Look what you caused with this, I predicted something like this would happen. This thread will likely be closed soon, wouldn't want race wars/racism to appear :S

That list is off. I've said this in a couple other threads, but Kitana and Mileena were originally portrayed by a hispanic woman in MK2. Kitana has hispanic features in MKG.

Heres something interesting that I notices.

Kitana, has been portrayed as white, asian, and hispanic.

Jade has been portrayed as asian, filipina, and latina.

Both characters are Edenian in MK lore, perhaps ladies of Edenia can alter their looks?

Why not?

Well I don't think your racsit if that helps.

Now if you're interested at all in the topic of evolution and race I recomend reading "Race reconciled?: How biological anthropologists view human variation" by Heather J. H. Edgar and Kieth Hunley. That is if you can find it
online for free. Hunley was actually a professor of mine and completley changed how I view race and the entire idea of evolution.

Now I'd be careful about equating race and occupation. Occupation is a job and does require a certain attire in order to complete that job. But race isn't something you sign up for. While you may need certain tools in order to be a construction worker, but you don't necissarily have to have certain features in orer to be Asian.

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/8/87209/1539907-ashrah_bio_large.png

Ashrah KIND OF looks asian even though shes really a demon from the Netherealm.

There is not alot of earthrealm females if you think about it. Only Sonya, Kira, and Frost.

Kira was found in Afghanistan so i'm guessing shes either american or just plain middle eastern.

I don't see how the colour of a character's skin could change a character's personality, so no it doesn't have anything to do with it.
You could make Johnny cage asian and he'd still be the same Johnny cage, you could make Mileena black but she'd still be the same mileena, so yeah... i don't get what the fuss about skincolour is anyway, and i'm too lazy to read through 11pages to just read all the points people are making.. so bleh

I always assumed that Sindel, Kitana, and Mileena were Asian (or at least Asian inspired). They look more like that than white, to me.

No, she's not. She's half asian. Or if you want to just say she's asian, you HAVE to also say she's caucasian, because she's just as much that as she is the other. You may be half black, but are you an accurate representation of what most full blacks look like? Of course not. Are you an accurate representation of full mexicans? I'm sure you're not. Now I'm not saying we can't have a half black/half mexican character in the game, but please don't ask NRS to just say, Yeah, he's mexican, and never say a word about him being black too. Same with an asian character. If she's half asian, fine, but tell us so.

Now it's not wrong to have mixed characters, but it doesn't really accomplish the goal of having an identifiable character that people of a certain race can relate to, or that people not of that race, like me, who just want to play as a character with that look can identify.
Yeah, maybe a little. Kitana could also pass for asian IMO. Mileena just looks like a monster. The problem is the characters look so bad in MKG it's kinda hard to tell. I guess the renders are a little better though.

Thanks. I think now most people didn't in the thread, and Hate riot was just trollin'.

While it's probably fascinating, I doubt I'll get around to it. Maybe you can give me a synopsis of it. Specifically, how am I wrong in saying changes in race due to geographical separation and environment are only different from speciation in the extent of the changes and the amount of time involved?

I don't think it's that far off of an analogy. What difference does it make whether the person wearing the clothing/possessing the traits of [whatever] occupation/race takes them on deliberately or has them forced upon him/her? They're still a part of that person's look.

Okay, if it makes you feel better, suppose I wanted a fighter with Down's Syndrome. All people with that handicap have a very distinctive look. Then suppose NRS said, Oh, didn't you know? Jax has Downs. You and everyone else and his brother, cousins and uncles would be saying, "WTF, no he doesn't!" If you have a fighter with Downs, he HAS to have that (forgive me) dopey look on his face. Similarly, if you have an asian fighter, she HAS to look the part too. (See the description of Asian morphology in one of my posts above). Sure, there may be real life asians that don't look that way, but they're either 1. actually mixed with another race and therefore only PART asian, or 2. such an unusual creature that they're hardly an accurate representation of what a large percentage of people of that race look like.

First of all, there's a lot more to race than a person's skin color. Secondly, no, Johnny Cage wouldn't be the same if he were asian. You might be able to give him the same lines and attitude, but it would seem... off... to see an asian character acting the way he does.

Race Matters in MK:

NIghtwolf wouldnt be the same if he wasnt a native.

I never thought the op was racist. Just a very disgruntled weeaboo who is overreacting. No asian girls in MK(according to you)? Too bad. Li Mei not being asian enough for you? Too bad. Go play tekken if you want to play asian girls so much.

MK isn't suppose to be representative of all races like SF and Tekken. And it just seems you are trolling now.

How could my posts possibly be construed as trolling? I've tried to have an intelligent discussion when people weren't being a**holes accusing me of being racist or to just stop caring about it like you just did.

Unless you're trolling right now, which is exactly what I think you're doing.

Also, I agree SF is representative of all races because the characters' nationalities are supposed to be an integral part of the story. But in Tekken they're just as secondary to the main story as they are in MK. So learn your fighting games before you come giving me advice.

Discussion? That's what this was? It looks more like eleven pages of "I am right and you are wrong" to me.

Your rigid views of race and social identity are disgusting and bigoted to say the least.

What about Skarlet?

What does she look closer to? Asian? Latino?

She is neither. She is a creation of blood to appear like the Edenian women.

I know that, I was asking if you compared to "real-world" races, what would she be.

Jade: Edenian

Kitana: Edenian

Mileena: Edenian/Tarkatan

Tanya: Edenian

Sonya: White

Ashrah: Demon

Li Mei: Demon

Skarlet: Mutt

Kira: White

Li Mei: Outworlder

Frost: Asian

Nitara: Vampire

Khameleon: Saurian


There's your real list.

But... But.... Sheeeeeevaaaaa.....

Sorry ol' girl, looks like you didn't make his list.

Frost and Li Mei are both asian.

So Li Mei is a demon AND an outsider? Just kidding I'm assuming you meant to say Sareena is the demon.

Li Mei is from Outworld.
Asia is not in Outworld.

Ergo, Li Mei is not Asian. However, she, like many other Outworlders, appears like some Asians.

Everyone – or the most of us – is aware of their fictional locations I'm sure. Yet, we can discuss about it in the sense of "Whom would you choose to play Jade?". In this globalized world, it's also certain that all the western countries have races of basically every area, excluding Australia maybe who's been considered as "the White Australia" up until the 1970's.

Ashrah looks Asian to me, if you want to put it that way (if somebody were to play as her). But differentiating people racially in the first place is ugly. The white people are too much praised, when every race is supposed to be equal. People who praise, instead of treating equally, individuals just because their race originates from Europe, Zimbabwe, Korea, Uruguay, Macao, Venezuela or Australia are guilty to racism as well because that breaks the "balance". With all moderation of course. Blame Hollywood.
Racism talk aside, a Siberian or a Korean actor could very well play Ashrah. Asians can be "white" as well: from Asia, at least Kazakhstan and Siberia (Russia) can have "white" people and countries like the Koreas and Japan have logically pale people too for their northern situations.
Why hasn't anyone at least provided a map of Asia for observation? Let me guess... They'll earn no DP's of it, realizing it's not worth the effort, leaving it to me for once (no, the map's not obligatory). I'm not blaming anyone in particular here though. The map below doesn't include the area names like Indochina or Mideast but it's still a pretty decent map. Observe.
Map of Asia: Click for an enlarged edition.

I generally think it is tasteless to try and fit MK characters into boxes of which "race" they might be due to their skin colour. They are the race they are set to be, human, Edenian, Outworldian etc etc, nothing else matters. That Li Mei might have an Asian inspired name and has Asian features doesn't matter, because she is Outworldian and Outworld just so happens to have a Feudal Japan inspired theme, because that was the way the designers wanted it to be like. That doesn't make Li Mei any more Asian.

Describing characters who aren't from Earth by race is just a handy shorthand for describing the shape of their facial features and color of their skin.
Of course, there's the trouble with some characters that the developers keep changing their faces. For instance, in MK2 and vsDCU, Kitana has big round bug eyes. In MK Gold and Deadly Alliance, she's based on Talisa Soto and so has Latina-esque features like almond-shaped eyes and thick lips, and in MK9 there's something Michael Jackson-y going on with the lower half of her face.

To be honest I can't tell the difference unless the difference is huge.

Some of you guys seem to confuse the fact that race does NOT equal nationality