11 Demented and Tragic Backstories of Mortal Kombat Characters

John Tobias, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat, said in a 2019 interview that they went to an arcade-parlor to test how their game was doing. Only, they found that people were not actually playing, but letting the attract mode run so that they could read the character-bios and other limited information that was provided.
It was now that the creative teams, headed by Tobias and Ed Boon, began hustling to provide compelling backstories and lore that contained traditions and knowledge about the cast. The Mortal Kombat universe has six major realms that are similar to planets: Earthrealm; Edenia a land of magic and Heaven; Netherrealm, hell itself; Orderrealm, a fascist place; Chaosrealm an anarchic society, and lastly, Outworld, full of monsters.
The heroes of these realms fight the battle of life and death in the legendary game of Mortal Kombat! In this video, we will talk about these characters and try to understand who they are, where they come from, what they're trying to do, and their tragically demented backstories.
Featured Image uses, a pic from Haute Cosplay's Mileena Cosplay! Awesome work.
0:00 Intro
1:34 Sub-Zero
3:26 Scorpion
5:18 Noob Saibot
6:39 Kabal
8:13 Kano
9:44 Mileena
11:42 Jade
13:13 D'Vorah
15:01 Ermac
16:53 Baraka
19:02 Liu Kang

[@emoboi311]

Marvelous Videos is my favorite KZbin channel that covers movies, video games etc. way better than watch mojo and top5

[@swordkip5398]

True

[@emoboi311]

@@swordkip5398 I like how they appreciate movies that critics and film Marks hate. If a movie is good while keeping you entertained, it shouldn’t matter what critics say about it. That’s one other reason why I love this channel so much. They also have great recommendations for movies of certain genres. I love it

[@abellewis3062]

Sometimes.

[@xoroxyohh]

Watch mojo has been so annoying to me bc of the weird infliction of the voices. Why. Any they just speak normally?!

[@abellewis3062]

@@xoroxyohh You must never seen the “voices” in person. SMH.

[@AshT71494]

So you had Mileena and Jade on this list, but not Kitana? Kitana is the one with the tragic backstory. Her father was murdered when she was an infant, her mother committed suicide. Kitana was raised by Shao Kahn, under the assumption that he was her father, only to find out her entire life was a lie and she had been killing in the name of the man that killed her real father, caused her mother to commit suicide and destroyed her home realm of Edenia.

[@IIIISai]

Kitana reminds me of Karai from ninja turtles, shredder killed her mother and put her under the belief that he was her father and his brother was the enemy but his brother was Karai's father aka Splinter

[@kildotgaming]

She always knew shao kahn wasn't her real father. Go play deadly alliance

[@AshT71494]

@@kildotgaming She didn’t always know Shao Kahn wasn’t her real father. She learned after years of being his “daughter” and working for him as an assassin. Go play MK2 and UMK3 and MK9.

[@bugeye8749]

@@AshT71494 exactly

[@Bakeddru]

Kitana is also shao khans wife aswell as daughter, so just a bit of extra messed up for you

[@saltymisfit6566]

"Mileena is hot" Removes Mask "Yeah, still kind of hot"

[@WhyIsThisNecessary]

Sexy times ain't gonna be that hot if u know what I mean

[@juiceboxbzrk]

Hotter

[@ADG.Est.1988]

Yea. I'll still hit it from the back.

[@darrellwilliams1714]

Just don't expect oral lol

[@mrjrb561]

Mileena, the original Butterface.

[@SkittleXero]

Scropion's is the most tragic story by far. His family, friends and entire clan gets kill, gets lied to and then becomes a slave to Quan Chi. He breaks free just to get killed again by D'Vorah. Ed Boon has stated that Liu Kang's story is done and I agree with his decision.

[@jurassicsmackdown6359]

Reptile's story is far worse than Scorpions but whatevs

[@psychogoreman198]

@@jurassicsmackdown6359 agreed, poor fucking reptile. His entire race was pretty much wiped out and those who managed to survive were enslaved. Clan - few hundred Race - Several milliion ....poor fucking reptile.

[@SkittleXero]

Yeah go read the original timeline and then the current timeline for both Reptile and Scorpion. See who gets fucked over the most.

[@zachiswayposi1]

How is Liu's story done? He just became a literal god.

[@SkittleXero]

@@zachiswayposi1 During an interview with GameSpot, Ed Boon was asked if Aftermath marked a definitive end of the story that's been taking place since MK9. Ed Boon states "I guess you can summarize the story that we've told as Liu Kang's journey, in a sense in my head, that's done. We're not going to be expanding with like 'oh, and then this happened and we reset again.' We really feel like that's the end of that timeline."

[@jurassicsmackdown6359]

If Reptile isnt no. 1, Im gonna rage quit. Lost his entire race, and the ones that didnt die were enslaved. He gets abused every time he's on screen... All he wants to do is restore his race.

[@josee.martinez4958]

He blew his chance

[@jurassicsmackdown6359]

@@josee.martinez4958 wot??

[@bradmyers5354]

He got the shit end of the stick in the new movie, too. I’m hoping they have him appear in a legit way in the future sequel and say the one Kano kills in MK 2021 was another member of his race that Shang Tsung had enslaved.

[@josee.martinez4958]

@@jurassicsmackdown6359 in Khameleon's ending (the girl one) she wants to reproduce with reptile to restore there race but reptile sides with shao kahn instead like a dummy

[@godzillagurus576]

Vegeta: i lost my entire race Reptile: i lost mine too *looks to each other* *friendship started*

[@themetalone7739]

Noob Saibot and Mileena are always my go-to guys. Absolutely LOVE the (semi-)redesign they did on both of them in MK 10 and 11. They've never looked cooler, or felt more evil

[@zaynes5094]

I love Kitana and Liu Kang. Glad they finally managed to get them to be together in cannon. That's the OG couple of MK.

[@BEAVISKORNHOLIO69]

Mortal kombat the most savage and brutal fighting game ever.

[@Tpanda85]

As a kid playing MK on genesis, I always assumed Sub Zero was the good guy and Scorpion the bad

[@reef4t]

haha i feel you. also had the same feeling

[@psychogoreman198]

Agreed. I remember my nine year old brain when realising it was the other way round I was like “WHAAAAAAAT!?!?” 🤣 Glad he came back as Noob though, such a fucking cool character

[@willstarr-chalifoux5095]

Bi Han was an asshole. His younger brother had honor. Hanzo WAS a man of honor until rage and vengeance became his only motive for being. But he slowly came back to the light.

[@seanvanglahn4002]

Same here and sub was my favorite character too

[@Kristalya]

The blue color probably made you think he is good. Like Kitana is 🌀

[@samhayden60]

If someone didn't know the mortal kombat lore, this video wouldn't help.

[@snakeplissken2148]

exactly my thoughts :D

[@likekush09]

Facts

[@bradmyers5354]

IGN has a much better video, but it’s a little out of date as it was released in 2017 and could only go up to X. They covered every character through X, though.

[@majikninja5274]

He didn't even pronounce Kano's name properly

[@hossnotkins5639]

sub zero didn’t slay the shirai ryu/scorpions family. quan cheezy did with sub zeros face.

[@iceman7213]

Thank you!! Somebody who knows some real history!

[@fallenwolf3368]

@@iceman7213 don't you mean game history? Referring it to real history puts the Mortal Kombat history into our world. Now you know🌈

[@tyrome43]

I thought i was the only one who caught that

[@blackwingdragonmasta]

Actually mkx reveals that the lin kuei made a deal with skorpion so they weren't exactly innocent

[@DioDaBurrito]

@@blackwingdragonmasta That would be right if he was just focusing on the new timeline but he mentions stuff from the old timeline too as if it was all one timeline.

[@SuperObvious]

18:54 Liu Kang's finisher was crazyyyy. And I remember playing the MK games in the bowling alley and there were times we wouldn't play just so we could see the backstory of some of the characters. I remember that like it was yesterday. MK does really have the biggest roster of characters who all have their own back story 🤓

[@skylanderhero1935]

You guys forgot reptile, that guy keeps getting bad ending in every game

[@ragingjaguarknight86]

Agreed. I kept hoping he and the female Saurian/reptilian/raptor would end up together and save their species. I think her name was "Khameleon".

[@jurassicsmackdown6359]

@@ragingjaguarknight86 yep, that's her. Shame that those two didnt get busy. Imagine if one of their children took the place of Reptile

[@ragingjaguarknight86]

@@jurassicsmackdown6359 that would be way cool. 😎 So hope spawns eternal that maybe someday we will see them again.

[@jurassicsmackdown6359]

@@ragingjaguarknight86 Firmly agreed.

[@psychogoreman198]

His whole species got a bad ending, poor reptile

[@pinkdevil019]

Dayum. You guys covering this gave me chills. Your channel is really something.

[@synaesthesia2010]

Quan Chi was responsible for the murder of Scorpion's family and clan

[@invixfusion7111]

In the movie it was bi han, but in the video game series it was quan chi

[@user-bu4rz6li1o]

I’ve been waiting for this since I was a teen in the 90’s!!. Awesome ☠︎︎☠︎︎

[@brokenbridge6316]

Loved this video. The new upcoming Mortal Kombat movie will be a good one. Nice job of reminding me of the old Mortal Kombat movies. Which I did enjoy. Great job.

[@scaccu]

this comment aged like fine milk.

[@TheMeJustMe75]

Could not tell you how much money my friends and I spent play the original Mortal Kombat at the arcade. I was 13 or 14 when it came out. The last one I played, came out for the Dreamcast.

[@shainewhite2781]

MORTAL KOMBAT is gonna be insane!

[@kerronmcsween6095]

I couldn't said it better myself 😨

[@kildotgaming]

It was pretty good.

[@MartinAston00]

It was actually another let down imo... better than the last couple attempts, but still doesn’t compare to the first one. I think a lot of it is because the actors. The first one, all the actors had been in other big successful movies and were legit good actors, most in the second one too... but after that, it was a lot of nobody’s who weren’t very good actors. As big as MK is, nobody has wanted to sign on for the films after 2 cause it flopped so hard.

[@kildotgaming]

@@MartinAston00 the second one was horrible. The tv show conquest wasn't too bad

[@veecambo2124]

😂😂bro the movie was very bad especially the story

[@fleursdumal8065]

Great video! I love mortal kombat, and just finished the story mode for mk11. It was a great play through. If only they kept the challenge/ skills tower 😔

[@Megatronvg1]

What I find interesting is that the image of Millena is better than what we see in the trailer for the movie.

[@star.master_cranium]

Mileena is my fav and main MK character her moves are rewarding and always very fluid. Her story is sad in so many ways especially if we look at the second main timeline where she was made so much more sympathetic with wanting a family that loves her and nothing like what Kitana responded with. MK 11 presents it the best. In the original timeline she was neglected by her sister throughout their childhood with Shao only fueling that hatred. In MK9 she just woke up, met her sister for the first time and got greeted with violence pain and dislike from everyone but the bad guys and even with them there are only those who wanna use her and Tanya.

[@user-jn7tc3tp2x]

Fantastic video Marvelous Videos, I really really enjoyed it!! Please make a video of all the backstories of the Command & Conquer Games!!

[@bellaluvluv]

Great great video thanks !!!

[@davidguevara6061]

Nice vid!

[@bregmen88]

Nice vid! 😁😁

[@spacemarineoverseer6237]

Already HAVE!!! Liked and subscribed that is)))

[@blackempress1049]

This need a part 2 and 3 to this! I found this to be incredibly fascinating.

[@MikeyHazel13]

Subscribed baby!!

[@ranchforever]

Awesome video

[@alexandredarveaux4020]

Hey man like your videos but , just a heads up the first sub zero never killed scorpions family. It was Quan chin all along, and oringially sub zero killed scorpion in the first mortal kombat tournament. Anyway good stuff

[@brorjordas1979]

Awesome video! Loved to play MK1 back in the day when it came out. Nowadays got MK1 on a plug n play to TV controller. Good memories. Not really much played though newer MKs on consoles etc.. Hard to say my all-time character...but I guess it still might be Scorpion..

[@corydeceased]

Interesting concept for a list

[@thealicemonster9217]

Ya know, the two that you said are cannibals really aren't. They eat creatures of a different species than them so technically they are not cannibalistic. Also the one you said is Poisonous is more Venomous. Outside of these I really liked the video! Great work.

[@rjrunlikehell2366]

This has me even more pumped up for the movie!

[@jeremyeich5031]

Good video, but think you need to separate the old time line with the new. MK9, MKX, and now MK11 are sharing different backgrounds. Trust me, been playing MK since 1 in 92 when it was just in arcades. Tobias may have said what you claim he said, I remember the ending stories moving quickly, even without pressing the start button on the arcade console

[@jwetfrmdalocks395]

Good video

[@cosmiccloud9382]

Cool vid

[@antihero5312]

Appreciate the content 💯✊🏾

[@chrisboomer7525]

Is anyone else dying a little inside, and super triggered by his pronunciation of Kano?

[@420jdb]

I almost stopped the video right there to be honest. How can someone make a video about the characters' backstories but not know how to pronounce their names? Lmao. But then have no problems pronouncing various martial arts style throughout the whole video lmao

[@LordRichard5451]

i noticed this comment soon as i heard him staying "Kino" lol..

[@blackwingdragonmasta]

Because those aren't actual words and some of them aren't in english lol

[@psychogoreman198]

@CommentCop 666 shame he got Kabals backstory partly wrong, he wasn’t a merc he was a cop with Striker in the beginning.

[@Toaster81]

And at 10:14 he says karakatan not tarkatan, even though less than 30 seconds prior he pronounced it properly. But the way he butchered kano was just disrespectful. I mean kano was in the first mk & in almost every game since. Then shows collector when talking about d'vorah. There were a few more but I think we can go ahead and agree the whole crew aren't big mk fans. And I find it irritating that he says a lot of the martial arts with a accent except karate.

[@discutiicreative]

outstanding

[@simpleman3898]

Wow there's so many kinds of martial arts. Love the detail

[@oliviajames2946]

Rename video to fighting styles and tiny information of their back story pls

[@prestonjohnson9109]

Right! I barely heard anything about their back story being tragic!

[@thedime6395]

nice vid

[@dannycrow9742]

A lot of things were wrong in this video but it was actually well made.

[@klinero14]

Both Scorpion and Subzero have similar back stories

[@godzillagurus576]

I think theyre backstories are both different

[@cacparone]

I had no Idea they had such amazing back story

[@razezillian]

What would have added more tragedy to Sub zero/Bi-Han story is the fact that he was murder by Scorpion for a crime he didn't commit since Quan Chi was the one who led the massacre of the Shirai Ryu while impersonating him. So he was framed, murder then resurrected as another slave pawn for Quan Chi. Leaving this out makes him seem less tragic and ruins the whole relationship and history of Scorpion & Sub-zero especially since this will be a plot point for the up coming movie.

[@garycarpenter2980]

Both of the movies were really great, the special effects were really great and the cast of characters were really good. I like Sonja Blade, Jade Rayden and a few others

[@csome2]

thank you for explaining bc I didn't know there back story.

[@p.d.l7023]

At least they keep the lore simple by keeping it to six realms.

[@SnowyWolborg]

6 major ones. Outworld ha who knows how many worlds merged into it.

[@DCAZPER]

Beautiful

[@ryanglenn1008]

Best video ever!

[@daekinmoud3648]

Cool video! ☺️

[@cadillacdeville5828]

Thanks 😊

[@farkmuckerzerg634]

I think Goro is the most tragic. I mean, did any of you even seen the look in his eye after Johnny Cage punched his sack? My dude just wanted to forget about all of his ambitions so he could curl up into a ball and die. Was pretty rough to watch.

[@asneakerheadzworld3489]

They should create a TV series out of mortal combat that goes in depth with the back stories like this

[@bradmyers5354]

But not an animated series like they did in the 90s and not on basic cable channels. It could only be done right on something like HBO.

[@zombiboi7236]

Fire who ever edited this, D’vorahs intro shows another fighters face

[@Sweet_Dae]

I love Sonya Blade, Kitana, specially Sub Zero. I was surprise back then that they pair up with Sonya to Johnny Cage lol.

[@TheDonPalumbo]

Quick one: Kano has been in the series since mk1, not special forces. Great vid though

[@psychogoreman198]

Was he red dragon or black dragon, I genuinely can’t remember lol.

[@TheDonPalumbo]

@@psychogoreman198 Black Dragon 👍🏻

[@UncleJesterr]

awesome channel ..one question what cartoon is shown in this video?

[@DjDragon360]

I hope they make another game with a huge roster like armageddon.

[@MVK666]

Dam scorpion is like ghost rider or is the Japanese ghost rider

[@ginopalomo1968]

Hell yeah 😀 mortal kombat came out yesterday can not what to see it one day

[@jupiterx9669]

Ironically got the mortal kombat movie ad before this

[@flyingtiger1603]

Nice video but when you introduced D’Vorah you actually showed a clip of Kollector.

[@tsigistraskostas]

The way he is pronouncing Kano and Shang tsung I can’t

[@spacemarineoverseer6237]

Could You PLEASE make the SIMILAR vid about Raiden, Sheng Tsung, Quan Chi, Sindell, and Shinnok?) Or write me down a TIP where I can FIND one? On YOUR channel, of course)))

[@irishiz498]

"The worst looking hot girl ever?" I believe we call that a Butter face. Everything is great butter face. Hahaha

[@kommunitykonnected]

But her

[@kishawashington8427]

Hilarious!!!😂😂😂

[@keishamurrell3095]

They call it Butta Head/ Butter Head in Alabama. Everything But Her Head LOL 😂

[@ZealousSuperstar]

But 'er mouth...

[@fantasyqwest]

Asinine would work good too.. I'll give her face a 2 but her "a$$-a-9" 😂😂

[@12bravo57]

I absolutely love it when remakes are darker, more violent & rated R! So many movies that were for kids & have now have been remade for adults, LOVE IT! Can’t wait to see this remake(I did love the first one too & still have Kano’s beautiful Raptor blade that I got for Christmas when I was 15yrs old which will be my son’s who 16yrs old soon;)!

[@mrgrandi]

Mortal Kombat surely came a long way

[@dustinsanchez7820]

Did you forget it was actually quan chi who killed scorpion his family and clan posing as bi han

[@shadowtrooper1052]

Hell yea grew up with the games and the 90s movie as a kid Favourite characters are scorpion and sub zero .

[@novafiddler1712]

I wish they’d make a mortal Kombat with Samus/Corrupted Samus… how awesome would that be!

[@slimjoker2339]

Now im ready to go home and play some mortal kombat 11 ultimate and mortal Kombat XL as soon as i get home from taking care of everything. These videos are alot helpful

[@ronniepierce8698]

You showed The Kollector when talking about D’Vorah? The Ermac?

[@metroidhunter965]

(Talking about D’vorah with her name onscreen) (Shows The Kollector)

[@NexevMedia]

Ahh yes, my fave MK fighter "Keno/Cano"

[@mannyfesto21]

No one gonna mention how he called him can-o? Kano is pronounce Kane-oh bruh!

[@rubenrojas3857]

That's what I was saying 😆

[@godzillagurus576]

Next is gonna be like: Kano’ed😂😂

[@rickeyleblanc9646]

I do got two mortal Kombat movies and I love them

[@long060]

1:23 How am I supposed to know if I like your channel enough to subscribe before I see the content you putting out? This always irks me on youtube videos.

[@paeataeara3979]

Cool

[@abaneyone]

This is great information to know before viewing the 2021 new film Mortal Kombat.

[@ArcherSuh4721]

There is no tale more tragic than the story of Meat...

[@nonenone9815]

They’re backstories are messed up but hey...that’s a theory... *A Game Theory*

[@AmityvilleFan]

Johnny Cage ripping through HER OWN DAUGHTER'S CHEST shouting "Here is Johhny" is the sickest, most demented and tragic moment in the entire franchise if you ask me. Thus Johnny Cage is a demented and tragic character if you ask me.

[@radfarlander]

That Fatality is the player's choice. Now time displaced young-Johnny accidentally hitting on Cassie...

[@godzillagurus576]

Johnny Cage be watching the shining 1980 horror movie lol

[@ragingjaguarknight86]

Mileena has been my main gal since MK 2. ^_^ Yup, i'm that old. o_O

[@nerd3809]

The most tragic thing about this video is how dirty they did Robocop in every scene he was in.

[@noapexx8888]

Please do one on Movie Characters with Teeth so Jacked up the Dentist would Quit upon Screening 😂

[@mikefisher4834]

I still think it’s crazy they made subzero look like shredder from ninja turtles on Mortal Kombat deception💯😂

[@godzillagurus576]

Lmao 😂.

[@kirkdaley3441]

He was given the name scorpion when he died and came back not given by his clan..

[@amptrontwenty-five2352]

Made a mistake in the video at D'Vorah's introduction, you had Kollector on screen instead of her

[@richbittner2238]

The fact that this MK movie will actually have "Finishing Moves" makes it better than the past movies. But it's R rated it's going to be awesome anyways

[@teamspirits732]

The past movies had finishing moves too btw, in fact the first movie opens with one with Shang Tsung killing Liu Kang's brother.

[@markascales9468]

Lovely.meileena live forever

[@chichiboypumpi]

How many times the MK characters' background have been retconned?

[@alessandrolocascio2226]

in the dvorah section that was Kollector in the introduction

[@krisztianbari9293]

Great video, however D'Vorah doesn't mean anything in Hungarian. Shadow as the video claims is Árnyék in Hungarian. The closest sounding word, which makes sense would be Darázs, which means Wasp in Hungarian, but you would pronounce it differently too.

[@casual0_0lx90]

Wow man. Thanks for putting in effort to try and pronounce some of these words. I am a different asian ethnic group, but you try a lot harder than most people on KZbin

[@Blaze-ko3ts]

Always liked playing as Baraka, btw Sub Zero didn’t kill Scorpions family

[@talismonwinxclubtime4.044]

#MarvelousVideos Can you Upload The Origin Of Jade from Mortal Kombat -Kitana's Friend and Kotal Kahn's Lover

[@rodimus7926]

MORTAAAAAAAAAL COMBAAAAAAAT