This is such a hard tier list to make~ You combined pre MK9 and after MK9 (and comics) power levels of characters. So the same character could be the most OP character in one timeline and can also be the worst character in another. Fun tier list XD
@NeverLookBack Imagine a world where sonebody just used a bank robbery as bait and then hired Deadshot to blow Bruce's head off. Mmm... reality is a bitch. Then again, what's to stop Injustice or a Crime Syndicate from occuring if I mention reality in fiction?
Watching this makes me realise more and more how inconsistent Kotal Kahn is in terms of strength, He beats Kano, Tanya, Rain and Mileena in quick succession but then loses to Kung Jin and Jacqui. He is apparently strong enough for Havik to consider him a threat in the comics and makes it a point to control him but then he also turns around and gets his ass kicked by Jade in MK11. How are we supposed to rank this guy in terms of strength?
Einamu While I don’t have an argument against him losing Kung Jin and Jacqui I do have an argument for Jade. In Mk11 it’s established Kotal and Jade are in a relationship and have an extreme love for each other. Kotal would most likely have reservations against going all out against Jade, someone who he hasn’t been able to be with for over 20 years.
@@paxtonstewart8042 Kotal says in One intro with Kabal that he Lost against Jacqui cause he understimated her and i Guess thats why he lost to Kung Jin as well, Arrogance was What made him lose.
I do it was established they w here still beginners plus they actually lost most of thier cutscenes fight including one to erron black who was a jobber for most of the game
Agreed, Kung Lao is below Liu, but I think he's the second best out there. I have more confidence in Kung Lao defending earth realm than say, Jax or Johnny.
Shao Kahn should also be champion tier since he's more than a boss since he just like Shang Tsung has been the final boss several times, defeated Liu Kang, defeated Raiden before the Elder Gods intervened, defeated both Cassie and Johnny Cage, killed Onaga twice once in a straight up fight, and killed Blaze. So he's not only a boss killer but he's also defeated the some of the champions in single kombat.
Onaga( in boss tier): beat Raiden, quan chi, and Shang tsung at the same time 3v1 KRONIKA(in boss tier): literally killed the entire universe except liu Kang Goro (in champion tier): lost to cyber sub zero in a 2v1 with kitaro helping him Yea I wouldn’t take this guys tier list seriously it’s a joke
@@Overlord81 right. They push him to start as this integral new Emperor fighting to establish order. But then squander any good will he's earned by making him job to the Netherrealm Teen Titans over some petty nonsense. And that's all in 1 game, probably in back to back scenes.
MKX: "The Earthrealm is lost... I will appease Shinnok, bring him your heads (...)" MK11: "We joined forces to battle Shinnok" *cue Johnny Cage bitchslapping Kotal Kahn*
@@Ziomaletto It's just...sigh...When I heard of this..."TITAN OF TIME" I was like "Ok in MK9 that time stuff was pretty dumb"...because I think "soft remake" are generally stupid it's like saying "Oh we don't have enough balls to go FULL...so we're kinda meh!"...it's like having ONE TESTICLE...there! And also was more like a middle finger to the people who like the 3d era( like me, don't get me wrong they're no masterpieces but I've had a lot of fun) ANYWAY, speaking of Kronika I was thinking of a character to make sense on all this time stuff, i was thinking of an interesting boss who was not really evil but a sort of "time moderator" you know like"OOOPS Raiden in mk9 that was kinda cheating, you sent Game Genie codes to yourself that's really wrong!" So you can have a more interesting take on MK the boss is not necessary evil is just punishing Raiden for cheating(i mean why bringin' back young Raiden and heroes if that was not her goal???) So we could have these 2 factions not evil and good but more like Raiden VS Kronika, the Raiden faction think defend Earth is the point and having Dark Raiden is a necessary evil for keep the Earthrealm safe, the Kronika faction think Dark Raiden is a threat for all realms, a sort of Cap.America Civil War...BUT NO! FUCK IT (insert so wasted potential joke here) KRONIKA is a bitch and she was evil the entire time FUCK YOU!
It seems like you don't have a consistent reasoning for how you place the characters. I see 3 considerations: 1 - how much power they have 2 - what they accomplish 3 - number of fights won The first 2 categories conflict with each other, because often weaker characters manage a win against a more powerful opponent, especially when talking about the protagonists vs the main bosses.
Mk scaling should mainly look at position in power rather than who they fight and lose to. But why in the actual fuck is goro in a higher tier than KRONIKA and onaga
Sucks that my man Erron had to be kicked into Jobber tier, but I understand. One of the coolest kharacters created by NRS, and the dude gets fed to other fighters.
honestly, I never seen Erron's appeal, looks wise, he's cool of course, but at least in mk11 everybody looks good. Aside from that, he doesn't get too much going for him. Besides, he is so out of place, Ed said that he didn't like much the idea of putting Erron in the game. I even imagine someone had this idea because it would appeal to american audiences having a cowboy outlaw the roster, and that clearly works. I think that Erron would be cool if he had less cowboy and more of an outworld mercenary, since he's been living there for so long. But I respect your opinion of course, I have to say that even with everything I said, he started to grow on me a little in this game.
Honestly don’t fuckin’ understand what you people see in that vapid and boring ass character... he’s entire identity is that he’s a mercenary cowboy... and a really fucking garbage one at that. I agree with the comment in this thread; he’s the Boba Fett of this franchise. People love him for no goddamn reason.
Ik that’s why netherreal needs to do something with those characters instead of killing them of.Its going to show the potential these characters have instead of the 3d era being completely trash which is not true,I liked the era
Nickyamayne 205. You know what would be cool. If Neatherealm made a fighting game strictly revolved around all the characters and bosses that debut in the 3D era you know to give them something to do. So therefore we won’t be complaining anymore by the lack of 3D era characters we get in the new games. And some none 3D era characters like Raiden and Lui Kang can make small cameos now and then but they don’t play a major part in it.
The Grin Reaper true but they should change stuff like his weapons and what he does bc starting riots in mk is not important or interesting,they can do sum with him atleast tho u see what I mean.
Greg Potter even tho it’s probably not going to happen it would be kinda cool imo but not as part of the main story u know.Thats just my own opinion tho
Nickyamayne 205 oh yeah definitely not the main story but you know just a little side game dats not canon to the main story but still canon if you get what I’m saying bc I feel like it doesn’t make since what I’m saying
I agree but I think that onaga is below shao Kahn in the mk9 start sequence it is shown that after onaga dragged shao Kahn away in the Armageddon movie he defeated onaga killed blaze and beat everyone. So he should be stronger than onaga. However there things kinda contradict because shao Kahn had to scheme and betray onaga to rule but I would just go with the newer version that shao Kahn beats onaga in a 1v1
@@mrlowkey4187 I don't count aftermath in there are plotholes that are unexplainable like why sindel was made a revenant even though after he was healed by the soul chamber he said:"I'd kill Quan chi for all the time he took from us." So he knew it all and still made her a revenant? How does he lose to kitana in mk9 she got escorted by 2 no name Tarkatan that held her arms into that tower where she was chained up. If she's strong enough to kill shao then how the f did she get escorted by 2 no name tarkatans? How does Liu lose to shao Kahn when kitana beat him?(even though kitana beating him is bullshitty enough). He would have beaten him twice in mk9 but raiden prevented it from happening a second time. Aftermath is filled with holes. I'm not relying on it unless you disproved my arguments.
@@jackdaone6469 Fighting game power scaling does mess up actually. The Shao Kahn lost to Kitana is like the equivalent of Urien lost to Chun-Li in SF3 and Ancient Ogre lost to Paul in Tekken3. Is like how the hell this mid tier character can defeat the boss tier character??? I thought plot armor only for main protagonist
I have a feeling that Kotal is E tier in this list Is it bad that I want to see an MK character that’s OP to the point he/she breaks the 4th wall and calls out on certain plot holes in the story mode?
Kitana also beat Shang Tsung in 9 and Shao Khan in 11 so she is definitely high defender. Her revenant losses shouldn't count because revenant are usually weaker than their alive counterparts
Well Shang Tsung was most likely toying with her after all he didn't seem shocked and he didn't even seem worried so he was most likely faking it after all he is a good actor after all he played almost everyone in Aftermath so yeah. Also Kitana was also restrained by 2 no name tarkatans so yeah Shang Tsung was definitely faking being defeated.
@@chadpeterson5698 Of course he wasn't worried. Because she was gonna turn Shang in to Shao Khan after defeating him instead of straight up killing him. Why would he be worried when him and Shao Khan are on the same page? Shang Tsung wasn't in danger of feeling Shao Khan's wrath. Also that is just her being restrained Kitana could and would destroy those two tarkartans if it was beneficial to her. Because if she did kill them, she would then have to face both Shao Khan and Shang Tsung 2 to 1. So for her sake it would be easier to comply and go along with your captors. Also let's not forget that she defeated both Johnny & Smoke at the same time. So your arguement isn't really valid to hold against her.
@@Gamer-ml9tn Duuuuuh Sindel is already strong. And the fact that she had Shang Tsung's souls doubled her power. At that point Sindel took out everyone effortlessly. Sindel with Shang Tsung's souls was unstoppable and only killed due to sacrifice. Let's not act like Shang Tsung is VERY VERY powerful without the help of Kronika's crown in this timeline. Sure he is strong on his own but he was kinda nerfed this timeline compared to the one of old. Even then and now Shang Tsung relied mostly on trickery rather than brute strength.
@@marcchgirl26 Yeah but instead of killing them later she gets in grave danger. All they did was hold her arms if she is so bonkers that shouldn't have happened
He wasn't in mk9 because all the shit ended with shao Kahn getting killed by raiden with elder fields buff. So already in mk9 not even talking about mkx and mk11 that option was taken away.
25:38 A tier list based of intellect would also be very interesting. Would anyone beat Shang there? Strength wise lossing doesn't really contradict other (reliable) portrays of a character's power, but the tier is good. Also it would have been fitting to rank the One Being too.
I literally can't even begin to wrap my head around the idea of Onaga being below 2 of the people he 3v1'ed and below the person who lost a 2v1 to 2 of the people he 3v1'ed
Given how much thought you put into how characters will do in fights, I’d love to see your own rewrite of the Netherrealm era. I don’t know much about Mortal Kombat before that, but it sounds like there’s a lot of wasted potential.
I always respected Baraka. He mostly scared me before, but man, was he a tough guy. I mean, I discovered Mortal Kombat with Shaolin Monks and in this game he is annoying to fight! But he is a badass in his boss fight. He survives being impaled twice (with one sword through his head) and he has to be taken down by souls, which made him explode. That was awesome. But also what we see of him in the Armageddon intro, it's pretty awesome. Hell, if I remember correctly, he appears in MK4 after being sliced in half by Kung Lao but somehow survived. He did deserve his leader rank of the Tarkatans. But then, he was just disrespected! Sadly, like a lot of characters during the NetherRealm Era.
Tanya may be in Jobber tier, but gameplay-wise, she was fucking broken in Deception. I still remember playing through Konquest mode and having to win that absurd fight as Shujinko in order to free Sindel. Fun tier list regardless.
Mavado is hero tier at least. He defeated Kenshi, Kabal, Sonya, Jax and Kano in Deadly Alliance and took out Erron Black without even trying in the MKX comic. Only lost to Kabal, Taven and Cassie and Jacqui.
I like the list as is, but I do think it would've been easier to make a tier list for the old timeline and new timeline separately, just because of how hard certain characters get nerfed or buffed in-universe in the NRS era
Y'all remember when Cyber Subzzy beat both Goro AND Kintaro at the SAME TIME in MK9? They double teamed Kuai and he knocked them out like they were nothing.
I fully agree with the whole list. It was the fairest list I have ever seen. However, I would only upload a tier for Sonya Blade. Sonya beat Quan Chi, Sub-Zero, Geras, Jade and Kitana at the same time, Scorpion and etc. And it was always said that she was a very strong and powerful warrior.
“It was the fairest list I have ever seen” *Snake proceeds to put Goro over Onaga, Shao Kahn, two elder gods, and a god damned titan who can control TIME*
I feel like Jacqui maybe should have been defender tier, as she did beat Noob Saibot depending on who you choose for that fight, and she does also beat Cetrion, even if only because of the crown.
I honestly want to see more of Taven and Rain. I know tavens story was kind of a one time thing but still. I also know they kind of did something with Taven and Dagon in the MKX comics and the Takeda/Kenshi endings in mkx
Sonya should be defender tier, she defeated a lot of revenants and saved them, helped kotal with the war against the Shokans, ect. Gen Blade was a force to be reckoned with
Nice to see someone actually respect Goro! Still say you should do a wasted Plotential video on him. I would argue that Shao Kahn should be champion tier and Shang Tsung should be Sub-boss tier at best. Raiden and Shang Tsung have only ever beaten him with a power up or with help.
As a wrestling fan, I love your use of wrestling terminology like "jobber". If were ranking them using that terminology, the rankings would be: Legend Tier - MK Champions Main Event Tier - Final Bosses Glass Ceiling Tier - Shattering that glass ceiling through character progression and development Mid-Card Tier - Archetypal MK heroes/defenders Gatekeeper Tier - Characters that you know will be in the story no matter what but lose most fights Jobber To The Stars Tier - Average at best Jobber Tier - Speaks for itself really
I agree with the conclusion about Rain. For a demi god, they wrote him like just a little piss stain. Also damn them some cruel words about Scorpion's Revenge.
I'd say the one character I heavily disagree with is Shao-Kahn being below Shang-Tsung. They are either even or Kahn is above him. I think the only time Shang-Tsung canonically won against him is in 11 when he was empowered by the crown which enabled people like Jacqui and Jax to take on an Elder God so he had a massive power boost there when he fought Kahn who otherwise should slaughter him. Added to the fact that he is also a considerable threat to Raiden and Liu-Kang and at one point shrugged off a blast from Raiden while empowered by the Elder Gods, as well as (somehow) defeating Blaze and he is shown to be Champion Tier. Hell, even three endings in MK9, he still wins even after dying. He possesses Cyber Sub-Zero in his ending, takes over Nightwolf's wolf spirit and turns him into a werewolf in his ending and in Quan-Chi's ending, all he needed was a Revanant Shao-Kahn to take down the Nether Realm and Shinnok. Also, Skarlet's ending when she absorbs his power manages the same thing so yeah, that is the one placement I 100% disagree with. He beats two, maybe three of the boss tier and only lost to two champion tiers because of a power boost so unless I am misremembering, he deserves a Champion Tier.
One last point as to why I think Kahn is Champion Tier is MK vs DC. In that he is essentially being called MK's Darksied and Darksied would rank high up on a DC Tier list but also another ending where he ends up coming on top is his own. He is thrown into the Phantom Zone but in his ending he not only breaks out but gets stronger and now has a Kryptonian Army at his disposal to attack the DC Universe. Before MK 11 made him a chump, he was shown to be one of the strongest people ever to the point where even in other people's endings where they killed him, he's still a threat.
The fact that Mortal Kombat's canon is so inconsistent makes this hurt to watch. Still, you did a good job ranking the fighters accordingly. I'd like to know what you think of the whole 'The Lost Onaga/Goro Saga' that was allegedly supposed to be the premise of the next tie in comic series. The MKX comic writer Shawn Kittelsen breaks down what it was going to entail and I was really disappointed that Netherrealm still doesn't understand what a 'Timeline' is.
I argue that Kira is in n/a if such a category exists. She never fought Taven... Or really did anything of note. So by virtue of that, she's not a "jobber" but she also isn't average, she's a nothing... Also to Kobra's credit: he fought a demigod, he stood no chance.
It's kind of a shame that Kotal, who could destroy a Spanish ship with one attack, endure a direct hit from Shinnok's amulet, and could hold his own against some of the franchise's strongest is turned into a punching bag in MK11.
Even though I'm extremely happy my mates the Cages got in Champion tier, I don't think they belong there solely on beating Shinnok, I'm pretty sure they only won through their Elder Godkiller hax. Johnny's 2011 ending does hint that he used them to beat Shao Kahn though, so maybe I'm wrong. Shang Tsung for me hasn't earned Champion tier, partly because in 2011 he was done so dirty (Losing to Smoke with the help of Reptile) and in Aftermath using deception more so than strength to win. And he did always seem to have a disadvantage against Raiden and Shao Kahn, probably fleeing from his fight against the former in 2011 and being afraid of fighting the latter in a fair fight. Kotal I think he should be at least Sub-Boss tier, him becoming the new Kahn of Outworld and all. Plus, he was able to stand up to Shao Kahn and he tore off Goro's arms, with it being implied the only reason he didn't kill him was so that he could be humiliated by his kin. I'm not saying that he should be moved, but it is funny to think that Stryker has beaten both Ermac and Kintaro despite both of them being supposedly high tier. I'm a little hesitant to call Bi-Han Champion Tier. He does have some very impressive feats, but he also has some pretty embarassing losses, mostly in his time as Noob Saibot. He did defeat many impressive characters, with 3 of them being Gods, but he also lost to Kung Lao, Kabal, Nightwolf, Scorpion and Kuai Liang (Twice for the latter two) and he couldn't even kill his nemesis Hanzo, instead having the bastich D'Vorah do it. It's honestly the Sector problem, where "Quan Chi's perfection" has made Bi-Han worse. Hsu Hao is obviously Beyond Champion Level
Chad Peterson I would agree Shang Tsung with the crown is indeed Champion tier, but every other version is either lower boss tier or higher sub boss. Don’t get me wrong he is very strong. While he did need people like Quan Chi to help him take down higher tier characters like Raiden, Liu Kang, and Shao Kahn that does still show he is incredibly strong. I would still say though he isn’t champion tier without the crown.
One criticism I gotta make is that it's not always about who "won" or lost a fight or the statistic of wins, especially considering that most outcomes are based on progressing the narrative. Like, I felt it was arbitrary to just ponder on where Raiden should be placed based on the fact that he's defeated Liu Kang when there's more than plenty of reasons to rank him very high besides that. Of course consistent wins and losses are important, despite what the circumstances are. Particularly if the series continued with tournaments. Criticizing the results of fights and matchups by noting who wins and losses isn't what I'm criticizing so much, but rather your own overuse of wins and losses to compare the characters. Reptile, for example, although has jobbed through his history, I think we should take to consideration the trust and responsibilities several big bosses have placed in him, as well as other things like MK 4 suggesting that Reptile was factor to some of Shinnok's success, that he's a competent and dangerous combatant. And even though the champions ultimately beat the bosses, generally, I think the big bosses should be above them on tier list
The Cage family power is Shinnok's weakness so I don't see how them beating him is as impressive as it sbould be, it's like defeating Superman with the use of kryptonite and then claiming to be one of the most powerful people in the DC universe.
Ermac, noob, rain, and mileena being jobbers is pathetic. One is a fusion of souls of the strongest warriors from the realm plus edenia's king, one is the lin kuei's best warrior with wraith powers, one is a demi-god, and one is a clone of edenia's princess with tarkatan dna. These should be big deals but I guess don't matter.
The only one i disagree with is shao kahn not being champion tier he casually took shang tsungs soul and gave it to someone else other than that great list
Doesn’t FerraTor lose all their fights, as well? That was always something I noted about MKX: Basically all of the new villains they introduced lost every fight they were in, like Erron and FerraTor.
I feel like takeda and Jin should be defender. Takeda was the MC of the mkx prequel comic, he beat ermac in mkx (makes no sense but still) and didn’t die after being bodied by like 7 people. Jin did also beat kotal Kahn a sun god in broad daylight.
I think more tiers are needed. Definitely a tier above champion is needed. Maybe called titan tier or something. Onaga beat Raiden, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi all at the same time so he would be titan tier. He is probably the deadliest character in the original timeline above Liu since Liu couldn't beat the Deadly Alliance but Onaga no diffed them and Raiden combined. Kronika is a trash boss but I think I would place her here as well as the only characters that can beat her are characters with power ups like Fire God Liu (Liu and Raiden combined) or Shang Tsung with the crown. (Technically every character has canonically beat her and became a titan in their own timeline as shown in MK1, but I'm just only gonna talk about the first 2 timelines we've seen to be consistent). She is also literally a titan so she gets to be in this tier by status. I feel like her biggest weakness is simply bad writing as it has been shown that she could literally freeze all the characters in place and could've killed Liu Kang but didn't and instead teleported him to his revenant form. Fujin should be sub boss tier since he was a boss in the Sub Zero game. He's also a god and beat Bi Han (who is champion tier) in Aftermath giving him a very impressive feat. A tier below sub boss should be made for super strong characters that don't fall into the sub boss category simply because they aren't bosses. I would move Ermac here since he is an insanely strong character but not a boss. Although he could be considered a secret boss fight in some games so could technically keep sub boss tier. But this could also be classed as just a secret fight and not a boss fight. Sindel should go in this tier. I know she only beat most of the characters because she had Shang's strength gifted to her but she is still insanely strong being able to beat Cetrion who is an Elder God without any powerups and with only Nightwolf's assistance. Nightwolf also goes here as he is the one who took down the powered Sindel in MK9 (although at the cost of his own life). He was also able to break free from Cetrion's grasp and help Sindel beat her. Nightwolf and Sindel are very easily some of the strongest side characters who aren't Gods or champions or bosses. Nightwolf is possibly above her in this tier since he beat her powered version. I would also add Cyber Sub Zero here as a separate character from Kuai Liang. We are counting Sektor and Cyrax as their cyber form so it's only fair Sub Zero is ranked in his cyber form also. Cyber Sub has very impressive feats, he's beaten Goro, Kintaro, Ermac and Noob Saibot. His only lost being to a powered up Sindel. Triborg is a non canon dlc character so he shouldn't be in the tier list. For this tier I would order it: Nightwolf, Sindel, Cyber Sub Zero, Ermac. I think one more tier has to be made somewhere in between Boss and Champion tier called Elder God (or God tier) simply for Cetrion. I just feel like it's wrong to have a character as strong as her in the same tier as the likes of Kintaro and Moloch. She is easily leagues beyond them. I know you can make the argument that she has never won a fight but I feel like that argument is unfair since that would make her a jobber by that logic which she definitely isn't. If I remember correctly Cetrion off screened all the other Elder Gods which is an insane feat. I guess by status Shinnok would also go here which I think is fair as he is a fallen Elder God. Raiden is an interesting character because every time he fights Liu he ends up winning. He is also a sort of master/mentor to Liu so I think he could be above him. But I wouldn't put him above Shinnok or Cetrion whereas I would put Liu above them. Other than that I agree with every other character in this tier list.
I'd honestly put the Cages in Hero or Defender Tier. They beat Shinnok through plot power up, and Cassie was getting her ass kicked by everyone before that. Johnny has been defeated by Sindel and Ermac. No shame in that, its just that he was beaten rather easily. He also lost to Jax, and Kitana, and was, in previous canon, killed by Motaro This is a pretty good video though. I would love to see you touch on Tekken.
I think Shao Khan is a Champion Tier. Despite him losing to Liu Kang 3 times, Kahn was able to beat Raiden, beat Edenia and many other realms which must mean that his power is noticeable.
I fucking hate how they never do anything of substance with Kano even though he has the potential to be at least a well-rounded character. Guy's clearly tough both in strength and cybernetics, he's cunning as fuck (capable of infiltrating the Shaolin Temple and steal Shinnok's amulet, being able to evade special forces for decades), he could be SO much more but they just make him a jobber. Kano's been my favorite MK character since I was a kid and he's never been anything more but a punching bag.
