I'd give Mileena a lunatic laugh, kinda like the one Bellatrix does in the Harry Potter movies. I also love seeing her doing all kinds of cool moves with her sais, just as a way to taunt people.

Ermac, I love the whole concept of "we are Ermac." They have to keep that.

I think they should give Sindel an nice, caring Queen attitude but, a sinister deathly attitude when shes mad.

I like sarcastic, smart-mouth Sonya from the first movie. I love the eye rolls and the irritated groans every time Cage opens his mouth. I love the arms crossed and the quizzical eyebrow in the air during "A handful of people on a leaky boat are gonna save the world?" And finally, I love all the snappy dialogue, even the simple "Go to hell" with the eyeroll after Shang Tsung's big speech.

Mesh that together with MKDC Sonya and you've got the perfect personality for her. I loved how she was portrayed in the last game. She was vicious when it came to confronting people, got right down to business, and on a few occasions, hit first and asked questions way later. The shot of her holding Green Lantern by the throat in the air is still the best loading screenshot in the game

I hope MK9 Sonya shows all of these traits in the new game's story mode for an orgasmically good time .

Well, characters I like are typically well done to begin with... which is why I like them. It'd be easier for me to characterize characters I've never liked and suggest improvements that I'd like.

Mileena, for example, I've never understood her "slut" personality or mannerisms. It's very unappealing to me and I simply don't like it. This is coming from a clone created by Shang Tsung to basically fill in for Kitana in case she died or turned on Shao Kahn, the way I see it. This should have mentally scarred her. She should be far more self-conscience and deranged, rather than just a scantily clad, suggestive stripper archetype.

I always thought she acted like a slut to scare men

"Dude, see that girl with the pink mask? She's looking at you..."

"I know that chick...she's kinda fucked up."

"For real? She is NICE, man. And she's starting to twirl her hair at you and shit..."

"Yeah, but I dunno whether she wants to fuck or eat my brains out."

I think Mileena's slutty side is an accurate reflection of the way her life has gone. Obviously, Kahn treats her as the lesser "sister", mainly because of her deformity, so she is simultaneously an attention whore and self-conscious about her face.

I dated a girl just like that once...minus the teeth, of course. Neglectful/abusive daddy issues = crazy, whorish, and very insecure.

I would like to see Sindel in a constant tone of seriousness or depression. Her realm keeps getting invaded and her husband was killed. She's had one of the most fucked up stories in the MK Universe, so why shouldn't she.

Alright, so my favorite chars are Jax, Raiden, Johnny Cage and Ermac.

I mentioned Jax in the OP, and Cage and Kahn are fine as is.

Raiden is something else. Even as a god he has feelings and gets tired of bullshit like the rest of us. The idea of him getting stressed out more and more while protecting Earth was a good idea.

But personality wise, I always wanted Raiden to be done like he was in the movie and Conquest (at least what I saw of Conquest). A mysterious, quick witted kind of guy, wise, but not all-knowing. Ernac should be kinda paranoid and twitchy. You'd think having thousands of different minds and souls in one body would make you unstable. If they had Ermac be smart and capable, but completely untrusting and fearful of what happens next, it could make for good TV.

Characters should have accents and say things in their own language when appropriate. For instance, wouldnt it be cool if Kabal turned out to be a Russian and has a deep russian accent. Or Kenshi with an english accent. The same random grunts and screams get kinda old. It would be nice to have a better understanding where some of these characters come from.

i would like to see shang tsung act more like cary tagawa(the guy who play him in the first movie)

baraka too be a bit more phycho,with a twisted sense of humor.
sayin disturbing shit in a way that woul be kinda funny,and of course ruthless as allways

reptile to be more territorial when other characters approach him

stryker to be more of a bad ass vigilante with attitude rather then the whole goody too shoes cop thing sonya and jax have

i want shao kahn to have the i think im doing the right thing concept, and in his own mind he aint evil,still with the taunting and all just more of a puppet that doesent know its a puppet,(basiclly manipulated by his adviser shang tsung to be more evil)

I'd like the NS team make Kabal more like his MKSM personality with the southern accent and the kind of loyaltyhe has to his clan. He is smart, calm and very helpful.

I always thought the Elvis impression version of Kabal was stupid. With those giant sideburns, he looked like Jarek. Maybe that SHOULD be how Jarek acts.

Kabal, on the other hand, I always interpreted as being native to a desert environment based on the way he dresses and that "Star Wars sandperson" inspiration behind him. So I personally think he should be middle-eastern or something.

Anyway, I'm gonna talk about Raiden right now, because he's the one character whose characterization/personality bugs me the most. Specifically, I'm referring to the differences between the boring, serious-all-the-time Raiden from the games and the sarcastic, entertaining Christopher Lambert/Jeff Meek/Defenders of the Realm Raiden.

Simply put, the sarcastic version is a much better character, his personality fits the character's history better, and I get genuinely a little bit mad when I think about how the games took so many things from the films but never took that, which was the best idea of all.

See...think about where Raiden's mind would be at by MK1. Earth is on the brink of conquest. He's watched warriors he's trained lose and die for 9 tournaments in a row, just getting slaughtered by Goro for 500 years. I think getting cynical would make a lotta sense at that point.

Second, look at the way Movie Raiden helps the heroes. He doesn't baby them and hold their hands, he teases and prods them into solving their problems for themselves, and thus learning more than they would if he just told them the answer. He's kinda like Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. The first time they meet him, he's dressed like a beggar, not a god. Remember why Yoda pretended to be a dumb swamp creature just looking for food? It was a test of character, he wanted to see if Luke was kind and patient enough to deserve what he had to teach.

I doubt we'll ever see Raiden in the games adopt that attitude, especially since in MKvsDC and this game, he comes off less like a teacher and more like the main hero, replacing Liu. But I'm just so bored of serious and frowny all the time Exposition-Machine Raiden.

And I've said this a couple times before in different threads here and there, but I think Fujin could be even more interesting than that. Where I picture Raiden as Lambert, witty and sarcastic but still caring and helpful, I picture Fujin as like a Dr. House figure, just a flat-out asshole who literally does not care about the mortals' problems unless he HAS to. I like to think that's the whole reason we see so little of him in the games. It's like he tries to do his job with as little contact with the mortals as possible because he doesn't really get along with them, they're not his friends like they're Raiden's friends. And maybe the whole reason Raiden named him as successor was he was hoping that Liu and co. could soften Fujin up and teach him a little more compassion.
Oh, and in another thread, someone suggested that Bo' Rai Cho should drop all the stupid toilet humor and be more like Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender. That would be excellent. I don't know if many people here even watch cartoons to get that reference, but I highly recommend it. It's one of those "kids shows" that's actually pretty mature and enjoyable for adults too.

It's also just as true these kind of people become withdrawn, despondent and generally unhappy with their bodies. I've know plenty of people like that. Her role with the slut thing has gotten her nowhere, her character has yet to develop much at all since she was introduced. I think by default, the alternate I present has much more developmental opportunities.

You may have a point...but again, we're back to the beginning. Anything that's "gotten her nowhere", we get to watch get her to that SAME nowhere a second time. Any argument in favor of character development, in this particular case, is an argument for a game set in a later time period than MK1 thru 3, because I highly doubt Mileena is on Raiden's magic checklist from the future of things to retcon. The most that could happen is this time, she doesn't get killed by Kitana and brought back by Shinnok.
Also, whenever arguing about Mileena and her "potential", I tend to fall on the side of "anyone with Tarkatan DNA is going to be mentally closer to an animal than a person, just plain not smart enough to change or evolve." Plus the fact that she constantly gets away with pretending to be Kitana, and everyone loves Kitana, probably fuels her "I look perfect from the neck down, I can exploit my body to get anything" point of view. And she kinda CAN. That's a pretty good "nowhere" being a slut has gotten her to, I gotta say.

Sub-Zero seems like a chill, (pun fully intended) down to earth laid back guy. He seems like the person that would respond to being turned into a cyborg like this, "Um no dude I don't think I'd wanna be a robot."

Or when he tries to get the Dragon Medallion from Sektor, "Dude da fuck? You really needed to waste these guys?" Or like if Raiden asked him to fight the Deadly Alliance, "Are you serious? *sigh* alright lets go get those guys >_>"

And I like the baby version of Liu Kang the best. Creeping up in his little dragon manger. Little dragon sheep all around him.



/Will Ferrell fan

Well i dont think Mileena has a slut personality...i think shes overcompensating for a lack of a beautiful face. Shes unloved, has a hateful personality, has no real family, shes just barely sane (if that) and isnt really royalty. Her hatred for her "sister" and her body are all she has. If u really think about it, shes a horribly tragic character.

The thing about Southern accents (though truthfully, there isn't ONE Southern accent) is that they can either sound painfully stupid or amazingly charismatic.

I say keep with Kabal's MKSM voice but formalize it. Give him a confident voice with subtle Texan growl and trash that car-salesman crap voice he had before.

Yet to develop much at all?? Mileena? Pffff, give me a break.

If anything, she's been better treated by the MK Team than all the other Edenian's put together in one. And I would say her sluttiness has gotten her pretty far in the game (in the manipulative department), as well as outside the games (the fan base).



Perfect.

I seriously couldn't had said it better myself. That's Sonya Blade.

Others:

Johnny Cage

Very similar to the movies plus a tad more arrogance and hilarious moments exactly like we saw in MKSM. He was seriously the star of that game with his awesome personality and charisma. However, I do expect him to "grow" and start taking things seriously as the story develops.

From arrogant, funny and self centered to serious and mature, being funny and arrogant only to mock enemies or light up the dark mood for everyone else.

Raiden

Christopher Lambert (MK Movie). Enough said.

Kano

Tough, rude, disgusting, Aussie accent, and very arrogant King of the world kind of attitude, but a big chicken when it comes to getting beat up by the girl.

Mileena

She's perfect the way they have been portraying her, though I do expect more depth and deadliness in her strategy.

Sindel

I guess it depends on how much of good/evil Sindel we are going to see:

Evil Sindel: Scary, crazy, witch-like attitude, secretive, mysterious, deadly.
Good Sindel: More quiet, mysterious, very big presence, still a little scary, but definitely happier.

More later!