Mortal Kombat is home to some of gaming's most fearsome warriors from across the spectrum of reality and ability. On one end, we have Raiden, Earthrealm's just-shy-of-invincible defender and God of Lightning, and on the other end, we have characters like Goro, the Prince of Outworld, and perhaps the most intimidating four-armed creature in gaming.

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However, for every mighty character in Mortal Kombat, there is one that doesn't quite fit in the rest, one whose strength pales in comparison to the literal gods and warrior princes they are up against. In-game most characters are fairly balanced to play. In the series' lore, though, it's a different story.

10 Johnny Cage

Johnny Cage is one of the most recognizable characters from the Mortal Kombat franchise. He's been in just about every game, he was in the original 90's movie, and his one-liners and Hollywood attitude set him apart from the rest.

Until he discovers his latent abilities, though, he is no better than a very skilled martial artist in the lore. Before the events of the Mortal Kombat series, Johnny Cage was basically just an actor in fighting movies who actually knew what he was doing.

9 Bo Rai Cho

Bo Rai Cho is an Outworldian master of drunken martial arts, and his abilities in-game show this to every degree possible. His attacks in the games he made appearances in usually included his trademark puke puddle and belly flop.

Bo Rai Cho in the lore is a capable fighter in the drunken fist style, but being from Outworld means his victory in Mortal Kombat would count for his home realm, not Earth. His weakness mostly comes from both his alcoholic behavior and, simply, his age.

8 Sonya Blade / Kano

Sonya and Kano couldn't be more different in terms of personality, but their fighting prowess is right about the same. Kano and Sonya have a feud going back to the first Mortal Kombat, but both have the advantages of tech and guns.

Sonya is a special forces officer, while Kano is a criminal mastermind. Aside from these traits, though, they are just ordinary people who know how to shoot. They are both also capable martial artists too, though.

7 Kurtis Stryker

Stryker is, quite literally, just a cop from New York City who finds himself thrust into the middle of all the Mortal Kombat shenanigans. Technically, he's a riot control officer, and he also had experience in the Marines.

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Stryker discovers he was chosen by the gods in Mortal Kombat 3 but otherwise doesn't know why he was chosen amongst all the other people on Earth. He's just a cop doing his job, after all.

6 Tanya

Tanya is one of the more forgettable antagonists from the Mortal Kombat series, having appeared as a major villain in two of the lowest-rated games in the series, Armageddon and Mortal Kombat 4 (the latter of which she was one of the major antagonists).

She's almost always shown as a close ally of Mileena, but in just about every way Mileena is a stronger character in the game's lore. She's kind of like the sidekick to a much stronger, much cooler superhero who takes all the spotlight.

5 Kira

Kira is one of the characters in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance who Kabal recruits into the Black Dragon. She is good with knives, but aside from that, her backstory doesn't exactly create an intimidating image of the newly formed Black Dragon's newest recruit.

Take away her knives, and she's not much more than a common street mugger. She doesn't even have original moves, most of her moves being based on Kano's move set directly.

4 Kai

Kai is a character in Mortal Kombat 4 who is training as a Shaolin Monk, just like Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Kai, just like Liu Kang, has the ability to command fire in battle, but in just about every way both Kang and Lao are stronger fighters.

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There's nothing particularly wrong with Kai, it's just that his character was done better with his two similar predecessors. Aside from that, he only appears in Mortal Kombat 4 and Armageddon.

3 Kobra

Kobra, like Kira, is one of the new recruits that Kabal brings into the newly reformed Black Dragon in Mortal Kombat: Deception. He looks like a Street Fighter character, has a name like a Street Fighter character, and his codename in development was literally Ken Masters.

He's an unoriginal, forgettable character, mostly because of the fact that he looks like a knock-off character from one of Mortal Kombat's primary competitors. If they wanted to put a Street Fighter reference in the game, maybe he should have been an actual martial arts master and not a Karate trainee looking to prove himself for the first time.

2 Mokap

Mokap is one of the most referenced joke characters in the series, having made his debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and making cameos in several later games in the series. He's funny to play as, and his story in-game is hilarious too, but he's not strong.

Mokap is just a guy in a motion-capture suit. No special abilities, no fighting prowess, no nothing. If put against Shao Kahn in a fight, Mokap would likely (canonically speaking) run as fast as he possibly could in the opposite direction.

1 Meat

Meat is the mutilated result of one of Shang Tsung's failed experiments on people, who escaped before the ritual was finished. Meat is an unlockable character in several Mortal Kombat games, starting in Mortal Kombat 4, he's usually a secret character, and he makes cameos in many others.

Meat, though, is bar-none the weakest character in Mortal Kombat lore. It's a person without any skin. They don't have any special abilities, they just don't have skin and their body is incredibly mutilated. They probably experience a lot of pain constantly, which probably makes it hard to land punches.

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