A Flawless Victory
In the Mortal Kombat series, a Flawless Victory is a feat achieved by winning a round without the player incurring any damage, including chip damage from blocking, over the course of a round. In most other fighting games, this is usually referred to as a "Perfect" win, although oftentimes due to the lack of damage that is incurred from blocking non-special attacks, the meaning is somewhat different compared to the term “Flawless Victory” in Mortal Kombat.
Double Flawless[]
A Double Flawless is achieved by winning an entire match without taking damage over the course of two rounds. The phrase is only used in the first and second games; from Mortal Kombat 3 onward, every no-damage round win is referred to as a Flawless Victory, whether or not it was preceded by another in the previous round.
Other uses[]
Kung Lao declaring "Flawless victory" in the 2021 Mortal Kombat film
The phrase "Flawless Victory" has eventually become part of the popular culture vernacular. Persons will often refer to an exceptional accomplishment as a "Flawless Victory" so as to accentuate the superior nature of the feat, all the while paying homage to Mortal Kombat, consciously or not. The phrase has also been observed in contemporary film and television.
The phrase is used twice in the Mortal Kombat film: first by Shang Tsung, after Sub-Zero defeats his first opponent in the tournament; and later, towards the end of the film, by Liu Kang, just after defeating Shang Tsung.
In the 2021 Mortal Kombat film, Kung Lao declares "Flawless Victory" after slicing Nitara in two with his Razor-Rimmed Hat.
Trivia[]
- In the game "Trials 2: Second Edition", if you complete any Hard level without any failures (known as "faults" in-game), a strange voice will say "Flawless Victory!" upon finish.
- Likewise, Unreal Tournament 2004 used the phrase whenever a match was won without the opponent(s) being able to kill the player or score a point. Interestingly, the next game in the series would not only be published by Midway Games, but also had Raiden as a guest character and Shao Kahn as a guest announcer.