Scorpion (Mortal Kombat) - Character Design

Character Design

Scorpion appeared in the first three MK games simply as a yellow palette swap of Sub-Zero, but with a different fighting stance. The original costume used for filming in the first game was red, but yellow for the second. In his initial backstory, shown in the first MK's attract mode, he is described only as having enmity towards Sub-Zero that was attributed to rivalries between opposing ninja clans. However, it wasn't until the release of 1997's Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero that Scorpion's origins were finally touched upon in detail: his real name (Hanzo Hasashi) was revealed and his yellow outfit was described as an apparent mockery of the Lin Kuei, after former Lin Kuei member Takeda developed ninjutsu before leaving the clan and forming the rival Shirai Ryu, of which Scorpion was a member.

In the original MK's fighter selection screen, Scorpion had regular human eyes (as his identity as a resurrected spectre was meant to be a mystery), but solid yellow or white eyes for subsequent releases starting with MKII. The character's outfit was created from a modified ninja-like costume found at a store in Chicago. In future releases after Mortal Kombat 4 (more in particular the sixth generation based games), his outfit was enhanced with two swords crisscrossed on his back and his kunai attached to a rope tied to his belt. In the 2011 Mortal Kombat game, Scorpion's original outfit was featured as downloadable content.

Scorpion's two signature spear taunts were voiced by MK co-creator Ed Boon in the games and both feature films, but only one of them ("Come here!") was included in the home versions of MK and MKII due to memory constraints. According to Boon, the second of the character's phrases originated because he thought "it would be funny to have him yell out 'Get over here!' when he ," and he was thus encouraged to get behind the studio microphone and record the taunts. In 2012, Boon included creating Scorpion's "Spear" move and the character among his best Mortal Kombat memories, adding: "I remember people sitting in my office all day just doing this uppercut again and again, like 'Oh my God, that feels so good.' It just became the cornerstone of ." MK co-creator John Tobias said that the phrase "Toasty!" first originated as "You're Toast!", which was a taunt bandied among the designers during MKII game-testing sessions.