Wearing pants = schoolgirl = Tekken.

Got it.

First off, I'd just like to echo many others in saying that this new MK title is once again generating the kind of excitement that once existed during the original games. Haven't been anticipating a game this much since I was a preteen!

As a gamer and an artist, I've always been a huge fan of the female characters in MK; especially of the Edenian variety. But they need to start being utilized correctly! For example:

Kitana: I'm so sick of her being the damsel in distress. In MK II, Kitana was described as being a deadly assassin, fighting along side her "twin" sister Mileena. They were a deadly force to be reckoned with. Looking at the latest render of Kitana... it doesn't seem like they're going in this direction. Kitana has potential to be one of the most beloved characters if they would just develop her storyline a bit better (and a badass makeover would do her some good too). I really liked her render in MKSM.

Mileena: This is a character I feel they utilized correctly... so some degree. Mileena is evil just for the sake of being evil. That's what I've always liked about her. She's the antithesis of Kitana in every way. What we don't get out of Kitana, Mileena makes up for it. It would be nice to see her story redeveloped to involve other characters rather than just Kitana (and Baraka to a lesser degree).

Sindel: Would much rather have the evil Sindel back. Loved her first appearance in MK3. She seemed to be created in the same vain as Shang Tsung; a female sorceress type character. Yet another female character with a week storyline however.

Sonya Blade: I must admit, MK4 was the last game I really cared for her. But her never ending conflict with the Black Dragon (a clan/gang that hasn't been cool since Kano... never had much love for Jarek, Kobra, or Kira) has run its course. Perhaps a story line involving her departure from the Special Forces to become a renegade would be cool. She can start to get herself some vigilante justice.

Jade: Yet another deadly royal Edenian assassin.... and along with it comes the lackluster storyline. Hopefully they will revamp her storyline and AVOID using the "Chun-Li-esque" alternate costume from Deception.

Sheeva: Created following the rising popularity of Goro and Kintaro. Absolute waste of space when it comes to appearance and storyline IMO. I wouldn't be against seeing her in the new MK, but for the love of God, please do something noteworthy with her.



I 100% agree with you Garlador. Yes, I am aware that this game is a retelling of MK I thru III. But since there has been discussion around Sheeva's questionable inclusion along with confirmation of hidden characters in the game, this leaves room for speculation. I think Tanya is the most appropriate female character to include, provided there is room for an additional character. She made her first appearance in MK4 which is fairly early on in the MK saga. But... the possibility of this happening is next to none because I get the feeling Tanya doesn't have enough popularity amongst MK fans.

Also... this is my first post in years. Go easy on me.

Attempting to visualize his patterns of reasoning. Error.

And I hope Rain never becomes a playable character again because he is a joke

I read all of this thread's posts and I cannot believe some things that were said.



Her story in Deadly Alliance, IMO, has to be one of the most depressing stories I've ever seen in MK. The fact that she's fighting for her people's freedom and then LOSING the opportunity to free her people once she won was depressing. But, despite that it's depressing, it was one of the most well-developed stories since.

I'll admit, her first fatality wasn't quite an eye catcher for everyone, but it DID suit her well



Or Meat.



You can have your opinion, but if you're going to continuosly rant off about a character that you don't like while so many are telling you to knock it off, why don't you NOT rant about that character and keep your opinions to yourself.

Rant off when the time is neccessary. People who are interested in seeing Li Mei in this game is a fan of hers, they don't want to see some user going off in a frenzy becuase you hate her. No, let the fans say they want to see her WITHOUT you ranting and whining about how much you despise her.



Right about what? How Li Mei DOESN'T suck and that she's one of the most well created characters yet? Yeah... right...



Li Mei is a joke because she's an excuse for a Tekken character? That's a dumb reason to claim she's a joke. Because she dresses similar to most characters in the game?



NOW you're saying she's not a joke...?

Sadly, Meat and Mokap were joke characters (despite that Mokap was in there basically for a nice little "Thanks for being with us" to Carlos) and they were used again, whether it was Armageddon for their second appearance, still, they were in there a second time, they were used again. Joke characters will be used if Boon pleases.



You do know that majority of MK's characters are Chinese right? Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Bo, possibly all the cyborgs including Cyrax, Liu Kang, Kung Lao... Get the point?

Li Mei has magic, I can sense you've never even touched the character before because you would have known that she has magic....


I just want Frost, Li Mei and Tanya to come back into the game, that's all that I feel like.

And if there's going to be new characters in the future, let's not make them wear little clothing. Girls play this game too.

I don't get why people constantly say more needs to be done with Sheeva's storyline. Sheeva was the first Shokan to HAVE a storyline AND the first Shokan to turn against Kahn.

I think it's because she was only in one game, therefore she must have a weak and under developed story.

Well she died. (which worked for me, I like the way Kano got himself promoted to General)
But the story she has is still a very good one for being in only one game.

I know, and I think that works for her. Not ever kombatant has to be a main character that pops up every game.

Just trying to rationalize why people would dislike her.

She's simply not very interesting and not in integral part of the storyline in MK3. That combined with the fact she's one of the most unpopular characters in the era makes me not care if she's in or not. I don't wear nostalgia glasses; I only care about the characters I like. She can be omitted to make room for better characters, a better female character if that's a must.

Pretty much anyone would do in my opinion.

Oh, nuts to that. She's got her fans, and I'd take her any day over the derivative Frost, the aimless Li Mei, or the humdrum Kira. For me, the only two females of latter-day MK who come close to interesting are Ashrah and Nitara.

I wouldn't say aimless. She informally became Bo Rai Cho's protege. Given his previous students, that's a sturdy path.

See, I think the Shokan/Centaur rivalry is somewhat important to the MK universe, since it ends up tying into Kitana's MK4/Gold and Deadly Alliance story.

I mean, I guess you could do the same stuff with Goro, but I'd rather Goro be playing dead like he was the first time, I think his whole "went missing, rumored dead, secretly living in shame" thing was good.

To the person that said Cyrax is Asian, he is not. I dunno if you've played MK Deadly Alliance and MK Armageddon, but in his maskless alternate, he is clearly an African American, NOT Asian.

Fair enough, but it always felt like they could never really find a focus for the character. With more time I'd have been interested in seeing what would have become of her. I'll give her interesting points over the likes of Mavado, anyway...

Li Mei totally had a very clear, linear path.

Defend village -> fail and merge with mummy -> rescued, tainted by Onaga-mummy -> Unable to fight obsession with Onaga, joins his side.

Armageddon sorta left the end open, but...hey, that's Armageddon for ya.

I like to figure the heroes creamed her for turning on them and the reason she was in Netherealm attacking Shinnok when Taven meets him was some ill-begotten post-mortem attempt to randomly crusade against villainy and redeem her soul.

They were clearly trying to build Li Mei into something more. Like I said, she had a lot of development over those two games. By her MKD ending she was completely opposite of how she started out. It's not aimless, it's progression.

I hope Li Mei's MKD ending wasn't canon. If it was, then I pray Shujinko's destroying Onaga freed her from that state of being. Possessed/brainwashed evil characters rarely work well for me.

Progression it may have been, but it never felt natural to me. The vast majority of MK characters, to me, have this central defining aspect or theme, that je ne sais quoi that makes them who they are. For someone like Sektor, it's his utter acceptance of his mechanized state and total lack of humanity. For Smoke, it's the loss thereof; tragedy. For Tanya, it's survivalism and untrustworthiness, etc. With Li Mei, I could never find an apt phrase with which I could summarize the character.

Not saying I dislike her entirely, it's just that most of MK's characters find their niche within their first two appearances. I just don't think it should take several games, as in Li Mei's case.

Naivéte. Innocence Lost. Growing up. Take your pick. Her central theme is being a young adult, a "kung fu student" character, trusting villains to be true to their word (a dumb, childish thing to do) and getting tragically fucked over and tainted forever.

Definitely. She's lost innocence, who literally and metaphorically becomes tainted when the real world crashes down on her and she ends up betrayed by those she trusted.

She existed as this beautiful flower that the Deadly Alliance trampled beneath their feet on the march to their power-mad glory.

Why everbody ignores all this Rain and other character hate, but defend Li Mei?

She has the same damn goal as Kitana, free her people from enslavement, nothing special here, move on.

Nothing in her appearance is attractive to be found cool... just a chinese girl with stupid clothes, no cool weapon, no creative powers, no nothing.

Her name sucks mayor ass, and it's the reason I find her tekken-ish aswel, Li Mei... bleh!

As somebody said already, Boon LOVES tekken, i'm sure its his way of thanking that boring game.

But whatever, this is pointless, she won't be in MK anyway, maybe as DLC but i'm free to not download that, so she won't be in this game, gladly.

You just need to realise that not everyone thinks the way you do and learn to accept it. Ranting over and over won't change anyone's mind it'll only make them voice their opinion louder. Many people don't like my favourite character Nightwolf but I don't rant over and over about it in most threads I visit because I disagree. You have to remember these are peoples opinions not fact. Just like your own.

In My Opinion

Li Mei's goal started with her trying to free her people as she went through games her goals changed.

Li Mei's appearance was great. The original outfit was something new and not another similiar outfit to an already existing character. The armour outfit from MKD was awesome.

As one of few characters to undergo great development through multiple games she gained fans. I really hope she makes it in as DLC

Wait for it... wait for it... yep, there it is. I'm at my breaking point. Obvious troll is obvious, but, seriously, shut the hell up. We get it. You like Rain. But this thread is about the females of MK.

You fail to understand that a character journey is vastly more compelling than the destination. Almost every single character in the entire game can be summed up with "I want to stop the evil people" or "I want ultimate power", and yet it is the way these paths play out that makes them compelling.

You routinely mock Li Mei's appearance (which I find amusing considering how absolutely silly Rain is, to the point that Jade herself flat-out mocks his attire), but she's had FOUR different outfits. If you don't like one outfit, there are three other options. I wasn't fond of Sub-Zero's rat-tail alternative in Deception, but does that make the entire character terrible?

She also utilized two different weapons, my preference being Kunlun Dao, a weapon unique to her and her alone. She also had some memorable moves and abilities (not just another generic fireball), and must we remind you again that she wasn't Chinese at all? Next you'll be telling me Reiko and Bo'Rai Cho are Chinese because she's the exact same race as them. They're all denizens of Outworld.

I basically stopped taking you seriously when you complain about her name. In a game full of characters named Sub-Zero, Frost, Scorpion, Smoke, Reptile, Jade, Rain, and Noob Saibot, I'm amazed you find "Li Mei" to be the one name you just can't stand. You know what names Tekken uses? Panda. King. Roger. Paul. Anna. Steve. Raven. Nina. Craig. Alice. Yeah, I can see how "Li Mei" is totally a Tekken name....

Li Mei was one of the better developed and received characters from the MK:DA-MK:A era. I'm sorry you can't deal with that, and the fact that she's easily more popular than Rain, but ultimately it matters not. Opinions are just that, but in this case, my opinion is that your opinion makes no damn sense.

Because I hate freaking Li Mei? Some people hate the entire MK 2 and 3 cast.

I love almost all characters from Mortal Kombat except for Li Mei (and some others most people hate) because she just reminds me of tekken, can't help it, and I hated tekken when it hit the stores and all those irritating fanboys started to hate MK because tekken was there to take its place.

I don't care that you like her, I just want you to accept the fact that I may hate Li mei and I can tell what I want about her, if you find it irritating just ignore me, works better, cuz Li Mei (and blanting about wanting two sub-zeros in the game and keep on blanting about how Rain is a joke) will trigger a negative reaction from me, she is an unique character in that way.