Smoke

I love Human Smoke, but I think the biggest problem with him right now is the same problem I have with Jade:

He still hasn't broken away from his identity as just a cool hidden palette swap character of MK

By that I mean that he hasn't fully developed into his own character yet or really found his place in the MK universe/story. He's still just the same bonus character you would like to see fleshed out

His bio in MK9 was definitely a few steps in the right direction for character by giving him a backstory and a motive, but his portrayal in the Story Mode itself pretty much took him equal steps back because like Jade with Kitana, he's still too attached to Kuai Liang and doesn't even really have any personality (at least Jade showed some personality). Pretty much any character development he could have had in the story was cut short when Sindel snapped his neck

I still don't get why NRS would think it's okay to put an obscure character with potential like Smoke in the story, only to kill him off in the end like he was just a meaningless pawn

That's another thing, Smoke felt like a straight up secondary character in the story, he barely contributed to the story

Take him and the vision of Smoke being automated out the story and the story would pretty much function just fine

No me gusta

The next successor to Sub-Zero for Lin Kuei Grandmaster would add something to his character. Let's think hey, Sub-Zero is the ONLY character to have appeared in ALL releases so killing him off (just for one game) in dramatic circumstances and Smoke stepping up as new Grandmaster with enhanced fighting abilities would add something to his character.

His voice in Deception on a minor mission in Konquest!
And what he says after being punched "Assaulting a member of the Lin Kuei is an offense punishable by death"!