I always thought he looked more like the Phantasm from "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm."

I have a smartass response to this but I'm going to save it for another time...

I love the part in ROTJ when Darth Vader split himself into doubles and drove his lightsaber into Chewbacca's chest.

Star Wars has definitely been an influence on Mortal Kombat in the past, so something like this wouldn't surprise me if it was an intentional homage.

Is it bad that I thought he meant WWE Vader?

Darth Vaderrrrp has probably crossed the designer's mind but I too would like to connect Noob Saibot rather to the Phantasm. NeRdS are great fans of Star Wars and I wouldn't be surprised to find Injustice: Gods Among Us somehow similar to the original trilogy. Unfortunately – to them – Mortal Kombat and Star Wars are unlikely to shake hands seeing both of them have recently sided with two big rival corporations, Warner and Disney.
Even more unlikely than Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter....

MKvsSF is gonna happen. It's just a matter of time. MK9 outselling SF4 in less than a year combined with the fact that SFxT didn't do so hot sales-wise is greasing up the wheels. It's probably 7 or 8 years away, but I have no doubt it will eventually happen.

You joke, but Mortal Kombat could use a big showy grappler for the good guys. Using Vader as an influence would be gold-plated genius.

Isn't that Jax? Y'know, now that they've given him all his awesome MK2 moves back and added that chokeslam-lookin' face grab and a Piledriver?

I doubt this was intentional, I think they were kind of going with "what would the grimm reaper look like if it was a Ninja?".
In MK4, Noob Saibot had an alternate costume where he kind of looked like the grimm reaper, wearing a hood and a darkened face you couldn't see, and his weapon was a scythe. The look in MKD was just a natural progression from that.

"It's Time!

It's Time!

It's Saibot Time!"

Aesthetically, Jax is the game's grappler, but he doesn't function like a traditional fighting game grappler. He's not like SF's Zangief or Tekken's King where their grabs are the center of their style. For those two, their pokes and combos are mostly for footsies and their main priority is to set up their high-damage throws. Jax is more about pressure and rushdown. He's kinda like MK9's version of Cammy.

Time will lead you to Saibot!


Both were slaves

Both were dark heroes

Both were severely burned...


Vader is a cyborg, so Cyber Noob...



Ka-Tra

But before the darkness, one of them was the greatest ninja assassin in the Lin Kuei. The other was Hayden Christensen.