I'll start

Khibok

Story wise I think it was fairly obvious but Khibok was an allegory for environmental conservation. I want to stop deforestation as well as the poaching of great apes, and other endangered species, and other hippie crap like that. So I made a character from the point of view of the poached.

Gameplay wise I made Khibok a master in Hou Quan, seen here by the guy in orange, because it copies the moves of monkeys and apes and he's an ape so yeah.

But for his specials I was thinking more along the lines of Beast from X-Men. I can't find a good video but just imagine the part in X-Men three where Beast is swinging off of poles and throwing bad guys through the air.

So that's the thought process behind Khibok let me know what went through you're guys' heads when you started making your characters.

Excellent idea for a thread. Someone give this man some dragon points for this.

I'll add to this eventually. Still need to do the 'characters that didn't make it' thread.

FUN!

At her very core, Annette was intended to be sort of a question. She's a gender bender and was intended to reverse the gender roles by having her grow as a character and take control of the man that used to control her. Etienne himself is a man who portrays himself sexually, seeking nothing but pleasure while taking it from women, men, those in between... Together they sort of carry a lingering air of acceptance for everything non-traditional. That's the inspiration behind her entanglement with the spirit of Etienne.

Initially she was inspired by music, specifically two Fiona Apple songs. The first, "Love Ridden", details the slow decay of feelings between two people. The lyrics go "No, not baby anymore, if I need you I'll just use your simple name. Only kisses on the cheek from now on, and in a little while we'll only have to wave........ I stood too long in the way of the door, now I'm giving up on you.". This mirrors her attachment to Etienne after his death. This attachment is how the lust demon finds her and is able to possess her. Over the course of her story she is supposed to slowly outgrow her attachment to the man, Etienne, and move on as the lyrics suggest about a romantic relationship. After she's moved on, she gains the strength to control her powers and reclaim her body from the demon.

The second song, "O'Sailor", is the inspiration for her nautical theme and the changes in Etienne's personality after she finds his 'spirit'(actually the demon). Her special move "By the Boards" has its name taken directly from the lyrics of this song, while her background in sailing and prostitution is also somewhat reflected by the lyrics of the song. To me, the song details the thoughts of someone who has been used in love, then abandoned. Annette was in love with Etienne, then he died. He returns with a completely changed personality, craving sex and nothing more. In the song she asks "Oh sailor, why'd you do it? What'd you do that for?", which in Annette's case is her own confusion as to how he can just ignore their history together and become a totally new person.

Design wise and symbolically, they are based on a couple I draw regularly. Annette, formerly named Camille, is a woman who in my artwork represents maternity, femininity, the ocean, things like that, while Etienne, who is usually drawn with her, represents sexual experimentation and the male seed. Together they represent procreation and infidelity. They are both heavily associated with pearls, water, etc... in my work, which has symbolic meanings as well. So, symbolically, The ocean(where they are drawn) is the uterus, while the pearls are the seed. I recently wrote the next chapter in Annette story, and it may just lead to her getting pregnant... No ordinary pregnancy, mind you... Hehehe.

Her fighting style is based on jellyfish, hehehe... The whip and rapier combined represent tentacles and stingers. She snares you with her 'tentacle' and stings you with her rapier.

I've got to admit, the creation of Krustacean, hell, the inspiration for me to enter the tournament, was rather shallow. I read someone's post about wanting to draw their character's "regular" form and "powered up" form. My buddy and I exchanged glances and I said something along the lines of, "Multiple forms? The only time anyone should have an alternate "for" is when they take off their ninja mask and they're like, a crab or something..." Suddenly, both our faces lit up, and I got to work. That was really it, so I'm glad to have seen him go as far as he did.

This is cool.

Serenity

Look: I made her look like a girl i really really like. (height, eye color, bust size etc)

Design/costume: I had soooo many ideas that bounced around my head. I wanted her to fit in Mk hence her top, but i never liked how the bottom looked like in MK women so i added a skirt/dress. her alt, i really like gothic look and ponytails so that was easier lol

Story: I would read tons of comments from users on this forum how they didn't like something from MK9 or wanted something new.
ex.
Everyone died, Raiden is an idiot and screwed up, need more women characters, need happier endings to name a few

Gameplay: idk i just really love the concept of gracefully deadly. To complete opposites coming together.

I wanted Serenity to stand out so i added one of my favorite weapons from SC.

All her special moves i wanted to make a response to characters like kung lao etc

ill add more when it comes to me

Here what my inspirations were for Akari.

Appearance: This initially came from wanting a white ninja in MK (Smoke is gray to me) But I also hated the MK ninja get up quite a bit. So I scrapped that and got what I liked in a male costume, hence the multiple scars, flowing clothes and lack of shoes in both costumes. I also wanted a male Edenian who wasn't armored down like Taven and Rain. I thought was a double standard that only the female edenians lack so much clothes while men were covered head to toe like Knights. Also I always saw the Edenians as a race of people who liked showing off their bodies so I went with that.

Moveset: Light isn't a fully utilized element in MK yet and I havent seen a character who sets stationary traps yet so I worked with that concept.

Story: Since there are Edenians who survived the fusing, I'm quite sure there were many prisoners of war and slaves for all purposes and Mileena's "looking for a new playmate!" line gave me an interesting idea of where to take this.

appearance i got my inspiration from watching alot of anime and playing alot of 2d fighters.

story i wanted to capture a love hate relationship between brothers. he loves his brother because he helped trained him but he hates him because he overshadows him.

moves,fatals, etc i got from various games shows and etc but altered quite a bit. like the snake projectile i got from watching the intro of mkd. the bone prison i got from diablo 2. the pentagram i got from guilty gear. the chains i got from ghost rider or playing as birdie.

i tried to take various things i enjoy and tried to put them into a character. i always thought kenshi would be cooler evil so i thought why not have a brother that's evil and kevshi was born.

i wanted to get people hyped up on the release of kenshi so i created kevshi his brother. if i spent more time on him he could of been better but ow well.

hope you enjoyed.