Jade (Mortal Kombat)

Jade
Jade in Mortal Kombat (2011)
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)
Voiced by	Linda Lee (MK2011)
Motion capture	Katalin Zamiar (MKII) Becky Gable (UMK3, MKT)
Portrayed by	Irina Pantaeva (Annihilation)
Fictional profile
Origin	Edenia
Fighting styles	Fan Zi (MK:D, MK:A) Kuo Shou (MK:D)
Weapon	Fans (MKII) Bo Staff and Boomerang (UMK3 / MKT, MKD, MKA, MK2011)

Jade is a video game character from the Mortal Kombat series. She debuted in Mortal Kombat II (1993), at first as an unplayable secret character and became a player character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Eventually, Jade became one of stalwart supporting characters, also featured in some of the related media and in merchandise in the Mortal Kombat franchise. She received positive critical attention due to her sex appeal and brutal fighting style.

In video games

In Mortal Kombat II, Jade was a mysterious hidden character with no part in the game's storyline whatsoever. In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the 2005 beat'em-up retelling of MKII, she appears to fight against Liu Kang and Kung Lao alongside Mileena and Kitana; when defeated, she is stabbed in the eyes with Mileena's two sai by the player's character, killing her.

Jade returns in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1996) in which her backstory as a fellow Edenian and long-time friend of Kitana is revealed. She once served as Shao Kahn's elite assassin along with his adopted step-daughter Kitana (and later also Mileena). After Kitana was put on trial for Mileena's murder and escaped to the Earthrealm, Jade was ordered by Kahn to bring Kitana back to Outworld alive. However, he also sent his warrior Reptile with Jade, ordering him to kill Kitana if necessary. The two located Kitana and Jade narrowly prevented Reptile from killing her. Convinced by Reptile's actions and Kitana's words, Jade turns against Kahn and aids Kitana in freeing her resurrected mother, Queen Sindel, from Kahn's mental control. The three later join with Kitana's Earthrealm allies to help defeat Shao Kahn.

After they liberate Edenia from Outworld, Jade serves Sindel and Kitana for years. Sometime after Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, she witnesses the death, resurrection, and capture of Kitana and her allies by Onaga under an enslaving spell. In Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), Jade rescues Sindel from imprisonment in the Edenian palace dungeon. They escape to Outworld, attempting to free Kitana from Onaga's sorcery. Jade also attempts to seek revenge against the traitorous Edenian Tanya. In the game's Konquest story mode she orders Shujinko to bring the Edenian traitor Rain to her.

In Mortal Kombat, the 2011 reboot of the series, Jade is a member of Edenian noble family that served Shao Kahn once he conquered their realm, and she was given to him as tribute when she was a child. After years of rigorous training and service as an assassin, Jade has earned a reputation as an agile and stealthy warrior, and was awarded the position of a bodyguard to Princess Kitana, whom she became close friends for centuries. Jade's confident, self-assured and sassy personality stands in contrast to Kitana who struggles to fulfill Kahn's expectations and begins doubting her origins. Under the emperor's orders, the two of them initially fight the Earthrealm warriors. Later Jade suspects that Kitana is not following orders and unsuccessfully attempts to stop Kitana from learning the truth about her heritage. After learning the truth from the recently-created clone Mileena (a retcon of the MKII storyline, where Mileena had been a longtime partner assassin with Kitana), Jade switches her allegiance and helps the Earthrealm fighters to free Kitana from captivity. Later, Jade joined also the Earthrealm warriors during the invasion of Earthrealm. However, when Sindel arrived, Jade was killed by Sindel. She was last shown in the Netherrealm, as one of the warriors resurrected and enslaved by Quan Chi.

Character appearance

Jade first appeared in Mortal Kombat II as one of the game's hidden characters along with Noob Saibot and Smoke, at first as a green palette swap of Kitana with darker skin (except for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and Sega Saturn where she had Kitana's skin color) and gold-colored fans instead of silver. Early games depicted Jade with brown skin and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 appeared to portray her as African, however in later titles such as Mortal Kombat (2011) she appears an Eastern Asian (Oriental) similar to Kitana albeit with a darker complexion." In UMK3 and subsequent titles where the three Edenian female ninjas appear, while Mileena's skin color is sometimes mildly darker than Kitana's, Jade's skin is consistently the darkest of the three.

Since Ultimate MK3, Jade's weapon became a magical steel bō staff (featured heavily in her Fatalities; in Deception it was turned into a spear) and bladed boomerang projectiles, her Animality being a kitten. One of her new UMK3 attacks, a smoking kick, is a variant of Johnny Cage's classic Shadow Kick. In the Sega Genesis and Super NES versions of the game, Jade's fighting stance is Mileena's and Kitana's, respectively. Jade's moves, along with these of Mileena and Kitana, were also used to create the composite character Khameleon in Mortal Kombat Trilogy (who has Jade's moves if her name bar letters are green).

Like their male ninja counterparts in the series, the female ninjas have evolved considerable from their original palette swap and now the three of them have distinct costumes. Jade's MK2011 costume is a black thong leotard with a laced-chest opening and a side green stripe. She also wears a green loincloth around her waist, black boots with a green knee-pad, green gloves, and a green mask with a black stripe. She is adorned with gold chains and her hair is tied into a braid. Jade and Kitana are the only characters to have two additional "Klassic" costumes in the downloadable content for MK2011 (from MKII and UMK3).

Gameplay

When she was first introduced as a secret unlockable opponent in Mortal Kombat II (in the Amiga version of MKII, Jade is a regular CPU-controlled character), Jade was super fast and possessed immunity to projectile attacks but otherwise her moves were identical to Kitana's. Jade has become playable since Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but she is non-playable in Shaolin Monks. In UMK3, Jade was a powerful character and her unique invincible to projectiles was kept, becoming a special move.

According to Sega Saturn Magazine, "Jade's variety of projectile attacks makes her a difficult character to get near, and her invincibility can make her tricky to get away"; she also "has got some devastating combo attacks" and is especially hard to play against the CPU-controlled opponent. According to GameSpot, Jade and Noob Saibot in Trilogy are "incredibly overpowered, with moves that run from rendering projectiles ineffective to making characters momentarily powerless".

Prima Games' official guide for Armageddon rated her overall 7/10 (better than both Kitana and Mileena). According to Prima's official guide for the 2011 Mortal Kombat, "Jade's speed, safe attacks, and savvy combo abilities put her near the top of the cast".

In other media

In Malibu Comics' 1995 Mortal Kombat miniseries Battlewave, the comic version of Jade is an evil assassin serving Shao Kahn's command. She is showing no relation or ties with Kitana and always paired with Smoke (an image of them is the cover of Mortal Kombat Battlewave #3: "No Guts, No Glory"), unsuccessfully trying to kill Jax and then Johnny Cage. Introducing herself as "Jade, storm warrior", she also attempts to redeem herself by slaying Raiden during the comic book miniseries Rayden [sic] and Kano, also appearing along with Smoke.

Jade was originally set to appear in the unfilmed scene in the first live-action Mortal Kombat movie's original screenplay. In it, Jade is described as "a diminutive woman dressed in an ornate Kabuki kimono", whose weapon is a stiletto hidden in her hair bun. Jade duels Sonya Blade and quickly loses. Jade appears on screen in the second movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), portrayed by the Siberian-born model Irina Pantaeva in a role of "a beautiful refugee from Outworld". The film version of Jade secretly remains loyal to Shao Kahn and her relationship with Kitana is not explored at all. Jade appears to test Liu Kang and attempts to seduce him, later leading the other Earthrealm warriors to an ambush. When she fails to defeat his enemies, Shao Kahn has her eaten by a gargoyle in his palace.

Jade appears in the novelizations of both feature films. Her role in the 1995 Mortal Kombat novel by Martin Delrio is very minor as Jade (described as a long-haired Asian woman in a green silk dress with and covered in tigera and dragon tattoos, wielding two half-moon daggers) is killed with a single kick by Sonya Blade after being tricked into returning the bow of respect (this happens the same time Liu Kang fights Kitana). Jade's role in Jerome Preisler's 1997 novelization of Annihilation is similar as she first tries to seduce Liu Kang and later lures the Earthrealm warriors into a trap. In it, Jade is described as "absolutely, stunningly beautiful", as "bulky animal skins in which she was wrapped only seemed to accentuate the long, seductive, length of her body", and turns out to be Kitana's former lover. In the end, she is put to death by the enraged Shao Kahn, who first strangles her and then feeds her to a living stained glass window creature.

Promotion and merchandise

In 2005, Jade represented the cast of Mortal Kombat: Deception in G4s program Girls Gone Wired, making "a special virtual appearance" in the form of a CG-graphics Jade hosting the show and introducing herself as of being better than Pamela Anderson. In 2011, a "free exclusive Jade character costume download" for the PS3 version of the reboot game was featured as part of promotional content in the Blu-ray release of the two (sold separately) Mortal Kombat feature films.

A figurine of Jade came in the MKII set with a special issue (featuring also the cover story "Jade: a warrior of mystery") of the Argentinian magazine Top Kids in 1995. Two different action figures (basic and 10-inch models, each with different featured weapons) were released by Toy Island in 1996-1998 as part of the collections for Mortal Kombat: Trilogy. A 1/6 scale limited-edition statue of Jade in her primary costume from MK2011 was announced to be released in the Mortal Kombat Enchanted Warriors line by Syco Collectibles in 2011. She is also featured in the collectibe card games Mortal Kombat Kard Game as a common character (depicted as having curly hair) and in Epic Battles as one of the rare characters.

Reception

According to UGO.com, "Jade seems to fetishize Eastern culture. She is a paradox: equal parts exotic slave girl and Asian princess, her most powerful weapon being her sexuality. She's the mystical, foreign black widow, a relic of post-war pulp novels." In G4's 2005 Video Game Vixens beauty pageant's contest "Sexiest Finish", Jade won the third place out of five contestants (the winner being Summer from Outlaw Golf 2) and was awarded the score of 8.7/10. In 2008, Jade "just barely missed the cut into" GameDaily's list of the 50 "hottest game babes". In 2010, Game Informer included one of her finishing moves in Deception, dubbed "Head Gymnastics", on the list of the best Fatalities so far.

In 2011, GameFront's editor Phil Owen noted her popularity among the more attractive cosplayers and wrote: "Jade, I love you". While comparing the Mortal Kombat characters to the seven deadly sins in Dante's Inferno, GamePro chose Jade to represent Lust. That same year, Unreality included Jade on the list of the eight "hottest" Mortal Kombat fighters and GameFront ranked her breasts as the third finest in gaming history. Complex also ranked her as the number one on the 25 "best looking sideline chicks in games", stating their preference of her over Kitana, Mileena and Sonya, comparing her staff to a "stripper pole" and applauding her Fatality in MK2011 as "the stuff of horrors". Complex also noted the viciousness of Jade's crotch attack special move showcased in a Jade-on-Mileena gameplay trailer of MK2011.

External links

• Jade at IGN
• Jade at IMDB