Mileena

Mileena
Mileena in Mortal Kombat (2011)
Series	Mortal Kombat
First game	Mortal Kombat II (1993)
Created by	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)
Weapon	Sai (all media) Long Sword (MKG)

Mileena is a player and a one-time boss character from the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games. Mileena was originally known as an assassin in service of the Outworld's evil emperor Shao Kahn and the evil twin sister of his stepdaughter Princess Kitana, but in a truth she is a deformed clone of her created by the sorcerer Shang Tsung. Later, she has also served other masters. Mileena is usually defined by her fierce rivalry with Kitana and her own lust for power.

Since her introduction as Kitana's palette swap character in Mortal Kombat II in 1993, Mileena gained significant popularity, becoming one of Mortal Kombat's most iconic characters, used in the later games' promotion as a designated sex symbol and was a central character of Mortal Kombat: Deception. However, her appearances in the various other media in the franchise have been relatively rare and minor as compared to these of Kitana. Mileena received a mixed, mostly due to a remarkable dualism of her character design, but generally favourable critical reception.

In video games

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, the emperor nonetheless feared that one day Kitana would discover her true parentage and turn against him, and so he ordered Shang Tsung to bring to life a more vicious and loyal version of Kitana that could take her place if necessary. This has been done by fusing the essence of both her and a Tarkatan warrior from Baraka's race. The process was not a complete success, however, as such 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.

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). Mileena, determined to stop her twin at any cost, is then murdered by Kitana, her soul descending into the Netherrealm. In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005), the beat'em up retelling of MKII, Mileena (voiced by Lita Lopez) fights against Liu Kang and Kung Lao alongside Jade and Kitana, but is defeated by the two Shaolin warriors and flees to the Wasteland to seek help from Goro. Damned to the Netherrealm after her death, Mileena swears fealty to its ruler Shinnok. During the events of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1996), Shao Kahn decides to resurrect Mileena so her skills as a vicious fighter would help him defeat Earth's chosen warriors, also magically granting her the ability to read Kitana's thoughts. Shinnok sees this as an opportunity to secretly monitor the events unfolding in Earthrealm and so he allows her to return to life. 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 her ally Baraka. During the events of Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), Mileena (voiced by Johanna Añonuevo) is ordered by Onaga to pose as Kitana in order to confuse and misdirect his enemies. However, as Mileena begins the game's titular deception, she develops a secret agenda and decides to take control of both the forces of Edenia and Onaga's own undead army for herself. In the game's story mode (Konquest), Mileena also trains the young Shujinko in the Outworld and fights against Jade. In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), Mileena seizes Shao Kahn's fortress, still under the guise of Kitana, and decides to continue her charade until the Edenian forces were corrupted enough to follow her under the true identity. Though at first confident that Outworld is hers to rule, Mileena is forced to reveal herself and surrender to the returning Shao Kahn when he mounts an offensive against the fortress to re-instate his rule over Outworld. The emperor then commands her to capture Shujinko, who 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 still plans to get the throne of Edenia back for herself. She is later killed by Shang Tsung during the final all-out battle at the Soulnado.

Mileena returns in Mortal Kombat (2011) (later referred to as MK2011), an alternative-timeline retelling of the original Mortal Kombat trilogy that brought some major changes to her character. 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. 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 a new ruler of Outworld. Her new personality is much more immature (even infatile) than the cold and calculating Mileena of the previous games and even Kitana (in her uncanonical ending) is shown to be an unusually sympathic towards her.

Design

Mortal Kombat series comic book depicting the MKII-era original versions of Kitana and Mileena created by John Tobias in 1993, as drawn by Greg Horn. In her initial appearances, Mileena was clad in a palette-swapped versions of her sister's costumes

Mileena was the first evil female character to appear in the series, created and initially developed 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." According to Acclaim Entertainment's producer Robert O'Farrel, the game was given two female fighters so it would better compete against Capcom's Street Fighter II, which had only one. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon described the sisters as the "female versions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero". Since Mileena's debut in MKII, her characteristic weapon is a pair of sharp sai, 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), and only in Gold Mileena uses also an European longsword (Scorpion's weapon in the both versions of MK4). Her UMK3 Animality transformation is a small skunk.

Mileena's unmasked face in an unreleased comic series Mortal Kombat: Deception by W.A.M. Entertainment

Physically, Mileena is largely identical to Kitana, the most glaring exception being her half-Tarkata face (her usually very large teeth got noticeably downsized in Deception and Armageddon). Boon described Mileena as "Anti-Kitana" and said that her large "sharp, nasty teeth" have been not originally planned and were only drawn for her infamous Fatality "Man-Eater" (featured also in UMK3), in which she inhale-devours her opponent whole and spews out a hail of clean bones. After MKII, Mileena's teeth were almost never used again during gameplay until MK2011 (in a leap attack to bite an opponent in the neck and in one Fatality to gnaw on the defeated enemy's severed head), with a sole exception of a Fatality in Deception in which she tears off the opponent's head with her teeth. Mileena's skin color sometimes appears to be mildly darker than Kitana's, but is always much lighter than Jade's. After each of them were given more varying appearances in Gold (hairstyle for all Kitana-derived characters is loose in MKII and pinned back in UMK3), Mileena's always-black hair is usually much shorter and is most often worn gathered in a ponytail. One element of Mileena's anatomy that has often changed is her eyes, as she had began with Kitana's eyes in MKII, but in UMK3 and Gold her eyes became all-white, with no pupils and irises (an "undead"-style similar to the eyes of Scorpion). In Deception/Armageddon and Shaolin Monks, Mileena's eyes returned to normal, but with yellow pupils (Kitana has brown eyes). In MK2011, however, she has Baraka-like yellow eyes with slit pupils that are often glowing whole, except of her alternate UMK3-style costume (available through pre-order bonuses and in a later downloadable content package) in which she has human eyes once again.

Just like Kitana and Jade, Mileena was originally portrayed by Katalin Zamiar in MKII, Becky Gable taking over the role in UMK3. Mileena's main color has been either a shade of purple or magenta in various installments (including while masquerading as Kitana in Deception) and their outfits did not differ in a significant way (more than just different color patterns) until Gold. Since then, her costumes have been generally getting more skimpy with every new game, including having always an exposed midriff since Deception (Steve Beran, character designer for this game, said: "I 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."). Mileena's main costume in Deception (and by extension Armageddon) is actually mostly black and features long flowing arm sleeves, a back-only loincloth and a partially-transparent veil. In Shaolin Monks, Mileena appears half-naked, her costume made largely of just belts of leather and scraps of fabric, barefoot (with a bandaged midfoot) and again wearing a veil instead of a mask (the veil also returns in a ceremonial outfit in MK2011). In the 2011 reboot, Mileena's prime costume is based on her famous provocative alternate from Deception, but with more detail and again featuring a mask instead of a veil. Mileena has a total of four costumes in this game, which for a time being (until the MKII-style costumes were given to Kitana and Jade) has been the largest number in the entire series. Her MK2011 "Flesh Pit" alternate costume is made of just some loose bandages put around her otherwise completely naked body, also marking the first time that she has appeared unmasked by default.

Gameplay

Mileena is a secret character in UMK3, in which she needs to be unlocked using a special "Kombat Kode", but is available from the start in the compilation game Mortal Kombat Trilogy. She is not playable in Shaolin Monks, where she appears only as a sub-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 through the series ("Chess Kombat", "Puzzle Kombat" and "Motor Kombat"). Most of her Fatalities involve use of sai, including to immobilize her opponent during the killing sequence, and in some of them she pretends to kiss her victim. In 1994 there was also a popular but false urban legend regarding a supposed "Nudality" finishing move.

Mileena was widely seen as a top-tier/the best character of Mortal Kombat II. According to GamePro's official strategy guide, while Jax is the best overall fighter in MKII, 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 and Shang Tsung (Amiga Format also noted that she and Kitana were always "so much faster" that "poor Jax ... ended getting his head kicked in every time"). She was also ranked as the game's best overall fighter by Sega Visions, citing her high speed and reach, and teleport kick that can dodge projectiles. 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"; according to EGM, this "deadly woman ... can hold her own against any man in the game" and her players can use her "lightning speed" and the sai blasts to overcome other players. C+VG wrote that all of MKII characters are "well-balanced" and "potentially excellent", but still the teleport kick of the "very fast" Mileena was singled out as "the best surprising move in the game".

However, according to Nintendo Power, Mileena's original powers "may prove insufficient" for using her with same effectiveness in UMK3, where most of the other characters got more special moves; Sega Saturn Magazine wrote simply, "she's pretty much identical to the last time". According to GameSpy's guide to Deception, in this game Mileena "has some solid offensive tools" and "a few solid combos up her sleeve, as well as a few pop-up attacks that are extremely quick and open up brief juggle opportunities", her weaknesses being a very short range of her sai and a very few ranged attacks in general. According to Prima Games' official guide for Armageddon, Mileena (rated overall 6/10) is a "punisher"-style character and a better fighter than Kitana ("seems to have the upper hand between the two"), but while she "is able to punish from any range and even interrupt high attacks and projectiles, the damage she inflicts is minor". According to Prima's official guide for MK2011, Mileena is well-balanced, displaying neither particular weaknesses nor adventages that would result in a one-sided battle against anyone else, and always winning around half (about 40-60%) of fights against various different player-controlled characters.

In other media

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 published in 1994-1995. In the comics, Mileena first appeared in the comic 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.

Dana Hee as Mileena in the film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Hee was also a stunt double for Talisa Soto (Kitana), as well as for three other Annihilation actresses and Kristanna Loken in Konquest

Mileena appeared briefly in the film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in 1997 in a cameo-like role, where she was played by a kickboxer Dana Lynn Hee (Dana Hee), and was only featured in one scene in which she ambushes Sonya a desert. The two duel before Sonya traps Mileena on the ground and kicks her in the head, snapping her neck. After this, Mileena's tattoo comes to life and flies away. Dana Hee described her role as "an evil, mysterious figure that leaves you wondering, 'Who is she?'". Despite being a trainer and stunt double for Kitana's actress Talisa Soto in both of MK films, Hee had her own stunt double for that scene. Mileena's name was never even mentioned in the film and only appears during 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, similar to Kitana's film hairstyle.

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. She attacks Sonya just as Smoke attacks Jax, but she looks completely different, with unmasked human face and red eyes, 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" because of the griffon-like tattoo on her shoulder matching the mark that has been 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 look (for a while, he even called her his "new daughter"). 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. 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. 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 miniseries Mortal Kombat: Legacy, portrayed by the martial artist and debuting actress Jolene Tran. Their story is told in the two-part animated/live episode "Kitana & Mileena", 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 scarred but otherwise normal-looking mouth (with lips, except when she has been a baby) 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 (in 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, as well as killing impostors of King Jerrod, Kitana's biological father, in a team together with Kitana. When the two are eventually sent by Shao Kahn on a mission to assassinate a man who is really King Jerrod, Mileena kills hims with a double sai throw to the chest as he is talking to Kitana.

Promotion

In October 2004, Mileena was featured in a spread in the special edition of Playboy that spotlighted provocative video game characters. 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. Another image of Mileena was used as the cover picture limited "Kollector Edition" of Deception for the Xbox and a pinup of Mileena was also featured in IGN's Hotlist in 2006. 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 and being featured in several trailers, notably "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. Also as part of this promotional campaign, the fitness model Danni Levy cosplayed as Mileena in the live-action trailer "Kasting" and a photo session (she and the models of Kitana and Sonya also attended The Gadget Show for a Mortal Kombat tournament), and Playboy's model Jo Garcia dressed up in Mileena's colors to play as her in a sponsored vlog advertisement.

Merchandise

A Mileena figurine in the MKII series came out exclusively with a special issue of the Argentinian magazine Top Kids in 1995. A 7.5-inch action figure also based on Mileena's MKII design was released by Infinite Concepts in 1999, with a detachable mask. 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). In January 2011, an electronic music track called "Mileena's Theme" by Tokimonsta was released on iTunes as the first of three singles that were also later compiled in the album Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors. A 10-inch polystone statue of Mileena was announced to be released by Syco Collectibles in the Enchanted Warriors series in Q1 2012.

Cultural impact

Mileena has made several homage cameo appearances outside of the franchise, including in the comic book series Gen¹³ in 1995, in the 1996 martial arts film Book of Swords (a nod/tribute to Mileena in a minor role by Katalin Zamiar), and in the 2010 episode "Another Bad Thanksgiving" of the animated series The Cleveland Show. In 2009, Chibi, vocalist of The Birthday Massacre, said she was planning to get a Mileena tattoo.

Reception

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", while Austin American-Statesman said they are "far nastier than that martial-artless aerobics instructor from the first game". Nintendo Power called the MKII version Mileena "beautiful, graceful, beguiling and strong, but most of all, deadly", and "a dangerous enemy: cruel, cold and calculating". UGO ranked Mileena fifth on their 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. In 2010, Mileena shared the eight place with Kitana and Sonya on the Complex's list of the "hottest women in video games" and was also ranked alone as eight in their 2011 list of the "most diabolical video game she-villains".

Mileena's scene was the only good part of Annihilation according to That Guy with the Glasses. In 2011, UGO listed Mileena as one of the 25 "hot women ninjas" 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") 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 for having "a perfect 10 body [and] a -22 face", as this outfit "basically ramps up the sex appeal to volcanic levels". Also in 2011, CraveOnline called her "without question" one of the "most beloved" characters in the Mortal Kombat universe 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"). 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", and GameFront ranked Mileena's breasts as the 31st finest in gaming history.

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. 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 (CU Amiga called it "the kiss of death to end all kisses") described as "a high powered kiss that evokes vagina dentata." For this reason she also shared the seventh place with Kitana on GamesRadar's list of top seven "girls kissing girls" in 2006 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"). 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." Mileena was also included in IGN's 2008 list of top 50 "chicks behaving badly" ("just call her Mileen-ewwwwww") and in Virgin Media's list of ten "game girls you wouldn't dare to date" (fore being attractive "until she rips off her veil and reveals her monstrous form beneath"). IGN also included Mileena on the list of 2011's worst dressed video game characters for showing her face.

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". 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." In 2011, Game Informer described her entry in the new game to be "as creepy as ever" 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". 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, also ranking her "Be Mine" Fatality as sixth best from that game and her "Yummy" finishing move from Deception as the second-best Fatality ever, while Bright Hub included her among the "top ten awesome" Mortal Kombat characters ("not all that glitters is not gold"). When comparing the Mortal Kombat characters to the seven deadly sins in Dante's Inferno, GamePro chose Mileena to represent Envy.

Notes

1.^note 1 Her name is variably pronounced as either "Ma-lee-na" (MKII to MKT) or "Mi-lee-na" (later games) through the series.

2.^note 2 Another, optional secret stage encounter against Mileena ends with her tossing Kitana into a portal and then following after her, where they presumably fought to the death. In the game, Mileena shares her Fatality with Jade, while Liu Kang uncanonically kills Jade by stabbing her in the eyes with Mileena's sai.

3.^note 3 In Mileena's uncanonical ending in Armageddon, she defeats Blaze, causing herself and Kitana to fuse together momentarily. When separated, Mileena finds that she has taken Kitana's facial features, while Kitana has been cursed with Mileena's Tarkatan jaw visage. Mileena is now able to take her "rightful" place as princess of Edenia and rules in Kitana's place, locking her sister away in the Edenian palace dungeon, where she eventually goes insane.

4.^note 4 Curiously, Mileena's sai are clearly dull-pointed in much of the non-gameplay parts of Deception, including the intro sequence and the VS screen picture. This is actually a more realistic depiction, as (contrary to a popular opinion and many appearances in pop culture) the traditional sai is a blunt, round-pointed melee weapon that was not designed for neither stabbing or cutting, and which thus can be used well for non-lethal combat. Another Mortal Kombat character using sai is Li Mei, introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in place of Mileena who was the absent from the game due to being imprisoned.

5.^note 5 Two concept pictures for Mileena's design in Deception by Steve Beran were included in the game's bonus gallery "The Krypt". According to the original caption, one of them was originally supposed to be Kitana, but was developed into the primary Mileena costume, while the other one became Mileena's alternate. Another publicly-released early concept art, created for Shaolin Monks, had a rather small-chested Mileena wearing the outfit that appears to be combining her old costumes from MKII and MK Gold. An early concept art of Mileena for the 2011 game was also published by the character designer Vincent Proce in 2011.

6.^note 6 Players who unlock the Flesh Pit costume receive the achievement / trophy called "Best...Alternate...EVER!" Mileena (or possibly some earlier clone) was also shown as having Tarkatan blades on her arms in Mileena's promotional trailer for the same game.

7.^note 7 Mileena's Kombat Karting special weapon is a brief speed boost that is very useful to save her from a Fatality in a death trap or at the finish line, and makes her a "great character" to use in the arena Speedster. When playing offline, it also allows the player to "steal first place right at the finish line before the AI gets its own miraculous speed boost".

8.^note 8 This image did not actually appear in Playboy, in which a fairly common picture of Mileena in her primary costume in Deception was published instead, and was used only as an unlockable picture for in-game bonus gallery of Deception when it was released.

9.^note 9 Zamiar, who has portrayed Mileena in Mortal Kombat II, plays a black-and-purple outfit clad, sai-wielding, masked, silent character identified only as "Female Ninja" in the film's credits. Her character is appearing briefly in a few scenes, appearing to attack Ho-Sung Pak's (Liu Kang in MK and MKII) character Lang and then mysteriously disappear.

10.^note 10 In which Mileena-inspired character Keiko is shown defeating and killing Raiden-like Ronan in what then turns out to be a match in an arcade game called "Mortal Conflict" (a pun on Mortal Kombat), as played and commented on by Roxy (Freefall) and Grunge, two of the comic's main characters. The issue was written by Brandon Choi and drawn by J. Scott Campbell.

11.^note 11 In a short spoof scene parody-referencing the Mortal Kombat games, the show's character Janet is depicted to be dressed as Mileena and killed Fatality-style by the main character Cleveland Brown dressed as Scorpion. The scene appears at around the 7 minute mark.

12.^note 12 Chibi was quoted as saying: "I like the character because she's pretty insane and vicious and seems like she'd be very attractive, but then has this mouth full of heinous sharp teeth."

External links

• Official website
• Mileena – The Mortal Kombat Wiki
• Mileena at IGN
• Mileena at Giant Bomb
• Mileena at the Internet Movie Database