Mavado

Mavado is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.

About Mavado
Introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mavado in many respects embodies the underworld antipode of Kano. Whereas Kano seems to rely mainly on scare tactics and brute force, Mavado relies on discipline and superior intelligence to fight. In battle, he uses a pair of signature grappling hooks to augment his attacks, allowing him to propel himself quickly around the arena. Mavado is a leading figure, second only to Daegon, within the Red Dragon, which the games reveal to be an ancient criminal organization whose existence is known only to its members, and whose most prominent rivals are the Black Dragon, an offshoot of the Red Dragon which was led by Kano but is now reformed under the leadership of Kabal. Mavado is depicted as a vicious, pitiless, and cruel crime lord.

Storyline
Mavado's influence in the games' storyline began sometime before the events of Mortal Kombat 4. Since the Red Dragon's top priority is the extermination of the Black Dragon while still desiring to keep their existence secret, they decided to use the Special Forces to serve their own purposes. To that end, Mavado's instructed his subordinate, Hsu Hao, to infiltrate the Outer World Investigation Agency and help them in tracking down and killing the last members of the Black Dragon, a mission Hsu Hao performed to great success.

After the events of Mortal Kombat 4, with Jarek seemingly killed by Jax, and Kabal presumably killed by Mavado himself (the latter's trademark hookswords being taken as trophies in the process), Hsu Hao's task was deemed over. However, Mavado was then contacted by the Deadly Alliance. Both sorcerers saw the Red Dragon as a great potential ally for their eventual domination of Earthrealm. Mavado was hired to fend off Kenshi, in return acquiring the opportunity to be given the last Black Dragon member: Kano, at the time a general in the service of the Deadly Alliance. They also requested that the Red Dragon destroy the Outer World Investigation Agency's techno-portals to prevent the Special Forces from being able to travel to Outworld.

During the events of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mavado complied with these tasks. He instructed Hsu Hao to destroy the Outer World Investigation Agency's underground portal facility, shortly before travelling to Outworld himself through a secret inter-realm portal located in the Lost Sea. Mavado tracked down and defeated Kenshi, allowing him to have his fight with Kano; however, rather than kill his foe, Mavado captured Kano and had his Red Dragon minions bring him to their headquarters. Like his overlords Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, though, he had little time to revel in his victory. Shortly before Mortal Kombat: Deception, Kabal returned fully recuperated from his stay in Chaosrealm and seemingly killed Mavado, retrieving his hookswords back.

In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Mavado returns, apparently having survived. He is still seen wielding hookswords as a weapon, but these are presumably no longer Kabal's. In the game's Konquest mode, Mavado is seen in the Red Dragon's lair reporting to Daegon that the clan has located Blaze. Daegon then orders him to kill his brother Taven while he prepares to leave. Taven defeats Mavado, but Mavado is able to escape using a hidden elastic rope to propel himself into a secret compartment.

In Mavado's Armageddon ending, he discovers that upon defeating Blaze, he gained the ability to control those who wear the Red Dragon emblem. He telepathically influences his clan to defeat their enemies, and then tattooed the emblem on them. He uses his new army to take over the world.

Signature moves

 * Grapple Hook Strike: Mavado catapults himself with his ropes at the opponent, kicking him. (MK:DA, MK:A)
 * Change Sides Hook: Mavado uses his ropes to evade the opponent's attack by swinging to the side. (MK:DA, MK:A)
 * Anger Management: A power-up move that adds strength to Mavado's physical attacks. (MK:A)
 * Low Grapple Slide: Mavado flies forward with a kick, using a grapple hook to anchor himself. (MK:A)
 * Escape Grapple: Mavado uses his grapple hooks to pull himself backward and out of harm's way. (MK:DA, MK:A)

Character development
Mavado's name was originally going to be "Malvado", which is Portuguese and Spanish for "evil man". At first, his character was going to be portrayed as a matador-type fighter, but developers did not feel that this look fit into the Mortal Kombat series. Since they were not pleased with this direction, Mavado's appearance was given a complete overhaul, aiming towards a darker persona.

Game information
Mavado had a cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat: Deception ' s Konquest mode in which the player, as Shujinko, finds him looking for an assassin to work for the Red Dragon clan in Edenia. The assassin would end up being Hsu Hao. Mavado is also found in Orderrealm, willing to trade for red koins.

Trivia

 * Despite the Red Dragon clan being in existence before the Mortal Kombat tournament (along with their rival's the Black Dragon clan), Mavado and Hsu Hao were the first Red Dragon members to be featured in the series with the release of Deadlly Alliance in 2002.