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Mileena

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Mortal Kombat IIUltimate Mortal Kombat 3

Mileena is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A genetic experiment created by the sorcerer Shang Tsung, she is one of the adopted daughters of the Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn and one of his personal enforcers. She has served as an antagonist throughout the series.

Mileena made her debut in Mortal Kombat II as a playable character and has been a playable character in a majority of her appearances in the series. Mileena returned in Mortal Kombat X and served as a quaternary antagonist in the game's Story Mode. She returned in Mortal Kombat 11 as DLC as part of the Kombat Pack 2.

A new version of Mileena returns in Mortal Kombat 1, serving as a supporting character in the game's Story Mode.

About Mileena

Mileena is a mutant hybrid clone of Kitana, created in Shang Tsung's flesh pits at the behest of Shao Kahn, who had become increasingly paranoid that Kitana would one day learn the truth and betray him. As a fusion of Tarkatan blood and Edenian physiology, Mileena combines and fully utilizes attributes of both races in combat, boasting incredible speed, brute strength, nimble acrobatic prowess, and frightening, carnivorous savagery matched only by Baraka.

In stark contrast to Kitana, Mileena is an evil, sadistic, cruel, twisted, hot-tempered, selfish, and psychologically unhinged opportunist whose fondest wish is to kill her "sister" and claim her existence for her own. She fights using a pair of sais and a hideous, razor-sharp Tarkatan maw which she uses to bite off chunks of human flesh and crush bones.

She is shown to be extremely flirtatious as well, utilizing her "beauty" to manipulate men to her advantage, although all of the characters she has tried this on, particularly Reiko, found her repulsive. The Tarkatan warrior Baraka is sometimes portrayed as her love interest.

Following Shao Kahn's defeat at the end of Mortal Kombat (2011), Mileena became the new empress of Outworld. However, her rule was turbulent and deeply unpopular, leading to her overthrow at the hands of Kotal Kahn. Although she tried to regain her throne by starting a civil war and hiring both Kano, Tanya, and Rain to kill Kotal, these attempts ended in failure and she was ultimately executed by D'Vorah.

Despite her violent nature and insanity, in Mortal Kombat 11, Mileena is depicted with a more sympathetic side. Interactions in the game's Arcade, along with her Arcade Ending show less of her savage side, revealing a strong connection towards Tanya, becoming enraged about her unknown whereabouts and the idea of her possibly being dead. Additionally, her Arcade Ending depicts her wanting to start a family after becoming the new Keeper of Time, presumably with Tanya, in which Mileena cherishes her daughter who, unlike her sister Kitana, does not see her as a monster.

Starting in Liu Kang's 'New Era' timeline in Mortal Kombat 1, Mileena is now the older twin sister of Kitana and the daughter of Sindel, infected with the lethal "Tarkat" disease. As Sindel's first born, Mileena is the heir to the Outworld throne and works with Kitana to ensure that she will be the best empress possible.

Appearance

Originally, as with all MK female ninjas, Mileena wore a tight leotard and mask, with her uniform being colored in shades of magenta. Later on, her costumes changed, some of them rather loose, but usually more revealing than Kitana's. In terms of physical features, she is identical to Kitana, apart from having shorter hair and her face being twisted by the Tarkatan DNA flowing in her veins, giving her a large mouth rimmed with long, sharp teeth and large, orange, feline-like eyes much like Baraka.

In Deception, she compensates for her Tarkatan features by wearing revealing apparel to show off her lascivious physique, while wearing a veil to keep her mouth hidden.

In Mortal Kombat (2011), she boasts an even more revealing outfit with high-heeled boots similar to her alternative costume in Deception and her eyes are Tarkatan-like. In her part of the Story Mode, Kitana encounters Mileena in Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits bearing her Tarkatan teeth and wearing haphazardly assembled, yet strategically-placed bandages to cover her body.

In Mortal Kombat X, Mileena wears much more conservative clothing than in all her 3D appearances thus far. Her lips lend her a human-like appearance, but her mouth is still lined with large, sharp teeth. She also dons an outfit similar to her appearance in Deception albeit less revealing.

In Mortal Kombat 11, Mileena again wears much more conservative clothing, similar to her appearance in MKX, however her mouth was also reverted back to her original Tarkatan teeth. Additionally, her face more closely resembles Kitana's in her appearance in MK11, unlike other iterations where Mileena looked slightly different. Additionally, through the game's Kustomization, Mileena was given different outfits along with different Gear consisting of her masks, clawed gauntlets and Sais.

Combat Characteristics

Powers and Abilities

Mileena, half Edenian, half Tarkatan, has proven that she is a deadly combination of beauty and beast. She has been shown to be able to fight with brute strength rivaling that of a Shokan, if not surpassing it, and has shown an incredible amount of agility and acrobatic prowess. In addition, she possesses incredible speed, making her one of the deadliest kombatants in the whole series. Mileena wields a pair of Sai and is able to teleport, roll, and bite the opponent with her deadly Tarkatan teeth. Because of her being Kitana's clone, she almost is equal in strength to her. In Mortal Kombat (2011), Mileena does not have the same knowledge of martial arts as her former version but replaces it with more wild, fierce attacks that make her exactly the same or even deadlier in terms of ferocity, although she is more mentally unstable.

Being Kitana's clone, Mileena possesses incredible combat strength, aptitude, and agility like her sister. What separates her from Kitana, though, is her weapon of choice in the sai. She exhibits proficiency with the Sai that is equivalent to Kitana's with her fans. Coupled with the Tarkatan blood coursing through her veins and physique that allows for superb agility, this makes Mileena one of the most vicious and deadly characters in the entire series.

As shown in Mortal Kombat (2011), Mileena becomes enshrouded in a pink, flame-like aura when executing her signature techniques, including the Rolling Thunder, Soaring Sai and Kick From Above.

In Mortal Kombat X, her powers have developed further, granting her the ability to instantly warp towards sais she has thrown on the ground through a variation called Ethereal.

Mortal Kombat 11 further expands her abilities, bringing back legacy moves with more twists and adding completely new powers to her arsenal. Some of her moves that are normally cloaked in her signature pink aura in the modern games are mixed with a second layer of aura that is colored blue. While the backstory behind this change is unknown, it is likely a reference to her hybrid nature. She has gained new ways to attack opponents with her sai projectiles such as placing them on the ground to erupt from below the enemy and magically summon sai daggers out of thin air that strike opponents from multiple angles. Complimenting her assassin character, Mileena has the ability to turn completely invisible albeit she is covered in an magic aura that gives away her position. This drawback is compensated by her body being completely invisible even during attacks, making her foes oblivious to whatever she is going to do next.

In Mortal Kombat 1, she's no longer a clone of Kitana as she's a now a normal Edenian infected by the Tarkat disease in the New Era. Under the influence of this disease, she regains her familiar savagery and barely able to control herself. Only with a serum developed by Shang Tsung is she able to temporarily revert back to her normal form, unless she engages in kombat. Her Tarkatan form also now grants her the familiar arm blades of Baraka and the Tarkatans.

Signature Moves

X-Rays/Fatal Blows

Other Moves

Fatalities

Brutalities

Mortal Kombat X

Mortal Kombat 11

Mortal Kombat 1

Other Finishers

Movie and TV Appearances

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Mileena (played by Dana Hee) served as an assassin for Shao Kahn. She fought Sonya Blade, who initially mistook Mileena for Kitana. Sonya killed Mileena, causing the dragon tattoo on Mileena's shoulder to come to life and quickly disappear. The similar appearances of Mileena and Kitana are the only connections between the two characters that the film makes. Mileena's name is never mentioned in the film, when Sonya notices that Raiden shares the same dragon tattoo as both Mileena and Cyrax later in the film, she refers to them only as "a robot and a woman" who both tried to kill her. However, the end credits identify her as Mileena. Appropriately, Dana Hee was the stunt double for Talisa Soto (Kitana) in both movies.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Mileena appeared in one episode of the television series Mortal Kombat: Conquest, 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 look, which she loved (for a second, he called her his "new daughter" before saying that her beauty was temporary and if she failed he would take it away); as punishment for her taking too much time in her mission, Kahn allows her to keep her beauty with the exception of making her teeth more exaggerated and pointy and making her voice sound like that of an old woman, her outer beauty to remind her of trying to be something that she is not. As giving her the face with fangs and the haggish voice makes her ugliness much more appalling, she starts to wear her signature mask, which Kahn gives her before ordering his guards to take her away. She was portrayed by Megan Brown in both forms, and by Audie England in the form of Kitana. Mileena, wearing a green costume, succeeded in seducing Kung Lao, but could not 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, broken by Shao Kahn.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy

In Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Mileena is played by Jolene Tran.

Mileena's history is left largely unchanged, but instead of having been created when Shao Kahn began to doubt Kitana's loyalty, she was created as an infant and raised alongside her as her sister, with the two largely unaware of the truth of their relationship for some time. Also, while she retains her Tarkatan features, they do not manifest unless she is greatly angered, leaving her face with scars running upwards and outwards from her mouth similar to a Glasgow smile.

Mileena was created by Shang Tsung from a vial of Kitana's blood and Tarkatan blood after Shao Kahn began to fear that Sindel would raise Kitana to hate him as she did, but when Sindel saw the infant Mileena next to her own daughter, as well as her features briefly contort into their true Tarkatan shape, she took her own life to infuse her soul into her daughter. This left Shao Kahn to raise the girls himself, and in their adolescence, he began training them as his personal assassins after noticing their promising skill, with Mileena being efficient with sai. Mileena grew angry over her father's greater approval over Kitana, and one night, she lost control of her bestial instincts and killed a passing guard when he found her studying her changed face in a nearby fountain, tearing his throat out with her teeth.

Though Mileena was horrified, Shao Kahn had secretly been watching and was pleased to see Mileena begin to lose her self-control, all apart of his manipulations of her and Kitana.

Mileena next fought Kitana before her father but was overpowered by her sister, who was declared the winner, angering Mileena enough that her teeth briefly showed. Shao Kahn then assigned to the two to begin hunting down and eliminating the remainder of king Jerrod's decoys and bodyguards, a task Mileena relished in. When Shao Kahn gave them the task of killing the true Jerrod, Mileena waited while Kitana confronted him and killed him from behind, impaling him with her sai, giving her sister a smug smirk as she reclaimed her weapon and left.

Mileena did not realize that this act would lead Kitana into discovering her true heritage and begin planning her rebellion against their 'father', and Mileena was none the wiser as she knelt before Shao Kahn as he began telling them of his plans for Earthrealm's conquest.

Jolene Tran did not reprise her role as Mileena for Season 2 and was instead replaced by stuntwoman and actress Michelle Lee.

Quotes

Mortal Kombat Gold

Mortal Kombat (2011)

Mortal Kombat X

Mortal Kombat 1

Armageddon Mileena

Mortal Kombat (2021)

Trivia

General

Mortal Kombat 3/Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3/Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Mortal Kombat (2011)

Mortal Kombat X

Mortal Kombat Mobile

Mortal Kombat 11

Mortal Kombat 1

Preceded by Emperor of Outworld (Alternate Timeline) Succeeded by
Shao Kahn ? AMK - ? AMK Kotal Kahn

Errors

References

  1. Twitter post by Dominic Cianciolo
  2. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mortal-kombat-x-mileena
  3. https://twitter.com/MortalKombat/status/1314211422373462016
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