Jarek (disambiguation)

Template:Mortal Kombat character Jarek is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.

About Jarek

Jarek was the unlucky, rather dimwitted and brutish "last member of the Black Dragon." First debuting in Mortal Kombat 4, he utilized special moves and fatalities popularized by Kano, as well as a Black Dragon Sword, a weapon with sharp, pointy edges that stuck out from the sword's blade. His overall lack of originality has caused him to be labelled as somewhat of an uninspired character by the MK fanbase.

Storyline

He made his first chronological appearance in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, where he and other Black Dragon members were freed from a United States Special Forces detention facility along with other Black Dragon members by Kano, who had proposed to reform the Black Dragon clan (In reality, Kano merely wished to use them to slow down any Special Forces agents who may have pursued him in his quest to obtain an artifact called the Eye of Shitian). Jarek was Kano's best student and in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, Jarek was stationed at a downtown office which the clan were using as a front for their activities when he was confronted and defeated by Major Jackson Briggs and brought back into custody.

File:Jarek Armageddon (Roster Render).PNG

An early render of Jarek for Armageddon

Some considerable time later, he escaped to Edenia, only to find himself caught between two fires there: Shinnok and the Special Forces. Reluctantly, he agreed to help his sworn enemies defeat Shinnok. Jarek's short temper, forgetfulness (he seems to not realize that Shinnok is dead, and that the Black Dragon were completely destroyed) and irredeemable bad character would seem to eventually cause his own (literal) downfall. Shortly after the defeat and destruction of Shinnok's forces, he fell from a cliff in an attempt to kill Lieutenant Sonya Blade. Whether he truly died or not will be revealed in time, as he is slated to make a return in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon with a redesign for his appearance.

During Shujinko's quest in Mortal Kombat: Deception, Jarek was in the Netherealm apparently looking for Oni Teeth.

Fatalities

Heart Rip – Jarek performs Kano's Heart Rip fatality.
Eye Laser – Twin lasers shoot out of Jarek's eyes, and he sweeps the beam from side to side; first cutting off the victim's head, and then his/her torso. He then goes into his winning pose, lasers still emanating from his eyes.

Trivia

Jarek is the source of an interesting glitch in Mortal Kombat Gold. After turning on Instant Fatalities in the cheat menu, Jarek can perform his Eye Laser fatality from any point on screen. This should be as far away from the victim as possible. When the camera changes position to show Jarek's winning pose, a screen will appear as an object (it may be behind Jarek, in front of him, or even behind the camera). This screen will contain images of the victim from all angles. This is probably the bitmap used to create the characters. If done to Mileena, her teeth (never visible during gameplay) can be seen on this screen.
Because Jarek had the same moves as Kano, many fans angrily claimed that he is simply Kano in MK4. This holds some truth since the development team began making 3D models of existing MK characters and then decided they needed to add some new people as well. Jarek is simply a different texture over Kano's model, and this explains why he shares so many moves with him. The same holds true for Reiko (originally Noob Saibot) and Tanya (originally Kitana).
- Both Jarek and Kira use moves from Kano. Unlike Jarek, however, Kira has her own set of fatalities and shared some of Sonya Blade's moves.
- Jarek was assigned Kano's fatalities, but without Kano's artificial eye, he had no viable reason to shoot lasers from his eyes. This was left anyway, and was never explained.
When he appeared in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, he had the ability to throw knives, taunt, and fire an orb that paralyzed the player if he was shot with a weapon.
He is referred to by Jax in Special Forces as "some punk kid with a sharp toy".