10 Best Mortal Kombat Villains EVER

In 1992, Ed Boon and John Tobias' fighting game, Mortal Kombat, took the world by storm with its crazy finishing moves and confounding levels of blood. With decapitations, incinerations, and dismemberments galore, it was unmistakable that a franchise had been born.

Because of MK's absurd level of gore, it's not too surprising that the series has devised many outlandish villains. Whether they're tiger-skinned beasts, fireball-spewing centaurs, or face-eating reptiles, it's clear that the savage saga has churned out some fantastic adversaries.

Even though many of the tournament fighters started off as run-of-the-mill villains, things have changed in recent years. As the story has become more complex, so did the characters.

Now fighting through different realms and timelines, many characters have been forced to adapt. Whether circumstances have caused their loyalties to falter or their ambitions to grow, it is evident that there is far more to these iconic evildoers than one may have assumed.

On the other hand, some of them haven't changed at all and are exactly as wicked as they once were. Even though they may come across as generic, they still find themselves having a devoted fanbase.

But which villains left a lasting impression on the players?

The villains in Mortal Kombat may be diverse but nearly all of them share the same trait; they embrace their evil side. Shinnok, Shang Tsung, Onaga, and many others are fully aware their ambitions are malevolent and cruel. They relish the demise of mortals and the destruction of worlds.

But for Mortal Kombat 11, NetherRealm Studios tried a different approach. The story's antagonist, Kronika, is the Keeper of Time and so, safeguards the time-space continuum.

Since the events in the recent tournaments have imbalanced the timestream, Kronika believes she has no choice but to reset reality. Kronika doesn't desire godlike power; she already has it. What she wants is, from her point of view, to make things right.

Even though her mission will result in the death of everyone, she comes across like she absolutely believes her intentions are for the greater good. Because she is inarguably the most powerful being to ever appear in the franchise, it would be easy to portray her like an archetypal adversary. But instead of spouting supervillain monologues, she often talks to mortals and gods alike as a maternal figure, since she sees herself as a mother to all life.