Tanya (Mortal Kombat)

Tanya
'Mortal Kombat' character
First game	Mortal Kombat 4 (1997)
Created by	Ed Boon

Tanya is a video game character introduced in Mortal Kombat 4 as a female yellow ninja. She made her debut in Mortal Kombat 4 and had a yellow outfit that possesses similarity to female ninja costumes in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which holds some truth since her attire was a modified version of Kitana's. She also had brown eyes and short hair. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, her costume is slightly modified, with a skirt and a more revealing cleavage with crossed ropes (which bears some similarity to the clothing of Kitana, Mileena and Jade in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3). She also has long hair instead of short. Tanya also gained solid white eyes (resembling the eyes of an undead being such as Scorpion and Sindel), although her character never dies within the storyline. In Mortal Kombat X, Tanya was included as a DLC character. The character was named after co-creator Ed Boon's sister, Tania.

About Tanya

Tanya is a slender, gloomy female from Edenia. Originally introduced as relatively innocent, she quickly turned out to be corrupted by evil, as evidenced in her adherence to the worshipping of Shinnok and her later service to both the Deadly Alliance and Onaga. She seems to view herself as more of a survivor rather than anything else, justifying her choices as being the "right decisions". Tanya is one of the few lady henchmen from the Mortal Kombat series, and prides herself on her superior knowledge of dark magic and diplomacy. Because of her frequent betrayal of the Edenian cause, she has earned the rivalry and bitter hatred of Jade.

Storyline

It is unknown when Tanya fell to the lure of the dark side of existence. Possible explanations may have been her youth under the harsh regime of Shao Kahn, when Outworld and Edenia were still merged, or her attraction to the forbidden areas of magic, which led her to make contact with Shinnok. Her upbringing on Outworld may also explain her total lack of affinity with her native realm Edenia.

At any rate, Tanya first appeared on the stage during the events of Mortal Kombat 4. As the daughter of Edenia's ambassador to new realms, she invited a group of refugees fleeing their own world into the peaceful realm of Edenia. However, the refugees were in actuality a disguised Shinnok, along with Quan Chi, and their Netherealm forces. Thanks to Tanya's treachery, Shinnok was free to wage war against the gods. During this time, she attempted to lure Liu Kang into a trap, but the attempt did not succeed, and Shinnok's power base was soon destroyed. With her master gone, and herself a wanted traitor in Edenia (having earned in particular the wrath of Jade), Tanya fled to Outworld.

Years later, Tanya resurfaced in the Deadly Alliance's ranks as an enforcer (although she preferred the term "ambassador" and was not a playable character in the game). She imposed Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's will upon the denizens of Outworld. But when the Deadly Alliance crumbled, Tanya found herself alone once more, and desired to return to Edenia. She was found, however, by Baraka, who gave her the choice of serving the newly resurrected Onaga or dying. She joined the ranks of the Dragon King, who was searching for ancient incantations that would enable him to fuse the Kamidogu into one, and thus acquire incredible power. Believing that such information still existed in Edenia, Tanya brought Onaga to her native realm.

In Tanya's Mortal Kombat: Armageddon ending, the fires of Blaze transform her into a being known as a Dragon Caller. With a mere thought, she was able to summon dragon spirits from the ether into corporeal form. With an army of dragons at her command, she conquered the universe realm by realm. Soon Shao Kahn himself would call her his "master".

Signature moves

• Surging Blast: Tanya shoots a purple projectile at her opponent. In Deception and on, the projectile is changed to a fireball. (MK4, MKG, MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)
• Air Fire Blast: While in the air, Tanya shoots a downward fireball to her opponent. (MK4, MKG, MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)
• Split Flip Kick: Tanya performs a flipping split kick to her opponent. In Deception, a flame surrounds her while performing this attack. (MK4, MKG, MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)
• Corkscrew Kick / Human Cannon Drill: Tanya shoots herself into her opponent in a kick motion and knocks them out, her legs resembling a drill. This move resembles one of Cammy's (a character from Street Fighter series) signature moves called Spiral Arrow, in which she does nearly the same action mentioned. (MK4, MKG, MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)
• Find Me: Tanya disappears in an orange cloud of smoke and turns invisible. (MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)

Appearances

In video games

Tanya first appeared in Mortal Kombat 4 with a yellow outfit that possesses similarity to female ninja costumes in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which holds some truth since her attire was a modified version of Kitana's. She also had brown eyes and short hair. In Deception, her costume is slightly modified, with a skirt and a more revealing cleavage with crossed ropes (which bears some similarity to the clothing of Kitana, Mileena and Jade in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3). She also has long hair instead of short. Tanya also gained solid white eyes (resembling the eyes of an undead being such as Scorpion and Sindel), although her character never dies within the storyline. Tanya appears for the first time in the alternative timeline, in Kotal Kahn's chapter from Mortal Kombat X's Story Mode. She appears among the insurgence team leaded by Mileena. When Kotal defeats and is about to kill Kano, Tanya ambushes him. He then remembers her as the one who freed Mileena, and Tanya reminds him she did so because Mileena vowed to do something he refused to do: free the realm of Edenia. Kotal responds that Outworld stays united against its enemies, but Tanya refutes that it'll never be united under his rule. They engage in combat, and Kotal wins, calling Tanya a fool for trusting Mileena.

Tanya appears later in the game's story when D'Vorah's chapter kicks in. When D'Vorah and Cassie Cage go check out the base of Mileena's rebellion, they find out Rain, who gets to engage D'vorah in the combat while Tanya ambushes Cassie. Once Cassie gets knocked-out by Tanya, her attention turns into D'vorah, who was trying to enter the tent where the amulet was hided. Tanya stops her and mocks about their species. D'vorah only says that their species do prefer solitude... something that she would recover momentarily. After defeating Tanya, D'vorah was about to slay both Rain and Tanya, who were inconscious at the moment, but Cassie stops her and reminds her of the mission at hands. Tanya's whereabouts after that event are unknown.

In her Arcade Ladder ending, after the abrupt end of Mileena's insurgency, her allies have scattered; among them, there was Tanya and Rain. Even though Rain has become a powerful ally and a satisfactory consort, she concluded his usefulness has worn off. In exchange for leniency, Tanya informed Kotal Kahn of Rain's whereabouts. He was then executed, and Tanya was imprisioned, but alive. And so, Tanya's plotting began anew.

Character development

Tanya was for a time mistaken to be a "clone" of Jade, just like Mileena is a clone of Kitana. In development stage of MK4, the development team did intend Kitana to be a playable character, but the decision was made to add a new face instead (Kitana would, however, be accessible through third-party devices, and officially reappear in Mortal Kombat Gold). Her name comes from Ed Boon's sister, Tania.

Game information

Tanya could be considered to be the single most untrustworthy character in the series. She has betrayed both Kitana and Queen Sindel, her own homeworld of Edenia, her MK4 ending depicts her as betraying Liu Kang, following this she betrays Quan Chi and Shinnok (evidenced by her being with Onaga in Deception), and her Deception ending depicts her as betraying Onaga as well as betraying Shujinko in Konquest mode. Her alignment as being evil was hard to distinguish when she first debuted in Mortal Kombat 4, as her profile seemed to suggest that she herself was a victim of treachery. Her ending in MK4 (which never occurred canonically) demonstrates her alignment of evil, and reveals that she did in fact know the true nature of the refugees she accepted.

In her Konquest training in Deception, Tanya was taught the Zi Ran Men fighting style by her father and she learned Yue Chuan during her time in Outworld. Tanya also can be found on Outworld as a side mission. She would ask Shujinko to find a cave suitable to trap Liu Kang, echoing her Mortal Kombat 4 ending. There are two possible outcomes to this mission; either to find the caves and inform Tanya or find Liu Kang and warn him of the treachery.

Tanya is one of few characters who has an invisibility move (named "Find Me") in the Mortal Kombat series. Others include Reptile, Smoke, Chameleon (in his Mortal Kombat Trilogy appearance, when he's in Reptile's form) and Noob Saibot.