Believe it or not, Mortal Kombat, the series where you can see how many ways you can viciously maim, dismember and mutilate your foe, is not without characters that are in need of a big hug. So much so, in fact, that Mortal Kombat easily qualifies as a Crapsack World. And the Friendship option was not here since 4.
Straight Woobie
- Reptile a.k.a. Syzoth is, perhaps unanimously, the single most pitiable character in the entire franchise. The last surviving member of the long-thought extict Saurian race (until Khameleon showed up in Trilogy), he's nothing more than a hapless warrior serving the villains in the misguided hope that they'll restore his race to life. And he gets screwed over in almost every ending of his! All of his appearances treat him like The Chew Toy, with there being a joke among the fandom that, if you don't off Reptile, his superiors will.
- In the original timeline, in 3, when he finds out that Shao Kahn had no intention of upholding their deal, Reptile kills him out of anger. In 4, Reptile defeats all of the heroes for Shinnok and Quan Chi; his reward? He gets his head blown clean off of his shoulders by Shinnok, who is not a god of his word. And in the only fully canon ending of Deadly Alliance, his body becomes the vessel for the rebirth of Onaga, the Dragon King. His dashed dream of the revival of his race slowly drives Reptile into insanity, to the point that he reverts into his original, mindless, reptilian form by the time of Deadly Alliance, and who starts ragging on himself when he thinks he failed his new master, Nitara.
- In the second timeline, he's on his reptilian appearance by default, implying he couldn't escape said fate (though he becomes more articulate as time goes by). His story doesn't change much, with the only consolation being that he survives the events of Mortal Kombat 9, but even then, he's simply a Jobber. Fortunately, after the death of Shao Kahn (seemingly for good and at a much earlier point in time), in X, he's back under the heel of a Kahn again, though this time Kotal, a Noble Demon that treats Reptile with full respect, relating how they were the Last of Their Kind. About time, Reptile!
- In the New Era from Mortal Kombat 1, Reptile's race is alive and well, but his ability to turn into a human is considered a freakish mutation among his people and he's forcibly exiled from them because of it. As a result, he's allied with the heroes, but he spends most of his time as a human because he knows his natural lizard form would be frightening to them, so he sees himself as a monster and an outsider no matter who he's with.
- Smoke, much like Reptile, is highly pitiable in all of his appearances, being one of the few unambiguously good playable Lin Kuei who, like the younger Sub-Zero, never wanted to partake in the Cyber Initiative. His reasons for being a Woobie tend to vary from era to era.
- In the original timeline, he tries to escape the Lin Kuei with his best friend Sub-Zero, but is captured, forcibly converted into a Cyber Lin Kuei, and programmed to hunt down his friend. Kuai Liang manages to reach out to Smoke's soul, allowing him to regain control of his body, but somewhere along the way, Shao Kahn's extermination squads get to him and throw his deactivated body into Kahn's dungeons. Many years later, in Deception, Noob Saibot finds Smoke's body and reprograms him to be subservient to him, taking until Armageddon for Kuai to bring Smoke back to the light for good.
- He fares even worse in the second timeline. In his non-canon Arcade ending in 9, he remembers his past —the one thing he's been searching for all his life— as a sacrifice to a demon by a cult as an infant, returning to life as an Enenra (a monster made of smoke and vapor); Smoke then killed his captors and re-assumed to his human form, with no memory of the ordeal. In the story proper, though he manages to avoid becoming a cyborg, he sees the same fate befall Sub-Zero, a fact that distresses him tremendously since the two see each other like brothers. He then gets unceremoniously offed by Sindel in a one-two combo.
- While faring better than previous timelines, life is stll harsh for him in the New Era. His mother and sister killed, he is adopted as a son by the Grandmaster of the clan who killed them, out of guilt for their deaths. He is constantly mistreated by one of his adopted brothers, Bi-Han, just because he's not related by blood, causing a lifelong struggle for recognition. Eventually losing his adopted parents, he is betrayed by Bi-Han, who is revealed to have left their father to die and maims Kuai Liang, the one brother who accepted him, in their confrontation. Pre-fight dialogues with him reveals that he has been hiding the pain of losing his own family for many years only to find out that their souls were now under Quan Chi's control. The one solace he has is that he's able to find a new family with Kuai Liang and Harumi in the Shirai Ryu.
- Cyrax. While starting off as a ruthless Lin Kuei assassin, his distain for the Cyber Initiative and Raiden appealing to his good side led him to try and leave the clan. Except he always ends up getting forcibly turned into a cyborg and becoming a mindless slave.
- In the original timeline, sometime after the events of 3, he is trapped in the Jade Desert, until Sonya and Jax find him in 4 (as seen in the Updated Re-release of Gold) and help restore his soul, leading to him joining the Special Forces. During a mission in Outworld, however, he ends up getting ambushed by Reptile, where the resulting battle leads to his arm console getting damaged, meaning he cannot teleport back to Earthrealm. He is then approached by Nitara (who, unknown to him, sent Reptile to attack Cyrax in the first place) and is forced to do her dirty work in exchange for returning home. Once he carries it out, she does indeed send him back... except by the time that happens, the rest of the Special Forces and heroes have already traveled to Outworld to kombat the Deadly Alliance and the returning Dragon King, Onaga. Because Nitara's spell was one way and he has no other means of returning to Outworld, Cyrax is helpless as five of the heroes are slaughtered by Tarkatans, Raiden becomes Dark Raiden, Onaga obtains Shinnok's Amulet to become stronger and the rest of the heroes are scattered and lost in Outworld.
- The new timeline is even worse to him. The events of 9 reveal he actually participated in the tournament under the banner of Outworld, and we learn about his human side when Raiden appeals to it and convinces him to turn over a new leaf. Except when he defeats his "partner" and the Lin Kuei's grandmaster's son, Sektor, he is able to escape... only to be captured anyways. Worse is that he stays as a mindless slave to the Lin Kuei even after the end of Shao Kahn's invasion to Earthrealm, before Sub-Zero finds him during the events of X's pre-release comics and uploads a virus into him that frees his consciousness. Cyrax then decides to activate his self-destruct mechanism to take out the rest of the cyber Lin Kuei. And then 11 features a past version of Cyrax who is once again turned into a cyborg and forced to carry out orders, this time from Kronika. Once again, Sub-Zero manages to free Cyrax from his programming; once he comes to, Cyrax is horrified by his conversion, only deciding to help Sub-Zero and Scorpion by, again, a Heroic Sacrifice where he shuts down the Cyber Lin Kuei Factory and thus the cyber ninjas themselves, himself included. Even before this, he wished his comrade, Kuai Liang, not to revive him as a cyborg if he ever brought Cyrax back, stating he couldn't live like that.Cyrax: (his consciousness freed, horrifiedly looking at his cybernetic body) ...no! He ripped out my heart... made me a machine!
- Kabal's heroic self from the second timeline goes through a gruesome conga line. A Reformed Criminal (from the Black Dragon, no less), he tries to protect New York City from Shao Kahn's invasion forces alongside Stryker, where he's roasted alive by Kintaro, severely disfiguring him. His former Black Dragon boss, Kano (in an uncharacteristic Pet the Dog moment), gets Shang Tsung to heal him up with magic, but Kabal would have rather died, seeing himself as a freak. He fortunately decides to put his new skills to good use as one of Raiden's chosen warriors and continue atoning for his past history with the Black Dragon, but near the end of it, he's among the casualties caused by Sindel. And on top of all this, a Freeze-Frame Bonus reveals that Kabal is wearing a ring on his finger, signifying that he's likely engaged or married, leaving his family wondering what happened to him in the game's aftermath... assuming they survived the Outworld invasion to begin with...
- Sareena; what else can you say of a self-loathing demon of the Netherrealm that's not subservient to Quan Chi, who constantly mistreats her? Under the guise of a beautiful woman, she was once a part of Quan Chi's triad of female assassins in Mythologies and was defeated in kombat by the elder Sub-Zero, who spares her unlike her allies Kia and Jataaka, leading to a change of heart and coming to his rescue during his battle with Quan Chi. She then asks Sub-Zero to take her with him to Earthrealm, but before anything else can develop, Shinnok drags her back down to the Netherrealm in her demon form, where she suffers for an agonizingly long period of time. Around the time of Deadly Alliance/Deception, she finally escapes from her hellish imprisonment, then encounters and strikes up an alliance with the younger Sub-Zero, with both following Noob Saibot and Smoke into the Netherrealm. In the process, Sareena saves Kuai Liang's life, but the intensity of the battle against Noob-Smoke and the energy of the land causes Sareena to go mad and transform into her demonic form, with her feelings for Kuai being the only thing preventing her from hurting him, instead fleeing into the depths of the Netherrealm... where she's intercepted by Quan Chi and Noob-Smoke, the former of which who brainwashes Sareena into believing that she cannot be a being of light due to her status as a demon. It's only during Armageddon where she breaks out of her Face–Heel Turn thanks to Taven.
Iron Woobie
- Hanzo Hasashi a.k.a. Scorpion. If you think the vengeance-driven Revenant wasn't pitiable at all, you'd be plain wrong. With the Shirai Ryu being rebelious refugees of the former Lin Kuei, he already has problems from the get-go, and it all goes to the Netherrealm once he and the elder Sub-Zero, Bi-Han, fight each other, with the outcome being Hanzo's death after being appointed a mission by Quan Chi, who later kills his clan, wife and son included. And after being revived in the Netherrealm, he is brainwashed by Quan Chi that the Lin Kuei had done the deed, causing him to plead his allegiance to the evil warlock. From there, though it varies with each of the two timelines, Hanzo doesn't catch a break on any of them, even if never do his morality and honor falter.
- During the first tournament, he successfully assassinates his supposed killer in life, after being told by Quan Chi that this would avenge his family and clan, but on the second tournament, Scorpion has a moment of clarity after learning of Bi-Han's brother, the younger Sub-Zero, and atones for it by vowing to protect Kuai... only for Quan Chi to lie to Hanzo that Kuai killed his wife and son come the events of 4; fortunately, he soon learns this was a lie so he could break his vow of protection and kill Kuai, and instead he haunts Quan Chi as revenge for killing his kin, the only thing he had in life. Sometime during Deception, after being thrown to the void via a Soulnado, he encounters the Elder Gods, who make Scorpion their Champion to deal with the threat of Onaga, agreeing under the terms that his family and clan would be revived by the Elder Gods. And indeed, they uphold their end of the bargain... by reviving the Shirai Ryu as undead abominations come Armageddon. No wonder he goes all Rage Against the Heavens afterwards.
- His second timeline self, however, is way more tragic. During the tournament, Scorpion demands that Shang Tsung allow him to fight Sub-Zero, with the sorcerer promptly denying him his chance, and is later approached by Raiden, who promises him to ask the Elder Gods to revive all Scorpion has lost if he doesn't kill the cryomancer. Try as Scorpion might, when he upholds his promise, Quan Chi shows Scorpion terrifyingly graphic images of his family and clan being killed by Bi-Han, forcing the Revenant to give in and kill him, overtaken by anger, and leading to Bi-Han's resurrection as Noob Saibot. By X, he is soundly Back from the Dead and reconstructs his clan, the Shirai Ryu, from the remnants of Shao Kahn's invasion; in the process, he adopts Kenshi's son, Takeda, who is like a son to him. Unfortunately, a blood demon posesses one of his new students, who cuts his own face off and slaughters every last member of the Shirai Ryu save Scorpion and Takeda. He later re-rebuilds his clan... and learns from Kuai Liang about his old clan's true murderer, Quan Chi, causing him deep grief over his lost family and clan as well as his Misplaced Retribution on Bi-Han, only coming to his senses when Kuai makes it clear there are no hard feelings. And to further drive the knife in the wound, he ends up dying by the time of 11, courtesy of D'Vorah, though not before turning his past self to the side of good after letting him know how much he treasured his clan.Quan Chi: Scorpion, we can- (gets promptly silenced by Hanzo)
Scorpion: My name... is Hanzo Hasashi! (...) You killed my wife! My son! And then you burrowed your way into my head! Misdirected my vengeance! COSTED ME MY ONE CHANCE TO HAVE THEM RESTORED!
- Raiden, but especially his second timeline self, qualifies with flying colors and then some. With 9 being a Wham Episode wielding WMWs (Weapons of Mass Woobiefication), Dark Raiden (his original timeline's fallen yet well-intentioned self) initiates a Continuity Reboot and sends a message to his past self, with the hopes of preventing Armageddon, but things go horribly, horribly wrong. Trying to decipher the vague warning sent from his Bad Future self to no avail, the new timeline's Raiden seeks the aid of the Elder Gods, who callously turn down his pleas, and several of his chosen Champions and new allies (save for Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya) fall in battle one way or another, no thanks to Sindel. When Liu Kang starts to lose his faith on Raiden, the two fight right as Shao Kahn is about to cross into Earthrealm, and the Thunder God, in self-defense, accidentally kills Liu, whose parting words are a Dying Declaration of Hate. Even though Raiden manages to save the day at the last second, it is a major Pyrrhic Victory; having crossed the Despair Event Horizon, experienced at least two Heroic BSODs, suffering from Guilt Complex, and blaming himself over everything. Then in X, it is shown that he has not recovered, and has to contend with Shinnok's invasion, whose army includes undead revenants of Earthrealm's fallen champions, notably Kung Lao and Liu Kang. Though Raiden manages to revive Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Jax, Scorpion's Revenge Before Reason unwittingly dooms the remaining revenants (who are still under Quan Chi's control) by killing Quan Chi, eroding any possibility of Raiden reviving everyone to the side of good; and this all occurs while Raiden and Bo' Rai Cho lament the loss of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, both of whom were like sons to the Thunder God. Raiden later manages to purify the Jinsei]] after Shinnok's defeat, but the Jinsei's purification process corrupts him and he later becomes the very thing he tried to avoid: Dark Raiden. Though his Face–Heel Turn is undone come 11, after past Raiden is made aware of everything, he has to endure what his other self went through, intro dialogues show he still hasn't recovered from his losses, and despite his efforts to fix everything, he and Fujin are betrayed by Shang Tsung as shown in Aftermath, then turned into living husks of their selves as the sorcerer steals their souls. In bulk, even with how much he pulls through and tries to set everything right, Raiden can't catch a break, with the only saving grace being the inevitable timeline reset and his new incarnation in the New Era faring better.
- Kitana is also this, through and through, always putting on her best self and saving face for over 10,000 years despite every hardship she goes through, starting with her father, King Jerrod's, death.
- As seen in the original timeline, not only is Kitana's father killed by Shao Kahn during his bloody takeover of Edenia, her mother Sindel commits suicide out of grief for her departed husband. Shao then manipulates the poor girl into serving as one of his assassins and makes her falsely believe that he is her birth father, then creates a disfigured clone of her to act as her "sister" and ultimately off her should Kitana prove to be unreliable. When Kitana finally breaks free, Shao then revives her mother and brainwashes her as a tool for his invasion of Earthrealm. Eventually, when all of this and Shinnok's return is resolved, Kitana proposes to her love interest, Liu Kang, who reluctantly declines due to his status as Earthrealm's Champion. And after Quan Chi and Shang Tsung get the jump on him before Deadly Alliance and kill him, Kitana dies in battle against the two, and is later revived by Onaga and brainwashed (again) to serve him, only set free by a royally pissed off Sindel.
- Her second timeline's self suffers for different motives that are no less worse. The creation of Mileena instead happens behind her back, then she learns from her so-called father that he killed King Jerrod, and nearly gets executed. Then, after being appointed one of Raiden's Champions, her mother, Sindel, is brought Back from the Dead (and powered up and seemingly brainwashed) and, unlike the original timeline, Kitana tries to convince her mother to stop fighting, only for Sindel to shoot down her plea and nearly kill her daughter, then truly dying in Liu Kang's arms while lamenting they didn't meet under different circumstances. It's no wonder she'd be incredibly bitter upon being revived by Quan Chi, and though her Arcade Ending is non-canon, the fact she has a dream of everything she wished in life (a free Edenia and the companionship of Jade) if not for Raiden further sinks the feelings down. But the worst is yet to come as, in 11's Aftermath expansion, she finally reunites with a seemingly non-corrupted Sindel, who turns out to be Evil All Along and not only betrays her daughter, but beats her up, has her love interest crippled, and is then forced on her knees and made to watch as Shao, the very man she fought to free Outworld from, takes over once more. To say she has it rough would be an understatement.
- Sindel, that is, her heroic self from the original timeline. Her realm of Edenia is taken away from her by the evil conqueror Shao Kahn, driving her to suicide out of grief for her beloved husband, King Jerrod. Unfortunately, Shao had other plans for her, as come the events of 3, he revives Sindel and brainwashes her as a tool for his invasion of Earthrealm. Fortunately, she is freed after his defeat, and regains her nobleness. Then by the time of Deception, the abduction of her beloved daughter forces her to fight over an army of undead under the Dragon King that just brainwashed Kitana. And in the end? As you would expect, she dies during the Battle of Armageddon and replaced with her second timeline's widely despised self.
- Would you believe that the New Era makes Mileena into this? Her father is murdered, with the woman who trained her being blamed and exiled as a result. Not to mention the fact people inside the royal body are conspiring to remove her from the throne and replace her with her twin (a conspiracy Kitana herself wants no part of). On top of that, she is infected with Tarkat, a lethal virus that would eventually turn her into a mindless monster. Blamed for her own illness by her mother (who secretly wished Kitana could be heir), kept from pursuing her heavily-implied love interest due to archaic vows, seeing her mother murdered by a tyrannical alternate version of herself, avenging her mother by killing said alternate Sindel, and her mother finally reaffirming her love for her in her dying breath... wow. It makes Mileena getting her father back in the form of Ermac and gaining true respect and admiration as Empress worth it, and she never loses face much like her sister did in previous timelines, but damn is it a Trauma Conga Line.
Jerkass Woobie
- Liu Kang, specifically his second timeline's evil self, is this all things considered. A Broken Ace through and through in life, he goes through a Trauma Conga Line where he grows increasingly intolerant of Raiden, his own mentor, in the process. It starts when he then watches as Shao Kahn, for no reason other than For the Evulz, snaps the neck of his stalwart companion Kung Lao and later sees his love interest Kitana die mere seconds after he and Raiden return from their meeting with the Elder Gods. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back, and Liu Kang calls out his mentor for the futility of the other heroes' sacrifices, believing Raiden to have gone mad. His faith in the Thunder God shattered, Liu Kang attempts to fight Shao Kahn, only to be stopped by Raiden; a fight ensues, culminating with Raiden accidentally frying Liu Kang — in self-defense, no less! As Raiden grieves, Liu Kang curses him with his dying breath, "You have killed us all". And as if that wasn't enough, X shows how pissed he is towards Raiden that not even the prospect of being with Kitana calms him down. Even if he's an unrepentant jackass for the entirety of the story who embraces his evil self, his unmeasurable wrath over losing everything he held dear in life has earned him sympathy from the fandom, not helped by how the story culminates with him staying a villain, taking over the throne of Emperor of Netherrealm (where he is doomed to be hated by the living regardless of which path he took to rule) and being threatened by Dark Raiden if he messes with Earthrealm.
- Much like Liu, Kung Lao's second timeline self is extremely pitiable. Unlike the rest of the Revenants, Lao hates the fact he's become evil, and seeing how his death was among the ones to spark the broken prophecy, he does not take well how, in life, Raiden "allowed" him to die. As a result of his Self-Serving Memory, he is just as willing as Liu to let Shinnok rain chaos over Earthrealm. Unfortunately for him, Heaven's door isn't opening anytime soon given Scorpion's slaughter of Quan Chi, meaning he is doomed to spend his life as a Revenant, not helped by how his Arcade ending, where his cousin Kung Jin offers to redeem him despite staying as a revenant, isn't canon.
- Mileena turns into this thanks to 11's Arcade endings. Her desire for affections and acceptance, especially that of Kitana's, is thrown into more detail here; she genuinely wants to be loved and seen as more than just a monster. This isn't helped by how Kitana not only rejects her for that too, but sees her as a perversion, a being created without her consent. There's also the fact that her two allies, Tanya (who was her lover) and Rain, are no longer by her side as the former was caught and killed by Kotal, and the latter's plan to betray her was revealed. To twist the knife deeper, it's even implied that Tanya may have been planning to betray her too, and she may have been machinating with Rain about that. While none of this excuses her crimes, it is still saddening, and has given fans more reason to love her.
- Rain also gets some sympathy points in 11. Though he is incredibly disloyal and untrustworthy, his Arcade ending reveals a secret of his past: he was the product of an extramarital affair between Argus and a mortal woman named Amara. To prevent his affair from being outed, Argus fooled Amara into thinking Rain was stillborn and gave him away before killing Amara himself while she was grieving. The revelation of this destroys Rain, and he immediately seeks out to murder Argus' sons, Taven and Daegon, in front of their mother as revenge for killing his mother and giving him away. More than just a throne to sit down on, a kingdom to rule, or ultimate power (though he does want all of those), all Rain wanted the most was the true story of his parentage, and why he was conceived, so nobody will blame him for lashing out once he learned it.
Stoic Woobie
- Kuai Liang, the younger Sub-Zero, doesn't have it as easy as one may think, with many moments where he notably loses his cool (no pun intended).
- In the original timeline, Kuai enters the tournament for one reason and one reason only: avenge his brother, who fell in the previous tournament from time ago. Though Scorpion vows to protect Kuai behind his back, the cryomancer never learns of this until the spectre attempts to kill him in Misplaced Retribution in 4, only stopping when Scorpion learns the truth from both him and Quan Chi. Even before that, he is forced a fugitive from the Cyber Initiative after Smoke is captured and roboticized, managing to come out alive. The events of Deadly Alliance have him rebuild his Lin Kuei clan and appoint his new disciple, Frost, who soon backstabs him when they join Raiden's forces once more. After her apparent death, the Grandmaster buries her, believing her to be dead, before returning back to work in Earthrealm's defense, and when he comes back home... Frost turns out alive and pissed, killing many of his Lin Kuei warriors and forcing his hand at imprisoning his Deceptive Disciple for good.
- But even worse is that the second timeline is even less kind to him. After defeating Scorpion (his brother's killer) in combat, the Cyber Lin Kuei interrupt and haul Kuai back to be used in the Cyber Initiative; though he manages to have his free will restored, he is wracked with guilt over all of the actions he had no control of. Upon attempting to stop Quan Chi from creating a Soulnado, he's then blocked by Noob Saibot, who reveals himself to be his elder brother Bi-Han and then tells his little brother (the very same one who idolized him and entered the Outworld tournament to avenge his death) that though they share blood, they're NOT brothers. And later, Kuai is killed by Sindel anyways. His non-canon Arcade ending (as Cyber Sub-Zero) is worse, where after defeating Shao Kahn, Shao's soul commits Grand Theft Me on him. In X, Quan Chi restores his human self instead of dooming him as a cyber zombie, and then Raiden managed to restore him into the living, but as the pre-release comics show, in the process of restoring the Lin Kuei, Kuai sees his friend Cyrax, right after he turned back to the side of good, blowing himself up so he could restart the Lin Kuei freshly. And then in 11, following the Timey-Wimey Ball, the clan he worked so hard to recreate comes falling down after Sektor and Frost kidnap the Lin Kuei; upon coming up with one of the clan's insignias in the Cyber Lin Kuei factory, he even breaks his stoic self as he tries not to cry, only managing to pull through after Scorpion rouses him back up. Though he manages to come out a bit safer than the others, it's no wonder Kuai Liang has become so jaded after the hell he goes through, from being unable to rescue his best friend Smoke (who has embraced the Enenra persona) to losing his clan once again.
- Kenshi. As a younger warrior, he was tricked by Shang Tsung in disguise to open his ancestors' tomb, its immensely powerful light blinding Kenshi forever and letting the sorcerer steal the souls of Kenshi's ancestors. However, Kenshi found a sword infused with his ancestors' powers and dedicated his life to mastering his remaining senses, determined to take revenge on Shang Tsung and atone for his failure. Alas, he never got the opportunity to fulfill it in either of the first two timelines, the second one moreso as Shang Tsung is dropped a bridge on by Shao Kahn in 9. And then in X, Kenshi's wife, Suchin, was murdered by the Red Dragon and in order to save his son, Takeda, Kenshi had no other choice but to leave him with the Shirai Ryu under the aid of Hanzo Hasashi, to make sure he'll be properly trained and not get consumed with thoughts of vengeance that may lead to anything reckless. This obviously strained their relationship, as Takeda resents him for not being around. The two eventually reconcile by the time the game takes place, and even after all of this, Kenshi never complains and keeps a mellow facade... which serves to make his death ironic, as according to 11's Krypt, Shang Tsung kills him.
- Kotal Kahn, despite being the secondary villain of X, is elevated this status by both supplementary material and the events of 11. As an Osh-Tekk prince, he had most of his people killed off by Shao Kahn and Goro, whose rampage was stopped by their quick surrender. After he performs the Realmwalk Rite that his father, Kotal K'etz, had him endure and save the Mayans from the Spanish Conquistadors, he returns to the realm of Osh-Tekk and sees that his old man is disappointed in him. He quickly leaves after that and what does he find? The Mayans he ruled over and protected are dying from blood poisoning with him unable to anything about it, and worse was that he was the cause of it (which gave his father a good reason to be disappointed); fortunately, sometime later, the two eventually reconcile their bond by the time Kotal becomes Emperor of Outworld. Once, during his leadership, he requests help from Earthrealm's forces but is rejected by the understandably suspicious Sonya Blade when he was promised assistance by Raiden; this forces him to send his father on a trip to kill off the remainders of Mileena's forces, where K'etz is Out-Gambitted and killed. This incident drives Kotal to invoke Blood Magik in desperation and vengeance. Later on, his subordinate Erron Black almost royally screws up and costs Kotal Kahn his life when Sonya comes after him thinking that he kidnapped her daughter Cassie Cage and Jacqui Briggs. And as of right now, he is the Last of His Kind. The events of 11 even reveal that, during the time the first games take place, not only he had already been experimented on by Shang Tsung under the orders of Shao, but he had developed an incredibly heartwarming relationship with Jade (who mind you, is among Sindel's casualties during her kill streak at the end of 9). And by the end of the 11's Aftermath expansion? Shao Kahn decapitates him in what's one of the most Shocking Moments in the entire franchise, right after he had been rescued from "base-breaking character" territory. As ruthless a kombatant this guy is, it's hard not to feel bad for him given the crap he went through, even if he takes it all calmly and presses on.
- Much like Mileena, the New Era turns Baraka into this. Compared to the two previous timelines, what was originally his race, the Tarkatans, is now a vicious disease (Tarkat) that has no known cure. Previously a well-off merchant after a decorated service as a tribune in the Outworld army with a loving wife and child, the Tarkat infection hits all of them, leading to their banishment and the eventual death of Baraka's family, leaving him alone and bitter. Though he allies with the heroes without trouble in this timeline and his servicial nature never ends, he makes it clear in many of his pre-fight dialogue how much he suffers every day with his condition, even going as far as to say that he'd rather not exist.
Woobie Species
In both 11 and the New Era, the Tarkatans are seen as this.- Tarkatans have always been established as Always Chaotic Evil species that honored Shao Kahn and were bloodthirsty warriors born for war. However, by the middle of 11's story, a more sympathetic side of them is revealed when an innocent female Tarkatan is scared straight during Jade's and Kotal's trek to the Wastelands. After capturing their camp, Kotal Kahn orders their death, which is when Jade opposes him after she is appaled by his Fantastic Racism, having seen the woman wasn't like them and that there were children between the victims, thus showing not all of its members are as bloodthirsty as they seem to be.Jade: Kotal! This is cruel... many didn't fight us... there are children!
- However, the New Era instead opts for a different approach: what was originally a fantastical race, Tarkatans are instead victims of a vicious disease, the aptly-named Tarkat, that eventually turns its victims into mindless, bloodthirsty beasts. Worst of all? It has no known cure, with the only thing able to slow it down being a recently-developed serum. Everybody afflicted by it is forced into exile into the Wastelands, where they will die a slow and painful death. No wonder why its victims, such as Baraka and Mileena, suffer so much.
