Having issues on mobile and double posted by mistake. Please delete.

That would actually serve my point, though.

If it weren't for Ermac's return and development in Deception, he wouldn't have received such major consistency. The only main series game he didn't appear in was MKvsDC, which is only considered 'MK8' because Ed Boon said so.

One thing I’d like to throw out there is that NRS is WAY better at designing characters now than they were in the 3D era.

Looks, personality, background, move set... I don’t think there’s a ton of potential left on the table where it comes to NRS character creations for both MK and the Injustice games. They have a rather proven track record.

But that wasn’t really the case in the 3D era, especially when Midway was having them put out games so quickly.

So you wound up with a lot of characters that were good in some areas and not so great in others. Characters that had cool backgrounds or story elements (Sareena, Ashrah, Reiko, Drahmin and Kira), characters that looked really cool (Havik, Hotaru and Mavado), characters that were fun to use (Havik, Fujin, Kai) and several characters that simply had a cool character concept (Nitara, Drahmin, Fujin, Kai, Ashrah, Mavado and too many others to mention) only Quan Chi and Kenshi really checked all the boxes.

So the argument basically comes down to what to do with these characters. Do you chalk them up as failures and stick with what works; what people know and love or do you recognize the fact that because NRS is so much better at developing characters in all facets than they were before at Midway (as evinced by Bo Rai Cho, Tanya, making Stryker cool for once in MK9, or the great new characters in MKX like Kotal Khan, Erron Black, Takeda, Tremor, Dvorah etc) that it’s not so unthinkable that they could do the same with other 3D era characters?

Personally, I’d like to see them take four or five of these misfit toy characters and make them what they could be. We’ll always have a lot of Trilogy characters; the mainstays as well as the ones that cycle in and out every other game. There’s room to please everyone without having to worry that the Trilogy roster will get short changed because that’s literally never happened before and it won’t happen now.

Also, I’m a bit confused by the logic that OG players only want Trilogy characters. As someone that’s played since MK1, I want as many good characters as possible from all eras, because I played and enjoyed characters from all eras. That doesn’t mean I want Hsu Hao, Jared, Kobra or Dairou back, but if you see potential in them that I don’t, then more power to you.

Similarly, I fail to see the logic that it’s harder to make a 3D era character good than it is to come up with new and fresh ideas for characters that you had to come up with new and fresh ideas for several times already. Each presents unique challenges, but at least with the 3D era characters, you haven’t had to make them fun and compelling for the seventh, eighth, or eleventh time. You have a near blank slate with some, and that freedom can produce some amazing things and we have proof of that in Bo Rai Cho and Tanya.

So why not give some more 3D era characters a shot? I see tons of untapped potential in many of these characters. Fujin could be a great foilbfor Raiden, Sareena could have an awesome human / demon moveset and she already fits in to the story, a fully realized vampire in Nitara could be amazing, Mavado and his bands could be MK’s Omega Red, a gully chaotic character in Havik could add some compelling twists to the narrative, Reiko as a general with conniving aspirations to be more could be great and the list goes on and on.

Stop seeing these characters as the worst of what they were and you’ll start to realize that at their best, they could and should be a both viable and compelling asset to what MK can be going forward. I’ll take that over at least some characters that have been in these games for a long time. I think that’s a fair trade off that doesn’t hurt fans of any era.

First of all I love your whole reply and wish I could like it twice. But I especially agree with you on this point. I have been a fan since 1994 when I was only 6 years old. OG players who were fans back in the 90's and fell away after MK3 and returned to MK only with MK9 might not want anything but Trilogy characters. But those of us who have stuck with the franchise the entire way would like to see characters from the Midway era other than Quan Chi, Kenshi, and Tanya (and as of MKX Bo Rai Cho) return. Fujin, Frost, Sareena, and Havik were actually good characters. And there are others who had good concepts and potential that just didn't quite hit the mark and should be given a chance to meet their full potential like Kai, Mavado, Nitara, Drahmin, Ashrah, Hotaru, and Shujinko.

This couldn't have been said better.