The newest Mortal Kombat film is now available to watch in theaters, as well as on HBO Max. Discussion surrounding the film has covered a broad range of subjects, including the new character Cole Young, why Mortal Kombat doesn't have a tournament, and most recently the four-armed villain Goro. Mortal Kombat fans are calling Goro a "jobber," a term for a wrestler or fighter that does nothing but lose, but this is a stance that Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias takes issue with.
In the Mortal Kombat film, Goro is summoned by Shao Kahn to hunt down and kill Cole Young, preventing his participation in the next Mortal Kombat tournament before the fighter's powers can be fully discovered. Goro is defeated as Cole finds his powers mid-fight, "jobbing" before he contributes much beyond his short and brutal defeat. It's this loss that has triggered accusations of Goro being a jobber in the broader Mortal Kombat canon, with fighting game player SonicFox being the source.
As the discussion grew heated, a Twitter user mentioned Tobias to ask about Goro's historical role in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Tobias was happy to participate, providing a timeline of Mortal Kombat winners going from the year 2000 all the way back to 1050. As Mortal Kombat lore fans already know, Goro won every Mortal Kombat tournament between 1550 and 1950.
Outworld winning nine Mortal Kombat tournaments in a row is a key part of the story that picks up in the franchise's story. Winning ten tournaments in a row allows the winning realm to invade its opponents' world. Outworld's efforts toward a tenth victory over Earthrealm are stifled by Liu Kang's victory over Goro.
In the first iteration of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise's story, Goro is by no means a jobber. The four-armed Shoken is the strongest fighter of two realms for nearly 500 years. The list goes even further back in history, with no other victor having as many consecutive victories as Goro. In other words, Goro is perhaps the most dominant fighter in the history of Mortal Kombat.
Where the discussion falls apart, however, is that the new Mortal Kombat film may not have any cohesion with the original Mortal Kombat lore. It's possible that he has won 500 years of Mortal Kombat tournaments, but if he did it doesn't look like it against the inexperienced Cole. In the video games, Goro is by no means a jobber. In the Mortal Kombat 2021 film, the evidence at hand may point to the contrary.
Mortal Kombat is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.