| Mileena | |
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Mileena in Mortal Kombat (2011) |
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| Series | Mortal Kombat |
| First game | Mortal Kombat II (1993) |
| Created by | Ed Boon and John Tobias |
| Designed by | John Tobias (MKII, UMK3/MKT) Jennifer L. Parsons (Annihilation) Steve Beran (MK:D, MK:A) Mark Lappin (MK:SM) Allisa Swanson (Legacy) |
| Voiced by | Lita Lopez (MK:SM) Johanna Añonuevo (MK:D, MK:A) Karen Strassman (MK2011) |
| Motion capture | Katalin Zamiar (MKII) Becky Gable (UMK3, MKT) |
| Portrayed by | Dana Hee (Annihilation) Jennifer DeCosta (Live Tour) Audie England, Megan Brown (Konquest) Danni Levy, Jo Garcia (promotion) Jolene Tran (Legacy) |
| Fictional profile | |
| Origin | Outworld |
| Fighting styles | Ying Yeung (MK:D) Mian Chuan (MK:D, MK:A) Tae Kwon Do, Ninjitsu (Konquest)[1] |
| Weapon | Sai (all media) Long Sword (only MKG) |
Mileena[note 1] is a player and and a one-time boss character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Mileena was originally known as the personal assassin of the Outworld's evil emperor Shao Kahn and twin sister of his stepdaughter Princess Kitana, but in a truth she is a deformed clone of her created by the sorcerer Shang Tsung. She is usually defined by her fierce rivalry with Kitana, though the series also serving masters other than Shao Kahn and desiring power for herself.
Since her introduction in 1993 as Kitana's palette swap character, Mileena gained significant popularity and become one of Mortal Kombat's most iconic characters. She was used in the games' promotion as a designated sex symbol, but her appearances in the various related media have been relatively rare and minor, compared to Kitana. She received a mixed (mostly due to a remarkable dualism of her character design) but generally favourable critical reception.
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After the ruler of the other dimensional realm Outworld, Shao Kahn, conquered the realm of Edenia and merged it with his own, he decided he would keep the former king's daughter Kitana alive and raise her as his own. Though she grew up knowing nothing of her origin, Kahn nonetheless feared that one day Kitana would discover her true parentage and turn against him, so he ordered Shang Tsung to bring to life a more vicious and loyal version of Kitana that could take her place if necessary, and this has been done by fusing the essence of both Kitana and a Tarkatan warrior from Baraka's race. The process was not a complete success, however, as the hybrid clone turned out to be disfigured with a hideous mouth of the Tarkata. Instead of replacing Kitana, as originally planned, Mileena would be used to ensure her allegiance to him, and so Shao Kahn introduced Mileena to Kitana as her supposedly lost twin sister. The two thus grew up together as his daughters and personal assassins, though Mileena (who also became a companion of Baraka) secretly grew to harbor great bitterness and jealousy towards Kitana, whom Kahn nevertheless favored over her.[2]
As Kahn feared, Kitana did finally find the truth about her past and so Mileena was ordered to keep close watch over her rival when Kitana secretly allied with Earthrealm warriors during the events of Mortal Kombat II (1993). The two are pitted against each other in the tournament, but Kitana proves to be superior and Mileena is killed, her soul descending into the Netherrealm. In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005), the beat'em up retelling of Mortal Kombat II, Mileena (voiced by Lita Lopez) fights against Liu Kang and Kung Lao alongside Jade and Kitana under Kahn's mental control, but is defeated by the two Shaolin warriors and flees to the Wasteland to seek help from Goro.[note 2] Damned to the Netherrealm after her death, Mileena swears fealty to Shinnok, the ruler of this realm. During the events of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1996), Shao Kahn attempts to resurrect Mileena. Shinnok sees this as an opportunity to secretly monitor the events unfolding in Earthrealm, and thus he allows Mileena to return to life, also magically granting her the ability to read Kitana's thoughts.[3] After Kahn is defeated, Mileena is summoned back to the Netherrealm. In Mortal Kombat Gold (1999), she assists in Shinnok's invasion of Edenia, but allows her sister to escape from a dungeon. After Shinnok's defeat, Mileena comes to Kitana' palace and demands the power over Edenia to be shared with her but Kitana refuses and, when attacked, traps Mileena, locking her away in a dungeon.
Mileena remains imprisoned for years, until Onaga the Dragon King began his own invasion of Edenia, during which she is freed from her imprisonment by Baraka. During the events of Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), Mileena (voiced by Johanna Añonuevo) is ordered to pose as Kitana in order to mislead the princess' armies while Onaga gathered his strength. However, as Mileena begins the game's titular deception, she also secretly decides to take control of both the forces of Edenia and Onaga's own undead army for herself. In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), Mileena seizes Shao Kahn's fortress in the name of "peace". As she did this still under the guise of Kitana, she decides to continue her charade until the Edenian armies were corrupted enough to follow her under her true identity. Though at first confident that Outworld is hers to rule, when the returning Shao Kahn mounts an offensive against the fortress to re-instate his rule over Outworld she is forced to reveal herself and surrender to him. Kahn then commands her to capture Shujinko, whom she helped to train in his youth and who would be used as a bargaining chip in gaining Onaga as an ally. Mileena, pretending to be Kitana, succeeds in capturing Shujinko, taking him to Shao Kahn's palace. But having tasted power for herself, she is no longer content with being his minion and get the throne of Edenia back for herself. She is later killed by Shang Tsung during the final all-out battle at the Soulnado.[note 3]
Mileena returns in Mortal Kombat (2011), an alternative-timeline retelling of the original Mortal Kombat trilogy. In this game, Mileena (voiced by Karen Strassman) was created by Shang Tsung in the "Flesh Pit" and introduced during the second tournament, instead of many years earlier. Meant to be a loyal replacement for Kitana, she is physically and mentally damaged, her animalistic rage controlled only by Shao Kahn as she uses her lascivious demeanor to lure victims and then slaughter and devour them.[4] In the game's story mode, she serves as an opponent for Kitana, Jade, Stryker and Kabal, and is referred to by Shao Kahn as his "true daughter"; when Kahn appaers to be killed, his minions even discuss making her the new ruler of Outworld. Her new personality is much more immature (even infatile[5]) than the cold and calculating Mileena of the previous games and Kitana is even shown to be an unusually sympathic towards her (in Kitana's uncanonical ending).
Mileena was the first evil female character to appear in the series, created by John Tobias. Tobias recalled that Mileena was created just to accommodate another palette swapped character, adding: "I took advantage of Kitana and Mileena being masked sisters to make a play on the veil myth… One sister is beautiful. One is ugly. One is good. One is evil. Choose wisely before asking one on a date."[6] Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon described the sisters as the "female versions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero".[7]
Mileena was thus originally conceived as a purple-clad version of Kitana, originally portrayed by Katalin Zamiar in Mortal Kombat II. Becky Gable took over the part from Zamiar for the development of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and in the later games no video footage actors were used. Since Mileena's debut in MKII, her characteristic weapon is a pair of sharp sai,[note 4] that at first she has been using in combat only as projectiles and during some of her finishing moves (eventually, the sai were given more use and a magical aura of purple energy in MK2011). Only in MK Gold Mileena also uses a European longsword, Scorpion's weapon in the both versions of MK4. Her UMK3 Animality transformation animal is a small skunk.
Mileena is physically identical to Kitana with the exception of her infamous Tarkatan jaw. Boon described Mileena as "Anti-Kitana" and revealed that her large "sharp, nasty teeth" were not originally planned and were only drawn for her Fatality "Man-Eater" (featured only in MKII in UMK3/MKT, in which she appears to magically consume her opponent whole and immediately afterwards spews out a hail of clean bones[8]).[9] Following MKII, her teeth were also almost never used again in gameplay until MK2011 (in a leap attack to bite an opponent in the neck and in a Fatality in which she gnaws on the defeated enemy's severed head),[10] with a sole exception of a Fatality in Deception (in which she tears the opponent's head off using her teeth). Her teeth got noticeably downsized in Deception and Armageddon.
Mileena's skin color usually appears to be mildly darker than Kitana, although she was never even remotely as dark as Jade's. Since all three of them were given more varying appearances in Gold, Mileena's shoulder-long jet-black hair is usually much shorter than Kitana's and Jade's and most often wore gathered in a ponytail (except the first games, in which all Kitana-derived characters' hair is mid-back level and loose in MKII and and pinned back in UMK3/MKT). One element of her anatomy that is often changing from one game to another are her eyes, as she had began with human eyes in MKII, but in UMK3/MKT and MKG her eyes changed to show her being "undead" (all-white with no pupils and irises, similar to these of Scorpion). In the later games she was reverted to her normal eyes, while in the 2011 reboot she has Tarkatan (Baraka-like) whole-yellow glowing eyes with slit pupils (with exception of when she is wearing her alternate UMK3 costume, for which she has human eyes once again[11]).
Her main color has been either a shade of purple or magenta in various installments, although her main costume in Deception is actually mostly black. In her initial appearances, Mileena is clad in a re-colored versions of Kitana's costumes. Later, Mileena's outfits has been getting ever more skimpy with every new game,[8] including a completely exposed midriff since Deception. In Gold, Mileena's outfit differed from Kitana's in any way save color the first time. Steve Beran, character designer of Deception, said that he "wanted to give Mileena an Arabic feel to her costume and the final version showed a lot more skin and her mask developed into more of a veil."[12][note 5] Her main (more covering) outfit features long flowing sleeves and back-only loincloth and the veil is partially transparent. In Shaolin Monks, Millena appears half-naked in a costume made largely of just multiple belts of leather and scraps of fabric and even barefoot (with a bandaged midfoot), and again wearing a veil instead of a mask.
In MK2011, Mileena's prime costume is based on her famous Deception provocative alternate, but with more details and again featuring a mask instead of a veil. One of her alternate costumes in this game (out of at least four, which was the largest number out of all characters until the MKII style costumes were given to Kitana and Jade), including her "klassic" UMK3 costume is actually made out of just some bandages put on her naked body, without even a mask and again barefoot.[13][note 6]
Mileena is a secret character in UMK3, in which she needs to be unlocked using a special "Kombat Kode",[14] but is available from the start in the compilation game Mortal Kombat Trilogy. She is not playable in MK: Shaolin Monks, where she instead appears only as a hostile boss character alongside Kitana and Jade, as well as an optional boss in a secret-stage encounter, but has appeared (in the super deformed-style "cute" form) in every minigame ("Chess Kombat", "Puzzle Kombat" and "Motor Kombat") through the series. Most of her Fatalities involve use of sai, including to immobilize her opponent during the kill, and in some of them she pretends to kiss her victim (CU Amiga called her MKII Fatality "the kiss of death to end all kisses"[15]).[8] In the early 1990s there was also a false urban legend regarding a supposed "Nudality" finishing move.[16][17]
Mileena was widely seen as a top-tier character of Mortal Kombat II. Mortal Kombat II According to GamePro's official strategy guide, while Jax is the best overall fighter in this game, Mileena's "massive advantage" over him made her an ultimate "Queen of the Hill" ("With her rapid Sai-throwing ability, teleport attacks, and deadly combos, this beautiful assassin lands atop our ratings"). In their test, Mileena players won most matches against other characters and especially many against Jax, Reptile (ranked by the guide as the worst MKII fighter) and Shang Tsung.[18] A similar observation was voiced by Amiga Format, noting that she and Kitana were always "so much faster" that Jax "ended getting his head kicked in every time."[19] Mileena was also the best overall fighter of MKII according to Sega Visions (Jax was named as the second-best fighter by them too), citing high speed and reach, and her teleport kick that can dodge projectiles.[20] According to CU Amiga, Mileena was "third only to Jax and Liu Kang for sheer brillance", being a "somewhat misleading character" whose moves need to be "learnt the right way to put them all together to be devastating".[21]
However, according to Nintendo Power, Mileena original MKII powers "may prove insufficient" for using her with same effectiveness in UMK3.[22] Sega Saturn Magazine wrote simply "she's pretty much identical to the last time."[23] In fact, Mileena has never get had any new special attacks until the Mortal Kombat reboot game in 2011 (about 18 years after the arcade release of Mortal Kombat II).
According to Prima Games' official guide for Armageddon, in this game Mileena is a better character than Kitana ("seems to have the upper hand between the two"), but while Mileena "is able to punish from any range and even interrupt high attacks and projectiles, the damage she inflicts is minor"; she was rated overall 6/10.[24] According to Prima's official guide for the 2011 Mortal Kombat, she is a well-balanced fighter that displays neither particular (a big enough for one-sided battle) weakness to nor adventage over any other character.[25]
Mileena was one of the minor characters featured in Mortal Kombat: Live Tour stage show in 1995, played by Jennifer DeCosta. She also appeared as a minor recurring character in Malibu's Mortal Kombat comic books in 1995, following the release of Mortal Kombat II. In the comics, Mileena first appeared in the 3-volume miniseries Goro: Prince of Pain as part of a team led by Kitana with orders to find the missing Goro in Outworld. She is shown having reservations about Kitana's true loyalty (though she never speaks about it to anyone) and considers herself to be "Shao Kahn's true daughter". Mileena duels Sonya Blade twice, losing both times. She was also featured in a one-shot special entitled Kitana and Mileena: Sister Act, which explained their past: Mileena is shown in this comic as a creation ordered by Shao Kahn, though he would never let her replace Kitana.
Mileena appeared briefly in the film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in 1997 in a cameo-like role,[26] where she was played by a kickboxer Dana Lynn Hee (Dana Hee), who was also the stunt double for Kitana's actress Talisa Soto,[27] and was only featured in one scene, in which Mileena is killed in a struggle after she has ambushed Sonya. Mileena's name was never even mentioned in the film and actually only appears in the end credits. Her pink-and-black costume is a palette swap of Kitana's main film attire (a sleeveless corset-like shirt and pants) with an added mouth mask and has blue eyes. Mileena has only one spoken line in the film ("You wish" in response to the question of "Kitana?") and it remains the only time she has ever been shown with a braided hair (Mileena is retaining Kitana's film hairstyle as well). Dana Hee described her role as "an evil, mysterious figure that leaves you wondering, 'Who is she?'" Despite being a stunt double herself, Hee had her own stunt double for the scene.[28]
In Mortal Kombat II: Annihilation, the film's novelization penned by Jerome Preisler, Mileena appears in a similar scene, but set in a mist-covered jungle wilderness instead of in a desert. She attacks Sonya just as Smoke attacks Jax, but she looks completely different, with unmasked human face and red eyes,[29] laughing an insane and inhuman laughter. In the novel, it is Mileena who scissor-grips Sonya’s neck with "her powerful thigh muscles" (the move used on her by Sonya in the film) and she actually introduces herself, adding that she does not appreciate being confused with her "virtuous half-sister." Sonya defeats her by grabbing one of Mileena's own sai and bringing its short-staff down across her windpipe, then strangling her with it until she dies. Later, when they examine Mileena's corpse, Sonya wonders if Mileena was just "another cyborg", as the griffon-like tattoo on her shoulder matched the mark that was on Cyrax.
Mileena appeared in the 1999 episode "Shadow of a Doubt" of the television series Mortal Kombat: Konquest, in which she had no initial relation to Kitana and was here depicted as an initially very repulsive and aggressive Outworld warrior sent by Shao Kahn to assassinate the weakened Kung Lao, with a magic spell placed over her to give her Kitana's beautiful features (for a while, he even called her his "new daughter"). Mileena, wearing a green costume, succeeded in seducing Kung Lao, but couldn't bring herself to kill him during their night of passion and was also explicitly warned by Shang Tsung to not do it. She makes excuses for Kahn and later fights an inconclusive duel against Kitana. As punishment for her taking too much time in her mission, Kahn allows Mileena to keep her beauty with the exception of making her teeth even more exaggerated and pointy. She then starts to wear her signature mask, which Kahn gives her before banishing her from his sight.[1][30] Mileena was portrayed by Meg Brown and Audie England played Mileena pretending to be Kitana.
Another alternative and younger version of Mileena appears in the 2011 live-action webisode series Mortal Kombat: Legacy,[31] portrayed by the martial artist and debuting actress Jolene Tran.[32] Their story is told in the two-part animated/live episode "Kitana & Mileena",[33][34] during which Mileena is shown to be a Shang Tsung-created clone like in the games, but of the age more similar to Kitana's, as they were together since they both were infants, and her otherwise normal-looking mouth (with lips, except when she had been a baby[35]) changes as her teeth grow when she becomes overcomed by a cannibalistic rage. In Legacy, the adolescent Mileena is clad in violet, does not appear to be Kitana's twin and is seen wearing a mask only in some of the animated sections (during which both of them are wearing outfits similar to these worn by them in MKII). She is shown spar-dueling against Kitana and losing to her, and killing and devouring a palace guard in a fit of insanity. When the two are eventually sent by Shao Kahn on a mission to assassinate a man who is really Kitana's biological father, King Jerrod, he is killed by Mileena.
In October 2004, Mileena was featured in a spread in the special edition of Playboy that spotlighted provocative video game characters.[36] A famous promotional picture of her, known as "Sexy Mileena" (a topless picture in her alternative Deception costume) was created for this purpose by a Midway Games employee Pav Kovacic.[12][note 7] Another image of Mileena was used as the cover picture limited "Kollector Edition" of Deception for the Xbox[37][38] and a pinup of Mileena was also featured in IGN's Hotlist in 2006.[39] In 2011, Mileena was extensively used to promote the new Mortal Kombat, including being one of the only four playable characters in the demo version of the game[40] and the trailer "A Night Out With Mileena" in which several NetherRealm Studios employees tongue-in-cheek-style answered the question where they would take her on a date.[41] Fitness model Danni Levy[42] cosplayed as Mileena in a "Kasting" live-action trailer and a promotional photo session (she and the models of Kitana and Sonya also attended The Gadget Show for a Mortal Kombat tournament[43])[44][45] and Playboy's model Jo Garcia dressed up in Mileena's colors to play as her in a sponsored vlog advertisement.[46][47]
A Mileena figurine in the Mortal Kombat II series came out exclusively with a special issue of the Argentinian magazine Top Kids in 1995.[48][49] A 7.5-inch action figure also based on Mileena's MKII design was released by Infinite Concepts in 1999, with a detachable mask.[50] She was featured in the collectible card game Mortal Kombat Kard Game in 1995, as well as in the crossover collectible card game Epic Battles (as one of the characters representing the Mortal Kombat universe already in the Premiere Edition).[51] In January 2011, an electronic music track called "Mileena's Theme" by Tokimonsta was released on iTunes[52] as the first of three singles that were also later compiled in the album Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors.[53] A 10-inch polystone statue of Mileena was announced to be released by Syco Collectibles in the Enchanted Warriors series in 2012.[54][55]
Mileena has made several homage cameo appearances outside of the franchise, including in the comic book series Gen¹³ in 1995,[56][note 8] in the 1996 film Book of Swords (a nod/tribute to Mileena in a minor role by Katalin Zamiar),[57][note 9] and in the 2010 episode "Another Bad Thanksgiving" of the animated series The Cleveland Show.[note 10] In 2009, Chibi, vocalist of The Birthday Massacre, said she was planning to get a Mileena tattoo.[58][note 11]
Mileena's addition to the series was well received and she quickly became one of the most popular and recognizable Mortal Kombat characters. At the time of the release of MKII, The Miami Herald called Kitana and Mileena, "leggy ladies who wear masks", to be "an interesting step toward political correctness" as "a far cry from Little Miss Muffet",[59] while Austin American-Statesman said they're "far nastier than that martial-artless aerobics instructor from the first game",[60] while Nintendo Power called the MKII version Mileena "beautiful, graceful, beguiling and strong, but most of all, deadly",[61] and "a dangerous enemy: cruel, cold and calculating".[62] UGO ranked Mileena fifth on the list of top 11 Mortal Kombat characters, citing her presence as an evil female player character (a taboo-breaking novelty in video games at that time) and adding that her brutal attacks, revealing outfits and slutty attitude made her a fan favorite.[63] Mileena shared the eight place with Kitana and Sonya on the Complex's list of the "hottest women in video games" in 2010[64] and was also ranked alone as eight in their 2011 list of the "most diabolical video game she-villains".[65]
Mileena's scene was the only good part of Annihilation according to That Guy With The Glasses.[66] In 2011, UGO listed Mileena as one of the 25 "hot ninja girls" of all media for her short role in this film ("The pink ninja plays dirty in a mud wrestling battle against Sonya Blade that ends with one girl down, one girl out of breath and the few audience members who made it that long into the movie pleasantly surprised")[67] and also ranked her second-best on the list of the "most stylin'" alternate costumes in gaming for her "Sexy Mileena" appearance in Deception, calling her one of the most interesting characters in the game with "a perfect 10 body" and "a -22 face".[68] Also in 2011, CraveOnline called her "without question" one of the "most beloved" characters in the Mortal Kombat universe[69] and IGN featured her as one of the series' "four main characters" alongside Liu Kang, Scorpion and Sub-Zero ("At first blush she seems like your quintessential sultry video-game vixen, but the mask comes off and she's got a gaping mouth filled to the brim with dagger-like teeth. And she makes sure she uses all of her--er, assets").[8] That same year, the model Tara Babcock ranked her as the 11th "hottest video game babe", adding that in MK2011 "Mileena embodies a childish character through her fighting style and behavior",[5] and GameFront ranked Mileena's breasts as the 31st finest in gaming history.[70]
On the other hand, much of the reception was mixed due to her conflicting looks and unstable personality, although these elements were often also regarded positively.[71][72] In the book Interacting With Video, the sisters were held as an example of a "highly eroticized dragon lady" of video games, with Mileena's "Man-Eater" Fatality described as "a high powered kiss that evokes vagina dentata."[73] For this reason she also shared the seventh place with Kitana on GamesRadar's list of top seven "girls kissing girls" in 2006[74] and was featured in their list of "gaming's most repellent anti-babes" in 2008 ("we had two nigh-identical twins of svelte, slinky sex and gore. ... But then Milly took off her mask and it all went wrong. Horribly, nightmarishly, ball-shrinkingly wrong").[75] In 2009, GamePro ranked them at 11th place on the list of the best palette-swapped video game characters, adding: "However, if you gauge Mileena's attractiveness simply based on the size of her baby-feeders, be ready for some disappointment when she removes her mask."[76] Mileena was also included in IGN's 2008 list of top 50 "chicks behaving badly" ("just call her Mileen-ewwwwww")[77] and in Virgin Media's list of ten "game girls you wouldn't dare to date".[78]
In 2009, ScrewAttack ranked her as seventh on the list of top "ugly chicks in games" for her horrific looks when unmasked, but otherwise calling her "like, the ultimate woman".[79] In 2010, UGO ranked her as the seventh on the list of "fighting games' finest female fighters", but added: "Be careful around that big scary demon mouth she keeps under the skarf though."[80] In 2011, Game Informer described her entry in the new game to be "as creepy as ever"[81] and Topless Robot ranked her as the sixth goofiest Mortal Kombat character for being "a pretty succinct commentary on the deplorable image of women in videogames" and for her absurdic "Man-Eater" finisher, but nevertheless called her "quite the looker".[82] That same year, Game Rant ranked her as the fourth "most awesome" character of the series, praising her for a disturbing style and being one of "the most disgusting yet alluring" game characters ever created,[83] also ranking her "Be Mine" Fatality as sixth best from that game[84] and her "Yummy" finishing move from Deception as the second-best Fatality ever,[85] while Bright Hub included her among the "top ten awesome" Mortal Kombat characters ("not all that glitters is not gold").[86] When comparing the Mortal Kombat characters to the seven deadly sins in Dante's Inferno, GamePro chose Mileena to represent Envy.[87]
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