I wrote this in another thread about designs that cut corners, but since my example revolved around Mileena, I thought I'd put it here too. It's a long post but it pretty much summarizes my full opinion on her outfits in this game (bar her abysmal Flesh Pits look). Bear in mind I'm not reposting it for debate's sake, it's just my own perspective on why Mileena's outfit design is generally considered to be weaker in this game than her previous looks in the 3D era. It begins below.


"While your on the subject of Mileena, allow me to make a comparison and make some points in regards to her outfits. Once I've made my arguement about Mileena your personally welcome to dispute that if you wish to do so. But first, let's start of with this....



Her Deception Primary (desptite showing the gratuitous MK Sex Appeal some under boob and panties) is remarkably ethnic and cultural with a turkish/islamic vibe to the overall design and with a touch of kimono-esque fashion regarding her wide, open, japanese style sleeves. The black leather on her costume compliments the sleek, bright pink details on her sleeves and the trimming on her cleavage and the colour scheme fits her perfectly: vampy, villanous, alluring and dangerous.

The Deception outfit actually serves as a one piece bodysuit considering the back flows down to knee length level like a sash, and when viewed from the side you can see it connects to the front to make some panties for her. Her figure (which is her selling point) is only amplified by the horizontal belts she has across her abs and naval that create a beautiful hourglass shape to her body whilst providing support by additionally holding the outfit to her body. She's got some skin showing, but it's an incredibly exotic, alluring and well designed costume with several influences used in the design process to make it distinctive and undeniably sexy. The fact that they even have the fabric in her rear panel and veil transparent is also a beautiful detail as it shows consistancy in the fabrics they used for her design. It was original, refreshing, unique and incredibly sexy, and not once have I ever heard it being slammed as tacky or tasteless. In fact I've only ever heard praise for this outfit.

and now to this



Whilst clearly an homage to her Deception Primary, this outfit (in my opinion) lacks the same level of appeal. First of all, there's no consistancy with the over all design. She's basically just got two straps of fabric holding her boobs down, a random rear cape that comes from the top of her underwear, and some disected, unattached sleeves. The rest of her costume consists of random straps of black fabric that are supposed to hold her outfit together. The ethnic influences that made her Deception Primary so popular are unrecognisable, bar the hue of pink she's wearing and the trademark veil which only hint towards that Turkish/Arabian look she flaunted in past games.

In my opinion, not only is her outfit sloppy but it's actually not half as attractive as the outfit it's supposed to pay homage to. There's nothing solid about her look and if anything it's like she rumaged through the scraps of old fabric used to make her Deception look and just threw them on in a hurry. Nothing connects to each other, the majority of her outfit looks out of place, and the only difference between this alt costume and Kitana's alt costume is the randomly placed straps and mask. Remove them, and you'd hear the same complaints about Mileena's outfit as you would hear about Kitana's.

Now onto her Deception Alt. As seen here.



Now there's not much I can do to defend Mileena's modesty in this outfit, it is remarkably revealing. For what little fabric she does have covering her though, there's a fairly solid design. The leotard she's wearing (since it is a leotard, just with an open front) has a beautiful contrast going on with it's colour, again using the gorgeous hot pink to set off the black leather base fabric.

The straps going from the front of her outfit divide as they go towards her back to create a two piece: one forms a a vest shape that covers her upper back, and the second forms the shape of a thong at the back. Her hips are accentuated with the flowing pieces of transparent pink fabric she has emerging from the panty lining she has on her sides. The support she has holding her cleavage together connects up to the neck to create a choker, with the bust held together by a leather belt that is reminiscent of her neck choker.

Though it's purposely designed to show a lot of skin, the fabric on her upper body always connects. At no point does the design become inconsistant or chaotic, it follows a pattern and sticks to it. Everything from her armband, to her headband, to her boots and even her colour scheme all stick to the same motif and design and compliment one another. Her "Hareem Girl" look is still prevailent with the golden bangles she's wearing, but the purpose of this outfit is to be a contrast to her more regal primary outfit. This is her seductress look, and she's flaunting her body because her body is her selling point. She's not wearing much, but what she is wearing works well together and sticks to the same design.

And then there's her MK9 Primary:



Whilst this is also an homage to a previous look, I can credit it's to some degree and state it's not half as bad a fuck up as her Alternate was. She is, to some degree, marginally more covered up in this outfit than she was in her Deception Alternate. But the design itself could have easily been improved upon. It's more like a copy paste job than a redesign.

First, there's the part that it's basically devided into two pieces: The top and the bottom. The top serves as a sort of waistcoat, whilst the bottom is a painfully stretched and elongated body thong. It's not quite a leotard, but more a body thong and a vest merged together. The only "odd" thing about her upper body that I can fault is that I personally think there should be a side panel that covers her lower back too in the area between her hip and rip cage. Considering this is the MK2 timeline, I think it would look more like her classic outfit and more befitting for that timeline considering her mindframe and goals were much different in Deception.

My only gripe with this outfit is that it doesn't suit the retcon or the character's current mentality. It's just an amalgram of her MK2 look and her Alt MK:D look, but made with some Lamé frabric and with some thigh high fishnet stockings thrown in there too. There's nothing really to it that screams "original", nor is it anything really distinctive in comparison to what she's worn before. It's like the designer just said to himself "Ok, well let's take her last costume and add a bit more fabric to the backside of her upperbody. Give her the MK2 golves and the MK3 criss cross and she's finished". It's decent, but unoriginal.

My point is that past designers who have worked on costumes in previous games actually managed to make something memorable, unique and distinct. A lot of costumes in this game are just watered down or bare-bones versions of outfits characters have worn before, and plenty of the cast have outfits that are in no way shape or form an improvement of what they've worn before. I think they've taken a lot of outfits with consistant, memorable designs and needlessly chopped and changed them.

Whilst for some characters like Sonya, Kitana and Mileena it's simply for sexual reasons, I look at the likes of Kabal, Shang Tsung and Scorpion and I wonder what the end result was supposed to be. Was it supposed to be an improvement? Something new? What makes it more distinctive, or better? When it comes to the developers, why try fix what's not broken? Why not just invent something new entirely rather than try perfect something that's already perfect?

I've seen sketches from the artbook that show designs for all characters that we're quite original, well designed and more aestetically pleasing. There where some genius looks in there for Kitana, and Scorpion, and Reptile. It's not like the team are incapable of creating something good. In my opinion they have cut a lot of corners with their designs, and if costumes from a game thats 8 years old and with poorer graphics can still stand out as being more original or well designed, well then the art team seriously have to ponder on their creative decisions."

WHY OH WHY couldn't they have used this as the inspiration for her second fatality?



If she leaped onto her victim and just started ripping limbs off and devouring them, then not even bother to pose for the camera, but just continue eating (like Quan Chi keeps beating with the leg), that would have been the best fatality in the game. Instead we get this crap. Boon is really slipping in coming up with good fatalities. Raiden's are both garbage too. So are Cyrax's. And DON'T EVEN get me started on Shang.

Mileena's and Kitana's retcon is simply one of the game's biggest disappointments, story wise, imo.

Such bullshit is something I would have thought IMPOSSIBLE years ago. How in the world did we ever come to this?

Hell, even MK: Legacy got it right! It's actually very sad when you realize that fans seem to know/love these characters even more than their creators.

Seriously, its not for nothing that an overwhelming majority doesn't approve of this.

Oh, and just in case: that's MY opinion so back off if you are thinking about biting my head off! I'll bite back twice as hard!



If that was the case, why on earth is the MK team so inclined in making us believe that Mileena and Kitana look like twin sisters? Why do they keep shoving that down our throats?

WTF is that about?

You have more than one character actually thinking that Mileena looks like Kitana. Hell, Kitana herself goes all stupid and "OMG SHE'S ME!!!" in her chapter and idiotic Smoke gets his butt kicked for confusing Mileena with Kitana.

Your point would be valid if it wasn't for the fact that Mileena is still presented in the same traditional sense that she was in MK2: "Kitana's look-a-like clone except for the teeth". Story mode makes this perfectly clear when all these characters start acting like idiots and believing that Mileena is in fact Kitana despite all the major painfully obvious differences.

I understand this is a kind of reboot where things were changed, but, some of the changes just don't make any freaking sense considering what we are seeing in the present story itself.

All that aside, I still think the retcon is a huge pile of bullshit and a major offense to the beloved history of these 2 characters and MK in general. Sure, their rivalry was old and they needed to move on, and yes, that could have been done in this game without altering so freaking much to the point of creating a whole new story for both sisters.



Just because she had poor fatalities before doesn't mean she should continue to have poor fatalities today. Just because she "spitted nails" once doesn't mean she has to do it again.

Quite frankly, it is not difficult at all to come up with original and creative Fatality ideas for a character like Mileena.

A Fatality I'd have loved to see Mileena do would have been as follows.

The opponent staggers about in the fatality stance as Mileena grabs and breaks their hand before kicking them down on to the floor. She then struts over, slightly rubbing herself in a provocative manner, before ripping her mask off and laughing sadistically. The opponent lets out a scream of terror and tries to crawl away as she pounces on top of them, pins them down and proceeds to bite chunks out of them, eating them alive as they scream to death. It'd be similar to Quan Chi's leg beat down in the sense that she just continues eating them as they scream helplessly and the camera fades away.

Her first fatality in this game was perfect, and we got an homage to another classic fatality with her Xray. The only thing that would have made the second fatality better would be if she hurled the body to the floor with such force that the head burst open, since ripping someone's legs off doesn't technically kill them.

They arent "showing down our throats" that Mileena and Kitana are twins. When Kitana goes OMG SHE IS ME its because excluding the teeth Mileena DOES look like her, just after a tan and a haircut. When Smoke confuses Kitana with Mileena its because she is masked, unconcious WITH HER EYES CLOSED and Kitana had been captured by Kahn which means that she could have escaped by cuting her hair and changing her clothes.

The differences are obvious to us that have known Mileena secret for like 10 years. Those guys just meet, and unlike the old timeline they just found out of Mileena existence.

That's kinda what I said.

Sorry, still half asleep here. But great minds think alike and all that jazz ;)

Your idea wouldn't work though, because it doesn't involve cut points, and cut points are the theme for MK9. I would be happy if she'd just rip an arm off and gnaw on it like in the artwork. Biting and tearing out the victim's throat in slow motion would be a nice touch, but that wouldn't fit with the cut point theme either. Sigh, Y U SO LAZY NRS?

I'm not saying that giving her Kira's fatality was the best thing to happen to the character, but when it comes to her having her own fatalities, they've been pretty piss poor.

^^

I've always had a problem with Mileena's fatalities as well, but at this point in the series it is a problem that should no longer exist. Fatality swapping should have stopped a long time ago... This isn't the nineties, people have standards now, and the MK team needs to understand that.

I really don ́t understand all the problem around the "retcon" and the soft or lack of rivality between Mileena and Kitana. Yeah, during the first couple of games, Mileena was a lonely shadow behind her sister. In terms of popularity, Kitana exceed Mileena ́s popularity and importance in the game, so Why we need the same situation? After almost 20 years of existence, and just after 6 years of her relevance in the franchise, WHY? WHY every damn thing of her need to be around her life as a clone of the almighty-lovely-goofy princess? If somethin in this story game was good about her, is she can be, in future entries of the franchise, an independent warrior, with her own personality, feelings and needs. Mileena does not be to be tide with KItana, not anyome. Her "destiny bond" as characters should not exist anymore. Now Mileena have the chance to be a character by her own.

About Mileena as a tragic character... I dunno. I think this interpretation has her roots in the Malibu Comic and not in the game. I consider a few things:

- Shao Kahn "favored" Kitana over Mileena everytime= it is not a fact.
This a presumption about Mileena made by a lot of fans. We know very little details of the "ancient history" about the old Mileena. In fact, one of the little details we know about the past of the girls is the attack of Lei Chen. Mileena is an authority in this operation. Where ́s is Kitana? I dunno.
I dont say "This only situation prove Mileena was favored over Kitana during her entirely life", tha would be ridiculous. I say there is not a simple fact than can prove that Kitana was favored over Mileena. These kind of ideas are just fan interpretation about the character.

- Mileena grew with jelous towards Kitana= it ́s not a fact.
- Mileena hate Kitana during her whole life= it ́s not fact.

Same here. In her first two bios, there is not any clue about "I hate you Kitana dkjfksajhfcsadjhddkjsa". In fact, in MK2, Mileena looks loyal to Kahn, and distrustful and suspicious towards Kitana. In her MK3 bio, not any clue about a possible bitter hate. But it is possible that her death in hands of KItana cause the bitter hate-rage. Her MKG show us an honorable warrior: she want to revenge her death, and that is the reason Mileena help her sister to escape of the prison, to prove her superiority in the battle.

To me, her MK3 death is a turning point in her mind and feelings towards Kitana.

To me, this Mileena is so much better the MK2-MKG old Mileena. Since MKD I can say "wow, finally Mileena is a huge character with story, feelings and attitudes". But Im not gonna to lie. I always love Mileena. I always thin she is better than Kitana, who alwasy was "favored" over Mileena. Now, the time and the distance makes me see other kind of relation between her and KItana and Kahn.

The future of Mileena? I have hope. Her ending is pretty good, and give her a lot of chances. If Mileena is Shao Kahn ́s true daughter, is completely logical her "bond" with Kahn. The power she drain can make her more powerful, calculating, with other kinds of desires and ideas. She coul be a little inmature now, but if part of her ending is true, we have a future bad-ass. Mileena is, maybe, one of the character with the most chances of development in the future game.

Her looks is flawless. I absolute adore her primary, and her alternative is an incredible tribute to her MKD primary. I love her fatalaties: her first one is one of the best fatalities of all the history. "Be mine" is a fatality full of over-the-top violence, gore and blood; at the same time, it shows Mileena personality. Just Mileena can do this fatality. The second one is simple but effective. Anyway, is too bad the kira-copycat. It could be better, but no. Rip off is a apropiate name fo the fatality.

Excuse for the bad english!!!

You keep calling mileena ugly, I think she looks sexy. Face and all, in fact I think the teeth and eyes make her look even more attractive.


And I don't think Shang would make a grown woman with the brain of a toddler, as you see in story mode when kitana you'd mileena she was recently released. She acts more like a bitchy/slutty 16 year old girl than anything, and we also don't know how old her body is. By that I mean we don't know if hang tried to make a 18 year old kitana or a 28 year old or whatever( and yeah I know kitana is thousands of years old but I can't think of what the correct edenian ages are).

Gameplay: She's awesome. Her mix-up game is great. I especially like her b+3, b+4 string which hits low and low. It can be cancelled after the first hit into her roll for a nice cca. 30% combo or even better into her enhanced roll which then makes the string hit low and overhead- great for mix-up. Also her teleport after the 2, 1 string in the latter part of the combo can be used to get right up close to the opponent as well as her roll after the 3, 4 string in the latter part of the combo. Her air sais can be combo-ed off of and her teleport kicks can be followed up with a sai projectile for a surprise attack. Her combos are fun to do as well and her b, f+2 special can be used as a combo finisher which takes away the wake-up game from the opponent. Overall, gameplay wise she's 10/10 for me.

Design: The costumes themselves are OKish but in comparison to her glorious MKD looks they just don't match up, especially her new alternate which is nowhere near as good as her MKD primary from which it was obviously inspired. Her primary is a bit too revealing imo, even for Mileena. Her yellow eyes suck. Her alt fatality is a pure insult as well.

Story and character: Major disappointment overall. The whole retcon of hers and Kitana's story, her overall irrelevance in the story mode, the stupid yellow eyes and the overplayed childish and promiscuous behavior just don't work for me. Also, she's showing her teeth way too much.


Still, I like Mileena in MK2011 first and foremost thanks to her great and fun gameplay which is the most important thing for me. I want her back in the next game with better costumes and fatalities and pretty much the same gameplay. I don't care what they do with her storywise.

Great post Garlador!

As well you shouldn't. Psycho Mileena likely isn't interested in ruling Outworld but I think she'd fit right at home with Havik and Chaosrealm related sub-plots. Her arcade ending alludes to her finding (not hunting) Raiden in order to...do something involving power absorption. Not the most creative of prospects.

So yeah, Mileena still has a ton of potential.

Quoting only quoted half of what you said :S for some reason
Uhhh... yeah.. they COULD still make Mileena obsessed with Kitana... but it would be rushed, crappy, with no depth, with NO backstory, without any of the intense hatred or rivalry. They've taken a wonderful backstory and turned it into NOTHING. IF Mileena goes down the same route, hunting after Kitana, it'll be pathetic. She'll become just another random hounding someone for no reason.

And I'm sorry but a Havik or Chaosrealm direction wouldn't work... mostly because i never cared for either ideas to begin with.

They can "come up with ideas", for mileena's future, sure. But I've yet to hear one with anywhere near the same emotional potential that the old story had.
Mileena and Kitana's story never got to be told in its true form. We got bios and one-paragraph endings, and a lot of vague generalities. Imagine what we could have seen if it had been done properly!
I see people say "why do you just want to see the same thing again, just go play MK2!"... But... we NEVER saw it. We never got to see a story mode of the original story. This was a golden opportunity that they've thrown away.

This is my problem with this reboot... They've tried to make it work in the narrative that already existed. Armageddon Raiden went back to the beginning. But the beginning is already different, with no justification and with NOTHING but negative consequences.

I have no hopes for Mileena's future, storywise. I'm prepared to eat my words if MK10 comes out and makes her awesome again, but story wise, she is just another lackey.

And I'm starting to dislike her outfits more and more.
I much preferred the emphasis on black that Deception had. It was black with pink offsets, not entirely pink. It looked much better, more subtle and sexy. Her current looks far too power-rangery.

-_-

In saying that, her gameplay is fantastic. She's my main with Sonya, so don't think I'm totally against this version <3 they just raped her story.

Except, not really.

Try an obvious skin change, a drastic hair cut, a freaking nose job, and distinctively different eye brows. And this is not even counting the fucking "eye surgery" they gave Mileena.



There is (almost) absolutely no freaking resemblance! The little there could be is simply lost under all the obvious differences.



Your explanation about Smoke can work, I give you that, but still, Mileena looks nothing like Kitana.

The differences were also very obvious to us back in MKG-MKA when it was clear that they "did not really look that similar", however, they still pretty much nailed the basics that made this work.

This time? No. Not at all.



I understand, but, its still not an excuse.

And to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't mind seeing her MK2-MKU "eat them up" with today's improved technology and graphics. That would have made a better Fatality than Kira's copy/paste.



In case you didn't notice, Mileena exceeded (by far) Kitana's popularity since her great come back in MK Deception.

She's been the unquestionably favored one by the MK Team and her fan base grew to equal the size proportions of her melons.



Despite the role of "posing as the Princess", Mileena already achieved all of that successfully in MKD and it was absolutely reinforced by her awesome bio and ending in MKA.

You are not giving her the credit she earned and deserves thanks to MKD.



Though you make valid points, you are not entirely correct.

You've conveniently chosen to avoid any mention of MKD-MKA which is pretty much the "final base" of her overall character development since MK2.

You've conveniently forgotten that her rivalry, bitterness, jealousy, and hate was more than once mentioned throughout Deception and that it was continued over to MKA.

Also, there are many MANY things about the MK world that have not been "stated in solid confirmation" by the MK team in the games or interviews, however, they are still pretty much universally accepted by fans and they know it. They acknowledge it and probably feel like its pointless to make any confirmation for something that is "pretty much accepted".

There is a reason why we got Kitana's and Mileena's story in Legacy like that and not like you've suggested it really was.



Her looks are flawless...but completely weak and mediocre if actually compared to her previous looks in MKD. Her alternate is a nice tribute, but, no where near incredible, imo. It lacks so much of what made her unique in MKD. This is just an incomplete "stripped down" version of a once glorious costume that is pribably among the top 3 most favorite in MK history.

PS: Your English is very good!

I really don't wanna start another female characters war here, but I have to say I strongly disagree with this (the "by far" part really put me off).

To say that Mileena exceeded Kitana's popularity "by far" since MKD is wrong IMO. Sure, she became more prominent and more advertised than Kitana, no denying that. But, I'm pretty sure Kitana is more popular character overall, meaning she's got the bigger fan base. Every MK forum I've been to and any MK poll I've seen it's always been in Kitana's favor (truth is since MKD Mileena got closer in popularity). It maybe silly but even the fact that in 90% of the cases people write "Kitana and Mileena" not "Mileena and Kitana" says something. Mileena was glorious in MKD but it's pretty obvious that overall (even on this board) Kitana is more praised for the character development and story importance. I also see more Kitana fans around than Mileena fans.

As for Mileena being favored over Kitana by the MK Team since MKD, it's true in promotional context. But the fact is, it's Kitana who's gotten more love in the end. In Shaolin Monks Kitana was the only playable female character and she was more prominent throughout the game (sure, her portrayal was shitty, but still, she was there more than any other female). Then in MKvsDC Mileena was completely left out from the game, while Kitana was playable. And now in MK2011 Mileena's part in the story mode is minimum, while Kitana has her chapter and is overall one of the most prominent characters throughout the entire story mode. So in the end, while Mileena gets more promotional love, it's actually Kitana who gets more of the "real stuff" like being playable and being important in the game/story.

Then there's also the gameplay aspect which doesn't help Mileena in the latest game. She's fun but difficult to play with hence why casual players hardly play with her (official stats), while Kitana is fun and easier to play with hence why she's very popular among the casual scene. Even on the tourney scene, Kitana is clearly a more popular pick.

Now, as I've said, I don't wanna start a war here. I just wanted to give my opinion on your quoted statement since mine is strongly different from yours so I wanted it to be heard. Both characters are very popular (have lots of fans) and while Mileena is undoubtedly more promoted, I still think Kitana gets more love at the end of the day and one of the reasons is, I believe, that she's got more fans and the demand for her is greater.

I respect you queve, no hard feelings about this reply of mine, but I just felt the need to say my view on the matter as it is quite different from yours.

Now I know somebody will probably quote me and rage at me, so I just wanna say that I probably won't be able to reply until Monday morning since I won't have access to the computer until Monday.

I have to go with queve on this one regarding Mileena not actually looking like Kitana. Mileena's confusion with Kitana by Smoke and crew in Story Mode is yet another example of a railroaded plot. Just like Raiden being able to heal Jax of all of his wounds yet doesn't even bother with Lui Kang, or Shao Kahn being completely immune to the Elder Gods after FINALLY breaking the rules of Mortal Kombat, or when...ah fuck it.





I take exception to this. I like to think her fan base grew to equal size proportions of DAT AZZ!:



Oh wait, my bad...

DAT AZZ!:

Brilliant idea.

Don't worry, Nephrite, my love. I know and love you so I can safely predict that we can have a lovely and mature discussion about this without going crazy like other people would.



I'll skull anyone who takes this out of proportion or who derails the thread into something is not.

Final warning.



This can be debated and its arguable, however, you make valid points with some of your comments.

I cannot agree, however, with your estimates considering there's many fan boards out there and I too have seen this spin the other way around for Mileena, particularly in Spanish sites. I cannot state this as a fact, but, from my experience, Mileena is a lot more popular than Kitana within the Spanish/Latino fan base. I've seen this a lot in most forums.

I also don't think that writing "Kitana and Mileena" really has anything to do with anything. If you really wanted to get specific, we could deeply analyze why this actually happens:

A) The good character and then the evil character.
B) The pretty sister and then the ugly sister.
C) The fact that this is how they were introduced in MK2 and which continued over the years.
D) It sounds better (to me) when I first say Kitana's name, for some reason.
E) etc.

You see? I think those are perfectly valid points. I honestly don't think it has anything to do with one being more popular than the other.

Anyway, who has the biggest fan base? I don't know nor do I have the proper 100% accurate facts to make a statement. Both are extremely popular, however, in all fairness, Mileena has been the one to actually stand out in popular presentation while Kitana has taken two steps back since MKD. That is mostly what I was referring about when I said she "exceeded Kitana's popularity by far".

Mileena has out shined Kitana. Kitana remains popular, but, Mileena has actually taken steps forward and it goes quite beyond just the "promotional stuff". Does this make sense?



Not necessarily just promotional context (which is a lot more important that you imagine!). I think she goes quite beyond just the "promotional stuff"

MKA featured a few selected characters with official bios. Mileena did not only get one, she was also featured in Konquest. Kitana was, for some strange reason, completely inexistent.

Kitana's more prominent role in MKSM is not a really fair comparison considering her role in MK2 (which is where MKSM takes place) was already more prominent and significative than Mileena's. Also, MKSM did take its time to show us how much Mileena's popularity had grown:

1) She defeated Kitana in battle.
2) She captured Kitana and sent her to Kahn.
3) She was not killed by Kitana.

Mileena, just like the rest of the bad characters and bunch of "un-canon" stuff, could had easily been defeated, killed and done like it happened by the end of MK2.

And yes, you are quite correct about MKvsDC. That's the only point I can 100% coincide with you. We can't deny, however, that this did go as a big surprise to many who were not even "Mileena fans". Mileena's new "status" in MK made her quite an obvious choice for that game, like Johnny Cage, yet, they were both not available. I'm still quite familiar with all the threads talking about these 2 and their notorious (ridiculous?) absence from a game of big icons.

Regarding her storymode role in MK2011, I think its a rather unfair comparison considering how the vast majority of the evil characters (with the exception of Kahn, Tsung, and Quan Chi, the main bad guys) got shafted and reduced to "punching bags".

Had the storymode actually taken the time to center and pay attention the the villians and Mileena been treated the same way, than yes, I would agree. In this case, not really. Mileena was one of many who got little to no recognition. Kitana was just one of various good guys who got the attention they deserved.



This is very true.

However, the fact that she is so low as an "overall played character" and still this popular speaks wonders of her.

If Kitana's gameplay was as horrible as it was back in MKDA (bottom tier and among the worst), I'm guessing she would still be popular with her fan-base, don't you think?

In this case, for such popular characters, it doesn't help that the gameplay is "bad", however, it definitely doesn't hurt their overall popularity.

Kitana was still considered popular despite her bad gameplay in MKDA. Agreed?

And yeah, I love your post and I completely understand your points and I take no offense or wrong from what you've said. It is interesting to debate.

Wait a second, wait a second...they just established a backstory in MK9 explaining Mileena's (new) creation as well as a first-encounter that explains the link between the two (as well as Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn). The groundwork for the backstory is already laid. The depth comes with MORE story interactions in MK10 (or whatever the next plot advancing game is) and the "rushing" falls on the execution of the story and pace of the characterization in the narrative.


Wow. Not liking Havik or Chaosrealm has absolutely no bearing on whether it'd "work" or not. That's just personal taste.



Really? What if (through proper characterization) Kitana finds sympathy for Mileena as being yet another selfish creation of Shao Kahn and finds herself conflicted in combating her. Kitana begins to see Mileena as symbolic of Kitana's dark past, and through compassion towards her "twin" Kitana ultimately begins to forgive herself. Perhaps a situation presents itself where Mileena and Kitana find themselves situationally allied for self-preservation against a common enemy (like Quan Chi/Shinnok fucking the both of them over) and we get a glimpse of some sort of fleeting affinity from Mileena to Kitana. Mileena true to form though, does something underhanded and violent to quickly severe the tenuous truce but still...we see the glimpse of an interesting connection between the two.


Besides, how can you rule out potential anyway? All you're really saying is that "I was really attached to the idea I had involving Kitana and Mileena and didn't want them to change it." That's certainly fine however, to use your preference as justification to rule out the general concept of potential is just flawed logic.




I mean you basically say "I didn't want them to change anything" (which again is fine) but you're using that rationalize that "new changes cannot and won't be better than the original. Case closed. Retcon-Mileena is garbage."


What you (and others) struggle with in all of this "reading in-between-the-lines" regarding Mileena's feelings of inadequacy and internal struggle when in-game, it's always been portrayed as pretty two dimensional. You're attached to this idea of the potential. Granted that this idea has been propagated by non-canon mediums like the comics and tv series, it still boils down to "reading in-between the lines". Also for the record samhuai, I'm not trying to single you out as these posts could be directed at anyone who expresses extreme dislike for Mileena's retcon and the surrounding implications.

I am actually shocked to hear that people will use her third outfit against her. Like it was just a fun bonus. But I guess other people interpret it as the "end all" goal of the game. Like, when you purchase MK9 you are really buying it solely for the purpose of unlocking her third costume. So weird.

Most of that backlash was in response to Boon hyping up the Floor 300 reward as being epic. Not to mention the fact that people felt a pretty bland alt costume (aside from dat azz) didn't coincide with the amount of effort in completing the tower. So Boon hype + inbalanced time spent/reward = RAAAAAAGE!

One thing I'd like to bring up is, in my opinion, one of the bigger missed opportunities NRS had to give Mileena an awesome reveal in the story.

See, in the Story Mode, Kitana just walks in and there are a whole bunch of Mileena clones in jars and one just lying on the table. They're just out there with all their monster traits on display.

What could have made the reveal work AMAZINGLY well is two things:

1) Mileena actually looked like Kitana (which they even pretended was still the case)

and

2) Kitana stumbles in on Mileena on the operating table with a rag or something over her mouth. Kitana goes "She looks like me!" (because she would) and then removes the cloth over her mouth... and we get Mileena's horrific debut.

That's something that was lost. When Mileena debuted in MK2, nobody knew Mileena was a monster. Everyone thought she was a hot chick, and Kitana's sister, until you beat arcade ladder with her and saw her ending or managed to pull off a fatality. The point is, her monstrous features were surprising, shocking, and entirely unexpected.

In this game, they're out there in the open. There's no build-up, no hiding it. It's paraded around flagrantly and openly and everyone just accepts that she's got a jacked-up mouth with as much difficulty as they accept Sindel's got blank white eyes and Quan Chi has white skin. In fact, does anybody in the entire game comment ONCE about her razor-toothed mouth?

I was always told a good rule of thumb to make a monster in a movie shocking and horrific is to hide the monster or its monstrous traits from view. They barely show the shark in JAWS, for instance, but when he shows up, it's scarier. In BLADE II, Guillermo Del Toro commentates that he intentionally hid the scarier reaper unhinged jaws for most of the movie to make the reveal of their creepy, disturbing mouths more dramatic and memorable.

Mileena didn't get that. She was just, bam, there in 100% Mileena mode. I would have loved to have seen Kitana view Mileena in confusion, slipping that veil off her mouth, and then pulling back in revulsion and horror as she would see, first hand, how she was "duplicated" (shock 1) and then "tainted" (shock 2). And that, ultimately, was Mileena's appeal, at least to me, in the original games; she's what happens when you take something beautiful and damage it, mutilate it, and disfigure it until it becomes something heinous.