avoid a certain early exit at Eastwind's hands? HFS, I hope this is the case!

But then, my ultimate hope is to see these two in the championship final match. WILL the brackets of the final eight ACTUALLY progress that way so as to allow it? It's more likely not, but I can dream.


Assuming it DOES happen, truly the best fighter will emerge at that point. I don't know about Eastwind, but Kira is not one to kill on a whim, and certainly NOT without a good reason. Her main reason for killing anyone is because the opponent is a threat, either personally to her and her husband, or to Earthrealm as a whole (or possibly both). Moreover, anyone that's from Earthrealm and is as great and noble (in his own way) as Eastwind deserves to be shown mercy by Kira and allowed to live outright at least, if not also taken away by her to be healed after the fight.


I'm actually a little surprised that Kira's proving to be as popular as she is, to be honest. I think my work has paid off thus far. Plus she's been in the only TIE... A VIRTUAL TIE BETWEEN THE KOMMUNITY *AND* THE JUDGES, EVEN! Never did I think THAT was going to happen.

So, I can kill you and take your ice cannon?

I don't think he'll let you get close enough to try. Plus you'll be slipping the whole way trying to do so. XP

Unless I just grab it from him with my plasma arm after I smack him with my sword.

Sure, sure.

Anyway, I think the results are incoming any minute now...

Yeah, I need to see if I'm in the next matchup or if I'll have a slight chance.
Oh, and I froze you with orange ice.

*Kira has come to the aid of her master and frees him from it*

Kira: Care to explain your actions? *tapping foot, arms crossed*

I'm trying to keep my hobby from evolving into full-blown necrofelia...
GIVE THIS BRUTE A BREAK!
So, if Mick is on, we're about to see our next match-ups.

The MKOmmunity
Group A: Glacier: 0 | Rik'Ki: 15
Group B: Dead Soul: 8 | Alloy: 6
Group C: Saphira: 2 | Kwah Dah: 13
Group D: Kira: 12 | Gragtek: 1

The Judges
Group A: Glacier: 2 | Rik'Ki: 2
Group B: Dead Soul: 2 | Alloy: 2
Group C: Saphira: 0 | Kwah Dah: 4
Group D: Kira: 4 | Gragtek: 0

Final Day 11 Result:
Group A: Glacier: 1 | Rik'Ki: 2
Group B: Dead Soul: 2 | Alloy: 1
Group C: Saphira: 0 | Kwah Dah: 3
Group D: Kira: 4 | Gragtek: 0

For updated information visit the Kreate-a-Kharacter VII hub.
For an extra perspective, check out the KAKVII Roleplaying thread.

DAY 12:

Group A: Sphere versus Eastwind
Group B: Luren-Uresula versus Sogratse
Group C: Phantom versus The Simberleen
Group D: Ameerah versus Xorah

FIGHT!

Group A: Eastwind
Group B: Luren-Uresula
Group C: Phantom
Group D: Xorah

Kira: *has a seat and rests, rehydrates* Phew. This has been intense...

Group A: Eastwind
Group B: Luren-Uresula
Group C: Phantom
Group D: Xorah

here are my votes.

A. Sphere
B. Luren/Uresula
C. The Simberleen
D. Xorah

Group A: Eastwind
Group B: Luren-Uresula
Group C: The Simberleen
Group D: Xorah

These four I wouldn't mind seeing in the finals. The only thing, though, is that uf Xorah makes it into the finals, Persephone may not. Xorah may very well be the one who knocks my dear Persephone out of the competition.